Sea Witches & Silver Warriors

Frank Frazetta's fantasy world, a main component of mine. And the soundtrack always playing in my dreamland, by the righteous babe herself:

Blue Moon, You Saw Me Standing Alone

Happy blue moon tonight y'all!


My super high res phone pic of last night's moon, before we got hit by super weird dry lightning.
No, you say? Poor Juliana, she doesn't know what she's talking about? A blue moon is the second full moon in a month, and this ain't it?

*Actually*, as I discovered recently, that's not the original definition of what a blue moon is. Check it.

When I looked it up a few days ago, that was the only article that showed up. If you google it now, you'll find that in the past day or two everyone has jumped on the blue moon bandwagon. Hmmm.

The gist of it is--I'm paraphrasing from that article here--that there are typically three full moons in a season. If there happen to be four, as there are this summer, the third one is called a blue moon.

So anyway, this:



And, in honor of the occurrence's colloquial use in the phrase "once in a blue moon", maybe take this opportunity to do something you've been wanting/waiting to do for a while. I, for one, am getting my nose pierced.

xoxo
Juliana

You Sucked My Brain Out

Sometimes, after a couple days of laying in bed feeling sorry for myself, I have to remember that I am a whole.

Not a half, waiting for her other.

Not a half, having separated herself from her other.

Not a bureaucratic sphere filled partly with me and otherwise dedicated entirely to the working world, regardless of whether the "me" part of the equation wants to be there or not.

A whole, with plenty of nicks and cuts. Sometimes I have to remember how my flaws get me into trouble.

Sometimes I have to write to remember.

Sometimes I have to remember that the choices I've made speak to some kind of strength within me.

Sometimes I have to listen to Ani DiFranco and drink a shitload of coffee.

Wish I Had Written This, CocoRosie

I had an English teacher my sophomore year of high school who is perhaps, to this day, the best teacher I have ever had. His name was Mr. Hanmer, and he had an unrivaled passion for words and stories.

He would read aloud to us in class (and act out all the parts), and one of the things I remember with the most clarity is when he would stop after a passage and exclaim, "God, I wish I had written that! Don't you wish you had written that?"

I was on Quora today (if you've never been there, gogogo), and in response to the question "What is the best passage you have ever read?":


“But in a way you can say that after leaving the sea, after all those millions of years of living inside of the sea, we took the ocean with us. When a woman makes a baby, she gives it water, inside her body, to grow in. That water inside her body is almost exactly the same as the water of the sea. It is salty, by just the same amount. She makes a little ocean, in her body. And not only this. Our blood and our sweating, they are both salty, almost exactly like the water from the sea is salty. We carry oceans inside of us, in our blood and our sweat. And we are crying the oceans, in our tears.”
― Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram


And I thought to myself, God, I wish I had written that!! Don't you? So insightful and poetic and beautiful. God god I wish I had written that.

Looks like I'm gonna have to go read Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

And in other news:

COCOROSIE IS COMING TO SAN FRANCISCO!!!!

Looklooklook.

See in my head these girls can't possibly exist anywhere but in my own personal dreamworld. They are much too cool for this reality. I'm probably going to be that fan trying to touch them (or lick them or marry them).

SO EXCITED.

In honor:



xoxo
Maralah

Where Do People Like Us Float?

Finals finals finals.

Here, listen to this.

Prick! Goes the Scorpion's Tail

I'm trying to study for my computer science midterm tomorrow but...

I keep coming back to this.



So twisted and I LOVE it. Isn't she amazing?

Music From My Mind to Yours

Rock'n'roll speaks to my soul.
And Imogen Heap, although she's not strictly rock.
My heartbeat syncs up to these when I listen to them, they infiltrate me, titillate me, remind me of the power music has over me;
but not all music. Not the shitty kind.

Time to bring it down again.
Don't just call me pessimist.
Try and read between the lines.

I can't imagine why you wouldn't
Welcome any change, my friend.

Yes there's lots of Tool in here, I very nearly worship them.













p.s. This nettle business has been popping up everywhere, someone fill me in! I'd love to know more about it (I could google it, but blogosphere ladies (and gents) seem to be the interweb's foremost authorities on the subject)

xoxo
Maralah

What's the World to be?

This is a song released a couple years ago by Epica, one of my favorite symphonic metal bands.
Every once in a while they drop the metal and go pure melodic.
This is one of those instances, *and* it's about the current state of our planet.

Winter Colors + Christmas Music

I was talking to my wonderful roommate the other day about how in Winter, when everything seems to turn gray (and often gloomy), the colors that do appear are the most beautiful. Evergreens, winter flowers and fruits pop out against a wonderfully accommodating cold, misty canvas.

As I was walking home from class the other day in our lovely Santa Cruz, I couldn't help stopping to take pictures of all of it.

I especially love this little arched pathway, kind of randomly stuck on the sidewalk a few blocks from my apartment. I can't figure out who put it there (the city or the people who live next to it?) but every time I walk under it, I feel a bit like I'm in a fairytale.

Anyway, I am ALMOST officially on winter break. ALMOST done with finals (only one left to go!). I can't wait to go home and make gingerbread houses; it's pretty much all I've been thinking about for the past few days.

And speaking of the holidays: this man is incredible.

Now, the 15-year-old inside ms is screaming, DON'T DO IT JULIANA! THAT MAN HAS BEEN ON THE TOP 100 ON ITUNES! I have a bit of a problem with most mainstream music, you see. It used to be a lot worse. I used to judge people solely by their taste in music, and if they didn't know that Led Zeppelin was a band, not "some old guy", I dismissed them right away. I still strongly believe that most popular music is the work of less-than-talented, auto-tuned celebutantes who have their songs written for them by uncreative and money-hungry souls catering solely to the wants of screaming 13 year old girls. So while every once in a while I admit that a mainstream song is good, or that a popular artist is truly talented, my little teenage self fights it every time.

But THIS man, Michael Buble...my god. He is the second coming of Bing Crosby (who he has named as his personal idol, and sung with). His voice is like butter and snowflakes and I just want to dance with him. Like a singing in the rain type deal (see video below, after the 15-second promo).

Most full-time artists, if they're in the industry long enough, end up making a Christmas album. I shy away from most of them, opting for the classics. It's not necessarily that they're "bad"; it's just that after a while, listening to different versions of all the same songs gets confusing. I like to identify the originals with Christmas. It feels more traditional, more special, that way. But this man I could not escape. He is, quite literally, an instant classic. And THAT is the long explanation as to why, this Christmas, I am getting my parents his CD. :)

Now back to finals and making Christmas presents!

♥ Maralah

Rocker

Music has, is, and always will be a vital part of my being. Only a song could possibly possess the means to explain why.

While music of every genre has made its way under my skin--jazz, symphonic metal, soul, folk, R&B, blues, classical--my soul is rock'n'roll through and through. Old time rock'n'roll. That's the stuff that really makes my bones tingle. And of all that old time rock'n'roll, Led Zeppelin is the one that I can say is my all time favorite band (CocoRosie, you are a close second).

If you want to rock out and hear some amazing riffs:




If you want to be gently carried away on currents of guitar strings, and maybe cry:




If you have half a brain I recommend you listen to all four. With any luck, something deep within you that you never knew was there may stir, and sing something back.

Homemaking Altar & Beautiful Minds Sing Alike?

Well, I'm settling into my new apartment. While things are by no means perfect, I think we're off to a good start. I'm finally comfortable enough to sit down and write, so here comes a long long post.
My wonderful roommate (E)is just as OCD as I am, if not more, and while I think we get slightly annoyed at each other sometimes because of it, it usually works in our favor and I love her all the same. We're great at keeping our apartment clean and also at making it feel homey. Observe, our altar to the homemaking goddesses:

Surprisingly, this is the only area in our apartment that we didn't plan out before moving in. It just kind of came together. On the left is a bouquet of flowers illegally cut from around our complex by E and I in the dead of night, placed in a vase I collected from goodwill. In the back is a rather eclectic painting my parents found at a garage sale, one that I'm starting to grow quite fond of. In front of it is a sunny little platter from a secondhand antique store; it's scattered with rose petals and in the middle we placed a little white Malayan Coco candle I picked up last year from a cute boutique in Paia, Hawaii. And of course, to its right, E's copy of The Joy of Cooking opened to a page of tomato sauce recipes (on my list to try: octopus pasta sauce). This collection of treasures rests atop another garage sale find by my parents, a one-drawer table in like-new condition (where do my parents find these things?!).

End my detailed account of items on a table. This is probably the part of our apartment (or dare I say, home) that E and I are most proud of. After all, it adds the beauty element to my criteria for a well-rounded home: clean, beautiful, functional, and comfortable.

Now, completely unrelated to the previous topic (or is it?): over the past couple years I've become completely obsessed with--for lack of better words (I'm sure they would find better ones)--soulful, powerful, female musicians. They are by no means from a single musical genre or era: among them are Simone Simons of Epica, Etta James, Tarja, old Nelly Furtado (revived from my elementary school days), Sharon Den Adel, Tracy Chapman, Sierra and Bianca from CocoRosie, Corinne Bailey Rae, Hannah Fury, Diana Krall, and Fiona Apple. To polish off the list are these two beautiful women.

Imogen Heap, and

Emilie Autumn.

Yes, I chose photos that depict them from the same angle, and maybe I can safely say there are similarities in their musical style, but it would be wrong to say that these ladies are like anyone but themselves. They are individuals among individuals; completely one-of-a-kind, inspired by things I only hope I can see too one day. Yet while I was listening to them recently, I realized that two of their songs, Castle Down by Emilie and Candlelight by Imogen, sound suspiciously similar.





The majority of Castle Down is played in a minor key, while Candlelight is predominantly major, but other than this their melodies--especially the down-up up-down of their choruses--are practically interchangeable.

Now, with any other musicians, I would assume that one had simply copied the other (here I would think Imogen's song is the original, as hers was released in 1998, while Emilie's was released in 2003). I would have a little laugh and shake my head at the music industry and move on with my life. But the fact that Imogen Heap and Emilie Autumn are so utterly unique, both musically and personally, makes me wonder if more is going on here. No, I don't have any logical theories at the moment. I will soon. Stay posted.

CocoRosie - Fairy Paradise

So amazing. CocoRosie, my favorite musicians of all time next to Led Zeppelin. Their music takes me to another place and both Sierra and Bianca are so beautiful to me, in ways much deeper than what first meets the eye.