Nothing much to say here (except a few good bureaucratic news), so I'm just gonna wish you all a happy day and a great summer! (Moby joins in too, hoping that your honey's gonna come back).
My goodness, I haven't been posting for 5 days straight and I didn't even realise it! I just thought I missed a couple of days... anyway, quite a few things have happened in these past few days. First of all I have to mention the most recent, i.e. Island victory over England in Euro 2016, a great and unforgettable sports moment! Then again, do I need to speak about the Game of Thrones season final? I stayed up until 6 in the morning to wait for it to be available and watch it and it's been worth every second of my time! Put in a few days enjoying the summer sun at my grandma's pool, some sightly disappointing news about my future that will require me to make an extra effort, nothing exceptionally relevant anyways. And of course summer music, which is what I'm leaving you with tonight, fresh off the boat!
Today I finally have been able to open the swimming season at my grandmother's pool, where I spent a big chunk of my past summers. I can hardly remember later openings than the 22nd of June, except maybe for the shitty 2014 summer, which I hope won't repeated this year, even if this June has not been far from the one of two years ago so far. Today the weather has been perfect and I enjoyed a really, really good day there. Then I came back home to enjoy a little bit of football (Euro 2016), a couple nice matches in the late afternoon and then with my parents we went at some friends' house to watch the Italy match together. Disappointing (and meaningless) output of that match, not that I care as I am no strong Italy supporter! Closing my day with music, after a couple of Game of Thrones older episodes, I am sharing with you the latest single off PJ's new album. Good night!
I am hating Italian bureaucracy and the need for sending paper copies of official documents... we are in goddamn 2016, can't we find a more efficient way to handle things?! Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to have to undergo a(n avoidable) trip to Milan to make sure that my damn University sends some damn documents with a damn courier. I hate deadlines when I have to have things delivered and it doesn't depend on me, I hate letting other people's inefficiencies fu*k up my time and my life, but anyway... let's see the good side of things, I hope I'm gonna spend a nice afternoon in Milan. Since Vilnius I have been a little bit stuck on Regina Spektor and have added a couple of her songs to my current playlist. This one in particular has been in my head for the past week or so, and today made my day better, so I guess it's time for me to share it with you!
Sprawl II (Mountains beyond mountains) - Arcade Fire
Yesterday I thought I would be posting something by Arcade Fire for this sundayrevival, but don't ask me why, as I really can't remember...! Whatever, I thought I would and I will. Staying on topic with yesterday's events (the first Gay Pride in my home town, followed by today's news that we are going to have a left-wing mayor for the first time since... ever), I remember I thought about Regine dancing with ribbons in the video of this song (maybe that's why I thought about Arcade Fire) and that is a thing I always feel like doing too while listening to this song. Not being able to move graciously (at all), I'd better refrain from that, but who knows whether sooner or later I will give way to my ideas...?
Today has been a bit of historic day for my hometown, as it hosted the first Gay pride ever. Being born in a pretty conservative town, inhabited by a lot of mostly narrow-minded people and not a great love for diversity (just to use an euphemism), I have had the luck of being born in a cool family and then able to surround myself with "alternative" people like me, whom I could relate to and share vision, values and good time with. It's been nice to see in the last few years that more diversity has been spreading out in the streets too, and today has been kind of the confirmation that there actually are quite a few of weird guys around here too, and of that I can only be happy! Let's not care about the thunderstorm, rain-pour and (almost) hail that I got while running back home...! I hope that these bigots and (false) "defenders of morale and tradition" will soon see that they are on the wrong side of history and that, in the end, they are on average no better (or worse) than any of us.
"Some people go to church just to sit in the fire trying to make a date with a neighbour's wife
Brother let me tell you just as sure as you're born, you better leave that woman alone"
I won't talk about my opinion on Nelly Furtado's latest releases as the few things I got on my hands (or better in my ears) made me believe that we totally lost her. I loved her debut singles, songs that are part of my early teenage, then lost her a little bit and starting loving her again with 'Loose' and her new mainstream success. Ok, that album was already quite "poppish", but still greatly likeable in my taste. So instead of going forth, I decided to go back and explore her earlier releases, of which I only knew a handful of the more famous songs. The first one is her 2003 sophomore 'Folklore', and this is one of my favourite songs on it!
Tonight I decided to shake you up with a little blues, maybe it can be a good thing for this weird summer that is beginning! I am spending a few days in Milan, with some things going well and others a little less so, and the same goes for the weather, which is as changing as if we were in any British coast town, a thing that - I must confess - doesn't entertain me. At all. Damn summer rain!
I am back from my latest trip, back in Milan for a few days and how does my beloved home country welcome me? Well, with a tropical thunderstorm of course. Thanks, my dear. I have by now accepted the fact that this summer is going to suck as much as 2014 did, so I guess I better find a place where to move next month so that I can enjoy some sunlight...! Anyway, I am sharing with you another beautiful song off Lemolo's debut (full) album, the 2012 'Kaleidoscope'. A great duo they are, I love their music more and more! Something good is happening in this summer time hopefully, at least under the musical discovery point of view!
'Soviet kitsch' is doubtlessly my favourite album by Regina Spektor and today, while walking through the streets of Vilnius in the late afternoon, tired after exploring the town and searching for a sunny spot where to lay and rest, I turned on my iPod for the first time since I had got out in the morning and, don't know why, I decided to listen to Regina and to this album. Sitting on a bench in the sun, distractedly looking at people passing by, I paid particular attention to the lyrics of the songs (a thing I don't often do) and realised once more how beautiful this album is indeed. This song is one of my favourites off it and the one I deem most representative of the album and its spirit. In a few words, it's a masterpiece. It is.
What a horrible moment... I am sure you guys have known about the mass shooting happening in a gay club in Orlando, awful news that we keep hearing more and more often lately. Yes, the chances of any one of us dying in a terrorist attack are trivial and I think that the more we amplify this kind of news, the more power we give to those who commit these vicious crimes. Nonetheless it is worth noting that the most important thing to do, in my opinion, is NOT to respond to this kind of violence with more violence and hate and intolerance. I can just imagine how delighted Donald Trump and the such are at such news, which will surely be yet another consent boost. Let's not make that, otherwise the politics of terror will just get stronger and stronger. Be brave, be strong and spread the love. To everyone.
Not being in love (yet) with PJ's new album, I found this song ringing in my mind for a short while yesterday (or was it today?) and I think it really works well with the environment I am surrounded by: in the end it's PJ Harvey, and what is more British than her? Rain, wind and cold. Yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about, what I've found here in Riga. Besides a potentially quite nice city, if only I got the chance to see it with a hint of a blue sky in the background. Maybe next time, if there's gonna be a next time. Let's just roll with the music for now!
Here is your blogger / traveller reporting from somewhere in Latvia, north of Riga, which is my next destination. I am (supposedly) towards the end of my bus transfer from Tallinn and after plenty of conifers, rivers and grey clouds I stopped looking outside! The weather has turned bad and it's not expected to improve before I leave Riga in a couple of days, so hurray for me and for my rainy visiting! More news on my adventures soon, in the meanwhile enjoy the beginning of Euro 2016!
Tere, my dear readers! I am writing to you from Tallinn, the first stop of the latest of the countless trips I've been taking in this 2016! The city (a big town) is cute and nice, but it just takes you 3 hours to see it all, the old town centre at least (and I guess there's not much else to explore). If I were to sum up this one day visit in one word, I think I'd use chillywind. I didn't expect to feel so cold (and sometimes warm at the same time), to the point that I decided to behave like a local and went on into a sauna to heat back up my bones! Coming back to the central square I found a kind of folk music festival, with people singing and dancing to local, traditional music. It's been nice and entertaining, and it helps me introduce my latest discovery, which is actually a song most of you (and me) knew already, personally I just didn't know its title nor its composer, but I can safely state that it's one of the most famous celtic ballads (?) around, at least in Europe. Give it a try if the title/composer aren't familiar to you and you might as well find yourself saying "Aaah, yeah, that one!".
The fact that I am literally going everywhere in this year, and I am about to leave again, seems like a good reason to post this. Besides, OneRepublic are one of my favourite bands and... well, I'm not gonna lie by saying that I don't like bragging about the fact that I've been following them since "before they were famous" (if we can say that somebody out there didn't/doesn't know 'Apologize'), because I do. I loved their first album, and then the second, and then... well the third a little less. So I don't have hyped expectations about new music, but given the sh*t that goes around in these days, in my taste their pop/rock is still in the top 5/10%, even with the worse songs. Now they have released a new single and I suppose that in the next few months we're gonna get a new album too, so brace yourselves: good pop is coming!
Scrolling down my Facebook feed (as I do multiple times every day, damn me) I found an article posted on Janis Joplin's page about 10 of the most difficult songs to sing; apart from feeling satisfied as I could count 7 of them among my favourites, I couldn't do without noticing that n°1 was one of my favourite Björk songs, namely 'It's oh so quiet' and I watched the live video featured in the article, a (great) performance of the song she delivered at Jay Leno. Given that I had already posted the song on the blog in its early days, I went on looking for something else to feature this sunday, and I decided to look back at what I was listening to 5 years ago, back to my June 2011 playlist. And what do I find there? Well, if it isn't Björk herself..! And with one of her best songs, probably my absolute favourite of hers. I think the poetry in the lyrics (and melody) of 'Unravel' is unmatched by any other song of hers, and that's a quite remarkable thing to say. I take my leave to this first week of June 2016 with this gem, which I hope you will appreciate as much as I do!
After a movies night with friends I am back home, it's not been a particularly significant day, just one of these good days spent with the people who matter. Some things are coming up in my life and the time to kill before the next big move is getting shorter and shorter, I am ready and willing to move on with my life, it's been nice hanging out and doing things for a while but I need some purpose, some bigger scheme to be a part of, some objectives, something to do, somethings that is going to MOVE ME and soon enough I should have it back! Can't wait, but at the same I am willing to enjoy at best the free time I have left!
A while ago I started listening back to some Moby and a couple of weekends ago I found myself reading an article about his biographic book that is just being released and I put him on in the car while driving with my mum to my cousin's first communion. The iPod in the car was my father's (and the car too), so there were just a few famous tunes, some from Buddha Bar and this one song, that I didn't know before (did I?) and that I found myself liking quite a bit. Following a friend's suggestion that was given quite a while ago, I downloaded the whole of the album it is featured in, i.e. 'Play', and added it to my 'Pick and catch' playlist, the one I use to collect all the new music I am currently listening to. The song of course went directly in my current playlist, and tonight I am sharing it with you, hoping that it can make your weekend better!! Don't forget, people are sh*t, so protect your heart as long and as strongly as you can!
Time for blues tonight, here I leave you with another great tune off the Queen of Blues's last album, I'm sure it's gonna be a great soundtrack for your summer nights, get on for a couple of moves with your friends out in the open under the moon, with fire lights and bright stars, enjoying a good company and having a great time!!
The first song off PJ's new album that make me feel something strong was this one, and it's probably been (and still is) acting as the (first) key to open the lock so that I can access the whole album. I suggest you give a careful listen to it, you won't regret it! What else can I tell you? I have already finished GoT's first season, as I was already telling you I understood a whole lot of things about it that I really didn't get the first time; I am eating like a pig and I really can't understand how it is that I am not getting fat, sitting down all day long... mysteries of life!
I started watching again Game of Thrones from the beginning, I've been meaning to for a couple years as I kinda lost the thread of the whole thing, and after a few episodes I am have already understood a bunch of things I didn't really get (or remember from) the first time. Plus, I booked my next trip, which is going to happen soon. Well, given the shitty rain and the seemingly not-coming-so-soon summer, what else can I do?! Yeah, yeah you're right, I could drive, I could think about all the feelings that I hide, I could sit in silence waiting for a sign. Good advice, yo!
