April Weather and more Music artists I like..

 Lately we have had a lot of rain, We have had some nearly every day for a good several days.  Its good for the water table, and the plants, fields etc.  It can get quite dry in Utah and so any time we get good amounts of rain its certainly a good thing.  I am just about ready to start planting. I have lots of seeds to choose from. I need to get the soil right as its not good. It also needs to stop raining so its not so soggy to work in the garden.

 I have been continuing my liking of ambient, new age, electronic artists. I have liked this particular one for awhile, The group is a duo who are Swedish. http://www.carbonbasedlifeforms.net/   I like their music because it helps me concentrate and I like the songs which are produced by the artists. Their music falls into the ambient category.  If you are looking for a good example of this type of music these guys are definitely one. This isn't the only range of music I like.  My music tastes are quite vast.  I find this type of music is calming, peaceful but not too peaceful so that I get sleepy and fall asleep, though I could if sleep is what I wanted to do . I find myself quite stressed for some reason on a daily basis, its just how I am though not what I like to be .  I find this kind of music greatly helps reduce that...  I also like alot of 80/90's alternative bands, and some oldies. The only kind of rap I can stand is in Gorrilaz music and only if its clean. I know they can be dodgy sometimes to explicit and those type of songs I don't care for, but they do have some catchy ones which are perfectly fine. Other than them, I don't care for that type of music or hip hop etc. perhaps because its not my culture. Will Smith is ok with his catchy dance tunes.  I cant say I am country fan, even though I live in the West. Not a type of music I ever really got into any more than Jazz does.  However give me Enya, or Carbon Based Lifeforms, or the Keane, sure I am happy. My taste for electronica/ambient is something I developed on my own. I simply checked them out and found that they were totally were agreeable with me.  My like of 80-90's I grew up with and my brothers introduced me to several bands I still listen to especially if they are still making great music.

Music Artists I am liking

I have been a a fan of New age, Electronica,Atmospheric, and similar kinds of music. Pretty music which sometimes has words and sometimes does not.  I like to write to it, work to it you name it. When I dont wish to sing along in the car or have my own karaoke session that is the type of music I go for. Its interesting, often very beautiful and calming.  

  Vangelis has been around for some time I first came across him when I heard Chariots of Fire. This video clip taken from Youtube is Conquest of Paradise from the movie 1492.  Vangelis is a Greek composer.  In an article I found online about him at allmusic.com I learned the following information: "Best known for his lush, Oscar-winning score to the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, Vangelis was among the most successful and admired electronic composers of his era. Born Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou in Volos, Greece, on March 29, 1943, his nascent musical talent was recognized at an early age, but he refused to take piano lessons, instead teaching himself."( Jason Ankeny,2016)  

I have really started liking Vangelis music, he has many he has done and several for movie scores. The interesting thing about the piece I have posted here is that Vangelis has used a technique used by some artists in this genre called word painting. There is no translation to the words the chorus is singing in Conquest of Paradise, it is a made up almost sounds like it could be Latin but is not a language. Lisa Gerrard is another artist who did this in the song she sang which you probably have heard in the movie The Gladiator. Enya has also done this too on a couple of albums. Whilst it would be cool if there were actual words in language that is known, it is also a interesting way to do a song, have words but you don't need to worry about a meaning, there isn't a translation the words instead they just flow nice and work with the song and are often very beautiful. They can evoke a meaning without having one.   Another group I have just started listing to is a group called ERA. I discovered this band whilst listening to one of Vangelis's songs on Youtube. I decided to give them a shot too.  I found not only their music interesting and very pretty but the videos they have for their songs are interesting as well. I noticed they like to mix history themes in their videos.  I still need to listen more to them to get a better idea of the group but I like what I have heard so far.  They too like to use word painting, though they do it much more in fact exclusively. Vangelis  will use actual lyrics in his work as well. 

Reference: 

Era picture, found on Google- CD cover. ( 2005)

Vangelis - conquest of paradise. Found on Mor.kh channel  Uploaded: Apr 29, 2007

Jake Ankeny( 2016)

Artist Biography by Jason Ankenyhttp://www.allmusic.com/artist/vangelis-mn0000840000/biography

Spring!!

 This year it looks like we finally get a Spring in Utah.  No its not a guaranteed thing in this state. Our usual pattern is to have Winter and then Bam! into Summer, with little of any other seasons.  However, this year we have had actual spring.  Its so neat to see the trees  which are flowering in the whites, and purples and pink blossoms.   The flowers are coming out as well. Around my house, I have seen:  Daffodils and Crocuses.  Also the birds are in the trees and life in general is springing up all around. Our forest home, which is what I live in is becoming alive again with color, fresh scents of flowers, buds on the trees etc.                                                          

Book series continuing..

I finished  Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children and really liked it.  I liked the storyline, I liked the photography. Now I am reading the second book in the series Hollow City, also by Randsom Riggs.  The story continues where it left off and the kids have to flee the house where they have been because it gets raided by hollowgasts- the bad creatures. Now I am not sure if the hollowgasts were always made up baddies or another way of saying the Germans who also are on their tail.  They end up in a forrest not knowing where they are, but soon discover another loop.  In this loop are not just peculiar children or shift changing birds but peculiar, talking animals. That's as far as I have read so far so I don't know what is in store for these adventurers.  The whole peculiar world gets more complex for Jacob who has only discovered its existence in the first book and is just beginning to find out what is peculiar about him and how he can use it.  I have a good deal to go in this book but so far I like as much as the other one,  it has good writing and a good storyline. It also has the old interesting photographs like the first one.  There is one to go after this at least one more out so far.
I am not sure how far you could take this series but I would be happy for 2 or 3 or even more to go along. So far its a series of 3 books though.   To me this beats Harry Potter any day.  Now some of you might of adored HP but it never was my cup of tea.   These children dont have magic or learn magic, to do the peculiar things they do, they just naturally were born with these abilities, how ever unusual they may be and some are not so unusual but are just abilities like being very strong or being able to see visions which happen. Some people can do these things, not many for the visions part but some can sense things before they happen.   For YA fiction I find I like these books a lot- and I am not a YA. ( Young Adult)  I would recommend them to someone who was or was not who liked clever fantasy which is kind of mixed with history, and also has real and not real places. For instance the island where the kids were and now fled from- its real, you can really go to it  but its actually in Cornwall.  I think its neat because I was not sure if it was or made up for the book but sure enough I found it.  I have been to  Cornwall but till this book I didn't know about the island actually the town Jacob and his dad go to- thats Cornwall.  - but the home where the kids started and were for some time ( read the first book or if you have you know why) - that was in Belgium.   Wales was Ransom Riggs spot- and I am not sure where he envisioned to be sure.  It could of been North or South Wales. However it's not where Tim Burton thought to go. Shame, there is a island or two which he could of used. Actually there is a great many.   You have to be careful what you see on the web about it if you are interested because folks will try to tell you its all in Wales. Perhaps for Ransom  it was- if you check www.imdb.com You will see where they actually choose.  Otherwise its really up to your minds eye in the book- you know roughly where but nothing to pinpoint anywhere for certain. Though they go London also, again Mr Burton doesnt use London.  The film is has yet to come out and I do hope its as good as the book and I wonder if more than one were incorporated.  I shall have to see when its in the theaters.

Cairnholm

A talking dog the kids come across

Conference Trip 2016

This year for April Conference we were fortunate to get tickets to the Sat afternoon session. I have never been to Conference. I have seen it many times on television or at the chapels when we used to watch it there.  We made it an extra treat by booking a hotel which was nicer than a motel 6 but not too pricey like a Hilton.  Little America is where we went to.   

Which was a nice hotel, we were in the older part of it which was outside of the hotel and not in the main part of it. There were chandeliers and nice furniture in the main part, nice restaurants and gift shops.  We explored  Salt Lake a bit, we went to City Creek Mall where we enjoyed going to a few shops which were interesting.  I brought back some things from Lush.  So far up in SLC is the only place in Utah it is, perhaps its in another place but I don't know of any here but there. This makes it a treat as we don't get to often.   On the say of conference there were many people.  I haven''t seen so many people gathered in quite some time. It reminded me of Oxford street in London .  There were those who thought some how we would listen to the their protests for things they had against the church. They were vastly outnumbered and I felt sad for them, they were wasting their time.  It was a beautiful day and here they were doing something so pointless. Its one thing to have a different view, go ahead, you are entitled to it .  However- if I am not interested don't expect me to suddenly be. Also choose another way to express your views, no one wants to listen to your rants and complaints.  Those with me, want to come be uplifted, educated and have a spiritual experience. The opposite of these folk gathered outside with whatever objection or things they think they should be changed.   We also got to meet up with our good friend Chris Cooke.  It was good to see him and we went to lunch with him after the conference session was over.

Little America Hotel

We also went to the Clark Planetarium.  We wanted to go Sat night but we could not, because every single parking spot was taken because of a Justin Beiber concert. I already dont like him and that just made it so I like him even less.  I also was able to get the second book in the Miss Peregrines home for Unusual Children trilogy. I really enjoyed the first one and will be happy to continue ready the story of Jacob and his unusual friends.  Over all we had a great time, and it was such lovely weather and over all everything went well.