Monday, November 19, 2012

Are 'Friends' Electric?


I've been trying to be more productive lately. And that means making a pin with a robot on it.

Other things I've been up to these days:
  • getting excited about The Hobbit
  • watching a lot of the Mighty Boosh
  • sewing a faux fur coat (don't ask me why)
  • stressing out that it's almost time for the holidays.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Summertearz

 

Less than a month left of summer. Things have been quiet here and so have I. I can't believe it's been over 2 months since my last post. In between there have been birthday parties, trips to the record store, late night bus rides. (And lots of getting really excited about Blur gigs, none of which I got to see in person.)

And here's some Little Dragon with the song from the title of this post. (How cool is Yukimi? And all of Little Dragon, for that matter?)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Celine cries over OK Computer

It's been a while since I posted and, as usual, I don't have much to say. So here's another favourite album. Again, I feel weird trying to articulate my feelings about music, so it's really just anecdotes that are somewhat-related to this album and the tracks I chose.

OK Computer by Radiohead (1997)

I think I mentioned in a previous post about liking music that has a sort of other-worldly quality to it. Sort of like space music. I have a little analogue ribbon synth that I will sit and play with for ages, just making weird blippy noises and squeaks and stuff. And most of the apps on my phone are drum machines, synths, and even a weird keyboard thing. Basically I'm a big nerd for sound.

And that's what I love so much about this album. The layers of sound, sounds you can't quite recognize, the effects...I get excited by that kind of stuff. And Thom Yorke's voice never ceases to amaze me. I saw Radiohead live for the first time this year and they sound just as awesome live as they do on record.

Favourite tracks:
  • Exit Music (For a Film)
  • Karma Police - I've sung this at karaoke. Perhaps not the best choice for karaoke.
  • No Surprises - One time I wrote a short paper in college about the use of this song in  a movie. I always tried to tie any assignments to music and movies. That time I managed both in one. Success!
  • Lucky

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Phone photos

 




I don't tend to take very exciting pictures with my phone, but here are a few recent-ish highlights.

1. Radiohead. Amazing. That's really all I can say about it.
2. It poured buckets and for some reason, I decided I needed a break from work and ended up just walking around for about an hour, getting soaked. But somehow only one of my shoes seemed to get wet. (Not really a highlight of recent times, but here's the picture, nonetheless.)
3. Arctic Monkeys and The Black Keys. We had seats way high up we were excited to get to sit down because it's kind of rough going to a gig after a horrible day at work, but everyone in our section stood, so we had to stand in order to be able to see anything. And I could still barely see.
During the encore, they lowered a big disco ball.  I'm not usually a real fan of big light shows during shows, but all of the different colours floating around made it seem like we were underwater.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Waiting




1. at my new dentist's office. It had fancy marble floors.
2. for the bus to go to the theatre downtown. It was too warm for tights, but I didn't find that out until I had already left the house. Typical.
3. for the bus to go to work. Or maybe this was coming home from work.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Blah

The blurriest scan ever. Oops.
I don't really have much to say at the moment. I have some proper adult decisions that need to be made, which wouldn't be such a big deal if I wasn't pretty much the world's biggest eternal baby. Sometimes I just wish someone else could make all decisions for me. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be expected to function as an adult when I can't remember to wear my glasses at least three days a week. How does that even work? Apparently I don't notice when I can't see very well.
Wow. That sounds like a major downer. Sorry. Things are not all stressful though. I'm waiting eagerly for my CD/DVD and vinyl copies of Graham Coxon's new album, which should be here this week! I waited eagerly at my computer on Sunday for midnight to come in the UK so I could download it on itunes. Best thing ever! I've been listening to it obsessively since then. I even listen to it on repeat at work and by sneakily plugging my skype headset into my phone and hiding my phone under a stack of papers on my desk. The lengths I go to for my obsessions over music...I feel like my life would be so much better if the only decisions I had to make were which album to listen to at any given time. Although that can be pretty stressful as well.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

London (3)











A few more photos from London. We stayed in a flat in Camden, which was pretty awesome. I don't like staying in hotels and am too picky to stay in hostels, so renting a flat was the perfect option. Plus then you don't have to eat out all the time!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

London (2)

These are the only photos I could manage since I was pretty much freaking out the whole time.

The highlight of my trip to London was definitely seeing Blur at the Brits, which was the main motivation for my going in the first place. I know they got a lot of negative press afterwards, and yes, I might be a bit biased, but I thought they were amazing and the most exciting performers of the night.

A few days later, we went to the National Portrait Gallery, where there was a Lucian Freud exhibit. I was really struck by the following quote from him: What do I ask of a painting? I ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.

It reminded me of what I look for in the music and made me consider what it was that I that I love so much about Blur (and all my favourite bands/musicians). I'm not just interested in something that's easy and pretty and safe. I want music that excites me and challenges me and maybe even scares me. Sure, their performance wasn't the most polished of the acts that night, but it wasn't staid and choreographed. It was full of excitement and energy and enthusiasm.

And to be perfectly honest, I was so caught up in everything and excited to be there that I really enjoyed all of the performances, even though I don't listen to any of the other artists and didn't know the songs.

Okay, I always feel super pretentious when I try to talk seriously about music and this happened nearly two weeks ago, but I just felt the need to share this.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

London











Just a few photos from my trip to London. I had a really fantastic time. I was feeling a little guilty travelling all the way to Europe and not spending any time Berlin (the first time ever), but, to be honest, I'm glad I didn't try to squeeze both into the little over a week I had. I feel like whatever time I spend in London is never enough. There's just so much to see and do and eat and experience. But mostly I kind of just like visiting different areas and wandering around.

I did bring home an awful lot of tea and vegan sweets. Including a bag of peach flavoured gummy candies, which I tried to savour and only eat a couple a day, but I ended up finishing the bag in 3 days. Now I'm trying to hunt them down online.

Friday, February 17, 2012

London Loves

Doing some last-minute, late night packing (is there any other kind?) for my trip. I'm off tomorrow for a week. A week without checking work emails, which is a first. I'll have internet access, but I'm flatly refusing to do any work while I'm away.

A week without work is exciting enough, but I'm seeing Blur (and the other artists performing...) at the Brits on Tuesday! I can't even express my excitement about this, you guys!

Well, I should finish up my packing and try to get some sleep. See you when I get back!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cut Your Hair

Yet another phone photo of a drawing, which is why the colour is so weird.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I chopped my hair off a couple weeks ago. Or rather, I had it chopped off. It's taken some getting used to because I've never had hair this short before and I still find myself reaching back to fix a pony tail that isn't there. Mostly it's meant I have to actually brush my hair now because otherwise it sticks up all over the place.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

These Days (2)


Things have been rather crazy with work lately, and I've been neglecting this blog and spending time on tumblr instead...but here's a quick rundown of some things that have been going down lately:

- Breakfast with co-workers across the street from our office. There aren't many choices for non-meat-eaters, but I go mostly for the company. And the hashbrowns. Maybe more for the hashbrowns, if I'm honest. (I'm kidding. Sort of.)

- A Blur t-shirt I got off ebay. It was a men's XL, but I cut it down to fit me. I was nervous about messing it up, but I'm super happy with the results and kind of want to wear it all the time. But apparently I couldn't be bothered with making sure it wasn't wrinkly for this picture. Oh well.

- An excellent package of stuff from a friend in Berlin: candles, a matchbox from kaufbar in Berlin, a photo album and a book on Braunschweig - the city he's from and the city my father's side of the family is from.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Snow days

That's the view from my bedroom window. It's been snowing here for the past few days and everything has sort of come to a stop. I live on a rather busy street and it's been pretty silent for the past two days. No one from our office has gone into work and I've only ventured out once to buy some noodles to make vegan mac and cheese and to get this little pegasus from Kyrgyzstan from a travel bookshop that had holiday stuff on sale.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Celine cries over The Man Who

I drew this a long time ago and had it sitting in drafts.
My hair is longer (about shoulder-length) now. Just wanted to clarify.

The Man Who by Travis (1999)

I love Travis. I'm fairly certain I've seen them live more than any other group (I've even met Fran, Andy, and their keyboard player Claes after one of their shows and Fran signed his name and drew wings on the back of my shirt. Pretty awesome!) This is my favourite Travis album and I've listened to it consistently since I was in college. I love everything about this album: the production, the arrangements, the artwork (and the artwork of the singles).

Favourite tracks:

- "Writing to Reach You" - Once in a photography class we had to do a project where we had to take one photo for each word of a 7+ word phrase of our choosing and I chose "Everyday I wake up and it's Sunday". No one in the class knew the song.

- "As You Are" - Another of my desert island discs.