Music In My Kitchen

I can’t remember exactly when, but I have all but stopped listening to music some time ago. When I was little, my dad played classical music at full volume ALL the time. Under his influence, I couldn’t even go to sleep without listening to a little Mozart or Chopin. Remember back when walkmans are the size of a brick? I hauled one with me everywhere I went. I was in a CD club in college, when I couldn’t even afford it. Now, when there are MP3 and iPods to make listening to music while on the go so easy, and when I have the money to buy any CD I want, I stopped listening. Nowadays I prefer total silence. Why? I haven’t the faintest idea.

When Karen of the Pilgrim’s Pots and Pans tagged me for the music meme, I was in a dilemma. Do I really want to let the whole world know that I live in a self-imposed musicless world (don’t even own a MP3 or iPod), or should I just ignore the tag and pretend it never happened? After two days of pondering, I decided that ignoring the tag wouldn’t be the proper thing to do, so here it goes:

What is the total amount of music files on your computer?
6,472 KB, from a song by Utada Hikaru that my friend sent me recently. I know, it’s pathetic, but to be fair, this is a brand new computer, so I haven’t had a chance to load it up with stuff yet.

The CD you last bought?
Hmmm, it’s been a long time since I bought a CD, but I think it was Pet Music for my dog. It’s a pack of three CDs: Natural Rhythm, Peaceful Playground, and Sunday in the Park.

I bought them because I thought my dog needed to listen to some music when we are not home so she could relax. Call me a lunatic!

What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?
It’s now 11:30pm Saturday. The last time I listened to a song was the last time I was driving mindlessly, which puts me at 10:30am Tuesday. I think it was some J-pop on the FM radio.

Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.
1. 梅花三弄（Plum flower: three variations): Not exactly a song, it’s a piece played on the Gu Zheng (a traditional Chinese musical instrument). While in college, a friend of mine lent me a CD of Chinese songs and at the end was this piece. I fell in love with it, bought a Gu Zheng when I went to live in Singapore, and started taking lessons. Now I can play this piece too.

2. Fur Elise: Junior high school, Richard Clayderman was all the rage. Everywhere you go, his rendition of Fur Elise was playing on some radio or cassette player. I bought a jewelry box with laser etched Fur Elise sheet music on the lid (the same way it's etched in my mind) the first day of my piano lesson.

3. Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps (Doris Day): I was really into Ballroom dancing while in grad school. It was Ann Arbor, with six months of winter so you have to be creative when it comes to staying active. The movie Strictly Ballroom just came out and it was my favorite song in the whole movie. I bought the soundtrack CD and listened to it over and over again. I even briefly considered using it as music for the first dance at my wedding, but eventually gave up because 1. Jason wouldn’t have been able to learn the moves by wedding date, and 2. the lyrics wasn’t really suitable for a wedding.

4. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again (phantom of the opera): the first musical Jason and I saw together, in Boston’s Wang theatre while I was there for the summer. We could only afford the student ticket, which were two rows from the ceiling and we could barely make out the figures on stage. I loved all the songs in that musical but this one struck a special cord, maybe because we were in a long distance relationship and I was *constantly* wishing that he was somehow here again. I listened to that song a lot in my dorm room in Ann Arbor. Hum, these were the days!

5. Carnival (Natalie Merchant, Tigerlily): I like the lyrics and the music of this song. Am hypnotized and mesmerized by it. I like it so much in fact, that I forgot I had the CD and bought a second copy. I see now that the onset of my senility was much much earlier than I thought.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Hsin-li, because we never talk about music when we see each other, and this will be a good way to find out her interest.

Rachel, because she is also a dog-lover, and she is quirky and her writings make me laugh. I want to know if her choice of music is a reflection of her personality.

I was going to stop at two because I am really new at blogging and the people I can think of tagging have all been tagged. Then I thought of Yann at Allrecipes.com. I stumbled onto his/her blog when an ex-colleague of mine told me he could find my food photos by searching LynnInTokyo on google. I did the same search and found Yann’s blog. Yann is probably in charge of photo editing at Allrecipes.com and seems to like my photos and posts them on his/her staff blog. I thought it would be good for him/her to share his/her music interest. But I’m really not sure how often he/she checks that blog and what Allrecipe.com’s policy is on staff blog, so this could be a dead lead.

So there you have it Karen, not so interesting I'm afraid. Thanks for the tag, it brought back memories.