40th Anniversary: Faculty Members Musical Showdown

On the cold, dark night of January 29, UT Dallas was witness to the most epic event in musical sports entertainment history. The Conference Center Arena was filled with spectators eager to observe the musical marvel.

The most memorable match of the concert for me was “Semi-suite.” In this bout, The Violin and The Clarinet formed an unstoppable tag team in which the violin provided the main melody, while The Clarinet provided a solid support in the form of an accompaniment with its smooth and mellow sounds. The Piano tried his best to hold his ground without being overwhelmed. He certainly carried his team with his relentless rhythm. The Percussion would randomly come out of nowhere to break up the count whenever The Piano was pinned. The Percussion mainly worked to embellish The Piano’s performance as well as the match of as whole. The attention was never too focused on him.

Just when I thought the match could not get any more intense, The Violin called upon an audience member to deliver a deadly blow. The crowd which, was usually silent as they were immersed in the performance, went absolutely wild.

The performance was nothing less than art. The performers seemed like they were professionals with the intent of sharing their love of music.

Mind Status: BLOWN (Post 2)

In the early stages of my teen years, I felt it was extremely important to be able to fit in and be on good terms with practically everyone. During my quest to obtain the status of a “cool kid,’ I obviously had to go where all the hipster kids where hanging about. The natural habitat of the elusive cool group of youngsters happened to be the arcades at a local mall. We would always be there after school because we were rebels that refused to be confined at home. Our main focus was having fun all day every day since studying was for squares (although I did crack open a text book once in a while when no one was looking).

The main attraction at the arcades was the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) machine. DDR was a game that was quite the fad back in the good 'ol days, where children would make a mockery of themselves in front of others to serve as entertainment. You could not be considered an Elite unless you were able to perform well on that machine. I remember spending many hours a day watching the regulars tear up that seizure-inducing noise box. Their sense of eye-feet coordination never failed to amaze me.

Most of the fun was just listening to the music that was playing. It was always so upbeat and catchy. Most of it consisted of techno and electronica themed music. The insane beats were powerful enough to pump a person’s adrenaline to levels that seemed almost lethal.

Music of my Life.

I can't honestly say that music had a huge role in shaping who I am today. When it came to music, whatever happened to be playing on the radio was good enough for me. I never went out of my way to change the station or search for any particular songs. I wasn't very picky about my music and I generally liked all of it.

This continued until about the time I was introduced to the internet. Ah, the glorious interweb introduced an entirely different way of listening to music. In a sense, it opened up my ears and eyes. I have heard many wonderful things and I have also seen many things, some of which can never be unseen. I suppose I wasn't picky because I didn't have much of a selection or know-how of music until the world wide web. Thanks to the internets, every type of music from different genres were availible to be. I had access to more types of music than I could ever imagine.

After a while, I began to develop preferences to different types of music. I now mostly enjoy listening to ambient music along with some electronica. I usually use it as background noise when I am doing homework or other types of boring activities. For me, it's very calm and relaxing. There's not too many sounds going on and it is very reserved. I suppose that coincides with my personality: quite and laid back. Whenever I feel frustrated or irritated, I just put on my headphones and turn on some ambient tunes. Some of my favorite artists include: Ratatat, God Is An Astronaut, M83, Mogwai, and Godspeed You Black Emporor.