Geographical Fun

About a week ago, a musically-minded Facebook friend posted that seeing Trinidad on a map always makes him think of....well, I only had to get that far to think I knew what he was thinking about. Though I was wrong! He was observing that the shape of the island of Trinidad reminds him of Gru's airship in Despicable Me...which is a connection I would never have made for a variety of reasons. (Someone has posted about this on Reddit as well.) Here's a quick comparison to see what you think:

So, that's not what I was thinking. But if you've spent much time around choruses, you might well guess that hearing "Trinidad" makes me think of THIS:

Joyful Morning with Bach (and Schumann...and Yo-Yo Ma)

Last night, the violinist in a chamber music trio I coach was a no-show at rehearsal. The cellist, pianist, and I gamely worked on their assigned music for most of the time with me sometimes singing the violin part (eek!) or playing it up high on the piano. But there was a point when I thought it might be fun to try something different. I asked each student what solo music they were working on. The cellist (about 12 or 13, I think) said she was learning the [very famous] Prelude from Bach's first cello suite. This reminded me that last year, in a very similar situation, I'd mentioned to a very young Bach-playing cellist that Robert Schumann had written piano accompaniments for all the Bach suites. So, on the spur of the moment then, I pulled up the music from IMSLP and we played a little of it together, but she was only ready to play about 10-12 bars.

Chant noir

Here is an unusual musical creation from a few weeks ago (with video added today):

Happy Birthday from The Alcotts

My official 20th year of blogging began on February 24th, although I failed to post on the 19th Anniversary this year. (I promise I won't forget next year when it's the 20th!) It's been a very busy winter, but a few days off means I'm finally back with new stuff to share.

Bartók Bells (Emptying the Desk Drawer #10)

A quick post featuring festive bells to end 2025 - a year in which I had the most blog posts of any year since 2014. This is a perfect example of the kind of not-so-serious but fun multimedia I find myself creating on social media. In this case, I think it also provides a nice little window into how my mind works in these situations...for better or for worse.