Monday, January 28, 2008

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Drumming

No, none of us are drumming. Tonight after Monarchy and My Architect, I channel surfed into Session 3 : Slave to the Rhythm (about the rhythm that holds music together - be it the beats in today's urban music or percussion in orchestras) of Pop[b]session ("a series of documentaries about rock and pop's greatest instruments and instrumentalists - about passion and virtuosity, about the seduction of musician and audience alike.").

It has been fascinating, and I've noticed Cricket tuning in every now and then. I'm enjoying the journey through percussion history, culture and styles. I think I was probably able to follow along because of the frequent glimpses of the people - the percussionists and their individual stories.

I'm not sure how much I will retain - we're all suffering colds at the moment - stuffy and sneezy and coughy - I'm afraid I'll drown when I go to sleep tonight.

Mythbusters

Today I watched Mythbusters and they were putting 1500 pound (3000 horse power) rockets on a car to answer "Can a '67 Chevy turn into a 350-mile per hour road warrior "

They were also testing to see if pop rocks + cola can cause your stomach explode (it didn't explode the dead pigs stomach until they added bicarbonate of soda).

Monday, January 14, 2008

L'Alouette

Big sister rang this evening to ask for translation of the song we know as Alouette. I couldn't bring it immediately to mind, so quickly found my (now catalogued, classified and shelved) Form 1 French text book - A new french course - Part 1.

The lyrics were there, but aside from remembering that it was about plucking a bird, precise translation still eluded me. Babel Fish identified the bird as a lark but le bec as a nozzle instead of a beak. But not all the body parts were in my textbook so google helped me find the answer at Answers.com : Alouette

Slightly different lyrics on YouTube.


Naturally in the process I've been singing the song to my boys.