The trip-hop duo Mono was formed by the vocalist Siobhan De Maré and producer Martin Virgo. Their songs are mainly influenced by jazz, '60s pop and classic film-soundtracks. Life in mono is a song in the American film Great Expectations soundtrack which earned a high profile for the duo. So far they only have one album: Formica Blues. Personally I found "life in mono" is the best in this album. I've uploaded this song to my space, those interested can download from this site:
http://individual.utoronto.ca/yayaduck/Yaya/mono.mp3
The lyrics for songs in Formica Blues can be found in this site:
Life In Mono by Mono
The stranger sang a theme
From someone else's dream
The leaves began to fall
And no one spoke at all
But I can't seem to recall
When you came along
Ingenue
Ingenue
I just don't know what to do
The tree-lined avenue
Begins to fade from view
Drowning past regrets
In tea and cigarettes
But I can't seem to forget
When you came along
Ingenue
Ingenue
I just don't know what to do
Muhahahaha, after some painstaking search, I managed to find most of the songs in Formica Blues. You can find them here:
http://individual.utoronto.ca/yayaduck/Yaya/Formicablues.rar
Guys, show some enthusiasm! Gimme some cheers!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Life In Mono
filed under: downloads, electronic, hip hop, lyrics, north american
March releases
filed under: alternative, asian, japanese, news, rock
Ok I'm back editing this post. I'll send the albums to our yahoogroup to avoid posting links on this blog.
1. Rie Fu - 2nd Album - Rose Album (2006.3.24)
-> track listing
-> official site
My rating: 8 out of 10
Rie Fu's back with her 2nd album, which isn't VERY different from the major style of her debut, but you can feel the influence of the Carpenters on her musical conceptions more strongly, especially in the 2nd and 3rd track - 5minutes & funny dream (rather humourous and romantic). Other tracks such as 'Tiny Tiny Melody' and 'I Wanna Go To a Place' still mirror the melodious and gentle recipe from her debut hit 'Life's like a boat'. Overall, this's an authentic Rie Fu album with new ideas coming into play.
2. Tomiko Van Debut - Farewell (2006.3.29)
-> official listing
My rating: 7 out of 10
On second thought, I shouldn't be so harsh so I changed the rating from 6 to 7. Still personally, I'm rather disappointed, not with Tomiko's vocal performance, but with the music itself. Nagao DAI wrote all the songs and he's the one who in a sense defined Do As Infinity, who brought out the wild spontaneity in Tomiko's voice and pushed it to full potential. Now DAI's disbanded and Tomiko started her solo career. It's a tough ride. It's almost impossible to ask fans to dissociate Tomiko from shadows of DAI and that's why comparisons between the DAI Tomiko and the current Tomiko are inevitable. I'm sure Tomiko herself won't like this to happen so I'm trying to be impartial and judge her as if I know her for the first time. And I soon realize, casting away the past of DAI and looking at Tomiko again as a new-comer, she doesn't stand out much from average Jpop singers. The songs are mostly mellow ballads which are pleasant sounding but just as easy to forget. Nevertheless, I recommend 'Farewell' and 'Hold me...'.
ET's comments (since she's here, and listening, and humming) : good mix of vocal techiques employed in Tomiko Van's work as opposed to previous Jpop greats like Ayumi Hamasaki and Utada Hikaru who essentialy employ the same techniques to achieve good effects. In addition, little spice can do no harm. - quoted verbatum from ET-sama (who's lying on the temporarily made Japanese-style futon like bed, half dreamy, half dead...)
3. Love Psychedelico - 2nd Album - Live Psychedelico (2006.3.22)
My rating: 9 out of 10
NICE NICE NICE. You know Love Psychedelico performs GREAT alive!! I especially like 'Wasting', 'Neverland' and 'Mind across the universe', all of them with moody sophisticated acoustic guitar introductions.
Ah, I'm done ^^
Monday, March 27, 2006
group email
filed under: logbook
Since Jeremy mentioned it, I think it's a good idea to get a group email address so everyone can receive updates/comments/new posts in real time. I've sent out the invitation to all except yy (Jady, tell me her email address).
Group email: ukulele_ensemble@yahoogroups.com
Group homepage:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ukulele_ensemble
Cheers!
GARNET CROW: Flying Gone
filed under: asian, downloads, garnet crow, japanese, lyrics
MSN chat
Me: Jady, am I allowed to...
Me: post a new entry?
J: on?
Me: GARNET CROW
J: NO
Me: Whhhy not?
J: YOU ALREADY HAVE A BLOODY SITE DEDICATED TO GARNET CROW!
...
(anyway in the end I get a 300words max permission ^^ from Jady)
I probably know the general response from the rest of ukulele since I've been ranting about GC like forever. The last time I attempt to promoto GC to ET-sama, 50% of the tracks I sent over received a 'fail!' evaluation. Well, the thing about GC's music is, it's almost 'never' catchy and pleasant to ear on first listening. Plus, the lead vocal, Yuri Nakamura's voice is rather special. Unlike typical (or stereotypical) female Japanese singers who have high-pitched squeaky voices, hers is very alto and neutral sounding. I'm not sure how that will affect listeners' choices but as far as I know, GC has a well balanced ratio of male vs female fans.
I'm just going to recommend one song. (Tears, if only you know how difficult it is to pick the RIGHT song to recommend. The wrong choice can easily lose a potential fan) It's their 6th maxi single - flying, which is chosen as the theme song for playstation game 'tales of eternia'. I was dozing off on my desk last night (with earphones on and music playing), but when I heard the chorus of this song, I was almost instantly awake. The elation and excitement was really incredible no matter how many times I hear it. The opening beats have a strong sense of urgency and everything seems calm for a while, until you hear this sudden take-off, as if holding your breath before a blood boiling bungee jump. This song is about the turning wheel of fate, about destinies, uncertainty and assurance. So be patient and give it a try! If you want to know more about GC, you might as well visit my fansite ^^ (advert time here), which I assure you is 100 times more comprehensive than Wikipedia entry.
I actually tailor picked a couple of GC songs (3 tracks in each genre) . Choose whichever you prefer:
-> soft rock & hip-hop
-> soothing & melancholic
-> happy, high & jazzy
-> my personal favourites
Flying
-> YSI link (I've also included a live concert version of this song)
-> Also Flying's c/w song 'cried a little' (a very sad song)
Composed by Yuri Nakamura
Lyrics by AZUKI Nana
Arranged by Hirohito Furui
English translations from Ryuichi's GC soundscope, modified by me
季節きせつはずれのbeach side
(the out of season beachside)
夜よるに隠かくれた
(your face hidden in the dark)
君きみの横顔よこがおは何なにをみつめてるの？
(what are you looking at?)
人ひとは誰だれもが皆みな
(everybody...)
何なにかを背負せおってる
(is carrying something)
だけど ふとよぎる不安ふあん
(the anxiety that suddenly crosses my mind)
消けせやしないよ
(won't be erased so easily)
僕ぼくらは何一なにひとつ
(we, for the sake of something,)
知しることない未来みらいの為ために
(for an unknown future)
手てに入いれたり投なげ出だしたりして
(cast off what's held in our hands)
儚はかなく誘さそう行方ゆくえめざして
(and it leads you on to a foreign path)
flying gone
夢見ゆめみる様ように 墜おちてゆくの
(falling as if dreaming)
君きみの中なかへ
(into your embrace)
恐おそれないで傷きずついたら
(without fear, if i get hurt)
きっと 切せつない優やさしさを抱だいている
(I'm sure a bitter gentleness will envelop me)
flying fall down
羽はばたきながら 墜おちてゆくの
(flapping my wings, falling)
君きみの傍そばへ
(to your side)
何なにも ナイ 明日あすがくる瞬間ときは
(before the coming of that empty instance in the future)
君きみに出会であえた奇跡きせき胸むねの中なか
(I'll hold to my heart this miracle that I've met you)
ネムラセテ...
(and fall into a deep slumber)
君きみを信しんじる程ほどに ねぇ
(the trust i've placed in you)
傷きずは深ふかくて...
(is as deep as my wounds have been)
私わたし以外いがいのもの すべて
(how i wish that everything, except my own presence)
消けし去さりたいよ
(could be erased without a trace)
気きづいた時ときには もう
(by the time I realized it)
ただ走はしり続つづけることに
(there was no other choice but to go on)
安やすらぎさえ感かんじていたなんて...
(strange that I even felt peace)
イミジキアスヲ 飛とび越こえてゆけ
(together, let's cross this imaginery space)
flying fall down
旅立たびだつならば
(if we are to set out on a journey)
朝あさも昼ひるも夜よるもなくて
(no matter if it's morning, noon or night)
君きみのめぐる輪廻りんねの果はてへ
(to that place where your endless cycle of reincarnation ends)
二度にどと帰かえらぬ(三途の川)かわのほとりまで
(to the River of Styx where there's no return)
飛とび出だすの
(let's fly)
flying gone
もつれてゆくよ
(getting tangled up forever)
君きみの アイ life すべて求もとめ
(I want your love, life and everything)
you and me
もう別べつの生活ひを灯ともす
(starting a new life)
君きみのいない明日あしたなんていらなくても...
(I don't want a tomorrow without your presence)
flying fall down
羽はばたきながら 墜おちてゆくの
(flapping my wings, falling)
君きみの傍そばへ
(to your side)
何なにも ナイ 明日あすがくる瞬間ときは
(before the coming of that empty instance in the future)
君きみに出会であえた奇跡きせき胸むねの中なか
(I'll hold to my heart this miracle that I've met you)
ネムラセテ...
(and fall into a deep slumber)
SMR 5
filed under: slapstick, the strange mail room
(c'td from the last 'diary entry')
One, two, three... I wasn't sure whether I was counting the no. of drawers caught in that brief glimpse or just counting in order to calm my boiling excitement. On reaching 10, I made up the biggest decision in my life.
Back in the mansion, Raymond King untied the knot to the bundle of mail but was suddenly reminded of the opened telegram. Not for the first time, but certainly one of those rarest moments, Mr. King found himself in a rather amusing gesture - his body bending over the oak table, hands still holding on to the ends of the untied thread and his eyes dead fixed on the red telegram lying cosily beside his sleeve - his whole body was locked in time and space as a pearl of throughts streamed through his busy mind. If I put the telegram back and return the envelop, will Mr. no 6 suspect that I've opened it without his consent? I could well explain the little accident to him in person to clear up any misunderstandings but how do I explain the initial curiosity that prompted me to take his mail in the first place? On top of that, no. 6 hasn't been here for almost a month. If he doesn't check in next week, I'm entitled to dispose all his mails as rightfully stated on the agreement. The logical conclusion could well end the mental struggle, until the printings on the telegram inadvertantly caught him. The letters were fading from the dampness but the word 'cypress' held his gaze in a vise. It was the maiden name of this ancient mansion but was no longer in use ever since he became heir. The current addressees, of course, only knew this place as '1 Moonriver Lane', and never Cypress! God forbids! Sensing an ominous sign coming, Mr. King snatched up the little piece of paper and squinted his eyes, which were now glimming with anxiety. "get out cypress on recieving next mail M. coming, Jade.' Raymond King dropped back in his vine chair, deep in thoughts. He dissembled the short message and chewed them over: 1. Jade, the sender, is relaying an important if not life-and-death signal to no.6 and the source of threat is the mysterious M. 2. There's a new mail coming in and upon recieving it, no. 6 is supposed to 'get out of cypress' as told. The biggest cipher,however, was 'get out cypress'. If 'cypress' was indeed referring to this mansion, could 'get out' literally mean to escape this place and move elsewhere? It wasn't uncommon for strangers to knock on his door and inquire about Miss and Mr. so and so although Mr. King emphasised to his customers that '1 moonriver lane' should be a mailing address and never be mistaken as their actual residence. Suppose Jade the sender, by mistake, assumed Cypress was where no.6 lived, the message would then suggest 'get out of your house.' If not, it could imply 'terminate your deal with the master of cypress.' And who is M? The urgent undertone seemed to tag M with a dangerous nature, a nameless face with a deadly pursuit. In all circumstances, no.6 was an alarming case. If only 'cypress' was a harmless coincidence! If not... Mr. King frowned and his heart tightend. Suddenly he remembered 'the next mail' and sprang from the chair. The newly arrived bundle was soon a mess as he frantically sieved through the letters looking for the small number tag. Six, six, six... to his great disappointment, there was none. As if to distract himself from a million palpitating possibilities that flooded in and broke the dam to his serene life, Mr. King closed his eyes and dived deep in a sea of fading memories. He thought of Catherine, in an extravagantly framed portrait, looking golden and regal. She kissed the child gently in her arm, whispered a lullaby and too quickly disappeared without a trace, leaving the baby alone. The Cypress. Raymond King snapped back to reality, frowned bitterly and knocked his knuckles against the table. He MUST get the next mail.
Chapter 4 No. 6
'There ye go, boy!' my old man tossed me a heavy package of letters. It hit me on the shoulders and I winced. 'Wassup with ye? Ye alrite? Kinda stupid and slow today huh?' he smiled a fatherly smile and gave a bearly pat on the same shoulder which was hit less than five seconds ago. I secretly grimaced but said nothing, in fear he would mock me further on my words which strangely, all sounded like laughing stock to him. If only I could be in a perpetual jolly mood like my old man! In fact, I had been a nervous wreck ever since I made my first move. I dare not tell it to anybody, certainly not THIS man smiling across at me. I'd lose my job instantly for sure.
Yesterday I got my usual share of letters. Instead of dutifully setting out on my bike and delivering them to the right household, I picked out those addressed to Raymond King and carefully examined them. Dear readers, if you still remember that stroke of moment where I made up a very important decision, and here it is! The curtains have just unfolded. I'm like a prankish boy throwing pebbles into an once tranquil pond. I watched the ripples spread far into a mass of dead foliage, disturbed them until now there was a small clearing. What was I looking for? I had no idea, but I was sure there WAS something, in the same way I always knew hamsters hid their nuts in secret alcoves nobody else knew of except me. There I held the letters up to eye level and shuffled them back to back. The numbers were there as expected, 25, 6 and 31. If this was what they would call a turn of fate, I did it with a single stroke. I took out a black ink pen, and with my clammy hands, etched a vertical line beside 6. What a difference would 10 make? If only I knew then!
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Downloads - lost in translation and amelie
filed under: downloads
A quick YSI post, big thanks to Esther and zhu!
Lost in Translation OST
Amelie OST
weekiversary, and update on...Everything!
filed under: alternative, logbook, miscellaneous
“Bonjour Mesdames, Monsieur, here’s your industrious technician reporting on the latest updates…” (‘Oh spare us…’) Hehe but I am afraid I am very compelled to; it is merely a week since the ensemble was born, and I can barely believe how fast this little alcove gets this live and buzzing with life. Zhu and I have been revamping the place again on this weekiversary, and the newly added features are—
- New members and members’ profile, see zhu’s post or the link in top column of sidebar.
- Permalink to individual post, at bottom of each post.
- Took out the autoplay function in the radio, so that you don’t have to listen to the same song every time you enter. Turn the knob on the radio yourself~!
- And with that, a new, superb radio! Check it out!
Now, allow me to get a bit excited over this newly found gem…radio No.4 has really great picks, not just in diversity of genre/artist (jazz, blues, rock, alternative, folk, what-have-you), not just in language (English, French, Spanish (if am not wrong), Hindi (or a similar language)…), but the number of items in it is also…staggering. It could sustain me for at least three days. So allow me to introduce some of my much adored artists featured in this long, alphabetically ordered super-radio.
Billie Holliday – I’ll be seeing you
One of the greatest and most influential jazz singers, Billie’s melodious and often melancholic voice would hypnotize you, enchant you, and leave her lingering sounds in your heart for very long. A bit of her dramatic life and career here on wikipedia.
Cocteau Twins – Alice
If you appreciate the early works of Faye Wong, notably Impatience [Fu Zao], you should be aware of the influences of artists like Cocteau Twins and Bjork on Faye’s dreamy, nonchalant and chanting way of interpreting songs. ‘Alice’ might not be a best illustration of that, but it sure makes an interesting listening.
Damien Rice – the blower’s daughter
Ah my new favorite, I’ll do a longer post on him later…for now, let’s just say, if you watched Closer (the critically acclaimed movie of 2005, staring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen), if you remember the ending scene of a glowing Natalie walking down the street, you’d sure remember the poignant song that accompanied it. The music and words put shudders and goose bumps all over me when I first watched the movie—only particular, wonderful kinds of songs do that to me—and this is one of them. Listen to it.
Gabriel Yared – Betty Blue
Mr. Yared has been the one of the common favourite of zhu and me ever since we sat watching The English Patient together. His composition seems to always have that inexorable power to instantly transport the ear drums, together with the rest of which attaches to it, to another time-space, often the exotic, the quaint, the melodramatic, and the most moving. His prominent work in movie soundtrack include The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, City of Angels, L’amant (The Lover, of Duras’ novel), Camille Claudel (critically acclaimed biofilm of Rodin’s lover, a most talented sculptress), and a whole lot of French films that I haven’t a chance to see. ‘Betty Blue’ was for the French movie of the same name (or ’37.2 degres Le Matin’, its original French title), and though I can’t say it fully exhibits the power of Gabriel Yared’s scores, it is a very fitting item to the movie (if you have seen it.) Compared to other great music composers like John Williams or James Horner, I’d think Gabriel Yared’s no less great, if not more full of delights and wonders of his own kind. Overall: highly recommended. See Wikipedia entry, and Official site (also contained in sidebar).
Indochine – le grand secret
This is a famous French rock band, christened after the French colony in Indochina. I knew little about them, except they are a cool looking bunch of lads, write their own songs and lyrics, and has quite a following in France. ‘Le grand secret’ sounds kinda soft and tender with the guest female singer, which I totally adore, but I am sure they have more rocky stuff up their sleeves. I’ll check them out personally…
-----------
Arrrhhhh I am seriously overshooting the length I set for myself…sighs, ladies and gentleman, watch this space for update part 2 then…
Coming: Keren Ann, Yann Tiersen, and more..
Baby Girl
filed under: north american, RnB
Aaliyah, whose name means "most exalted one" was born in 
I first heard of Aaliyah when her second album, One in a Million was released. I thought she had a beautiful, smooth singing voice and a good vocal range that complemented her particular R&B style. She also seemed to have a maturity beyond her years. I mainly heard her singles on the radio and her videos on MTV. When the single "Are You That Somebody" was released, I could not get it out of my head. In fact, I thought it was rather annoying. However, I decided to get One in a Million so that I could listen to her but not that single. I was instantly hooked. After a hard day, I could throw her CD on and just relax. It didn’t hurt that she was beautiful too…watching her videos was always easy on the eyes. After that I bought her first album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number. I eagerly awaited her next album.
However, it turned out to be a few years because Aaliyah decided to get her acting feet wet in the Jet Li movie, Romeo Must Die. I saw that movie...it wasn't the best martial arts movie I've seen, but Aaliyah definitely had what it took to make it. Finally, in 2001 her third album Aaliyah was released and I eagerly snatched it up. It had a lot of awesome songs on it that brought out her voice and showcased more of her influences as she decided to go her own way from Timberland, who had been her music partner in making 2nd album. I thought Aaliyah was one of the best albums of 2001.
However, in August 2001 I woke up to horrible news. Aaliyah, beautiful baby girl, along with a few friends, was killed in a plane crash in the
I still listen to Aaliyah often and remember her as a beautiful, talented singer with heart, grace, and a touch of rebelliousness. Aaliyah’s body of work is a must for anyone who’s into R&B, but it probably shouldn’t be missed by anyone who loves music in general.
Discography of Full Length Releases:
Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number (1994)
One in a Million (1996)
Aaliyah (2001)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
filed under: instrumental, north american, ost
I'm gonna introduce you the Warner bro's Tim Burton's Corpse Bride OST.
Summary of the movie: Victor accidentally married this corpse bride who was stabbed to death by her fiancé. But he wanted to get back to Victoria, his true love. Victoria was forced to marry a disgusting high-status man and by learning the news, Victor gave up hope and decided to join his corpse bride by sacrificing his life. The end... I shall not reveal the ending tho, spoilers disallowed.
The movie's soundtracks are by Danny Elfman. I should say as anime OSTs they are very impressively well composed. The song list is here:
1. Main Titles
2. According To Plan
3. Victor's Piano Solo
4. Into The Forest
5. Remains Of The Day
6. Casting A Spell
7. Moon Dance
8. Victor's Deception
9. Tears To Shed
10. Victoria's Escape
11. Piano Duet, The
12. New Arrival
13. Victoria's Wedding
14. Wedding Song, The
15. Party Arrives, The
16. Victor's Wedding
17. Barkis's Bummer
18. Finale, The
19. End Credits Part 1
20. End Credits Part 2
21. Ball & Socket Lounge Music #1 - Bonejangles & His
22. Remains Of The Day - Bonejangles & His Bone Boys
23. Ball & Socket Lounge Music #2 - Bonejangles & His
24. Ball & Socket Lounge Music #1 - Bonejangles & His
Strongly recommend "the piano duet" and "tears to shed". Samples can be found here: Corpse bride
Finally this is the lyrics for "tears to shed":
What does that whispy little brat have that you don't have double?
BLACK WIDOW
She can't hold a candle to the beauty of your smile
CORPSE BRIDE
How about a pulse?
MAGGOT
Overrated by a mile
BLACK WIDOW
Overbearing
MAGGOT
Overblown
MAGGOT AND BLACK WIDOW
If he only knew the you that we know
CORPSE BRIDE
(sigh)
BLACK WIDOW
And that silly little creature isn't wearing his ring
MAGGOT
And she doesn't play piano
MAGGOT AND BLACK WIDOW
Or dance
MAGGOT
Or sing
MAGGOT AND BLACK WIDOW
No she doesn't compare
CORPSE BRIDE
But she still breathes air
BLACK WIDOW
Who cares?
MAGGOT
Unimportant
BLACK WIDOW
Overrated
MAGGOT
Overblown
MAGGOT AND BLACK WIDOW
If only he could see
How special you can be
If he only knew the you that we know
CORPSE BRIDE
If I touch a burning candle I can feel no pain
If you cut me with a knife it's still the same
And I know her heart is beating
And I know that I am dead
Yet the pain here that I feel
Try and tell me it's not real
For it seems that I still have a tear to shed
MAGGOT
The sure redeeming feature
From that little creature
Is that she's alive
BLACK WIDOW
Overrated
MAGGOT
Overblown
BLACK WIDOW
Everybody know that's just a temporary state
Which is cured very quickly when we meet our fate
MAGGOT
Who cares?
BLACK WIDOW
Unimportant
MAGGOT
Overrated
BLACK WIDOW
Overblown
MAGGOT AND BLACK WIDOW
If only he could see
How special you can be
If he only knew the you that we know
CORPSE BRIDE
If I touch a burning candle I can feel no pain
In the ice or in the sun it's all the same
Yet I feel my heart is aching
Though it doesn't beat it's breaking
And the pain here that I feel
Try and tell me it's not real
I know that I am dead
Yet it seems that I still have some tears to shed
SMR 4
filed under: slapstick, the strange mail room
HOHOHO Strange Mail Room 4! Actually, I am just bored..and feel like writing too, so I take this chance to pick it up. Continue as and when you like to, or if not, I’ll add a few more paragraphs later if I could. =D thoughts?
###
For the rest of the afternoon, Raymond King sat musing at the French window. No one came. The autumn rains are nearing their end, and the first northern winds had duly announced the impending arrival of another winter. Down the length of the garden, the rose beds were a shameful scene of neglect. Wild daffodils had grown in abandon through the past summer, and now they danced that occasional, sad little shivering repertoire in the whimpering wind, sighing their resignation at another summer gone by. The only lively and in fact the single noticeable thing in the garden, was a small patch of chrysanthemums, angrily flaming near the French window. Raymond had been gazing at the ephemeral white and yellow mass for very long now, his thoughts drifting to a woman, Catherine…Catherine K., the single most lovely woman in this world, whose short appearances in his life seemed to both intensify and drown out all things in his life since…it’s been very long now…now…
Just as he was about to direct his thoughts out of the immense complex that was Catherine, the door bell suddenly buzzed in the dead silence. Caught all too surprised, Raymond rushed to his feet, not realizing he was still holding the small letter in his left hand—it had been caught in a crack in the oak armrest, and upon the abrupt pull it was ripped open—a red form fell out—so it was a telegram then, and an urgent one at that! But there was the door to answer first—the bell buzzed a second time, hesitantly, as if the ringer was not sure of the address. Raymond righted his bow tie and brushed a hand over his already impeccable hair, and opened the door—only to find the new post office boy shuffling his feet on the door mat, a little red in the face and whizzed a bit. When did he come through the main gate? “—sir, I pressed the bell at the gate but ain’t no one was answering me, so I’d thought I’d better come in drop the mail at your door, I was wondering—“ “Yes, yes, I am sorry I did not hear the bell ring, I’ll take them here, thank you very much.” Raymond didn’t let the boy have another chance slipping curious peeks past his broad build; he took the moderate bundle of mail and politely but firmly shut the door.
Chapter 3
Diary, 11 November
“I went to the strange mansion again! I was supposed to take the Lake district mail today, but I swore to boss that I had to pick up an important parcel down at Queen’s and hopped on my bike, heart pounding and heading straight to Mansion. I hopped off the bike far from reaching—don’t want to alert the mystery man if I can help it!—and walked up to the house with the mail bundle. I’d be damned—when I arrived at the gate, it was slightly ajar! Someone must have been careless and forgot to lock it. My finger hovered over the bell button for a few seconds, and then, from the corner of my eyes, I saw a broad figure leaning over one of the bigger windows, seems to be lost in those strange yellow flowers. He’s not facing my direction now…if I’d just try this…I dunno how I reasoned with myself, but fifteen seconds later I’ve crossed the desolate garden path and now standing at the front porch, no one seemed to be any wiser..
Now, I could do two things: knock on the door and deliver the mail, before anyone comes back, OR, have a look around first. Since I've got this far…But I was disappointed. The front porch is a spacious structure, still has the suggestions of the grandeur of decoration and lush vines it used to boast, but now it’s just a barren, dusty porch, rundown from disuse and lack of care. The white marble floor has grown an ungracious grey, and the rich crimson carpet has worn a bit threadbare...wait, door mat. There would always be something under a door mat—a key, a letter, a note, anything. Excited by the idea, I swallowed hard to contain my nervousness, and lifted a corner of the carpet, quickly and quietly as I could manage. Nothing, just the same plain marble, a tad whiter than the uncovered part. I lifted the opposite corner—nothing. The third corner and I laid down the heavy fabric laughing at my simplemindedness. The last corner didn’t give up any note either, and I yanked my arm out of frustration. And there and then, I saw a faint corner of an engraving, covered under the center of the big carpet. Damn! I carefully rolled the carpet to one side, not caring if anyone would suddenly open the door on me now. There it was, in classical style, an elegant engraving that read,
Property of King and Kerr.
1712.
I was totally blown away. I knew this was an old house, but I didn’t expect it to be this old. And King? Isn’t the mystery man also a Mr. King? But he seems more like a caretaker than the owner of the house! Of course Kings abound just like Smiths and Jacksons, but this remains an interesting point to investigate…hmmm…but I couldn’t squat there feeling up the old engravings forever. I gave it a deep last look and rolled back the carpet, shuffling my feet on it to make it even again—and clumsy me, I tripped! Falling forward, my right arm inadvertently pressed on the bell, making a rather shrill sound in the stillness. I hurriedly picked up the mail bundle from the floor and kept smoothing the carpet under my feet. Odd that no one answered the door sooner. I couldn’t hear a thing moving beyond the thick oak door, so I pressed a second time, not sure if I was discovered, but did not wish to run away and look guilty either.
The door opened on me as abruptly as his last appearance; I almost jumped. Stammering a bit I said the words I just made up ten seconds ago, and before I even managed to probe if he knew a Mr Kerr in the neighborhood, he cut me short, obviously perturbed by my less-than-discreet peeks past him, and definitely also something else. Promptly thanked me and without another word, I found myself empty-handed and facing a shut door again.
But the few seconds I got to steal a look was…amazing! Despite the decrepit looks on the outside, I am sure the inside of mansion is as immaculate as it was three centuries ago. Old, oaken furniture, a huge library spanning the walls, old paintings and portraits, oriental carpets—it was something I’d only seen in period dramas—except one thing: the old-world harmony of the place is also disrupted by the cramming of a lot of idiosyncratic, out-of-place boxes. I saw a set of quaint Chinese medicine cabinet-like chest of drawers at the far end of the hall, and right beside it was a bronze set, and then a wooden one and a stainless steel one, each with one to a few drawers or slots, and all with locks. Unless I am very much mistaken, they must be used for mailboxes—you just can’t name another use for them weird little chests of drawers! And they very well explain the tiny numbers on those mail..well, not quite explain it, but now I have an inkling of what they are for…they are indexes.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
The innocent can never last ...
filed under: folk, north american
Today I'm here to talk about Green Day and their epic ballad
The link leads u to their 7 minute long music video of the song. It's a production by Samuel Bayer ( producer of their previous few MVs and of other well known artistes such as Nirvana).
I must be honest and tell u that besides all the hype and the new stance Bayer has taken by having more than the band walkin through streets ( i.e Boulevard of Empty Dreams MV), I still think it kinda sucks.
Well, blame me for being a realistic, apathetic and unromantic creature but...for goodness sake!
Do u not feel the pain, the anguish the regret in the song?!!!
Fine, so it's an elegy dedicated to the personal loss of lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong's father, and along the way also a dedication to the "pain and suffering" the US has suffered these past few years ( recall september 11 and the bloody consequences of stupidity that occured after tat), but honestly....is teenage love the only way to show love and anguish amongst human beings?
I can think of a hundred and more ways that the pain of seperation and loss can be expressed.
The old couple that have been together for 50 years and one suddenly dies, leavin the other alone with the uncertainty of wat tomorrow brings and the loss for the will to live.
The mother who has to see both her husband and son go off to war, and even with years of being a soldier's wife , can never shake off the miasma of fear that shrouds her from day to day, knowin that one day, there will be a knock on her door tellin her that all that she cherishes are gone.
u get my drift?
well, sure so it's kinda like an american cliche to show young love and all the coodles that go with it. But puhleeze........it dun have to be THAT Cliche...
meadows of gold, melodramatic acting ( this is probably the main reason why i dun like it ), cheesy lines....
oh man...all that seems to be MOCKIng the whole tragedy of the ballad.
But i must say, the most touching scene in that MV was right after the scenes of frolicking youths and Billie comes on in a shadowed profile singing the first, most poignant lines of the song " Summer has come and passed, the innocent can never last, wake me up when september ends..."
Well, that ends my rant.
the song comes from their excellent album ' American Idiot' in it also contains one of my all time favourites " Boulevard of Broken dreams"
For the record, I really support this band , so I've spent the 20 bucks to buy their album.
sorry guys, no yousendits for this
summer has come and passed
Postscript:
what's your cowboy bebop theme song?
cowboy bebop the real folk blues
filed under: asian, downloads, folk, japanese, ost
Haha don't grimace! (I know Jady's gonna, probably) Here comes the wonderful wonderful music from Cowboy Bebop, an all time classic! This's a LONG post so be warned! I know I'm spoiling the review even before I start, by simply shouting 'this's great great great great music' a thousand times and more. You'll HAVE to agree with me! (audience: what a horrible tyranny...)
First of all, who's the 'cowboy' and what is 'bebop'? (inmitating Jady's previous post 'what is Bossa and who is Ono?') The director of the anime series, Shinichiro Watanabe, is well known for his unconventional idosyncratic style typified by a bold concoction of cross-culture out-of-time-frame kick ass genres. 'Cowboy Bebop' is set in the cosmo world of 2071, where a group of 'cowboys', or your old-fashioned bounty hunters travel in space claiming bounties for a living. As for bebop, it's a newly defined music genre which starts to gain popularity in the closely knit cosmic community, and the leading band 'Seatbelts' dominates the music chart. There you have an odd mix of out of fashion cowboys misplaced in the far future where a new genre of jazz rules the universe.
Take a step back and poke your nose behind scenes. All these fanciful 'artifacts' are masterminds of one talented genius - Yoko Kanno, one of the most influential and in my opinion the single most versatile composer in the Japanese entertainment biz (correction: mostly anime, and some movie scores). She and her band 'Seatbelts' (the band's real name as well as a fictional name in Cowboy Bebop the anime), wrote and performed all of the soundtracks. One side note, 'The Seatbelts' was a 'temporary band' assembled for cowboy bebop and they were not active outside the realm. It was mentioned in the fictional setting that during live performances by the band, one has to wear seatbelts for security reasons and that's where the name comes from :p The style is mostly jazz, with nice little intermissions of samba, classical and techno.
Album Overview
1. OST 1
2. OST 2 - No Disc
3. OST 3 - BLUE
4. Maxi CD - Vitaminless
5. Movie Mini Album - Ask DNA
6. Movie OST - Future Blues
7. The Remixes - Music for Freelance
8. Tank! THE BEST!
9. CD Box Set - Limited Edition
For detailed information, vist
>> Emily's CB Page
>> The Real Folk Blues
It's impossible to talk about every single track there is so I've picked two albums for your reference: Tank! THE BEST! and Limited Edition CD Box Set (5CD) which basically covers everything...
Disclaimer: The album shared here is for evaluation only. Please purchase their original CD to show your support :P
COWBOY BEBOP Tank! THE BEST! --> YSI link (~128mb)
Victor Entertainment
Release Date: December 22, 2004
Track 01: Tank! (TV stretch)
Track 02: What Planet is This?
Track 03: Cosmic Dare (Pretty With A Pistol)
Track 04: Diamonds *
Track 05: Don't Bother None (TV Edit)
Track 06: PIANO BLACK
Track 07: Mushroom Hunting
Track 08: No Reply
Track 09: Blue
Track 10: Einstein Groovin' *
Track 11: Pearls *
Track 12: Gotta Knock a Little Harder
* = new track recording, not used in the anime
This album is a collection of best cowboy bebop music released so far (whose choice lol? I think they're all pretty cool!) but you get a wide range of selections featured here, from the representative of style 'Tank!' which's an upbeat swirl of jamming jazz, to the naughty pop flavoured 'Cosmic Dare', or a newly recorded track 'Pearls' featuring Ilaria Graziano whose voice is deeply moving and gentle. 'Blue', 'No Reply' and 'Gotta Knock a Little Harder' (the ending song of Cowboy Bebop movie) are performed by Mai Yamane, one of Yoko Kanno's frequently associated vocalists. 'Blue' is the track used in the last episode of CB anime: The badly wounded Spike wobbled down the staircase, he lifted his hand to the sky and with the last mocking smile on his face, said 'Bang!', and fell. A short intermission of silence, then the music started to float above, higher and higher. It was a poignant scene which I found personally very memorable and touching. Even if you know nothing about the plot or where the music's used, the track alone is enough to draw you in. 'Gotta knock a little harder' is penned by the talented lyricist Tim Jensen, who wrote many lyrics for Yoko Kanno's projects. I highly recommend this track if you love a bit of spice and good hard rock. Mai Yamane's voice could be very misleading but I assure you, it's 'SHE'. 'Mushroom Hunting' and 'What planet is this?' are truly jolly songs and they sure lighten up the mood of the whole album. Overall this's a FANTASTIC album.
COWBOY BEBOP CD BOX SET LIMITED EDITION ---> YSI link (~241mb)
Victor Entertainment,
Released: June 21, 2002
If only I could have THIS!!! Ultimate collection! (I vow to get it when I have enough money. Make a mental note. Not sure if it'll be out of production by then sobz)
There're 5 CDs enclosed that come with a beautiful booklet. For complete track listings, you can refer to Emily's Cowboy Bebop Music page. Disc 1-3 contain original recordings interspersed by selected dialogue clips from the anime (really fun to listen to if you're familar with the anime). Dsic 4 is a collection of live performance audios while Dsic 5 is a mini CD that's otherwise titled '8cm' (3 super cute tracks).
Here're the vocalists frequentenly featured in CB music (some already mentioned in 'TANK BEST' review). I've also recommended 1 or 2 tracks entitled to each artist. Link leads to artist's profile/lyrics. In the bracket is the disc number where you can locate that track.
Carla Vallet : Adieu (CD3-20)
Mai Yamane: The Real Folk Blues (CD4-08),
Steve Conte: Words that we couldn't say (CD2-19), Call me call me (CD4-06)
Gabriella Robin: Green Bird (CD1-31), Cats on Mars (CD2-2)
Raj Ramayya: Ask DNA (CD4-10)
Equally brilliant are the instrumental tracks and I highly recommend Yoko Kanno's live piano solo (CD4-9), which's a jazz hodgepodge of CB melodies nicely arranged with strong improvisional flavours. Ah, scrolling back... I'm such a lunatic. Somehow I feel I still haven't spoken enough. Well, CB music might not be your cup of tea if you're not into Jazz. Honestly speaking, I wasn't into Jazz at first and I found CB music really odd but you'll be surprised how 'adaptive' you can be lol.
Finally some fun stuff
-> which Cowboy Bebop song are you?
Mine - Cat on mars
and Jady's - Blue
My roommate's - Adieu
Friday, March 24, 2006
All About the Ensemble (as of Nov 2007)
filed under: directory
The Ukulele Ensemble is a music blog born out of a whim. We (or maybe just Jady) picked the quirky 'ukulele' (a small, Hawaiian version of a guitar) because that was the very first noun jumping to her mind, and in any case we have always adored it for the unique loveliness of its petite look and clear sounds. And 'ensemble'--well, it's hardly needed to say this blog is a cosy chamber for a small community of friends and music lovers, and we hope you enjoy it too.
{Basics}
Birth date: March 19, 2006
Founders: Jade & Zhu
Contributors: jady :: zhu :: jeremy (our last.fm music profiles)
Best viewd: in Firefox, UTF-8, 1024x768 and above.
{Disclaimer, Copyright Issues & Ethics}
We share music here by either putting it in the radioblog for online streaming, or sometimes put up download links created either by us or other sharing communities. For us, the files are usually hosted on YouSendIt, which allows a max of 25 downloads and 7 day validity period for each link whichever is reached first. We do not own any of the music and do not profit from any of it. You could download and try it out, by all means, delete it if you don't fancy it, but if you do like the music, please purchase it online or in stores--it's supporting the artists and the music you actually appreciate, especially the budding ones who not only deserve but need the money to go on and make more music. But regardless of establishedness, do support the artists you appreciate and PURCHASE the work! Alright, children? =)
{Main Blog}
Both blog entry title and time stamp are permalinks to the individual posts. Comment section comes up in a pop-up window--so make sure you allow it in your browser. You may also use the 'email post' buttom to send a post to a friend.
{Side Menu}
::Radio::
The red radioblog is periodically updated to feature what we are listening or recommend right now, and the black last.fm radio is Jeremy's special selection, which is more hardrock oriented and a lot louder than the red (girl) radio. ;) Tune in!
::The Cloud::
As the old posts (posted before the release of blogger beta tagging function) are still partially tagged, this tagcloud more accurately reflects the newer posts since 2007. You can see we listen to (or rather, write about) a lot of non-specific, "alternative" stuff. ;p
The various flags are for translating the site into other languages, and the search boxes...well, are for searching.
::Our Favourites::
Currently features 3 top-album quilts of jady, zhu and jeremy, generated by last.fm. Click on any flipping thumbnail and check it out!
::The Music Boxes::
Collapse menu of links to artists' official sites, musicblogs and useful music software and gadget sites.
::Other stuff::
Standard-issue recent posts and comments widgets, shoutbox, archive in hierarchy menu (currently not working in firefox, works fine in IE), real-time tracking maps and time-zone maps, and amazon widget.
{Footer}
Banner links to sitemeter, get-firefox, last.fm, radioblogclub and creative common license.
Bossa Nova & Ono Lisa
filed under: asian, downloads, japanese, jazz, latin
Alright, pick of the moment (see sidebar) issue—Bossa Nova and Ono Lisa. What and who? See the wikipedia links for details, I’ll just say a short word on each—
Bossa nova was derived from samba, and was very much influenced by jazz. It became massively popular in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. It also enjoyed major international success during brief periods of popularity such as after the release of the film Black Orpheus in 1959 and with Stan Getz's recordings in the 1960s. Bossa nova repertoire consists predominantly of songs, while the instrumental music similar to it is generally called samba-jazz. Perhaps the best known bossa nova song is Antonio Carlos Jobim's The Girl from Ipanema (A Garota de Ipanema), which is widely known in both its original Portuguese and in English translation—which is also the autoplay item you hear in our current ukuradio right now. =)
And as for Ms Ono (小野リサ, Ono Risa)—she is probably the best bossa nova artist in Japan right now. Born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1962, she moved with her family to Tokyo at 10. From then on she spent half of every year in Japan, and half in Brazil. She is a native speaker of Portuguese and Japanese, and has released albums in Portuguese, Spanish, French, English and Italian. Her first album, Catupiry, was released in 1989—she was 27 then—after which she released about one album a year. She became internationally more recognized in recent years, when her passion and talent in bossa nova was remarked upon by Brazilian jazz artists, including the author of Girl from Ipanema. Her characteristic warm, gentle voice blends the light-hearted joyousness of Latino music and the dreamy feel of cool jazz, soothing and delighting lovers of this genre.
I'll upload her As Time Goes By album as soon as yousendit begins working on my computer again, check back soon. =d
***
Update: YSI is down for the moment, so I am using MegaUpload which doesn't seem to have an expiry date somewhere..here is the download link to the album, which I shall take down in a week's time. If you missed it, request and I'll send it personally to you again. Enjoy~ =)
***
Update: as zhu has pointed out, this is more likely a compilation of sorts than a formal release. But that's minor, which means we are just without an album cover for this one, lol.
Track list to As Time Goes By
1 RED BLOUSE
2 BEIJO PARTIDO
3 MOON RIVER
4 SO DANCE SAMBA
5 Samba De Verao
6 o barquinho
7 PALPITE INFELIZ
8 MOONLIGHT SERENADE
9 TEA FOR TWO
10 AS TIME GOES BY
11 ANGEL`S EYES
12 I WISH YOU LOVE
13 BE WITH ME
14 PRETTY WORLD
15 YESTERDAY
Love Psychedelico
filed under: asian, japanese, love psychedelico, news, rock
News updates!! (from Love Psychedelico Official Site)
5TH ALBUM
LOVE PSYCHEDELIO
release date: 2006.3.22
# 01. Mind across the universe
# 02. Everybody needs somebody
# 03. Free World
# 04. Last Smile
# 05. Wasting
# 06. life goes on
# 07. These days
# 08. My last fight
# 09. Your Song
# 10. "O"
# 11. neverland
# 12. LADY MADONNA～憂鬱なるスパイダー～
# 13. A DAY FOR YOU
LP's new album! It's a collection of best live performances, definitely something to look forward to! CHeeRs!! One thing I find very funny about their album is, take a look at the titles. 2nd album - Love Psychedelic Orchestra, 3rd album - LOVE PSYCHEDELICO III ,and now 5th album - LOVE PSYCHEDELICO!! C'mon people, you can do better than that! I'm sure that saves a whole bunch of neurons on naming, which is most often a painstaking task... Did mention I downloaded LP's live concert (1GB) off emule, for a whole month, and guess what happens? It's missing codes and no bloody player can play it! So much for gastric surge. Oh but LP, so wonderful *_*
Thursday, March 23, 2006
concerto pour deux voix
filed under: downloads, european
First of all, thanks for all the wonderful music sharing! As you know we all have different tastes. One man's food is another's poison or remedy, which one you never know. I'm not posting stuff specially tailored to anyone's preference. I'm really happy if you get to like the artist through my recommendation but honestly it doesn't matter if you find no appeal or simply hate it. No pressure either way. In case you wonder why I'm bringing this up, I'm just encouraging everyone to post whatever they like and don't be bothered by whether the rest will approve of your choice of music. After all (at least for me), this should be a playground for fun-loving people! Damn, I'm sounding so formal. Better knock it off.
Rusuming music sharing business...Let's put all the links on this blog and whoever likes it can download it. (maybe i should ask for permission first. anybody has objection that i share the links??? - rheotorical undertone =.=||)
from Jeremy, thanx!!
Aaliyah - Aaliyah (142978 KB)
Kidney Thieves - Zerospace (100222 KB)
These are from Jady, merci ^^
Simon Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (29493 KB)
Back to the title, 'angelic duet', I got this short video(about 20+mb) from Ya a long time ago and when I rewatched it last night, I was thinking 'isn't this what Jady would call omm omm omming all the way?'. 'Om' or 'Ah' or 'Hom', it's a lyricless vocal duet performed by two talented French teenage singers. The show host was talking in fast, gibberish French and basically (80% blind guess) she's saying 'tonight, we have two young people from blah school... they sing really well... let's welcome blah and maunier... here is 
Google is wonderful. Okay, correction, their names are Clémence and Jean-Baptiste Maunier and the song title is Concerto Pour Deux Voix (concerto for 2 voices). It's really impressive. The boy's from a church choir and he practices his vocal diligently every day for 5 or 6 hours aside from school work. He acted in the film 'les chorists' and performed lead solos. I heard it's a really good film, with fantastic soundtracks ^^
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Top of the list
filed under: alternative, asian, indonesian
a bit on our top of the lister .... click here.
"Anggun was born in jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, on 29th April 1974. Born into a showbiz family - her father, Darto Singo, was a renowned singer, songwriter and producer on the Indonesian music scene - it was hardly surprising that young Anggun soon decided to follow in her father's footsteps.
Darto Singo recognised his daughter's talent at an early age and encouraged her to train her voice. Anggun would soon go on to become something of a child prodigy, launching her career at the tender age of 7 when she recorded an album of children's songs. By her early teens Anggun had moved onto rock and in 1986 the young singer returned to the studio to record a heavily rock-influenced album entitled "Dunia Aku Punya". This extremely popular album, recorded with one of the top producers on the Indonesian music scene, would help catapult Anggun to fame. Needless to say, the young singer soon went on to become a veritable megastar in East Asia. ....... "
The Kidney Thieves
filed under: north american, rock
I was wondering if I should leave Jeremy to finish this post since he recommended the band and should surely know much better than me. I looked up the Wikipedia entry for Kidney Thieves (let's put a link to Wiki, all-u-can-find source of information!) and these two songs I got from Jeremy are from their 2002 studio album 'Zerospace'. One is called 'Serene Dream' and the other 'Dyskrasia'. You can follow the links and try them out! Here's their official website (lots broken links btw).
Brief Profile
Kidneythieves is an Industrial rock band led by Free Dominguez (vocals) and Bruce Somers (guitar/engineering). Along they way they picked up other band members such as Chris Schleyer (guitar), Christian Dorris (bass), and Sean Sellers (drum). Free Dominguez often puts a lot of influences from psychology, mainly Jung, into her lyrics. The band released two albums, Trickster (1998), Zerøspace (2002). They re-released Trickster as Trickstereprocess in 2004, which includes completely digitally remastered tracks, included is also 5 bonus tracks only available on this version and a bonus DVD. They also released a remix EP called Phi In The Sky (2001) in between Trickster & Zerøspace. They broke up after the release of Trickstereprocess. Free Dominguez went on to create an indie project while Bruce Somers created the band ShockNina.
Album: Zerospace
(Click on cover for more details)
'Serene Dream', hmm, I'm at a brain block as how to describe it. Free Dominguez's voice reminds me strongly of Wong Faye's (Maybe Jady will write a review on her) but don't be fooled by an ethery floating song like this, Free's total flip of style in 'Dyskrasia' just shows how versatile she is. Look who's speaking. I've only heard two tracks but two is enough to prove her scope of talents. Ah, 'Serene Dream', makes me feel rather cold and it might be the half flat tone merged with cello and lonely random piano keys whispering in the background. I don't know why but my gut feeling tells me ET-sama will dive for this type of songs.
'Dyskrasia', excuse my limited vocabulary but actually I have to look it up in www.dictionary.com to tell you it means abnormal blood condition. If you disect the word, it should come down to the meaning of 'bad mixture'. This song is edgy, fast-beat with urgent acoustic guitar kicking off in the background and Free's voice is just wild and free style lol. Love it!
So here's my mini mini review. BTW, when I saw a small cover image of 'Zerospace', I thought Free looks like Katherine Moenig probably coz of the dark eyeliners, which, well, if you enlarge the image and see for youself... a rather modern ghost story.
ps. anyone heard the first track on the radioblog? Deep Blue Sea. I think it's really nice.
Heal my soul
filed under: hip hop, lyrics, north american, radio
here's my maiden post.
I confess I'm not really all that good at writing music blog entries.
So here's my contribution from my cyber trawling, yes, one of the many that occur when i'm supposed to be revising and writing up my notes....oh well....I need some mentally stimulating music.
The offering:
http://honeysoul.com/blog/radioblogs.html
That's the URL to a site that has an extensive and impressive list of radioblogs.
The genre in concentration is hip hop and soul.
Yes, besides, classical music, anime OSTs, movie OSTs...your looking at a true Hip Hop, R&B, and Soul addict. Certain soft rock groups also appeal to me like Green DAy and Cold Play.
But I must say........ EMINEM RULEZ!!!!!!
oh yeah......... such a pity that he decided to wrap up recently. Well, it's a valiant cause i suppose, him wanting to build a more stable family for his daughter and such.
But..............THE LOST OF THE TALENT!!!! AARGH....
Well, I have his 2CD deluxe edition of Curtain Call if anyone's interested.
Here's one of my favourites...
Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice
Just know that I'm lookin' down on you smiling
And I didn't feel a thing so baby don't feel no pain,
just smile back
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Rufus Wainwright:Across the Universe
filed under: alternative, lyrics, north american, popera, rufus wainwright
We successfully grabbed someone else's radioblog. It might look like another bandwidth theft but think about it, we're just embedding that webpage which is open to public anyway. Well maybe we should put a proper link back to the owner. Next time we'll have our own radio broadcast (future plan =.=||)
To kick it off, the first track you hear as ukulele ensemble loads, is Rufus Wainwright's 'Across the Universe', from his 2nd album 'Poses' (2001). It's used in the movie 'I am Sam'. Hey, I just realized there're 2 Rufus songs in Brokeback Mountain soundtrack- 'King of the Road' and 'the Maker Makes'. His voice is distinctly recognizable. When I randomly skipped in the playlist, there it was. 'Ding!' Isn't it Rufus??
His lyrical skills are definitely enviable. Later I realized 'Across the Universe' was originally written by the Beatles -> Wikipedia entry and was performed by a whole list of artists, Rufus being one of them.
Across the Universe
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither while they pass they slip away across the universe.
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind,
Possessing and caressing me.
Jai guru deva om.
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world.
Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
and call me on and on across the universe.
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box,
They stumble blindly as they make their way across the universe.
Jai guru deva om.
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world,
Nothing's gonna change my world.
Sounds of laughter shades of love are ringing through my open mind,
Inciting and inviting me.
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns,
It calls me on and on across the universe.
Jai guru deva om.
Nothing's gonna change my world (8X)
Jai guru deva,
Jai guru deva,
Jai guru deva,
Jai guru deva...
Some side notes if you read deep into the lyrics: what's this weird 'Jai Guru Deva, Om'? There's actually a webpage dedicated to the explanations -> here. I'll take the liberty to quote verbatum from the webmaster.
"Jai Guru Deva, Om
During the making of this page, I get a number of emails from people that visit that have questions that aren't answered on the page. The question I get most often is "What does "Jai Guru Deva, Om" mean in "Across the Universe"?. So, I decided that I should post it to save you guys the trouble of emailing, and to satisfy the curiousity of countless others who always wondered what it meant. Plus my page is titled "Across the Universe", so I believe it is fitting. Just a note, there are a couple of other sites that have other translations on its meaning, and in no way am I saying that I'm completely right, and they are wrong, I'm just trying to explain this to the best of my knowledge. The words are Sanskrit, and translate loosely. Anyway, here is what I believe the translation means.
Guru Deva, actually it is Guru Dev, is incited in the song because he was the Maharishi's teacher. He is an actual person, and they invoked him in their meditation every day. The name actually has meaning in itself. A Guru is a teacher, or spiritual leader of sorts. Dev, according to some other sites I went to, means god or heavenly one. As stated, Maharishi's actual teacher's name was Guru Dev. John Lennon appeared to take the liberty adding the "a"on the end. Jai means, and there are several meanings I have for this, "I give hope, or thanks to", this I was told, but some sites say it means, "victory" or "salutations". Om, is probaby the easiest part to explain. Om is believed to be the natural vibration of the universe. Hence, when many meditate, they make the "ooohhhmmmm" sound. They are trying to bring in that vibration of the universe.
So all together it means, "I give thanks (victory) (salutation) to Guru Dev (or heavenly teacher), om."
Things to do, and things to come..
filed under: logbook
21 dec
- NEW CAMEL&WHALE PINK TEMPLATE! we decided it's time to go simple and easy on the eyes. template from blogbus originally and the banner is zhu's very original sketch. Howdya like it?
- updated link list of artists
- add zhu's and jady's personal music blogs
1 mai
- added wikipedia search form
- added more (lots more) links to Rock, Country and Indie sections
- radio no.6 up.
***
21 avril
- changed technorati search bar to blogger search bar.
- added photo credits to credit section
- radioblog no.5 up.
- more jazz artists links added.
***
26 mars
- changed to radioblog no.4, yann tiersen, keren ann, etc.
- added new members--fish, yy, carrot.
- adding member profile page (template/post)
- adding by-genre post directory
- added permalink to dateheader
jady & zhu.
***
23 mars, 22:00
- added technorati search bar, firefox icon
- categorised and added more links
- changed to radioblog no.3 - girl from ipanema et al
jady and zhu.
***
23 mars. 18:00
Only 2 days have passed since the last entry, but a dizzying flurry of changes/updates we have already seen made to this newborn baby--we are something of a hive of ultra diligent music bees. First of all, the hive welcomes a great many great new members--Esther sama, Jeremy san, Yaya san and Mina san. Esther sama, who exhibited an initial reluctance to take the plunge into this crazy obsessive enterprise, has been one of the most frequent contributor since (the other one been the omnipresent (in a temporal sense) zhu..)
We have yet to get our own host for music, but we nevertheless managed to keep this music blog a music blog--by stealing other radioblogs. see zhu san's post for detailed crime record. The blue radioblog playing 'deep blue sea' is the second one we've taken to date. More to come.
Finally, on links. Some compulsive-obsessive member has been changing link colors up to 3 times--lilac, yellow and i forgot the first one(!)-- within a single day. Insupportable! To settle the matter once and for all, at least for the current week (we are a volatile bunch), moi, I scolded this overworking perfectionist and set it back to blue and crimson as requested by zhu. Also changed title color, position, and text-tranform (capitalize). (Now I sound overdiligent.) So much for now, I plan to hunt for a new radioblog myself soon. =D
Jady.
***
21 mars
Updates on radioblog
Seems the setup is easy, except that finding free hosting sites is still a problem. I registered at 5gigs.com but no idea how to login, let alone upload songs..waiting to hear from the helpdesk.
Jady.
***
20 mars.
Evening updates:
Gosh, now the whole layout is so blue my eyes start to spin. Finally everything's in order. I grabbed a tempalte from that author (your 9stories blog) and did some adjustments. The border's still a problem and the ukulele icon is somewhat out of chord now everything's so blue. You can change anything that stings your eyes. I have absolutely no objection ^^
Still, here's toast to our music blog!
zhu.
***
19 mars.
at the beginning..
- pulldown menu for recent posts
- head-banner with title merged in
- banner for tagboard
- a suitable separator
- more, categorised links - no end to this..
- mediaplayer and editors' pick of songs
- check out free hosting sites for songs
- check radioblog and similar applets
- and of course, music reviews/recommendations/downloads/related/...
- inviting friends (i typed 'fiends') to join =D - invitation always open.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Sub directory: Japanese Artists
filed under: asian, directory, garnet crow, japanese, love psychedelico, salyu
First 'real' post so to speak. We'll add on.
In alphabetical order (ongoing)
:: Arai Akino(新居昭乃) ::
Very limited knowledge. I only have this one album, which's produced by Yoko Kanno, one of my favourite composers.
Album: Sora no uta
-> Official Site
:: Ayano Tsuji(过亚弥乃) ::
Theme song performer of Ghibli animation film 'The cat returns'. Our ukulele lady!! She said she wanted to play guitar but her hands were too small, so she ended up choosing a very special Hawaiian instrument - ukulele. Her style is a combination of pop and folk singing and it's always very light and comfortable.
Album:
Balanco | CALENDAR CALENDAR | 春蜜柑(Haru mikan) | 春は遠き夢の果てに | Cover Girl | 恋恋风歌(Renrenfuka) | 恋爱眼镜(Koi suru megane)
Single:
桜の木の下で | 雨音 | パレード | 幻化成风 (Kaze ni Naru) | Yubikiri/Hoshi Furu Yoru no Christmas
-> emule library link
:: Chara ::
Most people recognize Chara as the singer and actress from Shunji Iwai's film 'Swallowtail Butterfly' & 'Picnic'. Her singing is very very emotional. Despite the unconventional voice which may at first sound discomforting (like a child's whining), her passion will pull you right into her world.
Album: A senery like me | Chara best | Montage
-> Official Web
:: Do As Infinity ::
Do As Infinity (DAI) is a great Jpop rock band. They officially disbanded in late September 2005. DAI is probably one of the rare Jpop groups who perform live just as great as studio recordings, if not better. The lead vocal Van Tomiko's working on her solo career and the guitarist Ryo formed a new group called Missile Innovation.
Album:
Break of dawn | New world | Deep forest | True song | Gates of heaven | Need your love
Do the live | Live in Japan | Do the B-side | Do the A-side
-> Official Site
:: GARNET CROW ::
GARNET CROW, my favourite Jpop group ever. They certainly don't blend into the conventional 'Jpop' genre, and surely shouldn't be categorised so. They performed a couple of well known songs used in the anime series 'Detective Conan'. Some of them are 'Mysterious Eyes', 'Natsu no Maboroshi' (summer illusion), 'Yume mita ato do'(after waking up from a dream).
Albums: 1st Kaleidscope | 1st Soundscope | Sparkle | Crystallize | I'm waiting 4 you
BEST album| Remix album|
Singles: 1-20
-> Official Site
Here's my fansite (Seven Seas) dedicated to them, in both Chinese and English.
:: The Gospellers ::
The Gospellers, much like a small ensemble of talented choir boys who perform in a wide range of styles. Unfortunately they're no longer active.
Albums: Soul serenade | Love notes | FRENZY | A capella | Dressed up to the nines
-> Official Site
:: Love Psychedelico ::
A two-membered Japanese band with the style of the 60s' rock n blues. The lead vocal (Kumi) sings in a mixture of Japanese and English (perfect English!). Her voice is very powerful and versatile.
Albums: The Greatest Hits | Love Pschedelic Orchestra | LP III | Early Times
-> Official Site
:: Maaya Sakamoto(坂本真綾) ::
Grapefruit | DIVE | Lucy | Easy listening | Shonen Alice | Yunagi Loop
Hotchpotch | Nikopachi | 23-ji no ongaku (23h music)
:: Namie Amuro(安室 奈美恵) ::
181920 | Love enhanced | STYLE
:: Rie Fu ::
A talented solo artist who writes her own songs and she sings in English most of the time. Her style is a blend of pop and country music . Most well-known song is 'Life is like a boat'.
Album: Rie Fu
Singles: 1 - 3
-> Official Site
:: Salyu ::
Salyu's most often known as 'lily chou' from Shunji Iwai's movie. She collaborates with the famous music composer Takeshi Kobayashi and she's still considered a new comer in J music. She has a very unique 'ethery' voice.
Albums: Kokyu (breathe) | Landmark
Singles: 1-6
-> Official Site
:: Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル) ::
First love | Distance | Deep river | Exodus
Monday, March 13, 2006
novel marathon
filed under: slapstick, the yet nameless novelette
I do miss novel marathon, even if it makes no sense, even if it's just une phrase per day. Maybe we should resurrect the good old fun slapstick tradition.
So here goes,
We're sitting face to face, you telling me your name is Riko and I telling you I don't care if it's Liso or Wibo coz I don't pronounce R and K for god knows why. We've only met for two minutes and your burning eyes are boring into my nose bridge as if me not pronoucing your name right will be armageddon of my own little world. You must be Psycho for goodness sake and I'm an idiot to have the patience to carry on our stupid conversation for more than the time the mosquito journeys from my sleeve to your eyebrow.
Jude 16:37 (GMT +0800) 13th March 2006
***
“My name is Riko.” I tell the girl sitting across the wooden picnic table. I stare at her, hard, my eyes cruising her freckled face, vigilant for any tiny twist of a muscle or two, any barely tangible sign of recognition. Apart from a puzzled, nervous frown, she looked blank, positively blasé.
“Riko. It’s Ri-ko. What’s yours?”
“Alright, RI-KO, I don’t care if it's Liso or Wibo, coz I don't pronounce R and K for god knows why!” she snaps, now alarmed and seems most anxious to leave the conversation at that and leave her alone. Maybe someone is coming to pick her up soon, or else why is she not leaving this table for home or something? The beach is almost deserted at this hour now—it’s late summer still, but the expansive sands and the low-hanging palm trees already acquired a desolate winter feeling. In the northern stretch of the sky gluey rain clouds are gathering fast; a thunderstorm is coming. Still keeping an eye on her, I glanced down the other tables: even the few hippies hanging out in the distance are packing up. Now she takes out a chic cell phone, checks it, frowns deeply and heaves a light sigh. Pocketing it again she immediately diverts her eyes to the humming, restless sea—avoiding my querying eyes. Whoever she is waiting for, why didn’t she just call? I should probably leave and get hold of something to eat now—haven’t been eating in two days—but I’ve got to stay, I’ve got to hang on to this silent, guarded girl, this conversation, for this is a matter of life or virtual death.
Haha this is hilarious, good old amusement, and I am having fun. Go on go on, I’ve no idea what’s going on next and can’t wait to see. And maybe we could pick up the mailroom flick too from where we left off, if we've still extra brainpower and time~(unlikedly yeah, but say I try une phrase par jour on that, lol) =D
Jady 17:45 13th March 2006
***
She's dissecting me, like a threatening microscope. It's eccentric, isn't it? For a complete stranger to be staring at you so inquisitively, to count every freckle and every mole. What made me think she's counting my freckles? Not that I'm overly conscious but the way her translucent grey eyes scan up and down suggests an almost ridiculous possibility. Oh, God, my stomach is cringing. I wish it would disappear but it hangs on like a devilish malignancy. A storm is coming. Where is he? The dark clouds are rolling in. It should be the right place, the right time. Did I accidentally confuse myself? Half the sky is already eaten up alive. Damn, where is he? I started wrestling my thumb with my forefinger, a perpetual habit whenever I felt an omen. There she is again, RI-KO, examining my reddened fingers with a tickling smile in her eyes. I was suddenly enraged and slapped my palm on the wooden table. She was startled, but in no time resumed her usual amused look. Thoroughly defeated, I took out my cell phone and checked the record: private number.
I was about to throw in some plot development, like why she's so anxious and a possible hint of who she could be waiting for. But, it's more fun leaving it to you Jady hahaha.
Jude 16:34 14th March 2006
***
Now, a private number isn't something Alice usually gets. As an introverted, private girl, she shies away from strangers and just keeps to a handful of close friends and, and her phone book has just them. At this moment she is nonplussed, and even more puzzled when she realized: the missed call was only five minutes ago. ‘How could that be?' The question hovers in her head. 'I could not have possibly missed to hear the ring, even if the pocket muffles the sound a little.' The mid-aged woman still sits where she was, intently gazing, an eyebrow flinched ever so slightly when she saw Alice lost in thoughts over the phone screen. What she wants to know, we can't know for the moment now, for the heavy clouds finally and all too suddenly broke into a great downpour, and with little ceremony and perhaps to much relief of Alice, they hurriedly parted. Alice took special attention to the direction the older woman was heading, who now seemed even more eager to flee the pounding rain than her previous interest in observing her. Pushing that thought aside, she darted in quite the opposite direction, running for the one nearest shelter she knew.
**
Diary, 23 August
The existence of this diary is dangerous now. I see the clues piecing together, little by little they start to fall into place, but the strings are tightening too..and I fear. I fear that once they know which strings to pull and which trail to go down, all would crumble, and that which I dread would finally happen. I long for Campbell. Campbell, where could you possibly be? I keep having dreams about you, good ones and nightmares. I am lost in this land, all but deserted, disconnected, hopeless except for one lead..but for now, she is lost too. When I realized I forgot to put the waterproof sheath on me this morning and had to hurry away in the terrible afternoon rain, I looked back once and saw her running down the beach, towards the log house perhaps. I hope she's okay, and I hope I could still find her tomorrow where I believe she would be. But for now, I need to worry for food, and shower...the lesions are getting worse still, in just two days...but I do not want to die, not yet, not perishing in this old, deserted water factory, among all the rusting pipes and no one has any inkling. I think I need to get some more fish and salt now.
18:52 (signed) Elisa.
Laughs—here's my new many strange ends and developments for your entertainment..I know some of them probably makes little sense, but hey, the marathon thing is about being coherent and then have as much fun setting road-blocks and quantum tunnels and whatever for the other mind, so choose what you choose, leave aside whatever you want to leave, and we'll see. ^^
Jady 02:57 24th March 2006
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