Five Different Ways to Look at MUSIC:
1. In Deric Bownd's MindBlog, he discusses the chemical processes that give music the ability to elicit reactions from us.
2. Seth Rudetsky is a Broadway accompanist, performer, and "music deconstructor." He will focus in on the most minute details of someone's performance, analyzing sometimes half a second of a note. I've seen him conducting deconstructions live, and he's both hilarious and very knowledgible. Here's one of my favorites.
3. Music (spoecifically musicals here) is a way to interpret other media. Books, movies, historical events, and even people have served as the inspiration for a full-on stage spectacular. Some stories fit seamlessly into musical format... But then there's Jekyll and Hyde (the ROCK musical), Spiderman: Turn off the Dark ($60 million budget WHAT?), Moby Dick, and soon, an adaptation of American Psycho.
4. Ever heard of aromatherapy? Like, lavender makes you sleepy, grapefruit perks you up, etc... Well there's music therapy, too! I discovered this when I was searching for college majors to pursue. Involvement in music actually can benefit patients! In a sense, music can be considered medicine!
5. How YOU see music. What purpose does music serve to you? Has it helped you?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Buzzing About...
Over winter break I started cleaning my room by taking all the old books out. I came across my dogeared copy of The Secret Life of Bees and realized that I had never finished it. That's my "reading for fun" style: Starting a book, getting through as much as I can in one sitting, and then losing interest. Admirable, right? Well I finally finished this one, and I caught on to so much more literary brilliance than I had when I was reading it sophomore year, such as the narrative style Sue Monk Kidd uses.
She shows how events in the story are all connected by having Lily tell sequences of events the way she sees one happen immediately after the next. For instance, June's stormy relationship with Neil permeates everyone's life at the hot pink Boatwright house. Lily tells us about how she creeps downstairs and hears Neil leave angrily and June begin to sob. In another scene, Lily sees a June-Neil argument take place while she's working outside. The way we see subplots progress through Lily's eyes (rather than receiving the narrative from one of those "invisible" speakers uninvolved in the action) gives us Lily's perspective (rather than letting us see the events as outsiders).
I also liked the sense of closure we got at the end about Lily's feelings toward her mother. When August and Lily first discuss Deborah, Lily suddenly feels unloved and abandoned, but she eventually decides to believe her mother did love her. It's so optimistic! Why choose to remember her mother as unloving when she could just as easily decide to believe her mother did love her very much, that leaving her behind during one visit was not an indication of hate or disaffection? Lily discovers she has grown just fine without her mother, for she had Rosaleen to care for her, and she even cared for herself to an extent. Finally, the community of caring women Lily finds confirms that she can find people who care for her and love her even if her biological mother is gone.
I heard there's a movie version of this novel. I don't have time to watch it now because I'm in tech week for a show now (I feel like I'm always busy with a show...), but I am curious to see how the narrative style translates to film.
Are you familiar with the S.L.o.B? What other examples of these intertwined narratives (such as the June-Neil observations) do you see in the story? Do you see similar narrative styles in other authors?
She shows how events in the story are all connected by having Lily tell sequences of events the way she sees one happen immediately after the next. For instance, June's stormy relationship with Neil permeates everyone's life at the hot pink Boatwright house. Lily tells us about how she creeps downstairs and hears Neil leave angrily and June begin to sob. In another scene, Lily sees a June-Neil argument take place while she's working outside. The way we see subplots progress through Lily's eyes (rather than receiving the narrative from one of those "invisible" speakers uninvolved in the action) gives us Lily's perspective (rather than letting us see the events as outsiders).
I also liked the sense of closure we got at the end about Lily's feelings toward her mother. When August and Lily first discuss Deborah, Lily suddenly feels unloved and abandoned, but she eventually decides to believe her mother did love her. It's so optimistic! Why choose to remember her mother as unloving when she could just as easily decide to believe her mother did love her very much, that leaving her behind during one visit was not an indication of hate or disaffection? Lily discovers she has grown just fine without her mother, for she had Rosaleen to care for her, and she even cared for herself to an extent. Finally, the community of caring women Lily finds confirms that she can find people who care for her and love her even if her biological mother is gone.
I heard there's a movie version of this novel. I don't have time to watch it now because I'm in tech week for a show now (I feel like I'm always busy with a show...), but I am curious to see how the narrative style translates to film.
Are you familiar with the S.L.o.B? What other examples of these intertwined narratives (such as the June-Neil observations) do you see in the story? Do you see similar narrative styles in other authors?
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