AND playing shows in Chester this weekend: http://events.myspace.com/498126665/Events/1

I’d REALLY love to see you there.  All this UK stuff is new to me, and I’m still trying to make friends! Will keep updating. Check my calendar, or www.myspace.com/afayth.

Two months in Canada seemed like a long time, and I was so busy that I hardly got any of this paperwork stuff done.

Rob and I managed to get all of my bags of (unnecessary) clothes into this place last night at about 10 p.m.  We’re only here for a month until I leave for France/Italy, but it was a very important move, since for the last two nights we slept on top of each other with one pillow in a cupboard measuring about 6×6 feet. He rented the “room” from a kind Sri Lankan in Harrow whilst awaiting my return. I actually had to stand on the bed to get dressed. Strange.

Surprisingly (and gratefully) I encountered absolutely no problems at Heathrow, and a sexy not-too-Italian Italian man helped me move all of my over-sized luggage onto a cart.

Also met a lovely man on the plane with whom I chatted for nearly the entire duration of the flight, so neither of us got any sleep. I was fairly hoarse for my show the next day.

Right. Back to work. Must find lots of shows in London so I don’t have to get a real job. Though I’m considering trying to get a part-time gig at a Clinique counter . . . apparently you get lots of free stuff. And since that’s where so much of my money goes anyway . . .

Oh, P.S., new shows added to my calendar as of today, so check it out.

To subscribe to Ashley’s somewhat sporadic blog, click HERE!

Australian singer/songwriter Missy Higgins

Before I moved to Australia I had no desire to go there.

I met Rob the first day I was in England, and shortly after introducing himself and nervously spouting some anecdote about blueberry muffins, he announced he would be moving to Melbourne, Australia.

He was quitting his job as a sports journalist in Hertford and flying Down Under with, as far as I can remember, no prospects or plans – and he had already put in his notice.

After two weeks together, I hadn’t convinced him not to move to a place with 350+ days of sunshine a year in order to hang out with some lunatic Canadian girl he had just met at a party, though I tried.

So he left in October. We spent nearly 7 months apart (having only really ever spent about 12 days together), before I gave in, packed my bags, and applied for an Australian visa.

By this time, Rob had secured a pretty good job as the editor of a magazine in Sydney, so it made sense that I go there, particularly since there weren’t a whole lot of prospects in Canada for a sports writer who worshipped cricket and had never seen a hockey game in his life.

And, wtf, I was on a grueling 26 hour flight to Australia, sans functioning television, and by the end of it, sans sanity.

I spent nearly 9 months in Sydney, and in my somewhat skewed memory, they’re the happiest of my strange little life.

Lots of things stand out – koalas, the opera house, my introduction to Thai food, fish and chips wrapped in paper on the beach, skiing (or rather, not skiing) on Snowy (or rather, not Snowy) Mountain, my absolutely crazy flatmate Colby, giant cockroaches.  The fact that a cookies and cream bar cost 96 cents despite the fact that there are no pennies.

But I think one of the things that really holds all of these cheesy memories together for me is Missy Higgins.

Colby played her first CD for me within the first few days of arriving and I wasn’t sure what to think. It was good, but not my favourite. But the more I listened, the more I loved.

And so, very few things happened in Australia that didn’t feature Missy Higgins playing in the background, and every time I hear one of her songs, I desperately long to go back.

I mean, who wouldn’t? They still have Target and Woolworth’s.

Anyway, she’s amAzing. Some of my favourites are (and I had touble picking these):

Special Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld5j8vSWz7w
Going North: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ4otErUAwc
Where I Stood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOJ4chbyuJ8&feature=related
Scar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WxPH_G8iyg

Check out www.missyhiggins.com
P.S.  Aaron and I have new videos on YouTube, check ‘em out! http://www.youtube.com/user/ashleyfayth15

If you haven’t seen this guy’s work before, you’re missing out.  Raphael specialises in travel photography, and he’s absolutely brilliant!

It’s his people I like best. In every shot, the people are completely honest, and yet somehow, not interfered with.  I guess it sounds cheesy, but somehow he captures the essence not just of the people, but of the people in their habitat in their situation.

Although people are central to picture, it seems as though the buildings, the smells, and the sounds have all been left in too, because they interact with the people. And you can see them interacting with the people.

My fiancé Rob and I had a heated conversation surrounding Raph’s pictures earlier tonight. He probably initiated the argument because all I’ve talked about for the last week are Raph’s pictures.

First, he admitted to thinking that the photos were “extremely good”; but then he insisted on my pinpointing what made Raph’s shots so much better than, for instance, his own.

Let me explain that Rob’s idea of a good picture is one he captures on a digital camera (accidentally set on macro) of a 60 year-old Japanese man with a mullet fast asleep with his face in a carton of zinger wings at KFC.

So we got on to the whole idea of the subjectivity of art. I’m obviously not an art critic, but I suddenly felt obliged to stand up for artists (like Raph) in the face of average photographers (like Rob) and Stephanie Meyer lovers.

Yes, yes, yes, people like different things, blah, blah, everyone is different, no one likes the same stuff, etc., etc.  But surely, I argued, there must be some finite standard . . . of what is good art . . .?

It’s a conversation that has been beaten to death. Each piece of art is as good as the next . . . to someone. Bullshit.

But my question, which I posed to Rob, was this: “Why do people think it’s such a good idea to make art so accessible?”

Not in an open gallery/university kind of way.  But what I mean is, why are people convincing themselves that really easy-to-read, simple-to-digest,  emotions-sans-brain art is just as good as the meaty stuff . . . just cause they want it to be?

Rob replies, “you are a pretentious twat. You shouldn’t say things like that in public.”

Maybe I am.

But I simply don’t understand. Surely the beauty of poetry – photographs, music, dance, theatre – is in the coming to terms, the process of beginning to understand the art. The questions, and eventually the “ahhh,” moment. Sometimes the epiphany. The struggle.

The instant you get it.

And if there’s no struggle, there no satisfaction of overcoming the struggle.

It’s the reason Larry David is funny. Cause he’s clever, and YOU get it, too. You get the joke, cause you’re clever enough to put the pieces together.

I think that Harlequin books are fine, as long as we recognise that they are on a different plane (representing a very different standard of struggle/satisfaction).

In any case, it was a long drawn out conversation, and I ultimately decided that people nowadays (including myself), are looking for art that is too accessible for our own good. If we don’t understand it immediately, we give up, and go buy Twilight.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with Raph. Cause he’s just brilliant. You’ll see.  Go to www.RaphaelBorja.com and check him out.

Speak soon

ash

Perhaps then, every time I get stressed, sad, or just generally apathetic, I need only open my happy closet and watch how my collection of pretty, tasty, strange, interesting, cool, melodious, funny, inspiring things is growing, day by day, and hopefully be rejuvenated.

Lame? Yes. Impossible for someone with commitment issues? Probably. Shamelessly promotional, yet simultaneously therapeutic? Mmhmm.

So . . . c’est ça.  Check it out. That’ll make me happy, too.

ash

17 July, 11:00 p.m. – Elliston Puffin Festival;

18 July, 4:30 p.m. – Elliston Puffin Festival;

Click “Engagements” for more information.

Thanks!!!

Aaron and I attempted an ad hoc performance in Clarenville tonight and then he went to watch “Eclipse” at the cinema. Is that what it’s called? I think so.

Neither here nor there. Here’s what’s really on my mind.  If I get an IPhone (yes, I’m the only person in the world without an IPhone . . .apparently there are over 4 billion mobile phones in the world, and only 6.8 billion people . . . and considering many of these persons can’t afford food and housing, it’s a pretty astounding number) . . . ANYWAY, back to my point . . . if I own an iPhone, can I justify the purchase of a filofax?  Does anyone even use filofax(es?) anymore?

Can I have BOTH an iPhone and a filofax?  Or would this just do more organisational harm than good?  I don’t know. I think I’d prefer to write my appointments on paper . . . but then there’s so much clutter and loose leaves of scribble and . . . ahhh.

Another interesting stat: I was listening to the CBC’s program “Asunder” tonight on the way home from the show. It’s a something-part series on divorce – the causes, the process, the outcome.  And presently, 40% of all Canadian marriages result in divorce. I think the UK rate is slightly higher, so  . . . am I supposed to average out these figures, or just assume that there is a greater chance of Rob filing against me?  Hmmm.

Marriage. It’s curious.

Maybe if I get both an iPhone and a filofax they can marry each other.  And live happily ever after.

ash

If you have any pictures/videos of the show, send em in!  We’ll post them under “Forum”.

Congrats to all the local acts before us (although we had to listen from outside the side door while setting up the drum kit) – you sounded great.  Keep up the fantastic work!

Following the show, myself, Aaron, Tara, Don, and Janine went to Marsha’s chicken and bought waaay too much food. Then, we were so tired when we got back to the cabin that we almost fell asleep eating it.

Maybe going whale watching today.  Dunno.  All you people from around here – what’s good to do on a sunny Saturday in Trinity?

ash