Ear Candy Pt. 2

*Exam mode off*

I am back with part two of more of cool music that I intend to immerse myself into:

1. 

   The Afters - I Wish We Could All Win

   Christian band The Afters. This is their 1st album under the name ‘The Afters’. Previously they were known as Blisse, but it already existed so they had to change their name.  Most famous song of the album – Beautiful Love, apparently it was the theme song for the MTV show “8th and Ocean” and also featured in the 2006 film “Just My Luck”.

2. 

   The Afters - Never Going Back To OK (2006)

   Their most recent album.  Admittedly I just listened to 30 second snippets of a few songs in that album but it seemed pretty promising and worth checking out.  www.theafters.com

3. 

   Them Crooked Vultures (2009)

   What do you get if you put the Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters / Nirvana and Led Zep?  Them Crooked Vultures that’s what.  This newly formed ’supergroup’ consists of guitar slinger Josh Homme from QOTSA, mighty energetic drumming from  Dave Grohl of the FF and Nirvana, as well as the man who is considered one of the best bass players in the past 40 years, John Paul Jones of Lep Zep.  Them Crooked Vultures won’t cater for everybody, and there’s a lot of debate going on whether this record sounds too much like the QOTSA, etc. Think it’s worth checking out if you’re a hard rock fan.  Those who only love acoustic and folk songs stay away.  You might get a heart attack.

4. 

   Casting Crowns - Until the Whole World Hears (2009)

   Casting Crowns,  creator of hits like Who Am I, Does Anybody Hear Her, Lifesong and East to West is back with a new album ‘Until the Whole World Hears’.  Nice.

5. 

   Steven Curtis Chapman - Beauty Will Rise

   Steven Curtis Chapman (Hmm..why do we always use his three names, Steven Chapman sounds a little strange I guess) is a veteran in the Christian music industry and this album has received rave reviews.  After the loss of his daughter, I expect this album to be a lot on reflection and the pain that he experienced.  Heaven is The Face is the single and was written around his loss. Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9JTwJ_1lzE

6. 

   Shane and Shane - Everything Is Different

   Acoustic duo Shane and Shane is back! Now this is for acoustic lovers, Shane and Shane have written pretty good songs in the past few albums, esp. around the Psalms and this will be good I hope! Will be out soon…

7. 

   Paul Baloche - Glorious (2009)

   This is the man who has so generously invested time in helping out musicians and worship leaders in worship sessions and here we see the sifu himself writing great songs to glorify Him. Listened to a few tracks – nothing out of the box and very easy to pick up.  Churches will have no problem singing his songs.  You’ll also find yourself singing along in no time.

8. 

   Kutless - It is Well (2009)

   Christian rock band Kutless.  Genre is more on the heavy stuff, the other end of the scale to Shane and Shane, but not to the point of metal.  There is a cover of Give Us Clean Hands and God of Wonders in the album. Wonder what twist they put on it.  Kutless..cool!

9. 

   Lifehouse - Smoke and Mirrors

   Hmm..it’s been a long while since Lifehouse came out with a new album, or maybe I’ve been hearing ‘Broken’ and ‘First Time’ too often.  Lifehouse has been a love and hate thing.  You and Me was great THEN, and now all their songs start to sound the same.  But yes, interesting to see what’s up their sleeve this time.  And I like their album cover! Out Dec 2009.

10. 

    Brad Paisley - American Saturday Night

    CMA Male Vocalist of the Year 2009. Man, I don’t know how many CMAs he’s got by now.  Think he has enough to fill a whole house.  But I guess there has to be a reason why he’s winning every time.  Country music, they get away singing the ridiculous and most trivial stuff but there’s always an element of fun.  Plus the fast guitar chicken pickin does no harm either.

11. 

    Deas Vail - Birds and Cages

    I’ve got to know of Christian band Deas Vail through Relient K’s twitter. So checked them out.  Not bad, but then again, with my limited internet quota, I can’t really check them out thoroughly but they seemed promising.  ’Birds’ features Matt Thiessen of Relient K so that should be a track to listen to (I love picking out the featured artists on tracks). ‘Excues’ not bad too.  Quite Relient K ish. Think I prefer them to Owl City at this point, have to check out their full albums before I can really say though.

Hope this has been informative, and created more burning holes in your pocket. If only I had the cash to check each one out.  But now I’ll just rely on snippets on their sites, myspace and youtube.

Catch you guys after the dark ages are over.

*Exam mode on.*

Inspiration, where art thou?

I’ve really no idea why I’m writing this, cz I totally have nothing to write about.  To talk about my life would be boring, but well, guess what, I’m going to bore you.

1. I managed to get an interview with Monash on the 20th, unfortunately it’s between my exams.  And yes, I’m really glad they called all those who applied cz I seriously cannot make it with my lousy ISAT score. =)
2. Coffee min! First time serving in Coffee Ministry last Mon.  I guess I’ll have to do some explaining for my Ipoh friends (I’m very nice and kind if you haven’t noticed). Coffee Ministry is this thing that OCF is doing during the exam periods and as the name suggests, we serve coffee, milo, tea, mocha, biscuits, etc. outside the Uni library for FREE to bless the people who are stressed and busy studying for exams.  But wait, you might ask, how about us?  Don’t we need to study too? Well, yeah, we obviously do, but the main aim here is to just sacrifice a night or two to show how much he loves us to His people and of course share that love with them!
   Leading Coffee Min next week, hope the technicalities will sort themselves out.
3. Last week of school.  Taking pics and all (unfortunately missed out on EAP).  The year has passed so quickly and well God has been so amazing this year and I’m sure the many years to come!

Yes, those who DON’T have fbook may want a second look at my prom pics, I’ll just upload ONE more and that’s it.

This is my EAP teacher.  Can you say FLUORESCENT DRESS? and check out the boots too!

Haha.

 

Teaser

Before the craziness:

Joshua Radin

Last night was my first over-18 gig! Ah, the benefits of turning 18. Anyway, me, along with some other OCF-ers went to the Joshua Radin gig at the Gershwin Room, St. Kilda’s Esplanade. Btw, it’s a bar, so I had to try to look old as the security looked at my passport and all. Haha. But I’m legal.. so there!

Well, to tell you the truth, I have never heard of Joshua Radin until the people in my cell talked about (or some obsessed abt)  him. Yeah, so orignally I was not supposed to go.  But then they had an extra ticket so I thought, why not and jumped on it.  Chui gave me his music to listen to to ‘prepare’ myself for his gig. Haha.  Yeah,  his songs are quite mellow – acoustic folk, so if you’re the PCD, gangsta rap lover, you’d fall asleep listening to him. Oh btw, they used his songs on House, Scrubs, Lie To Me, Bones, American Idol, One Tree Hill, 90210  and Grey’s Anatomy.

Went to St. Kilda’s super early because of our kiasu-ness.  Had dinner in the city – “Greasy Joe’s”. By the time we finished we thought we’d be late cz the doors were supposed to open at 8. But when we reached there there was NO ONE.  So yay, we happily stood in the hallway near the toilet to wait for the doors to be open.

Anyway we waited and then they told us that the doors open at NINE only.  So we got asked to move out of the hallway cz they wanted to keep the hallway free.  But yeah, we had to push the crowd back cz you know la, no one really ones to move back.  We still managed to be in front of the line. Yipee.

Waited and waited.  Listened to the very loud band in the bar,  inhaled lots of smoke and watched people get money from the ATM at the hallway.  Interesting.

This is the ticket that we didn’t get to keep =(

Doors finally OPENED after waiting for an hour.  We got front row places cz most of them had to buy their ticket. Haha.  Waited a long time for them to start.  There were two opening acts.  First one was a girl from Melbourne, she was okay – not very experienced though.  Waited another 45 mins for the second one to come on. The second one was quite good – an Australian singer,  Leena

Yup, all acoustic-y stuff.  She played about 45 minutes and then the waiting game began again.  Gave up my front place on the stage to let some random people sit.  Standing is no joke man, plus we have to wait so long between performances.

I was so close that I could take a picture of his tuner =)

He finally came out around 11.30p.m. Yep, so we were there about 3 and a half hours. Phew. Yep, but he FINALLY CAME OUT! He was sick a few days ago but his voice has recovered, thank goodness.

The only bad thing of being so close is that I couldn’t really see his face properly. Haha.  Yeah, and the neck cramps too.

Can’t remember the whole setlist but I think it was something like:

Brand New Day
One of These Days
I’d Rather Be With You
Starting Over (new song)
Everything Will Be Alright
Today
No Envy No Fear
What If You
Closer
You’re Not So Young (new song)
Sky
Winter
You and Me (Bob Dylan cover)

I think that was it, not necessarily in order (those who scored the setlist at the end of the set can correct me). His new, more rock and roll songs are just okay only la.  I prefer the mellower ones.  And he was very good with the crowd, making conversation and telling us the story behind the songs.

Anyway, the highlight of the whole thing is that he talked to me haha.

So this was the situation:
He was playing the electric guitar, and there were separate cables for acoustic and electric.  And the acoustic cable jack accidently dropped while he was plugging in his electric.

So when he changed back to the acoustic guitar, I helped him pick up his guitar jack.
Josh Radin: Thanks. What’s your name?
Me: Jessica.
Josh Radin: Nice to meet you Jessica. (To the audience) See, I’m meeting new people already.

At the end of the set he was giving high fives and shaking hands with the crowd.  So yeah, he high fived me, and I’ve no idea why I was so bold but I asked him whether I could have his pick.  At first he couldn’t hear me, then when I repeated my question he took the pick and handed it to me! =DDD

After the set, some people just grabbed his mic stand and took a pick because there were 3 left. But mine is special cz he personally gave it to me! Hah!

Yep, so it was a great experience for me la, as you can tell.

Apparently he sang better on this gig then the previous day.  And he sang the full set. The previous day he didn’t because of his voice. No Fear No Envy and Closer were my favourites of that night. That guy is really a smooth talker la, he can talk about anything and is a big flirt.

Situation 1:
Random girl: Marry me!
Josh: Wow, but I don’t even know you, what’s your name?
Girl: Justine
Josh: Oh hi Justine. See, we know so much about each other already.

Situation 2:
Girl #2: Have my children!
Josh: Whoa, that’s taking it a little too forward now.

Situation 3:
Girl #3:  (Says something really flattering)
Josh: Thanks. What’s your name?
Girl #3: Mikaela (Take note, to say her name you have to ‘gargle’ the Mik – ae part)
Josh: Whoa Mikaela (does it with the gargling sound). Wow, that sounds like me when I was sick. (Laughs) You’re a beautiful girl.

There were some more la, but if I remembered them all I’d be freaky. Anyway,he included me in his marrying options which I thought was a little disturbing somehow. haha. I don’t want to marry him man! He’s so old =)

Anyway, he’s not that great also la (morally I mean).  He doesn’t believe in religion and well, he made a few crass jokes, plus scattered a few F-bombs throughout the night. But well, he’s not my role model or anything, so this proves, singers are so not good role models.  Remember this, kids.

But well, it was a fun night- listening to music with friends. Went back super early…in the morning that is..and crashed when I got home.

So that sums it up people!

Ear Candy

So many new CDs have come out from most of my old time and new favourite bands/ artists since last year and I still haven’t gotten my grubby hands on them.

Starting to like what I hear from the Black Crowes – Good Morning Captain is so catchy and has that Americana feel to it. Joe Bonamassa is another guitar virtuso in the blues/ rock genre but has a different style compared to John Mayer.  Davy Knowles and the Back Door Slam – a young upcoming Brit guitar player who has singing chops to boot.  Does not have the ‘classy’ vibe of John Mayer though, his style is more raunchy, in- your – face kind of blues and rock. Owl City – a one man band – he sounds almost like Matt Thiessen from Relient K, and no wonder, as they are one of his influences.

Jared Anderson – if the name sounds familiar, that is because he is one of the worship leaders in Desperation Band – and writer of ‘Amazed’. The others I’m sure you’re familiar with them – Third Day, Jeremy Camp, David Crowder Band, Relient K, John Mayer, and Switchfoot.

In no particular order:

1. 
   Black Crowes – Warpaint Live (2009)
2. 
   Black Crowes – Before the Frost (2009)
3. 
   David Crowder Band – Church Music (2009) Got good reviews, love to check this out!
   
4. 
   Jeremy Camp – Speaking Louder Than Before  (2008)
5. 
   Joe Bonamassa- The Ballad of John Henry (2009)
6. 
   John Mayer – Battle Studies (Soon to be released Nov 2009)  Edit: he looks like a male version of the ice queen here – I would say ice king but somehow it does not really have a nice ring to it.
7. 
   Jared Anderson – Live From My Church (Soon to be released Nov 2009) Edit: Hmm..the cover gives out the cheap vibe – oh well
   Teasers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C0ZGr9afI4
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evnfw4JIxTw
8. 
   Relient K – Forget and Not Slow Down (Soon to be released Nov 2009)
9. 
   Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane (Soon to be released Nov 2009)
10. 
    Third Day – Revelation (2008) Edit: There’s also a Live Revelation CD/DVD but it doesn’t have the full set of songs. An added plus – Chris Daughtry does the back up vocals on ‘Slow Down’
11. 
    Davy Knowles and The Back Door Slam – Roll Away (2007) Their debut album, they have a newer one but this was the one that gave them their big break. Would like to check them out. They’ll be in Melbourne btw. But on a Tues night..
12. 
    Owl City – Fireflies (2009) Carina mentioned them on her twitter and that got me to check them out – I don’t listen to radio so I’m really really outdated in my music. Interesting one to check out but not as fanatic about them compared to the above.

Is Nov 2009 the perfect season to release CDs? I detect a pattern here..maybe to cater to the Christmas crowd.  Speaking of Christmas, I don’t mind having one of these for Christmas!

The day before I turn 18

I never thought I’ll…

put on weight

grow out my hair

have a cekap OCF cell!
Carina, if you’re reading this, know what cekap is or not?

like Italian and cheesy food a lot
I was always a Chinese cuisine only person, weird I know..

go to a guitar festival ALL BY MYSELF
talk about determination

see Relient K live

own dresses and heels

know how to drive a car

talk to a random guy on the street who needed food

come here to Aus to study

have friends who constantly support and humour me

learn to play a computer game (Left4dead.hehe)

agree to go on a roller coaster ride with my daredevil sister
it wasn’t so bad in the end actually

And

have a boyfriend
I’m sure your heart skipped a beat haha

all before I turn 18…

If only this was my birthday present haha

shall I get a haircut?

My hair hasn’t been this long since forever, and it’s getting kind of long. But I guess my definition of long is not the same as most of you guys. But really, it’s all over everywhere..and I’m not used to it =D

Pros:

1. First time cutting hair in aussie – could be a good experience, maybe get a snazzy haircut!!
2. Hair won’t be all of over my face, I look rather shaggy now.

Cons:

1. Could be very pricey if I want to go to good hairstylists, and the cheap ones aren’t exactly cheap.
2. Things could go wrong and I may end up either bald or la-la. Don’t know which is worse
3. Have to find a good asian hairstylist or an ang moh hairstylist who is used to asian hair.
4. Satisfy my friends’ desire to see me in long (read: longer) hair.

Okay, so far 2 vs 4..what do you guys think?

Used to be:

Now..

(Thanks Josh for the pic)

Sorry I don’t really have a proper photo with my longish hair. See facebook if you’re really curious haha)

Guitar pic of the day:

sporadic

Getting lazier and lazier to update these days. Must be the holiday. Trying to get some real work done this week and so far I’m succeeding. Holiday weekends are great because it’s a lisense for me to overeat. Ate/ sampled 7 different kinds of cakes alone this weekend! And went on a korean food phase on Sat and Sun.

Went for the Star Wars exhibition at the Scienceworks Musuem on Sat with half of my cell. Pretty cool..the real props used for the movie were exhibited. Pics on my facebook but for those who DON’T have facebook (ahem eexin..) ..here’s a pic.

Us with the Luke Skywalker Speedracer

Celebrated my sis’s housemate’s b’day, too (that’s why there was so much cake). It was good to meet Jo’s friends, med students don’t look as stressed out as I thought they’ll be. Haha. They really know how to have fun and all. Don’t know how they do it. If it was me, I’ll be hiding in my hole and study.

Anyway, have a great week people! My hols are ending..which is sad.

Later.

LTC Retreat 2009

It was AWESOME!

Here I was thinking, yeah, why is everyone so excited for me?  It’s just a retreat..not a wedding or baby. I felt really bad when I didn’t feel as excited as I should have when people asked me how I was feeling about the retreat.  I know what you’re thinking, it’s just like another ordinary camp, have some fun, make some friends, and oh yeah, the God thing - it’s just a bonus.

 

But sorry to break the bad news, dears..you are…

 

Wrong!

Super super wrong. It’s amazing how a 1 night camp, can mess your head up, or in Pastor Tim’s words – “turn you inside out and upside down”. I really start to see the whole picture why God is so so amazing and why people are so crazy about him.  The important thing for me that night was, God felt REAL.

So okay, for you who love the details here it is: Left State Library slightly later than 8 by car to Kimgara Equestrian Park, Werribee where the retreat was. I was lucky, I got the car. Some had to take the train.  Car mates were Jerry (the driver), Jaclyn, Yuki, Wen Yi and me.  Had to lie my guitar over me, Wen Yi and Yuki cz Jerry’s car was a Yarris. So really sorry girls! (Doubt they’ll ever read this though). Few wrong turns but finally got there after 50 minutes.  Grassy plains, an unassuming red ‘farmhouse’ like thing, an odd cow or two, a goat (dunno who on earth called it a sheep), horses completed the picture. 

The place has an extremely simple set up - dining hall (that’s where we eat and do activities), dorms, kitchen, toilets and cabins. That’s all. Suddenly all my other camps seemed so much grander. Haha. I was the ‘lucky’ few who got to stay in the cabin which was OUTSIDE the building, closer to the barns.  The only advantage about it is that it had an attached bathroom. But anyway, I didn’t spend more than 6 hours in there. 

Enough about the place. Moving on to the activities! Had games organised by Matt and his team.  A lot of effort have been put into it (hundreds of pieces of paper to cut).  Were split into groups, I was in Charlie (there were also alpha, bravo, delta, echo and foxtrot).  I won’t go into the details of the game because it is very complicated.  But all I would say that the pieces of paper were ‘money’ and the objective of the game was not to pay the least amount of tax. Then there were different variations of the game- like groups can sabo other groups or help other groups.  The funny part was that groups started to form alliances. Then there was this instance Ka Faii (from Echo) came up and asked us, “eh who are you bombing ah?” Then being honest, we replied, “YOU”.  It was a good game, cz got MORAL also okay. The ‘money’ represents how much you are willing to invest in a person’s life.  And that investing much would bring benefit to yourself.  Cool right. There was also a moral for the saboing, but I forgot what it was.

Lunch! Cooked by the OCF comm, headed by Pearly Ng! Had pasta Aglio Olio. Don’t play play ok! It was quite nice I must say, must be the garlic. A little oily but bearable. Had corporate prayer and then worship. Worship was okay ( I played). It was a simple set up for worship. Just guitar.  Didn’t play very well because I was extremely unprepared.

Message by Aunty Marilyn (we all thought she was Asian until we saw her). She talked about how to be a disciple and she did touch a few sensitive points- the importance of forgiving, going the extra mile, etc.  I confess I did drift a little here and there because my back and lower back did start to hurt after sitting so long. At this point I still wasn’t feeling ‘in the mood’. 

Free time. Talked to people, etc. Dinner was Chicken Maryland, with lots of herbs on it. Not bad la.  Had prayer with my cell, starting to get a little excited now. Worship by Joy, it was good, and what she said really resonated with me – the part about feeling inadequate, or not holy enough.  But it doesn’t matter because it’s all for His glory and it’s the heart that counts. Graem shared the message about David.  About how we can never wear someone else’s armour (bear another person’s cross) and that God never forgets us even though the world forgets about us. 

Ministry night was next. It sounds a little vague but essentially it’s night where the advisors will pray over you and share a word of encouragement from God or prophesy.

(Sheesh, my comp went nuts and I have to do this part again..arrrghh)

Penny prayed for me for direction, as I asked her to but she stopped midway and she shared that God wants to equip me with his word. And that the Holy Spirit would reveal and teach me the Word. She quoted Hebrews 6. Pretty cool, obviously there were more stuff but I’m lazy to type it all over again..ish. If you see me in person, ask me about it. Haha. I was greatly encouraged even though it surprised me a little because I really knew it was God speaking to me so personally in a way.

Yeah, it was really good. Everyone went away with something that night. Lots of tissues were used, even on the guys side! God moved powerfully that night.

Woke up bright and early to a very cold cabin the next morning. Had worship practice and woke everyone up with out nice music. Haha. Felt a little nervous cz it’s been a while since I led worship, and never outside the GB, CF circle. But thanks for the prayers Josh and Pauline! It really helped. So, worship went well =D

Had communion led by Dong (our OCF president). Then there was sharing, photo taking and packing up. Then it was time to leave.

It was a great experience for me, and my best camp ever! As Jo said, it was great probably because everyone there really had the desire and the hunger.  Props to the LTC organisers, facilitators, OCF comm, cell leaders and everyone who made this retreat possible!

Thank you God for your AWESOME-NESS too!

Chocolates, Chem and Music

Lovely combo.

Starting to slack now. Bad bad.

Lots of work to catch up on especially on organic chem.

I need to borrow Einstein’s brain. No, wait, wrong brain, I need Chem not Physics.

Ah, whatever lah.

Leading worship for LTC retreat. Just thinking back on what Joy said about the feeling of being not holy enough. I feel that ALL the time. But anyhow, just to be cliche, it’s a performance for one. Just hope I don’t blank out during the sharing time.

I’m drawing my confidence from You.