I was worried there might not be snow for Halloween. I shouldn't have, there always is. Every Halloween I can remember, there was either snow on the ground before it, or it was snowing fiercely on the night. Keep in mind that I have an extremely sporadic memory, but I stand by there always being snow on Halloween.

I looked at my bank records the other day, and it's frightening to look at the amount I have been spending lately, especially the amount that I spent on food. As a result, I'm no longer going to allow myself to carry my wallet around when I go to school. I think I'm only going to take my bus pass and some emergency money with me. I don't think I actually need to have my driver's license with me, but please speak up if there is some reason that I do. Anyway, I will leave my regular wallet at home with credit and debit cards and id and stuff, but I have that detachable part of my wallet that can hold bus pass and some other cards.

Composition lesson today was very good and short. He quite liked the final variation and he made some notation suggestions which I will implement and then I can ignore the piece until I have to submit it. We also talked about the ensemble piece and got me started on thinking of whether it should be a tonal piece or not. Tricky question...

sigh of relief

it took forever, but tonight I filled in the empty measures which were taunting me in this blasted fourth variation. I'm SOOOOOO HAPPY!
I played through it and I really like it! Tomorrow I am taking it to my composition lesson, and then he will tell me what I need to fix and give me some specific guidelines on notation and then I will do those things and be done with this piece!!
I also will be booking it into the noon-hour recital on the 20'th, so provided everthing goes well tomorrow morning, I will be able to officially ignore this piece by the end of the week!
and finally I will be able to put the focus on the ensemble piece and practicing piano.

I went to the dance studio, but apparently there was not to be a dance jam tonight. The only other person who showed up was Tim, the percussionist. We talked for a half an hour and I mentioned to him that I might require him for my recital if it's going to be more of an ensemble thing, and he said he would be very interested to help me out. Now, I just need to get ahold of the dancers and make sure they feel the same way.

Friday night, I fell for the second time that day... it hurt more than the first time. It also landed on my elbow, so itswelled up like nobody's business. The swelling is down, but it left a nasty nasty bruise. My arms are harbouring a lot of tension too, but I got some good practicing done on my Beethoven sonata saturday night. I'm playing the second movement at my lesson, so it needs to be spiffy. It is still much slower than tempo, but I think David's theory is that you should practice it perfect at whatever tempo and raise it up tot eh final in stages... that way, you've been practicing it perfectly all along. I'm also going to play Haydn also, my half jury will be in December.. early probably, so I can't let that slip out of mind. I will try and get the first movement learned up to tempo for my lesson and also learn the middle pages of the rondo. Then it will all be learned and all that will remain is to get the rondo up to speed.

One of my friends was talking about how sexual innuendo humour or whatnot has become somewhat cliche. I think it's the fact that what used to be shocking is no longer so, so the humour value of it has declined. My friend said that someone's suggestion was that humour should shift back to something shocking again; say, racism.... I don't know about that suggestion, but if we're looking for something shocking to laugh at.. I think I have just the thing.
I was asking my friend Scotty to show me some stuff in Photoshop, so I can edit the pictures I took from Churchill to make my trip seem even more exciting... He took the liberty of editing some of the pictures and superimposing them so it's absolutely delightful!!!
Enjoy!!!!

slow but sure

this fourth variation is slowly coming together. I only have about 6 more bars to add in and then it will be complete. I gave the rest of it to Diane so she can start learning the notes. Performance date will be Nov. 20/06, just over 3 weeks from now. I'll say it AGAIN: I'm hoping to have it finished and out of the way this weekend. I also need to start composing the actual musical elements of this ensemble piece.
Today I fell down while attempting to jaywalk across Pembina. The contents of my left pocket gave me a nasty charley-horse and its painful to well... anything involving that particular leg - walking, for example. Nevertheless, it will heal soon enough.
I need to also practice this weekend, I had a good lesson even though I hadn't much prepared, but I have to have lots ready for next lesson.. there shouldn't be any excuse to not have a full 2 hour lesson this thursday.
So ya, I had a doctor's appt today - he didn't even have the lab results which I had already seen. Therefore, waste of time in the truest sense of the words. I told him that they were an improvement fromthe time before, and he was happy with that. I was not really impressed with getting nothing for waking up early, but oh well. Between dropping parents off and the appointment, I went for breakfast and ate Banana-Chocolate-Chip pancakes!!!! delicious.
Also the experimental improv ensemble I'm in at school separated into streams today. The group I'm in is the improvised music/theatre group.... it was a lot of fun and much more successful as a group improv than it had previously been. This venture is starting to seem more promising!
went to symphony tonight, saw pianist play Mozart and Strauss pieces. Very good soloist, not so impressed with the orchestra tonight, but oh well.

Good lesson today.
We worked on half movements of some of the remaining dance movements in the Bach piece I'm doing. It was a good approach because I had only practiced for a few days, so it was simpler rep- more accesible.it also meant that I got a good lesson on the style of the movements, so while I put some effort into learning them already, now I have a strong idea of what the character of each movement should be, so I can learn the rest with renewed vigour and accuracy.
The other super awesome part of my lesson was that I approached David about doing an improvisational dance collaboration in my recital. He had been opposed to it earlier, but this time he heard me out. He expressed his concerns and we talked about ways to alleviate those concerns. I also talked to the other piano faculty member who will be around for my recital - he also gave a preliminary go-ahead. Both of them want me to write down as much as I can about time, format, organization and whatever else I can think of. The idea is to collect as much detail as possible and setting paramaters without defining all the specifics of what will ultimately be an improvised performance!
The next step with this comes this sunday. I'm going to talk to some of the dancers and see who would be interested in doing this with me.
Anyway, enough jibber jabber for one night.. I need to compose.. gah!

I had made plans to see my friend Anna, who I worked with this summer, before she moved back to Germany. As she leaves tomorrow, those plans were for tonight. We had made vague plans to do dinner tonight around 6ishand that was fine with both of us. Today though, I got a call from our former boss who told me that he had taken the liberty of making reservations for us at Ichiban(Japanese Steak House) for 6:30 and that the bill was on him....
It was a wonderful gesture, and a wonderful meal. I've only had steak a few times in my life, and I never paid attention to how it was cooked, but I think it was generally on the medium to well side of things. Tonight all the other people ordered theirs medium-rare, so I said the same for the sake of simplicity. This is how I like my steak.... remind me of that if I ever can't remember.
We also went to see Departed , the new star-studded gangstar movie. It was so bloody, it made me sad. Too much gore for me.
It was wonderful to see Anna once more before she leaves to go home. Her english had improved quite a bit from when I last saw her in the summer. Add to the list one more friend of mine that no longer lives in the same country as I do.
As you can tell from my account of the evening, I didn't get any more practicing done this evening, and not during the daytime either..... oopsie. I have some random new snippets of Bach for my lesson on Thursday, so that should give us something to work on. Also for discussion in my lesson are:
-dance-piano improvised duet for my chamber music recital aspect....
-Kurtag 20'th century piano music for new music ensemble
-hmm, im sure there was something else.... anyway, it will be hopefully the last of my lessons that I will have less than enough repertoire to work on.
grrr, my hand is tense, so it's good I didn't play much today.
on the other hand, I only got a bit of composition done today

Woohoo!
so ya, that test I thought I did well on..... I got 100% Kickass!! it makes up for the fact that I didn't do so hot on the assignment that we also did last week.
On this trip, I didn't spend too much time being productive, but on the bus ride up I did a lot of brainstorming and I really have a stronger concept about how to musically depict anger in alzheimers for this last variation. I also developed a way to use the harmonic material of the theme in a way that will sound different from the other movements. I became aware that it was all sounding a lot the same, when I played the earlier version of that movement for the pianist on Friday. Even while I was playing it, I was hating it and it was uninventive and bland. it was true.... nevertheless, I have figured out what I'm going to do with this movement and when I get it written down, it had better sound much better, or I will be SUPER_PMS-y!
I'm worried about piano lesson this week, as it will be 2 weeks since my last lesson- problematic because I haven't practiced piano since soon after then AS WELL AS I barely had anything to play for him that lesson.... it will be pretty much a month with little to no development!!
Today in ballet class, I realized that I'm still super tense... it hasn't been specifically the excessive playing that is causing it... I'm stressed in general, so i need to address that. While I work on that I will just have to make sure that I am stretching and relaxing a lot to prevent further injury. Nevertheless, my thumb is not a problem anymore so I'm ready to get back to playing.

Shortest trip AND Longest trip ever

I'm back from Churchill. I left on thursday night and got back this morning, so I was only gone for three and a half days, but it seemed like a lot longer. I'll write more about the trip when I have a bit more time, but here are some initial reactions.
- 4 days in a row of trying to sleep on some kind of moving vehicle is not so good(but not all that bad)
-Churchill is a very interesting place filled with historical relevance to the development of Canada as a country.
-I'm so happy to have spent time with my sister and brother-in-law to be. They are both fun and great!
-Fresh kelp from the Arctic Ocean - doesn't taste bad perse, but it has an odd texture.
-Polar Bears- not really all that exciting for me, but it was still awesome and important to see them in their natural environment, albeit too far away for cameras to focus in on. - although this was actually close range to see them on foot.

Anyway, I got home today at 7am, and I took a little nap, and now I'm ready to go, so here we go, off to school!!!!!!!!

good test

I think I did well on my orchestration - woodwinds test today. It felt good, and I caught myself making a stupid mistake, but I rectified that quickly enough. The prof left the room for a meeting, which I thought was a little unkosher, but at the same time, since he didn't actually reappear until 10 minutes after the end of class..I'm glad he did, because I needed the extra time.
I also finally got ahold of the scores for the new music piece I will be learning. It is a series of graded pieces, adn I made photocopies of the ones that have to do with clusters. They're by Gyorgy Kurtag, ca. 1981. The early ones are really fun, they are a beginner's approach to the piano, without the worries of right notes or whatnot. While these won't be too technically challenging(at all), they will give me the challenge of finding the musicality within the mashing of the keyboard with palms or arms.
On the bus ride home, I got to have a talk with the prof who is organizing the improvised music ensemble at school. It was great to talk about some of the other experiences I've had with improvising outside of the school. It was also interesting that he was interested in hearing some suggestions I might have in terms of the school ensemble....
I'm almost done the final variation left to write in my set. I'm going to throw a rough draft at my pianist tomorrow and see if the notation is clear and if she has any comments/suggestions. Freedom is so close, I can almost taste it....
On the bus today, I think I had the breakthrough that will and/or has allowed me to envision the form as a whole for the ensemble piece!! Yippee!!

I think I'm pissy

so, my mom was complaining about some retail misunderstanding related to a crappy catalogue which was unclear....
Natuarally, I bitched her out /lectured her on not taking responsibility to research her purchase on the internet (which is easier than ever) and how she could have avoided the whole situation by taking the 5 minutes to look it up herself.
Afterwards, I looked up the catalogue and found that it was somewhat unclear, so I fired off an email to them bitching about how 12$ is ENTIRELY ridiculous as a price for a single little shot glass shaped like a boot.

Next on my list... I was eating yogourt. while it said it had less than 50 calories per little cup, it didn't have the carbohydrates listed, and thats what I needed to know to do my insulin dosing. I went to the website to find how many carbs there were. Fine and dandy, i figured it out.. but then I realized that it was infact not only 50 calories per container... there were actually more.....
Since i was in a bit of a tiffy to begin, I went to their "contact us" section and fired this one off:
"
I wonder if your nutritional calculator is broken? I ask specifically to your [Insert Brand Here] Fat Free yogourt.
The packaging and advertising clearly states that it has less than 50 calories per 113 serving.
When I went to find out the carbohydrates and other information, I noticed that they are based on a 125 ml serving - fine, I can do simple mathematical calculations, but it seems you people can not.
If there are 60 calories per 125 ml serving, then how can you justify that the 54.24 calories which are in 113ml are UNDER 50 calories?
I am left wondering if a) this is the wrong nutritional information, b) your math skills are not up to par, or c) you comprehension of the relation to 50 calories has been confused or otherwise misrepresented.
I would appreciate a personal response as well as the rectification to your nutritional information which you owe your customers.
"


Next, I was sent by my parents to pick up supper for the family. This was all good. But, when I was quite excited about the cookie selection the woman behind me had the nerve to comment "You must not get out much"! What a bitch! It would have been fine if she laughed at it or something, but when I replied "sadly, it's true..." - NOTHING!! she actually meant it! At least the cahier laughed.... but I was not impressed. I should have told that bitch off....


Nevertheless, I'm in a goodish mood. It's one of those moods where I'm only bitchy if something sets me off...

Tonight I have to do a little more composing, but also have to study for an orchestration test tomorrow. The transposition thing is going to throw me a little, BUT i think I will handle it. Also, I don't have any real concept of the ranges of these instruments, so theres some memorizing to do tonight....

Holy Shit!! for a minute, I thought that there were plantanes in my kitchen.... but apparently it's just perspective - there are four regular sized bananas in my kitchen!

so many things flying through my noggin

I'm going to Churchill this weekend!
My teacher is going to Dalas, so I don't have a lesson -so I don't have to feel guilty about not practicing this week at all!
My thumb was feeling so much better today, playing for ballet class today upset it a little, but I don't have to play piano again til thursday, so it will have a few days of rest!
Dance jam last night! - Best EVER!!! as in the best dance jam we've done so far AND one of the better experiences I've ever had in my life. Wow, wonderful!
Good weekend- I saw my friend Cara kickbox and she totally kicked ass! I could tell that she was doing super well AND she won the match! It was an awesome fight too, they were evenly skilled so they challenged each other. In the end, Cara is as fierce as a small Chilean army, so she won!
I also got to help celebrate birthdays of both Cara as well as my friend Olivia from school - they both have the same birthday, conveniently for me!
I had my composition lesson today. My prof really really likes the score for the piano variations. He's impressed with how I did the graphic representation of the score with the temporal shifts. We spent a good deal of time talking about the other piece. It's been developing in the back (and more recently other parts) of my brain for a while. I'm making sure I have the formal design set before I actually write music for it. I have the first and the last section set - now I have to figure out what I want to do in the middle. The general idea of the piece is to balance playing and listening within an ensemble environment. While the outer sections separate those two aspects so the player can really concentrate, I want the middle section(s) to have them listen to the ensemble texture WHILE playing in it. mumbly mumbly mumbly
I'm officially set to go to Churchill now.... I got substitutes for 4 of my 5 ballet classes on saturday and the teacher is fine with not having a sub for the other one. I think that all of the concerns are dealt with, so I can just be excited about going to the far north!

I'm realizing now that I am going to need to cancel my lesson next week... I might be saved because I know David is going to Dallas sometime next week, but my thumb hurts and I'm going to take a week off of practicing... I can't avoid dance classes, but im definately avoiding practicing.
Hopefully this will give me the chance to focus on composition and whatever else.
I have my thumb taped up so it is somewhat stabalized... I'm going to try that more over the next while and hope it gets better quickly

so much for trying to relax my thumb and avoid playing piano.....
I worked accompanying musical theatre classes tonight for 3 and a bit hours...
Tomorrow is my usual 6.25 and then i took on another class on sunday.
boo, oh well

umm, i'm having a bit of writer's(composer's) block with this last variation. Nevertheless, Diane has and is learning the other movements, so. i don't even understand how that justifies my position... i guess it doesn't. The moral of the story is that I have my compositional efforts on a timeline. This last variation needs to be done by early next week at the latest...hopefully by the end of the weekend. Once that is done, I can ignore it until I have to write up the performance and program notes... which I will get Diane to help me write, by talking to her about what I need to say to the performer aside from whats on the page.
Next weekend is the trip to Churchill, which I am counting on to give me inspiration for the other piece I'm working on. The form is starting to finally take shape.....
I had thought I had found the perfect form early on... but then I realized that it was kinda mathematically impossible for things to work out the way I had wanted. I've been putting a lot of thought into it lately, and by re-examining what effect I want and which aspects of the piece are most important, I've been able to find logical formal designs that can fit the piece. I started with the final movement, and I'm working backwards. I made notes about what was left in the air with the last movement,a dn then I've been sculpting the second-to-last movement to address those concerns. in a piece with so much chance involved, it's good to know which guaruntees are required and find a way to make them turn out.
The idea is that I will have the form worked out this week and then I will discover musical inspiration while watching polar bears in Churchill next weekend.

feeling run down

judging from lack of blog posts lately and the fact that everyone I actually do see around school lately is busy, I trust that I'm not the only one feeling run down lately.
the collection of late nights that I have been having lately had caught up with me. Add to that the fact that my day today ran pretty much straight through from leaving my house at 8 am until I returned home at 7:30 pm. When I got home, I was two things: hungry and tired. I ate, and then went to bed. Now that I have had my 3.5 hour nap, I'm feeling almost awake enough to function. I think I will try and do a little composition and then go back to bed for a full night's rest!
Some say great minds think alike... well, I like to say great thumbs think alike.... today at least. I guess with not being rested enough and trying to raise the intensity of myu practicing, I was not relaxed enough and I was not keeping an eye on my arm tension... as a result I've been feeling a little sprain in my left thumb. It's nothing too serious, and it's something I've had before- it's one of the first things that happens when I am tense. I just need to ice it a lot and lay back on the playing for a bit- today I played dance classes for 2 and a bit hours, and I tried my best to not use my thumb at all...- it worked surprisingly well for marches and waltzes(oom-pas and oom-pas-pas) Anyway, back to the opening of this paragraph.....
After getting a call last night from my teacher to pre-warn me that he might have to possibly cancel/arrive late/ end my lesson early depending ont he time of his physiotherapy appointment this morning, which he was waiting to hear about... medium length story short, we had a one hour lesson and when I saw him later in the day, the diagnosis was a sprained thumb.
what a coinkidink!

it's still cold out like yesterday, BUT the sun is shining in theres a beautiful blue sky drizzled with clouds right now. There is only a sprinkling of snow on the ground to remind us of yesterday's.
As I may have mentioned, my dad will be retiring from his job of 40 some years in December. For as long as I can remember, every couple of months, he would be 'on-call' meaning that at any time they could call him up and tell him to go work at some station. For the family, this meant that we'd often get calls at 3am, but also that dad had unlimited use of his work vehicle. In recent years, this was of the utmost importance, because when he was on call, it all those complications of being a one-car family with 4 drivers all wanting to go places dissappeared. And let's face it, since Heather moved out, it has meant that I can use the car whenever I want because my mom doesn't go out on her own much during the week.
Now, tomorrow is going the be the last day that my dad will ever be on-call. To celebrate, I will be taking the family car to school today and certainly tomorrow (I am still not accepting the fact that I might someday have to take the bus to my 9am lessons.... gah!)
Hmm, piano practicing is still not at the desired level, but composition is coming along. I have the ending of the fourth variation fully notated and I made some executive decisions about developing the form of the final section of the other piece I am working on(ensemble).
Anyway, I should be off to school soon.... it's hard to get back into the swing of things after a four-day weekend.... not that I'm complaining at all.... YAY LONGLONG WEEKENDS!

It's SNOWING!!!!
Yay, I'm going to wear a toque and a scarf and mittens when I leave the house today! YAY!

In other news, I watched a movie today. IL POSTINO it was suggested to us by the conductor for this last WSO concert. The poem in the piece we sang was by Pablo Neruda, and this movie was about Pablo and his mailman, Mario. The movie was very good and i enjoyed it very much ,but... io non parlo l'italiano....
I did fairly well with following the movie and understanding what they were saying in general (thank you for good acting), but the main character Mario was so mumbly in his speech that it was especially difficult to understand him... and the nasality of his voice was obnoxious.
Anyway, the music in this one did the same thing as Brokeback mountain. Essentially one or two themes throughout the movie that just keep coming back, with barely any variation. It's kind of like the Leitmotif idea, hmm, not really, more like the love theme from La Boheme.. but there, Puccini does it SO MUCH BETTER. Oh well.
All in all, good movie; I just wish I understood Italian (or had downloaded the version with subtitles) so that I might have understood the intricacies of the movie.

So ya, this afternoon has been a throwaway for productivity. I woke up, ate and watched a movie... now I leave to work in less than an hour. I think I might get in a half an hour of practicing before I leave. Nevertheless, after I work, I'm heading to the school for the evening to get in some good practicing, and maybe even do some writing of that fourth variation.
Ooh, I'm also going to take back some library books today!! I realize that I've had some of them since the middle of second term last year....eep!

I just finished printing out the theme and four variations that I have completed of my set of piano variations. For those of you counting, I only have one more variation to do.
Yesterday and today, I spent quite a bit of time using photoshop to graphically edit some of the scores. Wow, it takes a lot of effort! I'm just doing simplistic stuff, but its very finnicky. Nevertheless, I think I did rather well and I'm very happy with the way they look.
This last variation (number 4 of 5) still needs to be written down on paper. I have some conceptual ideas and musical fragments, but I need to get it in a tangible form from which I can be more specific. Now that I have the printed forms of the other ones and they're edited and whatnot, I can focus just on this one, and practicing piano.
I am happy with the productivity I achieved this weekend, but I'm not going to stop yet. It's only 8 pm and that gives me time to practice some more as well as get started on the fourth variation. I wish I could have spent a little more time with my sister while she was in town, but we were both busy with either those concerts and work on my part, and shopping and travel arrangements on the part of my sister.
Hmm, maybe I should take a look at my academic courses and see if I have any assignments coming up.

In other news, I'm out of money for a while, but things aren't that bad... I already paid off my computer and one of the speeding tickets, now I just have to worry about the big speeding ticket and a little bit of random expenses on my credit card. Still, this will probably take me a few pay periods to clear up, but by Christmas, I should be good and ready to get back into debt, YAY!

I think I just read one of the most difficult phrases I've ever seen in french :
'trente autre retraites' - I'm sure a native french speaker would probably not have as much trouble as I, but still... wowee!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
While I won't be as corny as one of my friends (not that there's anything wrong with that), I would like to say thanks to everyone:
I am thankful for everyone who reads my blog.
I am thankful for those who comment on my blog
I am thankful for cutting and pasting so I don't have to type "I am thankful for" a billion times
I am thankful for great friends who accept, understand, and improve me; each in their own way
I am thankful for a wonderful family that is supportive and loving
I am thankful for some of the lowest tuition fees in the world
I am thankful for music as a means of personal expression
I am thankful for music as a means of creative outlet
I am thankful for being able to study music and always learn more
I am thankful for all my experiences in the past which have led me to become the person I am today.

Thank you!

So, that piano lesson didn't go badly at all. He was quite happy with the fugue, and seeing how thats the big movement of the entire Bach, he's not worried about me getting the whole piece together at all. Being able to maintain concentration through 30 minutes of Bach is another issue...
That wil be the big challenge of my recital this year.... all my pieces are signifigantly long! and the comment on my recital last year was that I lost concentration on my mozart which was only 20 minutes... this year, I have 2 pieces longer than that....
the bach portion of the lesson did last about 40 minutes... and then I suggested that we do intensive practicing on the hard sections of my music. He said he'd need a little break before that so he made tea and went to the washroom while I was to choose what section we'd work on. I chose the passage of parallel fourths in the middle of the fugue in the fourth movement of Beethoven. We worked on it for just over an hour - 4 bars of music. It was a great refresher of how to approach practicing. It was incredibly productive....we basically got the prep work done so now I can practice that section in the same way as I practice everything else.
Lessons this year are going well!

I haven't posted much lately cause it's a busy life at the moment. Mostly, I have been practicing at the school at nights despite my hope to avoid doing that... But it's been good.
The theory is that if I do my practicing during normal waking hours - ie the day - then I can do my composition work at home at night. Most of the work is with the computer anyway, so I don't have to worry about the time or waking people up. Thus, I can work at home and not have to spend extra gas money. The problem with this theory is that I haven't had time during the days to practice, so I've had to do it at night. The other shortfalling was that I didn't practice all last weekend, or really during the week either.... oops.
This week will be different. I'm going to come earlier to school and make use of my reserved practice room time to get my practicing done during the day and then I will have my nights for composition.
I've been busy with a performance with the WSO this last week. Tonight is the last performance, and then I can have my life back. It has been an interesting experience, New Music and the like. Great piece and it's been fun performing it, though vocally tiring.

I REALLY NEED TO FINISH THE PIANO VARIATIONS, ARGH!!!!!!!!
I should have them done by the end of the week if I reasonably want Diane to learn them for November sometime. The theme and last variation are done, and she has them to start learning. Two fo the variations just need to be photoshopped a little and then I will have them done this weekend. One of them, I need to figure out an approach to doing it in photoshop... so just basically decisions and then doing the actual editing. The other one, I need to actually write... I have monday off... so I'm going to do a heck of a lot of work this weekend!!!

wow, when I decided to do this post, I was in a worried state. but I will end the post in a better mood because of the little walk I just took...
I'm worried because I only have one piece that has made enough progress since it's last appearance in lesson that I can play for my lesson tomorrow. The reason is poor prioritzing both of practicing itself as well as the work I did during the practicing. The Bach. While there was a large section in the middle which I had not touched as of last week, I now have the whole fugue learned and 10 metronome markings faster than the bulk of it was last week. This was a good accomplishment, BUT it translates into at the most - half an hour of lesson time- if I'm lucky.
I haven't had a full 2 hour lesson since I started back, because I just don't have enough of the rep under my fingers yet, to work on for that long of a lesson... but I do this forever... I want to be taking advantage of my lesson time. Even though it is neither David nor my favorite thing to do, I think I will have him do guided practicing with me tomorrow on the most difficult parts of the pieces. This way I know I have a secure and good start on those sections - also there is a theory that it will give me incentive to do the work on my own in the future, so I won't have to do that at my lessons.

Now, for the happy news... I found eggnog in my fridge!!!
I didn't even know they made it this time of year, but it suppose it is close enough to thanksgiving... regardless, YUMMY

more good news. I have picked my pianist to premiere my piano variations!
Diane!
I had wanted to hear a few of my colleagues play it and make a decision of who I wanted. I heard one and then one of the people told me today that he wouldn't be able to do it...I was a little worried because I had a preconception that he would be the best to play it (pretty much unfounded). Anyway, I had my Korean sister Diane play it for me tonight -
She had the character and the phrasing down perfect - just as I felt them, but I hadn't notated those things or told her. I also had her play it in a few different manners - using the music as a shell and expecting openness to change and some kind of improvisation. Needless to say, I was very impressed with her playing of my piece and I am excited to work with her on this project! Now, I need to really buckle down and get the music finished up so she can start learning the rest of it.

ANyway, off to bed with me, it's an early morning and a very long day ahead of me!

good times all around

today is my day off.
woke up early, drove parents to work (ie. slept in car until we got to my dad's work and I had to drive home) then paid my license and came home and went back to sleep. Slept the rest of the morning away and part of the afternoon. Did some practicing, and editing of my composition(I'll get to that in a bit)
ok, time to talk about it.... (it was a little bit) Composition lesson yesterday was very good. He mentioned that I should carry on with the graphic editing I was doing in some of the other movements, and how it was applicable to the newer ones.... it will be fun, but more work, but more room for creativity.. although I'm definately not a visual artist.... and I don't know how to make the music program do what I want it to do... so I will be doing it in Photoshop.
I had a talk with a friend last night - it had been long enough communicating only through small talk. From what I gather, we are now in a place where we can be comfortable around each other and actually have a friendship. I do believe this is a happy ending, or a happy beginning... Either way, I think things are now in a healthy place.
Tonight my sister is coming into town until next monday..... yay! except she is having wisdom teeth out, so some of these days will be less than pleasant for her, but at least it will be a nice opportunity to visit and spend time with her.
Oops, time to go pick up my dad from work, I'll write more later perhaps.

it's always good to have feedback on things that we create:
-compliments on performances are nice
-it's great to see someone enjoying a dinner or baking that you made
today I got some constructive comments on my thongs. Apparently, they should not be worn in a hottub. The new material I have started to use tends to stretch to about 4 times the regular size.
A friendly reminder that thongs made and distributed by MH2YC designs should only be handwashed in cold water.

I totally missed out on productivity this weekend. I had great fun, but both friday and saturday, I was out having fun. It is the beginning of the year, and I should be able to excuse myself, but I really wanted to get a lot done this weekend, and as it turns out, I haven't practiced piano since thursday.... eek!
I think I'm going to not go to the dance jam tonight, rather I will stay home and force myself to finish up some parts of this composition for piano variations and maybe go to the school to practice later. Or maybe I'll practice this evening at home some time in the middle.