My Blue Heaven

My Jazz Class

This is from end of Nov last year, which was the end of first term for my jazz class. We had a lil jazz club night – where the students performed a song of their choice in front of the class. The song had to be arranged by them and accompanied by their choice of musicians from within the class. I chose “So What” by Miles Davis, which is one of my faves, and bonus is easy to play! I arranged it with a vocalist and sax player – tho we didn’t get to practice the arrangement – it was all on-the-spot I tell them what I want them to do on the stage, then we performed it! So there are a couple mistakes but I think it turned out alright all things considered!

So, friends back in Sydney (if any of you guys still read this).. you can see I am still playing piano. 🙂

The class (called Jazz Improvisation Workshop) is still going now (in fact I just went to a class last night), and finishes around middle of the year (basically its a full year course). It has been just awesome.. I’ve learnt so much, even on repeated material, I’ve picked up new and more indepth knowledge. I’m hoping that through meeting lots of musicians in my class, maybe, just maybe I’ll be able to play a gig in London at some point by the end of this year! Wouldn’t that be awesome! Just gotta figure out regular practising and getting a keyboard to perform with somehow….

And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going

I watched DreamGirls on the weekend. I’m now totally obsessed with the song “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going”. There seems to be much debate about who sings the better version of this song. I’ve scoured YouTube looking for all versions, including the most recent sung by Jennifer Hudson (from Dreamgirls), original Broadway version by Jennifer Holliday, that performance by 11 year old Bianca Ryan, a cover by Whitney Houston, and even covers by filo divas like Regine.

After some pondering, I’ve decided the original is the best.. there is just no comparison to the amount of soul, raw emotion and sheer power Jennifer Holliday puts into this song. It’s not that pretty to look at (her face is a bit scary sometimes!), and it’s not a nice “polished” song, but I think that’s how it’s supposed to be, and it’s what makes this song so powerful. I can’t stop watching this clip (below) – makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up every time! I wish I could have even just 50% of the voice this woman has. *sigh* She is probably the most powerful belter I’ve ever heard. And then some!

NB: Song begins from about 3:30mins.

Comments Fixed

Btw I’ve fixed the comments. Somehow the script permission got changed. Strange coz I never touched it. Anyway it’s working now.. so comment away. Not that anyone reads this anymore since I’ve been so lazy with this site lately. Been distracted by other things is my excuse. But I really need to overhaul this site at some point.. and do that dreaded move to the new server.

Happy 2007

Wow. Can’t believe it’s 2007 already. How time flies.

Normally I try to write some sort of profound new years blog entry, but I seem to be lacking inspiration this year. Oh well. You can watch my NYE vlog instead. 🙂

Btw, I don’t expect to travel to ALL those locations I listed this year.. they were merely a list of possible destinations that I am interested in seeing. My resolutions are more like.. medium term goals over this year. Just some things I want to achieve this year, things that are important to me, to help keep me focused and disciplined when I get lazy/distracted/tired. (And the list isn’t all-inclusive.) And yes the editing is a bit choppy… Kwai did alot of it and we were in a hurry coz it was NYE and we needed to get out to watch the fireworks.

Myself and Kwai went to see the fireworks on NYE here in London, over the Thames. It was pretty cool, for London. Nothing compared to Sydney of course, but a good show nonetheless. And the atmosphere was pretty cool… for once people in London seemed warm and friendly and actually spoke to each other (or maybe it was just the alcohol).. but there was definitely a celebratory festive air on the banks of the Thames that night. Then we went home.. and it only took about an hour and half.. (which was quite good for NYE).. and stayed up till 5:30am celebrating the new year with our friends from around the world on stickam (ok it wasn’t as sad as it sounds.. it was fun) and watched the live video of Times Square celebrations in New York.

Coming up soon is our trip to Florence, Italy. We’re gonna spend 5 days in Florence for my birthday in mid jan. Can’t wait! It’ll be nice to just soak in the beauty, the art and the food of Florence over a relaxing 5 days.. no rushing from one city to another this time. 🙂

Fotos

Some photos I took in December from my work. Pretty views of english countryside at dusk, during those few days we had such bad fog in London that they cancelled heaps of flights.

Long time no blog

Wow its been a while eh.

Just a quick update coz I have all of 5 minutes before I have to leave work to catch my train..

• Work’s been mega-busy, challenging, demanding.. but fun. 🙂 Boss is great, work colleagues are great.
• Life has been mega-busy.. with jazz class taking up entire monday night, and just lots of stuff going on.
• I’m going away on a “mini-break” this weekend! We have an impromptu car for the weekend so spontaneously decided to drive to Belgium (Brussels) and Germany (Aachen) for one night. Leaving real early sat morning, catching very cheap eurotunnel across, and staying 1 night at a friend’s place in Aachen. Yay for having friends in other countries. 🙂 (Incidentally, this friend is a fellow youtubian from youtubia. This will be an inaugural youtube meetup. Preceding the official london meetup next year! W00t.)

Ok time’s up! TGI Friday!!! 😀

Italy Trip : Part 3

Enjoy. 🙂