Posts tagged with "human interaction"

Duets

One day I’d like to pick up an instru­ment with a big­ger range (than a ukulele1), and start writ­ing my own mate­r­i­al. It’d be even bet­ter if I could form a duo with a per­son I was roman­ti­cal­ly involved with, like The Dresden Dolls or Wild Strawberries2.

Sometimes The Dresden Dolls play extend­ed ver­sions of their songs at con­certs3. The way they inter­act reveals such inti­ma­cy. In each face, you can see how they’re com­plete­ly lost to the music in those moments of dis­so­nant bliss, but they’re lost togeth­er. From body lan­guage alone, they read each oth­er for tim­ing, vol­ume, and inten­si­ty, until they feel where the oth­er is going by instinct. That kind of chem­istry is rare, and it’d be amaz­ing to be able to share that with some­one.

  1. The high‑g reen­trant is what gives the ukulele it’s dis­tinct sound, but it feels so lim­it­ing some­times. [↩]
  2. Hellllllllllooooooooo Roberta Carter-Harrison cir­ca Quiver. [↩]
  3. Okay, admit­ted­ly, Amanda’s singing isn’t any­where as good in the video as on the stu­dio ver­sion, but the near­ly five-minute extend­ed intro with Brian’s bril­liant drum solo would be worth the price of admis­sion by itself. [↩]

Wingman

A good wing­man says “no prob­lem bro” when you ask him to go with you, and takes it as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to hang out.

He lis­tens and com­mis­er­ates and backs you up on your feel­ings when you’re catch­ing him up.

He even pays for din­ner when he’s the one doing you a favour.

He keeps a look­out in the sea of peo­ple so he can be aware of the sit­u­a­tion and warn you.

He stands fac­ing the door so you can have your back to it when talk­ing to him, and won’t be caught off guard.

He teas­es you about the cute ones, just like the good old days, when you went drink­ing in places too loud to talk.

He leads when you’re too ner­vous or self-con­scious to do any­thing, and he fol­lows with­out ques­tion when you take action.

He has a great time, and thanks you for the night.