Hello, everyone.
I am here today to pathetically attempt to atone for my sins of not posting. I am still working on some applications. I would like to share one of my application essays - this will be contingent upon what response I get from the programs. If I'm rejected, I can probably put it up, but I would need to wait until a final decision in the instance that I make my way past the first stage. However, I will still be busy through Tuesday, so we'll see.
Recently, #200 was obtained on Myanimelist, so I should make that top 20 list of anime. I have established my top 20 list (bear in mind that this is approximate with no claims to objectivity) but now I need to write brief descriptions, which may take a while. Honestly, my memory is still rather poor, so I may need to revisit them. Also, this list will totally be presented in a normal, expected manner - no snarks, I promise. I promise.
In other news, I saw a concert, Wednesday night, featuring the tabla ustad Zakir Hussain, a singer who was well-versed in classical Indian styles of music, and some other musicians associated with film music and jazz music. (The tabla is an Indian percussion instrument and 'ustad' means master, more or less.) Naturally, I decided to go there to see Zakir Hussain play tablas - this served to be rather interesting because he had an exceptional control over dynamics; he also had some Western percussion parts on his ensemble, allowing him to incorporate, mainly, cymbal sounds. As far as the other musicians, Dave Holland on upright bass (yep, the orchestral one), Louis something or other on piano, a singer, and a guitarist. The concert was essentially jazz fused with Indian classical music, though some elements were clearly pretty modern (at least relatively).
The first few pieces were mainly jazz-heavy, making them rather hard for my tired mind to grapple onto. However, the piece that was a raga (ancient style of song specific to Indian music) was quite fascinating because it relied heavily on sustained instrumentation. Very minimal, allowing for the singing to take the focus. The buildup, in a way, reminded me of Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Western experimental music seems to similarly enjoy the use of drone to establish a background before reaching a climax. Through these works, I realized that my enjoyment focused on the Indian components - the singing and tabla - followed by the bass and piano. However, I found the guitar to be unnecessary because it only supported small portions of the songs and rarely got any emphasis. Nor did I find him an effective performer - he kept looking at his music and did not seem as convincing as the other performers. In that regard, Zakir Hussain, who was smiling for a lot of the concert, emitted the greatest aura. He also would speak to the audience with flourishes of both music references and personal anecdote, which invigorated the musical efforts. So, it wasn't just instrumentals or vocals or some mishmash, but something with a lot of energy.
Overall, I found the pieces with the Indian singer to be more enjoyable than the jazz pieces but both were rather neat. My one gripe is that I truly wanted more classical components, but I could tell that was not the emphasis either. If I wanted, I could probably look up Carnatic and Hindustani music (the folk music of South and North India respectively), so I really should not hold onto that complaint. I bet there's ragas galore in recordings! I do not think I will get a chance to have an experience like this again, so good for me for going. I probably would not have done anything worthwhile that evening, so I can say it was worth it. For the record, I probably have not been to a true concert - both of my volition and actually requiring money - in years, so I do not have much of a reference point. However, I am glad that I could pay attention better than I thought - if I had faced this music in an album format, I would have probably taken many breaks. But here I could not take breaks and that was probably for the better.
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