The title of this post is a bit over the top, but it’s been an awfully long time since I’ve posted anything on here and things have changed an awful lot. At the moment I think life is too intricate, complicated, or perhaps just too personal to be reduced to blog postings, and who even follows this anyway? Anyway, I’ve decided to use this space predominantly for musical discussion from now on. It’s what I study, sometimes it makes me a few quid and it is supposedly my passion. I say “supposedly” because recently it has felt more of a duty, or an obligation (which isn’t an entirely bad thing, I hasten to add). Furthermore, I think music is the one true thing I can share in its entirety, especially over the Internet. So that will be the change of my what was dying blog habit; this change should hopefully respark it.
This last week I have been listening to “Teen Dream” by Beach House and this one song “Better Times” just seems to speak my thoughts at the moment. The lyrics:
I want you to know the truth
Cause I’ve been around before
Felt I was looking anymore
Been a fool for weeks
Cause my heart stands for nothing
And your soul’s too weak
Got Away
It’s been around for days
Goes far if you want it
It needs to be kept
But then you - you come around
Big Mistake
I don’t want to know
We don’t need the side
To know better times
Running around cause you beat yourself up
And you made a crack
And the one that you love is gone
How much longer can you play with fire
Before you turn into a liar?
I’ve been around before
Thought you were looking anymore
But then we - we come and go
Go up in smoke.
It’s been quite a while since I last wrote on here. The problem is nothing seems to be as interesting as it used to be. The last few months have been spent doing schoolwork, which never seems to stop coming my way; visiting universities and doing music. In February and the beginning of March I visited Surrey (and saw good old Amy, which was lovely!), Goldsmiths and Southampton, and after managing to bluff offers from all my choices I have decided that Goldsmiths is to be my first choice. It’s a little bit of a scary thought, living in London (and the heart of New Cross seems to be a couple of really wide, multi-lane busy roads), but I got the impression they were really serious about music there, so it seems like the best choice…
On Tuesday I had my grade 8 viola exam and I had a female examiner, which was a first for me. Not really a big deal though! I think the exam went quite well, but I don’t want to jinx it, so I’ll just hope for the best. I really can’t believe I’ve come this far though, it seems like only the other day I was struggling with grade 5 and going any higher than third position! That’s a string term, if it doesn’t make any sense… Yesterday it was Emma’s birthday, and we went to Frankie and Benny’s to celebrate, and I was really hungry and so ordered a big pizza, but then it really was BIG, and I didn’t manage it! There’s was so much meat on it, it was actually ridiculous! At least I know for next time! Fortunately Emma and the gang didn’t think I was a glutton, so that was alright
Sadly I haven’t had time to write on here for ages. I feel like saying nothing much has happened, but that’s not actually true. In September I went to Cornwall with school to rehearse intensively for Tommy, and it was a pretty cool trip. The weather was better than it had been all summer and even though we were staying on a secluded farm away from all society there was plenty to do. I liked the night time walks down the unlit farmyard paths with Alice the best. Here’s a picture I took after the barbeque on the last night:
At the end of October I went to New York with my parents and we did all the usual sight seeing, and we also did quite a bit of shopping. I took about 500 photos out there, but I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had time to look at them yet, so only my daily ones have managed to see any daylight. I took this one on the way to Ellis Island:
Recently it was my birthday and I had a quiet celebration at home and with some friends. The day afterwards I went to London with Joanna and Paul. A nice weekend overall…
I’m still pondering over which university I should eventually put as my first choice, Southampton and Goldsmiths are my two favourites at the moment, but I guess I shouldn’t worry too much until I get offers… Today I sold my accordion. In some ways it feels sad to have gotten rid of it, and a part of me thinks the accordion must feel sad being passed from owner to owner, but hopefully now it’ll be in a better home and someone will actually play him. It was, afterall, too heavy for me to seriously play, and it took up a lot of room, so I shouldn’t really feel sad. Perhaps I’ll invest in a smaller and lighter one!
