And my teacher just told me she's dactylic!

I love discovering new music. It's so exciting, don't you think? Well I had recently discovered Ben Folds and on a random impulse bought tickets with Hannah in the middle of Flash class back in April. We were surprised there were still some good seats left. Anyway, I nearly didn't go to the concert because I was starting to regret making such a big dent in my wallet for it, but in the end I wound up inside the State Theater drooling over the loveliness of the building.

My camera really doesn't do it justice....

Anyway, we got in there and from out seats we could see this:

Which looked like a pretty good view to us! Aside from the smokiness in the air from the crew obviously testing the smoke-machine before the audience came in.... It added significantly to the lighting later on :)

So first off Kate Miller-Heidke came out as support, and I wasn't really too keen on her performance because I'd never heard her before. Hannah told me she was pretty good, and she's a trained opera. Opera? I thought. Who listens to opera? No wonder she's turned to pop. So yeah, that was me initially being all skeptical and prepared to be bored, because I have had several bad experiences with support acts....

I short, I really loved her. I am no longer skeptical about the opera thing. Seeing her live, singing normally one moment and then bursting into this bit of vocal awesomeness in the middle of her songs was pretty rad. This song in particular that caused me to have a little spasm in my seat and think omgihavetogetthecd. Hee.



I get particularly excited when I discover a new female singer, because if you look at my ipod my top artists are Mumford and Sons, Coldplay, Ben Folds, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Newtown Faulker, Peter Murray, and U2. ALL MEN. The only two female singers that I listen to a lot are P!nk and Regina Spektor. And bonus points, Kate Miller-Heidke is Australian! She has a Vegemite product placement in her video clips and sings humorous songs about Facebook and Southern Cross tattoos. And we get it. It's great.

Anyway, onto the star of the show! Ben Folds can really rock the piano. That was awesome. We got a couple good photos of him smashing some stuff out on the grand piano, accompanied by drums, tambourine, bass guitar and french horn. Um, cool or what?!

As I said, the lighting was an entertainment in itself.

So yeah. I love concerts and discovering new music and that is the point of the post. The end. :)

P.S Here's a couple videos for you.

One that I took of Kate and Ben's duet at the concert. Like hello! How does she even do that with her voice???

And if you haven't watched Charlie's music video for Ben Folds and Nick Hornby's Saskia Hamilton, you must. Right now.



And this song is on the Kate CD that I now own. I really like the video clip and the song is just AWESOME because it's about not being able to dance, and I can't dance. So yay. Watch it :)

Sound sounds so good to me!

So blogger was down yesterday and I have a few things piled up in my head that I must write about, but now is not the time for it all, as it is nine minutes to midnight. I will blog tomorrow, but I thought I'd let you know that I just got back from Ben Fold's concert at the State Theatre with Hannah, which was totally awesome. Ben Folds was really, really cool and funky on the piano, but I have to say it was Kate Miller-Heidke's voice that blew my mind. I can't believe I have never listened to her before. I was so excited about this new discovery that I bought her CD, and she signed it for me right then and there. Here's proof: 

So yeah it was a pretty exciting night. I'll tell you more about it, and the planet alignment that I woke up at 4:45 a.m on Friday morning for, tomorrow. :)

"What are you imagining right now? That place can be as real as anything."

What up. I'm on holidays now, yayness!

Two things to blog about.

Number one is Suckerpunch. I won two free preview screening tickets thanks to Empire magazine, how cool! So I went with Hannah and we pretended that we were skipping our TAFE lecture for 'educational purposes', because in the last lecture we had heard from a guy who had worked on some motion tracking in the film. Pretty cool. We also had this awesome story cooked up that was exactly like The Big Bang Theory, where I had a cousin who was a genius celloist and he had invited me to his private concert in The Middle Of Nowhere and because I can't drive Hannah was going to take me. It was foolproof. But unfortunately we couldn't find the teacher to tell him, so we just went anyway.... :)

On to the "review" of sorts. Basically, I was disappointed. From a writer's point of view this movie WAS TERRIBLE. I wanted to scream "WHERE'S THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?!" and stomp out of the theatre demanding a free copy of the soundtrack. Because THAT was cool. Honestly it's worth seeing just for the special effects, art direction, costume design and the music. There were a couple moments where I leaned over to Hannah and said, 'That's all 3D. That is all 3D. How do they even do that?!?' And we're both completely jealous that not only can Emily Browning act, she can sing, too. It's her voice in Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), which appears at the beginning of the film. So yeah, worth watching on the big screen for all that. But don't expect any character development or proper explanation of the plot. You'll be watching a bunch of scantily clad superheroines fire up the big guns and slash monsters to death ninja-style, which is totally awesome. Also, be prepared to get a little bit uncomfortable wondering what on earth is going on in the "real-life-but-not-real-life" scenes (you'll get what I mean if you see the film) while the girls are in Fantasyland. Yeah, the tiny scrap of plot that is present is a little messed up. I toyed for a long time on whether to give this 3 stars or 2.5, and I've had to settle on 2.5 because as much as I want to give it more for the visual and auditory side of things, I'm a writer at heart and I just can't let it go how much of an EPIC FAIL the writing was. So, sorry. That's all it gets. But don't let my measly 2.5 stops you from going to see it. If you're going to see it, see it on the big screen. The time is now.


As for my new blog url, it's a reference to Hebrew 3:4: "For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything." 

I like that verse because I am a creative person, and it reminds me that my talents are all gifts from God, because he is the designer of this universe :)

Off to watch Arthur and eat dinner before work. Have a good evening!

Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare

My new favorite obsession song.

Wednesday...

...was a pretty good day. I was sitting in Berkelouw's bookstore cafe with Hannah yesterday afternoon and we decided that now would be as good a time as ever to start exercising again, so we made a little schedule of the time we have before class and now we're going to start jogging (ahem, walking...) for an hour three times a week, and then go to class.

This seemed like a fine plan and so this morning (calling each other up just to hear Saskia Hamilton as our ringtones) Hannah swung by and picked me up and we cruised over to Sydney Park ... while the sun rose higher and got hotter.

In hindsight it was probably pretty stupid to go walking at 11:30, when the temperature was as high as it was ... but we hadn't expected it to be so hot! Thankfully there was a cool breeze that made it bearable. We explored the park and let our inner-child roam free on the play equipment, met a cute German Shepard puppy named LuLu, and bolted the last few yards up the hill with Regina Spektor and Matt & Kim as our soundtrack. Like the cool indie kids we pretend to be.

We arrived at TAFE feeling like puddles thanks to the heat, but Web Design is in a tiny little room where the air conditioning blasts full board so we survived ... until the chill started to sink in and I wished I had remembered my jumper. Such is TAFE - it can be 40 degrees outside and you will STILL want to be wearing a jumper in the classrooms.

After that was the dreaded Exhibition Concept class, where the teacher is an arrogant noob who knows about as little as we do. Ugh. Oh well, at least we've attended every class so we can't really fail....

Home now, and early, which is nice :) Gonna chill out tonight and then do it all again tomorrow.

Get excited.

Hello. I'm listening to Regina Spektor right now, because ever since Wednesday I haven't been able to get Samson out of my head. It's one of those songs that I loved and then somehow forgot about ... probably due to small memory space on my ipod.

Anyway. It's very late and I have to be at work in less than twelve hours so I should probably be asleep, but I felt like writing about something. I've been planning out more plot to Fat Beagles, and I need to get on with actually writing it now. Hopefully I'll find some time this week. Another thing I need to write is all the thank you's for my birthday gifts. I have such incredibly generous friends :)

TAFE is going good. So good, actually, that I can't help but sending up constant thanks to God for sorting everything out and making it go so well. I'm so glad that I trusted Him with the decision of what to do this year, because I was scared that I would make the wrong choice ... and I think I probably would have. I'm enjoying my classes and I've made friends already and I can just hear God saying, 'See? I told you it would be okay. Aren't you glad you trusted me?' Yes, Lord. I'm so, so, so glad. And so grateful. He has a plan for this year and I'm only just seeing the beginning of it... there's more to this story, I'm sure.

You know, I don't think people every appreciate how much LOVE God pours into the tiniest of things. I found the below quote on the internet, and you've probably seen it on my facebook or my tumblr, but I'll have to put it here too because I love it so much.

"What if gratitude was as natural as breathing, because we knew in our hearts that the air we breathe is grace?" 

I wish we all thought like this. Breathed like this. That off the cusp of every breath were the words 'thank you'. I wish we woke up and felt thrilled that GOD SAVED US. I read this blog post this morning and I completely and utterly agree with Kylee. She says "What would happen if we took great delight in being God's most important creation? The type of delight that enables us to wake up every morning absolutely giddy to speak His praises. Every second of every day?"

 I wish I could respond like that every time I woke up the morning. I wish that when I bumped into people I would have a bright smile on my face and be lit up with joy and they would ask me why I was so happy, and I would explain that's it's because my amazing God made me, and loves me, and saved me. Every. Single. Day. Ever. Can't we live like that? What's stopping us? Why don't I feel excited?

I'm going to pray about this. Pray with me. Let's be excited for God. Thrilled. Amazed. Awed. It's unbelievable, really. That the creator of the universe would love us unconditionally and want us to be with Him even though we turn away from Him. He has the power to destroy this earth and build a better one, and yet he hangs on to us. He loves us. And there's nothing that will ever stop him from loving us. He died for us. Doesn't that just bring you chills? The God of the universe died for you. And even more amazing, He conquered death, He rose again, and now we can be with Him forever. Honestly, it's more than my brain can comprehend. If I think to much about this thing called eternity, I start to freak out a bit. My human brain just can't take it all in. But God! He knows. It will all be okay if we trust in Jesus.

I'd really love to go into church on Sunday, and into TAFE on Monday, feeling thrilled because of Jesus. Let's be the Christians that are known for their love, their passion to serve, and their excitement for God.

I mean really, what's more exciting than knowing that because of Jesus' love for you, this earth is not the end, but the beginning?


p.s If you have a question, some encouragement, want to tell me that you feel encouraged, or you just want to say hi, please leave a comment :)

This is why I love Pink.

Okay, so there's a lot of swearing in these songs I know, but that's not my point. My point is the message that Pink puts in these songs. Have a listen, if you'd like. But really listen. Take in the words.

If there's one piece of advice I'd want to give all the girls (and boys too) of Generation Y and Z, and beyond, it would be this: No matter what you do, you won't be accepted by everyone. Not everyone is going to like you. Don't waste your time trying to be something your not. Just be YOU, whatever that is - don't try and shape yourself into something else to fit in with what other people pressure you to be. There are 6 billion+ people in this world ... just be yourself, because there will still be more than enough people to love you just for who you are.

Do what you want. Dress how you want. Cut your hair the way you like it. Dance like you don't care what people think. Sing out loud like you mean it. Dream BIG. Have fun! Let God shape you. 

To Him, you are perfect.

To me you're perfect too. Just the way you are.

So raise your glass ... if you are wrong, in all the right ways. :)

Green Eyes.

I love this song. It's so amazing.

Honey you are a rock Upon which I stand And I came here to talk I hope you understand The green eyes, yeah the spotlight, shines upon you And how could, anybody, deny you I came here with a load And it feels so much lighter now I met you And honey you should know That I could never go on without you Green eyes Honey you are the sea Upon which I float And I came here to talk I think you should know The green eyes, you're the one that I wanted to find And anyone who tried to deny you, must be out of their mind Because I came here with a load And it feels so much lighter since I met you Honey you should know That I could never go on without you Green eyes, green eyes Oh oh oh oh Honey you are a rock Upon which I stand

Oh and nothing else compares ♫

It's been a good morning. Class was canceled so it feels like a Thursday. I stayed in bed til 10:30, then had breakfast of peanut butter bread and chocolate milk.

Yeah it was good. Been listening to the likes of Coldplay, John Mayer and Jon Schmidt while I tidied my room. Haven't finished yet. Hektor was in the way of me making my bed.

But I can forgive him.
Ta ta. I'm off to take a walk down to Officeworks to pick up some new notebooks, do some homework, get laundry done, and read Terry Prachett.

KYCK!!

KYCK is on in 11 days!

Ahem... Not that I'm counting or anything. :)

But seriously, it's going to be awesome!! Hundreds and hundreds of teenagers gathering together under Christ, hearing talks from Ecclesiastes, hanging with my SALT people, and making a cool video....

Although, there is one thing that I'm not looking forward to - Garage Hymnal is once again leading the congregation in song.

Now, I don't have a problem with them as a band. I listen to some of their music. It's their leading that I don't like. They plug their album between songs; in fact, a lot of the songs they did last time were directly from their latest album.
Prepare to feel awkward and confused the second their two singers start harmonizing. I don't know how this song goes, so which one do I follow?!

Yes, that's right - they do a whole bunch of songs half the congregation doesn't even know! And they're just ... not the kind of songs a huge group should be singing anyway. They're album tracks, ok?!

I wish they'd just do more regular stuff that we all know and love. They didn't do half of my favorite songs last year either. Very disappointing. Can't even remember what they DID do. Anyway, here're some of the songs I would love to do at KYCK:

 - God of Wonders

 - Indescribable

 - Mighty to Save

 - Take My Life

 - Holding Onto Me

 - Hallelujah to the King of Kings

 - We Belong to the Day

 - Never Alone

 - In Christ Alone

 - Bring on the Day

 - Rock of Ages

 - Blessed Be Your Name

 - Jesus Thank You

 - Shout to the Lord

I was going to highlight my favorites in bold ... but I love too many of them! A few of these are originally Garage Hymnal's. So that's hopeful :)

If you're going to KYCK, are there any more you can think of that you're eager to sing?

guitar...

Gah I wish I had a Maton so bad.

I have a new song list to learn, here it is:

Your Guardian Angel - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
The One That Got Away - P!nk
Don't Look Anywhere Else - Revive
Say- John Mayer
If This is It - Newton Faulkner

Hold me to this! I should be able to play at least 1 by the time you see me next... so if there's a guitar around... quiz me. ;)

Can I be your bridesmaid??

At the formal Keira said when she gets married she wants her and her husband and the bridal party to learn a dance from like the Victorian era and do it as the introductory dance, or whatever you call it, on her wedding day. I think that would be awesome. I hope I come up with an awesome idea like that. I don't really spend much time daydreaming about my wedding day....

But I did think of this song, which I love, called "I'm Gonna Be". I hope I meet a guy like the one singing this. I just think it's the cutest song ever. Here's some of the lyrics from the Steven Curtis Chapman version. How sweet is it! And it's really catchy too. ♥

When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you

When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you

When I'm lonely well I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man whose lonely without you

When I'm dreaming well I know I'm gonna dream

I'm gonna dream about the time when I'm with you

But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles

To fall down at your door

When I'm dreaming well I know I'm gonna dream

Dream about the time when I'm with you

And when I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you

And when I go out well I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you

When I come home yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who comes back home to you

I'm gonna be the man who comes back home to you

But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles

To fall down at your door

Awwww! ♥ ♥ ♥

I'm nothing on my own, so you don't have to be alone.

I haven't written on this blog in nearly two weeks. Well, here I am again, with a few things to say....

1. I love my friends. You guys mean so much more to me than you could ever know.

2. I love my brother. You are the cheese to my macaroni, or in your words of Popo and Nana, you are the blubber to my seal meat! You are the most wonderful person, and so very very loved. I wish I had your amazing creativity and your gift with small children. I'll love you forever, little brother who is now bigger than me. :)

3. I love my parents. Thank you for everything you've ever given me and everything you will give me. I wish I gave as much in return.

4. The title of this blog is taken from "A Message" by Coldplay.

5. I'm in a lovey mood. As you can see. Sorry. Maybe I'll write something a little more interesting later.... But for now, I'll leave you with this bible verse and this picture that I love:

"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19.

STAND!

Oh, stand! (Stand up, stand up)

For what you believe in, believe in,

Believe in God (He's the one to back you up)

We'll stand with you!

Oh, stand up (Stand up, stand up)

For what you believe in, believe in,

Believe in God (He's the one to back you up)

We'll stand with you!

He'll stand with you, oh yeah.

 

So true. Gotta Love Veggie-Tales!

...this used to be a funhouse...

Beth, Justin and I took 127 photos on the Mac last night. Oh so sexy.

I say a lot of stuff, dude.

I'm listening to P!nk's latest album. I like it. My favorite songs being Sober and Funhouse, as of yet. I'm only halfway through it.

Well, tomorrow I get the house to myself all day, so that will be a nice change. Plan on writing the day away with perhaps a movie or two in between and plenty of food. And quiet. I like quiet.

Yeah, not much to say, only on the drama side of things we got our scripts for regular drama, two words to sum up the script would be fun and pointlessness. And I've been madly searching for a script for us to perform at NIDA but with a group that has 8 girls and 1 guy it's a bit difficult. So far the best I've found is "The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman, but it's a bit boring. I wish Shakespeare had written a play with 8 female roles and 1 male.

On the subject of Shakespeare I've also chosen to do a Lady Macbeth monologue for NIDA, and I am deeply in love with the piece. I must've read it about a dozen times already, pouring over the beauty and elegance that is Shakespeare's writing.

Oh, that reminds me. I don't know why it reminds me, the two subjects are not really related but anyway - that reminds me, Scott Pilgrim!! I love Scott! They're making a movie of it. If you haven't read this epic 6-part graphic novel, go find it and read it, it's awesome. Not beauty and elegance mind you, just random and hilarious pointless story of jobless Scott and his journey to fight seven evil ex-boyfriends so he can win over Ramona Flowers, the mysterious girl of his dreams. It's cool! So read it.

Anyway. I'm hungry. So I'm off to find food. I'll leave you random snippet from Scott Pilgrim book 5 so you'll want to read the series. Bye. :)

Wonder - Lisa Mitchell

Get this album.

'Tis awesome. But maybe I'm biased because I voted for her three years ago on Idol ... I don't know.

Anyway, it really is great! Love the guitar. Like I said when I saw her live ... I want her guitar....

I'd say more but I'm too distracted listening to it.

So, maybe that speaks for itself. :)

Falling Slowly by The Frames

This is like, the most beautiful song ever. Played for the loveliest dance. It's my favorite song, which is why I'm sharing it with you. Jonathan and Karla from So You Think You can Dance are just bonus. ^_^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehi0azzFjZ0&feature=PlayList&p=FEB8164AEBC3A060&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=32

IIIIIIII, I, I, I won't worry my life awayay, heyayay, ohhh....

Just sitting here in my room with Trent (my laptop), listening to Jason Mraz's Rand McNally... gosh, his voice is amazing. I can't get over it. It's literally an instrument. Love it.

Umm ... yeah. What to write. I'm kind of procrastinating. Kind of not. Because it's a public holiday so I guess I can do what I want. But I suppose I could also be doing something more useful.
Just watched the season finale for Lost. What a waste of time. That was THE WORST ending I've ever seen. Ever. The only reason I'm still watching the silly show is because I've seen every single episode ever aired on Australian TV, so I guess since there's only meant to be one more season I may as well just keep watching. See how it ends. Yeah, I won't spoil the ending in case there's some avid fan somewhere who actually cares, but seriously ... the whole show is just going to end up with an infinite-loop-motif. Sigh. Epic fail.

I should practice my scripts for NIDA. The Devil Wears Prada scene and the Dead Poet's Society one. I like the Prada one much, much more. It's fun. I get to play Emily. Love her, love her. Even though she's a jerk. Ha ha. And I need tow ork out my costume. I think I'll get Beth, Kris and Naomi together sometime this week and help me work out what to wear. I shall take my Susan shoes for the Dead Poet's Society practice next week. And I'm hoping Jess and Claudia manage to get to the costume rental shop and find themselves some dresses for Pride and Prejudice because that would just be awesome. It's quite funny, some of the costumes are going to completely clash for the two characters that eveyrone plays - me for one, being completely fashionable and uptight in one, and then a lazy school-kid in the next .. then along with Jess's PP and dress, for her next scene she'll be barefoot and wearing a hospital robe.

Hmmm. Let's hope this all pulls together in the next two weeks; not to mention Commedia Dell Arte needs to work itself out ... and I still have to learn how to dance. Maybe I'll close the door and practice in my bedroom....

Anyway, signing off. Mulder and Scully await me for the next installment of the X-Files.

Till next time. - Erin Michelle

"I'm going home, to the place where I belong, where your love has always been enough for me..."

Ok, so I haven't written anything on here for a while ... excuse being I had nothing to write about ... but now I do! So here I am. Hello lovely person who cares to read about my life. I hope you'll find something interesting or amusing in this blog to brighten your day.
So there's that song, called Human by The Killers, I believe, with lyrics going something along the lines of "are we human, or are we dancers?" I had a somewhat mild but fast-talking arguement with a couple of friends about this song - me and Meg (the NON-dancers) against Asha (the one who looks graceful on the floor), and Meg and I insisted that we would rather be human than anything else...!

Well ... I'm sorry Meg. Maybe I'm not human anymore.

Or at the absolute least, there's something very, very wrong with me. All my friends must think I'm sick. Because I WANT to dance. For once in my life. I spent four hours at NIDA yesterday running aross the room, doing little head-turns and tricky foot-moves (tricky for me anyway), sliding across the floor and practicing lifts, and it was ... FUN. No way! Who knew? To explain to anyone who doesn't know me, I was dreading this dance-thing at NIDA for weeks - it was compulsory for our mid-year performance. I didn't think I danced. Apparently, as clumsy and choppy as it may look (compared to Yana and Jess, who are quite awesome hip-hop dancers), I do dance! So now my evil-mastermind-of-a-plan is to make an attempt to join the little dance class at the drama hall and psyche everyone out. Just for fun. Oh, and I need some excerise. Not to mention that reall, deep down, I've always wanted to be able to dance. Why not learn before it's too late?

So ... I'll end on a note of "get out there and follow your dreams!!"

Ha ha ha.