Monthly Archives: May 2007

Norwegian brood

19 May 2007
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Hallelujah (Live)

I’ve blogged about them before, but let’s get to know them a little bit more, shall we?

Espend Lind: a prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was Norway’s Artist of the Year in 1998. Expect to hear more of him in the US. He’s co-written Beyonce’s hit Irreplaceable (that guitar riff in there is his handiwork), and enjoys songwriting and producing credits for such artists as Elliott Yamin, Jessica Simpson (and I’m wishing I could have typed John Mayer instead, but that’s just me) and Atomic Kitten.

Kurt Nilsen: what haven’t I said about him yet? Let’s see. Simon Cowell made fun of his looks, he blew his competition away in Norway’s Pop Idol and stayed away from the bottom two or three every single week, and embarked on a tour with his guitar buddies that was so successful that they ended up releasing it on DVD. (Sounds familiar? *cough*Warfield*cough*) Oh, and his second album contained only material that he wrote. (Ahem.)

Askil Holm: at 26, he’s already a seasoned veteran. Debuted on television as the lead singer of the band Attack at the age of thirteen (good grief, I barely remember what I was doing at thirteen, which means I was likely doing nothing), and hasn’t looked back since.

Alejandro Fuentes: finished third in Norway’s Pop Idol two years ago, when he was barely seventeen. That’s right, you heard me. Seventeen. This is his third album. Show-off. (I’m not jealous. Really, I’m not.)

 

The album is an interesting mix of original material and covers of artists such as Seal, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Don Henley and Ray Charles. It was kinda wild at first to hear them speak in Norwegian, then break into song with no trace of an accent. Or maybe it was because the first track I checked out started out with something that, for all I know, could have been Ikea assembly instructions, followed by the the full-on yee-haw twang of “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

Some folks think they’re brilliant, and some say cheesy copycats. What can I say? I just love listening to these guys.

 

Track List

1 – Unloved

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2 – Sail Away

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3 – Mary Jane’s Last Dance

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4 – Wedding’s Off

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5 – Stars

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6 – Kiss From A Rose

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7 – Desire

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8 – Stay On These Roads

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9 – Never Easy

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10 – The River

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11 – Man Of Constant Sorrow

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12 – Can’t Make You Love Me

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13 – I Got A Woman

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14 – The Boys Of Summer

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15 – When Susannah Cries

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16 – Hallelujah

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17 – En Natti Forbi

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One final note: I really wish I understood Norwegian, because I’m dying to know exactly how funny this parody is. Anyone?

 

 

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I have pixelated memories

12 May 2007
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So I’m still thinking about snorkeling in Grand Cayman this October. Since homeland to me refers to an archipelago of more than seven thousand islands, which is more islands than the entire Caribbean, you’d think I wouldn’t be this excited about the prospect of a few hours of snorkeling. But I’m a victim of flashy, colorful tourism ads that claim you haven’t really snorkeled until you’ve snorkeled in Grand Cayman. The brainwashing is so complete that it’s managed to blur traumatic childhood memories involving deep blue waters and Jacques Cousteau. (Someday my brother will stop thinking of me as a goldfish mass murderer.)

Plus, I really do love the water. And I love swimming around fish. Just don’t ask me to touch them. Or ask them to touch me. Else I’ll start making crying noises underwater and make like I’m trying to shake them off of me. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Anyway. I thought I should maybe get to downloading some pictures from last year’s Caribbean trip before I embark on the next one. Besides, my poor husband has been asking to see just one photo – any photo – from our trip for months now. As I’m viewing them, I’m asking myself why I haven’t upgraded from my measly 1.3 megapixel point-and-shoot camera (Google’s translation plug-in just volunteered the fact that “measly” is ridiculo in Spanish. How apt.) It’s embarrassing how other people’s cell phones have better resolution. I suspect my six-year-old niece can sketch with higher resolution. It’s really sad. And ridiculous.

It’s a good thing I like taking pictures of sunsets and waves and clouds and random kids. Because not even 1.3 megapixels can hide the natural beauty of, well, nature.

Or maybe my eyesight is going and these look pretty only to me. Just in case, I’ll only post a few of them. Here’s a bunch that I like. The rest I’ll put in here for safekeeping.

cool clouds

some kind of rig at sea

view of the shore from the balcony

little girl in the water

dock

clouds

I think I like clouds. A lot.

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Lord of the Sings

9 May 2007
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This season of American Idol has been so blah that it’s bored me all the way into the land of no comments.

Last year, as soon as the performance show was over, websites were crashing from the rush of traffic to soak up recaps, analyses, conspiracy theories, and all sorts of media clips Idol-related. This year, Wednesday morning finds me instead heading to the computer to figure out if I should spring for a new waterproof digital camera or just get a waterproof case for my existing one. Mind you, this is for a snorkeling trip in October.

Yes, only sheer boredom can drive this last minute queen (although I prefer the less admonishing “crisis personality” title) to resort to planning for a trip five months in advance. (There are, of course, other more pressing matters, such as laundry and grocery shopping, but free time is not for necessities such as those. Else how can this procrastinator crisis personality maintain the ever-present illusion of always being on the go?)

So this morning, I spent my obligatory few minutes of free surfing online (minutes, hours – same difference) re-watching videos of past non-American idols. Mostly because I was in the mood to explore, and also because I already have my favorite American Idol’s videos in my hard drive. So I picked someone else to watch this time.

Meet Kurt Nilsen, Norwegian Idol 2003 and World Idol 2004. I’ve featured him here before, singing a classic with a few buddies of his. Now I don’t claim to know much about him, his personality, or his career since then. All I can say is that I’ve watched his videos more than once, and have been newly impressed every time.

Plus, he gets extra points for inspiring a judge to comment thusly:

You have the voice of an angel, but you look like a Hobbit. Right. And the fact is if we were looking for Middle-earth Idol, you’d be an absolute hands down winner.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did. Oh, and drop me a line to let me know of other artists from any of the different iterations of the Idol show around the world worth mentioning. Sometimes we tend to forget how much talent there is outside these here mainland states.

 

Stuck In A Moment

 

One

 

I
(performed live in Rockefeller)

 
And, in response to a friend’s post wishing for an amalgam of this year’s American Idol Top 4, here is She’s So High, performed on German Idol. Vocals almost as good as Melinda’s, an everyman back story (he made his living as a plumber), and yes, even a little beatboxing thrown in there. So he’s not as tall or beautiful or young as Jordin, but hey, three out of four ain’t bad.

 

Update:

I couldn’t NOT put up this performance by Shayne Ward from X Factor. I just couldn’t.

 

 

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about me

I write, cook, play music, and make pictures. Not necessarily in that order. I was born and raised in the Philippines, and it shows. That means I eat rice with every meal, love my cousins like my own siblings, and firmly believe that avocados are best eaten with cream and sugar.

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One summer night in 2010, our house burned to the ground and we lost everything we had. This is the story of what happened and how life and hope can always rise from ashes.



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