William Chong

Beautiful. (Probably unbearably loud in real life, too, but still.)

Genesis 1:20 – “… And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”

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Beware answering your mobile phone near these guys. Hilarity aside, great snippet of Le Toreador from Bizet’s “Carmen”.

via YouTube – What happens if you talk with your phone in a concert?.

This song by Damien Rice singing “Cold Water” caught my attention today for two reasons: music and spirituality (favourite topics of mine).

Firstly, you have to hand it to Rice for pulling off a unique blend of acoustic singer-songwriter and lamentations-style folk music. The passionate modernity his band puts into the performance definitely comes close to drawing out some sort of religious experience (particularly in this longer version where the band whips into glossolalia: it’s furious, almost Pentecostal). With an artist-driven song like this (i.e. radio-friendliness not considered), you’ll either listen entranced by the music, or shake your head in bewilderment/confusion.

On spirituality. When Rice is grievously singing “Lord can you hear me now? Or am I lost?”, he offers a glimpse into an oft-hinted-at, seldom-mentioned truth: that human beings all want answers to spiritual questions. The “O God wherefore art thou” theme is repeated by vocalist Lisa Hannigan, followed by a bridge where Rice sings this seeming reply from God:

“oooo, I love you
Don’t you know I love you
And I always have
Hallelujah
Will you come with me?”

Obviously each person will ascribe their varying opinions on the real meaning behind Rice’s lyrics, but I personally found there was a fair bit of insight in there by a non-Christian artist. For Rice, the answer to “Are you there God? It’s me, Damien” is essentially “I am a loving God, come with me” – a theme certainly echoed in Scripture (e.g. Isaiah 55:3).

It’s also the way Rice sings this section in a Leonard Cohenesque, basso profundo register (not sure what God’s voice sounds like, but I know he can sing – Zephaniah 3:17) that’s made me think about this song all day.

So what do you think “Cold Water” is about?

HBC goes to Impact 2009.

On the lookout for more photos to slot into the video, email me if you have some!

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Got a fantastic article today from my AWAD email. Motherjones.com has made a list of 20 interesting euphemisms that have been employed to describe the physical appearance of Britain’s Got Talent megastar Susan Boyle (you know the one…) – a little snapshot of the power of the English vocabulary (and the creatives that put it to good use).

A few highlights below:

… and how we wrote her off because of her not-hottitude. Right?

1. “The plain Jane superstar,” – Daily News article

2. “Like Shrek come to life,” – Rosie O’Donnell to People magazine.

4. “Plain, dowdy, unemployed,” – New York Magazine round up.

5. The Age of Melbourne let an imaginary Jane Austen do the dissing and refers to her as “ill-favoured.”

“Ill-favoured” – interesting…

6. “Stocky, beetle-browed,” is the word from The LA Times.

Do beetles have eyebrows?

9. “Hairy angel” and “unfortunate gait”Daily Mail

14. The New York Post gave us “ugly duckling” and “golden-throated spinster,” which has to be the most Brothers Grimm take.

Well her story is almost like a Brothers Grimm fairytale, no?

18. “Avatar of yearning” – Tina Brown, The Daily Beast.

LOL.

19. “Badger in a dress” – Wales on Sunday.

If you have been hiding for the past few weeks or just haven’t seen her amazing performance of Les Mis’s “I Dreamed a Dream”, you have to check it out.

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Who remembers this ad?

I think it was one of the first ones I watched when I moved to New Zealand. I didn’t remember it being so clever…

Since then I’ve gradually developed a preference for the Twix chocolate bar – but never say never to well-advertised chocolate!

Hope everyone’s been enjoying the fantastic NZ weather.

Other than random timewasters, I don’t think I’ll be putting anything up for a while – I’m doing some biggish, behind-the-scenes work on another website (nothing sinister at all!)

So in the meantime… here’s something for a laugh – Microsoft’s up-and-coming music making software:

I guess software designers don’t always make great lyricists!

Kiwi fans of the CBS’s Emmy award-winning show, The Amazing Race, will be pleased to know that New Zealand has been featured again in a leg of the race. In the recently-concluded Season 13, the 4th leg of the race saw remaining teams shuttle into Auckland and Te Puke.

In between shooting footage for the race, NZ-born host Phil Keoghan dropped into Burger Fuel for a spot of lunch:

Either they really really like BurgerFuel, or someone paid for a bit of product placement in Phil’s travel diaries.

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Comedic classical duo Igudesman and Joo have a novel method of tackling the massively-spaced chords in Rachmaninoff’s infamous Prelude in C-sharp minor (op.3, no.2).

It’s actually physically impossible for most pianists to play some of those chords in there: a quick look at the sheet music will blow you away…

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This is a funny one – “Take On Me”, the 1980’s classic by pop group A-ha gets a lyrics overhaul.

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