Category Archives: Music

Music

Stradivarius

It is amazing how beautiful music sounds when you least expect it. I was going to sleep. I was in a half sleep state when I heard beautiful violin music. I had turned on autoplay feature on BBC Radio on my Chromebook. I was listening to something earlier and after that show ended, autoplay was activated and started to play this radio show.

It was a radio show about Min Kym, a virtuoso violin player who loses her Stradivarius. The show is a very compelling retelling of what happens after Kym discovers that her Stradivarius is missing.

A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari , during the 17th and 18th centuries. The 1697 “Molitor” Stradivarius, once rumored to have belonged to Napoleon (it did belong to a general in his army, Count Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor), sold in 2010 at Tarisio Auctions to violinist Anne Akiko Meyers for $3,600,000, at the time a world record.

I know what you are thinking. How could anyone possibly lose a Stradivarius? Well, you will have tune in to the show to find out.

To listen to this radio show, go to BBC Radio and do a search for the show.

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Music

Angels Cry

I was listening to this song on Spotify. Mariah Carey is amazing on this song. Especially at the end of the song. I am not sure if her voice was digitally remastered but it sounded amazing.

Mariah Carey is one artist I regret not seeing live. I was not a real fan of Mariah Carey back when she was at the prime of her career. If Mariah Carey, in a live concert, sounded anything close to what she sounds like on the recording, I rue the missed opportunity to have seen a living goddess negotiate the vocal scale with grace and beauty.

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Humor, Music

Japanese BBQ

arianagrande

Oops! Ariana Grande wanted to tattoo a translation of her song titled “7 Rings”. Instead, she mistakenly got a tattoo that roughly translates as a “small charcoal grill”.

Click here to read full article published by The Guardian.

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Music, Personal, Travel

Lemon

I was listening to Spotify and this song started to play. Its funny how one song brings back memories from a certain period in your life. I was teaching English as a Native English teacher in Taipei at the time this song was released.

I remember this song well. It was my favorite song on the album “Zooropa” by U2.  I was in Taiwan when this album was released. Listening to this song brought back memories of scooters, motorcycles. a large gaping hole in the middle of the street, some truly weird roommates and dancing to the song “Killing In The Name” by Rage Against The Machine. That song was quite popular at the time in one particular Taipei bar. Every time it was played, a large crowd would start dancing on the dance floor.  I don’t remember the name of the bar. It was a bar not too far from where I used to live at that time.

After twenty five years, I still like this song by U2. It has some some of the most memorable lyrics in music

According to some reviews of the album:

Jon Pareles wrote that the songs are about how “media messages infect characters’ souls”, while music journalist David Browne said the songs are concerned with “emotional fracturing in the techno-tronic age”.

Notes:

Pareles, Jon. A raucous U2 moves further out on a limb. The New York Times. July 4, 1993.

Browne, David. Music Review: Zooropa. Entertainment Weekly. July 9, 1993.

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