Expand Your Vision’s Frame

I’ve done something that I’ve done maybe 2 times before: I bought an album digitally. (Those two times, it was actually my dad doing the buying, since he’s got a credit card, where I don’t. They were Bryan Greenberg’s album and actually that’s the only one I can remember so maybe there was only one after all). These days, I have PayPal, which opens such a world of opportunities, such as buying albums through Bandcamp. In this specific instance, the album was Visions by Richie Quake (or RICHIE.QUAKE, I should say), which is awesome 🙂 Obviously. It’s kind of… mellow, some electronic, singer-songwritery (but not really), indie stuff. I felt pretty cool downloading his album (on a whim, after really only listening to this one song), and I’m not regretting it one bit. Listen here.

Will You Still Be Here Tomorrow?

I first heard this song about 4 hours ago, while listening to the Emeli Sandé radio station on Spotify. Clearly, I immediately took a liking to it.
In case you were wondering – which you probably weren’t – I was listening to the ES radio because I went to her concert in Amsterdam yesterday! Yay 😀 It was wonderful.

Here are some photos:

This was such a proud moment for me – I took 123 photos in total (in 1,5 hours), and this is one of the few good ones, and the only “closeup” that wasn’t a blur.

They sang Beneath Your Beautiful! Yay!

Look, This Hears So Pretty!

Today’s discovery – beautiful visuals, and a pretty cool song. What more can we ask from any given day?

Tap Into TED

Ted.com is great. Wonderfully amazing great. That’s pretty great.

I’m aware that most people know about Ted talks, in that at least they know something like it exists on the internet. However, far too many people never actually watch any of them – I know I personally watch way too few*. A great many people, although in my experience far fewer, have heard of iTunes U as well. Both are worth your attention.

In their own words, Ted offers “riveting talks by remarkable people” (for FREE). I can’t but agree, and I’ve added some great ones below.

Caroline Casey – Looking Past Limits

One of my favourites. I’ve actually gone back and watched that one several times; I think it’s so great.

LZ Granderson – The Myth of the Gay Agenda

One that a friend of mine referred me to, because it was so good.

Sarah Kay – If I Should Have A Daughter

Both this one and ‘How many lives can you live?’ (also by her), are awesome. They’re poetic, in a very accessible, funky way.

And finally, to prove – once again – the power of groups, Eric Whitacre’s 2000-voice choir:

Of course there are many, many more – in my Pocket queue, I’ve got another 40 or so lined up, waiting for me to watch them. So much to hear, so little time – alas. But I can safely say that there is something for everyone there, and it is a shame not to look into it and enrich yourself. Not for anyone else, but for yourself. And honestly, I could easily watch all those videos, and more, if I’d just prioritise, so I’m pretty sure you can too 😉

They also regularly publish really cool playlists, like this one on happiness, and there’s TedWeekends – a collaboration with The Huffington Post – of which I really enjoyed the lessons taken from near-death choices. Especially Janine Shepherd’s talk was great and very inspiring, (as well as Candy Chang’s, but I’ve mentioned her before).

* I love those semi-oxymorons; “far too few”, “way too little” – they’re great. There is also a lot of fondness in my heart for “can’t but” and especially “all but”. Robert Jordan used it a lot in The Wheel of Time series (which I have yet to finish, by the way, I’m “reading” the ninth book at the moment; I wonder if the guy who took over uses it as much…), which is where I first learnt what it meant, and I’ve occasionally found times and places to use it myself. Interestingly, when I used it in an essay for English once, my teacher wondered if I’d used it correctly (i.e. instead of meaning ‘almost’, didn’t it mean ‘not at all’) – it was nice to be able to correct her. All the more because she was a native English speaker, teacher, and I was only 15 or 16. I’m glad I could share this with you know.