er, so i just found a Something for Kate (really mostly just Paul Dempsey) cover of Waltz#2 by Elliott Smith, and words cannot explain. it has a fanto little violin segment in the middle, too.
that song has always been my favourite by Elliott, followed closely by I Didn't Understand off the same album, XO, (which is just another that i live in the past with on a huge scale.) i think it was released in 98 or so, and has some v v powerful songs upon it, but its a bloody sad and haunting collection of music to treat your ears with. videos that were made with/of elliott prior to his 30-something-year-old suicide show how unhappy and uncomfortable he was within his short life - his eyes dart everywhere and even his hair looked sad.
it's terrible, the way some people just cannot understand and recognise their own incredible strengths and talents, and don't live longer to be able to share them with the world.
today in music i was about 2 metres away from a mouthful of epicly loud opera singing. a canadian lady was visiting as a singing partner with a famous guest composer or something, and our pushy teacher made her sing for us..one of the only times that i've actually been thankful for her insistent ways.
this woman..was amazing. she made me really want to go out there and learn about opera, to watch heaps of it live (cheap choice of word ?), and to find out the stories behind/english translations of a whole heap of the italian etc operas.
it was just so gorgeous - this crazy little lady with big hair, big eyelinered eyes and loud fashion sense was standing right in front of us, belting out all that she had inside of her - completez free of charge :D.
it was so incredible, i had goosebumps so so many times..i hadn't expected that at all.
she sang 2 songs with our teacher playing some simple piano stuff in the bg, then belted out Danny Boy, followed by a quick Aria section, with no piano. i had tears in my eyes during DB and had to fight back full-blown tears at stages. i'm not sure if that was due to her voice one hundy or that it had sparked a memory or two, but my god. for a lot of it i sat with my eyes closed and just soaked in her goodness..it was just so flipping good..SO good.
(hehe that last bit reminded me of Jackson 5's rendition of Ain't No Sunshine..
'and now i just feel cold..SO cold.' in michael's cute little 12year old voice yehe)
i dunno, today was just so..right.
and i'm loving the boy, haha :)
oh & i was going to include a sketch of Elliott's that i have saved, in this post, but its on my external, which is downstairs and..ahaha..quite out of reach.
i can't find it on the internet either ! crazy annoying.
my soundtrack for the last few months has included:
Good Old War, The Dodos' Visiter album, Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head (one day not so long ago i accidentally called it a blush of rudd to the head HAHA) aswell as Lost! & Fix You, Local Natives aaand something else that i've since forgotten since beginning this sentence. The Dodos i especially have been flogging to death, they just create this great, full sound. it's a fun/percussive affair for the whole family.
oh they were soo much better in their (insert debut/2nd album namedrop) dayz
..is what i'd say if i cared.
but i don't.
i'm not going to say i only like certain bands' older stuff..yknow, before they 'sold out' to commercialism, bc that shiz makes me wild. if you don't like a band all of a sudden because they've become well-known then it's pretty probable that you hardly liked them in the 1st place. usually with that sort of thing, there seems to have been more of an original appeal to the 'indie'ness of the band/artist then an interest in their actual music, which is a shame..
ps just quickly, while on the (fleeting) topic of indie, i v much like justin heazlewood's (aka the Bedroom Philosopher) quip - "it's hard to look indie when it's windy" hehehehe, referring to the stereotypical male indie hair-do of course.
buttt what i WILL say is that i wish certain bands hadn't (unofficially) split up/had their vocalist go off onto a solo project.
don't get me wrong, often those projects are, and have been, really great..
just for eg. the likes of: thom yorke, bernard fanning, kevin mitchell, katie noonan, paul dempsey, paul banks, ..., ..., ..., . ,. ,,,, ..... are/have been really impressive, but in most instances the projects, to me, have seemed to sort of lack the instrumentation and thickness of sound that could be heard with the original band..
when stripped back to what is usually just the vocalist and a guitar/piano, i admit that it IS basic in the really great sense of the word, (think jack johnson-like simplicity), but still not my fave side of their music-making.
there's a lot of hype surrounding particular solo projects right now - k-mitch/'bob evans' & the pauls, especially. i do like those three, of course, bc i'm quite loyal to any music that they produce, but i'm not as fussed on their solo projects as their oldschool band-produced stuff.
while i would jump at the chance to see any of them live, and am actually lucky enough to bee seeing one in a little under one month's time, what i want mostly is to see their old bands reformed/re-touring.
those i'm talking about are of course the bands of the vocalists mentioned above.
in particular i want to see:
1. kev with jebediah,
(how much fun is the animation in this video, no?)
2. paul with something for kate,
(i always liked the fact that SFK had a female bassist, steph ashworth. she always seemed to have a sort of don't-give-a-shit attitude, and wore what she liked/had cool hair and just looked awesome and laidback in general. she made me want to pick up a bass in late primary school..but instead, as i procrastinate horribly, i picked up a compulsory recorder. what an equally bass-guitar-ly impact that had on my life, nay.
paul's such a ragdoll in this one, it makes me laugh. if you've got uber time on yr hands, check out some of his similarly crazyfun movements/facial expressions here aswell.)
the recording isn't fantastic for this one, but i really really wanted to share it. it's so beautiful, words can hardly describe/do justice, especially my level of wording anyway.
this video is one of the only youtube clips i've come across that doesn't include a single comment of dislike or general bullshit..that's gotta be saying something about it's content, surely.
and just to add some more video/SFK content to this post :), here's some more. so good:
& 3. katie with george.
(isn't this such a fantastic video ? it's so laidback and happy, everyones just rolling round in couches. makes me want to be there insanely, such a fun mood has been set up.
it's really cool, on george's albums the songs alternate vocalists, with one song being sung by katie while the next is sung by her brother ty, and then katie, ty, etc. some include both, with one harmonising with the other or featuring in little sections, but i like the alternating action. it's just right.
oh and my sister and i always had a little crush on nick, the smilie brown-haired guitarist.)
i tried to find a clip of Breaking it Slowly, which features Tyrone mostly on vox, but was unsuccessful. have a look on their myspace page or something, it's so unbelievably worth your while.
i miss all of those three. hugely, in fact.
i was of the completely incorrect age when they were touring/in their prime, so i think i've missed any chance of seeing these gorgeous people sing/play/make angelic sounds in person.
it really makes me sad.
i think i really live in the past with my music preferences..most of my favourite artists/albums aren't so much current ones, but ones that i'd flogged a few years back, or ones that my sister, and on a few occasions ones my brother, have influenced me to appreciate.
so my musical interests are totally relient upon what i listened to when i was younger, and i love that. my parents aren't so much into music, which i find hard to understand. i think they grew up just listening to ~nothing, or just whatever everyone else was listening to..i guess that had a lot to do with the technology and access to music when they were growing up, but it seems like such a waste to me.
they hardly expanded upon what was the norm, so don't have a huge interest in music now. they both played piano as kids and own lots of cds etc now, but don't have a favourite artist or a want to go out and find new music..they live their life really contently within their own little musical bubble.. which is fine, but i can't be like that.
i'm constantly wanting to find new music, to expand my horizons and be influenced and made of aware of political/current issues within music.
i was listening to (another example of one of my favourite non-recent releases) John Butler Trio's Sunrise Over Sea album last night and remembered how many political messages there were within so many of those songs. a lot were centred around Australia too, and our then foreign policy/s and opinion toward refugees, as a nation, and it was interesting/sad to realise that not a lot has changed in between the album's release and today.
i like music that sparks a lot of political interest and speaks a really strong message to the nation/world. Against Me!, JBT, and a lot of Aussie hiphop groups (eg. The Herd, lesser-known indigenous groups) really speak their minds in their music and i love that, it brings the music to a whole new level and so often they are wording exactly what i'm thinking but am too soft to voice so publicly. i put my thumbs up to their efforts. strong political messages and statements in music add a completely new level to the music, and seem, in my eyes, to add a whole heap of intelligence and interest to the vocalist.
just to finish, i really like the following words in italics. i don't even want to interpret or look into the meaning of them so much, i just like the poetic sound to the sentences. what a way with words to have, i wonder if he realises his power/talent as such a literary genius.: So you dance and you shuffle into the eye of the storm.
Eyes all on fire, as if you've never been here before.
And you say its all nothing, you tell yourself quietly,
but I can hear you from my house breathing differently.
You can stay there forever counting the stars,
trying to separate yourself from how things are.
i'm not complaining in any way,
but how predictable were Paranoid Android, Joy Division, Hallelujah, Teen Spirit etc.
hm.
but wow, im happy Killing in the Name Of was #2, but had sort of forgotten about that song. im super surprised.
i remember when my brother really got into the Live at the Grand Olympic
Auditorium album at the end/middle? of his highschool years, and so i also started listening to and secretly really liking RATM as they bellowed from his room most days. so much energy in one song, but my #2? no no.
it appears that a whole heap of the songs in the upper half of the Hottest 100 were by artists/bands that have taken their own life/been killed or have suffered a band member that has passed away.
i really hope that those songs would have rated equally as high had the artist in question not died.
Guess what? i just found some heart-warming/wrenching words, all of the below being found in the last 30 seconds:
1. It all pretty much comes from the heart, your base desire.
2. Degenerate art-fag chambercore.
3. From the wailing moans to the little sigh at the start, it's perfect.
4. i love you australia.
i was in melbourne for a few days not long ago and i really feel like i left a fair bit to be desired in the retail sector - i bought so minimal clothes.
i couldnt venture too far out of the cbd, mostly due to time constraints, but i did go to chapel street for half a day with my mum.
at chapel i went into american apparel and...wow. it was so far from what i had expected ! in a peanutshell, it was really just a spandex-lovers dream, nothing more/less; with stretch, neons, metallics and 80s allround. there was a lot of fun dancewear and therefore desirable leo/unitards to boot, but i wasnt, at that stage in the trip, willing to fork out 60/80 dollars+ each for those.
ive been noticing with leotards, that are now readily available in every store, that they come with a little nappy-esque button thing at the bottom of them, haha ! i take it that theyre there so you can go to the toilet with ease ? ..which is thoughtful, i guess. haha.
too much ? ive said too much !
erm cough
so at AA i DID walk away with a pair of two-tone stockings - one leg being white, the other black.
theyre great fun, but i wore them back on the flight to mackay without much prior attention to the fact that i would no longer be in melbourne..and grabbed more attention than was desired.
there were other stockings in AA, like two-tone pairs with peach/orange and also a green/blue pair, but i didnt want to pay over $70 for 3 pairs of stockings that im just going to get a ladder in within a matter of weeks..so settled with just the simple penguin legs.
half-way through my short trip in melbo i was feeling pretty blue after spending v v minimal for days, so needed some minor retail therapy to lift some spirits.
mostly i just bought some knickknacks/jewellery/magazines, so feel a little disappointed, as mentioned above. hm.
without further ado, heres some of those goods..or bads, whatever your opinion:
sequinned hat, pointless but fun Salvador Dali masquerade mask ish cardboard face cut-out, ring lenko belt, elton john (unfortunatlely and unoriginally wayfarer) sunglasses
this was the cool little takeaway food container that my lenko wares were provided in, Wooden Toy Quarterly art mag that i picked up at the epic MagNation (thanks to alice's clever guidance), and my container of heartbreaks. (i didnt get the latter from melbourne, obvz, but thought id add that image to the bunch as i spent the good part of y'day trying to fix the jewellery bits and bobs in that container that had broken/come apart over the last yr. theyve been staring at me for months...i thought the time had come.)
i really didnt buy a lot apart from that. i bought a Lula mag, a slouchy grey tee-shirt dress, purple plaid footed stockings, a green-flash lomo single-use camera for a friend's bday that id completely missed :s, a singlet that i now regret buying that just has a print of the Beatles on the front of Rolling Stone, some clips with little custard tarts on them, and im sure other things that i cant think of right now.
i feel unsatisfied,
and will do for the next few months as i pay my parents back for a certain purchase that leaves me broke until november when itll be put into bloody brilliant use.. my god i want to project pictures of it from my rooftop to show the world, but shhhhh, not now not now.
lula had some lovely spreads, a lot of luella images and a lot of ott bows and ruffles.
im really disappointed at how much ruffles are in every shop, no exaggeration whatsoever. every dress/skirt/top that appeals to me in life has a ruffle or embellishment, on most occasions. and as ruffles are so hugely everywhere, they wont be there for long..meaning i wont be able to wear them for long.
i preferred when they werent so vogue so i could wear them at my own leisure, not so much sticking to whats hot and being disallowed their lovely feminine presence when the trend decides to disappear.
this is my sad face.
as i type, the hottest 100 'of ALL TIME', to date, is broadcasting. a few songs have disappointed me a little, but maybe i just havent 'lived' musically so far. hm.
most of the songs i picked havent made it so far, which is sad. but i didnt expect a lot of them to..
heres a list of some that i - oops, illegally - voted for on my old email address; a few i semi-regret, in hindsight, bc unlike my initial list this one was more rushed and so i hadnt spent weeks agonising and speculating over the songs on it.
aaand in hindsight, i ALSO wish i had voted for Judith by A Perfect Circle, shiz.
my 2nd list (also, in no order) included:
1.(#27)Powderfinger - My Happiness
2.Silverchair - Pure Massacre
3. PJ Harvey & Thom Yorke - This Mess We're In
4. Fuel - Hemorrhage (in My Hands)
5. Michael Jackson - Heal the World
6. (#11)John Lennon - Imagine
7. Outkast - Happy Valentine's Day
8. The Bens - Just Pretend
9. Powderfinger - How Far Have We Really Come?
10. Ben Folds - Fred Jones, Part 2
OTHER songs (* = songs that had compleeeetely slipped from my mind/memory)that i've appreciated in the 100 so far have included:
86. beatles - come together
82. chop suey - system of a down*
69. jeff buckley - grace
66. elton john - tiny dancer
59. augie march - one crowded hour
47. john butler trio - betterman
45. queens of the stone age - no-one knows*
40. nirvana - come as you are
36. nick cave - into my arms*
35. smashing pumpkins - 1979
33. silverchair - tomorrow
25. pearl jam - alive*
21. powderfinger - these days
15. radiohead - karma police
when songs #22 was announced, the annoucer was channelling bingo so greatly, with the intro 'like two swans on a lake, 22'. HAHAHA HOW GOOD IS THAT, no ?
to sign off,
lately im loving: toolbelts, turbans and bumbags.
i really want to embellish a bumbag and completely cover it in sequins or something fun and use it going out instead of mini-satchels. im imagining the best image, a bumbag perched up at waist-height, perfect size for phone/$/mints.. its the way of the future, just you wait ! ;D
i was with my parents in a superhuge book store in melbourne, after having breakfast at a lovely little pancake store, and found myself in a science-y section. not sure what it was called exactly, but it had heaps of really interesting books in it. the blurb on the back of one told me that, according to einstein, 'if the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.'..how frightening is that !!
did anyone else not know anything at all about that little fact ? why dont they teach us to be nicer to bees in primary school, my god. scary scary.
and i enjoyed these: they tell me that you'll lose your mind when you're older.
what they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much. - malcolm cowley
dance first, think later. it's the natural order.
there is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness. take care of eachother.
drink triple, see double, act single.
how old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
whatever you are, be a good one. - abraham linoln
what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
do one thing every day that scares you. - eleanor roosevelt
i apologise for such a lengthy, bland post. i couldnt muster any excitement within me, but needed to put a lot of thoughts onto paper/screen. ive said enough for one day,
so long.
today ive been listening to a whole heap of old albums and old mediaplayer few-hit-wonders of mine fom a few years ago, and loving it.
for eg: keane, söhne mannheims, jebediah, gotye..
ive been trying to get festival of fashion stuff underway but im just not going to have enough time i dont think. i wish i could just make them my size but no-one's my size ! youre all taller or littler or something, its so annoying. but haha.
anyone want to model for me ? seriously ?
i wont make you look (too) bad..:) :| :(
err
and,
dammit and i also find myself wanting a gorilla print tee like Christopher Kane Spring 09
orrrr an explosion print dress or tee like CKane resort 2010. dammit dammit why cant i come up with those images on my own.
maybe a space one would be naiiiice too, nasa pics have been publicised a whole lot lately on blogs, tumblrs, etc so would definitely not be unavailable for my usage..
OH and speaking of space, holy guacamole its an amazing concept/thing isnt it?!??..that theres this whole world of goodness around OUR world.
AND to quote the great literary genius and scholar, kimya dawson, 'i am just a speak of dust inside a giants eye (and i dont want to make her cry)' - the last bracketed bit being for my own amusement and not much else..
oi oi but you should definitely go to the local bibliotheque and borrow out A Short History of Nearly Everything (after i -never- return it yehe) and read the whole section; so good !
i did it.
i caved to the pressure.
i lost to peer pressure, (but did it fashionably late, may i add - (by years))
and
i
read the davinci code. :(
nonnn non non i didn't want to copy everyone and read it, and i definitely didn't want to enjoy it as much as i did but it ended up being surprisingly really really great and RELIGIOUSLY EPIC and fab and all of the things that optimism is made of.
i really love it when fictional stuff like the davinci code/gossip girl (haha realz bad comparison, i know, but comparing and contrasting in that english exam still has me drained) include real places/people/historical things and events etc in their plot.
like DC fully references to davinci paintings and massive symbolism that you can see within them and all of this underlying stuff about the Louvre in paris and the history of certain religious and ahh its so believable. amazing.
im loving religious history lately, i think mainly bc i know soo little - and i think that j's been inspiring me even more lately..
the DC included so much religion-based brainfood, and it all tied in with art - which is a bit of a double-bunger for my tastebuds i guess.
there was so much i hadn't known or even heard of at all before, regarding things like the holy grail, multiple-century-old religious brotherhoods and cults - eg. knights templar, the priory of sion, opus dei, and ee tee see.
BUT what a terrrrrrrrible ending to such a great book,
theyd finally found what theyd been looking for for the entire book..
and decided 'oh i dont want it anymore', lets all have a family reunion, share too many hugs and sit down to cup of tea.
they literally sat down and had a cup of tea with long-lost family members and put the holy grail to the side.
it's almost as anticlimatic as killing of characters at the end of movies bc the budget runs out. i'm still angry at how bad the ending was haha..far out. i think you should read the book..just for the ending.. ridiculous.
SUBJECT: LUMINARY.
‘The term ‘luminary’ can be used to describe a celestial body that gives light like the moon or sun – they were the brightest and most important objects in universe. This idea can be used to describe people – those who radiate a certain light through their talents and creative achievements draw others in like moths to a flame.’
‘The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are made to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars’. – Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957).
i want to print this on a shirt bc 'Alexander McQueen' literally translates to 'dollar signs' in french, not a word of a lie, so i'm not able to afford the authentic slice of paradise myself, :(.
words i love (to be continued): downplay, host, hello, abacus, ursula, bones, muse, soldier, forest, ghost words that make me cringe: random, cliche, lips
i bought the temper trap's debut album the other day, on first listen i was a little sad bc it seemed to be v repetitive in its sounds and only has a total of 10 tracks..
but i'm liking it more and more and more and more - can't waaait to burn round in the little silver rocket listening to it in less than a fortnight if/when i get my Ps !
I was listening to a live recording of Xavier Rudd from a few years ago, and remembered a few words he said before a song called ‘A 4th World’. I think its really important that people read this or hear his words first-hand, it was really well-said:
‘So it was a beautiful day today, I went surfing down on the coast..but just like every time that I think I’ve surfed down that way in my life, I sat on the water and looked at the land and just was blown away by our country, by how beautiful the coastline and how fertile and beautiful our country is. It’s a land that we’re really really lucky to be part of and it’s a land that’s been nurtured and cared for for thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of years by our Indigenous people. All those years ago we were warmly welcomed and adopted by a beautiful Indigenous culture and hopefully as we progress as Australians, our school systems will open some doors and make our Indigenous culture more special so that our kids can grow feeling like our Indigenous culture is special and not wondering what it is. So this is a song dedicated to that purpose, this is a song called ‘A 4th World.’
The song begins with the lovely little line: ‘so here we are under these particular stars.’ :)
And from Messages I particularly like: ‘For the trees that we see cannot forever breathe with the changes they will confront’ and ‘this sacred land has seen many hands, Yet it is fragile and old and all the greedy souls just don't care to know of the changes it will confront’ andddd ‘so speak out loud of the things you are proud, and if you love this coast then keep it clean as it hopes, cos the way that it shines may just dwindle with time with the changes it will confront’.
wow this post was all over the place,
guess my brain is definitely on holidays..
Erstwhile Fashion Design / Marketing graduate working in retail buying in Brisbane.
i confuse Studio 54 and Area 51 a little too frequently.
i like slight ankle & wrist cuff exposure.
being asked for directions while travelling is the highest compliment - having reached peak non-tourist aesthetic.
i think sunglasses should be worn slightly down the nose.
the spelling of giraffe(phe?) & cloud(wd?) inexplicably throw me.
forever imagining Tupac's style as it would be today.
