I suffer some seasonal depression. You'd know after reading this even if I hadn't told you.
Sorrow's Brow
Let me rest on Sorrow's brow
I know the sun will come to shine
And summer's bright eyes will open wide
Soon enough the snow will melt
And rock hard lake, rock hard unfelt
But till the horse frost dissipates
Till water soaks through softened slate
I know my heart will sink down low
So let me rest on Sorrow's brow
Furrowed deep within his troubles
Nestled warm in worry lines
I'll count my blessings by the doubles
And count with each five sorry lines
My warmth will prosper, sprung from cold
My comfort strong, from stronger pain
I'll count my loved ones young and old
And count with each a dying claim
For they let me sleep on Sorrow's brow
Though I know the sun will come to shine
They let me close my eyes to light
While summer's bright eyes open wide
And soon when snow begins to melt
my heart will stay unmelted
And when the rock hard lake goes soft
I'll feel myself grow harder
When horse frost starts to dissipate
When water soaks through softened slate
I know my heart will sink down low
For they let me rest on Sorrow's brow
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Rockville, CA
In case you haven't noticed, I added a widget for this online show called Rockville, CA. I read about this show in the paper, and it basically sounded like the best show ever, apart from the fact that each episode is only about 7 minutes long.
Let me tell you about this show. It was created by Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Chuck, and Gossip Girl), who's written some of the best television of my life. And the actual show is about a club in LA called Rockville, CA. This show is basically a cross between a music showcase and a melodrama. One good indie band performs in each episode while witty plot lines about lovable characters unfold.
The music is chosen by this woman Alexandra Patsavas who's considered to be one of the best talent scouts in the business. She was the music consultant for The O.C. and Gossip Girl. She made bands like Snow Patrol and The Fray famous when she put them on Grey's Anatomy. In my book, this woman basically has the best taste in music in the world.
So in a nutshell, this show is the best of both worlds. It was practically written for me. If you want to check it out, it's on TheWB.com. I've seen a couple of episodes, and I highly recommend it. :)
Waiting to Hear
Sometimes my parents can be so embarrassing! I'm sorry. I'm ahead of myself. Let's start earlier.
For the past 6 1/2 months, I've been working on this piano audition for a camp at St. Olaf. You see I have to send in a 10 minute long recording of two pieces of contrasting styles. I learned three, but the time was good.
Anyway, it's been killer. I wrote a post earlier about how my hands hurt so much from all the practice, and it didn't let up. Finally, though, I got to record my audition tape. So here's basically how my first official day of spring break went:
Monday, March 16
7 am: Wake up, shower, eat breakfast. This was hard because I had already gotten into my spring break sleeping late mode, and Philip told me I had to get up extra early so I could practice a lot beforehand.
8 am: Practice piano in the Nicholson Center. I had to warm up my hands. Let me tell you, Handel at 8 'o clock in the morning is NOT pretty.
9 am: Philip (my piano teacher) shows up and we start getting ready to record. Ms. Wantock, my band teacher, was there, and super helpful. She did the actual recording stuff with her computer and one of the microphones they use for concert recordings.
9:20 am: 4 takes of Debussy's "Girl With The Flaxen Hair". It went pretty well. I was really nervous at first, but after I got my first usable take, I relaxed a little and played pretty well.
9:35 am: 3 takes of Schumann's "Traümerei". After I was done, Philip told me that I'd played it just like Horowitz played it. For those of you who don't know (which I assume is all of you), Horowitz' recording of "Traümerei" is considered to be the best in the world. I'm sure I didn't play it that well, but I've been working on those two sheets of music since September. It better be pretty damn beautiful.
9:50 am: 3 takes of Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith Variations", Theme, Variation 1, and Variation 2. The variations are my longest and hardest piece (that's what she said. It had to be done :]). I couldn't possibly play them all together well enough for the recording, so we did them in parts. The first part I did was the easiest. I made one glaring mistake, but otherwise it turned out pretty good.
10:15 am: 4 takes of Variations 3 and 4. This is the part of the piece that hurts my hands. I have to play these fast triplets really clearly. In order to do well, I had to practice each measure individually over and over again, then play them all in reverse order. Every Day. Again, I worked hard on this part, so it better have been good.
10:35 am: 2 takes of Variation 5. This variation was the fastest piece of music I have ever had to play. It took months to learn how to move my fingers fast enough to play it clearly. Now I had never played it without a mistake until the day of the recording. In fact, I had never played it without a mistake until the first take of the recording. I don't know what happened, but I sat down at the bench, and nailed it. Perfect, didn't miss a note, clear, even, and artistic. I played it so well, you can hear my mom make a grunt of incredulity on the recording. We tried one more time for a good take, but it didn't compare to the first one.
10:45- 12n: Post-production. This is where we listen to all the takes and decide which one is best, and what order we want to put them in on the cd. I am not lying. This took over an hour. I was sitting there thinking, I'm done playing, and I'm still here. Will it ever end?? Post-production is a job for the perfectionists. My piano teacher literally listened to each piece twice, some three times back to back, just to decide which I should use to give a good first impression.
12n: Walk out of school a free girl, kind of sad, and go to Panera :)
Anyway, back to my story (and, subsequently, the title of the post), the recording turned out pretty nice. And why shouldn't it have? This recording was literally the hardest I have worked on anything before in my life. It turned out so nice, in fact, that my parents have made copies. They're handing them out to whomever they see. My mom has listened to it every day this week. And she makes me listen to it, too. But she doesn't realize that while she hears music and her daughter playing, all I hear is what I could have done better. I don't like my sound quality in one, I wasn't even enough in another. It's driving me nuts, and it's so embarrassing hearing them talk about it!
The title of this post is Waiting to Hear because we sent in the audition. They're supposed to email me with my acceptance or rejection, or whatever. And I'm so excited and nervous. I'm checking my email every five minutes.
Okay. I'm all written out now. I will say one more thing. IF I DON'T GET INTO THIS CAMP I'LL BE FURIOUS! I WORKED TOO HARD TO BE REJECTED.
For the past 6 1/2 months, I've been working on this piano audition for a camp at St. Olaf. You see I have to send in a 10 minute long recording of two pieces of contrasting styles. I learned three, but the time was good.
Anyway, it's been killer. I wrote a post earlier about how my hands hurt so much from all the practice, and it didn't let up. Finally, though, I got to record my audition tape. So here's basically how my first official day of spring break went:
Monday, March 16
7 am: Wake up, shower, eat breakfast. This was hard because I had already gotten into my spring break sleeping late mode, and Philip told me I had to get up extra early so I could practice a lot beforehand.
8 am: Practice piano in the Nicholson Center. I had to warm up my hands. Let me tell you, Handel at 8 'o clock in the morning is NOT pretty.
9 am: Philip (my piano teacher) shows up and we start getting ready to record. Ms. Wantock, my band teacher, was there, and super helpful. She did the actual recording stuff with her computer and one of the microphones they use for concert recordings.
9:20 am: 4 takes of Debussy's "Girl With The Flaxen Hair". It went pretty well. I was really nervous at first, but after I got my first usable take, I relaxed a little and played pretty well.
9:35 am: 3 takes of Schumann's "Traümerei". After I was done, Philip told me that I'd played it just like Horowitz played it. For those of you who don't know (which I assume is all of you), Horowitz' recording of "Traümerei" is considered to be the best in the world. I'm sure I didn't play it that well, but I've been working on those two sheets of music since September. It better be pretty damn beautiful.
9:50 am: 3 takes of Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith Variations", Theme, Variation 1, and Variation 2. The variations are my longest and hardest piece (that's what she said. It had to be done :]). I couldn't possibly play them all together well enough for the recording, so we did them in parts. The first part I did was the easiest. I made one glaring mistake, but otherwise it turned out pretty good.
10:15 am: 4 takes of Variations 3 and 4. This is the part of the piece that hurts my hands. I have to play these fast triplets really clearly. In order to do well, I had to practice each measure individually over and over again, then play them all in reverse order. Every Day. Again, I worked hard on this part, so it better have been good.
10:35 am: 2 takes of Variation 5. This variation was the fastest piece of music I have ever had to play. It took months to learn how to move my fingers fast enough to play it clearly. Now I had never played it without a mistake until the day of the recording. In fact, I had never played it without a mistake until the first take of the recording. I don't know what happened, but I sat down at the bench, and nailed it. Perfect, didn't miss a note, clear, even, and artistic. I played it so well, you can hear my mom make a grunt of incredulity on the recording. We tried one more time for a good take, but it didn't compare to the first one.
10:45- 12n: Post-production. This is where we listen to all the takes and decide which one is best, and what order we want to put them in on the cd. I am not lying. This took over an hour. I was sitting there thinking, I'm done playing, and I'm still here. Will it ever end?? Post-production is a job for the perfectionists. My piano teacher literally listened to each piece twice, some three times back to back, just to decide which I should use to give a good first impression.
12n: Walk out of school a free girl, kind of sad, and go to Panera :)
Anyway, back to my story (and, subsequently, the title of the post), the recording turned out pretty nice. And why shouldn't it have? This recording was literally the hardest I have worked on anything before in my life. It turned out so nice, in fact, that my parents have made copies. They're handing them out to whomever they see. My mom has listened to it every day this week. And she makes me listen to it, too. But she doesn't realize that while she hears music and her daughter playing, all I hear is what I could have done better. I don't like my sound quality in one, I wasn't even enough in another. It's driving me nuts, and it's so embarrassing hearing them talk about it!
The title of this post is Waiting to Hear because we sent in the audition. They're supposed to email me with my acceptance or rejection, or whatever. And I'm so excited and nervous. I'm checking my email every five minutes.
Okay. I'm all written out now. I will say one more thing. IF I DON'T GET INTO THIS CAMP I'LL BE FURIOUS! I WORKED TOO HARD TO BE REJECTED.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
1st (Well, Kind of 4th, but Whatever) Interesting Person!
"Don't fall asleep yet! Contrary to popular belief, that's not where dremas get accomplished." -George Watsky
Born and raised in San Francisco, CA, George Watsky is a 22-year-old spoken word poet and rapper. He's currently based in Boston where he is completing a B.A. in "Writing and Acting for the Screen and Stage" at Emerson College. At 19, Watsky was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, and he later went on to speak on season 6 of HBO's Def Jam Poetry. Just a few weeks ago, he performed alongside two other poets at the NAACP Image Awards in honor of Russell Simmons.
George Watsky has a really wide range of subject matter that stretches from being a virgin in highschool ("V is for Virgin") to the dangers of global warming ("Carry the One"). His poems are funny and serious, sometimes at the same time. The serious poems focus mainly on politics and global warming, a subject which I never found particularly interesting until I heard him speak. The more comical poems may have to do with his love-life or his background, such as the two he performs below at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Mass. Please excuse the language:
p.s. I almost posted "I Am So Green" for you, Prince Alix, but I liked this one better.
New Idea!!!
So as you may have noticed, nothing very interesting happens in my life. Which makes the concept of a blog seem a little pointless. But I had a new idea! I really enjoyed talking last month about other people who DO have interesting things in their lives, so I've decided to a monthly profile of someone that I think is really cool and interesting.I might amp it up to more than once a month because I have nothing else to do, but for now it's a monthly engagement.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
This is how bored I've gotten
I know that if someone had a clone, they wouldn't do things at the same time or anything, but would they have the same thoughts? I mean, not simulatneously, but is it like if one has the thought, sooner or later the other would have it?
Anyway, the reason I was thinking these... interesting thoughts is because I am just that bored. Two days into vacation, and I've already seen six movies (which I realize isn't that much, but it seems like a lot to me). So I've been playing with this stress ball, and I just wish I had someone to play catch with, hence the clone thing. But then I decided that if I had to talk to another me all day, I'd get on my nerves so much I wouldn't want to see me anymore. Hmm... I'm having a weird day...
Anyway, the reason I was thinking these... interesting thoughts is because I am just that bored. Two days into vacation, and I've already seen six movies (which I realize isn't that much, but it seems like a lot to me). So I've been playing with this stress ball, and I just wish I had someone to play catch with, hence the clone thing. But then I decided that if I had to talk to another me all day, I'd get on my nerves so much I wouldn't want to see me anymore. Hmm... I'm having a weird day...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
My hands hurt so much right now, I don't know how I'm typing this
So I love piano. And I must really, really love it if I can say that right now because I just got done practicing. Now I know piano practice doesn't sound that intense, like just sit down and play, right? Not a chance. I have this audition recording coming up, and if I practice one day like that, I'm in trouble. Instead, I get to play the same two pages of music insanely fast until my forearms and hands cramp up and I can't hit the notes anymore. And I realize that sounds like an exaggeration, but it's NOT. I literally have sore muscles from piano. I will literally practice until I'm in tears at the piano. I literally have to do stretches before I play THE PIANO.
But I love it. I've been playing the same two-page Schumann piece since September, and I still haven't gotten sick of it. I practiced until I couldn't stand it tonight, and still I'll come back tomorrow and do it again. Piano is my passion. And I know for a fact that I'm not going to grow up to be some professional concert pianist, but I can't help it. There is no activity I love more than playing the piano. And despite all the pain and frustration, I hope that my friends and family find a piano for themselves.
But I love it. I've been playing the same two-page Schumann piece since September, and I still haven't gotten sick of it. I practiced until I couldn't stand it tonight, and still I'll come back tomorrow and do it again. Piano is my passion. And I know for a fact that I'm not going to grow up to be some professional concert pianist, but I can't help it. There is no activity I love more than playing the piano. And despite all the pain and frustration, I hope that my friends and family find a piano for themselves.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Three Guys I really Like Lately, pt. 3
"All it takes to have an adventure is just the will to have one."- Chris LowellNow you've probably heard me say this before, but I will repeat it. I want to marry Chris Lowell. Some people know of this guy as Piz from Veronica Mars or Dell from Private Practice. These are both wonderful examples of why he is amazing. But there's more. He's in a band called Two Shots for Poe. They're pretty good, too. Not to mention, he did a video with BriTANick which is really funny.
You see, I chose the three guys for these posts because they're all kind of connected. Nick and Brian work together, Brian did a documentary about Chris's band, and Chris was in one of BriTANick's videos. This post is getting long, so I guess I'll just show the video now:
Three Guys I really Like Lately, pt. 2
"I want you to run in, knock over the christmas tree and screem, 'Death the halls!'"- Brian McElhaney
Brian McElhaney is the other half of BriTANick. Again, I heard of him first as a part of this duo, but I later found out that he did a documentary on a band called Two Shots for Poe (of which, Chris Lowell is a member), he directed a music video that's on MTV Europe, and apparently, he's a really excellent stand-up comic.
Brian and Nick both are starring in a short film entitled Suckerpunch, which I'll probably never get a chance to see, but the preview looks amazing. I'm sticking to a format here, so I've decided to add a video:
Three Guys I really Like Lately, pt. 1
"STOP LIVING. Living is the first branch you hit in your fall down the 'Unique Tree'"- Nick Kocher
So this Nick Kocher guy is really funny. He's an actor who does sketch comedy on the internet with his friend Brian (their website is on my link menu). I first saw him in his BriTANick videos, but then I learned that he was in another sketch group called Brave Aunt Beth and he writes a blog at nickkocher.com. One other thing he's done that's really entertaining to watch is his senior speech. I happened upon it, and I thought it was hilarious, so here it is:
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