Speed of Life

Lights are everywhere at the moment.  I hate them already.

Streetlights flicker into life while I'm sat on my lunch hour stuffing a cheese sandwich down my neck, Christmas lights twinkle at me from every inch of the high street, winking down at me like drunken relatives, urging me to spend more - have one more drink, buy that useless corkscrew/fridge magnet combo.

The lights are everywhere.  Well, almost.  A quick look at one of my current favourite photos (apparently a composite of many DMSP satellite pics from NASA) shows earth's light pollution in startling detail.
No surprise that the eastern US, Europe and Japan - at least I think that wiggly bit on the right is Japan - are the brightest.  More surprisingly perhaps is that highest population doesn't necessarily equate to most light pollution.  Though I don't suppose they call it the 'dark continent' for nothing.

Africa haz no lights lol

That's different back in SL though.  I was genuinely shocked when I found out that people still use facelights.  In fact, the above image could be used as a diagram to represent SL.

The east coast of America is Help Island, bursting with the bright gaudy noselamps of a million stomping noobs.  Europe shimmers brightly as thousands of freebie grabbing clones wobble clumsily across it's land.

Anyway, you get the idea.

hey bb, lookin sexy, wanna party?

Which reminds me of another parallel.  

Why is everybody so slow?  People seem to slow down to a crawl as soon as they realise they are in front of me, in every version of life.  Why so slow?  Are those meat, flesh shaped shoes you're wearing slowing you down?  Just because your shoes are on sideways**, doesn't mean you have to stop every other step

The speed of life can be linked to the rhythm in your head - the song on rotation swirling around your brain.  Most people chunder cloyingly along to 'Love me do' when really they should be bollocking around like lunatics at 100mph to Wreckin' bar (ra ra ra).  

Just like i do.  Repeatedly.

So yeah.  The point of this is obvious.

Speed up and use less lights.  If I see one more glowing bulbous head wobbling about in front of me, with their toes poking through bizarre, elfin booties, I swear I'm going to scream.

And I won't stop until it's spring.  Or at least until it stops getting dark before teatime.

Best shoe EVAR!

[engrama] - Musical images

Most of my time in SL is spent wondering what I can find, where I can find it and then how quickly I can TP away whenever I realise it's not what I was looking for...

Or something.

I've no idea how well known [engrama] are on the SL music scene - not that well I imagine, seeing as the majority of SL performers seem to be either Stevie Nicks obsessed or some oddball acid casualties lisping their way through 60s folk songs - but they are no doubt building up quite a following on the Alt scene.

In SL they are an experimental duo formed by Argentinian guitarist Pupito Abrahams and his Spanish partner Lakua Arriaga on drums and vocals.

Blending an original (for SL) mix of covers - Joy Division, Sigur Ros and The Cure among others - along with their own songs, their shows are genuinely live, no backing tracks needed.  They layer the music well, expertly building on Pupito's hypnotic riffs and Lakua's dreamy, ethereal vocals - evoking Elizabeth Fraser and perhaps more recently, School of Seven Bells Dehazas sisters - in classic shoegazing style.

They also realise the importance of  the visual spectacle, taking advantage of Lakua's RL photography to build an atmospheric 3D set, using what looked like custom AO's and instruments.  All adding to the experience.

Cinematic and evocative - they sweep from Spaghetti Western desert landscapes on the eponymous [engrama] to post-rock intensity on the excellent Intento Inflexible.

Check the two tracks mentioned on the streams below and make sure you catch [engrama] live around SL.  If you don't then you're just a massive mental.

http://www.myspace.com/engrama





As much as I love the music in SL, there's probably nothing I enjoy more than giggling relentlessly at a good, old fashioned permanoob.

Especially feet.  So I'll probably be signing off most of these blogs (which will be random, but generally about shoes and music) with my current favourite.

Enjoy.