Friday, February 29, 2008

On Leap Year's Day, ladies,

think hard of what you may be asking for, you might get it.

Last night, I was surfing youtube, using a very complex metaphysical method comprised by a true grand master, when I happened on something super surprising. A modern song that I liked. Still do, quite a lot, in fact. And it's only a couple of years old. Miracles will never cease. I feel all hip and with it.

I went and listened to a couple of other songs by her but didn't like them as much. Still, I like what she does with her voice - a Billie Holiday for our times - also in her recreational substance (ab)use habits, as I understand.

17 comments:

basest said...

great tune. I like what i've heard by Ms. Winehouse, but hadn't heard this one yet (as a musician, i listen to a suprisingly small amount of music as of late). Thanks for pointing it out.

Navas said...

I am also just about familiar with Amy Winehouse, although not in possession of any of her music. Not heard this tune before either, but I like it!
Been talking to a certain other musician this evening on the way home from Stansted...

Reading the Signs said...

She looks just like someone I know very well indeed, but naming no names. Spooky.

What is this complex metaphysical method, please?

Anonymous said...

Hei Basest, how nice to find you here. Welcome, and you're welcome to the out-pointed song as well. I confess to you, Basest, here in the absolute secrecy of this comment box, that I stopped following music and developments on that front approximately twelve years ago, and everything newer than that is very recent in my books.

Now, I'm wondering whether you know this song I come bearing (please click on my signature link)? I count it as new (based on the rules I indicated above) - I heard it about three, four years ago when I used to listen to the radio whilst driving to work, which used to keep me a bit more abreast with things musical (take public transport these days). I liked it then, and, upon finding your stunning confession that you don't listen to music (tsk, tsk, and you, a musician), I thought I'd put you to shame with my two modern songs. Beat that, Basest, if you can.

In spite of that flaw in your character, it's nice to see you. Hope you are well.

Anonymous said...

Hei Navas - good to see you. Yes, I liked this tune as well - had heard one before and hadn't thought that much of it (taking that as (further) proof, if any was needed, of my firm belonging to the old fart brigade), but having stumbled upon that one I did a little bit of research and found another that I thought was rather good - it's under my signature link for you. I liked the version in this video more than the "finished" thing, with the band etc - there's an honesty of pain in her voice which is, I think, lost in the production - and I find it looks nice, in an olde-worlde sort of jazz way, just her and the big recording mic. I also found myself strangely touched by how little-girly plump her hand suddenly seems, towards the very end, in spite of the tattoos etc.

I am soft.

Please give my love and regards to that other musician. Good to see you. Hope you are well.

Anna MR said...

Oh Signs, you are whetting our appetites with your half-disclosures of Ms Winehouse lookalikes. Out with it, girl. I bet she's one of your alter egos.

But yes. The Method. Oh, it is significant and may hold the key to many a question - but only if performed correctly, and with a purity of spirit. You shall answer for the latter yourself - and I shall attempt to teach you in the practical art itself.

Type youtube.com into your browser (and beware of typoing it into outube (I know what you're like with typos, Signs), because, believe me, that unfortunate slip of the finger may take the seeker of knowledge to places where they didn't necessarily expect to be. Just saying). So. Once you have safely landed in the realm of youtube, type your search word into the box provided for search words, and wait for the appropriate links to be displayed. Count down to the sixth one, Signs, and watch it. Once it is watched, turn your attention to the list on the right hand margin of that page, marked "Related Videos" (not the one that says "More From This User" - careful - the quest may be ruined) and count down to the fifth one, click on it and watch it. After watching, again turn your attention to Related Videos, count down to the fourth entry, click, watch, etc, thus proceeding through the third, then the second related video, finally landing at the first related video. This, esteemed Signs, my fellow seeker of knowledge and truth, is where you need to be, lo and verily, for thus is the way of the Six Degrees of Separation on Youtube, Signs, and much - much - can be learnt from it.

Amen. You are now in possession of The Method, Sister - make sure to become part of The Project. As a word of warning, because you are my fellow Princeling and everything - dangers abound on this quest, as on any real search for the truth, and one I've identified is The Loop. Should The Loop get you, you must abandon search immediately, because loops ruin it for everyone.

Good luck, Signs, and may the horse be with you.

LottieP said...

You might like this one too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6LVGcIC1Tc&feature=related

Profoundly retro and modern at the same time. How does she do that?

And now for someone completely different: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB4Al0l6Cuo

Lx

Reading the Signs said...

Blimey, blimey, exciting, this is just like being in Lord of the Rings or something. I feel like Frodo Baggins at the beginning of a Quest. If anything goes wrong and I am turned into a pumpkin or something, I hope you will provide the appropriate wherewithal to save me.

Reading the Signs said...

Well, well (and hi there Lottie) - I think I was almost immediately ensnared in The Loop. I decided to type 'Magician' as my search word and basically got stuck with endless amounts of some very obscure Chinese sitcom thing. It didn't seem to want to take me anywhere else. This is probably telling me something. Hope I haven't buggered up The Project.

Anonymous said...

Hei Lottie, thanks for the links, and sorry my abominable lateness in getting back to you. With the risk of this blog becoming viewed as a fan site to Ms W, here's one more video for you. Again, I like the version better than the "final" video, because less production seems to allow the actual performance more visibility (audibility? Whatever). I am quite impressed with (some) of her stuff - there's some I really don't care for very much, though, so please don't see me as some besotted fan girl.

But now the question is why is the name Fiona Apple so bloody familiar? I mean, seriously, I am out like a snowman when it comes to the music of today and have no reason at all to recognise the name, yet I do. This is seriously going to bother me, and has already done so.

Hoping you are well, Lottie - my special flickry snoop system suggests you've been in the US recently. Was it good? Hope so.

Anna MR said...

Ha, Signs, why of course. We here at Future of my Past specialise in rescuing Princelings in pumpkin distress. As long as you abandoned the loop-doomed search, I think the fabric of the non-universe has remained intact. But be mindful, tread carefully. Perhaps magician was a bit obvious as a search word. You may want to try something duller and see if it takes you to The Source instead.

(I have just tried with Milton Keynes but it was hopeless. Helsinki was equally bad. There are days and days, Signs, and today is just not one of them. Sorry I'm late, btw. Mwah.)

LottieP said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LottieP said...

Nothing to worry about there, just a mistyping disaster and we can't have that.

Thanks for another Amy link and for such a nice version of the song. Such confidence and such a voice. Lovely.

I have been in the US, and writing unusually prolifically in my blog as a result as well as posting hamfisted photos from my camera phone. The taxi driver who said they all eat rats in Hong Kong. Landing at St Paul in an ice storm. The dirty window of my Chinatown hotel room in New York (pictured).

Fiona Apple is a familiar name to me too. I had never really heard anything by her before this song, though, and I was very taken with it. There are lots of pithy lines in it.

Hope all is well

Lx

Anonymous said...

You might like this too.

Lx

Anna MR said...

Oh Lottie - my blog visitings at the moment make my comment-reply rate seem like an unstoppable thing of great momentum. I will try to get to your house to see the ice storm and to laugh at the taxi driver (but is it true, Lottie? Have you eaten rats?). In the meantime, though, thank you for the link - I did, as it happens, like it, although I have a complicated thing as regards the band in question (basically someone sent me a tape of that big hit they had, Creep (or was it Weirdo?), the wrong person at the wrong moment and it was the first time I'd ever heard them or of them and, well, it sort of coloured the whole experience to an extent), and I loved the video it came with. So thank you.

(Things are generally livable with, Lottie - many things are good most of the time whereas some things aren't really very good at all, but overall it balances out into a mustn't-grumble sort of levelness. Hope you are doing more excitingly, though, because surely someone must, and out of us two, it ain't me girl. Which is how I like it, too, of course, I hasten to add, before you go and think I am grumbling. Oh God, my mind tonight is a swirly thing.)

It is nice to see you around again, Lottie. x

LottieP said...

Sadly no real photos of the taxi driver/ignoramus nor of the ice storm. I do my best with words, but sometimes...

I know what you mean about Creep. It touches off memories for me, too, as it happens. Applecross. G's skinny body. Sinking a rowing boat on a flat lake. Seals in the sunshine. Music has that amazing ability to encapsulate images somehow.

I read yesterday that Ursula Le Guin thought the word "somehow" should be banned. That would be a shame. I somehow see myself being arrested for breaching the ban because I'm rather fond of it when all else fails. Which is perhaps why she wanted it banned - is it the lazy writer's last resort?

Glad to hear all is well.

Lx

Anna MR said...

Applecross I know nothing about (it's a place?), but the person who sent me the tape had a skinny body too (oh ew). Some memories are best not revisited, others feel like they must have happened to someone else, and I simply have really accurate visual imagery of them, for some reason or another.

But as for banning the word somehow, that's just rubbish of Le Guin. What's wrong with it? A perfectly good and valid word in the fine English language. I think she's just being poncy and trying to come across as a great intellect and a brilliant writer. (I used to read her in my teens. Just saying.)

(You may note, Lottie, that now I am trying to come across as a great intellect and only managing poncy. However, I trust you won't mention it to anyone. Thank you.)