Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Musical Instinct

I just watched an interesting program on PBS -The Musical Instinct. It talked about how music influences us in ways we aren't even aware of, even from before we are born. Every culture has different styles of music, diffent tonal scales, different insturments, but it effects us all in the same way. Researchers have found groups of people who have not been exposed to any kind of music whatsoever in their lives who have responded to happy, sad, and scary music when presented with it in the same way a person would if they'd been around it their entire lives. Beyond that, everything in the universe, whether it's a black hole, a star, the ocean, or the human body, everything has rhythm and pitch. Music is a sort of illustration of how everything, everyone is interconnected with one another.

Music is such a part of my life in many ways - I play the piano, taught myself a little guitar (ok now I don't remember ANY guitar!) and was in the high school choir. I've always adored classical music, and now pretty much enjoy everything but rap. The interesting thing I never gave much thought to until this program - I don't care for angry music at ALL. Possibly because I'm just not an angry person, I simply can't identify with it. I'm not one to get angry, or be angry or hurt more than a couple of minutes. I have to more past it - I'm too happy, optimistic and can only identify with that kind of music. Kind of a neat journey into the personality of ourselves and others is what music affords. :)

So, what's your musical personality? Does the music you listen to reflect your personality?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A Nifty New Widget! Plus a couple of book reviews!

I just added a widget for Shelfari.com with some of the many books I've read in the last few years - I love how it looks like a book shelf! If it makes my blog too slow to load, feel free to let me know. I get so spoiled by not having dialup. Anyway, Feel free to browse through them and suggest something if you want!

Just a couple of book reviews while I'm on the subject:

Chocolat - by Joanne Harris
A lovely book i thought was as good as the movie. It's about a woman and her daughter who move into a small town in France to open up a chocolate shop. This is a very conservative town, and the church are constantly at odds with this woman over her opening of a shop full of 'temptation'. A fun read, though I am so glad I had the audio book available, as I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the reader pronounce the various French words, names. All in all, I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry - by Kathleen Flinn
Ok, admittedly when I first saw the title of this book, I thought it was some sort of murder mystery. I could not have been farther from the truth!! My mom suggested the book to me, and I loved it. It's about a woman to goes to the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. Over the course of the book she presents some of the recipes she made, along with some of the techniques she learned - hence the title of the book. If you have ever read Eat, Pray, Love then this book will remind you of it. I give this book 5 stars out of 5.

There are a few others I'm reading right now, and I'll publish my reviews when I finish. So again, if you would like to recommend anything, go right ahead!! :)