Nobuo Uematsu’s Favorite

Nobuo Uematsu claimed this was the most beautiful thing he’s ever written, and I have to say I agree. Here is an orchestral arrangement of Uematsu’s “To Zanarkand” from Final Fantasy X.

The Postal Service

I’ve recently discovered this group called The Postal Service. I recommend The District Sleeps Alone Tonight if you’re all inclined to give them a listen. Cool electronic sound with some nice vocals and thoughtful lyrics.

Random iPod Playlist Game

 Insight Scoop (one of the best catholic blogs on the net) recently featured the “Random Ipod Playlist” game, so I thought I’d give it a try. Here are the rules:

Get your ipod or media-player of choice, select your whole music collection, set the thing to shuffle (i.e., randomized playback), then post the first ten songs that come out. No cheating, no matter how stupid it makes you feel!

1. Yuna’s Theme – Final Fantasy X soundtrack

2. Taking Over Me – Evanescence (If I had any regular readers on this blog, I just lost them.)

3. The Long and Winding Road – The Beatles

4. To the Holy Virgin – Grechaninov, performed by Kyiv Seminary Choir

5.  Do Not Forsake Me – Chesnokov, performed by Kyiv Seminary Choir (again!)

6. Blitz Off! – Final Fantasy X soundtrack

7. We Can’t Be Cool – Yoko Kanno, from the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex volume 2

8.  Birthday – The Beatles

9. To Thee We Sing – Rachmaninov, Kyiv Seminary Choir (this is ridiculous! Is God telling me to go Orthodox?)

10.  A Moment of Silence – Regenerator (this track actually has no sound in it)

Ha ha.

Yes.

Gotta love the school boys.

A nice surprise

After a long and tiring day, I checked my myspace (yes, the great evil) messages and foudn that a member of one of my favorite bands had left me a note. Happy days!

In other news, yearbook has been an increasingly present and enjoyable hobby/burden. It has its pros and cons, like all else in life. I’m hoping to get in on Saturday with the other editor and get some serious work and editing done. We can only hope.

Since I am the copy editor my biggest project is the opening copy. I have nearly completed it, but I’m having problems. I have two strands that I like, but I can’t find how to join them and make the paper seem like one beautiful whole. Keep that in your prayers if you can.

Hope you’re all well. God bless and take care!

Quick Update and Death Note

I know I haven’t been on here in a while. Here’s the update:

I finished my UNC update on Nov 1, only to see that UNC pushed the deadline back to Nov 5. -.- Been dealing with crap at school and other stuff inside me. Christian life is difficult, eh?

Here’s the death note opening, now that I know that you can embed youtube videos on wordpress (probably old news).

Give me disease but not the germs

 More ThouShaltNot goodness.

Let Your Silence Sing

These leaves aren’t as loud as I’d prefer
This machine doesn’t love me enough
Tomorrow won’t see last year occur
And is the sun too bright?
This wheel is not sufficiently square
Is there nothing else to breathe than air?
This ground is much too hard to tear tonight
You can’t dance to this smell at all
This book just tastes like words
This house of cards will someday fall
And is the sea too wet?
These buzzing bees make too much honey
Why can’t this holocaust be funny?
Your love for me won’t earn you money, I bet

I’ll take the world on my own terms
I want disease but not the germs
I want the moon to cling to me
So let your silence to sing to me
An endless endless symphony
Till all I lost instinctively returns

Your teardrops cannot change the wind
Your hands can’t see the waves
The things I say can I not rescind?
Is every word a vow?
Why won’t this house provide me rain?
Why can’t this deafness hear me complain?
And why wasn’t I told that love is pain till now?
I try to stave off your anger with feathers
And I try to sleep but the days bleed together
With a needle and thread I would hold back the weather
But the tide’s coming in
And my courage was never brave enough
And my hunger never gave enough
And my abandonment never saved enough to start again

So I’ll make the world on my own terms
Give me disease but not the germs
I need your moon to cling to me
So let your silence to sing to me
An endless endless symphony
Till all I lost instinctively returns

The leaves cover up all I’ve become
This machine has long broken down
Tomorrow is gone, today is numb
And the sun’s asleep
Your wheels have carved a street so wide
And you’ve missed the point but still denied
In hopes somehow that all your pride you’d keep

Land Dispute

I bought ThouShaltNot’s latest album last night, and I’m absolutely addicted. It has a lot more guitar and drum presence than their immediately prior album, The White Beyond, I think, and it works. ThouShaltNot is my favorite contemporary band, so check them out on Itunes if you can. And if you know me just ask me and I’ll let you hear my ipod.

I wonder how many weeks it’ll take before I stop listening to this. I know I couldn’t stop listening to The White Beyond for a while.

Here are the lyrics for one of the catchiest songs, React:

My reaction, my response
I’m a function in need of x
Ask me questions and I reply
I’m never first but I’m always next
And we stare in our eyes
Never blinking and going dry
Do you care more than I
Who will get the last word?
And if we trace back the time
Who began with the first line?
In any case it’s not mine
Because these days I can only react

I’ll never speak without your lead
And I’m your shadow; I react
I’ll be the gear between your teeth
When you’re spinning, I react
You are the neutron at lightspeed
Spring me open, I react
But can I find the zero point I need?
Can I change it all and then take it back?

It’s so easy to shrink an inch
Or is this room growing even more?
And it’s so easy to light a match
When you’ve been burned once or twice before
And when I swing blind in rage
I’m in search of the first page
And when I sing from the stage
Who will get the last word?
You’re the one who creates
All to which I retaliate
But can I ever navigate
Another path than to react?

I’ll find where aggression hides away
Where my own two hands hold sway
It’s a bright and beautiful new day
I will act, I will act
Your reaction, your relapse
Out of love will grow collapse
Something somewhere finally snaps
And I will act, I will act

 

 

 

Seven Songs

Since Kyle so graciously tagged me, I will indulge you all with the seven songs that I’m enjoying right now. Isn’t that nice of me? I haven’t really been listening to much music lately, but I’ll put some stuff down.

1. “Crown Him with Many Crowns” – Glad
2. “King Without a Crown” – Matisyahu
3. “Exaltation” – Matisyahu
4. “The Projectionist” – ThouShaltNot
5. “Inside of You, In Spite of You” – ThouShaltNot
6. “Rise” – Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex volume 1
7. Session 4 from the Auburn Avenue Pastors Conference – N.T. Wright (Hey, Wright is music to my ears )

I now tag Mike, Mike, Brandon and Matt.

I am what you tell me I am

This is from ThouShaltNot's latest, Land Dispute.

The Projectionist

Sing me like a lullaby
And read me like a book
You can steal me in an art fraud heist
Just tuck me underneath your coat
And if you want to load me on the reel
And blare a blinding light through me
I'll be a silent film and you'll play the organ
To go with the pictures I show

But when can I feel my skin again
As more than between blood and air?
I am what you tell me I am
You make me an endless text
And you are my projectionist

Give me like a wartime speech
And fight me like a war
Invade me like the Middle East
Just bounce me off the satellites
But the picture's out of focus now
The blackout's all over town
So make me now a candle bright
And push me through the power lines

But when can I feel my skin again
As more than between blood and air?
I am what you tell me I am
You make me an endless text
And I am what you think of next
And you are my projectionist

Shine a light through me so you can see
Sing me in a different key
I'm your diary
Who's reading who now?
And who's in whose skin?
Turn on your TV
Broadcast me everywhere I want to be
Lift up a rock and find me there

But when can I feel my skin again
As more than between blood and air?
I am what you tell me I am
And you make me an endless text
And I am what you think of next
In the burning theatre I am blessed
For you are my projectionist