A Life Without Music?

Even though most of the time we don't notice or pay to much about music in our lives, but if you think about it, it's everywhere. I'm not just talking about Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga; there is all types of music. If you ask me, even though vocal music is what is given to us, I think instrumental and classical music are the most beautiful. Most of the mainstream music today is hyped up for a couple weeks, month or years, but how many of them do you think will last a century.

Well yes... there is Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, but I still think nothing compares to classical music. It just never grows old. Okay fine, maybe I'm biased since I played violin for 10 years and absolutely love being in a orchestra (5 years)...and also... I can't sing. I still love hip hop and upbeat songs, but the only ones that moves me to tears and chills behind my backs are these awesome masterpieces of art of symphonies.

If you haven't really gotten into classical music, let me suggest to you a couple of my favorite pieces ( of course these include musicals, some contemporary music, and what not). These are not in any particular order nor in any particular categories.

Dvorak: New World Symphony
Schubert: Serenade
Andrew Loyd Webber: Memory (from Cats).
       btw I love him, check out some of his other ones (don't cry for me argentina, music of the night, sunset
       blvd, suitcase in the hall, and last but not least phantom of the opera!!!)
Shostakovich: First Cello Concerto
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto #2
Listz: Hungarian Rapsody
Holst: The Planets (my fave is Jupiter, Mars, Saturn)
Borodin: Prince Igor
Ravel: Bolero
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen
Vitali: Chaccone
Massenet: Meditation (Thais)
RossiniL William Tell Overture

Uhmmm... I'm losing track. There is so many!!!! This is impossible. I give up here. Just go and listen to music. CARPE DIEM.
     Tell me your absolute favorite pieces :)

Music makes life beautiful

Love, Kansie

My Last Dance... sort of

1,2..3, 4..chasse, pas de bourree...passe, plie. I have been dancing since elementary school, and have never regretted it. My mom was the one who signed me up and came up with the idea, but I was the one that chose to stick with it.

Before a performance, people would ask me whether I was nervous and I would always nod my head, but during the moment just before going on stage, the butterflies in my stomach would disappear. Instead I would feel a rush of adrenaline and excitement when on stage; I would feel like a different person.

Most of my friends have never seen me perform before, but they assume that I am really good since I have been dancing for a majority of my life. Unfortunately,... I wouldn't say I am. I am fairly flexible and have a tendency to surprise myself once in a while, but I lack the strength that allows a ballet dancer to receive the ability to hold a pose to what seems to be forever.

As I was looking at a dance calender that hung in the studio a couple years back, I found a picture of a ballet dancer doing a penche. I was amazed at the pose and stared at it for a good five minutes trying to take in the image. On that day I vowed to accomplish this move sometime in the future, and so whenever I would see a picture like this,

 
 a rush of inspiration would flow through my body.

Everyday in the studio is different and interesting. One day you can find your center easily and do so many turns that you lose count, but other days you can lose your center and end up barely even doing three. Each day is a chance to conquer my balance and master the techniques. Ballet educates me to be mentally and physically stronger.

Since I will be going off to college this fall, I am sad that I will not be able to dance with the friends I have known for years and dance in the studio that I have practically grown up in. Although I will be going off to college, I promise my dancing career will not end here. I plan to continue dancing ballet and even possibly try hip hop or jazz. I will be in a new studio and meet new dance-mates, but I will keep the memories forever.

-Nickel

Summer Irony

 I thoroughly enjoyed my day today. I woke up around 10:00 and played some games on my phone. I got up to eat when I got hungry, and then went back to bed to watch some dramas and read some mangas....till now (about 7pm). Reading/watching romantic things always make me sad. I'm always in a daze whenever I finish a good book or movie, and can't help but reflect on how mediocre my life is. Then again, its because in literature and movies, they dramatize everything. I swear its like drugs that hype up your dopamine levels and then after its over there comes the depression. This just reminds me of a poem by Robert Frost called "Directive". It's basically about how we, as adults, are unhappy and harder to be satisfied in comparison to the innocent and younger children that we were who would be happy just with a lollipop. Go check it out.  It shows us how small we are. How insignificant we are to the world, yet we are so self centered sometimes.
LIFE IS GOOD
Read Poems. Become literate as the whole world is becoming more illiterate. CARPE DIEM.
TRAGEDIES ARE BEAUTIFUL. that reminds me. I need to make a post/rant about tragedies. I'm not crazy. It's crazy how often I have to convince some of my friends that I'm not weird. I'm normal. I'm a normal weird person. Don't just me judge because I'm the way I am; because you are the way you are and its perfect like that. This is not gibberish. 

Maybe I should do something productive this summer. I'll leave the brainstorming to later.

     Tomorrow is finally graduation for Nickel and I! For a whole year all I yearned was to sleep in and do absolutely nothing. But now as summer is approaching, I'm really worried that I won't have anything to do and die of boredom. As much as I feel like a hermit a lot of the time, if I stay in my room for more than two days without going anywhere, I WILL GO MAD.

 I'm hungry again. This is the 3rd day I had hives. I hope it goes away soon. As you see, I'm quite random. I want to go swimming on a PINK BEACH! No, I am not high.  This is me.

-Kansie
  

Looking beyond the present

If you asked me about college a couple weeks ago, I would have told you that I was ready to get out of high school. If you ask me again now, I would hesitate a bit about leaving high school behind. People say high school is suppose to be the worst 4 years of a person's life and college is suppose to be the best 4 years. ...Don't get me wrong I still think high school is the worst 4 years of a person's life, since it can't possibly get any worse... but once I have reached toward the end of my high school journey, I began to reminisce and (to be honest) there has been some good memories during my 4 years here.

But I will not ever say I will miss high school. There is so much ahead, so much fun and as well as hard work. And...I would say the biggest thing (as of now) that is keeping me from looking back is definitely the Senior trip.

From hanging out on the beach close to home:


To traveling to different countries:

 

So much to do and so little time.
I will be graduating in less than two weeks and it will signal a new beginning, a new journey.
So I am ready to get out of high school and excited for what has yet to come.

Congratulations to everyone in the class of 2012!
-Nickel

The Start of the Sentimental-ness

Going hrough Elementary, Junior High, and High school, I've always been with mostly the same people. Today was senior picnic and I just realized that most of these people, I would never see again when we're all off to college. Even though there's a new beginning and this is probably only the threshold of our lives, it's sort of depressing.

Other than that, I did go shopping for birthday presents with some friends afterwards. And this is the first time in a LONG TIME that I actually used self restraint and did not buy anything I didn't need! (That's because I went crazy shopping numerous times for the past couple of weeks).

I first want to introduce myself as a extremely weird person. I like perfumes, I like nice smelling things, but i hate having to smell perfume on myself so I rarely use perfume. As a shopaholic however, I cannot bring myself to not buy things sometimes. So here is a part of my recent buy.

     Summer is coming and if you are looking for a fruity, beachy, floral, clean and fresh scent, check this out. The Body Shop recently had a buy 2 get 1 sale, so I went ahead and got the Dreams eau de toilette and lotion which is a summer limited edition. I also got the Seaweed Ionic Clay Masque which I used only once so far. It's pretty good and absorbs all the oil and smells really nice! My face feels clean and fresh after using it.

-Kansie