Alphabets

kareoked ok?!

Ok ok. Epi, you've got me: here are my answers to brilliant Lisa's music list.

1. What is the total amount of music files on your computer?

Loads and loads. I used to errrr share files with loadsa friends when i had broadband access in my home. I also used to have loadsa time making different CDs for my different moods. the best collection i had was the wim wender's Lisbon Story soundtrack which i meticulously tracked down.  great band - Madredeus and Ainda is a superb album. Sigh... now that i have a dial up, things have somewhat changed...

2. The CD you last bought?

This has been some months now, hmmm CDs recently-ish acquired:-

• Duran Duran's Astronaut (ah those sweeties)
• REM's Around the Sun (happy shiny people cant go wrong)
• Robbie Williams' Greatest Hit (tee hee)
• Caetoano Veloso's Livros (great sounds!)

[i would have got U2's latest offering had it not arrived in the post]

3. What was the last song you sang to before reading Epi's message?

la la la and i miss you like the desert miss the rain - Missing by everything but the girl. this is my lets get the apartment cleaned and dusted song!

4. Write down five songs that you often sing to or that mean a lot to you.

Hmm this is a difficult one. lets try: -

1. yesterday (beatles) [ and also other songs by the mopped hair yoofs of the 50s] my dad used to sing this to us kiddies when we were little from his purple and white song book in those days when he loved to sing. i know the lyrics by heart and often sing it to myself when i remember those days gone by.

2. tomorrow (song from annie?) - because i used to sing this song to cheer myself up when i was queuing up with my pail waiting for my turn to get water to shower/wash with from the tap in the dreaded boarding school. i sing this now when ever i feel like i could do with a change. i can do it!

3. aint go no/i got life - nina simone - because it makes me feel like i have ALOT to be happy about!

4. my baby just cares for me - nina simone - this makes me smile instantly and i love love love the lines on lana turner and liberace.

Joint 5

5(a) no woman no cry - bob marley - reminds me of those crazy days in jamaica and how i misintrepreted the no woman no cry bit for a loooong time. heh

5(b) more than words -extreme - for some reason i just know the words by heart despite all these years..

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

• azuradec - because although she's reallly busy these days, i'd like to see what she comes up with simply because i am curious and interested to see whether yesterday and other beatles songs feature in her list
• sofie - for the same reason that Lisa came up with - to find out what her musical equivalent to her fav filipino dish is (hahahahhahahahhahah)
• loopy loop - for her eclectic taste and because i dont think i've ever heard her talk about karaeoke

i initially wanted to tap theroadie too - to see what gems from the 70s-80s he'd come up with (if he had the time - he seems to be preoccupied with outfits and temptations). but then when i clicked on roadiementary just after doing this found out he's done it. dang. (I have obviously been swamped at work - not to have read it earlier)

6. Karaoke list: .

the one time i attempted to try and karaoke (albeit in a busy pub in london town) i tried one by U2 and what a disaster that was.

assuming that i would EVER go near a karaoke machine ever again in my whole entire life (gulp i would have to be severely intoxicated me thinks)  my karaoke list would probably look something like this:-

• wonderwall - oasis;
• common people - pulp;
• material girl - madonna;
• the jungle song? (cant remember the title);
• cant get you out of my mind - kylie;
• rock dj - robbie williams;
• raspberry beret - prince;
• stars - simply red; and
• something by zaiton sameon/ramlah ram* because it simply has to be done innit?

hahahahahhahahahahahahaha

* provincial malay women singers who appear in huge ball gowns/ multi-tiered frocks and permed hair on tele using all their breath from their guts to belt out melodramatic sad lyrics to soulful organ dominated tunes.

the sound of music

i cant hold a tune to save my life.

i believe i am tone deaf.

i believe others also believe i am tone deaf.   

i say this because whenever i attempt to join in the rara avis family musical extravaganza moments ( i.e. when the talented, musically inclined brothers are strumming their guitars to produce melodious harmony) at the folks' home, the brothers always stop, restart and say "now, no, now" about 10x. apart from this start-stop phenomenon, the alarmed expressions they throw each other also speak volumes. (i may be tone deaf but i am not blind).

there are other clues of course.  for example, often when i try to share with others, the joy of a song that echoes in the recesses of my head, people either shake their head and wonder whether its a new song that they havent heard or (if they are friends who have known me for some time) double up with laughter (again) and discuss amongst themselves how it is that the tune i produce sounds nowhere near the song i was trying to describe. sniff. suffice to say, these days i dont bother to share this gift of song with anyone and  instead spend many a day obsessing what that tune is or where i lifted that chorus, or that snatch of a song from, on my own and alone.

harumph.

one can therefore imagine how i love public singing (not) and how at home i feel in those karaoke joints where people try and out do each other with their  (breathe-from-the lungs) vocals. 

xxx

some years ago now, at a public function, i was called by the MC to come on stage and answer some questions in front of 600 of my colleagues and bosses.  i was terrified and somewhat horrified (!) particularly since the calling-up-on-the-dass had something to do with the really outdated notion of lets-make-them-parade-onstage-under-the-guise-of-best-dressed-competition-in-an-office-function-where-it-would-be-churlish-and unsporting-not-to-do-so. needless to say after having my name called by the MC 3x and spotlights aimed onto my coiffured head, i had no choice but to clamber on to the podium thoroughly red faced and nervous (yes, i can get terribly self conscious particularly when placed in the centre of attention).

this notwithstanding,  i stood there trying to project a calm, collected and serene demeanor - not fooling anyone the entire time.

the MC, she who is famous for a sexy voice and gregarious jazz singer approacheth. and asks me some generic questions  - name, department yadar yadar. and then the clincher. 

MC: what special talent have you got to share with us?

Me (inner monologue fuck fuck fuck. fuck fuck fuck):  smile none really. fidget fidget.

MC: oh that must be something you can do? a special talent of some sort?

Me (inner monologue as look outward and see 599 expectant faces all focused on me - fuck fuck fuck. please dont ask me to sing. please dont ask me to sing. i'll die if you ask me to sing) : nothing, honest

MC: oh come on, be sporting. we all have talents. there must be something that you would like to share with us.

Me (inner monologue oh major fuck fuck fuck. dont ask me to sing. please dont ask me to sing. anything but sing) : i dont have any of those talents really. i really cant sing.

ooooof. (drumrolls please)

xxx

POSTSCRIPT

ahem, in the same vein, i wont even dare narrate at great length what happened at my one and only attempt at karaoke singing on a friday night in a busy london pub after being plied with enough g&ts to piss a newt at a hen party.  what can  i say? but that u2's one is not an easy tune to carry, particularly if you're err .. musically challenged.

since then, i have been ultra careful with my drinks if there is a karaoke machine anywhere within a 500metres radius of my voice box. particularly since i read  these apparently real life stories in the press 3/4 (?) years ago now.

• a guy in the phillipines was shot dead in a kareoke joint by someone who didnt like the way he sang "my way".
• and then of course there is the story of a crooner who took offence at someone who jeered at his way of singing surprise, surprise, my way. he obviously felt terribly insulted and thus demonstrated his way by stabbing the man in his neck.

xxx

well, this chicakadee is definitly keeping the sound of music within!

birdwatching

birdwatching (c) rara avis 2004

Ode to Bird Watching
by Pablo Neruda

Now
Let's look for birds!
The tall iron branches                                                                             
in the forest,
The dense
fertility on the ground.
The world
is wet.
A dewdrop or raindrop
shines,
a diminutive star
among the leaves.
The morning time mother earth
is cool.
The air
is like a river
which shakes
the silence.
It smells of rosemary,
of space
and roots.
Overhead,
a crazy song.
It's a bird.
How
out of its throat
smaller than a finger
can there fall the waters
of its song?
Luminous ease!
Invisible
power
torrent
of music
in the leaves.
Sacred conversations!
Clean and fresh washed
is this
day resounding
like a green dulcimer.
I bury
my shoes
in the mud,
jump over rivulets.
A thorn
bites me and a gust
of air like a crystal
wave
splits up inside my chest.
Where
are the birds?
Maybe it was
that
rustling in the foliage
or that fleeting pellet
of brown velvet
or that displaced
perfume? That
leaf that let loose cinnamon smell
- was that a bird? That dust
from an irritated magnolia
or that fruit
which fell with a thump -
was that a flight?
Oh, invisible little
critters
birds of the devil
with their ringing
with their useless feathers.
I only want
to caress them,
to see them resplendent.
I don't want
to see under glass
the embalmed lightning.
I want to see them living.
I want to touch their gloves
of real hide,
which they never forget in
the branches
and to converse with
them
sitting on my shoulders
although they may leave
me like certain statues
undeservedly whitewashed.
Impossible.
You can't touch them.
You can hear them
like a heavenly
rustle or movement.
They converse
with precision.
They repeat
their observations.
They brag
of how much they do.
They comment
on everything that exists.
They learn
certain sciences
like hydrography.
and by a sure science
they know
where there are harvests
of grain

xxx