60 seconds per minute.
60 minutes per hour.
24 hours per day.
365.242216 days per year.
A year is based on the time it takes the earth to orbit around the Sun. But since that takes 365.242216 days, Mr Gregorian Calendar decided to round a year down to 365 days, save all those 0.242216 days as retainer and hand them out as an one-day-bonus to all his followers every four years. That bonus is the 29th of February, and today is one of those days.
So congratulations to all Mr Gregorian Calender followers.
Today is a day you work for free.
Ten days ago i posted a link to my bookmarks that i got through Nathan Coppers blog, Rubbishcorp.com/rubbishblog.
Description:
What is the Sound of Color? We put that question to 5 musicians. Dntel, MariÈ Digby, Swizz Beatz, The Blakes and The Raveonettes. We assigned each musician a different color. They Wrote 5 tracks. We gave the tracks, and the colors that inspired them, to 5 producers. What began as a question has resulted in 5 original pieces of music and 5 original music videos. Here they are. Hear the Sound of Color.
What have surprised me, and got me to write this entry, is the superb quality of the five songs. Top work. Top compilation.
Last week Willow bought me a new helmet. As seen in the photo above; it’s very nice. The model is called Trace and it’s made by R.E.D Protection.
Trace is to replace my vintage Brancale leather helmet (photo). With it’s optional ear pads, Trace is much warmer and suitable for the winter period. I’m also quite sure that it will protects my head a bit better than the vintage leather helmet.
Mr Nicolas Roope pointed me towards this old Guardian commercial titled ‘Points of View’.
Interestingly, all the different preceptive have a different runtime. So maybe they are also trying to communicate that the more time you invest in trying to understand something/someone, the more likely you are to see it’s/their intentions.
I probably over analysing.
But, I still think it’s true.
It’s not very often that I attend a concert where an artist and her/his/their work is basically undiscovered or unanalysed by my ears in advance. At least main acts; quite often the warm-up act is a new experience.
Willow bought the tickets for the Seasick Steve concert after a recommendation from a friend of her’s. If it wasn’t for the recommendation or for the fact that Willow bought the tickets, I would most probably never have attended this Seastick Steve concert. Seasick Steve is not something I would enjoy through the medium of a pair of headphones in an office environment (sadly, that’s the way I consume 90% of my music nowadays), and therefor most probably I wouldn’t have gone through the effort of buying a ticket.
But life works in mysteries ways.
I really enjoyed this concert.
It wasn’t down to the fact that his music sounded any better live than on recordings — i’m still no fan — but his charisma and stage presence lit up the whole of Astoria (which was completely rammed with people). Most of the set he was alone, just one old man, but from time to time he got accompanied on stage by his hippy friend or younger son behind the drums and for two of the songs KT Tunstall did a guest appearance.
Hats of to Seasick Steve.
The warm-up act was a Swedish band called Billie the Vision & the Dancers. Both Willow and I agreed that the lead singer must be long lost brother of our good friend Henrik Engdahl. Besides the fact that they are both ginger, they look incredibly similar and have a similar body-language. I’m even convinced that if Henrik took a few song lessons he would sound similar. The songs and lyrics are also something I can imagine Henrik writing. Yeah, if you know Henrik, have a look at a few movies on YouTube (heres a good start) and feel free to correct me if you think i’m wrong.
On the 12th of January, Willow and I walked down to the Vegas Gallery on Redchurch Street to attend, embarrassingly, the last day of the Daniel Johnston’s art exhibition, ‘Its The End Of The Show’. It had been running from the 15th November, literally 30 meters down the road from where I work… and I almost missed it. Shame on me.
I’m no art critic, but I know what I like and what I don’t like. And I like Daniel Johnston. Mainly his music, but his drawings and paintings are in a similar vain and I find it extremely refreshing.
If you haven’t heard Daniel Johnston (or of him), the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston (released 2005) can be a good start.
If you’re looking for a good album, have a go with the compilation The Late Great Daniel Johnston – Discovered Covered, where disc one features artists like Eels, Bright Eyes, Death Cab For Cutie, Beck etc etc covering Daniel’s songs, and disc two holds the original songs preformed by Daniel.
To browse some of his art, visit the store on his official site, hihowareyou.com or the art section on his official fan site Rejectedunknown.com.
Unless your heart is the size of a peanut, you will find joy in Daniel Johnston’s work.
