Author Archives: Autumn

Bits

Just a quick note today; I’ve been up to my freshly-auburned head in stuff to do. Thank goodness the show’s over next week! I also learned at orchestra last night that there’s no rehearsal next Wednesday, as it’s March break and the high school we rehearse in will be closed. As much as I adore orchestra, it’s an attractive concept: every night off for one full week. Glorious!

I missed two weeks of orchestra due to one of my trademark migraines the first week and then the Vinyl Cafe show the next, so I haven’t touched my cello in three weeks. I’m rather proud of how well I did. I sight-read L’Arlesienne Suite by Bizet (ugh – mostly tenor clef) and Schubert’s Fourth Symphony, (“The Tragic” – in E flat again, sigh). I dreaded going while I was at work all day, but I enjoyed myself immensely when I got there. I have to keep reminding myself that I joined the chamber orchestra to make sure that I played at least once a week. I feel simultaneously impressed with how I keep up and ashamed of myself: if I can hold my own (barely, but I do) with little to no practice outside rehearsal, how good would I be if I practiced for at least an hour a day like I used to?

If I had my druthers, I’d read a lot, write a lot, and play my cello at least three hours a day. I’d also sit in the park. Now, if I could just get someone to pay me for doing all of that so my moggies could be kept in the style to which they have become accustomed (i.e., in kibble), I’d have it made!

Olympic Pride

The Olympics are done and over, and we�re coming home with a record seventeen medals, coming in fourth overall. That�s quite the haul! Of course, the sweetest medals were our two hockey golds, and the gold awarded belatedly to Sale and Pelletier; but every medal is sweet.

What�s not so sweet is the destruction visited on public and private property in the wake of the men�s hockey victory. As we were driving home last night we passed several cars with Canadian flags waving madly through the windows, bearers thrilled that our car sports a Canadian flag license plate in front. We passed people on foot with painted faces and flags as well. In our own living room window, my husband had already hung our huge Canadian flag in celebration. There�s nothing like citizens deliriously happy that their country has won a major victory on the field of honour.

That was in NDG, however. In downtown Montreal, the fans poured from sports bars and clubs, rioted, hijacked a city bus, stopped traffic in the centre of town, and generally made nuisances of themselves. I have never been able to understand why a significant hockey victory is the siren call of idiocy and destruction. Particularly in this case where every Canadian was proud to have stuck it to the Americans, who we�ve always considered slightly less cultured (come on, deep inside you think it too). A pity that the next act was to display boorishness, lack of respect, and vulgarity.

And what�s with the high of 4 degrees C today? It’s still February!

Meh

As the morose tone of the last couple of posts has probably indicated, I’m in an anti-social phase. I had a dear friend’s baby shower to go to today which I was dreading a bit; I don’t fit in very well at all-female events. Anyway, it was just fine; turns out half the people there were hockey fans and we had the TV on watching the Canadians whup them American asses but good in the Olympic men’s hockey final while she opened her gifts. We even sang the national anthem and got all choked up when the flags were raised. I got a terrific photo (on someone else’s camera, alas) of the expecting mother opening a sweet card, surrounded by cheering women with their arms flung up into the air, half out of their seats.

My husband did the Trading Spaces test; he’s Genevieve. This surprises me not at all. Go run barefoot in a field, darling.

Live Radio, Movies, and Theatre

The Vinyl Cafe show last night was terrific – not as good, in my opinion, as the one taped in NDG two years ago, but hey, it’s Stuart McLean – he’s always good. Listen two Saturdays from now (that would be, um, March 2nd) to hear the fabulous Montreal show broadcast on CBC Radio 2 at 10 am, and Sunday March 3rd at noon on CBC Radio 1. Stuart grew up in Montreal; why doesn’t he come back more often? This is only the second show he’s done here, in all the eight years he’s been hosting the Vinyl Cafe. He went to school with my dentist, I discovered a few years ago. The things you hear in a dentist’s chair! (Ah, it’s such a small island, after all…)

The news is in, and it ain’t good. The movie adaptation of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore’s phenomenal graphic novel, is going ahead… and they’re ruining it. Check out The Last Comic Site’s rant on the topic and mourn with me, my friends.

The Canadian women’s Olympic curling team lost last night in the semi-final round to Great Britain. Now they’ll play for the bronze. Seems a pity when they’ve demonstrated that they’re obviously the strongest team in attendance. And how about the Canadian men’s hockey team? Way to pull up your socks, gents!

The Gondoliers is opening tonight – wish I was enjoying myself just a teensy bit more. I’m getting rather frustrated with the chorus’ apparent lack of dedication to the project. Ah well; the magic of theatre means the audience will never know. It’s a truly terrific show, and light years beyond what the society has pulled off before. Our new stage director, Corey Castle, is gods-sent, and I adore him. I just hope we haven’t frightened him off…

On VW Bugs And Cellos

Dwelling on the visual images Highly Amusing Fact #2 conjured up, I was reminded of my cousin who also plays the cello. In the past few years he has moved from Vancouver back home to Nova Scotia, west again to Vancouver, then to balmy Sioux Lookout in Northern Ontario, and thence to Toronto proper. Not only does he play the cello, he also drives a nice shiny deep cherry red Volkswagon Beetle — not one of the new ones, an original. He also owns a canoe.

You see where this is going, don’t you.

He drove across Canada. Now, a Beetle doesn’t have a lot of room to begin with, but when you’ve crammed it with all your personal possessions there is considerably less room. As most people do, he lashed that canoe to the top of the Beetle. (Yes, go ahead; pause and appreciate the humourous mental picture that sentence conjures up.) The only thing left was the cello. My cousin, being of innovative stock that thinks outside the box, picked it up, tucked it inside the canoe, and drove East.

Spring

Okay. It’s getting to be Spring. (Not that we’ve actually had a Winter here in Montreal, but still.) The new cars are coming out, and I’m becoming itchy.

Spring’s a car kind of season, the way Fall’s the time of year when we look at babies and dogs. We were watching TV the other day and a wonderful ad for the PT Cruiser came on — the one that talks nostalgically about Hot Wheels and how cool they were, and how nifty the loop-de-loop flexible track was. My husband said, “I had that exact set,” then sighed, shook his head, and said, “They’re aiming this commercial right at me, and every guy my age.” For the past year or so I’ve been drooling over the Chrysler PT Cruisers myself; they’re just so classy. My eye was also caught by the new Chrysler Crossfire they unveiled at the recent Auto Show. (Since they merged with Daimler, Chrysler’s vehicle designs have really improved!). Now, however — ah, now. My fealty belongs to another. I passed a billboard the other day — a quiet, elegant, silver-grey tone billboard with a vaguely familiar silhouette on it.

They’re making Minis again.

I adore Minis. It has something to do with the ridiculous smallness of them. I’m fond of small things — I’m a small thing myself. My family had an ancient dull red Mini as a second car when I was a kid, and it was terrific: it had a woodgrain dashboard with all of three dials on it. You could reach into the trunk from the front, through the back seat. And it was missing part of the floor; my father had to put a board over it. It was a clunker, and I loved it. It was enough to get us around when the other car was unavailable. Okay, so the brakes failed a few times; so there was more rust than body. It was cool!

It dropped in the traces one day, a front wheel coming off as my dad drove down the highway. That was the beginning of the end. I think my parents sold it to a scrap dealer for a whole fifty dollars.

Now — now… I, too, could have a Mini.

Highly Amusing Fact #1: My husband is built like a rugby player.

Highly Amusing Fact #2: I play the cello.

Highly Amusing Fact #3: They’re quoting top speed of the regular Mini Cooper at 200 KPH. With an acceleration from 0-100 KPH of 9.2 seconds on four cylinders.

So, if you’re looking for the perfect birthday present for me — and you’ve got a handful of months to save up for it! — you can buy me a Mini Cooper in British Racing Green.

Curling!

I came home after a twelve-hour rehearsal on Saturday to catch the last three ends of the women’s Olympic curling – once again, Kelley Law’s rink took out the competition (a little bit of curling humour there) and now goes right to the medal round! The Canadian women are undefeated, having played twice on Saturday and winning both draws. They get a well-deserved day off today before playing Switzerland, the fourth-place team from the round robin, tomorrow. Way to go, Kelley! I saw the end of the draw and considered dragging myself into the office to post the breaking news to the blog, but thought the better of my ability to express myself with anything close to eloquence after Hell Day, and dragged myself off to bed instead. We even remembered to turn the alarm off this time.

The men’s Olympic curling team is also in first place with six wins and only one loss. They’re currently playing Norway at this very moment. The score stands at 8-3 for Canada; Norway just did a nice gentle take-out with their final stone to lie two in the sixth end.

So, as always happens a few days before the show opens, I start feeling fed up with the music and start looking ahead to next year’s production. In this case, I can’t stop humming The Gondoliers, so in a desperate attempt to save myself from madness we listened to a recording of The Yeomen of the Guard this morning. I’m so hooked. Every year around this time I become a dual G&S/curling junkie. My life narrows down to the Brier, the Tournament of Hearts, and Lakeshore Light Opera. This year’s Olympics are an extra bonus. I love my life.