Some sort of phase...

I'm in the strangest place right now. I dated my ass of this summer and I think I finally hit a plateau in the past week or so that's made me feel like I don't want to date anyone. Have I really given up the hunt? Yet I still catch the glance of a stranger here and there and will still get the random message on Plentyoffish.com. Where did my motivation go to pursue? I'm still hitting the gym, I'm having a great time with friends on weekends but my drive to meet somebody has fallen off somewhere. I hope it comes back - maybe it'll just take someone with something extra to make me want it again. Who knows - in the meantime I'll just carry on as I always do.

Music You Should Know - Fall Edition!

After my last post a couple days ago, it's time to lighten the mood a bit and give you folks some highlights of what's hot right now...

I'm known as "Mr. Commercial" at work and my peers make fun of me a bit but I don't mind because there's no one else in that place who is as tapped into what people are downloading and what's current. I pride myself with my seasonal mixes based on how fresh they are and that I can mix in lesser known electronic artists that my friends would never hear otherwise.

Fall is always the biggest release time of the year. Many albums that get released in October and November are "events" and will do well simply just based on hype. Aside from new records by major hit makers, some artists also choose to release greatest hits albums around mid November with the intention of making some big sales with holiday gift buyers. The season is about to kick off this Tuesday with the release of Kings of Leon's "Come Around Sundown" followed by Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" which is out the following Tuesday. Both artists have mass commercial appeal and both albums have been widely anticipated from school girls to hockey dad's nationwide. Not to be outdone, November has some big hitters too from Rihanna's "Loud" to Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" to Ne-Yo's "Libra Scale". Pink and Nelly Furtado are just two of many artists "hits" packages being released. Robyn announced just recently that she will be releasing the "ultimate" Body Talk album in late November. This would be her third release this year. She has been doing these highly successful EP's every few months and she is getting lots of love from the gays. I love that we live in a world that would give someone like her another chance. Her singles this year "Dancing On My Own" and "Hang With Me" are near the top of my list of favourite tracks that have come out in 2010. Her new single "Indestructible" is gaining huge momentum as we speak (and featured on Autumn Beats).

We can't forget about holiday music. The biggest selling artist last year in the world was a beyond middle aged housewife from England. She returns this year with "The Gift" out November 9th - it's safe to say that this will be a huge release that could outsell almost everything else. For whatever reason people are drawn to Susan Boyle and whatever she does turns to gold or I should say multi-platinum in her case. Annie Lennox is also expected to do quite well with her holiday record "A Christmas Cornucopia" - one of my all time favourite versions of "Winter Wonderland" was sung by Annie back in 1987 so I'm interested too see what this album will be like. Mariah Carey decided that one holiday album from her just wasn't enough and is releasing "Merry Christmas to You II" in a few weeks. The cover is horribly airbrushed - I mean everyone knows she hasn't been that thin in years - I'm not sure at this point what the response will be to this release as she's been off her mark lately with her last two attempts.

Ok enough release talk - let's get you some goodies to checkout...

Hello - Martin Solveig ft Dragonette > doesn't everything start with "Hello"?
Broken (I'm Sorry) - Madonna < unreleased from "Celebration" sessions, produced by Oakenfold.
Heartbeat - Enrique Iglesias ft Nicole Scherzinger < loving his new stuff! 2nd single of pop bliss
Night Is Young - Nelly Furtado < lead single from her new greatest hits record
Shampain (Fred Falke Edit) - Marina and The Diamonds < newly released remix - fell in love after I saw the video
Indestructible (Radio Edit) - Robyn < given a new beat, fresh for the November release
Just The Way You Are (WestFunk & Steve Smart Radio Edit) - Bruno Mars < this song has exploded everywhere and it's not hard to understand why - great mix!!
Runaway - Kanye West < love him or hate him this song is da bomb! 2nd single from new record.
Grown Woman - Kelly Rowland < she can do no wrong it seems lately - 3rd single from an album that has still no release date?!?
Not Giving Up On Love - Armin van Buuren < features Sophie Ellis Bextor on vocals
MiddleDistanceRunner - Chicane ft Adam Young < geniuses
True Love [feat. Fisher) - George Acosta < this came out earlier this year but it's sexy
Teenage Dream (Manhattan Clique Edit) - Katy Perry < great pop song with an even better remix
Long Distance (Jody Den Broeder Edit) - Brandy < really hope this goes big for her as it came out this summer
Only Girl (In The World) - Rihanna < #1 song on iTunes for the last 4 weeks
Forever And A Day (Antoine Clamaran Video Mix) - Kelly Rowland < 4th single, didn't love the original but this mix makes it much better
Closer (Loverush UK! Edit) - Jes < 2nd single from Night Glow
Subconscious (Eric Kupper Edit) - Samantha James < 2nd single from Subconscious
Change Your Mind - Kylie Minogue < unreleased from Aphrodite, rumoured to be produced by Deadmau5
The Emergency - BT & Andrew Bayer < he's still going after all these years!
Crossfire (David Morales Edit) - Brandon Flowers < great remix of lead single of his solo debut

Please support the artists and buy this music if it's available from your favourite digital music store.

It Gets Better...

It feels like it's been awhile since I've posted anything but I can never seem to find the time to sit down and put something together.

The summer has wrapped and we are in the early weeks of fall where it can still reach 20 degrees, the trees still have their colourful leaves and the nights are perfect for wearing just a merino sweater. I know for many people this is their favourite season which I can understand. I still love my summer but I can appreciate the beauty that is this season.

My summer was capped off with a trip out to Newfoundland to visit my brother and his wife and meet my new niece Iris. It was great to finally meet her - I look forward to watching her grow up and I look forward to being the cool uncle. There won't be many children in my life so I plan on being as active as I can in hers despite the thousands of miles that keep us apart.


Have you been hearing about all these gay teen suicides? It's pretty fucked up - I'm sure they've been happening all along but for whatever reason these suicides as of late have caught the attention of the media. With that spotlight comes along an outcry from advocates and celebrities all preaching that "It Gets Better". Gay teen suicide isn't something new so I think it's interesting how much attention it's getting right now. I made a point to watch several of these videos that have been posted and I encourage you to do the same. I don't think they are overly ground-breaking but I think they are interesting and I like that they are offering some outreach by talking about The Trevor Project. I doubt any of the straight celebrities themselves have had to go through the suffering that these kids are experiencing in their lives for being different. Hollywood is a long way away from torment that is going on in the locker rooms of high schools in small town America. No matter how mainstream we think gay has become there is still some child out there who hates himself because of the way his peers make him feel. All he wants is to be accepted and to stop being afraid. He would rather kill himself that be the punchline of one more joke or the be part of the hot gossip thats spreading around the hallways at school. With all the social media that's out there - I can only imagine the shit-storm of harassment a gay youth would be subjected to. From Facebook messages, texts, tweets and message boards - there really is no such thing as feeling safe. Kids can be pretty mean too - I know all too well some experiences from high school that I would love to forget. But those memories stay with you forever and no matter how far away you get from them, it takes little effort to think about how dark your world was and how helpless you felt at the time.

With all the resources kids have these days it's hard to believe anyone would feel completely isolated but obviously it's still happening as proven with these deaths in the past couple weeks. Back in my teen years it took serious effort to see something that made gay seem okay. Nowadays the whole gay thing is so in your face; from SNL to Glee to Ellen - I mean clearly the "gay movement" has come some distance over the last decade. So when does it get better for these kids? When will they finally feel free? High school is cruel place for everyone not just for the queers. Everyone is trying so hard to fit in that in the end no one really ever does. With that being said, I think these videos are opening minds and will challenge teachers and guidance counsellors to be more awake and take more responsibility for what is going on in their classrooms. They must show intolerance for any type of bullying or harassment and discipline those kids who feel like they rule the school. It won't happen overnight but there are baby steps going on. When I was out in Newfoundland I visited my brother's school (he's a teacher) and one of the first things I saw was a poster on the wall in the hallway talking about how uncool it was to say "that's so gay" because it promotes a negative message. I was totally taken back when I saw it - here we were out in the middle of nowhere (King's Cove for the record) and it was the last thing I would've expected to see up on a wall. But some teacher or counsellor or whoever took a moment and put it up because they felt it was important. If more educators had that courage to step up like that it would shed some light into what can be a very dark place for many kids - their schools.

Let's talk solutions: The Trevor Project is doing some amazing things to brighten the lives of struggling gay youth. One of their latest campaigns is called "I'm Glad I Failed" which promotes the positive stories of youth who failed at killing themselves and how grateful they are to be alive. Blunt yes - but the reality is that kids are trying to kill themselves everyday just to escape the hardship that has become their lives. Please check out the website http://www.thetrevorproject.org and browse through the many great things this site has to offer - this is such a important resource that needs to be used. If this is a sign of things to come, then life for these kids really will get better.