During the hockey game last night, the topic of national anthems came up. Out of curiosity, I asked my friends which national anthem they preferred from a music point of view, the American or the Canadian one. One of my friends preferred the former and another friend of mine preferred the latter. Thinking about this further inspired me to find a source to hear all the national anthems around the world, so I did a search on YouTube this morning and found a channel that collects all the anthems, some of them even come with translated lyrics.

Check out the National Anthems YouTube Channel

I came across some beautiful ones like:

Saami

Mauritania

Question still remains whether people can pick to sing national anthems in karaoke bars. :)

Last night I had a chance to go to the premiere of the National Parks Project at the Tiff Bell Lightbox. After numerous failed attempts to see it – including an incident of going to Golden Griddle (a 24hour diner) just to use their TV – I was definitely stoked to finally watch it on the big screen. National Parks Project is a Canadian collaboration between thirteen directors and a slew of musicians that are paired up to visit the national parks in each of our thirteen provinces and territories and spend a few days there to make a short film. It has a similar idea to films like Paris, je t’aime and New York, I Love You.

There are many moments in the film where the directors leave you with only the sounds of nature, or quiet atmospheric music accompanying the stillness of the surroundings. As I was watching the two-hour and seven minute feature, I recognized what is that really excites me about this project. It is the simple combination of five of my favourite things: indie music, art, film, nature, and of course, Canada. Once in a while I’d come across music that really hits me and I get all these uncontrollable happy-highs by imagining myself lying on a large field of green listening to the music. Watching this film really magnified this effect and captured the essence of why I love Canada. These directors and musicians travelled to these beautiful national parks, they let the nature sink in, and they combined art and music into a short film.

To those that came into theatre expecting the film to have a structure like Planet Earth, with factual narration like a science lecture, they would have likely been disappointed. While I didn’t really learn any more about the national parks coming out of the theatre, I certainly felt more connected to myself and how I feel about the beauty of this country. It is an inspiration continuing to seek and appreciate the small things in life. This film is a great segway to my trip to Newfoundland in a few weeks.

It’s true, I am a 5-year old boy.