going away :)

Funny how things turn out, we were talking about Matthew’s plans to go to Bundy with a mate for 2 weeks or so after Boxing Day, then Mum says well I might go to Tassie then. Lots of talk, lots of phone calls and websites etc

Well now Mum, Grandad and I are going on a big jaunt.

Grandad will fly to Hobart round the 24th I guess and spend Christmas with Aunty Margaret and Co, as he is not up to sitting in a car for 2 days whilst Mum and I do the slingshot drive to Melbourne.
Mum and I are leaving Brisbane on Christmas Day to drive to Melbourne, arriving late Boxing Day and will catch the Spirit of Tasmania on the morning of the 27th to arrive in Devonport that night. The next morning we will meet up with Aunty Margaret, Grandad and Co to visit the Australian Axeman’s Hall of Fame.
Then we will lots of sightseeing, the first things to come to mind are the Cadbury Factory, The Cascade and James Boag Breweries and of course Bellerive Oval, where I am planning to go see the Cascade Tasmanian Tigers play the XXXX Gold QLD Bulls on Jan 2 :), which will be even cooler if our second cousin Aaron Nye is playing

Then we leave Devonport on the Spirit of Tasmania again on the night of the 9th of Jan and arrive in Melbourne on the 10th, where I will meet up with some Scrapping buddies before we start the drive back. We are still very undecided if we will take the coast or country route home.

Yehaww!

new focuses

so many things have happened recently but I have been so *focused* on my uni work that I haven’t had a chance to share much.

Try this Technique – A while back I was asked along with some other girls to create some challeneges for Scrapbook Creations and my first one appeared in the mag this month 🙂 So any Aussie or NZ girls, you know you want to enter! There is $200 worth of Xyron to the winner! mmmm if only I could enter 🙂

No more essays …. till next year, handed in my last one this morning, now I just have four exams to ahhh breeze over.

Last Thursday, I had the oppurtunity to meet Ms Ali, and gorgeous Jack and her mum 🙂 I first made contact with Ali, many, many moons ago when I was needing people for an article I did for Scrapbook Creations and then somewhere along the way we started commenting in each other’s blogs etc and then last week we hooked up 🙂 Such a crazy girl, she very much brought out the dork in me 😀 and well Jack is just a monkey.

And the wonderful Tracy is back scrapbooking and utterly ripping up the gallery with her new creations.

And perhaps the biggest news, is that I am now almost grown up, only one more step on the path 🙂 I graduated to a real fake tooth last friday. I’ve gone from having a tooth on a retainer to a real fake tooth plate, complete with a little bit of fake gum above the tooth 🙂 The new plate is so much easier to speak with as well as been smaller and lighter in my mouth 🙂 and well not having a metal band always looks nicer 🙂 Now I just have to wait a couple of years till I can get an implant 🙂

new teeth

Yeah for dental technology!

7 down, 1 to go

white aus books

These books are where I have been the last little while, writing my last essay for the semester, which I handed in this morning. The oldest book in this stack was published in 1907. That’s right 1907. My essay was on the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 (White Australia Policy) and the question of whether or not it racist. Glad to have that one out of the way.

Now just one piece of assessment left, an investigative report on the conditions and prevalence of piracy in the seas of South East Asia. Bring on the Exams!

Live Music Archive

An unexpected music related post.

Busy working on my final essays at the moment, but on a break this evening I stumbled on the Live Music Archive

I have been using the Internet Wayback Machine part of Archive.org for quite a while now and had looked at the other parts but had never noticed the Live Music Archive, one of the cool things about the archive is that most of the music is in lossless formats – hence big downloads but superb sound quality.

Now for some of you, namely my family I guess, you would know that I love covers and live versions of songs; you can tell how much I like a song by how many different covers I have found of the song 🙂 I always get a kick out of a concert when a cover is played. So of course one of the things I like to do is to type in a song or band name in the search engine and watch the covers come up 🙂

Want to listen to some shows that have been played in Brisbane – Well look here Or how about browsing the list of bands and the list of bands that have MP3/OGG files as well the large lossless files

Here is a list of bands that I found on my first browse through, there is a heap of bands here!
On the band pages, the number in brackets after the year is the number of shows for that year, for instance Jack Johnson has 116 shows on the archive!

Hamsa Lila
Death Cab For Cutie
Hayseed Dixie
311
Ari Hest
Ben Kweller
Ben Lee
Maroon5
Buthole Surfers
Damien Rice
Del Mar
Donavon Frankenreiter Band
Elliot Smith
Tenacious D
G. Love and Special Sauce
The Moutain Goats
Michael Franti and Spearhead
John Butler Trio
Jason Mraz
Jack Johnson
Howie Day
Ryan Adams
Soul Coughing
Southern Culture On The Skids
Spoon
The Decemberists
Tristan Prettyman
Vanessa Carlton
Xavier Rudd
Grateful Dead
Warren Zevon

This is an amazing source of music to listen to and discover 🙂 so head on over to the Live Music Archive and browse!

shared music

The second installment of my music related posts.

Music is something that we share with those around us, we tell people of new music we have discovered, they share with us some of their favourites and if all goes well we find new music we like. Today I am sharing a tiny slice of the music that people have shared with me through my life. I don’t think I have a friend who has not introduced me to at least one new artist. Music makes the world go round 🙂

Karl

My older brother has probably shared the most music with me, growing up we listened to what he listened to, we looked up to him. I could be here all day sharing music that Karl has shared. A couple that stand out are.

The Velvet Underground – In particular Sweet Jane, just a few months ago when we were in Iceland, Matthew and I stayed with Karl and Anika (one of our sister’s), we spent a fair bit of time rocking out in the kitchen/dining/living area to the strains of Velvet Underground.

The BreedersSafari was the first song we saw from the Breeders on a tape of Rage, that Karl had recorded one night, I remember sitting there enthralled with the video clip, seeing Josephine Wiggs with her bass and pink hair rocking out. We didn’t have the internet back in those days like we do now, I remember standing in Rocking Horse Records with Karl looking at the Breeders albums, and he walked out with Last Splash. The Breeders are a band that I have always fallen back on, fantastic lyrics, enchanting vocals, all just perfect listening.

World Music and Electronica/dance etc, I know two very different genres but Karl introduced me to the Gypsy Kings, Buena Vista Social Club, B(i)ftek, Hamsa Lila and heaps of other stuff, nothing like chilling to some laid back beats/tunes. Relax.

Pabbi
My dad has influenced my music tastes in so many ways; I mean he is the Papa! Growing up in our household you were assured of listening to some sort of music every night when the washing up was happening. I remember dancing round the living room with Pabbi to Hava Nagila, the days of innocence! There was of course all the standards; ABBA, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkle, The Seekers, The Drifters, Johnny Cash, Peter Paul and Mary, James Last etc etc as well as some others

Harry Belafonte – Again more memories of belting out songs like Kingston Town in the living room.

Mahalia Jackson – Every Christmas Eve, Pabbi puts one of her records and that is the only household music we get, nothing wrong with as she does have an amazing voice. Have you heard her singing Silent Night? Mahalia had the voice.

Ladi Geisler’s album Guitar ala Carte is without a doubt the most played record in our house, almost impossible to find a copy of and we haven’t yet found a copy of volume II of Guitar ala Carte. If you ever hear some of his recordings you will not be disappointed, this man creates magic with his guitar.

Mum
Anyone who knows her will know that she refers to music as noise, however she does have a few musical interests, namely the soundtrack from Paint Your Wagon. Probably one of my early introductions into soundtracks, have you heard Clint Eastwood sing? The Gospel Of No Name City, I Talk To The Trees etc etc

Matthew
My little brother who lives in mainly black shirts with some punk band on the front, without him I would not know of many of his bands

Marilyn Healy
A very sweet pea and incredible artist, her signature line used be a couple of lines of a Howard Jone‘s song called Life In One Day, total 80’s central with Howard, ever since that moment when I looked those lyrics up, well I have been bopping along with HJ

Kathryn Nichols
One of the girls I went to primary school with, we caught the same bus home, I gave her a tape with a Toni Braxton song on, she gave me a tape of Alanis Morissette‘s Jagged Little Pill and well the rest is history, I don’t think I need to explain the Alanis factor, the voice, the lyrics, everything

Wübke Peters
Wübke, is the girl I stayed with in Germany and is actually at our house at the moment, her Christmas present to me, was a ticket to a Die Happy concert, have not met anyone since Germany who has ever heard of Die Happy but they are a band that gets high rotation on my play lists. Song of note is Cry For More

Sean
He showed me a lot of new music and opened my eyes to bands that I had ignored. Two more obscure bands that I found through Sean are Mest and Taking Back Sunday, two bands that I whole heartedly recommend that you go listen to.

Year 12 Tech Tute Teacher
Tech Tute, was essentially a free class which often resulted in class discussions with our teacher, one day some of the boys asked the teacher what music she liked and she answered Elliott Smith, I of course went home and found what music I could of his and have been hooked ever since, just love the music, the melodies and of course his voice.

This is only the smallest sampling of music that people have shared with me and only a sample of what I listen to, from folk songs to punk to 80’s pop, I like my music all over the place.

one album

The first in a series of music related posts.

If the music police came to your house and told you that for the rest of your life, you could only listen to one album for the rest of time, what would you choose? My choice always surprises me. I don’t think I could pick a single artist so it has to be a compilation or a soundtrack and I have so many to pick from but the winner?

Icelandic Pop Favourites – you can listen to previews from this link.

Toti, Anna and the kids sent this home with Pabbi after his 2000 trip to Iceland if I recall correctly, Matthew was sent one of the companion CD’s – Icelandic Rock Favourites. Without a doubt, this CD is the one that I have played the most, it was one for the first I ripped to MP3 format and again one of the first to be uploaded to my MP3 player.

The thing is though, I remember opening up the wrapping paper, seeing the CD and thought uggh Pop, why couldn’t I have got rock or something like Matthew, how wrong was I. Icelandic pop and music in general is so different to anything else I have heard. I am not a big pop fan but nothing could replace this CD in my collection.

I see the CD as having two styles in it, the first the tracks with a dance anthem theme; repetitive lyrics, lots of beats, the second style are the tracks with a focus on the vocals, less beats more guitar and piano but still very upbeat, these are songs that you can clean to. Some songs are in English, some are in Icelandic, sure I only understand some words in the Icelandic songs but I still love them.

Track Listing
Selma Björnsdóttir – All out of luck
Ég elska alla – Stjórnin
Síðan hittumst við aftur – SSSól
Gus Gus – Ladyshave
Móa – Joy and Pain
Sálin hans Jóns míns – Okkar nótt
Todmobile – Stúlkan
Maryland – Dreaming
Bubbi – Sumar konur
Sóldögg – Friður
Nýdönsk – Horfðu til himins
Stuðmenn – Komdu með
URL – Song in A
Tweety – Gott mál
Greifarnir – Skiptir engu máli
Ã? móti sól – Ã? þig

My favourite track on the CD is without a doubt Stuðmenn’s Komdu með, I can’t really tell you why, other than the fact that each time I find myself singing away. My name on MSN and ICQ many, many times in my younger days was Komdu með or Helen – Komdu með.

So thanks to Toti and family for putting an irreplaceable album in my collection and opening my ears to a whole new world of music.

You can buy single songs from Tonlist for USD$0.99, bargain! Go explore Icelandic music 🙂 and if you could only have one album from your collection, what would it be?