I HAVE WON...

...TWO FRONT ROW tickets to go and see my favourite singer, Elton John, live in concert on November 30th!!!  I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Elton John introduces 2Cellos and snippet of "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting"

.

I won the tickets on my favourite radio station, Classic Hits 4KQ, during May in a competition titled "Eltonology"!  I entered my name and details on their website to enter.  The whole competition ran for a week, and on the Friday, the winner would win 2 front row tickets to the concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and the other 4 days would be the standard tickets!

I actually thought I'd have to wait until the Friday morning to win, but as it turned out, the station called me up on the Thursday morning.  It was all pre-recorded for Friday morning, so you wouldn't believe how surprised I was when I got the call and was asked a question regarding Elton's music.  The question - "On Elton's Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy album.....WHO is the Brown Dirt Cowboy?"  I answered without hesitation - "Bernie Taupin!"

As of now, it will be nine weeks until the big night!  It was decided that my brother Reece, who went with me to see Elton solo in 2007, will come with me again on November 30!  Reece did say after the last concert that he would like to see Elton with the band, so he's getting the chance!  I'm still deciding what CD cover to take to hopefully get Elton to sign, maybe my spare copy of "The Captain And The Kid".

2Cellos playing "Smooth Criminal".

This time around, I think Elton will have extra backing vocalists, and from what I've read, Elton had asked two cello players from Croatia, also known as 2Cellos, to join him, not just for his Australian tour, but for other concerts as well!  They won't only be the support acts but perform with the band as well!  If you want to know who 2Cellos are, I recommend you watch the video from YouTube of 2Cellos doing their rendition of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" above!  That is, apparently, how Elton found out about them!

I'm hoping to be notified by 4KQ very soon to let me know my free tickets are there and ready for collection.

Sorry I've been so lax with posts on my blog this year. I'm hoping to post more regularly from now on.

Have a great weekend!

Elton John single review

CD cover of the single

Picture courtesy of Eltonography: The Illustrated Elton John Discography

A few weeks ago, my brother Beau went out for the day and came home with a CD for me which he'd spotted in a secondhand shop.  Thanks, Beau! It was the single of Elton John's "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" and this single was released without "Candle In The Wind 1997" as one of the tracks.  "Candle In The Wind 1997" had been released prior which was due to the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales.  I feel they coupled "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" and "Candle In The Wind 1997" on a single together hoping it would give "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" some attention.  I guess after all the sadness of Princess Diana's death had died down, it was time to re-release "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" as a single in its own right and I now have it!

My new-to-me CD (released in Australia) has 4 songs:

1. Something About The Way You Look Tonight (Single Edit)
2. I Know Why I'm In Love
3. No Valentines
4. Something About The Way You Look Tonight (Album Version)

I've always loved "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" when I heard it on the radio for the first time.  Radio stations always play the shorter version of the song for obvious reasons of time restrictions, but if I was a radio station, I'd say ditch the time restraints and play the full version, but then again, that is my own feelings!

I've never heard "I Know Why I'm In Love" until I got this single and I really like it!  One thing I've always loved about Elton when he released singles is you always got those rare treats that aren't on the album and, when you don't get a studio recorded song not on the album, you get a song or two (or even more) recorded live at a recent concert.  You rarely find an Elton John single that contains a remix of the song, which is what I like!  I'm not a fan of remixes of songs.

I like the fact that "No Valentines" is on the CD as I don't think it was available in Australia until this single came out.  It's a great song and I liked it the moment I heard it on "Love Songs".  "No Valentines" doesn't appear on the UK/World version of "Love Songs" because that version of the CD was already released, therefore "No Valentines" and "You Can Make History (Young Again)" don't appear on it, even though they are on the US version.  Unless Australians have this single, they'll have to order the US version of "Love Songs".

Over all, the "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" single is very good! I'd never tire the songs on it as I never get sick of listening to Elton, simple as that!  This single was released 14 years ago but, regardless, the CD is still in excellent condition despite the card sleeve showing some signs of wear.  I love it all the same. Usually I'm very picky about getting second hand things but, when it comes to singles, CDs, records and cassettes, and you can't get them anymore, so they're definitely worth holding on to!

Have you found some great secondhand CDs of late?

The Beginning Of A New Year!

First of all, I just wanted to wish everyone who comes to this blog a Happy New Year...I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted!!  The New Year did not started well for Australia due to floods and North Queensland being hit by the biggest cyclone in Australian history, Cyclone Yasi.  I won't go into details here but Mum has some details on what happened on her blog, along with links to other informative sites about the floods and cyclone.

Secondly, I want to announce that my sister Michelle gave birth to a beautiful baby girl called Mikayla Rose in December 2010. You can read all about her and see pictures on Michelle's blog and also on Mum's blog!  That makes me an Uncle to Mikayla and, while I know I'm already an Uncle, Mikayla will be the first niece I'll have a lot more involvement with!  I'm so happy!   Michelle came over to visit on Monday and I didn't want to stop admiring Mikayla. She is so beautiful!  It's going to be weird but feel great at the same time, hearing little Mikayla say "Uncle Bradley" or "Uncle Brad" when she starts talking!  Below is a picture of me holding Mikayla 2 days after birth!  I love her so much!

Me holding Mikayla 2 days after birth!

Since July last year, I'd been having a lot of computer problems, where my computer would either restart on me without warning, show a Blue Screen of Death (what we Windows users call the dreaded blue screen error message that renders your computer useless until a restart is done), even a complete computer freeze, sometimes with nothing showing on the screen.  Mum and I kept trying to solve the problem, but to no avail.  We also noticed that my computer seemed to be getting very hot after being on for a while.  My computer was a Windows XP desktop (not a tower case) PC, probably built between 2002 - 2004, and given to me second hand by a friend of the family who also gave Mum the exact same type of computer.  We were given them around 2007 - 2008 and have had a lot of use out of them upgrading the RAM once to help them run faster.

The funny thing is that while my computer was playing up for a while, Mum had absolutely no problems with her computer at all until, one day out of the blue, it went out with a bang while she was using it.  Luckily Mum was able to get a brand new HP Pavillion computer with Windows 7 that very same day.  It took Mum a little while to get used to but she seems to love it now.  A week and a half later, I went to turn my computer on at the wall, heard a bang, and then realised my computer had finally given up too.  Thankfully, I was able to get a new computer as well, exactly like Mum's new one so, she and I have twin computers again.  The only difference is that Mum's one came with a 20 inch wide screen LED LCD screen as part of a bundle deal from Harvey Norman, our local computer store. I only needed to buy the PC tower as I was able to use Mum's SONY 19 inch LCD (not wide-screen) from her blown computer.

So far, I'm loving my new Windows 7 PC and, thankfully, all my data was on my external hard drive so I didn't lose anything when my computer died!  I know I've said in a past post that I'd be getting a new computer and putting some form of GNU/Linux on it after what I've read about Microsoft and the bad things they've been doing (look for the Windows 7 Sins banner in my sidebar and click it to go to the website to see what I mean) however, given the circumstances, my plans changed for now.  The only way I'd feel safe enough putting Ubuntu (my choice of GNU/Linux operating system) on my new computer without voiding the warranty is by installing VirtualBox and running Ubuntu as a Virtual Machine, which I did in Windows XP for a short time.  The only way I'd feel safe enough putting Ubuntu fully on the computer is by waiting for the warranty to end. I eventually plan to buy a custom built computer and I'll definitely be putting Ubuntu on that alongside whatever version of Windows is out at the time.  With Ubuntu being released every 6 months, who knows what it'll be like when that happens which is why I'll continue to buy both the monthly Linux Magazine and quarterly Ubuntu User (both published by Linux New Media AG). I totally recommend these magazines to people wanting to know more about Ubuntu and Linux in general.

I'm really sorry about the wait between my last post and this one (nearly a year) but I can assure you I'm back with plans to post more regularly so watch this space for new posts. There will be CD reviews, games reviews and whatever else I'm into at the time!  So stay tuned.....

MY LATEST DISCOVERY

Allison’s 6th album released in 2008 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

You may all be wondering what the widget at the top of this screen under my blog heading is. Sometime in January, I was looking through the Jamendo website to see what it was all about and, while browsing the site, I came across a page by a Canadian singer called Allison Crowe! I’d never heard of Allison Crowe before and I was curious as to the type of music she does so I previewed some of her songs on Jamendo.

When I heard her sing, I liked her music instantly to the point where I wanted to get her music! Thanks to Jamendo being a free service, I was able to download some of Allison’s albums! On Jamendo, I noticed that some of the album covers have the word Originals on them. I was wondering what that meant until I went onto Allison Crowe's official website. On Allison’s website, I noticed that the albums had a few more songs (in the case of the double live album Live At Wood Hall, a lot more songs). I found out that the reason it was like this is because on Jamendo, you’re only meant to upload music that has a free license such as Creative Commons and some of the songs on Allison’s CDs are cover versions of songs by well-known people (such as Leonard Cohen, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, Counting Crows just to name a few) and those songs are under non-free licenses like ASCAP or BMI, which means that they can’t be freely shared, copied, remixed, etc., by other people or free services like Jamendo.

All of Allison’s original songs that she wrote are all under a Creative Commons license and that’s why they’re available as free downloads through Jamendo, which I think is great! You too can go to Allison Crowe’s official website, click on an album cover, scroll down until you find the track list, click on a song title and scroll down to the bottom of the page that comes up. If it says “All rights reserved” beside a copyright symbol, that means that it isn’t a Creative Commons licensed song, but if it says “Some rights reserved” beside 3 symbols, that means that it is a Creative Commons licensed song. If you click on those symbols or “Some rights reserved””, it’ll take you to a page that defines what the license covers and what you’re allowed to do with the songs. I like the Creative Commons way of doing things, it’s just a pity none of the big named singers/groups will transfer their music to Creative Commons instead of the other companies.

Allison’s 5th album released in 2006 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

Anyway, enough talk about licenses, now on to the real reason I wanted to write this post!

I thought that rather than doing a review on one of Allison’s albums (I don’t have any of them yet anyway, but I hope to get them sometime, I’m just going by some of Allison’s original songs on Jamendo), I’d review Allison’s music in general! Allison has such a great, strong voice and she uses it well! My favourite songs by Allison Crowe have to be “There Is” (that song makes me think of Joni Mitchell in a way), “Whether I’m Wrong”, “Sea Of A Million Faces” and “Secrets (That Aren’t My Own)”. I also like Allison’s versions of the traditional Christmas songs “Silent Night”, “O Holy Night”, “The First Noel” and the a cappella version of “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”, which are available on Allison’s seasonal album “Tidings”! The song “How Long” is also a great song from the album “Secrets”! I also love the song “Effortless”, which is on Allison’s “This Little Bird” album, which is a great mixture of lyrics, voice and music! I could go on about other great songs I’ve heard as there are too many that I like!

The music of Allison Crowe can not really be placed into a single music genre as she covers a vast range like Rock, Pop, some Jazz and blues, soul and other types of genres, which is a pretty good diversity! Because I like a vast majority of musical genres, I get drawn to singers like Allison! Allison also plays piano for her songs which I think is great to hear as the piano is my favourite musical instrument. I soak in as much of the piano playing as I can when I listen to singers who play piano like Elton John, Billy Joel and now, Allison. I do wish I could play piano like they can! Allison is a pretty good guitar player also and that is proof on songs like “Northern Lights”, “Hold Back”, “Wedding Song”(these 3 are from Allison’s “Little Light” album), “Now”, “Silence” and other great songs! Allison also has an EP out called “Lisa’s Song + 6 Songs”, which is actually her debut album released in 2003, I like the title song “Lisa’s Song” and “Midnight”!

Allison’s 4th album released in 2005 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

The name of Allison’s next album will be called “Spiral” and includes the song, “Going Home Tonight”. There is a preview for this song on Jamendo. "Going Home Tonight" starts off with nice piano playing from Allison and, while she is singing, you hear strings added nicely to the piano. Allison’s voice and the lyrics to the song are lovely to hear! I feel the piano, strings, Allison’s voice and everything else on the track all blend in perfectly! I honestly can’t wait for “Spiral” to come out and to hear “Going Home Tonight” among the other album tracks, which I’m sure will be just as good! If I had to rate “Going Home Tonight” out of 5 stars, I’d give it 5 stars!

As Allison Crowe is an independent artist with her own record company called Rubenesque Records, she is slowly becoming known around the world! I'm hoping that a lot more Australians discover Allison's music because then, she may one day tour Australia. I'm sure her concerts would be a real treat to see! At this current time, from what I understand, the only place Australians can buy Allison’s albums is through Fishpond, a New Zealand based online store but, if you want, you can go straight to Allison’s website and check out the Shop link where you will be given options on how to buy the CDs and/or a poster! I don’t know the availability of Allison’s album in Europe, but I’m sure the rest of the world can probably order Allison’s albums through Amazon!

I totally recommend Allison Crowe’s music to anyone. If you don’t know who Allison Crowe is, I strongly recommend you use the widget at the top of this blog (click on an album cover in the widget if you want to see that album track-by-track) and use it as a preview. You can listen to the whole songs too. If I have to rate Allison’s music (well, what I’ve heard so far anyway) over all, I give it 5 stars and I'm looking forward to buying some of her CDs.

Allison’s 4th album released in 2004 – picture courtesy of AllisonCrowe.com.

UPDATE: I just thought I'd also mention that the News page on Allison Crowe's official website says Allison's next album "Spiral" was completed on February 14, it also states that the CD will be released on March 17, 2010! I'm sure many people who are Allison Crowe fans will be eagerly awaiting its release!