music

I sit here, nearly at the end of June, and with the traditional Midsommar festivities and the Summer Solstice on my back, reflecting on the month that has always brought me both extreme stress and intensity, but also relief and fulfilment: May.

While you might think that the erection of a maypole is central to the chaos of the season, but no in fact this is not the reason. For many years, despite having danced around a few dozen maypoles in my life (with or without a certain frog dance), the month of May has always been a lot, and by a lot, I mean a lot. A maypole would be a walk in the park, but the ribbons surrounding it do represent a rather large amount of work, and so symbolically it’s very representative.

First up, is the musical commitments. Whether it be ones I perform, or ones that I organise, May is filled with music and the end of term performances. This is mostly done to avoid the crunch of holidays that come in June, and the end of school terms. This year in particular, May 2nd and 3rd vexed me with an international music festival that required me to recruit, train, and get recordings of a new composition in less than 4 weeks. We even managed to perform it in front of the school, quite successfully I might add. Props to ya mama!

Then we move on to the worshiping of my own true religion, The Eurovision Song Contest. While most other religious observances happen for majorities of the world, this is the time for mine. Step aside Christmas, move to the left Thanksgiving, take a hike Diwali. With two weeks of rehearsals, a week of shows, and a lot of reviews, bopping around, dancing around, and worshiping the musical lineups to be had. It usually totals to about 10 hours of TV coverage through the semi-finals and final, but those who are long time readers of this blog know that I used to do reviews of Eurovision and Melodifestivalen, but that has long since stopped. My commitment to the cause of the European Broadcasting Company since the mid 90s has never waned. Who knows if I will pick up writing reviews again, but the memories of worshiping and fanboying Adam Svensson, Jonathan Fagerlund, Oscar Zia, or Edin Jusuframic , or any of the other worthwhile recipients of my affection, will forever be held in my heart, and in consequently on the pages of the internet.

Then comes the assessments, final exams, and marking, marking, and more marking. The life of a teacher really starts to pick up and tighten up in the month of May, and when you compound this with all the other stuff going on, it’s no wonder that sleep is lost. Whether it be the exams, or the comments required for final report card preparation, needless to say it’s a lot to do in a little amount of time. This year, with final grammar exams to torture my students and demonstrate how much more they need to focus in order to pass, the turnaround was very quick; almost too quick to manage. Despite this, I conquered.

The only thing that I didn’t mange to fulfil was the deadline for ordering supplies. I was 1 day late, and I regret it a lot, but alas it got done. I welcomed June, despite the arrival of Gemini (which always tends to be rather fickle for us Cancerians), I managed to get to the end and conqueror the month of May. You might think it’s silly to think that the period of Gemini would cause some problems, and sure Gemini does get a lot of hate, but for me the hurt is real. Some people like to say May the Fourth be with you, but truth be told… Let the Force of May be Mine for the Taking. Begin copyright… ha!

Happy Hunger Games, or should I say, may the odds be ever in your favour!

Although it’s painfully obvious that I love Swedish singers, given my Melodifestivalen obsession and Eurovision bonanza; I need to take a moment to give an ode to one that some might remember, but perhaps not.

His name is Pontus Hagberg, as is more commonly known as Evan. He sang in Melodifestivalen a few years ago and although not winning, he made a stir for me.

Since then I managed to get my hands on a copy of his album Under Your Spell I have listened to it endlessly over the years but his first album entitled The Other Side remained a mystery.

I scoured the internet trying to find this album. I spent times on tradera.se, eBay, Amazon, cDon.se and I couldn’t find it anywhere. So I did something unconventional; I went to the artists website and sent an email to the webmaster wondering if they could help me find it.

To my surprise, Mr. Hagberg himself contacted me and sent me a copy of it. This is beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Something so elusive became so real and rare. I’m sure I’m one of only a few thousand in the world who now have a copy of this album which as disappeared into the hidden vaults of Swedish music.

The album is pretty awesome, too; Evan is awesome.

This is the third time that a professional person has contacted me. The first was a federal politician, the second was Jonathan Fagerlund who commented on my blog entry. Now I have a third, plus something else, and I’m greatful.

Three cheers for artists that stay in contact with their fans, no matter their stature in personal or professional life!

What’s up with it? I don’t like the way that it looks, it’s slow, but really I have no other choice since I already did all my MSN stuff. I don’t like how it’s so graphical as I prefer a nice simple quick usage for most of my things. Oh well.

I will try to figure it out and figure out why people are ‘Offline’ and still talking to me. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get all 243 contacts transfered over, but it’s terribly unlikely. It it such a bad obession to want everyone to be transferred over, but I will stick to my paranoia and whatever other weirdly obsessive complusive tendancies I seem to have.

On a happier note, it’s Friday, which sadly doesn’t mean a damned thing, but I seem to have gotten 50$ of my tuition levied because I payed it early. WOOT. How wonderful for me to save $50 that I have no idea what to spend on, except possibly my new computer.

On another happier note, I salvaged all my music since I backed it up 2 tims without knowing *hugs DVD in laptop bag*

Although the name of that song is by Madonna, I have lyrics from another singer/song:

Fabrizio Faniello – Another Summer Night, Eurovision Song Contest 2001

The golden sand beneath my feet
There’s music in the air
A guitar in my hand; I’m sure you’ll understand
All this is magic

No matter where the wind blows
I’ll always think of you
Stay with me young and free
We’ll live in perfect harmony

Another summer night here by the ocean
Under the palm trees you and I
Walking on the beach beneath the moonlight
Just like a dream that never dies, never dies, never dies

Blue skies all around us; feels like love is everywhere
Just a smile and our eyes
Will meet so we can feel the fire burning

A taste of heaven is all I need
I never get enough
Million stars, endless sky
With this moment passing by

Another summer night here by the ocean
Under the palm trees you and I
Walking on the beach beneath the moonlight
Just like a dream that never dies, never dies, never dies

I heard this, and it instantaiously sent chills down my spine and started me to think more and more about my feelings, and the ones towards certian people, despite being rejected. Why is it that even after being rejected in a horribly rude and hurtful way, I still feel the same? I’ve been rejected by feelings many times before, but this just seems different and I don’t know why, and it just just rips my brain apart becasue I don’t know what to think or feel about it.

Stupid of me to be hung-up over someone.

So tonight’s was really easy! We were given 2hr to do it, and I was finished in 1.15hrs, so I didn’t have much a problem with it at all, even though Í was panicing during it anyways hehe. I hate transposition, since I can’t do it as fast as I would like, as I get confused easily and doubt myself a lot!

Now I only have one more exam: French grammar, which I will study for all of tomorrow since I have the day off.

Here is my to-do list so I don’t forget what I have to do:
— Hand in mail-room form
— Hand in declaration of major/minor
— Go to the store to get creame
— Go to the store to get change for laundry
— Do laundry before Thursday night
— Make the 450$ deposit for the yoga society
— Retreive homeworks from Dr. Ionescu’s office
— Get mail before Thursday

Sounds like tomorrow will be nice errands, despite ‘down’-town being only 2 min walk from campus, just like everything else in this town.. 5min walk here, 5min walk there, 5min walk everywhere.

Besdies me blabbering on about nothing, just wanted to wish my friend Tobais a nice Happy Birthday, as it’s his special day today! =)

And also increased vocabulary book to about 30 extra verbs/nouns that I used/translated today with R. At least my sentances were getting longer today, and he seemed to notice and make his longer and more complex too, which was good because I don’t like to keep him waiting for my response (despite his busyness)