Just my nerdy thought of the day, which is that classical music, not often associated with horror or the shivers, can be downright terrifying sometimes. Top 3 scariest pieces I've encountered thus far are:
1) Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin--not the orchestral suite, which I think is a kind of lame abridged version (sorry, Bartok!) since it ends halfway before the story is through and leaves out some of the best/scariest parts, but the entire work. Even if you don't know that the piece is about a prostitute who lures three men, the last of which stares at her with green glowing eyes and is unable to be killed (despite being stabbed and beaten and hung from a chandelier) until she has sex with him, it's enough to scare the pants off any listener with proper senses. Especially the end, when his wounds begin to bleed and he finally dies...holy crap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyvFDdYM-rU (27:00-end is the worst.)
2) Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. The first time I heard this piece, I had to leave the concert hall, it was that upsetting...and that was before I read the poems it's based on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veUJxETj7-c
3) Berg's Wozzeck. The WORST! Induces fright that would make The Exorcist proud...I refuse to listen to the last scene of this opera alone. Wozzeck has killed his wife with a knife...a bunch of little children including his son find out and run off to see the body...the son is oblivious.
No link, because I'm too scared to find a video of it online and listen to make sure it's a good version. Search for it on your own, if you dare...seriously...it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Idea 2
Walking along Newbury Street with V, and she says, "I always get caught up in the moment and forget to take pictures. What I need is a video camera strapped on the top of my head at all times."
Haha!! Ingenious!
Haha!! Ingenious!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Post-Recital Joys
***Sunday morning, I was having the breakfast buffet at my family's hotel restaurant...sitting in front of my large plate piled with food, spearing scrambled eggs and sausage onto my fork, when my sister and I had the following profound conversation:
"Jennifer, do you remember our old breakfasts at home, when we were younger, and we'd have scrambled eggs and sausage, or hash browns and sunny side up?"
"Yeah, that was so good! I loved combining the hash browns and sunny side up, that was my favorite!"
"Well, I was just watching you eat your scrambled eggs and sausage, and it reminded me of that. But you know when you combine them, which one do you put on your fork first, the eggs or the sausage?"
"Ohhh, usually I put the egg on first, because it's softer."
"Yeah, if you put the sausage first and then try to get the egg with it, the eggs just fall apart, right?"
"Exactly!"
"But just now I saw you put the sausage on first."
"Well, I was cutting the sausage, and then I accidentally forked it first instead of the eggs, but the eggs still stayed intact!"
"Yeah, I think it's because the eggs here are more solid and sort of glued together."
"Yeahhh, that's the case with most hotel breakfast scrambled eggs, I've realized! They're kind of harder and don't have much flavor and are even kind of plastic-y."
We went on like this for a while. By the time we looked up from our engrossing discussion, both our parents had left the table. :(
Post-Recital Joys:
1) midnight dinner at Legal Seafood
2) bouquets of flowers, tons of color filling my tiny apartment
3) finally listening to Mylo Xyloto
4) catching up with my good old Mei, and morphing comfortably and joyfully back into my true bossy self. :)
"Jennifer, do you remember our old breakfasts at home, when we were younger, and we'd have scrambled eggs and sausage, or hash browns and sunny side up?"
"Yeah, that was so good! I loved combining the hash browns and sunny side up, that was my favorite!"
"Well, I was just watching you eat your scrambled eggs and sausage, and it reminded me of that. But you know when you combine them, which one do you put on your fork first, the eggs or the sausage?"
"Ohhh, usually I put the egg on first, because it's softer."
"Yeah, if you put the sausage first and then try to get the egg with it, the eggs just fall apart, right?"
"Exactly!"
"But just now I saw you put the sausage on first."
"Well, I was cutting the sausage, and then I accidentally forked it first instead of the eggs, but the eggs still stayed intact!"
"Yeah, I think it's because the eggs here are more solid and sort of glued together."
"Yeahhh, that's the case with most hotel breakfast scrambled eggs, I've realized! They're kind of harder and don't have much flavor and are even kind of plastic-y."
We went on like this for a while. By the time we looked up from our engrossing discussion, both our parents had left the table. :(
Post-Recital Joys:
1) midnight dinner at Legal Seafood
2) bouquets of flowers, tons of color filling my tiny apartment
3) finally listening to Mylo Xyloto
4) catching up with my good old Mei, and morphing comfortably and joyfully back into my true bossy self. :)
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Mistakes
One reason I keep journal entries--sometimes it takes a lifetime of learning the same lesson over and over and freaking over again for anything to sink in. Amid a mini-panic attack today while practicing, when I started messing up a lot for no reason and was on the verge of bursting into tears like a baby, a memory came drifting into my head, like a dandelion petal floating lazily just out of fingertip's reach. I jumped to my computer, opened it up to a few years ago, and found this entry, scribbled (well, typed, but in a "scribbling" manner) in a state of post-concert euphoria:
Everything about him glows...he can find joy and wonder in every little phrase, and he can communicate it through his playing like no one else I've seen. He commits to everything, and even when he messes up, his rigor and enthusiasm and life to every note NEVER dies. I remember before our concert, he asked me if I was nervous and I said no, and he said he was nervous, he always gets really nervous for stuff, but he said it helps him play better--he listens really well and does more creative stuff. Then he said, "It also makes me mess up a lot, and Jennifer I know you are not a fan of messing up, but mistakes are part of life, and in the end, who cares." I actually thought about that throughout the concert, and I think hes the one that really set this attitude, this philosophy of, "mistakes happen, so do everything with all you've got, and as long as you've done that, it doesn't matter if you screw up," that made our group successful. Because it's not like you screw up because you're not paying attention or not committing enough. It's that you've committed so much that when a little mistake slips through, as mistakes always do, it simply is nothing compared to how much enthusiasm and love you've conjured for the music. It seems cliche, but his belief really hit home for me that night.
Everything about him glows...he can find joy and wonder in every little phrase, and he can communicate it through his playing like no one else I've seen. He commits to everything, and even when he messes up, his rigor and enthusiasm and life to every note NEVER dies. I remember before our concert, he asked me if I was nervous and I said no, and he said he was nervous, he always gets really nervous for stuff, but he said it helps him play better--he listens really well and does more creative stuff. Then he said, "It also makes me mess up a lot, and Jennifer I know you are not a fan of messing up, but mistakes are part of life, and in the end, who cares." I actually thought about that throughout the concert, and I think hes the one that really set this attitude, this philosophy of, "mistakes happen, so do everything with all you've got, and as long as you've done that, it doesn't matter if you screw up," that made our group successful. Because it's not like you screw up because you're not paying attention or not committing enough. It's that you've committed so much that when a little mistake slips through, as mistakes always do, it simply is nothing compared to how much enthusiasm and love you've conjured for the music. It seems cliche, but his belief really hit home for me that night.
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