MUSIC&HeARTBeATS & R&R

Sometimes Desiderata spins a web around seemingly disparate items and leaves it to his EsteemedReaders to fathom the connections. The stories today centre around MUSIC soothing thy HeARTBEATS, and the Call of Mother Naturesomewhere in the HeArt of Borneo.

If you see no threads between the two, it's still alright, because these two features are close to Desi's heART, and I know for certain, some of mGf's too. For one such mGf Down Under who just enquired on fRiends' behalf which is a good Holiday Getaway, maybe I can recommend one here. Making today a rare PrimeDay because I made a promise o'er the weakend, Just Enjoy The Stories and Try to L'VE LONGER, that's the other moral of spinning Da Web.


Music is good for the heart

Fri Oct 7, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study shows that listening to music that has a slow or meditative tempo has a relaxing effect on people, slowing their breathing and heart rate, whereas listening to faster music with a more upbeat tempo has the opposite effect -- speeding up respiration and heart rate.
The results, which appear in the journal Heart, support a growing body of research on the potential stress-reducing health benefits of music.

Other research has shown that music can alleviate stress, improve athletic performance, improve movement in neurologically impaired patients with stroke or Parkinson's disease, and even boost milk production in cattle, Dr. Peter Sleight from the University of Oxford in the UK and colleagues note in their report.

In the current study, researchers monitored breathing rate, blood pressure and other heart and respiratory indexes, in 24 healthy young men and women, before and while listening to short excerpts of different kinds of music including slow and fast classical music of differing complexities and rap music. They also monitored the subjects during 2-minute musical intermissions.

Half of the subjects were trained musicians; the other half had no musical training.

The investigators report that listening to music initially produced varying levels of arousal -- accelerated breathing, increased blood pressure and heart rate -- that is directly proportional to the tempo of the music and perhaps the complexity of the rhythm.

The style of the music or an individual's music preference seems less important than the tempo of the music.

They also found that calm is induced by slower rhythms and, interestingly, by short pauses or intermissions in the music. Pausing the music for 2 minutes actually induces a condition of relaxation greater than that observed before subjects began listening to the music tracks, the investigators report.

These effects are most striking for people who have musical training, perhaps because they have learnt to synchronize their breathing with the musical segments. "Musicians breathe faster with faster tempi, and had slower baseline breathing rates than non-musicians," according to the investigators.

Sleight and coworkers speculate that music may give pleasure (and perhaps health benefits) as a result of a controlled alteration between arousal and relaxation.

The present study suggests, they conclude, that the appropriate selection of music -- alternating fast and slower rhythms interspersed with pauses -- can be used to induce relaxation and may, therefore, be beneficial in heart disease and stroke.

SOURCE: Heart 2005.


DESIDERATA has all along ben playing background music while he studies or works at home -- yes, I do study you know, because this is one believer of lifelong leArning. I want to be laughing at an exhilarating work of humour when I whisper my last breath for a change of music by the orchestra.

Actually, I rarely alternate between fast, medium and slow-paced numbers. I jusr prime for a favourite -- the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Carole King and Faith Hill never fail Desi, now you can tell my heart beats. I guess the tempo and whether at consistent pace or alternating is a choice of to each his/her own rhyme and rhythm. The important thing is you know the music puts you in that mental frame of mind in doing what you're doing at that time, at that tempo, maybe most important of all, with the soulmate of thy life...

I know at least a few of my EsteemedReaders are nodding their heads as they read this -- the music in the background is from the Ray Coniff Singers(many of the YoungOnes think I may be kidding them!) and they lullaby thee to zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. In Malaysia we pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as "zed",rhyming with fad...... but the Americans say it as zeeeeeee,rhyming with beeeeeeee. FYI, I'm peening this mad musical piece at around midnight. Never will the two generations beats meet, you know why? One goes at electronic speed :)-- that's how our YoungGeneration likes it -- the other goes at bullock cart speed, that's how our, yes, you guess'd right! ... Works Minister likes it!:(

Now dear Readers, just slow thy heartpace and go for R&R, so Detour for a Visit of an award-winning initiative by a Journalist, Diana Rose, whom I had the privilege of befriending, when we worked in a mainstream newspaper in PJ. She's now promoting Sarawak, one of two two states that sometimes we on the Peninsula feel we know so little about. See her passion at work promoting her ancestral Melanau traditions as well as toursim to the State of Sarawak.

Her work in being the prime mover in building the first tradtional Melanau tall house in over two centuries at a cost of RM500,000 in a cooperative venture. LAMIN DANA means "traditional house in archaic Melanau" and it took a year to build, and from 2000, has been able to accomodate up to 24 visitors at any one time. It has been developed into a centre that keeps Melanau culture and identity alive.

Her work of passion won DIANA ROSE one of the five DIGI's AMAZING MALAYSIANS awards> ppek in at www.lamindana.com:

"***
Excerpts from information board on Tour Packages to the LAMIN DANA RESORT


Activities

Keeping true to our Lamin Dana's concept, all our activities are related with the idea to conserve, to revive and to show certain aspect of the Melanau traditional culture.

We provide:

1. Sago Experience: Among the native of Borneo, the Melanau people are the closest to this palm species. From Sago they derived their food, sustained their economy and has in many ways shaped their daily lifestyle.

This tour will enable our guests to experience first hand how and why Sago is reverred by the Melanau people. They can witness Sago felling, Sago processing and the making of other value-added products from it.

2. Cultural Show: - Among the oldest ethnic groups in Borneo, the Melanau people has over the centuries developed a unique cultural showcase displayed through their music and dance. All these are available to be viewed and appreciated at Lamin Dana.

3. Mangrove Safari: A chance to live like a Melanau whose survival was nurtured by the rich mangrove environment they live in for centuries.

A cruise in a longboat is a must. Witness the heavenly sight of fireflies which is a rare opportunity or simply enjoy the village scene along Tellian river where the Lamin Dana is located.


LAMIN DANA Free & Easy Package (3D2N)

Day 1
- Welcoming Drinks and briefing on Lamin Dana, the Melanau and brief history of Mukah
- Check on two days activities particularly on the boat ride (as it depends on the river tide)
- Rest & Relax
- Afternoon walk in the village. Possible to observe village late afternoon activities. Optional to play some traditional games with local villagers.
- Sunset walk at Mukah Mangrove plank walk (depart from Mukah wharf using public boat to cross)
- Walk in Mukah town.
- Depart for Lamin Dana.


Day 2
- Boat ride along Tellian river
- Sago tour
- Rest & Relax
- Beach activity
- BBQ at Lamin Dana
- Followed with some cultural jamming with Lamin Dana Cultural Group.


Day 3
- A visit to Fish and Vegetable market in town
- Free & Easy to walk in town & shop
- Depart Lamin Dana and Mukah.
Optional Activities:- Traditional Massage
- Handicraft Weaving activity
- Traditional Melanau Culinary lesson

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LAMIN DANA STUDENT CULTURAL PACKAGE (3D2N)


Day 1
- Welcoming drinks and briefing on Lamin Dana, the Melanau history, safety rules and regulations
- Rest & Relax
- Village Walk & Games in the village or at the Mukah beach
- Traditional Melanau music and dance lesson

Day 2
- Tellian River boat ride. Briefing on Melanau traditional lifestyle closely associated with sago farming and fishing.
- Rest & Relax
- Handicrafts lesson
- Beach activities
- Dinner at Lamin Dana
- Cultural Presentation with some surprise awaiting the students.

Day 3
- A visit to Mukah Fish, Vegetable Market and Dried cookies market
- Mangrove walk (using boat from Mukah town)

Email: info@lamindana.com.****"

PS: I don't eArn no commission promoting this holiday pack -- just doing it for a fRiend formerly from the media; GOoD to see her succeed in a Mission of Love and Passion.

DESIDERATA UPDATED at about 11.15AM on PrimeDay when time is ours on Spiritedestination to determind...:

Woke up this morning feeling fine
These lyrics were at the back of my mind
Last night I dreAmed of two olde girls on fancyhood
Somethin tells me I'm into sumthings as somthin' should...

With Apologia to Herman Hermits...


"Anyone Who Had A Heart"
by Dionne Warwick

from Album: At Her Very Best

Anyone who ever loved could look at me
And know that i love you
Anyone who ever dreamed could look at me
and know that i dream of you
Knowing i love you so

Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in his arms and love me too
You couldn't really have a heart and hurt me,
Like you hurt me and be so untrue
What am i to do

Every time you go away, I always say
This time it's goodbye, dear
Loving you the way i do
I take you back, without you i'd die, dear
Knowing i love you so

Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in his arms and love me too
You couldn't really have a heart and hurt me,
Like you hurt me and be so untrue
What am i to do

Anyone who ever loved could look at me
And know that iove you
Anyone who ever dreamed could look at me
and know i dream of you
Knowing i love you so

Anyone who had a heart
Would take me in his arms and love me too
You couldn't really have a heart and hurt me,
Like you hurt me and be so untrue
Anyone who had a heart would love me too
Anyone who had a heart would take me in his arms and love me too
Why won't you


Anyone who had a heart would love me too
Anyone who had a heart would take me in his arms and love me too
Why won't you

Anyonw who had a heart would love me too
Anyone who had a heart would take me in his arms and love me too
Why won't you


Although it was Dione who sang this song to infinite memory, somehow in Desi's mind Diana Ross comes to mind. Because both of their heartbeats, rythms could beat as one, I know, because when I listen to One, I think of Da Other. It just stops there, no further. Go, Fathom what I meAn.


This song was composed by the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.If thu have not heArd of BB and HD, then thou art no song fan or Desi's man. Go, fathom ... musically, go back to the fundamentals.

AwHaH was the most complex piece of music that Bacharach has possibly ever attempted, with some truly unusual time changes such as 5/4, 4/4, to 7/8 and resolving on 5/8 in only eight bars.
This was Dionne Warwick's first US Top 10 single.

Other titwits garnered from Blogsworld:
Kimberley Locke sang this on the 2nd season of American Idol

Gorgeous, ornate and complex tune that Dionne Warwick gives her most skilled vocal performance. I grew up on BB&HD, myGoodfRiend David2! AwHaH is a must for any Romance kid. I know David and I are steal kids, What about you?
Desi must admit -- don't know about the romance ..art!:):):);):):):)
4--SE7EN S-miles, each for one Rovin' ..Art!


Wishing you still Ev'rythin' Beaut&Niice for the second part of PrimeDay, from a writer's much Vaunted/Wanted/Wounded heArt. Object of objective test --Pick one-out-of3; Probability of being right is 33.3...recurring percent. Object is to whirrr up thy brain cells, no transplant here ...TeAching my EsteemedReaders some higher maths, hehehe, hehehe...now laffing with my mentee YoungKyels who remains loyal despite all Desi's teAsings.
"Terima ....Receive my love",to ALL my 'steamedReaders, off course!:)

PPS: To Diana Rose if you're reading this, please Email Desi at chongyl2000@yahoo.com -- my missive to your webpage address bounced back, maybe the accompanying e-cheque to book for a weakend at LAMIN DANA was not good in the Land Beneath the Wind.