life:and:lim

I've been trying to be more productive at work, and as such, I've resorted to an old trick I used while studying in high school: noise-canceling headphones and listening to soundtrack music.  Music with words is too distracting, and classical music often takes too much focus/brainpower.  So a nice medium is music from movie soundtracks -- just interesting enough but kind of repetitive and one-dimensional, which is good for white noise.

Music
by Anne Porter

When I was a child
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother's piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold

And when I was asked
Why I was crying
I had no words for it
I only shook my head
And went on crying

Why is it that music
At its most beautiful
Opens a wound in us
An ache a desolation
Deep as a homesickness
For some far-off
And half-forgotten country

I've never understood
Why this is so

Bur there's an ancient legend
From the other side of the world
That gives away the secret
Of this mysterious sorrow

For centuries on centuries
We have been wandering
But we were made for Paradise
As deer for the forest

And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country

We dimly remember the fields
Their fragrant windswept clover
The birdsongs in the orchards
The wild white violets in the moss
By the transparent streams

And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows

Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander.

"Music" by Anne Porter from Living Things: Collected Poems. 
via Deborah's FB profile

Or more likely, they were always a little soft.  But I can't deny that I too turn into a big pile of mushy-mush when I hear this song, especially when watching the scene from GG where I first heard it--Blair and Chuck getting it on for the first time in the back of his limo in Episode 7, Season 1. Lord I'm such a fangirl.

In case you can't tell, I have a thing for finding obscure songs and posting them (especially different versions of songs).  I've been pining away for Lisa Hannigan's demo version of Sea Song, which is SO much more awesome than the album version.  She posted it on her MySpace page, but it was nowhere to be found on Amazon/iTunes.  

..with Mr. Jason Mraz.  There's a line in "I'm Yours" where he says, "it's your God-forsaken right to be loved..."

...except it's for Britney Spears' team, and these ppl clearly have no idea what 'digital media' even means.  Lord, I don't even know how to react to people who talk like this (e.g., "leveraged by a branded social network.")

IF, for some reason, this sounds appealing to you, let me know and I can try forwarding on your resume.

I finally downloaded Lisa Hannigan's debut album, Sea Sew off of Amazon MP3 and I really like it.  She has an achingly lovely voice and I think she's doing much better for herself since her musical breakup with Damien Rice.

This weekend I organized a bunch of coworkers to go take in the sultry sounds of Vienna Teng (more on her later).  We started the evening with delicious Nepalese food at Taste of the Himalayas , then off to the Palace of Fine Arts, and capped the night with dessert at Kowloon Tong Dessert Cafe (more on that later, too).