The Glorious Return (An Attempt)

Long-time no-post, eh? Well, I’ve been busy busting my gut to do well with uni, but with things wrapping up for the year, I’m hoping that I’ll have more time and inspiration to continue blogging. I miss it a lot. So gradually, I’m going to get back into it. Hopefully I’ll come good with that promise this time round, unlike all those other times where I’ve said I’ll start up with my blogging again. Anyhow…

Lately, I’ve discovered some really great music, and have pretty much been immersing myself in that when I haven’t been writing essay after essay about saving the world (my major is Peace and Conflict Studies). One of the bands that I really can’t stop listening to right now, is Radical Face. You might know their song ‘Welcome Home’ from the I AM NIKON advertising campaign (which is really very cool), but they’ve also got some other great songs. Radical Face have got a pretty interesting sound, really. Because they use sounds like creaky floorboards, crackly white noise, crows calling and things like that to give some of their songs a really eerie sound. But on the other hand, lots of their music has this really lovely cheery sound, with whistling and clapping and what-have-you. And on top of all that, Ben Cooper (Radical Face) has this lovely sweet voice that you really don’t expect.

On the subject of photography campaigns, though, there’s another very cool commercial which has been doing the rounds lately, and that’s for the Canon EOS Photo 5 competition. It looks like heaps of fun, but unfortunately the entries for this year have closed, with the winners being announced on the 9^th of November. The basic gist of it is that entrants are given a brief (this year’s Open Brief was ‘Through A Pet’s Eyes) which they must centre their photographs around. It’s open to amateur photographers, but the quality of the work shown in the advertisement is absolutely outstanding. Take a look.

Aside from music and photography, I’ve been watching a few movies, trying to find inspiration for my own work, and also just to find something interesting to watch. Recently I’ve watched two films, Mary and Max, and Garden State, which I both really enjoyed.

Mary and Max is an Australian Claymation film, featuring some pretty big names in the voice acting department. It follows the story of Mary Daisy Dinkle, a miserable 8 year old Australian girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Jerry Horowitz, an obese, Asperger’s suffering forty-something year old Jewish-American living in New York. They strike up an unlikely friendship as penpals, and the film follows their story over about 20 years. It’s really a very lovely story, however sad. The colour and technique behind the Claymation work is also something worth taking a look at.

Garden State, which stars Zach Braff and Natalie Portman, was first screened at the 2004 Sundance Film, and tells the story of Andrew Largeman’s return to his hometown in New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. There he meets a girl names Sam in a hospital waiting room, where he is seeing a doctor about his headaches and depression. Over the time he spends at home, he comes to realise and accept that through taking medication for years to treat his depression, he has become lonely and disconnected. In meeting Sam, Largeman begins his ‘awakening’,  and comes to terms with what has happened in his past. Garden State has a great soundtrack featuring music by The Shins, Coldplay, and Iron and Wine, and is definitely worth a watch.

In other news, blogger has completely changed its layout, making it extremely hard for me to work out what’s going on with my blog. For that reason, amongst others, I’m going to start blogging with Fourth Drawer on tumblr as well. The reason for my switchover, is purely because tumblr is easier to blog with, blogger is getting kind of outdated, tumblr opens up a whole new audience for Fourth Drawer, and also it’s easier to use. Other users can like my posts, reply to them, reblog them, and even submit their own! I can also share posts from other blogs with you. The only downside is that you can’t follow via email, only by creating an account through tumblr. That’s why I’ll be continuing to post on my original blog for a while yet. So don’t panic! The switch will be gradual. If I switch at all. For now, I’m just trying it out.

Anyhow, you can still view Fourth Drawer on tumblr without registering or following, it just means you won’t get updates. So even though I haven’t got much on there right now, I’d appreciate it if you checked it out. THERE’S A NEW SHORT FILM UP THERE, PEOPLE!! You can find it here.

Since Last Time...

So, I know every time I log onto my blog, I write a post saying that 'Ohhh, yeahhhh, I'll totally get back into things and start writing more', but to be honest, that's obviously not what happens. What I am going to say, is that I'll try to update things every now and then. Like now! So on with it!

As far as music goes, I've taken a liking to these guys, The Rescue Ships. I've got two songs to show you, the first is Bodies, which has a great accordian part, and the second is On The Air, which is super catchy!

With regards to film, I've got a little something in the works, but since my computer crashed when I was working on it last, I lost everything. Soooo, it'll probably be a while yet, but I'm excited to finish it!

For You

G'day, hi, how are you? Channelling Julia Gillard, right there. Anyway! What's been happening this week? Not much. I've been listening to heaps of music, watching a few movies. I started back at uni on Monday, got hit it the head by a bird, and ate a lot of chocolate. But that's beside the point. I'm going to try a sort of new format where I can recommend a lot of different things to you in one post. Like, film, music, writing, photography, etc etc.

BLUE VALENTINE

Not long ago, I watched a really lovely film called Blue Valentine, which stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Both are very brilliant actors, and play their characters here excellently. What I loved most about this movie was its dialogue. It felt like such an honest portrayal of a story such as this, and its outcome was just so realistic that it's hard to fault. As well as this, the style in which it's filmed is just lovely, and the cinematography is, in my opinion, wonderful. It's a rather serious film, and at times, very intense, but there are some moments which are very light-hearted and funny. Overall, I'd say it was a great film, and definitely one I would recommend.

WHITE FANG - THE CALL OF THE WILD

This book, The Call of The Wild, written by Jack London, is a pretty great story. And, while it's not exactly a page-turner and it took me an age to finish reading, the concept is really cool. It follows the story of a wolf cub, named White Fang, and it's told through his point of view. Really interesting stuff. Give it a read if that kind of thing is your kind of thing.

Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today

See, the thing I love about this song, is that the band just looks like they're having an absolute blast. I discovered them quite a while ago, but there's a commercial that's airing on TV right now that a little part of this song features in, so you might recognise it from that. Either way, give it a listen. I guarantee you'll wish you owned a shark suit afterwards.

Ida Maria - Oh My God

A song from the lovely Norwedgian lady who brought us 'I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked', this song's clip is funky and heaps of fun. You'll find youself bopping your head along, I promise.

8TRACKS

Lastly, I've found a new website to be addicted to that's called 8tracks, where you can listen to handcrafted playlists, and even make your own. Just search genres or artists or things, and there'll be plenty of playlists for you to listen to. I have an account which you can visit here. Enjoy!

My, my, my

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I'm unsure of why I've been so slack with this, so I won't make any excuses. Rather, I'll just get back into the swing of things, and keep providing you with bits and pieces from my life for you to enjoy.

So, I have some things to share.

While I was off doing my own thing and just being lazy in general, Bon Iver's new self-titled album came out. I have to say, it's one of the best albums I've heard in a long while, and so this is one of my favourite tracks from the new record. It's called 'Hinnom, TX'.

I went camping with my friends up at Mt Tambourine for the weekend, and took a photograph.

Watched a few cool movies, and got inspired.

I also fell in love with Adrien Brody's face.

Musical Recommendation: Week 16

Jeez, Sweden! What’s up with you and making awesome folksy music?! Honestly, if I come across just one more great Swedish band, I’m going to have to pack up and move there.



Let me introduce you to Johanna and Klara Söderberg, sisters from Stockholm, who together, form the lovely band known as First Aid Kit. I’ve chosen three songs of theirs today, the first being ‘Tangerine’, which was the first demo they sent away to a radio station a few days ago. It’s a live SXSW recording, and it’s pretty good. The next is another live recording of Fever Ray’s song ‘When I Grow Up’, which the sisters covered for a Triple J Like A Version performance. The last song is titled ‘Hard Believer’ and has a great film clip. So I hope you enjoy these lovely folk ladies, and have a grand day!

A Film - June 2011

A short film that I shot yesterday with my friend Nat, accompanied by Danger Beach's song 'Apollo'. Enjoy.

Musical Recommendation: The Swinging 60's

Since I've been unbelievably slack with my posting these last couple weeks, I've prepared something a little special to make up for it. After speaking to my grandparents about the music they listened to when they were younger, I discovered that we had more in common musically than I had once thought. While these songs I have for you today aren't all the one's that they told me about, they come from the musical era that they liked best; the 60's.

The Kinks - All Day and All of The Night

The Animals - Gotta Get Out of This Place

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze

The Beatles - Helter Skelter

Voyage: Sweden

Sweden, I adore you.

Peter Bjorn And John - Norrlands Riviera

The Swedish language makes me feel so at peace. Listening to this track makes me instantly relax. It's as though it transports me to a tiny coffee shop, down a poky street, somewhere in Sweden. It's freezing cold and I sip hot drinks all day long. These fellows Peter Bjorn and John are kind of like the essential listening of the Swedish music world, and so I couldn't bear to leave them out.

Vera Vinter – Drömde Om Dig

This is a lovely song by a relatively unknown artist, a lady named Vera Vinter. She comes from a tiny town in Northern Sweden, and this song features some beautiful guitar and wonderful vocals. However, keep in mind that this is an amateur recorded, live clip, and so quality of sound is not excellent.

The Tallest Man On Earth – Where Do My Bluebird Fly

A beautiful live recording of singer-songwriter Kristian Mattson performing live for a Seattle radio station. Becoming more well-known on an international level, The Tallest Man On Earth has released two studio albums and two EP’s over the last four or five years. Mattson has been an opening act for UK band Mumford & Sons, and shares a similar sound. He has also been compared to Bob Dylan, and is a skilled multi-instrumentalist.

 

Fever Ray – When I Grow Up

I love this song’s film clip, and its sound and lyrics. Karin Dreijer Andersson, otherwise known as Fever Ray, seems like such a peaceful and gentle person in this song. She is also the lead vocalist for Swedish brother-sister duo The Knife, whose song Heartbeats was covered by fellow Swede José González, both of which are fantastic.

Lykke Li - I Know Places

A Live performance ‘From the Moon’, Lykke Li releases yet another beautiful song. She always sings with such raw emotion, yet her voice sounds so strong and powerful. I can’t say much else about this incredible musician, except for that I love her.

Fanny Whale - Tim and His Love

Lastly, an unsigned artist, who I so hope makes it big. She's got such a lovely voice, kind of reminiscent of Soko, and some awfully cute lyrics. Also, she plays the ukulele, and that's pretty great. This is such a lovely little song!

The Winter Time

Top o' the mornin' to ya, readers and followers! Well, I kind of dropped the ball didn't I, with all my grand blog plans. I've been busy. It's no real excuse, but I'll use it anyway. The only thing I've really kept regular are my weekly musical recommendations. The rest of my little 'segments' I suppose you could call them, kind of vanished. But! I will continue! I have a lovely long holiday coming up soon in which I plan to create all sorts of wonderful things. I'm working on a little film, too. I really want to post some of my writing up here, since the results of the poll I held pointed towards that, but I'm a wee bit nervous! Never have I allowed for a whole audience of people to look over a story I've written. Maybe soon I will work up the courage...

In other news, it's winter in Brisbane... And Australia too... Anyways, it's sitting at a frosty average of 22˚C for the month of June. A few days ago, it even hailed! As you might be able to tell from the above picture, I got pretty excited. I've never seen so much hail, or heard anything so loud. But the days are quite lovely at the moment, albeit, freezing. They are beautiful and sunny, and it's a shame that I'm stuck inside studying for my end of semester exams. It makes me look forward to summer again, when I will have all the time in the world to hang around outside, and ride my bike around the place in the sun.

Until next time, stay awesome!

Musical Recommendation: Week 15

Augie March are my new musical obsession. I've always liked them, now, I love them. You'd most probably know them from this song, One Crowded Hour. But I'll also recommend Vernoona, Heartbeat And Sails, and The Slant. Also, a great song of theirs called Bottle Baby, which I can't find a video for.
So enjoy!