Let me just take a minute to reflect on how excellent this album is... My Bloody Valentine's Loveless.
the two sided guitar riffs that speak to eachother in some distant language of the first track carry on to infinite as we are pushed back up with pulsating panning of air, distortion and carbonated guitar. the words aredefinately nessacry but not astrong focus point. The vocal sound is dream-like and soothing.
to clear your palate Touched drifts in slowly and disapears as the rthym becomes aparant. Vocals, vocals, vocals on this next track. girl...and guy. doves on a circus tent. it becomes a fucking playground. touch and go. up and down. what instruments can these be.
water lily, ink blotting on sunday. texas hold'em in the park.
Come in Alone, my favorite. not too soon before the vocals chime in there sounds a repetative drum beat that rattles throughout the ballad. no joke, its real. people speaking through things that speak through amplifiers. 5 stars of the moon for that 1991 track.
driving. now through the mind's throughts just before sleep. delicate symphononic guitars and synth.
the most i can understand. Hello, this is the end. What you Want. I heard a lot of things about this. have not researched them as the fading dibles on the guitar blink like a lighthouse disappearing into the fog.
Well, I highly recomend this album no matter where your into in life.
May 1st Annie and I moved into an old house on 0th st. Adam will move in at the end of the month.
The final few weeks of school were very fun, excited and very busy. I spent much of the time in the edit lab working on Momotaro animation and dealing with faulty electronics.
Momotaro, a 6 minute animation of an old Japanese folklore was one of my final projects in school tying my Asian studies minor together with my Film studies Major.
Graduation weekend was exciting. My Mother, brother, grandpa and grandma drove down to Wilmington and stayed in our house. The weekend included a movie on the battleship deck, Graduation ceremony, beach, excellent food, party at Jengos and fun time with family and Annie East. Aloha. I went to Maui for two weeks after graduation to visit my dad, and see some old friends. After a full day of flying i was greeted by a tanned, energetic father who immediately took me to get cleansed in the ocean.
We traveled to the less populated side of the Island, where we took a tour of a bamboo farm, and visited a friend living on the old Charles Lindbergh estate. She runs a cafe called "Cafe Attitude" out of the old Lindbergh writers cabin. Dad and I installed a stone take-out window from the kitchen area to the eating area and enjoyed the cafe that night with a big campfire and enough characters to fill 200 books.
My sister came a few days later on her highschool senior project "Rejuvination" trip. In the mornings I worked with Aaron building a roof over a patio area and my sis did yoga and facial masks. We went on some amazing hikes, swam at awesome beaches and played smash ball and double pong. Hot tub and sauna at the Petties was nice as well.
I went scuba diving for the first time. It was bind blowing experience to breathe underwater. Lots of things to think about while trying to remain calm underwater and breath slowly. by the end of our dive, i felt very comfortable and would like to go again. We did more snorkeling, surfing and danced at Sweat Your Prayers.
It was definitely a nice relaxing trip spent with fun people.
Back in wilmington, Adam Schiffer moved into the house and we have been enjoying riding bikes around and exploring the city. Friday we are hosting an Emerald Open House Party at our home. dress is Green.
I have recently been listening to a lot of podcasts while working at the computer. I have sort of exhausted my music library, and just cant devote half of my time to playing DJ. I have found some really good podcasts playing and mixing the exact music i want to listen right then and there. its also a good way to hear about new, or old, bands without too much research.
This is a video that Annie and I made for Gabriel Mellan. to lure him back to America, however bad it may be right now. we shot it one afternoon and i edited it to one of Gabe's songs called Peddler's Promise.
here is a Bumper (short video title) I made for an animation class for the Cucalorus Film Festival this fall.
it was fun to shoot, and fun making the paper mache head and hand. now that i have the head, i think ill make him into another marionette. ill try to post some photos of the one i made over the summer.
School has started and it has picked up to a fast pace. I find myself missing some aspects about living in england but for the most part, im glad to be back in the USA.
What ive been up to recently.
The first week of school, Annie and I found a 5-week-old all black kitten around a dumpster on campus. knowing that it would have trouble surviving on campus with the strict animal policy and and the harsh elements approaching we took him home (with his consent)
His name is Deco. he has totally changed my opinion on cats. This may be a big surprise for those of you that knew how much i despised cats. (partially because of my allergy) He is a very wild cat who operates at highspeeds in spurts of 45 minutes, then crashes for a nap. he is still very small and i hope he stays that way. Annie and I are taking turns keeping him at each of our apartments, which is good to give my nose a rest from all the sneezing. Hopefully ill get over the allergy soon.
I got some Eucalyptus branches for my room that smell very very good.
Hannah Hurricane Hannha came and went. while out and about in the midst of the storm, i sustained a cuncussion. The first week after the fall is pretty hazzy, and i am occasionally plagued with headaches, but healing is in process. Annie was very kind to take me to the ER when the pain became excruciating.
Trying to do school work with a concussion was pathetic. I am gonna try to stay a little safe.
Cider Right now, annie and I are brewing some Hard Cider for the fall season. It is a surprisingly easy process and im excited to taste and see the results. These are some Airlocks I made.
Boom box This has been a dream of mine for a while and after a lot of Ebay bidding and other work, it is finally finished. I got a boombox on ebay and with the help of Duncan and David was able to hook up my i-pod to play through it. We hollowed out the tape deck compartment so that the I-pod could fit inside.
Its a fun thing to ride around with on my bike.
Art I have been creating a lot of art, sort of as a procrastination for school work. but currently, I have 3 graffiti themed pieces of art hanging up on campus. Annie also has three of her travel photographs hanging around campus.
This past Saturday, my self portrait film A Dance Two 20, played during an experimental film showcase at an art gallery downtown. Annie's Bird Watching film also played and won "Best Local Film". It was a fun night.
I quit my food job at the Hawks Nest because i became a certified Japanese Tutor. I will be tutoring on campus in the Learning Center. Im excited to utilize my skill, help other students, and make money... makes a lot more sense than serving smoothies and burritos to ungrateful students. I kept my Hawks Nest shirt however, and tried to keep the fact that i was quitting to a hush so i can go in there and eat some employee food.
Being back in wilmington is fantastic. being fantastic in wilmington is fantastic. Its kinda sad that there is only one more year at the univeristy, but ive started making a SUPER RESUME and will soon start making a DEMO REAL to prepare for applying to JOBS.
Im still considering joining Americorps, but id want figure out how much of my loans they can pay off...or "forgive". maybe if i just apologize several times.
I really missed my bike.
I ve got a couple videos to edit. left over things that were shot last semester. so there should be some stuff posted soon.
finally on a computer with internet access. this is what Adam and Annie and i have been up to.
Primavera Nusic Festival in Barcelona - lots of music and staying up all night Tarragona beach town with rokan ruins - couchsurfed with a Spanish painter Valls at Pipirimosca farm to do some WWOOFing Hitch hike to Girona - head to Paris Eifle tower, and French swap meet Hitch hike to Bruxelles - 7 cars and 12 hours, lots of fun and interesting people. Bruxelles for two days - today we hitch to Amsterdam then head to Copenhagen.
Its been a while since my last post and so much has happened.
Blaine and I did complete the Great Glen Way hike. It was very very fun, and thankfully there were no injuries. It rekindled my love for hiking, exploring the outdoors, and camping. when we returned to Hatfield, we were elevated to Hero status for completing such a demanding hike. we went to the pub and told stories of our journey. A group of guys were inspired to do it for themselves, so i think right now they may be in the middle of it.
Back in Hatfield i turned in my last assignment to finish off the semester. It felt strange because everything was very informal and it didnt seem like an end at all. I guess all the other students will be seeing eachother again soon in the fall.
The Next day was off to Milan, where we would travel into a small mountain village called Courmayeur; just at the bass of Mount Blanc. the highest mountain in Europe. we got to ride the cable car up to the top of the mountain as well as visit some other very exciting and dramatic nature scenes.
Back to London, Annie and i spent a couple days visitng some London spots that we had missed. On the 17th of May, we went into Covent garden to celebrate Norwegian Day with many of my Norwegian Friends and other Norwegians. It made me excited for the 4th of July. We met Annie's dad at the airport at 6:30 am and walked around London for a bit then prepared for our next trip to the Isle of Skye.
Dr. Jolly (annie's Dad) had been to the Isle of Skye 20 years prier so he had some amazing places he wanted to take us. He did a very good job of adapting to driving on the left side of the road as well as all the round-abouts and the one lane highways (with "passing points"). We stayed in the Skyewalker hostel which is run by a very nice Scottish couple who play very pleasant folk music. Our 4 days consisted of, hiking on some very beautiful terrains as well as some very desolate and other-worldly cliffs and valleys. We stumbled on some magnificent caves, and played there until the tide chased us back up the cliffs. We attended a Scottish Accordion and Fiddle festival then got to sing along with the Hostel owners as they played some great tunes. We sipped some Drams of Scotch Whiskey at the Talisker Distillery and learned about the process.
We headed back over to Loch Ness where we hiked up to a beatuful falls, annie got two ticks. that night we enjoyed the snyed remarks of the British commentator at the Eurovision contest.
Next it was back to traveling...back to Hatfield where Adam has been staying since May 21st. he as navigated around very well and has become used to the British ways. now we pack up and ready ourselves for 3 days of live music at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona. We leave on the 28th.
Tomorrow morning, Blaine and I will be embarking on our 5 day hiking trip on the Great Glen Way. We will take the train from Hatfield to Fort William Scotland and hike about 15 miles per day and camp at night. Our packs are heavy, but soon to get lighter as we eat the food we've wisely chosen to bring. We will hopefully arrive in Inverness on the 5th day and say hello to Nesse, catch a train back in time for Blaine's exam next tuesday.
I will take some photos and video, and hopefuly our plans all work out. here is a map to track us. www.greatglenway.com
Well, I am back in Hatfield now. the journey was very good. so many cool things we saw, and people met. I have so many pictures/things i want to post up here, so over the next week, i hope to post little groupings of things.
First, Id like to share the panoramic photographs that i took with my phone.
Ok, starting in Salisbury where Mab took us to Stone henge and some cool cathedrals, then to Bath to the roman baths, and wonderful canal walk.
We then spent the night in London, where i had some medical issues to solve. In the morning flew to Amsterdam where we were met by Blaine and Chris, snow, cold, and excellent falafels.
An overnight bus to Berlin. Touring the city, bar crawl, and huge hostel.
Another Bus to Praha. Charles Bride, the castle and hotsel friends.
A train into Budapset. I think this may have been our favorite place, partly because of the cool hostel we stayed at, but mostly because of the nice hungarian people, fun things to do, and awesome city.
By the time we got to Poland, i think we were both pretty worn out, and a little tired of doing the whole tourist thing, so unfortunately i dont have any panoramas from Krakow or Warszawa.
WE had some fun times in Prague, visiting the castle and old town relics. walking along the river and ducking into Czech pubs.
WE met some really nice Swiss guys at the hostel and hung around talking with them until very early in the morning.
One of our favorite times was our sunrise spent on St. Charles Bride...a pedestrian bridge that is filled during the day with sketch artists and people selling little metal works. Well at sunrise, there was almost no one there, so we relaxed and watched the sun rise over the awesomely old building tops.
Our train ride to Budapest was six hours of productivity and fascinating scenery. WE were able to update diaries, write post cards, and enjoy the relaxing ride.
Now in Budapest, we checked into our hostel just near Green Bridge. Once we unpacked, the receptionist asked us if we would mind switching to another room. we followed her up into the rickity elevator where the double doors are manually opened, through a courtyard and into a high cealing apartment with its own kitchen and bathroom. we got a major upgrade. we are now rooming with some auzzies.
WE went to a Hungarian Ballet tonight in an beautiful old Opera house. Tomorrow we are signed up to explore some caves underneath the Budapest Castle on the Buda side of town. then i guess to the famous hot spring baths.
After four wonderful days in one of my favorite cities, Berlin, annie and I went to a travel agency to book bus tickets to Prague. We couldnt find tickets under the Internet time constraints. Well, we got tickets for a 6:15 am Bus. We didnt want to pay for another night at the hostel because we'd have to leave so early and skip breakfast. (this was more of my idea, and I had to do some apologizing to annie later) we stayed in the little common room area for a while until the kids from the club came out and made such a ruckus, then we moved up to the 7th floor where there were some mattresses laying in the hallway. we were just going to sleep for an hour, but security found us so we got up and caught the train.
I will mention that we did a really fun Pub Crawl the night before in Berlin. It was my first Pub crawl, and a very fun experience.
A Bit of the Wall
T-Punkt!
well, now in Prague, a hustle and bustle little city on hills. our hostel is nice, it has a kitchen and...free internet. so we will try and book some couchsurfing places for our next destinations. cant wait to get out and see the city tomorrow.
We are in a gigantic hostel in Berlin right now called GENERATOR.... it has a wopping 900+ beds. It is set up sort of like an electrically charged warehouse.
Yesterday we wwent to an outdoor market and looked at some german trinkets and got really cold. had fun doing a collage at night.
Today we went on the freee walking tour of berlin. it was awesome. this city has so much history tht is so interesting to me, and i feel like i know more about it. we saw all the great famous sights, and even stood on the ground over the bunker which Hitler took his life in. We saw the window michael Jackson almost dropped his baby out of and some otehr great sites.
well, gotta go look for train or bus, or plane tickets to get to the next place.
