30 July 2007
Oh my god. I found it I found it!!!
This picture -
which graces the cover of Beirut's album Gulag Orkestar struck me from the first moment I laid eyes on it. And I always had the intention of buying the LP and framing it up in my room.
And now, the mystery has been unraveled...
The man is Russian photographer, Sergey Chilikov.
Here are some of his other equally captivating shots:
This picture -
which graces the cover of Beirut's album Gulag Orkestar struck me from the first moment I laid eyes on it. And I always had the intention of buying the LP and framing it up in my room.
Its covers are fuzzy pictures of two girls posing, on a hot, dusty afternoon, with a rusty car with Russian plates. They look like stills from a reel of Super-8 shot with hand-held camera. They look as you imagine memory would if you freeze-framed it. In the notes, Cordon says he found them ripped from a book in a library, that he has been unable to identify them, and if anyone recognises them or the photographer, to get in touch.And apparantly that picture had an even bigger impact on Beirut aka Zach Corden because -
(Source)
"I found that photo, and I took it home with me," Zach told Pitchfork recently. "It was hanging on the wall the entire time [I wrote and recorded Gulag], and I always kind of felt like, 'It's got to sound like that. It's got to sound the way that looks.'"I wanted so bad to find out who shot it.
(Source)
And now, the mystery has been unraveled...
The man is Russian photographer, Sergey Chilikov.
Here are some of his other equally captivating shots:
Here's more at where they came from.
It's
how you're my Raju.
how we sat side-by-side, shoulders touching, sobbing our hearts out for something we knew then but can never recall now, that one alcoholic night.
how I'll grumble when you are always late, but will never stop waiting.
how I'll call and you said you just pressed send on the handphone.
how there are some dreams we share that no one else gets, but it hardly matters.
I can go on but
" You see giant proclamations are all very well
But our love is louder than words"
Happy 20th my sweet.
25 July 2007
I so so so love this song right now. Helplessly addicted to it. Can't detach myself from it.
24 July 2007
Ballet under the Stars
Although it turned out to be Ballet in the Rain instead, we had a lovely time didn't we? Huddled under a straw mat, strong gusts of wind flapping it periodically, getting cramps in our calves and butts aside, it was a good laugh nevertheless.
21 July 2007
Shhhhhhhhhhhh....lie down. See the ceiling? Feel the still heat? Hear the quiet? This song's for me, and this paper airplane's for you. Written on the paper is a contract between you and the person who catches it. You can toss it at whoever you choose, and then you're set for life. You can either toss at it your long-term boyfriend, or you can let it go up high in a stadium and see who you get. You can mail it to someone famous, though I wouldn't recommend it. But for now, in the still heat, the quiet, looking up at the ceiling, I'm about to fall asleep (I roll, watch out) because I'm tired from imagining all the ways to find out you chose me.
[posted by Dan of Said The Gramophone]
Said The Gramophone is a precious gem to me because nothing gets to me as much as the beautiful prose up there. If you thought there cannot be that many ways to write about music and songs, you're very wrong. Those guys are brilliant and an inspiration.
20 July 2007
Heart It Races - Architecture in Helsinki
I suppose it's one those things that suddenly makes the sky look very blue, more so than usual.
Makes you smile at random passers-by.
Looking at the way they sing with abandon, those wide grins, big drums, tapping feet,
windows open, claps (doesn't matter on beat or off beat),
it may get a little chaotic, but it's a rather sweet sort of mayhem,
and it makes you wish you could be there,
now I hardly know what to do with that warm fuzzy feeling in my chest.
I suppose it's one those things that suddenly makes the sky look very blue, more so than usual.
Makes you smile at random passers-by.
Looking at the way they sing with abandon, those wide grins, big drums, tapping feet,
windows open, claps (doesn't matter on beat or off beat),
it may get a little chaotic, but it's a rather sweet sort of mayhem,
and it makes you wish you could be there,
now I hardly know what to do with that warm fuzzy feeling in my chest.
16 July 2007
You know there's this question that always gets asked in interviews, like those that go, "Who would you like to act as yourself in an adaptation of a biography on you?"
the one that's similar, that asks "What soundtrack do you want playing if all life's a stage, and your life is a movie?"
I would say the mixtape you just gave me would get quite alot of play.
Thanks dear.
the one that's similar, that asks "What soundtrack do you want playing if all life's a stage, and your life is a movie?"
I would say the mixtape you just gave me would get quite alot of play.
Thanks dear.
14 July 2007
I quote from A'Dilah -
- this, coming from a girl who decided it would be a nice ironic touch to write her birthday greetings to me last year on a postcard that went, "Made in Singapore!" in loud red proclamatory block letters.
It feels like I have to write a Singapore or Singaporeans-bashing post every once in awhile, to let off some steam. To seek similar opinions so I know that I'm not alone in wanting to leave this shithole of a place.
Sometimes it takes a trip abroad for some people to come upon an epiphany like adilah's above - she's just back from her Europe stay. For me, I'd known I was simply born in the wrong place since I was 12.
It has come to a stage in my life when people have packed up and left, are leaving soon, or are talking about leaving. Farewells at the airport every week. There hasn't been a time since I don't know when, when I would hear the engines of a plane roaring overhead and not look up as it streaks across the sky with the intense wish that I'm in it, flying off far far away.
It frustrates me how people here refuse to Keep to the Left
It frustrates me how people here love to block, shove and stare.
It frustrates me how people here adore fighting for seats.
...
It frustrates me how drivers here do not greet you.
It frustrates me how cashiers here do not look you in the eye.
It frustrates me how salesmen here look like they have a big stone up their arse.
It's that hard to smile.
...
Nothing satisfies me anymore and that's sad.
Once upon a time, I was pretty sure that this is The Place.
- this, coming from a girl who decided it would be a nice ironic touch to write her birthday greetings to me last year on a postcard that went, "Made in Singapore!" in loud red proclamatory block letters.
It feels like I have to write a Singapore or Singaporeans-bashing post every once in awhile, to let off some steam. To seek similar opinions so I know that I'm not alone in wanting to leave this shithole of a place.
Sometimes it takes a trip abroad for some people to come upon an epiphany like adilah's above - she's just back from her Europe stay. For me, I'd known I was simply born in the wrong place since I was 12.
It has come to a stage in my life when people have packed up and left, are leaving soon, or are talking about leaving. Farewells at the airport every week. There hasn't been a time since I don't know when, when I would hear the engines of a plane roaring overhead and not look up as it streaks across the sky with the intense wish that I'm in it, flying off far far away.
12 July 2007
Love to a Monster - Okkervil River
I wish I could express more eloquently why I love this song.
Apart from how it gives me a dull ache in my heart.
Like a pain I can't pinpoint but darts around, escaping recognition, for then it can't be diminished.
That self-awareness
unashamedly referring to himself as a 'weak little man -
the one singing - out his jangling, ringing and hopefully stinging attack on you.'
he's being pathetic
he's all too clear
he even went as far to turn someone 'into my new ringer for you,'
he spent the whole song being spiteful
hoping she 'get angry and hurt and have the hardest of landings,'
but he's just a man who had his heart broken
and never got over that heartbreak
who stays on in the 'same comfy town,'
and 'fight off the spring,'
and the whole song is really about how much he LOVES her -
and you feel that even through all his distortions and manipulations.
I wish I could express more eloquently why I love this song.
Apart from how it gives me a dull ache in my heart.
Like a pain I can't pinpoint but darts around, escaping recognition, for then it can't be diminished.
That self-awareness
unashamedly referring to himself as a 'weak little man -
the one singing - out his jangling, ringing and hopefully stinging attack on you.'
he's being pathetic
he's all too clear
he even went as far to turn someone 'into my new ringer for you,'
he spent the whole song being spiteful
hoping she 'get angry and hurt and have the hardest of landings,'
but he's just a man who had his heart broken
and never got over that heartbreak
who stays on in the 'same comfy town,'
and 'fight off the spring,'
and the whole song is really about how much he LOVES her -
and you feel that even through all his distortions and manipulations.
06 July 2007
Day6 - Spent the day at Leo Fu Village, a theme park. Pretty fun, think we spent more time taking photos than going on any rides. And the carousel? We only rode it for about, 100 rounds.
Yes I'm still keeping up with posts about the Taiwan trip. Coz Picasa allows me to upload loads of pics in a very short time, as opposed to the hours uploading them one by one takes. So...stay tuned for more pics.