My wind chime materials don't exactly...chime. Maybe I should call them mobiles. Kinetic sculptures? All of the above just sound so...I don't know, official. A higher class of art. It's not really a sculpture. It's the result of hanging things from other things.
Then and again, maybe the definition of art is "random things thrown together in a way that can be interpreted symbolically." It would certainly explain all of the pieces made out of sticks and sheep excrement that I saw at the Tate Gallery this summer.
Paper stars on paper chains. I just loved that line.
Also, I just noticed a creepy mask cameo.
Admittedly, it is a little late for Christmas, but I still think it's pretty. Wintry. If only I can find a way to hang it in my dorm room...
I Spy - Two barrel monkeys, a small jar of Nutella, a plastic snake, an apple, an empty spool of thread, and a bell.
I wrote a Christmas song! It has very, very little to do with Christmas, but I really want it to be a Christmas song. It does have references to snow, and snowy trees, and also there's a few lines that vaguely resemble "We Three Kings" (vaguely). So that qualifies it, right?
Seriously, though, I'm sick of all the kitschy secular songs, and all the songs with good chords and melodies are hymns. It's a shame. We need more people to write Christmas songs. Good ones, preferably. I'm looking at you, "All I Want for Christmas is You".
Wow I hate that song so much.
Truly, though, there's an absolute dearth of new Christmas songs, as evidenced by malls playing the same ones over and over and over and over until your ears bleed. This is a serious problem.
As usual, I apologize for terrible video quality, and also the off-key vocals. I'm still experimenting with precisely how the melody should go...so just listen to the pretty piano, okay? I'll probably fix this once I figure everything out.
I wrote a piano part for the song! I'm rather proud of it, mostly because I didn't know I could write songs on the piano and yet somehow did. It makes me very happy inside, and I should probably try to start composing/improvising in keys other than C, but hey, it's a start, right?
I love being able to do things.
I think probably the most impressive part of this video, though, is the part where I managed to balance the camera on a brass reading lamp.
I've been working on writing a few songs lately. They're pretty simple, but it is much easier to compose on Norton than on the piano. With a ukulele, you really only need to use chords and strumming pattern, but on the piano, you need to do much fancier things. It's also harder to remember, and I find it difficult to write music down.
Either way, I'm fairly pleased with the results. This song is a composition I started writing two years ago, but only just finished up today. The inspiration was a character of mine in a story, who is much different now than envisioned then, but I still named the song after him because I liked the way it sounded.
The video is awful, as usual, because I have next to zero practice performing, and also my camera is just your standard digital camera and does not have beautiful recording quality. Please forgive me, and just listen to the pretty music. (It helps to read the words while listening).
Benjamin
A white rabbit sits at the head of the table
Sipping blood as drink
I've been lost here for so long
Where are you? I think
That the black pine grove was real in my head
Why can't you see it?
“You're
mad” I know the black bird said
Why can't I believe it?
And sometimes I miss you and sometimes I don't
And sometimes I see lights
Out in the orchard, amidst all the pine trees
Burning up the night.
And I know what the blackbird said was true
But it's kind of pleasant here
I have all my rabbits, and normal habits
And never all that fear.
Sometimes I'll see you, shouting in the pine grove
Finally, I've gotten a song other than "Spaceman" stuck in my head. Of course, the song's name is "Astronaut". I don't know what my current obsession with celestial travelers is all about, but it is a gorgeous song, is it not? There really is something awfully poetic about astronauts that most people don't really think about. I mean, the word 'astronaut' literally means 'star sailor'. It doesn't get more poetic than that. Just think - you're in love with someone who's high above everyone, striving for the farthest point they can see, taking the ultimate risk for science, for knowledge...sailing through the stars...
Can you see me getting all starry-eyed over here?
The thing is, so few people think of science as being poetic or beautiful. They think of mad scientists, destroying the world, or at the very least, cold, Vulcan-like, morally questionable government men in lab coats and goggles, testing bombs or cutting up unicorns. In truth, though, science and art aren't incompatible. Both are ways of looking at the world, peeling back the layers, learning about things. Art is just more concerned with expressing, portraying, examining the world as is, while science is concerned with revealing the world, finding new things, and figuring out how it works. Both are beautiful, and both are tied into the pursuit of knowledge, which is a high virtue.
Besides, one of the best things about science is that it finds so many new things for art to depict.
I recently bought a song book of Amanda Palmer songs, and I am learning to play "Astronaut" on the piano. I think I want to be Amanda Palmer when I grow up. Just add that to my list of occupations, okay?
Writer, seamstress, neurologist, punk cabaret pianist...
