Jumpin'Journal - pages of a diary (IV)

It's been a long time since my last Jumpin'Journal post. Today I'll dive straight into some music, movie and book recommendations while "jumping" in pictures from different locations. Let's start.

Sinaia - Cota 2000(1,3) , West Park Ploiesti(2)

How much I love music biography documentaries: the combination of hard work, struggle and talent is hypnotizing. My favourites are:
3. Amy - the life of Amy Winehouse struggling between drug problems, love triangles and childhood problems, a talent that we lost too soon.
2. Get On Up - the life of James Brown overcoming his poor childhood, a dismembered family and later drug and alchool addiction - a strict and driven man with a very clear vision, talent and passion.
1. La Môme(La Vie en Rose) - the life of the incredible Edith Piaf, a movie that makes me cry every time I watch it; Marion Cotillard is beyond amazing in this character - love, lost, tragedy, talent - a must see.

When it comes to music I am all the time searching for something new while the playlist on my phone slightly changes - I'm still listening to most of the same songs as I use to hear years ago.
Meanwhile I'm becoming a fan of the british singer Nao whose mix of electro and soul relaxes me - find more in my album review HERE!
Bruno Mars stole again the limelight with his latest hits collection intitled "24K MAGIC". While the first single with the same name reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, the second one, "That's what I like", surpassed it and reaches number 3 on this week's chart. Bruno has it all in my opinion: the voice, the swag, the moves. Check out his Grammy performance below.



If you are a fan of TV series well then maybe we have some in common or I can recommend you couple of them. Lately I was absorbed by "Taboo" and "Vikings".
I absolutely adored the "Night Manager" mini serie with one of my favourite actors, Hugh Laurie (did you know he is also a singer?! - check out his blues album HERE!).

"The Night Manager" was nominated for 31 awards and has won twelve, including two Emmy Awards for director Susanne Bier and music composer Victor Reyes and three Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor for Tom Hiddleston, Best Performance for an Actress in a Supporting Role for Olivia Colman, and Best Performance for a Supporting Actor for Hugh Laurie.

Ploiesti(1), Suceava(2), Alexandru Ioan Cuza Park Bucharest(3)

When it comes to books I have to admit I read more in the past 3 months than I did in the last year. If you're in the mood for an easy yet interesting reading I recommend you "La disparition de Richard Taylor" by Arnaud Cathrine: On May 16, 1998 Richard Taylor disappears without a trace and without apparent reason. The book is a serie of testimonies of women in the life of Richard or of those that he meets in the years that follow his getaway. In the game of shadows and lights, we discover fragments of an existence of a man who grew up by the book, doing all that it was expected from him and that suddenly wakes up not knowing who he truly is or what he really wants.

Another book that got me hooked from the first page is "The Magus" by John Fowles.
"This daring literary thriller, rich with eroticism and suspense, is one of John Fowles's best-loved and bestselling novels and has contributed significantly to his international reputation as a writer of the first rank. At the center of The Magus is Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman who accepts a teaching position on a remote Greek island, where he befriends a local millionaire. The friendship soon evolves into a deadly game in which reality and fantasy are deliberately manipulated, and Nicholas finds that he must fight not only for his sanity but for his very survival."(Goodreads) 

Cantacuzino Castle Busteni(1,2), Mt. Ainos Kefalonia Greece(3)

Right now I just started reading "The Road less traveled" by M. Scott Peck. This book is by now a classic in the field of psychology. Yet, it's written for a mainstream audience and goes through some of the basic tenets of psychological theory (e.g. attachment, individuation, boundaries, delayed gratification) but does so through the lense of spiritual growth. Peck is an excellent writer and fine therapist who is sensitive to the issues of spirituality.

Here is how the book starts:
"Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."

Which are your favourite TV shows right now? What are you listening to lately and what you plan reading? Leave your comments below.

Untill next time check out some more Jumpin'Journal:

Jumpin'Journal - pages of a diary (I)
Jumpin'Journal - pages of a diary (II)
Jumpin'Journal - pages of a diary (III)


Beldi

Maybe you also listen to: NAO - For All We Know

It's been quite a long time since my last album review and I wanted since couple of months ago to direct your attention towards this one. It's my first post of this year and the first time I'm writing an album review in English so...here goes.
The british singer, Nao, caught my eye a year ago while I was surfing between new tracks on Youtube.

Neo Jessica Joshua, better known as Nao, is a British singer-songwriter and record producer from East London. Her sound has been described as soul combined with electronic music, funk and R&B.(Wikipedia)

"For All We Know" is a beautiful mix of R&B, soul and electronic cuts. "This former backing vocalist’s soulful, involving debut album is at first glance a thoroughly up-to-date digital workout with a long cast list of co-producers bringing their A-game (the jazz-trained Nao has co-producer credits throughout). Somehow, unity of vision pervades." (The Guardian)

Nao penned her first song in 2013 and her first single, "So Good", helped her create her template for an emotionally pop that gives away little about its creator. "On "For All We Know", Nao autopsies various relationships—with friends, lovers, outgrown versions of herself—and, having decided what went wrong, calmly takes down the perpetrators."(Pitchfork)

Nao’s tone is filled with romantic defiance, even when, as on breakout single “Bad Blood” the lost love under her microscope is platonic. The chorus sounds tremendous. The video increases the "alien" atmosphere offered by Nao's vocals.



“Fool to Love”, a song about a doomed relationship, resonated a lot with myself. She sings with the weight of lessons learned: “I’m wise and I’m older”.

 

Nao's angelic voice oscillates between euphoria and self-examination. “In the Morning” strikes harder as she acts the part of a lover too polite to say it’s over. “Buried all my feelings, I’m withholding,” she sings, uneasily. “I tried to leave him signs ... Are they hard to recognize?”.



Other songs that I listen on repeat from this album are "Inhale Exhale", "Get to Know Ya" and "We Don't Give A" - admiring the contrast between abrasive beats and silky seductive vocals.
“Get to Know Ya” opens the album with funk guitars and melismatic melodies, before “Inhale Exhale” bounces it up a notch with a lusty bass strut that melts away as melodies zipwire across octaves.

 

The album contains 18-tracks; the songs can impress with their "breadth: “Blue Wine” a moment of cosmic relief, winds down to slow-jam tempo, but blossoms into something exquisitely languid and sprawling. Again on “Blue Wine” the music feels emotionally descriptive without the need for disclosure—“broken emotions” are the narrator’s ailment, we’re told. But when vagueness is a catalyst, rather than a stand-in for passion, its evasive profundity teaches you to look for what’s missing."(Pitchfork)

 

If you liked my review, be sure to check out some of my previous ones below:

Jessie Ware
Hozier
FKA Twigs
Azealia Banks

Until next time enjoy the snow! :)

Beldi