Plinky asked, “What was the last thing you got really excited about?”
My ukulele! I wish I had a photo of her to post, but I don’t. She’s a travel tenor, which means that she’s a bit bigger than the “standard” (soprano) ukulele most people are used to seeing, but also thinner than a normal tenor. She has a lovely voice, a little deeper than a soprano uke. She isn’t a toy like the one on which I originally learned to play, either. And she’s mine all mine!
Plinky asked, “Do you ever listen to the radio anymore?”
I only listen to the radio in the car. In fact, I don’t think I’ve got a radio at home anywhere. If I do listen, I almost always choose the local NPR affiliate to listen to. If it isn’t time for the one of the NPR broadcasts, I might skip around the dial to find music I like, but I’m more likely to listen to Spotify on my phone.
I really enjoy the radio feature on Spotify, though. You choose a song you like, then choose the radio feature, and it chooses more songs that are somehow similar to that one (basically Pandora via Spotify).
1) My Daddy, and his (ongoing) recovery from surgery.
2) Everything I learned about music from J.D. Mardis and all the other teachers over the years.
3) Easy access to a pool.
Plinky said, “Name a movie that has a great soundtrack.”
There are so many! If I had access to my full music library right now, we could be here all day, because i do love movie soundtracks. For simplicity’s sake, I decided to leave musicals out of this discussion.
My first pick is Chocolat, a lovely French movie from 2001 starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp. If you haven’t heard the score you’re missing a treasure. It has been on my list of favorites since seeing the film over a decade ago. It includes pieces by Django Reinhardt, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael and George Gershwin. With a line-up like that, how could it go wrong?
My second choice is another an old favorite, Practical Magic. Faith Hill’s “This Kiss,”, “Black-eyed Dog” by Nick Drake, and “A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell are just a few of the wonderful cuts from this CD. I can listen to it over and over again and hear something new in the songs each time.
Now it’s your turn — suggest something I haven’t seen that will make me sing or dance!
Plinky asked, Which of your hobbies have you been doing for the longest amount of time? When did you start?”
That would be music. I’ve been singing since I was a small child in church choir. The way my mother’s family makes music, I could hardly avoid it (not that I wanted to). I learned to play the ukulele with the rest of my second grade class, but held on to my instrument and kept playing it for some time. I began piano lessons in the fifth grade, I think, and continued for a couple of years and through three teachers (we moved, one quit, and I outgrew the last). The flute came with sixth grade and middle school band.
At some point my parents acquired an organ in addition to the piano and I taught myself to play that, which was interesting. In high school I flirted with the oboe and bassoon, but didn’t really take to them very well. I gave them up altogether after reading something that claimed that double reed players suffered loss of brain cells due to oxygen deprivation (I haven’t fact-checked that since, so it could be utter nonsense). I acquired a wooden flute at a Renn Faire that has a much sweeter tone than the metal flute, but I’ve never pushed myself to really learn to play it.
Now I want to return to the ukulele, but I really need a new instrument. That poor little student uke that has been used as a “guitar” by children isn’t in perfect condition after all these years, and won’t stay in tune in addition to having some broken bits.
Listen to it on Sam’s site, and/or read the resulting article, The Facets of Jazz Through Gary Motley.
We’ve been watching Defying Gravity on Hulu, and enjoying it. The music is one of the appealing factors, but I can’t find any information about what songs by which performers are used in most of the episodes. TV.com has information for two of them, but not the rest. I don’t suppose any of you know where to find more information?
Their text actually says, “If you pay me enough, I’d sing these songs.” I wouldn’t have to be paid, though. I’ve never actually been in a karaoke bar, but I love to sing, so there are plenty of songs that I would be willing to sing!
Katie got the Juno DVD last week, so we all watched it together Friday night. She’s been gushing about it since seeing it in the theater, and adores the soundtrack, so we were certainly curious.
It was an odd movie, fairly quiet–no car crashes, big tragedies, etc. It was really well-done, and I was pleased with how realistically it depicted a teen pregnancy.
I’m more than slightly annoyed with what feels like a little puritanical “gotcha,” with the girl getting pregnant the first and only time she had sex. Yes, of course I know it can happen, but it still feels a little like the horror movies in which any female who has had sex dies.
The music was really, really cute, and very Katie-ish. She’s a quirky girl, my kid.
I was a little distracted every time Jason Bateman was on the screen, because he loooks so much like Nathan Fillion.1 I wonder if they’re related at all? If they are, IMDB doesn’t mention it.
1 I didn’t realize how young Fillion is, either–five years younger than I am!
I took my project management final tonight, so I’m done with the semester! Now I’m trying to download the textbook files for next semester, but the ebook server is having Issues.
In the meantime, I’m listening to some lovely new music, free and legal, over at TheSixtyOne. I don’t know how Sam found out about the place, but it’s neat.
