.mondaysisterblog

Today's post can be found here.

.duet recital

On November 12th, my good friend Danielle and I gave a duet recital. It was for fun, then it was stressful, and then it was fun, and we're going to plan another one for the spring!

What we played:

Concerto in A minor for Two Violins - Vivaldi

Romance in G - Beethoven (Danielle)

Concerto No. 2 - Wieniawski (Me)

Concerto in D minor for Two Violins - Bach

Soon there will be videos posted on YouTube, but until then, here are some pictures!

morning of. some pre-recital hot chocolate!

Getting hairs did!

motherly support!

playing.

afterwards! glad to be done. (with accompanist)

Thanksgiving

What an odd holiday this is, so overshadowed by the Christmas season. Barely standing on it's own feet - but at the same time so like Christmas in that the real meaning is very lost, and people just use it as an excuse to take off work to eat lots of food. And then people complain that the true meaning is lost. But who cares? Who cares about the pilgrims. Yes, it's good what they did, it's good to know the history of your country. The point has shifted from a history lesson, and the fall harvest, to just a time where people who love each other have an excuse to get together and show it. Yay! I didn't mean for that whole thing to sound grumpy, if it did.

I am following in my usual Thanksgiving tradition of sleeping until halfway through the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (shuffling in around the Snoopy balloon) drinking coffee, starting food prep.

"All right everyone, its 2:30, that means dinnertime, because for some reason on Thanksgiving dinner is at 2:30" -Lois Griffin

Five Things I'm Particularly Thankful for This Year:

1. Sarah and Josh for letting me come over and be family for their Thanksgiving.

2. My family, for letting me swoop in and spend most of my Maryland time playing music with my friends and liking me for whatever (however little) time I can spend at home.

3. Nicole and Jenny White. They are the greatest people, and I have known them forever, they have put up with me for over five years, through all my moving around and away and back.

4. The fact that this year, I am finally, finally finished with school, and finally getting paid to do what I've been doing for years anyway.

5. The discovery that no matter what state I'm in, I can find people to play string quartet music with. Thanks especially to Three Hits and a Miss (Red Wing, MN) and the Chroma String Quartet (Washington D.C.) (How'd you like that shameless plugging?)

There are more things I'm thankful for, but I've gotta get cooking. :) Hope everyone has a wonderful day, full of love and food and napping!

(apologies- I have both recital and french party posts pending, I'm just waiting on some pictures)

.more soon

.neigh!

FAQ #63: As a violin bow luthier, what do you do for fun to entertain yourself on long days?

Answer: I drink tea, listen to music, surf the internets... I definitely don't play with the bundles of horse hair. Ever.

.today

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morning

the favorite rituals.

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afternoon

the little moments of beauty

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evening

the lamp burning in the window

.the goose is getting fat

Christmas is coming,

the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in the old man's hat

if you haven't got a penny,

a half-penny would do,

if you haven't got a half-penny,

God Bless You!

I know it's early, but this is the week that I have begun to get especially obnoxiously excited about the Christmas season. Small things like Paula Deen's tweet about the beginning of pie season, booking my flight home, seeing egg nog in the grocery stores, and finally a chill in the air (anytime now, Nashville?) just start the flutter of excitement in my stomach, and I feel five years old again. When I was five, I knew it was my parents and not Santa Claus, but that didn't make Christmas any less magical. Now, I'm not one to go ahead and set up a tree until after Thanksgiving (let's do this thing properly), but I do love when the year starts it's downhill slide into the holidays. As a violin teacher, I have been in the throes of planning a Christmas recital with the other teachers at the shop, so I've been teaching Christmas carols for a month already- but this is the week that it has started to hit me.

I think this December, I'll do what I did last December: a picture-a-day photoblog counting down the days until christmas. This year it will be more exciting though! Right before Christmas, I will be on the Celebrity Equinox visiting two of my dearest friends from my cruise contract last year - I haven't seen them since October 2010, and I am very excited about it! So instead of last year, posting the heavy snow and my lonely Christmas tree in Minnesota, I will be posting pictures of beaches, Cayman Islands, Belize, Mexico, Costa Rica.

But what I'm most excited about is my flight to Maryland on the 23rd, opening the presents from the aunts and uncles as soon as I get there, Christmas Eve going to all the services, playing the violin in the church I grew up in, waking up on Christmas morning (not too early, but still early enough) and doing the same things we've done every year: hiding the stockings, eating cinnamon buns and listening to whatever music anyone got as a present, lunching with Poppop, dining with the same families, ever growing.

The traditions are what I love, knowing that no matter how far I go, I can come back on Christmas, and even though we've lived in the same house for over 20 years, they still find new places to hide our stockings!

What's your favorite bit about the holiday?

.redirect

For today's post, go to Monday Shenannigans, where you can read about my cute car troubles, listen to a neat song, and see what my sister has to say today too!

.music of the night

If I could just share some thoughts about my favorite musical for a moment-- forgive me. This is not a typical blog post for me, but I have words to say.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of Phantom of the Opera was never my particular favorite until I played in the pit for a [very mediocre] high school production of it this past spring. I, like most musicians, I think, have a love/hate relationship with playing in orchestra pits. On one hand, you play the same show a million times - if you like it, that's great. If you don't, that's miserable. There is a bell curve of learning the music, getting to know all the tiny cues, then level of playing and level of enjoyment is at its peak around the third production, and then everything after that is boring and automatic. Oh, I remember being bored to tears when Rolf was finally getting around to kissing Leisel for the 5th time, knowing I still had more than an hour left to sit through. (I also was sixteen going on seventeen that year, so perhaps I've gained a bit more musical maturity and/or boredom tolerance since then)

I really enjoyed playing in the pit for Phantom much more than I expected. Mostly because my previous pit experience was with musicals that contained a lot more dialogue - where with ALW the music is almost constant, so my brain was occupied enough through the whole thing that the end almost just snuck up on me each time. (also there were only 3 productions of it, so I didn't have time to get tired of it)

This past weekend, as I mentioned a few posts ago, I attended the Nashville Symphony Halloween event, the silent film from 1925: Phantom of the Opera, accompanied by a very talented and entertaining organist. This movie was much closer to the plot of the actual book... The first time I read the real novel, I was young, and it only took me two days, I stayed up until the wee small hours of the morning because I couldn't put it down!

The 1925 film tried its very hardest to be scary:

Following the depiction from the novel, the Phantom actually looks like a skeleton behind the mask, instead of Gerard Butler (who couldn't be unattractive if he tried, let's be honest).

In 1986, Andrew Lloyd Webber made a few revisions to the story, and of course they made the movie of it in 2004, featuring the shrill but beautifully dainty Emmy Rossum, and the intentionally rock-not-opera vocal style of Gerard Butler.

The story became musical; he added a little bit of humor and a lot a bit of melancholy - the Phantom's story now tearing at the heartstrings of the audience, instead of large, blatant attempts to repulse them. There is still no doubt about who Christine would end up with, but still, one is tempted, and torn a bit, and wonders what would happen if Raoul actually did let her go with the Phantom.

What was the Phantom's plan, anyway? I'm not sure he really thought it through other than "win over Christine and live happily ever after." Would they live forever in the underground mazes and deserted torture chambers beneath the opera house? I suppose he'd let her continue to sing, but at least he'd stop terrorizing the opera house proprietors and patrons. What if she had a child? Or seven children? What was his practical plan of continuing that endeavor? Perhaps a musically genius reclusive family that writes and performs their own music? What if one of the children was tone deaf?

Or was his actual plan a grim Romeo & Juliet idea of being together forever in death? Because he couldn't stand the thought of his Juliet being happy with Raoul after his own death? How could they realistically be happy, without a major life change from one or the other of them?

In 1925, the phantom kidnapped Christine using the very coach that Raoul planned to whisk her away in, to escape to England after the show. (Christine, like any good 1920s heroine, fainted gracefully and was out for most of the scene) Unfortunately, in his hurry, the coach overturns, Christine spills out onto the cobblestones, and the hoards of angry villagers are too close in pursuit for him to realistically continue on with her. He abandons her in the middle of the street, and runs for his life, but is eventually overtaken, his head chopped off and thrown in the river.

In 2004, the phantom slips silently into the night, "learns to be lonely," and presumably dies of heartbreak shortly after the end credits. In both the book and the ALW musical, though, he loves her so much that he knows she would be happier with Raoul, and he finally accepts that he has to let her go. How understanding of him, for all his mental illness and irrational jealousy up to that point.

Anyway, I like it. The music is good, the story is beautiful, operas are neat, and Gerard Butler is hot.

What do you think?

.please hold

I am in the process of constructing a "Take Your Blog Readers to Work Day" which will be posted on Monday. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is a cute song for you to listen to:

I like everything about it! I like pink martinis, and tangos, and neat art, and music that speaks the truth.

III. Food

In my transition from student to realperson, some of my tastes have transitioned, and some have not. When I was living in Minnesota, I had a lot of free time, no homework, and a kitchen to myself, so I cooked and baked a lot. I made breads, dinners, appetizers, desserts. I was very fancy. Now, I'm working full time and I eat most of my meals at work or out, so when I actually do have the time and energy to cook or bake (like on Sundays), I don't even have a well stocked pantry (since these moments are few and far between) so I end up with the old standby, my good friend Ramen. Or occasionally I step up the game with some Pasta-roni. Or Spaghetti. I have reverted back to my college days, but -- as long as I stick with white wine with white sauce and red wine with red sauce, it doesnt matter that I paid $1.50 for my entire meal, right?

II. The Squirrel Dilemma

My lovably odd boss has taken it upon himself to rid our area of Music Row of squirrels. Our shop has a problem: squirrels get into a hole in our roof, run around between the floors of the house, frolic in the sawdust among the band saws and sanders in the basement, jump all over violins that are being varnished, occasionally wreaking havoc among the employees - you get the point, it's occasionally a problem. The best solution would be to get a new roof. Since that is expensive, the second best solution is, in the opinion of some, to catch the squirrels before they even get into the house (luring them onto our back porch with peanuts and a squirrel trap) and then relocating them to a park about 2 miles away. According to a study by some smart people, squirrels travel no further than 200 yards in their lifetime, so if we catch them and move them away, they won't come back, right? (in a recent poll, 9 out of 10 people think this is ridiculous) Anyway, it's right outside my window, so I get to watch the endeavor from the front row.