Monthly Archives: December 2008

Destined For Great Things… Someday

From a recent Ravelry exchange with Ceri:

    A: This is just gorgeous: [links to a pattern for a simply stunning knitted silk top]

    Ceri: Oh, lovely! I saw this at the bottom. Gorgeous: [links to a pattern for yet another stunning knitted lace top]

    A: Stunning! I want that, too! Wah. I have not the skill to do this, and I suspect I won’t for quite some time.

    Ceri: Well, you only get better by trying harder projects, right?

    A: Well, yes, but you’re talking to someone who hasn’t successfully purled yet.

Which means there’s nowhere to go but up, really.

In the ‘overdue assignment I just got yesterday’ news, I’m about a third of the way along. Trudge, trudge, trudge…

Slightly Fuzzy Proof Of Recital Fun

My stand partner just sent me a couple of pictures taken at the recital. See? I’m smiling! I’m having fun! It’s slightly out of focus but a cheerful souvenir anyhow.

Not as much fun: Being told that you’re a week late on an assignment that you never got. No initial contact regarding the assignment, no file in the FTP folder, just an automated “you’re late” notice. My contact has apologized for the glitch but wants to know if I can do it anyway. Sigh.

Day’s Summary

My site was down earlier and I could not blog! So here’s the day so far in one shot.

8h47: I am very achy. Not as achy as yesterday, thank goodness, and my focus is better. I was so achy yesterday I couldn’t even knit. This damn freelance assignment is getting done today, come what may. Because, well, I did nothing on it yesterday. Not for lack of trying, though. And I handled lots of other things that needed to be done, many of which were overdue to be handled. None of it was stuff that would yield a paycheque, however.

9h35: I have now spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what yarn Mousme used for Bodhifox’s Ravenclaw scarf. I think I have it tracked down by comparing the recommended yarns in the pattern and the pictures she posted. The name she gave me wasn’t correct (which she suspected when giving it to me) so I went around it the long way. (No, I am not yet working. Shut up.)

10h25: Ceri has just given me the correct name of the yarn! I was completely wrong. Are those angels singing? And I’ve just found a replacement for the discontinued shade! Now to track it down in person at one of my local yarn shops, many of whom carry yarn from this manufacturer.

11h47: Oops. I overcooked my chicken nuggets and smiley fries. They probably shouldn’t shatter when you bite them.

12h31: Facebook is a good place to divert frustrated blogging energy when attempting to work-avoid.

11h30: The rest of the LCO fall concert has been posted on Youtube:

Vivaldi concerto grosso part 1 (first and second movements)
Vivaldi Concerto Grosso part 2 (third movement)
Brahms Hungarian Dances part 1 (dances 5 and 6)
Brahms Hungarian Dances part 2 (dance 1)

My comments? Nice cello work at the beginning of the fugue in the Vivaldi part 1, with a bonus shot of my face while playing at 2:42! (Actually, this video was taken from the first violin side so there’s a lot of shots of the celli from face-on through part 1 and part 2. Even though I am often blocked by the conductor.) Nice cello work through out this entire piece, really. Oh yay, we all finished the third movement together, and with conviction. Stick the landing!

Around 2:20 of the Brahms 1: Look, we have a percussionist! Just below her and to the right is the music teacher from my old high school doing a guest turn as a trumpet player for us. (I can’t rightly call him my music teacher from high school because I never took music.) One thing I really like about these videos is being able to see everyone in the orchestra t different times. Most people in the audience only see the first couple of rows, and those of us in the orchestra are usually staring at music or the conductor.

Also, I could be wrong about the order of the Brahms dances, but I’m too lazy to track down my scribble in the concert programme. There were three, and we played 1, 5, and 6, but not in that order.

15h15: FINISHED! Yes! Now to query about the slight mess the identification numbers are in and an issue with uploading the completed assignment. Also to ask about the invoice I submitted two weeks ago which hasn’t been responded to, so I have no idea if they got it or not.

Which brings us to now! I should probably think about something for dinner. No, wait; tacos. There. Assuming we have shells or tortillas for soft tacos, that is.

Worthy Announcement

HRH fixed the robot baker! The post the the paddle sits on, which is supposed to turn, had seized. Saying that he couldn’t break it any more than it was already broken, he took a pair of pliers to the thing and wrestled with it. Ten minutes later I had a fully operational bread machine again. Huzzah!

A For-No-Reason Photo

So the boy is precisely 100 centimetres tall. Which translates to a metre.

Yeah.

So if the boy is metre tall, you can figure out how big the cat attacking his foot is.

I’m working on the boy’s monthly post as a break from work. It should be up later this afternoon.

ETA @ 14h00: It’s up! Click here. Normally I’d tell you to scroll down but the stupid footer is overlapping it.

Have Survived

Made it through my second recital ever. Go me!

Didn’t screw up my shifts. Didn’t let the bow skip. Didn’t let the rhythm go ragged. Held a half note a wee bit too long but adjusted. The second repetition was better. I don’t think I really lifted the bow as had been my bad habit before lessons either, although it wasn’t as ‘in the string’ as I would have liked. All the trio and ensemble stuff was great, too. I wasn’t a mess leading up to it, but the nerves did kick in after we’d set up and I encountered the ‘will it never be day?!’ mood that develops when you’re ready and it’s not time to start yet. Apparently we have another recital in June, and I’m actually looking forward to that.

Liam fell asleep ten minutes into the programme. He got to hear the littlest girls do their pieces, but fell asleep either during mine or directly afterwards. He was very impressed with the butterfly someone had painted on the youngest girl’s face in full colour, complete with sparkly highlights.

Now it’s on to making shepherd’s pie (well, more correctly, cottage pie) for supper, and casting on HRH’s scarf, as we nipped out to Ariadne Knits before lunch to pick up the yarn. Liam was very impressed with the yarn store, although was firmly convinced that there ought to have been a cat.

Recital Countdown

In the space of thirteen hours I have had two cello lessons, one private on Friday night and one group dress rehearsal this morning at nine. The world is very clear, bright, and cold today, but there’s not much wind and so it’s lovely. The snow removal crews came along and took away the piles of snow in the street, and driving was actually a pleasure this morning as compared to the hell it has been for the past two days. (Way, way too much time spent in cars in traffic Thursday and Friday. Noting makes me crazier than leaving twice the amount of time it usually takes to get somewhere to account for weather and traffic, and still arriving late.)

Anywhat. Happy thoughts. Cello!

I lugged the 7/8 to my lesson last night along with my own cello, and my teacher played them for me so I could hear them. There’s no contest, no comparison. My full size sounds so much better: It’s clearer, it rings, there’s precision and just plain beautiful sound. The 7/8 was stuffy and dull. This just isn’t the one. I was somewhat worried about this. It’s going to take a lot to find a 7/8 that has the kind of sound my current instrument does. Anyway, it’s not pressing; it can go back to the luthier and I can forget about it until they get another one.

(Also noted when my teacher switched between the 7/8 and my current cello: My cello is HUGE! Yes, yes, I knew this, but I’m usually sitting behind it and I’m used to it. Seeing it in someone’ else’s hands was an eye-opener.)

So yes, last night’s lesson was great. I’m really happy with how my sound is developing after only two months of lessons. I can hear my intonation has improved, and the improvement in sound production that comes from better bow handling and control, too. There’s a lot of confidence being developed as well, which doesn’t hurt. I came home feeling terrific, which was very welcome after the day I’d had. (An hour on a bus to cover what usually takes fifteen minutes. Yeah. And then late to pick up the boy, late to make dinner, late out the door to the lesson thanks to the original lateitude plus traffic. It was very, very bad. Especially after the previous day’s trip to the doctor for the boy’s checkup, which took three times as long as it should have to get there and even longer to get home again.)

This morning the light was incredible, what with the sky being clear and so much snow off which for the sun to reflect. And although I didn’t sleep very deeply or steadily I woke up in a good mood thanks to the lesson, and looking forward to the morning group lesson. I love the group lessons to begin with, but I’m really enjoying the program we’re doing for tomorrow’s concert. It’s fun to play with the others, and they’re a terrific set of people. Some are older than I am, some are around my age, and others are in their teens. We have the two darling little girls, too, who are so serious when they play; they concentrate so hard and yet they stay relaxed. I adore watching them. My teacher played her piece at our insistence, too (if we had to play our solos and duets, then she had to as well!) and we loved it. It’s Fauré’s “Elegie”, and believe it or not I’ve never been in the room when an accomplished cellist has played something passionate like that. It was incredibly moving.

Afterwards we had our coffee and nibbly things and the kids played Christmas carols on the piano for fun, and it was just so lovely. Having a small group with a defined coach is so much easier than a small group trying to self-direct. And we all support one another and know exactly what everyone’s going through or trying to work past.

Something I really want to work on in the new year is advancing my musical interpretation and expression. It feels odd to have been playing the cello for fifteen years, yet be so behind on, well, sounding good (in a different way from being technically correct). Even when I tell myself that I haven’t had a lesson in ten years, my brain seems to think that because I’ve been playing in the meantime I should sound a heck of a lot better than I do. Today the tiniest girl, who is sitting in front of me for the concert, kept turning her head and watching me with wide eyes when I played the “Adeste Fideles” trio, which was nice. Being looked up to soothes both the logical and illogical parts of my brain.

I am looking forward to the recital. I’m still marvelling at the fact. I’m slightly concerned about the boy, who has been off the past couple of days and who will be attending the concert instead of napping, but que sera sera. And it will all be over too quickly.