Tuesday 22 May 2012

Artist Profile: Yucca Rose


Name: Yucca Rose
Country: Indonesia
Instrument: Vocals
Genre: Jazz
Facebook | Twitter | Reverbnation
Previously singing with Major Seventh, this exquisite artist and vocalist from Jakarta, Indonesia cannot help but capture your heart. Her voice is beautifully smooth and peaceful, yet raw and full of emotion. On her Reverbnation you will find many examples of her singing also in English.

Not only is Yucca one of the truly most talented people I know online, she is also one of the loveliest. She has her own label, and she was the first fan I had on my Reverbnation. I highly recommend listening to her if you enjoy smooth jazz.
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Monday 21 May 2012

Music Is My Relief

If I tell you I have a difficult week this week, I really mean it. I'm 15 so GCSE's are hitting me hard right now. I'm struggling to find the time to do anything. At least I know that I'll be out of school completely in four weeks, never ever to return.

The thing is, I'm bad at studying like many teenagers. I find it so difficult to get my head around the idea of sitting for long periods of time to learn. My mind races and I lose track too quickly. I swear that right now my life consists of studying, prayer and music. There's a lot of pressure on me to get my grades, since I want to obviously go to college and then study music at a conservatoire. I have a 'conditional' place at a college for next year, to study Performing Arts, Music and French, but I need the grades.

Perhaps this is just useless rambling, I just felt the need to vent somewhere and as today is my personal update day, I figured that I would do it here, in the hopes that if people think of me there might be a chance of me at least passing my subjects. For this random post, I do apologize.

To let you know what is up-and-coming:
-My choir tour to Venice!
-PledgeMusic campaign
-New covers (I'm taking requests if you have any)
-Interview with Blackbeard's Tea Party, right here.

Until next week's ramble, I assure you that this blog will be free from my venting, or personal life.
Adieu!

Thursday 17 May 2012

Things That Bemuse Me #3: The Messy Bird's Nest Bun

Every day when I'm going to school, this girl walks past. She's a Year 8 and she's pretty. Yet, I can't help myself from laughing whenever I see her. The thing is, she's followed fashion. She's jumped on the bandwagon, along with many other girls, and decided to wear her hair up in a giant messy bun.

The above image demonstrates a more classy version of what this girl I see looks like.

I can understand the image, as it is couture fashion which has it's place. What I can't understand are the girls who think it looks good to put their hair right up on the top of their head and sleep with it like that for a month. Isn't that just gross? So, aside from looking like 18th Century French prostitutes, they look like tramps. How exactly is that supposed to be hot?

Not going to lie, the messy bun can be a very classy thing when done nicely. But I just can't understand why girls want to pile it up on top of their heads and back-comb it until it is three quarters of the size of their torso. It just doesn't make sense and it's not attractive. 


I can't say that I'm a Selena Gomez fan, but her hair is honestly so much better than this trampy, disgusting look that people are wearing right now. If more people tried to look more presentable, clean, educated and refined, as opposed to women who try to make themselves look like the picture below, then modern day life would be so much more innocent and possibly so much happier too.

Katie Price : The role model of too many young girls.



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Wednesday 16 May 2012

Blog Timetable #1

In order for this whole blogging thing to work, I have decided to create a schedule. Fair enough, isn't it?

Monday: Astrid-Gwynedd Updates/Personal Musical Rambling
Tuesday: Artist Profile
Thursday: Things That Bemuse Me (series)
Friday: Highlight of the Week

Also, I'm hoping that I may perhaps score a few interviews with bands/artists so stay tuned.

Things that Bemuse Me #2: The Busker and his Stingy Audience

Busking is something that most musicians do at some point - be it for experience, pleasure, or the money. Personally, I think that walking through streets in iconic towns and cities such as York or Beverley without being surrounded by music would be the end of the world.

© chrisjohnbeckett at Flickr

Sadly, in many places, especially Hull, people don't stop to reward the musicians, but instead just walk straight by. We've really got to the world where many people are too busy to even stop for even one moment to listen properly and admire good musicianship. Would it kill people to just throw in 50p, or even less if they don't have that much on them? Even person walking by gave the musician busking even 10p it would at least be something.

For me, I almost always give any busker I see some money, and usually at least £1. Quite often, if they're selling CD's I buy those too, just to show support for local artists. It shocks me to see how many people don't.

The other day I was out with a friend, and after walking past a hipster playing the guitar he turned to me and said, 'I didn't personally give him money because his strum pattern is rubbish'. Despite the fact that this friend of mine is a guitarist, I couldn't help but feel saddened by the fact that it has come down to such a trivial matter. As we walked down that street, at least 40 others passed the boy, and not a single person stopped to listen.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who do give money. It's just personally I feel that especially where I live, buskers are frowned upon.

Why do people behave like this towards street musicians?
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