Reading Rainbow Theme Song:Reading was the one thing, as a child, that got me through the long Arizona summer days. My favorite past time was sitting in my room with all the lights on and the air conditioner blasting. I would be cuddled up under a blanket and my teddy snug under my arm. As I sat there with a book it would fly open on my lap, then all that I had to do was glance at the tiny balck printed words on the page and CRACK! I was off. I was flying on the magical reading ranbow. I was off to the many lands that the words in my book decided to decided to drag me to. There were times that I would wiz through landscapes from all over the world or even from worlds that only exist in the minds of children. Sometimes my mind would be stuck in one world for a long duration of time other times I would be there for only a blink in time. Books were the escape, the escape from the ever pressuring outside world. They are the one thing on this earth that can take you were ever you want to go.
The “Reading Rainbow” song describes how it was for me to travel too all those worlds. As the clips run from a little boy playing in the sand to him being a king and reading a book is an example of how my life was. One moment I was a little girl sitting in her room to a princess sitting on her throne in some land. At the end of the day I would have to come back to the reality that I was only a little girl but with the knowledge that I would go back to my new world one day soon.
White Christmas Theme Song:Ever since I was a little girl my family has had the tradition of watching the movie “White Christmas.” We rarely had a Christmas tree, since there were only four of us in the family. When we do put up a tree it is one of the most beautiful things in all my memories. Unfortunately in past years my mom has decided to make the tree look as though it has come out of a department store, instead of a scrapbook of our memories.
Her ornaments remind me of all the stars in the sky. They blink and sparkle with all the energy in the universe. The colors are so vibrant that they glow such as dawn of a new day as it comes over the horizon. There are only ever a few “child safe” ornaments on the tree. They seem to always pull my gaze away from the decorate ones and make me remember the times when I had created them with my two hands. Some are fluffy like clouds as others are slick with paint. Each and every one of them is a part of my soul. There are nine very special ornaments that seem to always like to hide from my eyes. They are the nine reindeer that pull Santa’s sledge. Each one sits on its own branch such as a king would on his throne.
Christmas has always been a happy time for me. But it isn’t the presents and food that make it special it is the glowing Christmas tree.
Orinaco flow:The most prominent memory that I have of my travels throughout the world is when I went to Germany for the first time with my mom. We rented a car and drove through the country side blaring Enya.
Enya’s song “Orinaco flow” was the one song that always managed to come on right as I rolled down my window. The lyrics that seemed to affect me the most were, "From the deep sea of Clouds To the island of the moon", they held teh promise of all the travel that wil coem my way in the future. The world seemed to change as I put my hand out the window to let the wind go through my fingers. The wind seemed to cool down significantly as I started to mouth the words that I had grown to know so well. The smell of the freshly cut grass made my nose tingle. As I closed my eyes, I could see my mom and I walking along the cobbled stones streets of Europe. As the car would go over the occasional hill my stomach seemed to go with it and would crave the food that always seemed to waft through the cafes on the street. Every so often I would glance over at my mom and would be reminded of all the travels that we had ever been on, where the "Orinace Flow" will take us. I would see her smiling face poke out from behind the camera as she asks me to smile one more time. For some reason the voice of Enya calms the nerves and makes me remember all the good times that my mom and I have had together.
Slowdive, Pygmalion: I was in fourth grade when I began playing the cello. As I got older I turned in my rented cello so I could buy my own. As I close my eyes now I know every bump and scratch and the sound that will resonate if you pluck the A string too hard.
My cello is dark hazelnut brown, it is a Scot Caw. Although it seems to have a red finish too it, so when light is directly on it it gleams with polish. As I reach my hand up to the scroll and tuning pegs to make it sing the song that I need it to. I see the buff mark at the top of the scroll where the finish never seemed to reach. As I begin to warm up I trace my hand along the finger board that has been worn down by the strings being pushed to hard. Four hard strings, A, D, G, C, cut into my fingers as I apply pressure to them. As my gaze follows the strings down to the bridge I see the chip where the A string is because I broke a string and it took a piece of wood with it. After the bridge comes the fine tuners and the tail piece. The tail piece is made out of the same wood as the cello which is very strange. Usually it is black like the finger board. To the left and right of the bridge are the F holes. Mine have been said to me sad F holes which could mean many different things about the cello. Lastly my endpin is hard silver metal with a gold finish around the end.
For years my cello was my life. As time has gone by I play it less and less but at the end of the day my cello and the pieces that I have played are always in my heart.
Yo Yo Ma, Bach Suite No. 1: Yo Yo Ma is the worlds most known and most celebrated cello player. I was very young the first time that I saw him play Bach Cello Suit No.1 in G Major. Ever since that moment I have played the cello. That was nine years ago. The first time that I saw the piece, by Bach, laid open on my stand I knew that my cello was made to play this piece. As I reached my left hand up to the finger board I worked out the first combination; open G, open D, first finger B on the A and then open A. . I stretched out my right arm as I brought my horse hair bow to the strings. As the bow touched the strings I put the right amount of pressure to get the correct sound out of it. As the song became more difficult I would slide my hand along the strings to different positions to see if the sound quality got any better.
As the piece speeds up towards the end there is eight note slurs. These are some of the hardest combinations I have ever played. My bow was going across all four strings and my fingers were stretched across all four strings. It is hard at this point not to move with the cello. It makes the music flow more smoothly. As I played the last cord I would swing my bow out just to show that I was done. The peacefulness that I had while performing this had never been reached again.
Gortaoz a ran Danez Prigent & Lisa Gerrard: All throughout high school I was head technician in the theatre department. My one haven in the entire building was the light booth. I could be shut up in there for hours on end and just play. My main object of entertainment was my beloved light board. I could do anything in the world of lighting. I could release any built up pain and anger into it as well.
I would sit on my stool and stick my head phones in my ears and play “Gortaoz a ran.” It seemed to make me focus on the task at hand. As I would get lost in the music I would see the lights turn on in my head and somehow make the movements go through the tips of my fingers and type it into the board. The keys always gave way. No matter the pressure that you put on them. As I close my eyes now I can visualize the board as if it were right in front of me now. To the right was the key pad and to the left was the 48 sub masters/dimmers that could be used at my will. There were times when the board seemed to fight what I wanted top do so I would take a deep breath and listen to the music.
Before shows began I seemed to get a way of nervousness come over me. This was the only song that had me push every thought out of my head and helped me concentrate on the topic at hand.
Patty Griffin, Rain: The song “Rain” by Patty Griffin illuminates my feelings that I have for rain. Rain is something that is a rarity in Arizona. When the clouds start to roll in over the valley everything seems to loose its roar and whisper. The mountains that surround the Valley of the Sun aka Phoenix is the last place where rain seems to fall. When the storms come in to our state boundaries they let loose little bits of rain on the desert first. Just so they could taunt us with the smell of the creosote bush, which when gets wet releases a fragrant essence.
I have always loved the rain. With rain comes come the intoxicating smell of the desert. I remember times a child sitting out on my back porch closing my eyes and taking deep breaths of fresh air with the hint of creosote. I would see myself walking hand in hand with my mom as we would name the plants of the desert and watch them get wet and change into something different. I really liked watching the Saguaro cactus swell with the water from the summer monsoons. If you watch long enough and the cactus drink to much rain water they will explode. Rain seems to bring relief. It has always made me stop and think about life. To inhale the scent of the creosote bush is to inhale a part of heaven.
Vitamin C, Graduation: Graduation. The word graduation is the best and worst word in my personal dictionary. It signifies the end of something great and the start of something unknown. The lyrics "Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down" kept twirling around in my head. The night of my graduation the only thing that was on my mind was the school colors, orange and yellow. Girls were dressed in gold robes and the boys in orange robes We looked like we had set the field on fire as we sat down girl boy girl boy. As all 656 of us graduating seniors walked out to on the field there was a sense of was awe as we all knew what was coming.
The colors of yellow and orange had been the two colors that have described my life for the past four years. On the first day of high school the buildings were decked out in the colors with banners welcoming everyone back to school. As the years went on the school colors seemed to pop up where ever I went. At football games there were pompoms for sale and shirts that represented Corona del Sol pride. Even at the mall there seemed to be a surplus of yellow and orange merchandise. The colors seemed to follow me wherever I went.
The song “Graduation” by Vitamin C seems to remind me off all the days that the two colors represented what I wanted in life, an education from the school that I loved and felt a deep connection with.
