new chapter

Yesterday I decided to:
1) Give my old laptop to my brother
2) Buy a new laptop
3) Give my iPod to my dad

It feels like starting a new chapter of my life.

Tomorrow I will commute to work without my usual playlists in hand. I don’t know if I should re-create them as how I remember them...or if I should create new ones. Hmm.
These are just superficial things, but there are actually bigger things changing in my life right now. Like my youngest brother leaving home to work in UK. A friend leaving. My work starting crunch time. And then maybe, me. Changing yet again.

I guess this calls for a new soundtrack.

this and that

Early this year my boss told me that my involvement in this big project would shift from just an SME (Subject Matter Expert) to full-time BA (Business Analyst, which is actually my job title). The project needs to be finished by year-end. I’ve been dipping my hands on it on and off for about a month until this May when I started working on it full time. I'll tell you that I am way over my head. Way over. I can now foresee my year and it doesn't look bright.

And so that is why my blog is not updated. Not that I’ve been working even on weekends but well, there was nothing to tell anyway and after spending long days in the office on weekdays, I would much rather lie down on my back, stuff my face with junk food and watch bad tv.

Even my iPod has been neglected lately. The last time I updated was on April 19 (!) and it was Feist’s Black Session recordings. It cannot even be considered new music since the songs were just live outtakes of songs from her studio recordings. So in the meantime I listened to the same old songs in my playlists. I’m glad though I now have Zoe Deschanel’s album (as She & Him) and I cannot wait to transfer her songs to my iPod. Yes, new music brightens up my day.

In other news, I got myself an iPhone. Whee!

music for the future

Back in the old days (whoa! I sound like I’m 80), I discover new music mostly through the radio. In gradeschool and early highschool I was mostly into pop music and got my fix from the radio station RX 93. I remember listening a lot to whatever’s on the weekly top 10, and then really liking Debbie Gibson and New Kids On The Block. I even went to their respective concerts…but that’s another story. Anyway, the radio was my friend and our relationship got stronger when I received my first boom box on my 13th birthday. From then on the radio was on most of my waking moments. Towards the end of highschool, I started to outgrow RX 93 and began exploring other stations. I began listening to 99.5 RT and then NU 107. It was around this time that alternative music started to hit the airwaves. Nirvana. Pearl Jam. And in the local scene, Color It Red. But it was the music of Indigo Girls that captivated me. The song “Galileo” was the first song I fell in like with…then I fell in love with the rest. I think their music was constantly on my boom box for a good 4 years (1995-1999). And then I moved on listening to indie pop. You can read more on this on an earlier post titled “music and sadness.”

So after the tapes, the cds, and now the mp3s. Information, especially when sourcing new music, has also evolved from just coming from the radio, or from the reviews on the magazines and newspapers, or on music videos on tv, to the internet. Now, more than ever, it’s easier to discover new music. Heard a song that you liked on an episode of House? Google will churn up various websites containing episode and music information. Want to know more about the artist? Check it out in allmusic.com. Want to listen more songs of the artist? Listen to track samples on iTunes. It can’t get easier than that. There are even websites such as Pandora (now no longer available outside the US - haha) which recommends music based on artists you like (basically, you set up some sort of radio station by choosing an artist, then Pandora custom-makes a playlist for you of songs by similar artists). But honestly, the google-allmusic-iTunes bit works better for me.

So back to Indigo Girls. I only had two of their best records on tape, so when the tape deck of my mini-stereo (I’ve long abandoned the boom box) died on me, I also stopped listening to them. Until recently when I thought about them again and was inspired to download their songs. Now as I type this I listen to “Mystery” and I’m transported back in time. Back when well…never mind.

Debbie Gibson is now a has-been and has even tried to jumpstart her career by posing on Playbloy. Or Penthouse. I forgot which. Plus I don’t even listen to the radio any more. I’m plugged to my iPod almost all day on weekdays. And weekends are spent reading blogs, watching tv shows and movies always on the look out for new music. Time has changed.

I wonder 10 years from now, how will we discover new music? By then will the music player be just the size of a stud earring? Hello future.

it's oh so quiet

It's, oh, so quiet
It's, oh, so still
You're all alone
And so peaceful until...
Bjork, "It's oh so quiet"

There was a time when I lived for weekends. Then there was another time when I dreaded them, especially those long weekends in between holidays. I used to hate the feeling of not knowing how to make the most of my weekends and the regret that I feel when Monday comes that I wasted them. Then weekends became just ordinary days of rest between work weeks...days neither to dread nor anticipate. Now my weekends are no longer enough! I have surrounded myself with so much amusement I can no longer keep up with myself. There’s a good book which I’m still half-way through, several DVDs of TV shows and movies to watch, a blog to update, blogs to read, pictures from two trips to edit, a new lens to take photos with, a laptop to familiarize, a photo-editing software to learn…all that I wish to cram for 2 days on top of doing my usual chores and napping (!).

Now it’s Monday and back to the usual grind. I can’t wait for Saturday to come along…

Technorati Profile

just like heaven

I recently found out from a friend’s Friendster site that one of my favorite bands, The Cure, is performing in Singapore and my friend is watching. I’m so jealous! Turns out that the band has a mini-Asian tour (Sing, HK, and Japan) this coming weekend and they left out Manila in their itinerary. Why Robert, why?? And why are the producers in Manila keep on bringing crap artists like David Pomeranz? Why hasn’t anyone thought about bringing The Cure here instead?

Oh well. I’m dedicating this post to the boys who made the best love songs ever. Here are my top 5 faves:

1. Mint Car – one of the band's happier songs which never fails to make me smile whenever I listen to it.

Say it will always be like this
The two of us together
It will always be like this
Forever and ever and ever...

2. Pictures of you – the first strums of the bass guitar at the start of the song is enough to make me weep.

“If only I'd thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I'd thought of the right words
I wouldn't be breaking apart
All my pictures of you”

3. Just like Heaven – one of the songs I love to sing when in a happy mood. I only sing the first few stanzas though. I dream of someone singing this song TO ME one day, hahaha.

"Show me how you do that trick
The one that makes me scream" she said
"The one that makes me laugh" she said
And threw her arms around my neck
"Show me how you do it and I promise you
I promise that I'll run away with you
I'll run away with you" ….

You
Soft and only
You
Lost and lonely
You
Strange as angels
Dancing in the deepest oceans
Twisting in the water
You're just like a dream...

4. Letter to Elise – maybe the song that I can relate to the most..

elise believe i never wanted this
i thought this time i'd keep all of my promises
i thought you were the girl always dreamed about
but i let the dream go
and the promises broke
and the make-believe ran out...

5. Love Song - a song with simple lyrics yet evoke so much sincerity like all the other love songs Robert makes. *sigh*

Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am home again
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am whole again