The Girl from Ipanema

Borrowed from Little Ms. Bossy, a meme instead of the FriPod playlist. This was a lot of fun, especially adding LMB’s bit of finding a lyric that matched up with the question. Made some of the answers a bit more interesting. Or bizarre…

MEME Rules:

1. Put your iTunes/ music player on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT

1. If someone says ‘Is this OK?’ you say?
Round the Bed, Beck:
We dont have to worry
Life goes where it does

2. What would best describe your personality?
Made to Last, Semisonic:
Secret, sweet, and sublime

3. What do you like in a guy?
The End of the Summer, Dar Williams:
We have to get a move on.
Its just that time of year when we push ourselves ahead,
We push ourselves ahead.

4. How do you feel today?
Sleeping in, The Postal Service:
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping in…

5. What is your life’s purpose?
Care for a choro? Sasha (Russian flamenco quitarist I met in Atlanta):
Hmm. No words on this one… I could probably dance to this song though, so my purpose is to dance? Sure, I can live with that.

6. What is your motto?
Luna from Golijov’s Ayre:
Another one with no words. Think that’s a hint?

7. What do your friends think of you?
S’il est un charmant gazon (Liszt), Barbara Bonney & Antonio Pappano:
Read the translation here. I would be beyond happy if my friends said those words to me.

8. What do you think of your parents?
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk, Rufus Wainwright:
And then there’s those other things
Which for several reasons we wont mention
Everything about ‘em is a little bit stranger…

Umm… pass? This one doesn’t fit...

9. What do you think about very often?
Empty Hearts, Alison Krauss:
Tell me what an empty heart must feel.

10. What does 2+2=
Mojo Pin, Jeff Buckley:
Well it's you I've waited my life to see
It's you I've searched so hard for...

11. What do you think of your best friend?
Pride (In the Name of Love), U2:
(nobody like you...)

12. What do you think of the person you like?
Can we go higher? Nenad Bach:
Higher?
(We can smile at the future)

13. What is your life story?
A mistake, Fiona Apple:
I’m gonna make a mistake-
I’m gonna do it on purpose…

14. What do you want to be when you grow up?
And Hiding Away, The Innocent Mission

Try, catch the thoughts that flap and fly
in the cloudy, tearing sky,
that touch and stir and won't be tied-
and try to speak them.

15. What do you think when you see the person you like?
Completely Pleased, Semisonic:
I want to see you smiling
(It gets a little PG-13-rated after that…)

16. What do your parents think of you?
Either Way, Wilco:
Either you will or you won't
Maybe you just need some time alone
I will try to understand.

17. What will you dance to at your wedding?
Somebody More Like You, Nickel Creek:
hahaha – This is NOT a good first dance song for a wedding!

18. What will they play at your funeral?
Schneckenlied (L. Alexander-Katz), Suzanne Mentzer & Craig Rutenberg:
Snail, snail! Love-Slug,
Into your parlour crawl snug…
Weird.

19. What is your hobby/interest?
Heart in a Cage, The Strokes:
And we gotta laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh

20. What is your biggest secret?
Ricochet in Time, Shawn Colvin:
I crawled up from the sewer
For something that was truer than I intended.
I ended up on my knees in this big city.
I was befriended, I transcended.

21. What do you think of your friends?
Beautiful, Christina Aguilera:
You are beautiful in every single way.

22. What should you post this as?
The Girl From Ipanema, João Gilberto & Stan Getz

Holiday Geekery

SoHo the Dog wins this week's music geekery prize!

He has analyzed the Presbyterian hymnal, noting the starting pitches of Christmans hymns versus non-Christmas hymns. (Follow the link for the discovery.) I think he must either be finished with his Christmas shopping or procrastinating!

He gets really math-y about it, too, but manages to come up with a hypothesis that is spiritually very sweet. I could even see my Dad using it as a sermon illustration... if he were preaching to music geeks!

Back on the Left Coast

Just a quick note to say that I made it to Portland. I’m trying to stay up until 10:30 or so, but I am exhausted! This weekend was long and crazy, with a day trip to Boston, auditions in NYC on either side of said trip, packing (which I hate, we all know this…), and getting the apartment into sublettor shape. (DS, a colleague from Tanglewood, will be staying in my little nest while in town for auditions.) And then on the trip today, my iPod froze up and I can’t revive it. Very, very uncool.

Hmm. I was going to post a picture of my little Christmas set-up here in my hotel room, but I realized I left the cable for my camera at home. Maybe I’ll get one with my phone in the daylight.

Sleep now, breakfast with CT the DT tomorrow morning, then rehearsal at 2:00! I’m so excited, ready to get back to work. Singing with an orchestra again! Fun! The extra/forgotten aria from the Messiah is in good shape, and I’m really looking forward to singing the Magnificat trio (“Suscepit Israel”). I’ll write tomorrow about the strangeness of the soprano-baritone duet; bonus points to any music-geeky reader who can guess what I’m going to say!

Music Geek Fun

Via Red Black Window, here is a fun break-down of Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy." All of the parts are on separate tracks, and you can select one or several or all and follow along with the score. For all of us who sang along with the various harmony lines back in 1980-whatever, this is a lot of fun!

When I showed it to my roommate, he then passed along an even cooler music geek site: John Whitney's music algorithms. I don't pretend to understand the math behind the music, but these are very, very cool. Hypnotic and visually beautiful, they demonstrate the fine line between math and music. How much like the Ligeti Etudes do these sound?!

AP and I then talked about Reich's Clapping Music, which also makes an appearance over at TSR today. I was unfamiliar with the algorithmic nature of that piece, so AP explained it to me: two performers clap a pattern, starting together, for 12 (?) repetitions, then one of them shifts the pattern back a beat.

Which made me think of one of my favorite party tricks: singing "Take me out to the Ballgame" shifted back a word. (I told you, geek!)

Start the music in the same place, but start on the second word. "Me out to the ballgame, take..." etc. It is maddening to figure it out for the first time, but once you get it? Very cool. My favorite part is ending on the leading tone... And, of course, there are endless variations. Start on the second word, which is a bit easier, actually. "Out to the ballgame, take me..." And on and on.

Happy geekery!