Music for my Monday: I will survive

One of my friends once introduced me to a cover of  "I will survive" by the Puppini Sisters, which is much better than the original by Gloria Gayner (or, I guess it depends on the occasion, Gloria's version is too much disco to be suitable for Mondays, but it would be the most suitable of the two for a Friday night).
Anyway, it sounds great with these jazzy harmonies. It makes me feel like dancing, not bad on a Monday.
(And the summery photo makes me long for summer!)

The Puppini Sisters - I will survive


[photo credit: Emily Golitzin]

After the quake

I keep forgetting to update my "currently reading" gadget in the sidebar... I am liable only to update it when I think the cover of the book is pretty. And that's why "After the quake" has been there for so long. Haruki Murakami is one of my favourite authors, but in general I prefer novels rather than short stories and that's also the case when it comes to Murakami. Maybe it's just because the stories are so weird and end very abruptly. Or maybe it's because they remind me of all the crazy stories we had to analyze and write essays about in different English classes over the years (while I read After the quake I kept thinking how happy I was that I didn't have to analyze these stories). 

This cover is so much prettier than the cover of the one I got (black with a pile of white stones - so boring!). If I liked the book more than I did (and I had too much money) I would consider buying this edition instead, just because the cover is prettier.  


[source: fantasticfiction]

Birds and mushrooms

Yesterday no less than two birds flew into our windows. Sadly one of them, a jay, died, but the other one, a little yellow one, was able to fly again after some rest. It always makes me sad when such things happen. I feel sorry for the poor jay, it was so beautiful, but that's life, I know.
The funny thing is, that while the yellow bird sat shaking in the snow another yellow bird came and sat just a few steps from the other bird and kept looking at it, like it wanted to keep it company. And then they both flew away. Kind of cute, isn't it?

By the way I found my sketch book, so I started doodling again. It's relaxing, just doodling while listening to music. I love my glitter pens (or maybe I should just say everything that glitters...)

Frosty flakes

The weather was beautiful yesterday. My favourite kind of winter is when everything sparkles like diamonds in the sun. I went for a walk with my camera, trying to capture the sparkling flakes.

Blackbird fly

Today feels like a Saturday for some unknown reason. Various covers of the Beatles' Blackbird have been the soundtrack of my day. I love the melody, especially when played on guitar. A year ago I played in a band and one of the guitarists always played this song when we had a break, actually I didn't know the song before I heard him play it. Good memories and a beautiful melody.
I had a hard time picking out just one version to post, so I decided on two in stead.

First the one by Sarah McLachlan. Extra beautiful because her voice doesn't drown the melody.


Second the cover (from the film "Across the Universe") by Evan Rachel Wood, because of her beautiful voice. Sadly, the thing I love about the melody isn't very distinct because of the instrument (accordion or something?). Anyway, it's beautiful too.


I haven't seen Across the Universe yet, but it's on my list of films to see. Have you seen it? Is it good?

[source: allmoviephoto]

Marrakech

Yesterday I read an article about Marrakech in a magazine, which reminded me of a blog post I read a few months ago. Both made me want to go there someday (and it's incredibly cold today so I wouldn't mind leaving tomorrow if it was possible!)


I could use a stripy pouf or two. I love colourful stripes. And the cute cat with the bushy tail!





And here is another set of beautiful photos from Morocco.

[sources: 1. 2. + 3.]

11.02.2011

Just noticed that today is a palindrome! I always find it funny when I come across a palindrome or something like that. I really don’t know why, but I guess I’m not the only one.
And now for something much cooler, I found while surfing the www. Like many others I am always fascinated by space and stars and I love looking at photos from outer space.

"The photograph attached was taken by the crew on board the Columbia during its last mission, on a cloudless day. The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting. Half of the picture is in night. The bright dots you see are the cities’ lights. Note that the lights are already on in Holland, Paris, and Barcelona and that’s it’s still daylight in Dublin, London, Lisbon and Madrid."

My first thought when I saw this photo and read the text was something like "wow, this is amazing! I want to be an astronaut!", but then I researched a little and according to NASA the photo is made on a computer (and NASA is probably a little bit more reliable than a couple of tumblr people). A little disappointing, but it's still pretty cool, I think.

And here's the explanation from NASA: "No single spacecraft or astronaut took this picture. It is a digital composite of archived images taken by several Earth-orbiting satellites and ocean-faring ships. Similar images can be digitally stitched together for any Earth location by John Walker's Earth and Moon Viewer website. Specifically, the daytime land images were taken by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, while the nighttime images were taken by the DMSP satellites. This image is different from what an astronaut would see for reasons including a complete lack of clouds and an unrealistic exaggeration of lights and contrasts. The image has become both an internet wave in that it continues to circulate as an attachment to digital correspondence, and a modern urban legend. Another image like that is Earth at Night. The reason for the image's continued popularity might be simple: it is really cool looking."

[source: NASA]

Em and Dex. Dex and Em.

It happens quite often that I judge a book by its cover, which is also what happened with this book. The first time I saw it was in a bookshop in the airport in Singapore, while I was waiting for my flight home. I had been running around in the airport for hours, just to stay awake, so I decided to check out the bookshop even though I already had an unread book in my luggage. And then the cover of this book, "One Day" by David Nicholls, caught my eye, but I didn't buy it (mostly because of the unread book mentioned before).

It's almost a year ago now, but when I saw the book again at the library, the cover still appealed to me, so I brought it with me home. And I read it - and finally, here comes the point of this post; some sort of  recommendation (which I'm not good at writing at all).

The structure of this book is rather special, as every time a new chapter starts a whole year has gone by, ergo all the chapters start on the 15th of July (or was it the 14th? Doesn't matter). In the beginning I didn't like that, but when I got used to it, it didn't matter that much to me. Enough about structure (this is not a school project, mind you).

We're following the two friends Emma and Dexter from their graduation and 20 years ahead, sometimes their paths cross and sometimes they don't (I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm finding it a bit hard to tell you the story line -  as I said I'm a really bad reviewer!). But it's not a typical love story.

The further I got into the book, the more I liked it - until the end, when the story takes a completely unexpected turn. It was kind of shocking, actually. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to the words I read, because I was just reading (surprise!) and then I read the fatal sentence and I was just thinking "WHAT?!", so I had to read the whole page again to realize what just happened. I really didn't see that coming at all. And then I wondered how the author could let this happen? So annoying. Because of this event, I didn't like the rest of the book, so now I'm having a hard time deciding if I like it or not...

I wouldn't say it's a "totally brilliant book" as it is stated on the cover, but I think you should read it, if only to find out what the mysterious event in the end was about.

(If you want to read a proper review, you can find one here)
[Photo source: the guardian]

Pink

Even when flowers are withered they can be beautiful. Isn't nature amazing?

Beautiful geometry

Phew, it's hard to start up again after a long holiday! Mathematics will be on my programme for the next few months. Talking about mathematics, I stumbled upon this etsy shop some time ago.

Geometric jewellery in bright colours would definitely spice up my math classes! It's a pity I hardly ever wear necklaces. Usually I only wear earrings, too bad the range of earrings is so small. On the other hand it makes it easier to choose. The bracelets are very pretty too, I think. And now back to trigonometry!





[source: spinthread at etsy]

Quiet

First day of February, last day of my holiday. It will be nice to get track of time again after almost 6 weeks of freedom. Just started on the last book in the pile of library books. By the way I finished "Everything is illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer the other day. I didn't like i;, it was too confusing in a way. Not sure I figured out all the relations. Have you read it (or other books by Foer) and what did you think about it?




Goldfrapp - Happiness

Oh, by the way I just realized that it isn't possible to click the thumbnails in yesterday's post to see them in a bigger size. Sorry about that, I'll try to solve the problem sometime. Take a look at her gallery to see bigger pictures with all the details.