Saturday, July 26, 2014

Japan

I'm in a ryokan in Kanazawa at the moment. Soon, my girlfriend Sharman and I will head to the famous Kenroku-en and a variety of other sights in this lovely town. But before we do, I wanted to post this acrostic poem. I sort of regret not writing a Haiku, but the simplicity of this is similar. Here it is, the creative offering of the week.

JAPAN

Joined together by shared history, identity and Shinkansen

Awe-inspiring, from skyscrapers to gardens to train maps

Polite and patient, even when the language barrier presents a great challenge

Artistic, with extraordinary care put into the tiniest of details

Never-ending possibilities of exploration and enlightenment

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Renaissance!

Hello family, friends and strangers. Thanks for visiting Page 43. When I was in university, I updated this blog frequently—writing essays on musical thoughts and dozens of album reviews. But since moving to Hong Kong in 2011, there hasn't been very much activity here. This mostly has had to do with me being busy working, but also because I haven't really been motivated to post anything here. I've posted on my other blog, A Mariners' Fan in Hong Kong, regularly for these three years. But though my love of music remains as strong as ever, I just haven't had the desire to use my precious free time writing about it.

Well, as you may have guessed, I'm trying to resurrect the ol' 43. Staring now, my plan is to post one small piece of art here on a weekly basis. This art may be anything, absolutely anything that can be loosely defined as art. Limitations are for losers! For me, nothing is as fulfilling as the process of creation, so I'm hoping to use this site as a platform for my creativity. It doesn't hurt that in August, I'll be starting a new job as an elementary and middle school music teacher :)

For the week of July 14th, I present, my cover of "Mother Nature's Son." I've played this song a few times at my monthly restaurant gig here in Hong Kong. The accompaniment is from my tenor ukulele, an instrument I dearly love due to its harp-like timbre. 


This song appeals to me for so many reasons, and really hits home in its connection between nature and music. Thanks Sir Paul McCartney.