The bookshop has become what the record store used to be when I was younger. Found some goodies last night. And I'm so stoked!
First, remember the idea about music being a device for remembering things more deeply? Well, I came across Love Is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. In this memoir, Sheffield uses old mix tapes to guide his writing, re-telling stories from awkward adolescence to the courtship and relationship with his late wife. This excerpt is from the first few pages, in which he's listening to a mix tape from his wife's collection:
All these tunes remind me of her now. ... We've done this before. We get together sometimes, in the dark, share a few songs. It's the closest we'll get to hearing each other's voice tonight.
Whew... So far, it's not as emotionally wrought as the first chapter. It's actually quite funny a lot of times. It's also got a nice cover by Barbara M. Bachman:
Second, I picked up an easy classical piano book. The irony is that I got tons of this stuff at mom's house from lessons when I was a kid. But all I cared to play back then was the Star Wars theme song and other John Williams movie themes. (Man, remember when Vader dies in Return of the Jedi? That harp playing the "Emperor's March" would kill me.)
Anyhow. I have no shame in the beginner stuff. I like my sheet music free of sharps and flats. I figure I can learn a new song on weekends, using coffee time in the mornings.
And thank the Force for youtube (not only for this alternate Vader death scene), but outside the notation, I don't know what these classical songs are supposed to sound like. Thanks to youtube, though, I did find this performance of Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" to use for practice.
Lastly, I picked up The Lightening Thief to satisfy my recent kick for young reader sci-fi/fantasy. But unlike Harry Potter and His Dark Materials, author Rick Riordan's lead character is a troubled punk-ass and the writing is equally irreverent. And that's cool. The writing, often in bombastic single-sentence paragraphs, jumps off the page with Beat-like urgency.
So I'm set for the long commute for at least a few weeks.
First, remember the idea about music being a device for remembering things more deeply? Well, I came across Love Is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. In this memoir, Sheffield uses old mix tapes to guide his writing, re-telling stories from awkward adolescence to the courtship and relationship with his late wife. This excerpt is from the first few pages, in which he's listening to a mix tape from his wife's collection:
All these tunes remind me of her now. ... We've done this before. We get together sometimes, in the dark, share a few songs. It's the closest we'll get to hearing each other's voice tonight.
Whew... So far, it's not as emotionally wrought as the first chapter. It's actually quite funny a lot of times. It's also got a nice cover by Barbara M. Bachman:
Second, I picked up an easy classical piano book. The irony is that I got tons of this stuff at mom's house from lessons when I was a kid. But all I cared to play back then was the Star Wars theme song and other John Williams movie themes. (Man, remember when Vader dies in Return of the Jedi? That harp playing the "Emperor's March" would kill me.)
Anyhow. I have no shame in the beginner stuff. I like my sheet music free of sharps and flats. I figure I can learn a new song on weekends, using coffee time in the mornings.
And thank the Force for youtube (not only for this alternate Vader death scene), but outside the notation, I don't know what these classical songs are supposed to sound like. Thanks to youtube, though, I did find this performance of Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" to use for practice.
Lastly, I picked up The Lightening Thief to satisfy my recent kick for young reader sci-fi/fantasy. But unlike Harry Potter and His Dark Materials, author Rick Riordan's lead character is a troubled punk-ass and the writing is equally irreverent. And that's cool. The writing, often in bombastic single-sentence paragraphs, jumps off the page with Beat-like urgency.
So I'm set for the long commute for at least a few weeks.
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