Big Band and Fast Feet

I have recently discovered the merit of the music of the 50s and early 60s.  I'm talking Etta James, Frank Sinatra, The Temptations, Dean Martin, Diana Ross and The Supremes.

I can't tell you how great I feel.

I mean, these are classic grooves.  I carry my iPod with me everywhere right now because I just can't get enough of it.

What sparked this sudden interest in this music, you ask?

A movie.

Mona Lisa Smile.

You shouldn't be surprised that I would be attracted to a film with Mona Lisa clearly in the title.  It's about Wellesley College in Massachusetts, which is a teeny tiny all-girls lib arts college that is apparently very prestigious and selective.  At least, it was in the mid-50s when this film takes place.

And that, children, is why I'm listening to swingin' music.  It's fun, it's romantic, it's classic.  It's big band and fast feet.  When I walk to it I feel like I'm in a movie.  A good movie, full of love and discovery and youth.  You know.  The kind of movie that would be cool to live at this time in my life.

I just wanted to suggest that you listen to it.  You'd be surprised the effect that good music like that can have on your day.  I mean really good.  Wholesome, innocent.  It's simple.  The 50s were a simpler time, I think.  Life moved at a slower pace.

Oh, right.  Life.  My life is just swell.  My family is swinging by tomorrow night to come pick me up so that we can go to my grandparents' house in Illinois, out in the corn and the trees.  We shall spend the great Eating Holiday, aka the Great American Holiday aka Thanksgiving, among extended family this year.  I can't help but feel it will be more stressful than a break should be, what with all of the small child-cousins running around and screaming.

Family.  Nothin' like it.

I suppose I'll just leave you with that.  If you're American, have a grand Thanksgiving.  If you're not, have a grand week.  I might post later this week but I seriously doubt it.

Ta-ta!

P.S.  My birthday is in less than two weeks.
P.P.S.  The blog birthday is coming up, too!  We'll have to have a joint birthday party, my blog and I.
P.P.P.S.  I'm writing again.  Aren't you proud?
P.P.P.P.S.  I've been watching way too many chick flicks lately.  If you couldn't tell by the general rose-colored aura of this post.

A Herd of Word Nerds

Alright, alright, you've caught me.  I'm writing another blog.  I know that I'm not so good at these things.  Don't expect another one for a while, either.  Maybe I'll write one or two over break.  We'll just have to find out.

I'm not going to do another one of those "let me talk about (insert broad topic here) for the next 5 years", have no fear.  I felt kind of guilty about the last one, so I added pictures to make it more interesting.

You know what's silly?  Or maybe not so silly.  The first thing that I did when I visited home over Halloween weekend was play the piano.  The first thing that I did when I stepped in my house over Thanksgiving Break was play the piano.  And I bet that the first thing I do when I go home after finals is...  You've guessed it.  Play the piano.

I never realized how much I love to play until I didn't have the luxury of playing whenever I wanted.  We were without a piano for quite a few years, and it absolutely killed me.  I found myself staring enviously at other peoples' pianos, wishing that I knew a cool enough song to play in front of other people.

I've always been a music lover.  Actually, more like a music collector.  I love experiencing new sounds and musicians and putting it all on my computer so that I can listen to it whenever I want.  I love being able to listen to hours of music that I don't recognize on my own iTunes.  Thank you, One Track Mind, largehearted boy, Said the Gramophone, and especially, Blalock's monthly Indie/Rock Playlist , for meeting all of my indie music needs.  There's your shout-out.

But, I didn't know that I actually liked to play, as I said, until I couldn't.  A few months before I left for college, we got a new piano, and I loved it.  I started listening to all sorts of pianists again, searching for sheet music that I thought I might be able to play.  Some songs, I found, I learned, and I loved.  One song I discovered that my hands were physically unable to play.  (That was such a bummer.)  Other songs, I can only worship from afar, so to speak.  Maybe, some day, I'll be able to play them.

Now what is the point of that story?  I don't know.  I just wanted to tell you.  I bet that many of you didn't even know that I play an instrument, let alone am in love with it.  Just like many of you didn't know that I write, let alone am in love with it.  Now that I think about it, there's probably a lot that you don't know about me.

I am writing constantly, without pen and paper.  I am in an eternal state of composing.  When I get bored, I write stories in my head.  I make up situations and dialogues and try to describe things that I see.  I know I'm a word nerd; I'm perfectly okay with it.  I treat it as an art, not just a means of self-expression.  Sometimes the creation is just as exciting as the finished product.

If you're ever wondering why I have such a strange expression on my face, now you might know the reason.  Because, in my little world, something awesome is happening, or something awful, something dramatic that could only happen in a book or movie.  Or maybe I'm just saying the things that I really want to, the things that you'll never get to hear.  The things that even I don't know what I'm thinking sometimes.  And that happens a lot.

This is the world of Dain.  Hop aboard, enjoy your stay!