Saturday, August 21, 2010

Oh the pretty things

The workmen were about to come to install the balcony glass at 8 am the other day so I thought I might as well get up some hours earlier to catch the sunrise as I'd been meaning to do. So, up I got very early, with the birds and the rabbits (saw the latter about) and made my way to the beach to wait for the sun's rising a bit before 6 am. I saw a fox on the way!

Late August sunrise is sleepy and slow.

I don't usually do sunrise or sunset photos, because they're such cliched subjects and because it's taking photos of pretty subjects rather than taking photos that are affecting (in whatever way) or beautiful in themselves. The two are very different things, and I usually try to go for the latter. Plus, at the risk of sounding like a tosser, it doesn't take much skill to get a pretty sunrise or sunset photo.

But it sure is very pretty isn't it?

Monday, August 16, 2010

Barefeet in the library, and how to express the inexpressible

I'm sitting on the fourth floor of the university library/National Library, almost on the level of the roof tops of the buildings opposite. I'm seated by an open window, trying to catch the small draft that comes through - it's no longer stifling hot outside, but the library doesn't have a particularly good air-conditioning system, so it's still too warm inside. Still, it's not so bad. The library is in the city centre, so I'm enjoying the sounds of the city through the window. I've taken my shoes off and from time to time get up to get a particular book in the Classics shelf nearby. The library floors seem to be spotless.

It's back to work after the three days of celebration at the Flow festival. Of course, some of the artists performing were more trendy cool than authentically touching but a lot of it was new and interesting - the very reason I go every year. Some fascinating, interesting, just plain fun or mindblowing music:

Grey Park. I'd never heard of them before but their concert at the experimental music stage was quite something else: a continuous, slowly-moving, massive wall of sound, with tones, colours and textures woven in. It's not something I'd listen to on a daily basis but as an experience it was fascinating.

Hey. This really was their name. They created wonderful soundscapes with an electric guitar, cello, violin, percussion and a synth.

Girls. An American lo-fi pop band with a rather eventful personal history (birth in a cult, prescription drug addiction etc). On cd they are kind of Beach Bousy, lovely pop but live they completely rocked. A fantastic gig. And at the end of the gig they threw the roses they had on stage to - you guessed it - girls in the audience. Very sweet!

Ballake Sissoko. The world's second most known player of the traditional Malian instrument kora (related to a harp) after Toumani Diabate. I was looking forward to this since there are a few Malian artists I really like. In the end, though, I had to conclude that the kora is supremely beautiful but not very captivating. It all sounds the same in my ears. Well, my experience may also have been influenced by the fact that there were people around talking all through the concert. I don't understand why people come to a concert where the music is quiet and requires listening with concentration and then spend the entire time talking instead of listening.

Owen Pallett. This Canadian guy is a violin-electro wizard, who is most of the time on stage alone, playing his violin, but sounds like a string orchestra with the help of the backing tracks etc. that he used. A completely original sound. Unfortunately I had to leave after half an hour because the venue where the show was held, the old engine hall of the power plant, had a sauna-like temperature. 

Caribou. They played a mind-blowing concert. A superbly danceable electro band but in concert they played all live: drums, bass, guitar, a synth. Completely incredible. The music was like fire; the beats like from the earth's core; the music like the earth's elements themselves. An astounding drummer. I can't believe the feeling their music gave me.

Caribou were the last band I saw, on sunday. There would have a couple more interesting names left, Marina and the Diamonds and The XX, but I decided to leave. One reason was that the queues to all the water spots and toilets were insane, but also I felt that anything after the concert I'd just experienced would be a comedown.

A thought about this: in trying to express the inexpressible of how music can make one feel, one is necessarily reduced to platitudes like 'incredible', 'mindblowing' or 'I can't believe how to the music made me feel.' These expressions do not properly DESCRIBE what the feeling was, they do not get to the core. That's the thing about music. The reaction to music is mainly about emotion - or should be mainly about emotion; if your only reaction is simply 'what an interesting guitar chord progression' (or similar) then I think something is wrong. The effect of music being about emotion also makes it personal in the extreme, which means the experience cannot be shared in its totality. I'm sure the majority of the audience in that concert was taken up by a shared emotion, of fervour or of joy perhaps, of being there as one among many, but if each person in the audience was to try to explain what they felt to someone who wasn't there, I'm sure they would find themselves lacking in words.

But: perhaps the feeling doesn't need to be explained, just felt.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

So It Was Friday the 13th...

So my microwave blew up yesterday. Really did. There was lots of smoke but no flames. I don't REALLY believe that Friday the 13th is a bad luck day but I had to laugh about the timing. The microwave was ancient in microwave standards, had been bought in the 90s so clear its time had come.

This weekend I'm enjoying my annual tradition, the Flow Festival. Yesterday was the first day, two more days to come. I guess I'll be going there after 2 pm when they open the gates. I hope the weather forecast is right that it'll clear up. Rain in an open-air festival is a bit of a drag. Yesterday I caught a couple of good acts, a rather fabulous electro pop duo called Villa Nah and an artist called Sami Kukka, whose music is experimental folk-blues. Some of the other artists, like the Air from France, were to my ears very cool but not authentically moving. Today should be better. I'm particularly looking forward to Owen Pallett and Junip. M.I.A may be very interesting too.

I still have to go on about the new Sherlock. I know it's only a TV show but I love it. Benedict Cumberbatch's performance is perfect. Not that awards matter but I'll be very surprised if they don't give him a BAFTA for that. The third episode was the best of the lot.  Fantastic all through, but great details like the Minsk scene and the scene where Sherlock's bored and shoots at the wall and finally throws himself in the sofa, expecting John to stick around as audience to his dramatic sulking. I don't think I'd like a flatmate who think it's a good idea to keep a severed head in the fridge. :-)

John: "A severed head!"
Sherlock: "Just tea for me thanks."
John: "No, there's a head in the fridge!"
Sherlock: "Yes."
John: "A bloody head!"
Sherlock: "Where else was I supposed to put it? You don't mind do you? I got it at Bart's morgue. I'm measuring the coagulation of saliva after death..."

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Testing...

Nothing particular to say, I'm just testing the blogging client that's integrated in the KDE desktop I use in Linux. Called Blogilo.

This is the trailer to the new BBC series 'Sherlock' which sadly ends to the last 1,5 hour episode today. I sure hope they make more! UPDATE: judging by how the last episode ended, I'm sure they will. Hope it's sooner rather than later.


This time, Holmes is transferred to modern time. I was suspicious beforehand whether it works but it does, wonderfully. Quite a timely modernisation, too: there are already shows like 'House' where Dr. House is definitely a Holmesian character. Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes is perfect (apparently the role was written with him in mind, too). Brilliant, intense, downright manic, dramatic, eccentric, egocentric, gets his kicks out of solving crimes = puzzles, charismatic but manipulative - he is a borderline sociopath after all. Or, as Holmes says himself, "I'm not a psychopath, Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research!". Not a person you'd like to spend time with, let alone live with. But SO entertaining in fiction.

The show's also full of fantastic quotes:

Holmes: "Shut up!"
DI Lestrate: "I didn't say anything."
Holmes: "You were thinking. It's annoying."

Watson: "It's a skull."
Holmes: "Friend of mine. Well, I say friend..."

"Dear god, what's it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring."
"Look at you lot, you're all so vacant! Is it nice not being me? It must be so relaxing."

Someone's already put the previous two episodes on Youtube. Easy to find if one searches with the actor's name ("Benedict Cumberbatch") and then selects Search options > Sort by > Upload date. The first episode is called "A Study in Pink" and the second one "The Blind Banker".