it was worth it

My beloved Summer Camp. Just unwrapped their Young EP from the Rough Trade package. There is a piece of review of the album on the price sticker:

One of the most enduring qualities of music lies in its ability to be transportative - the very best songs can take you, almost instantly, to a specific moment in time, or perhaps a particular location, even evoke a specific emotion.

Well, of course. This brings me back to the fascinating conversation I had yesterday on the effect music can have on the human brain. All that made me read more about the matter and more ... and even more... with all the fuzzy and cosy sounds of Summer Camp's EP around me (see the BBC review here). And then I was taken into yet another dimension thanks to this acoustic version of Was it worth it? I can say it's worth it! :)

The video was shot in Camden Town, where this weekend Amanda Palmer is working on a video with Tim Pope, as she announced on her Twitter. Let's stay tuned.

blueprints and plans

I've been sketching the whole evening plans for ideas that were cocooned in my head for quite a while. They look much more vivid when written on the paper. I like this blueprint. To London I also went with a plan. Or more a list. It was a list of concerts I wanted to see. The one that stayed in my mind, as I happened to mention already, was Clock Opera's show in Rough Trade East store located in Brick Lane in the East End. On my way there I was wondering about the identity of certain parts and streets of London. I was probably brought into such thinking thanks to Zadie Smith's book I was reading during my stay there and also upon seeing photographs of Don McCullin. Therefore I was tuned into a detective mode of sensing distinctive features of certain London places.

"East End  (...) was full of filthy people. Now, apparently, it was sort of place where perfectly normal people lived. A blonde in a long powder-blue overcoat holding a portable computer and a pot plant, an Asian boy dressed in a cheap, shiny suit that reflected light like beaten metal - it was impossible to imagine these  people populating the East London of his earlier memory." And his earlier memory would be from around 40 years ago. I myself found Brick Lane a perfect place to be and it was the only place I went twice during my short stay in London.

So anyway, the concert was great and I don't even have to mention that it felt like heaven being in Rough Trade Store that has also a small cafeteria inside (sic!). After the concert I talked briefly with Guy Connelly (vocals, guitars) and Andy West (THE bass). Andy mentioned that the wildest and warmest audience the band has met so far was in Island and also Sweden. Promising. So Finland: are you ready for Clock Opera to come? :) I am. And I will make it happen.

Meet the director of the Man Made video Ben Reed and listen to Opera Clock's remix of Metronomy's  The Bay. Brilliant.

sharing belongings

The best experience of my trip to London: Clock Opera's concert in Rough Trade East store. The best experience of today: clearing my mind. And my desk at the office! Both: huge things!



The video was directed by Andy West, the bassist of Clock Opera. Cool!

I store all my secrets in boxes and files
I keep my belongings with me at all times
until I can carry no more (...)

we move our belongings, we surround ourselves
with duplicate copies of books on our shelves
and too many mirrors combining our lives
until we can't tell them apart

milk & honey

I actually substitute milk with oat drink. I slightly warm it up, then add a bit of honey, a pinch of cinnamon and cardamom. A perfect drink for a sore throat. And for a general uneasy way of being I suggest Hollie Cook's album that Rough Trade listed as one of the top albums of the year 2011. Well judged and diagnosed. I feel fully cured with it.



it's time to laugh all alone in your room
if only you could shine through the darkness, yes 
hey in the day in the night you dine
and so far the reason you feel lonely
hey
you should try (...)

sipping Burgundy tonight

Feeling a bit like new here again after a few days off.



I'll need a little room to sway (...)
I am a lion, a tiger sleeping under my skin (...)

Meet the directors of the video Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.