Music Monday - Next Year

Well, another year has come and gone. As I have the last two years, I'll be posting a "Year in Review" within the next week. But first, Music Monday!

I've posted live Jamie Cullum videos before, and I'll likely continue that trend in the future. This time I've got "Next Year Baby," a fitting song for the final day of 2012. A lot has happened this past year: graduated from UBC, moved to Banff, picked up two internships. I didn't travel outside of Canada at all, but instead went back and forth between Kelowna and Victoria, drove out to Banff, went snowshoeing in Glacier National Park, and visited Calgary a few times.

And next year? Well, I'm off to Hawaii in just over a week, more National Park adventures are sure to happen, I might do some travel abroad in the summer, and - fingers crossed - I'll be moving to Vancouver or Montreal in the fall.

Can't promise anything about drinking less beer, though.

Enjoy Jamie's performance below, and have a happy new year!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Wow, it certainly has been a while since I wrote anything for the ol' blog, eh? Let me tell you what my days have been filled with the past few weeks.

Snow has fallen in Banff, and it's definitely winter here. That has brought a few changes to my routine. The biggest? I've traded by bike for hiking boots, spiffy looking North Face ones. I walk everywhere now, and even with the hiking boots I still have moments of arm-flailing terror occasionally.

The winter weather has also brought an increased dependence on hot beverages. Recently (alright, a couple hours ago) I discovered the blissful combination that is apple juice and tea. Seriously. Instead of water, boil a mixture of apple juice and water - I use an equal amount. Obviously this won't work well for every kind of tea, but I've tried it with lemon ginger, and am contemplating a chai trial next. I'll keep you posted!

The third change has been in music. I try to make a new playlist each month, and October's list was very acoustic. This is usually the case. When the weather turns cold, I'm drawn to a different sort of music than in the summer: I want jazz, acoustics, vocals. Suffice to say, I've been listening to a lot of KT Tunstall, Amy Winehouse, the Delgados, Jamie Cullum, Feist, and all the other autumn standbys. Soon I'll be breaking out the Christmas jazz, I guess.

Until next time!

Photo (cc) me

Fall Ramblings

I miss autumn.

I want to wear pants and sleeves, I want to put on a toque and a jacket, I want to shiver in the line for Tim Hortons coffee or hocho. The lack of a cool season here is leaving me very confused; I've been here more than three months but it still feels like summer. The weather is still warm, the beach still beckons, and the sole jacket I brought (more of a windbreaker, really) sits unused in my modest closet.

I'm trying to cope, though, to trick myself into believing that it really is fall. I've switched out playlists, swapping the club beats, remixes, mashups, and electropop anthems with more fitting musical offerings of jazz, acoustic, and stripped down vocal performances. It's not Music Monday yet, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that this new list heavily features KT Tunstall, Jamie Cullum, Melody Gardot, and Kings of Convenience. Give 'em all a look, although each will likely make an appearance in the MM posts within the next few months.

Despite my longing for autumn months back home, I'm rather disappointed that I have to leave Singapore so soon. I've only got six more weeks here, three of which will be spent travelling. There's just so much I haven't done yet that I want to fit in: the Singapore Flyer, Marina Barrage, Henderson Wave, East Coast Park, Pulau Ubin. And then there's all the travel I want to do as well. Guess I'll have to come back to Southeast Asia in a few years, eh?

images by masochismtango, blmier2, and Blakkos

Music Monday: Singin' in the Rain

This feature is in sore need of a combo breaker. Looking back, past Music Mondays go a little like this: female vocalist, female vocalist, female vocalist, and, oh! female vocalist. I get it, I like my ladies singing. But there are some men on my playlist, too!

So this week you're getting a track by Jamie Cullum, a British singer-songwriter of the jazz persuasion. This song is his cover of the classic Singin' in the Rain.

Why this song? 'Cause it's what I've been doing all weekend. As a tropical nation, Singapore gets its fair share of rainstorms. Suffice to say it's been a damp weekend. But the dampness is somewhat welcome, as it not only makes the humidity seem a little more natural (and therefore acceptable), but it also cools the air temperature to a much more reasonable 25 degrees or so. Plus, Singaporeans have devised an expansive network of covered walkways throughout the city and on campus, so you never really have to be under the open sky if you don't want to. And believe me, you never really want to. The aforementioned humidity prevents your clothing from becoming dry, making movement a monumental effort once the dampness has set in.

As such, the sunny days are my favourite ones, though the rain provides a little respite from the heat every week or so. I just run to the nearest covered area and appreciate the rain from a distance, is all.

a Picture Challenge: 9 - they Got me Through

the preamble. I've had a less than stellar month, to be completely honest. Luckily, I have an expansive collection of music and an iPod that has a strange capacity to know exactly what I need to hear. The result? Intense music therapy. All day, every day. Here are the five musicians that have and continue to carry me through.

Sia, an eccentric singer/songwriter from Australia. She's not well known, but she's all over the place. She co-wrote three of the songs for Christina Aguilera's Bionic, and one of the songs for the film Burlesque (which was amazing, beeteedubs). Specifically, I've been all over the song I'm in Here.

My favourite band of the moment, Metric. The lead singer, Emily Haines, deserves an international award just for being Emily Haines. Seriously. I've been listening to Collect Call nightly for a while now. The song seems to take a new meaning for me every day, and I sometimes feel it was written just for me.

Janelle Monae is a rising R&B star, nominated for two Grammy awards. Gorgeous voice, jaw-dropping dance moves, and good looking to boot. She's a true artist, as shown in her video for Cold War. I have so much respect for her.

I fell in love with Jamie Cullum the moment I heard one of his songs play at the Gap, but last month I took the time to actually search out his entire discography. Completely worthwhile. On repeat for days was the 7 minute Music is Through, the live version of which I'll share.

Florence + the Machine is another up and coming musician, nominated for a single Grammy award this year. Also similar to Janelle Monae, she's got serious pipes, inspiring choreography (of the contemporary variety), and all wrapped in a face and figure you can't ignore. Her entire album is my life's soundtrack, but Dog Days are Over is what has helped me most.

photos from all over the place.

on Repeat

This weekend I discovered a musician by the name of Jamie Cullum, and I've had his most recent album, The Pursuit, on repeat since, oh, Friday. It's that good.

But I need a little variety in my life. Not too much at this time, but a little, just to keep me interested. Jamie has one song called Mixtape, in which he sings, "I'll make you a mixtape that's a blueprint of my soul... It details everything that's running 'round my head."

So here's my "mixtape," courtesy of Grooveshark, and the playlist I've had on repeat the last two days. Note that it ends with Jamie, though.