I think I can best be described by bossa nova music. Spent a year studying carillon in Belgium (If you have no idea what a carillon is, and most people don't, try www.yale.edu/carillon , www.gcna.org , or www.carillon.org .) and am now a grad student in psychology at UPenn.
I started a tango quintet, and am realizing how hard it is to coordinate a group of musicians. But my gosh, tango nuevo expresses anything I have ever wanted to say but had no words for.
If it helps, I also used to be heavily involved with this: www.yale.edu/freeduel .
I'm also a really big fan of salsa -- it's just so much fun. Always on 2!!! (Except that no one around here dances on 2...)
As a psych person, I like to wonder about the workings of the mind. We're really amazing, and people should realize this more often.
I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention liking roleplaying games (and anime), but lately I'm a bit disenchanted with all the repetition and lack of creativity in stories. I've got an idea for a game, and if anyone wants to be a sprite artist or programmer for it, let me know.
Also, this is brilliant: http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/1673352/ . Anyone feel like doing something like this?
I can't stand Mozart. Absolutely hate the stuff. It just doesn't make me feel anything, and most of the time I fall asleep listening to it. Bach was badass enough to escape this problem.
I think one of the great ephiphanies I had last year is that music, by which I mean live music, is some of the rarest stuff we have. When a person is making music, only the people who are physically present and listening at that very moment will ever get to really experience it. Even really good recordings aren't quite the same.
After a long argument with a self-proclaimed jazz fanatic, I feel the need to put this bit in: I've decided I'm a fan of acoustic music, with extremely post-modern leanings. There's good stuff in any style, and all styles are valid. But this also means there's a HELL of a lot of crap out there too. Stuff can just be bad, or even worse, boring.
I'm much better at playing chamber music and accompanying other soloists than performing solo works. Something about having another person on stage just makes it much more enjoyable.
