Violins, Stop-Motion and Vinyl - What Could Be Better?

In following one of those procrastinator-friendly chains of online browsing, I happened onto several very cool things today, culminating in a music video from a collaboration album between violinist Hilary Hahn and Hauschka, called Silfra, and featuring a fabulous stop-motion animation by Hayley Morris. Let me see if I can trace the degrees of separation and highlight some of the treats along the way.

I started out from my FB homepage, which I hadn't visited in a while. I saw a post by a guitarist friend I haven't seen in years and from there went to browse his page. I noticed violinist Hilary Hahn among his "likes" and, a fan and player of violins myself, followed the chain to her page. I took a side trip from a link there to this article on the website "Vintage Guide to Texas" (those of you who know I'm a transplanted Texan and have a weakness for vintage can see how this was an inescapable trap). The article was there because it mentions that Hahn's album, the forementioned Silfra, was presented for sale ON VINYL during intermission at the  Dallas Symphony (swoon!). The article then goes on to talk about the return of vinyl and its superiority over other formats (word!).

At this point you can see an almost unbelievable series of irresistible crumbs seemingly left for me specifically by some (beneficent or malevolent?) guiding force of the global inter-webs (who clearly is an enemy of my dissertation). From the article I went to the album website, lured by the (a) violinist, (b) the album cover art (love!) and (c) the possibility of a good excuse to buy my one of my favorite things - one of those cool vinyl/mp3 combo albums (the record comes with a code to download a digital copy - what else can a millennial girl ask for from her music?). Once there I went to check out the advertised music video for "Bounce Bounce," was delighted by the animation, jumped to check out the page of the director and animator Hayley Morris, and was even more delighted by the photographic proof of her surely enchanting elven childhood, affinity to things miniature (me too me too!) and the rest of the description of her sources of inspiration.

Has there ever been a more worthy and fruitful internet chain journey? I think not. With that, I leave you with the music video for "Bounce Bounce":

My K-Drama Addiction

Well, I just pulled up my blog after many months and saw that my last post was practically a year ago. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the post was about how I was going to post every day that month. Hah! When will I learn not to make promises on my blog? They are almost inevitable followed by a massive dry spell.

The reason I finally did decide to check it out after months of having things to post but not bothering to do it is that blogging was on my list of things to do instead of watching television. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE TV, and I don't intend to stop watching altogether. I love great stories and television is full of them. More importantly, it's practically the only activity in which I can disengage from my constantly-running dissertating mom brain and let something else do the leading of my thoughts for a while.

Lately, though, I have become addicted to K-Drama, which is a term for Korean dramas. I just can't stop watching! I had to take steps to curb my TV hours and limit my K-Drama consumption. So be warned! I'm recommending you check them out because they're awesome, but beware of the addiction! Here's list of the dramas I've watched so far:

• Dream High - great introduction to K-Pop (Korean pop music)
• Dream High 2 (okay, but not as good)
• Boys Before Flowers (also translated as Boys Over Flowers) - from an extremely popular Japanese manga and show - and very popular itself. This was the first show I saw starring Lee Min Ho - who is my K-Drama hero!
• Playful Kiss - starring the other main heartthrob from BBF

And these are the ones I'm currently watching (yes, I'm watching several at once):

• Faith (which actually translates more literally as Miracle Doctor - or so my Korean friend tells me) - time-travel historical drama starring Lee Min Ho. I made the mistake of watching it while it's on the air, so I've caught up and have to endure the torture of waiting for the next episode. So good!
• Rooftop Prince - this one I just started watching with my friend mentioned above - so it's reserved for when she comes over with delicious kimchi. Features a couple of characters from Playful Kiss. Also time-travel historical, but in reverse.
• IRIS - According to my friend, this is a prototypical Korean spy drama. Very exciting, great love story. This is the one I have to control my consumption of - since it's all available and I'm watching it on my own. Originally I started it to satiate my K-Drama needs between episodes of Faith. Ooo - that sounds bad, doesn't it?

All of these shows are available from Hulu. The subtitles are provided either by VIKI.com (a website started by people I met!) or DramaFever. Enjoy! Or, if you have a suggestion, I'd love to hear it!

Robotic Invasion!!!

A. and I were chatting this evening about how it's interesting when people dismiss a lot of sci-fi, such as that dealing with A.I. stuff, as completely "fantastic" or "far-fetched," or extremely futuristic. A huge amount of sci-fi from previous time periods has since become reality, and a lot of other technology like robotics is very advanced and growing exponentially during our time. Then, of course, is everything that has already been done but not released to the public. Technology has been growing at unbelievable rates in the last century or so...who knows how far it will go even in the next 20-30 years or so. In the spirit of our conversation I went looking at videos of robots on YouTube, just for fun.

First, a scary one. Swarms of tiny robots that can assemble themselves into bigger robots and do things like "self-heal." Famous last words spoken by the scientist-- "There is no risk." NOOO!!! Robots take over the world!!!



Next, Japanese female androids...always a classic.



Some dancing robots...



And finally, just for fun, PUPPY VS. ROBOT SUPERFIGHT!!!!

Ninja Warrior!!!

Well, after spending the last hour ONCE AGAIN trying to log in to my blog (shows how much I post....), I feel compelled, despite my frustrated exhaustion and resentful feelings toward the internet in general, to post in this secure little blog that was quite alike a moated fortress just minutes ago.

I had some juicy morsels saved up from books I've been reading lately, but instead, in rebellion against academia, I will post a couple of clips from the latest obsession in my household. Seriously, these Japanese shows, Ninja Warrior and Unbeatable Bansuke, along with Battlestar Galactica, keep my faith in television entertainment. Maybe that's sad, but man do I love it. Not sure how much these random clips I found on YouTube exemplify it, but one of my favorite things about these shows are the off-the-wall, melodramatic subtitle translations of the commentary.

This first shows a shot at the next-to-last course by one of the most frequent, and most popular competitors on the men's side:



This one shows, I believe, the first woman to make it through the entire series of courses in Women of Ninja Warrior. I saw it in the G4 American version with subtitles... but I'm amused by this British (I think?) commentator.



Here is one of the obstacles on Unbeatable Bansuke, the stilt walk (there's also a handwalk, a crazy bike obstacle course, and many other random obstacle courses that are very nearly impossible to beat). I couldn't find video of this awesome old guy who actually beat the stilt course, but I did find one of this kid doing it:



Yep, this is how I choose to waste time. Among other things.