Day 22 - A Day at the Beach

WE WENT TO CAROLINA BEACH TODAY.

That sentence in itself should evoke images of bluish waters, sandy beaches, heat and humidity, colorful beach houses, calming waves, and child-like happiness.

Needless to say, that image in your head is accurate.

After a three hour drive, my host family and I arrived and headed straight for the beach. We swam, played in the sand, sang, and laughed. Modesta, while searching for shells, found the perfectly intact exoskeleton of a crab. I found some brain coral. My hair, while writing this, is still full of sand after two showers. I found sand in my ears.

Just a few tidbits of my day. The only day in which I've had a full break from this fast-paced program, but not a day in which I didn't learn. I learned parts of the Lithuanian language, learned about general Lithuanian and Albanian views on feminism, used some old music composition skills to try and arrange a version of a song for the talent show. It's going to be a surprise.

After the beach, my family and I headed to downtown Wilmington. There was so much street music and little indie bands were playing everywhere! And my parents told me that they were also in Wilmington with my little brother. Perhaps we will meet up, but perhaps we will not! I miss my family terribly, but I honestly don't want to impose on my host family who have been nothing but incredibly patient and considerate. I just can't wait to see them, but I don't want to leave. xx

-Pictures will come later, when I'm more awake!

Day 19

As the number of days left in the Benjamin Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Program are slowly dwindling down, I feel almost like I'm leaving home to find a home to leave it again.

Today was a day focused mainly on human rights. There wasn't any structured learning, but instead, there was a free period for us to work on building formal speeches for our discussion of controversial human rights violation issues in each of our respective countries. I'm researching human and civil rights violated during the process of imposing democracy in other nations, specifically looking at the United States' involvement.

We went to a retirement community in Winston-Salem to watch the Arts group perform their pieces. Katarina from Montenegro played classical piano. Emma presented a piece of artwork that was a portrait of Antia. Many people recited poems they had wrote. It was all very touching, and very impressive, considering that it was all put together in less than three days! And the residents seemed to enjoy the presentation, and we were able to speak with them after the performances.

And after, we returned home to the Jennings'. I've been having an amazing time at their home, and am really grateful for their offering to keep us here. Modesta and Sarah and I sat and jammed to "American Boy" by Estelle, as well as various Coldplay and Adele songs. I think we may perform that at the final performance! I'll be rapping of course. Kanye, Sara, eh.

LPOTD5. I've been told that it's very easy to get ahold of guns in the United States by many different European fellows... I guess they're right.

m4.

Nervewracking.

I think piano should be an extreme sport.

With that said, here's why:

Well, I play competitive piano. Competition is always good--it lets you see where you stand in the crowd. Last year, I played in this same competition, and won the Piano Category with the first movement from a lovely concerto called Grieg Piano Concerto in a minor.

You can listen to a different interpretation by one of the greats, Arthur Rubenstein, of the same piece here:

Thanks to cellomoi for the video.

Anyway, I played in the same competition again this year. In fact, I just finished playing, and I'm even more nervous than before I played! I played the third movement from the same concerto. The results aren't up yet, and won't be until the afternoon, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

While I'm waiting, I guess I'll just post a video of the piece I played today!

You won't be able to hear the entire piece, but here's my favorite interpretation of this movement so far by Sviatoslav Richter:

Thanks to samsonno for the video.

Wish me luck.

Stop Motion Art

I absolute LOVE stop motion videos.
It's like photography--only better, in my opinion. It's almost like rifling through an old photo album or scrapbook.

But this video absolutely blows my mind:

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie



Thanks to QuarterPastWonderful for the video.

Yo Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone

I have a CD at home. It's old, and battered. I've listened to it, literally, over a thousand times. I've downloaded its contents down to an equally loved iPod nano,  however for some reason I prefer listening to the music through the speakers of a CD player that has been around since before I was born. 

A former teacher once told me that music is something that is best appreciated with the ears, without the use of other senses, but I think I may have to disagree. When I listen to Yo-Yo Ma playing Ennio Morricone's music, I think I can almost feel the music moving like water--when you try to hold it for too long, it just trickles out of your hands. I can see the colors and images of the music, of the notes, of the melody. 

Watch these videos, and see if you can hear/feel/see what I see. :)

Thanks to zuccherohk for these videos.

The Lighter Side of Life

For the last two weeks, I went to a camp where we celebrated the "lighter side of life". Whoopee.
It's called the Betty Stovall Spectrum of the Arts camp. It's sponsored by the CMS school system, and every year, kids from around the 4th grade up to rising 9th graders come to "indulge themselves in the spectrum of the arts!" [--one of the teachers; what a witty pun.]

Anyway, for our final number, all the kids had to sing and dance this one song--a modified version of this song called the "Brighter Side of Life". I think it's from some Broadway musical; it has that exaggerated touch to it. And ever since then, I've had this song stuck in my head.

I think it may not be such a bad thing though.
It's hard to be grumpy when you have such a happy song stuck in your head.

Always look on the lighter side of life!
When you're feeling in the dumps,
Don't be silly chumps!
Just purse your lips and whistle,
thats the thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, oooooooooooooooooooooooh!
Always look on the lighteer side of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife!
Company bow.

Ugh. It's almost too happy.