I was actually thinking about this in the middle of my 'K music' post and I thought it would be something worthwhile to pursue properly. Notice here how much more eloquently I'm writing in comparison to my usual trash, so you know I'm down to argue some real shit right here.
You may or may not know, but I'm pretty critical of pop music, and up until the past couple years I was so against all pop music.
I remember reading an article a number of years ago about a lady who wrote songs hit songs for pop artists and some music producers. And this lady talked about how she wanted to get into the industry but no one would sign her so she was just sticking to writing songs. It just made me so angry that this lady could write these amazing songs and someone else would completely take the credit for it.
I also had this misconception that all pop was manufactured shit, but I just got over that and realised that it was just another genre of music. Since then I've sort of embraced it and if I like a pop song, I like it, simple as that.
But there's basically one other underlying factor, apart from the music obviously, that I think affects my music taste and that's artist input.
For me when I find out that a musician has some input into the music they're representing, it's a huge tick in my book and automatically results in respect for that artist regardless whether or not I like their music or not. So of course I'm drawn to musicians who are super talented.
As I was writing the 'K music' post I was thinking maybe the reason why I seem to have this inclining towards 'self-written' music is the music is more real. Real is probably not the best word to use, so maybe genuine. Genuine because the music in response to someone's experiences and emotions.
When someone sits down and writes a song it's a totally organic process where someone is expressing themselves and their experiences through music and lyrics. While not always the case, there are a heap of songs that are inspired by the things the writers have gone through and so the songs are deeply personal.
This is a really important part because for me music isn't just something to just have on in the background. It sounds pretty silly, but it's part of the way I react and make sense of things and so songs that affect me emotionally I'm deeply connected to.
So when you listen to these songs you can just hear the pain or happiness in the music and it's so much easier for the audience to connect emotionally with the music because the audience can link the music to their own experiences and emotions.
For me there is a point of difference between your average manufactured love song and a love song written by a singer-songwriter. I'm not saying that the writers of these songs aren't writing from their personal experience but it's their job to write hits and I think that there is a certain formula to the process. But there is an individuality of the song since no one can go through the exact experiences of the songs writer.
So when someone shares their experiences through music I think it's a privilege and I will end by saying thanks to the wonderful musicians in this world for so openly sharing their lives with us all.
Well, well, well. It's that time again. I am in bed, recovering from a hard day of doing nothing important, but also whatever I wanted. In all seriousness though it's my first official day on holiday and I'm so happy. Well that's not completely true.
Usually when I post blogs it's on the good ol' Windows Live Writer because it's how I've been doing it for however long I've had this blog (I just checked and it's been 6 years, and oh god the grammar!!). But for this one I'm doing it on blogger. Why? Because I recently had to get a new laptop (my poor trusty laptop shit itself, but I still hope I can revive it, especially since iTunes, ya feel me) and I've tried installing WLW but alas, to no avail because it's a little shit.
I was actually getting really mad especially at the thought of having to write a blog on word which I was really against because I think I would be in an assessment mind set which is in no way a good thing. So I reluctantly logged onto this, but it's actually not bad at all. Which is really good because I can feel a really long blog post coming on. Here we go.
Korean music obsession has hit hard! Like, on a level of zero to Tokio Hotel, Tokio Hotel, and we all know how hardcore that was.
It all started at the end of Feb when I was in search of an music video. I had seen it on SBS' Pop Asia which I used to watch every now and then because I was a fan of the music videos #masterpieces though I didn't really care for the music; like most pop music for me. Anyway I was searching for this video for hours! While I was searching for this video, I was listening to some of the songs and I was really loving them and it just started from there!
You'll be somewhat happy to know that I think I found the video I was looking for. Check it out below, and not only is the video dope, but the song is too.
The first musician I got into was G-Dragon. Now I had heard of GD; just like I had heard of Shinee and Super Junior, I actually remember looking them up in prime Tokio Hotel time and not liking them lolz. I even recently remember seeing his video for Coup d'etat on Pop Asia and thinking wow so he's pretty hardcore; in terms of the electronic sound. I think I must have re-watched this song and fell in love and I just kept listening to his music. His second record also called Coup d'etat is really great and probably has a place in my top 20!
I have to thank this video because initially I didn't really like this song but I loved the video with my whole heart and after watching the video a million times I really got into it.
I really (oh shiiittt this song just came on shuffle) love how well the video goes with the lyrics of the video. This is one of those songs that the music is so upbeat and it disguises the true meaning of the song. Which is exactly what the song is about; someone who on the outside puts on a tough guy act, but in reality they're breaking down on the inside. The lyrics are amazing and they're a perfect testament to GD's genius, and to some of his sadness. I can really relate to these lyrics. And the video shows this perfectly.
Back to less hardcore analysis I may or may have not stolen four items of clothing from this video (fur coat- oh yeah I made a fur coat and I'm so proud of it even though it cost me $80 to make, everything is good - red striped t-shirt, striped polo and red shirt) #sorrynotevenremotelysorry. In terms of GD's fashion though, he looks amazing in everything; even when he wears something hideous, he just pulls it off so well. I also got a custom made tote bag with a still from this video and I love it.
I could talk about GD and his talent for 100 year but I've already spent enough time on writing this post and I'm not even half way through, so moving on. GD and this guy called T.O.P made this amazing album together. It's got this really cool old school vibe going on.
T.O.P, aka my second husband, is the most attractive Asian guy I have ever seen in my life and I basically hate him. Just watch that video and see, like mateeeeeeeee and if all men dressed like him i would actually be dead. He's also a really dope rapper. These two are part of a group called Big Bang, and they're sorta the biggest kpop group ever to ever exist.
To be completely honest I actually was pretty disappointed when I listened to Big Bang, because while some songs were really great, I just couldn't get into them. Mainly probably they're a bit too ballad-y and pop-y for me, but also I think it's because a lot of their songs are really date-able; they're not timeless at all. Even they're new stuff, which I'm really loving, esp Bang Bang Bang (listen to this right now, you can thank me later) I think in a few years time, you'll listen back to it and you'll be like this is so 2015. But as group of people I love them all because they're such losers and make me laugh, oh and they're super talented.
The next big obsession comes in the form of BTS aka my boyssssssss. They're a hip-hop idol group composed of seven members and I love them all so much. Entering into the world of kpop I've encountered a number of new terms, but none more important than bias. It's pretty self explanatory, but it's your favourite member of a group. It totally makes sense and why it's not used in other fandom's is lost on me! In terms of BTS they're all amazing and all the members have their individual traits that I adore so it's really hard to pick just one; they're all so lovable, just watch this! What a bunch of losers.
I do have a top four though; Rap Monster, Suga, V and J-Hope. Mainly based on talent because people who are talented is the ultimate attraction for me, and then there's V haha. But I would probably have to say my number one is Suga. I only say this because I my brother bought me a BTS jumper with a members name on the back and when he asked me, my gut told me Suga and I still stand by that decision. So it was my subconscious telling me who.
They recently released a mini album (but it has 8 songs so its basically a full record) and it's really on point especially it has a really clear theme running throughout. Just listen to it.
It's really strange because for the first time in my life I like a group where some of the members are the same age as me! The youngest member is actually two years younger than me, seriously what is this madness! It makes me feel pretty shit because I'm like, what am I even doing with my life, but anyway.
Now not only is their music amazing, and they're super talented (they all have input in their music) but their dancing is so on point, particularly their synchronization; even my brother recognizes how good they are!! And they do this while singing live at the same time!!
Oh and did I mention, I'M GOING TO SEE THEM LIVE IN A MONTH AND TWO DAYS!?!?!? I'm fucking excited words can't even explain how excited I am, but safe to say I haven't been this excited since I saw the Horrors!
This is probably my favourite song and I'm pretty sure when they play this I'm going to start crying at the same time I'm trying to rap in Korean.
Again I need to move on but I could talk about BTS for 200 years, so please check them out, they're really amazing.
After a while I started to get into less mainstream Korean artists. I was going to say that I couldn't remember how I got into into, lets just call it alt K for typing purposes, but I do because I was listening a cool playlist that just happened to have a Beenzino (god and giver of life) song on it.
I really have to thank 8tracks and some wonderful people for helping me discover some fire musicians. While we're on the topic of 8tracks, check out my own playlists, they're dope #shamelessselfpromo.
I'm super tired right now so I'm going to do another post that looks more in depth into my favorite alt K musicians. Because I'm into so many more artists from the K rnb, rap and hip hop 'scene' than Kpop so it'd be morning before I'd be finished.
So for now here's a teaser in the form of an awesome track that features a few of my favourite alt K musicians, from my fav Korean record company Amoeba Culture which has all the best signed.
I'm actually really grateful for this obsession. You may or may not have noticed, but music is my whole life, butt over the past couple of years I had been facing a slump. Yes I always kept up to date with my favourite bands, but I never really discovered much new music (apart from Indian music, but it was a different experience).
But with this, I feel like I've fallen in love with music again and the experience of finding new musicians. I had totally forgotten how good it felt to discover new music, so it's really great. It's just sucks a little because I can't show people the music I've found like I used but that's ok, and it's
probably why this post is so long!
Oh but in non Korean music news I'm going to have my most hardcore music experience yet in the form of #3gigsin3days. I'll be seeing The Wombats, Mark Ronson and Years & Years in three consecutive days and it's going to be amazing! But I seriously doubt my body will be ready to handle all that dancing. At least I will have BTS a couple days earlier to prepare me haha.
It’s 15, 16 minutes into the new year. Happy new year. I had initially
started this post as a classic ‘whut i’m posting not at the end of the uni
semester’ but that was this afternoon and now its just after midnight. With that
first sentence I feel like I’m writing a story and so I feel sorta weird
writing, like I’m trapped between two sides of writing; writing for a particular
purpose and just writing down crap that just comes to mind (aka my blog). I
blame this on the fact that I’m reading Gone Girl, because yeah the characters
are supposed to be expressing/writing down their own thoughts, but it’s actually
the author writing pretending to be these people. Ok I better stop before this
gets philosophical.
Lately I’ve been watching a lot – and I mean a lot – of anime. I hadn’t
really realised how many I’ve watched until I decided to get an My Anime List account.
Compared to my brother my list is pretty small, but most of the watching was
done only in the past couple of weeks.
It’s all I’ve really been watching. Only before was I watching a ‘normal’ tv
show; its Da Vinci’s Demons. I’ve only watched one episode but I like it. And
it’s pretty interesting because for once, watching a program based on history, I
actually know the people they’re talking about (thanks to uni).
All the while I’ve been watching anime, I’ve been making clothes. I made a
dress (the one that I included a picture of the pattern in the previous post),
skirt and shorts. I’m pretty happy with all of them. Oh but the other day I
spent $70 on fabric at spotlight. Whoops. And then I went in a bought some
patterns two days later (but they only cost $10 and were on special from $40, so
don’t even tell me that’s not a bargian). Ok, well I’m too lazy to go on, so
farewell, enjoy the first day of the new year.
Hey! You know what time of year it is if I’m writing a blog. Yep I’ve
finished uni for the year. In fact today I got my results and I’m very happy
with them especially since I got a HD for a unit for the first time ever!
My brother and I had a bit of a anime movie session; we watched two -Hotarubi
no Mori e and Byousoku 5 Centimeter. I was expecting them both to be amazing,
but I was a little disappointed. I didn't really like the latter, but I did like
the former, just not as much as I was expecting.
You know what, I’ve been watching a lot of TV shows since I started my break.
I started watching Downtown Abbey again and also got my mum hooked. After that,
I finished watching Avatar the Last Airbender and started Legend of Korra, which
I am really enjoying. Of course it’s not as good as Avatar, but it’s still
really great and now that I’m up to date I have that feeling of not knowing what
to do with my life haha. I also watched another anime called Hakuouki which I
also enjoyed, and that got me in the feels quite a bit, which is good. For me, I
judge things on their ability to get me emotionally attached to the characters
and they become real and not characters anymore (Sarah’s quality control
system). So I always pick things that puncture my heart and make me want to die
(I’m constantly looking for new otps) because my life is so pedestrian
#seriousmentalproblems.
I have also been sewing a bit, which is nice. I’ve a nice collection of some
really cool patterns which I hope to all make. So far thought, I’ve sewn a 60s
A-Line dress (which I love, but haven’t had a chance to wear it), just a plain
black skirt, some stuff for the house and most recently I attempted to make
another dress. However this dress has been causing me a lot of grief and I’ve
given it up, and its all down to the zip. It doesn’t matter now because I bought
fabric today to start a new dress which I have been waiting to start ever since
I got the pattern below). I’m making the coral coloured one, but in a navy,
dotted and small flowered pattern (it sounds a bit crazy, but its pretty
simple).
Oh and just while we’re on the subject of handmade clothes, I finished my
cardigan ages ago, but only wore it in public for the first time a couple of
weeks ago. And also on this vein, I’ve become addicted to lipstick and perfume.
In exciting news, my brother is getting this super fast gaming computer.
Which means that I will be able to properly play the Sims again and that means I
can continue my amazing family tree. Have I mentioned it on here? Regardless,
here’s a refresher, I’ve had this sims family that I’ve kept going with for 10
generations now, where all the sims I’ve created are named after musicians,
actors, characters etc that I like. I'm very proud of it and I
hope to continue it for a long time.
So what happened, was the computer that I’ve got it all on at the moment
started glitching up and I haven’t been able to fix it so I haven’t played in
ages. But once my bro gets his new computer it won’t glitch and I will be able
to play yay! The only problem I have is that I’m running out of female names!!
Also, this year I’m really sucking at doing my reading challenge. But I just
feel I haven’t had the chance and throughout the year I wasn’t as motivated to
be reading other books. Like it took me like two months for me to finish
Persuasion, I’d pick up the book before bed and read a page and be over it.
However once the holidays started, I started reading again. And even though I
probably won’t finish the 8 I need I’ll try my best (and then lower it to the
amount I’ve read #sorrynotsorry)
oH AND I READ THE LAST SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT BOOK!! To be completely honest –
and I was thinking about it this morning - I was really disappointed with it.
Well actually its the ending I’m not happy with. I feel like it didn’t actually
end and the book was part of something in the middle. And, for me personally I
think some parts could have been taken out, some more developed and some added
in to be more resolved. But anyway I’m not the author.
Looking over this post I realise that I’ve been trying to cram a lot of
things into my spare time (because I’m working 5 days a week at work because my
other boss/friend has gone to India and I’m filling all her shifts). It’s not
working too well, but oh well I’ll just have to take everything as it comes.
Yes that’s right, I’ve finished for the semester! I submitted my final assignment this afternoon.
A couple of weeks ago I bought my first sewing machine (well that’s not completely true because first dad actually paid for it but its an early Christmas present and I bought this really cheap sewing machine for like $30 and it basically sucked) which is a singer and I love it. I’ve been waiting till I finished uni till I could start using it and so finally yesterday I got a chance (yesterday I submitted my last major assignment).
I did a few practice stitches and seams on a 100 year old pillow case and then I had a go of turning it into a skirt. I then repaired a pair of my dad’s pants and then I started altering a dress of mine of which I finished today.
I’ve been buying a heap of patterns from the op shop which are super cheap and also really cool; I bought this jacket pattern from 1960!! So I can’t wait to go into spotlight and get some cool fabric and start making.
Also I’ve be constantly knitting my cardigan and it actually looks like one now.
Ok I can’t be bothered writing more, soz too busy watching TMNT.
I’ve actually been wanting to write a blog for ages, but alas, uni has been keeping me busy.
Over the past few weeks I’ve had assignment after assignment, admittedly to my own fault. I thought that I would be smart and for my two subjects that needed oral presentations do them early, but I miss calculated and found that there were one week after another. So with that plus my other assignments I’ve been dead.
But I’ve just finished my last assignment for the while and now I’m finally able to do things I actually want! What are those things that I want? Well crafts and watching TV shows, that’s what.
Every time the weather starts getting colder, my need to knit gets stronger. So I headed on over to spotlight and bought some nice yarn. God, over the past few weeks I’ve spent so much money at spotlight, but I’ve bought so many nice yarns. I decided that I needed to get a membership so I could grab some bargains.
In terms of projects I’ve got a couple going on, planned and finished which calls for dot points.
I finished my first beanie ever that I made for my cousin, of which I don’t have a picture.
I’m currently working on a blanket, which is really great for doing which watching TV because its one stich so you don’t have to concentrate.
Also I’m working on one of those snood things, with yarn in a teal colour with specks of other colours.
I bought this beautiful soft yarn (in the grey and a light brown) which I want to turn into a scarf.
I bought this yarn in this colour and in a grey. In the red I’m going to knit another scarf and in the grey I’m going to do a cardigan. It’s going to me by first cardigan and I’m that excited. I’m getting the cardigan pattern from this pattern book I bought, of which I just want to make everything inside.
But knitting isn’t the only thing I’ve started. I’ve just gotten into embroidery. Last night i finished my first embroidery project, see him below. It was a practice for a thing I’m making for my mum for mothers day. Once I’m finished I’ll post a picture of the finished product.
Now in regards to turtles, if you look back to previous posts you’ll see that I was super depressed because I couldn’t get TMNT. Well guess what?! I got my hands on a copy!!! In fact I’m watching it as I type!
I was so scared that it would be really shit and my whole childhood ruined, but there was nothing it be scared of. I think love it more than I did when I was a kid! The episode I’m up to is part 3 of 3 of a series of eps and its pretty deep. They’ve gone underground and befriended these guys who were once human, but were turned into monsters after experiments, and there was one guy talking about how he was soon to descend into madness and stuff and it was just super deep. Also right now its pretty creepy and my hearts pounding a bit, to be honest. On a lighter note, also Mikey is hilarious. Ok, I think I better get back to paying 100% attention, smell ya later.
This blog post is sorta a continuation of a set I posted on polyvore. I finally finished the Lord of The Ring yesterday, so I decided to make a set inspired by the detailing of when they Frodo and co go to the Havens.
As I said in the polyvore post, I hadn’t read it, nor seen the movies and never really had any drive to read or watch it. In all honesty though, I’m not really sure why I never had any inclination to even watch the movies, especially since one of my favourite games ever is Warlords Battlecry, of which I’ve been playing since I was ten, at least. Now if you’re unfamiliar with Warlords, you basically pick a race of warriors (for example humans, orcs, the undead, minotaurs and my go to race, wood elves - already you can see the similarities of LoTR and the game) and you have to build up your army to fight other races to conquer regions. Also, from my last post you can see as a kid I wasn’t really a girly girl, so why I didn’t get into it, it’s a mystery to me!
Anyway, my best friend/housemate had been telling me that we’d have to have a LoTR marathon and I was like “yeah ok whatever” but it hadn’t happened because I wasn’t that interested. But one day while I was having a look in an op-shop and I found a copy of the the LoTR for $4! So thus, I finished the last book I was reading and then read it, but not without reading the Hobbit first.
Speaking of the Hobbit I just finished watching the first one, after I have been harassing my mum for the past few days to bring it home. Now we will be able to go with my cousin to see the second one. Also I will now be able to have that LoTR marathon which will make my friend happy.
Now that I’ve finished the two books (I probs wont read The Silmarillion or Unfinished tales) I’ve moved onto the second last of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Last Stand of the Dead Men. I really cant believe its nearly over, but there’s been eight books already! So that means I’ve been reading those books since I was 12, that’s pretty ridiculous!
But now this blog post is coming to an end and my wood elf troops are calling me into battle, and so hear their call! (I’m going to play Warlords, and here’s some of the soundtrack that you should listen to).
