Regina Spektor

One of the newest albums I own and it doesn't even sound too modern. But it does sound good:

Silver Dagger

The other night when I was closing the shop there was at least some consolation entertainment for the late-night browsers - I got to usher them out to listen to a bunch of guys serenading someone acapella style at the next-door cafe. Ok, it could have been a proper choir or maybe a flash mob, but I like to think it was suberbly organised romancing going on!
An acapella aside: I went to a birthday party once where the birthday girl's boyfriend suddenly and his posse of mates suddenly cut the music, stepped forward and started a full-on seranade, replete with well-practiced harmonies. At first I was shocked but then burst out laughing when he got down on one knee to express the depth of his emotion. This guy was funny. ...no-one else was laughing though, in fact, they looked moved. So this was the passionate Latin American sterotype I'd been waiting for - it surpassed even my expectations.

At home, I searched online to see if any of the many phone-videographers had posted the song but my search instead turned up another acapella perfomance in the neighbourhood. I'll put it down to dodgy sound-recording equipment, but what it sounded like was a group of women enthusiastically murdering a song I love. So instead of posting the cafe pop-acapella performance, or the lynch squad, or even the Equadorian quartet, here's the a good version of the folk song I love - Silver Dagger.



and here's a version by 'White Antelope' (Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes) - beardy I know but you can close your eyes to contentrate on the music - he is!:

Angus & Julia Stone - You're the one that I want - Rolling Session#12

Yes, I love Grease, ok? This song especially is such a fun one - who doesn't love to dance to it? This version though is not as much fun and won't get you out of your seat - in fact it might make you relax back into your chair even more. But what it lacks in tight leather pants and instant gratification, it makes up for with a very promising voice - one that leaves the accompanying musicians sound like they're twiddling their thumbs in the background, knowing it's not worth competing with.

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

Sad to hear there will be no more from this great voice.

Romain Duris And Joana Preiss In Dans Paris

After watching this all that I came up with was: "too slow, too much jazz, almost switched it off. it was very french."
But that's what lots of people like, so decide for yourself. I liked the song anyway.

Paul Ubana Jones " I need a storm"

Paul Ubana Jones is an awesome singer songwriter and fantastic live performer who I've been to see play at Bodega in Wellington and The Poverty Bay Club in Gisborne. It's amazing what he can do with just his voice and a guitar.

The Desert of Forbidden Art

Sometimes I worry that I'm not doing enough, not seeing enough of all that's creative and wonderful in the world. I feel like I'll never have the time to see nearly enough, that we have endless artistic riches to enjoy and yet we sometimes watch rubbish TV! Certainly enormous museums like the Louvre will make you feel like that - I again suffered from art saturation when I visited and only saw a fraction of their collection. I wonder how I'll feel when I get to this museum (below) I just learnt about, ironically enough, from watching TV. Yesterday I'd never heard of it, now my life feels richer for having watched this documentary and it's somewhere, even if I never get to, I'm glad exists.

Making Macedonian Ajvar with Song From Vaska Ilieva

At a friend's place the other day I was offered a wonderful snack - pita bread topped with fresh avocado and ajvar. What's ajvar? I'd never heard of it. My friend just knew it was some Macedonian relish her flatmate bought from a specialty store. Some relish alright, it was delicious - all smoky delightfulness. You can imagine my delight then when I found large jars of it for sale a couple of days later in our local supermarket - not in the least a specialty store. I of course bought some and within a couple of days of my flatmates discovering it (also for the first time) it was gone. Maybe I should learn to make it, given how much of it we could potentially get through a month. I found this video online though and, lovely and communal as it looks, I think you'll agree it may just be a bit more time consuming than anything I had in mind. (So if you see it for sale, try a jar and support your local shop).

Monty Python's Finland song

LEST WE FORGET