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Sounding Well

June 13th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

“As you go about your day today, notice the rest in the rhythm of the day.”

Rest, as I understand them, are those moments in a piece of music when there is passage of time but no sound. There is nothing. So Schoenberg, the composer, says that “nothing” always sounds well.

Hmm..Sounds like a trick, or a riddle. What’s wrong with this statement? Buddhists might call Schoenberg’s words a koan, a paradoxical riddle with no answer, used for discussion and teaching.

What can we make of it?

What gives life to the music is the feeling that jumps in during those pauses, during those sometimes incredibly quick split seconds when one note is just finishing its last echoing vibrations. but before the next one takes the progression. The feeling slips, quick as a wink, into the gap and brings sound and life to the music. It is first felt, then expressed, by the composer. Then it is reborn with familiarity, but also with somehow new and unique contribution of each performer.

The feeling lives in the rests. And not just with the rests in music, but with the rests in bus driving and kindergarten teaching and homemaking and managing and selling advertising and cooking supper and picking up the kids and phoning customers and writing reports and so on..The feeling lives in what you put into the rests. And the rests always sound well!

The quiet moments - rests- in your day make your whole day sound well.

Playing Mandolin and How Online Mandolin Lesson Can Help

June 2nd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

In the world of bluegrass and jazz, the mandolin is a must. But recent times, there have also been mandolin orchestras and a variety of music that are made with this unique instrument. A basic mandolin lesson focusing on the history and nature of the instrument help explains that mandolins come in a few forms such as “tater bug” and flatback. Mandolins as we know them was evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries, and were originally known as mandolas and then mandolinas. Today, there is also the “crossover” instrument known as the mandolin banjo.

A new mandolin player may seek out a lesson from a variety of music sources. There are as many variations of the mandolin lesson out there as there are different styles of music played with the instrument. A lesson or series of lessons can be found through instrument sellers, enthusiasts groups, personal instruction, and even online mandolin courses. One version of the online mandolin lesson even simulates playing with a live band to allow the new enthusiast to get the feel of performing with his or her mandolin instrument.

For the blossoming musician or enthusiast, a sample lesson includes such basic information as how to properly hold and tune the mandolin instrument. Information on rhythms, chords, scales and frets are also included in a basic print or online mandolin music lesson.

Almost every player and instructor recommend the priority should be to focus on the simple aspects of playing the instrument, such as learning to tune it properly and doing so each time one plays the mandolin instrument, selecting a pick that is comfortable to the player, and being able to hum a tune before even attempting to play the mandolin.

What might be covered in a more advanced mandolin lesson will depend upon the interest of the learner and the type of mandolin he or she plays and the progress of the mandolin player. Whether it is your objective to learn to play jigs, bluegrass, jazz, waltzes, reels, children’s music or all of the above will impact your focus in any mandolin lesson. All players should understand the notes on the mandolin fretboard, regardless of whether or not they can read the musical notes.

Mandolin enthusiasts should choose to take advantage of the many variations of the mandolin lesson available online or in books. But these are no substitute for the actual experience of playing with other, more seasoned musicians or even other new enthusiasts, performing together either for an audience or for the sheer joy of making music.

Although there is no substitute for daily practice and making music for the sake of music itself, a mandolin lesson or a series of lessons will help one with mastering the basics as well as perfecting style and form.

Air Force One Shoe - What Is The Problem With Them

May 10th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

What is it the matter with idiots and their shoes. I can swear, there are many people out there willing to spend well over $100 dollars on custom air force One shoes, and for what I ask? Well, maybe so that they can have that stupid swish on the side of their feet? I am telling you, the investment in Air Force 1 shoes just does not make sense at all. I didn’t think that Nike was even cool or hip anymore, after all of the controversy over the sweatshops that it owns, and apparently, there are still some people who are willing to shell out $150 dollars for a pair of Air Force 1 shoes.

For me, I have always hated to have brand names on my clothing. Even when I was playing soccer and would be forced to wear a brand name shoe, I would never buy Air Force 1 or some other super trendy sneaker. Whatever I would get, I would always block out the label on it with some permanent marker. If I was feeling especially creative, I would perhaps paint up the whole shoe with my very own unique design. But would someone wearing a Nike Air Force 1 shoe ever have the creativity and capability to modify his own clothing. You know, it is possible that he would, but I am sure that I certainly highly doubt it.

And with all of the hype around the gym shoes, I have never heard any evidence that one will help you run faster, jump higher, or do anything else any better than any other ordinary shoe. People don’t wear air force Ones just because they are superior shoes. They wear them because they see one of their sports idols wearing it, and everyone has to try to be just like their idol, don’t they? I wish that people would spend that Air Force 1 money to do something helpful, or at least creative in very sense. They could learn a specific skill with that $150 dollars, or buy some art supplies. They could buy a couple pairs of nice black spot sneakers for the price of one pair of Nike Air Force 1 shoes, and be set in the footwear department for a whole year. But do they even consider doing something sensible like this? Judging by the people who I know that wear Nike Air Force 1 shoes, well, it seems very unlikely. But you never know. Maybe they will see the error of their way - someday.

Air Force One Shoe - What Is The Problem With Them

May 10th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

What is it the matter with idiots and their shoes. I can swear, there are many people out there willing to spend well over $100 dollars on custom air force One shoes, and for what I ask? Well, maybe so that they can have that stupid swish on the side of their feet? I am telling you, the investment in Air Force 1 shoes just does not make sense at all. I didn’t think that Nike was even cool or hip anymore, after all of the controversy over the sweatshops that it owns, and apparently, there are still some people who are willing to shell out $150 dollars for a pair of Air Force 1 shoes.

For me, I have always hated to have brand names on my clothing. Even when I was playing soccer and would be forced to wear a brand name shoe, I would never buy Air Force 1 or some other super trendy sneaker. Whatever I would get, I would always block out the label on it with some permanent marker. If I was feeling especially creative, I would perhaps paint up the whole shoe with my very own unique design. But would someone wearing a Nike Air Force 1 shoe ever have the creativity and capability to modify his own clothing. You know, it is possible that he would, but I am sure that I certainly highly doubt it.

And with all of the hype around the gym shoes, I have never heard any evidence that one will help you run faster, jump higher, or do anything else any better than any other ordinary shoe. People don’t wear air force Ones just because they are superior shoes. They wear them because they see one of their sports idols wearing it, and everyone has to try to be just like their idol, don’t they? I wish that people would spend that Air Force 1 money to do something helpful, or at least creative in very sense. They could learn a specific skill with that $150 dollars, or buy some art supplies. They could buy a couple pairs of nice black spot sneakers for the price of one pair of Nike Air Force 1 shoes, and be set in the footwear department for a whole year. But do they even consider doing something sensible like this? Judging by the people who I know that wear Nike Air Force 1 shoes, well, it seems very unlikely. But you never know. Maybe they will see the error of their way - someday.

Find Daily Motivation In Seashells

May 3rd, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

If you ever consider buying seashells, then a good conch shell is worth buying more than anything. Even though they sell them for at least thirty dollars to naïve tourists in Jamaica, which is absolutely ridiculous at that price, these conch shells really are treasures of the sea. They have a substantial size, and the design is beautiful and intricate. The best part is that you can actually hear the sea in them if you hold them close to your ear. I find daily motivation in seashells when I do that. You can sometimes seem to hear some soothing music which carry you away to the faraway land. And of course, there is that forever popular trait of conch shells made famous by Lord of the Flies: conch shells can be blown into at the end resulting in a clear, beautiful, and absolute brilliant tone. There’s not much about seashells more interesting than a musical one.

Be sure to leaern all about seashells before buying them, or you are likely to be taken advantage of because of your ignorance of the subject. I have spent many hours combing the beech and, take it from me, people pay ridiculous amounts of money for absolute junk all of the time. Why, I can tell you, for example, that those same sand dollars that I find in droves on the sea shores of the San Francisco bay area, people are buying for 5, 20, or even more dollars. I mean, perhaps its worth a few bucks to find them, clean them up, and make them convenient by selling them at the local store, but if you know anything about seashells or other marine products, you will make wiser purchases, unless you live so far away that there is really no alternative but to buy them for exhorbinant rates.

Seashells can be bought, ordered, or found for all kinds of purposes. They can be used for decorations, making excellent tools in collage. It is also very popular to create craft using seashells. Craft using seashells can be used as ornamental soap trays, as wall hangings, to adorn jewllery and clothing. They can be even hung as wind chimes which make a delightful slivery noise when the breeze blows through them. There is really not much about seashells not to like. They begin their life as the homes of crabs, clams, mussels, and the like, but end up as fine works of art, each individually tailored and crafted by the master crafter, mother nature, fit for admiration by young and old alike. I’ve been fascinating by seashells since I was six years old and first took a journey to the seawater. Gazing into that deep blue sea, who could help being fascinated by the intricate and amazing existences of the little creatures that live inside it. Motivation in seashell? Well, I find it daily.

A Foreign Affair Journal

April 27th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

People looking for the video or DVD “A Foreign Affair” once got one search result. However, those looking for the title, “A Foreign Affair” now will find two results—two very, very different ones.

We are, typically, accustomed to remakes of great films, both versions having Academy Award redeeming qualities, or each version being touted as the “better” or the more popular one. Think about, for example, the film The Postman Always Rings Twice. In the first (1946) version, the original based on James M. Cain’s novel and the screenplay by Harry Ruskin, Lana Turner’s Cora Smith is sexy, spoiled, bratty…but undoubtedly appealing because of or in spite of her attitude (and due to her stunning creamy and blonde looks). John Garfield’s Frank Chambers is wily, thuggish, and even suggests a low-class background, but yet is endearing in his submission to the allure of Cora. Cecil Kellaway’s Nick Smith is indulgent, devoted (in an ignorant way); the sets are realistic, the black and white neither contributing to nor taking from the riveting and twisting plot.

In the 1981 version of Postman…, Cora and husband are now Cora and Nick Papadakis, possibly pointing to ethnicity as important, and are portrayed by Jessica Lange—with her more subtle, sultry, smoldering sensuality usually eclipsed only by her industriousness running of the roadside restaurant—and John Colicos—who stays close to Kellaway’s rendition, save he is a tad flashier and more demonstrative. And Frank Chambers is Jack Nicholson, whose animalistic charm elevates Chambers to a more autonomous lover to Cora, leveling the playing field between them without weakening the inextricable attachment he feels/expresses. The sets in the later version are similarly convincing, and the plot as it is played out is equally compelling.

In the same respect, sometimes the versions are dead-on replicas, only distinguished by their producers and filmmakers’ dealing with limitations or luxuries of technology: for example, consider the two versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The 1956 version’s black and white might make it the more unnerving of the two, with the light and shadows as threatening as the clones puking out of their pods. Or the 1978 (color) version might be more frightening, with its special effects and close-ups conveying such convincing degrees of verisimilitude we do double-takes on our fellow audience members, to ensure they, too, are not morphing from person to pod-thing.

Now, there’s another filmic trend that is in order here, the spoofing of an original: The “original” “A Foreign Affair,” made in 1948, is a romantic comedy—Billy Wilder directs Marlene Dietrich, former Nazi lounge singer, Jean Arthur, as the “straight-man” serious Congresswoman, and John Lund, kowtowing American officer falling for the smoky, slinky Dietrich. The dialogue is rife with sharp, cracking levity, while the emphasis of plot still stays with the affair.

But in the latest work by the same title (2002), there are journeys and goals, but there are no heavily romantic overtones. There is comic wit, but it is within the relationship of not two lovers of the opposite sex in an affair but two brothers in mourning (sort of) on a destination to replace their recently deceased mother—who did the cooking, cleaning, and running of the home.

So in the case of “A Foreign Affair” I and II, then, the critical preferences will be more directed toward the genre, the turning on its head of romantic comedies by buddy movies, and the toward the number of laughs responding to two very different forms of comedy.

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