To the Gipsy That Remains

Si me sueltan en el mar yo me vuelvo

Si la noche se oscurece me enciendo

Si me asustan los fantasmas me encierro

Si el invierno se hace helado me prendo

Lo que no puedo es arreglar mi corazón

Vicentico - Si Me Dejan

Besos.

Sing Me Back Home

I bought the entire DVD set to Planet Earth just before moving to London, because I knew that my favorite "American" pastime - Guitar Hero - would sadly be unavailable to my humble & television-less English abode. ...Despite my numerous trips to Best Buy in hopes of self-persuasion & even my diligent dedication to achieve COMPLETE DOMINATION of its color-induced finger-dances. A bit extreme, some might say. I like to think of it more as discipline.

Point is, I can't play Planet Earth on my laptop because, apparently, I got "too excited" & bought the HD version, & my aging Compaq is too senile to read its new, coming-of-age files. And to think, I even had Led Zeppelin's Greatest Hits downloaded & ready to play in concurrence with - oh, you know - the humpback whale's lonesome coasts through endlessly transparent waters; the tiger shark's ominous circles around some all-too-loved Nemo; the gay, graceful sway of a carefree school of fish. Indeed, B Hall was right: Zeppelin was so down-to-earth that he (probably unconsciously) wrote the soundtrack to Nature itself (or, for those unfamiliar with the term, to what would later be visually communicated to the world through Planet Earth).

I have to settle for YouTube now. Check it out - it's from BBC, & you won't be disappointed. (If you're impatient, you can fastforward to the 2nd minute.) Hear me out - I'm reading Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, & I just keep finding myself astonished at how coherently String Theory defies all common sense (note the irony), at how the human mind can originate such transcendentally impacting theories, at how anything could be more fascinating than the very fabric of our universe...

Oh, I'll tell you how. Watch the Lyre Bird. He tops even modern physics in this captivating (& quite humorous) attempt to outdo any sound that might endanger his potential for courtship.

The Lyre Bird

Besos.

As Freedom is a Breakfast Food

La Patagonia Argentina. All day, I've been wishing I were laying on a mountain - far from civilization - gazing at the stars - breathing in the purity of Earth (of which we so often lose sight when we're engaged in our daily routines).

Before me, on my coffee table, is a CD of music & chants from both the Buddhist & Hindu meditative traditions. Props to my mami, who persistently urges me to take yoga, not more seriously, but for what it's actually worth.

And I got no time
That I got to get to
Where I don't need to be
...
But you can't stop nothing
If you got no control
Of the thoughts in your mind
That you kept in you know
You don't know nothing
But you don't need to know
The wisdom's in the trees
Not the glass windows
You can't stop wishing
If you don't let go

Jack Johnson - Breakdown

Besos.

Si Me Olvido de Vivir Colgado de Sentimiento...

Voy a vivir para repetir otra vez este momento. (Andrés Calamaro)

Sorry to all you non-Spanish speakers, but those were precisely my thoughts as I left the Barbican tonight.

Chick Corea & Bela Fleck... that's about as good as it gets. Chick's innovative interpretation of the jazz piano lends the flexibility necessary to tie together their two very different musical styles into a coherent, yet multidimensional, fusion. Bela's banjo adds that light, bluegrass twang necessary to lift the (often overwhelming) intensity that jazz pieces can provoke in their listeners. Although I'll easily be the first to promote the improvisational, complexly-playful, & quite intellectually-stimulating musical style (after all, aren't these what give jazz its ability to transport one into that all-too-familiar, transcendental state-of-being?), we all know how heavy a jazz piece can feel after a few go-rounds. Luckily, their result is an oxymoron of sorts - as involving as jazz, but filled with the light-heartedness of bluegrass. And always beautifully unpreditable.

(The only bad news - it's late enough to give my impulses the right-of-way & shop online for a decent keyboard. Doesn't quite replace my all-too-missed piano, but I guess I'd finally be willing to compromise...)

Apologies, but I still don't know how to add songs, & I can't find any good YouTube videos... so instead I'll just leave you with some propaganda. ;)

Chick Corea & Bela Fleck

Besos.

Sometimes It Takes a Thousand Tries

A thousand pardons. I know I promised to keep things interesting, & so I'll keep this one short.

I'm just SOO happy that I can hardly contain myself! I've managed to listen to a particular song so many times in a row over the last week that its - ahem -"transcendental nature" & "global pertinence" (-yeah, yeah, just go with it) has seized my roommate (see figure above for girl in pink sweater w/ finger stuck in bottle) & compelled her to include a small quote in an essay due for her Masters in Global Politics at LSE, even if only as an allusion to some sort of international consolidation between peoples. Alas, my attempts to raise musical/ lyrical awareness aren't futile... Please listen, below (& I do apologize for the quality of the sound - but his beginning words more than make up for this).

Jeff Buckley - [Leonard Cohen's] Hallelujah


Besos.

Lunesta is for Amateurs

Whoever said sedatives were a good treatment for insomnia, clearly wasn't too concerned about tomorrow. That's to say - not only do most pills cause a physical dependence, but also their withdrawal symptoms include (quite ironically) insomnia itself. What sort of hope can such an outlook bring to those affected by nightly spells of perpetual sleeplessness?

Ahh, but no worries! I'm not a pessimist. And I've had plenty of time to think about potential solutions, as it is well past 5am. Don't get me wrong - it's not that running 3 miles a day & wearing oneself out completely isn't acceptable - it's just that the daily task quickly becomes a necessity & altogether boring.

Instead, I have the perfect remedy: the fMRI. (Please see figure above.) Ita vero (as my Latin teacher would say). I had this epiphany just 15 minutes ago as I remembered that, tomorrow, I've agreed to be somebody's test subject & lay in an fMRI machine for 2 hours. Much to my dismay - or rather, much to his dismay - I'm Sleepless in London & will more than likely fall asleep as soon as my body hits its (normally uninviting) metallic surfaces. Poor experimenter - he's going to see some inexplicable outliers in his data set when my brain activity starts resembling the delta waves associated with deep, dreamless sleep.

In conclusion, if you're an insomniac & would like to feel like it's actually a useful, evolutionarily-selective condition, and are also impelled to have a direct impact on scientific progress, then talk to your local research center, university, or hospital. Just keep quiet about the whole 'insomniac' thing - they don't need to know. Chances are, they'll be interested in recruiting you as a participant for some experiment, & you'll get your nightly - or rather, daily - beauty sleep while simultaneously being productive! And since you'll probably be getting paid for all this, you can go ahead & just stay awake during the nights; go to a concert, see a film, have some drinks - & blow some of that extra cash!

Besos.

It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere...

I miss my SICUS & now I wish I'd brought it w/ me. (A.K.A. the PANPIPES, for all you Peter Pan fans. ...Or was it Peter Piper?) It's one of those unfortunate musical instruments that's so easily taken for granted, probably because of its such gentle nature. I just don't like knowing that it's no longer accessible to me at all hours, subject to my musical impulses.

Ahhh. There just aren't any YouTube videos that do its music any justice.

So instead, here's something to keep us awake for 8 minutes & 41 seconds longer than we should stay up.

Victor Wooten - Bass Solo - Sinister Minister

Besos.

How Many Words is a Picture Worth?

Today is not a day for words. Only images. Click below...

I want to tell you everything.

I want to know you more.

Today I am going to learn to fly.

Why am I up so late?

And now, to soothe your soul, is Wilco - Jesus, Etc. Enjoy!

Besos.

First Times

Being, as it is, my first time aboard Cyberspace, I'll keep things short. ...But sweet, as first times should always be so.

I've finally submitted to the frenzy and created my own blogspot. But, alas, will this be more interesting to manage than MySpace? Surely, my (more often than not) short-lived attention span will answer the question, and probably sooner than later.

Why have I created this page? I'll tell you.

Reason #1. MySpace blows.
Reason #2. As a distraction from my studies, & to make my time more multifaceted.
Reason #3. To share, with YOU, my thoughts, discoveries, ideas, experiences, pictures, & favorites (be they music books films art websites people jokes........ etc etC ETC). :0)

Ok, enough jabber. I promise to keep things interesting. (That might turn out to be a lie.)

Having said that, here's something cool I found just yesterday: Malinowski's Music Animation Machine. The link came from a webpage about synesthesia; a music-color synesthete was trying to relate what "seeing music" is like, despite the fact that (for more than the obvious reasons) the experience seems to be ineffable. (And if you, at the very least, appreciate the idea behind the clips, then google ANIMUSIC for a more modern version of computer animated music.)

I'll leave you with
Leonard Cohen - "Famous Blue Raincoat" - Germany 1979.


Besos.