Music Monday: ‘Broken Open’

Hey Milieunairs,

It is Music Monday and thus time for another Vivaciously Varietal Vibe! Adam Lambert - For Your Entertainment

Rationale: I have, on many an occasion, written about songs which I have labelled as ‘hauntingly beautiful’. As it so happens, ‘Broken Open’ by Adam Lambert, is another song which fits into this category.

At first listen, one could be forgiven for thinking that ‘Broken Open’ is simply a mock rendition of ‘Mad World’ by Gary Jules; another of my favourite songs. Both songs share an eerily similar melodic pattern, one which is a pleasure to listen to. On a purely basic auditory level, Lambert’s ‘Broken Open’ is quite different to ‘Mad World’, offering more of an upbeat pop synth loop with spacey techno buzzes and pings added for good measure. Even so, the song has a beautiful sound made even better with Lambert’s sultry voice. Surprisingly, Adam co-wrote ‘Broken Open’ as well.

I must say, Adam Lambert has created a stellar debut album. He has managed to cater for almost every genre, proving his versatility as an artist. Even more impressive, is the amount of talent that was wired behind the scenes into helping him create his first album, from the likes of MUSE, Pink, Lady Gaga, Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic) and Sam Sparro, among others; all adding their own personal touches to each of Lambert’s songs. ‘For Your Entertainment’ is a brilliant pop album and is definitely worth listening to.

As always, whenever I post about Vivaciously Varietal Vibes on Music Monday’s, simply click on the name of the song to be taken to a web page that displays the songs lyrics.

Adama Lambert – Broken Open
 

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New Years Resolutions for 2010

2010 - Happy New Year Can you believe that it is 2010? We are already a decade into the ‘new’ millennium.

To mark this special year, which also happens to be divisible by 5 and you all know how much I love numbers, I have committed myself to 10 resolutions for this new year.

I actually had a grand plan of revealing each resolution on each new day of the first 10 days of the new year via Twitter. Unfortunately, this did not work out as planned. Nevertheless, this is the long awaited and eventual blog post to sum everything up. Without further ado, I present to you, my new years resolutions for 2010:

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Music Monday: ‘Hearing Damage’

Hey Milieunairs,

It is Music Monday and thus time for another Vivaciously Varietal Vibe! Thom Yorke - Twilight Saga: New Moon

Rationale: For quite some time I have spoken about songs which I have labelled as ‘hauntingly beautiful’. A majority of songs by MUSE, such as ‘Sing for Absolution’, fall into this category. ‘Hearing Damage’ by Thom Yorke, in my opinion, is another song which can be described as such.

I am not sure if it is Yorke’s surreal voice or the constant electronic and hypnotic pop synth buzz, but this is one of those rare songs that I can listen to over and over again without fail. The song is simply addictive. As it stands, I think that Hearing Damage is by far one of the most listened to songs in my entire music collection. I am actually listening to the song, and have it on a loop, as I write this post.

‘Hearing damage’ was written and recorded by Radiohead front man Thom Yorke, who specifically wrote and recorded the song for the New Moon soundtrack. Fans of the Twilight Saga will recognise ‘Hearing Damage’ from the scene in New Moon when Victoria pursues Charlie before being chased by Jacob. As a matter of fact the New Moon soundtrack, in its entirety, is actually very good and, oddly enough, was even given the ‘thumbs up’ by my father – a good thing because it means that the old folks will enjoy listening to the music no matter how loud you play the album. Consequently, regardless of whether you like the Twilight Saga or not, listen to the album for New Moon because you may be pleasantly surprised by the experience.

Thom Yorke – Hearing Damage (New Moon Edit)
 
 


Thom Yorke Lyrics

As always, whenever I post about Vivaciously Varietal Vibes on Music Monday’s, simply click on the name of the song to be taken to a web page that displays the songs lyrics.

Until the next time “Milieunairs”!

 

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Battle of the Bricks

Lego Any self respecting person has owned and built a Lego creation of some kind. Goodness knows that I own my fair share of Lego products, probably more than I would care to admit. Even now, at the tender age of 24, I still find myself browsing through the isles of Lego products available at any and all Toys R Us stores. In all honesty, and I am sure you will agree, Lego has no age limit.

This entry is focussed on stop-motion Lego filmography. A hobby which no doubt exists for people who really have nothing better to do with their time. Regardless, it really is very cool, especially when done properly.

Alex Kobbs is one of these stop-motion Lego fanatics. He has spent the last six years creating a Halo themed 25-minute short, based on Halo’s Zanzibar map, completely out of Lego. How awesomely insane is that?!

The short film is called The Battle of the Brick and features ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ battling it out *Halo fan high five*. The completed video is expected to hit the Web in early 2010, but for now you can have a look at the tantalising trailer:

If  Lego stop-motion filmography is your thing, you can follow the progress of Kobbs’ work at the Kooberz Studio Blog.

That’s not all folks. I have one more fantastic piece of Lego filmography to share with you.

Every gamer and geek who has watched The Matrix will agree that it is one of the best science fiction and action movies of all time. However, you have not seen anything until you see The Matrix lovingly created in Lego stop-motion!

In honour of the 10th anniversary of The Matrix, a group of fans recreated nearly 900 frames of the film. The entire sequence is animated without any additional effects. What this means, is that the short was filmed ‘in camera’ without the aid of wire removal, Photoshop or any additional special effects; other than what can be created with the Lego blocks themselves. Very impressive stuff! The entire project is said to have taken around 440 hours to complete. For more information and additional videos detailing the projects immensity, check out www.LegoMatrix.com.

Lego Matrix – ‘Trinity, Help’!

How cool would a Lego Matrix game be?! *Waits patiently for Travellers Tales to scoop the rights to create the game*

Until the next ‘blocky’ post “Milieunairs”!

 

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It’s Britney, Bitch!

Britney Spears - Circus Tour Memorabilia Even before we arrived in Australia, I knew that Britney Spears would be bringing her ‘The Circus’ tour to the land down under. However, I never thought I would actually get a chance to attend the concert.

For starters, Britney’s last show in Melbourne was on the 13th November and we were only set to arrive in Melbourne on the 16th. Furthermore, tickets to the event were not exactly cheap, ranging from stadium seating at $250 (R1700) per person to the insanely priced ‘Love Seats’ for $1500 (for two tickets –> R10 000 ). Consequently, chances of me attending Miss Spears’ performance were pretty thin.

Or so I thought.

Through a fortunate turn of events, Britney had actually extended her tour due to popular demand, adding three extra shows to her repertoire. One of those shows, as luck would have it, was in Melbourne.

I would be lying if I said that I was not excited at the possibility of watching the princess of pop perform in the flesh. After all, like the Queen (Madonna), it is not as if Britney would be making her way to South Africa. So it was pretty much a ‘This Is It’ kind of scenario.

Amazingly, my parents ascertained that this would be a fantastic experience and wholeheartedly agreed to buy tickets to the show. Not only that, but they even allowed me to opt for the ‘stool’ seating, which is directly behind the ‘Love Seats’ and, as it turned out, was literally a meter and a half away from the stage.

Britney Spears - Circus Tour Tickets

Without a doubt, ‘The Circus presenting Britney Spears’ was the best concert I have ever been to. I am unable to truly relay how awesome the experience was. The circus elements to the show, alone, were worth the price of admission; from acrobats, to martial artists, clowns, mimes, weapon artists, magicians… you name it and it was there (animals excluded). In addition to the circus element, I have never before been privy to a live performance with as much pyrotechnics and stage theatrics as this. The ‘wow’ factor was simply phenomenal. I do think that the experience was made just that much better courtesy of our seats which, as I have mentioned before, allowed us to be almost within two arm lengths of the pop princess.

Britney Spears - Circus Tour Performance

Contrary to the controversy surrounding Britney’s performance in the land down under, I can honestly admit that I would watch it again. So what if she lip-synchs? Anyone who has heard of Britney Spears knows that she is infamous for lip-synching (along with many other famous artists). So this was really of no surprise. In my opinion, if you want to hear an artist sing, buy the album. If you want to watch them perform, go to a concert. Whether they sing ‘live’ or not is irrelevant. With that said, it is worth noting that Britney did sing at least one song live, the ballad ‘everytime’. To all the naysayers who think Britney Spears cannot sing, let me tell you, this chick has a good voice. As a matter of fact, she actually sounds better live than through her recordings. So it is a shame that she does not perform ‘live’ more often.

Britney Spears - Circus Tour (Performing Everytime, Live)

Considering how close I was able to get, I was quite surprised to realise how small Britney Spears actually is. She is tiny. Then again, I am 6’4”, so a lot of people are smaller than I am. After two kids, she does look very good. While I’m on the topic of her body, it is worth noting that she is rather fit. She has good muscle tone; most definitely what could be described as a dancers body. So she is not petit and does appear to have some extra junk in her trunk. I think the biggest surprise to me was how small her boobs were. For those who know we, I’m a boob man. Britney has a good handful, but not what one would expect after all of the boob job debates. Have a look for yourself, in the album below.

I am truly so thankful that I could have this opportunity and would like to send a huge ‘I love you’ and ‘thank you’ to my loving parents who made it all possible.

Until the next time “Milieunairs”!

 

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Becoming a Melbournian, one step at a time.

Cow Up a Tree - Docklands, Melbourne It certainly has been ages since I last wrote a personal post. To be frank, I always find writing about myself to be the most difficult. Not because I do not have anything to write, as I often do, but because my most recent life events have been somewhat too personal in nature to share with the world. Now I know that those are the kind of stories that make blog’s thrive. However, I had to take a step back in order to protect those closest to me by abstaining from aggravating any and all gossipmongers. More out of respect than courtesy, mind you. One day I may reveal all that has happened, but only time will tell. For now though, I wish to focus on the future and what has been happening over the last week.

As I have mentioned before, I have been neglecting the personal posts with which my blog was originally built on. Believe me, I actually feel bad about it. I love sharing my experiences, whether good or bad, and listening to people’s opinions. Or lack thereof. Consequently I will attempt to revive the personal aspect of Hans’ Milieu.

Okay, a quick recap of the last week:

Hans Haupt - Melbourne Nov 2009 I am actually in Melbourne, Australia, at the moment. I arrived last week Monday. The flight was pleasant with a total travel time of around 16 hours (including transit and flight times from Sydney to Melbourne). Actually, I wonder why there are no direct flight to Melbourne? Considering that the flight has to fly over Melbourne anyway. Very odd. However I have heard that Virgin will be flying direct to Melbourne from next year. Thank heavens for that as it will make travelling just that much better.

For those who are unfamiliar with my families ‘Australian’ history, all you you really need to know is that we have been planning on immigrating for the last 8 years. Well not really ‘planning’ per se, more like procrastinating. This year, however, I finally had enough of all of the indecision and took matters into my own hands. Thus I kindly told my parents, in the nicest way possible, that, if we could afford it, I would like to continue my Masters and Doctoral studies at Monash University in Australia. A logical move, considering that I am a Monash University Alumnus and already paying exorbitant international student rates, since that was the only way for me to be able to do my Masters at Monash University in South Africa. As a result I am currently enrolled as a Master’s student at Monash University’s Clayton campus in Melbourne, via external candidature (which allows me to stay in South Africa). Unfortunately, it is as complicated as it sounds.

Hans and Terrence - Melbourne Nov 2009 Considering my current academic situation and our continued, but never fruitful, desire to begin a new life in Australia, it makes perfect sense for me to spearhead our Australian move. However, it is proving to be quite a lot harder than we originally anticipated. More so in terms of finding a place to live than actually obtaining entrance to the country (for me anyway). Subsequently, the last week has been focussed on finding me a place to stay while I am in Australia pursuing my studies. Needless to say, ‘house hunting’ is incredibly tedious and rather tiring especially since options are rather limited, courtesy of the strengthening Australian dollar and constantly weak South African Rand. Regardless, I do have hope that we will find a moderate place in a respectable location.

In other news I spent some time with my cousin Terrence, who is currently in Australia via Monash University’s undergraduate study abroad program, I managed to watch New Moon (review coming soon), got tickets to Britney Spears’ Circus Tour for this coming Friday *school girl scream* and have generally been having a wonderful time in Melbourne; further experiences that I will continue to write about when I have the time.

Until the next time “Milieunairs”!

 

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“I’m ready for dream time, Mr. B”!

Bioshock Cosplay

Bioshock 2? No, this photograph is not a screen capture of the sequel to 2007’s sleeper hit. It is, in fact, an amazingly designed cosplay creation.

This incredible Big Daddy and Little Sister cosplay combination was created by none other than the now infamous Harrison Krix – who previously created a replica of the Little Sister ADAM syringe. To say that this man is merely talented, is truly a vast understatement.

I finally lost my mind enough to try to tackle one of these big guys. For those unfamiliar, Big Daddy’s are the protectors of the Little Sisters in Rapture, an underwater city devoid of morality which has degenerated into chaos and insanity. They are huge, fast, strong, and as it turns out, a solid pain in the ass to build.

- Harrison Krix (2009)

After eight weeks of work, Krix officially unveiled his creation with a magnificent photographic gallery taken at an aquarium in Georgia in the United States. Although no where near as hot as the Pikachu cosplay I previously reported on, his work is by no means any less impressive. Check it out!

Even cooler, it turns out that Krix is actually the man in the Big Daddy suit, with the Little Sister being represented by his fiancé and soon to be wife. Furthermore, Krix owns and runs Volpin Props, a replica and prop design studio and workshop. Subsequently he does do commission work *cue geekasm’s*, but is said to be quite busy until the second half of 2010.

I can honestly say, that I would love a Big Daddy costume. Even if only to run around the backyard tormenting our hyperactive Bouvier pup! One can dream…

Until the next time “Milieunairs”!

 

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“Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”?

The Twilight Saga - New Moon Before we left South Africa for our Australian holiday, I was aware that I would be missing the midnight screening of the latest cinematic instalment of the Twilight Saga: New Moon. An event that I was not only looking forward to but one that  I had made partial plans for with friends and family. I will not beat around the bush, I was bummed about it. Not only would I miss the midnight premiere but I would also be unable to share the experience with those closest to me. However, that all changed once I stepped foot in the land down under.

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Music Monday: ‘Feeling Good’

Hey Milieunairs,

Muse - Origin Of Symmetry It is Music Monday and thus time for another Vivaciously Varietal Vibe!

Rationale: MUSE are truly an amazing band. They have such a unique sound, one which I have dubbed as ‘hauntingly beautiful’. They are, without a doubt, one of my favourite artists. A title which I do not bestow likely.

Although they have released a new album entitled ‘The Resistance’, I felt it would be good to dedicate a post to a song which has been ‘covered’ more times than one can count.

The song, ‘I am Feeling Good’, was originally written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for the 1965 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd. The MUSE rendition of ‘Feeling Good’ is one of the most unusual versions of the song that I am currently aware of, but one that is equally as beautiful as the rest.

With that said, I wish that you all ‘Feel Good’, no matter the day or the circumstance. Life is too short for regrets and grudges. So, ‘cheers’ to a new dawn, a new day, and one day soon, a new life!

MUSE: ‘Feeling Good’


Muse Lyrics

 

As always, whenever I post about Vivaciously Varietal Vibes on Music Monday’s, simply click on the name of the song to be taken to a web page that displays the songs lyrics.

Until the next time “Milieunairs”!

 

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All Flavour, No Bite. The Tru Blood Beverage.

Tru Blood - Suck On This Just give me a second… I’m still trying… to recover… from a monumentally huge geekasm… *shudders in ecstasy and harasses the domestic worker to clean underwear faster*.

In what has to be one of the coolest fictional-television-reality-tie-ins ever conceived, HBO have actually created the Tru Blood drink, from the award winning Alan Ball television series, True Blood.

I mean… how bloody brilliant is that? Excuse the pun.

For those who are unfamiliar with the television series, Tru Blood  is a Japanese made synthetic drink which allows vampires to survive without feasting on the blood of humans or animals; thus allowing vampires to live ‘harmoniously’ alongside the human race.

In order to make the drink ‘consumable’ for the general public, HBO have modified the drink for human consumption. As such, Tru Blood is essentially a carbonated blood-orange drink. Thankfully, the drink is packaged like its televised counterpart and, according to the website, is “not overly sweet, slightly tart and lightly carbonated”.

Tru Blood - All Flavour, No BiteTruthfully I would have loved it if they had kept the viscosity of the liquid to resemble that of the blood used in the show. Even better, if you could microwave it to enrich the taste. Unfortunately, that appears to be asking to much, because, from what I can tell given the videos on YouTube, the drink is just a dark red coloured soft drink. Not that I am complaining, but it does detract from the authenticity of the product.

Regardless I, for one, would love to get my hands on this hemoglobin inspired delight. So much so, that I am even thinking of importing a case… or five. However, at the current exchange rate, the drinks may suck the life out of my recession burdened wallet, with a four-pack costing $16 (R125) and individual bottles a mere $5 (38).

Nevertheless, I do believe that I will be acquiring some Tru Blood in the very near future. So make sure to tune in again for my neck bitingly tasteful review.

Until the next time “Milieunairs”!

 

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