Don't leave or Work it out? Which do you like more as a title?

It's 17h33. It's really windy outside, and I think it calls for rain, so I shouldn't stay here too long because I didn't bring my umbrella this morning.

Well, I can't believe it, but this is my second post this week! I hope that this will continue, but like all things in life, one can never be sure. What I need to do in order to make this work is set a day or days when I post and try to stick to those days. That way I can develop a schedule and not be so sporadic with my posts.

In my last post, I listed some of the bands that have influenced me and my music over the years. I thought that today I would pick one of those groups and talk about the album that affected me the most musically, and I think today I will talk a little about Pearl Jam. It seems that where I am, most people don't know who they are. Well, I won't go into their history because it would take forever and would involve some background research on my part, so instead here are some links that may help.

Pearl Jam - Wikipedia (Japanese)

Pearl Jam - Wikipedia (English)

Pearl Jam - Official Site

To be honest, it's been a while since I listened to them. The last album I bought was Yield, so that can give you an idea. I don't know why, but for me, after Yield, I just couldn't get into their new sound, if that's what you could call it. However, I have recently listened to their last few albums and I think there may be some renewed promise, but for me the albums that really affected me would be Ten, Vs, Vitalogy and to a lesser degree No Code and Yield. Definitely, the first three were amazing for me. I still remember when I got Ten. I had joined a music club, BGM or something like that, and had received my 10 free cassettes, and if I remember correctly, there were some really nasty choices in there, which I don't remember or choose not remember and will never reveal to anyone. Needless to say, Ten was the diamond in the rough, and almost every evening, I would sing along to songs like Deep, Once, Black or Even Flow. They were all amazing. Then Vs came out and it was crazier with songs like Daughter and Rear View Mirror, and finally Vitalogy with Better Man, Corduroy, Last Exit, Spin The Black Circle, Not For You, Tremor Christ and Nothingman, a beautiful song that probably was one of the most influential for me melody-wise. While No Code and Yield were not as exciting for me, Lukin was and still is awesome to listen to, and Who You Are was really atmospheric, really cool.

Of course, there were other songs that I really liked especially State of Love and Trust and I got Id and The Long Road from the Merkinball single. Actually, here is the link for I got Id,

I got Id

OK, well I could go on, but it's getting late and I should get going, so here is the song for today. I am not sure what to call it as the title shows, but I think both could work. The song is quite mellow I think, and could even be an opener for a concert. I can imagine starting with that one and then following it up with something really heavy. Well, it seems that I spent all my energy on Pearl Jam because I feel I have nothing left to say except enjoy the links and enjoy my track and until next time, take care!

cheers,
alexander

Wide Open Skies

It's 17h59. I haven't been outside yet, so I don't really know what the weather is like, but this morning it was pretty cold, and I forgot my mittens!

Well, things are pretty much back to normal; I am referring to my cold, high fever, sore muscles from not playing sports enough and then my bicycle accident and broken bottle of sake. I have had three bad things happen to me, so there should be something positive to come, and I think I may have already received one - the deadline for my paper has been extended to the end of March, so I will have a lot more time to work on it than expected. I won't go into too much detail because for many of you who may be reading this it gets quite technical, but my paper will focus on modal auxiliary verbs and futurity, and whether the structure Modal Auxiliary + Have + -ED is acceptable or not in a future context, especially the modal auxiliary should. However, despite the extension, it may be in my best interest to get it finished as soon as possible because if things work out as I hope they will, I will become considerably busier in January, so I really should clear my schedule as soon as possible.

Anyway, enough about that, this blog is not exactly for me to talk about my life per se, but rather to introduce to you the Internet my music while keeping a record of my music samples, because so far that is what I've been posting here. Speaking of which, the song for today called 'Wide Open Skies' was another of many of spontaneous melodies that just came out of the sky so to speak. I forget what I was doing at the time, but I think I was recording something else when this caught my attention. I have to say though that it sounds a lot like Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam, one of my early influences. Actually, I was thinking of doing this later, but hey, what the hell. Here are some of my influences, and I will try my best to put them in order.

Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Oasis
Blur
Foo Fighters
Dave Matthews Band
Ben Harper
Rufus Wainwright
Radiohead
Coldplay
The Strokes
John Mayer
Jazz

I know that there probably have been many more. Also, Jazz refers to a countless assortment of musicians, ranging from Stan Getz to Django to Chet Baker to Duke Ellington, just to name a few. Also, and I will leave this for another day, I was not influenced by all the music that each of those groups produced, but rather at different times in my life, certain albums in particular stood out for me. Honestly, and this is probably a little strange considering I love playing writing and playing music so much, I don't listen to much music now. I sometimes hear things on Youtube or other sites, but really I do not listen to music as I used to.

Well, I think I'll leave it at that tonight. I hope you all like the song. If you want to leave a comment in Japanese, English or French, here is my address:

sneakergroove(a)hotmail.com

Cheers or Tchao, as they say in French.
alexander

song 20

It's 6h02 and it's very cold outside. Winter is definitely on its way.

Well, I won't be writing too much today because dinner is almost ready, but this week has definitely been a hard one physically. Monday to about Friday, I was sick, Tuesday being the worst day with me spending the whole day drugged up on cold syrup in bed. I did get to watch Lord of the Rings, something I hadn't done in a while, so it was not all bad. I even got to take a couple of days off work, so I suppose that wasn't too bad either. Yesterday, however, I was on my way home when I had an accident. I was about to cross the street when I somehow, I still don't know how I managed to do this, brought up in a drain grate with the result that I ate pavement hard. Unfortunately, the bottle of sake did not survive, nor did my pants, nor did my right knee and shoulder, but on the bright side, I was able to save a third of the bottle of sake, the rest, well, soaking my bookbag, something else which surprised me because the sake was in a plastic bag, and the plastic bag looked intact, so how did the sack end up in the bottom of my bag is beyond me. My knee has healed quite nicely although the road burn I got well stings a little even now. My shoulder, although I did not go to the hospital, seems better, but is still quite sore and I am waiting for the bruise to appear. However, what surpises and relieves me the most at the same time is the fact that I did not hit any cars. The drain that I brought up in was located between the sidewalk and the road. I saw that the light was flashing so figured I had enough time to cut between the sidewalk and the car to the crosswalk, when my bicycle just stopped and I went flying landing on my shoulder. I got up and walked my bicycle to the sidewalk, but not once did anyone come up to me saying that I hit their car. How I was able to avoid any cars is beyond me, but definitely the bright point of the evening because as the cars were stopped, it would have been my responsibility if I had scratched someone's car.

Well, I am sure that next week will be better because after this past one, it cannot get any worse. I do feel 90% recovered from the flu or the cold or whatever I had so it is now just the arm and knee, but it's really the arm that worries me more. I just have to be careful from now on.

OK. Due to having the cold this past week, I have not had the voice to record anything decent, so here is a piece from a while ago. I still have not been able to think of a proper title for it, so I went with 'Song 20'. It's kind of catchy, more of a relaxed song, but I can't help think that it reminds me something that John Mayer might record if he were missing a G-string. Let me know what you think.

Good night
alexander

the human life

It's now 6h40, and the sky is clear, but it has gotten colder these evenings.

I am actually at the office doing this. I had to come today to do some preparations for tomorrow morning because I was away this weekend. Friday afternoon I left with some students to go to a place I can never really pronounce correctly because it sounds too much like Nepal, with the only difference being the initial stress. The actual place is called Nepal Mori and it's often used for events with big groups. This weekend was the orientation for those students who decided to major in western cultural studies. There were some presentations about job hunting and exchange programs and examinations, but it was not all about work - I played some volleyball and badminton with some of the students, which was really fun, and it also gave me the great opportunity of getting to know them better. Unfortunately, I hadn't played sports in an ice age, so yesterday and even today, I hurt all over, and to add to the pain, I think I am coming down with a cold. However, all in all, it was worth it.

Saturday, however, was also quite packed because the morning was the continuation of the orientation, followed by a trip to buy some clothes and finally a party for the first year western culture studies majors.

Sunday has been a little more relaxing, but like all trips, you need at least a couple of days to take it easy afterward and rest up, something of course which most of us do not have the pleasure of having. I must say though that despite the pain, and the cold that will probably hit me tomorrow...hard, it has been a nice weekend, and I wouldn't mind doing it again. I guess I am the type who prefers to be too busy than too free.

Well, speaking of that, I should get going because I have to start cooking. Tonight we are going to have pizza from 10-4 (Yeah!), and to go with that, I am going to make minestrone soup, although I don't remember ever making it, so it should be interesting. The song tonight, 'the human life' is pretty catchy in my opinion. I also like the lyrics because they are not so straightforward although they may appear to be. I think this one though may sound better with effects and drums, but until I find someone to play with, I'll leave the song as it is because, well, I don't really have the time recently that it would take for me to add drums to this and although I started this blog so that it wouldn't take me so long to record and upload, I think tonight's video took me an hour, which is something that I can't afford to do, especially if things go well and I start school in the new year.

cheers,
alexander

your white knight

It's been almost 10 minutes since I started this post and still haven't written anything. I wonder why I have writer's block or maybe blogger's block is more appropriate. I just can't think of anything to write, or maybe I hesitate too much. Perhaps I should just let myself go and write anything, but that probably would not be the greatest idea - better safe than sorry, right? Of course, I don't mean to sound like I have something really controversial to say, it's just that I don't want to say anything that will make me go 'What the hell was I thinking when I wrote that?' in the future. I guess you're probably thinking, 'Well, if you are so worried, then why the blog?', but really, would a lonely video be interesting? Maybe yes. Maybe no. I guess I would lean to the 'maybe no' group then wouldn't I?

I suppose if there was something to talk about, it would be about 'Hanamame', or fava beans. I haven't seen them in many stores, but the Seicomart, a convenience store, near the place where I work has them, and I can't get enough. It's nothing extraordinary, just some deep-fried salted fava beans, but really, if you try them, you'll know what I am talking about.

Well, I guess I should talk a little bit about the song for today before I go, but there isn't much to say, just that I like this song, and I think it could definitely be an earworm. I think if I were to play it in concert, I probably wouldn't write any other lyrics, but maybe just work with those because I think that if I add anything to the current lyrics, there is a high chance of ruining the feeling of the song. Honestly, the more of these short songs I write, the more I think I should perform them as if they were dance tracks because often that kind of music repeats itself, but usually with good effect. Maybe I should consider doing something like that, but instead of using electronic gadgetry, because I am so technically challenged, I should just have drums and guitar. Of course, there is just one thing...where can I find myself a drummer?

Cheers,
alexander

she

It's 1h24, and although I can't really see from where I am, it looks cloudy.

Well, I finally went out and bought an external hard disc drive, so tonight hopefully, I will format my computer and send all the evil spirits residing therein back to whence they came, or so I hope. It will be nice to have a clean computer again, and I hope that it will work better than it has been recently. Of course, after formatting, I have to remember to do monthly cleanings, or I am sure it will all happen again.

Well, today's song called 'she', but to be honest, it is probably only a tentative name came to life this morning while listening to the radio. I forgot the name of the show, but they were talking (I am typing too fast for my computer it seems), about earworms or songs or choruses of songs that just stick in your head and never leave. Honestly, I think earworms sounds a little creepy as it reminds of that scene in that Star Trek where they put that thing in his ear to control him. Shudders. I have to say that in some ways what I am doing here is kind of making little earworms because I am not yet posting the full song, and have even been considering changing my style and writing only short pieces or at least simple songs both musically and lyrically. Of course, that doesn't mean my songs will stick in your head, although that would be kind of cool, but I do hope you out there will like these songs and maybe pass them on to your friends.

I also tried something a little different - animation, again if you can really call it that, but usually I just have a picture with the lyrics, but today I thought hey, why not? However, I will probably not do it for every song because it does take time and one of the original reasons for this site was to allow me to post my music in as short a time possible and if I start designing animation, well, you know what I mean, it won't quick anymore.

Well, gotta go and bring back some movies. I have been watching Veronica Mars (I for some reason call her Myers, no idea why) and finally finished season 1, but probably will not move on to season 2. Besides, I still have some Sex in the City and Without a Trace on Gyao to watch, so I should be OK for a while.

alexander

五時の人

It's 9h23, and I just got back from work.

Today I used my kerosene heater for the first time this year, so you can guess what the weather is like here - cold. Actually, it isn't too bad in the morning because I get a lot of sun, but around 4, you can start to feel the cold. I really don't mind it that much though, because I like autumn; it is the season that inspires me the most.

Well, this post is going to be really short because to be honest, I can't really think of anything to say, although I am pretty sure that once I post this, a tonne of ideas will come to me. I just wanted to post this song because some people have been requesting it. Like most of these pieces on this blog, I do not know if this song will ever become anything, but I have to say that the atmosphere of this song is quite soothing. I hope you all like it. Again, feel free to leave a comment or if you'd like email me. Here is the address:

sneakergroove(a)hotmail.com

Cheers,
alexander