Christmas wishlist 2012

Hi.

If you're reading this, I presume you're my friend.  If you're not, let's be friends.  :)  Also, if you haven't left after the title, I presume that you're curious about what sort of things I might be looking to acquire.  Usually, my Christmas lists are built over the course of the year, as I note things that make me think, "hm, I think I may buy that at some point when I have the disposable income to do so". I keep said list on my phone, so that when my birthday and Christmas roll around, I have something to tell people who say "you are impossible to find gifts for!"

So, if you are looking to give me a gift this Christmas, and are still lost in pondering what would be suitable, please take this list and use it as you may.  :)  And please remember that hugs (even Internet ones) and appreciation for my work and art are always appreciated - or just ask me out for coffee!  It's all good.

• The Art of Building Worlds (ISBN 9780857685629)
• Lunatic Heroes: Memories, Lies, and Reflections (ISBN 9780988230002)
• The Cole Protocol (ISBN 9780765354723)
• American Gods (ISBN 9780062059888)
• Ghosts of Onyx (ISBN 9780765354709)
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts (ISBN 9780307352149)
• The Thursday War (ISBN 9780765323941)
• other books that look interesting (I tend towards sci-fi, historical/realistic fiction, fantasy, mystery ... )
• Kanaya Maryam troll tee (women's large)
• Homestuck music - vol. 9, Symphony Impossible to Play, coloUrs and mayhem: Universe A, Song of Skaia, vol. 6
• That Dame is Bad News print
• a pastry cutter
• French rolling pin
• small gold hoop earrings (and they really do have to be gold as they will be staying in my ears indefinitely)
• this gorgeous crane gaiwan
• music books! my own set of Schubert editions would be lovely, you know, if you had several hundred dollars to drop.  :P 

So there you have it.  My cumulative list over 2012. Again - coffee and a chat is just as wonderful ...

VISI, day 9

No, I didn't blog yesterday.  By the time I got home from the concert/play I was just too tired ... 

Yesterday started more calmly, with no performance psychology class to delve deep into my soul first thing in the morning.  I went to one of the two lectures on collaborative relationships between singers and pianists, and picked up a few things I hadn't known before (but not that many).  

I then packed up a small lunch and a book and went for a walk to a nearby park, where I ate and then relaxed on the grass and read.  It was quiet, and though the park itself wasn't much to look at, the houses on the way there and back were.  I'm pretty sure this is a fairly rich part of Vancouver, so everything is impeccably groomed and the houses themselves are wonderful.  A lovely place to go walking.

The masterclass yesterday afternoon was what I was really looking forward to, and it certainly didn't disappoint: two hours with the Very British coach that I'd worked with the other day, focused on English art song.  Actually, the focus was on Ralph Vaughan Williams' The House of Life, or selections thereof.  He prefaced it by talking about a bit of the history of the cycle and of Vaughan Williams, but didn't go into the poetry much, because we'd already had a lecture on it earlier in the week.  However, once we got into the songs, the insight he gave was fascinating.  I believe I have three or four pages of notes.

After the masterclass, I practiced with my accompanist a bit, identified places that I needed to work on personally, and then went to make dinner.  I actually made dinner last night - ground beef with a Cajun rice mix that was really good, if a little spicier than I usually eat.  Oh well.  Very yummy.  

The last event of the week was a Shakespeare-infused concert/play that I had been looking forward to all week: the first act was an original story (very simple: boy meets girl, girl goes head over heels, boy backs out, girl's heart breaks) set to various songs with either texts by Shakespeare or from the same period; the second act was Try Me, Good King, a telling of Henry VIII's last night, where he is visited by the Fool (as in jester) to introduce him over again to the spirits of his dead wives (five, in case you forgot).  The spirits of his wives sing, but I didn't think much of the songs ... they didn't sound much like songs, really.  Maybe glorified recitative.  However, the text was quite good, and the actors were top-notch.  It was both hilarious and painful to watch as poor Henry struggled through this last night.

After the concert/play, I went for a walk in the gardens near the theatre, and contemplated life and such.  Beautiful, beautiful gardens.  I would love to have gardens like those at my own house.  Terraced, stone arches with vines, hemmed in by trees, you know ... oh and these gardens had a gorgeous view of the mountains and the sunset.  :D

Anyway, got home, basically went to bed.  The bed is getting better by the day as I tweak it to be ever-so-slightly thicker each evening.  Today my plan is breakfast (check), Callanetics (35% check), church, and then the beach!  It's kind of cool today, but I'm hoping it either warms up a bit or that it's not windy.  After the beach, I'll head home, shower off the sand, and then head to a choral concert.  Relaxing day.  No practicing.  Not even thinking about art song.  la la la.

(in tagging this post, I realized that I have already tagged Shakespeare in another post ... now I have to go find that post.)

VISI, day 5

As I woke up this morning, I realized I hadn't blogged the night before.  Blame Cracked.com ... 

Yesterday was very tiring.  Not much more to it.  Got up with my alarm, more or less, stretched, got dressed, went to breakfast.  Went to a performance psychology class where we talked about how difficult performing really is and how we cope with that - and how we ought to.  Listened to a lecture about rubato in Lieder and how even composers played with their songs more than we do today.  Listened to a masterclass with a couple of great Strauss pieces - I definitely want to do his Ophelia set.

Made some lunch - couscous.  Too much water; was not as appetizing as I had hoped.  Did not make a phonecall I meant to make - annoyed me.  Went off to coaching a little early to finally warm up.  Sat through four hours of coaching and just about fell asleep ... though I suppose I did learn a fair amount.

I considered going out for supper; decided not to.  Made supper in my little kitchenette, then started perusing the Internet.  Didn't finish until eleven-thirty.  Decided it was a good time to go to bed; seven hours' sleep was standard for me and was generally enough.

Wake at seven-twenty.  No.  Not enough sleep.  Sigh.  I decided to take this morning off and get things done, take a couple of hours away from the Internet (*cough*) and focus in on things.  Do some mental exercises, really warm up, really practice.  My first contact with VISI today will be a concert for solo soprano voice; I am hoping that it will be inspirational and will wake me up.  

In the meantime, I am eating an apple (I must buy a different variety next time, these are not crunchy enough) and sipping rooibos tea, and just generally being off-kilter and tired ... 

VISI, day 4

Today has, again, been interesting.

Decided to have breakfast in res this morning, so I only got up at nine ish.  Sent some emails.  Didn't feel very happy still - a point against a night's sleep making things better (I suppose I didn't sleep very well).

I then booted it to the chapel for the first lecture of the day - Schubert's songs in Biedermaier culture.  Fascinating and informative.  I shall look at Schubert's Lieder in an entirely different light now.  The prof talked a lot about the Austrian and European politics of the time and how they influenced the split between public and private life in such a way that art and culture were seen as the ultimate reprieve (apart from death) from the deathly boring public life that people had to endure because of government censorship and repression (well-intentioned repression, perhaps, but repression nonetheless).  It was a shift from Romanticism in that Romanticism sought the unattainable optimistically, believing that it could potentially be attained (contradiction, I know) in the mortal life.  Biedermaier culture, thanks in large part to the repression of the state, considered it to be truly unattainable "this side the tomb".

Then we had a masterclass on a couple of Schubert pieces, where the information we just received was put into practice.  Fascinating to watch in play.  :)

I made a quick lunch then hurried over to the concert hall for a concert consisting mainly of Lee Hoiby's work, an American composer only recently departed with a true talent for lyricism in his works.  The concert started a bit slowly, but really picked up with some playful pieces - including one about a horror film.  Quite entertaining.

After the concert was coaching - I had a half an hour with a diction and opera coach on my Schubert piece (Auf dem Wasser zu singen) where we worked on dramatic enunciation and making the text really come alive.  This is something that I've known I needed work on for months now, and never really knew how to go about it.  Now I have a better idea!  

I then worked with a professional soprano (one who was part of the noon hour's concert, actually) on one of my Brahms pieces, Die Mainacht.  We focused in on a particularly troubling fourth, as well as bringing colour and character from my lower voice (I speak a lot lower and, possibly, more gently, than I am most comfortable singing) into my mid- and upper ranges.  Frustrating at times, but ultimately satisfying.

I then made supper, and have spent the last hour or two talking with old friends online, as well as fangirling over the Halo 4 trailer.  I am excited!

VISI, day 3

I am having a particularly difficult evening, in spite of the fact that the day was quite good, so I don't know how this is going to go ... 

This morning was fine.  Breakfast, then I bussed to a church I picked that was nearby and enjoyed a wonderful service.  I will definitely be going back next week; very welcoming atmosphere and an intellectual, challenging and profound sermon.  

I then went back to the university and met with my pianist for the first time: we practiced for half an hour and I think we will work well together.  I am definitely less experienced than she is, but that is alright ... we are all learning.

After practicing, I attended the VISI opening session.  After a brief presentation from the performance psychologist attending the conference, the artistic director talked about the philosophy behind art song theatre, which is, in short, turning the very cerebral performance form of art song into ... theatre.  Basically, you take away the old traditions of standing very primly and singing from the piano, and turn it into the real story that it was likely meant to be in the first place.  

The second lecture of the day was on collaboration and the fact that it is really an art.  Some interesting insights on technique and artistic interpretation, but not much to detail here.  After this, we did half an hour of icebreaker games, highlighting the difference between competition and collaboration.  This was a lot of fun.

The final lecture of the day was very thought-provoking.  It was delivered by Max Wyman, author of The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters.  You should definitely go read this book.  Just Google it.  He discussed how the imagination is really the centre of the whole human experience, and as a result of this, so too should our societies be.  Alas, this is not the case.  It was slightly odd to have one's soul explained so concisely and clearly - a bit off-putting, to tell the truth.  I was not unhappy when I left the lecture hall, but I was slightly off-kilter.  I still have not managed to get back into kilter, if that's even a valid term.

I went back to my room and ate some supper, and pondered.  My ponderings have led me, for the moment, into a very dark place of not knowing what path is best to take right now, and who can join me on it, and why some may and some may not, and what kind of person I need as a companion, and whether to not it is a good idea for others to be such, for me, in the first place.  In so pondering, I have hurt someone very close to me ... and so now, I am very dark.

I hope the morning sun will bring more happiness.

In related news, I am feeling like I cannot limit myself to one art form.  Perhaps that will make me happy.  But I have a sneaking suspicion that I will never, ever feel complete.  And that bothers me to no end.

VISI, day 1

I am in Vancouver for the next three weeks, participating in the Vancouver International Song Institute summer program.  

... aah.

I am one of approximately 30 singers chosen to participate in the three weeks of masterclasses, lectures and performances designed to be a seriously intensive experience for 'emerging artists'.  I am living with three other VISI students; I have not met them yet, but I hope I will soon.

I flew from Winnipeg to Vancouver earlier today; the flight and the waiting were both uneventful, though the nerves hit me about an hour before boarding that this was actually happening.  (eek.)  

Once I got to Vancouver, I was then faced with the challenge of getting all my things (two large suitcases and two carry-ons) to my place of residence.  One suitcase and two carry-ons is not a challenge.  Two suitcases is.  Thank goodness for luggage trolleys ... and straps on duffel bags that allow them to be carried as backpacks.  (on a related note, my shoulders hurt a bit.)

My room is quite small, but cozy and comfortable.  I have a gorgeous view (which, alas, includes the top floor of a parkade) full of architecture and trees and sky.  Also there is a clock tower outside my window!  That is cool.  It rings on the hour, which is neat.  (It might drive me nuts by the end of the month, though.)

It is a bit surreal to be on my own with no friends around.  I know I will get to know people, but right now I feel rather isolated.  Thank goodness for the Internet.

After unpacking and updating the interwebz, I went on a search for food.  I was intending on grabbing a bite to eat at a cafe or something, but I ended up at a Shoppers Drug Mart so I just bought a few groceries.  Haven't found any Lucerne milk yet, so no milk, but I got rice and pasta and tea (and really that's all you need isn't it).  Oh and crackers, and juice, and a thing of soup.  I must remember not to buy any cans that need a can opener, because I do not have one and do not wish to buy another one.

When I returned to the dorm, I put my groceries away only to find ... that there was no microwave!  Now, I expected there to be a microwave, as that seems to me a very basic university appliance.  But, apparently not.  Now I must rethink my entire food plan ... but basically, all I need is a pot, and that will fix everything, so I will find a pot tomorrow.  

I also found out today that my reservation includes breakfast at the student union building, so that's nice.  I had forgotten that.  Now I don't need to buy breakfast food apart from tea.  Unfortunately this means I will not be eating my breakfast out on the balcony of my sixth-floor apartment in the sun.  Perhaps it will be a bedtime snack place instead.

I have now eaten my soup and crackers, and duly updated the Web with photos from today.  I will attempt to keep a daily blog of this particular escapade of mine, as it seems relatively interesting, and I might want to keep it in order enough to remember it better along the road.

I am tired ... it is ten o'clock at home, and I need to stay up a bit longer.  Oh well.  

Tomorrow is registration, hopefully some clarification as to the schedule, grocery shopping, and finding a practice room ...  

moments when you realize you're an artist

And in my case, a musician, more often than not.

I had a very strange and surreal moment yesterday morning.  I realized that I was off the beat - as in not playing on the beat.  In time.  It wasn't a regular beat.

I then abruptly came to a halt in my thinking as I realized that, in fact, I was not living my life in any specific time signature at all, and furthermore, never had.  And this was truly a terrible thing.

And then I pondered where the heck that came from.

Section 50 #1

Those of you who follow my Twitter may have noticed that a couple months ago, I tested a project I called Section 50 - where I played 50 random songs and wrote them all down. It was too big for Twitter, so I decided to postpone it until I had a viable method of doing it, and now here it is! This is project 3, and was technically supposed to be yesterday. I will post 50 random songs every week on here. Project 4 is over on my writing blog, and is simply that I will post a new musing every week on Sunday.

Without further ado, 'yesterday's' 50 random songs.

1. Stroke, Apocalyptica
2. The Device Has Been Modified, Victims of Science
3. Wake Up Dead Man, U2
4. All That Remains, Jesse Cook
5. Some Days Are Better Than Others, U2
6. Get On Your Boots, U2
7. Capital, Rockapella
8. Haunted, Evanescence
9. Hello, Evanescence
10. Kuin Henkäys Ikuisuutta, Tarja Turunen
11. Beautiful Day, U2
12. We Are The Champions, Queen
13. Preludio Corale, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
14. Die Nebensonnen, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
15. Fuji-nee's Theme, Kawai Kenji
16. The X-Files Theme, The Dust Brothers
17. Djami, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
18. Taking Over Me, Evanescence
19. Movement IV: Canto, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
20. Sweet Sacrifice, Evanescence
21. Livin' La Vida Loca (Spanish), Ricky Martin
22. Look Down, Claude-Michael Schönberg & Alain Boublil
23. Akogare no Yuutousei, Kawai Kenji
24. Do You Feel Loved, U2
25. Breathe, U2
26. Angel of Music, The Phantom of the Opera Original London Cast
27. Passeggiata veneziana, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
28. Einsemkeit, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
29. In The Mood, Glenn Miller Orchestra
30. Fall At Your Feet, Jesse Cook
31. The Fly, U2
32. Teotihuacan, Noel Gallagher
33. Fragile, Sting
34. Smug, Steve Taylor
35. Air, Jesse Cook
36. Eien no Toga, Eternal Sin
37. So Cruel, U2
38. Major Tom (Coming Home), Shiny Toy Guns
39. Mitsurugi Reiji - Great Revival, Noriyuki Iwadare
40. Gone, U2
41. Stay (Faraway, So Close!), U2
42. Love and Peace Or Else, U2
43. Follow Me, Breaking Benjamin
44. Boy and the Ghost, Tarja Turunen
45. A Moment Lost, Enya
46. Get Me to the Church on Time, Frank Sinatra
47. Your Star, Evanescence
48. Valjean Arrested/Valjean Forgiven, Claude-Michael Schönberg & Alain Boublil
49. The Lament of Desmond R. G. Underwood-Frederick IV, Steve Taylor
50. Juste un moment, Chic Gamine

as of late

Six weeks aaaaaaaah crazy crazy crazy!

English: Atwood presentation (May 6), World Lit paper I (June 19)

Français: Courtemanche présentation (5 mai?), Éluard analyse (mai 5)

Math: IB Math SL exam (May 7/8)

History: nothing in particular, thank goodness

Theory of Knowledge: essay (May 19)

Chemistry: test (May 12?)

Biology: dissection report (May 11), amylase report (May 11), respiratory system project (whenever he wants it)

Band: concert (June 1)

Jazz: concert (sometime in June)

Gym: 4 more hours of practical, three modules of theory

Shakespeare: spaghetti supper (May 8), 2nd draft of script (May 18)

Extended Essay: read book, thesis, plan

Ubuntu: Carnival of Hope (May 30), Rwanda plans

Health: see doctor about ears and about Rwanda

Have I missed anything?  Oh yeah, the wedding of one of my best friends (May 16).

hello again

Yeah, so, it's been a while.  What's happened in the past twenty days?

Mainly, I skipped off to Montréal (and Ottawa).  On a bus.  With lots of other people.  Such are the joys of band trips.

Highlights: 

• workshop at the University of Montréal, for jazz and band;
  
• guided tour of Montréal;
• performance at École secondaire André-Laurendeau;
• the Biodôme;
• Montréal Symphony Orchestra concert (Brahms' Third Symphony, a Mozart concerto and a commissioned piece);
• tour of the Parliament;
• Museum of Civilization;
• taking 1594 photos and 23 videos.

Selected photos can be seen at these public links:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV

I started a New Thing before I left for the East - Section 50.  I'm not sure how I'm going to swing it here yet, but it consists of me playing 50 random songs and tweeting what each one is - they are all tagged #section50.  I'm going to figure out a way to post the lists here - maybe just as blog entries, though I'd like a separate page.  

Righto, bye then.

"I'm famous on the Internet"

So I've been fussing with this math for several days.  I finally figured it out: I was making it entirely more complicated than it needed to be.  Figures, eh?  Just like me.

I've been pondering the concept of Internet fame.  I follow Wil Wheaton's and Neil Gaiman's Twitters, along with several others (Fred Gallagher, Dave Kellett, Zoë Keating), and am constantly amused by them, and I feel connected to them.  Yes, I know, it's a standard celebrity thing, but it's cool to have a different sort of look into their lives: a personal one, rather than a media-official one - which is why I like reading Wil Wheaton's blog so much.  Not only because he's a writer who knows how to write well, but because it's way more down-to-earth and approachable than, say, reading an interview.  (I'd read Neil Gaiman's blog too, but with the amount of feeds in my Google Reader, that might be a few months away.  I think I would like to read into the archives of his blog, so I'd like to have a day where I don't feel bad about neglecting other things to do so.  ^^; )

I've been considering why it is these people (and many, many others whom I could list) have hit it big on the Internet - and wondering if they would be so successful, say, thirty or forty years ago.  I don't think so.  The general populace of today is a strangely different beast (but then, any generation could say that), with our instant-access addiction (it's so true!) and off-kilter etiquette.  I only wish the Netiquette that seems to be prevailing in civilized corners of cyberspace would spread to the real world - but that's a rant for another time.

In pondering why these people are big names on the 'Net (I recently heard it put that one of the first things anyone does when they get a Twitter account is follow @wilw, which made me giggle), I wondered just what it takes to become an Internet phenomenon.  Do you have to make a fool of yourself?  (Looking back at the past four years of posts, that shouldn't be hard.  XD)  Do you have to be brilliant at what you do?  (This one seems more likely, with the people I follow actively at least, but then it's not a rule: there are many people who are phenomena for not being brilliant ... but are they more gawked at, or listened to?)

Oh, and in other news, 4+x (my boyfriend, if you didn't know already) has hooked me onto classical techno remix.  It's honestly addictive.  I'm listening to a remix of the Bagatelle in a-Moll für Elise (yes, it's more commonly known as just Für Elise, I'm just being my music-geek self: the actual names are often much more interesting than the common names), and I want to dance.  Or rather, groove.  ... No, I suppose one could choreograph this.  Ballet to techno!  I'd so watch that.  Now it's changed to the Toccata und Fuge in d-Moll.  *headbang*

Connecting to dancing, and also to 4+x: I took an hour-long introduction to ballroom dancing Monday morning (meringue and jive), and was astonished at how simple it is in principle.  Even better, 4+x agreed to learn with me!  I'm quite excited about this now, as I've wanted to dance since I was little, even though I'm not suited for professional ballet (which is what I took briefly) - gotta be triple threat in this world, eh?

I'm going to have to find a way to keep these from becoming blurbs of random musings, and actually giving them subjects.  (Might take a while.)