Tag Archives: Music

{30 Days of Truth} Day 13 | Sara Bareilles

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Eleni Zoe| 9 Comments

I’ve been tying up loose ends this last week. Attacking my email with fierceness, editing, completing projects that had slipped through the cracks when it occurred to me that I still haven’t finished the 30 Days of Truth Meme. I knew when I began that I wouldn’t be sticking to the strict 30 consecutive days of posts but it was always my intention to finish it. And finish it I will! All this week, I’ll be posting the final seven prompts. Consider it like a Wiki-dump, only less dramatic. (They’ll be a break for another installment of Dear Hope. Look out for that one, it’s one that I feel many of you will be able to provide some helpful words to the letter-writer).

Onwards…

Day 13 ? Write a letter to a band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days.

Dear Sara Bareilles,

How do I love thee? I can’t possibly count the ways. For every phase I have gone through over the last few years, one of your songs has been on in background. If I could live my life in manner of a TV show, I would want Rachel Bilson to do my voice, narrating my day to day journey, and I would choose your music to play at appropriate times. I’ve picked my top three songs of the last few years because these really did help me get through some tough ass days.

2009

2010

2011

Thank you. Really. Those three songs have helped me in their idiosyncratic ways to find joy in some dark-ish moments.

Much love,
Eleni

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Tagged 30 Days of Truth, broken hearts, change, confessions, crushes, dating, depression, fear, happy, hope, Music, truth

Me, now

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Eleni Zoe| 10 Comments

….the best daughter ever. I’m spending a lot of time with my mother. I feel like I’m really getting to know her. We cook and we bake together, or rather she cooks and I watch and take notes. We play UNO make jokes and laugh in the same way. We sit on the couch and I’ll knit and she’ll tell me story after story about her life.

…an artist. I’m loving that I have unleashed my creativity. Since high school, I’ve felt trapped between the part of me that wanted to be this high-powered career woman and the other part of me that wanted to be an artist. It was punched out of me when I allowed myself to believe narrow-minded counselors who suggested money and stability would suit me more than a life spent pursuing my passions. Now, I’m embracing my creativity and I’m teaching myself new skills that I’ve always wanted to have. It started with one innocent knitting post. It’s divulged into a new obsession. I’ve made four scarves in the last month. I’m teaching myself to make fingerless mittens. I want to embellish them with mismatched buttons and colours that remind me of caramel. I’ve been teaching myself how to use Photoshop and I’ve been redesigning my blog. I’m working on a secret project that is challenging but makes me smile because it is all mine. I’m reaching out to all the creative people I know and I’m asking questions and listening. I’m making time, every day, to be creative.

…a writer. I’m writing again. I love blogging, I love the immediacy, both of publishing and the feedback. But I want to write a story with characters and plot and depth. I want people to hold my words in their hands and underline the crap out of it. In pen.

….a dreamer. I’m dreaming of companionship and laughing over ridiculous stick figures. I’m dreaming of goulash and dumplings and raindrops and grey clouds and snuggling on the couch watching movies.

….a strong, shy woman. (It’s possible.) I’m listening to Jason Mraz & Tristan Prettyman Shy That Way. And I’m thinking that I’m shy that way too. For too long, I fought hard to come out of my shell and I did it and I loved the empowerment I felt when I would walk straight up to a man and talk to him. I loved that I was able to go to a bar alone and meet new people. I made friends by surpassing the limitations of a natural part of my character. I’m still shy. And I’m quiet. It’s not because I don’t have confidence in what I say, it’s not because I don’t like the sound of my voice. I’m quiet because I like to hear people talk and I’m soft-spoken because…well, I am. I like that I’m shy, I like that I’m able to surpass it when I want to. I’m assertive when I want to be but I like that shy is my default. It’s part of my own special brand of femininity.

Who are you, now?

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Tagged Artist, dreams, Family, happy, hope, identity, knitting, love, Music, Projects, single

35 Things in 2010

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Eleni Zoe| 8 Comments

I’m not going to lie, 2010 was an awful year. Every time I thought the year was turning around for me, it got measurably worse. And every time I thought it seriously can’t get worse than this? It did. I’m so excited that it’s over. I’m looking forward to this year for one reason: it’s not 2010. Before, I ask that we never talk of last year again, I’m going to do a little reflection ( I’ve done it before in 2009 and 2008 ). By the time you’re all done reading, I will have shoved 2010 out the door.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

Developed an extreme case of The Agoraphobia. Good times!

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t think I made any and if I did, I didn’t keep them. Will I make any for this year? I haven’t decided yet.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope. It’s been a quiet time on the baby-making front.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nope. Knock on wood.

5. What countries did you visit?

None. None. None.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

A break.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory and why?

August 17th and September 17th. And that is all I will say about that. FOREVER.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Does getting through this year count as an achievement? HELL YES. That’s the one I’m sticking with.

9. What was your biggest failure?

My biggest failure is that I let the smallest man I have ever met (yes, in terms of that size and also more symbolically) treat me like trash because I was so desperate for some attention, and affection and love.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Intestinally speaking, it’s been a good year. (Crohn’s Disease, I scoff at you.)

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My couch.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

My family. There are no words to describe the gratitude I feel for my mother, my sister and my brother. I adore these people and I’m so lucky to have their support, their love and their understanding. I will never forget all that they have done for me this year.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

See #9.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Doctors and Starbucks.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The Rally to Restore Sanity. TRUE STORY.

16. What song will always remind of you 2009?

Single Ladies — Beyonce.

17. Compared to this time last year, are:

a)happier or sadder?

b)thinner or fatter?

c) richer or poorer?

I’m not happier but I”m not sadder either. I’m carrying two extra kilos compared to this time last year, but I wouldn’t call myself fatter because I’m not fat by any objective standard and whoever came up with this questionnaire should be throat punched. I’m also poorer. Sigh.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

I wish I’d read more books, had more fun, and connected with more people. Also, I wished I had done more kissing. I miss kissing.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

I wish I’d thought less.

20. Did you fall in love in 2010?

No, not even close.

21. What was your favourite TV program?

30 Rock.

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Sadly, I do. I’ve never known hate until this year.

23. What was the best book you read?

No One Belongs Here More Than You | Miranda July

24. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Citizen Cope, The Weepies, State Radio, Kate Earl, Heartless Bastards, Mumford & Sons. A great year for music.

25. What did you want and get?

To be understood. I got that in heaps.

26. What did you want and not get?

I wanted to know what the inside of love feels like. At the bare minimum, I wanted to know what it feels like to be wanted. Didn’t. Get. That. Not. Even. Close. Sigh.

27. What was your favourite film of this year?

Scott Pilgrim V The World.

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 29 and I spent it half with family and half with friends eating, drinking and talking. I remember laughing so hard with a boy, and I remember a lot of tequila shots. Also, Alexia returned from Miami two days early to celebrate with me and brought me my first ever Anthropologie gift. (It’s a beautiful, gold bracelet that I literally had to pull out of her hands. WITH FORCE. It’s so beautiful that we decided that both our future daughters have equal ownership rights to it.) (Seriously Lex? Seriously? That wasn’t a gift, that was blackmail.)

29. How you would describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

What do you call it when you dress top to bottom from H&M, Zara and Pull & Bear?

30. What kept you sane?

I did. (With some help from Xanax.)

31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Jon Stewart. (With or without his beard, I’d still have his babies.)

32. Who did you miss?

A lot of people. They know who they are because they’re not next to my face.

33. Who was the best new person you met?

I met so many new people this year that I’m finding it hard to pick one. There are two AMAZING girls I’ve met a few times who stand out in my mind and I am excited to get to know them better this year (if they’ll have me and my unsocial tendencies). (If you’re reading, here’s a hint: YOU’RE COUSINS. Is it me or should there be a law against so much awesome existing in one family?) But if I had to pick one person who was the best, the one I felt a certain kinship with, I’d pick him. He really was the bestest.

34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

Never, ever, ever give up.

(Also, and I learned this twice. When a man kisses you, it doesn’t mean he is attracted to you, it doesn’t mean that he likes you, it doesn’t mean that he sees you or wants you. You’ll think it does, but it doesn’t. All it means is that he was drunk.)

35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

“And you asked me what I want this year, and I’ll try to make this kind and clear: “Just a chance that we’ll find better days.”

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Tagged abandonment, bad ideas, Beginnings, breaking up, broken hearts, cringe, Crohn's Disease, crushes, dating, depression, dumped, Family, fear, friends, identity, love, men, Music, rejection, ridiculous, single, truth

{30 Days of Truth} Day Twenty-Four | The Playlist

Posted on December 11, 2010 by Eleni Zoe| 16 Comments

Prompt: Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Post the titles and artists and letter)

Dear Future Manfriend,

I’ve made a playlist for you, even though we’ve never met. It’s probably because we’ve never met that I was even able to make you this playlist. I didn’t have to account for anyone’s taste in music other than my own. The songs I’ve picked are some of my favourites and I hope you like them too. Maybe one of these songs will even become ‘our song’ one day.

Us — Regina Spektor
You’re going to be listening to a lot of Regina Spektor when you come over to my house. Here’s a peak…