Incomplete - Alanis Morissette

 

Incomplete - Alanis Morissette

Flavors of Entanglement has been a coming-of-age album for me. In 2008, teenage me had just started crafting his musical taste and, after The Cranberries in 2007, Alanis Morissette was the second singer I threw myself into head first—also thanks to my mom’s only cassette in the car being Jagged Little Pill while I was growing up.

Notwithstanding the musical merit of the album, it always held a close place in my heart, being the one just released when I approached Alanis. Underneath was playing on the radio and has been the most played song on my iTunes for years to come. I really (virtually) consumed that album, and have felt a close bond with many of the songs for a long time. As my musical taste (and age) matured, I found myself looking at FoE with more emotional distance and, although I still love most songs very much (even the ones that I was not much into at the time), Incomplete ended up being the least favorite of my adult self. It just sounded… Incomplete? Too light and airy? Just plain forgettable? Silly?

Things have changed in recent times. Facing a low-point in terms of mental health, hope, energy, and general life motivation, I have started to relate to the song much more. “I have been running, so sweaty my whole life, urgent for a finish line” sings Alanis. How not to relate to this? Study in school to open doors for your future. Work hard to set up your life as a young adult. Then, upon choosing an academic life, give your whole time, brain, energy to your work—which you love, but love is ephemeral as we know. Give your whole self to the person you chose as your partner—over and over, but then facing the inevitable disappointments. 

One day I’ll be arrived, I’ll be secure, I’ll be less afraid, I’ll be measured outside my professional achievements (“poems and lyrics and art”) sings Alanis, unclear (to me) whether this is hope for her future self once she’s able to let go or rather the ghost of the past self-imposed demands to be perfect, to live a perfect life, to achieve one’s goals.

The message of the song, apparently, is that achieving our goals is actually not life’s goal. In the end, if we achieved all our goals, what would there be left to do? Embracing the uncertainty, precariousness, incompleteness of life is actually what life is about: “I’ve been missing the rapture this whole time of being forever incomplete”. Blessed be Alanis who can feel rapture at being incomplete. I still feel anguish, lack of energy, hopelessness… I just feel tired. Maybe incompleteness is not meant for perfectionists. Or for people who don’t even know what their actual goals are and who have been running around so sweaty their whole life not even knowing where they are going…

I guess that, overall, I still don’t feel like I fully buy into the song given my incapability to enjoy incompleteness, but at least I now more deeply understand its starting point and see the state of being it describes as a desirable state. Maybe that’s the first step to getting there, to feeling the rapture of being forever incomplete.

#sundayrevival City with no children - Arcade Fire

City with no children - Arcade Fire

Hello guys, I hope your week had been fine. Mine, as anticipated, has been pretty hectic among new workshops that required a shitload of work in and especially out of class, Valentine's dinners, the usual uni life, hunting for Gen.2 Pokémon in Pokémon Go, dumplings dinner with friends, cleaning and more...! It's been a super full week, but somehow I manage to (more or less) reconcile all my activities and efforts requests! Now I am expecting a Sunday afternoon in front of the computer, reading and writing and coding (what a change...!), but first of all I wanted to share this with you, as I'm feeling in a really Arcade Firey mood today! Hope you enjoy and have a great Sunday!

Lakota - Joni Mitchell

Lakota - Joni Mitchell

The end of a never-ending day comes, you find yourself hanging on to it because you don't know how to spend the last few hours left before sleep, too tired to do anything productive, too busy to guiltlessly waste your time on anything non-productive, you find yourself eating a kebab kindly offered by your colleague you have been helping over the day, on a bench in the uni campus, staring at the black sky, the blacker sea and the people who still walk around in significant numbers at 9 PM past, then the bus comes, takes you home, down the hill, glaring at the flashy skyscrapers, one of which is your home... it's almost romantic how daily life rolls out when you're dead tired!

Lotta love - Neil Young

Lotta love - Neil Young

Hi guys, sorry for the long absence but this past couple of weeks have been among the most intense of my life! Settling in here in Hong Kong has been tougher than I expected and I think 3 (long) blog posts wouldn't be enough to tell you all about it, so I'll just sum it up for you and try to get back to a more regular posting in the near future (Internet connection availability permitting). First of all, it's been great that my aunt came here with me during my first few days, it's been good to have some help and support, as things haven't been as smooth as the other times I've been abroad. Loads of things to do, documents to process and vicious circles of documents needed to do this and that, but I am slowly getting it ok. The house I had found before coming here is not the best, the living conditions are not something I can put up with for more than a temporary amount of time, so we had to look for an alternative (and more expensive) solution, which I - thanks goodness - found. We then had to go and buy the furniture for it and I will have to look for a flatmate, but first of all I still have to settle in, so for the next few days I'm still staying in the room I had previously found. Hong Kong itself hasn't been nice with us in the first few days: a lot of gray, a lot of rain, a lot of oppressive environments... then little by little we have found sweeter spots and the weather has also improved, showing us a nicer side of the city! The university seems nice: the campus is super cool, people give me the impression of being nice and helpful, even if it's not gonna be a piece of cake to get everything done, starting with the logistical point of view and going on with the academic one. Simply put, it's gonna take a lotta love (or we won't get too far)! I'll be back with more updates soon, I hope you have enjoyed your summer holidays and are ready to get back on track! I think I am!

1234 - Feist

1234 - Feist

Hello my dear readers, I am finally ready to announce to you all my next step in life! After almost 10 months of enjoying life and what I called my own "early-retirement", I am back on track (kinda). I came to Hong Kong today and this fall semester I will begin my PhD studies in a University here in the city! I am quite excited about the whole thing and very happy that I have the chance to follow this path, which I hope will open up new, interesting opportunities for my future! I am of course a little sad to realise that many people I care about will be farther away from me and I have compiled a playlist for them to remember me and, most of all, for me to feel a little bit nostalgic! This song is one of the few (or maybe the only one) on it that hasn't seen the light on this blog yet, so here it is for you all! To new beginnings!!

From Hank to Hendrix - Neil Young

From Hank to Hendrix - Neil Young

I guess a lot of you guys are on holiday or are about to go, so I can take this excuse for my poor posting constancy of these last weeks, claiming that I am on holiday too and that you surely have better things to do than stay here and read my blabbering. Here I am now anyway, sharing with you a song that has been stuck on my mind in the very last few days! I know I'm posting a lot of Neil Young (and Zayn) lately, but I guess it pretty much sums up what music has been the soundtrack of my summer 2016 so far! Hope you can enjoy it too!

Down by the river - Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Down by the river - Neil Young

One of the songs I expected Neil Young (and his current band) to play during his Milan concert was this great tune featured on his sophomore solo album (the first one he made in partnership with Crazy Horse to be precise). Unfortunately the tune was not on the final setlist, but I was still amazed to see them play 4 or 5 longer songs (each one between 7 and 10 minutes long) straight in the second half of the set. Unfortunately for me, most of them were from more recent albums that I hadn't got the chance to listen to yet, but I can't complain too much about the setlist, the first half has been amazing!

"Be on my side, I'll be on your side baby..."

Homegrown - Neil Young

Homegrown - Neil Young

Hello my dears, sorry for being away once again, I am trying to enjoy my summer time at best and I've been having some trouble accessing the Internet at home too (and not only that, also Pokemon GO has been a big deal of trouble, but more on that some other time). Today I came to Padua to visit my dear wife and we took a trip to the sea (if you can call it that). Last night I've been to Neil Young (+ Promise of the Real) concert in Milan and I've enjoyed it quite a bit, it's been 3 hours straight of music and it felt like he was 26 years old and I was the one in his 70s, not the opposite! The band came back for an encore and quite surprisingly they played this song, which I've been having on my mind for quite a while for no reason (call it destiny or coincidence), so I'm sharing it with you now!

The grass is green - Nelly Furtado

The grass is green - Nelly Furtado

Roses are red, violets are blue and the grass is green (and I am planning to have a busy weekend)! Good night!

Fresh off the boat - Nelly Furtado

Fresh off the boat - Nelly Furtado

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!

#sundayrevival Sprawl II (Mountains beyond mountains) - Arcade Fire

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...?

Powerless - Nelly Furtado

Explode - Nelly Furtado

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!

7 minutes - Circlesquare

7 minutes - Circlesquare

Hey guys, sorry for not posting yesterday. I was about to skip today too but then I decided to make an effort...! I got some hideous thing, probably a sunstroke or something like that... the strong wind hasn't been helping either, anyway I've got a fever (I think), a bad headache and some general malaise... not the best way to end this holiday in such a beautiful place as Algarve, but I got the best of it anyway! I've decided to post this song that has been there as a draft in my post list for a month and a half because it really feels like the perfect one to summarise how I'm feeling. I discovered it at the end of a 'Queer as folk' episode a few years ago and loved it immediately, and now it's time to share it with you! It's a little gem, so make sure you don't miss it out (the video is amazing too)!

Fiction - Joni Mitchell

Fiction - Joni Mitchell

Day 2 of my Macbook not working, last night I did a back-up of the disk and this morning I tried to restart it, without any success. Now I'm trying again and it's gonna be the last thing I do before bringing it to an assistance point tomorrow. Life without my main computer is tough and the day feels hard to fill. I already feel the lack of my iTunes, especially to choose songs for the blog, lack of my anime and series, of a smoothly-working internet and everything... I really hope I'll be able to get it work somehow, but I guess you don't care much about it! Off my current playlist (given that the new one I had just created is lost in my not-booting-anymore computer) is an old tune by Joni, my first favourite off the album of hers I'm currently listening to (Dog eat dog).

Still true - Feist

Still true - Feist

Me and wifey are very sad as in a few hours we'll have to wake up (if we are going to get any sleep at all) and get out taxi to the airport in order to get back to Italy, where it's cold and ugly... why can't we stay here?! It's gonna be a shock and I think that instead of looking for a job I'll be planning the next trip (to somewhere hot)!! This week has been very very nice, somehow I wished we would've had more time... anyway we enjoyed it to the fullest, we transformed to "poor people" who were walking all over the place to "rich people" who took taxis even for short distances (but not all the time)! Yet the only thing that I can think about now is a quote of this beautiful song by Feist: "Take me anywhere with you"...

Campaigner - Neil Young

Campaigner - Neil Young

Today we have gone to Saadiyat beach, a "trip" organized by our hotel (they take you there with a car, you get access and sun-beds and so on and they come pick you up). We didn't do much, just roast in the sun, venture in the not-so-warm waters a couple times with mixed success and read and listen to some music (including this song, that stuck in my head at one point). Plain and simple. Now I'm red like a pepper, but everything's under control (I hope). Still no plans about tomorrow, gonna keep enjoying our time here at our own (slow) pace! Cheers!

Flight #303 - Feist

Flight #303 - Feist

My dears, sorry for not posting yesterday but my day has been quite hectic and tough... I woke up at 7.15 to meet a friend for breakfast, talked with her a while before she went off to work, then went back to my aunt's house, rested a little and I was on my way to my (ex) University as I had a few things to deliver to some of my Profs. After a lunch with another friend I went back home, waiting for aunt and we came back together to my grandparents, where mom picked me up and took me home. I've been feeling unwell for the whole day: I cannot process coffee anymore methinks, for after breakfast I've been feeling sick in my stomach for the whole day, plus a sore throat started coming to me and got stronger and stronger, to the point that this morning it's very annoying. For this reason I went to bed at 22.30 yesterday and after waking up at 5-something I stayed in bed until a short time ago, more than 12 hours! Nonetheless my throat is still sore and, given that I have to take a flight tomorrow (yay!) I'm not really happy about that... at all!! My flight number is not the same as Feist's so I guess we won't see each other on the plane... maybe next time!!

Sugar mountain - Neil Young

Sugar mountain - Neil Young

Hey guys, sorry for not posting anything new yesterday, but the day has been quite full and it ended with a 3-hour movie that ended very late, plus I was too emotionally involved with it and with the song that made me watch it that I couldn't find the strength inside of me to write about something else. The movie is 'Blue is the warmest colour' and I think it's worth all the time spent watching it, I really liked it, especially how the director has been able to make the characters' feelings pass through the camera and the screen and get to the viewer. The song that made me know the film is Alt-J's 'Nara', a beautiful masterpiece that I've been able to appreciate more and more last year to the point that it has probably become my favourite song of theirs. I've been listening to a lot of Alt-J today, but I'm posting something else because... of no reason in particular.
I am finally starting to get towards the middle of Neil Young's discography and listening to his (first?) collection 'Decade' I found a few songs I really like, this being one of them!

One year A.D. - Feist

One year A.D. - Feist

Together with two of my recent posts (Neil Young's 'Helpless' and Junip's 'Without you') this has been the last addition to my '2015 Best of playlists' playlist (sorry for the word-play)! It's currently my favourite song off Feist's debut album, which I'm in the process of listening to. This time of year feels weird, as I haven't started listening to "2016 music" yet, but it's not 2015 anymore and organizing my playlists based on years, it feels like I just have to get rid of the old stuff so that I can start with the new! It's also one of these moments when, even if I have a lot of new music to approach, I have a bit of a hard time listening to it and I'd rather browse old acquaintances of mine. Anyway, I'm enjoying this song and that's what matters! In a few days/weeks the transition period will be over and everything will be ok! We indeed got through 2015 years since 1 A.D., didn't we?

Helpless - Neil Young

Helpless - Neil Young

Tonight I went ice-skating for the first time in years, I already wanted to and when one of my friends asked if I wanted to join her, I happily accepted! Once again I scored a nice 0 in the chart of falls and I did quite ok, given my really bad relationship with sports! I'm genuinely helpless in many other physical activities, even if in the last few years, thanks to the Wii Fit and to my going back swimming once a week, I got somehow better! Not to the point where I could say I'm an athlete or even athletic. Not even close. Not gonna happen, I think. Not anytime soon! Yes Neil, stop saying that, I know I'm helpless!!!