Examined

That's it, exams over. Six days of cramming and note-taking and exam sitting finished with. Now there's nothing to do but wait for the results. Well, that and catch up on four day's work. Bugger.

Audiofile #1

I love Mariana's blog-series (especially the "Thank you, sir" series (scroll down) delicious and complex, like a good cup of coffee... mmm coffee... where was I?

Right. So, since I did promise you a music file last post round, and since I have quite a large collection of those, I thought, maybe I could try a little series of my own.

Without further waffle:



Rodrigo y Gabriella - Tamacun

Just two guitars, one take, pure.

www.rodgab.com



*edit*
Right, file is now being hosted properly, just click...

Real Music

05222006026
Originally uploaded by delta_avi_delta.

I try to keep up with the "little" artists I used to follow around Dublin (until the barring orders were enacted - and you thought I came here for work, hah!). Of all the groups, Rodrigo y Gabriela were the most special, the most talented, the least appreciated - so when I noticed they had a new studio album the credit card number leapt from my fingers.

They hate that their music gets mis-labeled "flamenco", so I'll say it sounds "latin", with a strong shot of thrash metal, driven with a rhythm technique that's all their own. Imagine if techno had been invented by banging on acoustic guitars and you're halfway there. Almost all of the album is made with only two nylon-strung guitars, and two pairs of blessed hands.

The music has spontaniety, playfulness, fluency, flow, energy excitement... oh, here - words aren't going to do it justice - wait while I agonise of which track to give you...

From Zero to Hero

So Finland, the country with the most zero point scoring entries in the Eurovision song contest has won, courtesy of the band Lordi and their hard-rockin' "Hard Rock hallelujah" - lets call it an homage to 1980s metal.

In a sea of sound-alike, stunning but shallow performers, they stood out with their originality, musicianship, and ok, bonkers monster costumes. The Eurovision used to be a tedious joke (except when Ireland won of course), and it's been tending towards irony as our cynical generation rises to ascendancy (check out the Latvian Lithuanian entry - "We are the winners (of Eurovision)") - so it could be said that were engineered, that an entrant that was good, and yet opposed everything the contest stands for had a good chance. I say that's us being cynical again - the band are scarily representative of Finnish musical tastes and output (HIM, Nightwish, Apocolyptica, et al), and the performance was fantastic, so fair play to them.

Unfortunately it seems like Finns aren't quite sure how to celebrate. Our brainwave - head down to a square in town with a big-screen - backfired when

a) there was nothing special on the big screen
b) the square was full of some crazy XBox promotional shite, and...
c) nobody was celebrating outside.

We wandered onwards to a club, but the atmosphere was par for a Saturday night: a slightly disappointing end to a great night. Of course this means there's the chance to actually attend the contest in person next year, assuming I'm still here...

A post

I was taken to task for the lack of own-brand excrement emminating from this here interweb sewer pipe earlier, so it's been on my consciousness, if not my conscience.

I've been out with friends, I'm horribly, yea, bitterly tired after a night spent pondering great mysteries, dis- or mis-remembering the conclusions, and fighting off sleep-deprivation induced paranoia, chronologically. The latter mostly involves trying to restrain my imagination. I worried that someone will try to kill me.

I decided I am mostly afraid of the pain.

I remember recognising there really were evil people - people whose drives orient them against society - and finding it a depressing, disheartening thought. I puzzled over how to deal with this kind of person, without stooping to their level. I decided that punishment should have an educational component, a chance for redemption, or else it was just vindictiveness, retribution. I decided that if a punishment's purpose was to make an example of someone, that wasn't fair. I can't remember the exact reasoning.

There have been *things* back home lately, things with more gravity than normal. When I'm unoccupied my thought tend towards bigger questions. The big questions don't have answers, only opinions, but the opinions have repercussions - they challenge perception of self, the world, and everything in between.

I worry I'm purely cerebral, emotionally numb.

Then today, at lunch, we talking about writing, blogging, language skills. It's held amongst some friends that this is a space for me to vent my circumlocutions safely. I'll freely admit my style tends to the verbose, but I've always been like this. My english teacher likened me to Polonious. I like words and language, I think of the more esoteric as rare, precious.

I'm not sure if this is merely egotistical.

Anywhoo, somehow all of that conspires to put me in the mood to write a little.

I wonder if pressing "post" is exhibitionist.

Being me

A massive thank you to all who made my birthday so memorable. For those of you who had to miss the goings on, what with prior engagements, geographical problems, what have you - the scarily creative Helsinki bunch printed masks of, well, me. Very *very* disquieting to come home and find you have an androgynous clone cohort. I feel a rapport with John Malkovich. Thanks again, it was really rather rare and wonderful, and I hope I can reciprocate on the relevant dates.

For now, I'm off second hand bike shopping. I've decided that this is going to be one of those feel-good dramas - I'll look at plenty of shiny bikes with sparkly chrome fenders, but I'll leave them behind knowing other potential owners will snap them up. In the back I'll see one neglected, shy bicycle, stout frame but careworn parts, clearly in need of some TLC. The going will be rough in the beginning - it'll have problems sleeping at night, and then there'll be the phase where it attacks people it doesn't know, but eventually we'll all learn a valuable lesson.


Blimey, this whole anthropomorphisisation (say that ten times quickly) thing has changed my perspective... you don't suppose the last bike... ran off?

Philosophical

On reflection, recent history had indicated to me that having insurance would be judicious (ask Heinz), but here I stand, tinily representative of humanity's incapacity to learn from History.

On slightly more zen-like reflection, I have my health, friends, family, a job, and two front teeth (touch wood) for fuck sake - it's mentally and spiritually unhealthy to mourn lost possessions, or to get attached to mere things.

But the observation with the most clarity, that rings most of Truth: he who is so dumbassed naive as to leave his attractive bike untethered, yea even in the locked apartment basement, has delivered his application to The School of Hard Knocks, with acceptance pending.

In other news, simply prefixing my heretofore inconsequential "behave!" command with "Taarzaan says" caused the computer to take heed. She's been running smoothly ever since. I officially give up on you, Simple Simon, you just don't cut the mustard. Let us hope Taarzaan's other decree comes to pass with equal effectiveness. And while you're figuring out why I made those words blue, click on Anonymous's link at the end of that page - his blog will soon change topic somewhat, I salute you sir.

Finally, I am approximately 8766 hours old. Thanks to the rate of Earth's solar orbit, that equals cake.

Numerically Satisfying

In British time format, tonight saw

1:23 4/5/06

Later on, in reverse, it'll be

06/5/4 3:21

Admit it, you find it pleasing.

Distraught

Some fucker stole my bike.