Rainy Day is In The Mood!

Rainy Day loves music. She loves just about any kind of music but gangsta rap and progressive jazz (the jazz that's full of discordants). She admits, New Orleans jazz is great – but only in short doses. She grew up on Rock and Roll, she even remembers when the shift came and the crooners departed and the swivel hips of Elvis arrived. Rainy Day remembers Rock Around the Clock and Bill Halley and the Comets. Rainy Day remembers lots of things. Rainy Day remembers folk music and being stranded on the MTA; she remembers the Click Song by Miriam Makeba.

So, for this blog, Rainy Day thought she would use some photographs of musical instruments. Alas, she has no such instruments of her own – unless you count her CD collection and she wasn't too sure about using copyrighted material, so she hauled out her local phone directory. (Have you noticed how heavy they are getting these days? And how much smaller the print is?) Anyhow, she found half dozen stores listed under Music, and called the nearest one, Music Machine  and explained she wanted to photograph some musical instruments for her blog, and would they grant permission? (Now, one would think most people would say 'yes' to such a request, and Nathan did. But not too long ago, Rainy Day wanted to go to the local Pet Chain Store and photograph one of their oh-so-cute guinea pigs and they refused, unless she bought it. So, the question isn't such a silly one after all.) So Rainy Day hustled her bustle, and her camera, to the store and discovered they are almost all string instruments, with a few percussion ones.

These aren't Rainy Day's Daddy's acoustical guitars

Nathan was delighted to have her come in and take as many photos as she wanted. And Rainy Day says if you or your friends or family live in the Kennewick area and are in the market for a guitar, to please, check out the Music Machine!

As she aged -- and boy howdy, has she! – Rainy Day developed an interest in Opera, and even Country Western, though she admits she prefers what is, or was at one time, called 'Rockabilly' to the nasal, whiny, twang of straight CW. She learned her music appreciation from many people – a young friend of her son taught her to love CW, an old boyfriend introduced her to Opera, and her mother immersed her in symphony from an early age. Rock and Roll she got all by herself;-)

Perhaps one of Rainy Day's fascinations of music comes from the fact she doesn't understand how it's written or composed. She can understand how people can put letters together to form words, words into sentences, ad infinitum. She can sort of understand how people can do the equivalent with numbers without breaking into wracking sobs, uncontrollable shakes, and copious tears (Rainy Day is numbers phobic, can you tell?). But she cannot understand how people can write music. How does one see or hear the notes to write them down?

Rainy Day is pretty sure this is from Babylon 5

If there is life after life, if there is a Heaven and Rainy Day eventually gets there; the one burning question to which she wants the answer is: How do people think in musical notes? She understands how an people can see a picture before they paint it, read the novel before it's in the computer, but music—especially anything more complicated than Chop Sticks? It's beyond her comprehension, or as Yul Brynner used to say in The King and I, "Is a puzzlement!"

In the meantime, Rainy Day enjoys music in all but two of the aforementioned forms, from sitar to piano, from voice to cello, and everything in between. She enjoys it on CD, she enjoys it live, she enjoys it on TV, she enjoys it on You Tube, and she enjoys it on the radio. So, periodically, she will have a bit about music. Like today. And she will share with you, when she can, the pieces that brought her joy.

Gentle readers, I introduce you to the Swing Girls who are In the Mood.  The videos are about four and a half minutes long; please have your sound on. If you are of an age, you should have fond memories of Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman and the Big Band era. If you are not of that age, please, become introduced.  And please, put your hands together and join along and Sing, Sing, Sing. And, yes, someday Rainy Day will figure out how to embed the actual video! Honest. 

 

Do you think in musical notes, or colors, or some other medium? Rainy Day would love to hear from you. Just click on comments, below to open a comment box and write your response. Thank you.