Something Different

A song clip that proves interesting things can happen in bed....





(no, it's not about what you think. :P)

~Le petit chaton

Wise One

Oh irony. Je t'aime. I love Robin Hobb's Fool. I've gone on and on about him before in previous places and online space so I won't go into detail here. Anyway, the Fool says to Fitz "I have never been wise" and it's a loaded message... I think to say "I have ever been true to you, been the Fool" and the other implication? That he has acted foolishly? Perhaps, but it is funny to realise that Fitz would have forgiven him anything. No barriers. I love their love. Anyway.... Coltrane.

Jazz is great... I've come to a place where words can't describe where I am and this saxaphone does a much better job. You don't want it ever to end.


John Coltrane - Wise One




Rien plus pour maintenant,

~Le petit chaton

Sad songs

I'd like to play cheerful music... but this at the moment speaks too well. Ane Brun has a distinctive voice that I enjoy singing along to. It's simple and though not entirely attractive or melodic... it's rich and raw.


Ane Brun feat Teitur - Rubber and Soul





la musique est pour toujours,

~Le petit chaton

Happiness

The first opening lines kill me. I used to listen to Elliott all the time, now it's just small doses.





Meow,

~Le petit chaton

Ulalume

So I have this reading by Jeff Buckley that is hauntingly beautiful....







In high school I read a guy's LJ simply because he wrote obscure poetry that I found intriguing. He also liked Jeff Buckley and through him I discovered how awesome Jeff was. Today, in a friend's blog she posted about a friend she said goodbye too. She said a lot of good things. Often I wish my life were as straight forward and good as hers... she is living the dream. The title of her post was "This is Our Last Goodbye" so in honour of that...





Adieu,

~Le petit, gris chaton

Sharing the love

I'm talking to my lovely Heather and it's taking me back. We used to talk and talk and we still can and I can still finish her sentences and she mine. lol I love that girl. :) She's teaching kids in France to speak English... but I've known her since she started learing French in high school. :D

Anyway, she put me onto a lovely singer -

Ingrid Michaelson.

I really like Keep Breathing and The Way I Am.


Today I'm going to the NSW Art Gallery. Woo Australia Day! I've found that most of my friends all think that this is a cool way to spend my day off. I like that. Art is worthy. I don't need to get drunk with mates while at a BBQ or festival to have fun.


A demain,

~Le petit chaton

Je me sens libre! (I feel free)

Naked DSL. It's the shizz. It's amazing. I went wandering online with my new-found speed and I brought these musical findings. (Kind of like how a cat brings home dead mice, maybe? :P)

Firstly Jamendo. They host music of all kinds for you to download or simply stream from their website for free. The music is all legal, having been uploaded by the artist themselves. Check out the jazz below that I scored... I love that they have a widget that I can use on my blog too. Very useful.




(I recommend track 3 - Attimi)


What else? Music from Music.Download.com. hehe The music isn't just independant dudes uploading stuff... so the quality of music is a little less unpredictable.


And lastly,this website - PureVolume. It's kind of like Last.fm but with a greater focus on downloading the music rather than streaming it for radio-like use.


But in other news, Roger Federer won (awesome come back from 2 sets down!) And Jelena Dokic won in 3 sets (7/5, 5/7, 8/6). Tennis is awesome this Summer. Woo! :D


Bon nuit,

~Le petit chaton

Faster

In the mood for Something For Kate... I thought I'd share one of my favourite songs for the cynical moments of life.





"If we leave, or if we never leave,
they'll just cover us with new buildings"



~Le petit chaton

P.S. Irony? The KCat House now has Naked DSL. :D So we have super fast internet and I just made a blog entry called Faster. :D

What should we call this blog entry?

Today was kinda fun and really tiring.

We had an in-service about Observation and Documentation. It talked a bit about co-learning and asking children for their imput and asking parents too. haha So if you don't know what to call a project, why not ask the children? Web their ideas? Put it out there for parents?

So what should I call this blog entry...? I really am stuck for inspiration. :P


Musically not a lot has changed. :P Camille is still awesome. I'm still powering through the music provided by Quimsy and all that good stuff. I'm going to share another Camille song... something a bit different.





We have a house warming party tomorrow. It should be pretty good. Looking forward to hanging out with Aish and Tharani too if she can make it. I'm looking forward to making a heap of funky, fancy drinks. I have 2 awesome books on making ice teas and frappes and crazy stuff. So pina colas and whatnot here I come! :D

Je suis tres, tres fatigue! alors, c'est tout!

~Le petit chaton


P.S. A random French song I loved in high school with Jenifer in it. I knew next to nothing about French music then (as compared to now? o.0 haha) but I still kind of like the lyrics and back and forth nature of the song. I like the ending... she dismisses everything the man says as sweet words that mean nothing. :P






and this just in from David:





Merci!

Home is where the cornflakes are

Well. Today we had a camera crew come into work. They did a thing with our preschool kids about transition to school (as far as I understood that's what they were doing!) so I was possibly on the news with the kids. Man. The kids hacked it well. It was weird having so many news/media people around while playing with the kids. I'd turn around BAM there would be a camera in my face. I felt so self-conscious!

I'm doing better. Work today was pretty good. Much less stressful and lots of good stuff happened... we continued exploring Aboriginal art/culture/stories, ate lunch with chop sticks (or attempted to at least) and we sang various songs in different languages. At least I can look back on the day and say there were things of worth injected.

I can tell I'm in a better mood because of what music I can and want to listen to. I had The Lucksmiths on my MP3 player coming home - Fridge Magnet Song. It's fun.





--



Thanks Tom for the above. As you can imagine, I like it immensely. ^_^

Pour maintenant, c'est tout.

~Le petit chaton

Last Year

I did Green Tent last year and it was a crazy affair. I was really stressed during that week. We'd only had 1 month or so to prepare everything and so not everything was prepared - even for the following day. The craft could have been better, the activities more suitable and my leadership skills consisted of just trying really hard while not knowing entirely what I was doing. Each night I'd go to bed with a thousand things on my mind, so I wrote them down on a piece of paper to get them out of my head so I could sleep and then worry about them the next morning.

It was hard.

This year, I wasn't Infants Team Leader and was only in on Wednesday and Friday but this year I was working full time. This year I had been involved from the start and it was just Kat and I instead of a number of other people who were involved last year earlier on. It was prolonged and constant and rewarding and stressful.


Anyway. Last year, one night, I left the house and went outside to sing to the moon/God. It helps sometimes to sing... or sometimes I opt for speaking/praying in French. Both are kind of like singing to me. I sang this song a fair bit last year. This year I didn't really have an approach to coping... I suppose that's why I didn't. :P





~Le petit chaton

Dreaming Music

Last night I drempt that the Camille song "Winter's Child" was used in a movie made about The Obernewtyn Chronicles (a fiction fantasy series by Isobelle Carmody). But it was under a different name, so when I heard it I was blown away a little. They're not making a movie of this book series though... I doubt justice could be done to it... but it was interesting to dream.

The song is hypnotic...






Dreams are funny. A boy at work told me that he dreamt that he fell into water and I saved him, I pulled him out. I wonder where he got that from...

C'est tout,

~Le petit chaton

Slumdog Millionaire

I watched Slumdog Millionaire with Aisha last night. It was a lot of fun. Great movie, great soundtrack. Afterwards I had random Bollywood tracks in my head. :P We listened to them in the car on the drive back to my place. During high school I wanted to be Indian. :P I dig the culture...


Let's see if this new widget works....






And in the world of other-ness. I did some music blog hunting and found this one:

Quimsy

The guy posts records from a music scene that I heart. A lot of SOUNDSVILLE music, actually. I'm sure downloading this isn't 100% legal but how does one buy this music anyhow? (Without hunting op shops to death) I downloaded "Steve Kuhn - Steve Kuhn Buddah BDS-5098 (1971)" and it is awesome.



~Le petit chaton

Everything will be alright

The Killers - Everything Will Be Alright



and



Work No. 560: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT
2006
Neon
14.35m x 0.5m
Installation at Palazzo dell'Arengario, Milan, Italy
Comissioned by Fondazione Nicola Trussardi


Thanks Tom for the above. :)


That Killers song reminded me of another....


Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) - Everything's Alright




I didn't realise it was from Jesus Christ Superstar... I'm not a fan of the musical. I think it messes with the Bible too much, but some of the songs are well done. She has such a beautiful voice. It really does say to me 'the 70s'...


~Le petit chaton

Why I create...

above all else, it is about leaving a mark that i existed:
i was here.
i was hungry.
i was defeated.
i was happy.
i was sad.
i was in love.
i was afraid.
i was hopeful.
i had an idea and i had a purpose and that’s why i made works of art.

- Felix Gonzalez-Torres



Why do/did i? I've made many things because I was in a dark place and had to say something though I couldn't say it to someone. I have a couple of things I really like that I've done but I can't put them up around my room because they're too telling. It would be nice to make something out of my happiness, but when I'm in those moments I never feel like pulling out my watercolours.

I'm looking at my old art links. Seeing which ones are dead. Many aren't. It makes me glad. This is a piece of fun.


Anyway. I'm reading Shakespeare. I'm starting with Henry VI. I'm enjoying it very much. It intrigues me that the people who lived in the 1600s had such a good grasp of history and politics that even in plays for the common people there is a deep level of sophistication in the politics of the plot. Having read a bit about the time period from my stint reading The History of the English Speaking People I know the 'characters' and what 'really' happened. There is so much in that time period that is both noble and tragic. I am glad Shakespeare wrote plays about them... it is history, but it is also incredible tales of bravery, stupidity, tragedy that are part of us as a people.


Last night I went for a walk. The house got too oppressive. I walked down to the creek and sang. You Go To My Head... Stardust... and in French - "Des mots qui ressonant" because the hospital near our house is called "Hirondelle", which means swallow in French and that song mentions a swallow. :P It made me dance a little inside, seeing the name of the hospital. I used to have swallows darting and diving over the lake and hill at Seven Hills and they were so much fun to watch. They went so fast and never bumped into each other. :) Swallows also remind me of the Happy Prince. There are a lot of good things that I associate with them, and to have the word written in French instead was a piece of gold in a bleak night.


Today I will garden... I have a backyard now and I'm itching to get my hands dirty. lol :)


A demain,

~Le petit chaton

Song Against Sex

Neutral Milk Hotel does a crazy job of this song... The lyrics are nuts but fun to sing along to. This is just the right mix of fun and madness.


Neutral Milk Hotel - Song Against Sex


And the first one tore a picture
Of a dead and hanging man
Who was kissing foreign fishes
That flew right out from his hands
And when I put my arms around him
I felt the blushing blood run through my cheeks
And an eeriness surrounded when his tongue began to speak
And he said, "Oh boy, you are so pretty
Enough to wrap tight in rice-paper string"
And when I finally kissed him the whole world began to ring
Lost like a bell that's tipping over
With two cracks along both sides
And I knew the world was over so I took a look outside
And watched the fires that were reaching
Up to the weather vane and the tops of trees
And the waiting scene and the Sunday dream
They're all waiting here for me

Deli markets with their flower stands
And pretty girls and the burning men
Hanging out on the hooks next to the window displays
And I took out my tongue twice removed from my face
Across a bridge and across the mountains
Threw a nickel in a fountain
To save my soul from all these troubled times
And all the drugs that I don't have the guts
To take to soothe my mind
So I'm always sober
Always aching, always heading towards
Mass suicide, occult figurines
And wasted gas-station attendants
Attending to their jobs
And a nice drive in the country
Finds a nice cliff to drop off
Oh, when this life just gets so grating
All the grittiness of life
But don't take those pills your boyfriend gave you
You're too wonderful to die

And the last one tore a picture
From the pornographic page
And all the pleasure points attacking
All the looks of love were staged
And it's a lie that you've been given
That just hurts you every day
So why should I lie here naked
When it's just too far away
From anything we could call loving
Any love worth living for
So I'll sleep out in the gutter
You can sleep here on the floor
And when I wake up in the morning
I won't forget to lock the door
Because with a match that's mean and some gasoline
You won't see me anymore



There is a nifty website called Song Meanings and you can read all the interpretations of this song that other people have. With obscure lyrics like these... you get a few.


Je te laisse ici,

~Le petit chaton

People-overload

So Green Tent is over and the last day went really well. Thanks be to God. Now we have leaders over at our house and I'm hiding in my room with my music. I can't handle more people. I can't handle more anything. I'm on overload, and people-overload especially.

It will be a long time before I say yes to more work. I'm going to take a massive amount of time off service. I'm served out. I'm volunteered out. I miss reading. I miss going to gigs. I miss my friends. I miss seeing movies. Thar and I are going to see The War of the Roses early Feb. Thank goodness she still wants to hang out with me and do stuff.... I've been neglectful of my friends for too long. I'm glad they still consider me a friend. Thar is good people though, so I'm not surprised she's still there. Aisha is also good people... Sara is too. *nods* I pick up one or two where ever I go. I don't like hoards of friends.


So I'm quietly here, quietly crying. No really, I am. It's tragic. This Led Zeppelin song fits the mood I'm in.


Led Zeppelin - That's The Way



I've been told so many times that I shouldn't listen to sad music when I'm sad. I can't listen to happy music when I'm happy. It's like forcing myself into a social situation when all I'd rather do is sit in the corner and cry or better yet, read. It makes me uncomfortable and it doesn't make me any happier.



I can listen to jazz though. lol It's something that is beautiful and uplifting without being abrasive and in-your-face happy. So that's nice. I can put on Caldonia and chuckle still and put on Stardust and sigh... and maybe with Golden Wedding I'll still dance? :D Who knows... this girl is crazy.

A la prochaine,

~Le petit chaton

The Maccabees

So I'm at church, making a million name tags - well, not really a million, but heaps. To pass time more happily I've logged into Last.fm and I'm listening to my music come through all random and mixed up. Jazz and Christian. 70s Rock, 70s Folk. French. Stuff. After a while, I get tired of that and start searching "similar artists" and I find these guys:

The Maccabees

It it's a different genre. British rock. haha Brits do music better. I love the indie flavour, the accent, the lack of stale-feeling to the music. I also love the name. Ha~

They remind me of The Libertines. The Libertines = lots of fun.


I think I'd actually purchase these guy's music... which is nice. New bands = love.


Meow.

~le petit chaton

Lazy? lol Heck no.

I'm in a funk. I'm tired and it's making me grumpy? Irritable? Something.

Anyway. The ladies in the staffroom at work today cracked me up with awesome. One said she liked Pink Floyd (but mispronouced the name :P) and another said she liked Deep Purple. GAH! They're in their 50s? It makes me laugh so much that I dig their music... and it makes me laugh that I got a record player on Wednesday (THANK YOU DAVID!).

Since I'm so flat and have no energy I'm borrowing it from music. Deep Purple's Lazy is like a little bolt of lightning.



Deep Purple - Lazy Featuring Satriani And Paice

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Green Tent is next week. It's hard. It's in a lot better shape than it was last year... there will be around 130 kids from Kindergarten to High School, so it is kind of a big deal. I won't get to be there all week due to work but I'll be there at least one day. So much preparation! So much tired. Yet, so much awesome.

A la prochaine,
~le petit chaton

Say It (Over And Over Again)

Ah... I had such a beautiful day. I'm totally loving being in the preschool room. I actually have 'authority', I'm not a floater... having to duck into various rooms depending on lunch breaks or programming times. I get to stay with my children the whole time. I even get to PLAN lessons for my children! Today we did a music experience in our small group time using a song I learnt at Uni with repetitive lyrics and a very distinctive beat. I'm going to keep teaching it to them and watch them develop that sort of musical sense. I think they could hear it in the way I sung it and we used a bean bag to pass on the beat, which helped. It was funny to hear a couple of kids singing the song to themselves during lunch. Kids get songs stuck in their heads like adults.

The lyrics of the song goes something like this "mal mal mal, kala-may-go, kala-may-go, "ka-lum-bus, ka-lum-bus". I sung it how I remembered it, so it's not entirely accurate to the original language the song is in (don't ask me what that is).



Anyway, I'm in the mood for Coltrane. That's quite rare... the muted tones of his sax don't always sit well with me. I need to be uber chilled out to listen to it. I found a nice little tribute to Coltrane on youtube playing this song in his style. I hope you enjoy it.

Say It - Stefano Cocco Cantini Quartet (Coltrane cover)





I got a really special belated Christmas present from David a few days back of some records... Keith Green ones... :) I'm just sitting back and imagining how wonderful it will be when I have a record player and can put KG on or other music (jazz in particular) on. There is something awesome about records... I like the fact I can see the music spinning. It's not a stereo or CD or computer speaker. It's right there and I can see it all working.

I'm having an early night tonight.

Bon nuit tout le monde...

~le petit chaton

Second Solution

Hi,

So... I've been posting a lot of wistful stuff and I was reminded tonight that I love rock. I was in the car, coming home from church, and the radio was playing The Living End. They have a distinctive sound. I wouldn't say I was a massive fan of their music during high school but reflecting back on their sound, I dig it.

The Living End - Second Solution





And someone mentioned Van Halen in the comments for the above song... I had to be reminded. Ah dear. A great era to love to hate and yet love. :)

Van Halen - Eruption




It's just a bit of fun. :) Imagine playing that on Guitar Hero. :P ...speaking of which... Knights of Cydonia anyone? :D So much fun to play on Guitar Hero. I love 3:20+. So much fun finger work (on medium).


Muse - Knights of Cydonia






Night,

~le petit chaton