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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

music education

I'm a writer that works best with background music. I've already written about my writing playlists, and how it sets the mood for a scene I'm working on, or a character. Music has always been a big part of my life. I grew up listening to music from the '50s, '60s, '70s and a little into the '80s. And of course in my formative years, I was very much in love with the Seattle grunge scene, and then on into the trance and electronic scene (yeah...no one said my taste in music was selective).

And I have distinct memories of dancing around my den with my father to everything from classic rock to soul. The music there would be so loud at times I'd have to shout up to him...ok, maybe some of that could have been due to my height as an eight year old or something. But still...

And I also have distinct memories of being sent to bed on the other side of the house, and could feel the music vibrate through my walls and hear it coming through my partially open door. And I loved it. Maybe that's why I now have to constantly have music on. I'm not such a big fan of the pure silence.

Tonight, for some reason, I had Otis Redding stuck in my head. Yeah, you can probably guess the one. I'll give you a hint: "Watching the ships roll in, / And I'll watch 'em roll away again, yeah, / I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay..."

Was that the one you were thinking of?

Anyway, I checked out iTunes, but kind of wanted a little more than just that song. So then I went over to Amazon and have found my one new item to stick to the top of my Christmas wishlist: The Incredible Soul Collection. Maybe when I was 16 I would have felt lame for wanting "oldies" music, but at 26, I just have to think "man, did I grow up with some great music!"

I know, I know...It wasn't my time, but I did grow up with it. I started listening to the Amazon sampler, and the first song just totally made my night. And each one, I was thought back to my den so many years ago. I like to pass along recommendations, though I don't do it too often on here. But this CD I will. And I'm sure there are others that are slightly different, but just as good. That's the beauty of Amazon. You can just keep going through and finding more.



Sunday, September 06, 2009

hope diamond

My sister was in town visiting, and her first day here we walked around Chinatown and then on to the Mall. While heading down to the WWII monument, we passed the Museum of Natural History, and I recalled that there was something there said to be very big, and very shiny, that we might want to see: the Hope Diamond. I've lived here for several years now and still had not seen it.

We went up to see it, and I have to admit I was kind of expecting a little more. Granted, it was beautiful. It's such a deep, rich blue, but I guess because of all the hype I expected something a little more exotic (though that's probably more due to the curse than anything).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not turning my nose up at it. It was beautiful. But it's that whole phenomonen of having something so built up that it would have to have been boulder sized probably to live up to that. Ok, maybe a small boulder. And I also wasn't expecting it to be blue. I pictured it just like any other diamond. But in all fairness, it has been resized twice.

I have heard from others though who also expected it to be a little bigger. Anyone else? Or did it exceed your expectations?