There was a time when I was 17, before I applied to university, when I walked up to my parents and told them that I wanted to go to music school. Being conservative Chinese parents, the thought of their first-born son going into music school must have been shocking to say the least.
The part of me who wanted to become a musician imagined me becoming the next John Williams, playing at Lincoln Centre or Wigmore Hall to packed audiences. I have never actually met any professional musicians (my guitar teacher then was an amateur), so I had little idea of the trials and tribulations involved. Naivity perhaps, either way the path I took was totally different. I have kept on playing the guitar all these while, although there were times when frustration set in at my own lack of talent, inspiration dried up or there was simply not enough time for me to devote to my music.
This morning, despite being a Saturday, I dragged myself up from bed at 9am. I was supposed to go to Annapolis, a town about 40 miles outside Baltimore most famous for being the site of the US Naval Academy, to meet Todd K. Todd is one of the regulars at one of the internet classical guitar forums I regularly visit, and since I would be in the general area, I decided to take the chance to visit him. The easiest, and most expensive, way to get there would have been to take a taxi to the Greyhound station and take a coach from there, but this would have cost me about $25 one way. Being in parsimonious mood, I took the cheapest option, which involves taking the Light Rail and then changing to a bus. I left my apartment at 10am, and I alighted from the bus at downtown Baltimore at about 12.30.
After calling him from a public phone, he walked over to bring me to his house, which turned out to be only about 5 minutes' walk from the town centre. His house is in a rather untidy area, but as a plaque next to his front door informed me, it is a pretty old and historical house. The house was pretty quaint, if slightly untidy, and he led me to his basement which basically functions as his recording studio. There was a couple of large speakers there, a rack of equipment, a computer ('Oh, it's just a P4 3GHz with 3 Gigs of RAM...') and a pair of condenser mikes as well as other miscellaneous musical paraphernalia.
Todd's father was a guitarist, and he's been playing the guitar all his life, although he's only gone seriously into classical and flamenco guitar in the past few years. He makes a living by doing gigs at restaurants and teaching, and he pretty spends most of his time playing music. He's an extremely good player, although he plays with a rather unorthodox technique...in his right hand, he holds a pick between his thumb and index finger to play the bass strings, and his middle, ring and little fingers to play the rest (anyone who's seen a classical guitarist will know that they generally never use a pick or the little finger).
Apart from emerging for lunch in town, we pretty much spent most of our time in his basement/studio listening to each other play, chatting and listening to music. It was great fun to just get absorbed in music and hang out with Todd, especially since we had different approaches to music. He's in his 30s, and he spent most of his youth playing rock and jazz guitar, before getting into flamenco and classical guitar, whereas I am of the more orthodox approach, and listen to/play only classical music.
Most eye-openingly, I had a glimse of into the life of a musician, not that of the musician who's made it to the very top, but that of one who is content with just having the chance to do something he loves in life. It's a carefree life, since he's unmarried and has no one to support, nor is he materialistic. He doesn't earn very much, and of what he earns he mostly plows into recording and and musical equipment. It's not a high-flying lifestyle, but he gets to do what he loves with his life.
Personally, I feel some horror at the thought of such an unsecure, Bohemian lifestyle. I'm not a risk-taker, and I tend to go for the safe and familiar rather than the new and risky. Still, I admire the courage it must take to take the plunge and risk everything to pursue a passion in life.
It has been a great day out, and it has reinvigorated my love for music. Incidentally, he managed to talk me into recording a couple of pieces on his recording setup, and I'll post it once he emails it to me.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Friday, July 09, 2004
Have you ever had the feeling as a child when you were just happy to find out something new, or going somewhere you've never been before? That is the child's joy of learning, something which formal education has the most unfortunately tendency to extinguish in almost the most inquisitive child.
I am lucky that the start of my formal education coincided almost neatly with my discovery of the joy of reading. I still remember cracking open Charlie Brown's Encyclopedia, which I had pestered my father into buying the day before, early in the morning while lying in my bed at the age of 8. I think that's the most value-for-money investment my father ever made in me. Over the next half-decade, that set of encyclopedias (which included Children's Britannica) was my constant companion. I would take a volume into the toilet with me, and remain there for a couple of hours, lost in the words while remaining in less-than-dignified surroundings.
It was this which kept the flame of inquisitiveness and free-thinking burning in me through the darkest depths of the Malaysian educational system. In a country where the physics departments of universities are the dumping ground for students who couldn't get accepted in any other courses, I was foolhardy enough to want to become an aerospace engineer (to work in space exploration), and later a physicist. It was a dreamy ambition to discover things and open new frontiers, whether in exploring the Solar System or in the realms of science.
Doing physics in university has given me a lot of 'wow' moments, but the sense of wonder was somewhat diminished, as if I was looking through a glass wall at the discoveries made by the others. I wanted to be in their shoes during the 'EUREKA!' moment, when they realised or discovered things that no one else had known before.
In the past few days, I finally got a small taste of this. After weeks of learning the background science, reading the scientific literature on the subject and wrestling with the computer systems, I'm getting down to some actual scientific research at last! It's been very absorbing, and for the first time I'm one of the last interns to leave the office! I might have to start working weekends soon....
I am lucky that the start of my formal education coincided almost neatly with my discovery of the joy of reading. I still remember cracking open Charlie Brown's Encyclopedia, which I had pestered my father into buying the day before, early in the morning while lying in my bed at the age of 8. I think that's the most value-for-money investment my father ever made in me. Over the next half-decade, that set of encyclopedias (which included Children's Britannica) was my constant companion. I would take a volume into the toilet with me, and remain there for a couple of hours, lost in the words while remaining in less-than-dignified surroundings.
It was this which kept the flame of inquisitiveness and free-thinking burning in me through the darkest depths of the Malaysian educational system. In a country where the physics departments of universities are the dumping ground for students who couldn't get accepted in any other courses, I was foolhardy enough to want to become an aerospace engineer (to work in space exploration), and later a physicist. It was a dreamy ambition to discover things and open new frontiers, whether in exploring the Solar System or in the realms of science.
Doing physics in university has given me a lot of 'wow' moments, but the sense of wonder was somewhat diminished, as if I was looking through a glass wall at the discoveries made by the others. I wanted to be in their shoes during the 'EUREKA!' moment, when they realised or discovered things that no one else had known before.
In the past few days, I finally got a small taste of this. After weeks of learning the background science, reading the scientific literature on the subject and wrestling with the computer systems, I'm getting down to some actual scientific research at last! It's been very absorbing, and for the first time I'm one of the last interns to leave the office! I might have to start working weekends soon....
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
On Sunday morning, I dragged myself out of bed at 7am, and by 8 the whole gang of us interns were at the Wyman Towers bus stop, trying to catch taxis to the Greyhound coach station. After some desperate hailing (streets tend to get pretty deserted 8am on Sunday mornings, we were at the station. It was a grey morning, and the sun wasn't out. For the past couple of weeks, while we were stuck in a windowless office at the Institute, the weather had been absolutely perfect, but it HAD to be like this when we decide to go out.
The rest of the one-hour coach journey was pretty uneventful, and soon enough we were at DC. We set off on foot from the station towards the Mall, where most of the sights in DC are. The Mall is laid out similarly to a park in Paris (I was there last year, but I can't remember its name), with the Capitol Hill at one end and the Lincoln Memorial on the other, with the Washington Monument in between and the White House near it. After walking for about 15 minutes, we got to the pool in front of Capitol Hill, where the Capitol building stood, a large and imposing building. As we stood there taking pictures, it began to rain! We hurriedly ran towards some shelter, but after a while we decided that if it was going to keep raining, we might as well try and spent our time inside the museums. We walked under the rain towards the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum about 15 minutes away, and by the time we got there we were pretty much soaked.
The central area of the Mall is mostly occupied by several museums run by the Smithsonian Institution, such as the Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum, American History Museum etc. The Air and Space Museum was a place where I wanted to go to since I was a really young kid...when we got there, right in front of the entrance were a bunch of actual historical air- and space-craft, including the Apollo 11 command module, the X-15, the Spirit of St. Louis etc. We spent most of the afternoon there as rain continued to pour down outside. Me and Tom decided to go and see the IMAX theatre, which showed a pretty good movie on the Space Station...I must say I also enjoyed prattling loudly away about astronomy with Tom before the show started. After that, we went to see the exhibits, and I was somewhat perplexed by his enthusiasm and interest at the astronomy exhibits...we're supposed to know that stuff already for goodness' sake!
Later in the afternoon, when the rain became a drizzle, we left the Air and Space Museum, and started walking towards the Washington Monument. There was a Latin American festival that was going on in some large tents pitched in the middle of the Mall, and Esteban and Rafael dragged us into a tent where some Colombian musicians and dancers were performing. Ole Colombia! As it started to rain harder, we decided to soldier on and make our way to the Lincoln Memorial further down the Mall. By the time we got there, we were drenched, but still there was a huge crowd of people camped in and around the area to watch the fireworks scheduled for later in the evening. We queued up for some sandwiches at a refreshment stand, and found ourselves a spot in the lawn in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Fortunately, the rain stopped before it got dark, and the fireworks were absolutely spectacular and awe-inspiring, being fired from the base of the Washington Monument and lighting up the night sky over it. It must have inspired in the minds of Americans the words 'by the rocket's red glare...' from their national anthem.
After the fireworks, some of us decided to depart back to Baltimore, but I was among those who was to stay the night at DC. We walked to our hostel to the north of the Mall, and while we passed by the night-lit White House on the way, although we could only catch a glimpse of the Oval Office from a distance.
The next day, we walked back to the Mall, and we tried to get better pictures of the White House, but as we approached it, we and everyone else were told to leave the area by some extremely rude policemen who were clearing the area. We decided to try and get tickets for the Washington Monument instead, but by the time we got there, it was already sold out. However, a random lady just handed to us 3 tickets for the Monument, saying she didn't want them. Unfortunately, the tickets were all for different times, 11.30, 12.30 and 3pm. We drew lots to decide who would go up (I didn't get one), and then the rest of us went to the National Art Gallery while Tom and Rafael went up on their tickets.
The Gallery had a very imposing facade and a huge foyer with fountain and black marble columns, and I think the design was more impressive than the National Gallery in London. The collections were quite impressive as well, with a lot of famous works, although unfortunately I could only view a very small part of it. I particularly enjoyed an exhibit of landscapes by a late 19th century American artist called Sanford Gifford. His paintings are dominated by light interacting with vast and monumental landscapes.
At 1pm, we met up and went to have lunch at the food court at Union Station, travelling by Metro this time. After lunch, Gara, who held the last ticket, decided not to go to the Washington Monument, so we decided to go together to the Arlington National Cemetery.
The Arlington National Cemetery is where the USA buries its military dead, and there are over 250,000 graves there. While there, despite my opinions on current US foreign policy, I kept in mind that most of the graves there were of soldiers who died in more righteous wars. We visited John F. Kennedy's grave and memorial, where there was a eternal flame with plaques of him with his wife and two children who died at birth. We went from there to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where a soldier is constantly on guard, and we managed to catch the changing of the guard. The floor was marked black at the points where the soldiers march.
From there, we decided to move on to the Marine Corps memorial, probably one of the most iconic statues in the country. It was located just outside the cemetery, although by then we were completely knackered. After the memorial, we made our way to the coach station and back to Baltimore.
Washinton DC is a very picturesque city, with the central parts very well planned, with wide boulevards and very nice buildings...almost like Paris in fact (the architect who designed the city was French, after all). However, while being so close to the heartland of American imperialism, I could not help but feel a slight background discomfort as I saw the White House with my own eyes, with its army of guards surrounding it, and concrete barriers barring the entrances.
The rest of the one-hour coach journey was pretty uneventful, and soon enough we were at DC. We set off on foot from the station towards the Mall, where most of the sights in DC are. The Mall is laid out similarly to a park in Paris (I was there last year, but I can't remember its name), with the Capitol Hill at one end and the Lincoln Memorial on the other, with the Washington Monument in between and the White House near it. After walking for about 15 minutes, we got to the pool in front of Capitol Hill, where the Capitol building stood, a large and imposing building. As we stood there taking pictures, it began to rain! We hurriedly ran towards some shelter, but after a while we decided that if it was going to keep raining, we might as well try and spent our time inside the museums. We walked under the rain towards the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum about 15 minutes away, and by the time we got there we were pretty much soaked.
The central area of the Mall is mostly occupied by several museums run by the Smithsonian Institution, such as the Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum, American History Museum etc. The Air and Space Museum was a place where I wanted to go to since I was a really young kid...when we got there, right in front of the entrance were a bunch of actual historical air- and space-craft, including the Apollo 11 command module, the X-15, the Spirit of St. Louis etc. We spent most of the afternoon there as rain continued to pour down outside. Me and Tom decided to go and see the IMAX theatre, which showed a pretty good movie on the Space Station...I must say I also enjoyed prattling loudly away about astronomy with Tom before the show started. After that, we went to see the exhibits, and I was somewhat perplexed by his enthusiasm and interest at the astronomy exhibits...we're supposed to know that stuff already for goodness' sake!
Later in the afternoon, when the rain became a drizzle, we left the Air and Space Museum, and started walking towards the Washington Monument. There was a Latin American festival that was going on in some large tents pitched in the middle of the Mall, and Esteban and Rafael dragged us into a tent where some Colombian musicians and dancers were performing. Ole Colombia! As it started to rain harder, we decided to soldier on and make our way to the Lincoln Memorial further down the Mall. By the time we got there, we were drenched, but still there was a huge crowd of people camped in and around the area to watch the fireworks scheduled for later in the evening. We queued up for some sandwiches at a refreshment stand, and found ourselves a spot in the lawn in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Fortunately, the rain stopped before it got dark, and the fireworks were absolutely spectacular and awe-inspiring, being fired from the base of the Washington Monument and lighting up the night sky over it. It must have inspired in the minds of Americans the words 'by the rocket's red glare...' from their national anthem.
After the fireworks, some of us decided to depart back to Baltimore, but I was among those who was to stay the night at DC. We walked to our hostel to the north of the Mall, and while we passed by the night-lit White House on the way, although we could only catch a glimpse of the Oval Office from a distance.
The next day, we walked back to the Mall, and we tried to get better pictures of the White House, but as we approached it, we and everyone else were told to leave the area by some extremely rude policemen who were clearing the area. We decided to try and get tickets for the Washington Monument instead, but by the time we got there, it was already sold out. However, a random lady just handed to us 3 tickets for the Monument, saying she didn't want them. Unfortunately, the tickets were all for different times, 11.30, 12.30 and 3pm. We drew lots to decide who would go up (I didn't get one), and then the rest of us went to the National Art Gallery while Tom and Rafael went up on their tickets.
The Gallery had a very imposing facade and a huge foyer with fountain and black marble columns, and I think the design was more impressive than the National Gallery in London. The collections were quite impressive as well, with a lot of famous works, although unfortunately I could only view a very small part of it. I particularly enjoyed an exhibit of landscapes by a late 19th century American artist called Sanford Gifford. His paintings are dominated by light interacting with vast and monumental landscapes.
At 1pm, we met up and went to have lunch at the food court at Union Station, travelling by Metro this time. After lunch, Gara, who held the last ticket, decided not to go to the Washington Monument, so we decided to go together to the Arlington National Cemetery.
The Arlington National Cemetery is where the USA buries its military dead, and there are over 250,000 graves there. While there, despite my opinions on current US foreign policy, I kept in mind that most of the graves there were of soldiers who died in more righteous wars. We visited John F. Kennedy's grave and memorial, where there was a eternal flame with plaques of him with his wife and two children who died at birth. We went from there to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where a soldier is constantly on guard, and we managed to catch the changing of the guard. The floor was marked black at the points where the soldiers march.
From there, we decided to move on to the Marine Corps memorial, probably one of the most iconic statues in the country. It was located just outside the cemetery, although by then we were completely knackered. After the memorial, we made our way to the coach station and back to Baltimore.
Washinton DC is a very picturesque city, with the central parts very well planned, with wide boulevards and very nice buildings...almost like Paris in fact (the architect who designed the city was French, after all). However, while being so close to the heartland of American imperialism, I could not help but feel a slight background discomfort as I saw the White House with my own eyes, with its army of guards surrounding it, and concrete barriers barring the entrances.
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