Just hanging around the Space Needle…..levitating and stuff!
As promised in my introductory post called, “Sound Bytes (Intro)”,
here is “Sound Bytes #1”, the first in a series of posts, where I will share my enjoyment of, and fascination with, the beauty of the Puget Sound,
and the beauty of the musical sound of Lizz Wright.
In a previous post called, “Favorite Means Favorite”, I wrote this about Lizz Wright, my favorite singer:
“There are great singers everywhere, vying for my (or any potential fan’s) attention. They get my attention, sometimes, temporarily. But no one tugs at my heart strings or resonates with my musical taste and sensibility like Lizz Wright.
For example, she does a cover of Nina Simone’s song called, “Seems I’m Never Tired Loving You”. It’s my current favorite.
It’s a simple but beautiful song about unconditional love between two people. But in her arrangement, Lizz added church-style piano and a choir, which makes it sound like a Gospel song, adding a second underlying theme of unconditional love between God and humanity. The lyrics are neutral enough to easily be read or viewed either way.
I don’t know if she intended to create that effect or if I just see it that way. But, nevertheless, the arrangement adds an extra dimension to the feeling of the song, and I think that was intentional. And it’s congruent with something she said in an interview I heard once, where she was talking about the act of balancing between the sensual (our humanity) and the sacred (our spirituality). So I think she did manage to balance both, within the song, by conceiving and doing that arrangement.
To me, her music is the kind I don’t want to just play in the background. It’s the kind I want to just sit and listen to, closely, without any interruptions. That’s why traveling to see and hear her sing means so much to me. To just sit and listen to her is a privilege, joy and honor.
It’s all in the details. The song. The musicians. The mixing. The arrangement. Her inimitable style of singing. The way she crescendos or decrescendos. The way she holds a strong vibrant note and then turns it into a whisper. The way she breaks her voice at the right moment, etc. I could go on and on.
It’s discovering these little things that she does in the song, that always seems to fit perfectly at the right time and in the right place in the song, that bring moments of joy, pleasure and awe, to me. These moments only last for seconds, in the song, but they stand out and illuminate her genius.
There’s an artistic energy and restlessness inside her which produces these fabulous results.
All these things are why I prefer her over others.”
(The photo above was taken in Vancouver, B.C., in front of the basketball courts at David Lam Park with a view toward False Creek.)
From the title of this post, you might have thought I was going to write about some juicy gossip or start a rumor. But I don’t do rumors or gossip.
This is about a weekend trip I took to Vancouver, British Columbia, and about a song called, “Let Them Talk”, which I heard for the first time about three weeks ago.
The Puget Sound is an exceptionally beautiful area around Seattle.
Viewing it with the naked eye, or in this case, viewing it with my eyes “clothes’d” (meaning covered by my eyelids…not naked….”clothes’d”) for lack of a better picture 😩, hyper activates my senses.
I can See the Sound, Smell the Sound, Hear the Sound, and Hear the See…..well, the Sea. 😁
All my life I’ve enjoyed learning and I’ve tried to do things to the best of my ability. I do a few things pretty well that I’m kind of proud of:
I learned to play guitar and read music. I like to sing, make harmonies and write songs. I also have a great appreciation for listening to music.
I’m athletic. In High School, I high jumped six feet at a State Meet in Missouri during my Junior year. I played basketball and I was a left half back on the football team and we won the Championship that year.
I embrace and enjoy learning about other cultures and customs during my travels to different parts of the world. I lived in South Korea for 12 years. I learned to read, write and speak Korean. While I was there, I sang Korean songs on all of the Korean TV stations and two of the Korean radio stations. I also traveled throughout Korea.
I have three college degrees.
I write these posts about things that interest me the most.
I enjoy photography.
And last, but not least, I’m a father of three very special sons.
I’m pretty good at a lot of things but I’m not great at any of them. And I don’t know if that’s because I never tried hard enough, or I wasn’t motivated enough, or I simply am not talented enough to be great at one or more things.
But what I think is more accurate to say here is that I am as good at these things as I want to be.