The newer attraction I went to see this time was the House of the Future. I was a little unimpressed. It’s not really “House of the Future“. It’s more like “House of the Now-if-you-have-a-lot-of-money-to-spare-and-don’t-mind-the-electricity-costs“. There were just a couple innovative ways to use technology we already have now and a mass abundance of the same concepts that filled the home making electricity the blinding cost in my eyes.

This is the living room with a nice glass screen that reflects everything.

And this is the back. <: / Seems a little unnecessary to me.

This is the kitchen. There really wasn’t much innovation for the kitchen specifically. Just a bunch of older model HP Touchsmarts all over the place. I wouldn’t mind having one, but two in the same kitchen? @_@

And yes, a lot of digital photo frames EVERYWHERE. This was on the piano. I suspect they hid all the cords inside the piano. Their solution for the home was “if there is an empty space, put a digital photo frame there” and “cover the walls with huge monitors that displayed photos of real art pieces”.

Supposedly the fun part of the home for entertaining guests.

This might be the only thing I actually wanted to steal from the house. I like that the Yamahas keep the silhouette of the cello. There are lots of electric celli out there that just look like a stick. Ick.

This was the girl’s room. I think the image is project from behind and the guy there said that the screens are all controlled from the girl’s laptop so she can customize it herself. That’s kind of cool. I know how I would fill up my media wallpaper…(full sized pictures of Takeshi Kaneshiro, Keanu Reeves, and Audrey Hepburn)

Who needs all those tiny digital photo frames when you have this anyway? She also had a “mirror” which was actually a video from a camera pointed at you when you stand in front of the “mirror” and you could try on digital outfits…that’s a pretty neat idea.

A boy’s room, Peter Pan themed. This hired guy had to read the Peter Pan story over and over again while the images in the “window” and on the pirate ship sail behind him changed.

I tried out the Microsoft surface. There were a bunch there too. Sometimes it wasn’t so responsive.

Here I am messing around with it.

A dining table of four Surfaces. At one point they were all showing a video of a rock pond that rippled when you touched the surface of the “water”.

The conclusion of this home is that it would be futuristic and cool if all this was totally normal for every home to have. Like, if the prices were brought down ridiculously low and you could find all this in every home.

This was on the second floor, out of the Home of the Future. We have a couple of these at every mall now.

Play Pirates of the Caribbean Online! I ran around yelling “I’m stuck at Disneyland!” and people came up to me and said “Do you need help?” People actually play this game?!

Segway training. Funny to watch.

This is the new monorail being tested out, the Mark VII. It will officially start next Spring. It’s a cool blue metallic color with purplish tinted windows. The Mark V has been working since 1986. Don’t ask me what the Mark VI is.

Here it is running. Zoooooom.

I love the Disneyland handstamp. It smells like lemons. I keep smelling it like it’s crack. And that says “TIGGER” for your information.

This is Tina Guo. She auditioned for some Grammy thingy…and plays the cello with such buttery ease that I’m totally engrossed. Well..I mean..it’s not just her…lots of great musicians exude that quality, but she’s so young and also asian so it relates to me a little more. The point of the competition is to play the Foo Fighter’s song “The Pretender”.

And then I saw a link on your “more info”…and she’s in some kind of rock band. I’m honestly not sure if an electric cello fits in to all this. I think it has something to do with the vibrato that makes it just sound like it’s not supposed to be there. Also, she plays so hard that she loses a lot of bow hair. I wonder how often she needs to get it rehaired?

And then…this is the grand finale of my post about her. So she won the Grammy thingy, or was in the top three, and other finalists were in the same hotel together to preform at the Grammys. The amazing part in all this is that they were bored and just decided to improv something. Like “hey, I’m bored…I’m going to start playing a note, I’ve mentioned the theme we’ll be playing and..uh….let’s just see what comes up”.

Uh…that’s pretty sexy. I wish I could ever become a part of something like this. But if I were…it would probably end up sounding a lot like Mary had a Little Lamb.

Here is also another great version of the same Foo Fighter’s song that they had to perform. I think I might like this better because it’s not so crazy and I like the use of double stops.

I went to a good friend of mine’s cello recital she was holding for her cello students. My friend is pretty amazing at the cello, started when she was young and actually stuck with it brilliantly. I love watching her play because she plays with her heart into the music and her sound is very clear…(her cello is very good too > < I’m jealous).

Anyhow…she played a piece at the end of her students and this time she chose Elegie, by Faure. I’ve played this piece before and this was the first piece that I really really truly wanted to learn and play well because it is sooooo soulful. Once, I was really angry with my parents and I just picked up the cello and played. Since I was in such an emotional state, I think I actually did make myself cry.

So I did record the video of her playing. She’s not in traditional “concert” attire because her theme was summery and she told her students to wear something casual.

I kind of like it without accompaniment.

Here is Yo-Yo Ma playing it. After 6:00 is when it gets crazy. You can see the emotion in his face.

Celli rule, violins drool. You just can’t get that from a violin. <: P