In this age of social media explosion, I am simply amazed by the
amount of content being created and made available through music and
video discovery tools.
Today's find: Tiffany Alvord, great voice... and she does look a little like Emma Watson - no? :)
Watching Season 2 of Downton Abbey. Such an exceptional show with strong characters, a beautifully woven storyline, great acting and this amazing theme
music.
My previous post *had* to have a follow on. Watched the trilogy and I'm in
awe. When the Fellowship Of The Ring ended, I was like... where, what,
how and I immediately started watching The Two Towers.
What the movies lack in detail (that I previously mentioned) they more than make up for it in awesomeness. One word to describe the movies
#Epic.
Now
to continue with the audiobook, back to the details... and to
wait for The Hobbit (will hopefully not miss it this time around).
Confession #1: I have not watched the LOTR movies. I do have a valid reason for this, which brings me to...
Confession #2: I have not read the LOTR books.
Point to be noted: I didn't want to watch the movies until I had read the books.
All that changed this week. I got this great unabridged version of
the LOTR audio book. So, everyday on the way to work and back, this is
what I've been listening to. To be frank, I don't mind traffic jams or
delays any more, if anything I'm happy I have more time.
Since it's audio, I actually went through the foreword and the author's
notes, which I usually skip when I'm reading a book. The other good
thing about the audiobook, is the different voices/tones used
when delivering lines of different characters. This makes the experience
more interesting.
A wise person once told me that I should not wait until I finished the book - to watch the movie, for I would be disappointed. Taking his word,
I'm watching the movie now.
An hour into the movie and I've reached the part of the story where I
had stopped in the book.
The movie sure has sped through and missed out on
so many details. But the upside is the visuals, the background score and
of course the likes of Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler and the rest... So much for the
LOTR weekend.
Good music is music that moves us. Be it any genre, a music piece that
stirs a certain emotion (or more than one) is something that we listen
to over and over again.
A friend recommended the book An Equal music by Vikram Seth. It is a story about a love affair between two
successful musicians who meet after a decade of separation.
The writing
style is in first person, so it took me a lot of effort to get into the mode
of reading the story as spoken directly from the author's point of view.
What I do like about the book is the description of the music pieces and
references to the classical compositions. The first piece described in
the book is Beethoven's C Minor Trio. So along with reading about the
music, listening to it and actually understanding what the author
describes adds to the effect.
I love the way the lady plays the piano so beautifully and effortlessly.
These are the other classical/based pieces that I've been playing in a loop recently:
Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi's Divenire. Listening to this piece as well as watching the musicians play it is a treat.
David Lanz's Christofori's Dream. There is something very subtle at the same time very intense about this tune.
And it is time to note that the CDs with the works of Beethoven and Mozart received as a gift eons ago are being put to good use :)
