I normally don't like to write blog posts that tell you to do things, and I especially don't like trying to get you to spend money but I believe that what I'm writing about today is a really worthy cause. For those of you that don't know already, Project For Awesome is a day every year where video makers on Youtube talk about different charities that mean something to them.
Thing One:
A guy called Alex Day is trying to get his song "Forever Yours" to Christmas number one in the UK charts this year. At time of writing we're at #4 on iTunes and I believe not far from #3. Today - "Forever Day" - is the first day that sales of his song count towards Alex getting the #1 spot. You can only buy "Forever Yours" once for it to count, but there are twelve different versions and remixes - this includes a demo, an acoustic piano version and a completley acapella version with each instrumental part replaced with a vocal track - each one of these that you buy will count as a seperate sale. It's a really great song, and 100% of the proceeds go to a charity called World Vision. I think that it's really inspiring that we, the internet and community of Youtubers and Twitterers and Tumblr-ers (?), have already gotten it this far. Every sale before midnight on Christmas Eve will count, and it would really make me happy if we can get an independant artist to Christmas #1 in the UK for the first time.
Thing Two:
Without saying much more, this is really powerful and affective, and to me was one of the best Project For Awesome videos on Youtube this year.
There's a link here if you wanted to see the information box for the video and donate, or go to any of the sites and helplines he talked about.
Thank you for reading this. Happy Forever Day.
- Lizzie x
*I must be starting to feel too involved.
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Friday, 16 December 2011
Christmas Playlist
Some Christmas songs you maybe haven't heard before...
"I KNOW WHO TOOK THE MILK AND THE COOKIES" - KINA GRANNIS
A song about coming home.
COVER OF "FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK" - BILLY BRAGG AND FLORENCE WELCH
"Fairytale of New York" is one of my favourite Christmas songs, and nothing beats the original but these two have really great voices and the mandolin part is lovely. Plus Florence and harps go together like... um. Suncream and skin.
"JUST FOR NOW" - IMOGEN HEAP
Beautiful layered harmonies, words about family feuds and false smiles and kicks under the Christmas dinner table.
"THERE'S ALWAYS CHRISTMAS" - ARDIE COLLINS
With a guitar rhythm that's kind of woefully cheerful, a song about a faltering relationship at Christmas time.
"TIMSHEL" - MUMFORD AND SONS
This is not exactly a Christmas song, but it reminds me of Christmas time and mountains, water, snow. I was torn between posting this or "Winter Winds", both sound like Christmas does. But this is so melancholy, both comforting and very cold.
"GOODBYE ENGLAND" - LAURA MARLING
Again, more a wintery song than a Christmas song but it feels like Christmas to me. I wanted to find a video of her playing this in a cathedral like when I saw her (I'm currently trying to get up to date on blogs about concerts from October) but couldn't. Hearing it with just her and a guitar, in a big dark, cathedral, was really magic. But this version is lovely too.
"I KNOW WHO TOOK THE MILK AND THE COOKIES" - KINA GRANNIS
A song about coming home.
COVER OF "FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK" - BILLY BRAGG AND FLORENCE WELCH
"Fairytale of New York" is one of my favourite Christmas songs, and nothing beats the original but these two have really great voices and the mandolin part is lovely. Plus Florence and harps go together like... um. Suncream and skin.
"JUST FOR NOW" - IMOGEN HEAP
Beautiful layered harmonies, words about family feuds and false smiles and kicks under the Christmas dinner table.
"THERE'S ALWAYS CHRISTMAS" - ARDIE COLLINS
With a guitar rhythm that's kind of woefully cheerful, a song about a faltering relationship at Christmas time.
"TIMSHEL" - MUMFORD AND SONS
This is not exactly a Christmas song, but it reminds me of Christmas time and mountains, water, snow. I was torn between posting this or "Winter Winds", both sound like Christmas does. But this is so melancholy, both comforting and very cold.
"GOODBYE ENGLAND" - LAURA MARLING
Again, more a wintery song than a Christmas song but it feels like Christmas to me. I wanted to find a video of her playing this in a cathedral like when I saw her (I'm currently trying to get up to date on blogs about concerts from October) but couldn't. Hearing it with just her and a guitar, in a big dark, cathedral, was really magic. But this version is lovely too.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Held Hands, Stabbed Backs
When I was eight years old, I believed in ghosts.
I believed in ghosts because we all believed in ghosts; how couldn't we, when they were a regular occurance in our daily lives? We all knew about the Moaning Myrtle-like ghost girl who stalked about in the school toilets, because we maybe hadn't seen her ourselves but people in the class who told us about it certainly had. Some of the braver children had tried the "Candy Man" trick, calling out an incantation three times into a bathroom mirror to see if faces appeared. It was Year 4 and my whole class were obsessed.
Then, one night my friend called me and she told me that there was a ghost in her house she'd met. Her name was Stephanie, a little girl who had died when she was pushed down the stairs. Her and another of her ghost friends protected the two of us; they had to because for some reason or other, a man called Bob who was also dead wanted us to die, he had been the one that killed Stephanie. I remember Molly telling me that Jane, who correalating with my weird eight year old obsession with the Tudors at that time I imagined looked like Jane Seymour, would hold my hand and protect me when I stuck out my own arm. They obviously never appeared but once in the classroom my friend told me that man was there, that he was touching my back and I could feel it, I could feel this pressure and this pain, it was so real that I didn't want to look behind me because I really felt his nails digging into my shoulders and I felt that I would see them. Similarly, Jane held my hand when I was scared. I feared her at first but not after a while. Her hand was cold and soft, her fingers very thin.
We were so young that it's hard to work out how long this odd little playground game went on for. Maybe a month. Maybe six. Maybe a year. But one day Molly told me she'd made it all up, made up Stephanie and Jane and the killer because she'd just wanted something to go on in our lives. At first I wanted to smile at her and shake my head because didn't she understand, it was real. I knew these imaginary friends so well. Then she told me she felt the same, that they'd become real, that we'd felt and heard and maybe even seen them and it was so strange because it was the strength of both our imaginations, childish faith and belief, things we'd told each other and most of all a need for comfort from monsters that had really made them real, our Ghosts.
A few years back I went to a Mind, Body, Spirit fair as a kind of experiment with my mother. I was too young to see a medium but she did. He'd known so many things. He'd known the name of her baby sister who died, he knew about a cupboard in our house that things had been moved in. He said that she had a daughter who got a funny feeling in her left leg, and that it was "the big orange cat" - our family cat Ginger died about a year previous to this - rubbing himself against her leg like he always used to. And that was true, I did used to get a tingling feeling in my leg. At the time we all cried and hugged. I felt so happy.
But since then I've started to doubt it, and a lot of this is down to me discovering Derren Brown. In a documentary he gave readings like this, claiming to be contacting the dead and using names, dates and things from people's personal history, that he always declared was using trickery. He did this to make people aware of false "mediums" but I have no idea how, if it was a trick it is still somewhat incredible.
I think I still believe in the big orange cat against my leg. I know that sometimes when I think about it I feel it, but am I conjouring it up myself? Because I've tried to work it out and there's really no way to know.
One last thing; I was in an exam recently I just knew I'd done awfully in. I did what I could and finished forty minutes early and that's always horrible because all there is to do is sit, stare at the clock, think about how much you fucked up. It sends you into crazy ways of finding entertainment, because of how lonely it is being in a room full of people where everyone else is silent and concentrating.
I wanted comfort and I was imagining holding a hand. Nobody's hand in particular, just a hand. I shut my eyes. And after a while, it was there. I moved my fingers around, feeling mine tangle in their's, feeling the softness of their skin. We played with each other's fingers. I squeezed and they squeezed back.
I have different amounts of belief in all of the above, different kinds of seemingly physical contact with an imaginary force. The hand today was not real, I know that, and neither were the ghosts in the school bathroom and the girl that died on the stairs. I'm still not sure about Ginger the cat. I know it's something I'd really like to believe in.
***
There were some stories in that I wanted to go back and change to third person because I'm so distanced from them it was weird to say "I".
In other news, this song has my heart at the moment;
I'll be back soon.
- Lizzie x
I believed in ghosts because we all believed in ghosts; how couldn't we, when they were a regular occurance in our daily lives? We all knew about the Moaning Myrtle-like ghost girl who stalked about in the school toilets, because we maybe hadn't seen her ourselves but people in the class who told us about it certainly had. Some of the braver children had tried the "Candy Man" trick, calling out an incantation three times into a bathroom mirror to see if faces appeared. It was Year 4 and my whole class were obsessed.
Then, one night my friend called me and she told me that there was a ghost in her house she'd met. Her name was Stephanie, a little girl who had died when she was pushed down the stairs. Her and another of her ghost friends protected the two of us; they had to because for some reason or other, a man called Bob who was also dead wanted us to die, he had been the one that killed Stephanie. I remember Molly telling me that Jane, who correalating with my weird eight year old obsession with the Tudors at that time I imagined looked like Jane Seymour, would hold my hand and protect me when I stuck out my own arm. They obviously never appeared but once in the classroom my friend told me that man was there, that he was touching my back and I could feel it, I could feel this pressure and this pain, it was so real that I didn't want to look behind me because I really felt his nails digging into my shoulders and I felt that I would see them. Similarly, Jane held my hand when I was scared. I feared her at first but not after a while. Her hand was cold and soft, her fingers very thin.
We were so young that it's hard to work out how long this odd little playground game went on for. Maybe a month. Maybe six. Maybe a year. But one day Molly told me she'd made it all up, made up Stephanie and Jane and the killer because she'd just wanted something to go on in our lives. At first I wanted to smile at her and shake my head because didn't she understand, it was real. I knew these imaginary friends so well. Then she told me she felt the same, that they'd become real, that we'd felt and heard and maybe even seen them and it was so strange because it was the strength of both our imaginations, childish faith and belief, things we'd told each other and most of all a need for comfort from monsters that had really made them real, our Ghosts.
A few years back I went to a Mind, Body, Spirit fair as a kind of experiment with my mother. I was too young to see a medium but she did. He'd known so many things. He'd known the name of her baby sister who died, he knew about a cupboard in our house that things had been moved in. He said that she had a daughter who got a funny feeling in her left leg, and that it was "the big orange cat" - our family cat Ginger died about a year previous to this - rubbing himself against her leg like he always used to. And that was true, I did used to get a tingling feeling in my leg. At the time we all cried and hugged. I felt so happy.
But since then I've started to doubt it, and a lot of this is down to me discovering Derren Brown. In a documentary he gave readings like this, claiming to be contacting the dead and using names, dates and things from people's personal history, that he always declared was using trickery. He did this to make people aware of false "mediums" but I have no idea how, if it was a trick it is still somewhat incredible.
I think I still believe in the big orange cat against my leg. I know that sometimes when I think about it I feel it, but am I conjouring it up myself? Because I've tried to work it out and there's really no way to know.
One last thing; I was in an exam recently I just knew I'd done awfully in. I did what I could and finished forty minutes early and that's always horrible because all there is to do is sit, stare at the clock, think about how much you fucked up. It sends you into crazy ways of finding entertainment, because of how lonely it is being in a room full of people where everyone else is silent and concentrating.
I wanted comfort and I was imagining holding a hand. Nobody's hand in particular, just a hand. I shut my eyes. And after a while, it was there. I moved my fingers around, feeling mine tangle in their's, feeling the softness of their skin. We played with each other's fingers. I squeezed and they squeezed back.
I have different amounts of belief in all of the above, different kinds of seemingly physical contact with an imaginary force. The hand today was not real, I know that, and neither were the ghosts in the school bathroom and the girl that died on the stairs. I'm still not sure about Ginger the cat. I know it's something I'd really like to believe in.
***
There were some stories in that I wanted to go back and change to third person because I'm so distanced from them it was weird to say "I".
In other news, this song has my heart at the moment;
I'll be back soon.
- Lizzie x
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Wakey!Wakey! - Tuesday October 11th 2011 - Night/Day Cafe, Manchester
Wakey!Wakey! is a band started by Michael Grubbs, a singer and pianist from Virginia. One of my friends introduced me to their music because she heard it in a TV show called One Tree Hill. I love their record Almost Everything I Wish I'd Said The Last Time I Saw You... because every song is just so different.
We were late for the concert, doors opened at seven thirty and we stumbled in after getting lost in Manchester at about ten o clock, but luckily they'd only played about two songs when we walked in, I'm guessing they started that late because there were two support acts and I think the venue probably had no curfew.
I'd never been to Night/Day cafe before, and it's a really special place; basically just a bar with live music sometimes, but there are posters and shirts and signed things all over the walls, and I felt oddly welcome even though I don't think I spoke to anyone that worked there. It held about eighty people that night, I think
Michael Grubbs played a keyboard, there were an arrangement of other musicians as his band that seemed to wander on and off the stage at will. He wore a plain white shirt, his hair was messy and everything about the show was so relaxed. He shouted across the room to a singer who'd opened for him, who was in the crowd, interacted with the audience, took pictures and told so many stories sometimes it seemed like he was forgetting to play songs. I laughed so much during a story he told about a karaoke bar in Toronto that there were little tears in my eyes.
But it didn't touch the music. Everything was perfect, the whole band in sync with each other and the violinist was particularly amazing in "Take It Like A Man".
Before we go to shows together, my friend Becky and I always predict little things that will happen, and I said he'd play an ironic cover of a song like Rihanna's "Umbrella". I was partly right, but it was "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper, which is even more awesome.
"Light Outside" had to be my favourite - it was two or three songs after we got in and I remember hearing those first few notes and just grinning because we hadn't missed it during the time we weren't there, and because so many people in the room were singing along with the song I love, and save for my worst days.
He did a meet and greet type thing afterwards, and as we stood around a few metres from him I didn't really feel starstruck or nervous, maybe because although I knew his music I didn't know much about the person until that day. I was planning what I was going to say to him and I had been throughout the show. About a really crappy night I had, about things being better and going home after everyone was gone and sleeping and listening to "Light Outside" and not knowing how to feel, but how that song made me feel like someone knew.
I didn't tell him that, I chickened out. But I did get my video camera and ask him to say something for my friend, who'd introduced me to his music and couldn't go. I still have it on my camera. We took a picture, he signed my ticket and we went home.
I wished I'd told him about "Light Outside" and how it's mine, because he wrote it and deserved to know. I kind of told myself that it was the situation, just like what's happened with me meeting heroes before, that the backs of bars and studios with people around are places for signing tickets and spelling names but it's hard to stumble out the words you really want to say, and I'm not sure he would have known how to reply.
I hope that Wakey!Wakey! stays at this level of fame forever, because it suits Michael Grubbs' charisma, to be able to tell stories and to sing songs.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Mostly Sleep-Talk
I'm feeling lazy but I didn't write a blog last Wednesday... or pretty much throughout November, but I feel like I owe my neglected blog an update so you get a list. I like lists.
- I am in bed and it is 1am.
- I read a book called Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's affected me in such a way that I don't know if I want to talk about it at all, but it's the first book that's made me cry. That sounds really dramatic, but the night I finished it I lay in bed and wept, not knowing exactly why.
- I babysat tonight. fun fun fun.
- Exams this week and next. bleh. But I booked concert tickets so things are good.
- Poppy and I are playing a show next weekend. That is exciting.
- Lolita is a weird book but so far good.
- Thank you for all your responses on Twitter and Tumblr and things re the Caggie interview. I still feel really weird about it.
- Coming soon: proper post of relevancy and conclusion.
I like you sufficiently.
Lizzie xxx
- I am in bed and it is 1am.
- I read a book called Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's affected me in such a way that I don't know if I want to talk about it at all, but it's the first book that's made me cry. That sounds really dramatic, but the night I finished it I lay in bed and wept, not knowing exactly why.
- I babysat tonight. fun fun fun.
- Exams this week and next. bleh. But I booked concert tickets so things are good.
- Poppy and I are playing a show next weekend. That is exciting.
- Lolita is a weird book but so far good.
- Thank you for all your responses on Twitter and Tumblr and things re the Caggie interview. I still feel really weird about it.
- Coming soon: proper post of relevancy and conclusion.
I like you sufficiently.
Lizzie xxx
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Caggie Dunlop Interview
Caggie Dunlop is well-known for her appearance on the reality TV show Made in Chelsea, but she's also a singer-songwriter and working on an album which I believe will be released in 2012. I interviewed her about her songwriting process, the impact of TV shows like Made in Chelsea, and was pleasantly surprised by the wedding song she chose being pretty much the coolest thing ever.
What can people expect from your upcoming album?
I want to surprise people, and show that I can really write, and that I passionately care about my music. For me- it's all about the lyrics. When they come together, everything else is just.. decorating. The lyrics are the foundation for me. There's a bit of an eighties theme creeping through the works at the moment as well, inspired by the sound track to Drive. Which is really cool.
You’ve been shown singing a few times on Made in Chelsea. Had you thought about a career in music before this, or was singing not always one of the things you wanted to do professionally?
I never thought I had the talent or courage to consider singing as a career. So I'm very grateful to Made in Chelsea for that, they encouraged me to come out of my shell- as the first ep season 1 was the first time I'd performed in front of anyone, my mum hadn't even heard me. But it's all about building confidence, you're never going to be every bodies cup of tea, and thats okay. It's really when you're performing your own songs when you feel that satisfaction. Like you shared something of yourself...and people can take it, or leave it. First and foremost I trained as an actress so singing has taken me in a different direction that I expected. But I'm loving the journey so far.
Why do you think that people are so interested in Made in Chelsea, and TV shows with a similar format like The Only Way is Essex and The Hills?
I don't know...I think it's the insight into other people's lives, maybe a sort of escapism from their own that makes it so attractive. The knowledge that it's real seems to be more engulfing; the pain, the happiness is all heightened because you know it's not acting. It could be argued that it ruins entertainment though, I'm part of the genre so I don't want to slander it- but we must always make room for real art in theatre/film and TV. This type of genre doesn't stretch the mind particularly...probably why it's such easy watching.
Made in Chelsea exposes, or maybe we should say represents, a lot about you and your friends’ personal lives. Have you found that people you haven't met seem to think they understand a lot about you from what they’ve seen on TV?
Yes, very much so. Which doesn't bother me, no one has been nasty, so it's lovely really, to have people hug you like long lost friends. I'm a very open person so its suits me fine. But it's funny because my most shaping experiences (for lack of a better term!) as a person, haven't happened when the cameras are on.I feel like I've already lived a number of lives in a way, and this MIC part is just one of them. But that's the only one people know. And I guess with my music I want to introduce to people the other "me's" so to speak.
Do you think that when fans of Made in Chelsea hear songs that you’ve written, they’ll look for some connection to what they’ve seen on the show? (For example, trying to figure out if songs are about Spencer and things.)
Absolutely. And that could be frustrating. But completely understandable. That's what people know of me so of course they will look for connections...I can safely say now they won't find any. Well they will, because they'll be looking for it, but they'll be wrong. I've never written anything to do with the show.
Who are some of your favourite bands and artists, and which ones influence your song-writing the most?
I've always loved Jessie J, and Rhianna. Bastille are a great band, To Kill a King, Sam Beeton, Ben Howard, Will Heard is a fantastic up and coming singer song writer so watch out of him. Marcus Foster, Fink. But I like every genre of music- the above are my easy listening regulars. But I love a bit of Chase and Status, Devlin, Tinie Temper, Plan B. And I love the old school song birds like Edith Piaf. I listen to regularly.
And finally, which songs would you have played at your wedding and funeral?
Easy, wedding song is Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap. Funeral song would be Youth Group Forever Young. Or Stay by Shakspeare's Sister. But that might be a bit haunting! No swap that for Where Do You Go to My Lovely by Peter Sarstedt. One of mine and my dads all time favourites. It makes me happy.
What can people expect from your upcoming album?
I want to surprise people, and show that I can really write, and that I passionately care about my music. For me- it's all about the lyrics. When they come together, everything else is just.. decorating. The lyrics are the foundation for me. There's a bit of an eighties theme creeping through the works at the moment as well, inspired by the sound track to Drive. Which is really cool.
You’ve been shown singing a few times on Made in Chelsea. Had you thought about a career in music before this, or was singing not always one of the things you wanted to do professionally?
I never thought I had the talent or courage to consider singing as a career. So I'm very grateful to Made in Chelsea for that, they encouraged me to come out of my shell- as the first ep season 1 was the first time I'd performed in front of anyone, my mum hadn't even heard me. But it's all about building confidence, you're never going to be every bodies cup of tea, and thats okay. It's really when you're performing your own songs when you feel that satisfaction. Like you shared something of yourself...and people can take it, or leave it. First and foremost I trained as an actress so singing has taken me in a different direction that I expected. But I'm loving the journey so far.
Why do you think that people are so interested in Made in Chelsea, and TV shows with a similar format like The Only Way is Essex and The Hills?
I don't know...I think it's the insight into other people's lives, maybe a sort of escapism from their own that makes it so attractive. The knowledge that it's real seems to be more engulfing; the pain, the happiness is all heightened because you know it's not acting. It could be argued that it ruins entertainment though, I'm part of the genre so I don't want to slander it- but we must always make room for real art in theatre/film and TV. This type of genre doesn't stretch the mind particularly...probably why it's such easy watching.
Made in Chelsea exposes, or maybe we should say represents, a lot about you and your friends’ personal lives. Have you found that people you haven't met seem to think they understand a lot about you from what they’ve seen on TV?
Yes, very much so. Which doesn't bother me, no one has been nasty, so it's lovely really, to have people hug you like long lost friends. I'm a very open person so its suits me fine. But it's funny because my most shaping experiences (for lack of a better term!) as a person, haven't happened when the cameras are on.I feel like I've already lived a number of lives in a way, and this MIC part is just one of them. But that's the only one people know. And I guess with my music I want to introduce to people the other "me's" so to speak.
Do you think that when fans of Made in Chelsea hear songs that you’ve written, they’ll look for some connection to what they’ve seen on the show? (For example, trying to figure out if songs are about Spencer and things.)
Absolutely. And that could be frustrating. But completely understandable. That's what people know of me so of course they will look for connections...I can safely say now they won't find any. Well they will, because they'll be looking for it, but they'll be wrong. I've never written anything to do with the show.
Who are some of your favourite bands and artists, and which ones influence your song-writing the most?
I've always loved Jessie J, and Rhianna. Bastille are a great band, To Kill a King, Sam Beeton, Ben Howard, Will Heard is a fantastic up and coming singer song writer so watch out of him. Marcus Foster, Fink. But I like every genre of music- the above are my easy listening regulars. But I love a bit of Chase and Status, Devlin, Tinie Temper, Plan B. And I love the old school song birds like Edith Piaf. I listen to regularly.
And finally, which songs would you have played at your wedding and funeral?
Easy, wedding song is Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap. Funeral song would be Youth Group Forever Young. Or Stay by Shakspeare's Sister. But that might be a bit haunting! No swap that for Where Do You Go to My Lovely by Peter Sarstedt. One of mine and my dads all time favourites. It makes me happy.
Thursday, 24 November 2011
New Forest October (1)
I missed you. I did.
Almost exactly a month ago, I went away on my own for the first time to the New Forest in Hampshire, the other side of England to where I live. I got scared, and lost, and into some sticky situations but it was an adventure.
Pictures:
Ponies, everywhere.
I have stories and they're coming soon, I'm just so busy recently. I've written a ton of half-blogs which may eventually get posted, and I have exams and NaNoWriMo and it's stressful but know that I'm still here.
I'll see you soon!
- Lizzie
Almost exactly a month ago, I went away on my own for the first time to the New Forest in Hampshire, the other side of England to where I live. I got scared, and lost, and into some sticky situations but it was an adventure.
Pictures:
Ponies, everywhere.
I have stories and they're coming soon, I'm just so busy recently. I've written a ton of half-blogs which may eventually get posted, and I have exams and NaNoWriMo and it's stressful but know that I'm still here.
I'll see you soon!
- Lizzie
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