super mario brothers live
September 24, 2007 at 8:46 pm (early music, music)
I am very tired. And very busy.
Yesterday, when I walked to church, my skirt completely blew up and revealed everything. And I mean, everything. Of course, there were three black men standing there and they started saying really horrible things and laughing at me. I finally cussed them out. Whatever happened to manners and civility? they’re completely gone now.
I am psyched because I won a scholarship to go to the MLA conference in February (that’s music library association, not medical library association or modern languages).
We had our pictures taken for the group on Saturday. I hung out with the photographer and Tim and Tim’s wife after, and the photographer is a viola d’amore player. Viola d’amorist? He came into the library today so I could show him the chamber music collection and then he explained all of the viola d’amores we have in the hallway outside the Fleisher collection. This is what they look like:
They have sympathetic strings: an additional set of strings BEHIND the normal set. There’s also often a seventh string. I think. Like I know anything about viol construction. In any case, he must be pretty good because he’s landing some excellent gigs, one of which is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Concerts and Lectures Series (for which I used to write press releases when I lived in NYC).
My thoughts that Tim planned for our group to eventually become a professional gig wasn’t too far off. He got us a date on the Kimmel Center’s calendar, before a major performance, and a few other things are on the stove. It’s more musically satisfying than the church choir because everyone is a good choral singer rather than a good soloist. We certainly had a bombastic Sicut cervus by Palestrina this week.
I have been successfully staying away from He Who Must Not be Named and it’s been very good for me. My therapist said I could cut down my visits, but if I even so much as speak to him, I will have to come in every week again.
I’m still broke: I thought I’d be out of the woods this month but that was dumb because of course, even though we’ve been back at work in the choir, we don’t get paid until the beginning of every month. I’m going to have to pile on as many freelance gigs as I can to pay back my dad for my move. And then take on more to pay off debt from my summer LAST year. Man, I need a new job.
lederhosen
September 23, 2007 at 2:24 pm (Uncategorized)
Rarhead (my cousin Carrington) got to be in this Tina Fey American Express commercial. Of course, you have to be quick to see him. I did a few screen grabs on YouTube. He’s in the front, holding a lamb.
September 22, 2007 at 10:42 pm (Uncategorized)
Sumi Jo – Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen
Who cares if she can’t act?
oh, and
September 16, 2007 at 9:21 pm (opera)
Maria Callas died 30 years ago today. Don’t get me wrong, but I always hated her voice. I’ve been told that I should listen to her earlier stuff…..
This is the first photo I ever saw of her. Makes sense. She was born December 2, the day after my birthday. Well, so was Britney Spears. But this is totally a Sag reaction. My patrons see me give it to them all the time.
spanks
September 16, 2007 at 8:59 pm (church, work)
“spanks, I give you spanks / For all you’ve done / I am so blessed / My heart is at rest / Oh, Lord, I give you spanks.”
We had to sing this unbelievably horrid song today at church. One of the girls in the choir liked it and when I said I didn’t want to “dance” while we were singing it, she said, “Are you really that white?” And I said, “Yes. And so is this piece.” Bad, bad, Shine Jesus Shine shit. Kirby Shaw crap.
Apparently, someone in the congregation requested it. And what’s WORSE is the entire congregation CLAPPED. You don’t CLAP in a Presbyterian USA church. According to the little girl in Jesus Camp, our church is supposed to be DEAD. They loved it. They all said we need to sing more stuff like that. If we do I am officially going to slit my wrists.
At least it’s so easy you don’t even have to think about it. That’s what all the happy clappy bullshit is about. That’s how the Fundies function. They don’t have to think about ANYTHING because it’s all prescribed for them and they’re told how to do everything, down to what they can read, what they can watch on TV, what cars they should buy, where they should shop, for whom they should vote, and wtf they can SING. Blech, blech, blech. So it can’t be too hard or complicated: you have to deal with the lowest common denominator so the quality of everything goes downhill particularly fast. Especially the brains and the music.
Of course, the song we sang was thanks not spanks but one of my gay boyfriends decided to sing it the other way. Last year when we sang Gibbons’s O Clap Your Hands our conductor kept calling it “o crap your pants together” and of course we wound up messing it up.
My God, though, I am SO HAPPY when I’m not at the library. I am abjectly miserable there.
what I am doing these days
September 14, 2007 at 10:54 am (music, relationships)
A relationship I’ve been in for the past year (sort of been in) and my horrendous job have unfortunately dragged me down considerably over the past year. The good news is, I’m doing everything I can to rid myself of both: I’ve been applying to literally dozens of jobs in the area over the past year and ONE DAY it has GOT to work out. I can’t wait to work in a place where crying wolf (i.e., pulling the race card) is not the basis for managing an entire system. I also can’t wait to work in a place where I don’t get bullied by my coworkers for doing my job. Working in a place where people can actually get fired seems like a dream to me. Luckily, I’ve only gotten cussed out three times this past week.
I’m singing in a new group. It’s going to get a little tiring, particularly close to the concert, but I need a new challenge. The group blends very well and the people who sing in it are quite good. It’s more a group of brain than brawn: my church choir’s a bit brawny, what with all the AVA students who sing in it. Several people in the new group are getting their doctorates in musicology at Penn; others may not be studying music but sing in other fine ensembles, etc. Of course, being around all this makes me want to go ahead and apply for a master’s in musicology so that I can finally complete my library training. I need to have a master’s or a doctorate in music if I want to continue being a music librarian (or if I ever want to leave my current job). Having a subject master’s in any field will also help me in obtaining any kind of academic library job.
I posted a lot of other stuff in this entry and decided to cut it and paste it elsewhere, so if you want to get my secret blog, email me and I’ll add you to my friends list. 
how noise adversely affects our health
September 14, 2007 at 10:16 am (noise)
karin’s pirate cake
September 8, 2007 at 8:21 pm (Uncategorized)
It actually looks black in this picture! Anyway, here’s the red velvet pirate cake I made last week. Not bad for not having decorated a cake in about sixteen years…..
