A Hard Day's Night

I remember a weekend afternoon about 3 years ago, my father bringing home a movie he had randomly bought at Barnes & Noble. The movie was A Hard Day's Night. He had seen it before but the rest of us had never heard of it. We all sat down to watch it.
Our lives were never the same again.

A Hard Day's Night, made in 1964, was the first film to star The Beatles. The plot is basically "a day in the life of The Beatles". Following their madcap lives: running from fans, performing on telivision programmes, doing interviews, From the first scene I was hooked. Their cheeky, hilarious and almost random dialogue was right up my alley. I loved their Liverpudlian accents and just plain adorableness. After we watched the film, Beatlemania hit our household 40 years late.

Of course, I had known who The Beatles were. I had even listened to them. We had a tape of their love songs and my mom and I would listen to it. Until we lost the tape, that is. And of course, my father was a fan of theirs. Still, my siblings and I had not been fully converted.
But after A Hard Day's Night, I became like a sponge whose main purpose in life was to soak up as much information about The Beatles as she could. And I did. I still retain most of that knowledge though I am not as obsessive as I once was. I still think they are the greatest band ever.

I love the early Beatles with their clean-cut image....

and I love the later Beatles who were bickering more often than not.


Give me the name of one of their songs and I can sing it for you, tell you which Beatle sang it and spout trivia about the story behind the song or interesting recording details. {Just think, the first time I watched the movie I couldn't even tell them apart!}

And of course, the inevitable question, do I have a favourite Beatle?
Why, yes, I admit, I do have a favourite. Though I love them all, I have a thing for Paul McCartney!


{You cannot deny the cuteness!}

Anyhow, I polled my siblings, asking them what song in A Hard Day's Night was their favourite. 2 out of 3 voted for the song 'I'm Happy Just to Dance With You'. {The third couldn't make up his mind. *makes a disapproving face*}

So, here's the video clip from the movie where they sing it. {The actual song starts about 35 seconds in.}




{As usual, watch it here if the chopped off side gets on your nerves.}


Since, 'I'm Happy Just Do Dance With You' is not very long, I figured I'd post another song. Which is a bit problematic since I love all the songs in A Hard Day's Night. I finally decided, when in doubt, post the title track! ;)
So, here it is, the song 'A Hard Day's Night'! {The video is the opening credits and most of the first scene, so you can watch some of it if you so desire.}

{Youtube Link}

The Boy Who Giggled So Sweet

The other week, I was looking for something to do on the internet. I eventually settled on watching music videos. More specifically, Emiliana Torrini music videos {for some random reason}.

{For the uninformed: Emiliana Torrini is an incredibly talented indie pop singer from Iceland. For any LoTR fans out there - she sang a song called 'Gollum's Song' in the credits of The Two Towers.
Isn't she just the cutest thing?!?}

Anyhow, I was watching Emiliana Torrini music videos and I clicked on one that was actually a fan video. It was clips of various Emiliana videos set to a song of hers that I had never heard of, 'The Boy Who Giggled So Sweet'. {Later I found out it was from her album Merman which was only released in Iceland.}

It was one of those "love at first listen" songs. It tells a heartbreaking story set to a beautiful, melting melody. I knew I had to post it on here sooner than later. {Though it did end up being a little later than I intended. Such is life!}

Listen:





In other news, Friday was my one year blog anniversary! I didn't realize that til today. How exciting!

Sooooo... now I'm kinding of wondering if I get a prize or something? No? Oh well, I guess there was no harm in asking..... :P

Nina Nastasia

I am extremely chuffed! It is finally beginning to feel like autumn here. There is a bite in the wind today, and as I sit here typing I feel a slight chill. Now, if only our trees would start turning....

I'm a couple days late with October's artist of the month. But it's someone I think is worth waiting for: Nina Nastasia!


Nina Nastasia is a singer-songwriter of the highest caliber. Her 2006 album On Leaving is one of my favourites. It has a gentle folk sound {most of the songs are just Nina accompanied by guitar and light piano} that has put me to sleep many nights that were otherwise wakeful.
I am fascinated by the piano on this album! It often seems to be doing its own thing, incongruous with the rest of the song... yet it works wonderfully.
And well, I am no good at describing people's vocals... so I will just say I love her vocals and I think they complement her music perfectly.

Nina Nastasia's lyrics are a highlight as well. I feel there are so many untold stories in her songs. Her lyrics offer short glimpses of these interesting tales and characters. I often feel inspired to write when listening to her!

Listen to two favourite songs off of On Leaving:



{Spiffy, non? I finally figured out how to make playlists on divshare!}