Classical Music

I am familiar with a few classical songs, but I can't say that I am a fan of classical music. I don't even know which tune was composed by whom, except for the very known ones, for example right now, all I can think of are Fur Elise by Beethoven, Four Seasons (Spring) by Vivaldi, Joplin's The Entertainer, and of course Pachelbel's Canon.

During the Christmas break, my younger brother (can't say little brother anymore since he is not so little and is in fact taller than I am already) spent his time watching loads of anime. One of these is kind of a musical - the characters all play musical instruments, and they play classical music. The title is La Corda d'Oro (The Golden Cord) - I only watched the 2nd half of this anime though. The protagonist of the story plays a violin with one of its strings a golden string, hence the title.

So because of this anime, I was able to listen to other classical pieces like Schubert's Ave Maria, Salut d'Amor by Elgar, La Campanella by Paganini etc etc etc.

Two of my favorites from the La Corda playlist are Gavotte by Gossec, and Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 - Prelude.

This is Gavotte - it has a light, playful tune. I love it. :D

Gossec Gavotte -

And this one is Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 - Prelude. Beautiful. So soothing.

Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude - Bach

And so, this 2009, I will make sure to play the piano everyday. I kinda neglected it last year because I was reading so much. :p I'll practice what I already know, and I'll probably try to learn new pieces. Gavotte maybe? Haha! As if! I've only graduated Grade 1 piano. :p Maybe I can find an easy arrangement somewhere.

And speaking of piano, ours needs to be tuned again. The last 2 octaves are flat, and the sustain pedal isn't completely working (sustains only the low notes). Boohoo.

Hairspray

Argel and I were pleased to find that the Hairspray musical was not as we thought it would be. Because of what Fed said, we were a little worried that we would be watching this horrible show. But it turned out quite good actually. Yay! :D

We thought there was one thing that was really disappointing about the show: Tim Espinosa as Link. His singing just wasn't good enough.

Michael de Mesa as Edna was just amazing. I think he did even better than John Travolta in the movie. :D

Hmmm... That's it. Oh, one last thing. I'm very thankful that Argel lets himself be dragged by me to these shows. :D

West Side Story Late Reaction

A long overdue post... :p Hehe

Last October, Argel and I watched West Side Story at the Meralco Theater starring Christian Bautista. It was nice... a little disappointing for me though. I was expecting a little bit more from the production, but that's just probably because the last musical we watched (Avenue Q) was a really great show.

I think Christian Bautista should stay away from any kind of dancing. Joanna Ampil as Maria was exceptional, as was the girl who played Anita (tama ba grammar niyan? anyway...). Christian and Joanna's voices weren't glued enough together during their duets though. To put it into shapes, it was like Joanna's voice was circular, and Christian's triangular (medyo sharp - not sharp-sharp out of tune, but sharp na nakatutusok sa tenga unlike yung voice ni Joanna na soothing pakinggan). Argel's analogy was Joanna's voice was a sine wave, and Christian's a triangular one - very engg-ish. Haha

That's all. I hope the next one we're going to watch is going to be good. We have tickets for the December 6 show of Hairspray. ^__^

Back Online

Due to our Globelines broadband connection problems, I wasn't able to go online for 3 days. 3 days of not checking email, not visiting my multiply, facebook (yeah, I now have a facebook account so add me up!), no web surfing for whatever I could think of etc etc etc.

Good thing though that our net connection acted up just after my birthday, so I was able to see all those greetings for me in my email, multiply, facebook, ym, even friendster. My dad called me on my birthday to wish me a happy birthday, then said goodbye. Then he called again a few minutes later to remind me to thank the people who greeted me on my friendster account. Sheeesh. Anyway, thank you again for those who greeted me!

Other stuff:
WoT. I'm now reading Knife of Dreams, the 11th in the series. My brother's copy is a hardbound, his only hardbound one in the series. The book smells funny though. Smells like a very old book. Mabaho.

Facebook. The first time I logged in on this, I was like, O-k... where are things supposed to be? The layout was... disorienting. And the layout keeps changing. What's up with that? Whatever. I now have 5 SNS accounts (friendster, myspace, multiply, facebook, and eskwela!). The only one I'm just visiting regularly though is multiply. The others, I visit only when I have a notification in my email (or when my dad notifies me. :p).

Melamine. China milk scare. Enough said.

24. Jack Bauer reminds me of John McClane. I don't like Jack Bauer, but I'm watching 24 Season 1. :p

Westside Story. Argel and I have tickets for the Oct 12 show. Yeah! :D

I Love Q!

Argel and I watched Avenue Q last Saturday night at the Carlos P. Romulo auditorium in RCBC Plaza. Ang masasabi ko... shit. Ang ganda! Haha Rachel was really good. Ganda ng boses niya, especially nung siya si Lucy the Slut. Galing din nung guy doing Princeton/Rod... very cool and smooth ng voice niya. Ok din si Aiza, si Frenchie Dy, the guy who played Brian... heck. Everyone was good! Haha Nag-enjoy kami (kahit na may car mishaps papunta sa makati and pauwi :p).

The show was really great. Sana marami pang makapanood ng Avenue Q. Must see! Hahaha :D

Trekkie and Kate Go Wicked!

Wicked's Popular, Avenue Q style! This is funny! Haha Er... Syempre sino lang na naman makaka-relate dito? Pero natuwa talaga ako. Hahaha