Finally finished watching "Maurice", and I think it's beautiful. It's great that they overcame fear and gave in to love. There were parts of the movie that were boring, but there were interesting parts, too. I came across an excellent quote today:
"It's sadly ridiculous that love should ever have to be hidden.
Violence is so open and accepted yet love between two people is bound by prejudice."
Watched "Farinelli il castrato" again today, I've only ever watched it twice, and the glamour of red and gold always captures me. I want to sing in that hall one day. The hard, concrete walls of my house simply can't compare.
I've been listening to recordings of my voice lessons, it's strange to hear how far I've come since I started in February this year, and even more strange to think about how I couldn't open my mouth big enough when I first joined a choir. It took me 5 years to do that, and until I was 15, my mouth never opened more than 2cm when I sang.
My voice teacher told me months ago, "I'm surprised you have not given up yet." I thought it was bad at first, but she went on to explain that a lot of people drop singing when they realise it's not going to come to them overnight. I don't think I'd be doing myself justice if I ever gave up singing, it's my greatest outlet, release. People may not hear my words, but more often than not, they hear my singing.
Two weeks ago, my voice teacher told me to look up some other songs in category 'C', as if to say she was having second thoughts about the song "I Feel Pretty". I was having a little trouble with the emotion and the highest note, so she thought I could sing something else, short and sweet. To be honest, I wasn't the least bit happy about it. It doesn't make sense that I can't sing it well, so I went home, I practised and practised. Being stubborn can be a mighty good thing.
I was supposed to show her the list of songs from category 'C' when I next saw her, but I didn't. I refused to, not knowing if it was wise or not. We conveniently "forgot" about it. She didn't ask me to sing "I Feel Pretty" that week, so that meant that I had another week to work on the emotion and high note. Practised like hell. This week I went back, I had to sing it for her. It must've been good, because she said I've come so far on this piece, and she's so proud.
Hah! Praise from the top! All that hard work paid off, there was emotion, and we worked on the high note together. Apparently, it's within my vocal range. I can reach up to high G, but I can't seem to keep my voice at high F without it breaking, so we tried actions and ways to keep it there. I could finally do it, but no guarantee I can do it every time, so we thought it would be safer if I sing it at a lower key. With that said, I have to do the transposing myself.
Two nights ago, I watched "Funny Games", an artsy-fartsy movie that I wanted to watch when it was showing at the "Cathay" last year or so. It's a foreign movie about two serial-killers, very smart, very evil. They preyed on rich families staying at houses by the lake. It's by far the most disturbing film I've ever seen. There's a lot of psychological torture, not so much of blood and gore. Really, really terrifying, but I think they could've been more creative with their choice of weapons and how they killed people. Do away with the guns and knives, you know?!
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