Travelling woman - Bat for lashes

Travelling woman - Bat for lashes

Hola my dear blog readers (if there's anybody of you left)!! I've been absent the longest time, and I am sorry about that, but my control over life is once again (and more and more) slipping through my fingers as more and more duties pile up on each other... My parents came to visit me in Hong Kong last week, their first time in East Asia, and it's been a pleasure to have them here, show them around and spend some time together, even if of course it's been challenging to try and keep up with school rhythm and everything too...! I have a couple big papers due by the end of the month and I have barely started working on them, as (school-related) housekeeping duties keep me busy week in and week out, and by devoting some time to the people who matter to me here in HK (a special one in particular) and to friends and family via Internet, eating, sleeping (poorly) and few more basic human needs, I keep on running out of time (and most of all of productivity). I keep needing a holiday, but I have to clench my teeth and keep it up until May at least!! Good thing is that this 2017 has been giving me a shitload of music satisfaction already, and I'm so sad I can't manage to share it all with you, but I'll give you as many little pills as I can! And apparently I gotta start from way back then, as I recently started listening to 'Bat for lashes' and I'm quite liking her! I think this song works perfectly for the working, semi-lazy, grey-sky Sunday I've just been spending! I hope it works well for the start of your new week too!! Hope to be back up here in a shorter time than last!

#sundayrevival Rich kids blues - Lykke Li

Rich kids blues - Lykke Li

I've been listening to Lykke Li a few times these past days, today I've listened to a new song released by one of her backing singers (Kiki), and I just found out that she had released another song under "liv" band a few months ago! It seemed appropriate to end this hectic and very tough week with her, especially with rich kids blues which kind of makes a lot of sense for me now. The next couple of weeks will probably be even worse, and I'm anxious already about all the things I'll have to do, but well, again... better to be too busy than too bored! Have a great new week!

#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!

#sundayrevival A thousand miles - Vanessa Carlton

A thousand miles - Vanessa Carlton

A couple weeks ago I went to karaoke with some friends, a pretty fun night, and one of the songs we sang all together was of course a teenage classic of ours, 'A thousand miles'. The song has been coming up often ever since, with some of us singing it off the top of our heads from time to time; this happened today too during our hike to the Lion Rock peak, a steep walk up a tall hill which rewarded us with a mystical view of nothingness (we were surrounded by the white of clouds), and of course we also got soaked. It's been a nice and enjoyable experience anyway! The celebrations for the Chinese New Year are going on, but they are past the climax now, so I'm getting ready to start next semester!

#sundayrevival Lazy days - Robbie Williams

Lazy days - Robbie Williams

Lazy days are the best, and when they are spent in good company they're even better! Should I add anything more? Well, this song is quite great too, of course! Happy Sunday to you all!

#sundayrevival A perfect day Elise - PJ Harvey

A perfect day Elise - PJ Harvey

I am not usually a hater (ok, that's a lie), but today I am particularly bored and tired of seeing 'Happy easter' wishes everywhere... I'm getting old and grumpy, I know, but I can't change the way I feel...! Easter has always been a weird holiday for me: I was born on an easter Sunday, then I spent most of my last 5-6 easters away from home for one reason or another, and there were all pretty good ones (one in Central Park NYC, one in Toronto, one in London...). This year we had one couple of grandparents at home for lunch (which is eventful, as it's always us going there usually), a very placid meal and now I just wish to go back to sleep, not a particularly special day. Still, even not special days can be perfect in their own way... let's get it over with and try not to exaggerate with the chocolate!!

#sundayrevival I'm no angel - Dido

I'm no angel - Dido

In the last couple of days life has hit back on me, I already knew that 2016 had started too well and that karma was about to hit back, and so it did. Thanks goodness I booked my tickets to Japan, which helped me feel way better, as pretty much everything else is going so and so. First of all I have a few (minor but annoying) health problems, including the usual winter cold that makes you feel like a van has run over you, some pretty painful mouth lesions that make eating a nightmare, while one of them also hits me at rest and I've been living with the non-stop pain for a couple of days now... Moreover today my dear computer decided it doesn't want to boot anymore! Yeah, exactly. Right now. After I've been praising it for days and after I ordered on Amazon a bigger RAM and a new battery. Oh yeah, that's the freaking right time! I've been struggling for the whole day and I still haven't been able to solve the problem, guess I'm gonna have to take it to some Apple centre. To write the blog I dug out my old Sony Vaio from my wardrobe and I'm trying to live with it, hoping that at least this one is going to keep it up for a little more!
Getting to the music, it's (been) Sunday so it's time for a sundayrevival! I had another Dido song on my mind, but I realised I had posted it already, so I chose this one instead. 'I'm no angel' has never been one of my favourites on this album that I've been listening to since I was a child, but lately it has outgrown many other songs on the album and, well... I must revise my judgement and say that it has indeed entered the pool of my favourite Dido songs! I'm sure you're gonna take a liking for it too, if you give it time! I hope your week  (and mine too) is gonna start better than the way I am ending this one. Cheers!

#sundayrevival Sand in my shoes - Dido

Sand in my shoes - Dido

Right after relieving my soreness with some eye drops, here I am, once again in front of the computer ready to perform my last couple of tasks of this long, long day. A long long day that started with our "usual" Abu Dhabi routine: walking to the beach, relaxing, eating out at night... then we packed our luggage and after sleeping some 1.5 hours we got up and left for the airport, our flight leaving at 6.25 local time (3.25 in Italy). After a Doha stopover, I slept another 1.5 hours on the plane and got here, enjoyed at best the little part of my day that was left, tried to rest a little bit more, had dinner and after looking for a few things (why do I always leave stuff around?) that I mostly found, I am posting this. I am posting one of the favourite songs of my teenage years, off what has probably been the album that has had the biggest impact on my teenage years in music, this being Dido's 'Life for rent', the first album I ever bought (as a xmas gift for my father, even if I ended up listening to it waaaaay more than he ever did). I cannot think of a better moment to post this lovely song than now: I literally still have sand in my shoes, I am back to wintery Italy after a glimpse of summer, I am dead tired and I am here in need to understand what to do with my life, a thought I could easily avoid on holiday.

"Two weeks away it feels like the world should've changed but I'm home now and things still look the same. I think I'll leave it till tomorrow to unpack, try to forget for one more night that I'm back in my flat on the road where the cars never stop going through the night, to real life where I can't watch sunset. I don't have time. I don't have time."

PS: I already unpacked, first thing when at home! Aha!

Rapture - Antony & the Johnsons

Rapture - Antony & the Johnsons

This afternoon I went back to the cinema after a long while since the last time, I quite enjoyed my time there! We watched Macbeth, a nice one (I didn't recall the plot of the original play by Shakespeare but while the movie went on, it occurred to me that I pretty much knew the main events), very enjoyable and intense photography, sometimes maybe a little heavy but not as much as I expected! A nice dinner after that and here I am, with a full stomach waiting for a new week to begin! It's simple days like these that give you the rapture, especially when everything seems to go right.

#sundayrevival Drumming song - Florence + the Machine

Drumming song - Florence + the Machine

I've been waiting for this moment for about 3 years and it has finally (almost) come! Tomorrow Flo and her band will perform in Milan! I'm still arranging details with my friends, as unfortunately we have two groups of tickets in front of each other at the two opposite sides of the stage, but that's just coincidental! I am quite excited about it all, I've already got in the "totally-Flo" mood yesterday and today I had to take a break because I was consuming my enthusiasm and energies already, a bit too soon! But I'm fully charged up for tomorrow, can't wait to have an amazing night and to sing my lungs out! Speaking of lungs, this is an awesome one off their debut album. Awesome.

#sundayrevival Come home - Lene Marlin

Come home - Lene Marlin

Lazy and eventless Sunday for me here: boring F1 race, usual lunch at grandma's with family, really... nothing particularly meaningful to note for today on my part. Nothing particularly bad, nothing particularly good. Seems like my life is on hold, waiting for me to come back home and reset everything. I'm already bored even before getting back here, so I guess I'm gonna need to find something to do in the meanwhile! This nonsense... I kind of find it in the lyrics of this song. Nonsense that hold a meaning somehow. A willingness to listen to this album just struck me, and I believe it did because I needed to post this song. Winter is coming, and so are sad and depressing times. Please, let xmas be here soon!

"Just give me directions I go anywhere

I need to find something I can not find here

Give me a chance I prove that you are wrong

I manage to find I can be strong

And maybe I wanna come home"

#sundayrevival Citizen ship - Patti Smith

Citizen ship - Patti Smith

One of the most exciting F1 races of the last few years has filled up a good part of my day, with both qualifying and race in one day, plus my own "race" to get to Milan, getting ready to be utterly frustrated at my Expo visit tomorrow...! I know it's gonna be tough, but I keep feeling it's gonna be tougher than I expect, anyway I will let you know how it goes...! Now I have to finish up with my preparations, as I will wake up at dawn and get very very tired... sometimes I wonder why I do these things!! Maybe because I care about my world citizen ship! Waking up with this song in my head this morning maybe was linked to this, or maybe not! (Sometimes it's so hard to find links between the songs I post and my damn life!!!)

#sundayrevival Hotel - Tori Amos

Hotel - Tori Amos

Sometimes it feels like my sundayrevival is more a ToriAmosrevival than else, but what can I tell you? Each and every day I realise more and more how big the influence is that she and her music have had on my life since they came in it in 2009...! Last week in my car I've been mostly listening to a playlist I made with songs from two of her best albums, i.e. 'Scarlet's Walk' and 'From the Choirgirl Hotel'. And needless to say, I enjoyed every last note of it. Driving back and forth through the hills of Prosecco, singing, dancing and screaming like a madman. "Met 'em in a hotel. Met 'em in a hotel beneath ground. Tell me that he's missing. Tell me this is one for lollipop gestapo..."

You were wild.

Where are you now?

#sundayrevival Sunday - The Cranberries

Sunday - The Cranberries

I am at a loss. After a pretty nice weekend, with all my medical exams, meeting friends, watching F1 and enjoying this last moments of hot and super pleasing sun at the end of summer, I am at a loss. I really have no idea what to post for today's sundayrevival... I have been listening to a lot of music lately, a lot of stuff I already knew but stuff that I got to know in the past few months/years, so nothing fit for this post. And out of 487 different songs I listened to in the last couple of weeks... is it possible that I can find nothing? It is. So it is. Well, that's not a big problem. I'll go dig another hole. And I think I just found my answer! Last week the Cranberries posted pictures of a big sign, quoting the title of their first album, that has been hung in their hometown (methinks), and so... why not share a great song off 'Everybody else is doing it, so why can't we?' Here it is. Sounds perfect, ain't it?

"You mystify me"

#sundayrevival This is love - PJ Harvey

This is love - PJ Harvey

Hello my dear people, here I am back again. Another tough trip back home and a tough weekend brought me to Milan, ready to wake up quite early tomorrow in the morning because I have to go back to Veneto. I am dead tired, plane travels and getting back home and having to drive there again... gosh, I don't know how I'm gonna make it. This whole working thing is getting it quite harsh on me, please take me back to university!
I meant to post this song last sunday, but I didn't get to write a post as (guess what?!) I was busy travelling! I'm gonna do it now: as last week (the one before this one that is ending) I got to listen to old, 2010 playlists, I ended up listening to a lot of PJ Harvey, as 2010 was the year when I got to know her and starting loving her music. So it seemed natural to just post a song of hers, and not just one random song of hers... I've been listening to her 'Stories from the city, stories from the sea' album quite a lot recently, and I'm falling more and more in love with the lyrics of many songs on the album, so meaningful for me right now, so true, I really feel a connection with them... so I hope you can enjoy this great music too!

"I can't believe life's so complex when I just wanna sit here and watch you undress."

"Does it have to be a life full of dread? I wanna chase you round the table, wanna touch your head."

#sundayrevival Tear in your hand - Tori Amos

Tear in your hand (live VH1) - Tori Amos

Here we are, after a totally unexpected weekend (and actually a totally unexpected whole week I dare say)! I got to know a couple of people around here, which was quite unexpected, and then I spent two beautiful, sunny, summery, hot, blue-skied days at the lake (yesterday) and at the pool (today). Of course there was no lack of a few moments of thinking about my life, what I'm doing with it, what I'm not happy about, what I could change, what I want to change and so on... but it wouldn't be me if I didn't get a couple of those each week! I have been feeling for a while that some big changes are on the way and this 2015 already proved to be a kind of a turning-page year for me. Let's hope it will keep on running on this road! But, as every sunday, I have to keep an eye on the past, look back at songs I loved and still love and that still hold a great meaning for me. I found this live performance of one of my favourite Tori songs (out of my favourite Tori album) casually on YouTube and it reminded me why I love her so much and why I love this song so much. I hope you can enjoy it too, and that it can teach you a powerful lecture as it did with me.

"You don't know the power that you have with a tear in your hand..."

"I tell you there're pieces of me you've never seen.

Maybe she's just pieces of me you've never seen..."

#sundayrevival Teenage dream - Katy Perry

Teenage dream - Katy Perry

This is not at all a song I would expect to find in a sundayrevival post on my blog, but here it is and here I am, and it actually makes sense for these crazy last few days I have flown/stumbled/walked through! The meaning behind this post is that lately (and in these past couple of days in particular) I've been reaaally feeling like a teenager, like being 15 again, or, better, like being 15 for the first time...! Spending all the time chatting on the phone to the point that my parents were fooling me for that, doing stupid and crazy thing, gliding over the ground one moment and falling head over heels the next one... well, I think that sooner or later there comes a time of our lives when we have to feel that way! Now it's my time, so this is for all the people around me who are making me feel like I'm living a teenage dream, be it a bittersweet one (as all teenage dreams in the end)!!

#sundayrevival Millennium - Robbie Williams

Millennium - Robbie Williams

Well, I suppose I'm scheduled to write a sundayrevival post now... I've been keeping the right song for weeks waiting to be on a Thai spot on the sea and I thought that this weekend the time would come, but it did not, so I'll have to keep keeping it! I'll need to think about something else... but first I have to recover after one of the best F1 races of the last few years, so much fun and entertaining, finally after a collection of boredom in the past few months...! Well, the sport needed a boost, and after a relaxing day spent wandering through a couple of malls close by and on the poolside, I needed one too. And maybe you also could use one! That's why I'm sharing one of my favourite Robbie songs with you (I haven't been posting anything of his since 2013!! 2013!!! That's a long time!). I don't know why, but when I chose him, this is the first song of his that came to my mind, and given that it  has always been among my favourites of his, it makes a perfect sundayrevival post! Also, don't forget to follow the blog's July playlist on Spotify!!

#sundayrevival Fascination - Alphabeat

Fascination - Alphabeat

I have been listening to a lot of Carmen Consoli today, but I don't want to bore you with a sequence of mono-singer posts, so I'm coming up with a good #sundayrevival-summeredition song from my summer playlist (named 'Eté', the French speakers out there will understand...!) because today (and yesterday too) the temperature has been challenging (and I love, finally HOT!) and also humidity has taken its toll on us! So, this song I'm posting is from the summer of 2008, I hold it particularly dear as, besides being one of the hits of that summer, is the one that was playing in the car just before I took my driving license! It already was a favourite of mine and after that, it got a place in my heart forever! WE LIVE ON FASCINATION!! Happy summer to y'all!!

#sundayrevival The rebels - The Cranberries

The rebels - The Cranberries

After the awesome Cyndi Lauper post on Friday (new +1s record, thank you guys, I'm so happy you're as happy as I am about marriage equality!!!), I hope I'll keep it up with another good post! Today some uni friends from Milan came to visit at my grandma's in the countryside, we had an awesome time with the pool and the sun and the company and everything, so great, it's so awesome to spend time with friends, makes you forget about what you would like not to think about (like going to work on a summer Monday or trying to understand what the f* is going wrong with your damn, old body) and enjoy life at the fullest! Concerning music, I wanna go back to what I told you on Friday, so I'm posting one of my old Cranberries favourites, a song that I haven't been listening to for more than 2 years and which lyrics I still know by heart...! "Seems like yesterday we were 16, we were the rebels of the rebel scene..." I've never been a rebellious, violent or politically involved / aggressive guy, but I like to think that I've always been thinking outside the schemes, in my own way, being weird in my own way (which meant even being mainstream, maybe when the people close to me didn't think I would be), which today is quite a rebellious approach to life methinks. So this song resonates with me, it always has resonated and even more today that I started working and I somehow miss those times when I had the whole summer free to enjoy... who knows? Maybe it's gonna happen again in the future! For the time being, I'm alright with getting the most from what I've got, which is always a good thing! Have a nice new week you all!