Listography List 4: Road Trip Playlist

I'm going to Falls Festival in Lorne this New Years. That means a trip down from Melbourne with the three other girls i'm camping with, which will of course mean much laughter, much gossip and more than anything, many a sing-a-long. 


While the other three worry about tents, eskies and money, i concerned myself with the road trip playlist. I think we'll be powering along with mini speakers in a beat up station wagon, so it's like a Big M commercial all over really. 


My list on my phone is currently seven hours-ish in length, so i'm not sure you need to see it all. But i think it's interesting reading, but that's coz i made it. 
So after my little ramble, i'll screencap the list for your perusal. 


Essential Road Trip items:


The Classics:
I'm talking the real classics, not what my students would call a classic, which would be like Chris Browns early works... In my list there's a touch of the Beatles, a touch of Queen, some Monkees and some Beach Boys. 


The 90's Pop:
We're all children of the 90's. We were all brought up on a healthy diet of Backstreet Boys and S Club 7. So there's Bring it all Back, Backstreet's Back, and some Summer Rain and You were meant for me to unleash our teenage selves. Britney, Destiny's Child and Robbie Williams all feature as well


Australian Rock/Pop/Singersongwriter:
Powderfinger, Living End, Washington, Missy Higgins, Josh Pyke. The latter two who will be at Falls, so i hand picked some of my favourite tracks. I've also put on some Jezabels and Fleet Foxes because they will be there, but they're not in the playlist. 


The rest is filled with "new" music that is good for a sing-a-long. And if we get tired of my music, there will be three other ipods to choose from! And yes, the Glee is there because they're good singing songs!

No, that's not just the way it works.

I mentioned briefly back in June in my love letter to Twitter about how it has changed my view on so many things, from the way i see and speak about people, to politics and the media. 

But i think the thing that it has changed my view on the most is the way the world sees, speaks and thinks about women, and the level of gendered insults and misogyny thrown at and around women. 

I've also embraced the tag feminist.

It was interesting thinking about myself as a feminist, and how my views on it has changed. I grew up in a fairly typical, although in the country, lower-middle-class white household. Six kids, parents still married. I don't remember ever really thinking about my gender as being something that would ever affect what i did or where i went. Sure, stranger-danger was instilled a bit, but it was the country, there were no strangers. I grew up with dolls, but also played 'war' with my brothers, and was always told that i could do what i wanted. 

My mum is interesting though, while encouraging me to be educated and accomplished, i have clear memories of her bemoaning that i wasn't 'lady-like' enough, and she was often rather constant with the fatshaming sometimes... another issue for another day though.

I didn't really encounter feminism in a way that made me want to name it until i got to uni and my attention was drawn to the Wom*ns committee/room/section in Lots Wife. And i hated those people. I hated this idea that we were so different from men, that we disliked them so much to remove the e from the word women as not to be associated with them. I hated the fact that they seemed to have a vendetta against the boys i lived with at Halls because they were massively sexist and horrible people. I, like so many women my age, did not want to be associated with the word feminist because that's the only image we have of it, scary man-hating women. 

And I didn't want to be a part of it so much that i think i began to overlook the bigger picture stuff that they were campaigning for, the stuff that Twitter, and actually now Reddit (quite love   http://www.reddit.com/r/ShitRedditSays/ but it does make me angry for a range of reasons...), has made me stop and think about so much that it makes me angry. 

This year has been a big one for my anger. I realise now it had been a slow boil thing, my thinking about sexism, my changing opinions about the way the world perceives women. Then slutwalk happened and all of a sudden i wasn't quiet any more. The constant comments on articles talking about Slutwalk stating that 'this is the way that it happens' or 'it's just the way it works' or 'well, she put herself in that situation' NO NO NO NO. So i marched. And felt so powerful that day. It might not have had any measurable difference in terms of things changing for the wider society, but i guess it changed me.

I no longer shrink back from being called a feminist, i no longer simply dismiss sexism as something that is 'just the way society is.' Because if it is just that, if it is fine for a woman to be made to feel intimidated and sexually harassed simply because 'that's the way it works' then something needs to be changed and i'm not a silent any more. 

I've noticed more and more slut shaming since i went on slutwalk, i notice more and more sexism, and i've started calling people out for it. Almost broke my heart this afternoon when discussing a woman with a year 8, the first thing she asked about them was 'is she pretty?' That the same girl asked me last week 'what makes a girl a slut?' and these girls want to set learning goals like 'be thinner so boys like me'. So within my own little community I'm making a stand now. I want to help these girls recognise that feminism is about equality. That we should be talking about girls and women in ways that isn't how many people they've slept with, or how pretty they are. And it has to start when they're that age, i think. 

I'm wary though. I don't want to come off as a feminist that i hated at uni. I think that's potentially more damaging and isolating. I just want to change the way they see themselves and each other.  That they value their academic achievements over the battle with their scales. So i suppose it's a softly softly approach with the whole year level, not just the girls. Coz feminism isn't something that's just for girls..

Music Listography 3: Songs to Sing

Previously on Music Listography: I covered cover songs  and my top songs of the 00's today i'm going to do songs i love to sing along to. 


I've always sung. I went to an "interesting" primary school, it was tiny (until grade three there was just one other girl in my year level and we never had any more than 42 kids at the whole school), and the teachers were incredibly diverse in their abilities. My 3/4/5/6 teacher was, amoungst other things, a music lover and on every friday afternoon the whole school would gather in the multipurpose area and sing. Most of the time it was those songs we all learnt, like We Are Australian and Bound for Botany Bay, but we also learnt songs like 'Love is All Around', 'Saltwater' and 'Yesterday.'
In high school i was in the musical, in any incarnation of a choir we had (once performed Waterfalls by TLC at presentation night) and happily found a group of friends who also liked bursting into songs at random points in time. 
It has gotten to the point that i don't know that i'm doing it, that i don't realise that i'm singing to myself. My Lab Partner in 3rd year Zoology used to hate it, (what happened to Jesse i wonder. We did awesome Attenborough imitations together...) and i've had Year 12's mention in thank you cards how they loved it when i sung. Just this morning a Year 8 girl caught me singing along to my headphones as i walked through the school gates. 


I just can't stop, and won't apologise for it. 


So this is my list of songs i sing along to at the moment. I noticed that it's all modern music. That i didn't include any Beatles or anything that i may have sung in my childhood. Because it's not the same. They don't regularly come up on my ipod or i don't seek them out to sing... It just makes me feel a bit weird that i don't ever seem to include any "classics" in my lists... 


Powderfinger - These Days.

I've been singing this since i was in what, Year 10? It doesn't stop being good. i don't care what anyone else thinks

Washington - Sunday Best

The dilemma whenever I make any of these lists is do i put multiple songs by the same artist in them? I don't like doing it, it feels weak, so I had to spend some time whittling down my Washington list of songs, coz while I don't have her amazing voice, I find her songs incredibly singable. Sunday Best wins. It was going to be Cement, which I will say I enjoy more as a song, but find this more singable I guess... Holy Shit you sure can turn it on....

Ben Folds - The Luckiest

No comment needed right? Wish i'd seen him with an Orchestra. 

Always Be - Jimmy Eat World

Birdy - Skinny Love

Yes I know it's a cover version. Yes i heard the Bon Iver version before hers. Yes i like the Bon Iver version too. It'd be in my top three favourite Bon Iver songs. But this is a better singing version. No muttering, i suppose (is that against the Bon Iver rules, to say?)

Elbow - The Bones of You

Bones of You or On A Day Like This? I will not lie and say that i put them on back to back and walked around for a bit singing them both. Bones of you won. (uh duh)

Tim Minchin - Drowned

In another #hatersgonnahate moment, I love Tim Minchin. I love that this isn't a comedy song, but it still makes me smile every time he sings 'Like the overuse of metaphor' though. Try not to want to belt out the bridge though. 






Naturally, this list doesn't include any Disney songs. I felt if i started on them, i wouldn't stop and my whole morning would be consumed with watching You Tube clips of them. But if pushed? I'd say A Whole New World from Aladdin, Now I See The Light from Tangled and Reflection from Mulan would be my top three Disney Sing-a-long songs.


I also didn't list songs from musicals on here, because it's a slippery slope you know... It'd become a whole list of Rent songs with maybe Edelweiss (but the one at the end of the movie where Christopher Plummer breaks your heart) thrown in. Top three Rent songs? I'll Cover You Reprise, Goodbye Love and Finale B (i know right, no Seasons of Love!)




Oh, and as an aside, the songs i like to sing from my favourite bands? Stolen From Dashboard Confessional and For You and Your Denial from Yellowcard (used to be Keeper)

The itch.

Last night at Boy-o's house he was showing me pictures of his travels in a rather wistful way that left no doubt that he missed places he'd been. Funnily enough i had just spent a considerable portion of my day being equally wistful for travel. It's disappointing that work didn't give me the leave that i had wanted, i was looking for 2 weeks on top of the 2 weeks school holidays to spend a month in Germany/Scandinavia and they denied it. (said i could have December. Coz December in Scandinavia is the same as May). 
Looking at the places he has been, which are mostly different to the places i have been, has made me itchy to travel again. I know, i know, i really have just gotten back from Bali, but a week in a private villa getting spa treatments is not the same as wandering the streets of a foreign city, discovering the funky parts of a town, being excited about architecture or the weird quirks of a place. 


I came home this morning and spent some time looking at my travel pictures and wanting to go somewhere, anywhere. Well, not anywhere, Europe again, States again, Canada... 

here

or here

or here

or here

even here

maybe here

 And they're just the places i have been. He was talking about Chicago and i could totally go there, or Vancouver, or San Fran, or Munich, or Toronto, or Seattle. 


So now, at the moment, i'm back to thinking about going away in 2013 for the year. Teach for 6 months in the UK and six months in either Canada or the States. I'd have seen my original lot of year 7's through to graduation, i'd still be young, i have experience, i should have completed my Masters by then, potentially making me more employable... whole year to save... couple of months travel time in the middle of the year when they're all on summer break...  Mum could come and meet me somewhere and we'd travel then.... 


It all seems like a good plan, right?

Flexible

At the start of this semester we moved into our brand new flexible learning spaces. Not part of the BER, but funded by the state government as part of a regeneration project, these spaces, or villages, are purpose built to facilitate more inquiry based learning with flexible delivery options. In non-education jargon, we're stepping away from the teacher being seen as the one with all the knowledge ready to give to kids who know nothing, and don't have the access to the information. This is not your traditional classroom. It is not (usually) about standing up the front lecturing. This is not about copying notes down from a book. Yep, skill and drill is sometimes necessary, i think particularly with maths, but there are times and subjects where things need to be different. I went and saw QI live last night, and in the opening monologue Stephen Fry spoke about the availablity of knowledge. He expressed frustration at people exclaiming they didn't learn whatever at school, pointing out that learning didn't stop the moment you stopped being in a classroom. The thing that stuck with me was this:

"People complaining about not knowing something, not being taught something, is like living in a society where you have to wade through gold coins to get up the street and being approached by a beggar asking for a dollar. Knowledge is everywhere. Stop and pick it up" 

That's what we're aiming to do. Skill kids in a way that they pick up the interesting knowledge, seek out the things they want to seek out, and know where and how to look to get an accurate idea of what is knowledge, what is opinion and what is propaganda. We want to give them the skills to be able to convey this knowledge and understanding to other people. 

While i knew this was possible, or more possible, for Investigate (our inquiry based subject that incorporates English, Science and the Humanities in Project Based Learning) i've always found it more of a challenge in Maths. Yeah, somethings can be project-based, but sometimes it just feels like the kids need to practice something. To be able to apply their understanding to situations they first need to have an understanding. Skill them up. 

But the best thing that has come from the new spaces is the way they're skilling up. It's not coming from me. I walk into our investigate space, mark the roll then the kids divide themselves up. I have four groups of kids in four different spaces. Two bigger groups of about 10 in bigger areas, 2 groups of about three in our planning rooms. I give them all a whiteboard marker and am blown away. Kids who either need constant feedback in class or have zero confidence in their maths ability are teaching the others. And correctly too. Accurately drawn diagrams that are then used to solve the problems. They do it in their own way of speaking and explaining that allows their classmates to 'get it' faster than they probably would have if i was out the front explaining it to 24 kids. 

They take it in turn of writing on the boards, they correct each others mistakes and encourage each other when they get things right. They come out not feeling like a complete idiot for not getting things. 

And it makes me excited for what we do. To keep doing what i'm doing. 

But (coz there always is one) it makes me just as frustrated with the people so quick to dismiss the way we're doing things. The people who bemoan "losing the ability to teach" or it not being academically rigorous enough, or being too different. From the people who are scared to let go of the fact that just because you're not up the front doesn't mean that they're not learning. 

Which skills are going to be more useful? Problem solving as a group, talking and explaining in front of a small cohort of peers, reflecting and correcting work as a group OR sitting quietly and listening for hours on end. (overly simplistic? Maybe). 

I like what we're doing. I see what it does to kids beyond their academic understanding. And it makes me happy to be where i am. 

Extra

I had a PE extra today. I usually hate getting PE extra's. Mainly because, like getting Food Tech extra's, the kids are disappointed about doing something different than what they were expecting. The group i had today was supposed to be doing Gymnastics, so my options of Netball, Basketball or indoor soccer were surely going to disappoint them...

But it was brilliant. For one, i had the girls from 8D and E, who are by far the nicest girls in Year 8. I have them for Maths and Science anyway, so they know and like me. 

They chose netball and enthusiastically set up the poles, organised themselves into teams and fished out the bibs. 

then i spent the next hour running. I had to umpire and their came was fast, but not whip fast. I've been a bit off the running thing the last week, exhaustion, and well, life got in the way. I run after work (i catch a 7:30 train, there is no way i'm getting up before 6 to fit a run in) and the last week was busy, so i had trouble fitting them in excuses excuses excuses. So it was nice to be active for this one period i had. 

It makes me wish i taught at a fancy school that had it's own gym. Or simply just had a treadmill i could bust out half an hour on before i go home every night. 

The thing i noticed is that dashing up and down the court felt good, not an effort. I was enjoying sprinting up and down, blowing my whistle.

a couple of days in my brain

If i had to pick a facebook relationship status to have with my brain and my body it would be 'it's complicated'. But even then that's an upgrade from when i was 16. Then i would have been blocking my body and reporting it for harassment.

The past week:
Saturday: 'oh body you're awesome! You fit into smaller clothes! have you seen your calves lately!?!'
Sunday: "i hate you. you're ugly. that coldsore means you can't even kiss The Boy. Fat load of good you are. Your arse is too big for that dress"
Monday: "why aren't you running today? You walked 6km in an hour. like that counts. You need to run. work isn't an excuse"
Tuesday: "Oh that new dress is super cute (and a 12!) and look how cute The Boy thinks you are in it! And you got a Distinction in that assignment. We're not a bad team!"
Wednesday: "Too many calories. cut them down. go running. but don't forget about work. and your Masters."
Thursday: "i'm too tired to care. one thing at a time. one priority at a time. This salad is tasty!"

So tired. But the simple fact is that having two good days is progress from when i was say, 16. I may still have issues, but i have confidence too. And if i could go back to my 16 year old self it would be to try and convince her that she has reasons to be confident too...

30 "best" songs of the '00's.

So at the start of the year my brother-in-law Brett asked me to complete my top 30 songs released between 2000-2009. He's a man of lists, and regularly updates and reshuffles his top songs of all time and completed his list ages ago. I've found it considerably harder than he did, i think. I started this project back then, and have come back to it several times across the year. I think that being younger than him in that decade has put me at a significant disadvantage . I turned 15 five days into 2000, finished high school in 2002, lived at Halls 2003-2005... These were my formative years, particularly when it came to listening to music. It was here that i found bands that i loved, had several 'firsts' that were soundtracked by potentially dubious tracks. So this list was hard.
So what finally triggered me to sit down and complete it? (besides being home alone on a Saturday night?). Groovejet came on my ipod as i walked home. And i realised i still love that song. And that's all it took. I decided to take a more simple approach to picking my list. Stopped pouring over ARIA charts for the decade and simply thought "what are my favourite songs on my ipod? which of those were released in that decade?" When i thought of it that way it was as simple as sorting my itunes by most played and double checking some release dates. I gave up on the idea of holding on to the nostalgic value of some songs just because i heard them a lot or they backed some significant moments... So here it is. 


Mel's totally incomplete Top 30 Songs 2000-2009


1. Hands Down - Dashboard Confessional. 


I'll say this now, Dashboard are going to appear more than once. I love them. They're my favourite band. This song still makes me sing out loud. And you kissed me like you meant it.... My best gig moment was when Chris laughed at something i shouted out when they were here back in 2006. (pity the video is a bit crap). 

2. Hey Ya! - Outkast.


2nd Year Richo was my favourite year at Richo. First semester especially. It's hard for me to pinpoint a better 6th months stretch of my entire life. Many a night at The Nott or at Dooley's was spent dancing to this song. Many instances of someone yelling 'Shake it like a polariod picture Mel' across the courtyard. It, in it's opening bars, reminds me so acutely of Liz Mohr and Jake Singer-Beilin, by far my favourite and most cherished Americans. Not a single other song makes me want to be 19 and at Halls so much. 

3. Swear It Again - Westlife
Let me repeat, i was 15 when millenium changed! But if you asked me to pick my favourite turn-of-the-millenium Boy Band, it wasn't N*Sync, wasn't BSB or even 5ive. Nope, i was a Westlife girl. I think it was 1999 that there was a breakfast-music show called AMV (all music video). They showed music video's (duh) between 6am and 9am and i really have to thank them. Not only did they introduce me to Westlife, but also to David Gray and Morcheeba's Rome wasn't built in a day. Songs and Bands that certainly weren't being played on Sun FM. This is my favourite Westlife song, and i'm lucky that it scrapes into this list. It was released in November 1999 in the UK but it's official release date for Australia isn't til March 2000... 

4. State of the Union - David Ford.


David got a mention in my Top Covers list. He's amazing. I love him. It was hard picking my favourite song off this album, part of me thinks it's a proper album, songs that are well matched with each other and progress from one to the next. Not an album of singles. But here is the best. Try stopping me from singing and heroin tastes like icecream. (album version is spectacular (and he say's preach on with the message of 'go fuck thy neighbour', go find it, coz i can't on YouTube)

5. Last Night - Motion City Soundtrack
As with Yellowcard and Dashboard, picking my favourite MCS song was incredibly difficult. Do i go with Lets Get Fuck Up And Die which was the first song i heard of theirs and the one that started the infauation or do i go with an album track that i truly cherish? I went with the latter. Last Night is from Even If It Kills Me which would be up there with my favourite albums of all time. You can often find me walking to or from work belting this song out. 


(um. so all the versions on YouTube are shit. So although Last Night Holds the #5 slot, you're getting the Lets Get Fucked Up and Die Video.... )

6. Way Away - Yellowcard.


Another case of 'oh god, Keeper or Way Away?" I don't like the feeling of including multiple entries by the one band in such an already limited list! But i will. I went with Way Away, one of Yellowcard's earlier songs because it's been with me for so long. I ran up and down the stairs of the car parks of Monash to this song when i was angry and angsty. Even now on my runs if i need to push myself for 3:40 i will seek this song out. 

7. Human - The Killers.


Much like Hey Ya! is associated with Liz and Jake, Human is associated with Adam and Ney and those blissful months that felt like an extended summer. An incredibly vivid memory of walking through Moomba on a bright Sunday with Ney explaining to me how this song was titled, and then him belting it out.

8. The Middle - Jimmy Eat World


Does a song sum up teenangst and help to allay it more than The Middle does? Class of 2002, represent. 

9. These Days - Powderfinger. 


Winner of the 2000 Hottest 100 and my favourite Powderfinger song. Bathe in my mainstreamness. 

10. Groovejet (if this ain't love) - Spiller (ft. Sophie Ellis Bextor)


I still love this song. Sign that it belongs in this list... Again thanks to AMV for giving me this song, i dunno if i'd have ever heard it if it wasn't for that. 

And the rest....
11. Bruised - Jack's Mannequin
12. G.I.N.A.S.F.S - Fall Out Boy
13. Ten Days - Missy Higgins
14. London Bombs - Eskimo Joe
15. Chocolate - Snow Patrol
16. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
17. Rome Wasn't Built In A Day - Morcheeba
18. Crazy in Love - Beyonce
19. Warning Sign - Coldplay
20. This Modern Love - Bloc Party
21. The Other Side - David Gray
22. Push the Button - Sugababes
23. Sew My Name - Josh Pyke
24. The Brilliant Dance - Dashboard Confessional
25. Times Like These - Foo Fighters
26. The Conversation - Motion City Soundtrack
27. SexyBack - Justin Timberlake
28. Poker Face - Lady GaGa
29. Let Go - Frou Frou
30. Valerie - Amy Winehouse




Special Mention: Tribute - Tenacious D. That was the class of 2002's song. Every year the year 12 class has to rework a song to be 'their' song to perform at the end of year assembly. Our class had picked Tribute but days before we had to perform it the people who were in charge of writing it had given up. Me being a stickler for traditions knew we had to perform something, and by god it had to be good. So i sat Cameron Scott Perry (the second boy i ever kissed) down and forced him to finish it with me. And it was good. And everyone loved it. 

A crier

I'm a crier. It's like the way that my body copes with stress is just to collapse in on itself and dissolve into tears. Housemate came home tonight and commented that i sounded 'a bit low' and i was half way through explaining why before i lost it and started crying. Her rather amusing response was 'well, you haven't had a cry in a while, you were really due for one'

It made me laugh and i realise that it was true as well. I do just get to the point where the only way that i can cope with, well, life, is just to cry. 

Running, i think, has made me feel better. All those happy endorphin's and everything but this week i realise that i can't really change that about me...

But the thing is, it makes me feel so very pathetic. I have always felt like i should be stronger and more resilient about everything. I should be able to breeze through things and have anything that challenges me just, i don't know, bounce off me? 

I don't want to be a robot, but just sometimes, sometimes wish that i just had more strength... 

Or is that not the question, or plea. Should i just be more OK with this as my way of coping? Is it one of those things that I've be "taught" that crying is a sign of weakness.... That me not coping is weak, when possibly it's OK for me occasionally not to cope and have this release. But that's still me not coping, and that's what i have the issue with. I WANT to be able to cope properly, whatever properly is. Without tears, obviously. 

I think i started writing in the first place because i needed that way of coping too. Writing, Running and crying... How productive of me. 

Becoming a runner

As much as my twitter user name tries to tell me differently, i am not SuperHot. I try occasionally, but mostly i'm SuperAverage with a dash of thunder thighs.  Term 2 was pretty shit. I was busy and stressed and i spent far too many nights writing reports and eating Roti bread. On the night before my reports were due i was tired and stressed and really needed a pick me up. What better pick me up than strange men telling me I'm pretty?! To the dating site i go! I picked OKCupid purely because everyone on twitter talked about it... I never intended to meet anyone or go on dates, it really was a superficial decision, i was stressed and that was it... 


But interestingly, i got some nice messages and started to take it more seriously. And then came the kicker of a question (which actually came from Date Boy in an initial conversation):
Besides work, what do you do? 


Oh. God. What do i do? Tweet? Go out to dinner with my friends? waste copious amounts of time online seemingly doing nothing? None of those are acceptable answers to that question, particularly when it was coming from someone who had just told me they run 7km three times a week, play pretty much any instrument and is thinking up taking up Ice Hockey. Knitting and lying around listening to music doesn't really compare, does it? So the thought 'maybe i should be exercising again' snuck into my brain. 


Once it was in there it forced me to take a more critical look at myself. I had put on weight, and if i'm blunt about it, i had gotten to the stage where i was heavier than i had been for quite a while, and definitely the heaviest I've been since I've had a set of scales handy. And while it's not heavy-heavy, it was heavier than i wanted to be. 


So i started C25K again (it's an app. look it up). I'd started it maybe three times and had never gotten beyond the 3rd week which was about 5 minute running intervals. Starting this time hurt, i think my fitness was worse than it had been before. The first run made me feel sick, my body ached and i wanted to cry.
But this time, i kept at it. And today i cracked 4km in less than half an hour. It took me 9 weeks to go from running 1.5 minutes and wanting to die and/or cry to focusing on pace time and getting under certain times. 


But the better thing than the weight loss or the PB's for running is how good i feel. Fitter, stronger, leaner, happier. I get to the end of a run and i can't stop smiling. I feel good for hours afterwards. I like that my body can accomplish things and that it can be strong and fit. The curves are leaner, my arse is firmer and naked i'm on my way to having a "runners body" (or so i'm told). It all just adds up to being a better, happier me. 


It's not always easy. I still put off runs, and when i realised last tuesday that i was so far away from hitting my goal of 5km by the end of this week, i was shattered. I felt like i failed not only myself, but all the people that i'd told that i'd be hitting this goal. Spent three days hating everything and it wasn't until i went out on my next run did i feel better about it. I know i'm slow, but i know i'll get faster. I just have to keep going, keep pushing myself to get the 4km quicker then move on to making the 5km faster. Be happy with the fact that i'm running and getting better at it and not hating it. 




So now, when people ask me what i do out side of work, i can add 'Run three times a week, i'm hoping to do a 5k fun run soon" 
That, from the girl who struggled through the Beep Test at High School, is something that makes me happier than any amount of weight loss. 

Only Sparrows

It's been a while since i've really, truly loved an album. I described it as falling 'whole soul' in love with it on twitter the other day, and i stand by that description. 
I've loved Josh Pyke since i first heard Middle of the Hill all those years ago, and all of his albums have been good, great even, but there's something about this one that has just captured me a bit more. I'm not sure why, i'm not sure why this album more than anything. it's just brilliant. 
Particularly i love Diet of worms ("i know we're not at the centre of anything circling, dark, cold... arrogant to think of us as anything but a happy coincidence...") and Punch in the Heart ("and i'd press you against the bonnet just to keep our heat"). Josh has always captured the spirit of summer in his songs, they always seem to shuffle into my ears when i am walking home in the sun after a day at work and they'd make me smile. Only Sparrows seems to have gone beyond that and etched itself into my brain all the time. I find myself itching for a spare period so i can go back to my office and put my headphones on and listen to the album from start to finish again and again. In order too, i don't want to shuffle it in with Boy and Bear or any of the other albums that i've liked recently. It's been headphones on, music loud, just lying there letting it be everything... A long time coming, a long time since an album has made me want to do that.


It's been some time since I've really loved songs like i love these songs. I really loved Adele, but i think for me her songs came a year too late for me to whole soul love them. Sure, i'll belt out Set Fire to the Rain, and the Islander kids in my year 8 classes have all heard me sing Rolling in the Deep, but they're good songs, not soul touching ones. Not for me. 


The other thing that Josh Pyke made me realise is how much i still like CD's and booklets and tangible music. I bought Eskimo Joe's album online and it came with a digital booklet. Something that i haven't looked at, same with Yellowcard's booklet when i bought that online. One of the first thing i did when i bought physically the CD was snap my headphones on and flick through the booklet of Pyke's album. Admired the artwork, read some lyrics. It makes the music experience different, better i think. Not that i could explain why it does either. 


I like music that i can get excited by. I like music that i can sit and listen to the whole album on repeat for days and days. Josh has given that to me in Only Sparrows, and for that i thank him. 

Music Listography 1: Cover Versions

Two weekends ago my friends and i made the wise decision to get a little tipsy and then go shopping. We are masters at the well thought out plan, obviously. It resulted in me in Typo buying a bunch of stuff i didn't really need, including this book which my friend Robyn described as "perfect for me." And she was right. I love listing music. I've been working on my top 30 of the 00's for several months and it's an arduous task when most of your musical growth occurred in that time...  So the book is pages and pages of list suggestions for me... Music that reminds me of lovers, road trip music, concerts, female singers, one hit wonders... It's all there. So instead of buying it and letting the (rather overpriced) book languish in my room I'm actually going to fill it in. And blog each of the lists too. I feel i should say this now though, i'm not a music snob. I like top 40 stuff sometimes as much as i like "indie" stuff. I like musicals, and acoustic versions, and lyrics... I feel my lists will be rather mainstream, and i'm really ok with that. So, on to list one.

Cover Versions

There is a Light: David Ford. Orignially by The Smiths

I discovered David Ford in 2005 when i was still living on campus at Monash. He writes, quite often, very sad songs. Lyrically, he's a bit like the Smiths. And i love him. I think i stumbled upon him after a write up in the paper, and his debut album 'Sorry for all the trouble i caused' with 'State of the Union' on it is brilliant. This song is not on the album, he posted it on his MySpace, and i think that's how i ended up with it. I didn't know it was a cover version for months. I don't really like The Smiths. Lyrically they might appeal to me, but i can't get past the music. Sorry to everyone, i feel this makes me a bad 20-something. I like this version for the simplicity of it. He convinces me...

From Such Great Heights: Iron and Wine (orignally by The Postal Service)

This version comes from the Garden State soundtrack, which also introduced me to The Shins, so i really should thank Zach Braff for that... Thanks Zach. I once got into a debate about whether a cover version of a song should be really different or more similar to the original. This is one of the ones that's very different from the original. And i love it. More earnest (are we sensing a theme...) Ben Folds (a master at the cover song) has also done a version of it, and it's far closer to the original....

In Between Days - Ben Folds (Originally by The Cure)
Speaking of Ben Folds, i quite like his version of In between days (second Cure cover for the list). I think what i've learnt from this is that i like less whiny versions of songs, or songs with singers with more typically "nice" voices. Not sure why... 

Time After Time - Eva Cassidy (Originally by Cyndi Lauper)
Another song i stumbled on through a Soundtrack (this time Smallville). Look, Cyndi is great, but again it's about slowing down and loving the song for the heart it has. And she gives it the time and space to breathe and have emotion. Plus, no nasally voice... 

Just Like Heaven - Gatsby's American Dream (originally by The Cure)
and:
I'm Real - The Starting Line (Originally by Jennifer Lopez)


Back in the summer of 2002/2003 i got into the car of my friend Clare. It was the summer between High School and Uni and she had just got her license so she'd drive us around a bit. Her car, her music. It is Clare i have to thank for introducing me to "Punk" of that era. Yellowcard, Millencolin, NOFX and the series of albums starting with 'Punk goes...' I couldn't narrow it down to one from these albums, it was hard enough to settle on two "punk" covers for this list... So something that was alternative to start with (From Punk Goes 80's) and something that at best is B-grade pop in the form of J-Lo. I think that's what makes The Starting Line cover so good, i think it actually turns I'm Real into a good song... 

Trouble - The String Quartet Tribute (Originally by Coldplay)


I debated this one. Are string Quartet versions of songs cover versions, technically? I don't know, but i've decided to go with yes. I'm an odd unit. I will tell you my favourite thing about music is the lyrics, but i also quite love a bit of classical in my life. I love movie scores, the best thing to write reports to are scores and classical music. So i love The String Quartet Tribute. In researching this list i discovered just how extensive their discography is! I'm currently sourcing a whole lot more now!

Flame Trees - Sarah Blasko (originally by Cold Chisel)
Yeah. So what. I like Sarah Blasko. I don't like Cold Chisel. I remember my dad once telling me that it made a whiny song whinier. Maybe he's right.... I do think it's odd that, as someone who generally prefers dude-singers to lady-singers, i like this one better...... Again, maybe it's the lack of nasally voice.... 

(I also love her version of Hey Ya!)


Fall at your Feet - Boy and Bear (originally by Crowded House)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm that person. I like this version, i heard it on JJJ during the hottest 100. I like it, and i like boy and bear, quite a lot. So i feel i need to put it in there. 

Bad Romance - 30 Seconds to Mars (Originally by Lady Gaga)
So, just like JJJ Like a Version is a source of covers for us here in Australia, BBC Live Lounge is a great source of cover versions too. This comes from that. I wanted to put Florence and the Machine's version of Halo by Beyonce, but to be honest, i don't like it that much. I wanted her to wow me and she didn't. But Adele is about to make it (take that @Oz_f) 


I like this version. Flashy and yet not as flashy as Gaga....

Black and Gold - Adele (Originally by Sam Sparrow)
So Adele is my latest lady crush. Her voice is lush and i love it. I love stripped down covers of songs, and this is good. I'll post her version of Cover me too, and you can see how that just sounds like the rest of her songs... I think this is why i like Black and Gold better too.....

Her version of Cover Me by Cheryl Cole....

Ok. So that's it. I got carried away a little, but we learnt that i like acoutic, non-whiny cover versions of songs...


You think i've missed something? Cover that everyone should have on their lists?


Oh, and to finish, not really covers, but two of my favourite TV/Movie moments that could almost be cover versions...
I will always love you - Lorelai Gilmore (originally Dolly Parton)(From Gilmore Girls, Season 7, episode 20: Lorelai? Lorelai?)

Can't take my eyes off you - Patrick Verona (Originally by Frankie Valli) (From 10 things i hate about you)