Thank-you for the Music

I am trying to remember when I last left an account of the latest ‘happenings’ in my life. I can’t. So I will sum up these few post-exam weeks with “boringly busy” or “busily boring”, whichever suits the moment. Yesterday was tiring as hell, and so was today, but today… it was something more.

I spent the day at Dees’. This meant an argument early in the morning with mum about why I’m going, what time I’m going, how I’m going, how I’m coming back, what time I’m coming back and all sorts of absolutely irrelevant and unnecessary little details about the visit. It did not help that Dee had called late last night (or more precisely, early this morning) and told my mother something to the effect of “this can’t happen”… so after roughly an hour of arguing (after like an hour of sleep too!) mum leaves and I decide that I must also leave. But this act of ‘leaving’ as many of you will know, comprises many other smaller acts (ex: breakfast, choosing attire, changing the choice of attire, trying on the attire, taking off the attire, showering, putting on the attire, changing the attire etc…) which take up roughly another hour. So the nine-thirty rendezvous was delayed to ten, and actually happened closer to eleven. Anyway!

My gosh, I had missed this woman! The first hour or so we spent on a sequence of events similar to that described above which took up my time between deciding to leave and actually leaving (minus breakfast and the shower) during which we decided (or tried to decide) on what I would wear for that not-all-important event taking place on Saturday evening which I was not even sure of attending. But this is not what I wanted to talk about!

Ah, yes. First remarkable event of the day: It’s not exactly an event, it’s a movie.
“Big Fish” starring that absolutely adorable guy from Moulin Rouge with the absolutely GEORGOUS voice (yeah I can’t remember his name, something like … Finney? No way)! *faint! Directed by Tim Burton. Sounded good to me. The story is basically about a storyteller. His story is the story of his life. The problem is, he (like some other people we know) exaggerates a bit, and this leaves his son (who believed the stories until he was a little too old to believe them) thinking his dads’ a fake etc, etc… the movie doesn’t really prove a point, but it’s a great watch, a few typically Tim warped moments, some told-a-million-times-over but hilarious jokes and the feeling at the end like some searing hot liquid that burns your throat and brings tears to your eyes but makes your stomach warm and bubbly, leaving you happy. Really. The end is just amazing. Maybe the whole point of the movie is that there’s no point. A persons’ life story doesn’t really have to prove point as long as it’s interesting, because in the end, it’s just a story.

Either way, everyone needs to watch that movie.

The Second remarkable event of the day was a revival of the ancient tradition of whacking vague chords on the piano and calling it ‘improvisation’. Actually it’s more like mystic composition but I can’t expect normal human beings to understand the concept, so… yes, Dee and I sat at the piano together after about a year, the last time we did the same together being the 1st of October, 2006 at a certain event dubbed ‘Viva la Musica’ where I think we manage to scrape through with quite a good farce, together with Shez tapping a kala-gediya. The experience was amazing. “Amazing” here my hearts, does not mean the regular kind of amazing. It was so amazing, it lifted us up off the piano stool, threw us on the floor and had us shaking and tearing with laughter.

I had forgotten completely how good it felt to just play random chords and tunes on the piano with somebody else, and have that stuff ring through your flesh and bones into your soul. Damn, I had forgotten how good we were at this thing called improvising. I had always felt the power of the bond which is created through making music together. But after months and almost years of not doing this, I had forgotten. The experience brought back so many memories of choir practice in our little school chapel, sitting around the piano just humming random harmonies and rapping random rhymes while Dee played random chords. It also brought back memories of those hours during which she and I made the other choristers sit around the piano and listen to our painfully personalized renditions of Evanescence and the like.
It’s sad her parents are packing her off to Colombo, but it’s also good cus she’s finally getting the chance to do something the way she wants to. So I don’t know how I should feel. I think I’ve decided to be neutral about it, and look forward to seeing her in colo (without her parents!). these meetings are bound to be ‘happa’ as I’m making sure she takes ‘Our Sketch Book’ with her [ this book by the way, is a great book of our compositions which have very enlightening names such as ‘A-minor’, ‘D-minor’, ‘Five-three’ and ‘Staccatto’ – we have got as far as the table of contents].

(sigh!)

I think I’ll miss the woman more than I plan to, but that’s the way these things happen isn’t it?

Look out for the phenomenal debut album!