History of Shisha

In India in the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar following the European introduction of tobacco to India, Hakim Abul Fateh Gilani a descendant of Abdul Qadir Al-Gilani came from Baghdad to India who was later a physician in the court of Mughal raised concerns after smoking tobacco became popular among Indian noblemen, and subsequently envisaged a system which allowed smoke to be passed through water in order to be ‘purified’. Gilani introduced the hookah after Asad Beg, then ambassador of Bijapur, encouraged Akbar to take up smoking. Following popularity among noblemen, this new device from Arabiafor smoking soon became a status symbol for the Indian aristocracy and gentry. The Indian Hookah was designed differently from the Arabian Hookah or Shisha which was invented during the Abbasid Empire in Baghdad. They were different in shape and design.

Sheet music

6.12.10 - This is probably my oldest and most used music book. I love playing the Venetian Gondola Boat Song (Op 30 No. 6) by Felix Mendelssohn because it's in a minor key (F# I believe) and I love minor songs. Songs in a minor key - to me- are like pictures in high contrast: much more interesting if done correctly and harder to pull off, but intriguing if you can.

Look at my book! It is falling apart. So sad. Every time I play through it, a piece falls or gets torn off.

For Elise (Bagatelle No.25 in A minor). She must have been a special girl for Beethoven to name this piece in her honor. Romantic. Music fact of the day: Fur Elise was found and published 40 years after Beethoven died.

6/8 is a difficult time signature...especially in A major/F# minor. I hated counting aloud during piano lessons...well, actually I rarely counted (6/8: one and a, two and a...) during practice sessions and then all of a sudden, in the presence of my strict Russian piano teachers, I counted like a pro. Ha.

My upright

6.12.10 - Happy August! My birthday is a week away.

This week my blog is focused on all things pertaining to my piano. The above picture is of my cute little brown upright piano. I got it when I was about seven when my family moved from South Minneapolis to the suburbs. If you didn't know, I am a classically trained pianist with about 10 years of professional lessons under my belt and have been playing for about 17 years total..wow, that is a lot of time! I didn't practice very much during college because I didn't really have much access to a piano, but now that I'm back home, I've started to play again and although I have my bad days, it is still nice to know that my fingers can fly across octaves when I play the songs that I know very well.

Sometimes when I play, I don't even have to think. My fingers just know where they need to go and I never count anymore (I've always hated counting to keep time), I just remember how the song is supposed to sound and sometimes I change the time signature to suit my mood. Sound lazy? Yeah it is, but I'm not a professional competing pianist anymore, I just play for fun.

My baby grand piano. 

My dad told me when I was little if I kept up with my lessons and competitions he would buy me a baby grand. I don't really remember the details, but let's just say I don't really want one now and it's a good thing because there isn't even room in my house for one. Maybe one day if I have $40,000 or $50,000 around and the space for it, I'll get a black Steinway baby grand, but until then, my upright is just fine.

On the strike line

6.9.10 - Mary and I walked the graveyard shift (well, 11:30pm-2:30am) at the strike line in front of North Memorial. I usually go to bed around 3am anyway, so I decided to show my support and protest with her. By now, we all know that the strike is over and the nurses voted to not strike again, so with nurses back at work I finally feel safe to go to the ER - if only I had health insurance...

"We are the union. The mighty mighty union. Fighting for justice. Fighting for respect. Fighting for our healthcare. Fighting for our pensions.." -A different version of the above chant that I used to shout in NYC for UNITE HERE.

Le jardin

6.5.10 - The garden. I've written about it before, but I will say again that I do not garden, also I admit that I have more of a black thumb instead of a green thumb, meaning I have probably killed nearly every plant I've ever had, but I can design and decorate (and photograph!)  - so that's good enough...right?

Cilantro ready to be planted by well-manicured hands.

Cilantro planted.

Joshua's hands after digging around in the dirt.

Bangles of the week

Favorite bangles of the week. I compiled three different sets and pieces.

Dear Blogger,
I'm so sorry I've not been posting very much recently. I had decided to change my previous daily posting schedule to thrice-weekly so that I wouldn't feel guilty when I didn't get around to blogging every day, but my summer has become busy that between a camping trip, day trips, long drives, movies, errands, shopping, coffees, lunches, dinners and drinks with friends, I've quite forgotten to post all of the pictures I've been taking thus far to even meet my thrice-weekly quota. Anyway, I'm back and will do my best to catch up this week.

This week I hope to start the process of catching up by dumping photos on Facebook and undertaking the task of tagging everyone I know (it seems like that anyway) and after that is done, I have to blog, update my portfolio on Flickr, call clients, clean out Gmail and I've just realized that this is my to do list. Sigh. I'm sure we all have our fair share of lists - written or mental -but it is very satisfying to cross off a task that has been completed so maybe I'll write out my mental lists and stop this rambling ADD blog post. AH! It's almost August!? Okay, ready? 1, 2, 3. Go.

Sincerely,
-b

I write like David Foster Wallace. Yes!

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Yeah...I do! Proof. I took a test that analyzed my writing style and I love my test's result because I read "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" in college for a Freshman Composition class and I loved it. His run-ons, long sentences, ellipses, many many footnotes...all me. Maybe one day I shall write a memoir with 34594356 footnotes. Okay, not that many, but my paper that I wrote for that class had like 100 footnotes because I wrote it in homage to DFW, so it can be done. Look out publisher, here I plan to come!