hasanhujairi[dot]com

I was watching TV in an attempt to appease my latest spell of insomnia that reemerged after a two month hiatus (Welcome back, Lady Sleepless Nights!), when I found this show in which a bunch of not-so-masculine-looking male members of a pop “band” in Japan were being asked about the Beethoven (big surprise that they knew nothing about him).

Here are some of the facts that they mentioned that I didn’t know before, even though I took a Western Music History class while I was still in Drake.

1. To stay awake at late night while composing music and continue his work, he used to stick his head into a bucket of ice-cold water to stop himself from falling asleep.

2. He lost his mother at 16, and had to leave Austria (where he was learning music) and return to Germany in order to take care of his two younger brothers; especially since his father was a serious alcoholic (an oxymoron?)

3. He never got married because all the women he loved were “unattainable” due to class differences or they were already married.

4. One of his original handwritten musical scores is in the Kunitachi University of Music (which is just a stone’s throw away from my apartment - not that I throw stones at anyone or anything)…        … Hence, making him technically my neighbor.