Les jours de neige en ville

They are calling for SNOW here!! Quite a bit of it too!!! (Where I live, it gets bitter cold, but snows very little. At most it flurries and sometimes we get a covering of snow on the ground in January.)
So, I am very excited... but still a bit doubtful.

It's very fitting that I have been listening a lot lately to Amélie-les-crayons' song, 'Les jours de neige en ville' {'Snowy days in town'}.
Amélie is very quirky, lyrically and personally speaking. But this lovely song is a little more serious. From what I gather, reading different sites, Amélie wrote this song after the tsunami in Indonesia, while in Lyon, France, everything was covered with snow. The contrast between horror and peacefulness was so astonishing that she wrote this song. Apparently the lyrics are about the contradiction between the rumble of an ordinary town and its quietness when it's covered with snow.




{Click here to download.}


*looks out the window* IT'S SNOWING!!!!!! =D

Calico Skies

Well, I wanted to post another Christmas song. But the song's file won't cooperate (It's a long story). I shall try to coax it into submission later but until then I shall post something else.

Tonight I was washing dishes. I love washing dishes. There is something so therapeutic about the warm water and suds and... making dirty things clean. Tonight my mum called me her 'dish fairy'. :)
I also love to sing while washing the dishes. And one of my favourite songs to sing while doing the dishes is a song called 'Calico Skies' by Paul McCartney. So, as I was washing the dishes tonight, I was inspired to do this post about 'Calico Skies'.

'Calico Skies' is a love song/60's protest song against war. But I think Paul mainly wrote this song for his wife, Linda. {Pictured above} For those who don't know Paul and Linda were married for 29 years until Linda died. They are my favourite famous couple ever, their story is really sweet in a world full of divorce.
This song was on his album "Flaming Pie" which was released in 1997. One year before Linda died of breast cancer. For me that makes the last sentence in this song more poignant: "I'll love you... for the rest of my life."

Listen:



{Paul and Linda in '97}







Now here is my advice to all stressed people, go wash dishes -- it soothes the soul. :)

Christmas TV

"It's okay that I pray that you will miss your flight and have to stay with me another night..."

December is my favourite month of the year! I love Christmas!! Even though Christmas never quite lives up to my childhood memories of it there is still something so wonderful about the whole month.
Oddly enough, I don't really listen to much Christmas music voluntarily. Everyone seems to cover the same songs over and over again... which is a drag. So I have been listening to some non-traditional Christmas music. More specifically the song 'Christmas TV' by Slow Club!
I love Slow Club's energy and harmonious camaraderie. They always make me want to sing along loudly. =D

{And I love Rebecca's hair which seems to frequently be in a coronet braid!!!}

Listen to Christmas TV:






Is anyone else enjoying this wonderful season as much as I am? :)

Falling Slowly

I've known the song 'Falling Slowly' by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová for a couple months now. But it was only very recently that I realized how amazing it is!
This song was first on the album they made together The Swell Season. (The Swell Season is now the artist name they record under.)
I found out that 'Falling Slowly' was also in the film they both starred in, Once. So I began listening to the film's soundtrack which is incredible. Most of the soundtrack's songs are written by Glen and Markéta. (Separately and together) I haven't actually seen the movie, but I hope to someday...

Here's the song accompanied with clips from the movie:


I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! :)


-EDIT- I thought it might be fun to have an artist of the month! It would just be whatever artist has particularly been tickling my fancy. It could be someone I've posted about before or not.
This month's is going to be The Swell Season! (The box is located on the left, right under my explanation. I'm sure you've already seen it. :P)

Dark Waltz

"I'll keep you company in one glorious harmony, waltzing with destiny forever."

I remembered today how much I love Hayley Westenra's first {internationally released} album, 'Pure'.
I like her more recent albums... but 'Pure' is my favourite. This album was released in 2003 when she was only 16 years old! It has a nice mixture of classical and pop... and even a song in Māori! (The language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, where Hayley is from.)


Listen to "Dark Waltz", one of my favourite tracks off the album: