M&M #3

Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton – Knives Don't Have Your Back (2007)
Metric – Grow Up And Blow Away (2007)

Emily is the teenage girl inside all of us. Hiding in our room, laying on top of the covers staring wistfully at the ceiling, hoping that one day soon the world will understand my plight. So many new adult emotions to face, so many boys to kiss, so many drugs to take, so many complicated world issues that creep under your skin corrupting all that was youth. The hunger and fear that pushes us into this altered state completely lacked all foreshadowing and the words spewing forth from our parents lips are raw and foreign. I can't hear them, I don't understand all of your knowledge, it means nothing to me, it means everything to me, it means nothing, I don't understand. Emily Haines beautiful and emotional music is moody and dark and somber and rejoiceful. It's all of our teenage angst. Originally from the band Metric, whose fabulous 'Grow Up And Blow Away' was shelved back at the turn of the century then finally released this year, Haines also released Knives, a solo attempt to get some of the thoughts that were exploding from her mind out into the world. She shares so close to the heart that's it's so easy to fall in love and sink down inside your own soul. 'Dr. Blind' is my favourite song of the year.


Fire – Deepa Mehta (1996)

A deeply heartbreaking tale about two women living under a code of ethic that relegates their humanity to the background. Eventually they discover a passionate world within the company of each other and begin a intimate affair that ends in a purge of fire. Told in India inside the Hindu community, this movie caused riots and was repeatedly banned in some parts of India and Pakistan, even resorting to threats by some fundamentalist elements of Hindu society. But it's such a moving film, revealing humanity on a deep level, that it's shocking to me that it would cause such a reaction coming from a country where the Bollywood ideal of women jostling around in skimpy outfits is completely acceptable but this real and honest portrayal of love is demeaned and banned. It's simply another example of women being relegated to second-class citizens, ultimately just sex objects, that apparently plagues all societies the world over. In the end, that's the true message of this film told by a wonderful film-maker. Beyond the shock of lesbianism, this movie is about two women trying to find some beauty and equality in their lives.