People I Would Marry

Continuing in the theme of lists, I present to you a list of women who, if asked, I would marry then and there. In theory. And if the age difference wasn’t so great for some of them. They’re in order of who I’d prefer to marry the most.

• Emiliana Torrini
  Okay, so I put some conditions there, but I actually plan to ask Emiliana Torrini to marry me when I see her in November, regardless of the age difference (and the possibility of her being already taken).
   
• Emily Deschanel
  BONES! Emily Deschanel, as Temperance Brennan in Bones, is one of my favourite characters ever. She’s the main reason I always check the TV Shows section whenever I’m in JB Hi-Fi, waiting for Season 2 to come out here officially. And season 3, and 4.
   
• Norah Jones
   I’ve always liked her a lot for her music, but after seeing her act in My Blueberry Nights recently, my mind is made up. 
   
• Rose Byrne
  If you haven’t seen the movie The Rage In Placid Lake, you should. You will also want to marry Rose Byrne’s geeky character, Gemma. 
   
• Emily Mortimer
  I first saw her in Lars and the Real Girl, and have since also seen A Foreign Affair, and I love her in both of them. 
   
• Sarah Blasko
  Well, I do have a poster of her in my room (although the wind blew it down and I haven’t put it back up yet).

I don’t know how much hope I have, but who knows? Maybe one day…

Hehe.

Soundtrack To My Life (Draft II)

Lizzie reminded me of my draft ‘Soundtrack To My Life‘ from a while back – a list of ten songs that, after being whittled down to just five, would form the soundtrack to a movie about my life. That ten songs, as good as they are, were heavily influenced by recent events, and as a result of realising this, I made it clear that it was only a draft. Well, I was thinking, and can a list of songs ever be unbiased by current events and feelings? I think not, so I figured that over time, I’d publish a number of ‘draft’ soundtracks, and from those, I should be able to work out a pretty good final soundtrack. So here’s draft number two.

- Belle and Sebastian – I’m A Cuckoo
I can’t really leave out this song, but then sometimes I think I should. I haven’t listened to it in quite a while, but at the same time, it means so much. What should really go on a soundtrack?

- Belle and Sebastian – My Wandering Days Are Over
I just can’t get over the line “It’s gotta be fate that’s doing it / A spooky witch in a sexy dress has been bugging me”. I’m awfully tempted to go to a Halloween party, just so that I can try and pick up a girl dressed as a witch (okay, so given that it’s me, it doesn’t seem likely, but still).

- Belle and Sebastian - Seeing Other People
I just love this song so much, it’s unbelievable. The sexuality, the ambiguity, the sexual ambiguity. The sound of Stuart’s voice. It’s almost perfect.

- Ben Lee – Ache for You
Because aching for somebody can be fun, and nobody aches like Ben Lee.

- The Cat Empire – Days Like These
Summer! The Cat Empire have been my new loves this summer, although I’ve only really got into their first album, plus a bit of their second. It’s perfect for sitting around (or walking) on a hot sunny day, and I just love the rhymes and juxtapositions in the lyrics.

- The Cure – Just Like Heaven
This song is my most played over the last couple of months – I just can’t get enough of it. It’s nice for summer, nice for winter, and nice for being happy and dreamy. Shame I can’t find it on vinyl.

- Pete Murray – Fly With You
I haven’t listened to this in a while, but that doesn’t mean it has lost any meaning. Oh my, the meaning, and the dreaming, and the ‘what if?’s.

- The Shins – Girl Inform Me
As much as I love the other two albums, I’m pretty certain Oh, Inverted World is my absolute favourite, especially on warm rainy days. Or just rainy days in general. Among its songs, Girl Inform Me has been the one that has stuck with me the most, in no small part due to “unknown quotients, you must be using potions / how else could you tie my head to the sky?”. I love James Mercer.

- The Shins – Gone for Good
One of my favourite lyric-stories ever, and not about to change. Also, it includes the word ‘elope’, which is awesome.

- Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Oregon Girl
The perfect crush song, which I guess explains why I’ve been listening to it so much recently. Rather twee, but hey, it’s not the bad kind.

- Vampire Weekend – Walcott
I’ve been reminded of this song a lot recently, not least because I saw Little Red the other night (first time I saw Little Red they were supporting Vampire Weekend). It’s not necessarily the VW song I listen to the most, but it’s so nice and summery, great for a chase of some sort (especially out of Cape Cod), and it has that memory. The one of Ezra Koenig (with his beautiful light) pointing frantically when singing “mystic seaboard is that way”. It doesn’t even matter that he pointed the wrong way. 

I realise there’s eleven there, but I’d already made the list, and then remembered a song that couldn’t really be left off. Eleven is kinda cooler than ten, anyway.

I guess the hardest part of making one of these lists is the criteria. Is it a list of favourite songs, or a list of songs whose lyrics can applied to situations in your life? Given that it’s a soundtrack, I guess it’d have to be a combination of the two, but that makes it awfully hard to pick. I guess this is a combination of the two, and as I said before, I guess only time, and multiple lists, will tell which songs should really be there.

If anybody wants to make their own, I’d totally love to see them! See what songs you pick, and how you work them out. Just make sure you let me know!

Little Red @ Manning Bar (Sydney Uni), 23-10-08

This was the first gig I’ve actually been on time to for a while now, although it was kind of all for nothing. We watched the first couple of songs of the first band (The Mischief), and then went into the next room to chat; the band wasn’t bad, they just weren’t very exciting, either. Besides, who can refuse discussing such interesting things as queering Jesus?

Due to the conversation we also missed the second support, Cloud Control, although they sounded pretty good from a distance. But, of course, we headed in soon after Cloud Control finished, full of anticipation for our most-seen band of the year (and ever). Well, Lizzie and I, at least, have seen them three times now.

Their set was considerably different to what I’m used to – almost the entire middle section was filled with unreleased songs, (presumably) from an upcoming album. And although they were good songs, they weren’t as energetic, and didn’t hold up live against brilliance such as Jackie Cooper and Coca Cola, and as a result it got a little, well, boring. As much as it pains me to say that. In fact, the band as a whole seemed a bit tired, which I guess is understandable given the amount of touring they’ve been doing recently.

Some of the atmosphere was also ruined by the crowd, though. Given that it was a Thursday night at a Uni bar (college night, Lizzie informs me), there were a very large number of drunk students who had no idea who Little Red were, and they caused a number of problems and distractions. I’m trying to remember when Broken Social Scene (the only other gig I’ve been to at Manning) was, because it was a much better crowd. That said, I guess BSS would’ve sold out relatively quickly, not leaving room for spur-of-the-moment uni kids to join in.

So out of the three Little Red gigs, I’ve been to, it’s definitely third on the list of favourites, but it was a pretty good night out, and I’m looking forward to seeing them again at Meredith!

Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini (2008)

Emiliana Torrini just released her third album, following her brilliant debut Love in the Time of Science, and distinctly different (but also amazing) follow-up Fisherman’s Woman. Her style has changed a lot over the years; some describe her debut as ‘trip-hop’ (although I don’t know that I’d go that far), whereas Fisherman’s Woman is a lot more folky.

Me and Armini fits nicely in between these two, while at the same time venturing out still more. It’s got more bouncy, happy songs than Fisherman’s Woman - such as Jungle Drums and Big Jumps - which I found to be a nice surprise, and a perfect addition to any summer soundtrack.

As a result of the new album, she’s also going on tour, and is playing in Sydney on the 17th of November, and Melbourne on the 18th. I’m so excited to be going, and you should be too! Should be sublime.

Emiliana Torrini on MySpace!

More Fun Times at the Café

I went to the café this evening, and she was there.

We stared a lot, but not in an awkward way. Just normal eye contact, but we held the gaze longer than necessary.

It was brilliant, but at the same time… I don’t know. Something.

I don’t know if I like Mondays or Fridays better.

I do know that I like it better by myself (no offence, dear friends).

Big Brother in the UK

If this ever happens in Australia, I’m moving. Dead set, no question about it.

Parties! And Other Updates

So yeah, the last couple of weeks have been party party party, combined with study study study, crush crush crush, and even a bit of workity work thrown in for good measure.

Actually, there’s only been two parties, but both of them were excellent. First was my birthday party, on my actual birthday, which was a Monopoly hat party. Surprisingly enough, everybody actually wore a hat (except Lexie, who was excused due to her brilliant mask). I don’t actually know who won Monopoly (clearly not me), but it was a great night overall, and I shall have to remember to organise more such things (I keep meaning to, I just forget… Birthday seemed as good excuse as any). Um um um… Oh, there was also a surprisingly even gender balance. Not sure whether that has any relevance, but it was strange nonetheless. Anyway, thank you to everyone who came along, it was brilliant!

All this means, however, that I am twenty. No more teenage years for me! I’m a bit apprehensive about it, really, but I guess it’s not really a terribly big deal, in the end. And hey, at least I’m not as old as Steve.

Last Friday night was Jack’s 19th (he’s so youthful!), so Lizzie and I made the train trek up to Newcastle for the night. I’d never been to Jack’s place before (his last party was at Grace’s), but it was a nifty little bachelor pad, fo’ shiz. I caught up with all the people I loved meeting last year (some of which I hadn’t seen since then), and had a ball overall. Then Rob drove us home on his way back to Parkes, which was rather better than the train. Here’s to next year!

Not much else going on, except that I took the day off work today to study for my Mobile Networking exam, which was this evening. I didn’t intend to, but given the lack of study completed over the weekend (I have extreme difficulty getting any motivation together to study), and strong encouragement from Dimitri after Spanish this morning, I rang my boss and explained the situation.

I feel really bad about taking days off work – it seems to be happening a bit lately, although that’s mostly due to being sick and the public holiday – but boy was it worth it. I don’t claim to have aced the exam or anything, but I swear I did at least seventy-three per cent better than I would have if I hadn’t spent all that time studying this afternoon. I guess it just has to be the right time and place, and today I seeemed to be in the right space for it (or at least was freaking out enough). I didn’t mind it, though; I just sat around learning stuff and singing and dancing to music. Not the worst part of life, right? But yeah, except my right hand, which hasn’t done that much writing in years, I felt pretty great coming out of the exam.

Afterwards, I meandered over to Well Connected, my cafe of choice recently, and was greeted with a surprise. I haven’t been there all that often recently (no, really!), but when I walked in, the waitress smiled and asked if I wanted a banana smoothie. This was because she recognised me from last time (or the time before, or something…), when I ordered a smoothie. Sadly, I had to change it from banana to mixed berry, but it was close!

Actually, come to think of it, the likely reason for her remembering is that last time I went there on a Monday, I was awfully sick, and made a complete fool of myself – a certain waitress was there… Do not combine sickness and certain waitresses, bad idea. This was not the certain waitress, but yeah. Eh. I’m rambling, I’ve actually lost track of where I am, and where I stopped being interesting. Or am I?

o.O

Catch you later, kids!

Songs for Crushing on You

Current favourite songs, with respective quotes:

Oregon Girl – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
   Oregon girl, with your lips and your curls / I want a taste of that Oregon girl.

Just Like Heaven – The Cure
   Um, the whole first two verses.

My Wandering Days are Over – Belle and Sebastian
   A spooky witch in a sexy dress has been bugging me.

Think I Wanna Die – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
   While I sat at home wishing we could elope.
   Sorry if that’s twee, it’s just tomorrow’s hope.

So I’m maybe being a little idealistic at the moment… Not that I don’t enjoy it.

US Financial Crisis Explained

So, thanks to Kevin of the Bygone Bureau (which I highly recommend, by the way), I finally understand the current US economic meltdown. And all explained in terms of Pokemon!

Brilliant.

CLICK CLICK CLICK.