Archive for October, 2006
[image to be uploaded with time]
So I honestly shouldn’t be doing this right now. With a concert tonight, a massive test tomorrow morning, a two or three page paper due, and a conducting quiz, being online is perhaps the last thing I should be doing.
But there’s a reason for this. Trust me for just this one brief moment:
This entire week I have been working with the members of Nation Beat in collaboration with Jacare Brazil (Dr. Tremura was a former professor of mine and the graduate assistant for the group is a friend/violist of my quartet/quintet in the past.) for a concert tonight. Granted, I’m only playing one piece with the ensemble(s), but I don’t believe I’ve ever felt quite this musically alive before. The last time was perhaps the first time I played a musical (Gershwin. Crazy for You. Freshman year of high school). Well, after this week of playing non-classical music and after watching the dress rehearsal last night, I’m not sure if it’s because I’m so musically high that I think and feel this way, but for now, at least, and I do really hope for the rest of my life, I know that this is what I want to do. Yes, I’ll still plug ahead with the English degree just as a happy backup, but I know now that nothing will give me quite the satisfaction of life the way playing music with people who also love and live to play does.
There’s just something so beautiful about unity. Especially in music. There’s a certain rush that comes when there are people just all over the place, up and dancing and making music because of how it brings us all together.
I’ve always wanted to expand my musical boundaries. It killed a lot back in high school when there wasn’t really a place for violins in non-classical repertoire. In fact, there’s still not much of a scene here in the universitytown. But you kinda have to make the scene here, I guess. The Jacare grad assistant and I might play around with that idea.
There is so much that you can do with a violin beyond the standard Bach and Beethoven, and, call me selfish if you want, but I want to learn and play it all. But maybe playing the non-classical recently has just made me want it more because I’ve spent so much of my life already NOT playing that kind of music.
When I was watching Nation Beat rehearse last night, I got infinitely more and more jealous of Skye. He and I and two others have been working on a small string ensemble piece for tonight and the more I read of what he gets to do for a living, the bands he performs with, the way he can just play SO much (both in terms of what he can play on the instrument and amount of time he gets to spend playing music) the more I know he’s exactly what I wished I could have been back when I first discovered jazz and fusion music. He’s a really neat guy, and I am fairly certain that I’d love it if these people didn’t forget us as individuals after they leave, as, after all, they probably work with far more people than they can remember.
This learning is fantastic. I still can’t quite place a finger on why everything is such a rush lately, but I know that even though I have so much classical training already and that it’ll probably take a lot more of the other kind before I can achieve anything near what Skye has, I want more of this music. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes this after experiencing a new world.
That’s it - I need to get out of this state.
[updates: new section for things I can't get out of my head and soon to create one more section for photographs]
October 26 2006 | Uncategorized and music | No Comments »
Some things I am currently (hopefully temporary with some..) fascinated by.with and might be ashamed of for some of them. Seriously.
All things listed here are recommend.
+MUSIC
(this is where I start hitting some REALLY embarassing stuff…)
–[10.25.06]–
- Ooh La La - Goldfrapp
- Strict Machines - Goldfrapp
- Dance Dance - Fall Out Boy
- Rebellion(Lies) - The Arcade Fire
- Stars and Sons - Broken Social Scene
- Shinikaketa Ashi - Yano Maki
- The Trouble with River Cities - Pela
- One Trick Pony - Nelly Furtado
- Quintet for Strings and Piano in f minor, Op. 35 - Ottorino Respighi
–[11.14.06]–
- Dare - Gorillaz
- Song of Therru - Gedo Senki
- Kids Run Through City Corners - Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VI Piano Collections)
- Memory of the Wind, Legend of the Eternal Wind (orchestral) - Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy III DS)
- Born to Be Wild - ? (Borat… soundtrack)
–[12.31.06]–
- Que Sera Sera - Asuka Sakai, Charlie Kosei (Katamari Damacy Soundtrack “Katamari Fortissimo Damacy”) (see album below)
- Koukai - Yoko Kanno (Ragnarok Online II)
- Meu Esquema - Mundo Livre S.A
- Feeling Good - Nina Simone
- Plug It In - Basement Jaxx
- Romeo - Basement Jaxx
- Good Luck - Basement Jaxx
- Love Song - m-flo loves Bonnie Pink
- Mi De Xiang (Rosemary) - Jay Chou
- El Manana - Gorillaz
+ALBUMS
–[11.14.06]–
- Young for Eternity - The Subways
–[12.31.06]–
- DragonQuest String Quartet - Koichi Sugiyama
- Katamari Damacy Soundtrack “Katamari Fortissimo Damacy” - Various
+BOOKS.COMICS
–[11.14.06]–
- A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
–[12.31.06]–
- Y: The Last Man - Brian K. Vaughan
- The Joy of Cooking - Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker (first edition)
- Memoirs - Sir Georg Solti
- Stardust - Neil Gaiman (haven’t read, but fully intend to)
+MOVIES
–[10.25.06]–
- Half Nelson
–[11.14.06]–
- Millions
- Rushmore
–[12.31.06]–
- Pride and Prejudice (2005)
- Stranger Than Fiction
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Children of Men (haven’t seen the last two listed yet…but am quite fascinated indeed)
+RANDOM
October 26 2006 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
[image to be uploaded with time...]
soundtrack: Hatsukoi - Mayumi Kojima
Some thoughts inspired by recent relationship events of various people around me:
+ “Nice guys finish last” is a stupid and false “saying.” Nice guys don’t finish last at all. In fact, they’re the best guys out there (in this girl’s humble opinion) and end up with probably the best girls too. But Nice Guys who believe or dwell on this statement tend to be just looking in the wrong places for what will truly make them happy, and thus end up simply a little ‘late’. It’s a very preventable condition.
+ We can’t be jealous of other people’s lives and true fortunes (I speak not of material wealth). If we are, then we stop lose focus on our own lives and what opportunities for true fortunes we have right in front of us. Obssession overpowers. Sure, we can wish for something that another has, but if there is no reasonable way that what we desire can be achieved without time, then we have to take that time to achieve it. Forcing yourself or another person is of no real benefit to either. And until the time comes, we can only really be happy for other people for their fortunes and hope that we will be that fortunate for fortunes with another person can’t really be made. Ultimately, we have to live for ourselves, but smile for others.
+ “Tall, dark, and handsome” is totally overrated.
+ No one is ever “out of league.” Some of the ugliest men on this planet are married to gorgeous actress or model wives that make more money than they do.
+ Being a great friend is a leg up to the other’s heart.
+ Desperation may make you do things you’ll only regret later.
+ Everyone needs someone or something at some point in time, be it a breath of air or a really good hug, and unfortunately, not everyone can selflessly help without hindrance. If someone can’t help you because of their own drawbacks, it’s not your fault.
October 15 2006 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Battlestar Galactica is airing tonight at 9pm on SciFi! That’s one hour from now! Hop on it, people!
Got it wrong in that previous post. Oopsies.
*excited excited drowning in excitement*
October 07 2006 | BSG (and such) and Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
[image to be posted whenever mobileputer revives]
Today, for the first time in at least a year and a half, I held Patrick McDuffy of The Patrick McDuffy Allstars fame in my arms again, and he felt so utterly right there. As if a long lost puppy had come home. And as I wandered the venue with him, occasionally talking to very few people - as indeed I only knew one person at the show who was not in the band and not the person I was at the show with in the first place anyway - I felt a strange and wonderful peace that I had not felt since my best friend in town left. In fact, the feeling was not entirely unlike the same one recieved when said person comes back in town and I get him back in the same atmosphere (and most likely arms at some point or other) as me.
Stuffed animals have that sort of power, I suppose.
(Patrick McDuffy is a small green tigerstriped bear that the drummer of the so-named band, a friend of mine since middle school, won in a claw machine. He, his owner, and I have had many a wonderful adventure together, both as a pairs and a trio. Patrick McDuffy, along with my ex-dog, are the only two permanent photographs in my violin case.)
October 06 2006 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
After the last post, the mobilputer decided to die.
Die….die…die….
Actually, it’s stuck in an eternal startup loop thanks to a corrupt startup file. So the last month (hah!) has been spent trying to get my hands on a copy of Win2K or XP and, well, revive the little chunk of wires and circuits.
Now I finally have a copy of Win2K AND XP…but have forgotten the commands I need in order to reinstall all the startup files without erasing my computer. Oops. There is a new mission now. (All help appreciated ^_^ Lara Croft I am definitely not.)
Return is imminent. But in the meantime, remember that Battlestar Galactica returns in 8 days (Oct. 9 @ 9pm) and there will be much wibbling. And I’ll try to update this thing as much as before because man oh man there are SO many things that need bashing (*coughs at the new “harajuku” line of clothing at Pacific Sun that is a disturbing marketing ploy of Gwen Stefani’s and makes such sad, shameless, tarnishing usage of robots*).
October 01 2006 | BSG (and such) and Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
