Dear Jane (3)

Hey Jane,

It's the Rosie post - all about me!

I'll try not to put too many details in because I know how you hate that.

My birthday is October 1st

I am 162cm tall

I have two cats - one called Ella and one called Mingus.

My younger brother is 14 now and his name is Sandy.

At school my subjects are:

English, Maths A, French, Modern History, Music and Music Extension.

I used to do Ancient History but I dropped it for Mexicans (music extension) so now I have spare sessions which are great.

I really like English and maths, I hate French with a vengeance (I wish I could do Japanese), Modern History is alright and I love the musics because everyone is so talented and nice to me even though I'm just a beginner composer. 

I compose film soundtracks - mostly horror/fantasy. I might upload some later :)

I still really love Japanese and Japanese culture. I am teaching myself very slowly but it's difficult with so much to do this year.
There's a cute little Apple app called "Hiragana Pixel Party" which I love. It's old school cool pixelated and with rocking little songs - you learn the characters to the beat of the tune!

Next year at uni I'll do a full course in Japanese with an arts degree. I have no idea what I want to do except that I want to travel (especially to Japan).

I still work at the same place as I did when you were there at my first trial. Do you remember? It's fun there. I work every week on the day that we all used to meet up after school for 7/11 slushies.

My phone number is still the same as it was the last time you contacted me (after your birthday last year).

I know more about how your sister is doing this year than I know about you.

Kalen is doing very well this year. She is working very hard!!

My best friend at school is Andrée and I truly love her. We take care of each other and with so much going on lately, I so grateful to have found someone so beautiful and kind to me. 

I still love reading - even if I have less time now - I try to read when there are lulls in my school and work. I always read more than 3 books at once so at the moment the books on my bedside table are: The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, The Roald Dahl Treasury, Cat Confidential by Vicky Hall and The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkein (do you remember reading this in grade 3?).

I have braces now. I hate them very much but my parents are paying big moolah for them so I try to like them.

I feel terrible everyday for letting our friendship slip through my fingers. It's my fault that I didn't reach out sooner and for that I am very sorry.

Here is a song that I thought might express some of my feelings to you. It's called "Bluebird" by Katie Noonan and this term she came to my school to talk about composing and she played this live. It's really beautiful. I love the lyrics. Please listen carefully to them!

She is so incredible live! 

I hope you dont want to pretend it's all the way it was
Cause i cried more then you think of
But now im trying to let go of our past
The nest we've made is stronger then you think
And though we all fly we still come home
Guilt is a dark room i can not live there

Signing off now -
Rosie

Dear Jane (2)

Hey Jane,

I know sometimes you can become a bottle. I am a bottle lots of the time. You empty out quickly and are left missing your juice - your jiggle juice, that is.

Anyways, the point I'm getting at is that I have included a few pep (or should I say pop? like soda pop? teehee) songs here for you.

I might do another post with more later :)

This is a little Canadian group that I can't remember whether I've shown you already or not. There are 3 members of Girlyman. Dad of course introduced me to them! 
Aren't they cute?
They're named after the main guy who is a little bit girly <3
The song is just a short fun one of theirs called "Moose in the Road" and you'll get it when you listen to it. 
Other songs of theirs I recommend listening to if you are interested are "St. Peter's Bones", "Angel of the Morning" and "Born at the Right Time".

Here's one you may or may not be familiar with:

It's The Ramones' "Blizkrieg Bop"! 
Do you remember exploring Egg Records in the city and seeing a Ramones t-shirt? 
Dad says this band gives you hella street cred but I don't really like all of their stuff. 
This song is just so cool though! 
Great dance moves have been imagined by me listening to this song. I really love dancing. I wish I did classes but for now I just enjoy choreographing the dish-washing dance every night.

Next --

It's from Studio Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service, sung by Sydney Forest and it's called "I'm Gonna Fly".
I think the uplifting lyrics match perfectly with the strumming guitar, Sydney's breezy voice and the flying theme of Kiki.
Movie recommended, of course! 10/10.

Do you remember my strange obsession with Japanese culture/language? welp, these things don't just go away, do they? hehehe...
So I honestly don't really like a lot of Japanese music - it's largely auto-tuned and frightening (although there a some exceptions that I will get to later). But of course, being the sad recluse I am, I pursued.
I found South Korean music. 
Now stop right there and hold your disapproving gaze and raised eyebrow at the screen.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that not only is it a grave insult to criticize another's musical taste, it is also true that the stranger the musical taste (on a scale of pop charts to Ancient Grecian folk), the fiercer the defensive individual.

Now that's out of the way, thank you very much for opening your sweet mind up for a slammin' new listening experience. 
I tell you, the further you crank that crack in your skull to let in some light, the brighter your eyes shine. 

Try this for starters:

It's called "Bad Girls" by Lee Hyori, who is a successful 30-something year old who can really sing! I just stumbled upon her music recently but I really like it.

It's nice how even something in a completely different language and in a genre (k-pop) which is arguably the most visually-dependent music genre of our era can still be so groovy. 

They rhythm is great, the melody is catchy, the singing is soulful and the concept is new! 

This is almost reminiscent of something in the 70s scene. 

The bass line is pretty common- it has a James Bond vibe in my ears - but it is effective. Any popular song has to have familiar elements within it. Think of the classic 4-chords and how many great songs have been produced from them. They're all very different songs but the familiarity found by human ears has made them easy to listen to!

I also love the concept. The lyrics go something like this in English:

Fierce makeup, hair done
Tighten the waist a bit more

A careful face but a tough attitude
Pay extra attention to your actions

The heroine of a movie may be like an angel
But the bad girl next to her is more attractive

A girl who is greedier than most people
A girl who hates losing more than dying
A girl who has a strange charm that you can’t deny
Bad bad bad bad girls
A girl who shines even when
she says something poisonous
A girl who doesn’t pretend
not to know when she does know
A girl who is attractive without
knowing exactly what it is about her
Bad bad bad bad girls

Look a bit far ahead, walk a bit fast
Show just a little skin to be sexy

Work rigorously for success, love innocently
Kiss as if you like it so much
that you don’t know what to do

She speaks about the "bad girls" characters in films. It's pretty interesting. A girl who is a little selfish - a girl who doesn't care about what others think. I like the view. It's definitely different to the usual recycled love-song lyrics, right? Right?

Wow, this post is super long. Sorry. Hope you've enjoyed it. I worked hard on it! I should be studying but I'm sick and tired so I wanted to do something that would make me feel better.

Love from Rosie

Dear Jane (1)

Hey Jane

So I've started up this blog thing again... I haven't seen you in well over a year and I don't even know how you're going so I have resolved to write to you here, as a sort of tribute to our past.

I think I'll post a couple times a week - on the bus to and from school or on weekends, maybe.

I think it's best not to push too much about problems unless you want to talk about them, and I guess that makes this format pretty good. I will write about my thoughts and what I want to tell you and, hopefully, you will read them one day. Perhaps I will slip a scrap of paper into your letterbox one day with this URL on it.

I hope you can understand me after reading these.

I have been thinking about doing this for a long time now... But I have been worrying about you for much longer.

I really would have started this project sooner, but I would hope you understand the year 12 thing. I'm not the best student this year! Putting things off, including important ones, all the time.

Remember my vivid dreams? I always remember my dreams.

I constantly dream about you and meeting up again.

It's usually the same thing - we meet in a random way, maybe with friends like Kalen and Diana, and there's an awkward "getting to know each other" period.

I ask you, "do you know who I am?", "do you recognize me?", "what's my name", and "where have you been?".

I guess it just translates to me wondering about you and whether you ever think about me...

Anyways, so I'll tell you a little bit about myself next time.

I was thinking of starting this as a kind of penpal thing - to start afresh. What do you think?

To make this post interesting, I added a picture of Ella.

She is 19 years old this year, and still going strong.

Also, I can't add YouTube videos by phone but I will add some music in the future. Okay!

Writing soon again,

Rosie

Obsessed with this song at the moment - We Are Young, Fun.
I heard it on Glee and it was nice... in that nice electronic, perfect, over the top, Glee kind of way, but I really wanted to listen to the original.
Anyways, I searched it up on YouTube in another one of my familiar crazy searches.
I get these sometimes when I get some weird feeling and just have to listen to a song.
For example, a while back one day, I really wanted to dance for some reason. Shakira (surprise, surprise) came to mind... I couldn't do anything else at all without shaking my lying hips to her at least once. Hmmm, how do I describe this? It's philosophical time!
It's like when you realise that the music isn't one thing. It's everything.
We all live in the music, despite what you might think.
At school I once heard that a famous mathematician said that numbers were everywhere.
My English teacher once said that though we might not consider it, English is everywhere as well. I have considered this, given that we speak the language everyday.
Following this theory, a French or Japanese teacher might think exactly the same.
A beloved History teacher once reminded my class that history is everything, and the evidence is in anything from before the present. Anything you've done - even a minute ago - is history.
Well, maybe it's true, and we just don't notice it unless we really tune our hearts to the passion. Somewhere along the way, you recognise it everywhere.
What I see is the music.
There it is.
I'm telling you all now that music is also everywhere.
I don't care if you don't notice it straight away. Maybe you'll notice anything is everything one day, too.

Another one of my biggest inspirations is the legendary composer, Joe Hisaishi-san.
If you don't know him, look him up. Seriously. He's incredible, and I love him.
I got to know him through his partnership with the  director, Hayao Miyazaki-san, who is equally as awesome.
I've posted a composition of his, before, called "Sixth Stop" from the movie, Spirited Away. It is among my top ten favourites of his, and I'd like to show you some of the others here!

This is called "The Boy Who Drank Stars" from the movie, Howl's Moving Castle.
There are absolutely no words that can describe it.
Listen, and cry.

I bet you think you can't dance to a classical song. Well, think again. This is called "A Town with an Ocean View" from the movie, Kiki's Delivery Service.

An absolute classic of his would have to be "Summer".
It's hard to contain the unexplainable energy that this song gives you.
This is a song that can plaster a goofy grin on my face wherever and whenever I hear it. Please, thank me later.

That's all I have to share with you today from Hisaishi-san, but there will be more, I'm sure.
Now, I know you'll all be wanting more after hearing these songs, so don't hesitate to look for the movies:  Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.
I can recommend them all for you, and safely guarantee their epic soundtracks!
Enjoy!

There's a few new songs to post, so let's start with some more of my favourite 80s singer - you guessed it - Suzanne Vega.
She is just so amazing, I love to sing all of her songs.
Here's two of my favourites at the moment-

Slightly intense, effortlessly captivating - with a beat that anyone could dance to - Suzanne and her band are brilliant at making something deep and different.
I really like the lyrics to this song, too - they're like poetry.

Solitude stands by the window
She turns her head as I walk in the room
I can see by her eyes she's been waiting
Standing in the slant of the late afternoon

And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame

Here's another that I like to identify with - you understand just by the name of the song, don't you?

Nobody can deny it - she's got style.
I think that she is very inspiring - instead of conforming - making her music similar to others at the time (a trait very common in the music industry nowadays), she does the opposite.
Rather, her producer told her to make it as "alive and spontaneous as possible".
This is what I like about Suzanne - it's her difference which makes her popular.


(quotation from Retrospective- the best of Suzanne Vega introduction by Lenny Kaye 2003)

Sitting in a boiling hot car with my dad's radio turned up on classic hits... this is the start of summer~



Okay, imagine- you've just had a terrible break-up. You realise now that he was a vain jerk and now you want to get him out of your system. It's the 80s, so of course you write a song. It's perfect. Plus, it's a cute and fun song.