This is not a review

Ugh, look at this blog.... So abandoned. And the weird thing is...I´m doing absolutely nothing with my life (br€ak from uni + find a job here [country and town] is not easy) which means I have all the time in the world to write something here. True that an eventless life can result in a shortness of ideas and, well, events that would give me ideas for blog posts but still...what an awful blogger this guy is. I could at least throw music videos at you of all the new stuff I find or good old music loves but not even that... Or bore you with sports posts. Or crappy movie reviews. "Poems" (yes, there´s some somewhere buried in here...). Or love life confes...oh wait...those aren´t real...

Moving on.

This is not a review.
Neither of 2012 or the concert I went see a month ago and of which I always write a review a couple of days after it happened. The thing is...the concert was a revival of the mythic(!) Queen concert at Wembley by a tribute band. I mean, it´s not Freddie, Brian, Roger or John, but still singing Queen out loud on a room with 5000+ more people doing the same is something I dream of since I was a kid wondering my uncle record collection and picking up Queen albums and having them as one of my biggest influences in the music taste I have nowadays. Which is flawless. Obviously. So, as you can imagine sing all those songs from that concert out loud with all those Queen fans around is something hard to put in words-of-a-review.

And, as I´m writing this at the first hours of the Christmas Eve, I wish you Merry Christmas! (or not if you don´t celebrate...)
As for me it´s always a time I look forward to. Hoping to have another good one with the people I like the most. Then may the English football make that (usually boring) last week of the year less-boring. Although Arsenal match was postponed... Boo!

I leave you with a Christmas song included on a special [Christmas] show from BBC Radio 2 that unfortunately didn´t have a session this year (or as I find just now it had but with different people) but I don´t mind listen to last year one once again.

It´s Nerina Pallot, Lisa Hannigan e Fyfe Dangerfield singing "I Believe In Father Chritmas". Enjoy!

It´s Music to Your Ears

No, YOU´RE welcome, hipsters.



da da da da dadadada da da da da dadadadadaaaaa

Also, female drummer alert!!!!
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I have another one but apparently Youtube is telling me that due to what most likely is the awesomeness of the video it can not be embedded. Boo! Or maybe I broke it because of all the Replay button pressing...

Here´s the link though >> awesomeness

Apparently those kids are 17 years old. While I struggled at maths in high school they are just being cool and awesome. Sigh.

Take my money!!

...music!

+ The Reminder also by Miss Leslie Feist to complete my collection of her albums.

And some things to look forward to:

In the Kingdom of Classics?

Can´t really tell what pretentious/hipster feeling had me attracted to this movie for a long time. For some reason since it premiered in the cinemas on the shopping where I used to go for lunch between classes that sepia-toned poster caught my attention.
Unfortunately my cinema-budget was over by that time and, like every other time, I had no one to convince me I really should go watch it or to go watch it with someone...much like Suzy I may be a very troubled child...
Finally it was uploaded on the corner of the Internet where I watch movies.

Another thing was the cast...Bruce Willis, Ed Norton, Bill [F*cking] Murray. And they aren´t even the main characters. Speaking of which...man, this kids are talented nowadays!
I believe one of the reasons this movie clicks with many people (that IMDB rating is looking good) is, besides all the good direction/filmography/photography, the story happening in a simple time - 1965. I think everyone who happened to live in an era pre-Internet can easily get the appeal - and nostalgia - of such times. And if to that you add a first love romance I believe you get a winning formula. More if you do it in a quirky, different, funny way.
Of course you will have some moments during the movie where we will wonder that such thing will never happen in real life. But, unless you were 13 around the 1960s, bury those thoughts and enjoy. You will ever know what Scouts and troubled children did back then... There weren´t any forums or pages full of memes and lolcats to spend your free time like nowadays.

Concluding, since I´m rubbish at reviewing movies, consider this post as a recommendation. You won´t regret. Or you will call me a hipster...but then I ask...what kind of bird are you?

BONUS:



This video might also have helped in building expectations for this movie. At 2:30 Lisa Hannigan does a lovely cover of the song in the trailer. And I´ve listened to it countless times because the story Lisa Hannigan tells during those two and a half minutes is hilarious!

Late night wondering

Ugh, look at this blog...so abandoned *sad emoticon*

I blame Tumblr. Mostly because I´ve got one . Press Reblog on a image you like is way easier than get out of bed when you´re trying to fall asleep to write the awesome (or just weird) ideas that came up to your head.

Anyway blog, I haven´t forgotten you and here´s an update. One of the weird ones.


Was wondering through Wikipedia´s entry for Iceland...it´s just like a short fairy tale. Look:

- Volcanically and geologically active. Plenty of glaciers and lava fields. And fjords.

- 14th most developed country.

- Despite its extreme latitude it´s not as cold as some countries in a similar latitude.

- The only native land mammal when humans arrived there was the Arctic Fox. They look like this .

- Their biggest city - and capital - Reykjavík has as many people as my hometown...and I´m a small town boy.

- Portugal is the 10th country with more foreign people living in Iceland. We are everywhere. And in good number.

- Highest number of bookstores per capita in the world.

- 10% of the population will publish a book. This is 10% of...319,575 people.

- Music from Iceland: Björk, Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men...and Emilíana Torrini (whoa, she isn´t Italian?! I was wrong all this time!)

- For its size, football (women) and handball (both) are quite good.

- Rather than using family names, Icelanders use patronymics and matronymics. e.g. Elísabet Jóndottir ("Elisabet, Jon´s daughter") / Ólafur Katrínarson (Ólafur, Katrín´s son")

Review - Bon Iver - Coliseu do Porto

In the music business, specifically in the touring part of it, there´s often an interesting [read intriguing] fact that is artists known and acclaimed in a country do not include that country in their tour dates. Not that Justin Vernon topped the charts here but even that is not enough (hint: she´s pregnant now).

Bon Iver is one of those cases. His tours always seemed to miss this little European corner but once he noticed us we thought it would be nice to sold out the venues with a few weeks in advance.

I didn´t resist and had to take a look to what kind of setlists he was doing. I liked what I saw. Also didn´t resist and took a look to the latest one in Lisbon the day before...a few changes. I thought I wouldn´t be surprised though. But with Bon Iver you never know...

And I was. Not in the beginning. Despite having started with "Woods" in Lisbon, Justin went back to the "Perth" and "Minnesota, WI" beginning, just like his second album opens. And if he spent a lot of time thinking what sequence of songs would be perfect for that album he can consider that time very well spent. We continued on that album with the wonderful single "Towers" followed by "Michicant". Here´s one thing if you have a band...if you double the element of an already cool thing you will end up having the double of fun. And that´s what happens with Bon Iver. Having a double percussion with two sets of drums sure has its impact! And what a brilliant impact that is. It owns the room. And the same goes for the double violins and double wind instruments even if at a first thought such instruments wouldn´t take over such a concert. Conclusion? Two guitars is just too mainstream...

Sings of surprises appeared. "Beach Baby", not often played was a treat. A few moments later the sequence that caught my eyes on the indiscretion through setlists that I did the day before: "Holocene", "Blood Bank", "Skinny Love", "Re: Stacks", "Creature Fear". Words should never fail to a reviewer but I can only think of the Perfect Justin (or someone for him) wrote on a photo of the concert posted on Facebook.

I´ve read that the day before in Lisbon there were some people in the audience showing their love in a very audible way during moments where they should - and also, more importantly, let the others - enjoy the show. I´m glad I read that after the Porto concert either way I would be fearing way too much on how and when someone would eventually ruin a nice moment. What can I say is that I´m still impressed for the respect showed. Sure there was a couple whistles and love you(s) but immediately followed by many intimidating ssshhh. Just like in tennis when a player is waiting for silence to serve.

"Lisbon, OH" (not played in Lisbon...don´t be mad mates...after all it´s the city in Ohio, not yours!) and "Beth/Rest" beautifully lead the way the Encore. It´s amazing to see the how a 9-members band delivers such brilliance. And here´s my kudos to them. Bon Iver is those 9 talented guys playing with a creator called Justin Vernon. And what a great band Bon Iver is!

Coming back to surprises...Björk and an illness might have been the reason why I didn´t went to a festival she was headlining and later on had to cancel her performance but karma was nice to me. "Who Is It?" not often played was right there being amazingly transformed (it even got the beatbox...and not by some machine!). I was sold. Now there was just "The Wolves (Act I and II)" to sing along until screaming the last words of the song. Literally.

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P.S. If you don´t like perv people may you know leave this blog thinking you read a really good *cof* review.

Still here? Ok...

To the two girls behind me: First, sorry for being tall. [eh, not really]. Second, where´s that English accent from? Third, pretty sure angels look like the one with the white [angelic] dress.

To the lonely girl beside me: Hey, this is lonely boy. I´ve noticed you had a lot of fun. As much as I did. Singing and dancing. Well, in my case, some weird movements that I call dance but it´s probably just awkward stuff. Or an hipster dance no one ever saw before and I´m doing it before it´s cool. Moving on...since I´m a fool I didn´t talk to you, even if it was just "hello, meet you in another awesome concert?" but I´m hopeless at this. You were beautiful. Oh, in case there was more cases (weirdos like me) like this...we were about 10 meters away from stage [~10th row]. See you next time, hopefully!

P.S.1 Sam Amidon did the opening for Bon Iver. Jumping from guitar, to violin and banjo I´m sure even himself can´t quite describe his style. But it´s a cool (original) one. One of his guitar solos almost stole the night from the headliner. Almost. And what´s interesting is that the same thing I said above applies here; If you have something cool and you had a little something to it you can end up with the double of fun. I think that´s what the crowd thought when a couple of Bon Iver band members - trumpet and violin - came to play with Sam. Justin Vernon mentioned later Sam has quite an unique style and personality and you can easily see that while he´s performing.

Holidays mode: On

Here´s the cool things every cool kid is listening while enjoying the cool weather.







Cool Cool Cool*




*Community rocks.