Music Memories with Marvin

I'm sure I've mentioned this before. For some reason I get abit chuffed if I can pinpoint the exact moment when I heard a song that I love for the first time. Let me set the scene...

 

The flat was empty, silent.

 The sun stood still in the sky and a slight breeze teased the curtains of my open window.

 

Just kidding. It was the Easter hols of my first year at Uni. I was sitting in my dorm at my desk studying while listening to my iPod. Now I normally listen to the same cluster of songs but for some reason I had decided to put my entire library on shuffle. This meant that during this period of study I had discovered a chunk of music that I never even realised I had.

 

So there I was swivelling on my chair, trying to decipher the Russian Molecular Biology that was before me and this intro plays. My brain kind of acknowledges it but i'm still focussed on learning about Moscow cell signalling... and the intro was long so it was easy to kind of ignore. But see then something catches my attention. Marvin starts singing "I want you, the right way" and my focus is split. He continues "I want you, but I want you to want me too, I want you to want me baby, just like I want you". The my brain starts screaming "What is this???!!! How have I not heard you before??!!! Where have you been all my life???!!!!" And that was it, studying be damned! Marvin's smooth tone demanded all of my attention. So I gave it.

 

 

 

 

See i'd heard some Marvin Gaye songs before. I thought I knew what he was about, thought I was down with the Soul Man. WRONG. This was the song. This was the song that triggered a Marvin discography marathon. It started here, my love for Marvin started right here. I just couldn't get over the groove. The jam. It was so smooth, and his vocals? So effortless. I played it again, and then again and then just left it on repeat because it wasn't getting out of my system. It wasn't a song that I was going to get over soon. And I didn't. And two years later I still haven't. I still can't hear it once. If it comes up during shuffle it has to be played again. And again, and then once more just because.

 

So yeah, thought I'd share, hope this finds you well

Rella x

Even more Sufjan...

So apparently it's been almost two years since my last Sufjan Stevens post which majorly sucks. Why? Well it's such a misrepresentation of us. Stevens and I. But I guess that's what I get for not blogging for nearly a year right?

It looks like we've got some catching up to do and Stevens is the best place to start. I love him. No joke, no lie. Not as a person, because I don't know him, but musically? The love runs deep. I think I can go as far as saying he's my favourite musician of all time. (What I really mean is he's my favourite non-european*, white male musician of all time LOL).

I found myself singing a line from this song today. I sing this line alot because it's one of those lines. I feel them in the base of my spine. Somehow a melody, lyric, tone and harmony combine and make me...stop. And feel. I'm sure i've mentioned the type before. It happens alot with Stevens. In fact the whole song is one of those. For me anyway.

"I still have the things you gave,

Four anointing oils the paper weight you made"

So I was feeling kinda sombre, but not overly so. Sang the line and the wave of love that I feel for all things Sufjan** washed over me and I just felt so complete. And serene and warm and understood and all of those things that I can't describe so I decided to share this vid.

I love you for reading this,
Rella x

P.S: No but really? "Did you cut your hands on me? Are my edges sharp? Am I a pest to feed?" Or even- "And if it pleases you to leave me, just go. Stopping you would stifle your enchanting ghost" Are you trying to make me love you more?? Well you succeeded Stevens. You succeeded!!

*That way I can still claim Damien Rice as well!
**excluding the Age of Adz album which I refuse to talk about.

Water Chestnuts? Why you so creepy? Yeah I'm talking to you!

This one is for you K, you're always asking when a new post will be up and I appreciate the love you have for my blog. It makes me feel all warm inside. Like a microwave :)

Oh a few nights ago those of you who are subscribed by email woulda been sent a post that wasn't finished. What had happened was, I was tired, was writing this post, as I continued it was making less and less sense and I couldn't be bothered to make it make any sense, especially because the whole thing seemed funnier in my head (as most things do) so I went to click save put instead clicked publish. *face palm*. Now I never knew that it even got sent out because I converted it into a draft but O told me she saw it so hence this here explanation...

Now onto todays post. It's a real one. I promise :)

Ok. So I've mentioned before that I may be kinda strange when it comes to food. It's not that I don't like food. I loves me some food. It's just that sometimes, on occasion, my overactive imagination interferes with my food experience.

I thought I had all the foods that I didn't like down to a T. WRONG. The list just gets longer and longer. A couple of days ago I got a takeaway. I loves me some Chinese right, so I'm sitting tucking in to these sweet chilli chicken noodles *drool* and all of a sudden I hear this CRUNCHHHH sound and i'm like "WHAT THE HECK???" I try not to freak out. I look up the ingredionies to this meal on the leaflet: Chicken (me likes), Noodles (me likes), blah blah blah, Crunchy Water Chestnuts (IT'S YOU!).

Now see, I've heard of water chestnuts before. One day I was googling my love (Chestnuts) and I kept on seeing 'not to be confused with water chestnuts which are completely different'. Completely different is an understatement. Water chestnuts are sooooo creepy. I don't know how else to describe them (and creepy is one of my new fav words lol).

It's not the crunch that makes it creepy. I like crunchy food. Heck I love Crunchy Nut. The problem is how it crunches. I tried to suck it up. Tried to be a grownup and not let these creepy veggies spoil my meal. So I take another bite. CRUNCHHHH!!!. I just couldn't do it. I once met somebody who was afraid of apples. Or to be more specific: the sound of somebody eating an apple. And I couldn't understand because I loves me some crunchy apples. But now I gets it. Imagine the sound of the crunchiest apple you've ever eaten and then cross breed that with the sound of nails against a chalkboard. That's what water chestnuts sound like. They're like the vegetable equivalent of polystyrene against polystyrene. In your mouth. Unaffected by your saliva. So damn creepy *shudders*

I hope this post finds you all well.
Rella x x