It's Better to Burn Out...

The Friday Five for September 8, 2023

1. What song do you live for at the moment?
I don't really LOVE any song at the moment.

2. Is there a band or artist that you attach to a particular memory? What memory is it?
I tend to remember connections between music and movies/shows a lot. Every time I hear a song, I remember the movie or show it was in.  A lot of mullet rock is connected to Supernatural for me because I never got into them until I heard them on the show.   Of course, Kansas = Supernatural

3. What's the most beautiful song lyric you've ever heard?  
There are many beautiful song lyrics - no one lyric is more beautiful than all others.   Plus, lyrics on their own don't make a song.  To make it beautiful, the melody and voice have to be in sinc with it.

4. If you could choose any band/artist to cover any song, which combination would you pick? 
I've never thought about it, and don't have any preferences at this point.  One thing I really don't like is a love song by a band being covered by a choir.  The decision to sing a Japanese pop love song as a choir helped me with my decision to take a break.  Ug.  There might be exceptions but I would have to hear it to believe it.

5. What's the best concert you've ever attended?
I think I like performing more than listening - so my own, whether that was clarinet or vocal.  I loved the concert in high school where we sang The Messiah with over a hundred singers.  I wish we had a recording.  Both of my present choirs' concerts were memorable - gave me a high that was hard to come off of.

The Friday Five for September 15, 2023

1 Who is the messiest person you know?
Alex. LOL Julian is probably the neatest among my kids. Audrey is like hubby. The way she deals with her stuff is not to organize, but to leave it all in the living room so she can keep her bedroom clean(er). Alex...needs work.

2 What is the most useless talent you have?
I have double jointed thumbs. Completely useless.

3 What is the most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this week??
Interesting is what you say about something that is not boring, but is not brilliant. Those kinds of things are hard to remember, they make such a low impact. I've been reading the Martian Chronicals by Ray Bradbury. So far, it seems like this might qualify for the term.

4 If you could get a ticket to any show or event, what would you want a ticket to?

I'd like to go to CATS. In English.

5 if you could live in someone’s head for fifteen minutes, who would you want it to be?
My dog! :D I would love to really find out what she is thinking/feeling.

We had an incident yesterday, where hubby was out drinking with his friend and he couldn't get in touch with his mom so Alex and I went by car to see if she was ok. It was just something wrong with her phone. She wasn't lying on the floor unconscious as we feared, so we were relieved. But it had me looking up resusitation to make sure I knew it. I was talking with Alex afterwards and found out he had learned CPR for his driver's license. I thought it was pretty cool that that is a requirement for driver's licenses here. Also relieved I could ask him to do it if push came to shove. I only did CPR in highschool and that's long time ago.

The chorus festival last Sunday was pretty fun. We had never participated in this festival before. We started out early, meeting at our station at 7am. We practiced a bit at a practice hall near the festival hall, got dressed there and loaded ourselves into taxis. Our group was the only one with dresses on. I guess because we didn't get to get dressed (or practice) at the hall because of COVID, all the other groups wore costumes that could be worn normally outside. We were required to write comments for all the other participating groups. I took turns with another member of our choir. I was also in charge of carrying the placard of our choir up to the stage (from the audience, due to COVID). All the groups were super friendly and nice in their comments. We also had comments from "judges." Most were very positive. Especially with regard to the altos, which I was, soo that was really nice. The sops have some work to do with their high notes. All in all, I think it went pretty well. Here's a picture:


One of the songs was a latin song by Ko Matsushita called Tota pulchra es. Basically a song about how the Virgin Mary was the perfect woman/mother. Aside from the words, the music is beautiful. The piano part is superb. Here is a link

The other is a Japanese song - also composed by Ko Matsushita, lyrics are a poem by a poet, Shuntaro Tanigawa. Part of a set of songs called On a Quiet Rainy Night. Here is a link. The song translates something like this:

I want to sit like this forever.
Listening to my new sadness sink quietly
Taking advantage of the scent of the God I do not believe
Picking up a leaf of a country far from home
Gazing at the slideshow of past and future
Believing in the warm sofa of the blue ocean
And, most of all, loving myself
I want to sit quietly like this forever

I sang this song imagining myself and the others of the choir at some European city, crouching on the beach, hands around our knees, watching little pebbles sink into the waves, carrying whatever sadness - maybe a disapointment, maybe loneliness, a breakup, .... with it. And maybe, in the distance, a cathedral or little church where we've just been and emersed ourselves in the faith of ages.

Again, the piano part in itself is enough to melt the brain. You don't even have to listen to the words LOL

I've been watching Blacklist. I am really enjoying it but I don't like the main girl Elizabeth (Liz). She is such a typical American hero girl. She's so stupid and emotional, and also not really a badass LOL I was sad but also kind of happy when she "died" and it was just her husband LOL But now she is back. Anyway, I am hooked. It is getting more interesting with Tom's past coming to light as well. I really like him.