This is Music

Wandering through the Youtubes tonight, I hunted down a bunch of my favorite old songs and something struck me - this stuff is OLD! I was amazed that several of my favorites were 8, 10, 12+ years old. I remember when these things came out and, despite my terminally poor memory, I actually remember them pretty vividly.

The whole video-adventure started with Spiritualized "Do It All Over Again." In my brain, the album that song came from is still 'the new Spiritualized' (to differentiate it from Ladies and Gentlemen We're Floating in Space, Pure Phase, etc I guess). As I'm murmuring along with the lyrics, I notice the video is from 2001. If asked, I probably would have guessed I got this no more than three years ago. In some ways, it seems like my time in Virginia didn't ever register on my mental timeline.

I also found video of a show I was at way back when I lived in Atlanta (the video isn't dated, but I'm almost 100% sure this was the show I went to. I think I've seen them three times, but I forget.) I remember Acetone was the opening band and it was one of the best shows I ever saw.

A few more of the favorites I found:

Verve "Gravity Grave" (Seen live once)
Lush "Hypocrite" (Never saw live)
Slowdive "Ballad of Sister Sue" (Never saw live; saw Mojave 3 live)
The Cure "From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea (Live from 1992)" (Seen live seven or so times)
Placebo "The Bitter End" and also "Song to Say Goodbye" (possibly the saddest video I've ever seen)
Radiohead "Karma Police" (seen live twice - one small show, one huge show)
Catherine Wheel "Judy Staring at the Sun" (Seen just once live, at the old Cotton Club)

I miss going to concerts. If you're reading this, did we ever go to a show together? If so, what did we see? All my ticket stubs have gone black with age...

Meat, men, and music

24 May Reenactment
Originally uploaded by hellomizk

Now that I have your attention - hi!

Sounds like fun, huh? Let me explain before you get too worried about our newly-acquired debauched European lifestyle. Last night Peter invited Mr K and I over for a barbecue dinner (including delicious grilled Mexican-spiced pork, ground lamb, and most importantly sausage-that-used-to-be-made-with-brains-but-isn't-now) and he was kind enough to throw in a crash course in two important European phenomena as well - I'm talking about soccer and Eurovision.



I'm going to go ahead and skip the soccer game to go straight into Eurovision as that was what we spent well over three and a half hours glued to the TV watching. I'm having a difficult time figuring out where to even start with this one. The first couple hours of the show were the twenty or so bands each performing their one song. Peter told us the singing is all live but all the music is recorded and played back - however, this doesn't prevent members of each band from pretending to play their respective instruments as they dance, slink, or stomp around the stage.


After all the performances, the last hour and some or so of the show is voting and awarding of points. All of the voting is done by phone or SMS and is completed within 15 minutes, after which voting is closed. No country is allowed to award their points to their own entry. Once voting was closed, each of the 43 participating coutnries called in to announce how they were awarding their points. The tallying of the votes was simultaneously the most fun and the most painful as we watched our favorite sinking further down the list as our least favorite rose up.

Russia ended up winning with a performance that left us all jaw-dropped in disbelief... and not in a good way. Yup - rolling on the floor - check... lone violinist (remember what I said about pretending to play instruments - yeah)...an ice skater?!?! Yeah.

Other performances worth mentioning included Ukraine - Mr K was very impressed with her "talents." Another interesting entry was Latvia, who managed to make DJ Bobo look like a creative genius. Spain (watch the dancer in the pink) and France were both just plain entertaining.

Now I'm off to check all those links and maybe sneak in a little nap - too much excitement!

PEEP-attack!

IF-Heavy
Originally uploaded by hellomizk

So I've been a bit slack on the blog thing recently - nothing too terribly exciting going on here... just a lot of painting, recently. Mr K has been on a ink-and-paint buying spree so our supplies are replenished!

In other news, I can't stop listening to this song, "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John, or this song by the same people. Thanks, Miz J!

Thanks mom and dad for the easter candy and the PEEPS! With the proper care and feeding, I bet they last til next Easter too!

Annnnd I'm out of words. I'll try to think of more soon!