Another lukewarm post this week, I'm afraid. Sorry for being behind on the blog, I'm committed to catching up tomorrow and/or Wednesday.
Quite worried at the moment and hope you all are well! Really grateful that you guys put up with my online skribbl.io sessions. Not sure what I would do without them.
I am deciding that what I will do for the rest of quarantine is embark on a Wallace and Gromit retrospective, from earliest to most recent work. This means starting with 1989's A Grand Day Out. Will be back next week with a review or two. Originally had the idea to do this with the Muppets but to be honest they have a much fuller oeuvre than Wallace and Gromit do, so this seemed like a more approachable mission. I told my family this at dinner and my mom expressed her pride at what I am doing with my quarantine - sorry to flex on everyone and I don't mean to be such a "girlboss" but I truly cannot help rising and grinding everyday so hard. It's, like, genetic or something.
Also, I have started my French studies in earnest again. my favorite word I've learned so far is "le tatou" which means armadillo. Really charmed by the idea of saying "Je veux un tattoo d'un tatou." (Google tells me the French word for tattoo is actually "tatouage" but I like to believe and hope that colloquially many people just say "tattoo," allowing this to be a real sentence. French-speaking friends please confirm).
As you all know by now, I have also taken to yo-yoing. Unfortunately my repertoire is rather limited at the moment, and I can't decide whether it is my incompetence or the fact that my 13+ year old yo-yo is undeniably tightly wound and visibly chipped in many places, but I am incapable thus far of doing walk the dog or even a simple "sleeper" trick (where the yo-yo goes down and spins at the bottom of the string instead of coming back up, but I suspect all you yo-yo fiends already knew that). This has been discouraging but it is very nice to have something to do with my hands while I watch shows or read.
I've been reading a lot, too, which is rare for me these days and I've found extremely gratifying. Somehow it's much easier for me to get absorbed into a book or article than something visual - I've been trying to watch shows that friends have recommended to me a thousand times over, but that I've never actually gotten around to (something I'm rather un-proud of), but find that I have to watch them in 10 minute increments. Though for better or for worse, Infinite Jest is basically the only thing I've been reading (I'm at 380 pages in, a little over 600 - not counting endnotes - to go). Whatever I read takes a toll on my writing style, I've found, so it's a wonder this post is not more verbose, or just one long, seeming-never-ended sentence. Ah well.
I did "binge" watch Tiger King, though. Highly recommend if you haven't already been badgered into watching it by someone else in your life. If you guys have any recommendations for shows or movies please do let me know and this time around I will honor them swiftly or else face some kind of punishment of your choosing, if you so choose.
Well, the one slightly exciting thing of this post is the as-promised saxophone video. Unfortunately, this, too, is a little lukewarm. Basically it was an experiment into: if I just grind the same song over and over - not really practicing persay, but just playing it over and over, will I get better over the week? Considering how rusty I've been. The answer is kinda but also not really. It was not a very scientific study anyway. Next week, I'm going to go through and actually slow it down and practice like a real saxophone player, but hope you enjoy this little quickly-cut-together video throughout the week. The snippets are really in no particular order and then the full length video at the end is from my final day playing the piece.
The song is Charlie Parker's "Blues For Alice" and the piece is really hard for me, but I've been practicing it little by little on and off since I was 13, so even though it's certainly pretty rough still (as you'll see), it seemed like no better piece to get back into playing with. I'm glad to be playing again, though.
The yo-yo and sax skills are great I say ;). You should create a new yo-yo trick: playing sax and yo-yo at the same time! Maybe do the Jamaican flag and put it at the end of the sax while you play :00 (actually please do this). And as for Shows to watch (aside from the obvious: Naruto and FMA that you should finish @-@) is maybe “I am A Killer” I personally haven’t finished it (I just watch bits and pieces) but it’s interesting to show to watch nonetheless. Alsooo, who’s your fav big cat owner and why (in reference to Tiger King)?
Sorry to leave evidence of my trolling...
But somebody's ready to audition for the Smithsonian's Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.
Despite the foul play, the skribblio games are a lot of fun :-) when’s the next one? This Wallace and gromit initiative is very admirable indeed. Mad respect 😺 please give some detailed commentary on the beady eyed penguin. I actually really like this idea though (like a retrospective) I might steal 👾 I didn’t know that word ! Thanks for the info. But I’m sorry to say I think they do say tatouage in its entirety 😡 It sounds like your yo-yo has a wee bit of insomnia 😂🤣😂 good joke right ?! Keep it up! That goes for the sax too, bravo!! You inspire me, maybe I too will pick up my rusty mallets
I don’t think the sound on the video works :((...also i haven’t heard anyone refer to a tatouage as tatoo yet, but I don’t know too many colloquialisms. But I’m glad you watched and enjoyed « Tiger King »! Also you need to record some yo yo videos now