I have never really thought about this until lately, but have you ever realized that when you kiss someone, you are really close to them? You are literally in their face.
Of course once I had that thought in my head, it makes things so awkward.
Try it. Kiss someone and think about just how close your face is to theirs.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
The Curse of the Big Heavy Instruments
Since I don't have any idea what I'm going to writing about for my Sociology T1 (named of course after our beloved term 1 project), I've decided to write about what I wanted to.
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Like everything else - hierarchy, get-rich-fast schemes, Egyptian burial places - a balanced band is constructed like a pyramid. At the bottom you have the bass line (for all intensive purposes I'm grouping the percussionists in here), and the higher up the pyramid/pitch you go, the smaller the sections. This has something to do with that whole higher frequency gets heard more clearly/they get more solos and less need for a section/who really need more than 2 flutes. If you want that explained more clearly then talk to Chris. However, most (especially younger) bands have an inverted pyramid where a gazillion flutes sitting on top of a few euphs.
Since you would never need that many flutists, streaming occurs. Band teachers subtly poke students that are in the lower echelons of their section to try to pursue a different (lower) instrument. Of course occasionally they aren't even that bad, just no long term potential (I mean, I was solo clarinetist before I switched =p).
With this however, comes the realization that the music we play are not very challenging once we got used to our respective instruments. This isn't like the whole Pachelbel debacle where, OMG, you get 8 quarter notes repeated over and over again. Try a bass clarinet part for Mars; we get one note where every bar is repeating the same rhythm as before; or even worse, I've had a whole page of the same dotted half notes.
Of course, if we reapproach our band teachers, they would do anything for us not to switch back to our original instruments. Of course if you're in the school band, that means only a max of 4 years of the instrument and you're out of there. If you're in a community band, you're stuck there until someone else comes along playing the same instrument. Imagine my shock when the kid I was mentoring quit half way through the year? I mean, the guy I replaced fled the continent ffs (although he has been doing it a LOT longer than I have, and is a LOT more talented than I).
Because of this, people struck by the curse are a lot more prone to settle. I mean, if you don't submit, comments like "Oh, so you play quarter notes" are going to sting more and more as time goes on.
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Like everything else - hierarchy, get-rich-fast schemes, Egyptian burial places - a balanced band is constructed like a pyramid. At the bottom you have the bass line (for all intensive purposes I'm grouping the percussionists in here), and the higher up the pyramid/pitch you go, the smaller the sections. This has something to do with that whole higher frequency gets heard more clearly/they get more solos and less need for a section/who really need more than 2 flutes. If you want that explained more clearly then talk to Chris. However, most (especially younger) bands have an inverted pyramid where a gazillion flutes sitting on top of a few euphs.
Since you would never need that many flutists, streaming occurs. Band teachers subtly poke students that are in the lower echelons of their section to try to pursue a different (lower) instrument. Of course occasionally they aren't even that bad, just no long term potential (I mean, I was solo clarinetist before I switched =p).
With this however, comes the realization that the music we play are not very challenging once we got used to our respective instruments. This isn't like the whole Pachelbel debacle where, OMG, you get 8 quarter notes repeated over and over again. Try a bass clarinet part for Mars; we get one note where every bar is repeating the same rhythm as before; or even worse, I've had a whole page of the same dotted half notes.
Of course, if we reapproach our band teachers, they would do anything for us not to switch back to our original instruments. Of course if you're in the school band, that means only a max of 4 years of the instrument and you're out of there. If you're in a community band, you're stuck there until someone else comes along playing the same instrument. Imagine my shock when the kid I was mentoring quit half way through the year? I mean, the guy I replaced fled the continent ffs (although he has been doing it a LOT longer than I have, and is a LOT more talented than I).
Because of this, people struck by the curse are a lot more prone to settle. I mean, if you don't submit, comments like "Oh, so you play quarter notes" are going to sting more and more as time goes on.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Love is like a lemonade
Not so much the kind that's squeezed from the heart, but the bad kind.
The kind that isn't so much tart, but downright sour, but heavily sugar coated to try to hide the undeniable fact.
You try to convince yourself of the value of the vitamin c contained within, trying desperately to ignore that it only contains 5% real juice. As it wears away at the enamel, upsets your stomach, and wreck havoc on your intestines, you start seeing the real picture.
Why do we put ourselves through this? We try to obtain what little pleasure we could from it, always wanting more, never getting it. Why do we bother?
The kind that isn't so much tart, but downright sour, but heavily sugar coated to try to hide the undeniable fact.
You try to convince yourself of the value of the vitamin c contained within, trying desperately to ignore that it only contains 5% real juice. As it wears away at the enamel, upsets your stomach, and wreck havoc on your intestines, you start seeing the real picture.
Why do we put ourselves through this? We try to obtain what little pleasure we could from it, always wanting more, never getting it. Why do we bother?
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