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Sep. 23rd, 2009
(no subject)
Sep. 23rd, 2009 04:37 pmSo, I'm curious about people's banking habits. Some people set up automatic payments from their bank account (like having a utility automatically deduct its bill from their checking/current account, or having their bank automatically pay a set amount monthly to their credit card balance). I heard of this from friends in the UK long before I ever heard of it here, so I've always thought of it as a UK thing. But I discovered in asking around at work that quite a few of my colleagues here do it too. So, a poll!
[Poll #1461690]
I realise that many of my friends are *from* one country but living in the other (in some cases, that's how we became friends!), but I'm mostly interested in what people's preferences are by nationality and upbringing, not by where you happen to be at the moment.
[Poll #1461690]
I realise that many of my friends are *from* one country but living in the other (in some cases, that's how we became friends!), but I'm mostly interested in what people's preferences are by nationality and upbringing, not by where you happen to be at the moment.
music update
Sep. 23rd, 2009 04:50 pmSo, this was Music Week #2. Last week was the Proclaimers and Old Blind Dogs, this week was Väsen and Steeleye Span.
I'd never seen either of these groups before, but while I've known about SS and listened to their music for some time, I'd never heard of Väsen before I saw them on the IMT calendar.
I totally loved both performance, but they were very different. Väsen...well, I can see why certain of my friends go all goopy about Swedish men, if these guys are any example. I've no way of knowing which of their similarities (if any) are due to their all being Swedes and which to their being friends who have spent 20 years playing together, but there were some striking similarities. All three of them are quite tall, and despite Roger Tallroth being a bit shaggy, Olov Johansson being a bit geeky, and Mikael Marin being a little nerdy, they all have an indefinable air of "handsome" about them. They smiled quite a lot, and joked quietly, and spoke calmly. They all seemed to speak English quite well (Tallroth perhaps most comfortably), and they all had a very calm, dry sort of wit that was really charming (to me, any way). When people speak extemporaneously (as musicians often do when tuning) in another language, that's pretty cool, but I realise Europeans are brought up to be a little more polyglot than we are. But when they make jokes, especially *puns* in another language, I am quite impressed (though, of course, yes, they may be puns that have been laboured over during long road trips :-).
Their music was wonderful. The sound of the nyckelharpa quite entranced me, and the style of the pieces they played (mostly polskas, but some waltzes and other pieces as well. There's something of the 18th century folk fiddle in Marin's viola playing, but there's also something that's almost mediaeval in their sound as well, which I think is the nyckelharpa. I bought a couple of their CDs, and I will certainly make an effort to hear them any time they are playing near me.
Steeleye Span are doing their FORTIETH anniversary tour, which just floored me--they've been playing together (off and on) since before I was in elementary school! Their sound is very strong, still, and they can still (a) belt out a folk tune with the best of them (as they did in their final encore with "All Around My Hat") and (b) play and sing some incredibly complex and demanding pieces (Peter Knight played a totally amazing piece, one of the Child ballads, that Maddy Prior sang to--her singing was wonderful, but his playing was quite astounding).
I'd never seen either of these groups before, but while I've known about SS and listened to their music for some time, I'd never heard of Väsen before I saw them on the IMT calendar.
I totally loved both performance, but they were very different. Väsen...well, I can see why certain of my friends go all goopy about Swedish men, if these guys are any example. I've no way of knowing which of their similarities (if any) are due to their all being Swedes and which to their being friends who have spent 20 years playing together, but there were some striking similarities. All three of them are quite tall, and despite Roger Tallroth being a bit shaggy, Olov Johansson being a bit geeky, and Mikael Marin being a little nerdy, they all have an indefinable air of "handsome" about them. They smiled quite a lot, and joked quietly, and spoke calmly. They all seemed to speak English quite well (Tallroth perhaps most comfortably), and they all had a very calm, dry sort of wit that was really charming (to me, any way). When people speak extemporaneously (as musicians often do when tuning) in another language, that's pretty cool, but I realise Europeans are brought up to be a little more polyglot than we are. But when they make jokes, especially *puns* in another language, I am quite impressed (though, of course, yes, they may be puns that have been laboured over during long road trips :-).
Their music was wonderful. The sound of the nyckelharpa quite entranced me, and the style of the pieces they played (mostly polskas, but some waltzes and other pieces as well. There's something of the 18th century folk fiddle in Marin's viola playing, but there's also something that's almost mediaeval in their sound as well, which I think is the nyckelharpa. I bought a couple of their CDs, and I will certainly make an effort to hear them any time they are playing near me.
Steeleye Span are doing their FORTIETH anniversary tour, which just floored me--they've been playing together (off and on) since before I was in elementary school! Their sound is very strong, still, and they can still (a) belt out a folk tune with the best of them (as they did in their final encore with "All Around My Hat") and (b) play and sing some incredibly complex and demanding pieces (Peter Knight played a totally amazing piece, one of the Child ballads, that Maddy Prior sang to--her singing was wonderful, but his playing was quite astounding).
(no subject)
Sep. 23rd, 2009 10:21 pmEvery once in a while, something (usually at work, sometimes a prospective lady friend) tempts me into thinking that maybe I could stay here a little longer, maybe a lot longer.
And then I have an evening like this, where it's LATE SEPTEMBER, I'm sitting around in a t-shirt and boxers, and sweat is *pouring* down me.
My car registered the temperature outside as 84*F when I got in it to go home at 6pm, and that was confirmed by a couple of banks. And it's HOTTER than that in my flat right now.
This is fucking unbelievable.
And then I have an evening like this, where it's LATE SEPTEMBER, I'm sitting around in a t-shirt and boxers, and sweat is *pouring* down me.
My car registered the temperature outside as 84*F when I got in it to go home at 6pm, and that was confirmed by a couple of banks. And it's HOTTER than that in my flat right now.
This is fucking unbelievable.