It’s a sunny day. Sunny and cold. The rink isn’t as crowded as we’d expected. Mostly families. Families plus the Ice King. He’s about what, about fifty with soft features. Balding with grey hair. Dresses in black and grey. Skating around as though this were all he ever did. Hands clasped around his back. Skating his orbits forwards, then backwards. Unclasping his hands to do occasional dance moves.

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So I asked my cello teacher for a sad song because that’s what I was in the mood for and he was nice enough to look around for one and finally gave me “Twilight” by Gretchaninoff; on the same page is a happy song I’m also supposed to learn. Twilight is fairly slow, which means pay attention to your bowing. I had always thought articulation would be my problem, finding the right notes with my left hand on the neck of the instrument – you know, no frets or anything. But the human body turns out to be a stupendous thing and you eventually learn to hear the notes and that is not as great a problem as I had thought. Bowing is my nemesis right now. So this song will be good practice.

However, I’m still looking for an even sadder song. Something longer and really depressing, you know? That can be played on a cello, that is.

There are winds with negative ions and winds with positive ions, she told me someone told her. Someone who should know. Someone with a crystal hanging over her television. The positive-ion winds are debilitating. They make you depressed or or ennervated or otherwise fuck with your head.

The man on the radio said half of everyone in Austria is “Wetterf

Monkey helpers for the disabled.
[via mighty girl]

Best of dongresin.