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I’m not heading into the city until this evening, where I plan to visit the State Library (I love libraries, truly I do) and wander about taking loads of night shots. I’m recharging my camera battery as we speak and did a mass clearout of old pics earlier today, including a ton of UK and Paris images that I’d obviously been loathe to part with. I’ve backed them all up on CDs, a USB and my beloved external hard drive though, so I’m all covered! I’m only slightly paranoid.

Arizaphale made on a comment on yesterday’s post that mentioned artist and taxidermist Julia DeVille, saying that I find that once someone has mentioned something, I usually see/hear/read about it in the next week or so! So I fully expect to hear Julia Deville interviewed on Radio National next!!

I’ve noticed the same phenomenon recently, in the case of Melbourne’s The Crayon Fields. First it was a mention over at Letters Have No Arms, where they listed ‘Impossible Things’ from their 2006 release Animal Bells as a top track of 2009 (not sure if they discovered it in 2009, or if the album was only released in the US last year).

Then it was falling in love with the album cover when I plucked it from the vinyl stacks at Polyester Records, and then discovering when I googled them last night that they’re playing Big Day Out and I must’ve scrolled right past their name when I was checking out the timetable last week. I’m listening to Animal Bells as I write and I’m loving the mixture of exhuberance and introspection, complete with chimes and handclaps. All The Pleasures Of The World was released in September last year and can be purchased via Chapter Music.

Impossible Things – The Crayon Fields

Back, Front, Side, Low, High – The Crayon Fields

The boy, Tom Hanson of Margate, N.J., grew up believing that he’d never truly be happy, until the day he met The One. This belief stemmed from early exposure to sad British pop music and a total misreading of the movie The Graduate.

I’ve also been listening to the (500) Days Of Summer soundtrack today and I came across this article, in which director Mark Webb talks of his surprise that most actors are rarely told about the music that’s set to soundtrack the film they’re performing in.

That, to me, just seems strange,” Webb says. “Because it lets them know the tone you’re after. And I think that’s a really important thing for an actor to know or to feel before you shoot a scene.

Both Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel were given iPods that contained each day of their schedule broken down musically, including songs that Webb had chosen to help the actors convey the mood that he was looking for in their performance of each scene.

I love this idea. Given that music is such a major part of the appeal of (500) Days, it seems natural that the actors should be privy to the songs that are going to soundtrack their performances. It seems strange to me too that actors never know what music is going to appear in the films they act in, although it makes sense that they would know only about the job they’re employed to do, and not about all the nuts and bolts that go on behind the scenes.

Sugar Town (Nancy Sinatra Cover) – Zooey Deschanel

Quelqu’un M’a Dit – Carla Bruni

At Last – Kevin Michael

Bonus mp3

At Last – Beyonce

I’ll leave you with a couple more Bette Midler quotes, to go with the one about Melbourne from yesterday.

When it’s three o’clock in New York, it’s still 1938 in London – Bette Midler

Rap is poetry set to music. But to me it’s like a jackhammer – Bette Midler

 I hear ya, sister.

(Crayon Fields album cover from here, 500 Days poster from here. The flower is fresh off my camera this morning)