Soundscape #23: "I Like Big Bags And I Cannot Lie"

What's In My Bag*, January 2007.

I don't understand how some girls function with just a teeny weeny handbag that looks big enough to stuff in a matchbox. And the amazing thing is that if you look into these bags, you'd find their phones, makeup things and even an umbrella! I don't know how they do it; my bags are huge! My biggest bag is probably big enough to transport body parts. Even the smallest bag I have (above) is still a good half the length of my leg.

Pictured above is a scaled-down version of "what's in my bag" (a popular stream on Flickr). Usually there are more stuff but I guess the essentials are above...except for the cd; someone had lent it to me. I forgot my water bottle that day but usually I have a bottle of water in my bag. A book is important too, for those bus rides. I need to have 2 notebooks and a planner. And still, I forget things. Thumbdrive, sunglasses, sweets, hmm what else? oh. Those who know me will know what the M&Ms are for. :)

I couldn't find any songs about big bags, so I thought a good substitute would be a light-hearted mix you can use as background noise while shopping. It will put you in a good mood!



Playlist:
1. (0:00) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away (Buy S/T)
2. (3:23) Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire - A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Right (Buy Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs)
3. (8:20) Ambulance Ltd - Heavy Lifting (Buy S/T)
4. (11:53) The Little Ones - Cha Cha Cha (Buy Sing Song)
5. (16:40) The Legends - Call It Ours (Buy Up Against The Legends)
6. (19:07) The Format - She Doesn't Get It (Buy Dog Problems)
7. (23:02) The New Pornographers - All For Swinging You Around (Buy Electric Version)
8. (26:45) Superchunk - So Convinced (Buy Come Pick Me Up)
9. (28:46) Malajube - Montreal -40C (Buy Trompe-L'oeil)
10. (32:06) Beulah - Gravity's Bringing Us Down (Buy The Coast Is Never Clear)
11. (36:43) Pavement - Rattled By The Rush (Buy Wowee Zowee)


*I can't believe I actually forgot to include the most important thing in the picture! You should know what it is.

Soundscape #22: Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall

Troy McCullough (Idle Type). Cold Rain, November 2006.

I love the rain, even if I'm caught in it. I forgot my umbrella the other day and had to brave the rain and the wind in just a (thin) tshirt, (very heavy, as I realise later) jeans and sandals. I was going to meet a friend but he was waiting for me at the end of this long stretch of unsheltered road. I remember bracing myself at the bus stop just before the stretch and timing the lights so that I can cross 2 roads at one time. When the lights changed, I started running as fast as I could but after a while I realised it's futile as there's no way I could get any wetter than I already was. I gave up and started walking instead. It felt weird to be the only one walking while everyone was dashing in and out of sheltered buildings with colorful umbrellas and trying to avoid stepping into puddles.

Of course, it's a different battle if you're on the dry side of the glass. It's a cliché but it really is great sleeping while it's raining outside. It feels a little otherworldly to wake up and time seems to have stopped. Outside, everything takes on this sheen (sepia or black and white, depending on the rain) and the edges of the buildings seem softened and cars and other things blend into one another. It can feel pretty surreal in a heavy storm. There's also something about the sound of raindrops hitting the windowpane that is immediately comforting. It makes me want to curl back into bed. I wish it'd rain more.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Beta Band - Dry The Rain (Buy The Three EPs)
2. (6:03) 18th Dye - Pour (Buy Left *sorry out of print)
3. (8:32) M83 - In The Cold I'm Standing (Buy Before The Dawn Heals Us)
4. (12:37) The Delgados - Come In From The Cold (Buy Hate)
5. (16:14) Travis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me? (Buy The Man Who)
6. (20:39) Teenage Fanclub - Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (CCR Cover)
7. (23:22) Yo La Tengo - Our Way To Fall (Buy And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out)
8. (27:40) Tindersticks - Raindrops (Buy Tindersticks)
9. (33:58) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Cold & Wet (Buy The Letting Go)
10. (36:12) Engineers - Come In Out Of The Rain (Buy Engineers)
11. (40:22) The White Stripes - In The Cold Cold Night (Buy Elephant)

Soundscape #21: A Cup Of Tea And A Good Book (Or, Alone But Not Lonely)

Edward Hopper. The Night Window, 1928.

It is always a struggle for time between work and everything else. The only solution is to set up some kind of a momentum or a routine so that the 10000 things you need to take care of will get done. Throughout the working week, it's just about getting from Point A to B, doing everything from A to Z. Sometimes I feel like I'm a robot just trying to accomplish everything I've been programmed to do.

That's why for me and almost everyone else, Friday nights and weekends are manna from heaven. Finally I can have a good dinner, maybe watch a stupid mindless movie with friends without thinking about the time. Friday nights are especially important because you've just finished your stint in hell. Friday nights always smell so much fresher somehow. But even that can get a bit routine-y as well, don't you think? We'd always meet up with more or less the same friends, eat at the same places, and bitch about the same things. I'm sure most of us find comfort in this kind of routine to the extent that a plan-less Friday night or weekend would seem disconcerting. I used to dread the thought of a Friday night alone and wonder what kind of loser I was if I didn't have plans for the weekend.

However, I realise that I don't have time to and for myself anymore. When I'm at home, there is a programmed list of things that I have to do (eat, sleep, tv) and by the time I get them done, I don't have the time to do the other things I want to do, like alphabetise my books and cds, read more, write more. So I'm gonna set aside 1 Friday night a month to go straight home, make some nice tea with lemon and pick up the book that I've been trying to finish for the longest time and just be with myself.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) Alexi Murdoch - Blue Mind (Buy Time Without Consequence)
2. (5:40) John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - You Are Too Beautiful (Buy John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman)
3. (11:13) Miles Davis - Blue In Green (Buy Kind Of Blue)
4. (16:48) Tom Petty - Free Fallin' (Buy Full Moon Fever)
5. (21:02) BB King - The Thrill Is Gone (Buy Why I Sing The Blues)
6. (26:27) Muddy Waters - You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had
7. (29:25) Chet Baker - Look For The Silver Lining (Buy Chet Baker Sings)
8. (32:07) Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Autumn In New York (Buy Best Of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong)
9. (38:04) Jaymay - Gray Or Blue (Buy See Green Or Blue EP)
10. (41:33) Josh Ritter - In The Dark (Buy The Animal Years)

This Will Be Our Year

Wow. I thought 2006 was pretty good for music but 2007 is gearing up to be a mind-blowing one as well, with releases from The Shins, Of Montreal, CYHSY, Explosions In The Sky, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Bright Eyes in the first half of the year alone. 2007 is the year for band reunions as well! You get Dinosaur Jr, Roxy Music (with Brian Eno!), even Guns n' Roses (!!)

And there are so many others I'm looking forward to: Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire, Feist, The Go! Team, PJ Harvey, Interpol, The Magnetic Fields, The National, Nine Inch Nails, Postal Service, Radiohead, Shellec, Spoon, Wilco, The Wrens. Wow. Some of the albums have leaked already (not going to tell you which) but I'm going to try and wait for the product that the band wants me to get (and hopefully that means with the jewel case and liner notes, that is, if the bloody stores stock them in a timely manner). It's going to be a very broke year for me I think...

Check out the lists here and here.
What are you looking forward to?

Soundscape #20: I've Got A Devil's Haircut In My Mind

Kara Yerex (72dpi). Barber, 2005.

You know the stereotype: that people always tell their hairstylists secrets that their own best friends wouldn't know? I think it's true to a certain extent. When you're in the chair and someone is attending to your every need, it kinda makes for a pseudo Freudian setup. It's almost as if you can't not tell your hairstylist all your secrets. It may seem odd at first that you are conversing with your hairstylist via the mirror but after a while, it felt right; it felt as if you are spilling your secrets to the mirror and not to the guy right behind you.

If you ask me what kind of stuff I tell my hairstylist, I really wouldn't be able to recall. Maybe that's why he always massages my head in such a wonderful way that I will let my guard down and even forget the stuff that come out of my mouth. Or maybe it's the nice scent of the mint shampoo he uses on me; I think peppermint really relaxes someone and make him/her spill everything s/he knows. Someone should implement this instead of sleep deprivation or other torture methods if you want to get national secrets from prisoners.

There is more to the stereotype, for me at least, cos my hairstylist likes to reverse it. He's always telling me about his girlfriends (yes, he's not gay! Stereotype #2 busted!) and the problems he's had with them. He loves to gossip about the various customers in the shop and that's when I always ask him if he tells other people the stuff I tell him. Of course he says no. But still... I worry.

Playlist:
1. (0:00) The National - Secret Meeting (Buy Alligator)
2. (3:43) Beck - Devil's Haircut (Buy Odelay)
3. (6:58) Elf Power - Never Believe (Buy Walking With The Beggar Boys)
4. (9:33) The Spinto Band - Did I Tell You (Buy Nice And Nicely Done)
5. (12:44) Pavement - Cut Your Hair (Buy Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
6. (15:49) The Magnetic Fields - I Don't Believe You (Buy I)
7. (19:28) The Shins - So Says I (Buy Chutes Too Narrow)
8. (22:15) Longwave - Tell Me I'm Wrong (Buy There's A Fire)
9. (25:51) Bright Eyes - Pull My Hair (Buy Letting Off The Happiness)
10. (29:57) Weezer - Say It Ain't So (Buy Weezer [Blue])
11. (34:17) Yo La Tengo - The Lie And How We Told It (Buy I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One)
12. (37:34) Saturday Looks Good To Me - Not Good With Secrets (Buy All Your Summer Songs)