Music I've been listening to lately...

Biked into the centre and bought these LPs.

-Soundtrack of Good Bye Lenin! by Yann Tiersen
-"Noarh's Ark" by CocoRosie (Official website), Touch and Go Records
-"La maison de mon reve" the second-last album by CocoRosie
-"you could have it so much better" by Franz Ferdinand, Domino Record

I saw Good Bye Lenin! ages ago when it came out in cinema. It was good but I had to understand through the Dutch subtitles, and my Dutch wasn't that great then, so I missed some important conversations I think. I'll go and borrow the DVD again.
The composer is apparently the guy who did soundtrack for Amelie, but I don't know if the music is similar to that...the soundtrack is mainly piano with a bit of orchestration. Very chilled out. Listened to it once, I give it 8 out of 10.

Noah's Ark--is playing right now, and even though I already had some mp3 tracks, this is a really good record (CD, whatever). I asked the owner of the shop when I was paying "Have you listened to CocoRosie?" and he said whenever he plays this CD in the shop people ask his what it is, and that he thought they were "similar to a singer called Joanna Newsom but actually even better" at which point I thought "Oh you have CD version of this too???" Too late!

But sometimes I like LPs more, because
1) Your mate can't rip them into their computer/iPod/may even put them on some file-share program the very next day you bought the CD. Ouch.
2) When I buy them I feel like I'm buying music in a donut. It's big (thus the cover could become a nice interior--imagine hanging 100LPs in a clear plastic from the ceiling!), heavy, and in fact you only need a needle if you wanna play it. (that's an emergency situation tho)
Unlike the little shiny son CD where I still don't understand how music is stored on it or how it's played back, LP's analogueness is almost refreshing at this time and age.
3) Music sounds different, if not better sometimes on LP... depends on your needle and soundsystem too, but music like CocoRosie, with its melancholic folk influence to it, sounds fitting in this format. I use Tonar Banana cartridge so music's quite clear too.
Like if I listen to Curtis Mayfield LP, I wouldn't want to listen in CD cos it feels right to listen to the original sound quality--what people listened to at that time.

Anyway, Noahs Ark is coming to an end, and I give it 8.5

La maison de mon reve was apparently made in the bathroom of their (2 sisters') Paris flat.
I didn't realize how dark their lyrics were, till I read it on the back of their LP cover.
The tune I really like called Lyla was actually a tribute song to Lilya4ever (a film by Lukas Moodysson), and starts off like "you wanted to buy me/for a hundred euro". When sang in their floaty voices you wouldn't think they are singing THAT.
Track 3, Jesus Loves Me, too was a bit shocking, when the first verse is "jesus loves me/but not my wife/not my nigger friends/or their nigger lives/but jesus loves me/that's for sure/'cause the bible/tells me so", sang in a child-like mood with chimes and stuff in the background.
But soon you realize that they are just being sarcastic about religion, typical role-model of woman as housewife (that's track 2, called "By Your Side" etc. They are as sharp as Jim O'Rourke in their lyrical darkness.
Haven't listen to all the tracks but I have a feeling it's gonna be 8 at most. Noah's Ark has better production, more variation, and the shockingness has eased off a bit.

And Franz Ferdinand then. I've started to listen again to Brit-rock in the last 3-4 months. The string of artists that came into my mp3 collection included Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs, Star Sailor....they all make me feel that Brit-rock has gained another edge to it. And Franz Ferdinand perhaps kick-started it with their first album a couple of years ago (was it??).. and their latest offering is instantly catchy as i can hear. Can't help noddin my head and tappin my toes:-)
I give it an 8, may go higher after listenin more.

Ok better go...later...

p.s. On the second listen Franz Ferdinand album went up from 8 to 9 and La maison.. stayed at 8.

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foto/artwork by Paul Vermeulen
babe: Kelly Vermeer
we were @ Station Den Haag Holland Spoor

Amazing BBC program (Part 2) "Imagine..."

Last night I also watched "Imagine... Rhythm is It!". Imagine... is a BBC1 art and culture program, presented by Alan Yentob.

This episode showed a German documentary film called "Rhythm is It!", which shows the development of a project between Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, lead by Sir Simon Rattle, and 250 mostly under-previledged secondary school kids in Berlin.
They are to dance in front of a couple of thousand audiences, behind the orchestra playing Igor Stravinsky's Sacre de Pritemps, at the end of 6 weeks training by dancer/choreographer Royston Maldoom.

You will see that disorganized, chatty groups of young students transform into real dancers, pushed and infected by Royston's passion, seriousness and openness, all in a course of 6 weeks.

At one point, Royston asks everyone to look up into the sky, with their arms stretched, pointing upwards. Then he walks up to some students, telling everyone what he can see from their body-language. "This boy will become whatever he wants to become." "This boy too can fulfill his true potential, but he doesn't know yet." "This girl has energy and talent, but she doesn't believe in herself yet." He encourages them to never stop, always to find new challenge, to be serious and to concentrate. He's a great tutor, initiator, and caretaker, as well as a good dancer and choreographer.

Slowly the whole group comes to share that passion, and for a lot of them it was a life-changing experience, to express with all their body, to be part of the wonderful alchemy of dance and music thanks to Berlin Phil, and Simon Rattle, an eccentric genious who woozes charisma.

To be honest, I was in tears even before the kids performed towards the end of the program.
It's an urban ugly-duckling story, multiplied by 250, with a couple of really passionate teachers thrown in. I felt so good after watching this film, and I felt like dancing like hell!

Dancing is great. It takes music or rhythm and transcends them into something personal, tactile and dynamic.

Amazing BBC program (Part 1) "Life in Undergrowth"

This is the newest series of the famous nature program hosted and written by Sir David Attenborough (left), brother of an English actor Richard Attenborough (himself a "Sir").

As always, the cameraworks on his programs are awesome--special cameras are used to capture the most amazing details of the wonderful insects' habitat, busy doing their own things according to their instinct. And oh boy how beautiful can they be!
They also use computer graphics here and there, all of which look very real, to show the subject from 360 degrees, or to show their viewpoint.

I once saw, in a club in Amsterdam, nature program projected on the screen showing a ladybird flying through jungle to a nest of million ladybirds stuck to the tree, both from ladybird's viewpoint and the wide-angle shot of the jungle being used in accompany with music from Nobukazu Takemura. I was totally blown away. I was sure that it was taken from Attenborough's program.

Anyway, a highlight from the episodes so far, for me, was a moth which sucked on tree barks for sap, but because he doesn't need glucose in his body he excretes it out of his abdomen, creating a tiny ball of sugar-water. Then there comes another butterfly (I can't remember what it was--this episode was aired 2-3 weeks back), which crawled right behind the moth, and "knicking" the water with his antennae! Funny that the moth doesn't mind that at all, he's busy biting into the tree.

The next show (on air Wed 21st of December, 9 to 10PM GMT) will feature insects which live in groups--Ants and Bees. I saw the preview of it on yesterday's program, and...again, I can only give all those superlatives. David Attenborough, clad in special suit, will be hoisted up a really tall tree to observe a bee colony, to see how they defend against intruders by disturbing them a little with a long twig with a fake hornet at the end. Bees first reply by vibrating themselves and moving their wings, doing this successively from one end of the colony to the other, creating a moving pattern that travel accross them. You can see the video of this from the link above, or here. (Requires Real Player--i know it's annoying...i don't even have that program)

Also, scientists will fill a disused termite mound with plaster to reveal the inner structure. What comes out after the structure of spit and mud is washed away by blasting water to it, is the most intricate network of tubes which act as a giant cooling system for the family! So clever, so beautiful, so environmentally friendly.

In short, unmissable.

But right now I'm seriously thinking of buying the DVD box set of David Attenborough's "Life" collection.
This 24(!) disc set boasts incredible 4360 minutes (that is 72 hours and 40 minutes) of footages from "Life of Mammals" to "Life in Undergrowth". It costs mere 130 quid plus 5 quid deliverly anywhere in Europe. That is a bargain. Only problem is, I have no creditcard!!
A reviewer for Life of Mammals said "Buy this, and if you don't have a DVD player, buy that too cos it's that good".

Perhaps, after watching it, I would regret being born as a human being, that I couldn't be an insect, a plant, or an animal. It seems to me that they don't "waste" time. I don't even know if they have the idea of it, but everything they do seems logical, purposeful, confident, and most importantly, graceful. For many of them, especially insects, it's a fight against time, to find mate(s), to reproduce. But the numerous ways that they achieve that, and how they developed themselves to "perform" that ritual is always intriguing, and touching.

Lucky Cat and Friendly Gorilla

....are the two animals on the news today.

I had already heard about the missing cat Emily from Wisconsin (above, in the plane) which reappeared in Nancy, France, but now she's finished her quarantine and flew back to the States.

In early October she went missing, most probably after accidentally wandering into a container near her owner's house. Then she was loaded into a trans-atlantic ship that took 3 weeks to arrive in France (she had enough mice to munch in the cargo, apparently). Later that month she was found at a factory in Nancy, with her collar that had her address on.

Continental Airline has given her a $6000 Business Class ticket and a carer who flew her safely back to the States. "Miauw this wine is délicieux.....got a mouse to snack on?"

and now to a lady gorilla story
A 33 year old Lowland gorilla Coco in California understands over 1000 human words through sign-language. Once she even told her handler that she had tooth-ache, and that it was 9 out of 10 (that must be quite painful!).

Anyway, on today's news it said that 2 female ex-handlers of Coco compounded with their former employer after they were pressurized by their female boss to leave the job.

Coco asked the handlers through American Sign Language that she wanted to see their chest, but they refused. Their boss demanded that they do what they were told, for the better communication, bond, whatever.

Their boss explained that Coco, despite herself being a female, likes human female's chest and added "I had always complied with her request, but she got bored".

Lesson: employ more male handlers to avoid yet another law-suit.

011001 10011000 is music

This cute machine packaged in a CD case is One Bit Music.

It is a project by a composer and artist, Tristan Perich. One Bit Music's little heart is a chip that stores 11 songs, in this case his own 1-bit minimal electro music generated by a simple program.

The cool thing is that it is not only a medium, there is a headphone socket and forward/back buttons to toggle between songs, and they're meant to be sold at CD stores, lurking behind regular CDs.

I've listen to the music on the website, and they were surprisingly good. Like its appearance the music is analogue, but with attitude! it keeps on changing, like tide...