Thursday, November 30, 2006

Names are interesting...
I've always prefered Michael to Mike, but I really don't care what people call me.
In fact I'm not insitent at all on what people call me, I'll accept anything really. Nevertheless, people always gravitate towards calling me Michael Park - full name..?!?
I don't think I've ever done anything to encourage this, but still - it's something to comes out of the woodwork.
I remember in high school, older friends from choir had an extended conversation/examination about how you can't just call me Michael, you have to use both first and last name.
Readers, I ask you this:
What is it about my names that necessitates the presence of both surname and given name?
oh well, I won't dwell on it.

Today was a good day, I'm done with assignments and the rest for one course! And the performance on wednesday marked this term's events for the New Music Ensemble. Orchestration still has 2 more assignments, which I need to get working on so I'm not in a rushat the last minute. Speaking of rushing, I'm getting close to finishing my ensemble piece. It's 5/6ths done, and I have my lesson tomorrow, he hasn't seen it since it was still in the concept piece or I had maybe written one of the excerpts... The biggest thing I need to work on is the performance notes and making sure I cover all the bases for what the players are supposed to do.

Tonight was the diabetes dinner. I learned a fair bit and got some freebies! I played love-themed music for a warm-up to the 'diabetes and sexual health' themed presentations.
I quite enjoy the group of young diabetics involved in this Maestro Project, good times.
ANyway,gnite

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

so, I had been working on a touque for my sister
as some of you may know, she has an abnormally small head, not that it implies anything about her intelligence... it's just that her cranial cavity is... well.... abnormally small.
Anyway, I had accidentally made the touque excessively small, so much so that it would be even too small for her head, to the point that it would be offensive to give it to her. Nevertheless, the work was not a waste, my mom has been making children's hats and scarves to give away for the christmas cheer board hampers. Now I just have to find more black yarn so I can still make a hat for part of Heather's present.....
OOH maybe I can make her and her finace matching touques.... and maybe matching wedding thongs....hmm no, I'll leave those til the wedding!
hahaha!
Anyway, today was relatively productive in terms of composition work, but I haven't touched a piano in terms of practicing since my last lesson...oopsie. I will get back on track though... Prioritizing is such a silly thing. The problem is that I'm thinking ahead to xmas break when I will have a completely new piece to write for my Jan31'st application deadline, and basically have to learn all my recital rep.... BUT, i need to put that out of my mind so that I can concentrate on perfecting Haydn for my Jury and then finshing up composing this piece. I also need to get the 3 pieces in my portfolio bound nicely so it is a pleasant looking portfolio.
We had an amazing lecture/talk/discussion at composition seminar on Monday about grad schools and grants and work options and scholarships and all the things like that we have to look forward in our careers as composers. It was good info and exciting, though I wish we had covered that before I learned the majority of it the hard way this year.
ANyway, I'm off for the evening!

Sunday, November 26, 2006

So, I've set up a fileposting place on the internet for myself. I will be using it to post recordings of my pieces as they are available. Right now, the Alzheimer's Variations are available, so if you didn't get a chance to hear them at school last monday, please go there and download them or stream them, and let me know if the streaming works. I believe you can leave comments there, or feel free to leave them here or email.
Click Here!

Other than that, tonight was productive, I got a good start on an assignment due thursday, and I have gone from 1/2 finished to 2/3rds finished on my ensemble piece this weekend. Only two more instruments to compose excerpts for and I'll be finished! I also have to organize a set of sexy/love themed popular music to play for this diabetes dinner this thursday as well as start thinking/recording pieces for my dad's retirement. As per usual, lots to do!
I thought my house was bad with the small bananas, but slowly everything has been shrinking...my mom has been buying small mini-yogurts and now mini-cheese strings.... it's starting to drive me batty!

I have to work on more applications this weekend, not that they are due, but they delete unfinished applications on web-servers, which is stupid. Anyway, the McGill one is in progress, reference letters aretaken care of , and transcripts are good, so I just need to finish my portfolio and then yay! send it off in the mail.

there's no dance jam tonight, as there is a show next weekend involving a bunch of people in the group, so I will be going to that next weekend, if anyone is interested in seeing the dancer I will be having in my recital as well as the other dancers I've been improvising with, let me know!

Friday, November 24, 2006

It's been a good week.
Thursday:
-lesson went very well. He was very impressed with the improvement of the Haydn. I mentioned that I thought he completely overreacted the week before and he responded that all he has to go on was what I present to him; last week was unacceptable, and he lectured me then sent me away, when I brought it back it was in much better shape.. therefore he wasn't going to question his teaching methods. It made sense and I was ok with that.
-Piano Ped presentation went very well. I felt a little underprepared, but after the presentation she commented on how it was an extremely well-prepared and researched presentation. I'm excited to see how her reaction translates into a mark...
-Student cancelled piano lesson, so that gave me some nice downtime! yay!
-Dance class accompaniment/work went well. I got some really good compliments from the modern teacher about my choices/style of music. She told me I had a really good touch for modern class. Finally- I'd been worried about what music to play for modern cause the aesthetic is so different from Ballet. I'm also starting to feel more comfortable with understanding the movements and what kind of music suits them!
- The improvised music ensemble had it's first public performance last night, and it went over quite well! It was a lot of fun, and it feels good to be associating music with fun(something I haven't seen/felt enough of at school lately). I also performed some of the Kurtag pieces, and got some nice compliments on them.

Today, we got orchestration tests back, it was my lowest mark so far on a test in that course... only 90%.

Plans for this weekend are to make major progress on this ensemble piece... I need to finish writing the musical excerpts SOON if I'm going to have it finished in time for the application for McGill. Also practicing of course, but I really need to get this piece into the finishing touch stage of the game.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Post #301

That's right, I have posted 300 times in my blogging life! Pretty crazy!

Anyway, tomorrow is lesson day. I'm feeling pretty good about being prepared and that the Haydn will go well and my teacher will say it's alright to play for my Jury, but I'm having issues not being bitter about some of the things that were said last week. I'm going to be unimpressed if he tries to make a big deal out of the improvement, because it wasn't that bad to begin with, I simply made a choice to prioritize differently than he would prefer.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. After my lesson, I have a presentation to give for my piano pedagogy course. I have been familiarizing myself with the method books I have to compare, and I've planned a way of presenting. She really enjoyed the excessive creativity and cheesiness of my last assignment, so I will go overboard for this one too. I am going to present it in character: I will be a beginner piano method book salesperson who has been referred to her. The presentation will revolve around all of the topics she outlined in the course outline, so I'll basically address each of those concerns one after another.

After the presentation, choir as usual and then teaching a piano lesson and then go to work. After work, I have to rush back to the school for the new music ensemble's debut improvisation performance at the Daily Bread Cafe, 7:30pmish. It will be interesting... I will also be accompanying a singer in some Ives songs as well as playing some of the Kurtag pieces.

And that's enough typing for tonight, I will go and be productive for a while.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

I feel guilty.
a) I slept for 12 hours after I went to bed last night
this woulnd't have been terrible, except for
2) I was up working on the computer until 4 am last night....

anyway, that makes for a productive evening.
In my defense, I had been up excessively late every evening this past week and before that, and I had to work at 9am both days this weekend, so sleep has been slim lately.

In other news, I'm excited about Constant Glucose Monitoring advancements. Most of you know that I test my blood sugar throughout the day. Now, they are developing technology that will be a patch that I wear that will wirelessly transmit my glucose readings to a meter. The result is less bleeding, in fact none.. and I will have accurate results that can show exactly how my sugars move up and down throughout the day. The problem is that it will be costly and not covered by pharmacare, and it needs FDA approval... so it's not going to be quickly, but Im excited nonetheless.

Now, back to work!

Monday, November 20, 2006

I feel good. I shall try and be of few words, but my piece was played today.
A few people had laughed when they heard the title, but I believe they repented once they heard the piece. One of my friends actually appologized for her misunderstanding.
I read the program notes/explanation of the piece before Diane played it - I was so nervous, but I don't think I did too badly. I was worried about being overly emotional during or after the performance, but I held myself together.
Diane played a very convincing and powerful performance, and we got a few people ovating in standing position too. I heard nothing but positive feedback from everyone I talked to. Diane's teacher pointed out that the response we got from the audience was above and beyond the normal of what can be expected from a student audience: They were silent and actually involved in the performance.
A number of people mentioned how emotionally moving it was for them, and that means so much; to know that my intentions were felt and effective.
At this point, I can only hope that I will find a way to have my ensemble piece be as effective in presenting the concept of the piece.
Orchestration test didn't go so well... I guessed on a few definitions... it's so frustrating when you recall reading a word and making an effort to remember that word, but then completely blanking out on the context of it. I didn't quite finish the last question - an orchestration of a string orchestra segment into pitched percussion... but there were a lot of people who didn't realize there had been a fourth page.... I'm assuming he will probably be adding some marks to everyone's grade as was the case with the first test.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Yestereve was delightful, though the day was long.
During the day, I had worked my noram 9-5 ballet pianoing. I came home ate dindin and then took a short 20 minute nap. I had falled just enough asleep to wake up to see that my clock said 9pm..AH! I needed to leave the house just after 7pm to make it early for the 8pm play we were going to see. Luckily the clock lied to me.. mostly because I was confused at the time change, and set my clock an hour in the wrong direction.
This story has a happy ending, because I was perfectly on time and all that.
The play was absolutely delightful. I laughed quite a bit. One thing I'm a little unclear about....
One of the characters had the same designer shoes as me... you know, the fancy velcro ones... Anyway, the thing was that the particular character was nowhere near as popular or cool as someone who wears my shoes should be. Are they trying to insinuate something about my shoes?!? I don't understand!
After that, I practiced at the school for exactly one hour. I got done exactly what I wanted; I got all of the sections of the Haydn Rondo memorized at a reasonable tempo. I ran through it afterwards from start to end, but there were some minor areas of undertaintly in terms of which section/chord came next, so that is the next step. Considering I got the whole movement memorized in 3-50 bar segments between last night and the night before, I'm not worried about security. After I practice it today sometime, it should be secure enough in the memory to play it for my lesson, and it will be stellar by thursday. That's the theory; as long as it's good enough for David to not cancel my half-jury I'm happy, and I'm reasonably certain that that will be the outcome.
After practicing, I went to Amy from school's house. She and the other people I had gone to the play, plus a few more were there playing boardgames and having a delightful time. We played this game called "What the Fuck". Basically, it asks random questions that can be incredibly revealing about the person answering.. or mildly retarded. The only problem was that no matter how hard you think about the questions, the majority of them involved things that would not actually ever come into reality. Anyway, the game was a great deal of fun.
Today I played for a Ballet Workshop which was interesting, even though it started at bloody 9am on a Sunday morning. Gah, 2 early mornings in a row, YUCK!
On the to-do list today are quite a few things. I have to figure out if there is a dance jam tonight, maybe I'll just go and see if there is one, if there isn't then I'll go straight to the school and practice. I also need to get some serious work done on this ensemble piece, as the deadline is coming up.
I need to finish writing the melodic segments... thats really the only thing left that will take thinking about. Once I have the fragment, its a matter of transposing it into all the applicable keys and then formatting it into as small as space as possible and then plugging it into the right place on the parts. I have it all organized in photoshop, so it's all good.
OOH OOH, I have good news about my recital. I officially have a dancer who is willing and excited to be part of my recital. I work with her at the ballet and she is wonderful. This is very exciting and we're both looking forward to starting rehearsals.

Friday, November 17, 2006

I had been worrying a bit about my piece being performed on Monday. Not about the performer, she is great and I'm glad that she's working on it. I was worried about the effectiveness of the piece. What would happen if I spent so much time working on such a personal piece and people were completely unaffected by it. That would be terrible.
Today Diane's teacher stopped me and asked if I heard about the masterclass. I hadn't. I didn't even know that she was playing it there. The the teacher informed me that Diane played it there and it had everyone moved to tears.
It was not my intention to write incredibly depressing music, but I couldn't have asked for a better compliment to know that my music was that moving.
It is also incredibly reassuring to know that my pianist is that comfortable with the music and had prepared it to that level.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

worst lesson ever.
not during, but after I actually felt myself having to hold back tears. I just wanted to lock myself in a practice room and work ont he bastard Haydn piece I butchered in my lesson, but the only room openw as the one across from my teacher's studio... and that wasn't going to happen. I was getting frustrated and it was not good. Eventually I found a room and I was less physically emotional. I was calmer, but my mind was in a bit of a flurry.
Luckily I remained fairl on task with practicing, but I kept wondering to what degree my teacher was right.... 'have I really not developed any tenacity or perseverance since I've been in school?'
I felt angry and guilty that I had even done a lesson today since I knew it was going to be bad.
The stupidest thing was that I tried to play it from memory today. I was totally not prepared for that.... it was actually the first time I had tried to play the whole thing without the music.... it's just it had been feeling more and more comfortable and I had been practicing sections without music for a bit now...
Anyway, the moral is that i wasn't prepared and I chose to present that to my teacher in a lesson. He wants me to focus solely on that piece between now and the Jury...the good thing being that it gives me the license to focus just on that. well and the ensemble piece I'm composing and on the rest of application stuff, oh and the new music ensemble performances coming up and the diabetes dinner I'm playing at, and assignments and whatever else I'm forgetting...
Speaking of assignments, I should get around to doing that orchestration thingy for tomorrow... yay!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

silly day

holy poop today was long.
I woke up early to drive my parents to work.... more realistically I had a periodontist appointment at 8:30. It was good, the estimate on cost was what I expected... eek.
Next I had to 'drop off' passport applications for my parents... they neglected to inform me that this would take at least an hour and a half of my life standing in one of those horrendously long lines with a bunch of people who equally hate being there....
Then I went to U of W to order transcripts. They will be prepared on the 20th of Nov.
Then I went to U of M for transcripts. The Financial aid people were clueless as to the SSHRC scholarship that i wanted to ask about... so after being sent 2 other places, I ended up at Grad studies and still didn't get any definate answers. more on that later...
I ordered my transcripts at UM and they will be ready for tomorrow.
ANyway... so this SSHRC scholarship is fairly important- 17.5 thousand dollars in graduate student funding. enough for me to not have to worry about living while i'm studying.... this also means that I can afford to go to whichever school will accept me.... or that I can move out even if I have to stay in the Peg(provided that I get the scholarship) The moral of the story is that I missed the deadline because the notice wasn't posted, and I only found out about the schoarhip a short while ago. I got a phone call returned to me later in the day from the lady in Grad Studies who organizes the scholarhips.... Long Story Short, if I can get everything together for her in a day or two, she'll allow my application!! After fretting and working hard today, Igot my paperwork done, BUT I still need 2 letters of reference and a departmental appraisal.... I feel bad about rushing my profs, but I think they will understand...
I really hope that things go smoothly so that I can apply for this, I will kick myself and others ifI'm too late.
I practiced tonight, but all I've touched all week has beent he Haydn.. whcih is the piece for my Jury, so David will haev to understand that applications are coming and that my piece isn't done.. therefore I have priorities. I'm going to try to have the whole sonata in a state of memorizationish for my lesson, but I have accompanying to do tomorrow inght..... which is the other major distraction from my practicing..... having to learn 6 pieces in a week for an audition... but I won't complain.... only to David in my lesson so he'll understand why I don't have more lesson rep.

Friday, November 10, 2006

So reading week is shaping up to be an exciting time. To start it off, wedding in Las Vegas for a few days. This should be great fun AND I plan on making quite a bit of money at the casino...
Then I am going to a conference in Toronto for Diabetic Youth Advocacy. I remember mentioning about wanting to go to the international conference... but they picked someone else out of the Canadian applicants, but this one in Toronto should also be fun, though somewhat less exotic.
Now, if anyone out there is interested in going to Las Vegas, consider yourself invited! There are a lot of package deals (flight and hotel) which are quite a bit cheaper when booked for 2-people... so it could benefit both of us. Air and Hotel would probably be around 5-600$!!! Also, the wedding promisses to be a good time, and I will need a date anyway(although from what I hear, Las Vegas has no shortage of escorts...).
I realize that I probably won't hear anything back about this, BUT I want to make sure noone is going to be sitting all alone on reading week with nothing to do....
I'm starting to feel the stress that this month is going to mean for me. Scholarship applications and finishing up my portfolio of McGill application and the little things like getting transcripts and details about letters of reference to teachers. Luckily, I think I read the application deadline for UBC wrong, so I have an extra few weeks to get that ready.. and that one requires an extra piece... which is actuall possible with the extra time! yay! Nevertheless, I started that application procedure tonight, so all will be well!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

grrrr
so, no cavities at my appointment, and very little plaque and/or tartar if any.
so in theory.. I had a good dentist appointment, right?!?
NOT!
Apparently there's a reason the dentist always tells you to only use a soft brush - apparently it is possible to brush away more than just the filth that covers your teeth....
Apparently I brushed away a few millimeters of my gums- gum recession.
The dentist recommended me to a periodontist because I should have skin grafts done to replace the gum. Otherwise, the roots of some teeth are exposed and prone to cavities because the root doesn't have enamel on it like the body of the tooth does.
I've done some looking aroud on the internet and I do want to have it done, BUT my dad is retired as of Jan 1, so I need to get it done STAT to make use of his dental insurance.. cause I doubt that UMSU dental covers that....
SO I got a lecture about how to brush and how I have to find the happy medium between not brushing well and overzealous brushing....

On the other hand... the last remaining Adult tooth to come in to my mouth has travelled a long way since 2004. We compared the x-ray from then to now and the tooth is in such a different position!! At present it is a functioning tooth which is much better than the gaping hole that I had when I was 18(when my baby one was yanked) or the various positions of stump that was protruding over these past 5 years.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

I saw this cartoon on the internet and just had to share it with you all.
Every once in a while, I'll be talking to a friend that reads my blog, and I find myself being frustrated that they haven't read the post that I just put up 15 minutes before....
I need a kick in the but every once in a while to remind me that I actually do have to participate in the real world...





I feel silly, I still haven't actually written, well barely any of the actual music for this ensemble piece. I'm getting more detailed in the conceptual ideas of what musical content-ish that I want, but few actual notes have been written. For example:
I know that I want the Basson line to have jumps of large intervals and incorporate chromatic spurts with those leaps and that it should have a spastic sort of character, BUT does it matter what those intervals are, or where those chromatic segments lie?!?
alas, I have been doing some sketching of the shapes of what I'm looking for, but nothing specific yet, I need to figure out whether I'm going to use tonality or not, or even if individual lines should have favoured pitches, regardless of the other parts....
These will be the issues to be talked about at tomorrow's lesson.
Cinderella was wonderful. And the company was wonderful as well, I went with Olivia and Chris and Brendan. Apparently all three guys were Olivia's dates.... meh, thats fine and dandy. We went for dinner before which was nice, albeit quite rushed.
After the performance, I gave Brendan a ride home cause I went to practice. It was intensely productive, I learned the parts of the Haydn Finale that I hadn't yet touched... and today they are up to the same speed as the rest of the movement. I also learned 3 of the harder bars of the Liszt piece, not fast enough, but at least they are in the fingers.
I never got ahold of David to sign my forms for friday, BUT I emailed them to him so he could look at them this weekend, and he edited the letter part of it and approved the program, so now he just has to sign it. I have the form filled out and the cheques made out, so it's almost set!
Tonight is a dance jam. I hope there are actually people there... I can't wait to ask some of the dancers about their willingness to participate in my recital... I suppose that could be a barrier to overcome if none of the dancers are willing.... Oh well, I refuse to recognize that as a possibility.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Sadness - my Polish piano friend from the ballet has carpel tunnel syndrome and she said her fingers went numb tonight after playing for 16 counts.... She said she's been to physio and she's trying to do exercises.. otherwise she might have to have surgery. It's quite unfortunate, she is quite a fine pianist (russian school trained) and ballet class is her only source of income. I really hope there is some positive outcome that can happen.
Unfortunately, there are these risks when you rely so heavily on some part of your body for work. I wonder if there is worker's compensation for this situation... I'll be interested to hear what happens.
Tomorrow night I'm going to the ballet "Cinderella", a modern adaptation of the classic fairytale. I saw it when it premiered a few years back, and I understand that it is even better this time around.
Update - grad school applications are underway, well the McGill one is at least. I also talked to my composition teacher from last year as well as my piano teacher about getting letters of reference. I know they are both highly supportive of me, and plus my former composition teacher did his PhD at UBC, so his endorsement of me might carry some extra weight.. I hope... Once I have all my applications underway, I have to go to the school and request transcripts to be sent to those schools. Oh, yes, and the big thing is that I have to have a portfolio put together!!!.... eeek.
Also of importance, I have the things ready for my recital to be booked. I just need to get the sheet signed by David and then give them money for deposits. I reeeeally want to get it done on monday so I know I have my date and I don;t have to worry about it after that.... only preparation and practice practice practice.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Wow, does time ever fly by...

I was shocked to read that November is Diabetes Month.. not because I forgot that there was such a thing, rather I couldn't believe that it had been a whole year since I wrote about it on my blog last year.... It really doesn't seem like that long ago... but alas it was.

Reminder- I am an insulin dependant diabetic. With the proper control and maintenance, I can live a long and healthy life.. but there's just all those pesky little things that get in the way - AKA life!
I read on the internet the other day that this is the best time in history to have diabetes. It goes without saying that diabetes management keeps improving, so it is always the best time to be diabetic provided you are comparing to the past. But he had a point:
-Our knowledge about metabolism and the effect of insulin on the body is getting better all the time.
-There is a lot of excitement in the field of islet transplant and stemcell research which has shown some success so far and a lot of promise.
-With all the self-help and mumbly going on these days, there is a major shift towards healthy living (which is appearing as a necessity for a continent of unhealthy overweight people) which can help a lot for everyone, especially diabetics and their control.
-With blogs becoming more popular than ever, it is becoming easier to find out how other diabetics manage and survive AND maintain a life that isn't completely overrun by needles and bloodglucose testing.

All of these are great things and they create an exciting world to live in. As always, Diabetes month is prompting me to take better control and improve myself so that diabetes will have less impact on the rest my life.

Anyway, with that, I wish everyone a Happy Diabetes Month!