2 Edged Blog

Some more CD’s…

• 05/02/2009
• No comments

I’ve just received some new CD’s from amazon, ordered sometime after christmas they’ve finally arrived, just in time to also serve as a post-exam present.

There is:

“Amos Lee” by Amos Lee

“Last days at the lodge” by Amos Lee

“Carencro” by Marc Broussard

“Summer at Eureka” by Pete Murray

“Where the light is” by John Mayer

“These streets” by Paolo Nutini

“19” by Adele

“Sister Hazel” by Sister Hazel

All of which are from singer-songwriters (of almost all flavors) except the last cd which is by a indie-country-folk-rock band.

“The Great Gatsby” - F. Scott Fitzgerald

• 25/12/2008
• 2 comments
• Tags: book, f. scott fitzgerald, Stuff, the great gatsby

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel about a man who accumulates all the wealth and possessions he could hope for but is still denyed the one thing he so desperately seeks.

Nick Carraway a bond salesman from New York moves to West Egg (on Long island South) where he meets his wealthy and misterious neighbour Jay Gatsby. Gatsby, renowned for his parties where the whole upperclass enjoys themselves, is, if anything, a mistey. It is rumoured that he has killed a man, has studied in Oxford and served in World War I, all of which turn out to be somewhat true or at least likely. Nick also meets  Daisy, his second cousin again, who is, not so happily anymore, married to Tom, a successful football player from Yale. After being invited by Gatsby to one of his parties he attends a few of them and realizes that no one seems to really know anything about Gatsby. More and more it becomes clear to Nick, that Gatsbys only goal is to become worthy of Daisy, whom he fell in love with before the War, and finally marry her.  In his shere shyness he uses Nick to facilitate a reunion and Daisy seems to care for Gatsby, too. But things go sideways, Daisy, driving in Gatsbys fancy sport car accidentaly runs over, what (ironically) turns out to be, her husbands affaire. Wanting to protect her at any cost, Gatsby turns it into a hit and run, advising Daisy against admitting the accident and is later found out by the victims husband and shot. His funeral is attended only by Nick and some old man whom Nick once met wandering in Gatsbys library, none of his business partners, so called friends or benefactors of his parties come, not even Daisy.

Fascinating about this book is mostly the narrative, which only shows us Nicks personal, imperfect, often incomplete and biased view of he things and more precisely of the mistery that is Gatsby. It also shows the ungratefulness and falsehood of the people that enjoy Gatsbys hospitality.

5/5

“We The Living” - Ayn Rand

• 23/12/2008
• No comments
• Tags: ayn rand, book, Stuff, we the living

Ayn Rands “We The Living” is about a young talented, freedom-loving woman living in the grim and repressive Soviet-Union, desperately and with all her might trying to preserve her love and her virtues.

Born as daughter of a once successful (his textile factory was seized and nationalize) industrialist, Kira the protagonist of the novel finds herself in the anti-burgoise environment of the Soviet-Russia of the nineteen-twenties, when returning (with her family) from exile to her hometown Petrograd. She starts pursuing an education as engineer aspiring to one day build skycrapers and bridges, knowing that she is meant for greatness. We then see the family’s decay as the conditions of living harden, greatly affecting her family, but leaving her semingly unimpressed, as she finds love in the freethinker (son of a Admiral who was on the wrong side in the revoution) Leo and meets her soulmate Andrei, a Communist and officer of the G.P.U (the secret police). As Leo falls ill with tuberculosis, Kria desperately tries to find a way to send him to a senatorium in the south, but fails due to the system, that does not value life. As a last resort she pretends to love Andrei (who fell in love with her) to get the money to save Leo. After his recovery Leo returns but is a changed man, he starts a business (as a so callled speculator) selling food stolen from the state with help of a corrupt Communist official. He and Kira slowly disunite as he also starts drinking and gambling, while Kira is trying to save money for their escape, knowing that it will not end well. But unlinke Leo, who has given up, Kira doesn’t and continues to believe in her dreams, sacrificing everything for them (best illustratet by the betrayal of her precious friendship with Andrei). As one of the revolutionist of the first days Andrei fits the longer the less into the party that has become a hoard of opportunistic beaurocrats only empt at improving their own profit and destroying lives, as he keeps on arguing his idealistic views he is kicked out of the party, discovering that Kria still loves only Leo he commits suicide. Having become emotionally numb Leo leaves Kira and Kira decides to leave the country, still pursuing her dreams with all her might. She dies very near the border, hit by a lucky shot of a guard.

I’m lucky that I haven’t written this review immediately after I’ve read the book, since the critique would have been slightly less appreciative, but I’ve had time to think about this book (and it does get you thinking) and some points I did not like now make me, in retrospect, enjoy the book even more. Firstly the portrayal of the living conditions is shocking and it gets to you, without being placative. Then there are the three most important characters of the book. Leo the attractive, first virtuous, but more and more disillusioned, and lastly broken man and one and only true love of Kira, then there is the idealistic, loyal and thoroughly respectful Andrei, Kiras soulmate despite their differing viewpoints. And then there is Kira the realistic but firm believer in her dreams and virtue, she fights the injustice of the system not by force but by not changing her beliefs and by an admirable endurability in the face of hopelessness. These three characters are what make this novel truly remarkable.

5/5

“The Golden Bowl” - Henry James

• 02/11/2008
• No comments
• Tags: 3/5, book, henry james, review, Stuff, the golden bowl

“The Golden Bowl”, in short, is about a young, naively innocent woman (Maggie Verver) and her rich father (Adam Verver) getting engaged (almost simultaneously) to two Italians (the prestigious Prince Amerigo and the staggeringly beautiful Charlotte Stant) who happen to have had a love affair (of which both father and daughter, of course, know nothing about), and their mingeled relationships.

Maggie (obvously having an Electra complex) neglects her Prince and spends a lot of time with her father, which leads to the Prince and Charlotte spending more time toghether (in lack of better companions) and finally starting an adulterous affair.

Maggie finally awakes from her naivety by finding out about the affair and starts reclaiming her marriage, by intrigating against Charlotte, seperating the Prince and Charlotte, and persuading her father to return to America (the story takes place in London) with his wife (Charlotte) thus also seperating herself and her father. The prince is quite taken by the new, matured, Maggie, and that’s where the book ends.

I can’t say, that I’ve enjoyed this book as much as I usually enjoy books, it certainly is well written and has an interesting style, which unfortunateyl makes it also quite hard to read. The plot is sometimes unexpected but the scope of the story is way to small for me, the implications seem quite limited, the book doesn’t open new horizons. (At least not for me.)

3/5

Awesomeness: Jason Mraz in Zürich

• 20/09/2008
• 4 comments
• Tags: 2008-09-16, jason mraz, kaufleuten, live, music, review, Stuff, zurich

Alright, firstly I want to apologize for all the errors that will be in this text (I hope none of them grammar or spelling errors, though), since I (unfortunately) don’t remember everything exactly, and did not tape the show, which, looking back, I should have done.

So, me and a good friend of mine went to the Jason Mraz concert in the “Kaufleuten”, which is a renowned club and lounge in Zürich, we arrived just early enough to place ourselves somewhere in the middle of the first two thirds of the hall, with some hundred other exited people (some more than others).

Image courtesy by evamaria_n

Opening (on 19:30) for Jason Mraz was Ingrid Michaelson, a New York-based indie-pop singer-songwriter (according to Wikipedia), she talked and joked a little and played some of her songs, I heard her for the first time and was quite impressed, she has a beautiful voice and her music is the style I like. She played (Please feel free to comment, if I have missed a song or when the order is wrong):

Be OK

Keep Breathing

Giving Up

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Image courtesy by evamaria_n

After that (and a short wile of waiting) Jason Mraz came on stage, together with Toca Rivera and Ian Sheridan. Here’s what I remember of the songs they played, the order is somewhat random, though I tried to order them correctly, that means, the songs are somewhat in the right place.

Make It Mine

Unfold

Conversation With Myself

Peg (A song by Steely Dan)

Remedy

Lucky (with Ingrid Michaelson)

Live High

Dynamo of Volition (A song by )

Mary Jane (A funk-song they had been experimenting on just before the show, so I guess it was the first time they played it.)

I’m Yours

Ain’t Got No Dope

You And I Both

Life Is Wonderful

If It Kills Me

Butterfly

And lastly some unordered impressions:

• During the whole show there was this guy somewhere in the back, and he was always shouting stupid stuff, he didn’t sound drunk but he acted as though he was, which was kinda funny at first but became annoying very fast. ;)
• There was a girl in the front who apparently had birthday just that day and her friends were shouting, that it’s her birthday, Jason finally noticed them and stated that it was a tradition for all the birthday girls on his shows to come on stage and get naked, which she then sadly didn’t do. ;)
• The last forth of the concert Jason played Ingrid’s Ukulele (Oh, did a mention that? Ingrid played all her songs, except one, with an Ukulele) instead of his acoustic guitar. (Here’s a video of that.) And I was always hoping he wold begin to play Smells Like Teen Spirit.
• Jason talked about our modern patchwork religions, using the analogy of a salad buffet, where anyone can choose a little of anything he likes and put it together and finally have his own kind of salad and be happy about it.
• There are some videos on YouTube, but the turnout has been way smaller than I expected.
• It was the first concert of Ingrid Michaelson outside the US.

So that’s all for now. I am still hoping that there are more videos out there, so I’ll keep searching and I’ll put them on here when I find them. I’m also hoping, that someone taped the show, because it was simply great, and I though I saw some one tapeing, so if it turns up, I’ll be posting it here as well.
I would also, very much, like your comments. If you have something to add or to correct, please feel free to write, thanks.

Review of “The Village Sessions” - John Mayer

• 15/09/2008
• No comments
• Tags: 2006, 5/5, acoustic, john mayer, music, review, Stuff, village sessions

Oh, just buy it, for god’s sake! ;)
John Mayer’s “The Village Sessions” is a beautiful, fitting, acoustic live album. I’m a little disappionted that it is so short (just 6 tracks) but hey, one track outshines the other, so what more is there to ask for.
If you want a post-Continuum live album, this certainly is the one to go on.

5/5

1. Waiting On The World To Change (feat. Ben Harper) (2:52)

One, Two, Three, Four…
This is the song with which John Mayer advertised for his 4th studio album “Continuum“, this live version is as beautiful and encouraging as ever, although not as rebellious, a little too smooth for my taste. (Probably Ben Harper’s involvement has something to do with that) But very clean, there are choruses in the background, I particularly like the acoustic guitar in this one. And the ending is great.

2. Belief (3:44)

Another song from “Continuum”, the acoustic guitars work very well again, this version draws even more power form the piece itself, the rhythm and the melody because the instrumentation is as sparely as possible.

3. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room (3:53)

This is probably one of my favorites form “Continuum”, though it is really hard to tell, since there are just exceptionally great songs in “Continuum”. For this song, acoustic is perfect. Since it is a kinda sad piece, the less instruments there are, the better it fits,  and the solo in the middle is even more beautiful, it almost is as if he makes the guitar sing. Oh, yeah, this song definitely is my favorite form this album. You should buy it just to be able to listen to this song, seriously.

4. Good Love Is On The Way (3:24)

The first Non-Continuum song on “Village Sessions”, I first thought this was a cover, but it apparently is not. It’s from “Try!“, an album John Mayer made with Steve Jordan and Pino Palladion. It’s a little more bluesy than the previous ones. And again, nicely arranged, but it has lost power compared to the Try!-version.

5. I’m Gonna Find Another You (2:47)

What is there to say, I’ve said it all already. The tuned down, acoustciness works great with this song as well. Above all with this song it produces a certain vulnerability that really fits.

6. In Repair (5:47)

Once again: Acoustic! I love the solo, the tone of the guitar is so warm, and it really starts to rock in the end. Great!