The weekend is HERE... almost
It's been a long week, yes. The weekend will be refreshing, even though I'm SUPER BUSY this weekend. Hopefully have some time to relax.

Lots of stuff today. Start with the sister update. Still in the hospital, although last night she looked almost back to normal. She looked a lot better than I've seen her yet. Still has the big hair issue, as well as a neck brace. She may go home today, or it might be a couple of days. There's no definite on that yet. As far as how it happened - my dad talked to the Highway Patrol, and they gave him what they think is the most likely explanation. This happened on 51, also, not the freeway. Somehow my sister lost control of the car, crossed the line and did a head-on into another vehicle. After that, bounced off of two other vehicles and the railing. One of the vehicles was a Cox truck, another one was also a large truck/van, and the third may have been a smaller vehicle. No serious injuries, which is good. So now it looks like just a matter of time until she goes home and gets back to normal. Although she won't be driving for at least six months, for medical reasons. Last minute update: just found out she'll be going home tomorrow. So that's the update.

Other stuff - went and saw LAGQ last night. In one word - WOW. They were absolutely incredible. Four virtuosos (virtuosi?) playing together with great understood communication and pure talent was amazing to see. They did a variety of stuff, everything from Bach to Corea. One of the things that made an impression on me was their use of the guitar as a percussive instrument, fairly often done in their songs. And the variety of percussive sounds they produced was impressive in itself. One of the members of the quartet was using a seven-string classical, which I've never seen. It was cool, though, allowed him a lower range of sound than normal. They received two standing ovations, one before and one after the encore. Speaking of which - their encore was a song they called "Pachelbel's Loose Canon", which began in a way everyone recognized (quite nicely by the way), but then went off on a series of mad tangents into other musical styles, while keeping the core of the song intact. This included a nightclub-style jazz section and a banjo breakdown section. Very, very entertaining to watch and hear. They also did a song based on something they saw in Singapore, which was very percussive. They got sounds out of their guitars I've never heard a guitar produce before, by adding small pieces of metal and other things to the strings, and also by playing it in a very different way. I think it amazed everyone. I happened to run into my first guitar teacher there (taught me when I was 15). His name's Jim Bates - incredible musician. I may end up taking from him again, after graduating. To flesh out my skill set on the guitar.

So that was awesome. Other stuff - things coming up. One, a big one, is another major movie. You might have heard of it, from a series called Lord of the Rings. Anyway, before the big finale is released, the extended version of the second movie is to be released. From what I've heard, this is going to be an amazing DVD set, as good as the first movie extended version was. Yes, I already pre-ordered it. A while ago. Looking forward to both that and the release of the new movie.

And something else worthwhile coming up, that I just found out about - a PS2 game, called Karaoke Revolution. Made by a company called Harmonix. I was very happy with their previous release (a little game called Frequency), so I have faith that this game will be in the same ballpark of enjoyment. They have a variety of music in their song list for the game, so there will be some choice in what can be sung. And yes, you do sing. If you purchase the bundle, it comes with a headset microphone that plugs into the PS2. You sing along with your song of choice, and you're ranked based on pitch and tempo. In addition to that, the level you perform at affects how your character acts and how the crowd around you reacts. The better you do, the more pumped the crowd gets. I really like the idea of this game because it's something that can actually improve a skill (aside from button pushing) outside of gaming. That, and it is multiplayer, which you know is just too cool.

The link today is something you should be aware of for the weekend. And speaking of weekends, have a good one!
- posted by Pootenheimer @ 1:51 PM | 0 comments