Posts from — January 2010

I love my English class. I always have this little excitement before the teacher is extremely smart and funny, and the content is very original. Today, he forced us to get to know people around us and talk about random stuff. Well, it sounded awkward at first but if he wasn’t doing that, people would never talk to each other like in 90% of other classes. So today I met that girl who has pretty much the same music taste as me, which is extremely rare. We just ended up smiling and talking for 15 minutes about music and life. I think it was cute. It made my day.

I just came back from Remedy Teas where I had another shopping spree, but it’s definitely worth it considering how amazing their teas taste, smell and look. At first I was just going there to refill two of my old ones but I ended up getting three new kinds. It’s just so tempting.

Peach Oolong: The closest thing to visiting the orchard, the flavor and aromas of fresh picked peaches and toasty oak swirl around this Wuyi oolong with hand-blended rosehips, marigolds and essences of apricot and peach.
Silver Earl: The classic Earl Grey has a silvery new step. Enjoy cooling citrus flavor and a brisk fragrant brew from this light and refreshing blend of natural organic bergamot and premium organic Silver Needle white tea.
Jade Spring : Pure “Wulu” spring tea from China. Freshly handcrafted grown at high elevations among lush mountain tops and mist. This special grade first-pick green tea creates a smooth and wonderfully mellow and butttery cup with fresh sweet taste.
Green Energy: A dynamite tea that delivers a citrus-fresh, stimulating cup with serious horsepower. Green tea combo, ashwaganda (a powerful Ayruvedic herb), ginseng, gogi, licorice, citrus peel and citrus essence.
Deep Sleep: This potent mix of herbs is bound to help send you to la-la land while tasting like a dream. Chamomile, rosehips, lavender, pink peppercorn, valerian, honeybush and kava kava.

“We’re doing a show this Sunday to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti. All proceeds are going to the Oxfam Haiti relief fund. We’re trying to raise as much money as possible, so tickets will be sold by auction at this site until Saturday. We’re in the middle of recording at the moment, so you’ll be catching us on the fly… but if you’re up for it, then we are too. See you then” — Thom Yorke, from the Official Radiohead Website

The highest bid was $2000, the lowest $475. Radiohead raised $572,754 for Haiti in one night. Nice.

Release: January 26, 2010
Country: Baltimore, U.S.A
Label: Carpark
Genre: Dream-Pop
Sounds like: Mazzy Star, School of Seven Bells, Cocteau Twins

Beach House’s Victoria Legrand and Alex Scully isolated themselves during the creation of Teen Dream, holing themselves up in a converted church in upstate New York with producer Chris Coady. But despite that isolation, the sound of the record (according to the band) is anything but insular. Their first album for Sub Pop, and third overall, expands on the band’s warm fuzz, resting their haunting sound on more rhythmic foundations. According to Legrand, “There’s a different kind of intimacy, a physicality on Teen Dream.” That physicality may ground you a little more in the hazy world of Beach House, but that might be a good thing. If this new world is as large as they claim it to be, it’s best to keep your bearings. — prefixmag

I just found the time to listen to Beach House’s Teen Dream which came out a few days ago, and it’s pretty good. There are two main things that have pushed Beach House to new creative heights on this album: an amazing songwriting and a drummer (at least for recording, not sure if they will have alive drummer when touring). They have the same “mystical music-box” atmosphere that Beach House created on their previous albums, same ghostly vocals by Victoria Legrand, beautiful and subtly brilliant guitar and piano melodies… it is just simple and fullfilled with emotion, very relaxing and dreamy. There’s also a 60′s-era feeling in their music. It’s all very nostalgic and kinda melancholic. In fact, it seems like the overall theme of the album seems to be heartbreak, but it feels more hopeful upon each listen even when Legrand is singing about things that are no longer there, lost feelings. Love gained and lost is central in the prose, and the title of the album seems to reinforce this idea of a young, innocent, somewhat naive notion of love, or at least a wanting to return to it. Wonderful album.

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Commercial realized for Aides, a French association fighting AIDS.

I saw Phoenix last saturday at the Showbox SODO and there are seriously no words to describe how incredible the experience was. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from their show… and it really means something if we consider all of the elements that they had against them – a not-so-good venue, a over packed place and a young crowd with very limited knowledge of their older material. For the finale, Thomas Mars jumped off the stage, ran to the barrier of the 21+ section, and crowd surfed triumphantly all the way back to the front and it all ended up with about 40+ audience members dancing on stage. It’s been a long time since I have felt such joy in one place. One of the best show I’ve ever seen. The best show I’ve ever seen.

“You’re not at all like my rose. You’re nothing at all yet,” he told them. “No one has tamed you and you haven’t tamed anyone. You’re the way my fox was. He was just a fox like a hundred others. But I’ve made him my friend, and now he’s the only fox in all the world.”
And the roses were humbled.
“You’re lovely, but you’re empty,” he went on. “One couldn’t die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she’s the one I’ve watered. Since she’s the one I put under glass. Since she’s the one I sheltered behind a screen. Since she’s the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except for the two or three butterflies). Since she’s the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she’s my rose.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

If you follow what’s going on in Europe and more precisely in France, you probably know that the French government is trying to ban full Islamic veils. Some journalist in the US or even in France think that it is against freedom rights, or freedom of religion. Here are the three reasons why I believe that those arguments aren’t appropriate.
- France is a secular republic. There are no crucifixes in public schools and for the last 250 years religion has had no place in the public arena. If a christian was to dress with the same garb in France as they do for Holy week in Spain, they would likely be stopped by the police. People are free to exercise their various religions as long as these are not in contradiction with the Principles of the Republic. That’s the foundation of the French Republic – its principles come first, religious freedom comes next. Polygamy, for example, is banned – is that offensive to Muslims too? Is that Christian bigotry? Is it offensive to Muslims in America, that they cannot have several wives? Would America let them do that, in the name of their religious freedom?
- I have read some feminist’s arguments that wearing the veil is a “choice” and it’s anti-feminist to take that choice away from women. Though the arguments can almost sound compelling, I just can’t go along with that. Whenever I bring this up I am told that we have to “respect their culture.” Well, how come they don’t have to respect ours? If you move to a westernized nation, here is the deal; we don’t shame women into covering their hair and faces and tell them to look down when men pass. Also, we don’t feel comfortable talking to people who hides their faces. It’s confusing and totally unsafe. Would you let your child play or talk to someone that you can’t even identify? No. What will happen if you go to the bank while wearing a mask? Security guards won’t stop looking at you that’s for sure. So deal with it, or go back home. Sorry, but “respecting” the veil to me, means respecting misogyny. And for all those who argue “choice”, say what you will, but I call that “choice” internalizing the woman-hate your culture has preached at you since birth.
- But what people tends to forget in this debate – or ignore – is that the Qur’an does not require muslim women to wear a Burqa (or even a headscarf). It just requires to dress modestly. Every country has it’s own culture. People have a choice, if they want to stay, they integrate themselves. There are many countries in the Gulf that allow women to wear Burqas and where there are opportunities to work and earn money, nobody is forcing muslims to stay in France if they are unhappy not to be able to wear the Burqa. Emirate of Dubai asks all its visitors (western and otherwise) to obey clothing restrictions for beach wear, including no topless women. Every westerner on the beach adheres to this rule and I think it’s pretty normal. I think we all understand the necessity to be sensitive to other countries’ wishes, so why can’t other cultures be sensitive to France’s?