Mellifluous Muse

I can listen to this over and over again. Simply just marveling at the beautiful resonance that I can only hope to one day achieve. I heard this for the first time about a month ago as part of a mash-up. I could play this daily and just be happy. Since I had my first violin lesson yesterday I have been thinking about the suggestions my teacher made. She suggested that I find a piece of music that I want to work towards. Perhaps this should be it!



Oh, and here is the original mash-up that I found it through!

Musical Aptitude: Lesson #1

In keeping with my 2011 goal of "finding my creative genius" I bought a groupon for music lessons at the Hollywood Academy of Music. After months of procrastinating I finally set up my first lesson for today. Many things had to be considered, did I want to try to rekindle my love for the piano, the violin, or was I going to entertain fantasies of becoming a vocal Diva! I finally after much self deliberation and some advice from the very nice man who helped answer all my questions, decided on the violin. Since I at least have one that I can practice on. Although I'd kill to have a piano in the apartment, but Sosuke might kill me if I attempted that one.

I was a bit nervous for my first violin lesson in fifteen years. Not to mention due to crossing the path of three (yes three!) different schools letting out on my way to my appointment I was running late! Curse you school busses! I was relieved to easily find free parking on the street next to the school. Once parked I had to figure out the multitude of signs for the building which requires you to walk through an archway and then wind your way around and up a staircase to the second floor.

Once inside I was warmly greeted by my new teacher Christina, who led me to where our lesson was going to take place. If I had to describe my lesson studio in one word "intimate" would probably be it. There was only enough room for my instructor, our two violins, and one small shelf. I'm really not sure we could have fit anything else in there at all!

Since it has been so long I requested that she treat me as though I was learning for the first time so we started with the basics. How to hold the bow properly, how to place the bow on the strings, where your fingers go on the strings and after a few attempts at open strings and some simple scales I was feeling a bit bolder. So we progressed onto playing.....wait for it.... Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. A classic, even if just by childhood standards.

My favorite part of the lesson was when on the third time through (third times a charm right?) Christina joined me harmonizing the notes I was playing. It gave me a little thrill, and made me wish I had some violin playing friends to play with on my own time.

She concluded my lesson with suggesting that I find some music that I would like to work towards. Something to inspire me to work hard and improve faster. I'm going to have to think on that one. Should I go classical or main stream? Any suggestions?

Weight Loss 101

Well it's about that time when I start freaking out about my weight. Actually, what am I saying it's been a constant burden for the last oh, 6 years or so. To cut to the quick I overeat often which is one of my biggest challenges. So today I signed up for the Gold Membership on Livestrong and now I can keep track of my calories AND my nutrients.

Since seeing the fantastic Dr. Linda a month and a half ago I was made aware that I have high cholesterol. Which I suppose since I am overweight shouldn't have been a great shock to me. I know I know, blah blah you should eat better and exercise more right? Well what happens when you are already exercising 5-6 days a week? At least I was at the time I was told about the cholesterol thing. Talk about being slightly frustrated. I'm officially getting back on the exercise wagon knee injury and all. As per a friend's wise suggestions I decided to update my goal weight so that they are much smaller steps. Otherwise I might feel like I am not making progress. Which, I have a feeling would end up making me quit before I've even really begun. And we definitely don't want that right?

Digital Art Age

I was perusing Wacom's website the other day and came across an interesting contest called "A Thousand Forests". It requested that people upload something that expressed their creativity and passion to create. You can learn more about the contest here.

Intrigued, I started randomly clicking through the different things that people had uploaded and I was startled by some of the descriptions this one for instance says "Digital painting using a scene from Google Street Maps for reference."

Digital Painting, I can only imagine what people would have said if you had told them two decades ago that the newest art era would be digital painting. Instead of using beloved mixed media and crafts people now talk about how they used raw photos, photoshop, illustrator, and in this instance even google maps to create their latest masterpieces.

It made me wonder, will the appreciation for all static art be lost with these new generations that need everything Now Now Now. These kids who start using ipads basically at birth. Will these "digital paintings", and ever changing digital art now become the new norm.

More and more people are starting to use digital picture frames. Why frame one photo when you can have one frame for hundreds. Will we lose the stillness?