Because of the crazy hormones that have rampaged my new baby factory body, I have been having the craziest and most vivid dreams.  I even had a dream of sounds that were actually happening at the moment I was dreaming.  So lately, I have tried to stay clear of gory tv shows and movies to limit the scary-ass nightmares I now get when I see nasty images.

But what about sounds?  It wasn’t until recently that I’ve been thinking and dreaming up new sounds and motives in my head.  This was great news for me since I had been in no shape to think about anything music or composition wise in the past few months.  Today, I listened to Udo Zimmermann’s, Sinfonia come un grande lamento, and that thing gave me the heebeejeebee’s.  I don’t think I would usually feel this way in normal human circumstances, but I haven’t been “normal” lately.  It starts innocently enough with a theme played by a solemn flute and clarinet.  But then as the instruments are added on, the creepy nightmare begins.  Yeah, it’s a lament.  Some grand lament that makes me want to claw my ears out of my head by strangely fascinated enough to keep listening.  Classic horror flick.  You know what it reminded me of when listening to it?  Gorecki’s Symphony no.3 with all the layers being added on slowly, but the completely opposite mood.  

I wonder what dreams I’ll be having tonight.

WOW!  Today is a great day.

With the coming of our new family member, there is one thing that will not escape my mind these days.  What the heck am I going to do with my name? I kept my maiden name because 1. it’s a Korean tradition that the women keep their maiden name, 2. I am strongly attached to my name, 3. my sister and I are the last of the Cho’s on my mother’s side, 4. I really dislike that women have to change their last names and that it’s expected and, 5. I have a feeling that I don’t really look like a Smith.  Or do I???? hehe..

So, do I hyphenate?  I’ve heard horror stories about confusion, files getting lost, and people eventually dropping the last part of the hyphenated name.  Do I drop my middle name and use ‘Cho’ as my middle name?  Well, there’s a problem with that as well.  I strongly identify with my middle name as well since I’ve been called that since I was born and my family still calls me by that name.  Do I put ‘Cho’ in along my middle name and take B’s last name?  Ugh, this is so stupid.  

I just don’t want to take my kid to school or the hospital and the staff think I’m the freakin’ nanny.  So annoyed.

Or at least, wouldn’t care. How many times have we walked by that person in BART playing that whatsit and just walked by? What? there was a person playing something?  Huh, I didn’t notice.  Being the pompous-’b’ that I am, I usually listen to see if the person is actually good or not. Sometimes there is a gem, but mostly not.

After hearing about the incident that happened last year at a Washington D.C. train station, I was astonished and not surprised at the same time. Yes, this is last years news, but it’s still a good story. An amazing classical violinist was playing at a train station and made only $32.17 in an hour. How insane is that when this person receives $1000 per minute?  

When listening to the whole experiment which was all videotaped, I was still taken aback by this subway performance through crappy acoustics and suck-y laptop speakers. Surely, I would have stopped. I would’ve recognized him and I would have had to hold my sister back from jumping his bones. And yes, I probably would’ve sheepishly asked for his autograph.  

Check it out for yourself. Joshua Bell

yeah… freakin’ Joshua Bell.