Meet Missy!

Well hello there everyone!

I promised you all a link to my friend Missy’s new blog and here it is:       http://missymoooonstar.wordpress.com/

She has made it her purpose to prove that teenagers CAN think. When you were a kid, didn’t everyone always look down at you and tell you how much you had left to learn? Tell you how you thought you were so smart… when you weren’t (even if you WERE right and they were wrong)? Well the two of us both love reading. And I love writing poetry. No haickus and meaningless limericks for me. I like the deep matter. Life, Love, Happiness and Death. Oh sure there are a few more. Human rights, animal rights, illness, injustice, frustration, prejudice and so on. Some people read them and are supportive, or give praise even. Congratulate me on my vocabulary, on how I presented my ideas and so on.  But of course there are those odd few that are utterly bitter and say how I’m only biting off more than I can chew and making a mask of my writing. They think that just because I’m 16 I can’t write something deep, or have my own, unbiased views on the meaning of life, and beliefs about what’s important, or what makes me happy or so on without them being stereotypical. THOSE are the people I think are living their life with blinders on. THOSE are the people who people who are shallow, and hypocritical and just plain ignorant to the fact that yes, teenagers can think, do have minds, and personalities and do not all just go with the pop culture stream…

Anyways, that’s why I’ll occasionally put up a poem or two, or a recipe I like or anything of the sort, to show you guys out there what teenagers can be like, and that is why Missy is trying to get input from the world and come up with a big theory of the meaning of life. We each have some parts of our own, and like I said before, I will (hopefully) be contributing to her blog quite a bit.

Her most recent blog was on music, the universal language.

My mom always said that there were only three things that not even cultural, appearance, or even class differences can separate from person to person. Those are maths, love and music. Because no matter what no matter where you are even, 2pi r squared is the area of a circle, and you can’t do anything about it if you like someone. These things have been programmed in us, Mathematics into our brains from our early childhood, and love and attraction from adaptations, its in our genes. Music on the other hand, goes beyond that even. I think that when you dance, or you sing, or you play music, you are praising God, life, the world. Your fellow people and inhabitants of it, the tree outside your window and the flower blossoming down the road. Music is something, like magic that resides deeper than our minds and hearts. Its more than instinct and a textbook. Its something unimaginably powerful and unsurprisingly is the base of the two other universal languages. What came first, music or love? Trigonometry or music? What came first, the lyrics or the song, the dance or the beat? Its hard to say. But they are all each other. There’s a reason why all great mathematicians are somehow, even subconsciously musically gifted. Two of the three math teachers at my school play music. My oldest brother, a musical prodigy, and exception to the 10 year rule, is a great mathematician when he applies his whole mind. Music is all about expression, as is love, as is dance. Dance is all about expression and love. Love is FULL of music and dance! Why do you think newlyweds’ first dance together is such a big deal? its their first act of trust, unison, expression to each other while wrapped in the music (no formulas floating around visibly and cornily, but they are there).

If you want to hear some absolutely amazing lectures on music and everything I was just talking about you should go to the New York City Lincoln center and hear some of Branford Marsalis’ workshops “Jazz at the Lincoln Center” are full of great music and profoundly deep lectures.

Sadly, though I love escaping from the world and writing here, I must return and start revising and doing homework and all the horribly standard things that await a teenage girl when she re-awakes into the world.

More Later,

Mirella Rose

P.S. picture credits to my dear friend Mike in Canada. He took and allowed me to use the picture you see above. I know it might be a bit random, but I thought it was beautiful and might remind us all that spring always comes round at sometime or other, its just waiting for when you will most appreciate it. Enjoy it while it lasts, soon it will be too hot and after that too cold. Embrace the grey area, the No man’s Land.

The World is FULL of music… if you know where to look…

Why hello there audience…

Ok so I promised a post about music… So this post is dedicated to songs that the average person just doesn’t hear everyday, anymore I have everything from Beethoven to Broadway… and everything in between…

Well… not quite, see I already can’t lie to you guys… Anywayzzzz, my sister and I tend to be pretty similar, we are the best of friends, but even better because we live together and are together like CONSTANTLY!!! (thats actually the title to a song we both had stuck in our heads…) and though we both LOVE almost every genre of music, from rock to metal to death metal, neither of us tends to sing it in our head… In my mind, the mind has to be reserved for singing songs that can be beautiful with just a single voice… Like one of the songs I’ll have mentioned by the end, which actually comes from one of my favourite movies of all time…

So lets just start at the beginning…

I was at the breakfast table this morning humming a song while crunching my cereal. It was driving me crazy and I’d only been up for about five minutes. You see, I’m very bad with words… and names… and numbers… to get to the point, I can not remember lyrics or singers or band names or song titles… ever… ever ever ever… and it sucks…  I can only remember the melodies and harmonies…

Now this is one of the rare areas where my sister and I differ. See, she can only ever remember lyrics… (though she is sometimes off when she sings them…). so when we are together, and have the same songs stuck in our heads (which is most of the time) together we have the whole song…

By now you are probably wondering why I’m saying today was any different if we tend to think alike when it comes to music (among other things).  So while it was driving me crazy that I couldn’t figure out where the song was from, my sister comes bounding down the stairs hollering the words… (ouch!!- not what you want first thing on a Monday morning!) When she paused for breath I managed to squeeze in a quick “where’s it from?” before humming along the next verse… her reply was the weirdest thing…

The song was called “the best of friends”. As you can assume, the lyrics are annoyingly sweet… and here’s why (I found this out later for you my dear patient readers) it was from the Disney movie “The Fox and the Hound!” I never would have guessed that I’d remember the songs, cause I can’t remember the plot at all! (never liked that one much- doesn’t the fox die? That’s probably why).

So my sis and I really are the best of friends after all… hmmm

So that one was solved. But then I get to school and in fourth period maths my friend starts singing Beethoven’s  9th symphony, the infamous Ode to Joy. She didn’t even know who it was by, and though I did, I hadn’t thought much of the song  since I’d given up piano. It felt very odd to realize I had pushed the song to the back of my head… I’m just glad to have it back. Mind you along with number 9 also came 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8… that’s a head ache I REALLY didn’t need in the middle of maths… (below is a link to a version of excerpts with German singing and English subtitles- enjoy)

Then we had English.  We are watching “The Colour Purple”, a superb movie and book which I sincerely suggest to anyone interested in excellent directing and writing… not to mention a great (if sad) story and wonderful acting!  Back to the point! The movie is full of different music. A lot of more gospel type, and more traditional blues and rag time. I personally have always been a fan of rag time music… there’s something about it that just makes you want to get up and dance. Actually It’s not all that fair of me to say that – just about any good music can make me want to dance… You can watch the whole movie on Youtube in 15 parts, or find the book at any self respecting book shop or library

Lunch was also another interesting moment… I mentioned to a friend how I was having and amusingly musical remembrance day… and she whipped out her ipod and stuck her earphone into my ear on a song I hadn’t thought of since the last time my mom was humming it… probably just a couple of days ago… It was “The Heart Asks Pleasure First” by Michael Nyman. Its one of the most beautiful songs ever written for piano and was from the original soundtrack which Mr. Nyman wrote for “The Piano” another excelent movie. I absolutely love the song, and wouldn’t give the i-pod back to my friend until I had listened to it about … 20 times. Sorry I know its selfish of me, but when it comes to music- I cant resist. (below is a link to youtube of the part this song is featured in the movie. I love it, but it does creep me out a bit… the way the camera comes out from the floor… jsut watch and bask in the glory of excelent music… we should all try to this as often as possible).

Anyways, the next song came after school. I was staying late at school for a musical theater workshop. This year we are working on a Broadway dance “ONE” I had done this song with my school choir YEARS ago, but never danced to it. I can say, it’s very fiddly, even for me… so many parts are so similar that its hard to kee track of where you are with the music, let alone trying to practice without. And whats more, I have to SING while dancing. Ok I’ve done it before (last year we did “LIFE IS A CABARET” which I loved) but this year the dance is much faster, and in the early summer heat its hard to keep your breath…

Well folks, I ought to be out. Tuesdays are long days for me and my sister… and everyone wish good luck to my oldest brother who is starting his examinations tomorrow!!! I wont be writing tomorrow, but hopefully Wednesday is a go…

Over and Out

Ella Rose