The '10' List 9

10 Verbal Photographs
1. I had a dream that I was walking along the water and a fish jumped out at me, squealing with a horrible ringing yell. I asked it, “Why are you making such a horrific racket?” and in return it replied, “The water was too cold.”
2. I always thought that animals speak to each other like humans do. It is similar to the idea of anthropomorphic creatures seeing the same way that we do, when we talk they have to adapt to our language, but if we barked correctly they could understand us.
3. There is a painting that I saw with a circle of influential people in the world, such as Vincent Van Gogh and Ernest Hemingway, sitting around playing cards. I envisioned myself experiencing the same kind of event. I realized most would be musicians or writers, containing a significantly large circle spanning wider than just four people.
4. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that action is character. I envisioned this in contribution to my everyday life and decided that it would be amazing if I could talk to him just at least once a day to get advice from him through my day.
5. The Detroit Medical Center was just sold to a company of private investors named Vanguard. Vanguard sounds like a cheesy, fake company that may just take all of DMC’s money and then sell it for cheap.
6. I imagined, while I was driving down the freeway, what it would be like if there was a freeway that spanned 8 lanes. Would traffic still backup?
7. Imagine a world where there was only air to walk on. I watched Apollo 13 and watched the astronauts float in the ship because of no gravity. It would be astonishing if there were no ground and people just walked on air.
8. I think it would be amazing if there was a type of speaker that color coded sound waves when certain types of music was playing. This is not involving the used of illegal drugs either.
9. I was walking down my street on the way to get a haircut, a long time ago. I just remember this vision being fascinating. The sun was shining through the leaves creating somewhat of a thin green glow that formed fascinating patterns in the sidewalk, like little night-light images during the day.
10. People who jump off bridges always tend to die on contact. Do you think it is like hitting concrete and your body would crush into little pieces?

10 Treasures
1. “Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul” -Plato
2. “Music is love in search of a word.” -Sidonie Gabrielle
3. “The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best...” -Henry David Thoreau
4. “Music is a defining element of character.” -Plato
5. “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” -Bob Marley
6. “I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music.” -Billy Joel
7. “Music must never offend the ear, but must please the listener, or, in other words, must never cease to be music.” -Mozart
8. “I bid you sing of Gongyla, Abanthis, taking up your lyre as (now again) longing floats around you.” -Sappho
9. “Yes you a child once, come sing these things, talk to us, give us your grace.” -Sappho
10. “I don’t know what to do, two states of mind in me” -Sappho


The theme of my ten verbal photographs is a little different than they usually are. I had a pretty unique imagination this week because of my heavy workload; well that’s what I assume. When I have a heavy workload, I tend to imagine things and situations a little more than usual. The situations are usually completely unrealistic, but they could be useful in my writing, if I ever write an acceptable fictional story. I imagined that there is no gravity, which is entirely unrealistic, but it could make for an interesting characteristic in a story, or sitting around a poker table with many of my dead idols. These fictional situations give me an internal drive to write a fictional story. I thought of the lights shining through the leaves for an interesting enthusiasm for description, and then I thought of the colors coming from the radio to produce good qualities in a story. I think it would be interesting if that were introduced into a story because I have never seen that before; different is always interesting, whether positive or negative. The thoughts that I produce in these stories will give me a really good push in the direction of writing future stories that will hopefully be published.
My treasures did not really match my verbal photographs like I usually like them to do, but it was an entirely different theme that I wanted to incorporate into this list. I looked for my famous texts, and writers of texts, who have the most interesting quotes about music. When I have a stressful week, like the last one, I am in a psychological overdrive, which pushes my mind to go into a creative spin. All the quotes are incorporating some aspect of music, whether it is about themselves as fellow musicians or others. The ones I found most interesting were the quotes by Plato and Mozart. Mozart explained music in perfect form by declaring that music should never “cease to be music.” It just makes me think of all the music “snobs” out there, who just judge music. Music should be listened to as an art form and is never meant to offend the ear, but rather to introduce the ear to a new sound. One should be thankful for listening to music and take in every note and melodic wonder. Sappho talks of the beauty in enjoying life and to sing what you feel, giving your grace to the world.