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(türkçe)
Weep!
Aha! I finally reworked a piece I had “completed” in 2007, but had taken off the Internet because I was unsatisfied with it. I knew exactly what I had to do to fix it, but I had been putting it off for over two years now. Today I knocked it off my list of things I’ve been meaning to do for years!
This piece… The love-hate relationship has turned into pure love, but with scars left behind. I can finally say that I’m satisfied with it. It sounds best with headphones, when you immerse yourself in the thick wall of sound. Speaking of which, that rich, sonorous, brassy, somewhat off-tune, whirling, ever-changing groups of tones were all derived from my voice some way or another.
Kudos to anyone who can tell where the title comes from.
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Looking down – Animated
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Enough of pigeons; let’s talk music.
I’m not sure why I deprived myself of two particular albums for the better half of this year- oh, I know, why: sheer laziness. Well, yesterday I couldn’t stand it anymore and purchased the two albums I’d been dying to hear for months.
1. Earl Greyhound – Suspicious Package. Earl Greyhound was one of the opening bands for an Ok Go concert I’d gone to a couple months ago; it was the first time I’d seen or heard of them, and I was mesmerized by their performance (especially after the mediocre opening act that they had followed). The group consists of three members, with two singers: an alto and tenor, whose voices blended perfectly as they rocked out and belted out their songs while harmonizing perfectly in tune. Their songs were catchy, full of energy, dark, and NOT fluffy. These people were serious about rocking out! It had been a while since I’d heard a rock band that I actually liked.
I can’t help but mention that I love the memorable band name, too. Their website has a streaming version of their full new album, so no need for me to post previews here. My favorite songs are Shotgun, Holy Immortality, Eyes of Cassandra.
2. Ryoji Ikeda – 0°C. I had a few Ryoji Ikeda mp3s when took electronic music classes in college. It was mentioned that he was a highly respected electronic composer of his time. His music sounds like a bunch of beeps and clicks on the surface, but it is all so expertly synthesized. He’s one of my favorite composers of all time. Anyway, I was driving home after a night shift one day last November, when my Pandora radio station started playing Continuum. It jarred me at 6:00 in the morning – the high-pitched tones being alternated in the left and right speakers while I was already in a drowsy and half-dreamy state of mind – as I was a few blocks away from home. I sat and listened to previews of all the pieces on that album and was blown away with excitement and inspiration. I told myself I’d buy it immediately, but it took me six months to actually get around to doing it. Last night I finally did it. Pure ear candy!
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Spotted Dove Spotted!
When I go to different cities, one thing that captures my attention is the difference in variety of local urban birds. For instance, the starlings in Arizona were huge compared to the ones I’m used to seeing in Southern California. The mourning doves in Istanbul are more of a reddish color than the ones here, and coo differently. I can’t help but feel like Charles Darwin, observing the difference in beak shapes of the finches in the Galapagos Islands, each type formed through years of evolution in isolation on an island. Usually, it’s the rock pigeons (the run-of-your-mill gray pigeons we see in almost every city) that seem to look the same everywhere.
Hong Kong had a disturbing lack of regular pigeons in the city, but I did notice many doves. They looked like standard mourning doves I’m used to seeing…
…except, these ones had silvery looking heads and dark necks laced with white spots! Yes, I was looking at a spotted dove, or Streptopelia chinensis.
Like all doves I’ve seen, they’re so impatient to walk around in circles frantically, making it difficult for me to photograph them well.
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Victoria Crowned Pigeon sighting
I was in Hong Kong last week. More on that later. Unexpectedly, one of the highlights of my trip was visiting the aviary in Kowloon Park. I finally saw a Victoria Crowned Pigeon in person.
I’d wanted to see a Victoria crowned pigeon ever since I saw a picture of one in an encyclopedia back when I was nine or ten years old. I was doing “research” for a two-page comic about a mourning dove teaching a classroom full of young mourning doves about pigeon and dove ancestry and the many kinds of doves that exist today. You can see that my unusual fascination with doves began at an early age. The comic is more pedagogical than entertaining, but what can I say…. I was a nerd.
Sadly, I couldn’t get a good picture of the creature in the aviary. The photo above is taken from Extraordinary Pigeons by Stephen Green-Armytage.
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My Etsy Cameo
My friend Danish’s mom just opened her own Etsy store to sell her handmade necklaces at Glitter and Stones. She hand-sews hundreds of beads onto a felt backing to create beautiful designs to rival all other bib necklaces! I’ve been helping them find similar items in other stores (online and otherwise) to help come up with ideas and pricing.
I was one of two lucky volunteers to help model the necklaces. The photo credits go to Danish on the portraits. He did an excellent job! His mom took the close-up pictures of the pieces.
The necklaces themselves are so cute. Look at the level of craftsmanship poured into them! I already picked one out for myself… Mwahaha.
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Pigeon trinkets
I commissioned Laura, one of my friends from MIT, to paint me some pigeons so that I can expand my ever-growing pigeon collection. Yay! Here’s what it looked like before she send it out, and here is what it looks like now:
Speaking of which, here is another recent addition to my collection:
Don’t ask me how my fascination with pigeons started, because it’s been too long for me to remember.
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Discouragement or challenge?
This past weekend, the things that usually inspire me had a somewhat discouraging effect on me. I went to a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Professional Development conference and heard some amazing and inspiring engineering professionals talk about their careers. The takeaway message I got from the conference was that the professionals who have excelled at their careers have no work-life balance. The panelists stated that they barely had time for their kids (if they even had any), let alone any hobbies outside of work. Is this the ideal role model? Certainly not! I, who had based my whole life on the duality between the arts and the sciences, felt for the first time that it was not possible to be a successful engineer, a modestly accomplished artist, and a good mother in the same lifetime.
The discouragement strangely fueled me to go on to lead quite a productive weekend. In the past three days, I:
- Went to an all-day SWE Professional Development conference
- Prepared five Powerpoint presentations for work, for a total of 3.5 hours presentation time
- Went to two concerts
- Practiced violin and went to my violin lesson
- Spent some quality family time
- Bought a present for and went to a coworker’s daugher’s 13th birthday party
- Updated Matchingfreak at the usual time, Sunday evening
It was as if I was trying to prove the world wrong; you can have your cake and eat it, too. I like living like this, to push myself to nearly a breaking point. Not one minute is wasted. I know I’m not utilizing my full capacity. I think there is more to be gained from operating closer to that breaking point, to cut down on the slack one allows oneself.
Some worry about burnout. I’m at a point in my life where I can afford to take the risk. If I burn out, all I have to do is simply vegetate for a weekend or two and I will be ready to rock and roll again.
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Arizona desert
I was gone the past week at a conference in Pheonix, Arizona. I’d never been there before, so the desert landscape, flora, and fauna looked quite different to me. We were treated to a hummer tour of the desert on the last day, which was magnificent. Here are a few pictures from the tour.
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