Le noise

A few 2010 albums that I haven't listened to. It keeps on snowing outside.

Xavier

Traveled the world listening to his music, settled down and he is coming to my city. This Friday, Xavier Rudd at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. Can't wait. Haven't been to a proper gig in a while and if you don't count Fatboy Slim this August, I haven't felt the big stage since March. I will not go to Femi Kuti and the Herbalizer just to see this young Ausie bloke here.
Next year, however, two things: Mogwai and Iron & Wine.

Shapes, Flow & Branches

Windmill, windmill for the land

Will this be the 21st century way of harvesting energy? Hardly possible today, but hey life was pretty bizarre 100 years go. The shots were taken during a field trip last month. For some obscure reason the manager of the station decided to speak just under of those giant creatures, which was of course exciting but completely compromised our auditory capabilities. So, I sneaked out of the crowd and marveled at the potential.

Random fact: This station, just outside Edinburgh, has killed only 2 birds and no bats.

Neighbourhood

A beautiful day to fall in love with the United Kingdom. Dark and gloomy, the morning crept out of London Road and slid towards Old College. The drizzle, followed by a failed attempt to catch a bus, ended up in a cab. Red Light Indicates that Doors are Secure. Compliments on my Sco'ish accent from the driver compensate the overpriced trip to the King's Buildings. The city looks inspiring today: colors, shapes and textures defined by man and refined by time, evoke stories, images, sensations. Students hassling around during lunch break, the cafes are busy, the smells exciting. The city is alive on a Thursday. The city is alive every day. It is a city of young people after all. It's our city, our young, happy, promiscuous, trendy and yet old, gloomy, uneasy and dark city. Red double-deckers meander the uneven roads, red-bearded men (and women) wear kilts on a winter day, a slow bagpipe folk version of The Kinks' You really got me is all you hear on South Bridge. Sun and birds. And melting snow. Drinking tea and talking about the weather seems like the perfect stereotype. But everything is so uncommon.

On the 25 November 2010 the Universe smiled upon the tenants of Abbey Lane and granted them the universal blessing of the World Wide Web. Now they can finally grab the surfboards and hop on the waves of the net ... from home!
Let there be megapixels!

Soma

I woke up with carbon dioxide stats, climate models and ecosystem parameters in my head this morning. I wish I had some Brave New World Soma (I think it's high time that someone invented this).

Enter the void

If you are in the mood for a psychedelic, new-age, soft-porn, requiem-for-a-dream, type of thing, this film hits the jackpot. I raised my eyebrows various times when watching it. It was madness. Highly recommended.

Sincere

Lounging on the couch, with a wine bottle and a friend, I remembered this song. Breda afternoons were cozy, sunny, mischievous and shared this summer. Now the vibe and the vice are different, but the track still resonates a soothe summer sound.

Today I woke up with a strange feeling. It was buzzing in my head, couldn't ignore it. I stayed tucked in for a while, pondering over this deep emotion. I felt like, I have reached the end, as if nothing from now on will have an influence on me. Nothing will really matter, because I have found it and I do not have to search for myself in conversations, trips, ideologies. Its everything and nothing. Its my end and my beginning. I am in love. In a profoundly emotional and spiritual place. What would it cost me to stay here is yet to be discovered.

Jose

“Excuse me, who is singing this song?”, the shop assistant looked at me as if I were pointing a shotgun at her. Annoyed that I am not at all interested in the clothes they're selling, she threw a quick unamused glance at the lap top on her desk. “Jose Gonzales”. After months of trying to figure out whose is the soft voice from the Sonny Bravia commercial, I got a name that did not but least match my expectations. I thought she got it confused with some Spanish folk singer. I stepped out of the shop and continued my walk around the center of the small Catalan village of Vic trying to remember, just in case, this peculiar Spanish name. Five days later, I was already installed in my new apartment in Barcelona and Jose Gonzalez was exactly who she said.
Connecting music and places has become a habit, a way of seeing music and capturing the sound of cities. Songs often take me places around the world, crossing a boulevard, biking, laying on a beach, going to school, shopping at Alber Hijn.
Two years after Barcelona, Jose Gonzalez leads me back there to those first weeks in the Catalan capital, walking and walking and walking all day with a constant Veneer soundtrack. Each and every song from his albums is a street name, an afternoon walk on the beach, 10 minutes of waiting for somebody at Liceu. It is the bohemian I became in this southern city and the bohemian I cannot seize to be because of it.
Jose Gonzalez in my years right now. Barcelona all around me hundreds of miles away.
Just like Beirut is Amsterdam sometimes and Macau pours out from Empire of the Sun.
One day Edinburgh will be...
We are all drifting.

Don't stop

8:30. The alarm goes off. I open my left eye and see sunshine. Great, I turn around, hug Julia and bury my head under the pillows. The day could wait a minute. Or 20.
8:45. The phone rings. Unknown number +61. Australia. Hi, how are you. 10 hours difference. Yes, of course. I miss you too. I know its been four months. I live in Scotland now. Its just for a while. Sure, I want to spend the holidays with you. Let's.
9:00 I hung up. Stretch. Shower. Breakfast.
11:00 Does scientific knowledge enhance environmental appreciation? If I knew the atomic complexity of the rain that's pouring down, would I enjoy it better? Are fungi more ecologically important than daffodils?
13:00 Oh yes I would love to come to the gathering on Friday. Musical instruments required? No problem. We'll tune in.
14:00 The evolution of forestry and food policy. We have come a long way and we are still nowhere near it. I get high on coffee.
17:00 Pouring rain. Last Shadow Puppets in my ears. Inappropriate shoes. A very thin jacket. I am surprisingly healthy given the lack of winter clothes.
19:00 Food. On a round table. In a dimly-lit kitchen. Tea. An attempt to study. Another to relax. Two wasted efforts. The mama's and the papa's.
00:00 In bed. With an apple. And a friend next to me. Appreciating the immensity of small things, the fast and furious speed of life.
7:00 The alarm goes off. I open my left eye and see rain.