A Young Girl Rocks Out on Keyboard – Do You Think She Hit a Golf Ball?

Dan Everett posted shared this on his Facebook page and I thought I’d say a few words about her playing. I managed to find it on YouTube:

The commenters there identify the piece as Sonatina in D Major, Op 36, No 6 by Muzio Clementi. I wouldn’t have guessed that, but then, I simply don’t know Clementi. But that’s irrelevant.

I want to talk about her playing. Actually, I want to talk about how she uses her body. She plays with her body, as any halfway decent musician does. Look at how her upper body moves once she’s underway. That’s not merely a matter of moving her arms back and forth in front of the keyboard, it is some of that. It’s mostly keeping the groove and it’s setting the muscle tone in which her arms and fingers make the more differentiated movements that activate the keys.

Look, hear how strong her left hand is at 0:22 as she walks it back and forth. She’s leaning into it. And again at 0:34. Meanwhile the right hand is playing scalar figures.

The hands punctuate together at roughly 0:40, marking a turning point in the music. Listen to the left hand chords at 0:54, which are repeated an octave lower at 0:58 – well, not really repeated. But similar chordal figures, and she digs in. The young lady has a firm grasp of the piece’s structure and it comes out especially in her left hand. Hands together at 1:01. Look at/listen to her left hand just before the page turn and then hands together 1:05-1:09.

Now we move to the next section of the piece (I’m sure there’s a technical name for it, but I don’t know it). The left hand just keeps thumping away on a static figure – little or no motion up or down – while the right hand diddles the scalar melodic figures. And now an excursion into minor territory at 1:28. The left hand heads to the basement at 1:34.

She really digs in (left hand) 1:38-1:42, and then backs off on the volume (watch her body here), a short break and back to the beginning at 1:44.

The power at 2:04, 2:13, 2:15. Then she backs off. Watch hands and body at the end, 2:40-2:44.

Sparkychan and Gojochan Retrospective!

Back in 2006, when I first started photographing graffiti, I thought it would be interesting to get some kid's toys and photograph them amid the gritty territory I was exploring. So I bought two, a plastic model of Gojira (Godzilla in America), which promptly became Gojochan, and a hot-pink plush bear, Sparkychan. Here's some stories about their life: The Collected Adventures of Sparkychan & Gojochan (Thus Far). I've posted some photos of them below.

* * * * *

Sparkychan meditating on the awesomeness of existence.

Gojochan raging against the dying of the night.

Gogochan is attracted to Sparkychan's inner peace.

flora flora flora

Girls Playing Brass

There's a boy or two, but it's mostly girls. And they're fantastic!

Golf History has taken a new turn

The world has changed, if only just a bit: Y E Yang wins the PGA championship, the first Asian to win a major golf championship.

Of Countries and Bodhisattvas

“Hey Kong!”

“Yeah Jump!”

“Didja hear about Onechan and Imoto?”

“No, what happened to them? I haven’t seen them in awhile.”

“They’ve gone to Japan!”

“Japan? What’s Japan, Jump?”



“I don’t know, Kong. I thought you’d know.”

“Sorry, I don’t know, Jump. But maybe Japan is a country, like Norway and Tibet and Nigeria and Argentina and America.”

“America? That’s where we live, Kong. America is a country? I didn’t know that. You learn something everyday.”



“Yeah, America is a country, and so is Japan. And all those other places. Countries have houses and roads and trees and schools and bridges and cities and mountains and lawns and fields and rivers and airports and flowers and candy and trucks and busses and cars and lakes and dogs and fish and lots of stuff.” And after saying all of that Kong was all out of breath. “Wheeuuw.”

“That makes sense, Kong. I heard they were going to visit their grandparents,” said Jump.

“I hope they have a good visit.”

“Me too.”



And so the two friends just sat there together, thinking and being happy together. And then Jump thought of something. “And you know what else?”

“No, tell me Jump. What else?”

“I just heard from Sparkychan. She’s studying to be a bo bo boadi . . . I’m having trouble saying it, Kong, it’s a big word. Something about boadi and sat, boadisat . . . “

“I know”, said Kong. “Bodhisattva!”

“Yeah, that’s it. Bodhisattva! That’s what Sparkychan said. But what’s a Bodhisattva?”



“I’m not sure, Jump. I think it’s someone who is strong and good and patient and kind and loves everything.”

“Everything? Are you sure about that, Kong? ‘Cause everything is an awful lot.” Jump was very puzzled by this. Wouldn’t you be?

“Yes, everything. Including rats and dirt and thunder’n lightening and germs.”

“Wow, sounds real strange Kong. Anyhow, Sparkychan told me she was having a good time, but it’s hard, and sometimes she misses Onechan and Imoto and Haatochan. And even doggie, even doggie.”



“We’ll have to tell them the next time we see them, Jump.”

“Yes we will, Kong, yes we will.”

And so the two friends talked and laughed and looked at the pictures and thought about Onechan and Imoto and their trip to Japan.

Time for the Terrible Twos

It's Mostly Harmless's second birthday today. On to the terrible twos! Let's give imoto a run for her money. No, wait, better to pass along some tantrum antidotes:







Yup, we're all about the public service here.

Hopkinson@SF

[cross-posted from sf@SF]

It's official! Award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer Nalo Hopkinson will be giving a reading/lecture at SUNY Fredonia on Monday, April 21st. And she'll be making a special appearance in our Science Fiction class the following day, which we're moving to a new room to accommodate Saundra Liggins's African American literature class and any other Fredonians who want to attend.

Many thanks to the Dean of Arts and Humanities John Kijinski, the Pride Alliance, the Science Fiction Fantasy Gamers Guild, and the Mary Louise White Fund--not to mention the amazing Ms. Hopkinson herself--for making this visit possible. And to Jeffrey McMinn, Textbook Manager at SUNY Fredonia, who will have about 25 copies of her newest novel, The New Moon's Arms (which, by the way, was recently shortlisted for the Nebula and Aurora awards) and her first novel, Brown Girl in the Ring (which won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest in 1997 and recently was one of the 5 finalists among the books selected for the Canada Reads program).

Here are the details:

Monday, April 21, 4:30 pm, Thompson W101: Reading/Lecture on race in science fiction; free and open to the public

Tuesday, April 22, 2 pm, McEwen G26: Class Visit; free and open to SUNY Fredonia students, faculty, and staff

And a bit of a bio:

Born in Jamaica, and raised in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, and the U.S., Nalo Hopkinson has lived in Canada since her family moved there in 1977 when she was 16 years old. The author of four novels and two short story collections, she has branched out into essays, editing, and art in recent years.

Spread the word!

We Have a Site! And a Line-Up? And Sponsors...?

As in a real, live, location. A building, if you will.

What is this about? Click here and ask yourself which god(s) of stupidity made me forget to cross-post that CitizenSE post here. But hey, everything happens for a reason, etc. etc. Instead of a cross-post, I have something much, much better.

Video from the Virtual Goods Summit 2007 at Stanford University. Watch it all. I haven't--yet--but Sloucho has.

Sloucho, you'll recall, is the guy too busy to blog here about some of the material we never quite got around to doing together as a ground-breaking video games studies book back in the early aughts--mostly due to mutual slackerdom. Well, since then he's straightened up and appears to be flying right. His Fantasy Football writing gig has been supplemented by a third job toiling away in Everquest 2's platinum mines. His first job? Oh, he was just named Professor of the Year there. I'm totally serious. Things are going his way. And coming. Watch the video and try to figure out how he's making more per month on his third job than I am on my first.

So my point in mentioning all this is that we don't just have a site but also potential sponsors and a stellar line-up for the video game studies summer camp idea you all were too lazy to click and read about up there in my first link. Go do it now, so you'll appreciate what I'm about to do next.

Site: Cameron University's Center for Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurial Studies.

Sponsors: Click on the link, for starters. Feel free to suggest more (or self-nominate) in comments.

Line-Up (other professor-coach types than Sloucho and me): Dave Lester. Rob MacDougall. Timothy Burke. Kathleen Fitzpatrick.

OK, so they haven't officially confirmed. Heck, some of them don't even know yet that they're being recruited, or are doing a damn good impression of it. Only others we let in are close personal friends or those whose friend(s) already in can wangle a majority vote among those already in for them.

Seriously, this is going to be big. I can't believe no one has done this already. How do you patent this? Or is that trademark? Yeesh, maybe we can bring somebody in who knows something about intellectual property. Between the 2 of us, we ought to know someone.

Yeah, I said Lawton, OK, in summer 2009. You got a problem with that? Sloucho has to take advantage of his summers to do most of the heavy lifting directing an Honors Program there, so no travelling road show until we finish beta testing it on his home turf.

OK, anyone else who wants in can leave a comment or drop me a line at my super-secret bloggy email address (or any of my others--impress me with your fab research skills)....

Please excuse my tone. When I was talking about all this with the Full Metal Archivist yesterday evening, onechan came over, listened in for awhile, and interjected, "why are you laughing like a monster from Pretty Cure, daddy?" No, my laugh had nothing to do with the Powerpuff Girls CD playing rather loudly in the background. It's the possibility of never having to teach a summer course again and still being able to send both my girls to any college they want.

Curious?

[Update 3/26/08: Bill Benzon shares an article on the social networking pros of video game play. Thanks, Bill!]

Don't talk back to Darth Vader; he'll getcha

A young girl tells the Star Wars tale:

Happy Blogiversary, Mostly Harmless

If I was really together, I'd put together a Hitchhiker's Guide to Mostly Harmless, but since I'm in full-blown pre-semester panic mode, I'll just have to note that our first post was a year ago today, Fukuoka time. The most I can do to honor this historic day is to pass along this public service message from Home Movies:

Radiohead + New Year's Eve = Hope for 2008

Go here around 7 pm tonight (on the east coast) for it!

Wise Guy Christmas Medley

Crank up the volume and enjoy:

1000 Buddhas

Well, not yet a thousand, but they're working on it. Go here to see a bunch of interesting photos:

http://www.lensculture.com/buddha.html#

Free Fall

Episode 3 of 2001 Redux: A Toy Odyssey

In the last episode Kongsan and Jumpsan had gone into space to investigate the Green Box over Citytown. At the end they were watching the mysterious box change colors.

“Hey, look,” said Jump, “now it’s beginning to twist and spin.”

“It sure is,” said Kong. “I wonder what it’s up to.”



“Now it’s changing color, again,” said Jump.

“Yeah, it’s blue and purple.”



“And it’s spinning faster and faster. It doesn’t look like a box at all.”

“No, it’s all twirly and swirly,” said Kong.

“And whirly too! And now it’s green!”



“I wonder if it’s going to do all the colors of the rainbow?” asked Jump.

“I don’t know,” said Kong, “but it’s going faster and faster and faster and now it’s yellow.”



“Wow, this sure is interesting. I wonder what’s going to happen next?”

No sooner did Jumpsan ask the question, than a mysterious force began to draw her and Kong out of their spaceship and into deepest space. The deepest and coldest space ever! Brrrrrr!



“What’s going on?” asked Kong. “What’s happening to us?”

“I don’t know, but it sure is scary,” said Jumper. And Jumper was right. It was scary. And now they began to spin too.



And so Jumpsan and Kong began spinning and tumbling in space. Down and down and around and around and over and under and sideways, glideways, rideways, always. All ways they went, tumble tumble tumble.



They kept falling and falling. They were both scared. Their hearts were beating thumpa thumpa thumpa thump thump thump, thumpa thumpa thumpa thump thump thump, thumpa thumpa thumpa thump thump thump . . . But they didn’t give up. They thought about each other and all their friends and they even thought about Coco and Nila, the brave little girls who saved Gojochan and Sparkychan. Pretty soon they saw a strange planet.



And still, they kept falling. “It’s a pretty planet,” thought Kong. “It’s a pretty planet,” thought Jump. And still they fell. And then they got separated. Kong couldn’t see Jumper, and Jumper couldn’t see Kong.

Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! Pretty soon Kong heard a little voice: “Kong, this is Nila, friend of Gojochan and Sparkychan. Be brave and you’ll be OK.”

So Kong was brave and he kept falling. It was scary. But it was good, too. It felt all light and tingly.



Oh me! Oh my! Oh me! Oh my! Jumper heard a little voice at the very same time: “Kong, this is Coco, friend of Gojochan and Sparkychan. Be brave and you’ll be OK.”

And Jumper was brave, very brave. It was scary. But it was good and tingly too.



And pretty soon Jumpsan landed in the woods near a patch of berries.



“Hmmm, I feel OK. Two legs, two arms, yes, got those,” said Jump as she counted her arms and legs. “Got my tail, got my eyes, got my nose and ears and mouth and tummy and . . . I got everything. I’m OK. But where’s Kong? I hope he’s OK.”

Pretty soon Kong landed in the woods on a green leafy plant.



Plop! Just so, it was a soft landing. “Got my legs, and arms, and toes and nose.” Said Kong. “Got my tummy and my eyes and my ears and my tail and . . . . I got everything. I’m OK. But where’s Jumper? I hope she’s OK.”

And so there they were, Jumper and Kong, on a strange planet. Both were OK. They listened to Coco and Nila and were brave. But they were also lost. Kong didn’t know where Jumper was, and Jumper didn’t know where Kong was. How would they find each other?

Japanese Jazz Guitarist

& vocalist . . . a bit older than onechan:



Now a little bossa nova:

what superhero are YOU?

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 85% Supergirl 65% Green Lantern 65% Robin 60% Spider-Man 55% Hulk 55% Iron Man 50% Batman 35% Wonder Woman 35% Catwoman 35% The Flash 20%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Shameless Plug: It's a Blast

Sparkychan: Hey, kids, be sure to see 2001 Redux: A Toy Odyssey, it's a blast!

Gojojan: Yeah, it stars our good friends, Kongsan and Jumpsan. They're cool!

Sparkychan: And it's got neat special effects.

Gojochan: And a shocking opening scene, so be sure to warn your parents so they're not too upset.

Sparkychan: After all, everybody poops, no? Even movie stars and super-heroes.

Gojochan: You weren't supposed to tell them, Sparky.

Sparkychan: I know, but it ... just ... you know ... slipped out. I'm sorry.

Gojochan: Oh, that's OK. I'm kinda' glad you said it. Let's go have some tea.

Sparkychan: Yes. And ice cream, too.

Coming to a theatre near you – 2001 Redux: A Toy Odyssey

Coming Attractions

Kong, Jumper, and the Green Pavilion:



Have they heard about the rescue of Gojochan and Sparkychan? Do they know about the League of Pretty Good Amazons, aka the LPGA? Do Coco and Yaya have the Right Stuff to join the LPGA? What's the Green Pavilion?

So many mysteries.

Friday's Footprint?