Uke|Affairs: Evergreen Love by Misty Miller & Before You Know by All Young Girls Are Machine Guns

Hello Darlings!

My world's been all aflutter with my upcoming move back home! There will be an epic scroll of a post dedicated to my time in Bangor, Gwynedd and the wondrous places I've grown to love whilst being here. But I've taken some seconds away from packing to record two ukulele covers!

I wrote of my love for Misty Miller in this ukulele spirited post! Her voice is so soothing, along with the rich, tinkling strums of her fingers across ukulele strings! It makes for magic, my friends. I adore songs that are simplistically beautiful, with the intrigue of a kindred spirit sitting in front of you whilst laying themselves bare as they read out a scribbled poem. I learned Evergreen Love, both because it's lovely, and to continue on my fingerpicking quest. I've gotten ton's better at it!

This next band may receive a post entirely dedicated to their awesomeness! Before You Know is a cover by All Young Girls Are Machine Guns. I was drawn to them upon first glance of their genius name, but their music is totally not what I expected. I think the name seems to conjure the image of a hell raising Riot Grrl, but reality shows it to be the pseudonym of the brilliant Rebecca Lowry, AYGAMG's front woman! She is a Riot Grrl but in an entirely different way. Rebecca picked up the ukulele, and just started writing songs. Of female musicianship she says: "I think ladies are finally realizing that it's okay not to be Christina Aguilera, it's okay not to be Siouxie Sioux and the Banshees. It's okay to just be a girl with a ukulele who sings some folk songs." Here's a podcast of this interview that Rebecca did for X-Rated: Women in Music. You'll hear how she got into playing, and some of her beautiful songs!

AYGAMG's songs are acoustic dreams, that speak of first loves, dances, a crush, and a myriad of other fascinating stories! She has a soulful, folky sound that meshes beautifully. I think, in a way she tells all our stories. But of her songs, at least for the moment, I was moved by Before You Know! There's nothing like being with the one you know is made for you, and feeling as if the entire world is yours and no one else exists...at least for a second. Here's a lovely live video of AYGAMG's performing the song! I never knew a violin could sound so awesome with a ukulele until I saw this band at play!

If you're interested, checkout their latest album All Young Girl's Are Machine Guns, and the former album The Secret Attic Recordings

Enjoy you're day! I hope you love the covers! These were the first two that didn't take AGES to make!

Happy Dreaming

Late Nights in The Arena!!!

Hello Darlings!

A few posts ago, I mentioned a website that I was in the process of launching to get my writing out into the world. Last Saturday, I launched Late Nights in the Arena on tumblr, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Although, I've never been published, upon seeing my work posted I reacted with that kind of excitement. It's crazy what happens when you see your work in 'serious' looking text somewhere. Very addictive! I'd like to give a personal shooting star to my editor Tessa (wink, wink), for all of the patience she has in weeding out my repetitive words, and comma faux-pas's. God knew I was going to be a writer, so He's placed an awesome 'grammatical blood hound' in my life. 

 My first short is called 'I Just Want to Walk with You.' Each short will be inspired by a song, so this one's inspired by 'Before We Know'-All Young Girls Are Machine Guns, a ukulele band based out of Omaha. (There's a post about her coming up soon!)

If you would like to see my writing set in chimera, feel free to visit my latest project and let me know what you think! I'm already at work on the next short. You know something's supposed to happen when you're in the shower, you start hearing the narrative flowing in your mind, and you've got to jump out of the shower to find a pen or hope Text Edit opens before you forget!

I hope you guys are having a great weekend so far!

Keep dreaming and Trust the Lord Jesus, for He loves and cares for you!

Uke|Affairs Cover: I Hate Seagulls by Kate Nash and Updates

Hello Dearies!

I would like to thank you all so much for keeping up with me even though I tend to disappear from time to time. Thus is the life of a postgraduate. During Easter break, I was a bit frantic with research, Wuthering Heights, and my own writing. SEVENTEEN THOUSAND WORDS worth of writing, Ladies and Gentlemen. But, I'm so glad that's over with!

I thought I'd pop in with a ukulele video today. It's a cover of Kate Nash's 'I Hate Seagulls.' It's also my first time fingerpicking on the ukulele. Oh my gosh, that is a bit like patting your head, and rubbing your stomach, and in the video you can tell I'm concentrating on that. Not happy about that, but I'm progressing, and I couldn't be more chuffed. I hope you guys enjoy it... even though, I messed up. 

(also, much love to Megan of Charade Style, for commenting on my previous ukulele video post! She is one of my blogging inspirations and I'm not even sure how she knows about Forelsket, never the less, check out  her blog. It's amazing!)

I've been working a great deal on my writing as of late. I have huge plans to hone in my grammar skills, and really crank out that crazy|beautiful prose that I see myself producing in the future. With this in mind, I've decided to stop hiding, finally, and create a blog dedicated to my writings. Feel free to check out Late Nights in the Arena, my new writing tumblr, which will hopefully be the title of a collection of shorts I'm writing. This group of shorts will each be inspired by one song. Feel free to message me with constructive criticism and love, if you love it!

Now that I have a bit more free time, I'll definitely be updating more often: book reviews, dreamscapes, and overall chimera back in effect!

You all have a fabulous weekend!

Uke|Affairs: The Way I am & Hope for the Hopeless

 

After  a week slightly packed with reading and portfolio preparation, I decided to take a bit of a break and upload some uke videos! This segment includes covers of The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson and Hope for the Hopeless by A Fine Frenzy! The first is dedicated to everyone in my life in relationships, and my future husband at some point! The latter is dedicated to Japan and all others who need a hopeful reminder that God is great and will never leave them!

Enjoy, and comment! I would love to hear what you all think of them!

"Then came the sound of a single person clapping."

In the short while that I've played the ukulele it has become quite the highlight of my time here in Wales! It began as a mere aspiration spawning from my desire to rock out on guitar. However, guitars tend to be quite expensive, so I began to look for an alternative that would get me playing some music. A whimsy gal like myself tends to fall for ukuleles upon sight as they are the tea cup of stringed instruments.

During the Christmas break, I checked out some players on youtube, and tried to acquaint myself with terms and chords. I really enjoyed it's tinkling notes, each one brimming of sunlight and the joy of spring walks. When I came back, I popped into the music shop up the street from my flat and pointed at a violet Ariana (an affordable brand). I remember the sardonic look on the shop owner's face as he wrapped it up, and asked my why, of all instruments, had I chosen the ukulele. I told him I chose it because it was one quirky little instrument that always gets overlooked because of the guitar; I wanted to crack the mold and be the odd egg. When I told him I had no prior music training, he nodded, handed me my brand new instrument, and told me that he loved my reasons for buying it, and encouraged me to take on the world. With such affirmations, why not take the world by storm?

The next week, I practiced, and endured dubious looks from the few who believed it would only collect dust on a shelf somewhere. By the next week, I'd memorized chords to a few songs, and the week after, I recorded my first video covering Hometown Glory by Adele. I learned how to play in a few short weeks, and it was exhilarating and lovely to find that I was 'creating' music. Also a great way to pass the time in the smallest town on earth!

Picking up any instrument feels like the beginning of some great artistic journey. It will always be a little bit of a challenge, but a worthy one. As I learned, I felt like I had some sort of connection with some of my favorite artists like Kate Nash, or Joan Jett when she decided she would be that girl who played rock and roll. Of course, I'm not playing for any sort of music career, just for the sheer beauty of playing.

There's something about being in the UK that drives you to get creative. One of my reasons for moving out here was the novel I'm writing. It's saturated in music, and when I started it, I had no idea that the London I was painting was actually the truth. Every other person out here is in a band, or plays an instrument, or is a singer/songwriter. One can't help but be affected by such an environment. 

There is an individual flare that is encouraged here, and that is something I feel while playing the ukulele. It is such and odd little instrument that you must be creative, and dare yourself not to be afraid of looking silly. They call it the instrument of the underdog,  and that adds to it's allure. Why strum the same tunes as everyone else, on the same instrument as everyone else? Why not start a band, and become one of the only ones with a uke player? 

To learn, I went to the website Ukulele Hunt. It is one of the only things you need to get started! There are guides from Beginner to Expert stages, and chords to get started on. Also, there's information on the various types, brands, and models of ukuleles out there.  Upon first hearing, I had no idea how to tune my uke, thankfully this wonderful online tuner exists! Next, I went to Ukulele Tabs, to find all of the songs I could ever want to cover. As you become fluent with the chords, you can go to any guitar chord website, and play them as well!

Misty Miller is one of my serendipitous finds in Uke Land. She's only sixteen years old, but her folky pop music contains such maturity and insight. Her voice is poetic along with the ukulele's simplistic sound. It's awesome to see such a sublime uke player show that uke's are more than just toy guitars. Although, I haven't heard the whole of her self-titled brand new album, I have heard a few stellar songs that give me hope for the rest. My fav's at the moment are Little Thing Called Love and Vampire. It's also pretty interesting to see how she composes songs that are a bit heavier, like Bones, on the ukulele. The combination creates for an intriguing sound. Here is a gorgeous interview of Misty by Vogue Italia:

This is probably one of many ponderings on the whimsy ukulele! I've decided to continue my uke cover videos in a series entitled Uke Affairs (Youtube|Vimeo), and I can't wait to start!

Get out there, guys and gals. Start a band, start a revolution, or something. Be a force of positive radiation, and spread love like brush fires. As with the tragedies happening all over the world, more recently Japan, we can see how fragile life really is. But instead of being down, embrace your life, and literally live as if you didn't have the luxury of tomorrow. Be thankful and awed by God for keeping you and yours safe, and embrace the blessings and opportunities that He's blessed you with!

Constantly in prayer for Japan, New Zealand and the world!

2011 Life List

Whimsy Geniuses, my Life List for next year!

I will cooperate with the Lord, and allow Him to show me how intimate my relationship with Him can be.

I will write my novel. For once and for all!

At first, my 2011 hairstyle was going to be a very short seeming boy-cut. Now I've decided to keep it long, get a trim, and make it quirky with bangs. Stay tuned.

Red lips. It's one of the strongest colors a woman can glaze across her lips, next to onyx night. I'll find the color right for my skin tone, and rock it!

I will make this new year, my year of fashion discovery! It will no longer be something I just happen to do, but more of an artistic expression!

I must purchase at least two pairs of 'sex popping' heels!

As a random quirk in my year, I will learn to play the Ukulele. Possibly harass you all with videos of my progress!

I will fall in love this year. And I might listen to one Taylor Swift song a day. I love her simplistic lyricism, and how she manages to imbue happiness into every note.

What are your Life List Do's for the New Year?

Have a serendipitously blessed New Year Dreamers!

Source: Black Fashion | We Heart It | Hollywood In Pics | Take Me To New York City | I Heart Carolinaaaaa | Morgan Lianne