Many of you knew, that I sang in a choir. What most of you don't know is, that I quit the choir this year. I realized, it's time to go for a new challenge, as singing in the choir didn't fulfill my musical need anymore.
I've been wanting to learn violin since I was small (my parents didn't let me though - I had to learn instruments, which my sister was learning), but meanwhile I am not sure, either the left hand position and the high tone of violins are really my thing. Thus, I decided to learn cello instead (I started with mandolin too, because I was too impatient to wait until the cello lesson began in March) and luckily I could rent the instrument from the music school before I get my own (I hope, I'd get my own one day - I didn't realize a good cello is SO expensive before *sigh*).
My teacher comes from classic, but I don't see my end there. Thus, I always look for cello musicians, who do different things than classical music. The CD on the photo is the one I'm listening since a few weeks. This video underneath will show you a bit of my favorite group. I listened to their music and watch their videos on my iPod back and forth during the whole winter.
Although I was dead tired and she first let us wait for quite some time, the patience was worth it - great voice! I really enjoyed it.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
For music and documentary lovers: here's the place to support the series.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Bought theirCD last month and couldn't stop to listen especially to the song above (minus the orchestra, yet just great). Too bad I don't have the suitable gadget to install this.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
When I bought the fish yesterday, it was because I wanted
to eat a bowl of noodle soup with fish balls. In the evening
I read a few beef/chicken/fish ball recipes and noodle recipes
for some ideas.
So I ground the fish this morning, mixed it with salt and pepper
and a little bit egg white, which was difficult to portion of
course and thus too much. Instead of making balls I decided to
put it in a foil, made a roll.
While the fish roll was in the steamer, I started to make the
noodle. This was the ground recipe, but I added the leftover
egg yolk, some more flour and a little bit oil. After letting the
dough rest for a while I let it through the noodle machine a few
times before I finally let it through the spaghetti cutter. The
result: the perfect egg noodles!!!
Now back to the fish. It's certainly the most boring fish thing.
Far away from the delicious fish balls I was imagining!! :(
But suddenly I had an idea what to do. I cut the fish roll in
slices and fried them. Along some Chinese cabbage and
Ramiro pepper and basted with hot vinegar sauce, I got a Pempek inspired lunch :)
Now I need some elves to help me wash the huge pile of
pans, bowls and plates...
On Tuesday Dec 21st, 2010 on 8 pm we have a gig
with another choir at the Theater. You can have a peek
of what we're going to sing (but without the band) on
YouTube now.
I once heard a nice song while I was in a second-hand shop.
I asked the seller to write down the name of the singer for
me and she did. At home I forgot about it. In fact, I forgot
about it for about a year. A few days ago that piece of paper
suddenly came up again from somewhere...
I'm not really creative the past months. In my head there are lots of things waiting to get out. Two of them are bugging me along my way to work yesterday - painting portraits and a song.
I used to draw a lot of portraits. I'm out of practice. I got some problems with the proportions and distance. The noses look weird and even the eyes - which I always loved to draw - don't seem right (so I don't dare to draw ears - they were my weakness!). The pose of the girl on the right pic was inspired by a passanger, who was watching our window display.
Can you guess what it is on the bottom pic?
It is the Indonesian music notation. A quick way to write down a melody since I don't have to care either it's in C-dur or F-dur or whatever. I long to compose a song for an ensemble, but I never manage to do it. Sometimes I have a melody in my head, but it's gone before I find the first note on the keyboard. Yesterday I decided to write it down that way - at least I could capture the base melody and some other parts.
We'll see, either it'll be a Midnight Blues - the one in glass is already in my shop ;)
Just wanna drop this link as a reminder for myself ;)
If you could watch arte on TV, One Shot Not is up every Thursday night. Lisa Hannigan will be there next week among others. Remember her? She was mentioned in many blogs last year (or maybe even two years ago?), because of her lovely, creative videos (and of course great music too!). I like this song underneath.
You could watch One Shot Not videos up to seven days after it's on air. They always invited great musicians (e.g. Sting - one of my all time favorites). So, don't miss it ;)
In a land nobody knows the name of, there's a lonely garden full of weird plants with twirly, green branches and red flowers. Once you open the gate and place your step in the garden, they soon become alive, trying to reach out for your hands to lead you dancing to the music of the whistling wind...
Telling stories to an artwork was one of the tasks I've learned in the art class at high school. I'm digging out the skill I've learned years ago with my new listings now. Let's see, how far my imagination would go ;) I don't have a preview for the next listing, since I couldn't make up my mind, which one I should list first (anyway, it would be harder to find a story to either..). So, I decided to have a listing-free day tomorrow, as I'll be in the B&M shop again ^_^
I found this video on top of the list, when I typed "dance with me" on YouTube. Didn't know the song or the band before, but it's sweet...
After hesitating for a while, I finally made an account on YouTube. I'm not a video maker and my equipment is pretty poor (it's only my digital camera with low res). But I want to share some highlights of the Malam Indonesia (Indonesian Night) with others, as I think, the students, their tutors and all other participants have done a fabulous work in a short time.
This is the first video I've uploaded. It's the final medley of Sigulempong (Nord Sumatra) and Yamko Rambe Yamko (Papua). I've missed a bit of the beginning, but I hope you enjoy.
I can't believe, August is over and the day is getting shorter each day. It's also storming again the last days. Could it be, that summer is over already? The trees in front of our house are getting some yellow leafs... Somehow I miss Midsummer now, even if I'm looking forward to autumn as well.
I was invited by Heli to share one of my day with her blog readers. My last post of Friday was actually part of my first attempt to document my day. I didn't finish documenting it, so, I've started another attempt last Monday. Thank you, dear Heli, for the invitation and opportunity!
Last week I was crazy about this song - listening to it a million times a day. Starting two days ago I can't get enough of this one, even if I've never been a Coldplay fan before, now I am! The stop-motion video of their Strawberry Swing is a must-seen and the interview about the making-of of the video is a must-read - inspiring!
add: I've shown my son the video and he immediately
pointed me out, that it sounds like Reamonn's Tonight.
I've followed the discussions on Flickr about it's similarity
with many other songs, but I don't think, I've seen it
compared with Raemonn before. . great chord memory!
I'm wishing you an inspired weekend, dear readers!
My son and I went pattern hunting again, as we walked from one place to another. He slowly discovers the wonderful moments taking a walk. He said, as long as it's a walk with a destination, it doesn't matter ;) left: taken by my son, right: taken by me
The youngsters were having fun jumping down from the bridge into the fresh water.
This was our destination: the silk road festival of the children culture center. My son was there the whole week and did some fun things. That evening we could see the results. We could try plof, a national dish of Kyrgyzstan. The kids could ride camels. The highlight of the day was the Mongolian musician Epi, a kootschirr player and overtone/undertone singer. Stunning!!! So calming and inspiring. You can hear his music here and watch his video here.
After doing some errands and appointments I went to the CD shop again yesterday, wanted to finally get a CD. They didn't have the CDs I wanted. So I look to some more interesting CDs in my fave section - jazz and I took three of them to the counter to listen. After the first one I (thought I) knew which one to choose.
Koop is a Swedish group. Their music (and the singers' voices) has made my day (just listen to the song on the right bar). It has eased the pain and angers I had the last days a little bit and cheered me up. But still I wanted to wait. My son has lost his voucher (maybe he has taken it to his father but forgot it), so I thought of giving mine to him (or is it not a good education style? hmm.. ;)).
Just now guess which song is buzzing around my head... Lisa Ekdahl's (BTW.. she's also a Swede)!! Now I'm really confused *lol* But I still have time. In the mean time I'll be listening to the piles of CDs I've borrowed from the library and read some Japanese haikus (but only after piles of paperworks I have to do *sigh*).
Time flies - woosh and my last post is already two weeks old. Many things happened during that time (not necessary in this order though)...
We had some celebrations.
We had some visits from friends I haven't seen for a long time. But I've also noticed a visitor by the mess it has made ;)
I've cooked and baked a lot. Maybe some of you have also seen the photo I've posted in my photo blog some days ago and wondered, what it should be. Well, I've made some rise chips from (leftover) plain rice. This diptych is showing the first step and the result. You can see another in-between stepshere. Well, one step is missing: before it's fried. I was a bit frustrated, because most of them were stick to the bamboo dish I used to let them dry on, that I forgot to take pictures. The rice chips are yummy as salad topping (esp. when eaten with Indonesian peanut salad sauce :))!
I enjoyed my plants - indoor and outdoor. I got this one from a friend, but I keep forgetting it's name. This is the second time I see it blooming in three years. So lovely! I'm excited, I see two 4(!) more buds this year - last year it got only one flower.
Outside, most of the plants are recovering from the hail except for the aubrieta (hope it will recover too one day). The 'non-grassy' part in the back garden is growing too. Actually, except of two zucchini plants and the sweet potato I didn't want to add anything to the back garden anymore. I wanted to wait till next year with a better planning. But then my son got herbs and veggies as a birthday present from his friend (what a wonderful idea!) and now the garden is growing by two more rows :) Also the wild oregano feels so comfy there, so that it grows in simply every corner in the garden. So, if you need some for your pizza or pasta... ;)
I've enjoyed some performances. Alone, with friends and accompaniying my boy's class. I haven't done it for a while - so much fun.
This is one of the groups I've watched (now they have one more member). And when they were here to introduce a cooking book, they had a special guest: his mother, who also sang with them. Among other Indonesians I realized that night, how much I've lost my Indonesian spirit of humor. I laugh much less and I make much less jokes. Hmm...
I enjoyed watching the sky and listening to music and sometimes trying to sing along (for those, who are my friends on Flickr, you can watch the special edition with my poor attempt ;)).
I've been looking for a CD, cause I got a coupon voucher, but I'm still indecisive... I love her music, but I prefer deep voice actually.. hmm..
I stumble upon this group with their beautiful, calming music as I was browsing on MySpace. Oh my, I love this kind of music!! *dreaming away*
Last not least I've cleaned up (would I welcome the visitors otherwise? ;)) and sorted things in real life and in my head. But it keeps going.. some things are harder to sort than entangled threads...
I've told you, many things have happened ;) Now, I'm wishing you a lovely Sunday evening and a great start of the new week. CU! My fave series is waiting ;)
We finally had our first strawberries from the windowsill. I only got a little bite, but it was SO sweet! Yumm.. :)
Hope your weekend is as sweet as strawberry and I'm wishing you a great new week starting tomorrow :)
P.S. I actually want to write about the concert we've visited last Thursday, but I don't know how to get the photos from my HP down to my compi. I don't have the suitable USB cable and somehow sending via email is not working too :( So, maybe you can enjoy some of the songs we've heard at here. Lovely voice, great songs - all written by herself - and a great band.
P.P.S. I don't watch tv very often, but I don't want to miss this series every Sunday. His smile there makes me smile too :)
I'm spending a lazy Sunday and hearing one of my fave singers Joan Armatrading. I often hear her older CD at work. I love her deep voice.
This song reminds me also on my other fave artist Sarah Jane Morris. I so wish, I'd be able to hear her singing live one day.
I've heard her for the first time in the BBC produced film Summer In The Suburbs. The film itself is not the best, but I always watched it, just to hear the music, which is written by John Harle. I love his music!
Hmmm... this made me wanna watch a British film now :)
I'm trying another format for my text. I made it narrow, because of my habit to read from spot to spot and I wanted to post in poet style (which I didn't do though). Now, after more than a year, I realize, I talk too much *lol* and in this format the posts are stretched out to the length, which I sometimes don't really like.
Hmm.. so what about, if I make my post wide? Will I still like it? Well, I'll try it for some days. Maybe a full week, if I manage to post each day. We'll see :)
The choir session was great. We're working hard for our concert on 21st March, but still with fun :) We sang a bit, partying a bit (celebrating a birthday of one of us) and sang a bit more. So I'm going to bed now with In The Mood in my ears ;)
Guess what I've found yesterday, as I went to work.. one window front was broken, but was already fixed temporarily by the fire department. The bad side effect of the carnival :( Luckily the glazier came that morning and fixed it quickly.
I have to admit, I'm not a big carnival fan. Well, it's not in my blood ;) So, I go there only if I'm really in the mood. I love - the creative spirit people suddenly have, - the music (it's not about perfection, but joy!), - the great costumes, but I hate - the alcohol people drink too much during this time (oh, how I hate that smell in the bus!!!!!), - the vandalism, - the junk and shards overall.
Tomorrow is the day of the big carnival procession. I'm not sure, either I'll go there this time. But if I think of the pros... I think, I should :)
They are the offspring carnival musicians I've seen yesterday. Oh, how I love the sound of the drums and the horns! I miss playing saxophone in the marching band or in a big band (not that I can still play the saxophone ;))!!! The school marching band I was in is no more the same now.
Here you can see their performance in 2008. How static they became (hm.. maybe because of the small place?).. We (all of the musicians including the percussionists!) used to walk around and show some forms, like this. That corps used to be our hardest competitor, as the girls were in the other girl school of Jakarta. How silly! *lol* We could never beat them, as far as I can remember ;)
Oh, wanna see my school uniform and a bit of the school building? Then watch this :) It brings me certainly back to the past...
