disaster prevention

my landlady showed up this morning. she had to renew my contract. when we were done, she grabbed a saw and went outside and cut off all the trees in front of our house. she said they'd wreck the (brand new, huge, concrete) house of our neighbor.

now i have to wear sunglasses when i sit in my kitchen. and i'll have to ignore the tree stubs when i walk in and out of the house. one of them still has a martenitsa hanging on it. it looks so sad.

sometimes i can't help but think that the japanese overdo it.


depeche mode -- suffer well

шоколадови бонбони

вчера имах последен урок с една група. така се налага. просто не мога да водя урока повече. иронично, това са ми едни от любимите ученици. явно и те са ме харесвали като учител (още ми е смешно-странно да се нарека така, въпреки че работя това от четири години), защото бяха много тъжни, когато им казах новината преди месец.
та, вчера всички бяхме малко омърлушени. и като за последен час, решихме да поучим само малко и после да излезнем да пием нещо заедно. отидохме, пийнахме, смяхме се и те ми казваха разни интересни неща като например как да си правя тофу сама като се върна в българия и колко лесно е въпросното начинание, да си занеса поне едно кимоно (!), кое суши най-лесно се прави при полеви условия; обсъждахме кой чужд език е "най-труден", те ми разказваха за младостта си (една от тях е още млада), на колко са се изнесли от вкъщи и какво ли още не. от тях разбрах и как се казва въпросната закачалка за кимоно, която така искам да сложа в бъдещото си жилище в софия. не че знам как ще я замъкна дотам.

в края на вечерта моите ученици ми поднесоха малък подарък -- миниатюрно букетче цветя (като тези дето ги продават бабите на графа и раковска, но много по-малко), както и кутия шоколадови бонбони. съвсем истински! което за япония е рядкост. незнайно защо тук има шоколад навсякъде, но не и бонбони. явно са кът. стана ми много мило и за момент се почувствах като заслужил български лекар или медицинска сестра, на който благодарен пациент е подарил нещо. кретенски аналог, но за това се сетих. може би е защото от малка помня как у съседката, която е медицинска сестра, винаги имаше тонове шоколадови бонбони.
оттам се замислих и за това как тук (или в щатите, според една приятелка)не е прието да благодариш на лекари с цветя, шоколад, или бутилка уиски (по стар български обичай). замислих се и за това колко са изтъркани тези подаръци и как винаги са едни и същи. замислих се и за това колко е хубав обичаят ни, все пак. не защото някой получава нещо(е, радвах се на бонбоните у леля катя), а защото някой показва благодарността си някак. по начин, който не е плащане и е в крайна сметка незначителен. ще се изяде, ще се изпие, ще увехне. харесва ми.


moloko -- the time is now

blog spam

blog spamming is not news to any of you, either, i suppose, but here's an interesting piece of it i just got. ironically, i never got such spam by mail:

Anonymous said...

I definitely like your site, bookmarked!

I've got a penis pills related site. It covers penis pills related articles.

Drop by when you can.

9:55 PM

well, thank you!
word veryfication turned on.

google talk

so google came up with an IM service. i have no idea when that happened, but i found out today. i downloaded it reluctantly, considering the 4 other forms of messengers i have. not too surprisingly though, it turned out to be very light, quick, and easy to use. it has no ugly emoticons and the design is simple, as it should be. it even has a talk option, and apparently the quality is skypelike, even better. i love you google, let's get married!

i guess now all i have to do is to subtly make all my friends with gmail get it. to all the rest, i'd generously offer classy gmail invites. haha.




03 - San Francisco Sessions V4 -- Latrice Barnett - Make My Heart.mp3

music

as promised, here's an update on what's been on my precious headphones the past month or two. and what on what i'm expecting to hear soon. styles vary, as do impressions. yes, you may call me an audiowhore and you'd be right.

just music section:

tracy chapman's latest studio release, "where you live".

i think this is her 7th studio album. although her music doesn't do for me what it used to do when i was 15, and i almost never listen to her nowadays, i still think it's a good try. her voice is soothing and velvety as always, but what is striking in this album are the gorgeously detailed yet simplistic instrumentals. flea on the bass, by the way. for me, the outstanding tracks are "3000 miles" and "never yours".
no hints of country, gladly. just pure old tracy, although it doesn't reach "crossroads" or "new beginning". a good album for indulging in melancholy and nostalgia over the lost teens.

fiona apple's "extraordinary machine":

i guess we'll never know what exactly happened behind this record, but sony has decided to release "extraordinary machine" on october 4. some of the new tracks have been released on fiona's revamped official site. it's interesting to hear new versions of the EM tracks most of us know already. i find them a little more glossy, but not in a bad way. also, there's a new track called "parting gift" which i find brilliant. fiona at her best --sexy, quirky, unexpected, chaotic, yet making sense. i can't say i'm not excited.

antony and the johnsons' "i am a bird now":

there's some music which you just cannot describe. when my friend kim told me about them, i asked what music they made. she wondered and then said, "absolutely gay" and had a grin on her face.
having heard the music, i still can't put it in a certain style box. it is gay, in a sense that antony's voice and lyrics obliterate any sense of gender. it goes from masculine to feminine in the frame of one song. and his voice bears a stunning resemblance to nina simone's.
the music is dramatic, exquisite, a bit theatrical, soulful, tragically sad, unusual, and most of all, beyond beautiful.

*shifting gears for a second*

house music:

kaskade's "house of om" vol.2:

lately i've been stuck on kaskade. his two previous records "it's you, it's me", and "in the moment" show his talent as a songwriter. this one shows his talent as a dj. "house of om" vol.2 compiled and mixed by kaskade is a deep, soulful house album that makes me want to dance -- and i do, in my mind, mostly, for lack of clubs around here that would play this kind of music. it makes me daydream and grin even if i'm just listening to it on my headphones on my way to work or sitting on my desk.
sexy, intelligent, well-mixed music.
lovely. i want more.

speaking of which, "house of om" vol.3 has been released yesterday, as well as miguel migs' "get salted". i'm sure these two are albums to be looking out for. can't wait.

current song: (11) [late night alumni] i knew you when (kaskade's mix).mp3

из разговор за вкъщи

"...cuttie: не е розово
cuttie: но има хубави отблясъци
..."

п.с. хубавата снимка няма пряка връзка с текста. тя се появи малко след казаното. с благодарности я взех от тук.

chaotic update

i try not to do this, but today i'll indulge myself in blabbing about my own little life.

topic# 1 or "why i haven't written and just what the hell is going on with me"

i've had a rough summer. i won't go into details, i'll just say i've had a lot of shit to sort out. with friends, supposed significant others, family, school.
seems like everything needed a serious face-lift or a paintover. is paintover even a word in english?
i guess now you could say i'm standing in the middle of the room that is my life, brush in hand, looking at the work i've done so far. i've painted about one third of the room, and it's already started looking brighter and fresher. better. sometimes my back aches and i need a little break, but then i get back to it. sometimes it gets a little lonely being alone in an empty room that's not quite yet renovated, but it's ok. i know that when it's ready, someone will come visit and we'll have a good time.

topic #2 or "why do i blog in english"

why really? sometimes i feel pretty dumb for posting in a language that's not my own. sometimes there's things i can't say in english, only in bulgarian. sometimes i feel like a moron foreigner-wannabe for writing in english.
but if i post in bulgarian the majority of my blog's audience ( i suppose 3 out of 5 people) wouldn't get what i'm talking about.
the hell with it...i'll write in whatever language i feel like at the moment.

topic #3 or "music"

there's been several things on my playlist lately. and i guess they would fall respectively into two categories -- "just music" (which of course is never just music) and "house music".
the first one i call "just music" but i'd like to say that i am not using the word "just" in a deprecating sense. more like the "pure" sense of the word. i could say "general" music, but that sounds rather sterile to me. i can't call it "pop music" either, for the dirty meaning this word has nowadays.
and i just don't know how to encompass all the styles in it, so there. "just music".

the other category is "house music", which, i have discovered, is the only kind of music that can lift me off the ground and pump me up with life.

i was planning on sharing some musical news and impressions, but i suppose i'll leave it for later on today. it's 5am and i need a bit of sleep.

i have to paint tomorrow.

kaskade -- everything (big room mix)

fun blog trash

my friend sara found a cheap way to make me update my blog. here we go!

Three Names You Go By
1. kristina
2. nikolova (only at school)
3. kris (sometimes krissy -- only at home. and i feel 5 years old whenever people call me that)

Three Parts of Your Heritage
1. bulgarian (whatever that includes)
2. yugoslav
3.

Three Things That Scare You
1. hospitals
2. heights
3. the music that the new producer of fiona apple's Extraordinary Machine has done so far

Three of Your Everyday Essentials
1. a book
2. music
3. cigarettes (i know i'm stupid)

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now
1. red & black flip flops
2. white karate drawstring pants
3. white levi's t-shirt

Three of Your Favorite Bands or Musical Artists -at the moment
1. built to spill
2. tori amos (a passion resurrecting)
3. u2 (sometimes i can be slow discovering a band)

Three of Your Favorite Songs - at the moment
1. built to spill -- car
2. fiona apple -- parting gift
3. tori amos -- cruel

Three Things You Want in a Relationship
1. freedom to breathe
2. the ability to be me completely (thanks, sara)
3. the ability to share

Two Truths and a Lie (but not in that order)
1. the color of my eyes can change from green to blue
2. i had a crush on todor zhivkov when i was 5
3. i am a trouble sleeper and often i go 24 hours without sleep

Three Physical Things about the Opposite/Same Sex that Appeal to You
1. the eyes and the way they look at people/things
2. hands
3. voice

Three of Your Favorite Hobbies
1. making mix cds
2. taking lame-ass photos
3. people watching

Three Things You want to do really badly right now
1. be decorating my new own place back home
2. get another cup of coffee. but good coffee, not the instant kind that's the only kind left at my place right now
3. swim

Three Places You Want to go on Vacation
1. venice
2. prague
3. new haven

Three Things You Want to Do Before You Die
1. fall in love and see what it feels like
2. photograph sofia through the years
3. have my own radio show

Three People You Want to Fill This Out:
1. my sister
2. shino
3. yana