Random Bits and Pieces

Currently in Earphones: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Complete Recordings by Howard Shore

First off, Karaoke with the fencers was lots of fun. There were a few little snags and bumps along the way, but overall it was pretty neat. We got everyone to sing, even if it was all of us belting out songs at once. My only problem was that we had just a tad too many people, in that we couldn't satisfy every ones musical wishes in the time we had. Make no mistake, we picked songs that (hopefully) everyone knew so as to get everyone involved. But as Preston said to me, it would have been nice to see some smaller groups go up there. Two highlights were a group of guys and a group of girls singing "Phantom of the Opera" (I very much enjoyed being part of that one), and Preston finding "Dragostea din tei" (which, for some reason, was on one of the lists that was in Korean and not on the English list. The english list had Rammstein, for crying out loud!). Suffice to say, I'd love to do it again (perhaps in a smaller group). I wait with baited breath for the pictures from last night to surface, as well....

Secondly, I've noticed that whenever I'm in a conversation with more than one person. I have this habit of being overrun by the other participants. We'll be talking along, there would be a pause, and I'll begin to say something only to be talked over by someone else. I, being the guy that I am, stop and let the other person say what they want, then try again at the next pause or break. Sometimes this happens more than once in a row, and it's very strange. I really would like to understand just why this is happening. Am I horrible at reading some sort of social cue? Am I not a forceful enough presence in conversation? Is what I have to say really that boorish? Help me out here, because even though it may be a natural part of conversation to accidentally talk over each other, it seems to happen to me far more frequently than I'd like.

Thirdly, and lastly, I learned an interesting bit of information in Music 10 a few days ago. To start at the beginning of why this was so, we go to San Luis Obispo, home of my grandparents. There's a restaurant/hotel/place called The Apple Farm in northern SLO that I've gone to since I was a young lad, and they have what I would call the coziest gift shop ever. It's spread across 3 levels: more adult things on the bottom level, the middle connecting with the restaurant, and the top having the greatest little nook of children's toys and books that I ever saw. I'll always remember that nook as it was 10-15 years ago, because at that point it had all the usual wooden and plastic doodads and jimcracks that a young boy could want, and a book rack full of Berenstain Bears and Golden books. It has changed over time, but that's the way I really liked it. Small and cozy, with a bay window looking out to the creek filled with clear shelves of toys, and the final topper was that they always played Baroque music in the background, which made it feel very classy.

I remember first getting into classical music, and always having in mind the atmosphere and sound of the toy nook in the Apple farm. At first what seemed to fit perfectly was the first movement of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, but later I stumbled upon another small piece by Bach called Badinerie for flute and strings. Even later I would find out that it came from his Orchestral Suite No. 2, but suffice to say that that piece fit my memory even better, and if it were not for the malleability of memory, I would swear that I remember that very same song playing as I fooled around with wooden toy soldiers. The cap on all of this was when we were going over the selfsame movement in Music 10, and I found out that the title literally means "Plaything." How satisfyingly fitting!


Enough, More Later.
- James