…the beautiful art of sound.

New Rules: I’m learning to be laid back about certain things

I can’t stop listening to Kele Okereke’s new album, The Boxer. Being such an avid Bloc Party fan, I’d been very curious as to what Kele’s solo album would sound like. To me it’s like listening to Bloc Party, but with less guitar and grunt, more dancey beats, plus the same lyrical ingenuity that I will quote over and over (ref to title of blog!).

Guilty indulgences aside, the thing that I never feel guilt for splurging copious amounts of money on = books. I’m sure that women the world over will know exactly what I’m on about when I describe the slow, creeping guilt that emerges after a materialistic purchase. Clothing, shoes, magazines, even if it was chocolate, or just some other silly little thing that you weren’t quite completely in love with, and definitely didn’t need. But that feeling never occurs when I buy books. I once bought a $64 hardback adventure novel, just because I couldn’t wait for the library system to offer me the next installment penned by Matthew Reilly – especially after an excruciating cliff hanger! Luckily my special lady-friend works at the local bookstore and helps me out with her 30% staff discounts – which also came in handy yesterday when I decided to buy a $95 book on Jazz: A history of America’s Music. What also helps is that, when I buy books, often my parents will offer to pay for them, if they are present; as well as the fact that I simply don’t need to justify any book purchases – but can easily do so. I mean, surely it’s a given that since I’m spending my bachelor’s degree on learning jazz performance that surely I need to become thoroughly familiar with the ins-and-outs of its history and development through the ages. Not to mention, this semester I also have a compulsory jazz history paper anyway.

Specifics aside, I’m sure many people can relate to the self-righteously intellectual feeling that comes with buying a book. It feels like it adds to me and the growth of my mind as a whole. Sure, you have to read it first, but buying a book generally guarantees that no matter how long I put it off for, eventually I will read it. The same can’t be said for books that I get out from the library: I have a tendency to get too greedy at the library (come on, it’s free), as well as judge a book by it’s cover. Also, the best and most popular books always seem to be unavailable at the library anyway, so unless I’d requested a book, it’s never what I’d really like to read.

Does anyone else do this? Or feel like this too?

I really need to go run some scales on the double bass now because semester two is starting on Monday (impending blisters in the week, I just know it). It’s sad that class hasn’t even started yet and already I am longing for the summer holidays in November already!

Four random photos that all somehow have one thing in common (guesses?):


David’s mini birthday I made him and took along to his farewell party.

The cake again, under a very erotic looking red light. The cool shade that goes with it wasn’t in sight. + Having lunch at the Sydney waterfront: view behind me reflected off the back of a Canon 50d.

The new lights I bought in Sydney and fiiiinally put up in my room. And my beloved poster.

Common thread amongst the photos: all taken by the family buddy, Mr Canon IXUS950IS.

To take you back when… I know it’s been so long

Tried to have a song-writing, jamming session today but failed miserably. I don’t think that the fact that I was so out of it due to having stayed up well into the morning hours watching the footy helped.

The drawings on Julia’s blog reminded me of a habit I’ve noticed more and more recently – lip biting. I know I’ve always done it, now and then; but lately I’ve been catching myself doing it more often. I’m not sure what it means… I think it happens when I’m thinking, uncertain, weighing things up. Contemplating. Anticipating. Nervous. Why?

I usually have at least one long thread of thought that I ponder on, and debate to myself. Turning it over and over, dwelling on things. But strangely, not today. I feel rather numb and empty and lifeless. Thus probably why so music-less today. As I’d said to him, “I don’t have a single musical cell in me today” :(.

This is the cake I’d decorated for a friend a few weeks ago – eeek at the sloppy edges though!

Bradley you tick all of my boxes… Bradley come tick all of my boxes

This entry will probably turn into a stream of consciousness.

I’m currently sitting on the couch in a holey bathrobe, astounded at the fact that the Argentina – Korea game currently sits at 2-1 just after half time. Wow.

Yesterday was my sister’s 17th birthday. It’s so weird, my 18th last year seems like only yesterday, yet my 17th seems a lightyear away. I had some errands to run so didn’t end up going to the waterfalls with Liv, mum and a family friend – although I got home earlier than they did, and spent a whole hour decorating her cake. This is why I am not, and will never be domesticated.

1 hour + 3 different icings later = the following: (and the last photo is the amazing dinner mum conjured up, mmm)

Whilst mum was busy snapping away the obligatory smiley, flashy birthday-girl photos, I decided to get my lens out and do my usual moody-ness. The cake looks better in colour, but I just wanted her face and candles, not all the hair and clothes and pink and blue. This is the second pink and blue cake I’ve decorated this month. I must remember to post pics of the other one, I was rather proud of it too.

I’ve forgotten what I had wanted say with the blog title from when I was in the shower thinking about it earlier. The title is derived from a song that was stuck in my head (urghh) that I heard live last week. The originalname used was “Malcolm” but I’m reaaally not a fan of that name – it makes me think of “Malcolm in the Middle”, that awful tv show from back in the day, plus it just doesn’t make me think of an attractive man.

Actually… it’s like 1.20am, I’m watching the footy, I can’t form coherent sentences, I will write about whatever it was… later.

If my life is mine, what shouldn’t I do? Everybody just wants to fall in love, everybody just wants to play the lead.

During the last week of semester a conversation I had with a classmate went something like this:
R: Don’t get tooo stressed out, it will all be fine. I mean, heck, I love jazz school.
Me: Asides from the obvious, why do you?
R: Well for one, who the heck else can say “I go to jazz school in a castle”?!
And I guess he’s right.

These photos were taken on Friday night in town with Sinead on our walk back to my car. The photos in black and white were unintentionally nice angles that I found when I took a closer, chilled out look at the surroundings that I’ve had for the past semester. It’s funny how everything that I usually bustle past in a rush to and from classes actually appeared really photogenic to me, on a cold, winters night at 1-2am. Perhaps the combination of the cold night air and the lacking elements of people and time restraints was what made these usually mundane corners pop out to me that night. The first 3 photos are taken just a few metres from the Kenneth Myers Centre (the “castle” that jazz school is located in, photographed below). The second 3 photos are just around the corner where I would usually park my car if for some reason I had shorter classes and decided to drive instead of ferrying. The last 7 are all taken around the same block as well. The odd photo is of the view out of my car and through the rearview mirror; and the sky tower was shot off a reflection.

Isn’t it ironic that most people my age I know agree with me wholeheartedly that Auckland (and NZ in general) is such a beautiful place to live, and yet we cannot wait to leave the minute that we can – most likely when we’ve finished completely our degrees. I kept intending to take photos of the amazing view that I am treated to by my daily to and fro ferry rides, but I never remember to take a camera. Maybe next semester.

Being out 3, 4 nights in a row has really taken a toll on my sleeping habits and overall tiredness. And, although I have officially finished Semester 1 at jazz school, my final assessments didn’t go as well as I would’ve hoped. I know I can’t really blame anyone for anything, but one thing that was beyond my control was the failure of the drummer during a very important song that I had arranged, and had high hopes for. There’s only so much that I can do as a bass player when the drummer doesn’t play in double time as per rehearsed. I’m just upset that it is my mark that will suffer, and most especially when it was the first time that I had nailed an entire structure of a solo without getting completely lost of out this world – let alone the fact that it was without music! I have no idea how I managed to memorise ten tunes over the space of a couple of days, but I know my arse will be kicked into gear next semester, and I will start earlier. One more exam for my Computer Science paper on Tuesday, and then I will really really be on holiday. That is, if the lingering work that’s been prescribed in advance for next semester can qualify as a total holiday. It’s once again times like these that I envy those doing other degrees the true joy of having no work to haunt their minds over semester break.

These last photos are just… well, some shenanigans we got up to. I haven’t really looked at the band photos I took that night.

Surprisingly, I have a kind-of backlog of blog entries I never got around to posting. Maybe I will catch up.

I’m not the way that you found me, I’m neither here nor there. One day I’m happy and healthy, Next I ain’t doing so well

I’ve been listening to The Dead Weather’s Sea of Cowards whenever I need a kick of energy lately (which is all the time), especially first thing in the morning; thus I felt this entry’s title, derived from “The Difference Between Us” was appropriate, as it seems to describe precisely how I’ve been feeling.

Gloom aside though, my mum and sister are busy baking in the kitchen – yes, yes, whilst I am relaxing on the couch making this post, basking in delicious smells – and the first batch out of the oven consisted of scrumptious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! I was disappointed after 2 cookies that I had already eaten my allocated allowance, as apparently these are to be taken to some golf event tomorrow. Grrr!

Last night I finally got around to renting out a couple of movies I’d been meaning to watch for a long time. I know both Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Eyes Wide Shut are both pretty old movies, but there’s a reason they’re both so famous, and I’m glad to finally have watched them. For starters, I know Jason Statham’s not exactly Oscar-winning material, but he’s never failed to entertain me in a film. I still can’t get over how he was a national diver. Heh. On the other hand, I had never taken much interest in the idea of Eyes Wide Shut. I remember my parents and the press had made a big deal out of it, back all those years when it first came out, but what had piqued my interest was the fact that we had been assigned to watch it for a Scholarship English tutorial last year. I’d ended up watching A Clockwork Orange and Fight Club instead, but never got around to anything else – let alone the idea of Tom Cruise being jealous of his wife’s sexual fantasies. It’s such a bizarre movie… I’m still not even sure what to think of it.

This is a pretty slack post, and I didn’t even take this next photo, but why bother when Mum’s already taken it, and it’s cold and wet outside? I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the onset of autumn (winter soon, please!), and this is a corner of our deck and backyard. You can hardly see the back deck that the chair and table are on, as it’s virtually completely covered by fallen trees. Sweeping those are a nightmare.

Friday afternoon adventures:
1/ Remembering the wrong time for the ferry home, thus leaving the guitar boys to walk to the ferry… then discovering I had a 1.5 hour wait to spend alone, bored!
2/ Talking the guys down at Boardertown to help me get my broken Wesc headphones replaced, even though I lost the warranty and receipt.
3/ Seeing Takuma, who had been doing tennis training in Texas for the past few months.
4/ Walking the length of the beach catching up on things, being silly, reminiscing.
5/ Spying on the guy doing that thing that I can’t remember the name of… the sport where they stand on a board that looks like a surfboard, and are just, uhh, paddling along?!! Takuma says it’s all the hype and are all over sports magazine.
6/ Discussing how far away the rain is, as Rangitoto Island quickly disappeared behind the clouds…
7/ Being ambushed by the rain, and discovering just how far we’d walked down the beach – as running on increasingly wet sand in damp, tight jeans and dr martens wasn’t the easiest thing to do! Especially because I’m so unfit now…
8/ Spending the rest of the early evening chatting over twinkies and then going shopping for a new beanie to get me through winter.

These Cookie Dough Bites are amazing. Dammit, I need more of that stuff.

And last, but not least, I took a detour on my way home at about 3am to pick up a belated birthday present. 3x Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums. Just because Matt thinks I need to be enlightened. I can tell you now, it’s going to take me quite a while to get into them. But alas, I am very impressed by the wrapping job. It’s too bad I couldn’t get a photo of it whilst it was still wrapped.

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