Archive for the 'musings' Category
[fill this]
First post of the new year (both Western and Chinese) and it’s now March. Life has gotten itself on an interestingly skewed track again and as soon as the confidence to put some persona of myself in the public returns, I’ll be back here more. I miss this semi-sanctuary and everyone one around it, but disrespect and ignorance HURTS, and recovery is hard. Self-reflection has become almost as routine as a shower. Finding the courage to enjoy performing music – without fear, without inhibition – again is the first great obstacle. Family is beautiful.
So though there there’s been considerable slackage here, the reading list is still being maintained; not that there has been much time to read lately. The old habit of reading alongside a meal has been passed up to either not having the proper time to put towards this, to newspapers, or to having meals with kind, mostly new acquaintances – which is typically a good excursion too. In the meantime, every so often, something is written on the [Twitter] about the musical events around. And instead of reading literature, a few hours a week are spent reading a score alongside its recording. This activity is nothing entirely new (see previous posts on music) but lately it’s been happening on a kind of weekly basis.
I probably won’t include scores in the reading list though given that the manner of study is quite different from reading a book. I may start keeping list of performances, however, because I keep forgetting to sign into the myspace to update it.
This week’s composition of fascination is Michael Nyman’s String Quartet No. 2, particularly movements 3 and 4. I found the other three quartets somewhat underwhelming, but full of good intentions to complement the good writing. However, String Quartet No. 2 appeals to me in the same fashion as Bloch’s String Quintets and Gorecki’s String Quartet No. 3 – the intense but balanced exploration of culture, rhythmical architectures, and a certain kind of desperation and triumph pervading throughout.
Last week was Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major. That piece pretty much explains itself (especially if Martha Argerich is at the helm.) The second movement of the concerto is heartbreaking and unexpected while the overall intricacy and detail of the entire concerto is stunning. What was almost as surprising, however, was the ratio of string to wind players that were familiar with the composition. Apparently, many standard wind excerpts are taken from the concerto (The bassoon solo in the third movement is particularly impressive. During our next rehearsal together, my bassoon teaching assistant friend casually performed the excerpt for me on the spot – by memory.) but to many of my string colleagues, the piece is unfamiliar. I wonder which other pieces can be placed in this category.
March 07 2010 | music and musings and waffle | No Comments »
Getting a 90 minute professional massage at a 5-star spa and hotel as the first professional massage of my life was not entirely like my first experience of going to a strip club almost exactly a year ago.
It’s interesting, involves a lot of nudity, feeling quite out of place – though intrigued – and I’ll probably never do it again.
Paper: 1/3: Article for the Music Educators Journal
Progress: optimistic only out of context with the other papers
Theme?: the lyrics kill me at some point or other; hi, December.winter
Tracks: (all files uploaded onto zshare.net. Music is rightful property of the artists. I don’t own any of these…Please buy their music and support them.)
+ [Last Night] – Justin Timberlake
+ [I'll Never Smile Again] – Priscilla Ahn (Frank Sinatra cover)
+ [Winter Song] – Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson
December 13 2009 | music and musings and travels | 1 Comment »
[image]
With the exception of Facebook, I’ve always procrastinated when it comes to joining social network tools. Yesterday, for whatever same reasons I created a now-defunct personal myspace page back in the day, I created a Twitter page. The first post read “wonder if i’ll stick with it.
Given the number of times I have visited the homepage today, written something, and then decided not to publish it (There’s still only one “tweet” on my page.), Twitter just may turn out to be something of a personal challenge.
Or I could just not utilize it. But then, what was the point of having one? Is impulse required when using Twitter? How might this destroy me…?
November 19 2009 | musings | 1 Comment »
Why are we ever anyone but ourselves? When would we be? Why?
Agonizing is a luxury.
November 10 2009 | musings and waffle | No Comments »
“It is all a long way from the beeps and bloops of the first video games.”
I’m surprised it took, of all publications, the [New York Times] this long to write some variation of this sentence – namely using “long way” in combination with “bleeps and bloops.” Fairly nice article otherwise, though.
In other news, it’s time to find a new sentence, or just onomatopoeic sounds, to describe how evolved video game music and the culture such around has become, methinks.
October 28 2009 | games and music and musings | 1 Comment »
In the category of bad habits, can a person include endless retrospection amongst them? Earlier this week, I commented rather carelessly to a friend that that I don’t regret because “life is too short for regrets.” But is constantly looking back, analyzing, and finding meaning is what has passed considerably long ago just as bad?
I do spend an inordinate amount of time in this blog writing backwards. I suppose I could always just write more here as soon as I have an inkling of coherent thought.
Hah. <3
December 21 2008 | musings | 1 Comment »
The two foremost things I have learned so far from selling a large part of my soul to Miami traffic over the course of three months:
1) If you park at a meter that has more time than you need already paid for, use up only the time you need, and then leave the rest for the next poor soul looking for a parking spot on a Saturday afternoon in a highly commercial area. Everyone will feel better.
2) It’s not your fault that some other people are just jerks.
(These thoughts are brought to you by a long morning discussion on personal karma – the kind you feel happens regardless of actual supernatural existence or not; the kind you feel that you just should act in favour of as a decent human being and member of society.)
November 23 2008 | musings and travels | 1 Comment »
Dear members of planet Earth (and possibly some beyond):
Is the task of being considerate to other people and perhaps once in a while thinking about someone other than yourself that difficult, terrible, terrifying, and distasteful of a concept to you?
Sincerely,
[someone who does really does not appreciate - nay see what you would truly accomplish beyond pissing yet another female off at the WRONG time of month - being yelled at and called a "b----" as she is crossing street because you're in too much of a rush to make a right turn on a red light/too stuck inside your own thick head to realize that her slow walk might - MAYBE, perhaps, just MIGHT POSSIBLY -be caused by that giant blue mound about twice her size sticking off her back (filled approximately six pounds of books, no less...yes, BOOKS. You know, the things with paper and words on the paper that sometimes tell you information...), also known as a backpack to people who attend the University as actual students. (You know...STUDENTS: people who are trying to learn something useful at a semi-credible institution with an overinflated athletics department...)]
October 14 2007 | musings and semi-facts | 4 Comments »
I hope that many years from now, when I am legally “old”, I will still have the spirit and energy I have today, and be as in love with that person (who and wherever he may be) as the day we recognize those feelings.
September 24 2007 | musings and waffle | 2 Comments »
If you are drinking a cup of good coffee, please take the time to appreciate it. I forgot to do so today, and when I realized what had happened, it was really rather disappointing.
September 12 2007 | food and musings | 2 Comments »
Next »