Many people dismiss Björk because she's weird. Well, yes, she is, her music certainly isn't like anyone else's out there. But she's also produced some of the most beautiful music I know of. Here are four of my favourite Björk songs.
Pagan Poetry - impossibly beautiful, with a filmclip that was banned on MTV.
New World - the uplifting final song in the terribly depressing but brilliant movie Dancer in the Dark. A bit more accessible - she even uses rhyming lyrics here! (No official video released, this is a fan-made one.)
All Is Full of Love - groundbreaking video for a stunning song.
Verandi - could be the soundtrack to a Bollywood 50's sci-fi film. Wait for the breakdown around 2:10. (No actual filmclip, just the audio.)
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Friday, 24 August 2007
The musical adventures of Tyrone
In the past two weeks I've bought two musical instruments.
Firstly, I bought an ocarina at a little store in Chinatown in Yokohama. 1000 yen for the ability to make music! The first tune I played was the theme from Rocky :)
While there I also bought a new pet - a gay panda called Ping. He was only 400 yen, how could I resist?
Then last Tuesday I bought a keyboard!
So I'm slowly remembering how to read music - 12 years away from the keyboard, in which time I've played trumpet for 5 years and then nothing for 7 has meant that my musical skills are lacking, but they're slowly coming back. The biggest challenge is learning how to play with both hands again. When I learnt keyboard last I seem to remember only using one finger at a time on my right hand and playing chords with my left hand. Now I'm learning from piano books, and so I have to use both hands to play many notes. 'Tis tough, but I'm getting there, and it's giving my brain a workout, which is what it needed.
Anyway, I thought now was a perfect time to show you my new home. Wonder at it's storage space - a desk! A set of drawers! A wardrobe!
Marvel at the bookcase! Even my bed (yes! a real bed!) has drawers underneath it!
See the Great Wall of Photos! (haha and yes that is the Under the Pink sheet music - optimistic, yes, but I can already play the opening part of Pretty Good Year).
Compare this to the first room I stayed in upon arriving in Japan, which had only a small set of drawers and a clothes rack. And I pay less rent for this place, which has a much larger kitchen, shower and better housemates.
Okay. Will start writing entries showing off some of the places I've visited lately.
But just quickly - I've decided to leave Japan by May or June next year, and will be heading to London. So in the next 8 months or so I've got many people visiting and many places to visit myself. In the next month and a half I plan to climb Mt Fuji, and am taking a trip to Kyushu, where I will visit Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and hopefully climb Unzendake, a volcano that last erupted in 1995. Excitement! Also, at this stage it looks like I may be spending Christmas in Hokkaido with my housemate Jasmine and her friends - so I'll pretty much be guaranteed a white Christmas!
In early September Verity and Lauren are coming to Tokyo for a day or so, at the end of September my cousin Jared is coming with his schoolgroup, and then in December Anita is staying for a couple of weeks. Also, in November I may be going to Thailand with my housemate Sara. Then in February, Mum and Ayla are coming, and Moo is planning to come in March. And that should be it till I leave in May. In that time I also have to see Hiroshima, Niko, and Nara - but I might try to do these when I have visitors.
So the next 8 months are going to be very busy! But I'm very excited by it all :)
----------------
Now playing: Sufjan Stevens - All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!
Firstly, I bought an ocarina at a little store in Chinatown in Yokohama. 1000 yen for the ability to make music! The first tune I played was the theme from Rocky :)
While there I also bought a new pet - a gay panda called Ping. He was only 400 yen, how could I resist?
Then last Tuesday I bought a keyboard!
So I'm slowly remembering how to read music - 12 years away from the keyboard, in which time I've played trumpet for 5 years and then nothing for 7 has meant that my musical skills are lacking, but they're slowly coming back. The biggest challenge is learning how to play with both hands again. When I learnt keyboard last I seem to remember only using one finger at a time on my right hand and playing chords with my left hand. Now I'm learning from piano books, and so I have to use both hands to play many notes. 'Tis tough, but I'm getting there, and it's giving my brain a workout, which is what it needed.
Anyway, I thought now was a perfect time to show you my new home. Wonder at it's storage space - a desk! A set of drawers! A wardrobe!
Marvel at the bookcase! Even my bed (yes! a real bed!) has drawers underneath it!
See the Great Wall of Photos! (haha and yes that is the Under the Pink sheet music - optimistic, yes, but I can already play the opening part of Pretty Good Year).
Compare this to the first room I stayed in upon arriving in Japan, which had only a small set of drawers and a clothes rack. And I pay less rent for this place, which has a much larger kitchen, shower and better housemates.
Okay. Will start writing entries showing off some of the places I've visited lately.
But just quickly - I've decided to leave Japan by May or June next year, and will be heading to London. So in the next 8 months or so I've got many people visiting and many places to visit myself. In the next month and a half I plan to climb Mt Fuji, and am taking a trip to Kyushu, where I will visit Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and hopefully climb Unzendake, a volcano that last erupted in 1995. Excitement! Also, at this stage it looks like I may be spending Christmas in Hokkaido with my housemate Jasmine and her friends - so I'll pretty much be guaranteed a white Christmas!
In early September Verity and Lauren are coming to Tokyo for a day or so, at the end of September my cousin Jared is coming with his schoolgroup, and then in December Anita is staying for a couple of weeks. Also, in November I may be going to Thailand with my housemate Sara. Then in February, Mum and Ayla are coming, and Moo is planning to come in March. And that should be it till I leave in May. In that time I also have to see Hiroshima, Niko, and Nara - but I might try to do these when I have visitors.
So the next 8 months are going to be very busy! But I'm very excited by it all :)
----------------
Now playing: Sufjan Stevens - All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!
Sunday, 17 June 2007
Finally... some Kyoto photos! Also, moving house and Patrick!
I finally got my act together, and have uploaded some photos. There's so many photos from Kyoto, so these are going up bit by bit.
These are photos of/from Kinkakuji Temple. It's very popular with tourists - there were SO many people here! So Kinkakuji Temple gets it's name from the fact that the upper two levels are covered in gold foil. At first when you see the temple it looks like it could just be gold paint - then when you get close enough you can see the water reflecting off it in such a way it could only be gold! Very beautiful (unfortunately it was cloudy the day I saw it, I bet it would look even more amazing on a sunny day).
The gardens around Kinkakuji were also very beautiful. They're mossy gardens, and look like a carpet of green has been laid out over the bumps and hills of the landscape.
Before leaving Kinkakuji I had some Japanese green tea (matcha) - they were serving it for 500yen and it looked traditional, so I thought it was worth it. I was served in a similar way to that shown below - the person serving it kneels down, and places the cup/bowl on the floor in front of you, turning the cup after placing it on the ground.
It also came with some sort of sugar and sweet bean paste cake, which had pieces of gold foil (or something that looked like gold foil) on the top.
So that was Kinkakuji! Now that I've started hopefully I'll be motivated to put up more photos :)
In other news, I've moved - I'll have to send out a mass email with my address, it's much simpler than my last one! Also my room is much bigger, I have so much storage space (that was a problem at my last place) including a desk to put my junk on, instead of the floor, and I have a real bed!! Hooray!!
Also, I'm going to see Patrick Wolf - he's playing in Tokyo on the night of the 2nd of July!!! Woohoo! I totally didn't expect him to come here (as much as I hoped he would), so to find out the other day was a complete shock! He's also touring Aus, playing Sydney and Melbourne - so if I was still in Aus I would have to have flown to see him. After much confusion I managed to buy my ticket from the machine at the convenience storeUnfortunately this is the same night Au Revoir Simone are playing in Tokyo (what are the odds?), so sorry Aaron, I'm going to have to miss them (unless I see them in Yokohama the next night). Anyway, yayness! I'm very excited as you can see. This will make up for having to miss Regina Spektor in Australia (soo jealous of everyone back home who gets to see her). Now if only Ms Spektor can come here, I'll be one very happy chappy!
Here is my ticket - I have NO idea what any of the Japanese says, nor do I know who the other people playing that night are. All I care about is the fact that the ticket says Patrick Wolf SOMEWHERE on there... cause when I was ordering this ticket, the machine said nothing about him, so I wasn't sure I even had the right night, or the right place. Then it printed out with his name, and all was right with the world.
These are photos of/from Kinkakuji Temple. It's very popular with tourists - there were SO many people here! So Kinkakuji Temple gets it's name from the fact that the upper two levels are covered in gold foil. At first when you see the temple it looks like it could just be gold paint - then when you get close enough you can see the water reflecting off it in such a way it could only be gold! Very beautiful (unfortunately it was cloudy the day I saw it, I bet it would look even more amazing on a sunny day).
The gardens around Kinkakuji were also very beautiful. They're mossy gardens, and look like a carpet of green has been laid out over the bumps and hills of the landscape.
Before leaving Kinkakuji I had some Japanese green tea (matcha) - they were serving it for 500yen and it looked traditional, so I thought it was worth it. I was served in a similar way to that shown below - the person serving it kneels down, and places the cup/bowl on the floor in front of you, turning the cup after placing it on the ground.
It also came with some sort of sugar and sweet bean paste cake, which had pieces of gold foil (or something that looked like gold foil) on the top.
So that was Kinkakuji! Now that I've started hopefully I'll be motivated to put up more photos :)In other news, I've moved - I'll have to send out a mass email with my address, it's much simpler than my last one! Also my room is much bigger, I have so much storage space (that was a problem at my last place) including a desk to put my junk on, instead of the floor, and I have a real bed!! Hooray!!
Also, I'm going to see Patrick Wolf - he's playing in Tokyo on the night of the 2nd of July!!! Woohoo! I totally didn't expect him to come here (as much as I hoped he would), so to find out the other day was a complete shock! He's also touring Aus, playing Sydney and Melbourne - so if I was still in Aus I would have to have flown to see him. After much confusion I managed to buy my ticket from the machine at the convenience storeUnfortunately this is the same night Au Revoir Simone are playing in Tokyo (what are the odds?), so sorry Aaron, I'm going to have to miss them (unless I see them in Yokohama the next night). Anyway, yayness! I'm very excited as you can see. This will make up for having to miss Regina Spektor in Australia (soo jealous of everyone back home who gets to see her). Now if only Ms Spektor can come here, I'll be one very happy chappy!
Here is my ticket - I have NO idea what any of the Japanese says, nor do I know who the other people playing that night are. All I care about is the fact that the ticket says Patrick Wolf SOMEWHERE on there... cause when I was ordering this ticket, the machine said nothing about him, so I wasn't sure I even had the right night, or the right place. Then it printed out with his name, and all was right with the world.
My first concert in Japan!!
Friday, 2 March 2007
The Magic Position
Well a few people have commented on my lack of posting over the last week, and well, to be honest, it's because I haven't really done anything interesting... well, I have, but nothing that's really been deserving of a complete post. So here's a brief recap of my week.
On Friday I met up with a new friend Yuichi in Shinjuku - he lived in Brisbane for about 6 years, and then moved back to Tokyo last year. He showed me around the gay clubbing area of Shinjuku and then we had a coffee, before I had to get back to Nishi-Funabashi for work.
Anyway, here are some photos I managed to take in Shinjuku on my phone (hence the craptacular quality)
The NTT building - it really intrigued me, just rising out of the middle of nowwhere like that
The NTT building again - I told you it really intrigued me
People waiting in line to buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts - it apparently takes about an hour to buy these doughnuts, so people come out carrying cartons of them. This was only half the line, there were people waiting around the corner to get into this line
A ummm... strawberry sandwich?? lol it looked interesting, and I saw it at the "kyu kyu", or 99Yen store, where surprisingly, nearly everything costs 104Yen (the 99Y is before sales tax, so really I think it should be called "the 99Y before GST store" but they can't make an annoyingly catch song out of that), and so I thought "why not?"
This is why not... I have no idea what the white stuff is, I can only assume fake cream...
Anyway, that night after work I was bored, so went into Shinjuku for dancing with Yuichi and his friends. The funny thing though - once you get in, you either come home on the last train, which for me would've been around 11:30pm, or you stay out till the first train, which for me leaves around 4:30am. Taxi's are ridiculously expensive, so you pretty much have to stay in town all night or come home before the night's even begun. So I left home around 11pm, knowing that I had to stay in Shinjuku, as pretty much once I got on the train there was no way for me to get back home (without spending my entire savings on a taxi :P).
I had a great time, and the best thing about the club we went to was that there was no entry fee - you simply had to buy one drink, which ended up being the only alcoholic drink i had all night! Just enough for my to get my dancin' boots on, and I was set!
Around 4am we went to McDonalds for breakfast, then i caught my train home, stepped in the door at around 5:45am, and slept, ready to wake up, get ready and be at work by 1:20pm... exhausting - but i had a great night and made some new friends.
The rest of my week was pretty uneventful. I picked up my coat from dry cleaning on Monday night, wore it for the first time to work today and then spilled my dinner on it tonight.. doh! No one else in the restaurant seemed to notice, I'm not sure whether it's because they really didn't notice, or because they were trying to keep from laughing at the silly foreigner who literally couldn't handle his food...
One of my students sounds like the Scottish character from Little Britain - "a-yeeeehhhssss".
In Voice the other night, there was only one student, an editor of a maths textbook, so he got me to explain my Honours thesis on the whiteboard - it felt soo good doing some maths again, and I pretty much had to do it all from memory. Surprising how much I was able to work out on the spot....
Oh yeah, I got sick on Monday night, so spend the first day of my weekend (Tuesday) at home with a cold, but i was actually lucky i got sick on my weekend, as I don't get paid for sick days. I'm actually quite surprised it took me this long to get sick! All of the other instructors in my branch have been sick, as well as my students, but it took me a while to catch it.
Tomorrow night is Cheryl's birthday, so I think everyone from my branch is going out for Thai food in Ginza, followed by karaoke and dancing... Tonight while teaching I was starting to lose my voice, so hopefully by the time karaoke comes around my voice will be completely gone :P Although that doesn't really help with the English CONVERSATION teaching.
Yesterday, I needed to get out of the house, and met up with another new friend Aung in Shibuya, where I bought two albums - Cut Copy's Bright Like Neon Love and
my current obsession, Patrick Wolf's The Magic Position.
Yeah, he looks a bit like a crazy homicidal clown - but his music is incredible, I listened to this album last night and for most of the album I had to actually stop what I was doing just to absorb the music. At times he reminds me of both Bjork and Kate Bush, because of his songwriting style, but more so because of his use of instrumentation - at various times in this album he plays
So I'm currently floating in a state of sonic bliss, in my own little world of sounds rushing from one headphone to another through my head, amazed at the power music can have over me, that it can leave me feeling numb, floored, grinning like an idiot for hours, and feeling wonderously happy that music like this is still being made.
Currently listening: Patrick Wolf - Overture
On Friday I met up with a new friend Yuichi in Shinjuku - he lived in Brisbane for about 6 years, and then moved back to Tokyo last year. He showed me around the gay clubbing area of Shinjuku and then we had a coffee, before I had to get back to Nishi-Funabashi for work.
Anyway, here are some photos I managed to take in Shinjuku on my phone (hence the craptacular quality)
The NTT building - it really intrigued me, just rising out of the middle of nowwhere like that
The NTT building again - I told you it really intrigued me
People waiting in line to buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts - it apparently takes about an hour to buy these doughnuts, so people come out carrying cartons of them. This was only half the line, there were people waiting around the corner to get into this line
A ummm... strawberry sandwich?? lol it looked interesting, and I saw it at the "kyu kyu", or 99Yen store, where surprisingly, nearly everything costs 104Yen (the 99Y is before sales tax, so really I think it should be called "the 99Y before GST store" but they can't make an annoyingly catch song out of that), and so I thought "why not?"
This is why not... I have no idea what the white stuff is, I can only assume fake cream...
Anyway, that night after work I was bored, so went into Shinjuku for dancing with Yuichi and his friends. The funny thing though - once you get in, you either come home on the last train, which for me would've been around 11:30pm, or you stay out till the first train, which for me leaves around 4:30am. Taxi's are ridiculously expensive, so you pretty much have to stay in town all night or come home before the night's even begun. So I left home around 11pm, knowing that I had to stay in Shinjuku, as pretty much once I got on the train there was no way for me to get back home (without spending my entire savings on a taxi :P).
I had a great time, and the best thing about the club we went to was that there was no entry fee - you simply had to buy one drink, which ended up being the only alcoholic drink i had all night! Just enough for my to get my dancin' boots on, and I was set!
Around 4am we went to McDonalds for breakfast, then i caught my train home, stepped in the door at around 5:45am, and slept, ready to wake up, get ready and be at work by 1:20pm... exhausting - but i had a great night and made some new friends.
The rest of my week was pretty uneventful. I picked up my coat from dry cleaning on Monday night, wore it for the first time to work today and then spilled my dinner on it tonight.. doh! No one else in the restaurant seemed to notice, I'm not sure whether it's because they really didn't notice, or because they were trying to keep from laughing at the silly foreigner who literally couldn't handle his food...
One of my students sounds like the Scottish character from Little Britain - "a-yeeeehhhssss".
In Voice the other night, there was only one student, an editor of a maths textbook, so he got me to explain my Honours thesis on the whiteboard - it felt soo good doing some maths again, and I pretty much had to do it all from memory. Surprising how much I was able to work out on the spot....
Oh yeah, I got sick on Monday night, so spend the first day of my weekend (Tuesday) at home with a cold, but i was actually lucky i got sick on my weekend, as I don't get paid for sick days. I'm actually quite surprised it took me this long to get sick! All of the other instructors in my branch have been sick, as well as my students, but it took me a while to catch it.
Tomorrow night is Cheryl's birthday, so I think everyone from my branch is going out for Thai food in Ginza, followed by karaoke and dancing... Tonight while teaching I was starting to lose my voice, so hopefully by the time karaoke comes around my voice will be completely gone :P Although that doesn't really help with the English CONVERSATION teaching.
Yesterday, I needed to get out of the house, and met up with another new friend Aung in Shibuya, where I bought two albums - Cut Copy's Bright Like Neon Love and
my current obsession, Patrick Wolf's The Magic Position.
Yeah, he looks a bit like a crazy homicidal clown - but his music is incredible, I listened to this album last night and for most of the album I had to actually stop what I was doing just to absorb the music. At times he reminds me of both Bjork and Kate Bush, because of his songwriting style, but more so because of his use of instrumentation - at various times in this album he plays
- a viola;
- two Bosendorfer grand pianos;
- synths;
- baritone and soprano ukuleles;
- dulcimers;
- a clavichord;
- a clavinet;
- a therimen;
- harmonium;
- autoharp;
- gongs just to name a few;
So I'm currently floating in a state of sonic bliss, in my own little world of sounds rushing from one headphone to another through my head, amazed at the power music can have over me, that it can leave me feeling numb, floored, grinning like an idiot for hours, and feeling wonderously happy that music like this is still being made.
Currently listening: Patrick Wolf - Overture
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
Holy Flirking Shnit!
check out the link here (cause i know you're all ever so interested :P)
And the photo that's been released looks amazing!!
This album is going to shite all over The Beekeeper, this picture is like the complete antithesis of the photos from The Beekeeper. Sounds like old Tori is back!!!!!!!!!!!!
okay... gonna be hard to get to sleep now...
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