04.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:57 pm by Miracle ♪♫
For people who are retrograde on techie stuff such as myself. (In other words, don’t laugh at me if you already know about this.)
Since most of us here are musicians or at least loves music, I found
this feature to be interestingly wonderful and useful to us all.
It’s as simple as Canon in D on the violin or Fur Elise on the piano. No offense to Pachelbel and Beethoven, but I tell you, you can murder this code over and over
again and never have to cringe of the music that comes along with it.
No offense also to those who do wish to embed Canon in D and Fur Elise. hehe
The Code:
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" style="width: 1px;
height: 1px; visibility: hidden;" autostart="true" loop="true"
src="INSERT MUSIC URL HERE">
Happy Invisible Embedding Everyone! 
P.S. Who wants to try invisible video embedding? =P
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Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 12:46 am by Miracle ♪♫
A Tale of Two Galaxies
Credit: Debra Meloy
Elmegreen, Hubble Heritage Team
Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the
left, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the right. The
space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in them
usually do not collide.
What’s significant about this picture is how it brings you and me to mind.
Dancing across the universe…
Waltzing through
time…
Colliding but not destroying each other…
A union so near yet so far…
An astral interconnection in creation,
not
written in the stars but we ourselves being the stars writing our own story…
“O, he doth teach
the torches to burn bright!
It seems he hangs
upon the cheer of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use,
For earth too dear!
The measure done, I’ll watch his place of stand,
And, touching his,
make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now?
Forswear it, sight!
For I ne’er saw true beauty till that night.”
Act I, Scene V
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
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04.20.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:50 am by Miracle ♪♫
(Thoughts of Him)
Sweetest Sofia,
I have not written to you for over a month and I miss doing so. Your mom’s fairly eccentric, am I not? As an excuse for the letter-writing caesura, I’d like to appear too engaged in other significant deeds in life and pretend that I’m even too busy to think of the man who would make a suitable father for one such as you – but no, wearing that old spinster mask now or feigning my reflections would defeat the entire purpose of my writings, and yes, he does penetrate my mind despite other things, Sweetie. Truth be told, I try to dodge these thoughts because I myself would not even wish to get married now. Not just yet. Therefore you may wonder why these notions still emerge if that is the case. Instinct, I reckon. Perhaps it comes with the package of being a woman. It could also be plain absurdity. It might also be for the reason that I drank too much espresso earlier and it’s already 3:00 a.m. yet I cannot sleep. Or maybe I have previously met someone wonderful and I simply cannot stop thinking of this great man but I’m just not telling you out of timidity. Who knows? Then again, wouldn’t it be oh so lovely and exciting to write you one day and say,
“Sweetie, I married him.”
To read all Letters to a Future Daughter, Click Here.
Illustration by my friend Sepht http://ilithir.deviantart.com
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04.19.08
Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 12:18 am by Miracle ♪♫
(Random title, don’t complain. =P)
Being
the daring little man that he is, Misha bravely underwent circumcision
this morning with a smile… until the anaesthesia wore off. Poor thing, I couldn’t bear to look at the pained expression on his face. Being me, I had no idea how to comfort a circumcised patient.
I even remember laughing at Dandi and my male cousins during their time when I went to the hospital with them many years ago. It’s
funny how I always thought that circumcision was the male’s equivalent
for women’s travailing (lucky them), so everytime I heard of boys on their way to circumcision, I felt like the Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures. You know,
“Off with their heads!” I’m brutal, I know.
Not
with Misha, though. I do pity the little guy… and this time, instead of
being cruel, I’m rather gentler than the Queen of Hearts since this
occasion made me ponder about that other sort of circumcision. No, I’m not pertaining to female genital mutilation. Let’s not go there.
It is the weightier circumcision of the heart I’m talking about.
It is that which is required of us. God
says in Deuteronomy that he will perform the circumcision of the heart. Nevertheless,
He will not ambush us and force it upon us.
It definitely
requires our willingness to undergo this process… and it is a painful
process.
But if it means being cleansed from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfecting holiness in the fear
of God, shouldn’t we submit ourselves to this temporal pain and be holy
instead of suffering from or living in constant impurity?
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04.16.08
Posted in Bookish Wish Lists at 8:16 pm by Miracle ♪♫
Are you, by any chance, feeling big-hearted? I’d like to have a copy of this part historical fiction, part subtle feminist treatise, and part art book. =P
“In 17th-century Persia, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be married within the year. But when her beloved father dies, she and her mother find themselves alone and without a dowry. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman has woven to pay for their journey to Isfahan, where they will work as servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the legendary Shah Abbas the Great. Despite her lowly station, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant designer of carpets, a rarity in a craft dominated by men. But while her talent flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim. Forced into a secret marriage to a wealthy man, the young woman finds herself faced with a daunting decision: forsake her own dignity, or risk everything she has in an effort to create a new life.”
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Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 1:08 am by Miracle ♪♫
There was
an article among a certain author’s truly polemic writings that caught my
attention recently. She was basically expostulating
about the term “Women’s Fiction” and why men are only interested in men’s
fiction (those with male main characters – which appear to include Ayn
Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird) and why women are interested
in both women’s fiction (those with female main characters) and men’s fiction.
Apparently, that is rather true in most circles and if my
understanding is correct, she was certainly leaning towards the issue of gender
discrimination. Fortunately, that is not
true in my circle. If it were, perhaps my male friends have heard Erica Jong’s remark*
enough to have a change of heart. =P
I
think the author was a bit too “reactionary,” as Franz would put it. Besides, aren’t women the ones who tease men
to death if they caught men reading women’s fiction? And we should not blame men for looking at Women’s Fiction as plain “chick
lit,” but instead open their eyes and prove that Women’s Fiction is a broad
canopy with “chick lit” as one trivial sub-genre under its shadow. Hey, why not urge men to read Jane Austen? They all ought to have even just a tinge of Mr. Darcy
in them. ;-)
* “Beware of the man
who denounces women writers;
his *BEEP* is tiny and he cannot spell.”
Painting: Young Woman Reading by a Window
by Delphin Enjolras
Related Entries: The Writes of Women
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04.14.08
Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 1:59 am by Miracle ♪♫
To have my
soul’s healing scars once more incised to become another gushing open wound, is
emotional sadism. Must I wear my
sorrow and guilt brazenly like a scarlet stigma for the sake of rendering
satisfaction to others, in order for them to forget their own onus?
If not for
the Comforter, I would be hopelessly bleeding.
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04.12.08
Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 6:40 am by Miracle ♪♫
“What happens if you don’t breathe?” asked the professor in the piano performing class.
“You tense up?” responded a student.
“You get nervous?” supplied another.
“You forget the notes?” one added.
“You die,” the teacher said matter-of-factly.
This is a reminder that has aided me on and off the piano.
When I feel like a defeated Atlas under the weight of the world, I Breathe.
When I and my opinions are threatened to extinction like an encyclopaedia in the age of computers, I breathe.
When my serene ripples are disturbed by a wading stranger, I breathe.
When I am the riddle too intricate to decipher, I Breathe.
When I am the riddle nobody bothers to guess,
I Breathe.
When a thought evolves into a tenacious headache, I Breathe.
Breathe, Meewa.
It’s a gift from God.
Breathe.
It’s a sign of life.
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04.09.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:53 am by Miracle ♪♫
May I not be the answer
to a question, but rather
the answer
to a prayer.
.
.
.
Return to Home Page
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04.06.08
Posted in Musicalia Miscellanea at 2:04 am by Miracle ♪♫
When it comes to musical eras, I don’t think one could ever go wrong with the Baroque period. It’s like biting into the most delectable musical cookies where one does not have to wait for an occasional chocolate chip somewhere along the prosaic dough… in Baroque music, every bite seems to contain a mouthful of Godivas.
So when a friend (to whom I’m very thankful for) was kind enough to send me this whole sonata, I couldn’t resist indulging. Tell me, who can honestly not love Baroque music? And who doesn’t love the cello?
“If music be the food of love, sing on…” *
Ladies and Gentlemen, the less-heard but charming François Francoeur’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in E Major.
http://meewa.multiply.com/music/item/733
*Not a Shakespearean line from Twelfth Night.
I prefer Colonel Henry Heveningham’s:
If music be the food of love,
sing on till I am fill’d with joy;
for then my list’ning soul you move
with pleasures that can never cloy,
your eyes, your mien, your tongue declare
that you are music ev’rywhere.
Pleasures invade both eye and ear,
so fierce the transports are, they wound,
and all my senses feasted are,
tho’ yet the treat is only sound.
Sure I must perish by our charms,
unless you save me in your arms.
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04.02.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:13 pm by Miracle ♪♫
If my life were a song, what opus would it be? Would it be an aria of Verdi, a Broadway ditty, or a symphonic harmony? Could it be a Bach cantata, a Handel
Hallelujah, a Beatles stanza, a Celtic Coda, a Rachmaninov Sonata? Perhaps a nursery rhyme or an Indie tune of our time?
My life is an unfinished song, but it cannot quite conform to any era or
category, for I had my music, and You transpired and elevated it with
your own melody, deviating from every genre, euphony not of this earth,
and it remains despite the jumble of twelve-tone sonancy, recurring,
and recurring, in what seems to be an eternal fugue. It is an amaranthine song,
with You, being the leading motive.
.
.
.
.
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04.01.08
Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 7:45 pm by Miracle ♪♫
Another quirk that I inherited from my parents is the aesthetic sense
for “antiquish” stuff, so when a family friend who has been collecting
knickknacks from all over Europe invited us to his rummage sale
yesterday, we just couldn’t resist the urge to go.
When I
entered the door, my eyes fell on a bronze sculpture of a Grecian
woman, its natural green patina encrusting an elegant face. All at once,
everything else in the room was a blur, and my focus was on her. She
reminded me both of Gaarder’s Floria from Vita Brevis, and my Lady, Sui Generis.
No, she didn’t seem like a goddess to me, she only resembled my idea of
the paradisiac woman that every girl could and should strive to be. Her
left breast emerged from the ancient gown – but un-obscenely, therefore
symbolizing her womanhood even more. “She would certainly make a
crowning accent to my library. If only I could afford such a treasure,”
I thought.
Surprisingly, the price tag only equaled that of an
original Precious Moments figurine and we were positive that her value
was definitely more than that… so I took her home to become the keeper of my books. =)
Although
we must be aware that material treasures are ephemeral, I have to admit
that they can also cause some happiness…
but ONLY momentarily.
http://meewa.multiply.com/photos/album/99
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Posted in 2008 Potpourri at 5:05 am by Miracle ♪♫
Ahh… writing is still
one of the most splendid ways to unwind opposed to playing an
instrument or reading, considering that the latter requires absorbing
rather than just releasing. So here is another blog entry with no other
intent but for me to unwind.
The past several weeks have been a mélange of hectic schedules, nerves, and extreme fun, and through the grace of God, these totaled to a superb Afternoon Sonatina recital finale. The Rachmaninov Rhapsody
went surprisingly smooth, and we were especially blessed with the
presence of my lovely violinist friends (sisters to be more precise)
from PPP. Of course, it was different
without Franz this year, but that does not mean that we were not able
to have gaiety and wonderful togetherness. Tonet,
Reji, and Princess are beautiful musicians, beautiful souls, beautiful
hearts, beautiful minds, beautiful faces, and although they’ll forever
be close to my heart, I can only wish to be always close to them in
distance.
This afternoon, I watched another sunset illuminated by the aura of nostalgia and thanked God once again for love, life, and music… for because of Him; I am truly living a lovely, musical life.
Behold, my favorite Afternoon Sonatina shots.
Haydn Concerto in D Major
Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Sammartini Sonatas, Bach “Quadruple” Concerto
All for one… and one for all!
The musical bows that frame us.
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