A Dubstep Violinist? (Lindsey Stirling - album review)

Lately I've been more into music than I usually am... Så here's yet another post about a new album!

Lindsey Stirling entered America's Got Talent in 2010, and became known as the "Hip-hop Violinist". However, she got voted off after just a couple of weeks. Piers Morgan, one of the judges told her she was unmarketable and needed to be in a group. He also said that she was unable to dance while she played because that made her playing sound like "rats being strangled". At the time she said id was quite devastating, but it also made her determent to prove him wrong...

Shortly after, she was contacted by Youtube cinematographer Devin Graham (devinsupertramp) who wanted to make a music video with her. The result, the song "Spontanious Me", instantly became popular and got thousands of views! This marked the start of a great collaboration and an even greater Youtube carrear.

What's so different about her is that she brings so much more to her music and videos than normally expected from Youtube musicians. She's got a bobly personality that shines through and makes her stand out! Even though she plays the violin, which is a very classical instrument, she loves genres like rock, dubstep and just about anything with a good rhythm. The key is that she mixes the genres in such a perfect way so that just about everyone that hears her loves her music.

Another fantastic thing about her Youtube-channel are the videos themself. They are SO GOOD. Costumes, fantastic landscapes, thousands of camera angles, surprising locations... She's got it all. As of this date, her channel "lindseystomp" has got 870 116 subscribers and the incredible total of 144 million views!

She's also done a very famous medley of music from the videogame "Zelda", a "Lord Of The Rings" medley, and she cooperated with percutionist Peter Hollens on a "Skyrim" cover and, more recently, a "Game Of Thrones" cover.

Due to her success she recently released her first album, appropriately named "Lindsey Stirling". It can either be bought on iTunes or, like I did, directly from her website. It features a lot of the songs form her Youtube channel, but also a couple of new ones.

It's just as amazing as I knew it would be! Even though you don't get the visuals like you do watching her videos, the music itself is so good and varied itself you don't need anything else, really...  For some of her songs she's even added vocals here and there, and that made the songs stick out even more, and it removed the danger of the different tracs being too similar.

Favorite tracks: "Moon Trance", "Elements" and "Crystallize"

All in all... loved it!
Perfect for both enjoying really loud in my headphones and as background for my homework reading :)

I Just Have To Dance

I have always loved to dance!

Ever since I was a little kid I've been constantly dancing around. Although, then I most frequently had to dance the "men's part" since my little sister was the ballerina/princess of the house. (I had very short hair back then, so if you didn't look closely I could probably pass as a boy!) I even tried to choreograph her and make up some sort of "real" dance, but unfortunately that always seemed to fail. We were a wired couple that did not always cooperate too well.

The sad part of this story is that I didn't know/realize/remember that I could actually start dancing in a group. As a hobby of sorts. I tried almost everything else though. Gymnastics and volleyball being some of it. But was too tall to be a gymnast and not passionate enough to join a volleyball team. Eventually I gave up all kinds of sports and started reading. That at least, I found that I was good at!

From seventh grade until ninth grade I suddenly started to read so much I ended up doing nothing else. Reading is a very good thing to do, and it surely raised my grades quite a bit, but it can also be too much. Happily I realized that before things came out of hand, and I started to hang out with friends and such. I never fully stopped reading though, I just read less than before. My "salvation" of sorts became my best friend and the sparkling interest for movies.

About two and a half year ago I suddenly told my dad I wanted to start dancing. I don't know how I got the Idea, but I can only guess the "Step Up"-films and "Save The Last Dance" had something to do with it. There was just one little problem... I started dancing HIP HOP!

Everybody that knows me can tell you I'm NOT a hip hop kind of girl. I've just not got "swag". But one always learns best from failure, which I also did eventually. It took a whole year though. Then I finally came with a really good idea: jazz-dance! Everybody in my class had danced longer than me, but I loved it, and soon I started to fit right in. Pointy toes, straight arms and legs, pirouettes... I suddenly realized this was me. My genre at last. I even joined in on the gigantic Christmas-show "Aladdin". Don't we look sparkly!

After a year I moved up from level one to a level two class (out of three). Everything suddenly became much harder, and I found I had to really work to get to the technique right, but the challenge was accepted, and I was really enjoying myself. And while taking my jazz-dance class, I also completed half a year of ballet (to get better technique), and almost half a year of contemporary.

Even though this sounds like a happy ending, I'm afraid I must say It's not... You see, I hurt my right-hand wrist doing a pirouette in our basement. The roof was too low. Don't ask how I managed to do it, but I shifted something inside my wrist, and suddenly it became sore and stiff. This all happened after Christmas last year, and ever since I've never been able to fully recover. My doctor told me it's sort of an on-and-off thing, and that it can mysteriously disappear or re-appear, and that it could take years to get rid of it.

In addition to my bad luck, I manage to injure my knee too! I'm not entirely sure how that happened either, but I think it just happened while walking in Paris this summer. If I was to describe it to you, I'd say it feels like it would do if you stood up straight and someone stood in front of you, put both hands on top of your left knee and gave it a hard nudge. Not a nudge from behind, couse that would just make your knee bend and you'd fall. But a nudge the other way. The way a knee is not ment to bend...

Today it's been almost seven months since I last danced. I miss it so much it's difficult to explain. Just the freedom and joy and grace it brings. The feeling of mastering something when I finally get a move right. If you are a dancer, you know what I'm talking about.

Yesterday I packed away my dance-shoes and my ballet-clothes. I decided to take half a year off dancing to fully recover from my various injuries, because I've recently moved to another city, and because I needed the time to study as it's my first year at the university. All these are good and justified reasons, but I'll still miss it. Can't wait until the day I can un-pack my dance-shoes again...