Aled Jones will be performing in the Canberra theatre soon. The first time I heard of this singer and his soothing voice was on the TV advert. Curious to know more, I started listening to a lot of his songs on youtube. A true talent if I have seen one. He has been singing since the age of 10 or 11. Was famous as a Boy Soprano and a Soloist in a choir. Went on to release countless albums most of which have reached gold or platinum status. His welsh backgroud somehow adds to the mystical quality of his voice. His songs are of the christian devotional/ inspirational genre.
Three of his songs which have become my favorite are Raise me up, Walking in the air and Always there. The first two songs have been sung countless times by different singers and groups. Anyone who barely qualifies to hum a tune has made a cover version of these songs. But Aled Jones versions are magical and captivating. I have heard Nightwish's version of Walking in the air long ago and I thought it was haunting and beautiful. Aled Jones doesn't disappoint either.
This is the link to Raise me up.
The lyrics: When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.
There is no life - no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up: To more than I can be.
The special part of this song is the chorus. The way Aled sings it, I feel I am on top of the world, strong and grateful, inspired and yet humbled. I would recommend Aled Jones to anyone who wants to listen to some peaceful, flowing, feel good music
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
And then...
Starbucks closed 61 of its 85 stores all over Australia and those bereaved tapeworms, drat them!!!, closed the one below our house first. Apparently they are running into loses. How do coffee houses run into loses??? What kind of country doesn't let a coffee house flourish?!! Not that I am very fond of coffee....me and that bean haven't had too many err...'stimulating' moments together. No, it's the hot chocolate and rasberry and white chocolate muffins that I am going to sorely miss. I was loyal to them, adding to their profits (or so I assumed) and adding huge calories to my diet (this I know for sure, just ask my waist line!). To cap it, they didn't even announce when they would close, I could have stocked up on those muffins and hot chocolate. Somewhere in the middle of the night, they just bolted and vanished. I am still recovering from the shock.
A huge Olympics fever is rippling through this country. News coverage is massive and thorough. Some channels have even started teaching Chinese. Channel Prime will have exclusive rights to cover the games. Their mascot music is Amy Pearson's 'Ready to fly'. Quite a lovely, upbeat song. Apparently there has been some scams regarding hotel reservations and tickets to China. Some of us were just discussing that had the Olympics been in India, the scams would be the least of the problems. The country would be running a parallel olympics and manufacturing their own gold medals. Seeing sports from different people's point of view and in a different light has been an inspiring experience. What I have learnt is for a lot of people sports isn't just about the game, or winning a medal. It is a lot about strength, courage, humility, staying focussed and determined and continuing to do so even after their goal is achieved. It is a passion and becomes a way of life.
I am desperate! I have started researching ancient civilizations and their cultures to try and understand sun worship. I have been spotted collecting stones hither and tither in the hope of building a sun circle to invite and trap the rays within. I am on the verge of doing Aztec sun dances to please the sun god. Oh! please..when will this winter end?! I have shivered so much this winter that the vibrations have reached interstellar space creating new planets there. (Or maybe I am just shaking so much, that all the stars look double!) I have been following the weather forecasts to its last degree, any rise in temperature has been embraced and cherished. I am like a yeast. I bubble and become more of myself in hot climate. I thrive. Winters sadly shrivel me up.
We watched Kuselan last weekend. The first time I caught a Rajinikanth film on the day of its release. Those expecting something akin to Sivaji will be dissapointed. You will perhaps have to wait till Robot for that. Kuselan is subtle, emotional and low key. It is a remake of a malayalam movie. Rajini shares the film with another actor Pasupathy, who according to me has done a fabulous job. The film oozes simplicity and normality. There are no extraordinary sets or digital enhancements. The film runs solely on the buttress of a simple yet elegantly told story.
And finally I end this update with a mail my husband sent me. We laughed for hours over this.
A huge Olympics fever is rippling through this country. News coverage is massive and thorough. Some channels have even started teaching Chinese. Channel Prime will have exclusive rights to cover the games. Their mascot music is Amy Pearson's 'Ready to fly'. Quite a lovely, upbeat song. Apparently there has been some scams regarding hotel reservations and tickets to China. Some of us were just discussing that had the Olympics been in India, the scams would be the least of the problems. The country would be running a parallel olympics and manufacturing their own gold medals. Seeing sports from different people's point of view and in a different light has been an inspiring experience. What I have learnt is for a lot of people sports isn't just about the game, or winning a medal. It is a lot about strength, courage, humility, staying focussed and determined and continuing to do so even after their goal is achieved. It is a passion and becomes a way of life.
I am desperate! I have started researching ancient civilizations and their cultures to try and understand sun worship. I have been spotted collecting stones hither and tither in the hope of building a sun circle to invite and trap the rays within. I am on the verge of doing Aztec sun dances to please the sun god. Oh! please..when will this winter end?! I have shivered so much this winter that the vibrations have reached interstellar space creating new planets there. (Or maybe I am just shaking so much, that all the stars look double!) I have been following the weather forecasts to its last degree, any rise in temperature has been embraced and cherished. I am like a yeast. I bubble and become more of myself in hot climate. I thrive. Winters sadly shrivel me up.
We watched Kuselan last weekend. The first time I caught a Rajinikanth film on the day of its release. Those expecting something akin to Sivaji will be dissapointed. You will perhaps have to wait till Robot for that. Kuselan is subtle, emotional and low key. It is a remake of a malayalam movie. Rajini shares the film with another actor Pasupathy, who according to me has done a fabulous job. The film oozes simplicity and normality. There are no extraordinary sets or digital enhancements. The film runs solely on the buttress of a simple yet elegantly told story.
And finally I end this update with a mail my husband sent me. We laughed for hours over this.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Wanted
This species called James McAvoy comes across as a hybrid of Keanu Reeves and Toby Macguire. In fact the whole movie is a big jumble of Matrix, Da vinci code, X- men, Terminator etc. Wesley Gibson is an inconsequential Accounts manager who suffers from a huge complex. He has no life, no money, his girlfriend cheats on him by sleeping with his best friend, his obese boss breathes down on him constantly and he suffers from severe stress. His life slowly ebbs away day after day into the same hollow.
But suddenly, one fine morning he finds himself being rescued by the sexy Angelina Jolie (Fox) in a drug store from a man who is trying to kill him. What follows is a series of pistol packed action and car chases that would have the director of Ronan smugly saying "Yeah, been there done that!". Wesley gets rescued from a totally dull life into a thoroughly deadly one. He is introduced to an ancient brotherhood called the Fraternity who were weavers by profession but a secret society of assassins in reality. The 'Loom of Fate' apparently determined who would live and who deserved to die and these assassins were picked to do the gruesome job. At this point of the movie, you would wish you had left your morals and ethics on a shelf outside the theatre because it is rebelling to tear the screen apart and slap Timus Beckmambetov for dishing out such nonsense. Morgan Freeman (Sloan) welcomes Wesley into the fraternity much like Morpheus welcomed Neo.
Neo...err...sorry Wesley goes through some tortured training and awakens the dormant powers in him. He acquires lightening quick reflexes and agility and prepares himself to avenge the death of his estranged father and save the fraternity. But, slowly Wesley realises there is something dangerous and wrong with this society. While he is being pushed to kill a man who murdered his father, he eventually unravels a nasty truth about these moral slackers. So who does Wesley finally avenge? To reach the end, you would have to sit through some time tested, old copies of bloody action lifted off several of the afore mentioned movies.
One is not to forget the original and main effect and concept of this movie though. These assassins can BEND bullets. Yes, thats correct. One can shoot from any corner of the planet and the bullets would pass through doughnut holes, pierce people's soda cans, wind around train compartments, meander past buildings, breeze through offices on it's last leg of the journey before finally hitting its target. Another interesting point to note is Angelina's large appetite in this movie. Err...excuse me, wasn't that supposed to be Brad Pitt's selling point, eating all the time? Morgan Freeman is his silent, dignified, strong self in this movie, Angelina needs to seriously get out of the Lara Croft, Amazon warrior kind of roles and needs to don on a fresh look for a change. It is getting quite poutful!
Even if you can get by on some adrenalin pumped action, the moral deficiency in the movie gets very obvious and uncomfortable. Remeber the axiom in Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibilities"? Well, this movie trashes the second part of that axiom. You are left wondering why someone coudn't have 'fabricated' a better story! I would rate this movie with 2 stars.
But suddenly, one fine morning he finds himself being rescued by the sexy Angelina Jolie (Fox) in a drug store from a man who is trying to kill him. What follows is a series of pistol packed action and car chases that would have the director of Ronan smugly saying "Yeah, been there done that!". Wesley gets rescued from a totally dull life into a thoroughly deadly one. He is introduced to an ancient brotherhood called the Fraternity who were weavers by profession but a secret society of assassins in reality. The 'Loom of Fate' apparently determined who would live and who deserved to die and these assassins were picked to do the gruesome job. At this point of the movie, you would wish you had left your morals and ethics on a shelf outside the theatre because it is rebelling to tear the screen apart and slap Timus Beckmambetov for dishing out such nonsense. Morgan Freeman (Sloan) welcomes Wesley into the fraternity much like Morpheus welcomed Neo.
Neo...err...sorry Wesley goes through some tortured training and awakens the dormant powers in him. He acquires lightening quick reflexes and agility and prepares himself to avenge the death of his estranged father and save the fraternity. But, slowly Wesley realises there is something dangerous and wrong with this society. While he is being pushed to kill a man who murdered his father, he eventually unravels a nasty truth about these moral slackers. So who does Wesley finally avenge? To reach the end, you would have to sit through some time tested, old copies of bloody action lifted off several of the afore mentioned movies.
One is not to forget the original and main effect and concept of this movie though. These assassins can BEND bullets. Yes, thats correct. One can shoot from any corner of the planet and the bullets would pass through doughnut holes, pierce people's soda cans, wind around train compartments, meander past buildings, breeze through offices on it's last leg of the journey before finally hitting its target. Another interesting point to note is Angelina's large appetite in this movie. Err...excuse me, wasn't that supposed to be Brad Pitt's selling point, eating all the time? Morgan Freeman is his silent, dignified, strong self in this movie, Angelina needs to seriously get out of the Lara Croft, Amazon warrior kind of roles and needs to don on a fresh look for a change. It is getting quite poutful!
Even if you can get by on some adrenalin pumped action, the moral deficiency in the movie gets very obvious and uncomfortable. Remeber the axiom in Spiderman "With great power comes great responsibilities"? Well, this movie trashes the second part of that axiom. You are left wondering why someone coudn't have 'fabricated' a better story! I would rate this movie with 2 stars.
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