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!
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!
Lately my life has been going on as usual, but also not. People around me are moving on with their lives (but also not), and I am happy for them, as I soon will be doing that myself (hopefully)! Tonight I went out with my wifey and other friends, it's the first time I see her since she moved to Padua as she got back for a couple days and it's been good, spending the evening together and then talking about past and present times up until past 2 in the morning, it really makes me happy, especially now that I am spending a lot of time alone and that I am about to leave everything behind (and this time there is no plan to come back for good, not yet at least)! I hadn't realised this up until now, so at least I've got something to think about in the next few days...
Nothing particularly relevant is going on with my life these days, I have resumed playing Mario Kart 64 and I am trying to improve my records on some tracks, I am going to visit one of my long time friends in Lecco where she's been studying for her degree and where I promised I would go visit like 5 years ago, I have just finished watching a crazy Japanese superhero movie, quite entertaining and peculiar and very... well, peculiar (it's called Hentai Kamen, don't try looking for it if you are oversensitive!), plus taking care of daily routines. Sharing this Adam Lambert song with you, I am finally getting rid of all the draft posts that have been hanging over me lately, so I am finally free to find some new music to share with you!
Going on with American music, I have already posted a few Wallflowers songs lately, this is another one of their most famous and also another one of my favourites off their second album, which I've really enjoyed listening to. Today has been a weird day in its "standardness": things that were supposed to happen and didn't, things that did, things that made me feel busy and gave me a kind of urgency that was totally meaningless, just because they all piled up together. All in all it's not a day I will remember (maybe), but one of those days that I think have an impact on the kind of people we are without us realising it. As all of them are, in a way. "The same black line that was drawn on you, was drawn on me..."
A short drive back and forth to Varese downtown brought me to listen to just a few songs in my car tonight, but as I had to pick a playlist, after a random turn of the knob it stopped on the 'Catching fire OST' and there I was! I've never... well that's not true, there has been a short period in which I've been in love with this song, but I grew tired of it quite quickly. Nonetheless, not listening to it for quite some it, it was a real pleasure to hear it played in my car and I have been singing along with passion, even after my car stopped (and in turn so did the music)! So I guess you might want to give it a try too!! Carry your wooooooorld, carry your wooooooorld...!
So far the last month has been the toughest for me and my usual commitments: I neglected the blog for a whole 10 days while I was travelling to Japan and have been posting irregularly since I came back, I practically kind of abandoned my daily Japanese studying time, I haven't been going swimming for almost a month, no exercise... between travelling, fever and other (mostly pleasant) errands, I have completely overturned my daily and weekly schedules, moving from a totally idle life made of telefilms, music and plans to a full life packed with travel, events and social gatherings. Don't mistake me, I like them both, and both of them can be consuming in the long run, so I think life is all about balancing the two lifestyles off, I hope I'll be able to do it in the next few months! In the meanwhile I have a bunch of songs calling for their spot here, I start with one of The wallflowers' best hits!!
Back home from my trip in Portugal with my parents, I am still struck by fever and bored at home as I can't do anything but lying in bed day and night... computer, smartphone, everything is not really good for my headache, so I'm taking advantage of this moment of slight recovery to tell you guys I'm still alive! In the last couple of days I couldn't take Sia's 'Cheap thrills' out of my head, such an awesome song, but given that I already posted it a few weeks ago and that there's another good one that has been waiting quite a while, here it is for you! Don't forget to give a full listen to good albums, don't just stop at the singles / more renowned songs!
Linking back to last weekend's posts, here is another song I can totally relate to in these days. I'm really sick of people preventing other people from spreading their love, loving each other and making the world a better place. How can they do so? Especially when they mostly follow christian teachings, which, for what I know, were all about love and tolerance and respect. Anyways, what we can do is to stop being afraid of what is different, what we might not understand and try to understand it instead of taking it out of our lives, or even sticking our noses into other people lives and telling them how they should behave and that their rights cannot be safeguarded by the state. This whole really makes me sick and I really think that there's not enough love in the world!
I've made a relatively big change in my appearance (upper body) that is related to blue: I've been thinking of doing this for years and now the time has come, I feel great about it, more myself than I've ever felt methinks. My mother told me that I should've done it before Florence + the Machine's concert (given that their latest album is called 'How big, how blue, how beautiful'), and it occured to me that she's quite right! I still have another chance for the next concert in April, but in the meantime I prepared a playlist called 'Blue' that features some of my favourite songs that are centered around what is one of my favourite colours. This is an absolute masterpiece included in it, probably R.E.M.'s final song (the last one of their last studio album) and legacy, a beautiful collaboration with Patti Smith that fits perfectly this sundayrevival post!
Greetings to you, my people, from the warm city of Abu Dhabi, a.k.a. the Arab New York (by us, as it really looks like the Big Apple sometimes)! I'm enjoying a nice and well-deserved honeymoon with my wifey about one year after our trip to Marrakech blew up because of me being sick. Not that this time I'm feeling so well, my cold is here with me and is not leaving, but I hope that the sun will make it go away soon! We're having a good time for now, and we are already trying to understand more about the Arab world: why do the ladies here all wear dark clothes in your opinion? We have our own idea...!
The darker days of me and him (live 2004) - PJ Harvey
It's always the same story... whenever I get to be at home for a period of time without any compelling work (or else) events, I end up having even less time for my usual activities: between meals at grandparents', video gaming, courses to carry out downtown and any other business, I neglect the blog, I neglect my Japanese study and everything. But here I am finally! Last week told you I wanted to do something special, which I ended up not doing, so after missing a sunday post, I will start it now (late, as it's already been Tuesday for two hours, but whateeeever)! What I want to do is to post live performances of music I love for one week, so how could this be called, you might ask... well, #liveweek of course!
I might allow myself to post tunes that have already seen the light on the blog, but this time I will share them as live performances. For this opening post though, I chose a song that has not been featured here yet, and it's one of my absolute favourite PJ Harvey tracks. 'The darker days of me and him' tells the story of a girl who has been burned by (unfulfilled) promises and who dreams about "a land where no man was ever born, with no neurosis, no psychosis, no psychoanalysis and no sadness". It's a beautiful, beautiful song and this version is absolutely great, so don't miss out and stay tuned for more great live music!!
It took me a while to get in sync with NIN's sophomore album, but in the end I've been able to get something good out of it! This is a good example of what I'm talking about. I'm sure the rockers among you out there will not be disappointed, and maybe some of the non-rockers!
Today I ordered a bunch of albums on Amazon, so I'm waiting for my CD library to grow very soon! And I got some great bargains too, can't wait to share with you some of the good things I bought!
Hello my dear readers, it's been a tough couple of days, as you can imagine. Maybe even more than you can imagine! A pair of more than 6 hours flights one right after the other, with some 3-4 hours of cumulative sleep, getting to Bangkok in the evening, the van that was taking us to the hotel smashes against the wall in the motorway, luckily nothing bad happens but what a fright! Then I get to the hotel, I get a smoking room and can only sleep 1.5 hours. That making it an optimistic 5 hours of sleep in two nights. And here I am right before the beginning of the third night. I think you can imagine how in need of sleep I am. And I think you can imagine even better how in need of Enya I have been and still am! Here she is for you, in case you might need her too!
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!
Here I am, at the end of another work week, ready to undertake my 4-hour drive home. Then it's gonna be two weeks in Thailand and then... who knows? The situation at work has been, if possible, even more messed up and uncertian this last week, at least as far as my future is concerned. I don't know what will be of me, I will be flexible and ready to accept the path that my destiny has shaped for me. And then we'll see. In the meanwhile I'll keep enjoying some good music, and I'll keep sharing it with you all. Today I'm getting to post the first song out of Lana's new album since it has been released. After a couple of listens this is my favourite, and I think it actually kind of makes sense with my current situtation, even if I'm living it all with a perfect zen attitude, that is the main learning I've done in these past months!
It might seem weird for me to post a song out of Foals' 2013 'Holy fire' while they have just released a new album (which I'm listening to and liking quite a lot), but that's it. They have been my soundtrack for the drive of today, at least until I took on a girl for the second half of the way. Of course I've been enjoying the music, I found myself listening to Foals quite often lately, and I'm falling mroe and more in love with their songs, if possible. Their third album, the above-mentioned 'Holy fire', is the one that keeps growing and growing inside of me, even if I love it a lot (like, a lot!) already! (I mean, it just won the Mercury prize in 2013...)! And then I've been having the lyrics "Step out, aching stepson..." ringing in my head all day, so I didn't have to think too much about what to post today! I hope your week started well!!
What better song to share after a journey like this?! Let me tell you the story of my drive back home tonite after work, I haven't been laughing so hard for ages! I was travelling back home, one day in advance with respect to the usual schedule because I have some medical exams here tomorrow (of course), and as usual I uploaded my travel on Blablacar, the platform that allows you to share your car trips with other people. Today I had 2 girls contacting me, a single one and another one travelling with a friend; this latter one had kind of a "bitchy" picture, with a duck face and everything, but so many girls have it nowadays..! Well, when I get to the station, out meeting point, here I see those two girls, dressed up like hookers, belly out, piercings, platinum hair, cigarette, hard make-up... I say to myself "ooook!" and get them on, together with the other girl. When I asked them what they do for a living, they asked "hostess at events, modelling..." and then start talking on the phone with people, saying one of them tomorrow is at dinner with the surgeon and the other with someone else, and then one says that man are all the same, they are bad people but oh, how she loves c*ck! And then they wanted me to leave them at the highway barrier, even asked if they could walk through it on feet! I took them to the parking lot right after, and I'm still not sure about the guy that was supposed to come pick them up, if he was the "Moroccan", the "one who made their hair" or who else!
So much fun guys, so much fun! After we let them off, me and the other girl were laughing so hard! Guess they really are outlaws of love, and I am too, but in a totally different sense I'd say! Outlaws of love, outlaws of life!
Our road trip through Switzerland is going on, and after the beautiful Luzern, Zurich and Bern we have come to Basel, a city I have been willing to come to visit for the longest time! After a first, superficial look, the city center is maybe not as pretty as in the other cities we've visited, but my impression is not negative! Of course we have been driving miles and miles and music has been a good companion. I've been playing extensively out of my 2000s music playlists and today I am posting another song we've listened to (and of course sung to) in the car!
Yesterday was Ferragosto, one of my least favourite days in the whole year: it's the day when everything is closed in the cities, everybody is out and about, so places are crowded and expensive, and I (as all of my fellow Italians) am torn between staying at home doing nothing or going somewhere crowded and paying a lot of money for it. Well... this year it looks like I found a great solution to the problem: gather a good amount of people and have them over for a lunch-to-after-dinner event! And it's been awesome! My life is just so hectic lately that I get very very little time to spend with the people I really care about, so every time I get the chance to do it, I can't help rejoicing! Yesterday has been a great day, one of my best Ferragostos for sure! And back to the music: it feels weird posting something that is not London Grammar music today as I've been listening intensively to their debut album (and only one, so far). But I've been listening to other music too, and quite a lot of it, both yesterday with people around and today while I was cleaning up. And this album, R.E.M.'s 'Reveal', was noticed among the others in my collection by one of the friends I had over. We didn't get to play it yesterday, but after talking about it, I had it on my mind and I decided to play it today. And well... 'Imitation of life' is probably my favourite R.E.M. song, so it really does feel right to post it now!
After another hectic day cleaning-up and putting everything in order today, tomorrow I'll be on the road again, but I hope I'll get a little time to share my next adventures with you in the next few days! Even if summer is over (here at least), have a great new week!!
