This is technically a lie because I was actually half way through my 9 months abroad almost 2 weeks ago... But I figure with 10 days in Miami and 2 weeks at home this still pretty much counts as half way.
Yesterday was the first anniversary of the Chilean earthquake. I didn't go anywhere so I don't really have any profound comments to make... I knew there was a lot on TV about it, but the quality of Chilean broadcasting is still taking some getting used to, so even though I tried to watch some of the programmes on the last year's event, I found it very hard to get anything worthwhile out of it. Sorry Chilean TV...
Speaking of which, the Viña del Mar annual Festival of Song finished Saturday night. It's a whooping 6 day affair, with artists from all over the world. The interesting thing about the festival is that the crowd get to vote on who they like and who they don't. There are many artists who only get one song, and others who play for more than an hour and win trophies depending on their popularity. The whole thing is televised, and while viewers at home have advert breaks, the paying audience sit and wait around.
Sting did the UK proud with his 45 piece symphonic orchestra backing him. Press was raving about it afterwards, saying that he raised the level of the entire festival.
They also have a "Reina" del festival, which Zelma assures me was created by the press... Each candidate for the Queenship flaunts herself about and promises to do something if she is voted winner. Here is a link to a video of this year's Queen, an Argentinian model, completing her promise, by swimming about in a pool in something that possibly in a past life had dreams of being a bikini but never quite got there. Warning: What-is-apparently-not-nudity-but-clearly-is-nudity involved. Hence why I haven't embedded the video here.
This was on daytime news for at least 2 days straight. On repeat. Also, please note that this is basically a press conference. Slash strip show.
The end of the festival also marks the end of the summer holidays, with all the public schools starting the new academic year this week.
I'm just in shock that tomorrow is March!!
In terms of my news, there isn't a lot. I've been having to sort out some uni arrangements for next year, with choosing modules and the like... Trying to start my essays that I have to write while abroad to hand in to the Spanish dept at King's. Also been starting work at the church office again which hopefully will be intense and short.
Hopefully there'll be a few concrete travel plans coming to the surface in the next week or two, which'll be exciting.
Hardly any time till I'm home now, it's a madness.
XOX
Monday, 28 February 2011
Thursday, 24 February 2011
appreciating a patient job
This video is great.
If you're going to watch it, watch it until the end.
If you're going to watch it, watch it until the end.
JESSIE J
I think out here I am riding my own solo Jessie J tidal wave, although impressively thanks to the power of Youtube, and probably more so the advertising power of Vevo through the former, the kids out here do know about Jessie J.
I missed the initial Youtube hype about her, and just tagged on over Christmas when the musical guru that is Hannah Charlton filled me in. And I have been smitten ever since.
Her voice is just AMAZING. She has so much control, is always perfectly in tune (which I love because I HATE autotune), and knows her voice and how to use it in a multitude of styles and expressions.
If she never wrote a single song I would still think she was incredible, which just makes it even more amazing that her music is just such brilliant pop. And the fact that she's written for.. well you guys know the blurb.
And she's TWENTY TWO.
I'm in awe.
Yeah she's got swagger and attitude, but I'm not even paying attention to that.
The girl's mind blowing.
I missed the initial Youtube hype about her, and just tagged on over Christmas when the musical guru that is Hannah Charlton filled me in. And I have been smitten ever since.
Her voice is just AMAZING. She has so much control, is always perfectly in tune (which I love because I HATE autotune), and knows her voice and how to use it in a multitude of styles and expressions.
If she never wrote a single song I would still think she was incredible, which just makes it even more amazing that her music is just such brilliant pop. And the fact that she's written for.. well you guys know the blurb.
And she's TWENTY TWO.
I'm in awe.
Yeah she's got swagger and attitude, but I'm not even paying attention to that.
The girl's mind blowing.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
james x joni
Found this with Phil a few weeks ago and fell in love. Since then have bought his album and it's amazing. This is nothing new. But it deserves a permanent place in my account of things that have happened this year. As an event in its own right.
nasty, nasty gal / birthday lists pt. 2
Following on from a blog from the ever charming (and now very sun burnt) Miss Daisy Walker about our favourite online vintage+new store Nasty Gal, which you can read here on Oui, c'est un blog, I find it exceedingly appropriate to add my own voice, bellowing into the cyberspace where desirable objects meet desiring people (what?)...
SCREW YOU. NASTY. GAL.
SCREW YOU. NASTY. GAL.
This may just be one pretty cool top. But it represents a lot. more.
I think my first Nasty Gal purchase was an 80's silk, long, "ski" coat, covered in leopards and tigers in black and silver, back in the day when they just sold a few awesome vintage things on Ebay.
Later, the website came. Next, the New section, which rocks. And got bigger. And better. And is cheaper than the vintage stuff, and they have more than one of them and in your size.
Then came THE ADVERTS.
As Daisy said to me in Santiago, the ads are probably catered to, well basically, us, as young women who like shopping and vintage clothes, and oh, wait, we love Nasty Gal.
But if anyone needs to see these adverts IT IS NOT US.
Seriously Nasty Gal, I mean, I would never break up with you, but this relationship is starting to get a bit clingy and I don't think I can handle the kind of commitment you are expecting from me.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
we like free
Reading this brilliant article from Wired a couple of years ago, which can be found in full here:
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, by Chris Anderson.
[He also wrote a book called Free, which I might have to add to my birthday list.]
But just one very great music biz example that he uses under the 'cross-subsidies' bracket of how giving something away for free affects and benefits business...
On a busy corner in São Paulo, Brazil, street vendors pitch the latest "tecnobrega" CDs, including one by a hot band called Banda Calypso. Like CDs from most street vendors, these did not come from a record label. But neither are they illicit. They came directly from the band. Calypso distributes masters of its CDs and CD liner art to street vendor networks in towns it plans to tour, with full agreement that the vendors will copy the CDs, sell them, and keep all the money. That's OK, because selling discs isn't Calypso's main source of income. The band is really in the performance business — and business is good. Traveling from town to town this way, preceded by a wave of supercheap CDs, Calypso has filled its shows and paid for a private jet.
The vendors generate literal street cred in each town Calypso visits, and its omnipresence in the urban soundscape means that it gets huge crowds to its rave/dj/concert events. Free music is just publicity for a far more lucrative tour business. Nobody thinks of this as piracy.
Seriously. Read the article. Very interesting.
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, by Chris Anderson.
[He also wrote a book called Free, which I might have to add to my birthday list.]
But just one very great music biz example that he uses under the 'cross-subsidies' bracket of how giving something away for free affects and benefits business...
On a busy corner in São Paulo, Brazil, street vendors pitch the latest "tecnobrega" CDs, including one by a hot band called Banda Calypso. Like CDs from most street vendors, these did not come from a record label. But neither are they illicit. They came directly from the band. Calypso distributes masters of its CDs and CD liner art to street vendor networks in towns it plans to tour, with full agreement that the vendors will copy the CDs, sell them, and keep all the money. That's OK, because selling discs isn't Calypso's main source of income. The band is really in the performance business — and business is good. Traveling from town to town this way, preceded by a wave of supercheap CDs, Calypso has filled its shows and paid for a private jet.
The vendors generate literal street cred in each town Calypso visits, and its omnipresence in the urban soundscape means that it gets huge crowds to its rave/dj/concert events. Free music is just publicity for a far more lucrative tour business. Nobody thinks of this as piracy.
Seriously. Read the article. Very interesting.
Monday, 21 February 2011
dance like everybody's watching
Only today did I get round to watching the video for Radiohead's Lotus Flowers. At first I felt kind of awkward watching it, like how I would feel embarrassed if someone video'd me dancing crazily on my own in my bedroom and then stuck it on the internet and told almost 4 million people to go check it out.
Now I'm just jealous cuz it looks like fun.
In case you haven't seen it...
PS. Reckon the song is pretty good too.
Now I'm just jealous cuz it looks like fun.
In case you haven't seen it...
PS. Reckon the song is pretty good too.
grace
Tonight I had a moment with God where I realised a lot of hurt I've been storing up that I've never acknowledged; in fact I've been convincing myself for years that this area is something I have no issue with at all, and in fact instead of finding it difficult, it's the easiest thing in the world. Funny how we can cover things up like that. So deeply that we surprise ourselves when they come to the surface.
I always found it hard to understand how God chose me, when in my mind it was my decision to follow Jesus. It got me thinking about how I view my relationship with God - like He was offering me something, and I decided to accept it... and I realised I have always thought I had to pay Him back. Filled with guilt every time I felt the greatness of His infinite love for us, for me, because I felt like I didn't love Him the same way back. And one day He'd see my selfishness and turn His back on me.
The truth is, there is nothing we can ever do to pay Him back.
I will never love Him as much as He deserves.
But He knew that before I was born, before He made me, before Jesus died on the cross to save me.
I always found it hard to understand how God chose me, when in my mind it was my decision to follow Jesus. It got me thinking about how I view my relationship with God - like He was offering me something, and I decided to accept it... and I realised I have always thought I had to pay Him back. Filled with guilt every time I felt the greatness of His infinite love for us, for me, because I felt like I didn't love Him the same way back. And one day He'd see my selfishness and turn His back on me.
The truth is, there is nothing we can ever do to pay Him back.
I will never love Him as much as He deserves.
But He knew that before I was born, before He made me, before Jesus died on the cross to save me.
-------
I always knew that grace was a gift, something we didn't deserve, but I don't think I ever felt the real impact of that until today. That it means more than just when I make a mistake and regret it, I can still receive forgiveness, but that it actually completely defines what kind of a relationship we have with God.
There's no hiding, pretending, putting on a show... He knows everything, He knows how little we can do, but He loves us the same.
-------
If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
When I thought, "My foot slips,"
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
Psalm 94: 17-19
Sunday, 20 February 2011
loro coirón
When I went to Valparaíso a few weeks ago I spotted a market stall selling postcards, posters, and little prints and the like. I fell in love with one, an interesting take on Valparaíso's lively cerros; in real life they are full of vividly painted houses, but this version was just so lovely and the detail really caught my eye. The day after when I was there with Daisy's old flatmate Ines, I bought it.
Then, we went and had lunch at a place I'd spotted the day before which looked cool [el desayunador], and when we walked in saw a huge mural clearly done by the same artist. Again, the detail was just amazing; it seemed you could stare at it for hours and still not see everything there was to see.
[a screen shot from their website of it being put up]
The artist, Loro Coirón, is a Frenchman who has lived in Valparaíso for the last 16 years now, and seems to have become enamoured with the city, using it as the subject for most of his print work.
I absolutely love his style, and will be keeping my eyes open for prints of his work in Valpo.
X
Then, we went and had lunch at a place I'd spotted the day before which looked cool [el desayunador], and when we walked in saw a huge mural clearly done by the same artist. Again, the detail was just amazing; it seemed you could stare at it for hours and still not see everything there was to see.
[a screen shot from their website of it being put up]
The artist, Loro Coirón, is a Frenchman who has lived in Valparaíso for the last 16 years now, and seems to have become enamoured with the city, using it as the subject for most of his print work.
I absolutely love his style, and will be keeping my eyes open for prints of his work in Valpo.
X
Friday, 18 February 2011
right place, right time.
I don't know if they've made any mention of last Friday's 7.0 quake in Concepción in the UK.
Let's just say I am pretttttty glad I left town that very morning and was already half an hour away from Santiago on a moving bus when it hit at 5pm.
I spoke to Samuel at about 6.30pm and he said ah yeah everyone's fine, it was nothing. It was only when I saw Danny and Ary again yesterday that they told me about their experience of it which was quite different.
But first, a bit of background:
Concepción was ground zero of last year's February 27th 8.8 earthquake, although I have heard that in reality it was like 11, but if they say it was anymore the government would be liable to pay for practically all the damages. So the official figure is 8.8. It was followed by a tsunami, which was unannounced. The town that I mentioned a few posts ago, Talcahuano, was worst hit, and in fact the officials were reassuring the people that there was no reason to fear a tidal wave, as they were doing, because it wasn't going to happen. A year later they are still repairing the immense damage.
Concepción is still full of damaged buildings that could collapse at any moment.
Here is an example - a new office block that still has it's "offices for sale" sign. Allegedly the damage was all due to the 10th floor which a bank had bought out and removed all the pillars inside, leaving an open floor...
And another new residential block where 8 people died.
I saw both when I went down there - completely untouched since last year.
I had no idea about this but one of the boys' cousins told Ary that in fact from Feb 27th, they were having full on tremors that could have been about 3-5 on the richter scale non-stop until May. Then it calmed down, until there was another quake on Boxing Day, then the aftershocks started small scale again.
The people have been living under the constant and indeterminable threat of another quake. So Friday's 7.0 had quite an effect. Danny and the family (apart from Samuel who was in a moving car at the time, hence his nonchalant reaction) were in a mall in town when it hit, and they say that everyone absolutely lost it. Stampeding out in every direction while things in the shops were falling and crashing all over the place.
Over the weekend they experienced 33 aftershocks. I've just heard that in this week there have been 80 something.
Meanwhile, in Viña, while we were all in Concepción, there was a lightning storm that hit the Reñaca beach and sent everyone there running in terror too.
For a person that doesn't like being terrified I think I was in the right places at the right times this week.
Let's just say I am pretttttty glad I left town that very morning and was already half an hour away from Santiago on a moving bus when it hit at 5pm.
I spoke to Samuel at about 6.30pm and he said ah yeah everyone's fine, it was nothing. It was only when I saw Danny and Ary again yesterday that they told me about their experience of it which was quite different.
But first, a bit of background:
Concepción was ground zero of last year's February 27th 8.8 earthquake, although I have heard that in reality it was like 11, but if they say it was anymore the government would be liable to pay for practically all the damages. So the official figure is 8.8. It was followed by a tsunami, which was unannounced. The town that I mentioned a few posts ago, Talcahuano, was worst hit, and in fact the officials were reassuring the people that there was no reason to fear a tidal wave, as they were doing, because it wasn't going to happen. A year later they are still repairing the immense damage.
Concepción is still full of damaged buildings that could collapse at any moment.
Here is an example - a new office block that still has it's "offices for sale" sign. Allegedly the damage was all due to the 10th floor which a bank had bought out and removed all the pillars inside, leaving an open floor...
And another new residential block where 8 people died.
I saw both when I went down there - completely untouched since last year.
I had no idea about this but one of the boys' cousins told Ary that in fact from Feb 27th, they were having full on tremors that could have been about 3-5 on the richter scale non-stop until May. Then it calmed down, until there was another quake on Boxing Day, then the aftershocks started small scale again.
The people have been living under the constant and indeterminable threat of another quake. So Friday's 7.0 had quite an effect. Danny and the family (apart from Samuel who was in a moving car at the time, hence his nonchalant reaction) were in a mall in town when it hit, and they say that everyone absolutely lost it. Stampeding out in every direction while things in the shops were falling and crashing all over the place.
Over the weekend they experienced 33 aftershocks. I've just heard that in this week there have been 80 something.
Meanwhile, in Viña, while we were all in Concepción, there was a lightning storm that hit the Reñaca beach and sent everyone there running in terror too.
For a person that doesn't like being terrified I think I was in the right places at the right times this week.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
stop, dave
I will never get over this film.
Love this sketch that Dave does.
Stumbled across some interpretations of the movie. Beneath one of the videos was this series of comments.. 'drcripple' is the uploader who posted a video response to this analysis with a few of his own additions... I have to say the whole thing made me do a massive internal lol. (ie. I didn't laugh out loud at all. I may be a hypocrite, but that doesn't make it not funny.)
Yes, it really does make sense.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
birthday lists
Decided to take new things to an extreme.
I am not one for birthday lists. I appreciate imagination. But somehow being away from London makes me realise how much stuff in London I want. So let this be the beginning of a series of posts about stuff you people in the UK have access to that I don't.
Maybe I'll do a parallel of cool stuff I have or have already bought that you don't have.
Just to even out the jealousy.
LAZY OAF
I am not one for birthday lists. I appreciate imagination. But somehow being away from London makes me realise how much stuff in London I want. So let this be the beginning of a series of posts about stuff you people in the UK have access to that I don't.
Maybe I'll do a parallel of cool stuff I have or have already bought that you don't have.
Just to even out the jealousy.
LAZY OAF
Black and white and aztec print. There is no way I could want this any more than I do.
Discovered this shop thanks to a certain Phil Locker; we then jointly bought him(self) a birthday present there:
Jessie J (who I LOVE, maybe that'll get it's own post soon) has also been repping it: check it out on the Lazy Oaf blog here.
Their shop is round the back of Liberty's, off Carnaby Street. Or go here to see more.
the moon
So I realised yesterday and the day before that having been away so many times since I got back before New Year's that I had a lot of boring administrative stuff to catch up on.
I spent Valentine's day going through all of my KCL emails which I had let build up pretty much since I got here, and anyone with a KCL email will know that that is a BAD MOVE. The accounts have no memory and we get about 10 emails a day that are all circulars asking people to sign up for research testing about suicide / anxiety problems / ticks / bulimia / dental care? And a ton of invites to every society and it's mother's events. As well as all of the dumb stuff you signed up for in Freshers' Week that you never actually joined but still haven't unsubscribed yourself from the mailing list. As interesting as it sounds I don't think I will ever actually go to a Genetics Soc meeting.
Then yesterday I had to work out what I had spent all my money on. That was fun.
The good news is I am actually taking it seriously and keeping all my receipts and adding everything up and seeing if it figures with the money I took out and the money I still have.
Finally - some potential financial management skillz.
So by the end of yesterday I think I forgot how to use my body. I decided to go for a walk, down the cerro to Reñaca, and from there round the coast to Viña. My motivation was a Bravissimo ice cream parlour on the beach. It was probably about an hour's walk (although I didn't check the time), and I got there at about half 7 when the sun was fairly low in the sky but sadly not near enough setting for me to stay and bear the cold breeze in my t-shirt.
The moon was visible and looking slightly bigger than usual, and I got to thinking about waves and tides and the like. The waves in Viña are the biggest I have ever seen (in real life), they really roll over and crash. Most of the beaches are not fit for swimming in (also because there is a very strong undercurrent). It was pretty awesome sitting on the beach, eating my ice cream, smelling the sea, and not only hearing the waves crash but at times feeling them collide with the sand too.
I didn't take a camera but in my mind's eye I was seeing this. Minus the clouds.
I spent Valentine's day going through all of my KCL emails which I had let build up pretty much since I got here, and anyone with a KCL email will know that that is a BAD MOVE. The accounts have no memory and we get about 10 emails a day that are all circulars asking people to sign up for research testing about suicide / anxiety problems / ticks / bulimia / dental care? And a ton of invites to every society and it's mother's events. As well as all of the dumb stuff you signed up for in Freshers' Week that you never actually joined but still haven't unsubscribed yourself from the mailing list. As interesting as it sounds I don't think I will ever actually go to a Genetics Soc meeting.
Then yesterday I had to work out what I had spent all my money on. That was fun.
The good news is I am actually taking it seriously and keeping all my receipts and adding everything up and seeing if it figures with the money I took out and the money I still have.
Finally - some potential financial management skillz.
So by the end of yesterday I think I forgot how to use my body. I decided to go for a walk, down the cerro to Reñaca, and from there round the coast to Viña. My motivation was a Bravissimo ice cream parlour on the beach. It was probably about an hour's walk (although I didn't check the time), and I got there at about half 7 when the sun was fairly low in the sky but sadly not near enough setting for me to stay and bear the cold breeze in my t-shirt.
The moon was visible and looking slightly bigger than usual, and I got to thinking about waves and tides and the like. The waves in Viña are the biggest I have ever seen (in real life), they really roll over and crash. Most of the beaches are not fit for swimming in (also because there is a very strong undercurrent). It was pretty awesome sitting on the beach, eating my ice cream, smelling the sea, and not only hearing the waves crash but at times feeling them collide with the sand too.
I didn't take a camera but in my mind's eye I was seeing this. Minus the clouds.
Monday, 14 February 2011
gospel + ground zero
During the week of my last post I was working on this:
If you're in London you absolutely MUST go, at least so you can tell me all about it!!
Learnt some new stuff on photoshop which was pretty fun.
Just gutted I won't get to be there myself.
But you may see a familiar face on the flyer - consider it my way of sneaking myself into the concert... heh.
Once I was done with the work I headed down to Concepción to spend a week with Danny's family. They own a 'parcela', which is basically just a fairly small plot of land, which they have divided up among different family members who have houses there. So I thought I was going with just Danny, Ary, and the kids, but ended up with Danny's mum, brother and family, and staying with his brother's wife's mother, while Danny's dad's sister came over to visit, and other brother and family were there on holiday too...
My first 2 days were the last of 7 for D+A+kids painting Ary's house (which is two doors down from the Morrison's parcela, and next door to Ary's brother and family - it's all like a little family commune down there, which I have to say I thought was rather cool). They were exhausted.
Once that was out of the way we used the rest of the week to go to the zoo, visit Talcahuano (where the tidal wave hit worst after last year's earthquake), and have tea with about 4 different families.
Spent the weekend in STG with Daisy and Phil and now back in Viña. Got no plans past the next half an hour, but I bet that won't last long...
X
If you're in London you absolutely MUST go, at least so you can tell me all about it!!
Learnt some new stuff on photoshop which was pretty fun.
Just gutted I won't get to be there myself.
But you may see a familiar face on the flyer - consider it my way of sneaking myself into the concert... heh.
Once I was done with the work I headed down to Concepción to spend a week with Danny's family. They own a 'parcela', which is basically just a fairly small plot of land, which they have divided up among different family members who have houses there. So I thought I was going with just Danny, Ary, and the kids, but ended up with Danny's mum, brother and family, and staying with his brother's wife's mother, while Danny's dad's sister came over to visit, and other brother and family were there on holiday too...
My first 2 days were the last of 7 for D+A+kids painting Ary's house (which is two doors down from the Morrison's parcela, and next door to Ary's brother and family - it's all like a little family commune down there, which I have to say I thought was rather cool). They were exhausted.
Once that was out of the way we used the rest of the week to go to the zoo, visit Talcahuano (where the tidal wave hit worst after last year's earthquake), and have tea with about 4 different families.
Spent the weekend in STG with Daisy and Phil and now back in Viña. Got no plans past the next half an hour, but I bet that won't last long...
X
Thursday, 3 February 2011
night air
So last night there was a power cut at about 1am, I looked outside my window and all I got was BLACK. To the left I could see something that looked like a fire, which turned out to be the oil refinery, but it was seriously apocalyptic looking.
UPDATE: Turns out the power cut affected 8 of the 12 regions of Chile, for several hours. !!!
Decided to leave the bed and go outside, and the night sky was absolutely stunning. Tried for the first time ever to take a photo of the stars. Had the lens open for a minute, and this is what it picked up, but there was a LOT more to see.
Went to go and develop my films the other day, got there and remembered that my lomo uses the film differently (even though it's still just 35mm) and takes like half frames or something. Hence couldn't get them developed. So instead I'm gonna keep snapping and take all the rolls back to the UK like a massive surprise / nostalgia / memory lane present to myself.
Been spending all this week since getting back from STG working on the gospel choir end of year concert publicity stuff, and this. It really is a lodacrap.
Hopefully going down south to Concepción tomorrow, if the choir work gets done, to spend some time with the Morrison's on holiday.
X
UPDATE: Turns out the power cut affected 8 of the 12 regions of Chile, for several hours. !!!
Decided to leave the bed and go outside, and the night sky was absolutely stunning. Tried for the first time ever to take a photo of the stars. Had the lens open for a minute, and this is what it picked up, but there was a LOT more to see.
Went to go and develop my films the other day, got there and remembered that my lomo uses the film differently (even though it's still just 35mm) and takes like half frames or something. Hence couldn't get them developed. So instead I'm gonna keep snapping and take all the rolls back to the UK like a massive surprise / nostalgia / memory lane present to myself.
Been spending all this week since getting back from STG working on the gospel choir end of year concert publicity stuff, and this. It really is a lodacrap.
Hopefully going down south to Concepción tomorrow, if the choir work gets done, to spend some time with the Morrison's on holiday.
X
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)