Music is my Aeroplane

I have two albums I'd like to credit today: The Cinematic Orchestra's Ma Fleur and Radiohead's In Rainbows. I'd suggest each of them to absolutely anybody, the two compilations are made up of soothing, emotive, beautiful, and original pieces of music. I can rarely listen to an entire album from beginning through to end, but with these albums, sitting and listening to them through is effortless. Every emotion I have ever been encompassed by is present in the two albums, listening to them is a personal and soulful experience. 


Ma Fleur

1. To Build a Home
2. Familiar Ground
3. Child Song
4. Music Box
5. Prelude
6. As the Stars Fall
7. Into You
8. Ma Fleur
9. Breathe
10. That Home
11. Time and Space

Fontella Bass features on about three songs on this album. If there is one voice you must listen to this year, it is that of this angel.

In Rainbows

1. 15 Step
2. Bodysnatchers
3. Nude
4. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
5. All I Need (This is my absolute favourite song on the album)
6. Faust Arp
7. Reckoner
8. House of Cards
9. Jigsaw Falling into Place
10. Videotape

Twenty Ten

I have never been much of a new-years-resolution-maker, but I do see the 'new' as invaluable and exciting, and miss the chance to experience it I will not - there is much i'd like to learn, and try, and see this following year.

Yes i'd like to believe that I will eat well, exercise more, apply myself fully at uni, retain a postive energy, donate to charity, listen to my mum, and become concordant with the universe - but from past experience, I can tell you that such sworn promises are usually brushed aside casually by about the third week of February.

So rather than attempt to prove my absolute resolve in becoming a 'new me', rather than vowing to make this year better than the last, i'm just collecting ideas on a few new activites, or ideas, or goals that I can play around with.

One thing i've always been kind of interested in is learning is how to make jam - this may sound extremely old school and boring to some, but I just have this idea of making individual jars of jam, wrapping them up all pretty-like and giving them as gifts for loved ones. And as sad as it may sound, I am totally excited by this idea :).

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/other-recipes/raspberry-jam

I also really want to get surfing lessons. I've never been the surfing type really, but since childhood I've loved the beach...i've always been drawn by all that adrenaline; it's something I would be really proud to conquer. Even if I only stand on a board momentarily.

I'd like to get through at least ten different books this year. Because, well I love to read, and ten books is not really many - If I can't get through ten books in twelve months, I am in the wrong degree.

And lastly, (I must admit, this is quite an unoriginal want) but I wish to travel overseas. I don't care when, I don't really even care where, I just want to pack up and go someplace 'new' amid this freshly new year of 2010.


Fairly achievable, no?

Jolly Good Show

A handful of my cousins and I have, over the years, developed a small Christmas tradition out of heading off the the movies after the festivities have long died down - after the Christmas crackers have been popped, after too much food has been eaten, and after mounds of wrapping paper have been left to line the living room floor.

Last night, in true Christmas spirit, our small group headed off, through the rain, to watch the recently released 'Sherlock Holmes' starring Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law (yumm!). About ten minutes into the film I thought to myself 'I need to write a blog entry about this movie.' I found the filming techniques to be really original and super effective. Ritchie moves between slow - mo and real time quite  a bit in the movie, but not the the extent that it became cumbersome or predictable. Basically, the movie is about Holmes (Downey Jnr) and his pseudo-side-sick Dr. Watson (Law), and their efforts to solve a case involving a bunch of creepy high-powered guys and their super-creepy-voldemort-esque ring leader who is engaging in black magic and killing a lot of people.

Can I just say here, that this film confirms my theory that any film featuring Downey Jnr is a film worth watching. His performance is first-class. As per usual (in my opinion). He is completely believable as this ingenious, meticulous, slightly insane detective. What makes him even more credible as an actor is that he does all his stunts himself, I love that. Downey Jnr and Law work off each other flawlessly, the two are a top comedic act, but the depth of the relationship the characters' share is palpable.

The only set back is that there is a LOT of fast talking and quick scenes, it is a little confusing in the beginning...I think I may need to watch this one a second time just to get a grasp on the scenes that slipped by me.

I totally recommend it though, it is a far cry from the two-dimensional, crass films that dominate the current film industry... and it has Jude Law in it, which is never a bad thing ;)

Wandering blind.

I haven't much to say today, just a giant knot of emotion that I need to unravel.

I've been thinking a lot about the universe, and luck, and fate...and how painful it is to find yourself thrown, face-first into some dark place.

It's irritating, and devastating, and damn scary, and all of this is weighing down on the pitt of my belly.

I have written, and then deleted about six different sentences here - trying to somehow articulate my thoughts.
But honestly, from here I don't even know where my thoughts go.

Frankie Speak's Xmas List

Well that time of year has come round once again, and as childish as it may seem, I always seem to find myself swept up in the jovial ambience of the festive season. When it comes to presents, I find them a little unnecessary but a small gesture goes a long way if they have a certain sentimental quality - I always try to give personal pressies, rather than big, extravagant ones.

So here are a few things I would like santa to drop under the chrissie tree:

1. Tea - I love a nice cuppa, and i've recently been trying a few different flavours of tea. T2 is one of my favourite shops at the moment. I can just get lost in there. If I could, I would take one of each of the teas in there home with me and line my walls with different flavoured tea - awesome!

2. Used books - I don't even care which books - thats not to say I'll be happy with crappy literature, I want good books, I just don't care which ones they are. I love that used books have a history. They've been loved, and hated and cried over, they've sat on the bellies of their sleeping owners...and if you're really lucky, you'll get one with a little affectionate note scrawled across its front page - now those, they are a rare and precious find.

3. Anything hand-made. Whether it's a photograph printed off the home computer with a letter written on the back and a love heart drawn on with red texter, or an elaborate scrapbook logging your entire relationship with a loved one...receiving a gift that have been made especially for me gives me a fuzzy feeling in my belly, it always makes me feel considered and cared for.

I'm most excited about what I'll get for other people this year, I've been planning it out for a while now; thinking of what to get to show a lil love to a few of my most loved. As much as it is criticised for being a commercialized holiday which does little more than fuel capitalist rule, I can't help but get a little consumed by that cheesy xmas cheer.

Summer Break

It feels as though I haven't written something just for the sake of writing in an age. Oh keyboard how i've missed you. With the arrival of Christmas Holidays, I now have an endless supply of commitment-free time, and have been musing over the range of possible pass-times I can now enjoy - which has got me all giddy with excitement.

I recently bought myself a Jamie Oliver cook book (Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook) and have been burying myself in it. I really love to cook, and I'm a major Jamie fan. This book is my new bible. Over the next few weeks I am going to take over my kitchen :). 

On the topic of books, I've got a list of about 5 books that I want to get through asap, starting with Scar-tissue - Anthony Keidis' autobiography. Ah holidays are just awesome...

But right now...I'm enjoying lying on my couch with a blanket, in my pj's with my laptop, watching Sex and the City.  It feels so great just to do nothing sometimes. 

Rant.

I'm feeling frustrated.

There are always a lot of people in my house.
Always. 
And a lot of people create a lot of noise.

Conveniently, my desk and laptop lie between the two loudest rooms in my house; the living and dining rooms. So while I am punching away at the keypad, trying to get fifteen hundred words up onto my screen, I am hearing my mother in the kitchen talking on the phone, my sister at the dining table telling me every detail of her day, my cousin from a few streets away abusing the doorbell, my brother throwing a football against the wall, and my dad's phone ringing, all with the Simpsons running in the background.

I need a new workspace.