some stuff

I can't be bothered to think of titles for blog entries these days.

Went with family to Greenwood fish market today and had e.x.c.e.l.l.e.n.t. food. Of course my family is horrendously hard to please, and the inevitable complaint was that the soup was too salty. Nevertheless, relatively cheap and wonderfully good food hee. We almost went to Garibaldi, but since they only have the 56+++ Mother's Day set today, we left that for another day. :P

We also went to The Daily Scoop and got FOUR tubs of ice-cream. Unfortunately nobody likes my lime & black pepper ice-cream (T_T)

Am now imbibing red wine while blogging.

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If there's any piece of music that best represents le grand amour to me, it's the very appropriately named Salut d'Amour. I once heard that Elgar wrote that piece after meeting his fiancee for the first time, and really, it fits. I played this piece for one of my violin exams, but played it today on the piano. There is a tenderness and warmth and great, swelling passion that should sound cheesy but doesn't. It's really an extraordinarily beautiful piece that's easy to appreciate.

Ok, I tried to search on youtube for a good version that I could post here, but there're lots of atrocious versions up there, and those that are not atrocious, I don't quite like for reasons other than technique. So I shan't bother to put the video clips up, but shall provide links to you guys (who won't watch my videos anyway hmmpf).

This is Sarah Chang's --> http://youtube.com/watch?v=UqO7yuh8Wsg. Unfortunately I don't like her vibrato & slides (or whatever you call them).

This is Chee-Yun Kim's --> http://youtube.com/watch?v=uzCAhFfULtM. I've never heard of her before, but I think she's quite ok, except that certain parts of the piece that I imagine to be played deeper (I don't quite know how to explain this) she just plays through, so it's rather unsatisfying.

But Salut's a great piece and a good introduction to classical music, so those of you who don't usually listen, pls, just go ahead and listen to it. It's really very easy to listen to. *goes down on knees and begs*

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I think one of the reasons I love Heifetz is cos his playing has 'bite', you know. Your pulse races and yet it doesn't compromise the beauty of his piece. His playing is so exciting and passionate and yet so precise... urgh you see, I always sound like an idiot when I talk about music.



Oh come on, just watch it. And once you're done watching, pls, you can't tell me you haven't fallen in love with it. I'll just cry. I'll lose faith in humanity. I swear.

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I think ours is a very visual world. I just feel that ever since I've started on music and then on perfumes, whole new worlds have been opened to me.

You've no idea what I go through when I walk through Taka basement on a crowded weekend evening. First there's the smell of the food, which is enticing enough. Then there's the million perfumes everyone is wearing, a million reference points that I go sniffing after. A familiar scent there - where did I smell that before - a familar scent there - the perfume I bought my dad - and of course my own perfume. Add my mp3 to that, and you get a sensory explosion, and a thousand associations that come alive - a piece of music that reminds me of scenery somewhere else, or scenery conjured up by my own imagination, a scent that brings back memory of some long-forgotten event or person... really, a thousand things. It's as if my surroundings come with so many associations, they aren't really merely what they seem. And then sometimes the scent or music is so beautiful that my entire mind goes blank and I can't think of anything else, and I live entirely in the present, and the present is so beautiful...

Ok I'm so incoherent. I really don't know how to explain it, but it's all very lovely and wonderful, and I don't think I could get through a single day without music and perfume. *sigh* I've got the feeling I'll never really be able to tell you all how I feel, which is kind of sad and lonely. If only you guys could love the things I love... :(