Fall out.

I never saw THIS coming. Man, all I wanna do is stay in bed all day with Island In The Sun on loop on my phone. Sheesh, I'm supposed to be the anti-social one who keeps them at arm's length but it seems now I'm the stable centre of gravity. I hope they get over this yarn ball of 'hurt feelings' and be buddies again soon. Just don't make me take sides please. Thought I'd have just the room for myself this week, now I've the whole place to myself *shrug*

Is This It LP

This arrived in the mail today. I bought it on 31st July 2011 in light of the album's 10th anniversary. I feel that it is only fitting that the first LP I ever own is of my No. 1 band, The Strokes debut album.

Now all I need is an actual turntable.

Front & Back cover

Inside Flap and the record in its paper envelope

The 12 inch LP in all its glory

I've got nothing to say.

"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination"

                                                                       ~ Mark Twain ~

Dream on child of change

"Dream on child of change

Throw your javelin through the Sun

Pierce the hearts of everyone"


-  Wondering Boy Poet, Guided By Voices -

Shine your teeth til meaningless

Islands, that's what we all are. Some are clustered together, closer but isolated still. Some are so far out in the vastness of the sea, all you see is but the ocean right up to the horizon where it kisses the sky, molding into a hue of blue. So out of touch that their very existence is like vapour above boiling water.

Loneliness is one thing, but insignificance? Like an after-thought, it grazes pretty much absolutely nothing.

ANGLES (Arrived)

Damn, I waited exactly 30 days for this to arrive. So much for pre-ordering. I'm quite acquainted with the post boxes now and I do enjoy the lovely violin music the tenant who lives in the apartment nearest to the post boxes play every evening. I'm gonna wear the t-shirt to class tomorrow. Joy oh joy.

To celebrate, let's have this. The EPICest of live Strokes live performance in 5 years (or more perhaps).

Take It Or Leave It by The Strokes live in Madison Square Garden, NYC

ANGLES

Angles

(The Strokes)

Download HERE. At any rate, if you're a fan, do support The Strokes and buy the album. I've pre-ordered it so, yeah. Can't wait for it to arrive!

Track listing:

1. Machu Picchu - 3:29

2. Under Cover of Darkness - 3:55

3. Two Kinds of Happiness - 3:42

4. You're So Right - 2:33

5. Taken For A Fool - 3:23

6. Games - 3:51

7. Call Me Back - 3:02

8. Gratisfaction - 2:59

9. Metabolism - 3:00

10. Life Is Simple In The Moonlight - 4:15

Official Music Video for the 1st single from Angles, Under Cover of Darkness:

I am positively EUPHORIC. Pure bliss.

Ageless

*deep breath* The Strokes debuting their album on Saturday Night Live. They performed Under Cover of Darkness and the never before heard Life is Simple in the Moonlight.


My joy can't be expressed in words. I have tears in my eyes and I can't stop smiling.

Under Cover of Darkness

Yes, people. The drought is OVER. The awaited day on which The Strokes is to release their single titled Under Cover of Darkness from their fourth LP, Angles is upon us.

It will be available for FREE download for the next 48 hours. After 5 years they kept us fans waiting, The Strokes are showing some courtesy :)

HQ download on mediafire

And of course, while you wait for it to download, HAVE A LISTEN because it's now on YouTube too

LYRICS:

Slip back out of whack at your best 

It’s a nightmare 

So I’m joining the army 

Know how folks back out, I still call 

Will you hate for me now? 

We got the righteous advice to use it 

Got everything but you can just choose it 

I won’t tie me a puppet on a string 

Don’t go that way I’ll wait for you 

And I’m tired of all your friends 

They’re still at your door 

And I won’t, I better call you 

So long my friend and adversary 

But I will call you
Get dressed jump out of bed and do it best 

Are you ok? 

I’ve been out around this town 

Everybody’s been singing the same song for ten years 

I’ll wait for you 

Will you wait for me too? 

And they sacrifice their lives In the land of our closed eyes 

I’ve been saying we’re beaten down, I won’t say it again 

So long, my friend The sorry embrace 

Don’t go that way 

I’ll wait for you
I’m tired of all your friends
Knocking down your door
Get up in the morning, give it your all
So long my friend and adversary
Won’t you wait for you?

* * * * * *

The song debuted on the radio on Zane Lowe. Albert speaks:

Nick had an interview too. You can download it here.


Now we've got two new countdowns to look forward to:

15th February 2011 

- Albert says they'll be releasing a B-side, which will be a track from Angles.

22nd March 2011 

- Angles on sale in record stores near you :)

Right now, I'm positively euphoric. 

Jules' singing, the poppy and up-beat feel being an outright opposite to the sad lyrics, which you simply can't help but speculate it to be having to do about the band really & finally, the guitar riffs. 

Bottom line, I love it to bits.

Reflection: A loss of Order & other...things.

I've come to a worrying realization that I have almost no sense of chronology. It's bad enough that I have ZERO sense of direction, now the order of things is slipping by me. 

It must be the lack of a routine, that abominable repetitive thing we call a time table. When there is no reason for me to remind myself what date and day it is, I just don't. I'd tell someone of an occurrence that I believe I experienced yesterday or the day before when really it's just last night, or the morning of the very same day. Several times I've been reprimanded for my 'silliness' by my family members or friends.

But things will be back to normal once class starts. I'd at least remember what day it is. Haish.

Apart from that, I've generally come to terms with my fate to study Bachelor of Pharmacy in Monash, Melbourne for the next 4 years of my life. As long as I don't think too much of my future career I'm alright. I don't get all touchy about it anymore. At last, acceptance. It's also reassuring that a distant relative who has only graduated from USM, is now getting paid 5K monthly working as a Pharmacist in a hospital. He did his practical there and Hospital Taiping decided to keep him. Since I'm going to work for the government for 6 years, I might as well be well-paid.

I just gotta take things in stride and try my best to be as optimistic as possible. You know, grow up. Focus on the fun and try to remind myself that 'Free will' is not, by any means, an illusion. Not a fallacy that is ultimately futile. I shall not entertain myself with dangerous, more importantly, poisonous ideas of fatalism. It does me no good. Hopefully, I'd be able to rid myself of the fantasy that misery is in any way beautiful. My fixation on melancholia is an affliction. One, with a cure. Definitely.

The human life span is not all that long. I shall keep my thoughts of Death. I just need to focus on the more crucial areas concerning it as opposed to the defeatist inducing, uh, 'areas'. Constant vigilance is key.

Enough of me. What is bitingly worrisome to me at the moment is Adi. I shall have to leave him. It has come to a point where I, with anguish, blame the law of physics, nature or whatever that sees to it that Teleportation  is decidedly impossible. I've even succumbed to guilt tripping my elder brother to come home after his graduation this June. He is toying with the idea of continuing his studies to postgraduate level or working over seas for a period of time before coming home. Adi is hoping that he'd come home. So, yeah. It will be incredibly lonely for him.

We don't need another 'artist' in the family. Hahah. As Miller goes..."An artist does not need to be alone. An artist only needs loneliness." This, I paraphrased.

We'll just all have to stay optimistic.

Radiohead's - Optimistic covered by Hanson. Two words, ELECTRIC CHILLS.

This is my message to you

Help is on the way so don't fret. I may not know firsthand what poverty is really like but when I say I care, I mean it. Because those who matter to me, truly matters.

"Nothing destroys spirit like poverty."
~ Becoming Jane~

Now, let's have some Bob Marley shall we? Haha.

"Sayin' - This is my message to you-ou-ou,
Singin' - Don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!"

In Case of a Bad Trip

When I start brushing my teeth using my cleanser instead of toothpaste then I know for sure that I'm really out of it. Anyway, it was 5A.M and I couldn't sleep.

Youtube only has one crappy video of this song, so I made this. This is the only 12 minute song I've ever listened to entirely and liked. One of them songs that I listen to when I feel positively apocalyptic, among The Strokes and a couple from Radiohead of course. 

Oh, as for the Donnie Darko clips I threw in...I just think it fits my 'apocalyptic' mood. Snazzy film. Wrote bout it in my old blog here. Heck, I even bought The Donnie Darko Book. Wanna see the scans? Here.

Right now though, this song is one of the two things that keeps me going. So that I won't forget to breathe~ won't forget to breathe~

In Case of a Bad Trip  By  The K.G.B

Less Than Zero

'Disappear Here', 'People are afraid to merge on the freeway.'

I don't know why this novel is tagged as The Catcher In The Rye for the MTV Generation. I really don't. The amorality depicted in Less Than Zero unnerves me. It really is, very disturbing. 

The novel revolves around Clay who comes home to L.A for the winter break during which he spends his time with his friends at parties and clubs doing drugs and such. The way it is written, you'd find it hard to believe it is fiction. Other than that, the moral depravity of Clay's friends is astounding. 

I got pretty incensed while reading two particularly horrifying bits of the novel involving Clay's friend, Julian who prostitutes himself to support his drug habit and this other bit where Rip, Clay's dealer, has a 12 year old girl tied to his bed. In both events, Clay did NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING. With Julian, he just sits there. While with the girl, he just left! He didn't stop Rip or call the police. Who in their right mind would allow such things to happen? But then again, Clay's a junkie. I don't know, it's just, well, 'fucked up'.

What I do like, is the 'Disappear Here' and the "People are afraid to merge on the freeway.", when Clay glimpses the reflection of his eyes in the rear view mirror, when he saw his House from the hotel and thinks that maybe his dad can see him, and other such bits. Don't know how to describe them, part of Clay's psyche I suppose. I think they're brilliant.

If Clay is in a rye field, he wouldn't be catching the kids that are approaching the brink, he'd probably 'cut a line' and just watch them with apathy. 

I've downloaded the film version of Less Than Zero (1987). Planned on watching it tonight but now I'm not too hot on the idea. Because RDJ plays the character Julian. That'd be much too depressing. I'd probably get upset. Also, because of this:

"Ask him (Robert Downey Jr.) when the problems started and he says, "You'd have to go way, way back." Though, after a moment's deliberation, he cites 1987's Less Than Zero as a point where the ante was substantially upped. "Until that movie, I took my drugs after work and on the weekends. Maybe I'd turn up hungover on the set, but no more so than the stuntman. That changed on Less Than Zero. I was playing this junkie-faggot guy and, for me, the role was like the ghost of Christmas future. The character was an exaggeration of myself. Then things changed and, in some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to last." 

Source: More Than Skin Deep, 2003

Urh. Anyway, here's a song by Bloc Party dedicated to the main character of this novel, Clay. Awesome song.

_______________________________________________________________________________

P.S: I'm reading Nelson Algren's A Walk On The Wild Side next. Now that I've read Less Than Zero, why not eh? It can't be any worse.

P.P.S: Aite, UPDATE:  Saw the film. HATE it. Nothing like the book & Julian DIES? Wtf.

16th December

It's official, this Thursday (16th December 2010) my S.A.C.E results will be released online at 8 A.M Adelaide, Australian time, which is approximately 5.30 A.M Malaysian time. 

It all boils down to this. I've been trying to gauge what sort of result I'd get. Just so I won't be caught off guard in an unpleasant way. It makes me laugh that I actually applied for psychology to ALL of the universities. What a joke. Me, a shrink. 

*sigh*

Been sleeping on the floor. Reminds me of college where I just can't bear sleeping on the bed unless it's night time because of the heat. Hence, I'm pretty darn sore. Keeps myself from thinking of depressive shit too much. Also, mom's been shouting at me a lot these days. Nothing new but I don't know, I just wish we're not heading to a point of no return. It's like, she's either mad at me for some shit I said or did/didn't do or simply civil. She hates my guts and I? Just don't care anymore. The only solution I see is to not talk to her too much because if we do, 60% of the time she get's pissed off. Heck, she even goes ballistic if I don't talk to her. 

I'm the 'difficult' middle child. It's probably an occupational hazard. Certainly, I'm the one at fault because she's the parent. Children are ingrates. To blame parents for their lack of whatever? is a lost cause. So I give up. I just pray (somewhat half-heartedly) that things will turn out to be better and that I'd stop being such a miscreant. It'd be nice if I could resign from being the Black Sheep of the family and be more like my brothers.

Haha, some depressive shit this has turned out to be. I'm done. Aaahh, let's just have a cheesy somewhat funny song now. Robert Downey Jr. lip syncing Elton John's 'I Want Love'. Ain't a parody, it's the real MV.