Nuun!!

Today was a bit of a strange...I guess in the way that I planned it (or didn't plan it). Woke up much later than I had planned and kind of just putzed around for a while. Rather than cramming in practicing at the last minute, I just skipped my class and had a nice practice...which I haven't done in a while. Went to my lesson a 3:30 and had a crazy day starting at 3:30...which doesn't really qualify as a crazy day, since it started so late. Worked from 5-8...ran home for dinner...missed the PCO concert, and had Ossia rehearsal fro Nuun...which is totally crazy, but totally really fun. I have realized lately that modern music at Eastman tends to be really crazy pieces...especially in Ossia. I think this rotation in Musica Nova is by far the most conservative new music I have played here, and I know people who would consider it completly "unacceptable." Screw them. Went to the toad afterwards with Kimberly and Paul. Feel like I have something else to say...but I will just go to sleep instead.

Busy Wednesday

Woke up a bit early for some reason and went to work...which dragged forever. I have no idea why. Musica Nova is worse than ever...I want it to be over soooo badly...I am very much looking forward to the return of Brad Lubman!!! Why can't he be conducting now? Today while working, I checked out two CD's for myself (and modified the due dates of course)...the first: a recording of Musica Nova playing Secret Theatre last year...and second: a large set of Steve Reich Music (10 CD's) I am working on moving that to my computer and Ipod...I figure I can always get rid of what I dont want...and I still have 20gigs of space left on my Ipod! So why not? Phil was only mildly annoying...I think Varon is kind of skimping a bit lately...we play very avergae and he seems to think that it is the second coming. We were playing the Tchaikovsky with Matt and Varon is like, "sounds great, lets move on." and the Johannes is like, "well this isn't working yadda yadda yadda." and Varon is like, "exactly what I was saying" hmmmm...I think he used to be much tougher on us...not that we sound bad now, just that we have sounded MUCH better in the past (Daphnis anyone?). Found out that I am rotated out next rotation (like I requested) and I am playing Phlegra in Musica Nova...it wil be soooooooooooo nice to just have half a single rotation, since this first rotation has almost caused the end of me! I guess normal rotation starts next week, and then after that it will be reduced to half of that...although crazy things will resume when the next phil concert resumes. Found out that I will be sitting principal for Tchaik 6 and the student composition...and Heather will be sitting concertmaster!!! So exciting! I would like to draw your attention to the map at the bottom of the page, if you haven't noticed it already. Apprently I have readers all over the world including Singapore and England...and for some reason a large number visit this blog from Iowa? You should all identify yourselves! Dont' be strangers!

Usual Tuesday

Woke up this morning for a CCE rehearsal...met at Java's at 8...and it took awhile for most of the group to congregate...rehearsal was fine, we bascially just reworked on the section we already did. We are going to go to our coaching tomorrow and play for like 1 second and be like, "that what we learned" it will be fine though...we can kind of play it (it will be much more confident eventually...) came back to apartment for lunch...grilled cheese (on garlic bread with basil), tomato soup w/garlic and basil, and a mixed green salad...I had the same thing yesterday. Linguistics was interesting today...I was a bit tired and was kind of falling asleep, but we are working on phonetics now and we just went through the international phonetic alphabet and the different sounds that you can produce. Today was consonants, thursday is vowels, and eventually we will get to the clicks! Apparently Peter Ladefoged, who is a leading researching for the IPA (or something like that) gave a call to my class in high school! We each asked him a quesiton...I remember telling my liguist cousin (or some relation like that) about how we got to talk to him and she was like drooling...but anyways. Undercofler wasn't at class today, but we had Ray Ricker as a sub...and a lot of the class wasn't prepared, including me...so it was a bit short. Had a lesson today...move through more of the Rochberg...I think its going pretty well...I remember at the beginning I thought everything was soooo difficult, but now it doesn't seem so bad. Maybe I have gotten better after all these years? Ahhh...probably just imagining it. Played with Kitty's electric violin...the effects on the Crumb are so much more articulate and clear on an electric instrument...I hope we get to use them for the concert!!! I finished watching the Short Films of David Lynch...which would more appropriatly be called the early films of David Lynch. It features his first 4 movies, as well as two later ones. The first 2 are no more than glorified paintings that move...the next two are very confusing, very compact movies. Lots of things happen in a short amount of time...I can see why he expanded to feature films...the short ones are almost unintelligible in their compactness. Probably the most entertaining was called the Cowboy and the Frenchman, starring none other than Harry Dean Stanton (from Paris, Texas and many other Lynch films). These were very fun movies that you should watch if you are a David Lynch fan (like myself). Another star of one of the movies is Catherine E. Coulson (the log lady from Twin Peaks)...she plays a woman with both of her legs aputated while David Lynch (as a nurse) attends to the wounds...I can't belive Kimberly knows her! Met with Jairo to talk about the piece and it seems that we are going to throw together a proposal for the Howard Hanson thing...its not too much work, but it is due on Saturday, we really need to get working on it. Perhaps I should look at it at work tomorrow. I am suddenly feeling very very sore for no apparent reason. I should go to bed.

Another Monday has Passed

Right now I am listening to Barcelonazo, the two piano version...I really dislike this piece a lot. It is not very interesting, just a bunch of 8th note modulations. I was getting soooooo frustrated in Musica Nova today...I really wish that Scatterday would rehearse something for once. Today he was like, "People, this is not good...things are not getting better...I know that you all know your parts, so what is the problem??? Come on, lets get things together." And I am thinking, {Perhaps we could rehearse something rather than running through the piece every rehearsal, then things would get better, since then we will have actually worked on them and fixed things.} However, this is not the case...today we ran through sections of Barcelonazo and it sounded bad, and Scatterday was like, "this sounds bad...lets move on..." WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SAYS THIS?!?!? If something sounds bad, then you rehearse it! AGH!!!! I wanted to slap him in the face. Orchestral rep was a very pleasant experience today. Only Brian, Me, and Lisa Caravan came to our section and Hannah was the only one who came to her section, so we all got lots of attention and got to play a lot over the two hours. We finished up Don Juan...we worked up the whole piece, rather than just the beginning, like last year. And then Brian was like, "What about Beethoven 8?" but she didn't make us all play that. Good. In Phil we ran Tchaik and Shosti...which was surprisingly fun...Especially the 3rd mvt of the Shosti...Love those cello section parts. Me and Brian finished the first season of queer as folk, but he didn't really want to continue with the next four seasons, so I just told him everything that happened. I wonder what we will do now that we don't have queer as folk to watch at meals?

Baby that is related to me 

Corpses and Babies

I need to learn how to get things done. I need to start practicing. I need to be able to play for lessons, auditions, and my recital. Ok, now that I got that out of my system. Tomorrow is orchestral rep and I haven't worked on any of the excerpts since last class...which is really dumb on my part...but I've only practiced about an hour since last class, which is something that needs to be fixed right away... This morning I had a rehearsal with Tania, which went very well. We put together some very hard sections of the Rochberg...a very good piece, I think. It is pretty fun to play also. Now I just need to learn my part better so it sounds good! Worked at the reserve desk for three hours with Chelsea...always an exciting time. I forgot to bring my linguistics or a book, so I was really really bored for three hours...I eventually just started playing yahoo games. Went for a walk with Kimberly...came back and didn't want to do dishes but I did them for as long as I could...and then had a dinner of pita and hummus (completly unacceptable, I know). CCE rehearsal got canceled cause none of us wanted to do it, and we all went to see the Corpse Bride...the new Tim Burton film. This was very dissapointing since it was no more than a bad incarnation of Nightmare Before Chrsitmas. A lot of the 'sets't were the same, even the characters resembled characters from nightmare...basically every scene corresponded to one that occured in nightmare. You know something is wrong when you leave the theater humming songs from a different movie...oops... I have also included a baby picture for those readers that enjoy this type of thing. This baby is realted to me on my mom's side of the family...my great aunt's (or uncle's, I'm not really sure) daughter's daughter's son. I think, don't quote me on that one. Anyways, enjoy the picture.

Mooga

Today was another exciting day. Went to Wegmans and liqour store...we started rehearsing the Perle, which actually went Ok, I thought. We are going very slow, but I think we actually got some things done, and right now we can afford to go this slow and ensure that things are working. It sounds like it will be a pretty good piece, not something completly off the charts. Went to dim-sum for dinner with Alison, Jeffrey, and Heather. It turns out the the Martino is not going to happen in ossia...which is nice since its one less thing to worry about...now I am only playing in one piece, which is hard, but the Martino was a lot harder. And we will still do it on another concert, so that is good. Heather and I played a gig tonight...it was for this couple's 50th wedding anniversary...it was a nice event. At the start they were basically treating it like a concert...which was a bit strange, but they eventually loosened up and started talking. We were playing outside and it was very cold...Pleyel duos can be a bit difficult for the cello. FYI...the evening concluded with viewing of two six feet under episodes with Jeffrey, Julienne, and Heather.

so anyway....

I just came back from Brian W's birthday party...it was basically a room full of gayboys and hags, as I expected it to be. Oh...well tonight was the last performance of Abby's piece that she wrote for CCE, I495-InReverse...it went ok...I hope we get to do it at Eastman with the dancers sometime...that would be amazing. So anyway, back to the party. Very fun party, by the way...CCE made a grande entrance together, and we were starting to become one on the couch, but eventually we moved into Brian's bedroom. Apparently this freshman was hitting on Nik, and Nik eventually said no...so he moved on to me. I have no idea if he reads this or not (he has seen my facebook so he has the link)...but the story Heather comes back from a smoke, and she is like, this guy really wants to talk to you and he think that you are avoiding him...which is totally not true...he has just never talked to me...and its not like a guy has ever hit on me. So I walk Alison home as an excuse to go out there..and he is like, lets go for a walk/talk...and we walk around the block. He confesses that he has this thing for me...and of course, I'm like...ummm...umm...ummm...and I tell him no...but I must admit, he is pretty cute, and nobody has ever shown any interest in me, of couse except for the guy who was into child porn that is now under house arrest...but we wont get into that...maybe I should have just gone out with him? Everybody told me I made the right decision...we will see...ugh...of course we were talking on the steps to Brian's apartment, and about 700 million people walked by...so all of them assumed that I slept with him (including Brian Sanders and Megan) I guess I will have to explain that in the morning. but anyway...tomorrow is the first Perle rehearsal, and that should be interesting. I told him that I was so busy that I would never see him...which is probably true...we would be able to go out to breakfast a fre times a week, and thats about it. Ummm....as usual me and Kimberly ended up on top of each other, I guess this guy was like (to Heather) hes in there with this girl...I can see Heather being like, "thats just Kimberly...don't worry...they are always like that..." Me and Kimberly went back to her place and watched some of the sopranos...which I missed about three seasons of...maybe I will get back into it at some point? I should really go to sleep now...CCE and other fun things tomorrow!

Nice Morning

This morning I woke up at 9 in the hopes of getting somethine done...and I think I actually did! I am almost done with my laundry and I finished up my linguistics homework, which wasn't so bad after all...I just needed another crack at the Swahili before I completly figure it out, and then the Swedish was just really annoying since the words were all jumbled up, but it wasn't hard. And I wrote up Kitty's interview...I am soon going to try my hand at copying Chinese...should be interesting. I made a rather nice breakfast this morning: corned beef hash with two eggs overeasy, bacon, and a bagel...it was very nice, although I created a lot of smoke and ended up setting off the smoke detector in my room...and I didn't even burn anything. For some reason things just smoke alot when I cook...I don't really get it. I really didn't burn anything. At all. No joke. Anton showed up this morning and we did linguisteics for a bit. But then he left to find Ko for his interview. Hope he found him. Last night we had dress rehearsal for Abby's piece. We are sharing the men's dressing room with the one male dancer in the show. When we came in he was totally undressed, but he didn't seem to mind, so whatever. Went to Friendly's afterwards then back to the apartment for work and sleep. I need to put more pictures in this blog...I think it looks better...so I hope you enjoy this strange picture of me and Carrie and a candid of Brian in his room.

Linguistics is hard

I am at the library again. I was trying to do my linguistics but I couldn't figure it out...these are supposed to be really easy assignments as the teacher stated yesterday, but I don't have the faintest idea how to do them, at all. I worked on it for about an hour and realized that my answers were wrong, so I erased them all and put it away. How am I going to make it through this class? Should I drop it? What would I take instead? I am very worried about it. Heather came and visited me at the library...it was very nice...and Mary dropped in for a minute also!

Umbrellas

I have not been getting very much done lately. I had a lesson at 8:30 this morning with Tania and Dave...and Dave was being pretty annoying. He kept bugging me about playing this one part in tune, and he changes the fingering, and I play it even worse...and he's like, "you really need to play it in tune...you really have to be sooo careful about it." and im like, "I just need to practice it" He also seems to think that my program is really out there...or at least I get that vibe from him...whatever. Went back to the apartment and didn't really do anything...linguistics was manageable today...nothing I didn't completely not understand...although the morphology trees don't really seem to follow any rules...the words seem to get split down randomly and the teacher is like, "well look at that!!! didn't expect that to happen!!" and I'm just wondering how im going to figure it out on the test. In Undercofler class there was a special guest talking about her program for singers that is apparently really amazing. I had to leave early for a gig and Undercofler made a big deal about it and announced it to the whole class...I guess he did the same thing last week when I had the Paul Katz lesson...I wonder why the class needs to be updated on everything I'm doing? And the gig was really hilarious...we were really disfucntional and apparently had no sight reading ability...we kept laughing at every tiny thing...I hope the people eating thought we were just having a good time...they probably didn't actually notice. Whatever...they would randomly decide to clap, but not after every piece, just a few random ones. Strange. Went to dim-sum with Heather and Kimberly...was fun. Had some Sambuca, courtesy of Kimberly. I just finished watching The Umbrellas of Cherbourg...which I really loved. I guess some find it a bit tedious, but the music (although a bit repetitive) and the lavish costumes and sets seem to cancel out any blandness in my mind. The movie stars a young Catherine Deneuve (Dancer in the Dark!) as a young woman in love...which of course doesn't work out...every word in the movie is sung...but none of the music really becomes a song, which is a bit strange. There is also no dancing (um...Evita?). But it just seems to work. I was instantly captured from the moment the movies started: a shot straight down to the ground watching people walk by...most of them carrying umbrellas. And of course, probably the most famous scene...the train departure as the train pulls away and the camera pulls back...we see Guy leave the frame and Catherine Deneuve disappear into the distance while the main theme is belted out in the orchestra...a must see!

Sherry-Busy-Party-etc

So I called Fred Sherry when I was practicing and he actually answered!! I talked to him for a bit...he was like, "So , you feel you have learned all of the major cello rep?" And I was like, "ummm...." So I told him I was interested in contemporary music, and he was like, "then you're talking to the right person." And he was what I have done, so I told him about CCE and the Perle etc...and he was like, "sounds great" and we set up a time. He said no money or gifts will be accepted. I would have brought my check-book but he made it sound like he would be checking at the door to not let anything like that in. Fine with me! I think I will leave on Sat morning, have my lesson on Sunday, then maybe come back on tuesday? That would give me a good many days in NYC to have fun! But maybe I should come back and not spend too much money, what do you think? I still have a trip to Houston to worry about also. Things are very very busy this week...2 dress rehearsals, 2 concerts with CCE, double rotation, a lesson, 2 gigs, rehearsals...etc...etc...etc...I do like things when they are busy, though, its so much easier to get things done I think...even though there seems to be no time to actually do it. Some guy asked CCE to play his quartet and Kimberly told him she would talk to us...then he called me and was like, "Kimberly said you are doing it." And I was, fine...then I talk to Kimberly and she says that she never said that...so basically, we are not doing it...there is no time. At all. Ever. Sunny had a party last night which was very fun. It was pretty small and the people were very funny. I think it was a success. Me and Kimberly also walked to the poster store on Monroe Ave and browsed for a long time and didn't buy anything. Went for an iced drink at Starbucks then stopped in at a used bookstore where Kimberly picked up a VHS of Titanic...and I found a copy of this book of short stories set in Chicago with fun drawings...don't know if I will ever read it. I am now working in the library and I realized that I need to find a sub for thursday night, since we have abby's piece...And I totally forgot to get a sub. I hope somebody can do it. Still so much to do today: CCE rehearsal, CCE coaching, dinner with Catilin, and practicing. Should be fun!

Movie Slump over

I broke my movie slump today with the viewing of the spectacualr movie: Maelstrom. I haven't seen anything quite so refreshing in a while. It is a French-Canadian movie telling the story of a woman dealing with guilt after and abortion. She runs over a man with her car, and the movie eventually turns into a romance!!! And to top it all off, it is narrated by a series of fish getting chopped up by a man in a strange constume. The acting is amazing (Marie Jose Croze) and the script is also great. You relly must see it if you get a chance!!! Also tonight, me and Brian and Arthur watched Donnie Darko. Not nearly as strong a movie, but still interesting. Its a mystifiying exploartion of coexisting time...time travel etc...Loved the acting/casting, although the script wasn't terribly strong. The movie seemed to drag on from time to time...maybe it is a bit more concise in the non-director's cut...they usually are. There is a reason that that stuff is cut out!! Maelstrom: 100% Donnie Darko: 80%

Lesson good...Liguistics bad

Had a good lesson with Dave today. Me and Tania rehearsed the Rochberg last night, and played it for him today, and while we didn't sound so hot, Dave had so much to say about it. And he also mentioned that Paul Katz liked me...which I totally didn't get from Paul Katz himself...but I still don't think I could get into his studio. But I digress...Dave has been really good lately. I think one of my recent problems (maybe not that recent) is that I assume I can't do anything, so I just don't do it. He has been constantly telling me that I do infact know how to do the things he is asking for...and low and behold...I do (maybe I have learned something in the past three years). But anyway, the Rochberg sounded soo much better after 45 mins of playing it for Dave...and he is really into the piece and says that he wants to play it sometime! Linguistics is scary. Last night I did some of the assigned reading and then flipped to the exercises...and realized that I didn't even know how to form an answer to the questions. I stared at it in fear for a while, then decided to see if there were answers in the back of the book, which there were for a few questions. So after studying that for a while I slowly figured out how to do the rest of it. Which made me a bit happy, that I could actually figure it out. However, today in class, it was as if the teacher was speking in another language...it was a bit scary. All of the U of R students are raising their hands and commenting on everything that the teacher says, and me and Anton are like, "what the hell is going on?" maybe it will get better?

Mononoke

Last night me and Brian watched the end of Princess Mononoke...I had been watching it during meals over a few days, which really stretches it out, and finished the last hour last night. I guess I'm not the hugest fan of anime...although there are sequences that I love: such as Kill Bill Vol. 1, I guess that is used a bit differentally than anime usually is. However, Mononoke seems to be trying to be this huge epic, which it is on some levels, the creatures and battles involved certainly are, but it just doesn't go all the way. It is a fun movie, but fails on some level, it wasn't particualrly engrossing or exciting. And the animation is hardly special and the voice talents are quite terrible (if you ask me)...I think I should have watched it with the original language and subtitles, I might have gotten more out of it. Princess Mononoke (1997)...81% Also last night was the big concert featuring the Ying Quartet and sepcial guests James Dunham and Paul Katz. The concert was totally sold out and they were selling standing room tickets...so me and Mary took a trip to Java's and ditched the Yings playing some Tchaikovsky Quartet. I slipped in at intermission to hear the Souvenir d'Florence, a very exciting pieces played very unexcitingly...it sounded pretty bad if you ask me. Some questinable intonation and in some parts I was even worried that it might fall apart. And I hear that they are going to record it soon! Should be interesting. It has been fun having Dunham and Katz around, I wish we had more special guests come through! I need to practice Schwanter before Musica Nova so I don't sound like a 5 year old trying to play the cello...which definitly happened at the last rehearsal!

Katz done

Well...I just finished my lesson with Paul Katz...it was actually a mini-masterclass. I played and Sunny played and Anton played and he talked about something different for everybody. He told that he liked my basic set-up but that I just didn't sound polished enough...which was actually kind of nice to hear since my set-up has been so torn apart lately. And the polish thing may have had something to do with the fact that I hadn't worked on the piece for quite a while...however, I think he may have pointed out things that I need to work on that I actually will! He talked mainly about vibrato for me...which was interesting since I hadn't worked on vibrato in a very long time. Sunny asked him how many places there were in his studio, and he basically told us that he wouldn't accept any of us...which was kind of nice in a way, that not even Sunny would get into his studio...however, none of us has actually auditioned yet, so we will see how things turn out (I'm not holding my breath!).

Masterclass-Tumor-Katz

Masterclass went pretty well, I think...seemed that most people liked it. James Dunham is a funny man...he has trouble saying what he wants to and spends a bunch of time playing something over and over until he figures out what he wants to say. Kind of interesting in a way. And of course it is always fun playing with CCE. We scheduled our first coaching with Phil and told him about all of our tons or rep that we are going to learn. Should be interesting! Also, found out that my grandmother didn't have appendicitis afterall and that the doctors ended up removing a large tumor in the colon area...ugh...apparently there is nothing to worry about (according to them) since it may not be cancer, and even if it was, Colon Cancer is fairly harmless...I was also instructed by my mom not to call, since my grandmother was in such a horrible mood. I am missing all of my classes tomorrow to have a lesson with Paul Katz...I hope that it goes well!

Six Feet-Gma-Sherry-Katz

Just finished watching three episdoes of six feet under with jeffrey. The fourth season is officially out of control (OOC!!). How many TV shows have calls from dead people accusing others for burying them alive, reincarnated loved ones as dogs, fices gift baskets, and crazy late night drug hijackings in the span of three episodes? Its crazy, but it is soooo entertaining. I just got an email from my dad saying that my grandmother has appendicides...I wonder why he didn't call me? Guess it cant be too bad...although it does worry me a bit since she is in her 80's...a bit late to get an appendix removed, isn't it? I guess she is having surgery now...I will call tomorrow morning. Practicing is strange...I seem to make progress on the Ligeti, and then one second later I will not be able to play it. I think the secret is to keep practicing it on a regular basis...I guess this is obvious to some, but something I need to enforce on myself. Got an email from Laura with Fred Sherry's number, so now I can call and hopefully schedule a lesson over fall break, then I can go ahead with making plans! And I can also add another famous muscian's number to my cell phone contact list...that's the real reason I wanted to get the number. I also found out that I will most likely be playing for Paul Katz on Tuesday, so I need to work on Dvorak a lot until then...first impressions are always important and I don't want to sound like a doofus. I think that I will also have to miss linguistics on tuesday to have the lesson...but I think that this lesson is more important then a lecture anyway...hopefully Anton will still go so I can get notes and stuff from him, but he is also having a lesson with Katz the same day, so he may be practicing. And now I should go to sleep since I am going to try to go to the Y at 7:15 tomorrow before our first orchestral rep class. And Phil just sent me an email...strange.

Party-CCE-Ding

Party last night was pretty fun...especially when the cops showed up. The people who live in the townhouses need to get a life...and maybe be a little nicer about breaking up a party. Maybe next time they can come over and be like..."it is too loud...quiet down or I will call the cops" However, they just go right to the cops (who were the same cops as the incident last year). There weren't too many cellists though...especially considering it was a cello party. hmmm...we will have to try again. CCE managed to get the Haydn pretty well together in 1 rehearsal...we are rehearsing again today though...and starting in on Plylar and Crumb, should be fun! I went out to lunch with Dave Ying to discuss various things like grad school. He asked where I am thinking of applying, and then told me those places sound pretty good to him. I asked him if he had any other suggestions and he proceeded to list off places not to consider, and didn't actually suggest anything else. Go figure. Looks like the list right now is as follows: Rice (Norman Fischer), Juilliard (Fred Sherry), NEC (Lesser or Katz or Brovsky), Mannes (Tim Eddy or Fred Sherry)...and probably as backup: Northwestern and Depaul in Chicago...they are both very easy auditions to take, since I can just stay at home and drive over myself to the places. I mentioned Depaul and Dave was like, "I hear very interesting things about Depaul right now." It would also be fun to live in that area of Chicago...very trendy and fun. Geez...I need to expland my vocabulary...ugh. Ran into Kimberly on the way back from lunch and she was like, "Im going to to liqour store" so we went for a little trip. Stopped at Wegmans, but I wasn't really prepared to do "shopping" so I thought I would wait until a future date. My food is fine right now anyway. I better get ready to go over to library in a bit...and then rehearse again with CCE!

Yay

There is now internet at 68 Windsor.

Lottery

Doesn't look like I will get to do my recital in Kilbourn...I made it a whole five people from the bottom of the list...oh joy!! Isn't it great to wait fours years and then not get to do a recital in Kilbourn just because I didn't get a PC?

I want internet

So...I am writing this from my apartment...however, we are having lots of trouble getting it set up...one minute we have internet, the next we don't...and the router is giving us both hell...why cant it just work?!?!?!?

More of the same

I am sitting here at the library again. Today is the first day of double rotation, which should be fun. It takes up a lot of time, but I do actually want to play all of the stuff, but I will probably complain about it anyway...oh well. Tuesady is actually a pretty long day, with an hour and 15 mins of linguistics, then a quick busride back to 2 hours of undercofler, there is a lot of sitting. At least its only once a week! Last night me and Brian and Arthur were watching Jackie Brown, but I was totally falling asleep, so I went to bed. I don't know if they finished it or not. Ugh...We are supposed to get internet tomorrow...I hope!!!!!

Hmmm...

I am here sitting in the cave at school...we are supposed to get our internet hooked up at the apartment on thursday...It will be nice to not have to come over to the school or dorm for interent. Things have been pretty good lately...went to the Y with Caitlin this morning, we missed a few days over the weekend, but we need to keep it up...CCE is going well I think, we have always been a bit rehearsal deficient (not the amount of rehearsals, just the rate at which we get things done) but we seemed to do a bit better yesterday. We are going to record abby's piece tomorrow, which should be interesting. It really is a cute and fun piece and it will be very fun to perform. I had my first lesson with Dave yesterday, I played all of the Ligeti Sonata for him (didn't really expect to get through the whole thing). First movement wasn't bad, and after I started concentrating on bow rather than fingers in the second things started coming together a bit. Maybe I will be able to play it after all...overall I need to just concentrate on relaxing and not forcing everything out...hmmm...After CCE yesterday there was a bit of a cello gathering...well, all of the senior cellos, which was very nice. We just sat around and chatted, watched a clip from Mulholland Dr. because everybody wanted to see the "torpedo tits" in the imfamous lesbian scene...we need to have more cello gatherings. Me and Brian also continued with our viewing of season one of Queeras Folk...gradually working our way through! I have been listening to Michael Torke's "Adjustable Wrench" almost constantly since yesterday...I feel a bit nerdy, but the piece is very fun...and we are playing it in Musica Nova!! Time to do some last minute homework before catching the bus at 1:30!

Dead People

Rehnquist is dead...which is lucky for me because I needed to pick a story to follow for my Leadership Issues in Music Class. I guess it will be pretty obvious that I waited till the last minute to find a story (since he just died last night) but there are tons of articles on the web...all with completly different ways of presenting the story. It really is a pretty interesting assingment that Undercoufler gave us...to track a story (doesn't have to be music) and investigate how it is preszented differentlly in different publications. Now I have to research demographics for different cities...should be interesting. I am again sitting here at the library. I feel like I will be doing much more homework this year than I have before, since I have 9 hours a week that I have to sit at a library desk...so I will probably be doing a lot of work that I never did before. Its kind of nice. Yesterday was spent running some errands...Brian bought a router, we went to Wegmans and then to this very cheap liqour store...bought some fun drinks for Kimberly's Party...smaller than usual as far as Kim parties go, but still fun...of course. Looks like CCE might be playing the Perle quartet for his 90 b-day concert...would be a great opportunity for us, to play for the composer (who seems to be somewhate famous) in Kilbourn hall. The problem is that we are already doin soooooo much stuff...the stack of music to learn is getting out of control. Agh!!! I am sitting here for another hour, then it is off to CCE rehearsal, then I must practice, since I have a lesson tomorrow with Dave and I haven't been doing very good/much praticing lately...oops...anyone want to see the Constant Gardener tonight at 9:30?? Call me...

Redwings

Last night me and Kimberly and Anton and Carrie all went to the Rochester Redwings game at Frontier Field. It was very fun and very cheap...only $5.50 to get in and a large helmut of ice cream was only $3. And Rochester won, by a very large number, yay!! Only problem is that they feed into the Twins, one of the main rivals of the White Sox...hmmm...Also had the first CCE rehearsal, which went pretty well I think...we got through all of Abby's piece so now we can start actually working on it. The stack of music is starting to get higher and higher now that I picked up Musica Nova and Phil folders. The Schwanter looks pretty crazy, reading one line that you play and another that you sing...ugh, better start working on that one. It will be sooooo fun though. Last night, after the game, we went to Kimberly's apartment and did some rum shots, then went to the old toad for a few drinks. It was fun! Today I have a gig and then there is a party at Kimberly and Caitlins...byob. Yay!!

Bad Hair

I haven't seen some people in quite some time...such as the lovely Sara Ballance and the tempting Marisol Taub...perhaps I will see them this weekend! Last night I went to the computer lab to sit in front of ebay to ensure I won my item...which I did!! We will have to have a Twin Peaks Pilot viewing sometime in the near future...I'm sure you will all love it. Ended up taking to Heather all evening, and then going up to C house for a little visit to the old hall! Came back to the apartment to find Arthur and Brian watching Clerks, The Animated Series. The whole series is only 6 episodes and Brian has watched all of them multiple times in the past week and a half...but it is pretty entertaining. I got my haircut this morning and I am not very happy with it...the girl was like, "We can't cut off too much." And before I realize it, my hair is super short. She was like, "I love your curls!!" and then she cut it so short that it doesn't really curl any more...hmmm...I guess it will grow back...we'll see what I can do with it tomorrow morning...ugh. They posted the orchestra seating and the cello principals are the same as freshman year!!!! Its like a mini reunion. First concert I'm sitting next to Carrie, and Sunny and Brian are first stand...its going to be such a party! Also, all of CCE, except Heather, is doing double rotation, I think. Should be very interesting putting in all this time for orchestra while finding time to rehearse!!!! This semester is crazy already...ugh...ugh...ugh...we have CCE rehearsal in a few mins, so I should go!

New Music

The new music plunge has officially begun. I just picked up music for two Ossia Pieces (Furrer and Martino) and the score for David Plylar's Quartet (which looks very very fun!!). Should be interesting playing all of this music!! Yesterday me and kimberly went to U of R to find our classes and buy books, I only had to buy one, but Kimberly had like 7...her class is very intense! We also watched Sling Blade...which is truly terrible...even though everybody else seems to like it. ugh, wanted to poke my eyes out while watching it. oh well. Have to go upstairs to meet with this gig lady.