Category Archives: Cello

Gig Countdown

We went out this morning to buy some new jeans for HRH, because I’m the one who has to look at him, and well-fitting jeans are infinitely preferable to the ones that are a size too large, and then we wandered around the local mall, just having a relaxing time looking at things like fountains and trees and patches of sun that shine through the skylights. I bought Liam a secondhand Finding Nemo game for us to play together on the DS (congratulations, Liam, your very first video game!), and HRH and I picked up a secondhand Goblet of Fire Xbox game to play together. That was one of the original reasons for giving him the Xbox and a second controller as an anniversary gift a few years ago, after all: so we could play together. We never have, because most of the games he’s interested in are one-person, and the ones we’ve found so far with a multi-player option don’t interest me. Apart from that, I got none of the books I went in for because they were all out of stock, despite having verified the store stock online.

While wandering I found an awesome short black skirt that would complement the corset. It looked fantastic on, and fit terribly well. Did not buy it. It was, erm, very short. Even with a pair of full-length tights under it, it was not conducive to cello-playing.

Rehearsal last night was lots of good, even though most of us were tired and everyone blanked or tripped up at some point. I’d sliced the inside of the first joint on my left index finger while opening the new keyboard box yesterday (the only thing worse than a paper cut is a cardboard cut, especially in a tender and frequently-used place like that), then proceeded to further slice it open again on a string while sliding during a shift last night. I felt mildly foolish, particularly since it was minutes after Mousme’s dramatic spatter pattern incident. Hers was more serious; it’s not like there’s blood involved in mine, just several layers of skin open to the air and metal of the strings, and it stings like someone is dripping acid into it when I wash it or accidentally touch it to something. I am investing in some of that liquid skin sealant stuff this afternoon; I don’t care how expensive it is. Metal strings and open wounds do not play well together, no matter how well-cleaned they are.

Thanks in advance to everyone planning to come to tonight’s invitational gig, and to everyone who wanted to come but was prevented by time, geography, or previous plans. We know you’ll be there in spirit. We intend to have a band-load of fun.

Tidying Up

Tired of not being able to sift out my cello-based journal entries, I decided to make a category for it and start sorting through posts. Then I decided to do the same for books, and for music. Because, you know, I don’t have enough to do. (I appear to often mention books and music in the same post. I am sure you are absolutely shocked.)

Friday

Poked abut Bureau en Gros this morning while HRH did some photocopying and came out with a new keyboard (requires some getting used to, because not only is it an ergo it’s peaked in the middle, so I’m learning not to move my hands too far and to really thwack the spacebar), and a new wireless card for the laptop (it works, except all the networks around here are locked, which is fine because I bought it for use in public places anyhow). Both on sale/at decent prices, too, so yay me. Then we went to Services Canada for the boy’s SIN.

My two-volume Oxford dictionary arrived on Wednesday, so I came home from my last day of work and had the pleasure of opening it.

Rehearsal Wednesday night was great in that I didn’t walk out of orchestra hating myself. When I’m actually playing the right notes, I like my intonation very much and my expression is decent, too. I lost focus not long after break, but I forgave myself for the stupid mistakes I was making because hey, tired; it’s not like I suck all the time. The entire section is sounding like a unit, which is always pleasant, too.

Yesterday was frustrating because HRH, Liam, and I were looking forward to a family day once he’d helped clear out the apartment downstairs for the floor people to lay the linoleum over the new floor he and the landlord had laid this week. Landlord and HRH started work at 7, were done by 8. The floor people were supposed to show up at 9. They showed up somewhere around 11, and took lunch at 12. We couldn’t really go anywhere because our garage was wide open with all the downstairs apartment’s stuff in it and the driveway. Because they started late, the floor people didn’t leave till fiveish, not noon as we’d expected. You can imagine how impressed HRH and I were, when we had planned to have the entire afternoon to knock about once Liam woke up from his nap. At least our landlord agreed to hang around for an hour and a half while we went out to ai731‘s open house at her art studio. It would have been nice to be able to relax the way we’d hoped to, though. There’s nothing either of us hates more than hurrying up to wait.

General note to all who have borrowed our Slings & Arrows DVDs: season three comes out July 3rd. Yes, I have pre-ordered it.

Gig tomorrow night!

Scratch Pad May 14

9:03:

I’m back at work, dee dee dee… every day is a bonus now.

I am very out of it this morning. I’m burning myself out working at home at night after working all day. I slept for an hour and a half in the middle of the day yesterday, and could have fallen asleep several other times as well. This morning I feel mildly ill and still out of it, and as if I could nod off any moment although I got about 6 hours of good sleep (less than I ought, more than I’ve been getting on average lately). Mind you, I was practically a somnambulist all of Sunday.

Weekend summary: Excellent evening out at the ADZO house on Saturday, with sushi and wine and four tired parents just relaxing. Very good. Earlier on Saturday: new shoes for Liam, tried to test drive a trike but he threw a fit because we passed toy cars first and he wanted to drive those instead. We’ll try again some other time. Bought lattice and supports for the backyard to give us a bit more privacy from the neighbours; the next thing is to plant climbing vines. Bought and assembled an excellent little composter, so now we don’t have to walk all the way across the yard to dump kitchen scraps. Liam enjoyed the assembly; he thought it was a playhouse. Pictures to follow someday. Played cello for half an hour in the afternoon; my strings were slack from the awful weather roller coaster we’ve been on. Sunday: groceries, then made omelettes and sausages for the weekly neighbour brunch, A Blessed Nap (best Mother’s Day gift I could have received, but the trio of roses was nice too), the in-laws coming over for dinner.

Remembered to sign my imprint specialist contract renewals and get them ready for mailing this morning. Yay me.

10:03:

I feel like I’m trudging through molasses today. Argh. Getting work done, though. Looks like others are slow getting moving today as well; some people are still straggling in, and there are empty desks around.

Gods, I feel like I could sleep for a week. Why don’t I have a cottage somewhere where I could go to do this? Water, trees, a breeze… Argh. Oh wait — that’s called a vacation.

10:08:

Aha! This project now has an official release name instead of a placeholder code name! Muah hah hah! [LATER: Ah, no; that’s yet another placeholder name. The official name is still being kept very, very secret. If there even is a confirmed official name. Heh. That makes three or four working titles I’ve seen the project listed under on various sales lists.)

11:35:

I am not, in fact, doing studio stuff after all today. All the more time to work. Also, lunch is a good thing, and as last I heard I was supposed to do studio stuff at noon, the consumption of comestibles instead is an attractive notion. I’ve been wobbly most of the morning, despite tea and granola bars and most of an egg/sausage/scone thing. Lunch is also A Good Thing because I missed my regular lunch out with friends on Friday.

11:43:

One of the reasons I enjoy Paul Tortelier’s recording of the Bach solo cello suites is because I can hear the fingers stopping the strings — there’s a small slapping sound as the finger hammers down. Live, in studio, no tampering. Real stuff. And I love listening to passionate classical music at a really, really loud volume on my headphones in an environment like this. It amuses me.

13:17:

Scott lent me games at lunch today! Yay!

13:47:

The demo and presentation over the weekend at the trade show went really well and got excellent feedback. Hurrah!

13:51:

I have just run into nine words all defined as “extremely large.”

13:55:

… and six defined as “extremely good”. *headdesk*

13:58:

… and now, seven words simply defined as “extremely.” If I do not laugh now, I will cry. Or throw something.

14:11:

So, why do ‘flammable’ and ‘inflammable’ mean the same thing, anyway? This is one of those things that has gnawed at me for decades.

14:16:

Yikes — just realised the gig is THIS SATURDAY. eep.

14:24:

I give up. The definition for ‘matronly’ completely misses the point.

14:40:

Cute things discovered on P’s trip to the trade show in San Francisco: Panda Z! We’ve spent the past few minutes cooing over the toy he got, and looking up the story and characters online. They have plushies.

14:56:

Wow – very sleepy here this aft. Hard to focus. It was like this on Friday too, but today there are people here to help keep me working. I’ve done more up till now today than I did on Friday, so I’m in better shape. Considering I’m in studio till one tomorrow, I’ll have another three and a half-ish hours in which to do work, so I should be done this by the end of tomorrow. Certainly polished by early Wednesday, and I may not even stay the whole day. Maybe till lunch only. Shan’t be coming at all on Thursday, mainly because I am booked elsewhere with the family. And I can’t see me in on Friday unless they discover something that desperately needs doing.

15:19:

…aaaaaand seven words defined as “completely.”

15:33:

This afternoon is creeping along. Not a bad thing, as I’ve been skiving and surfing, but also not great because going home seems a long way off, and I still have some work to do tonight. My left hip has been hurting me a bit more each day, and today it’s twinging badly as I sit.

15:56:

Woo! Only one hour left! Time is moving along faster than I thought. Or maybe I’m skiving more. (I’ve still done almost as much today as I did Thurs and Fri together, so ha.)

16:13:

Just ordered my two-volume Shorter Oxford to celebrate the end of my contract and the excellent work I have done in pulling this dictionary’s socks up. It won’t be perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than it was, immeasurably so. The Shorter Oxford should arrive on Friday. Also ordered the new Tori Amos CD and a manga that looks interesting (which I found out about, in reverse fashion, by seeing the Japanese video game advertised).

16:46:

And now that I’m leaving in 15 minutes I don’t have enough time to prepare for going directly to the studio tomorrow. Argh! (Well, I do, it’s just slightly tense now instead of relaxed.) I’ll get the references printed and cross-check it all at home tonight.

Scratch Pad May 10

9:07:

It is probably a bad thing that I want to begin my day with a vanilla soda.

9:13:

I ended up not going to orchestra last night; too much work to do. I settled down in bed with my laptop after dinner and fell asleep around 8:30. Oops. Slept all the way till 6:15ish, too. That’s about twice the amount of sleep I’ve been getting a night.

9:59:

t! just showed up and asked me what the name of the dictionary is, as it has to go into the script somewhere.

A: Joyce. Let’s call it Joyce.
t!: No, that sounds too much like joy, of which there is none regarding this dictionary.
A: Wait — Hector, then. Yes, let’s call it Hector.
t!: Hector; yes, Hector. Doleful doleful, and all that.

10:33:

Over the past couple of days ADZO and Sandman7 have really helped me work through an issue I was having difficulty dealing with. Thanks, guys. I appreciate your thoughtful input. As a result, something vaguely resembling sanity has been restored. Or at least equilibrium in the associated area.

10:35:

For the third day in a row we are having merrily out-of-season weather. Lots of shorts and sandals around. I myself wore sandals yesterday, and am wearing a different pair today. Today I have also worn my first summer skirt of the season, and a t-shirt. Yesterday was a short-sleeved knit top with jeans, but today it is officially summer at my desk. Except when I went down to get a tea and another immensely delicious shortbreadbrowniesquarething, I discovered that not having a pocket for my key card is a drawback.

10:36:

I thought my job was pretty much over. Was I ever wrong. Now I’ve sorted my dbase by definition, and there are SO MANY DOUBLES. A script was supposed to catch these a few days ago, but I was only told about a couple of them. There are so many more. Woe! This is going to take longer than I expected. Good thing I’m coming in on Monday anyhow.

10:37:

Did I mention my contract was indeed officially extended last night? By a week, because of the placeholder voice work I’m doing in the studio next week. Heh.

14:23:

Scott and I have been talking back and forth about the different music-based games for the DS. I want someone to develop a Cello Hero game. Or maybe we could hack the upcoming Jam Sessions and make it sound like a cello.

14:32:

I wish someone would make a Music Minus One CD for Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack to King Arthur. It’s really phenomenal. Hans is so very fond of a solo cello line, either exposed or playing in the ensemble, possibly because he has such an awesome cellist in Martin Tillman. (See [well, hear, really] such examples as PoC 2 [and 1 by extension, as he had so much of a hand in Badelt’s score], King Arthur, The Da Vinci Code, and MI2. Tillman and Zimmer are the reason why I ordered the cello music to PoC2 a few months ago: it’s all for the opening track. Seriously — much is the cello love for Hans and Martin for that track alone. And it’s finally shipped to me! It should be arriving tomorrow!

14:47:

Sigh. Vanilla soda. Even at room temperature, you are heavenly.

14:50:

It occurs to me that my cello would sound awesome in this room. High ceilings, hardwood floors, not a lot of thick things to catch and muffle the sound… (See what happens when I listen to Hans Zimmer and think about music games at the same time? My worlds collide.)

14:55:

Just checked; there’s King Arthur sheet music available, but it’s for solo piano. I could arrange it, of course. Because I really don’t get enough of that in band already, you know. Although it would be worth it just for a few of the themes. And hey, band’s on hiatus for half a year; I’m going to need something to keep me busy after the July 1 chamber orchestra concert…

16:20:

Erk. t! just gave his opinion on the auditionees for one of the voices to be recorded for this project, and told the sound guy to use me instead.

Sunday Morning

Liam has been sick for four or five days now, and he’s pretty fed up with it. He’s better, but cranky in general. Every once in a while he will just stop what he’s doing to just stand there and cry, and you can tell it’s the “I’m tired, and I’m tired of being sick, and I hate my teeth too just for good measure” kind of crying.

He was ricocheting around my office this morning, being magpie-like and bringing all sorts of things from different places to stack on my lap: a tablet of music manuscript paper, my Hedwig folder of random music, a small plate with an owl on it, my statue of Horus, two cassette tapes, his little Matchbox fire truck, a chopstick… anything that caught his eye. Then he started playing with the Velcro closing on the bow pocket of my cello case, so I put all my email stuff on hold and said, “Liam, I have a treat for you, but you have to go into the living room and be quiet for it.” He ran into the living room, very excited, and I pulled the viola out of my cupboard.

Now, this viola only has the top three strings, and it’s missing a soundpost, and the bow hair has pulled mostly out of the ferrule; in short, it needs work before it could ever seriously be played. But a two year old cares nothing for such things.

I set the case down on the floor of the living room and Liam crouched next to me, watching as I unlatched it and opened the lid. Right away he beamed and his hand darted out to strum the strings. I lifted it out and did a rough tuning to make sure the strings were at least in tune with each other for him (and for our benefit too). He bounced around, and we asked him to quiet down again before letting him explore it without endangering it. Then I told him to go get his little chair, but there were height issues so he sat on the ground instead, and I gave him his very own cello.

He was absolutely thrilled, and was very careful with it as he plucked with both hands while singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. The notes were nothing like the song, of course, but he knew what he was doing: he was playing music and singing along.

We let him play until he started getting too physical with it, and a little frustrated because he couldn’t make it sound the way he wanted to. Then we put it to bed in its case and said night-night to the baby cello.

I have such an awesome son.

Scratch Pad May 3

11:42:
Now it’s a game. Can I transfer a certain number of words to another level to make the numbers even out? (If I think of it as a game, it’s fun.)

13:35:
Lunch out with the gang! I will have make the effort to come downtown semi-regularly once this contract is up simply for the lunches.

14:51:
The entire room emptied out to surprise our assistant producer in the cafe, as it is his birthday. Very cool. I am now back as I have a pile of work to do before tomorrow afternoon, and I am the only one in the room, which is eerie.

16:15:
I cannot believe this pile of work that persists in not going anywhere fast. It’s all about adding a word here, taking one away there, shifting between the levels to keep things at the target numbers… but there are still over three hundred missing. I am not bitter about the loss of the supplemental dictionary, but I could be if I dwell on it too long. It comes down to adding as many new words as possible, then doing a reverse casade thing where I move blocks into higher levels and look for lower level words to replace them, over and over.

22:47:
Yes, I am at home, and am slogging through this redistribution and inserting words into various levels, readjusting, inserting, readjusting… I’m not going to bed until my target levels are within ten or so words for each level. That gives me enough room to lose more for various reasons. Figures this would happen today, when I got three secondhand cello books in the mail that I won on eBay and want to play through them. Liam has a very definite cold, and is back on his cold syrup. It’s almost gone; there will be just enough to send to daycare with him tomorrow before I have to pick up more. He’s not happy and he’s kind of off his feed, but he’s not deathly ill enough to keep home. (Good thing, because I can’t stay home, and neither can HRH after taking Wednesday off for Liam and Tuesday off for the car.)

11:17:
There; done. Tomorrow, I get definitions for the five hundred-odd new words and make sure they’re within the specified length. That’s all I have to do before sending it to the people who need to upload it, to make the demo ready for next week. I say “all” but I know damn well I’m going to be working insanely hard, and taking a short lunch in order to get it done by five.

Now: bed.