64 days left...

[wiseheart]

... and today's main topic is: hobbies! You know all of mine (writing, crafting, travelling, singing in a choir), but I'd like to know more about yours. So, below are the questions in separate comments as before.

(I'll save reading/writing for another day; oh, and pets totally count!)

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Music (I chose the Uhura icon because Nichelle Nichols, who played the one and only Uhura, is an excellent singer)

1. What kind of music do you like?
I love classical music; gregorian chants (okay, that isn't exactly classical), Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, but I also like some more modern composers like Vangelis. What I also like is poems that has been music written to and performed in sung form. Oh, and true folk music of all kinds is a favourite.

2. Can you play any musical instrument?
I had 10 years' worth of piano lessons; they didn't work because I didn't like it. Practicing was deadly boring. I learned to play the Blockflöte a bit and half a dozen accords on the guitar, and I had organ lessons in the cloister, but they never led to anything, either.

3. Do you like to sing? Have you ever sung in a choir? If yes, which voice do you sing?
I love singing and have been doing so in various choirs since the age of 10; always contralto and occasionally even the tenor voice. Currently I'm singing in the choir of our school, consisting of both teachers and parents.

4. Do you have a favourite artist or band?
Currently I'm head over heals about Il Divo. Discovered Runrig way too late.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

1. Pretty much everything except modern country and rap. My favorite channels on Sirius that aren't comedy are Broadway, Alt Nation (alternative Rock), and Octane (harder rock). And the 80's. :)
In church we sing the psalms- one or two soloists, and the choir and congregation do the refrain. It's cool. It's kind of like chanting, but not.

2. Have played piano, flute, violin. Dabbled in accordion-my mom's. Don't really play any of them now.

3. YES! lol Since I was a kid. Now in a church choir. Have pretty much always been soprano.

4. It really just depends on my mood.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Singing in a choir is fun, isn't it? Especially if you like the people you sing with. I left a much larger and professionally much more gifted choir once because the people were so unpleasant not even the music could make up for it.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

It's definitely worth it more when the people are awesome. I don't know that I would enjoy it at all if the people were jerks.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, my colleagues do have their moments, too, but at least they aren't complete jerks. Not like those in the much more serious and professional choir.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

1. Opera, musicals, classical,folk and a bit of vintage pop like Abba and the Beatles.

2. no.

3. Yes, but I'm the world's worse singer

4. John Tomlinson, the opera singer

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like ABBA, too! And I used to like Boney M in my misspent youth.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

We have very similar musical tastes, although I don't know Vangelis (yet, at any rate). I love choral music, especially if I can hear it in person and I love organ music, particularly when performed in a stone building. I adore the reverberation.

I can just barely play the piano and the recorder. Since the writing bug bit me, I haven't been practicing, so I am years out of form, and the form was rather rickety to begin with. Still, it always gives me pleasure when I resume after various multi-year breaks.

I haven't sung in a choir since I was in elementary school and this is mainly because I cannot stay in tune. Nevertheless, by myself, I still sing sometimes.

Will you continue with the school choir after you retire?

Your question has made me realise that I don't have a favourite anymore and haven't had in years. I have certain favourite pieces of music that I will listen to on CD over and over when the mood strikes and will go out of my way to hear performed live. Pictures at an Exhibition is one of them and I still can't make up my mind whether I prefer the original version for piano or the orchestrated version by Ravel.

The most recent new piece of music I fell in love with was the soundtrack of series 4 of Sherlock. Wasn't keen on the episodes, as you know, but the music was wonderful, but sad.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Will you continue with the school choir after you retire?

Oh, definitely! It gives me the chance to see my collegaues twice a week - and to grin Boss Woman in the face with the same regularity.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

Oh, that will be a double pleasure, then! Much of the pleasant part of work without the stress and the other annoying bits!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Crafts (I chose the Radek icon because of Zelenka's mad technical skillz!)

1. Do you have a favourite craft that you regularly practice?
As you know, I do paper work, felt work and even work a bit with Nespresso capsules. Oh, and I totally consider baking as a craft.

2. Is there a craft you never tried but would like to?
I'm planning to give wine corks a try. Already have the materials but I'm waiting for retirement when I'll have the time and the nerve for experimenting. Making candles could be fun, too; I often decorated them but only tried making them once.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

I am not crafty. Really at all. lol

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That's okay. Less competition for those of us who are. ;))

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I'm hopeless at making anything. My hobbies, cats, photography, blogging, cinema, opera and church activities.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Nobody is really hopeless. I used to think the same about me - until the age of 30 or so, when I got bitten by the craft bug in the cloister. But you like a full and active life even so, and your photos are wonderful, so that counts as a craft, I think.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

Baking is definitely a craft!

For me, drawing and calligraphy are the only ones I practice with some regularity. I also like embroidery, although the only thing I've done recently was a bee on a cloth shopping bag that developed a hole, and that was last year!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, calligraphy, that must be marvellous! Alas, I don't think my hands would be stable enough for that, even if I had the time and the energy for a new hobby.

[saki101.livejournal.com]

It is a lot of fun and I wish I had time to do it more, but at least I keep up some.

You give a lot to the arts and the crafts already, so no need for another...unless, of course, one just lures you away and you can't help yourself!

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

My hobbies - oh, boy! Writing, painting, quilting, cooking, traveling, theatre, cats, Minions, Man from UNCLE, Sapphire and Steel, Spike... and the list goes one. :P I wish I could give up sleeping...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Nonsense, sleeping is a wonderful hobby, too!

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I just could do a lot more if I didn't have to sleep all that time.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, but you weren't half this pretty without your beauty sleep. ;)

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Flatterer...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It ain't flattering if it's the truth!

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

:DDD, then I thank you.

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

My hobbies are writing, crafting, going for walks (with and without dogs), singing in a choir and reading. Sometimes I start to read a book and when I reach the end of it the time has passed very quickly, at times I have read through the night without being aware of it.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hey, welcome to the party! It's so good to hear from you again! So, you like crafting, too? Would you mind scrolling two comments up and answer the crafting questions or do you prefer not to do so in an open entry?

(We'll have the reading and writing topic, too, on one of the other days, I swear...)