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!
Being obsessed with The XX today, I can't seem to stop listening to their new album's 2 bonus tracks ('Seasons run' & 'Naive') and to their absolute best 'Crystalised'. Given that I can't keep re-posting the same songs over and over again, I'll give you another gem off their debut album as for today's sundayrevival! A hellish rest of the month is about to being for me after a nice home-made sushi night with friends, so I don't know how often I'll have the time and energies to post here. I wish you the best second half of February before disappearing under the amount of work that is waiting for me!!!
In a period when I'm listening to soo much new music (one of the perks of the current life path I'm in, a thing that I just realised today and I am very grateful for), it gets harder and harder to pick good tunes for the sundayrevival! But here we are! I got to know Gossip in the period when the album featuring this song was released (hello 'Heavy cross'!), and then I went on listening to their older stuff and (then) their newer, none of which really appealed to me. I then went on to appreciate 'Standing in the way of control' last year, so I decided to give it a go again to their 2012 album, which I have in my 'Pick and catch' playlist right now. Even if I'm starting to appreciate the rest of their discography a little more, 'Music for men' still remains a few steps above all the rest, and this is one of the reasons why. Paraphrasing one of my old Facebook posts, who wouldn't want to get on a high school bus driven by Beth Ditto?!
It's ironic how we keep waiting for people to change and show us that they care even when we've had multiple proofs that they don't, or just are not able to show it in a way that's meaningful to us. How we feel like we're able to lower our expectations, but in the end we are not. Communication is key, but understanding each other without the need to speak out all the time is even more important maybe. Also, having too much time on your hands ain't good, as you tend to think about things a lot, maybe too much. Well, maybe that's not a bad thing, as you're able to understand things sooner. Anyway, enough with my melodramatic thinking, let's go prepare some sushi rice!
I don't like to be overwhelmed by good music, so here I am trying to speed up the posting process! This blog is called 'A song OR TWO per day', for goodness's sake, sometimes I can even do two freaking posts per day, can't I?! So here I am, with another great tune off Regina's 2009 album 'Far', which I have been re-approaching and appreciating lately! Today is a weird day, as I have many things to do but I can't do most of them due to stupid offices and branches being closed in the afternoon (and going to sleep at 4 and waking up at 12.30 isn't helping me in handling things in the morning), but nothing particularly urgent..!
Will we ever stop walking?! It's funny how we have been mixing with the underground population of Abu Dhabi, i.e. the "non-locals", the workers and the (few) tourists who happen to not be on a Taxi in that moment. We're liking that a lot, it fells like being in a (rich and modernized) Indian subcontinent, we're mingling with the Indians and Pakistani and Filipinos and so on, eating asian food (from Lebanon to China) and living the heart of the city! Today we also visited the Emirates palace (from outside) and the biggest mall, to then enjoy the sunset on the beach and then went out to eat Lebanese! The blue and orange of the sky is so peculiar...!
After just one post of songs on queue, here I am already straying around with other music... I can't help it, and this is the meaning of the blog itself so I'm just gonna go with it! Thanks to 'The Leftovers' I approached again Regina's second latest album, the 2009 'Far' which I had listened to a couple of times at the time and then left on the side. I'm greatly enjoying it now, its time has come! This was the first single off it if I remember correctly and it's also one of the songs I'm already in love with! Wish you a happy weekend!
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.
I am watching the second season of 'The leftovers' and I'm loving how I cannot explain right away what the hell is happening and what the characters are thinking and why they are behaving like they do, so multiple levels of interpretation and I think also multiple possible interpretations of things on the same level... a mess. I also took a walk on the seaside under the stars, as I needed to get out and breathe some air and being in contact with nature like this is always mesmerizing and beautiful. All of this brings me to the song that was playing at the end of the episode I just watched, in which I recognised Regina's voice. Searching for it, I realised it is out the first album of hers I listened to ('Far'), and also the one I didn't listen to ever after. Gotta give it a chance in the near future, in the meanwhile let's just remember that we're not laughing to god, but...
You got the love (live MLNS) - Florence + the Machine
Sometimes you gotta hate yourself, and there's just nothing you can do about it...! After all the excitement I created (in my head) about the #liveweek, I already forgot to post on the second day... I think I'm hopeless, but I'll make it up to you with a double post today (unless I forget to post again later... sigh)! This morning I had to wake up "very early" (at 10 AM) so as to buy the tickets for Florence's concert in Bologna in April, as I just got the news that she and the band will be back in Italy next spring! It's a bit weird to buy a ticket for somebody's concert when you already have another one in the pipeline, but I don't wanna miss any chances of watching them perform live!! In honour of this purchase, I'm gonna post one of my absolute favourite songs in one of my absolute favourite versions just for you! I hope you enjoy!
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!
Sometimes you have to take firm decisions. I think that if you guys have been reading some of my posts lately,, you might have had the feeling I have not been extremely happy about how my life has been going on. Well, today I think that the decisive turn has been taken. In the last few weeks I gave signs of distress, then finally today I spoke with both my bosses and, after they made me yet another (interesting) proposal, I have been firm in my decision to walk away. As a person always living projected in the future, it has been hard for me to take such a decision, as the job and the opportunities were good. Yet, as you can imagine, I didn't wake up with the wrong foot today and take this decision, I have been feeling unsatisfied for... months. And lately the situation has become unbearable for me: lack of motivation, a job I didn't particularly like, opportunities that were always in front of me but never came to meet me for real, added to the toughness of having no home for the last 10 months, travelling back and forth from here to there and back... I couldn't make it anymore. I couldn't take it anymore. And I am happy I took this decision, as it means I am learning to care more about the present. It might turn out to be a crappy decision in the long term, but I will never know; it's what I needed to do in order to feel better now and so I did. And the fact that I haven't been feeling happier than this afternoon for a long time tells me that I did do what was good for me. The dog days are over, the dog days are done. I can hear the horses come and I'm running!
"Leave all your love and your longing behind.
You can't carry it with you if you want to survive"
After listening to a weird Xmas playlist in my car, the iPod went on with the subsequent playlist (XX) and after a glorious Intro with pumped-up volume in the car, I played it again on my computer and then again in the car while driving to the supermarket. I can't deny how great this song feels, especially when it gets played over and over on repeat. This all brought me to listen to what is a music masterpiece (yes, I'm not talking about 'VCR', I'm talking about what comes next!), my favourite XX song and (now) the first song I started listening after 2012 that reached 100 plays on iTunes. Happy 100th play, 'Crystalised'. And in a short while, you'll be joined by the glory that comes before you (and yeah, again, I'm not talking about 'VCR')!
Hey there, welcome back bad ol' habit of posting my post of the day after midnight! It's not like I'm getting back to my former lifestyle (in terms of sleeping time), not anytime soon at least. Even though I would like... well, love to! I feels so much better staying up until late at night and waking up late, I am so much more productive during the day, and feel better overall. Creature of the night. It's peculiar how, being such a creature of the night, I've never felt particularly attached to Halloween.... well, during my university years it was always exams time, this year I've spent it at home alone watching Arrow and The Flash (not a bad night at all)! We'll see if next year I'll be in a place and with people that will inspire me more in this sense. For now, I'll just be good joining Florence in wishing you all a great 'Howloween'!! Beware the howling creatures of the night!
I know, I know... I know what you must be thinking: another Tori sundayrevival?! Yes. I am sorry, well... maybe not so much! It's just that last night has been one of those nights when you think about your life, fully realise that things are not going in a way that works well for you and that you have to do something about it. And when that happens, I always end up going to listen to my favourite albums. And 'Little earthquakes' is my top choice usually. And so I did. And then today I woke up with a couple of Tori songs in my head, more recent ones and so I went on to listen to those albums. And here I am now! At the airport once again, waiting for my flight to Abu Dhabi with final destination Bangkok, but wishing I was flying to California. Maybe California... with all the meaning that I attach to the concept of it, which I'm not going to try and explain to you here now. I'll just take the chance to say goodbye to you for this week!
Today in the car I ended up listening to old playlists compiled between the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, and this is the one song that was left half-played during office hours. Useless to tell you, I've been listening to the whole Leona discography in the office, plus a double play of 'Echo', her sophomore album containing this song, which I dare say is one of my favourites of hers. I really like Leona, it's not like I would tear my clothes for her music (well... who knows!), but I really like her style, her voice and her songs (especially the ones written by the genius Ryan Tedder)! This is not one of them, but it's one really worth listening to. My iPod(s) can confirm that!
Sometimes I lose faith in the ability and willingness of our generation to commit to long term relationships. Well, oftentimes. Almost all the time. At least as far as the (very limited amount of) experience I've had goes. Lately something has been moving, but I still couldn't find any person with the desire to get to know each other first and then think about other things. It really feels like we are a generation who only thinks about the present, about whatever "urgent needs" we feel we have. And that's where a long-term thinker like me gets fucked and has to compromise. But I did it once, I don't wanna do it again. I mean, it's not like I'm really opposed to it, it's just that it leaves me nothing, I need something more, I wanna have something more. I will endure. But there is a thing I'd like to know. Where did all the love go? I don't know. Neither do Kasabian.
I have been spiraling back into the XX mood in the last couple of days, don't remember exactly how or why, I remember it happened through the song Infinity, which has then kept coming back to me, but also thru others, such as this awesome one. I have a peculiar story of this song, as it is one of the last I started liking from their debut album, which I fell in love with at the beginning of 2013, when I approached them. Intro, Crystalised, Infinity, Stars and so on, one by one they each found a special place inside my heart. But not Heart skipped a beat. I mean, this song already stands out on its own, as it's the only one with a title longer than one or two words in their discography. I don't know why it went unobserved for a while, but then the magic happened: the last stop of the Study Tour, the amazing two weeks I spent in the US doing a field project on the influence of music on the Midwest society, was New Orleans and I vividly remember entering a frozen yogurt place with a few friends that were on the trip with me, one of those places where you can put all kinds of stuff on the yogurt (yummy!), and after I started eating my yogurt this song played on the radio, followed by one of Phoenix, which I started listening to in that same period. It really struck me, and since then Hsab found its own special place in my heart too.
After assimilating Adam's first album entirely, it's time to move on to new music, but not before a couple more posts. It is quite a weird moment for me musically: the pain in my mouth doesn't make me willing to waste time in front of the computer, so I've not really been listening to many tunes this past week, plus I have been mainly focusing on my existing playlists and on old (for my taste) albums, not going to explore new stuff. As a consequence I am pretty much stuck, and things are not expected to move soon: between my slightly increasing pain and the coming OneRepublic concert, it's not likely that the music I have on my queue will appear here soon, but bear with me through this difficult moment and we'll shine with new light soon! In the meantime enjoy Adam and this saturday night of yours, which most likely is gonna turn out better than mine!
