Lecha Dodi

Mood:

Sung by David D'Or. This version is really cool. Lecha Dodi means 'Come My Beloved'. It's a song that we sing at the synagogue on Friday night to welcome Shabbat. (In the song, Shabbat is referred to as a bride. Interesting imagery in the song itself.) It's a really beautiful song. Most Reform congregations skip a few verses. It's 9 verses long. (Plus, a chorus.) It was composed by Rabbi Shlomo Halevi Akabetz in the 16th century Ottoman Empire city of Edirne. It's also an acrostic, with the first letter of the first 8 verses spelling the author's name. There's a lot of different melodies and takes on it. Kind of fitting for a Friday post.David D'Or's an Israeli singer, composer, and songwriter. He has a vocal range of more than 4 octaves and has won many awards in Israel. He represented Israel in the 2004 Eurovision contest. Really interesting singer.

Feeling slightly better today. Played my clarinet. Worked more on the klezmer tunes I've been going over the last few times, and added another one. Sounding better and better. I think the next few times, I'll just go over all these again. I won't add more for a while. Need to get better with these songs first.Still had some mistakes with some. Not many, but I want to iron them out. 

Read a bit more of Hetalia's 'Comic Diary'. I think it's extra comics that the mangaka posted on his blog. In a way, I think they may be funnier than the strips in the manga, because it's just stuff he felt like posting at the time. Some are just doodles or designs. It's very interesting. Anyways, I think this was one of the funnier strips. They're talking about Hello Kitty having a pet cat. (China's on the left in the top box, and Japan's on the right in the same one.) I love the culture clashes that the characters have. And, it seems that the mangaka does quite a bit of research on pop culture/traditions for a lot of the countries. He doesn't just pull this stuff out of thin air. He even talked about going through the NYC library, and how amazed he was with the wealth of knowledge there. The more I learn about him, the more I like him. He just wants people from around the world to understand and appreciate each other. I love learning about other countries, and their cultures/history. He seems to like how foods and food terms came about as well. So, there's quite a bit in the manga/blog posts on that. One of the ones I read today talked about how the words 'beef' and 'pork' came about. (Borrowed from the French.) 

Oh, and the anime is coming back on January 25th! I can't wait!Supposedly, they'll have a different look. Kind of more 'professional' looking designs. And, from what I've heard, will follow the designs more closely to the manga. So, sounds like it might be better. Probably will be their normal 5 minutes, though. I wish it was just a bit longer! They try to cram so much stuff in those 5 minutes, it's crazy!

Wrote a little bit more of Alliance. Also, trying to come up with a bar name that's not a real word or name. I might have a good candidate. I was thinking a lot about the story just before going to bed, and sure enough, I had a lot more ideas for where to take this. So, I was right yesterday. 

Went over some kanji and compounds, as well. And, tried to move forward with the drawing meme. (Didn't realize how difficult drawing a side profile would be for me.) Worked a bit on translating a You Maga article.