Monthly Archives: March 2008

That Kind Of Day

Bah. I’m going to print out the hearthcraft book as it stands, and read through it that way. I’ll be better able to see things that are missing or need to be moved, things that can be linked properly, and sketchy parts that way. The computer is doing nothing for me. (Well, it’s downloading things, but you know what I mean.) To avoid Tragic Printing Errors I’ll do it chapter by chapter, and via manual duplex to use both sides of the paper. While I like having a blank sheet of paper opposite the page I’m working on so I can make notes, I don’t think I have 240 pages of paper lying around at the moment. Or maybe I do… I think I have a ream of buff-coloured paper I used for a project filed away in my cupboard. I will check on that.

I don’t know if I should print out the PDFs of the pregnancy book page proofs or not. I don’t want to; it would be a huge waste of paper. But I’ve never handled them electronically before; I’ve always done page proofs with red pencil on paper. I don’t anticipate many errors; there rarely are. And my project editor has said that I can either list the errors in a memo and e-mail it to her, or print the specific pages out and fax/mail them back to her. I’ll try doing them them on the computer first. I’ll bring them with me on the trip, along with the latest version of the hearthcraft book. If I can do a few chapters of the proofs while I’m gone that frees up more writing time once I’m home, and reviewing proofs is easier to do in hour-long or chapter-long chunks when away from home than writing is.

There may still be sun in the living room in which to work.

Self-Confessed Music Addict

I just upgraded my eMusic account from basic to plus, and now I can download 50 tracks every month for fifteen dollars. That only five extra dollars for twenty more tracks, and at the rate I’ve been queueing albums for download I wasn’t going to get some of them until five months from now. And I’m still paying less than what I’d pay for a single physical CD for what essentially amounts to five albums’ worth of music.

Now I can have the Erik Friedlander I want for this trip. And I can download all three discs of the Matt Haimovitz Bach solo suites, too! (Well, the first three suites, anyway. I can download the last three after April 1.

I don’t remember the last physical CD I bought in a store. So much of what I want isn’t available through regular channels, or would take months to obtain, or would cost a ridiculous amount of money. (Oh wait, it was Danny Elfman’s Serenada Schizophrenia, and I don’t remember buying it in a store because t! ordered a copy for me via one of his music business contacts.) I really like the option of being able to download selected tracks from an album, too. The one frustrating thing is that some of the artists I hear and want to try out, or buy an album from, aren’t available via eMusic (yet, or whatever).

Random Stuff

So I am not at the salon, and my hair is not being cut. There was a death in the family and my stylist is understandably unavailable. We’ve rescheduled for next week.

I still wish my hair was going to be cut before we go down to see my parents.

In other news, my extended extension was no only accepted, my editor told me to take two extra weeks, which was lovely of her. It also confirms my suspicion that she may have been laughing at my original request for three extra days. So now I can go back and forth between the pregnancy page proofs and finishing up the hearthcraft book with no feelings of impending doom or crazed and obsessive calendar-checking. I can also sleep. Which is a good thing.

And in yet more unrelated news, cellists may have an edge when playing Guitar Hero:

On the whole, a musical background seems to help Guitar Hero players. Zach Whitsell’s mother, Betty Whitsell, said her son has played violin, cello and saxophone in the past.

Ming Cheng, a 17-year cello player, said he was able to play the game on the medium level in the store before purchasing the game. He placed fourth in the 16-and-up age bracket on Saturday.

Cello players might have an advantage in the game, Cheng said. He explained that the spacing between the buttons on the controller is almost identical to the spacing between fingers on the strings of a cello.

“It keeps my fingers in shape for cello,” Cheng said. “I don’t have to practice as much.”

Except:

[Guitar player] Bloomfield is able to strum the notes up and down, which helps boost speed, Cheng said.

“I normally only strum down,” he said. “It’s more accurate, but I get tired faster.”

Which is a problem I have encountered myself. So when I saw this really interesting video called ‘Taking Trips to America’ promoting the album Block Ice and Propane by cellist jazz alternative musician composer-type person Erik Friedlander yesterday, I was fascinated. Don’t miss the video of Erik performing ‘Yakima’ at the bottom of the page.

Hearthcraft Book Update

Total word count, hearthcraft book: 55,706
Carrots: Yes. There’s another entire section that’s been linked and expanded, and a new section.

No more daily word yield reports at this stage of the game; it’s pointless because I’m cutting out pages at a time while adding pages at a time, and it skews the count. Instead, we have the overall total and the carrot count.

I just got the page proofs for the pregnancy book. They need them back on — wait for it — my new extended deadline for the hearthcraft book. Feeling even more lame than I felt the first time, I just sent my editor a message asking for a revised extension (which sounds better than ‘an extension for my extension’) because no way can I hand both in on the same day. Just forget it.

Jan brought me a loaf of home-baked bread because she knew our oven had died, which was very thoughtful of her. She also brought me an evil caramel pecan Easter egg, which was thoughtful of her in a very different way. I will need a bit of it tonight to assuage my head from bashing it against my desk.

In Which She Gives A Bow Report, And Is Somewhat Astonished At Her Proficiency

Last night after Liam went to bed, I sat down and played the cello for seventy-five minutes. I had no idea time was flying the way it was.

Late that afternoon while the boy was playing with cars and trains I had sat down to page through one of my copies of the six solo cello suites by Bach, looking for something new to play. I thought I’d try the first movement of the sixth. I was fine for the first two systems and then things started sounding not quite right, so I put it aside and made dinner. When I came back to it I tried it again and it still didn’t work. And then I looked more closely at the clef. I’d assumed it was tenor, but something began to nibble at the edges of my mind, so I turned and pulled out my other edition with the facsimile manuscript opposite the printed page. Sure enough — the edition I’d been reading from was set in alto clef, instead of putting it in the more familiar-to-cellists tenor clef. (The facsimile looks like it’s in alto too, which would make sense as it wasn’t written for a regular cello.) What I had assumed was tenor was actually alto. No wonder things sounded odd.

And then I looked at the rest of the piece and saw three pages of alto clef moving into treble clef and said to myself, Self, this is just going to frustrate you. So I paged back to look for something else to play and found the Gigue of the third suite, which I’d never played before. (I haven’t played most of the solo suites, actually. Half of the first and one or two bits of the second is all, really.)

And I played it pretty much off the top of my head.

I stumbled in two places and worked them for a while, because they’re theoretically simple but my intonation was wonky because I wanted to play in higher positions to avoid an open A string (bars 50-58 and 104-106, if anyone’s counting) and my shifts weren’t secure when I sight-read it. And if I’m in a position I want to stay there as long as possible, so I ended up making fingerings up for the surrounding bars too. Then I played it a few times over because it sounded good, really good, and it was welcome balm for my self-esteem. When I tired of it I moved to playing the two trouble spots in the Faure Pavane (again, if anyone’s counting, bars 62-63 and 69-73, the phrases where the celli are supposed to sound soft and beautiful but not like they’re working at shifting at all, argh) and worked out yet another set of fingerings that may actually succeed this time.

It felt so wonderful to be able to just sit down and play something I’d never played before, and to hear it sound good. My tone was nice, sound production was good, shifting was pretty secure (except in bars 104-106 of the Bach, damn it, where I begin in first, shift to fifth to play the A, then shift down to fourth on the B flat of the following bar — it’s the shift from fifth to fourth that is usually not far enough, or I get frustrated, overcompensate, and shift too much), and everything felt right.

I really like working with this remodelled bow. I was playing with a full practice mute and it still made the strings ring very nicely. It makes the Gigue and the Pavane really sing. Wednesday night at orchestra my hand cramped a wee bit near the end of the evening because the frog and stick are slightly larger than my previous primary bow and I was still getting used to adjusting my grip to it, but apart from making minute adjustments for the heavier weight needing less speed at certain places, especially in both Pavanes, it went well. I had no problem with it at all last night. I like it a lot, and I’m going to keep working with it as my new primary bow. I showed our section leader at rehearsal and she was somewhat impressed, I think, at how successful the remodel had been, lifting an eyebrow in mild surprise (but not horror!) when I told her my husband had done it. It’s still on the heavier end of the scale, but it’s much better balanced and easier to handle. She ran it through some spectacular quick exercises that made me wish I could just throw things like that off. Someday, perhaps.

I’ve been toying with the idea of maybe starting lessons again this summer. It would be a better use of my money than a new instrument at this point.

Ups and Downs, A Sunday Edition

We had a lovely brunch with the Preston-LeBlanc clan this morning. Liam is uncharacteristically subdued; we think he may be fighting off something.

Unfortunately, the oven has died. I discovered this when I went to bake a batch of scones to take over. It’s not the fuses; it’s not the elements being loose. We tried both of those.

As the creature is only four years younger than I am, we’re fairly certain that the cost of a service call plus whatever repairs might be required, if they are even possible, will be more than we’d pay for a second-hand replacement stove. I already have sent queries out to two or three people who’ve listed very affordable stoves on Craiglist, asking year of manufacture and model numbers.

It couldn’t have waited three more months till Ceri and Scott could sell theirs to us before kicking the bucket, oh, no. Of course not.