Candy Galore is a sandbox of a huge music fan and geek living in London, UK. It is all about things I'm impressed with at the time & random bits from my life.
I could probably write a book about that. Back in my old days I would be spending my whole days on the computer, starting with morning coffee, then using it at work, and after that surfing and watching movies and tv shows at home. My lifestyle changed dramatically in the last five months, and as I just recently realized, my computer habits changed as well. It doesn't mean that I'm not spending almost every moment in virtual world whenever I'm at home, the thing is that this really is not that often. And when I am, I just wanna surf a little and watch something, or maybe not even that, because it's already too late. I guess I'm trying to explain why I'm not taking such great care of this blog as I used to. Here are the reasons, and recipee on how to become a lesser geek:
- Get a very low-tech job, where u can't use your computer, but rather actual papers and stuff. - Buy a mobile broadband usb dongle from the suckiest provider, and don't have broadband internet. - Don't have a proper table and chair in your room. - Don't have any time to relax and chill with your laptop. - Don't have any money to keep upgrading your hardware.
Song of the week just became a grown up theme with the 18th fabulous post. This time we're going to the past, which is highly unusual, but don't worry, we are not leaving the 2000's. We are going to talk about a dead man though. Arthur Russel was a New York musician, who died of AIDS in 1992, aged 40. I found out about him on Friendly Fires celebrity playlist on iTunes, and had to buy it imediately after listening to the 30 second sample. It has this brilliant, laid back stereo sound effects, which combined with his melancholic vocals, and sweet lyrics makes one hella good song. Record was released on the 2004 album "Calling Out of Context", compiled by Steve Knutson, and I'm not sure if I like anything else on it. This ambiental masterpiece has been playing in my earbuds for the past couple of weeks, and even though I bought a lot of great music lately, this is so far creme de la creme of my music library in 2009. Let's start a year with a dead man!
Arthur Russel - Get Around To It New York City, US \ Audika Records \ Wiki Sexy, erotic song, which I cannot wait to play at the "right occasion".
I found my new favorite TV Show! I've heard it's great from three different people, so I just went and bought series 1 and 2 on DVD, and really enjoyed them. I watched them over the new year's, which included a whole lot of partying, and it felt good to watch the show on all those "day's after", and further accelerate the party mood. Programme is very hardcore, made differently, therefore fresh, and astoundingly aesthetic to watch. It includes a lot of drugs, and sex. Would recommend to anyone, who likes to watch beautiful young people doing fierce stuff :) Trailer for series one is below.
This is 201st post on this blog. I'm sorry I haven't kept busier lately, but I think I have a few good reasons. First one is Christmas and new year's crazy partying, which lasted for more than a week, and it was a real hell-raising, as one of my London friends would say. After that I went back to my routine, except I was constantly tired, and I think that could be psychological, since I was again feeling a bit lonely, after my friends, who were visiting during the holidays, left in early January. I just now came back from visiting my home country for the first time since I moved to London, and that was surreal, intense, and a lot of fun, so posting had to wait until now. I just want to let you know, that the blog did not die, and I am still very much looking forward to post things that I came up with in time of absence.
I am amazed. Two absolutely perfect and fantastic songs have found their way to my awareness in the last month. That's a regular quota for the whole summer, if we really say PERFECT. I found the latest love on Kitsume Maison Compilation 6, which is pretty great overall, there was a Hot Chip Remix that I liked, and then bought the original song. Rob Smoughton aka Grovesnor is a british producer, who used to work with Hot Chip, but they split ways, and hated each other, until they made up with current members remixing this song. Aaaawww. The track is is electro pop at it's best. You can hear Hot Chip in it, which are quite spectacular by themselves, mixing melancholic vocals with funky beats. But the best contrast is that of a retro 80's feel good chorus, and neo disco electro sound, that is now breaking on the mainstream with artists like Justice and Sam Sparro. "Drive Your Car" starts off very shy and scared, but then at it's unbelievably good chorus, when you get to know it better, become full of joy and love. I love the fact, that I live in the city where music like this is made!
I don't usually get too much into politics or activism, but lately I am getting honestly annoyed by the laws, and by all the bullshit that is going on. First, and the hardest thing that I had to deal with is the fact that I am gay. I came out at a very young age, it was a hard era of my life, but am so proud of myself that I did it, and not live a lie, especially because I was growing up in a small village is Slovenia, and there weren't a lot of liberal people. Go me! The thing that I think was progressively discriminated during the last years, and that I want to talk about in this post, is marijuana. If there is justice to be made, law should either prohibit alcohol, or legalize weed, because alcohol is MUCH stronger, aggressive, and potentially dangerous drug. I don't want to advocate being high all the time, but personally - it's much bigger deal to get drunk then to get wasted. I found this very interesting blog, which got me thinking, and realize once again how my life is controlled by conservative, church going FUCKS, that can't mind their own fucking business, and think that their believe is ultimately and absolutely the right one for all people.
History of marijuana's criminalization is filled with:
Racism
Fear
Protection of corporate profits
Ignorant, incompetent, and/or corrupt legislators
Personal career advancement and greed
As I learned, an article from the 1934 magazine goes:
Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men's shadows and look at a white woman twice.
So fucking what? I would like to believe, that we are past all that, and that all people can ask that, but same twisted shit is still happening in stupid, stupid, stupid minds of billions on this planet. Look at that:
Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church was not pleased and ruled against use of the drug. Since the state of Utah automatically enshrined church doctrine into law, the first state marijuana prohibition was established in 1915.
Grrrrr, another religious repression. I would just like to shake and slap all this puppets of corrupt church leaders.
Recently added to the list of the great church successes: Proposition 8 in California. Wow, you gotta love them.
This is the most beautiful love song I've ever heard. It's also quite an old one for this blog, since I had it on my iTunes since the beginning of 2007. It became fifth most played song in my library with almost 140 plays. Surprisingly Gran Bel Fisher's album is not that brilliant on the whole, this song really stands out, and I just love the feeling of it ... it's so emotional yet not sleazy, guitars are dreamy, and the chorus is ... omg, so beautiful, and it get's better every time you hear it. It's not a catchy pop, but rather a slow grower, and those are usualy the best, because they last for a looong time when you realize their beauty. Very subjective "Song of the week", but well ... you'll have to just deal with it, it's my blog, and I'm not in the mood for being too professional :)
Gran Bel Fisher - Bound By Love Ohio, US \ Hollywood Records \ Wiki Song that reminds me of the very romantic relationship with my future boyfriend.
20 November, 2008
I feel that this blog is becoming more personal, especially with all new stuff that are going on around me as well as inside my head. I think I might be growing, but there is still a long way to go for me to become a truly mature person, as I realized just today. The big problem is, I think, the fact, that I still haven't completely decided what kind of life I want for myself in the future. There are ideas, but I will have to pick one, because if I don't, my life will ramble without a definitive route, and I might not like where it leads me. It is kind of similar to my two sub-personalities, which are this fierce & all fabulous diva, and a hopeless hippie just wanted to be loved and to have a roof above his head. When I think about the future of my life I can see me as a geeky, fit urbanism student, a hard working music producer, maybe a website developer with my own projects, or a ferosh drag queen. The cool thing is that all that is possible, but there isn't really room for more than one life. So what is going to happen? I think I'll stay on the safe side, on a career wagon if you'd like, simply because I'm too spoiled to ever give up my gadgets, and ... well I don't really have anything else of value. But when I think about my youth, and how quickly will go away, I get scared the same way I did when I decided to move to London. It's this not-living-my-life-at-the-fullest-extent fear, which forces me not only to change my living environment, but also my attitudes toward "weird", free thinking, open minded people. I have to constantly remind myself, that life can be WHATEVER I want it to be. Besides, I still have this weird obsession with celebrity, for which one shouldn't be ordinary. So do I dare to explode my weirdness all around, and just don't care, or am I stuck in the system of "climbing the latter"? It's not that I'm missing courage, it's just that I don't know which way to take, and when I walk on one possible route, I'm going further away from all others. Splitting point is coming soon!
Asians and Arabs are leading in progressive architecture, and this is just one more proof. Waterworld, about to be built near Shanghai, will be a resort hotel with strong ecological highlights. Set in the water filled quarry, this is a fine example of an ultra modern facility co-existing amongst its natural environment.
Can't explain, but this video is for some reason so appealing, that I can't stop watching it. I would love to learn how to do that kind of stuff, you know I have a thing for pretty. Those videos are cool, have a look at all of them. Discovered by: Jaka.
One of my best internet ideas was to create this blog. I can't explain what I'm getting out of it, but it's very complimenting. The number of visitors is growing and growing, and what surprised me the most, was the fact that even when I couldn't post a lot, You were still coming to the blog. I want to thank you for that, because I am truly honored. Now I feel like sharing with you, so I'm presenting the visitors statistics, for you to see what happened since I left Slovenia, and started my life in London. The green line represents the last month before I left, and the blue one is for the first month since I've been here. Click for the full size.
Visits per day:
Visitors' statistics:
Visitors' languages:
It was a good idea to write in English after all. Plus my written English actually improved in the last years because of it. It's not perfect yet, I know, but compared to the first posts it evolved.
Visitors' locations:
How did visitors came to the site: Images are obviously a big part of the popularity. Let's not forget my sweet Lucy, who's blog is a big hit, and consequently attracts visitors to mine.
Visitors' operating systems:
First post on this blog was posted on 6th December 2005, and that makes it almost three years old. I should throw a big party, and maybe I will. This is how it all started at my parent's house one weekend.
I am sometimes unsure about which song should I feature on the blog, but that wasn't the case this time. It didn't happen until the first "Song Of The Week" post with Uffie, that I was so certain which song I absolutely LOVE the most this week. I own it for less than 24 hours (incl. sleeping), and have already listened to it 45 times in that time. Robyn is a goddess. The Swedish singer, trying hard to prove that pop can be slick, intelligent and fresh, co-wrote the song "Dream On" in 2006, when it was released by the producer Christian Falk in Sweden. Now it is due to be released in the UK and internationally, and it is right now becoming huge in London, since I've heard it on the radio a couple of times already, two weeks before the actual single release. I saw Robyn live in Budva about a month ago, where she also sung this song, which I then heard for the first time. It is just so fresh, powerful, funky ... kind of "With Every Heartbeat"-ish, except it actually takes off on the chorus. Oh, and those high pitch sounds all over the song ... Seriously Robyn, I love you.
Christian Falk ft. Robyn - Dream On Stockholm, Sweden \ Data Records \ Wiki Robyn's gorgeous vocal with new fresh electro-pop sounds. As good as it gets.
This is getting very annoying. I'm waiting for the guy to come and install broadband in our house, and he have one more day left to show up. I can't operate without internet, it's like I'm missing an arm, and broadband is especially needed now, because I want to keep contact with friends back in Slovenia. I also feel very sorry for this blog, but I just can't post much at this time. Other than that, things are going fine. I got a job at HMV, finally got my own room in a house with cool flatshares, now I only need new friends. But the sad thing is, that they will never be able to replace those I left behind. Please people, visit me, I have a place to stay.
My lovely readers. I feel like I owe you, so we're having the first triple Song of the week post, starting with my current inspirational song, which is not necessarily as good as it is appropriate for me, considering the changes I made in the last weeks. I found myself in London looking for a job, flat, and new friends, and here are exactly the lyrics I need:
And I found that round here In this city That I won’t disappear In this city I got nothing to fear In this city ...
This track is currently #10 on the official UK singles chart, and was #4 when highest, that means that it's on the air everywhere across London, so it just might become one of the signature songs which I'll forever associate with my arrival to this city. Californian five peace band sort of reminds me of the brilliant Shwayze, except they are not really that good, comparing all the songs from the album.
Iglu & Hartly - In This City Los Angeles, US \ Mercury Records \ Wiki Indie extension of the summer.
Ladyhawke was already featured in this weekly theme, and right now she became the first recurring artist in it. Originally from New Zealand, she is now based in London, where she's regularly performing gigs with Peaches, and I can't wait to see one. Her first album "Ladyhawke" was released just weeks ago, and was praised by the critics, some of them even naming it a pop album of the year 2008. The reason I'm posting this song is again personal and sentimental, as I was listening to it on repeat while I was driving from the airport to the city, all alone in dark and rain, and was seriously thinking if I didn't just made a huge mistake. Ladyhawke, everyone!
Ladyhawke - Morning Dreams London, UK \ Modular Recordings \ Wiki Retro 70's harmonies, that screams LOVE.
Let's have our first trance record!
Not to give you the idea that I'm depressed and sad, let me show you, what I'm discovering on the other side of the spectrum. I've started to experience the nightlife, meeting new people, and one of them is just a treasury of new musical horizons. This is a band from Sweden, founded by two ex progressive rockers, which thought it would be fun to start making electro sounds. Now there is six of them, and they are creating pretty hardcore rave tunes, so my favorite is actually one of their softer ones. "Sponsored By Destiny" is amazing because of the contrast between almost popish retro-arcade-videogames sounds, and a serious party banger trance inputs and dance beats.
Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored By Destiny Norrköping, Sweden \ EMI Records \ Wiki Childish, playful, cheerful meets classic electro hardcore.
And a bonus! \ Aren't I just spectacular?
In case you haven't seen it before - Womanizer by ms. Spears wasn't a song that I would bet on just a few days ago, but as I saw the video for it I figured it's gonna have to be HUGE. It really is done exactly as it should be, and I'm sure it will put Britney back on top. Just remember that, I was right that way before :)
And BTW, I still love this song, seems like I just simply can't get tired of it. So I'm naming it THE song of the summer.
Sometimes I do have sentimental moments, and I can't imagine how much worse will they get, since I'm only living on the island for a week. It is definitely a thing I've never experienced before. People, come visit PRONTO :)
