Favourite poems pt. 12

Ezra Pound - epigraph to Lustra

And the days are not full enough

And the nights are not full enough

And life slips by like a field mouse

                Not shaking the grass.

Woven Hand.

Favourite poems pt.11

Emily Dickinson - Hope is the Thing with Feathers
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Simian

Many, many years ago, when MTV still played music videos, there was a show called MTV:New presented by a blonde scandinavian guy called Lars or something like that. It was through that show that I discovered many a good band, the most important of them is Simian. Back in 2001 I saw the video for One Dimension and completely fell in love. Later that year I managed to see them live in Amsterdam (Crossing Border festival) and it was seriously the best thing I'd ever heard/seen. They are still the best live band I've ever had the fortune of watching, my favourite gig was at the 2002 edition of London Calling, again in Amsterdam. I think I probably forced Simian on almost all of my friends, and I don't remember a single person disliking them!

Nowadays, many people are aware of Simian Mobile Disco, but don't know that they were once a band (although the Mobile Disco is obviously two people and there were four in Simian). And even when they do know they were a band, this is usually because of their last album, We Are Your Friends and the songs "La Breeze" and "Never Be Alone". I love that album and those songs, they are wonderful, but nothing compared to their earlier stuff. Simian started out as more of an electro-folk outfit, making incredibly beautiful, small, heartwarming/breaking songs. Here are some of my favourites:


The Wisp


Round and Around


Turn Around


Over the Hills


Reasons

young person's guide to classical music

For a while I'd been toying with the idea of making a blog dedicated solely to classical music. I find the internet (and other media) to really be lacking in places for young people who love classical music to go. There aren't many blogs about classical music that I find particularely inspiring (although I love John Adams' blog so much, and The Rest is Noise will always be one of my favourite websites) and very few that talk about classical music specifically from the viewpoint of someone young (and by young I mean under 35). And I decided that instead of complaining about it I should just try to contribute something. So here is my new blog: A Young Person's Guide to Classical Music. There's two posts on there that I wrote today, and I will try to post every monday (and as always, feedback is appreciated).

I will still continue to post in this blog though, don't worry!