Mindfulness in Music (or anything really)

So I’ve been having a bit of a stressful time recently, mostly brought on by trying to sort out my timetable at a new university and people not having their act together. It’s fine. Anyways, to cope with this I decided to just go practice my saxophone for a while. I had taken a week off for orientation, and then another because I couldn’t figure out the practice room situation, so it was actually a pretty long break for me.

But the thing is, once I got back into that room, I really listened to myself play. Usually I’m in a rush and just trying to get it over with or I’m just doing it out of habit or necessity. But this time I didn’t have anything in particular really to practice and was just there to kill some time, so I really just listened and fully absorbed what I was doing. And I actually liked it!

For once I was able to sit there and think “wow I actually sound decent”. It’s usually all about how to make the music sound better somehow, and very rarely about how good it currently sounds. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to continually strive for better things on your instrument, but every once in a while it’s also good to just appreciate the good aspects of your playing.

It made me realize how infrequently I do that to so many aspects of my life. I’m always focusing on improving, doing more, doing better. I never stop and think that I’m doing well, it’s always about the next thing. 

And I definitely think that taking a break from practicing for a short period of time helped with that. Because I was able to take a step back and just see what I could do after not playing for a while instead of assessing if I was better than the last time. Of course there’s a balance between not practicing for so long that you forget everything and just taking a quick break, and that’s up to the individual really.

Also I experienced this in connection to music, but I bet that it could apply to any number of things in life. Try taking a break from something and then return to it when you want to (not when you need to).

Naturally, this all connects to mindfulness and how beneficial that is. Keeping yourself in the moment without constantly thinking about the future and how much you have to improve before then is much less stressful. I find myself constantly out of touch with the present, thinking about lunch or what I have to do tomorrow, when I need to be present and in the moment. Because the moment’s going to pass without you having appreciated it, and then there goes your entire life. Staying in the moment and enjoying the music of the present is something that’s always difficult, but essential for a life well lived.

Adventure to Edinburgh!

So yesterday I went on a day trip to Edinburgh. It was really cool, and really gorgeous! So here's what I did, and some advice for people thinking of doing the same.

First of all, if you get the right tickets, Megabus has tickets for the bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh for 1 pound, which is ridiculously amazing. And that's also why I didn't get back until like 10pm, but more on that later.

Anyways, what's nice about the Edinburgh Bus Station is that it's pretty close to everything in the city. A short walk gets you to the Princes St gardens, which is central for most things. The National Galleries are right next to it, and entry to their permanent collection is free! (Pro tip: you are required to wear backpacks on your front or at your side, so prepare to rock the front-backpack look.)

Then a little way on is the Edinburgh castle. Tickets are hella expensive, so I'd recommend playing the how-far-can-I-get-without-paying game. You just aren't allowed under the portcullis, so you can get pretty far. Plenty of opportunities for cool shots.

After that, the National Museum of Scotland isn't too far off. Entry is also free, and they have a ton of stuff inside. There's two sections: the international and the Scottish. Check out both, because they're both awesome. Be sure to check out the roof as well, you get a great view of the city.

The National Museum is also in a really nice area, with tons of little shops and St. Giles Cathedral since it's near the old part of town. I went into The Elephant House, its claim to fame being where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books. It was nice, and surprisingly not that crowded. Greyfriar's Bobby is also just down the street, which is a little statue of a dog that guarded his owner's grave for 15 years. Pretty cute.

I then walked back to the Princes St gardens to look at the Scott memorial. You can walk up to the top if you pay, and I did, but I don't think I'd recommend that to others. You get just as nice of a view from the top of the museum, or the next place that I went to.

The final spot that I checked out was Calton Hill. I happened to just stumble across it, but I think it should be on every guide ever because it was pretty incredible. It's a hill with some monuments on it, and it gives you amazing views of the city and the hills around it as well. I managed to get there for sunset, and it was gorgeous! (Pro tip: the parks will close eventually but the hill doesn't, so hang out there if you have nowhere to go and just want to sit.)

Another piece of advice is that if you're like me and finish up the museums early and then have nothing to do for a few hours is to just wander around until you find something that looks cool. That's how I found Calton Hill, and the cemetery nearby which is where Hume is buried.

So yup, Edinburgh's gorgeous and a really fun place for a day trip!

Beatles Promo Videos To Be Released

WE TAKE A BREAK FROM OUR USUAL SCHEDULE TO BRING YOU THIS IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Ok so there have been some speculations since last Saturday when the Beatles twitter account posted an unusual video featuring a countdown. The George Harrison account then retweeted it, saying that a big announcement was coming.

Turns out that the big announcement is none other than a compilation of all the Beatles promo videos restored! Exciting news!

It's a little known fact that while the Beatles did not invent the music video, they certainly popularized it. Once they found that they were so popular that they couldn't possibly perform everywhere live to promote their new songs, they started creating videos to send around and drum up publicity for them. Their video for "Strawberry Fields" was groundbreaking in that it used reverse footage and all sorts of other fancy camera techniques that weren't widely used yet.

Other fun things that will be included in the deluxe version is a take of "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" from the album "Beatles For Sale" where the Beatles are literally sitting around eating fish and chips. (Brian Epstein, when he saw this, refused to release it to the public. But you can easily find it on YouTube these days.) Another couple of gems are the alternate versions of "Hello Goodbye" from the "Magical Mystery Tour" album that include awkward dancing and George stripteasing. (Note: there's one video with a lot of awkward dancing and a short striptease, and one with less awkward dancing and more striptease.)

What a time to be alive! My favorite band from 50 years ago is finally getting their act together!

More information (and pre-orders) can be found here.

An American in Glasgow-Initial Adventures

So I made it to the University of Glasgow in Scotland! My mom and I flew in through Dublin and spent the day there, then went to Glasgow. Dublin was awesome, we took a tour of Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is a really old copy of the gospels, nearly all Celtic designs originated from it.

Then we also visited the Guinness Storehouse. I'm not a huge fan of beer, so I just found it amazing that people were this interested in it. But the top of the building had a nice view of the city and made some good pictures.

Once we made it to Glasgow we got a little lost on the way to my flat. I'm in university accommodations, but they use a whole bunch of different buildings so I just had an intersection. But we found it in the end. I have a roommate and share a kitchen and a bathroom with a few other rooms. It's only international students now, but once everyone gets here I can imagine that we'd have to fight for the showers.

The main building on campus is beautiful! The cloisters are a popular picture place, and for pretending that you're Harry Potter at Hogwarts. One girl on my campus tour said that they wanted to use the university for Hogwarts in the films, but they would have to be working during finals so it didn't get used.

On a related note, apparently Ashton Lane, a cute side street, inspired Diagon Alley for J.K. Rowling. It's adorable, it has a few pubs and even a movie theater on it!

One other adorable part of the city is the subway system. It's just a circle around the city, and you pick which direction you want to go in. The cars are also pretty small and very nice. I didn't imagine this city to be so cute!

So far I’ve mostly been using my time to explore the city. This week was international orientation, but I’ve been finding that the university is pretty hands off. Which is fine because I enjoy being on my own, but I’m also finding that I’m having the same thoughts that I had during freshman orientation at college in the states. Which is mostly freaking out that I’ll have no friends because it’s been a few days and I haven’t met my soul mate yet. Just need to keep telling myself that I have to take it easy and everything will be ok. It always is in the end.

Updates on Things

So just so we're all clear, I'm heading off to Scotland today for my semester abroad! (In fact I think my plane is arriving when this post is scheduled to go up, so that's exciting!)

As a result, posts are going back to once a week after this. I'm probably going to post things about being abroad and all that. If nothing happens though, I do have an incredible backlog of book reviews from this summer that I didn't get to post yet so those may show up. (I ended up reading a lot, it was great!)

I'll see you all on the other side of the pond! (If I fight the Loch Ness Monster I'll be sure to let you all know.)

“Lord Brocktree” by Brian Jacques

This story is the earliest one in the series, if you look at it chronologically. It starts with Russano, the badger baby from “The Long Patrol”, telling the story of Lord Brocktree to the hares and his family at Salamandastron. (Sidenote: this is the first that I’ve seen of the Badger Lord living with his family at Salamandastron, wonder if that pops up again in other stories…)

Lord Brocktree’s story takes place before Redwall was built, so in most ways, Salamandastron replaces it. There’s some connections to “Mossflower” again as Lord Brocktree is Boar the Fighter’s father and the wildcat attacking Salamandastron is the brother of the wildcat who will later become a tyrant in Mossflower wood.

It’s a bit different than the rest of the stories, since it deals primarily with badgers and hares instead of mice and rats. I actually enjoyed the change, it made it pretty interesting.

Dotti is a young haremaid who is another wonderful example of the strong female characters in this series. She is sassy and funny, and insists on calling herself a “fatal beauty” while being rubbish at cooking and cleaning and all those other things that young haremaids are supposed to do. I found her hilarious, I think she’s my new idol.

One aspect that could have been made clearer is that Lord Brocktree really changed the way that Salamandastron worked as a whole. He started the Long Patrol of hares going out into the countryside and reporting to him. But this is kind of glossed over and not made completely clear, other than Russano stating at the beginning what an effect he had on Salamandastron. It doesn’t affect the story, but it’s something to note.

Overall though, this was a great book, one of the better ones in the series I think. It changes up the tropes a little, but continues to give a good tale full of adventure.

“The Legend of Luke” by Brian Jacques

I really enjoyed this one! There’s two different stories being told here, one is the story of Martin the Warrior travelling north to find his birthplace, and the other is the story of his father, Luke the Warrior, defeating a sea rat. There’s loads of references to “Mossflower” which is an earlier book in the series as well.

Probably what I enjoyed best about this book is that it centers around these characters that we already know. It features Martin, Gonff the mousethief, and Dinny the mole going off on another quest together, which is very cute really. And there are other familiar faces present, like Columbine, Bella the badger, Abbess Germaine, and Ferdy and Coggs.

It also gives more history to the characters, like the fact that Luke the Warrior was born in St. Ninian’s (and there’s more to the story of St. Ninian’s as well haha) but then driven out by a wildcat (who is later defeated by Martin in “Mossflower” conveniently enough). And then Redwall Abbey is built and Gonff and Columbine settle down in St. Ninian’s.

Then towards the end it mentions the tapestry, and reveals that the figure of the warrior mouse is really Martin’s grandfather, also named Martin. I wonder if we ever learn about his adventures?

Another connection is through the otter family. It turns out that Skipper has two nephews with their own tribe, and Skipper’s brother is Mask, an otter who is featured in “Mossflower” as well. Not a major point, but still pretty cool.

While we’re on the subject of the otters, the arc for Folgrim was pretty nice. He’s an otter who went mad from fighting, but with the help of Martin and co, they manage to fix him up again. It’s another aspect of these stories that indicates how much better peace is than war.

So the story centering around Martin is good, but I didn’t love the character of Trimp. It seemed like she was just there to take care of a little squirrel baby that they found and didn’t really have anything to contribute to the rest of the adventure. I didn’t mind her though, just wondered from time to time why she was there.

Oh and this is one of the few quests where they explain how the adventurers get back to Redwall, which is often skipped in other books. I laughed a little when I realized that Jacques decided to put that in.

The story of Luke is also very good, it aligns with what we know about Martin’s past from “Martin the Warrior” and “Mossflower”. And it involves a ferocious female squirrel warrior, which is always great.

This is a great adventure tale that brings back familiar characters that we know and love. A wonderful read all around.

“Marlfox” by Brian Jacques

This is more like it! This story centers around the conflict between a clan of Marlfoxes with the surrounding countryside and inevitably, Redwall Abbey. It starts after the events of “The Long Patrol” with a few characters popping up again. Lady Cregga, though blind, is still around and feisty as ever. However, the Abbey is now without an Abbot or Abbess, and the creatures are just continuing as is until they determine someone fit for the position.

While I’m on the subject, the blind Lady Cregga shows how well Jacques incorporates characters with disabilities into his stories. Cregga has been blind for ages, but she can still kick vermin butt and lets everyone know who’s in charge around here. Same goes for gender, more often than not, the female characters are the leaders and warriors, on both the good and evil sides. It’s really wonderful.

This book features several rhymes, but one central riddle to guide a few of the characters on a quest to save the tapestry of Martin the Warrior. It’s not a very complicated riddle, but it’s pretty essential to the series to have a riddle, so there’s that.

This quest also serves as a nice tie-in to previous stories, specifically “Salamandastron” is referenced. Supposedly the island that the Marlfoxes are living on used to be inhabited by a White Ghost, who is actually an ancient Badger Lord. Pretty neat stuff. Another reference is in the Travelling Noonvale Players who stop by the Abbey. Noonvale is Rose’s home from “Martin the Warrior” and the hare, Florian, says that he is a descendant of Ballaw, another character from “Martin the Warrior” who was in a travelling performance troupe. I was hoping to get more information about the current situation in Noonvale, but no luck there.

I’m still laughing about the ending, there’s an endnote saying that the whole story is a play edited by Florian to perform, which is why the three parts (usually called Book 1, Book 2, and Book 3) are now Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3! I didn’t even notice, what a nice touch on it!