She's damn worth my 1000th post

 This is my 1000th post. 4 years, 1000 posts, who knows how many words. I've been wondering for a while now what my 1000th post would be, should be. But all my careful planning just went out the window, because last night I saw Vienna Teng in concert at Porgy & Bess.

It was honestly the best concert I have been to. Ever. She even managed to get the whole room to sing with her - and sound good! Finn's theory is that the 1st district crowd is posh enough to know to shut up when they can't sing. She herself was being smart and kept out of the mix but I was singing along. And I loved it. It was such a once in a lifetime experience: Vienna Teng, an acoustic guitar, a cello and a whole room singing along with her, some even harmonizing successfully. It felt beautiful, a truly amazing end to an amazing concert.

I was also quite moved by the crowd's positive reaction to Teng's song 'City Hall' (which is about gay marriage). Now, maybe they didn't understand the lyrics, there's always that chance, but they were clapping and wooing and I kept thinking 'If this whole room is pro gay marriage maybe we do stand a chance here in this country that I'm so often ranting about'.

There's something about Vienna Teng... she completely commands the stage with her presence and this faszinating voice of hers. She's one of those people whose music works ten times better live. I had tried listening to her latest album prior to the concert, but I ended up always clicking past it on my iPod. It got to the point where I was wondering if it was a good idea to go to her concert when I wouldn't even listen to her songs on my headphones. Yeah... well, turns out she's not headphone material if you're not prepared to turn up the volume and ruin your ears, but damn, she's good in concert where her music profits immensly from the acoustics a small jazz club offers. Where you hear the nuances and little things that are hopelessly lost on the iPod with its crappy sound quality.

What I also appreciated about Vienna Teng is that she seems approachable, down to earth, a bit nerdy even. She was very shy while giving autographs after the show, but was very talkative on stage. That I like. I love the little bits some artists tell the audience about their songs, and Vienna Teng intricately weaves a net in which to embed her songs. Now that I have seen her live I'm pretty sure I'm going to be listening to her CDs a lot. With my headphones on full volume even if I have to...

Go look at this, but remember that the video doesn't do justice to the way the music fills the room at a concert. If you can manage, you should really go see her live.




btw L. - Vienna Teng's in Carinthia tonight. Maybe you should get your hubby to babysit and go see her :)

music to my ears

I've had two longer posts in planning for about a week now. I just can't seem to get around to writing them. What I can do quickly though is this one here.

YouTube is doing something really awesome, they're casting a symphony orchestra!
It is something I'd totally do, but damn! Why haven't I practiced in such a long time? I've printed out the sheet music for basson and realised I have a hard time reading it. Like, a really hard time. But maybe my fingers will know where to go automatically. After all, that's how music always used to work for me. Also, I'm not even sure I can play this piece. After years of not playing it looks real hard to me.

I was planning to begin playing again, but I thought I would do it after getting my braces off. They're a bit of a pain when trying to wrap your lips around your teeth is a fundamental part of playing your instrument of choice. But maybe I will try. It sure looks like a good push.

"Let's take the train to anywhere..."

The second time around I am realising how much BS my thesis is. Seriously! But I don't think there will be time to go over it again. So it'll just have to remain weak to mediocre *shutting off inner perfectionist now*

I thought Missy Higgins' music would get me through working on these stupid citations. And it did fine. But then "Don't Ever" started. And now I feel like I just want to get out of this city into a nice country home and write and make music and be. The verse that did me in?

We'll get a house where the trees hang low and pretty little flowers
On our window sill will grow
We'll make friends with the milk man and the butcher Mr. Timms
Will give us discounts when he can

soundtrack of my days

the perfect music for my current mood:

The Pierces

you have to know them. seriously. these girls are great!
the fact alone that their album is titled Thirteen tales of love and revenge... legendary!

All My Loving

thomas played this and I tag along.

how to: put your itunes/ipod on shuffle and press next for each question. write down the song that's playing as an answer.

How would you describe yourself?
Some Unholy War (Amy Winehouse)

right on, baby!

What do you like in a guy/girl?
These R The Thoughts (Alanis Morissette)

What is your motto?
Ten Days (Missy Higgins)

What do your friends think of you?
I loved You So What (Ani DiFranco)

Now, that is not a very nice thing at all

What do you think about often?
Bedroom Dancing (Day One)

I didn't even know I had this song. That's what happens when you just import whatever CD you can find, in this case the Cruel Intentions soundtrack. But as an answer, I like... hehe

What do your parents think of you?
Last Time (Anthony Stewart Head & George Sarah)

maybe back when I was rebelling

What do you think of your best friend?
In The Rough (Anny Nalick)

indeed...

What do you think of the person you like?
Hey Little Rich Girl (Amy Winehouse)

nope, not really. And there's a lot of Amy Winehouse on my computer and half of it I don't enjoy .

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Primavera (Metaphysis)

Yup. I want to be spring. If I was on drugs!

What do you think when you see the person you like?
For You Blue (The Beatles)

What song will they play at your wedding?
In The Margins (Ani DiFranco)

What will they play at your funeral?
Sorry (Our Lady Peace)

That is surprisingly introspective.

What is your hobby/interest?
What Can I Say (Brandi Carlile)

Again, thanks to some random OST...

What is your biggest fear?
Emotions On A Lazy Day (Rebekka Bakken)

What is your biggest secret?
Black Heart Today (Amy Ray)

What do you think of your friends?
Talk Show Host (Radiohead)

duh!?

What will you repost this as?
All My Loving (Jim Sturgess, originally by The Beatles)

What is your theme song?
Sister (Rebekka Bakken)

For quite some time this actually was some kind of a theme for me.

What do you think of your family?
Underneath It All (No Doubt ft. Lady Saw)

WTF? I mean, yeah, fitting. But where the heck did that song come from?

What is your best friends theme song?
Lucystoners (Amy Ray)

What is your mood right now?
Feel Me Break (Sarah Bettens)

hm...

If your heart could talk what would it say?
Did We Not Choose Each Other (Sophie B. Hawkins)

What do your coworkers think of you?
Hole In My Heart (Dixie Chicks)

What does your future look like?
Dickhead (Kate Nash)

I really, really hope not. This meme is wrong. I did not have sexual relations with this meme.
But it's kinda a cool idea for a meme, and a lot of fun.

wow, I'm fast... /sarcasm

it only took me two years to finally buy this:



and three months to make this:

... in un mare bellissimo

do you know that feeling that arises when you hear a song you haven't listened to in ages? One, that's still a favourite of yours - but you just haven't been in the mood for it in a very long time?

I recently put the Gianna Nannini album Perle back on my computer to listen to it via iTunes. Just now sometimes-friend-sometimes-foe iTunes played me Notti Senza Cuore from that album, which filled me up with this all-encompassing glee and dragged by right back to one of those magical summer moments when I saw Gianna Nannini in concert in the middle of an exhausting yet exhilarating night under the moon.

I'm gonna go look into my archive and look for that post, because I'm 99% sure I blogged about it.

edit: I was right, I did blog about it. It was actually in my very first month of blogging. How is it possible that I remember what I blogged almost four years ago (gosh, my blog is old) but I can't for the life of me remember the things I read a couple of days ago and have to think hard to remember what I ate yesterday?
Here are the lyrics to the Gianna Nannini song, also from back then.

shed that shroud

as you might know by now my thesis work is attemptedly (duh, just let me use that word this once, ok?) eased by iTunes in shuffle mode which in turn brings you, dear faithful reader* the "joy" of reading my musical musings. Shroud is one of my favourite Ani DiFranco songs ever:

"I had to leave the house of conformity / In order to make art
I had to be more or less true / To learn to tell the two apart"

I had to leave the house of self-importance / To doodle my first tattoo
to realize a tattoo is no more permanent / Than I am..."

and for all of you women:
"I had to leave the house of fashion / go forth naked from its doors
'cause women should be allies / and not competitors"


p.s. finn's laptop is broken so she asked me to p.s.-blog that she is sad because she can't blog because her laptop is broken. I have hereby done my girlfriendly duty.

* who will probably stop reading this blog if the thesis-posts don't stop and the more interesting blogpost return. Just bear with me a little, only a couple more weeks left. (And what I mean by "a couple" is only two very short, fleeting weeks.) Then I plan to get all lyrical and literal and thoughtful and fun again. I'm definitely planning to finally do that "I am from"-post some time soon.

another useless idol post

So Kady Malloy is out. while I get that she wasn't good enough in the latter part of the competition , I still think that she has the potential and I really liked her. Just... wrong song choice this week and a weird rendition of it. She should have had a go at Clarkson's Maybe from her album My December. Could have worked, is all I'm saying.


Maybe (sound only):



but apparently she's doing her own thing anyway:


I should really stop annoying you with these Idol blog posts, right?

- plop plop -

my ears keep popping and it is driving me nuts. and because my ears being weird is usually the sign for a cold sneaking up on me* I already popped masses of echinacea, kalium phosphoricum and ascorbic acid. I took an aspirin last night and I'm going to buy lots of fruit today after my interview (which - by the way - is my last interview, so "all" I will have left to do is the writing part). NOW is NOT the time to get sick. NOW's the time to stay healthy for just another three weeks. after that: come what may, I plan to be either drinking or sleeping for three consecutive days anyways. on second thought, the bore I am I'll probably just start going to work again without taking a couple of days off ;)

thesis writing soundtrack: carrie underwood, kelly clarkson, dixie chicks, rachael yamagata (weird combo, eh?)




*speaking of cold: it kinda snowed about an hour ago... WTF? it's been spring these last days and suddenly there's snow? exactly on that one day that I'm leaving the house again for once? duh.

finn says I might be on a blogging frenzy

carrie underwood: all american girl - love how she's referencing her own last music video.

completely useless post about american idol

I like American Idol. This is actually the second season we've been watching from the beginning. Just now we put the second result show on and I realised that I already do not want to see ANY of the girls go. I have my favourites, but I already like all of them. I absolutely love Brooke White and Kristy Lee Cook (every week she gets through I am relieved for that horse she's gonna buy back), Alexandrea Lushington is really cool too (edit: and going home I just found out, damn she was sooo much better than Amanda) and I think Kady Maloy is a lot better than she's getting credit for. And then there's also our favourite irish gal Carly Smithson... damnit, I'm tempted to name them all, because basically they're all good. (I have no clue yet, maybe some of my favourites are not even in the race anymore as I'm writing these lines.)

With the guys it's a lot easier, like last year they're a lot less impressing than the girls: I like Michael Johns and Jason Castro, David Archuleta is not only the best I've seen so far this season, he's also this adorable cutie that you just want to cuddle. Oh my... why do I love this show so much?

edit: I hate that they are doing this equal chance for guys and girls thing in the first weeks. so many good girls have to go during that time and so many mediocre guys stay in the competition. meh... I probably shouldn't be so invested in this.

Tracy Jordan will be jealous

I'm not exactly a fan of Mariah Carey, but I can't help liking girls who like slotcars. And yay for page Kenneth! This does look like fun(ny):

dogs

She lives with an orange tree
The girl that does yoga
Got a wolf to keep her warm

I have a damien rice phase again. I blame the telly - lately I heard him on an E.R. episode and on Joan of Arcadia and then the Academy Awards winners (Once/Falling Slowly) Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova reminded me of Damien Rice/Lisa Hannigan a little.

sun and beach and all

it's been a while since I listened to him but I just discovered that Jack Johnson works perfectly fine as background music for thesis-work.

eat this!

Reading up for my thesis I listen to the music that's on my laptop. And sometimes I listen more closely than usually. And that's good, because it pays off to listen to the Barenaked Ladies properly. For instance to "Fun & Games" from their "Are Men" album:

We sent in the army
They sounded alarms we
Saw it coming from a mile away.
We kept it off radar
Because we had to say our
Intentions were to save the day.

Why did you fail to see?

It was a gag
It was all for a laugh
And they were shocked and they were awed
and they were blown in half

Fun and games
We're just pulling legs
We knew this barrel of fun
Would be a powderkeg

We kept it all long-range
and made a regime change
You'd have thought it would have been a gas
But when it got ugly
We sat around smugly
Because you bought our little joke en masse
Don't look at me that way

It was a gag
It was all for a laugh
We knew your sons and daughters
Would be blown in half

Fun and games
We're just pulling legs
We knew this barrel of fun
Would be a powderkeg

Put a smile on
We're the ones that you selected
Leave that dial son
Because we just got re-elected
In a while our
Bill of rights will be rejected

and all the blame will be deflected
the forests will be unprotected
the nation's poor will be neglected
creation myth is resurrected
a new salute is genuflected
a gallup poll will be respected
gallows pole will be erected
all this will go undetected

While you all slumbered
We sat and crunched numbers
Of all the causalities we could afford
There's no need to draft them
You could hear us laugh then
The poor and black all need the room and board
Did I say that out loud?

It was a gag
It was all for a laugh
And now our very nation has been blown in half

Fun and games
We're just pulling legs
We knew this barrel of fun
Would be a powderkeg

Oh yeah....

happiness .... bang bang shoot shoot

gosh... if I had the time now I'd be writing a raving review of across the universe but since finn has already "stolen" my moment by invading that ground of mine on her blog (well, sometimes I'm doing music stuff too, so be it) and since I should be doing thesis work anyways I'll have to contend myself with this:

this movie is fucking amazing
it's happiness and war
and it's riveting and psychedelic
and just about the most touching (not in a make-me-cry way!), colorful yet un-campy movie
I must have seen - well, ever.


art the way I like it

and it's political but not in-your-face and I love the soundtrack (I love the beatles and I'm now ultimately changing my policy of not accepting cover versions of beatles songs)!
did I mention that evan rachel wood is a frickin amazing actress, and gee, that girl can sing!
also I now have the hots for jim sturgess who doesn't only look fabulous, but can also act and sing and has one of those accents that just make me swoooooon... sigh...


ok
/gushing for now

song of the morning

3:03 a.m. | ray lamontagne - till the sun turns black
thanks to an er episode this just turned into my song of the day. haunting.



season 13 of er is pretty magnificent, directing wise, but also the acting is great most of the time and they didn't only change the theme song, but also their music in general. I'm totally amazed. and I get sad when I think that it might not go on for that many seasons now. I'm going to miss that show a lot once it's over.

one, two, three, four

one: on saturday someone put me in a time machine, because the mika vember concert at the frauencafé (got to finn's soundcafé for more info) made me feel like I was in a lesbian coffeehouse in the early 90ies listening to ani. at least that's what I imagine it must have been like back then. also mika vember brings lyrics to life that I have come to expect only from musicians the likes of ani d. and tori amos. so that's impressive.

two: this weekend I made:
a batch of Vanillekipferl
a batch of rum balls
tiramisú
a new york cheesecake
coffee sirup
egg liqueur
coffee liqueur
meringues
and a cous cous salad

exhaustive cooking, is what that is.

three: I have been officially asked to extend my internship at the paper into a regular contribution. I have to pay for my social security myself and so forth, but at least I semi-have a job. so that's good.

four: I don't have a four, but I'm sure something will happen today. something always does.

paint this planet red

There are songs that infallibly make me infinitely happy. One of them is Perfect Lovesong by The Divine Comedy. It also happens to be a perfect lovesong. Generally a song that features a line like we'll paint this planet red has already won by my rule book. That line was so strong and important for me when I was between 16 and 18, before I temporarily lost my ability to paint the world any color I wanted. Now I don't feel it as strongly as my 16-year old self used to, but I still get the broader sense of what it means to me although I don't have that time and energy anymore. And I still occasionally miss the people I painted this, our, world with, and belting out this song.

My point and I do have one is... go forth and love this song, people. And paint the planet a little.

Give me your love
And I'll give you the perfect lovesong
With a divine Beatles bassline
And a big old Beach Boys sound
I'll match you pound for pound
Like heavy-weights in the final round
We'll hold on to each other
So we don't fall down

I think The Divine Comedy makes me happy in general, because then there's also Generation Sex. I have to say though the videos seem to take away a lot from the music, but youtube is there and I can't be bothered trying to upload mp3s. So just try closing you're eyes or step away from the computer and dance crazy in your living room/office/bedroom/coffee shop :)