If you can watch this without feeling inspired...something is wrong.
This contestant from China's Got Talent lost BOTH of his arms in a tragic accident as a kid, but learned to play piano...with his FEET. If that ain't determination for you, I don't know what is... Not only is he talented, but I love what he says (rough translation aside)...
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Love Poem
I've been so caught up in other stuff, I almost forgot that I was able to cross something else off my list in the last few weeks--twice actually.
About a year ago I said I would perform a love poem on stage.
This is kind of a big deal for me because I don't write love poems. Not that I can't obviously, but it's a topic I don't touch normally and I didn't write my first really good one until last year.
So back in June when I went to Boston and found myself in a 3-2-1 slam. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it means you do three rounds of poetry--the first piece is 3 mins, the second one is 2 mins and the third 1 min. The problem is I didn't realize until about 15 mins before we were set to start that it was a 321. It dawned on me that without cutting or speeding through a piece I had nothing for the middle round so I was forced to change my game plan. I decided to take a gamble with my 2 minute and pull out the only love poem I had memorized --I scored pretty darn good too, if I remember correctly it scored the highest of the 3 that I did and I ended up in 2nd place by about a half point.
After that, I decided I would at least try to rotate it in somewhere and that's where last week came in.
On Monday, I had the best night in awhile--I mean so good, folks in the audience were walking up to me mid set and handing me roses. During a break a girl walked up to me and asked if I would listen to a piece she wrote--she was too scared to do it on stage so I made her a deal. If she agreed to do hers (which I thought was quite good), I would do another one at her request--and wouldn't you know she asked if I had a love poem. I told her my dilemma with the whole love poem thing, but said I would do the one I knew. Next thing you know, she did so I did.
That said--surprisingly enough it went really well. And as such I am officially taking it off the list. In the interim, I have a recording session in about 2-3 weeks and I have been asked to record this piece over music, at which point I'll post it up so you all can hear it. :)
About a year ago I said I would perform a love poem on stage.
This is kind of a big deal for me because I don't write love poems. Not that I can't obviously, but it's a topic I don't touch normally and I didn't write my first really good one until last year.
So back in June when I went to Boston and found myself in a 3-2-1 slam. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it means you do three rounds of poetry--the first piece is 3 mins, the second one is 2 mins and the third 1 min. The problem is I didn't realize until about 15 mins before we were set to start that it was a 321. It dawned on me that without cutting or speeding through a piece I had nothing for the middle round so I was forced to change my game plan. I decided to take a gamble with my 2 minute and pull out the only love poem I had memorized --I scored pretty darn good too, if I remember correctly it scored the highest of the 3 that I did and I ended up in 2nd place by about a half point.
After that, I decided I would at least try to rotate it in somewhere and that's where last week came in.
On Monday, I had the best night in awhile--I mean so good, folks in the audience were walking up to me mid set and handing me roses. During a break a girl walked up to me and asked if I would listen to a piece she wrote--she was too scared to do it on stage so I made her a deal. If she agreed to do hers (which I thought was quite good), I would do another one at her request--and wouldn't you know she asked if I had a love poem. I told her my dilemma with the whole love poem thing, but said I would do the one I knew. Next thing you know, she did so I did.
That said--surprisingly enough it went really well. And as such I am officially taking it off the list. In the interim, I have a recording session in about 2-3 weeks and I have been asked to record this piece over music, at which point I'll post it up so you all can hear it. :)
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