a practice in vanity

to look smashing in those chic cigarette pants (i am at least 10 lbs away from that)

to lessen my perfectionist, high-maintainence tendencies

to find a balance between frugality and indulgence

I am a pupil of wit, of Stephen Fry’s variety, to be precise. the hard pill to swallow is that Fry layers his charm on a solid platform of intellect, wisdom, and humanity.  to make comparisons will only cause my self-esteem to drop. but one has to start somewhere.

just sugar, bread, and potatoes

 

Today I opened a savings account under my own name. After months of deliberating and lazing about, I finally took the step and started earning the beautiful thing that is interest. I used to feel a pane of guilt every time I deposited a paycheque and the teller who ask me “if [I] am interested in opening a saving account.” The amount isn’t extraordinary, for most of it salvaged by my frugal ways. anyway, so now my money is sitting there, modestly and happily.

This is probably glaringly obvious to anyone that actually reads my rants, but now just, it occurred to me that I don’t do stories. And by that, I mean, I don’t report on my life, not in a narrative manner, at least. All of my entries are slim slices of my day – how I react, my thought process, what ticks me off, etc. That must be pretty dull, not to mention nonsensical to you most of the time.

Oops. I know I tend to ramble. I see this blog as my place to expound on the issues that plague my mind, issues that aren’t anecdotal enough to bug people about in real life.

Could this be an unintentional, misguided attempt at self psychotherapy? I have no clue.

I am really grateful for all of you for following the meanderings of my brain. It goes a long way in assuring me that I am not singular in my woes, my dilemmas, and my joys.

Cheers~

 

Spread

 

 

I feel completely overwhelmed by the quality of arts that is available to me. On the Asian end, Answer Me, 1997 and Gaksital are totally rocking’ my socks off. The former drama is reminiscing an era slightly half a decade ahead of mine, but I can still relate to its stories and characters. Gosh, episode 12 came out and heck, my heart just feeeeeels.

It is so silly and nostalgic to think of my teenage years,  when I used to go insane over certain celebrities, when everything seems like the end of the world, when I talked like a James Dean wannabe and pinned after older guys when I was already attached myself. And all those one sided, hopeless crushes, they killed me.

Gaksital is killing it for me in a different way. The taut plotting and rich complexities between and within the two male leads are making it the best period kdrama I have ever seen.

TIFF will be in full swing in a week’s time, so even more goodies to come. All these films I am dying to see-it’s just a matter of time and money. I’m frugal, and the money saved from buying used textbooks goes away in a flash on things like this.

If only I could live a life of leisure and be guiltless of responsibilities. But hell, what would be the point then?

it’s all semantics

I am in the habit of exchanging music, literature, and art with like-minded friends. A recent one to a music major went something like this (below). I’ve edited the emails a little for continuity and clarity. Heads up: these opinions are not meant to offend anybody. all opinions and views are solely mine and those of my friend’s.

ME:

http://suddenlyfalling.tumblr.com/post/19271153236/deareje-beautiful-piece-played-by

what do you think of this interpretation. it’s a bit sloppy, but i think i like it.

(ignore the wacky site, i can’t find a youtube version)

the reply (I’ve bolded the parts I take issue with):

The one thing this pianist does well, is bringing out the melodic voice.

Sometimes, maybe it’s too much that the chord qualities are not so clear.

For that reason, he should play more Bach..

 

Other than the melody line, I wasn’t so impressed,

I can’t feel much difference between duple and triple.

Also, when there are two notes between the hands, they don’t land quite together.

Of course Debussy writes the arpeggio sign all over the place, but you can’t really do arpeggios with just 2 notes— and I think that he is not intentionally doing it. Just lack of focus on those notes..

 

Well, Piano is hard and that’s why I’m not doing it.

And actually, I think that interpretations don’t really matter that much.

Unless it’s a disaster. Most people won’t even notice the subtle nuances..

Instead of nailing down every notes, playing the same music for 10 years, people need to move on and learn other things..

To me, a lot of Classical musicians don’t dig into new and less-known pieces.

Now, classical musicians are different from each other only because of subtle nuances in interpretations, which are not even that big of a deal. They lack of unique personality, and I don’t know if I should consider them as a part of the creative world—- compare these classical music performers to fine artists, actors, composers, writers and choreographers. How uncreative they are!

ME:

Well, he isn’t intensively trained as a classical musician-so I don’t expect him to have the chops. I didn’t much like the YouTube vids I found of him.

 

I am one of those people that REALLY care about the nuances. There are a lot of musicians that are technically competent, but I dislike their style of playing. I think that is y I like Joshua bell, he doesn’t have the best tech chops, but I like the way he lets his music breathe.

 

Although it is true that a lot of pieces are overdone by musicians, I don’t mind. There is a reason why some works are timeless. The guy prob got a lot of joy out of doing a beautiful piece of music, and that’s never wrong.

 

what a good Clair de lune I should listen to?

the reply:

Hmm. I thought Nuances meant very small details.

From the way you’re describing, the differences that you describe seem pretty big.

You mentioned about musicians who are technically competent and compared those to Bell, whom you admire for the music breathing.

This difference seemed to me pretty big deal.

Of course, these things should matter.

 

My definition of nuances is something very small- choices you make in nuances are neither right or wrong, it’s just a matter of taste. Well, somebody could say playing music purely with technical proficiency is also a matter of taste (because there are a lot of them and some are very successful), but I don’t really buy that, so no, not in my definition.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3i32hJ_l1k

 

Although this one doesn’t say the name of the Pianist…. This one nailed down every note.

ME:

Ok, perhaps what I meant was INTERPRETATION, which, in a way, is the sum of all these nuances?

ALL RIGHT, so i took umbrage that my friend doesn’t place much importance on nuances, which, for me, is what makes a particular recording great. What is the purpose of covers, if not to make the piece your own? I’m not sure what he would say is the most importance “ingredient” in a successful, truthful cover.

In the email thread, we ran into a conflict over our usage of the words NUANCE and INTERPRETATION.

Here is what I got from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (i wanted the OED, but can’t). My understanding of the two words in context are in bold.

Definition of INTERPRETATION

1

: the act or the result of interpreting : explanation

2

: a particular adaptation or version of a work, method, or style

3

: a teaching technique that combines factual with stimulating explanatory information <natural history interpretation program>

Definition of NUANCE

1

: a subtle distinction or variation

2

: a subtle quality : nicety

3

: sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicateshadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value)

Thoughts??

again

wordstrings has returns, and again, I am beaten by her inability to unbreak my heart.

 

PS. am drawing up another writing calendar. oh dear…

we haven’t got all night

where the river tells you to turn

upstream, the rangers

they are weary of

waiting:

patience, lust, bellinis.

ugly

cramps.

I ran out of my prescribed pills and have to settle for Midol.

I didn’t end up doing 3 hours on my readings last night – more like 90min. But I’ve got a good grasp of the middle section of Meno, and I’ll make some notes tonight – after I drown myself in soup.

UPDATE: no soup at home. had steamed salmon instead. feeling like shit

WISH LIST [UPDATED]

Because my birthday is in less than a month and I am a selfish human being. And save for two people, no one I care about in reality knows of this blog’s existence anyway.

-earbuds! sport ones w/out wings. mine broke, again.

-them delicious Hanover pretzel bits (honey mustard and onion!)

-giftcards of the food, coffee, apple/itunes variety

-the annotated sherlock holmes by william baring-gould

-dotted / grid large notebooks

-magazine subscriptions (interview/ new yorker/ etc)

-late harvest ice wine

-snailmail. pleaseee

lacing up

going on an artificial-sugar-free diet until my birthday.  wish me luck!

PS – this does not include the sugar for my coffee. I am ambitious, not suicidal.

feeling slightly renewed. i rewatched season 2 of the UK Office before i went to bed, which wasn’t the most uplifting thing to do. it still rattles me how good of an actor Gervais used to be – back when he didn’t depend on disabled “fellas” for jokes. anyway, the pilot for his new show “Derek” is reminiscent of his old style, endearing, true, and relatable – so hopefully that turns out to be compelling.

I have a crap load of stuff to handle at work right now, due to the fact that no one bothered looking after the receivables whilst I was away.

still, i must and shall dedicate at least 3 hours of my day to rereading Descartes, Hume and Plato tonight. I MUST I MUST I MUST!

My Dad formatted his PC, which I’d just redone for him a couple of days ago. He accidentally deleted his internet and sould drivers – so yup, that’s on my to-do list tonight as well.

Hurrah~ not.

On a brighter note, I got my friend COMPLETELY OBSESSED with Sherlock (the BBC adaptation) and now she’s surviving by actually reading the original ACD stories!! I’m so proud!