Attention FE Bloggers

I've got bad news: Please check your archives, if possible. A spambot has hit FE -hard-. I got 7 pornographic spams in my blog, including entries from almost The Beginning. I know that Jen G's blog was also hit; I'd like to ask everyone to please use the MT Blacklist DeSpamming to remove this tasteless rape spam from their comments. This should really just involve hitting the "De-Spam" button at the top, as I've already imported the offending URL. The "Delete Comments" button at the bottom will finish the job.

(A note to David: Wouldn't the MT Blacklist ideally remove the spam from -everyone's- blog at once? The URL that hit me matches the URL in Jen G's blog, so the script doesn't appear to remove spam outside one's own blog. Or is this a user-permission, password-required issue?)

And now, for something completely different.

In other news, I saw Cabaret tonight. I'm a bit lost for words on it, so I'll just leave it at this: The boys & girls are Raunchy; Jim has an awesome trombone line opening the second act; and the first character you see is so animated, all throughout, with a sexy German/French/Belgian(?) accent. This is the last weekend of the show; it comes highly recommended.

Employment

I'm going to write this entry as I'm thinking; no editing whatsoever.

I got a job at Looking Glass Analytics, which will eventually be maintaining a website. However, on my one day of work so far, I've really just familiarized myself with XML (via a Complete Idiot's Guide) and introduced myself to ASP and JavaScript (potentially with VBScript coming attached to that...). It's a nice place to work; I'll enjoy spending my days there.

Joe (boss) doesn't think he'll have a full 40-hour week for me, so I'll have one or two days off every week, which will also be nice; then I can go camping too! Yay! I should expect 30 hours, though.

I thought to myself, "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if I could get internship credits for this...then I wouldn't have to worry about falling short of 225 next year. That'd suck to end up with 221..." I could've gotten 12 credits for interning 30 hours a week. That would've been sweet -- except, at $120 a credit, without any deals whatsoever, it would've made my paycheck a moot point.

So, instead I'm taking Java Data Structures with an ILC. ...However, since my experience is in C++, my contract sponsor told me he would give me another 4 credits for studying Java Syntax officially, too.

This means my summer is worth 20 credits, in terms of time. And I wanted to go camping, and do viola ensembles, and keep the lessons going...and I have something like a dozen books I want to read. I may put up a list sometime...oh and I forgot Calculus review, and studying for the GREs. Oy.

The thought has crossed my mind...after graduating, maybe I should take a year off; work for Joe, read, take a vacation from the overload schedule...maybe try out for the Olympia Symphony. But then, after experiencing what a relaxed life is, I wonder if I would want to go to grad. school and get back into the cycle of not getting out much. My dad offered his little taste of cynycism on the matter: "You'd better get to school before you realize what you're doing."

Well, at the very least I'll have September for a vacation. 'Til then, I have camping to look forward to.

Request to SPSCC Students

My brother's starting Running Start next year, so we've been looking for professors who'd change his teenage diapers for him. He just asked me to not say anything to embarass him; silly boy.

Point being, I have a list of SPSCC Professor Reviews that I've kept as a backlogged entry. I'd like it if I could have more reviews on that list -- particularly for the mystery math professor Louie. Could any SpazTech students please add to the list? It is still in use, even if not by anybody here. A girl ran across the list from Google, and ended up writing on the current blog entry I had up (Sex, at the time). So, the list is yet a useful service.

Thanks for your help.

[Edit] Jen and Leah, thanks for writing those comments. I've copied them over to the review list. Anybody else who would like to add to the list, feel free to, but I'd like to keep all of the comments on that entry; so please comment there with professor reviews. Again, thank you.

Last of OCO

To the reader: Know that any writings on this weblog express solely the opinions of myself and no other member of the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, or any other organizations I happen to be involved in or associate with. Should what I have written here seem harsh enough to warrant a response, please read this weblog entry in presented order, following the first link.

Well, here's a summary of how the concert went yesterday, starting with the dress rehearsal:

Kabbey (sp?) missed the dress rehearsal. In other words, our dancer missed the -only- rehearsal he had with us. He showed up an hour late, started stretching while we were playing other pieces, until he finally asked Arun when we would start the Gerhardt. I think I saw a black man blush. (Kabbey, I mean; I've already seen Arun blush once when he ended a highly repetitive piece 1 section too early.)

So, come concert time, the audience was kinda thin. That wasn't too good, but hey, we still put on our show. The Mozart went fine (my pinky even stopped ratcheting for the next hour), the songs were real crowd pleasers; Bonnie really did a good job on the Rossini aria. Of course, her specialty is stylizations of Rossini soli, so she had a blast with it. With loud applause, that was the end of "Act 1." We got applause that was just as happy at the end of "Act 2", and again just as deserving for Bonnie. Though, the musicians had their say too; Berlioz wrote well with Summer Nights. I'm sad that Bonnie may be the last soloist of that caliber that OCO may be able to afford...but that's another entry in itself, to come in July.

"Act 2" started with Spices 1+, and...well, there were definite "Issues."

1. The orchestra had been undergoing tumult amongst itself at the inclusion of "Contemporary Works," mainly for the often completely unannounced, and sometimes close to radical, political slant of the works. For instance, Rattler's Narrative from fall had its "Theme" (which had to be explained separate from the piece) as an "Awareness Raising" event of the great cultural divide between Mexico and California -- a divide of fences, barbed wire, and tanks. I'm not saying that OCO members were against this, but the orchestra definitely felt like they were being drafted and used as political engines, usually without prior knowledge, and in some cases (again, not necessarily Rattler's Narrative) having themselves wholly misrepresented.

   Now, with Spices 1+, there were members of OCO, veterans of many pieces of contempocrap (ahem), who were actually looking forward to playing Staebler's work. I mean, we approach each New piece with wonder and awe (never forgetting trepidation for suckiness), but the feeling usually goes away after two or three rehearsals of hearing the Weird Shit composers morph music into. With Spices 1+, we actually couldn't wait to hear the whole thing blend together, with the truly interesting CD-generated sounds and all.

   But then, the night of the dress rehearsal (Time to concert: 23 hours and counting), the Social Change of Music class came in and gave their "Vocal Interventions." The orchestra practically shat itself.

   The "Interventions" were texts that each student had chosen individually, to speak/sing/preach/perform at a few intervals of the piece. What the orchestra heard sounded like shots at the Church and Country; "Holy crap, the piece is political" we all thought. I only hope that what I thought I heard came from the Red Scare era.

   After the rehearsal for the piece was over, Staebler asked the orchestra what they thought. I heard and saw restraint as violins interrog asked what the hell the Interventions, obviously going for the radical side of the political spectrum, had to do with "Spices." Staebler seemed rather confused at the orchestra's reactions, and said that the spices of the interventions had to do with Chaos; Arun helped him by saying something about Dissonance. Disregarding Arun's and Gerhard's defense, which they had perfect artistic license for: I do wish the louder students didn't get the radical parts.

   Come concert time, though, the students were dispersed throughout the audience to give their "Vocal Interventions." I was on stage, and thus couldn't hear them clearly; but, with them properly dispersed, the chaos of their entrances actually did sound pleasing to the ears. Angry in cases, but a good blend, which Gerhard was going for all along. So, the beginning and middle of the piece were a success. But...

2. The dancer missed his one rehearsal with us; and he was the visual focus of the piece. I have no clue when he made his entrance, but at 11 out of 15 minutes, he was only halfway between the first pile (soot I believe) and the second (ash). "Dude," I thought to myself, "This guy has 4 minutes to make himself artsy. This won't end well."

   Indeed, at the 16 minute mark, Gerhardt finally stopped the CDs; but Kabbey was still engrossed in the pile of ash. I really, really wish he would've moved on at that point, but he did something which I can only describe as shamanistic (kudos to those who remember the character of Cowboy Bebop): He let a pile of ash in his palm drift through his fingers to the...floor? Ooooh, no, no, no, that would've been convenient to everybody. I watched a thin cloud of dust swoop towards me, following the direly needed air conditioning drafts; I even watched the cloud swoop over me. I had little choice, I was on stage, keeping my stage face. Blink slowly, blink slowly, I told myself. No, don't pick up more, you nincompoop...! Alas. He had another round.

   About 4 minutes after all sound ceased, I don't think the audience was breathing; nobody dared make a sound to disturb Kabbey. He did get an extremely dramatic bare-footed shuffling to the final pile, soil. I couldn't see what he did, because the bass and ash both hindered my sight; but he made himself a truly Black man. I heard pebbles fall, and when he stood up again, his chocolate skin was quite close to black; he took a dirt bath. Ripped his robe off, raised earth above, and let it fall over him. It colored his green-chalked hair black with the rest of his skin.

   By now, it was the 22nd minute of a 15 minute piece. I watched Arun desperately try to think of how to signal The End to the audience; in fact, that's the third issue there usually is with contemporary pieces.

3. The audience, without blame, has very little idea of when to clap. The only way the orchestra can convey it's done is to exhale, let the guts go out, let everybody's shoulders slump. It just doesn't seem satisfying; however, I doubt the audience notices, as they've undoubtebly been waiting to breath regularly too.

At the very least, I've learned that the good contemporary works have at least one universally recognizable quality: They will hold the audience's un-divided attention. At least Gerhard picqued everybody's interest with great longevity. The music vs. noise qualities, though, will require the opinion of a music-theory scholar, so I won't say any more. ...'Cept they're still weird.

This next concert, in Smell-o-Vision

To the reader: Know that any writings on this weblog express solely the opinions of myself and no other member of the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, or any other organizations I happen to be involved in or associate with. Should what I have written here seem harsh enough to warrant a response, please read this weblog entry in presented order, following the first link.

I never thought I'd [see] it, but I am in an orchestra that will perform in Smell-o-Vision. At least, that's my loving dubbing of the concert's avant-garde piece.

Now, I don't know where the heck we got our other "neo-contemporary" composers, but their pieces haven't been very enticing. Sorry, but it's either been politically swing-jigs (Rattler's Narrative, the Mexico-California border), or just had pretty effects that lost their charm after they were repeated for the ninth time (Omong-Omong). However, Gerhard has an international following: He has composed or performed in Greece, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands...I wanna say somewhere in the Middle East, too, but I'm not sure. Point being, he at least has people's attention, and not shunning ignorance.

I still have no clue how they plan to contain the smells until the appropriate moments in the Washington Center, though. Oh, by the way, the scents have been changed. There will now be piles of:

• Garlic
• Coffee
• Dirt (or some other form of earth)

...in the Center. The dirt will mainly be on the dancer's body, so I don't know if that smell will be particularly strong in exposure.

The pre-recorded sounds of Spices (1+) seem to be pretty professionally done, though one of them sorta sounds like a "Gotta-Pee" inducing waterfall. So, should you experience this concert for One More Sense (we just need touch, and the elementary bases are covered!), get to the bathroom at intermission.

Spices (1+) plays after intermission. That's how the order has been before for concerts. However, the end of the program is the Berlioz song cycles, so there'll be carry-over from the coffee and garlic. This will be interesting.

Oh, about the soprano: She is really worth coming to see. She has quite a powerful voice with the high notes, which I suppose is to be expected for a music professor, and she has such fun with the Rossini aria. The smiles are for more than keeping character. It's also quite interesting to hear her sing in Italian for the first half of the concert, and French after intermission.

The last thing I have to say about Berlioz: He wrote a cool viola part into the first Song. So, at least come for the violas, eh? Eh? Hope to see you there. (Info. is on main sidebar.)

Chalkin'

There's something that seems boundless about writing on a chalkboard. Paper seems too restricted, too consumptionary, too...finite. I always feel dedicated when I start scrawling on a new piece of paper, like I need to use it as wholly and efficiently as possible, else that's one less sheet for the notebook or for the printer.

But on a chalkboard...ah, the space is boundless. If I run out of room on one side, I just move to another board; in the math homeroom, there are 4 chalkboards I can use; it's like a canvas I can use for painting small, subtle strokes, inducing onward; or a surface I can just throw a bucket of paint upon.

Judging by my incredible penmanship -- er, boardmanship? -- my chalkboard activities may be both of those analogies at the same time.

Abstract Algebra's exercises are much easier to do on a space where I can wipe away mass quantities of wrong info at once. The whole left board turned out to be wrong; and there was no wasted paper resulting.

Now, if only there were no issues of inhaling tons of chalk dust every day from the professor's lectures...

A weekend with CAYSA and OS

Saturday night:
I attended the CAYSA concert, to see how the group was doing since I left almost four years ago. The youngest orchestra seems to be lacking in rhythm, dynamics, and pitch control (or abundant in stage fright)...this may be normal for young orchestras, but it didn't seem like they had a spring-caliber concert. The junior symphony did ok, but they need winds. Badly. They had 1 trumpet, 1 flute, and 2 clarinets; the only other non-string player was the percussionist. The string section wasn't too large, either...it's really unfortunate, but the junior symphony is probably CAYSA's most visible sign of a weak student body.

The Youth Symphony doesn't seem to have that same population problem, though; they have 24 violins. 24. Their viola section matches SOGO's conservatory violas in numbers (7); they have something like 8 celli, though, for which I'm jealous on behalf of the conservatory's 4-strong cello section. But 24 violins...I thought with that many E-strings, the orchestra would be as top-heavy as a life-sized Barbie.

However. They weren't. I guess intonation is critical when there are that many violins playing high; or maybe they were holding back; but that ginormous bunch didn't make a spectacular sound. They were ok, I guess; I don't suppose sound was entirely their fault, as Pendergrast took an odd, odd tempo with everything past the "Peasant Wedding" in the Moldau. He directed -everything- past that point at a painstakingly slow pace. I mean, the penultimate section of the Moldau is supposed to be the Torrential River, whisking Small Puppies off to Death in its Currents, or something equally frightening; but I felt, listening to it and watching the violins take their time and bow on notes that should've zipped, that I could have dog-padded across them thar "Rapids."

In their defense: The minor section of the Light Cavalry Overture was wonderful with that many strings. And, of course, those violins had to show up the SOGO performanc by playing everything on the G string. Neener, neener neener. Stick it, in your w--

Ahem. That's all I'll say about the concert. Oh, wait, the soloist: She did a dedicated, but refreshingly light-hearted job with the Haydn piano concerto; I think she was even playful enough to mimic a court entertainer. I gave her applause after she played; but at the reception afterwards, I joked that we could use some of the violins "across town" in the conservatory, and she belittled SOGO. Neener, neener neener.

2 o'clock Sunday, the OS rehearsal started, and only half of the viola section was there. ...By half, I mean Anne and I. Some trombones almost volunteered to give us a hand; that, uh, would've been lovely. I suggested the bass trombone plant her bell right behind my head, for optimal brain massaging power. The other violas arrived soon.

During the big break before the busses took us downtown, the viola section lived up to its [apparent] reputation as the most partying section of the symphony and gathered 'round a table at Burrito Heaven. No margaritas this time around. Burrito Heaven's El Nino is quite filling, if you ever find yourself there. John told us of a wonderful fiddle he got to play: it was so good, he could not play out of tune, and he tried. He had in his hands a $200,000 fiddle; it played itself, it was so good an instrument. Then he told us of a student of his, in his '50's, that started studying instrument crafting. The end result was ...polygonal, shall we say? A "trapezoidal approximation to a violin's curve," in Calculus Speak. It was so bad...John wanted to have the instrument after his student died, because it was so bad. Seemed like a nice way to remember a guy, huh?

Arriving at the bridge after 6, I opened up my case to pull out Scarface (my "Beater" instrument, who sounded like crap-- no, quiet crap, by nature). The first thing to greet me was my A string, strewn around the bow in the other part of the case somehow. The ball of the end of the string was ripped right off.

"Blast," I did exclaim. "Oh, blast indeed."

John thankfully loaned me an A, brand spankin' new. I had to keep it tuned a quarter-step sharp for about a half-hour, out of hopes that it would magically "settle in" to A440 by showtime.

Showtime kinda sucked. All of the musicians (heck, including me) played well, but the mics...oh, damn, the mic setup was bad. I'm going to leave an important message here to anyone who is ever in charge of setting up a microphone:

Cymbals do not need to be amplified.

Nor did the brass, who were a Force to be Reckoned With on their own. But, they got mics anyway, and their mics were dumbly set louder than the strings. Ah, but the kicker was the tent we were in: Their was a slight overhang on the front side, and a conical top; the violas were actually pretty close to the epicenter of sound on the ground, and I had the seat closest to the center.

The speakers almost overloaded with the cymbal's roll, and the trombones were nearly ear-piercing. I don't even want to think about the trumpets. Whatever that company is that does sound for OS has a bad history, and Sunday night was no exception...I actually get a rumble in my right ear if I open my jaw too wide. If this hearing thing persists for a week, I may not do the park concert, since that same company will be doing the mic setup again, and I really don't think my ears could take it.

There is a light side to all of this, though: The concert was almost evidence that there is no music louder than classical. (The Who aside.) Huzzah for the brass, and their head-splitting power.

OS at the bridge, and other work

The Symphony's playing on the bridge tonight. I can hardly wait to see what goes wrong -- it looks like it'll start with the rain that's been threatening Saturday. I'll keep my fingers crossed. And, should things go right, come on over to the traffic-free 4th-Ave. bridge; the ceremony starts at 3:30, where they'll do ...stuff... and then the Symphony plays at 7:15. Come and here the brass! They're freakin' awesome. And the bass trombonist's bell looks bigger than her head. Good times come from that bell.

And on to other news, I may get a summer job after all. I may be maintaining the website of Looking Glass Analytics, or assisting someone with maintenance. I'm picturing the work being something like maintaining Forest-Shaded Howls, only with Visual Basic, Java and XML. The job is pending how patient Joe is willing to be with me, as I actually have dismal experience with those 3 languages. VB-knowledge is 4 years old, decrepit, and I've lost the Complete Idiot's Guide that taught me with great ease; I've never used XML; and my first Java experience will actually come in mid-June when I start my Learning Contract for Java Data Structures.

I'm hoping that Learning Contract and my history of little difficulty in computing environments will encourage Joe to train me for a week, maybe two, or however long it takes to get the necessities down.

I'm also hoping that I can work camping into this, too. I must see a beach this summer, or I'll go crazy...and by crazy, I mean probably pouty and un-refreshed in September. I'm the low-key type.

After SoSOGO 04

Capriccio Italienne is why I'm still in SOGO -- well, maybe not the entire piece. There is that one page of asinine scale modulations that I could live without. But the first Presto section was one of the moments in music where I had no self; violas plucked on even beats of measures while the violins were in control of the melody. I could feel through my face that I had checked out; or maybe I looked so intensely focused I could burn a hole in the music with my stare; or, more likely, it was leftover dread from before I learned the really tricky 29 notes coming up in eleven seconds; but nonetheless, I was no longer some wacky violist, I was a focused member of an orchestra. Music may be the only way I enter a social consciousness, a shared mind; I hope I am never forced to give it up. Next year's the last year I'll have with a guaranteed seat in an orchestra. After then...I don't know.

It came as a bit of a shock to me that one of the celli was quite ready to give up her seat in the Conservatory. She, another cellist and I were chatting after the Conservatory concert when the topic of auditions came back up. (Returning members re-audition to get back into the group; keeps us on our toes, I s'pose.) That girl told me that she thought she sucked, compared to everyone around her, and that she wouldn't have time for the group.
Nicole is the frizzy-haired cellist's name.
I really was scared to lose her. (In truth, it was actually a bit more impersonal than that: I just didn't want to perceive a shrinking group for the next year, and there's few things quite as distinctively shrinking as our ...oh my, now 2-strong cello section. In any case, she's a cool girl, and I'd hate to see her leave.) I told her about my first year, my junior year: First year of Running Start, enrollment in two high-school science classes, 200-level math in the morning, all in all resulting in barely any time to practice...and it showed. I sucked royally my first year, and that was when sucking was blatantly visible, with only 4 violas (maybe 5? I can't remember if Taylor was there). But, I still did it, and I had fun, if only by spring. I told her about how comforting it would be to have a seat already in an orchestra...

...and she signed up for an audition. She didn't have a piece to play, but she signed up; she'll be back next year. I don't doubt her resolve.

I take more pride in that one action than for anything I did over the year; that was the most I had known myself to influence someone (semi)professionally, and the reward for her can only be enriching...well, maybe a little stressful around Crunch season in late winter, but it can only get better.

My great low came soon after, and I may be giving that too much thought.

The harpist's mother approached me about fifteen minutes later. I had decided to linger for -quite- a while after the show, apparently...anywhoo, she struck up conversation with me, talking about college & math (not so much of the latter; I dun' blame her). She then told me about her daughter, and that her daughter was considering not coming back next year. She told me that her daughter didn't feel too socialized in the group -- the main problem there would be that her spot was in front of the percussion, with no neighbors. I don't remember if she told me about any other issues she had with the group, if any...but she asked me to convince her daughter to come back next year. She heard about me convincing the cellist to come back.

Her daughter came up to us while I was telling some story or other behind Mr. Welsh's back (ahem), and I tried to subtly switch the conversatio--ah, screw it, I'm as transparent as stained glass. I asked her what her plans were for Sunday nights for the next year. She was instantly on to me; she had heard about the cellist, too. Sigh. I then told her that the student board would be calling people who hadn't signed up for auditions, and that I would try to talk her into it again.

Actually, I may have lied about that last part; I can't remember. But I did give her a lot of thought Sunday night, and Monday; however, at the meeting I called everyone on the conservatory list except her. I don't know why. I just stopped calling when it came to her name; I had heard a probably-crushing comment from one person who didn't want to come back for next year, about the general coolness of people in the orchestra; I had heard just about everybody else say "I won't have the time," which by the way is my least favorite excuse to hear; but I couldn't bring myself to call the harpist.

So, I let taylor call her instead. However, Taylor got an answering machine, so she just left a cheery (dare I say, bubbly?) reminder to sign up for an audition. And that was that. I felt like I chickened out; I still do. I even tried calling the harpist at home today, to have a chat with her about joining SOGO for the next year; honestly, I thought I did say I would talk to her again about it. But, the answering machine picked up after 2 rings, and I have this dumb phobia of leaving messages.

I feel a bit dissapointed in myself for letting Taylor call instead. Actually, that dissapointment all revolves around if I said I would call or not, as it's partly an issue of me keeping my word then. But still, it sucks to hear that she wanted to leave because the group wasn't friendly; the group wasn't unfriendly, either, but rather in that inhumane zone of neutrality that I'm coming to dislike more and more.

I fear that violins have it worst with Neutrality of character; that person who made the "Coolness" remark was a violinist. Those guys, for all their incredible talent, don't seem to know how to have fun...especially compared to the violas & celli, trademark jokers of the strings: either Hai-Yen or Caitlin started poking the other in the shoulder, and then Hai-Yen started poking me --all this is continuously--and I poked Nicole (cello), and she poked Liz, and it would've gone to Mr. Welsh had he not stared us down.

I guess the goal for next year is to liven things up between players; and not just us joker sections.

Gimme Cassie's Trouble...but for me.

Cassie started this, and I'm hoping to know what some people think of me. Well, that's the self-conscious side of it; the other side to this is I think a good deal of you will answer "No" to number 2.

I enjoy reading all of your blogs, and hold deep respect for your willingness to write and let anybody know about how your life is doing. I believe Melissa wrote about this, as the Blog Culture, and I really enjoy the security of anonymity and distance that David mentioned there -- even though that still just leaves me as, at worst, an acquaintance of yours. I'm still pleased to know you.

However, as for you... ;)

1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Do you have a crush on me?
5. Would you kiss me?
6. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
7. Describe me in one word.
8. What was your first impression?
9. Do you still think that way about me now?
10. What reminds you of me?
11. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. How well do you know me?
13. When's the last time you saw me?
14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
15. Are you going to put this on your LiveJournal/Weblog and see what I say about you?

Weblog, 20040508

I actually can't link to this, but to all of you in Oly, particularly the SPSCC people, there was an interesting Daily Olympian tidbit in Thursday's South Sound section. A Tumwater resident hit a something in the road, swerved into the next lane, and smashed head on into a cop car. No physical injuries, but the man'll never hear the end of it; he had a blood-alcohol content of .120, measured again at .117.

That guy also happened to be the full-time economics professor at SPSCC. His classes were cancelled that day; "The professor's ill," read notes on his classes' boards.

I'm going to sleep without a bandage on that middle-finger cut tonight, and hope that it heals over conveniently. I plucked a little bit on Damian's viola yesterday, and didn't feel any twinges through the bandage; I haven't tried bowing notes yet, that'll be tomorrow's Ultimate Test. Should it fail...I've got the coach's phone number. She'll sit in first chair and take over my ...what was it, 12 measures of solo in Babar. Nothing drastic...except I'll be in the audience instead of on stage.

Minus side: It'll be the first concert I've missed in at least six years, perhaps ever, and it's an end-of-the-year concert to boot.
Plus side: I've never really heard the Conservatory orchestra play, without being in the group. It'd be a nice chance to get perspective on the group I've been performing with for 3 whole years, and a fairer comparison with the CAYSA orchestra I'm seeing Saturday; I've heard they've been sucking since the getting-too-distant past, but never verified this for myself.

By the way, CAYSA's having their concert next Saturday night at the Washington Center...I'm not sure what time, since their website accidentally omitted that detail. Clever. Andrew Yu's mom stopped by my house a couple weeks ago and dropped off a few vouchers, so hey! why not? And they're playing...jeez, their site is sure awfully informative. No listing of pieces they're playing...I know they'll be doing:
-The Moldau, by Smetena
-Light Cavalry Overture, by von Suppe
-...uh, something else. It didn't sound too high-level-y, though; Russian Sailor's Dance, perhaps? It sounded like something SOGO's Academy orchestra would do (high middle school-beginning high school level students).

Interestingly enough, SOGO played the first two pieces 2 and 1 years ago, respectively. So, I know the parts that can Easily Go Wrong: violas' evil, evil, evil "Running Water" sequence in the Moldau, and the violins' "Lookatme, I can play notes on every square inch of the fingerboard" runs in the Light Cavalry. Ah, but I can't wait to hear the homophonic section of the Light Cavalry Overture again; I love that part.

I've started waddling about. I remembered hearing Aaron's favorite song on Raymond Scott's Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights was "The Penguin," but couldn't remember how the tune went; so, I played the song in my living room. It encourages waddling, and if penguins could break-dance, that would be what they'd break-dance to. Scott's awesome.

I can't whole-heartedly recommend Microphone Music, the two-disc collection of his works. A lot of the songs are from Reckless Nights, and seem...kinda rushed. The "Quintette" doesn't seem to take its time and enjoy the music as before. All the songs on the album are "re-tooled," and the majority seem to be for the Quicker.

I've found a new source of Swing music, though. The soundtrack to Metropolis captures the wonderful "Party that is the '20's" sound that attracts me to Swing music. Never before have I been so happy to hear a fire.

And now I'm going to try to scab over. G'night, everybody.

To any Pseudo-Foodomologist, I present...

Well, now that the mystery of the "Dragon Ant" has been solved, I present to you this next Mysterious Life-Form...

Filed under Category W, subsection tD.

This yet-unnamed specimen was last spotted on a table of some sort, by a jean-clad leg of some sort, attached to a hungry denizen of the house of that some-sort table. This yet-unnamed specimen was also violently consumed, first by having an eye gouged out and then by losing a part of the upper lip to the ravenous attachment of the jean-clad leg.

Yet he returns at least once a week, before 7 o'clock on a weekday morning, only to repeat the vicious cycle...People. End the savagery. Import Toast from France! Find a blueberry flax cereal! Just save the life of this poor endurer of a re-hashing tale.

Broke a Plate; Swore a Plent'

Well, I found out I'm not above swearing when mightily pissed off.

I was doin' de dishes, and reached over to put a plate in the dishwasher. The plate caught on the handle of my dad's espresso-majig, and fell into the dishwasher; I tried to catch it, but it shattered into several sharp pieces. I slashed the top of my left middle finger, and I have a few cuts on my left index finger.

If it were my right hand, then I would be unable to write for a while, and would thus just be slightly annoyed in math. But the left; ohhh, that's a whole f-tr-uckload worse. I can't play the viola with the cut there on my middle finger; even with a knuckle bandage on it, it causes pain to have a string vibrating 'neath.

I have two quintet performances and a f'in CONCERT SUNDAY. The quintet rehearsal's tonight, in a bit over an hour; I'm going, but I can't play. Well, they should be able to survive without a viola tonight, since we're only doing 12 minutes of easy music...but if I can't play Sunday I will be all kinds of almighty pissed. That, and I'll most likely have to have our coach sub for me on stage...

This finger will heal by Saturday. I have too much need of it for it to dawdle otherwise; that bridge concert's going to take a lot of practicing by itself. The other OS regulars have the benefit of having played the music before; I don't have that luxury. Luckily, the music isn't the most intense the symphony has done; unluckily, we're doing Tchaikovsky's Fifth's finale. Buttload o' notes, some in E. Curses.

Urgh. This is a marvelous inconvenience, especially with a concert per Sunday for the rest of May.

...I'll cheer up by next entry. Promise.

To any Entologist, I present...

Once upon an afternoon of yardwork, I walked by a ladder against the garage and saw what I thought to be an ant, winged; "Oh, bloody hell, a Carpenter, just what this garage needs..." Upon closer inspection, this "Carpenter" appeared to have a striped abdomen and...what's that...a tail?! Well, with those elegant wings, I could think of no greater title than...


Dragon Ant

In case anybody believes that the ant is somehow assuming the "Pup Marks Territory" position, I captured the tail in its defining characteristic: It's wagging.


Dragon Wag

Question, to any who can ID bugs: What is it?
On an unrelated note, today marks the beginning of my abuse of the img borders and padding.

SOGO; OCO; and by gum, OS!

To the reader: Know that any writings on this weblog express solely the opinions of myself and no other member of the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, or any other organizations I happen to be involved in or associate with. Should what I have written here seem harsh enough to warrant a response, please read this weblog entry in presented order, following the first link.

For the last two concerts with avant garde "Music," OCO had a bit of audience disapproval with the New Stuff. The main reason there: The new stuff was neo-political the first concert (Rattler's Narrative), structureless and repetitive (Omong-Omong), and lacking in musical qualities otherwise (all of the above).

This time, though, OCO's concert will kick all-around ass. The "Classical" portion will be a Mozart Symphony (No. 38, Linz) with a familiar, yet difficult-to-place melody in the first movement; and two arias, from The Barber of Seville and Figaro. Our singer will fly in from Atlanta, where she's the head of a music department at...hmm...I can't recall which university. She's a specialist in the voice-styles of one of the composers in our program, but I can't bloody well remember which. Oh, but I seem to have forgotten one composer: Berlioz. His Summer Songs are amazing vocal pieces, mainly from the bountiful motion of the orchestra's lines and the singer's.

And the avant garde piece has a dancer. It most probably will not be crap, as this guy has worked with us before; I also hear that he's a fairly large man, and watching all his mass move with the elegance that it does is mystifying -- at least, from the audience. One of the second violins, a nurse in profession, wants to charge the guy with a defibrillator because he gives the image that his heart's gonna blow at any time.

Point being: Come to OCO. Concert plugging done rightward.

Sample of SOGO is next Sunday, and it's looking to be quite fulfilling. I have a quintet gig in the commons at some point in the day, so I won't just be eating marvelous food and listening to other groups; I'll be one of the groups! Yay! I'll also be making that asinine player-wiping-dirty-string screech for part of one of the songs. And I'll bet you think I'm kidding.

The Conservatory Orchestra will be playing after everybody's done; Capriccio Italienne is fun, hairy-chested-Italian all the way. The introduction to that piece has our trumpets giving their best blasts, and the end has best blasts coming from all sides of the group. That'll be a fun end-of-the-year piece. Good concert endings, in my humble violist opinion, have a chord that takes the full-length downbow to play so our arms end up holding our bows at our side, waiting tensely for the conductor to put his arms down and let the chamber finish ringing those last notes.

But that's only the end of the concert. Babar, the narrated orchestral Poulenc piece, will have a saxophonist-turned-radio-man for narration (to be named after tonight's rehearsal, since I forgot). I can't wait to hear how it goes.

The last musical performance I have planned for spring has a bit of controversy tied in. See, the 4th Avenue bridge has been completed, and will be dedicated with a community-wide event on May 16. The finale of this dedication will be the Olympia Symphony, performing for 45 minutes. On the bridge.

Here are the logistical issues:
1.) The OS will be playing at 7:15 pm, to 8:00. This means the sun will be a little low on the horizon, and if the orchestra's oriented just the wrong way, the sun will be in either the audience's and conductor's eyes, or the orchestra's eyes. Since the bridge runs east-west, this means the optimal route of no blindedness will have us facing towards the lake -- but then the audience couldn't fill more than 3 lanes of traffic, because:
2.) Without a shell, I have no clue how the OS will get any sort of sound out.
3.) OS will be playing on a bridge. If the crosswinds don't blow over the shell, they'll surely blow over a stand or three.
4.) Again because it's a bridge, there is the issue of sea salt to worry about. All of the orchestra members who will play are bringing "Beaters," instruments that they wouldn't mind subjecting to these conditions. However...
5.) Not everybody has a beater. So maybe half of the orchestra will be playing. The actual count of OS violas is at 3.

Here's the plus: Anne, one third of the viola section, is recruiting violists in the Oly area, and I volunteered to play. (My beater's Scarface, that fat-necked bast'rd viola.) I think she also recruited Catherine Lamb, for those of you Oly High alumni who remember her.

So, while I'm having many a merry chuckle at the expense of the Symphony, I'll get to play along with them. See, I'm not laughing at them, at laughing with them...since I'm with them. For now. It'd be really nice if they let me play with them for the Park concert, too...but hey, I'll at least get to play with them once. Good times.

I hope I see FallenEarth faces at one of these concerts...conveniently lined up 3 Sundays in a row. ...Wow. I hadn't thought of that: one concert per week for the rest of May. Yay!
I like busy times.