the sound of movies

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Friday night vignette:
Family movie night. Usually this takes place in my parents' living room on a projector with surround sound, but my dad is reflooring that room right now, and nobody wants to lay on the cement floor with nails around the perimeter. So we are gathered in the back room study, watching "I Am Number Four." All except my brother Jaron, that is, who has a project for Science Olympiad due the next day. The most important fight scene in the movie is playing, and then the lights come on.
[enter Jaron]: "Guys! I now have four notes on my kalimba!" [a kalimba is an instrument, apparently, that one can make]
[dad pauses the movie]
the kalimba
--blank stares at a rectangular plywood piece with some metal strips attached--
[Jon]: "Your timing is really bad"
[Jaron, ever unquenchable]: "do you guys wanna hear?"
--plink. plink. plink--
[dad]: "Jaron, that's great. keep us updated..."
[Jaron]: "okay! I'll be back"
[he leaves. lights go off. movie plays again. 20 minutes pass]
[enter Jaron]: Guys! I can make chords now! See, this is G, that's A, that's...oh, but you don't care. just listen!"
--plinkplinkplink--

Yup, that's my buddy.

In a better music/movie mixer, Thursday night, Jaron and I went downtown to see the Houston Symphony perform the score to The Matrix. yeah. we're that awesome.
I had borrowed my dad's parking garage key, and as I was leaving the building, I thought it would be a good idea to check that it would let me back in. So Jaron and I stand outside and swipe the key. The door opens, and out comes a guy who had seen us leave and then re-enter. We explained we were making sure the key worked. His response: "Shouldn't one of you have stayed inside, then?" Oh. right. Good thing it worked.
The concert was, in Jaron's words to everything cool, "epic." The concert hall staff all wore sunglasses, which made me laugh. We sat pretty close to the stage, and watched as the guy who had composed the Matrix music conducted the Symphony. Did I mention that it was cool? With the score being performed right there, I really got to hear more of the individual pieces. Piano=beautiful. Bass clarinet=magnificent. And there was a boy soprano. Who knew there was a boy soprano in The Matrix? 
Really, music adds such depth to life.

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