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A non-daily blog by a woman from northern california who loves words, singing, traveling, puzzles, logic, arguments, movies and pop culture... in no particular order. 
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Harmonic Convergence: blending technology and music  |
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| notes, scores, and what strikes a chord |
A dream visit Last night, I spent a little time with my mom. I dreamt I was visiting my sister in a small town somewhere. I wanted to go out to eat, and she said, we can't go, because Mom is coming by bus. I asked when the bus would arrive, and she said, not for two hours. I figured we had plenty of time, and walked to a little restaurant. After eating, I looked out the window and saw Mom walking down the street from the bus stop. I ran out into the street and hugged her. Her smell and feel was so familiar. She was taller than me.. I had forgotten that. She kept saying, "I'm just so proud of you." Competition and Performance For years, I have been involved in competitive singing. Some singers would laugh at this concept: saying that singing is an subjective art form, not something that you can measure and evaluate, score or rate. I am a very competitive person, and so, drawing an analogy from sports, you would think that I would have won many contests in this field (since I have singing ability and have been exhaustively trained). However, that is not the case. What I learned this weekend is that the competitive spirit and the desire to win is NOT what propelled me ahead. Instead, it is freedom from all that - releasing myself from the competition. On the road
Looking for a good book? Give this webtool a spin... it's called gnooks. Enter three authors that you like, and it will suggest some others to you. Trying to give the tool a workout, I entered three that I thought had little in common: Rushdie, Piercy and Morrison (from my list of last week), and the first suggestion was Jenny Diski, who I don't know, but based on the amazon reviews of her books, I'm sure I will enjoy!
The future is now I saw this product, Sapphire, demo'ed on Good Morning America the other day. It's a liquid that doesn't get anything wet... for fire extinguishing purposes. A woman on the show (NOT the host, but some lower-status, hair-do risking person) even dipped her ponytail into the tank, and by the time she stood up, the hair was nearly dry. The book that had been dipped could have its pages ruffled, and the laptop functioned. Novel idea Another blog linked me up with Prof. Barnhardt's Journal. I don't know why I'm drawn to these list-makers.. really, I'm not a list maker, just a collector of lists. Barb & I started to make a blog where we were listing the top movies of all time, but now it is gathering dust. Could I really make a list of my top 10 novels? My problem is that I really <HATE> superlatives! That is, it's hard to say what's "top" in my book. But I figure, if the title is top-of-mind, that says something, doesn't it? Fantastic movie We saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind this weekend. I'm shocked that this movie has not gotten more buzz - I absolutely LOVED it. If you like movies with strange premises, like "Being John Malkovich", you will love this, too.
Communication Lines If I had to summarize my life in one word, it'd be communication. The various threads that have woven through the years are all in line with this: the ability to read, speak and write well, the impulse to sing and harmonize, a love of dance, my ability to learn and speak other languages, my interest in other cultures and how they are expressed, my leadership ability, a preference for being part of a group, teaching skills, keeping this blog (as well as journals through the years), working for a media company, a fascination with books and films. In every situation, I feel compelled to explain, analyze, put into words. Planetary alignment Since so many people come across this blog in search of meaning or information about the new-age, planetary "harmonic convergence", I feel somewhat obligated to mention the latest astronomical event, the planetary alignment that's been visible this last week or so. (See the Nasa story, where they actually call the five visible planets "the FAB FIVE".) We had a great view of the line-up after the boys' birthday party on Friday. Mercury was so bright that we thought it must be an airplane or the space station or something burning on a hill far away. This kind of stellar lineup makes it easy to star-gaze - you only have to find one slot of visible sky, unhampered by trees or hills. Just make sure that the slot is the right angle of moon to horizon, and there they are, all aglow.
Up-dating Ever since my thoughts turned to modern symbology, I've been thinking about other ways that our world may differ from the "old world" of pre-industrial times. The main differential of course, is human over-population. Someone who is 90 years old has seen the effects of the world's human family growing from 1.8 billion to 6.3 billion. What does this mean to our shared culture? Is it possible that the stories and symbols and archetypes that developed for small agrarian groups are no longer meaningful to a densely packed mob of city dwellers? How long will it take before Shakespearean plays, for example, are not relevant?
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