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Photo from 5X1 Pearl Jam through the eye of Lance Mercer.

Dedicated to Didi, the sister who's too cool to facebook.

Got Some

Is it just me, or is Eddie starting to look like Grissom?

p/s can't wait for Backspacer to come out! Yay!

somebody out there still likes Pearl Jam

I dont know if you remember, but during the previous Olympic games (not in Beijing, the one before that), I was watching the promos on TV and heard them using Spin The Black Circle as the background music.

Well i was watching MBC4 (I think it's a Lebanese station. betul tak Lollies/Nazrah?), and the promo for an arabic soap opera came on and it had this guitar thing going on and it sounded so familiar i had to wreck my brain to think what it was until I realized it was Dirty Frank.

go figure.

Pearl Jam vidoes anyone?

My current obsession is downloading PearlJam vidoes from u-toob.
Not being satisfied with just watching them on the site, I am downloading and saving them on my hard disk using this site.
Now I have an array of pearl jam videos in a folder labeled, what else, 'pearl jam' on my computer, and I can watch them whenever I want.. !

Yay-ness!

p/s Thanx, Firhad, for the links :)

It's Evolution Baby

You see that widget labelled as 'Pearl Jam' on the right column of this blog?
Well, it contains news feed about, who else, pearl jam.
About a month ago I had clicked on the link for the video for Hard Sun and watched it and towards the end of the video there was a website address of the fan who made the video. I had saved the website address, but didnt get a chance to visit it then because I got hungry thinking about Chris McEndless (spelling?) and how he died of starvation.

I finally visited the Pearl Jam - Evolution website a week ago, and I have been hooked!
The site is in portugese (I think, coz it's almost like spanish but it's not really spanish) but some articles he posted there is in english so you wont get totally lost. There are a lot of videos and music to download and they are all of good quality.
I am downloading like crazy :)

Thanks so much, Gabriel :)

p/s wow, has it been 17 years??

Somebody out there likes you..

Last week I was flipping through the TV channels (yes, I do this a lot) and I got to one of the sports channels that is aired over here, called S1. They were showing highlights from T0rino 2006 for that week and they were playing a noisy but familiar song to accompany the montage.
I stopped flipping and listened closely and lo and behold, guess what, it was "Spin The Black Circle" by Pearl Jam!
Why does this excite me, you ask?
Well, Pearl Jam songs are not usually used for montages and least of all "Spin The Black Circle", which is probably one of the more obscure (read: not radio friendly) of their songs.
I would understand "Alive" or "Jeremy" or "Daughter" or *gag* "Last Kiss", which an amateur Pearl Jam fan would probably admit to liking and would not be ashamed to play for the public, but "Spin The Black Circle"? .. You've got to be quite a fan to have chosen that one.

I thought, okay, maybe it's a one-off thing. Perhaps it was because most of the highlights contain scenes of the men's figure skating contenders doing the spin on ice, thus the reason for the chosen song.

So I flipped through the channels again this morning and there were the highlights for this week on S1, and guess what was played?
"Given To Fly"!

Someone out there likes Pearl Jam.. enough to use it for his montage.
hot damn! :D :D

Alive and 'The Mamasan Trilogy'

Mood: 28 days till quitting ! Playing: Alive by PearlJam

Haven't been writing about Pearl Jam for quite awhile.
Yesterday I was listening to Kickstart on Red 104.9 on my way back from a BNI meeting and they played "Alive".

I, like I guess most people, first thought that the song was about hope and thankfulness about being Alive. The chorus goes "I, I'm still alive". It's prolly one of the first PearlJam songs I listened to.
I didnt buy the album till much much later and only then did I realize what the song was really about. Then I read their interview in the RollingStones , where Eddie explained further on what the song was really really really about.
It gave me the heebee jeebees.

---

Alive
Written By: Vedder, Gossard
Album: Ten
Release Date: 1991-08-27
Found On: Ten, Alive Single, Alive Single, Oceans Single, Dissident Single
taken from http://www.theskyiscrape.com

son, she said, have i got a little story for you
what you thought was your daddy was nothin' but a...
while you were sittin' home alone at age thirteen
your real daddy was dyin', sorry you didn't see him
but i'm glad we talked...
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive
she walks slowly, across a young man's room
she said i'm ready...for you
i can't remember anything to this very day
'cept the look, the look...
you know where, now i can't see, i just stare...
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive
is something wrong, she said
of course there is, you're still alive, she said
oh and do i deserve to be?
is that the question?
and if so...if so...
who answers...who answers...
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive
i...i'm still alive

---

If you have never read the Rolling Stone article, basically what Eddie said was,
it's about a boy who was told that the man whom he thought was his father was actually not really his real father (and it explains alot on how the 'father' has been treating him -- this topic is covered alot in their other songs). The thing is, the boy has now grown up to look exactly like his real father, and now that the father is dead, the mom started realizing that she still has feelings for the man.
The part that gives me the heebeejeebeees is that "The look, the look .. oh you know where" .. Eddie explained that a lot of people think that when he says "the look", people assume its "on her face", but actually the "you know where" meant .. you know, "down there".
It's pretty sick, but also very sad. Sad for the mom, to have to go on with a constant reminder of the man she loved (once and probably still), so close yet so far. And of course, sad for the boy, to be burdened by the way he looks (something which he can't help). His mom loves him for the wrong reasons, His step-dad probably hates him just coz he looks like 'the enemy'. It could and would totally screw him up.

So here comes The Mamasan Trilogy.
I don't know how true the story is. The story that's been going around since Ten was that PJ wrote the song in a trilogy, and it's all about this boy, his mom and how screwed up he became.
One part is 'Alive'. The other part is 'Footsteps' , a song about a boy blaming his mom for every nasty thing he did. And the third is 'Once', a story about a man, who spends his time killing hookers on the streets.
It all sounds pretty violent when I write about it, but actually if you listen to the songs and read the lyrics, nothing is ever graphic, just bits of suggestions and nuances that paints the picture without really drawing out every detail (which is exactly why I love PearlJam so much).

So I guess the next time I write about Pearl Jam, I'll write about 'Footsteps'.

p/s Ilham was jumping about in the living room singing "Our house, in the middle of our street" today. I asked him where he learned that song and he said he heard it in his dad's car (on the radio). So I sang the song to him, and he was quite delighted that I knew it. Woo hooo..! I guess now I can introduce him to Madness!

What I did with my christmas single

Mood: Upbeat Playing: MFC (Live version) - Pearl Jam

There was a blackout at my block the other day. We had to sleep with the windows open coz it was *so* hot. But if we slept with the windows open, then the mosquitoes would get in, so everyone slept on my bed, the only bed with a mosquito net.
Of course it was still hot sleeping in the mosquito net even with the windows open...
so I had to find something to fan me and my kids with.

yup. you got it. I used PearJam's 2003 Christmas Single.
It was the right size, right stiffness, right thickness.
Thank God for PJ loving vinyls so much. :)

"black"

Mood: Nostalgic Playing: Black, Pearl Jam

Some people were trying to capture the lyrics for this 13 yr old song.
okay here's my ear's version: (my thoughts in brackets)
-------------------- --------
Sheets of guilty canvas, untouched sheets of gray (he's an artist?)
were lay spread out before me, as her body was still (he still remembers her)
oh all five horizons revolved around her soul, as the earth did the sun (this is such a beautiful line, he thinks the world of her)
now the air i've tasted and breathed has taken a turn (but now he doesnt feel too good about her)

err and all I thought her was, everything (he thinks everything of her)
I know she gave me all that she wore (while what she gave him was all superficial)

and these bitter hands, shake beneath the clouds, of what was everything (hands reference - artist? writer?)
All the pictures had, all been washed in black, tatooed everything (any memory he had of her has permanently been distorted)

I take a walk outside, i'm surrounded by .. some kids at play
I can feel/hear their laughter.. so why do I see her? (he can hear happiness, but all he sees is sadness)
And these twisted thoughts I spin, 'round my head..
I'm spinning ohhh I'm spinning
How quick the sun can drop awayyyy (Gawd this part always gets to me. If I listen to this by the beach when the sun is setting, i'd be on my knees crying) (Ed captured the feeling i get everytime I see the sun set)

Oh this bitter hands prey on broken glass (though "cradle broken glass" sounds better)
of what was everything...
all the pictures had, all been washed in black tattooed everything..
auw the love gone bad, turned my world to black,
tattooed all I see, all that I am,
all I'll be ....... yeahhh (he's deeply affected by his loss)

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,
I know you'll be a star
in somebody else's sky (he still cares for her)
but why why why...
cant it be
oh cant it be
mine..? (though he still pines for her)

tududud tud dududu..
-------------------- ------

Searching for the 'true' lyrics is like searching for the holy grail. Sometimes I like the fact that PJ does not provide lyrics and that Ed sings it almost mumbling. It means we can make up the words to fit how we feel and the song gives us more meaning than the band could ever hope to give..

I cried the first time i heard this song, even before I found out the whole lyrics. It was just so *powerful*.
a true PJ classic.

PJ Christmas single 2003

Playing: Spin The Black Circle, Pearl Jam

On Saturday morning my mom called me up to tell me that i have a 'package' sent to her house (we live like a block away, I still use her address as my mailing address sometimes).
Went over as soon as I could and LO AND BEHOLD!
It's the 2003 Christmas Single from Pearl Jam!! woo hooo !!!
too bad it's a vinyl.. i don't have a record player!! *bang bang bang my head on the wall*.
Actually, i didnt join the ten club to get the christmas single. I joined it *just in case* they decide to come and play in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.. then I'd get privileged tickets.
I hope it happens before I die.
Hope hope hope.