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NaBloPoMo Day #7 - French

by Nathan on Nov.07, 2009, under Music

A while ago, I tried to learn French. I failed. Mostly because French is hard, but also because it requires more than a 2 week commitment. In the process of trying to learn French, I looked for several easy ways out. I figured that if I listened to French music and watched French TV shows, maybe I would learn French by osmosis, or immersion, or something like that. It didn’t work, but I did find some fascinating French YouTube videos. Today, I’m going to share three of them with you. Lucky lucky you.

First up is Yelle. Yelle is a French electropop singer. I can’t say that I’m really into “electropop”, but Yelle’s music is strangely entrancing. Here is a video of Yelle singing Je Veux Te Voir (I Want To See You) at the Knitting Factory in NYC. People often ask how the French stay so thin. Judging from this video, I think it’s because they jump a lot. FYI, the lyrics to this song are pretty dirty, but you’ll never know, unless you speak French or click on that lyrics link I just provided.

Along with Yelle, I found Alizée. Alizée is a more traditional pop singer. Her music isn’t as strangely addicting as Yelle’s, but it’s very pretty and soothing. It sounds so French. Perhaps because it’s in French. Also, Alizée is beautiful. She is what I would describe as girlfriend hot. She’s attractive, but she still has the illusion of attainability. Attainability is hot. Anyways, here is a video of Alizée singing J’en ai Marre (I’m fed up). You can view the translated lyrics here. One weird thing about French, even after you translate it into English, it still doesn’t make much sense.

Finally, a cute little French girl telling a fairy tale. I’m not usually a fan of cute kids doing cute things, but if they are speaking French, well, not even I can resist. One great thing about this video is that it has english subtitles. I now know how to say hippopotamus, giraffe, and crocodile in French. Woo Hoo! Now if only I could find a video of cats speaking French, that would be awesome.

That is all, I have Husker football to watch. See you tomorrow.

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Stuff I Want To Say

by Nathan on Sep.06, 2009, under About Me, Daily Life, Good Eats, Miscellaneous, Music, Politics, Women's Studies

I got things I want to say. Here they are:

  • Look! It’s a picture of a cat being all cute! This will probably be your favorite part of this post.
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  • My trip to London and Paris seems to be having a lingering effect on my music taste. I’ve been listening to BBC Radio 1 on my iPhone using the WunderRadio app. I’m probably too old to be listening to Radio 1, but whatever, it’s a good station to get you going in the morning. Radio 1 has managed to firmly wedge a few new songs into my head. The first is Left My Heart In Tokyo by Mini Viva, which you can hear in the video below.

  • The next song stuck in my head is The Day I Died by Just Jack. The video below is an acoustic version. I love acoustic.

  • BBC Radio 1 has also reintroduced me to Lily Allen. I love Lily Allen. I might have to add her to my harem of girlfriends (along with Mandy Moore, Reese Witherspoon, Meghan McCain, Natalie Portman, Julia Stiles, and Danica McKellar). I’m not completely sure what it is that I like about Lily Allen’s music. She is a beautiful vocalist and an amazing song writer. Her music has a “real” and authentic quality to it. Plus, she knows how to use the word “Fuck”, and God bless her for it. My favorite Lily Allen song of the moment is The Fear. This song speaks to me in ways I don’t understand. I love the version in the video below. It’s acoustic *and* it has a piano, two things I love.

  • In my ongoing pursuit of beer cheese (documented here and here) I attempted to make welsh rarebit using Alton Brown’s recipe. I was going to blog about it, but it only turned out okay. I think this technique has promise though, because this is the first time I have have made beer cheese using real cheese without it turning out lumpy. The key seems to be low heat and adding the shredded cheese slowly. While it turned out okay, I was hoping for a stronger beer cheesy flavor. If you want to try welsh rarebit, Dressel’s Pub in the Central West End (St. Louis) has great welsh rarebit that they serve with their homemade bavarian chips (potato chips). Here is a picture of my welsh rarebit on toast.

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  • I still have a lot that I want to say about health care, but I’ll spare you, just kidding. I’m shocked at how some people seem resistant to even the most basic and obviously needed reforms. At a minimum, we must prevent insurance companies from discriminating based on health and in turn require everyone who can afford it to purchase health insurance. This is exactly how most employer provided group insurance plans work, and most people on these plans are very satisfied with their health care. Group insurance works, we just need to make sure everyone can get in the group. This will be good for small businesses and the self employed, why republicans aren’t more supportive of this I will never understand. On the other end of the spectrum, my support for a public plan is waining. A lot of this is because I was watching an episode of NOW on PBS about health care called Gambling With Health Care. In it, the Bush administration official in charge of medicare made the point that subsidies for lower income individuals to purchase private insurance could be just as effective as a public plan. I’m a big fan of the simplest solution that works, so if we can have meaningful health care reform without a public plan, that would be simpler, and I’d be all for it. I’ll probably change my mind on this in a day or two. On another note, why aren’t more moderate republicans making rational suggestions like the former Bush official in the NOW episode? Why do republicans let their craziest voices speak the loudest? Oh, and what about this whole freaking out about Obama talking to kids on the importance of education thing? WTF? When republicans pull these stunts, they allow themselves to be labeled as wingnuts, which causes a lot of people to instantly write off anything they say, even if it might actually make some sense. Ugh! This is why I wish I could register as a non-republican. Here is the NOW episode on health care. You aren’t allowed to comment on the health care portion of this post unless you watch the whole video.

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Acoustic Love

by Nathan on Sep.18, 2008, under Music

If you read this post, you know that I have a thing for collegiate a cappella music. I have been playing with the genius sidebar in iTunes, and I’ve discovered another love. Acoustic music. I like it for all the same reasons that I like a cappella music. It’s not as shinny and polished, but somehow that makes it more “real”. It’s less filtered. It has more texture and intimacy.

Here is some of my favorite acoustic music so far, and luckily, I found YouTube videos! Enjoy!

“Push” by Rob Thomas

“Mr. Brightside” by The Killers

“Richard Manuel is Dead” by Counting Crows

“Only One” by Yellowcard

Here is a better video, but all you can really hear is the audience singing along.

“Stuck in a Moment” by U2

I’m coming to the realization that I like music that expresses emotion. I think that is what makes this music so good. With less “production” between you and the artist, you can feel it more, and connect with it more. Does this mean I have emotions? Maybe even an artistic side? God I hope not, that would horrible. I mean, I’m an engineer, I have a reputation to uphold. It’s late, I think I’m getting a little loopy.

In other news, I’m pretty sure I’m going to the St. Louis Interactive Conference this Saturday. I’m totally freaking out about meeting real bloggers in real life. It should be an adventure though, so maybe I’ll see you there.

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Ces soirées-là

by Nathan on Mar.11, 2008, under Music

This even makes me want to dance, and I don’t dance, at least not when other people can see.

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Say It Right

by Nathan on Mar.04, 2008, under Music

I came across this video while witting my last post, and now I can’t stop watching it.

This one is good too.

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Collegiate A Cappella

by Nathan on Mar.02, 2008, under Music

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A couple years ago I was playing with iTunes and I stumbled across a best of college a cappella album. I downloaded one song and I liked it so much I downloaded the whole album. Since then I have collected 112 college a cappella songs in my iTunes library. I’m not sure what it is I like so much, but I keep looking for more a cappella music in iTunes. There are no instruments, so the performance is more raw and the emotions come through better. The voices aren’t perfect, but somehow that imperfection makes it more real. It’s also cool to hear unique versions of popular songs.

After much deliberation, I have come up with my top 15 college a cappella songs. It was amazingly hard to narrow this list down to 15, and even harder to put the final 15 in order. I have provided links to these songs in iTunes and on Amazon.com. I tried to get links directly to the song, but sometimes I could only link to the album. For the record, I do not get any money if you buy these songs. I just wanted to provide a way to hear a preview of these songs, because just reading about songs is dumb. Here they are:

15. “My Happy Ending” by the University Of North Carolina Loreleis - This version sounds so much like the original I think Avril Lavigne must be a member of the group. (Amazon|iTunes)

14. “Write Me A Song” by The Pitchforks Of Duke University - This song is a little sappy, but I still like it. (Amazon|iTunes)

13. “Best I Ever Had” by Stanford Mixed Company - I’m not sure why I like this song, but I find myself listening to it a lot. (Amazon|iTunes)

12. “Rainbow Connection” by Utah State That One - “Rainbow Connection” is my spiritual theme song, and I love this version. (Amazon|iTunes)

11. “Breathe (2 AM)” by Stanford University Counterpoint - The song has a subtle intensity to it that I really like. (Amazon|iTunes)

10. “Good Enough” by Stanford University Counterpoint - Wow, two in a row from Stanford Counterpoint, I didn’t even realize that until just now. They must be good. (Amazon|iTunes)

9. “Tonight And The Rest Of My Life” by the University of Michigan Dicks & Janes - This song has mystical quality to it that keeps drawing me in. (Amazon|iTunes)

8. “Cry” by the USC Sirens - This is a pretty girly song, but if you have read this post, you know that I might be marrying the original artist, so I figured I better include one of her songs. (Amazon|iTunes)

7. “Something Like That” by the University Of Oregon On The Rocks - This is one of the few country songs that doesn’t suck. (Amazon|iTunes)

6. “Breathe” by the Bostonians Of Boston College I think the Bostonians are my favorite college a cappella group. Partly this is because it is fun to say “Bostonians”. (Amazon|iTunes)

5. “Girl From The Gutter” by the USC Sirens - I’m neither a girl or from a gutter, but that won’t stop me from liking this song. (Amazon|iTunes)

4. “She Will Be Loved” by Duke Out Of The Blue - This is a good example of how the emotion comes through better in an a cappella song. (Amazon|iTunes)

3. “Yeah” by the University of Oregon Divisi - A bunch of college girls singing an Usher song is just cool. (Amazon|iTunes)

2. “Hallelujah” by Clemson University’s TakeNote - I had never heard this song before, but now I love it. It’s like a gospel song written by somebody who has become disillusioned with religion. Interesting. (Amazon|iTunes)

1. “Over My Head” by Brandeis VoiceMale - I’m not sure why I picked this song as #1. I really like the original version, so I guess it’s only natural that I like this version too. (Amazon|iTunes)

In the process of witting this blog post, I came across even more college a cappella songs I like. If I made this list again, it would probably be completely different. For example, I really wish I could buy this song, but it is only available by snail mail as a physical CD. What is this, the dark ages? Here is a YouTube video of the Bostonians of Boston college, enjoy.


The image in this post is “A Cappella Sampler” by indoloony and is licensed under creative commons.

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