Heal my soul

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...

When I'm Gone

Yeah

It's my life

But all in words

I guess

Have you ever loved someone so much you'd give an arm for?

Not the expression, no, literally give an arm for?

When they know they are your heart

And you know you are their armour

And you will destroy anyone who will try to harm her

But what happens when karma turns right around and bites you

And everything you stand for turns on you to spite you

What happens when you become the main source of her pain

“Daddy look what I made?”

“Dad's gotta go catch a plane”

“Daddy where's mummy? I can't find mummy, where is she?”

I don't know, go play, Hailie baby your daddy's busy.

Daddy's writin' this song, this song ain't gon' write itself

I give you one underdog, then you gotta swing by yourself

Then to write a rhyme in a song and tell her you love her

And put hands on her mother who's a spittin' image of her

That's slim shady, yeah baby slim shady's crazy

Shady made me, but tonight,

Shady's rock-a-by baby

And when I'm gone, just carry on don't mourn,

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

I keep havin' this dream –

I'm pushin' hailie on the swings she keeps screamin

'She don't want me to sing,

“You're makin mummy cry, why, why's mummy crying?”

Baby, Daddy ain't leavin' no more,

“Daddy you're lying,

You always say that, you always say this is the last time,but you ain't leavin' no more,

Daddy you're mine!”

She's piling boxes infront of the door tryin' to block it,

“Daddy please daddy don't leave daddy no, stop it!”

Goes in her pocket, pulls out a tiny necklace locket, it's got a picture,

“This'll keep you safe daddy, take it with you”

I look up, it's just me standin in the mirror, these stinkin' walls must be talkin coz man

I can hear ‘em

They sayin you got one more chance to do right, and it's tonight,

Now go out there and show ‘em that you love ‘em ‘fore its too late

And just as I go to walk out of my bedroom door it turns to a stage, they're gone

And the spotlight is on and I'm singin…

And when I'm gone, just carry on don't mourn,
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

Sixty thousand people, all jumpin' out their seat

The curtain closes, they're throwing roses at my feetI take a bow,

“and thank you all for comin' out”

They're screamin so loud,

I take one last look at the crowd

I glance down,

I don't believe what I'm seein',

“Daddy it's me! Help mummy her wrists are bleedin'”

But baby we're in Sweden, how did you get to Sweden?!

“I followed you daddy, you told me that you wern't leavin

You lied to me dad, and now you make mummy sad

And I bought you this coin

It says ‘number 1 dad', that's all I wanted

I just wanna give you this coin

I get the point, fine, me and mummy are goin”

But baby wait-

“its too late dad, you made your choice.

Now go out there and show ‘em you love ‘em more than us

That's what they want

They want you Marshall,

they keepscreamin your name, it's no wonder you can't go to sleep

Just take another pill,

yeah i bet ya you will

You rap about it.

Yeah word, ke-keep it real”

I hear applause, all this time I couldn't see

How could it be that the curtain is closing on me

I turn around, find a gun on the ground, cock it,put it to my brain, scream

‘Die Shady!' and pop it

The sky darkens, my life flashes,

The plane that I was supposed to be on crashes and burns to ashes

That's when I wake up, alarm clock's ringin',

There's birds singin', it's spring and

Hailie's out side swingin'

I walk right up to Kim and kiss her, tell her I miss her

Hailie just smiles and winks at her little sister, almost as if to say-

And when I'm gone,

just carry on don't mourn,

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

Rufus Wainwright:Across the Universe

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..

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.

Sub directory: Japanese Artists

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

novel marathon

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

***

event log

Purely for housekeeping:

1 mai
- got rid of the original olive bg and changed to the current cappucino tinge. widened the mainblog box. added permalink etc standard ones.

avril
- applied caz's coffee time template. added blogger search bar.

26 mars
- changed bg color to crimson. how do you find it?
- added technorati yesterday and firefox icon today.
- added permalink to the dateheader, and comments now come in pop-up form.

24 mars
- changed intro

as of 13th mars 2006 we
- removed the blogger bar at the top, finally..
- added pull-down menu for archive and recent posts
- rearranged the very incomplete links

yet/proposed to do:
- change the light yellow grey background to another color/pattern? - no.
- and more poring over html tutorials for me..now I want to do a 'map' code on everything..the onset of mania, tata~

music directory: by genre

{Alternative}

Anggun
Official Site | Wikipedia entry | Fansite : Anggun World
Language: English, French, Indonesian, Malay etc.
Keywords: deep voice, versatile
Representative work: Snow on the Sahara
Blog entries: Deep Blue Sea (brief bio)

Rufus Wainwright
Official Site | Wikipedia entry
Language: English, French
Keywords: singer-songwriter, Canadian-American, movie soundtracks
Representative work: Poses, Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk
Blog entries: across the universe

---

{Classical & Vocalists}

Jean-Baptiste Maunier
Official Site
Keywords: male soprano, choir, les choriste
Representative work: Concerto pour deux voix, Les Choriste
Blog entries: concerto pour deux voix

---

{Composers & Instrumentalists}

Danny Elfman
Wikipedia entry
Representative work: Batman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Keywords: pipe organ, gothic, film soundtracks
Blog entries: Corpse Bride OST

Yoko Kanno (菅野 よう子)
Wikipedia entry | Fansite: The YK Project
Representative work: Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Wolf's Rain
Keywords: anime OST, versatile, keyboardist
Blog entries: cowboy bebop the real folk blues (complete disco)

---

{Jazz, Blues & Bossa Nova}

Lisa Ono (小野リサ)
Official Site | Wikipedia entry | Fansite: Discover Lisa Ono
Language: Portuguese, English, French, Spanish. (also some songs in Italian. Performed Japanese and Chinese items in concert too.)
Keywords: Bossa Nova, cool jazz, easy listening.
Representative work: Questa Bossa Mia, Dans Mon Ile, Pretty World
Blog entries: Ono and Bossa Nova

---

{R& B, Hip Pop}

Aaliyah
Official Site | Wikipedia entry
Language: English
Keywords: R&B, actress
Representative work: One in a million
Blog entries: Baby Girl (complete discography)

---

{Rap}

Eminen
Official Site | Wikipedia entry
Language: English
Keywords: rap, angst, controversial, parental guidance
Representative work: The slim shady, Encore
Blog entries: heal my soul (when I'm gone)

---

{Rock}

Green Day
Official Site | Wikipedia entry
Language: English
Keywords: punk rock
Representative work: Boulevard of broken dreams
Blog entries: wake me up when september ends

Kidney Thieves
Official Site | Wikipedia entry
Language: English
Keywords: industrial rock, psychology, disbanded
Representative work:Trickster, Zerospace
Blog entries: serene dream and dyskrasia

Love Psychedelico
Official Site | Wikipedia entry
Language: Japanese, English
Keywords: rock, 60s, love and peace
Representative work: Lady Madonna
Blog entries: 5th album news