This is the New Year!

Hello again at the end of another year! Too fast, way too fast. Too many good things happened this year, and too many things to be thankful for. 

Like every other year, there have been new experiences, new people, hellos and goodbyes and plans that worked and plans that didn't work out. But I know that He has been there through it all. 

I.Can.Guarantee.That.

So, I'm going to skip the retrospecting I usually do in my usual year end blog posts. Instead of the 2000 word essays on life, this year I'm sharing some motivating lyrics by Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino. Here's an exciting song to bring in the new year. :)

Another year you made a promise

Another chance to turn it all around
And do not save this for tomorrow
Embrace the past and you can live for now
And I will give the world to you

Speak louder than the words before you

And give them meaning no one else has found

The role we play is so important

We are the voices of the underground

And I will give the world to you

Say everything you've always wanted

Be not afraid of who you really are

'Cause in the end we have each other

And that's at least one thing worth living for

And I will give the world to you

Noted Finds 03

Past posts- Noted Finds 01, Noted Finds 02

One of my favourite things to do is discover new music. I can sit for hours and hours on music blogs. YouTube suggestions let me wander through all possible genres. I start off with alternative or classical or some of the popular sides of indie and always reach this really cool side of YouTube from where I have discovered Marble Sounds, The Narrative, The Cinnamatic Orchestra, Mogwai, The Best Pessimist and other beautiful bands that I wish were not so unknown. Yet, in a way I'm a bit happy that they are unknown because then I feel like part of a small privileged few. 

Today's selection, however is not all from that 'special' side of YouTube, and are not all new groups, but are new finds. My music discoveries the past month has had a few standouts. Here they are:

Arcade Fire- Reflektor / Photograph

I know what you are thinking- this band is not at all new. They have been around for almost a decade. But their new album Reflektor with it's varied track list of great vocals and accompaniment from the talented bunch of seven came out last year with some very good reviews.

But the reason I've included this group in my list is for their amazing soundtrack to Spike Jonze's recent movie, Her. I just loved the simplicity of the soundtrack and how closely it intertwined into the script. I've posted a clip from the movie with the piece 'Photograph' so you can see just how well the two were amalgamated.

Sleeping At Last- Snow

What a beautiful find this was. I was watching some modern choreography one day and this song was what they were dancing to. Sublime. The band is a solo project by the super talented Ryan O'Neill. Sometimes his brother helps out too. I went through some of the older tracks. Such interesting ideas for EPs. I liked 'Atlas' the most. Each track transported me into space. I could fall asleep to them drifting off past stars and planets.

X Ambassadors- Unconsolable

I only found this group yesterday. I was mostly of the opinion that the new alternative rock groups were far inferior to the older bands, but after listening to their 2012 album, 'Litost', my thoughts have changed a bit.

Here's a song from their newest album, "Love Songs, Drug Songs'
Read an interview of them on TheMusicNinja here.

Laura Mvula- Green Garden

What a voice. So soulful. The singles she's released are far from the usual mellowness of soul music commonly tagged retro soul. Her music is the perfect foot tapping initiator. So much so, that I always feel like getting up and dancing. Almost.

'Nobody out there, but it's okay now. Bath in the sunlight, don't mind if rain falls...'

Finally, to complete this list,

LAYLA- Yellow Circles

Totally random find. Only a few tracks to her name, but each praiseworthy. Waiting for more from her. Website- here

(all images are from various sources and not my property)

Noted Finds 02

Some noteworthy music finds from November. This list is quite a mellow collection- the kind of music I like to listen to while I work and when I travel on the bus. Unless I start feeling sleepy- then it's a quick jump to something loud and peppy to wake me up. :)

Half Moon Run- Full Circle

This fresh indie-folk piece is from the only album by the Canadian band. The harmony intertwined with the mandolin and percussion riffs, the vintage overlay video and the deep lyrics, "And the riddles in the pages leave at too much to guess. And the worry cracks a fracture from your hip to your chest" creates quite a beautiful song.

London Grammar- Metal and Dust

I'm not the biggest fan of the genre trip-hop, but the sublime vocals of the vocalist, Hannah Reid is quite soothing and the same mood resonates in the other tracks of their first album, 'If You Wait' released this year.

The Neighbourhood- Flawless

I had listened to 'Sweater Weather' many times before. Although I really liked it, I didn't actually check up on the band till recently. The alternative band was formed a few years ago, but their first album came out this year. I love the mellow tones and the underlying tempo in their music. Sounds equally good on low and high volume. 

The Night VI- Thinking of You

Sometimes YouTube knows what music to suggest. This was one of those times. Classified as melancholic pop, this new band has similar soft tones to London Grammar. The group of 6 filmed the video for this song in the majestic ruins of the Tintern Abbey. Perfect setting.

Brian Crain- Dream of Flying

To sum up this list, I chose a piano composer. I came across him just through random YouTube browsing on a very lovely side of YouTube. His music is so soothing, perfect lullaby, bus-travelling music. 

(all images are from various sources and not my property)

Noted Finds 01

It's been a while since I've had a music post. The thing is, I listen to so much music; so many new songs, new bands and new styles and new genres, it's always hard to choose one to feature.

Over the past year, I've sort of kept a track of my new music discoveries by filling up the inbox of several friends on Facebook. But today I decided to start sharing them here once in a while.

Out of the stuff I found the last couple of weeks, these are some that stood out.

Clean Bandits - Dust Clears

This piece is quite a crazy fusion of genres. I didn't fully appreciate it the first time I listened to it, but it has grown on me. The video concept is equally strange- geometric food, Mormon dude ice skating and the percussion in the snow.  

Amber - Hide and Seek

When I was reading up about Clean Bandits, I found this great site for new music- Origin Music, which pretty much satisfied my new music needs for the week. I was most impressed with the calming harmony of Amber in their cover of Imogen Heap's 'Hide and Seek'. I could fall asleep to it.

Usman Riaz - Firefly

This was quite a cool find. We were watching TED talks one evening and ended up watching his (here). Such a prodigy. He totally reminded me of a real life August Rush- the number of instruments he plays, the composing, the tones, and rhythms. Was quite awed.

Lorde - Buzzcut Season

I actually heard Walk Off the Earth's cover of Royals before I heard the original. And since then I've heard the song on the radio almost everyday. She's 17 and reminds me of Birdy, although their styles are different. Her new album 'Pure Heroine' was released this month. I love it.

Pslams 100 - Beautiful Things

And to wrap up the list is one I found today. My cousins and I are singing at church this week and we decided to do Gungor's 'Beautiful Things' and I found this cover. The a capella is just so beautiful. The group from the University of North Carolina does some great covers of not just Christian music. Listen to their version of Mumford and Sons' Cave too (link here)

And for some reason, Blogger doesn't want me to embed the video- so here is 'Beautiful Things'

Hope the next week brings in some more good new music. :) Happy listening.

(all images are from various sources and not my property)

To Travel is to Possess the World

Lunchtimes at work is reading time for me. I just finished Thomas Heatherwick's gigantic encyclopedia of all his crazy projects and today I picked up Burton Holmes' "Early Travel Photography"; a photologue of some of his early travelling. The prologue of the book is one of the truest and most apt travel pieces I've read. I just had to share it.




To Travel is to Possess the World

"These words I have set down in many an autograph collector’s book.

They are, I think, true words. I know that through travel I have possessed the world more completely, more satisfyingly than if I had acquired the whole earth by purchase or by conquest. There is no implication of selfishness in the kind of possession of which I speak. Whoever possesses the world through travel takes naught from any man. No one is the poorer because you have made the whole world yours.

You have gained everything, but you are no monopolist. The wealth is there for all to share. It is not yours alone. You may invite all men and women to travel with you in imagination and they too may feel that they, like you, are rich in vivid mental pictures of places worth going to, of people worth knowing, of things that are world famous.

I have tried to convey to others with the spoken word the enthusiasm for travel that has been mine. I have done my best to make my hearers SEE the things that have thrilled me in the course of my more than sixty years of travel.

Now I am asked to do this without the aid of pictures glowing on a screen, without the help of the spoken words which can be made to mean as much by a shading of a tone or the stress of an inflection. Now I am at work with nothing but a sheet of paper and a pen to help me re-create the atmosphere of “otherwhere,” to help me make real to those who have not seen, the things which I have seen and can still see so vividly with the mind’s eye.

Word pictures are hard to paint. We are told that “words are the only things that last forever.” Therefore words should be the most durable pigments with which to paint pictures of the things that have seemed worthwhile, the things that have become one’s property, in the sense in which travel endows one with a title deed to the entire world.

One great advantage of possessing the world through travel is that one may enjoy all the satisfaction of possession without the responsibilities of ownership. Now, in days when our most valuable assets become or threaten to become our most crushing liabilities, it is good to contemplate property which cannot depreciate but must increase in value, property which cannot be taxed by federal government, or state or city authorities, property which calls for no repairs or alterations.

Everything from real estate to diamond tiaras has had its vaunted worth reduced to pitiful and sometimes complete inconsequence. Stocks, bonds, and all manner of gilt-edged, beautifully engraved certificates of value, to secure which we have slaved and saved and denied ourselves the joys of travel, may sink in worth to such a point that it will seem absurd to pay the rental charges on a safe deposit box.

The only things which are still worth what they have cost me are my travel memories, the mind-pictures of places which I have been hoarding like a happy miser for more than half a century.

I have done my best to convey with “word pictures” the things I have seen and can still see. I have been aided by all the increasing wonders and beauties of photography. I still recall with pleasure my first camera, a heavy clumsy box with six double holders for 4×5 glass plates purchased in 1883 with my life savings of $10.00.

In the past I have reproached myself for my extravagance, my lack of foresight, for my disregard of proper provision for the future. My wise friends saved and economised, went without things they wanted, denied themselves the costlier pleasures of the table, the bouquet of vintage wines and the, to me, supreme joy of going places and seeing things.

And now where are we? We, they and I, are all at the same dead-end of life’s highway. They are weighted down by all the leaden burdens of their golden hopes gone wrong. They have their memories, but these are memories of wise, dull and frugal days of piling up with hard earned dollars in safe places where those dollars would increase and multiply and be there to console for all the pleasures that their owners had denied themselves and all the fun that they had missed.

I, too, have nothing but my memories but I would not exchange my memories for theirs. I have a secret treasure upon which I can draw at will. I can bring forth, on the darkest day, bright diamonds of remembered joys, diamonds whose many facets reflect some happy dream come true, a small ambition gratified, a long-sought sensation, caught and savoured to the full, a little journey made, an expedition carried to success, several circumnavigations of the world accomplished.

Yes, it has been a good life. And it is good to rest, with nearly all of one’s dreams realized. Dreams of going, seeing and doing most of the things that seemed worthwhile – good to know that I have, in my own way, possessed the world."

- Burton Holmes 1953


I would have typed it out myself, but was lucky enough to find it on this blog- 'I Will See the World'- another inspiring traveller with tonnes of interesting stories.

SATB and a Beat-Boxer

I've grown up in a family of singers. We had enough singers and a pretty much equal distribution of vocal parts to form a family choir. In fact, for one wedding all the music was sung by our choir. 

Even the four of us at home love singing quartets. Despite fighting over parts and arguing over what arrangement sounds better, my parents and brother are my favourite people to sing with.

Of late, I've started loving groups that sing a cappella (voices and no instruments). And this isn't just the usual 4 part harmony, but a superb addition of beat-boxing and vocal percussion which often sounds like a full blown orchestral backup. 

Here are some of my recent favourites:

PENTATONIX:

The group of 5 won The Sing Off in 2011 and have since released 2 albums and a number of singles. They stepped out of their a cappella zone recently and added a cello and violin in one of their covers.

My favourite by far is their version of 'Carol of the Bells' It was in my head the entire December.

I am not a fan of the genres; electronic dance or house, but this mashup of two popular songs by Swedish House Mafia is pretty awesome. 

PERPETUUM JAZZILE:

I would move to Slovenia just to join this choir. Their energy shows just how much they are enjoying themselves. They have such innovative arrangements and some really talented soloists. Their conductor is brilliant (no question where they choir gets their energy from). I think they should do 'Bohemian Rhapsody' next.

Their most famous song is their cover of Toto's 'Africa'. I listened to it with my eyes closed to realise how realistic they sound. 

This cover of Rihanna and Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' is my favourite. I've tried to count how many parts there are, but in vain. What a performance!

Just recently, they released their first music video. A mashup of some of the greatest hits of ABBA.
P.S These people even dress really well!

ECLIPSE:

This group has been singing together for over a decade. So many great covers. I just wish these groups would start composing their own stuff.

In this one they sang along with Jake Coco.

WALK OFF THE EARTH:

This group rose in popularity when their cover of Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used to Know' with their 5 members playing one guitar created a storm on YouTube. I love all their crazy videos and catchy covers, though only a few are a capella. They are quite a fun bunch. 

THE RESCUES:

These indie group is not really an a cappella group, but they have perfect harmony in all their music. Here's one song that is a cappella. Such perfection.

#100 - Painting, Portfolios and Summer Weather

This post marks a big milestone- the 100th post! 

I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to come up with an interesting enough post to mark this event, but sadly, had no such inspiration. 

My parents thought I should blog about my new job, but sadly I don't have one yet. Having sent out my job applications just a few days ago, I'm still waiting for replies. Oh, just in case any of you readers are architects and are recruiting, here are my portfolios- semester 1-9 and semester 10. :)

A couple of weeks ago, The Renegade Arts and Theatre Society put up a production of Paula Vogel's 'How I Learned to Drive'. It was great fun working on the production from stage design to actually painting the backdrop. It was a bit of a risk volunteering to paint 32 ' x 12' of canvas, considering my not-so-great talent of painting and the four days I had before show day. It finally took two of us, a LOT of paint, worn out rollers, a couple of bottles of turpentine, two and a half days to complete it. It looked better than I expected it to look on stage. I guess it was all worth it. 

After such a successful production, I decided to create a separate page for R.A.T.S on my blog. Check out here. And just in case you didn't notice- the blog also has a new header/background etc. :)

So, in celebration of #100, I've decided to share some of my favourite blog posts so far.

1. Most favourite food post:

Making pasta from scratch is much easier than most people think and mushroom and pasta combination is hard to beat. 

Mushroom Tortellini/Ravioli

2. Most favourite architecture post:

I never expected to find great architecture whilst camping. Merging perfectly with it's natural surroundings, Charles Benninger's campsite was rare treat.

Written in Stone

3. Most favourite place post: 

It's got to be Covent Garden. I've never been so fascinated with how much life one place can have. Food, music and everything else I enjoy.

Opera, Food Fairs and Chainsaw Jugglers

4. Most favourite trip post:

A recent bloggers trip to the Serai, Chikmagalur was quite extraordinary. Exquisite suites, private pools, delectable food, tractor rides through coffee estates and I got to meet some great ladies. 

Coffee Scrubs, Poolside Dinners and lots of Good Conversation

and to complete my list, 
5. My favrourite random post:

A bit hard to choose one more post to round up my favourites. Crossing off bucket list things bring so much satisfaction, that this post had to be here. That rush of adrenalin! I can still feel it.

Free Falling

Happy reading. 

Until the next post, I will brave the heat with lots of buttermilk, some swimming and constant mail-checking waiting for someone to hire me!

Adios. 

P.S Fudge Together now has it's own Facebook page- Go and 'like' for updates.

Reasons to Watch the Adverts

I listen to music while I work, but here I am writing blog posts about music. Distractions. Distractions! Sigh...

I don't watch a lot of TV. And the few times I actually decide to while away time watching TV, I end up flicking channels so much, that I probably watch more commercials than programmes. Yes, I'm one of those channel flickers!

Most commercials are easily classified into either 'absolutely ridiculous' or 'brilliant'. But I've found this other classification of 'Okay-ish decent ad, but superb soundtrack'. Sometimes when I need new music, I find them in adverts. 

I've picked out my top 8 (from what I can remember)

1. Nikon: Welcome Home, Radical Face 
Actually, I don't actually remember watching this on T.V. Probably on some website.

2. Sony Bravia: Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez

They actually used 250,000 colourful bouncy balls on the streets of San Francisco. 

3. Airtel 3G: I Giorni, Ludivico Einaudi

Thank you Airtel for introducing me to the lovely pianist Einaudi.

Valentine Cookies

Hello again, 

Its been a while since I posted a recipe. Since Christmas, I haven't done much baking. Brownie Points is taking a break for a while because I am in the process of finding a job. Yes, I have finally decided that I've had enough of a break. I've already overshot my initial time table to finishing my portfolio. Oh well. It will all get done soon.

I'm not much of a romantic. According to my profile picture on Facebook (courtesy; Alicia Souza), I would happily devour my valentine! But here I am baking heart shaped cookies on Valentines day. I surprise myself sometimes.

One of my friends has a charity sale at work today, so I helped her baked some cookies for her to sell. We baked chocolate and vanilla hearts (and a few stars as well). This is the easiest recipe ever. If you aren't a baker and want to start, this is the recipe to start with.

Chocolate and Vanilla Hearts

(or stars or whatever shape cookie cutters you have)

This recipe is an adaption of one found in 'Cookshelf Baking' by Emma Patmore.

Combine 300g of butter with 250g of sugar, 1 egg and 1 tbsp of vanilla. Beat well with a wooden spoon till nice and smooth. Sift together 450g of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking soda. Add to butter mixture and mix with your hands to form a ball of cookie dough. Roll out to about 5mm thick. Dust flour on the surface, so that it doesn't stick. Cut out as many shapes as you can and then roll the extras out again and cut out more. I got about 40 from my batch. But that kind of depends on the size of your cookie cutters. Place onto a baking tray and bake in a preheated 170 degree oven for about 15 minutes. The cookies should be a little soft when you take them out. They will harden when you cool them.

For the chocolate batch. Put 300g of flour and 150g of cocoa powder. The rest of the measurements should be the same.

Once cooled, dust with icing sugar and eat them. If you're in a good mood, share with people.

Note:

1. If the dough is a bit sticky, add more flour. Even if it's a bit sticky, it's not going to roll easily.

2. Make sure you don't roll it out too thin. If the cookies are too thin, they stick to the baking tray and crack really easily. You will have lots of broken hearts. haha!

3. I powdered my own sugar, hence it's not that fine and doesn't melt fast (which usually happens with the humidity)

4. Store in an airtight container.