I don’t know about you, but often I find myself walking down streets in London Ontario thinking to myself “This place could be so beautiful.” I see billboards advertising things I can’t really imagine a use for, abandoned buildings painted white, street signs with tattered poster of bands no one went to see, and the latter affects me the most. Tattered posters…….no one went to see.
I don’t know what it is, and I’m guilty as well, but we all seem to neglect posters. Perhaps they are just not beautiful anymore. Why is that? Are people too lazy? I don’t like the statements “I don’t know how to draw” or “I’m not artistic.” Posters don’t need to be nice or pretty, they just have to catch someone eye. Personally, I like posters, art, whatever, to be very raw, almost childish, seemingly unsophisticated. It doesn’t have to be professional, just real. Let’s make poster art, let’s make our cities a little more beautiful. Don’t be afraid to make low art.
It’s amazing to look around you and hear and see all the beautiful things. In Southern Ontario there is so much beauty, so many wonderful sounds. Here in London there are quite a few really neat bands; people that are trying to make indie/artsy music, folk, people that are just trying to make music with real emotion. There are also those that pass through, still locals of Southern Ontario, but some from the east and west coasts as well, Canadian Locals. Canadian music does not receive as much attention as it deserves especially from people living in Canada. There are famous, “important” bands, that are Canadian, but I don’t care about them. I love hearing regular people that seemingly have no talent wow me. At the moment, as I sit and stare into something Microsoft calls Windows, I’m listening to Mogli (www.myspace.com/moglidavid), it’s so low-fi, so raw, it’s just….so wonderful. I found out about Mogli when I went to a show to see someone I’ve known for a very long time, Davita Guslitz (http://www.myspace.com/davitag) who was also so wonderful. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a show that moved me as much as this one did. The entire crowd participated, danced and made noise. Life is a beautiful thing, so beautiful it makes you want to shed a tear at times.
Here are some bands I think people should at least hear. You don’t have to listen to them, but you should hear them:
Non- Canadians: Half-Handed Cloud, Rafter, Dead Man’s Bones, Neutral Milk Hotel, Daniel Johnston
Canadian : Ages, Ben Sommer, Davita G, Mogli, Shapes and Sizes, Gregory Pepper and his Problems, Burn Planetarium, The Born Ruffians
The nice thing about this music is that it makes you want to do something, even if you feel you can’t. If you can’t sing or play guitar, who cares, you can still make beautiful music. If you play an instrument that is no common, you should used it and make music. Be free, be courageous, be as beautiful as you really are, because, you are beautiful.
