Self Assignment - Five Albums A Week

Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
The Magnetic Fields - Get Lost
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs

Either listen to these.
Or no music at all.

Phil Spector Sentenced to 19 Years to Life

Legendary producer to go to prison for murder.
He should have killed himself...
It's better that way I think.

Yeah! Oh Yeah!

Tracey Thorn and Jens Lekman - Yeah! Oh, Yeah! (The Magnetic Fields)

+ this song is from a Merge complication, called Score! which features bands like The National, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, but not a very good complication. It's got some weird songs.
+ I love both Jens Lekman and Tracey Thorn, and I love this song. This is such a great collaboration covering a great song.

+ this is such a true and funny song originally by The Magnetic Fields from the "69 Love Songs", a massive album that contains literally 69 love songs.

Are you out of love with me?
Are you longing to be free?
Do I drive you up a tree?
Yeah! Oh, yeah!
Do I drive you up the wall?
Do you dread every phone call?
Can you not stand me at all?
Yeah! Oh, yeah!
Though I need you more than air
is it true you just don't care?
Are you having an affair?
Yeah! Oh, yeah!
When we met I thought
money was everything
so I let you buy the house,
the car, the ring
but I can't take your perpetual whining
and you can't sing
I though if we live apart
we could made a brand-new start
Do you want to break my heart?
Yeah! Oh, yeah!
I've enjoyed making you
miserable for years
found peace of mind in
playing on your fears
How I loved to catch your gold
and silver tears, but now my dear
What a dark and dreary life
Are you reaching for a knife?
Could you really kill your wife?
Yeah! Oh, yeah!
Of, I die, I die, I die!
So it's over, you and I
Was my whole life just a lie?
Yeah! Oh, yeah!

城市

流暢的旋律。我覺得非常不錯聽的一首流行曲子。
歌詞是還蠻有城市的fu。
時光穿梭。我們不在左右只在彼此其中。

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

It's hard to believe, that being pure at heart is really a pain.
But that's the way I feel.

With loves, and hates and passions just like mine,
They were born and then they lived and then they died.
It seems so unfair. I want to cry.

For Mercy has a human heart, pity a human face.

... I still believe that people are really good at heart.

關於王菲...

最喜歡的五張專輯: (沒有任何所謂的順序)
將愛王菲
只愛陌生人
浮躁
討好自己

最喜歡王菲的二十首歌 (也沒有任何所謂的順序)

1. 冷戰
2. 笑忘書
   
3. 但願人長久
4. Summer Of Love
5. 天使
6. 約定
7. 妳快樂(所以我快樂)
8. 蝴蝶
9. 為非作歹 (The Sundays' Here Where The Story Ends)
   
10. 分裂/不安
11. 悶
12. 打錯了
13. 只愛陌生人
14. 當時的月亮
15. 乘客
16. 空城
    
17. 紅豆
18. 懷戀
19. 矜持
20. 不眠飛行

很明顯的，王菲不光是要討好自己，還要討好大部分的聽眾。不管期不期待他的復出，她輝煌的的過去十幾年，已經唱了不少很好聽的歌了。看來要再跟 Cocteau Twins 合作是不可能的，不過張亞東能繼續幫她做的話，那還可以小小期待一下。當然如果新歌好聽的話，那是很好，不過不好，也沒差。她已經很厲害了。原本只想寫十首最愛的歌，可是好像額度不夠。不知道為什麼，她的歌對我來說還是很棒。就算我現在已經很少聽中文歌了。

Great Stuffs

Truly great things always happen way ahead of its time, therefore it's hard for everyone to accept the genius of it at the time. Often the great things would stand on its own, and not fade away. There's a long history of it. Particularly for painters, musicians, directors...all the art-related stuffs. Recently, I've discovered a lot of great stuffs, The Velvet Underground and Nico's, Fellini's films, Godard's films, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless... these things were not made for its time, they were made for the future. Those people really have a vision of their own. I now came to appreciate their genius, partly because of their history (if they are shit and got sunk in the time, I wouldn't have a chance to know them). And mostly I really like them and not for the fame's sake. So when the next big thing comes up, would I appreciate it? I don't know, I hope so.

Loveless

My Bloody Valentine's entire career has been aiming toward the perfect guitar noise that Kevin Shields has in his head: a pure, warm, androgynous but deeply sexual rush of sound. Loveless is overwhelming, with Shields and Bilinda Butcher's guitars and voices blending into each other until they become a distant orchestra, the rhythm section striding in majestic lockstep, and occasional bursts of dance rhythms (as on the single "Soon") buoying the live instruments' warp and drift. Furiously loud but seductive rather than aggressive, the album flows like a lava stream from one track into another, subsuming everything in the mix into its blissful roar, and pulsing like a lover's body.

by Douglas Wolk on Loveless

Wow! Such a blessing for a true classic album!

Only Shallow

聽起來真的很像一隻在草原上狂奔大象的嚎叫聲...
需要第一首歌就這麼有氣勢嗎?

The Zephyrs - A Year to The Day

This is a perfect album for you, when you wanna go to sleep, and never want to wake up again...
The tunes are quite nice. If you listen to it with lower volume, it sounds very comfortable.

The Zephyrs - A Year to The Day

10 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Guitar Hero

Johnny Marr's 10 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Guitar Hero:

1. Quit a wildly successful band—and turn down offers from other successful bands—for musical reasons.
2. Avoid solos whenever possible.
3. Play few single-note passages.
4. Put songs before showmanship.
5. Don’t clutter your records, even if it means laying out.
6. Be subtle in your innovations: Don’t pose with a four-necked guitar; instead concentrate on offbeat harmonic ideas, unusual tunings, weirdo chord voicings, and finely detailed accompaniment.
7. Paint with a feather, not a firehose.
8. Cite unfashionable influences.
9. Violate pop music conventions whenever possible.
10. Denounce guitar heroism loudly and frequently.

8½ (Otto e Mezzo)

This is madness! This film is crazy and awesome.
I don't know how to describe it, but I think it would be my favourite Fellini's film.
I love it very much.
8½

Man Alone With Himself

Calm in Actions. — As a waterfall becomes slower and more floating as it plunges, so the great man of action will act with greater calm than could be expected from his violent desire before the deed.

Wanting to be loved. — The demand to be loved is the greatest kind of arrogance.

Adhering to an opinion. — One man adheres to an opinion because he prides himself on having come upon it by himself; another because he has learned it with effort, and is proud of having grasped it: thus both out of vanity.

Self-enjoyment in vanity. — The vain man wants not so much to predominate as to feel himself predominant; that is why he disdains no means of self-deception and self-outwitting. What he treasures is not the opinion of others but his own opinion of their opinion.

Rope of gratitude. — There are slavish souls who carry their thanks for favors so far that they actually strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

Suspicion. — People whom we cannot tolerate, we try to make suspect.


why you have to be so fucking right?

東京物語

借這片來看的時候，我完全不知道小津是誰。只是覺得東京物語這四個字很熟。可能常聽到東京和物語這兩個單字。日本人常用這兩個字：東京、物語。總之會看這片，完全是機緣。況且是 The Criterion Collections 的片，我都有興趣。他們是一群藉著新科技 (DVD, Blu-Ray) 將經典好片推廣到全世界的好公司。裡面往往會收錄些不少有趣的東西，像是訪問，記錄片，短片，幕後花絮等。對我來說，是很棒的知識來源。

看完電影後的感覺，他是一部好電影。非常棒的電影。

對於平凡的一般家庭，小津安二郎 (Yasujirō Ozu) 非常了解。對於家庭中，不同的人他也很了解。對於時代的變遷，他也很了解，藉著電影裡的小人物把這些感嘆道了出來。就這部電影，很明顯的把他自己對這社會的認知留給了三位社會裡的小角色。第一個當然是年老的父親，小孩長大後變化看在眼裡，但並不會施壓於不肖的兒女身上。第二個是年老的母親。女人在歷史悠久的社會以來都是男人的助手，至少對於傳統社會的日本和其他國家都是這樣的。這對老夫婦是非常值得敬佩的小人物。第三個當然就是二兒子的媳婦。在看這部電影時，真的開始懷疑現在還有這樣的女人嗎？

對於傳統，對於家庭，對於婚姻，這部電影又幫我上了一課。為什麼每個種族都會有傳統，都會有家庭，都會有婚姻，並不是沒有原因的。這是屬於我們人類的文化。每個人都是個體而來，也是個體的死去。而在我們在世上的時間，就是需要這些人類文化的保護。對於這些文化，是不需要高深的知識，也不需要個人的喜好的，你要不要你都是人。除非你不想當人，不然你是離不開家庭，愛人和朋友的溫暖的。這是人性。

小津安二郎出色的地方就是在於他能用最簡單的手法，將最純粹的人性表露無遺的展現在螢幕前。電影的確不需要很多暴力，槍殺，性愛等等的效果，再說大部分這些東西也都不太跟現實有太大的關聯。我喜歡小津這種非常真實的陳述手法。人性的光輝和扭曲，都可以簡單得在一個人的言行舉止看得出來。不是嗎？

我看了幕後花絮，裡面有一部小津安二郎的記錄片。訪問了他的家人，和電影的工作夥伴。談到了很多事，他的小時後，家庭，日戰，電影拍攝，手法等。還看了另一部短片，是訪問許多受到小津影響來自世界各地的導演們。有香港的關錦鵬，德國的Wim Wenders，芬蘭的Aki Kaurismaki，美國的Paul Schrader，還有台灣的侯孝賢。非常棒的幕後花絮。

Mojave 3

最近聽很多瞪鞋的歌, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, JAMC, Swervedriver, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, A Place To Bury Strangers, The Legends... 一堆噪音音牆籠罩了我的耳朵, 我想精神層面上我需要這樣的麻醉

再聽 Mojave 3... 覺得這樣混亂的情緒會隨著這簡單的音樂, 慢慢的化成一口口煙霧, 從我身上排出

Sing My Heart

The Who - Behind Blue Eyes

The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction

Rcently I Watched...

La Strada (1954)Often Sad, Sometimes Surreal, Always Human.
I like Gelsomina. She was so... good. She's one of my favourite characters in cinemas.
It's a very strange film. I don't know what exactly makes this film so remarkable. I guess it's the ordinary beauty/humanity that really touched my heart.
It's about loners, love and people. I can really relate to it.
Federico Fellini is a master director, and this film is one of the best films.


All That Heaven Allows (1955)Well...melodrama. Clichés!
Yeah... This is such a typical romance movie.
But I think the set is so beautiful... I wish I had that house.

The Dreamers (2003)
Seriously why?
I love the first half of the movie, before they get fucked up.
The movie pays a great tribute to French New Wave and other movies, but I don't like the story. Like what Michael Pitt said, it's an "eye-opener". Nothing else. It's okay if people are fucked up, but it's not okay to think fucked-up is okay. I only like Michael Pitt's character. It's not a good film overall.

The Gold Rush (1925)
Chaplin!
He is indeed one of the greatest comedian, actor and director.
Back in the 20's, he could create a film like this? Marvellous!
Just watch this, the amazing "Dance of the Rolls "


Gigi (1958)
I guess you can say this is just another Hollywood musical hit.
But it's really good! I mean overall.
It's such a charming and darling film!

This heart is a stone

Acid House Kings - This heart is a stone

Verse C Em F Am G,
chorus C G F F,
middle eight C G A F (twice)

C Em
They say your middle name is trouble
F Am-G
But I know it's Caroline
C Em
They say you remind them of problems
F Am-G
But I think you look like Audrey
C
Caroline, I know
Em
That you put on a show
F Am-G
Everytime you two disagree

C
This heart is a stone
G F F
No one will ever break it
C
This heart is a stone
G F F
Close to you it breaks easily
C
'Cause everything that they say
G F
Tells me to go away
C
But everything that I feel
G F
Tells me to stay

They say they can smell the drama
But I know it's "No. 5"
They say you only bring heartache
But I know you brought a bottle of wine

Caroline, I know
That you put on a show
Everytime you two disagree

This heart is a stone
No one will ever break it
This heart is a stone
Close to you it breaks easily
'Cause everything that they say
Tells me to go away
But everything that I feel
Tells me to stay

They say you're like a Monday morning
I say you're like a Friday night
I don't get their points
Anytime is a good time for being with you

This heart is a stone
No one will ever break it
This heart is a stone
Close to you it breaks easily
'Cause everything that they say
Tells me to go away
But everything that I feel
Tells me to stay

London School of Economics

Chords for "London School of Economics".
Verse G Cadd9, Fmaj13(no5th) Cadd9 G Cadd9,
chorus Fmaj7 C,
outro Dm9 Em G6 Fmaj7.
Looks complex, is not.
But can anyone help me with "Fmaj13(no5th)"? how do you press that?

Don’t forget that summer dress
You know, the one you wore
When you returned from
London School of Economics
I remember
Even the books you’d bought second-hand

Fmaj7
Look back
C
Things were so easy
Fmaj7
Look back
C
We had hopes and we had dreams
Look back

Even though we look the way
We always did before
I know there cannot be a new
Very first time
Call me nostalgic
I never said it was better or worse

Look back
Things were so easy
Look back
We had hopes and we had dreams
Look back

We lived novel lives
And we’d never miss out on anything

Why do you love music?

I love music and songwriters and obsess about people's lyrics. I have done in the past, where I'll go, "Oh, he understands me so well." It's only natural to do that and I think it's one of the things that people get from music. That's why they love it and why they need it. They feel like people can identify.

by Tracyanne Campbell
(from pitchfork interview)

My Bohemian Life (.Fantasy)

I went off with my hands in my torn coat pockets;
My overcoat too was becoming ideal;
I travelled beneath the sky, Muse! and I was your vassal;
Oh dear me! what marvellous loves I dreamed of!

My only pair of breeches had a big whole in them.
– Stargazing Tom Thumb, I sowed rhymes along my way.
My tavern was at the Sign of the Great Bear.
– My stars in the sky rustled softly.

And I listened to them, sitting on the road-sides
On those pleasant September evenings while I felt drops
Of dew on my forehead like vigorous wine;

And while, rhyming among the fantastical shadows,
I plucked like the strings of a lyre the elastics
Of my tattered boots, one foot close to my heart!

by Arthur Rimbaud (1889.)

source

Le Coeur Supplicié

Le Coeur Supplicié Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe, Mon coeur est plein de caporal: Ils y lancent des jets de soupe, Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe: Sous les quolibets de la troupe Qui lance un rire general Mon triste coeur bave à la poupe, Mon coeur est plein de caporal! Ithyphalliques et pioupiesques, Leur insultes l'ont dépravé! A la vesprée, ils font des fresques Ithyphalliques et pioupiesques. O flots abracadabrantesques Prenez my coeur, qu'il soit sauvé Ithyphalliques et pioupioupesques Leur insultes l'ont depravé! Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques, Comment agir, ô coeur volé? Ce seront des refrains bachiques: Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques: J'aurai des sursauts stomachiques, Si mon triste coeur est ravalé: Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques Comment agir, ô coeur volé?

The Tortured Heart My sad heart drools at the poop, My heart full of tobacco juice: They squirt on it their jets of soup, My sad heart drools at the poop: Beneath the jeers of the troop Who burst forth with a general laugh My sad heart drools at the poop, My heart full of tobacco juice. Standing phallic and soldierlike Their insults have depraved it At vespers they make frescoes Standing phallic and soldierlike O waves, abracadabrantesque Take my heart, let it be saved Standing phallic and soldierlike Their insults have depraved it When they've exhausted their quids, How shall we act, o stolen heart? There will be drinking songs When they've exhausted their quids My stomach will heave If my sad heart is gobbled down When they've exhausted their quids How shall we act, o stolen heart?

Mai 1871. by Arthur Rimbaud

From Here to Eternity

Indeed a classic romantic movie. But I think it's slightly overrated.
Though I do like some of the dialogues, and the way movie ends.

Alma: Yes, proper! In another year I'll have enough money saved. Then I'm going to go back to my home town in Oregon, and I'm going to build a house for my mother and myself, and join the country club and take up golf. Then I'll meet the proper man with the proper position, to make a proper wife, and can run a proper home and raise proper children. And I'll be HAPPY because when you're PROPER you're SAFE!
Robert E. Lee "Prew' Prewitt: You've got guts, honey. I hope you can pull that off.
Alma: I do mean it when I say I need you. 'Cause I'm lonely. You think I'm lying, don't you?
Robert E. Lee "Prew' Prewitt: Nobody ever lies about being lonely.

IMDB

Karin Dreijer Andersson

Finally, I know who she is. When I first heard the song "what else is there", I was stunned. What a song with such a voice. I've seen the video, it's a very intriguing video. Then, Röyksopp's new album got another songs with her, I was happy. They sound good again.

Through the people on youtube, I finally know who she is, Karin Dreijer. She's from Sweden and has her own band with her brother, The Knife. Also released a solo album this year, called Fever Ray under the same name. Fever Ray sounds good, I don't really like The Knife. But the collobration with Röyksopp is the best!

Röyksopp - What else is there

Röyksopp Feat. Karin Dreijer - This Must Be It

Fever Ray - When I Grow Up

新歌MV搶先聽

Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About

這首很早就聽過了，可是天阿，誰會想到他會拍這麼屌的ＭＶ。
我個人是覺得歌很好聽，可是ＭＶ怪爆了。

Golden Silvers - True Romance (True No. 9 Blues)

這...帥！ 真的是俗個有力！

Bat For Lashes - Daniel

很無聊的ＭＶ。歌還不錯聽，我還是比較喜歡第一張。

M83 - We Own The Sky

哇嗚！拍的真美。據可靠消息指出，這是一支萬中選一的ＭＶ。
的確，很棒！如果要吹毛求疵點，戀愛的那段可以改進。
不過，歌還是超好聽的。

Hallucinations

Observe my obsession with someone new
Don't feel like someone new
The connection is real with someone new

In this tomb I call love
I get so lonesome with you
Or without you sweetheart
The hellhound's here

Hallucinate my love
Nothing's real in the morn
when I rise I'll leave you to die
You to die, you to die

I can remember seen a review about their gig, saying that Hallucinations got one of the most beautiful artificial drummings. I agreed. And you'll have to admit so when you hear the real song (not on youtube) with a good pair of headphone, because it is so good. This song is so good! Following is the interview with The Raveonettes about this song.

Little Miss Sunshine

It's one of the weirdest chemistry in my body, that I can't explain. Everytime I watched it, I cried.

I went to see this movie in cinema, four times, with different people. I recommended them, and went to see it again and again. Just then, I watched the DVD again. I love it so much.
There are so many scenes that make me laugh everytime.
The music is so beautiful, the movie wouldn't be as good without the music.
I like all the characters, each and every one is so lively.
One of many scenes that I really like is when Frank and Dwayne having conversations:

Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he's also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh... he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you're 18... Ah, think of the suffering you're gonna miss. I mean high school? High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that.

Dwayne: You know what? Fuck beauty contest. You do what you love, and fuck the rest.

Because I watched this film at the same age as Dwayne in the movie, the movie kind of offered me more personally.
Anyway, awesome film! I love it!

In Praise of Pictorialism: Early Pictorial Photography

Misonne
Mautner

....More

Ethics and Aesthetics

"Ethics and aesthetics are one." In other words, a person who has a highly developed sense of true beauty of the world - its spiritual beauty - cannot help but act ethically.

by Ludwig Wittgenstein

The Family of Man Book

Just some of the most remarkable photos from the book.
This photograph book is really timeless.
The quotes are really good too!