Archive for the ‘music’ Category

Big and little

I’ve been taking guitar lessons for a few months now, but today, with my teacher’s blessing, I brought the ukulele to my lesson instead. The poor thing’s been sitting around neglected, and I figured it would be a good idea to at least learn the basics so I could mess around with it at home. I learned some basic chords and a couple fun songs, and realized a ukulele’s a lot easier both to play and to carry around. It was great fun.

Still, I think I’ll keep concentrating on the guitar. I love how it sounds, and I (sometimes) like the challenge it gives me. I guess the greatest thing is having both sitting next to me, so I can pick up whichever one I feel like.

Seagull

Frans bought me a beautiful guitar for graduation. I bought him a cool leather bag. If you ask me, I think I came out ahead. But he might think differently.

For the past three weeks or so I’ve been taking guitar lessons from a UH grad who lives nearby (and who I would HIGHLY recommend if anyone’s looking for a good teacher). I already knew how to play a few basic chords, but she’s been teaching me some cool stuff (barring, picking, theory) that makes everything much more exciting than just boring chords. Today we worked on some barred chords and it was like things just CLICKED – oh, you bar two steps up from an A minor and get a B minor? Ahhh, I LOVE it when things make sense!

I’m trying to think of some songs to work on. This week was totally Eagles week, but what’s next?

Carmen

I’m on a Goran Bregovic rampage. Two days ago his 2009 CD Alkohol turned up in the mail and for the rest of the night I drank vodka while I listened to it and danced around the apartment. Today Karmen (With a Happy End) arrived. While I am extremely excited about it, I’ve decided to wait until Monday so I can pick up a copy of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen, which Bregovic’s is based on. So I need to wait a few days, but I guess I can dance around to Alkohol some more in the mean time. And there’s still some vodka left.

David Dondero at TCM

I hope to write something more complete about this tomorrow for my Honolulu Museums Examiner thing, but for now a few pictures from Lo-Fi Sunday at The Contemporary Museum.

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Megum Pie (followed by Jesse Atomic) started the show. Note the awesome background. This took place in the Cades Pavilion, where the whole interior is an installation by David Hockney.

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And David Dondero. I’d never heard him before, but I liked him.

Running with Marley

I went running today for the first time in almost a month, and I listened to Bob Marley’s “Riding High” on my Shuffle most of the way. There are lots of reasons I haven’t been running – the conference, spring break, my sister visiting, being sick for a few days – but none of them should’ve added up to not running for an entire MONTH. The Hibiscus Half-Marathon is in June, and I want to be reasonably ready to run 13 miles by then.

I dated a guy briefly in college who believed very firmly that Bob Marley was the best way to deal with any sort of bad or funky mood. I think there’s some truth to that. I actually bought the album I was listening to today at his suggestion – a late-night run to Fred Meyer – it helped then, and it helps now. I’ve been feeling down for various reasons, most of them stress- and school-related. But between the run and Marley, everything is looking a little brighter.