My New Discovery

Ryan & The Rumours.
Get around them. seriously. I get chills. literal goosebumps. all of the sexiness. 

from the rag-bag

found this in my old documents... i wrote it years ago, just dragged it up now. not sure if it's any good. we'll see. 

Food for the soul.

It’s freezing out. The cruel wind whips and stings my face as I walk down the street.  On the corner, there is a man, shabbily dressed in a threadbare wool jumper and torn jeans, unshaven, no coat or scarf or anything. He is standing behind a cart that is selling hot donuts to passers-by, yet he looks as though he hasn’t eaten in days. His face is gaunt and there is a sad, lonely look in his eyes that makes me feel like crying. His eyes seem to implore me as I approach, so I stop and buy a donut, handing him some change from my wallet. He murmurs a thank you and drops the money into a tin, which I notice for the first time is labeled with a hand-made sign scribbled on some scrap paper, which reads ‘For Jessie’. The man notices me looking and he reaches into his back pocket and takes out a slightly creased, dog-eared photo, which he shows to me. The pale little face of a tiny girl, no older than four, stares out from the photograph. She has thin dark hair and the saddest eyes I have ever seen. I look up at the man and am surprised that I have to swallow a lump in my throat before speaking. “Is she your daughter?” the man nods. “She’s got leukemia.” Tears immediately spring to my eyes. “I’m so sorry”, I whisper, my heart breaking. He gives me a grim smile. “Thanks. I wish I could do more to help her. My wife threw me out a year ago, a couple months after Jessie got sick, because I was a bit of a mess. I drank too much, and she didn’t think that was a healthy environment for a sick daughter to be in. shortly after that, I got fired from my job, and because I dropped out of high school, I couldn’t get another one. So I took this up, to try and make a living, and I send as much money as I can to my wife each week to help Jessie get better. Towards paying for medical stuff, food, whatever. I just want to be a good father.” At this point, the man chokes up and can’t go on, and I’m about to break down sobbing. I suppose he can tell, because he reaches out and pats me on the arm. “I don’t know why I told you that. I guess you look like the type of person who is easy to talk to.” I look up into the man’s eyes, which I see now are filled with kindness, shadowed with all the grief and hardship life has thrown at him. “It’s okay,” is all I can manage to say, and then I reach into my wallet again and take out two fifty dollar notes, which I slip into the tin before the man can do anything. “For Jessie.” I say, before turning and walking away.

disclaimer: i can't even remember if it was me who wrote this. i'm fairly sure i did, but if i didn't, sorry.  

spinning. caffeine-fuelled and fierce.

elaborate on your innocence my dear

embroidered across a curtain i draw out all our fears

and laid bare before your glare all my flaws appear

too bright the sunlight illuminates crocodile tears

throwing prisms, rainbows, nature's psychedelic tricks,

not as profound as we'd like, they tease those easily pleased

over and under, too fast when we don't have time, the minute hand ticks

i missed your birthday, you held it against me,

baked you a cake, it dissolved in the springtime showers,

and you sneezed, too irked to appreciate the first feeble flowers,

too oft i am overcome and lost in your exerted powers,

you play on my heart darling, winding petal'd chains for hours

the heat makes me dizzy, we soak it up. i used to think you could move mountains. 

back to zero

i believe it is time for an update of all the artists in my itunes. 
let's take it away...

agnes obel
alana grace
alex day
alpine
amy winehouse
angus & julia stone
anna nalick
aqua
arcade fire
arctic monkeys
arrah and the ferns
audrey hepburn
backstreet boys
ball park music
band of skulls
barry louis polisar
beach fossils
(the) beatles
benjamin francis leftwich
beyonce
big scary
billy joel
bishop allen
blondie
bluejuice
bombay bicycle club
bon iver
the box tops
boy & bear
brie larson
bright eyes
chela 
cher
christina aguilera
city & colour
colourblind
cub scouts
culture club
cyndi lauper
D12 feat eminem
darwin deez
devendra banhart
dirt farmer
dizzee rascal
DMX
dune rats
eagle & the worm
ellie goulding
elliott smith
elton john
emma louise
emiliana torrini
falco
fionn regan
fleet foxes
florence & the machine
foster the people
francolin
georgia fair
gotye
gregory & the hawk
grimes
grizzly bear
gwen stefani
gypsy & the cat
the honey trees
holloow everdaze
husky
hungry kids of hungary
ingrid michaelson
iwan rheon
james blunt
jinja safari
joe hisaishi
joel fenton
josh pyke
julia stone
the jungle giants
justin timberlake
karen kamon
karla devito
kate nash
kate voegele
the kinks
the kooks
la dispute
lana del ray
landon pigg
lenka 
the libertines
lisa mitchell
little red
lorde
M.I.A.
marble sounds
matt corby
matthew and the atlas
the middle east
mika
mindy gledhill
missy elliot
modest mouse
mumm-ra
the naked and famous
neda
nena
noah and the whale
norah jones
the offspring
oren lavie
owl eyes
the paper kites
paul tiernan
the perishers
peter bjorn & john
phoenix
the pierces
the preatures
princess chelsea
psychedelic furs
rachael yamagata
regina spektor
ron pope
the ronettes
the rubens
rufus wainwright
sam and the womp
sea legs
semisonic
seth sentry
she & him
the shins
simple minds
sleepyhands
spice girls
the strokes
stonefield
stu larsen
the submarines
suzi quatro
tame impala
teddy geiger
them swoops
tim hart
tin sparrow
tom milek
tony lucca
toploader
the turtles
two door cinema club
vampire weekend
the velvet underground
vengaboys
vetiver
wang chung
we are scientists
wheatus
the wombats
young the giant
the zutons

Re:

So a few posts ago i answered Alex Day/Nerimon's 2013 youtube survey, however recent events have allowed an embarrassing parent story to resurface which far surpasses the vintage store anecdote.
so i feel i should tell it. 

I was about 16 or so and i went shopping with my mother one day, and for some reason she had to get some things for my grandmother. at the checkout, we happened to be served by a boy i was at school with at the time, and if this wasn't awkward enough, my mum just HAD to hold up a huge pair of granny knickers and say to me "I got these 3 for $5" or however much she had paid for them. I was MORTIFIED. it was truly one of those "i want to earth to open up and swallow me" type of moments. The knickers were clearly not for me, but STILL. I cringe about it to this day.

So there you go. my mother has truly done her duty to embarrass me in public in front of my peers. 

falling from the heartbeat of this girl

5 good things... right now.
1. someone bought me my favourite flowers
2. i impressed another person with my quesadillas 
3. angus & julia stone
4. i had a dream which involved me being hugged by one of my favourite musicians ever
5. sunshine :) well. not right now, because it's night. but yes. 

happy

"wise men say/ only fools rush in..."

FINALLY.

It's Happening. And because I'm not cool enough to be on  youtube yet, I will once again answer this here.

1. What's your biggest fear?
Surface fear: Spiders. Yuck.
Inner Turmoil fear: Failure. It actually terrifies me. That, and being alone.
2. Santa is real. 
3. What's the best idea you've ever had? 
This is a very big question. I don't know if i can answer it in it's full capacity right now, so maybe this is a subject to revisit some other time. However the best decision I made (which was my initial response to the question, before i realised that there is a difference between ideas and decisions) would probably be to go on the World Challenge trip to Tanzania in 2009. Just amazing.
4. Most embarrassing thing your parents have ever done? 
I'm assuming this means in relation to me. I doubt anyone can top Mr Alex Day's answer. Again, the actual MOST embarrassing thing they have done involving me is hard to recall, but a recent one was when I was window shopping with Mum while we were killing time before going to see Swan Lake, and we went into this amazing vintage store, because Mum liked one of the dresses in the window. however, bless her heart, she didn't realise it was a vintage store, and proceeded to ask the assistant if they had another dress like the one in the window, assuming it was mass-produced. needless to say, i cringed a lot, and afterward explained to her that being a vintage store, the shop only had one of that particular dress. Poor Mum.
5. If you were only allowed to pick one career for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Musician, in a band. of course provided that I could actually play something. More realistically, Forensic Psychologist. 

nostalgia

"we were strangers starting out on a journey, never dreaming what we'd have to go through. now here we are, and i'm suddenly standing at the beginning with you. No one told me I was going to find you, unexpected what you did to my heart. When i lost hope, you were there to remind me, this is the starrrrrtt."

WHO. ELSE. REMEMBERS. THIS. SONG!!!!

feels. all of the feels. 

Lifescouts...#8

I have become extremely slack with blogging of late, and even more so with continuing my lifescouts posts. However the wait is over, today is a new day, and perhaps i will be inclined to blog more frequently soon. Maybe. We shall see.
Anyway, the next lifescouts experience I have decided to share is chess.
No, I'm not a chess aficionado, nor have I ever participated in any kind of organised chess games, chess club, chess tournament, et cetera. However, my younger brother showed an interest in chess some years ago, and I was always impressed at how people managed to play what appeared to be a very complicated game. My own interest piqued when my life was made glorious by the discovery of the wonderful world of Harry Potter, particularly after viewing the film adaptation of The Philosopher's Stone, during which occurs the very memorable life-sized game of Wizard's Chess. 
However it wasn't until the summer between years 11 and 12 that I decided I would learn to play this mystifying game. 
I'm not trying to be impressive, and I now know that chess isn't a particularly difficult game to learn, and by no stretch of the imagination do I consider myself talented in this arena. But I am proud to say that during that summer, I managed to teach myself how to play chess, using a computer chess game, and after a number of frustrating afternoons spent losing to a machine, I managed to achieve a checkmate. It was a triumph of sorts. And I know that makes me a dork, but I don't care. 
And here is my badge.