Friday night music: Home call

Home call. Quiet evening. It's a Miles Davis/Nina Simone kind of night.

Top ten favourite albums of 2013

Thought long and hard about these personal rankings. There's a few more albums I want to listen to more closely like Laura Marling and Kurt Vile, and I'm still trying to convince myself I like more than a handful of songs on Arcade Fire's Reflektor. Alas, these are the ones I encountered throughout the year and that I feel will have the most staying power for me for years to come.

10. Robby Hunter Band - Magic City Hippies
9. Darkside - Psychic
8. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
7. Lorde - Pure Heroine
6. London Grammar - If You Wait
5. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
4. Blood Orange - Cupid Deluxe
3. Phoenix - Bankrupt!
2. HAIM - Days Are Gone

1. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

Honourable mentions: Lucius - Wildewoman, Sigur Ros - Kveikur, Rudimental - Home, Basia Bulat - Tall Tall Shadow


Daft Punk takes home the title in the end... not because I love all of it (Cupid Deluxe and Psychic are the only two albums I would listen to all at once in the future), but when it hits its strong parts, man they're strong. I've listened to "Give Life Back to Music", "Giorgio by Moroder", "Get Lucky", "Motherboard" and "Fragments of Time" countless times, and I don't know if I'll ever tire of them. Unfortunately I didn't quite 'get' "Touch" which is supposed to be the piece de resistance of the LP, but the supporting cast of the back half of the album made up for it. To me though, this album was more than just the songs. In a day and age where it's cool to have made an album in a day in your underwear, the robots crammed every bit of sound and layer in ridiculously expensive studios, almost exclusively used live instrumentation without looping, and marked the trendy return of disco in the music industry this year (which looks like will continue into 2014).


In the end, there wasn't one album that I absolutely loved from top to bottom, and of course HAIM and Daft Punk were as close as it got, with them more of a 1a and 1b, I'd say. I like how the list covered all parts of the year... there were a few weeks in the summer where I was almost exclusively listening to Phoenix and Vampire Weekend. Lorde's album caught me by surprise in the fall when I was really into If You Wait. The National just hung around all year.

With all that said, I'm gonna be making some changes with the blog. I'll detail more in the next post but I think I'm gonna be moving all my music-related posts to my tumblr except for Friday Night Music.

Trail mix

Nothing compelling to write about today, so instead it will be a pot pourri, nay a TRAIL MIX of quick points:

• I had a couple interviews this week for two very good programs. Two more to follow in the next two weeks. I always find it interesting the extremely friendly yet underlying tense atmosphere behind interviews especially when it is happening en masse. It's also intriguing how one portrays and sees oneself because it is a time where you're putting yourself on display, like a product to be purchased. 
• I think these interviews were actually the first time I've faced the 'panel' format versus the in vogue 'MMI' more commonly seen for medical school and residency interviews. The most striking difference is it is essentially over before you know it. There's no rest time to regroup. You gotta lay it out all on the line all at once. 
• I really like that music can be (in fact it should be) a shared experience. Some of my most favourite and unique artists, were from friends' recommendations. Basia Bulat is an example, from my friend Courtney who randomly went to her concert, and I've posted one of her songs below. 
• I wrote 'can be a shared experience' above because it's not always shared. It can often be a rather unilateral dictation of what people should or should not like especially in the blogosphere, or what's good and what isn't. I've always maintained that songs I post here are "favourites" (i.e. subjective taste), and not something that can be objectively seen as "best". 
• Speaking of favourites, Arcade Fire is out with their newest album Reflektor. I've listened to it a few times and the album as a whole isn't quite pulling me in. It's growing on me a little but, only a few isolated songs stand out to me. I posted my favourite one below. 
• Another pet peeve about the blogosphere climate is only a handful give credit where it's due or cite the site (lol) when they post something "new". Comes with the pretentiousness I guess. 
• I miss gourde season. 

Arcade Fire - We Exist

Who needs coffee when you have CCR?

Busy night? Yeah. A couple hours of interrupted sleep, on home call night no less.

How do I fix this zombie-like sensation?

1. CCR - who needs coffee when you have them? 




2. Fresh ground coffee, just for good measure
3. Avocado scrambled eggs - I made these a few months ago when I had some extra guacamole lying around and the results are MARVELOUS. The avocado add this extra creaminess in the eggs that just make it melt in your mouth. Added some cilantro, feta, cheddar and grape tomatoes today. Hallelujah! 

Walt Jr. would be so proud.

Thankful

It's been a tiring weekend. Three overnight shifts in a row, with the last one tonight. I'll likely be sleeping through most of holiday Monday.

But I'm still thankful. I'm appreciative of the series of opportunities I've been fortunate to have, leading to where I am today. I'm grateful for the support I've received at every step of my life. I'm thankful for my safety, health, experiences and where I am in my career. I'm thankful that I still enjoy my career the far majority of the time. I'm very fortunate to have been born where I was and when. I'm indebted to my friends and family.

On stress and respect / Friday night music

I was walking in the Market today and a woman exclaimed, "I have enough stress in my life as it is!"

Immediately I was annoyed but I couldn't tell why. Everyone has stressful events in their life, and they're rarely easy. Not only that, but I don't know who she is, or to what stressful event(s) to which she was referring. And some people truly do go through some extremely difficult tribulations in their lifetime.

However, there was something about the statement I found irritating. The tone seemed entitled, in some ways disrespectful, which also seemed to convey in her body language. But the biggest thing I realized was the statement itself. Does she have a magic ruler that measures that she has surpassed her lifetime permitted stress levels? Has she been able to compare or quantify that her stress is more significant or more important than those around her?

Again, let me reiterate. I am not doubting this person has stress, is/was struggling with some current stressor(s) in her life, or has a valid reason to feel "stressed". What I truly have issue with is that she was using her stress or whatever affliction she has to justify or allow her to shit on the person/people around her.

The more general point I'm trying to get to is that too often it seems people decide certain conditions, afflictions, privilege or abilities are justification to be downright disrespectful to people around them. Sadly it's rather commonplace in medicine. It can happen with staff to learners, physicians to patients, physicians to nurses, or residents to nurses (or vice versa!). It drives me nuts. We're all human beings so let's treat each other like they're one too.

I'm not trying to be a debbie downer. It's Friday! We've all been guilty at least a couple times of a similar situation above, so let's try to change that. Be kind to one another, and at the very least, respectful. Be nice to your bartender or waitress tonight. Try to dial down the road rage. It's not all about me, and it's not all about you.

Enjoy the company.

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Friday night music //

Got two treats for you tonight. First, I spent half my day off the other day compiling this playlist and making sure the flow was just right. It's a relaxed, chilled out playlist full of songs featuring female vocalists encompassing a number of genres, including some of my favourite releases from this year. The lady on the cover is London Grammar's Hannah Reid.

Ladies first from jfanae on 8tracks Radio.

The next song is from American folk rock band Dawes. Also fitting for a laid back Friday night in its own way.

Sometimes life's OK, some med news, big music days

Typically I feel kind of blue when I come out of a long stretch of inactivity or inconsistency with blog posts, like I'm not imaginative, creative or committed enough to keep up with posts. After all, it's designed to be an outlet to share my thoughts, ideas and/or things I'm enjoying.

I think this is one of those times, however, when I'm not as regretful. As Modest Mouse says, "sometimes life's OK". It's been a busy past couple months with longer hours at work, applying for future endeavours, committees or commitments around work like journal club or meetings, and trying to stay active. Unfortunately, blogging isn't the only thing that takes a step back. I haven't had a long chat with my family for a couple weeks although I've shot a few emails and texts a couple times a week.

Of course, since it's been almost two months(!!) since I've posted, there's a lot to share!

First off, a rare comment about a medical matter. Over the last couple months, word has gotten out about a new decision rule to be used in emergency departments developed here in Ottawa: the Ottawa SAH (subarachnoid hemorrhage) rule. Some of the same people brought us the well-known Ottawa ankle rules, Ottawa knee rules, and CATCH pediatric CT rules, Canadian CT head rules, and Canadian C-spine rules. Some people like long walks on beaches, but these guys prefer to make RULES. Who can blame them? They make clinical decision-making for some difficult scenarios a lot more streamlined and methodical.

The unique side of things from my side is that this is the first time that I've been close to the action, so to speak. It's making some waves in local press, but it's also intriguing to see one of these rules come hot out of the oven with its results, and immediate response, critique and feedback in essentially real-time in the medical community. It is impressive that it offers 100% sensitivity, but what's even more interesting is how they're able to achieve that goal, as detailed in this blog post. You can find a more critical discussion here. It will be interesting how this unfolds in the next few months.



On to music...
The number of quality releases in 2013 continues. As previously discussed, I was a huge fan of Entertainment! and Random Access Memories which were my big two for a huge chunk of the first half of the year. In the tier below, I also listened heavily to new albums by Tegan & Sara, the National, Savages, How to Destroy Angels and Bonobo, and more.

This fall there has been another massive wave of solid albums. As solid as two-week old bread. Wait, that's not a good analogy. What's a good solid? Like a never-ending popsicle on a hot summer day.
I've been trying to simultaneously balance...

• Haim, Days Are Gone (I was waiting for it for months and gosh it did not disappoint)
• London Grammar, If You Wait
• Lorde, Pure Heroine
• Disclosure, Settle

Not to mention the much-anticipated Arcade Fire LP Reflektor coming out at the end of the month!

Lastly, in tribute of the end of the best ever shows on television, and from another great 2013 album...