HITTING ALL THE RIGHT NOTES

So, I was going through my old stuff that's made it across from Trinidad and has been stuffed into a closet in my new room here in Abu Dhabi. Among the ample supply of cut-to-shreds Ellegirl magazines, costume jewelry and the 6 given-up-on journals, I found some old violin sheet music. To be specific, I found 'Cradle Song', one of my old grade 7 exam pieces. A musical nightmare, that so happens to be one of my favourites today. It resembles the soundtrack to 'The Others'; very very eerie, and so difficult, all the copies we were handed down to learn by our teacher had the words of past students on it; things like 'God, help me' written next to the harmonics section (where you don't apply pressure to the string, but place your finger lighly on top of it and it makes a really soft, ethereal high sound, like a flute).

Sorry. Can you tell I'm getting excited over it? I'm teaching you the damn violin. Wish you could hear the piece though. I wanted to pluck through it again on my violin after all this time. And I opened my case to start on it, forgetting that my violin was damaged from my flight up here, having to face the cargo hold this time around. That got me down.

So, I'm really relieved to have designers Victor & Rolf to turn to to cheer me and my varnished wooden buddy up with their Spring 2008 collection. I know this stuff was out since last year but it means a lot to me right now. It's great to see music making a comeback, especially the violin.

I remember the horror on my face the day my grandmother handed me a battered red chinese violin in quarter size for my 5th birthday instead of the standard latest Barbie doll. Now I know after all these years, of sucking at it, being made fun of for playing one, quitting, starting up again, practising until my fingers bled (no, that is not only a cool guitarist thing), and eventually playing at public, private and presidential gigs and concerts for some serious cash, that my grandmother knew what she was doing all along. And I am super grateful.

I LOVE IT! I miss the backstage life I had in Trinidad; the smell of make-up and sizzling hair under flat-irons, shouting and running through clouds of rosin dust, into dressing rooms in tacky, pouffy customized orchestra outfits, drinking free soda and the sound of a million cranky stringed instruments getting tuned to perfection. I mean, I even got a violin tattoo on my back á la Man Ray for my 18th birthday...in case you couldn't tell how much it means to me.