Category Archives: Weather, Seasons, & Celebrations

Nostalgia

Poking around online at all things Gouldian today, I discovered my report on that book launch and film festival that I had written for the rest of the F-Minor e-digest crew ten years ago.

It’s all still there, all the conversations we had about music theory, performance, criticism, and other things only tangentially Gould. The Internet holds on to everything.

I joined the F-Minor e-list back in the days of text-based Internet, when I was still using a telnet connection. Maybe I’ll resubscribe, and rejoin the GGF, too. Well, I’ll sort through the newer posts and things first and see if I like the current environment before I decide. Just by scanning the names of people posting I can see many of the old crew are still around.

I thought I’d pick up a couple of new Gould discs tomorrow while I’m out too, something I haven’t done in years and years. Maybe some Brahms. Or the gamba-harpsichord sonatas, if they’re still available.

September Twenty-Fifth

I am home alive and rested from camping. It was an incredible weekend weather-wise and otherwise.

Today there are several things to celebrate:

1) The belated birthday of Gmarc! (I will forever remember his birthday one day late.)

2) It’s the 75th anniversary of Glenn Gould’s birth! I am, as some know, a staunch Gould fan and wrote a third of a thesis on his dual modes of expression in performance and written musical analysis. (This was before my advisor vanished into the ether because he was soon retiring, leaving a handful of thesis students hanging because he didn’t care any more.) Coincidentally, next week is also the 25th anniversary of Gould’s death. I shall buy Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould on DVD as a gift to myself tomorrow (Gould’s music! Colm Feore!). The CBC has a week of stuff going on about Gould, and YouTube has tons of clips online as well.

3) Today marks the tenth anniversary of HRH and I doing our first road trip together. We went, appropriately enough, to a Glenn Gould book launch and film festival in Ottawa. (Hey, someone had to drive me, and he was free and willing to learn about one of the things that made me tick, AKA something I wouldn’t stop nattering about because I was in Full! Thesis! Mode! at the time.)

4) It also happens to be our eighth wedding anniversary today. When I realised I’d planned a wedding on the weekend of a bi-annual Gould conference that I really really wanted to attend (I was a member of the GG Foundation at the time) I was not amused. Still, I think I made the right decision, going to the wedding instead of the conference, don’t you?

None of these things were deliberately scheduled thusly because they built on previous events, it just kind of turned out that way. I find that interesting and also mildly disturbing.

Thanks to everyone in the blogosphere who has already wished us well. And thanks again to all the friends who shared our wedding weekend with us: you made it a very special time.

I have a cool anniversary present in mind for him. Muah-hah-hah! (I have to top the Xbox somehow at some point, and it may as well be this year…)

For The Win

How did orchestra go? Well enough for me to walk directly into the bedroom where HRH was reading to say, “I am an orchestral goddess” when I got home.

Which is not the sort of thing I say at all. Ever. But it was entirely suitable to describe the success I experienced. I’ve reached a point where I can play things that would have sent me into a panic a few years ago. And we worked — oh, we worked. Our conductor jumped right in and worked a few passages until they were clean, and told us to focus on dynamics from day one, and I walked out of there happy and feeling like I’d done something, learned something, and it was only the first day of the season. We were sight reading as usual, which meant I made up fingering and shifts on the fly… and I did it more than adequately. I no longer feel like I’m struggling to keep up. Now I’m working on technique and refining a performance that already exists, even if I’m sight-reading something. I’m rather proud of that. This is going to be a wonderful concert. And when this can be said after the very first rehearsal, well, let’s just say it’s a good thing and you should all circle November 24th on your calendars right now.

(Now imagine how good I’d be if I actually practiced on a regular basis instead of when I can fit it in. You know, that whole minimum half-hour a day thing? I’d be lucky if I managed an hour every two days, but maybe if that’s what I can manage, that’s what I’ll aim for.)

(Also: Rehearsal went so well that I forgot I was wearing my red shoes for the first time this fall. Yes. That good.)

In other completely unrelated news, prepping for this weekend’s equinox camping trip retreat has driven me right over the edge. I’m tired of being the responsible one who makes multiple lists and props and plans and chases down equipment and buys supplies. Being the grown-up sucks sometimes.

Quick Break

Happiest of birthdays to our beloved Rosy! May every year be better than the one that came before.

Ran errands on foot this morning with the boy, more coming this afternoon. I am up to my eyeballs in prep for the camping trip this weekend. Now back to making lists and sorting through boxes looking for equipment, fall clothes, and baby gear for Charlize while he naps!

Il Maestro Update

I give up. 471 new words; one new page. Mostly descriptive, and will very certainly be rewritten when the project reaches that stage, because it reads like a bad synopsis of something that should be (a) much longer, and (b) much more moving.

Bah. I will blame the humidity. (Also, perhaps I should have consumed more than an avocado dressed with balsamic vinegar for lunch, and a glass of white wine mid-afternoon. Lots of water, too, of course, that should go without saying.)

Back To Bed

I would post a review of our wonderful weekend if I wasn’t headed back to bed because I’m so sick. Suffice it to say that I had a lovely day as a guest of Fearsclave and his enchanting wife on Sunday, so lovely that within an hour of being with them at their peaceful Fearsranch I virtually forgot I was ill and felt better than I had in a couple of days. There was good company and good drinking and it was very nice to see HRH bond with someone who likes throwing sharp pointy things and drinking excellent Scotch too. Then yesterday I got to watch Liam eat the last half of a Wild Willy’s chocolate-peanut butter ice cream cone and laughed so much that I felt immeasurably better in spirit, if not in body.

It took us thirty minutes to get the boy to the caregiver today, instead of ten. School’s back in session for everyone and their dog, evidently.

Happiest of birthdays to Pdaughter and Sandman7!

More later, maybe.