Twilight Thursday

I missed my usual Twilight Tuesday post because I was glued to election coverage on television all night.

Since the movie is coming out soon (two weeks according to the countdown clock!), there have been tons of new links and news that Alissa and Tameka have been sending me. It's been hard to choose which pictures and news to post, so for today I will go with: the soundtrack!

Tuesday, November 4 was a big day because not only was it Election Day, but the Twilight soundtrack was finally released. I've been waiting with bated breath for Bella's Lullaby, and when I finally heard it, I have...mixed emotions.

First, here it is!



My first reaction was - not surprisingly - that it didn't sound like what I thought of as Bella's lullaby in my head, and that I liked Schumann's Widmung much better (so did Alissa). The second thought: in spite of this, the official version is a gorgeous piece of music. At first I was thrown off by the strings (I was expecting a pure piano solo), but I read that this song is played throughout the movie and reflects the progression of Bella and Edward's relationship, so it seemed like it would need to be a fleshed out orchestral piece.

I have a hard time imagining it as a piano solo because the orchestral accompaniment weaves the theme and adds color and texture to the melody, and if just a piano solo, the melody would sound rather flat. Which brings me to my next point - it was hard discerning the central melody because the piece was so short - the version they released on the soundtrack stands at only 2 minutes. The cymbals at the end give this an epic, soaring feel, but a lullaby should be quiet, intimate, sweet - not necessarily soaring. It's a beautiful composition but I don't know if it should be Bella's lullaby. Still, I would love to play this on my violin with an orchestra.

And I'll leave you with another eye candy, this time with Edward (R-Pattz), Bella (Kristen Stewart) and James (played by Cam Gigandet, who I am told was also on the OC). This was from the latest Vanity Fair interview and photoshoot.

Favorite new song

I know it's not Tuesday, but I had to gush a little about "Leave Out All The Rest" by Linkin Park. I am in love with it (plus I never realized how hot the lead singer of Linkin Park is). It's going to be on the Twilight soundtrack - coming out this Tuesday! From all indications, it's going to be a good one. I was bummed that I couldn't attend the Twilight listening parties held at Hot Topic stores on October 24, but the wait isn't too long now.

On repeat

These are the songs in my iPod that I've been listening to over and over. Some are newly downloaded, and all are my favorites these days.

• Please Forgive Me - David Gray
• Monsters - Matchbook Romance
• My Immortal - Evanescence
• Mexican Standoff - Elbow
• Widmung - Schumann/Liszt
• Dark Blue - Jack's Mannequin (so in love with this song!)
• Nobody's Listening - Linkin Park
• No Cars Go - Arcade Fire
• Secret Crowds - Angels & Airwaves (so in love with Tom DeLonge!)
  
• Penny on the Train Track - Ben Kweller
• Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups

And on that note, happy Columbus day! Thanks to Columbus, I have the day off today.

Music to my ears

The other day on my way to ballet, I had the car radio tuned to the local classical music station when out comes this piano music floating out of the speakers. I sat in my car in the parking lot for a long time, mesmerized.

I’m not usually a fan of piano solos (I like full symphonies and violin concertos), but this song was just so gorgeous and poignant that I stopped, breathless, in my car until the music ended. It was Widmung, composed by Schumann and arranged for the piano by Liszt. Schumann wrote the song as a wedding gift to his new bride, and I can see why – it has a deeply romantic melody.

The first thought in my head when I heard it was that this is exactly how the lullaby Edward composed for Bella would sound like. Throughout the books, there are references to Edward humming Bella to sleep with her lullaby and playing it on the piano to welcome her home.

Like I said, deeply romantic.

I downloaded Widmung on iTunes, and I get an ache in my chest every time I listen.

Do you hear the people sing?

Yesterday I went to see Les Miz, my sixth (or is it seventh?) time. However, be it first or seventh time, hearing the opening strains still brought me chills, as the curtain rose on Jean Valjean and the chain gang in 1815 France. And first or seventh, the songs still have the power to stir me to the soul, and the wedding scene still makes me sad because it means the story is almost over.

The last time I saw Les Miz was on Broadway when I went with my sis on a cold weekend in February. This time it was performed on an outdoor ampitheater, and I was surprised to see that many of the cast came from the Broadway production. The only two things I had a beef about with this production were, one, the stage was on the smaller side so the barricades looked a little puny, and, more importantly, there was no turntable on which the barricades rested. The turntable is a major component of Les Miz. It lost something without it. And since it was an outdoor matinee, the sunlight competed with the stage lights so we didn't get the full, dramatic effect.

But all in all, still a great performance! And still my all-time favorite musical ever.

Some pictures of the ampitheater - on a perfect, and perfectly hot, late summer afternoon.




It was a wonderful way to end the summer...

Third and final installment

Here are the last of my pictures that I wanted to share!

This display was right outside a restaurant in Chelsea. It was so pretty that I couldn't resist.


The exterior of 202, the Nicole Farhi boutique/cafe in the Meatpacking District.


'Nuff said.


We ran into a street fair in midtown next to our second hotel of the weekend (the Park Central - highly, highly not recommended. Please do yourselves a huge favor and avoid this hotel like the plague).

However, the street fair was great. We found a crepe stand. I also found the keffiyehs that my sister asked me to find for her. Apparently they are the latest hip hop accessory and she can't find them anywhere, but we saw them at the fair and I bought her a whole bunch in different colors.



I bought a crepe with strawberries, bananas, and nutella. I was in heaven.


We had dinner at Docks in the Upper West Side one night and got this great banana bread pudding for dessert.


Carnegie Deli, Mr Hazel's favorite place in New York after Yankee Stadium. If he could, he would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner here.


I've had a busy week. It's especially crazy whenever I go away for the weekend, but the rest of the week was jam packed with things so it added to the craziness. On Monday we went to the baseball game and had the privilege of hearing the Gay Men's Chorus sing the national anthem. They were incredible, and I was so proud of my baseball team for inviting them. We also saw Rob Reiner there!

I am obsessed with the new Angels & Airwaves album, "I-Empire". And by obsessed, I mean obsessed. It is incredibly good and I can't stop listening to it. Some of the songs give me goosebumps. They are currently my #2 favorite band after U2, and that's saying a lot, considering how much I love my Bono.

New shop item: more pink earrings

These earrings are "Bella," named after one of my favorite aunts who actually has a much longer and more complicated name, but I thought Bella was a pretty appropriate derivative. She is similar to the Elizabeth earrings, only the glass briolettes are translucent instead of opaque and I used gold-filled wire and vermeil earwires instead of sterling. I thought this picture, where the earrings reflect the words off the pages of the book, was pretty cool.

More details and pictures of Bella are available at the shop!

I've been keenly following the events in Pyongyang from the last day or two, with the historic arrival of the New York Philharmonic. This article made me teary. As a universal language that embraces all cultures, music really is a powerful tool that brings two disparate countries and cultures together. I would really love to watch this concert, especially because part of the repertoire is Dvorak's 9th Symphony (the famous "New World" Symphony), one of my all-time favorite pieces of music.

I still remember sitting in my room as a kid, listening to the magical, soaring, haunting largo movement over and over again. I hope the North Koreans love it equally well.

Cinnabar and music

Here is a preview of a new piece. This is "Mary," named after one of my good friends who was also one of my first customers (thanks, Mary!).

The pendant is a green cinnabar with white carved flower beads and a long sterling silver chain. I will post to let you know when she is available at the shop.

I downloaded four songs onto my iPod recently and I haven't been able to stop listening to them. The first two are by Jimmy Eat World, "Big Casino" and "Chase the Light." I swear, Chase the Light is so romantic! I don't even really know what the lyrics are saying (I never do) but it sounds so dreamy.

The third song is "Minority" by Greenday, and the last is "Shadow of the Day" by my new favorite group, Linkin Park. This one is very jangly pop, which sounds very different from their other songs like "Bleed It Out" and "What I've Done".

I keep putting them all on repeat. That might be bad, as I'll get sick of them in no time. But so far they're making my commute to work very enjoyable.

Yellow aventurine

Just completed this one! I've been working on it for a while, rearranging the placement of the beads and playing around with using green and white polka dot ribbon instead of the silver chain. In the end, I think this is the final verdict: a half strand of yellow aventurine beads, with an asymmetrically-placed white swarovski crystal on the side and a cluster of charms hanging off of it, made up of a sterling silver filigree charm, a white nugget pearl, and a smaller white swarovski bead. They are all finished off with a silver chain, with a total length of 22".

A MUSICAL NIGHT

On Saturday night I went with my sister, her husband, and Mr HD to hear the symphony pops orchestra play tunes from John Williams' movie scores, with the highlight being the Star Wars music. It was wonderful. Aside from Star Wars, my favorites were the themes from Super Man and Schindler's List, the latter's solo violin part performed by the concertmistress herself. It brought chills down my spine! They also played the main theme from Jurassic Park, which took me back to when I played the same music as a violinist with the youth orchestra I belonged to in high school.

At the end of the concert we took pictures with some of the costumed characters from Star Wars who were milling around the lobby, including a Stormtrooper.

A good time was had by all!