GenesisDreams

Gigs

Music I realise that my blog is looking extremely bare, so I thought I would update everyone on the Gigs I have been to recently. Nikkie got this big spurt of inspiration, and in an effort to stop us being complacent went and booked a whole bunch of gigs to keep us occupied for the next six months or so. To date we have seen a couple of big acts at the MEN in Manchester, as well as a smaller more sensual gig at the Apollo. In chronological order:

1. Scissor Sisters These guys were bloody awesome. Nikkie was a big fan, though I hadn't seriously listened to any of their albums. Of course I was aware of their songs and heard their singles on the radio, but I wasn't prepared for how many of them I knew and how much they rocked! As this was the first gig I've been to at the MEN I didn't really know what to expect, but when I got there I was blown away. This is Europe's largest indoor arena, think the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and then quadruple it... at least. We drove from Liverpool which only took 40 minutes, found a cheap and easy park, and rolled in just at the end of the support act and before the "sisters" came on. Great show over all, lots of glam and all that stuff, a really good night.
2. Gwen Stafani Fantastic! I love Gwen, she is so cool. Nikkie loves her fashion style, I love her Harajuku girls! The gig kicked off with "The Sweet Escape", and it flew on from there. Gwen really works up to the audience, at one point she even ran out into it, around the arena and up into one of the seating areas. I was really surprised, that was a gutsy move. At the end she even laughed and said she got hit on the head pretty hard! At the end she did an encore of a few No Doubt tracks, and the grand finale was "What you waiting for?". Cool gig.
3. Underword This was a smaller show, at the Manchester Apollo, to promote Underworld's new album "Oblivion with Bells". I had listed the the album a few times at the gym, and had it pumping in the car on the way over, and overall I really like it. A little different from their normal stuff, but good all the same. I met Nikkie there, as she was on training up in Leeds and had gotten the train down. It was a small, intimate venue, and you could get up close and personal with the boys. The played all of their great tracks, including a awesome Born Slippy which of the crowd went wild at. I've got a video on my phone which I will try and save off and put online for you guys to see. It was great. It was also a good thing we caught them when we did, as the cancelled the rest of their European tour shortly after we saw then because of illness.

So that's who I have been to see so far. The week after next we are going to see Crowded House (we will be the youngest there by far I am sure) and after that it is kind of a mystery. Nikkie booked all the tickets, and has the schedule, and just tells me a few weeks in advance to be sure I don't have to be anywhere for work. It's great, and I am seeing more live music that I ever have before.

Downtime

General - Music - Quotes Genesisdreams has been has been having some technical difficulties recently. Please don't worry if you tried to access the site over the past couple of weeks and found that you couldn't get here. The site is not down and out for good, and I'll do my best to start writing entries more often as well! Now becuase the site looks weird with only one small entry, I am going to post some song lyrics that I like.

Ground control to Major Tom Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown engine's on
Check ig-nition and may God's love be with you
David Bowie - Ground Control To Major Tom Today was gonna be the day? But they’ll never throw it back to you By now you should’ve somehow Realised what you’re not to do I don’t believe that anybody Feels the way I do About you now Oasis - Wonderwall Hey you, out there in the cold Getting lonely, getting old Can you feel me? Hey you, standing in the aisles With itchy feet and fading smiles Can you feel me? Hey you, don’t help them to bury the light Don’t give in without a fight. Pink Floyd - Hey You And it’s whispered that soon If we all call the tune Then the piper will lead us to reason. And a new day will dawn For those who stand long And the forests will echo with laughter. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven It’s coming round again The slowly creeping hand Of time and it’s command Soon enough it comes And settles in it’s place Its shadow in my face Puts pressure in my day Powderfinger - These Days Well your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrough ya She tied you to her kitchen chair She broke your throne and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the hallelujah Heff Buckley - Hallelujah I used to be a little boy So old in my shoes And what I choose is my choice What’s a boy supposed to do? The killer in me is the killer in you My love I send this smile over to you The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

Care Package

Books - Friends - Music I’ve received a surprise in the mail! A care package sent by Calvin all the way from Australia. It contained a variety of goodies and I really appreciated getting it. I’ve already emailed my thanks to Calvin. He has always been a great friend over the years and I even though I know he is so often busy (and/or caught up in the neurotic world of being a writer :P) am really thankful that he still takes the time and makes the effort to keep in touch. Included in this care package was a carefully constructed mix CD, and as Calvin predicted, Casual Friday by Black Leotard Front has become me new favourite song. It’s such a hip, laid-back mix; I love it. The track listing that Calvin made to accompany the CD is fantastic too, in a serial killer sort of way. I can tell he went to a lot of effort, and I’ve currently got all three pages of track titles on my wall. The care package also included a copy of The Fall by Albert Camus. I think I appreciate the book most of all, reading it while listening to the mix CD did help to "sap my complacency", as was suggested. I’m really lucky to have friends like Calvin, and I hope he knows I an very thankful for his friendship. Written while listening to Calvin’s mix CD. Fantastic stuff.

Happy Australia Day!

General - Music - Personal - Quotes

On January 26, 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor. The fledging colony soon began to celebrate the anniversary of this date. Manning Clarke notes that in 1808 the "anniversary of the foundation of the colony" was observed in the traditional manner with "drinking and merriment" (Source).

Drinking and merriment! That sounds about right to me. We Australian's like our booze. Today is National Australia Day, the day we celebrate the first steps towards the creation of our fine nation (even though we only actually achieved federation in 1901). As I'm writing this the day in full swing over in Australia itself. I got a phone call from Fragma at 2am his time, where only two hours into Australia day he was pissed as a fart and partying hard. Just the way to do it I think. The traditional way to celebrate Australia Day for me has been to hang out at someone's house, with numerous cartons of beer, or kegs if someone has been organised enough to get them, and drink the day away, cooking meat on the BBQ and listening to Triple J's hottest 100 on the radio. I really miss that. I'm not usually very patriotic, I'm certainly not as jingoistic as a lot of people I met while travelling around. I am proud to be Australian though. I would never try to pretend I’m from somewhere else, and I dislike it incredibly when people mistake me for a South African or New Zealander. We antipodeans share a common bond, but we’re not that alike! I often miss my sunburnt land, and wouldn’t have wanted to be born anywhere else. I like Australian’s on a whole, we are an extremely friendly bunch, honest, hard working, and laid back. We enjoy what our country has to offer us, the weather, the sun, the sand. We love our sports, our drink, our women ^_^ I’ve decided to stay over here in the UK. I don’t have any plans to return back to Australia any time soon. This doesn’t mean I don’t love my country; it’s just that sometimes you are drawn away. I know where my home is. Written while listening to Peter Allen's I Still Call Australia Home. I think the following verse is particularly apt. I'm always travelin' And I love bein' free So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea But my heart lies waiting over the foam I still call Australia home.

Going Nowhere, Going Somewhere

Friends - Music - Personal - Quotes - University 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where --' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. '--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation. ~ Lewis Carroll, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Following on from my previous post; some things are going nowhere, because we have decided that is for the best, while other things are going somewhere, because I've finished University for good in less than two weeks, and then I have my whole world ahead of me. Also, inspired by Brendan's effort over on Digital Iris and looking for ways to procrastinate, I decided to make a quiz. So let me present Michael's Mystery Quiz!. Man I am so restless. I really can't get into the mood to study. I am in a Paul van Dyk mood at the moment, and I always listen to trance when I am attempting to study, so right now I'm listening to his We Are Alive.

Insomnia

Friends - Music - University Insomnia I've had a crazy week. Monday night was Judge Jules, Tuesday night was utterly sleepless and totally enriching, Wednesday night was Christmas clubbing at The Works and tonight... well tonight I am going to see Faithless play live at the Nottingham Arena! All the while I am trying to finish off two very large course work reports (the Digital Business Communication one is approaching 35 pages now, while the Computer Security one is pushing 60!). That hasn’t stopped me though from enjoying my last week in Nottingham for this year. I’ve just had to cut back on a few non-essentials, such as sleep. I exhausted, but not tired at all! Faithless! I can’t wait! I know the gig is going to be fantastic. I’ve just got another couple of hours to kill before I meet up with my friends and we head off to a classic performance. Written while listening to even single Faithless album I've got.

Judge The Mode

Music I am putting my coursework on hold and partying hard! Judge Jules is coming to Nottingham! He is playing tonight at Mode nightclub, and of course I am going to see him. This is why I love living in the U.K. I can go see one of the best DJs in the world, on an average night out of the week, for under five quid! How fantastic is that!

The New Era

Music - Television After a week off the air, the fourth episode of the O.C. season two came out. As usually we all camped out in my room to watch it. My friends back home who have only just finished season one have warned me off from putting spoilers in my posts, so I'll do my best to keep my descriptions non-descript ^_^ This is definitely the best episode so far this season. In fact I think it tops most of the episodes from last season as well. It's just so cool, a new era indeed. Everyone comes together and then goes in different directions, things turn out as you expect, but at the same time it's great when the surprises come. A fantastic episode, a new start. Also guess what Calvin! The Killers were guest band on the O.C. this episode. They played Smile Like You Mean It, Mr. Brightside and Everything Will Be Alright. I really like the sound of the live version of Mr. Brightside. I know you are going to see The Killers live soon Calvin so you'll have to tell me what they are like. Written while listening to The Killers - Mr Brightside (album version).

Homelands

Friends - Music - Personal I am current listening to the DJ Tiesto set from Homelands 2002 and it's fantastic, but that's not the reason for this entry. It's almost 5am, and I am not asleep. I have full day at Uni tomorrow, or rather today, it's my only really full day all week, yet I am not asleep. Instead I am talking to Jimmy, back in Australia. I haven't talked to him in months! It feels like forever. I don't want to go to sleep, because I am enjoying catching up so much. I also want to break my nocturnal cycle, go a full night without sleep, so I will feel so tired the following night I go to be early, and thus wake up early... but that's a different story. Jimmy is telling me about his girlfriend. I’ve never met her; at least I thought I’d never met her. Somehow though she knew me. Jimmy showed her my picture and she recognised me. Apparently I am the only redheaded guy who lived in Sandgate (I find that hard to believe) but anyway she remembers me coming into the Chinese shop where she worked and buying some food. She even remembered me being with my grandfather. The thing is, I remember that event, I remember getting the Chinese with Pa that time and I remember noticing that the girl who served us was really cute. So we had met, we just didn’t realise it. Anyway good on you Jimmy, I am really happy for your. We talked about other stuff too, about what I’ve been up to, and about our futures. It made me realise how much I missed talked to my friends back home. I’m sure I’ve said similar things before, but I have such good friends back in Australia, and it’s always great when I get a chance to talk to then. My friends over here are great too, but we just don’t have the same kind of history together. At the same time as I am talking to Jimmy on IRC, I am trading emails with Fragma while he is still at work. Now I really need to catch up with Fragma properly. I have so much to talk to him about email just can’t cope with it. Maybe I am just in this mood because I am listening to trance at 5am in the morning . I can’t get no sleep.

Ocean Of Dancing Bodies

Fun - Music We went to Ocean, one of the best clubs in Nottingham, last night. It was rammed, packed full of students, getting blathered and dancing the night away. The club scene here in Nottingham is very different to that back home. They don't play real dance music here, or at least not at the majority of the clubs. Instead they play "cheese", 80's pop songs, Bryan Adam's, the Baywatch TV Theme, crap. Last night they only played two decent tracks, Underworld - Born Slippy and Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400. Thankfully they were played back to back, so we all raced onto the dance floor and got in a good period of proper dancing. The cheese came back afterwards though. I liked clubbing back in Australia. We didn't go nearly as much as I would have liked, but when we did I had a lot of fun. Clubbing here is more about drinking and pulling than enjoying the music and dancing. Not that I don't like drinking and pulling, it's just that I can do that at a bar if I want to (see Tantra on Tuesdays). I go clubbing to dance. I like dancing to good music. People dance at Nottingham clubs, but they dance to crap, they will cheer when Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child Of Mine comes on. Everyone has fun, which is good, but I can't wait till I go back up to Liverpool to go out clubbing, maybe go out to Southport with Graeme and Ben, or down to London and do the Ministry of Sound thing with Anna and Sarah. I need good music. I need a good dance scene. I simply need to dance!

Tony At Tantra On Tuesday

Friends - Fun - Music - Television For the last four weeks running (I can't believe I've been back in Nottingham for four weeks!) I have been going down to this cocktail bar in town called Tantra on Tuesdays to listening to some great live music and drink half-price cocktails. It's sort of become a weekly routine and I really enjoy it. The music is provided by this really hip guy, who plays acoustic guitar and sings songs everyone knows the words to. Iris, With or Without You, Wonderwall, etc. etc. etc. It's open till 2am and as the end of the night nears, and we get progressively drunk off the cheap cocktails we tend to all start clapping and signing along. We have also taken to smoking cigars. All the boys in the house are really into The Sopranos. I just finished watched the end of season five myself. Graeme in particular likes to think of himself as Tony Soprano. So we sit around, talking, with this huge haze of cigar smoke billowing around above us. I don't usually smoke, I hate the taste in my mouth the following morning, yet last night I had three big meaty cigars and now my whole body reeks of the smoke. I also had a big deep conversation with Nikkie last night too. I am close to both of the girls, but the boys and I travelled with each other for a month straight, so there is a bond there on a completely different level to the girls. However last night Nikkie and I had a really good talk (a drunken chat as it was) and I think we became a lot closer. After getting a taxi back from Tantra we ended up sitting up another two hours after everyone had gone to bed talking some more as well. I've been so lucky making such good friends.

How To Travel With A Salmon

Books - General - Metaposts - Music I have been really slack in updating lately. Sorry about that everyone. I have had to time to update, I've just been doing so much recently that I haven't had the energy to sit down and write all about it. I will catch up soon. I will be moving into my new place in a week, so if I don't post a big Fringe Festival and after review before then, it will likely be a couple more weeks before I get the net hooked up and everything organised for me to post properly again. I will get around to replying to all the emails I have been sent too... Sometime ^_^ Oh yeah, I'm reading some Umberto Eco and listening to lots of Faithless.

Salzburg - Mozart Vs. The Sound of Music

Movies - Music - Travel I took a day trip out to Salzburg today. It is only a two hour train ride from Munich (yes I am still in Munich... leaving tomorrow) and I had a day to fill. It is a strange little town, which seems to vest so much of its tourist energy in two of its musical children, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" and "The Sound of Music". It is quite disconcerting the manner in which recognition for the two seem to compete against each other in the town. Even though I was thoroughly indoctinated with the Sound of Music as a child (my mum loves it, but then, what mum doesn't), I tend to side with Mozart. Which side do you fall on?

Century

Japan - Metaposts - Music - Personal This is my 100th GenesisDreams entry. It doesn't feel like that many at all. Sometimes I feel like I'm slipping away over here into a completely different world. It's hard to explain, and I'm not sure if I like it. My life here now is very different to how it was back home. I don't think I've illustrated that very well in the GenesisDreams entries I've made since coming here. I've accepted it, take it as the norm, and so on the surface, when I write about things occurring in my life, all of the superficial things probably seem very similar to how it is back home. I don't have a very objective perspective, so I can't say for sure, but that's the impression I get reading over what I've written. I don't think it appears like much has changed at all. Would anyone out there like to comment on this one way or another (Brendan, you're probably the most objective person who reads this blog, I'd appreciate hearing what you think). I feel like I've lived a century's worth of years these past couple of months. I have been challenged in ways I never imagined, I have seen things I previously only dreamed about and I have participated in “stuff” beyond my comprehension. I have communicated, interacted, drank, lost, kissed, fondled, jumped, watched, hid, hit, missed, wallowed, yelled, run, listened, played, bled, shuffled, kicked, washed, fucked, talked, driven, fallen, tickled, tripped, worried, screamed, nodded, waited, learnt, enjoyed, shrugged, slept, dealt, spewed, ate, laughed, thought, hugged, tasted, read, dreamt, wished and longed with a frequency and ferocity far outstripping anything before, and in more ways than I can describe. I am still very much myself, but I feel like a completely different person. I feel like nobody knows me now, least of all myself. In the past I would have hated that, I need to know; now I’m just not sure. I really don’t know whether I like it or not. the sun is casting shadows an afternoon is fading I ask, but no one knows the answer to the question my life is like an island where does this ocean go? From Where Does This Ocean Go? by Ilaria Graziano off the Ghost In the Shell - Stand Alone Complex OST.

The OC

Friends - Fun - Japan - Music - Television Over the last couple of days I've watched the entire first season (all 27 episodes) of The O.C. with Bruce. It started out as a form of procrastination. I didn't want to do any study, so watching inane American dramas seemed like a good way to pass the time. By the end though I was completely hooked, we binge-watched the final 9 episodes in one night. I was wallowing in a sea of self-indulgence and I loved it. The show is cheesy, badly acted and has only average writing, but it's got great music, some really funny/interesting characters, and is filled with fit women ^_^ It's also really addicted, and I found myself getting completely drawn into the story (as clichéd as it is). I must admit that I was actually emotionally moved by the ending, it was so sad. I'm normally detached from everything I watch, but this got to me for some reason. Now I have to wait the whole summer until the next season starts. I want to see it now! Just some general comments on the show. Seth is such a cool geek, he gives geeks around the world a good name. Ryan looks like a young Russell Crow. Anna is really cool, she makes a comment calling Marissa's "Princess Mononoke", that's awesome! ^_^ Marissa is beauty personified. Summer is just insanely cute. Sandy is possibly the best father ever. I loath Teresa. The theme song is really catchy; singing it with Bruce at the beginning of each episode has become a ritual. We actually got in trouble for it last night, we were singing it so loud (and so badly out of tune) that one of the hall tutors came and knocked on Bruce's door and told us to be quiet. If you get a chance, watch this show. It's not classic television, but it will keep you entertained. Written while listening to the Ryan Adam's cover of Wonderwall and Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah, on repeat, looping forever.

Mr. Blue Sky

Movies - Music - University Sun is shinin' in the sky, There ain't a cloud in sight It's stopped rainin' Everybody's in a play And don't you know It's a beautiful new day. Hey, hey. I'm addicted to this song. It's on the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind theatrical trailer, and I've had it in my head ever since I saw it at Kill Bill Vol. 2. So I watched ESofSM, and I loved it! Mr. Blue Sky isn't in it at all, but the movie was great all the same. Anyway I'm procrastinating to avoid finishing my coursework, which is due in a little over 3 hours!! Arrhhh!! Oh well better get back to work! It should be obvious what I'm listening to ^_^

Vulture Street

Fun - Movies - Music - Travel - University Well I'm back from London again. I arrived home yesterday, but I haven't even unpacked yet. I've had this CSD (ok enough with the acronyms, it's Commercial and Industrial Systems Design) coursework due, and I originally thought it wasn't due until tomorrow. Oh well, it's done now, I just had to sacrifice some much needed sleep. It was basically just a project management assignment, and I did a whole subject on engineering project management last year, so all the PERT/GANNT analysis stuff was pretty easy. Once I submit it then I've only got one more piece of coursework due before the Easter break! Yay! (Oh yeah did I mention that I've got an entire month of holidays coming up! ^_^) Anyway back to the weekend. I caught the bus down to my cousin's place Friday night where we proceeded to get very drunk and play chess using backgammon pieces with letters written on them. We woke up the next morning around midday, so we scrubbed plans to get the train into London early and went out to see a movie instead. Simone wanted to see Mona Lisa Smile, a chick flick if ever I heard of one, while Toby had to go to a meeting (rather convenient on his part ^_^). The movie sucked. It was shockingly bad. A women’s Dead Poet’s Society this is not. Simone hated it as well. Julia Roberts was passable, Kirsten Dunst was cute in a 50’s sort of way, but everything else was horrible. After the dismal movie we met up with Toby and had some Italian at this restaurant called Z’something. The food was nice but the service was bad; we waited forever for everything. By the time we got out of there it was 5pm, so we raced off down the M1, and then onto the M25 (the London orbital) around to the western edge of London to Hammersmith. We all had tickets to see Powderfinger play at the Hammersmith Apollo (there are a whole lot of musical venues at Hammersmith, and the Apollo is but one)! For those who don’t know, Powderfinger are a Brisbane band who are probably the biggest rock band in Australia right now. They are not my favourite group, but I don’t mind their music. The strange thing is that even though they are from Brisbane, I’ve never seen them live before, and I had to come all the way to London to see them! Simone knows the drummer, well she used to know him back in Uni, he was in the year ahead of her at UQ. While she was doing engineering she lived with a bunch of guys who were in a percussion band, and the Powderfinger drummer was in it too. Anyway they rocked. The Apollo must have been a pretty small venue compared to what Powderfinger and used to back home, and I think they really took to it. We were right up the front in a really great spot and the atmosphere was intense. They were really pushing their new album Vulture Street, but also played a lot of their old classics. Overall the gig was great and I’m glad I got the chance to see them. Sunday we slept in again, before driving to Northampton to have lunch at this really great Indian restaurant. Simone and Toby know the owner, and the food was incredibly tasty. After that we went to see a preview of Starsky and Hutch, which was great. Then we did some more stuff, then it was Monday, then I went home. I’m really tired now so I’m going to go to bed. I haven’t slept since Sunday night and I didn’t sleep much then either.

Ride On Shooting Star

Japan - Metaposts - Music Ok for those who aren't familiar with Addict, I'm still listening to the FLCL OST, and the blog title is a reference to one of the tracks (and the ending theme to the anime). Recently I've been having trouble working up the enthusiasm to write blog entries. I still can't publish, so nobody can actually read this, or at least won't be able to read it until I fix the problem and start publishing again. If I wanted just to keep a journal then I wouldn't bother publishing anything online. Part of the reason I like this blog is becuase I can let all my friends know what's going on in my life (and occasionally get some feedback from them). So without this "online" aspect I'm finding it hard to write regular entries. I'll do my best to keep going during this offline period.

Hybrid Rainbow

Friends - Japan - Music - University A couple of days ago I was asked to briefly explain my thesis topic on one of the forums I frequent. I don't think I've gone into detail about my project here yet, so here is the description I gave on the forum. To steal a passage from my thesis abstract: "The fundamental purpose of this project is to develop a system by which music similarity can be measured based solely on the content of the music itself. This system will analyse the inherent characteristics of musical pieces and use that to compare songs, independently of any metadata that may exist. It will allow a database of music to be quickly and efficiently scanned to identify similar tracks." Basically there is a whole lot of digital signals processing stuff involved in producing signatures for pieces of music which not only uniquely identify the piece but also relate specific characteristics of the musical structure (tempo, beat, rhythm, etc...) Once you have those signatures then it's a fairly simpler matter to calculate the similarities and difference between them and then you can do all sorts of cool stuff. Genre grouping, instrument matching, identifying covers of a particular track, taking a seed song and producing a full DJ set, etc... etc... etc... All the DSP stuff is done, and I've almost finished coding up the base framework which utilises the DPS stuff (I'm not going to go into detail about that; to put simply it involves calculating the Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients, which is really just the coefficients of the Fourier transform representation of the log-magnitude spectrum of a signal, and then using K-Means clustering to group certain spectral traits together.) Now I just need to develop the final application that I'm going to demo at the innovation expo at the end of the year. Oh yeah, and write my thesis ^_^ In other news, I'm going to see a performance of a play written by my friend Calivn next week. It's called "Vodka and Condoms" and I know it's going to be great (I've read the script). Calvin's been coming around a lot recently, which is great. I've been slowing introducing him to the myriad forms of anime; we watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind on Monday, and I also showed him some Azumanga Diaoh. He is obsessed with Ranma, RANMA!, but wants to see more of Miyazaki's work after I took him to see Spirited Away earlier in the year. I'm going to play more Initial D tonight. Meeting up with Fragma and rurouni so we can throw away some more of our cash. Wednesday night is pretty deserted down at the arcade, so we shouldn't have a problem getting on the machines. I've run out of music to listen to in the car, so until I get around to burning off some new sets, I've gone back to my anime CDs. I've got FLCL Addict out now, and I think it will be my CD of choice tonight. I've got all The Pillow's albums, and most of them are great, but the tracks on this OST bring back memories of when I first saw the show, and the powerful feelings I associate with it. Can you feel that hybrid rainbow?

Art of Noise

Music The Seduction of Claude Debussy. It's an album I've been listening to it for the entire afternoon, trying to block out thoughts that don't revolve around extendible hashing and query optimisation. I've been addicted to Debussy for about a year now, ever since I saw 'All About Lily Chou-Chou" at the Brisbane International Film Festival, and I have yet to grow tired of his work. Much of the music in Lily is inspired by Debussy pieces, with several being used directly. I probably got my first taste of "furniture music" with the Endorphin track "Satie 3" which is directly inspired by Erik Satie's 'Trois Gymnopédies'. It was that track that really got me into Endorphin, and I was lucky enough to see him live for the second time at the beginning of the year. His live shows are fantastic, extremely visual, which adds to the whole experience. Ok so I got a little off track there. My mind tends to wander easily when I'm avoiding study. Debussy's piano pieces my favourites and are also the best to study to, in particular I like 'Claire De Lune', 'Arabesque' and 'The Girl with the Flaxen Hair' (which all happened to feature in Lily, coincidence?). They all give me something, which I can't quite explain, but that never fails to move me (and strangely help me concentrate). I don't know what it is about turn of the century French composers, but as far as study music goes, they are the best. The Art of Noise album is interesting, it's got some great ideas, some great tracks, and of course it is influenced by Debussy's work, so the underlying musical themes are close to perfection. Some of the tracks jar a little (they are very eclectic) and so it's probably not the best album to study to, but hey I've just written this entry, so all I'm doing is procrastinating anyway. It's probably time to get back to work now though. I can't wait till tomorrow afternoon; one test down, one more to go.

Tech stuff

Metaposts - Music I'm procrastinating becuase I don't want to study, so instead I'm messing around with the blog some more. I've added comment functions now using BackBlog, so you can all give me feedback on what I write. I've also fixed up a few formatting things and played around with the "look" of the blog. It's very simplistic, partly becuase I'm not a visually creative person, but mostly becuase I believe this is a place for me to write, and for others to read my writing. It doesn't need to be flashy or have lots of bells and whistles. Meanwhile I'm listening to Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief", which I am really enjoying.