Monday, 29 November 2010

Insulated from sound

Driver thought cyclist she hit was tree branch
HER car rammed into a cyclist from the rear so hard that he flew and hit the
front windscreen, cracking part of it, before rolling onto the road. But
Cleopatra Wong Yuin Ping, 30, thought the body that smashed into the windscreen
was a rotten tree branch that had fallen. She did not bother to stop and
continued driving her car along Holland Road. Wong was also unaware that her
victim's bicycle was stuck in the undercarriage of the Lexus ES300 belonging to
her father, despite the noise of the bicycle scraping against the road.
The bicycle was dragged for about 2km before it was dislodged.

(follow link for more)

I think the sound proofing in Lexus car must be really really good, in order for a driver to hit a cyclist in the middle of the night, then have said cyclist crack the windscreen of the Lexus, and then drag the bicyle aforementioned cyclist was riding on for a distance.

Maybe we should all drive a Lexus (or two), then we can all be insulated from external factors and concentrate on getting home safe and sound at night. Nice to stay with your parents as well, easy access to car(e) and insulated from (trivial) things in life as well, paying and maintaining your own home and car. Urgh.

Monday, 22 November 2010

Playing for mass

I think i have settled down at Sacred Heart after moving over after Easter. It has not been an easy process trying to realign my playing style with the existing band, but i think i'm getting there, especially after (what i felt was) a really good mass yesterday.

Good mix of songs that started out mostly in the minor keys before moving on to more funky contemporary tunes and ending with the grand hymn, Majesty. =) Looking ahead, this will be my first Christmas in this church, and the band structure is pretty fluid, so i'm not sure what time mass i'll be playing or whether i'll be playing at all.

I think playing for mass where the lead sheet is quite skimpy (and sometimes all over the place) does improve my playing, provided i put into practice what i've been learning. Lately i've been playing a lot more bossanovas and latin jazz pieces, just because they feel and awesome, and also because the technical (i.e. classical) jazz pieces are quite beyond me right now. Lol. Upwards and onwards!