Rehearsal this morning went well. I dislike the morning, and I was a few minutes late because I stopped to get a timmy ho cappuccino; as I predicted, they were running behind anyway.
We covered the remaining 2 grades of students today - this music was easier and while I was sightreading everything today, I concluded that there was nothing that I couldn't play well enough or fake my way through if need be.
Nevertheless, after my lesson today, I practised piano like I haven't practised in ages... wait - I haven't practised in ages! Anyway, a few hours of metronome practising and I think I'm good to go. I basically had to make a judgement call on my professionalism. My call was to not spend every waking hour of today at a piano - the result is that I spent enough time to learn things to about 80% - the remaining 20%, I will supply tomorrow!
That number is pretty made up, I don't know how I got it - the ones I was most worried about, I tried to learn as close to the tempo marking as possible. There is one piece that just isn't possible to learn accurately with the time an resources given: I practised it so I could play it PERFECTLY at maybe two-thirds tempo. With that as a basis to which I kept going back, I was also practising it up to full tempo using some tricks of the trade - aka faking it. I think I've finally gotten over some of my modesty (whether that be a good thing or bad) and realized that some of the things that I do - improvising, recomposing music at sight (usually to make it more playable) are skills that most other pianists can't or don't do. I'm still not convinced that others CAN'T do improv, but I'm accepting that it is one of my highly marketable skills and I need to treat it like that. I still embrace my altruistic goals of getting the whole classical world to improvise, but ya, I need to take advantage of my skills when I can.
Anyway, the exams are EARLY tomorrow, I have to be there for 8:15ish. Yuck. They run until the late afternoon!! = Long day.
My lesson today was good. He gave me a few more suggestions, therefore there's lots of work still remaining before Monday when I take the piece to the players. Tomorrow evening will be intense with finalizing the piece. Monday, I will have time to final edit, make sure formatting is perfect, then take it to get bound and printed and all that fun.
I am looking forward to this weekend being over.
Also, the chair I sit in at the studio is uncomfortable - I am going to have back pain tomorrow, I know it!
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Friday, February 08, 2008
Thanks to my new diabetic friend reader, K2!
I don't blog nearly enough about my diabetes, so now I have a reason to include some of that on here.
I think my diabetes control has been getting consistently better over the past few years and currently it is pretty darned good. At the same time, stress and general disorganization are reeking occasional havoc. I woke up this morning and my sugar was relatively high, it didn't feel like I had an overnight low, and I was struck with the possible realization that I didn't take my long acting the night before. My sugars should have been higher if I went all night without insulin, but I don't know. Generally, I was unsure as to whether I should take the long acting right away... which I ended up doing. Knowing there was a slight chance I might have double dosed, I made different choices all day, tested more regularly and well- it was an odd day. In the end, I'm sure I didn't take it last night.
This all serves as a reminder to not be stressed and disorganized. Missing my long acting insulin is a bummer, cause the math is difficult to figure out - however many hours late you are... that becomes the overlap where the next day, you will have double your dose. I'm sure I could figure a way to juggle doses so I wouldn't have any extra drug, but that would take over a week... the solution is to run my sugars high tonight, I can calculate just how high or what food will cover the extra 12 units of insulin which will be in my blood overnight.
Rehearsal number one went alright today. My playing was QUITE as bad as I was expecting. As I expected, the teacher didn't seem worried about my playing at all, so that's a good thing. Nevertheless, there are 3 or 4 of the exercises that I absolutely have to just plain practice before the exam on Sunday.
Tomorrow morning, I have rehearsals for the other exams - yuck to 9am on a Saturday morning... Damn Ballet!!!! For the last 4 years, ballet has been the demon that ruins my Saturday mornings.
Tomorrow afternoon, I also have a final lesson with my prof for the Piano Trio - hopefully I will get the final blessing on the piece.
I had been thinking of going to Quebec for Carnival next weekend, but then I would have to miss out on both the Opera at Western and a friend's Short Opera premiere in Toronto. I will stay here and enjoy both of those events, save myself some money, and try and do some low key relaxing and socializing.
The following weekend is the start of Reading Week, and I'll be going to Toronto/Montreal during that time, so I won't be missing out on the travel.
AND with this work I'm doing this weekend, I might actually be able to afford some random fun for reading week!
I don't blog nearly enough about my diabetes, so now I have a reason to include some of that on here.
I think my diabetes control has been getting consistently better over the past few years and currently it is pretty darned good. At the same time, stress and general disorganization are reeking occasional havoc. I woke up this morning and my sugar was relatively high, it didn't feel like I had an overnight low, and I was struck with the possible realization that I didn't take my long acting the night before. My sugars should have been higher if I went all night without insulin, but I don't know. Generally, I was unsure as to whether I should take the long acting right away... which I ended up doing. Knowing there was a slight chance I might have double dosed, I made different choices all day, tested more regularly and well- it was an odd day. In the end, I'm sure I didn't take it last night.
This all serves as a reminder to not be stressed and disorganized. Missing my long acting insulin is a bummer, cause the math is difficult to figure out - however many hours late you are... that becomes the overlap where the next day, you will have double your dose. I'm sure I could figure a way to juggle doses so I wouldn't have any extra drug, but that would take over a week... the solution is to run my sugars high tonight, I can calculate just how high or what food will cover the extra 12 units of insulin which will be in my blood overnight.
Rehearsal number one went alright today. My playing was QUITE as bad as I was expecting. As I expected, the teacher didn't seem worried about my playing at all, so that's a good thing. Nevertheless, there are 3 or 4 of the exercises that I absolutely have to just plain practice before the exam on Sunday.
Tomorrow morning, I have rehearsals for the other exams - yuck to 9am on a Saturday morning... Damn Ballet!!!! For the last 4 years, ballet has been the demon that ruins my Saturday mornings.
Tomorrow afternoon, I also have a final lesson with my prof for the Piano Trio - hopefully I will get the final blessing on the piece.
I had been thinking of going to Quebec for Carnival next weekend, but then I would have to miss out on both the Opera at Western and a friend's Short Opera premiere in Toronto. I will stay here and enjoy both of those events, save myself some money, and try and do some low key relaxing and socializing.
The following weekend is the start of Reading Week, and I'll be going to Toronto/Montreal during that time, so I won't be missing out on the travel.
AND with this work I'm doing this weekend, I might actually be able to afford some random fun for reading week!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Updates left and right
The little son-of-a-bitch is gone. Good riddance I say. I love dogs, but for the life of me, I can not justify that creature's existence as a dog. It remained afraid of me until my roommate took him home in his little dog carrying bag.
Tomorrow is Friday, the due date for my Piano Trio. On my prof's advisory, I got a short extension until Monday. I could be ready for tomorrow, but he wanted to see me again. This means I will have time this weekend to make it look good and pay attention to finalizing details - those things I might have glossed over if I needed to submit it by tomorrow.
I am working this weekend - I got work as a last minute accompanist for some Royal Academy of Dance exams this Sunday. It is probably not in my best interest to do this - 14 hours over the weekend will surely get in the way of the Piano Trio and school work, but not enough to have a negative effect on my school work. The reason it's not in my best interest is because it comes to about 80 pages of music which I will be damn close to sight-reading. Even if I had nothing else to do, that's a little much to try and polish over a weekend. RAD music is BAD - terrible music. I think it was written by random dance pianists. The music is weak, lacking compositional craft. Written in odd keys with awkward hand positions and whatnot - the kind of music on needs to practise = great for long time dance accompanists who are in need of something to involve themselves in their trade, but in the end - not good for the musicality of the dancers or the pianist.
Anyway, for each of the three exam sets I will be accompanying, I will get a few hours of rehearsal with the dancers = time to play through the pieces and make notes of which I need to practise before the exam. One thing I've learnt from accompanying dance is - while I will hear my mistakes and imperfections, the teacher and dancers will hear the musicality that live accompaniment brings. Still, I will be spending far too much time playing the piano this weekend.
I am also going to accompany my Double Bass playing friend for a concerto movement. Also fairly bad music- written by a bassist to display the instrument, not the musicality, but oh well. It's very Romantic and fun to play, so it works out!
I was planning on being done the trio and wasting away the weekend, but my how the tables have turned....
Tomorrow is Friday, the due date for my Piano Trio. On my prof's advisory, I got a short extension until Monday. I could be ready for tomorrow, but he wanted to see me again. This means I will have time this weekend to make it look good and pay attention to finalizing details - those things I might have glossed over if I needed to submit it by tomorrow.
I am working this weekend - I got work as a last minute accompanist for some Royal Academy of Dance exams this Sunday. It is probably not in my best interest to do this - 14 hours over the weekend will surely get in the way of the Piano Trio and school work, but not enough to have a negative effect on my school work. The reason it's not in my best interest is because it comes to about 80 pages of music which I will be damn close to sight-reading. Even if I had nothing else to do, that's a little much to try and polish over a weekend. RAD music is BAD - terrible music. I think it was written by random dance pianists. The music is weak, lacking compositional craft. Written in odd keys with awkward hand positions and whatnot - the kind of music on needs to practise = great for long time dance accompanists who are in need of something to involve themselves in their trade, but in the end - not good for the musicality of the dancers or the pianist.
Anyway, for each of the three exam sets I will be accompanying, I will get a few hours of rehearsal with the dancers = time to play through the pieces and make notes of which I need to practise before the exam. One thing I've learnt from accompanying dance is - while I will hear my mistakes and imperfections, the teacher and dancers will hear the musicality that live accompaniment brings. Still, I will be spending far too much time playing the piano this weekend.
I am also going to accompany my Double Bass playing friend for a concerto movement. Also fairly bad music- written by a bassist to display the instrument, not the musicality, but oh well. It's very Romantic and fun to play, so it works out!
I was planning on being done the trio and wasting away the weekend, but my how the tables have turned....
Monday, February 04, 2008
In response to Jon,
Thank you for your regular commentary. Perhaps I shouldn't paint such a picture of myself as a lazy unproductive jackass, jackass.
I think my comments are generally slanted with a bit of modesty, but they also give insight into my own creative process. Some people need to lock themselves away with their compositions and they are incredibly productive during that time. That is generally the type of student that profs are used to dealing with, from what I gather. As for myself, I point out the lack of productivity, because that is the most apparent comparison that I can make between myself and others around me. As it happens, the creative process has been running constantly, and it's a series of dry spells between the times that I can pull together that which develops itself sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, in my head.
Tonight is one of those moments - and perfectly timed. My lesson is tomorrow, so I am pulling everything together tonight as it is finally making sense.
I was starting to get worried that I might not have a completed piece in time, but now I am confident that I will.
In regards to the dog, I forgot to mention the breed....
hold on to your panties....
it's a "Chinese Crested Powder Puff"
that's right, easily the most pathetic name for a breed ever!
I've concluded that it is also the most pathetic dog ever. It cowers constantly at noises it hears, and mostly me. Basically, it doesn't seem like the dog had been properly socialized and therefore has issues with dominance. Anyway, I'm losing patience quickly and quite frankly, I find myself reacting more emotionally than I should to the fact that it fears me.
Animals have odd affects on people, even those who don't overtly desire the acceptance of others, can be hurt by the lack of acceptance by a stupid little son-of-a-bitch!
My lesson is tomorrow, lessons are productive, therefore I will report back tomorrow about how PRODUCTIVE and NOTLAZY I will have been.... Happy Jon?!?
Thank you for your regular commentary. Perhaps I shouldn't paint such a picture of myself as a lazy unproductive jackass, jackass.
I think my comments are generally slanted with a bit of modesty, but they also give insight into my own creative process. Some people need to lock themselves away with their compositions and they are incredibly productive during that time. That is generally the type of student that profs are used to dealing with, from what I gather. As for myself, I point out the lack of productivity, because that is the most apparent comparison that I can make between myself and others around me. As it happens, the creative process has been running constantly, and it's a series of dry spells between the times that I can pull together that which develops itself sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, in my head.
Tonight is one of those moments - and perfectly timed. My lesson is tomorrow, so I am pulling everything together tonight as it is finally making sense.
I was starting to get worried that I might not have a completed piece in time, but now I am confident that I will.
In regards to the dog, I forgot to mention the breed....
hold on to your panties....
it's a "Chinese Crested Powder Puff"
that's right, easily the most pathetic name for a breed ever!
I've concluded that it is also the most pathetic dog ever. It cowers constantly at noises it hears, and mostly me. Basically, it doesn't seem like the dog had been properly socialized and therefore has issues with dominance. Anyway, I'm losing patience quickly and quite frankly, I find myself reacting more emotionally than I should to the fact that it fears me.
Animals have odd affects on people, even those who don't overtly desire the acceptance of others, can be hurt by the lack of acceptance by a stupid little son-of-a-bitch!
My lesson is tomorrow, lessons are productive, therefore I will report back tomorrow about how PRODUCTIVE and NOTLAZY I will have been.... Happy Jon?!?
Sunday, February 03, 2008
I have a puppy!
My roommate's parents are on vacation, so we get to look after their dog for a little while.
It's tiny... like not even the size of a house cat. Super scrawny and the most timid dog I've ever met, but that's ok, it's a dog!
It's only been here an hour, so it needs to get used to it's new surroundings anyway, but it will be nice to have around the apartment.
In conclusion, it's 10pm Sunday night and I did not get enough work done this weekend.
I'll work as much as I can up to about midnight, but I need to get sleep tonight especially after what happened on Friday...
Oh wait, I never mentioned - crazy - how could I not have mentioned it!
I slept in Friday morning - until 9:20-something. The problem was that I was teaching at 9:30, and I need to leave 30 minutes before I need to be at the school. I didn't waste a second, I called a cab and brushed my teeth and threw on some clothes, gathered my stuff in just enough time to see the cab outside my window. I was 10 minutes late for class, and I felt terrible about it.
This will sound bad, but it actually worked in my favour: Luckily, It was a test on that day, so the students were coming spaced out and not on time anyway. All of the students showed up and did their tests - I was worried about the odd chance that a student showed up in the first 10 minutes and then left before I got there, but luckily everything worked out.
I think I did get caught up on sleep this weekend, but it generally sucks staying up until 2am when I need to wake up for 7:30ish; it's just under my 6 hour comfort zone of sleep.
Ok, back to work!
It's tiny... like not even the size of a house cat. Super scrawny and the most timid dog I've ever met, but that's ok, it's a dog!
It's only been here an hour, so it needs to get used to it's new surroundings anyway, but it will be nice to have around the apartment.
In conclusion, it's 10pm Sunday night and I did not get enough work done this weekend.
I'll work as much as I can up to about midnight, but I need to get sleep tonight especially after what happened on Friday...
Oh wait, I never mentioned - crazy - how could I not have mentioned it!
I slept in Friday morning - until 9:20-something. The problem was that I was teaching at 9:30, and I need to leave 30 minutes before I need to be at the school. I didn't waste a second, I called a cab and brushed my teeth and threw on some clothes, gathered my stuff in just enough time to see the cab outside my window. I was 10 minutes late for class, and I felt terrible about it.
This will sound bad, but it actually worked in my favour: Luckily, It was a test on that day, so the students were coming spaced out and not on time anyway. All of the students showed up and did their tests - I was worried about the odd chance that a student showed up in the first 10 minutes and then left before I got there, but luckily everything worked out.
I think I did get caught up on sleep this weekend, but it generally sucks staying up until 2am when I need to wake up for 7:30ish; it's just under my 6 hour comfort zone of sleep.
Ok, back to work!
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Damnit, I'm TRYING to be super productive this weekend, but failing miserably.
The only project I have to work on is my piano trio. For the last few weeks, I've been able to go between projects and have a sense of being productive on something at any time. There seemed to be a natural flow to things.
That flow has slowed to a puddle.
I'm getting some stuff done, but I was hoping/needing the creative stuff to just be flowing out of me this weekend. Anyway, the good thing about staring at my sketches and the computer screen for hours without actually producing anything new is that I'm getting to know my own work quite well. I'm starting to see how it is all going to fit together. I'm not terribly worried because this is how it usually happens - I take an inordinate amount of time to piece things together internally and then I am able to sort that out in the real world (well, as real as the computer or manuscript is). The problem is that I can't rely on that time having elapsed early enough for me to get all my work done, so I'll just force myself to do what I can so that it will get finished by the weekend. My lesson is on Tuesday, but I do want to have some sense of finality going in there. My goal is to have it in some form of completion by tomorrow night so that I can just work on the finesse of the piece.
I am excited to think ahead to ... well anything other than this weekend. Next weekend, I will be done all of my immediately pressing projects - it's been a LONG time since I haven't had some kind of deadline looming over me... probably since November.
Also, the weekend after next weekend, I am going to Quebec for Carnival! I've been feeling stupid/lazy/uncultured lately - thinking about the fact that I live 2 hours from Toronto, yet I still haven't gone. This area of the country has a lot of opportunities available, so I need to take advantage of them. I think I'm also going with some grad student friends to see the TSO playing Mahler next weekend.
When I was deciding on grad schools, I convinced myself that it would be more advantageous to live somewhere(London) close to a big big city with lots of culture(Toronto) than to live in a moderately big city with moderate culture(Edmonton). I think I was wrong. The arts and cultural influence has to be right around you. I'm going to start forcing myself to go to Toronto more because, let's face it, London is not good for my artistic soul. School is great and I'm learning a lot and I love it, but there's also all of that stuff that people learn outside of class.
In conclusion, wherever I go after this degree, that choice will be driven by the desire to live within a strong artistic community.
I hope I don't sound too negative, the other side of that is my plan to make the most out of London. Once my piano trio is done, I will have time to start working with the choreographer on some kind of project for the end of this term as a precursor/ research into my thesis project for next year. I am also going to put efforts into starting that improvised music group at Western.
Ok, too much time typing on the computer... back to work!
The only project I have to work on is my piano trio. For the last few weeks, I've been able to go between projects and have a sense of being productive on something at any time. There seemed to be a natural flow to things.
That flow has slowed to a puddle.
I'm getting some stuff done, but I was hoping/needing the creative stuff to just be flowing out of me this weekend. Anyway, the good thing about staring at my sketches and the computer screen for hours without actually producing anything new is that I'm getting to know my own work quite well. I'm starting to see how it is all going to fit together. I'm not terribly worried because this is how it usually happens - I take an inordinate amount of time to piece things together internally and then I am able to sort that out in the real world (well, as real as the computer or manuscript is). The problem is that I can't rely on that time having elapsed early enough for me to get all my work done, so I'll just force myself to do what I can so that it will get finished by the weekend. My lesson is on Tuesday, but I do want to have some sense of finality going in there. My goal is to have it in some form of completion by tomorrow night so that I can just work on the finesse of the piece.
I am excited to think ahead to ... well anything other than this weekend. Next weekend, I will be done all of my immediately pressing projects - it's been a LONG time since I haven't had some kind of deadline looming over me... probably since November.
Also, the weekend after next weekend, I am going to Quebec for Carnival! I've been feeling stupid/lazy/uncultured lately - thinking about the fact that I live 2 hours from Toronto, yet I still haven't gone. This area of the country has a lot of opportunities available, so I need to take advantage of them. I think I'm also going with some grad student friends to see the TSO playing Mahler next weekend.
When I was deciding on grad schools, I convinced myself that it would be more advantageous to live somewhere(London) close to a big big city with lots of culture(Toronto) than to live in a moderately big city with moderate culture(Edmonton). I think I was wrong. The arts and cultural influence has to be right around you. I'm going to start forcing myself to go to Toronto more because, let's face it, London is not good for my artistic soul. School is great and I'm learning a lot and I love it, but there's also all of that stuff that people learn outside of class.
In conclusion, wherever I go after this degree, that choice will be driven by the desire to live within a strong artistic community.
I hope I don't sound too negative, the other side of that is my plan to make the most out of London. Once my piano trio is done, I will have time to start working with the choreographer on some kind of project for the end of this term as a precursor/ research into my thesis project for next year. I am also going to put efforts into starting that improvised music group at Western.
Ok, too much time typing on the computer... back to work!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
YAY HAPPY HAPPY!
I spent today finishing and connecting the second song of the autumn cycle. I was almost ready to send it to the singer this afternoon, but I waited and printed it out at the university. Good thing, I managed to show it to a percussionist and got the blessing. Then I noticed that I had forgotten about dynamics - so I did that this evening! I treat dynamics as formal structure, so I use them to reinforce the structure, which is best done once everything else has been completed.
It took a fair bit of time, but tonight I integrated the addition of dynamics and the final edit!
I have now finished my commission! I had a great talk with the singer tonight and I explained everything to her and now it's basically in her hands! I'm certainly willing to make edits if needed, and answer any questions, but I've fulfilled my side of the project!
I feel really good - not just to be finished this project, but it really came together and over the last few days.
The celebration has to be short lived, in fact, it is now over. I will end this post and get back to work on my Piano Trio.
I hope that this week will be just as productive and rewarding as things have been wrapping up the song cycle!
I spent today finishing and connecting the second song of the autumn cycle. I was almost ready to send it to the singer this afternoon, but I waited and printed it out at the university. Good thing, I managed to show it to a percussionist and got the blessing. Then I noticed that I had forgotten about dynamics - so I did that this evening! I treat dynamics as formal structure, so I use them to reinforce the structure, which is best done once everything else has been completed.
It took a fair bit of time, but tonight I integrated the addition of dynamics and the final edit!
I have now finished my commission! I had a great talk with the singer tonight and I explained everything to her and now it's basically in her hands! I'm certainly willing to make edits if needed, and answer any questions, but I've fulfilled my side of the project!
I feel really good - not just to be finished this project, but it really came together and over the last few days.
The celebration has to be short lived, in fact, it is now over. I will end this post and get back to work on my Piano Trio.
I hope that this week will be just as productive and rewarding as things have been wrapping up the song cycle!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Life is busy and intense!
2 more days to finish my song cycle. I will get it done on time. I have the two poems entered into the computer and they are put together, right now I am fixing them so that a)they make sense with each other and 2) they flow seamlessly from one into the other. I was at a block where they were both almost finished, but I couldn't quite seal the deal - now that they are together, the problems that they each faced are finding solutions in their new surroundings. The process is quite exciting, but I wish I had reached this place a little earlier.
In conclusion, I'm excited for Friday when I will send this piece to the singer and percussionist and be done with it, barring any problems.
One week and 2 days until I need to have my Piano Trio finished. I will get it done on time. I was feeling very frustrated about the process as I felt I had no idea of the direction in which to head. I thought I was going to need my prof to help me decide on what material to use and tell me what to do. Apparently I had almost everything in place. He helped me to see the architecture which I had already sculpted, without being blatantly aware of it. He only made one truly creative suggestion which I will take and then, in the interest of time running short, he recommended the order in which I should work on the tasks which remain. In other words, this weekend, I will be working a)to the deadline and 2)to my own personal limits and beyond.
Deadlines are such a different thing between piano and composition. I like it better in comp, because the deadline is hard and tangible, whereas, with learning music for a performance, the work has to be done more beforehand.
The rumour has not been hardcore verified, but the word on the street is that Ontario is covering pumps up to the age of 25. Therefore, I should be able to get a pump covered! That's the big thing, the thousands of dollars that they cost. The monthly costs of insulin and the needles for that will be covered by university insurance, and I know that they are covered in Manitoba so if the rumour proves true, I feel confident in that decision!
Nevertheless, I won't get excited yet. I need to get through the next week and a half!
In conclusion, I'm excited for Friday when I will send this piece to the singer and percussionist and be done with it, barring any problems.
One week and 2 days until I need to have my Piano Trio finished. I will get it done on time. I was feeling very frustrated about the process as I felt I had no idea of the direction in which to head. I thought I was going to need my prof to help me decide on what material to use and tell me what to do. Apparently I had almost everything in place. He helped me to see the architecture which I had already sculpted, without being blatantly aware of it. He only made one truly creative suggestion which I will take and then, in the interest of time running short, he recommended the order in which I should work on the tasks which remain. In other words, this weekend, I will be working a)to the deadline and 2)to my own personal limits and beyond.
Deadlines are such a different thing between piano and composition. I like it better in comp, because the deadline is hard and tangible, whereas, with learning music for a performance, the work has to be done more beforehand.
The rumour has not been hardcore verified, but the word on the street is that Ontario is covering pumps up to the age of 25. Therefore, I should be able to get a pump covered! That's the big thing, the thousands of dollars that they cost. The monthly costs of insulin and the needles for that will be covered by university insurance, and I know that they are covered in Manitoba so if the rumour proves true, I feel confident in that decision!
Nevertheless, I won't get excited yet. I need to get through the next week and a half!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
I voiced some of my concerns in an email to a friend in the diabetes field here in Ontario and I received a response that said she wanted to talk to me, and that she might have some good news for me. Sometime after the weekend we will talk and, well I will shush up until then at least.
I realized today when I went to chop up my onion, that I had no onion. The grocery service forgot my onion. Brilliant on their part, but I'm not sure if I'll give them the satisfaction. I sent an email and they credited me with the cost of the onion. Somehow, their mistake costs me about a buck, but it almost guarantees them a repeat customer. I don't think it's worth it, I'll be going to the actual grocery store on my own.
My roommate seems really happy with the service. I guess there are lots of pros, but theres something too sterile about the process. If I continue to use it, I might find other ways to become a complete hermit, and while I don't mind hermiting over the weekends, I think it could damage me if it were a more permanent thing.
I've ignored commentary on my piano trio for a while - partially because no work was getting done, and partially because I wasn't sure what I would even say.
I had thought I was very close to a finished product before the break, but I was redirected to write a completely new piano trio. I brought the new version to my last lesson - now it is time to pick parts of both and mix them together. I knew I was going to be doing this in the end, but it hasn't made the process any easier.
And by 'easier' I don't mean in terms of general difficulty, I mean emotionally. Not that this is a huge thing, but I think we (or just me) get attached to the things we create-in the state that we created them. It's one thing to edit a piece and make changes here and there, even big changes are fine, but this is taking the elements of the original and tearing them apart. We lose that emotional attachment, not that we have to the music, but that the music has to it's own surroundings. If I think of my musical construction as a representation of how I relate to the world around me, as I sometimes do, then I am basically uprooting myself.
Anyway, I'm not so haughty to claim that the first version was the best and I'm going to ruin what I had; and I'm actually quite excited to go through this process, but it seems to have more weight than I would have imagined.
Once I finish inputting the newer version into the computer, I will print it out and then literally sit with the papers and cut them up into chunks and bits and then paste them together into something new and exciting!
I realized today when I went to chop up my onion, that I had no onion. The grocery service forgot my onion. Brilliant on their part, but I'm not sure if I'll give them the satisfaction. I sent an email and they credited me with the cost of the onion. Somehow, their mistake costs me about a buck, but it almost guarantees them a repeat customer. I don't think it's worth it, I'll be going to the actual grocery store on my own.
My roommate seems really happy with the service. I guess there are lots of pros, but theres something too sterile about the process. If I continue to use it, I might find other ways to become a complete hermit, and while I don't mind hermiting over the weekends, I think it could damage me if it were a more permanent thing.
I've ignored commentary on my piano trio for a while - partially because no work was getting done, and partially because I wasn't sure what I would even say.
I had thought I was very close to a finished product before the break, but I was redirected to write a completely new piano trio. I brought the new version to my last lesson - now it is time to pick parts of both and mix them together. I knew I was going to be doing this in the end, but it hasn't made the process any easier.
And by 'easier' I don't mean in terms of general difficulty, I mean emotionally. Not that this is a huge thing, but I think we (or just me) get attached to the things we create-in the state that we created them. It's one thing to edit a piece and make changes here and there, even big changes are fine, but this is taking the elements of the original and tearing them apart. We lose that emotional attachment, not that we have to the music, but that the music has to it's own surroundings. If I think of my musical construction as a representation of how I relate to the world around me, as I sometimes do, then I am basically uprooting myself.
Anyway, I'm not so haughty to claim that the first version was the best and I'm going to ruin what I had; and I'm actually quite excited to go through this process, but it seems to have more weight than I would have imagined.
Once I finish inputting the newer version into the computer, I will print it out and then literally sit with the papers and cut them up into chunks and bits and then paste them together into something new and exciting!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Zippidy-doo, time just flies by at lightening speed these days.
I don't like Ontario's health coverage. Manitoba is great in comparison.
Let's take a look at the basic concepts of diabetes that have been around for a long long time. Diabetics need insulin and a method of getting that insulin into their body. In order to lessen the randomness of diabetes management, diabetics monitor their blood sugar levels.
For my entire life as a diabetic, these facts have been a given and the government of Manitoba has provided me with basic access to Insulin, Needles, and Testing Supplies. I understand that the higher end versions of any of these key elements or beyond are not base-definition:Necessary and I accept that there has to be a minimum standard of care taken as a baseline.
I had been excited about Ontario's health coverage because I know they subsidize, if not completely cover, the cost of insulin pumps for children under 18 - a forward pushing initiative which is far beyond the baseline standards of even Manitoba.
This is why I was surprised and not pleased to find out that needles are not included in Ontario's basic coverage. The pharmacist told me that according to the government, needles are not considered a 'drug'. Upon asking for the distinction of a drug and a non-drug, I was told that drugs are those things that are deemed necessary
That is RIDICULOUS!
Without needles, I die. There is no other way of getting the insulin into my body. Even if I could lather and douse myself with insulin to try to absorb it through osmosis, how would I even get the drug out of the bottle?!? Not without a needle, I couldn't!
Before the break, I actually went to the office to get my Ontario health card, but I didn't have a passport so I planned on doing it later. I'm glad I did - now I will do some more research and most likely conclude the the added paperwork will be worth it if I remain a Manitoba resident for Health Care.
I don't like Ontario's health coverage. Manitoba is great in comparison.
Let's take a look at the basic concepts of diabetes that have been around for a long long time. Diabetics need insulin and a method of getting that insulin into their body. In order to lessen the randomness of diabetes management, diabetics monitor their blood sugar levels.
For my entire life as a diabetic, these facts have been a given and the government of Manitoba has provided me with basic access to Insulin, Needles, and Testing Supplies. I understand that the higher end versions of any of these key elements or beyond are not base-definition:Necessary and I accept that there has to be a minimum standard of care taken as a baseline.
I had been excited about Ontario's health coverage because I know they subsidize, if not completely cover, the cost of insulin pumps for children under 18 - a forward pushing initiative which is far beyond the baseline standards of even Manitoba.
This is why I was surprised and not pleased to find out that needles are not included in Ontario's basic coverage. The pharmacist told me that according to the government, needles are not considered a 'drug'. Upon asking for the distinction of a drug and a non-drug, I was told that drugs are those things that are deemed necessary
That is RIDICULOUS!
Without needles, I die. There is no other way of getting the insulin into my body. Even if I could lather and douse myself with insulin to try to absorb it through osmosis, how would I even get the drug out of the bottle?!? Not without a needle, I couldn't!
Before the break, I actually went to the office to get my Ontario health card, but I didn't have a passport so I planned on doing it later. I'm glad I did - now I will do some more research and most likely conclude the the added paperwork will be worth it if I remain a Manitoba resident for Health Care.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
It's been a busy week. This whole week, I have had classes or a meeting or something every morning- what a contrast to last term.
Orchestration is now out of the way, at least the first term project. The reading went fine and I learnt a fair deal from it. The conductor was good enough to make a bunch of markings in my score of some general things. Overall, the prof seemed quite pleased with the way our projects turned out.
This term, I have an academic course which involves prep time between classes as it is a seminar. Also, the weekly workload for Electro has increased as we learn a new program and need to do a bunch of tutorials for that program each week. In other words, NOW I am experiencing grad school.
Current Projects:
The Autumn Song Cycle is over 50% finished and submitted. I sent the first song to the singer last night and went over all the details so she can get started on learning it. I have pretty much exactly a week to get the other song (2 poems combined) finished.
The Piano Trio is coming along. I had a lesson the other day and I actually had stuff written and he looked the whole thing over. It was pretty much just a detailed sketch, but he felt it was much closer to completion than I thought. My task for this week is to pick and choose the elements from the two versions that I want to combine. My plan of attack is to do this with scissors! I need to input the second version into the computer first, then I'll print it out and then cut it up and decide which segments are worth using.
Tomorrow, I have a meeting with the other of the two available prospective thesis advisers. I haven't met him yet because he has been on sabbatical, so I have no idea how things will go. Nevertheless, I will stay optimistic until the end!
My roommate discovered one of these grocery delivery services. I looked it up and the delivery charge was only 6bucks and the prices seemed reasonable, so I'm giving it a try. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's easier for me to be organized. I always forget something and the list is never complete, but at least here, I do the shopping in my house so I just run back and forth between the kitchen and the computer and I feel very organized. At the same time, I'm not going to be getting my PC points for groceries if I do this. Anyway, the groceries will come tomorrow evening and I'll see how satisfied with it. Then I'll see if I want to do it again then next time I need groceries.
Ok, bitch time - The damned Liquor Mart (LCBO) that I went to yesterday was only open til 6pm and I was there at 6:30. What the heck?!? I want to buy vodka and Kahlua so I can make paralysers- I need milk anyway, so I have to wait for tomorrow evening anyway, but still!
Orchestration is now out of the way, at least the first term project. The reading went fine and I learnt a fair deal from it. The conductor was good enough to make a bunch of markings in my score of some general things. Overall, the prof seemed quite pleased with the way our projects turned out.
This term, I have an academic course which involves prep time between classes as it is a seminar. Also, the weekly workload for Electro has increased as we learn a new program and need to do a bunch of tutorials for that program each week. In other words, NOW I am experiencing grad school.
Current Projects:
The Autumn Song Cycle is over 50% finished and submitted. I sent the first song to the singer last night and went over all the details so she can get started on learning it. I have pretty much exactly a week to get the other song (2 poems combined) finished.
The Piano Trio is coming along. I had a lesson the other day and I actually had stuff written and he looked the whole thing over. It was pretty much just a detailed sketch, but he felt it was much closer to completion than I thought. My task for this week is to pick and choose the elements from the two versions that I want to combine. My plan of attack is to do this with scissors! I need to input the second version into the computer first, then I'll print it out and then cut it up and decide which segments are worth using.
Tomorrow, I have a meeting with the other of the two available prospective thesis advisers. I haven't met him yet because he has been on sabbatical, so I have no idea how things will go. Nevertheless, I will stay optimistic until the end!
My roommate discovered one of these grocery delivery services. I looked it up and the delivery charge was only 6bucks and the prices seemed reasonable, so I'm giving it a try. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's easier for me to be organized. I always forget something and the list is never complete, but at least here, I do the shopping in my house so I just run back and forth between the kitchen and the computer and I feel very organized. At the same time, I'm not going to be getting my PC points for groceries if I do this. Anyway, the groceries will come tomorrow evening and I'll see how satisfied with it. Then I'll see if I want to do it again then next time I need groceries.
Ok, bitch time - The damned Liquor Mart (LCBO) that I went to yesterday was only open til 6pm and I was there at 6:30. What the heck?!? I want to buy vodka and Kahlua so I can make paralysers- I need milk anyway, so I have to wait for tomorrow evening anyway, but still!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Inspection notice
I got a notice in my mailbox today letting me know that the cable is live in our apartment so we should call and pay them in order to avoid disconnection and reconnection fee.
Pish Posh!
If they disconnect it, then I'm sure we'll miss it, but we can watch most things online anyway and I'll be honest, I'll probably be more productive if there's no television here.
Update, I plugged the phone into the wall to see if there was still a dial tone... there sure is!
To clarify, if my roommate and I had been cheap and not paid for anything besides rent and hydro, we would had nearly half a year of free cable, borrowed wireless Internet from our neighbours who don't secure their networks, and a telephone line with a bill that goes to who-knows-where.
Now we just play the waiting game and watch our television until they disconnect us.
New Topic!
Last night, I dreamt of the piece I am writing for piano trio. Literally, I dreamt of the score, but nothing tangible. I don't 'hear' music unless I consciously hum it inside my head so it wasn't like I heard the final piece and I'm now madly writing it down; I can't even very well describe the experience as I had it. I just experienced the score from various perspectives.
I woke up and started writing. The dream didn't tell me new material to write, rather it allowed me to look at the material I had already written and continue along that path without all the painstaking thinking I was doing late last night. Perhaps the dream was a continuation of that line of thinking I was attempting last night.
My prof told me that he describes his way of composing as looking at an image through frosted glass; it thaws out slowly and you start to see more of the picture the longer you work on it.
My experience is similar, maybe I'll describe it as working on a jigsaw puzzle through frosted glass - I have a concept of the piece as a whole, but I can't put it into words or notes. I make conscious choices as I go along. With each decision I see, I see a little more of how it fits into the whole and that helps me to make further decisions.
Accordingly, last night, my puzzle thawed itself out quite a bit and I can now work more efficiently with the decisions I have made, which in turn will make the coming decisions make more sense.
Pish Posh!
If they disconnect it, then I'm sure we'll miss it, but we can watch most things online anyway and I'll be honest, I'll probably be more productive if there's no television here.
Update, I plugged the phone into the wall to see if there was still a dial tone... there sure is!
To clarify, if my roommate and I had been cheap and not paid for anything besides rent and hydro, we would had nearly half a year of free cable, borrowed wireless Internet from our neighbours who don't secure their networks, and a telephone line with a bill that goes to who-knows-where.
Now we just play the waiting game and watch our television until they disconnect us.
New Topic!
Last night, I dreamt of the piece I am writing for piano trio. Literally, I dreamt of the score, but nothing tangible. I don't 'hear' music unless I consciously hum it inside my head so it wasn't like I heard the final piece and I'm now madly writing it down; I can't even very well describe the experience as I had it. I just experienced the score from various perspectives.
I woke up and started writing. The dream didn't tell me new material to write, rather it allowed me to look at the material I had already written and continue along that path without all the painstaking thinking I was doing late last night. Perhaps the dream was a continuation of that line of thinking I was attempting last night.
My prof told me that he describes his way of composing as looking at an image through frosted glass; it thaws out slowly and you start to see more of the picture the longer you work on it.
My experience is similar, maybe I'll describe it as working on a jigsaw puzzle through frosted glass - I have a concept of the piece as a whole, but I can't put it into words or notes. I make conscious choices as I go along. With each decision I see, I see a little more of how it fits into the whole and that helps me to make further decisions.
Accordingly, last night, my puzzle thawed itself out quite a bit and I can now work more efficiently with the decisions I have made, which in turn will make the coming decisions make more sense.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Electro prof gave a quick look over our scores that we submitted today in class and he seemed quite pleased.
He was the same prof that I talked to yesterday about my thesis project; he is a potential adviser. We talked about some of the perceived concerns that I've had and he seems to think that there is nothing really that would stand in my way of doing the dance collaboration project. I have a meeting set up with the other potential adviser for next week and hopefully that will go just as well. It was really good to talk about some of the expectations of the thesis project and the process.
I'll be honest; I did not end up making the best use of my extra time that I had by finishing those projects somewhat early. I've had some creative spurts, but nothing too extravagant- I guess I'm at square one for the weekend. I hung out with some of the other composers today and it seems that everyone is in the same scenario. Orchestral readings are coming up, both for our class and the thesis pieces as well as any variety of other projects that people have on the go. It was really nice to sit and talk with my colleagues in the midst of the business; I got the impression that we were all happy to revel in the conglomerate stress of this time of year. The general plan for the weekend was to be hermits and only emerge victoriously on Monday morning.
And now, it's time to be a hermit.
He was the same prof that I talked to yesterday about my thesis project; he is a potential adviser. We talked about some of the perceived concerns that I've had and he seems to think that there is nothing really that would stand in my way of doing the dance collaboration project. I have a meeting set up with the other potential adviser for next week and hopefully that will go just as well. It was really good to talk about some of the expectations of the thesis project and the process.
I'll be honest; I did not end up making the best use of my extra time that I had by finishing those projects somewhat early. I've had some creative spurts, but nothing too extravagant- I guess I'm at square one for the weekend. I hung out with some of the other composers today and it seems that everyone is in the same scenario. Orchestral readings are coming up, both for our class and the thesis pieces as well as any variety of other projects that people have on the go. It was really nice to sit and talk with my colleagues in the midst of the business; I got the impression that we were all happy to revel in the conglomerate stress of this time of year. The general plan for the weekend was to be hermits and only emerge victoriously on Monday morning.
And now, it's time to be a hermit.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Okedoke,
I took my orchestration scores to school today with plans of getting them bound and handing them in. I decided that I should wait and bind my Electro score at the same time. I came home to print it out in the early afternoon. It took me more time than I expected to tidy up the score, due to Photoshop battles, but I got it done. Then I convinced myself that I should do my parts photocopying while waiting for the binding.... that seriously took me HOURS to tidy up all the parts and print them out so I could take them to photocopy them onto big paper.
Long story short, it was after 8 before I got home. I had my first Kinko's experience and generally it went pretty well. The binding is KILLING me, so damned expensive.. to think that I was able to do it myself, and for free at the ballet....
ANYWAY, moral of this story is that I am finished with Electro and Orchestration, for now. I might be completely finished with Orchestration; we are meeting on Tuesday (a day before the reading) to edit and search for mistakes. If we find them, I'll have to reprint and whatnot to the effected parts.
For now, I'll assume that everything is perfect with everything, thus freeing myself up to working on my compositions!
My meeting with the singer was great. She helped me clear up one wishy-washy notation thing and gave me very good feedback, I was also able to show the piece to a percussionist. She pointed out that one thing was just impossible - I had misjudged the size and span of the Marimba.... it's freaking HUGE! Nevertheless, there is a simple suggestion - the singer will play the wind chimes in one tricky little area!
I'm going to ignore that piece for a few days because it's pretty much done - I'll come back in a few days and make edits and then send it off to the performers so they can get started on it.
I feel very good about my productivity lately! It's Wednesday evening and I'm all ready to start on the weekend I thought I would only be able to get to on Friday.
I took my orchestration scores to school today with plans of getting them bound and handing them in. I decided that I should wait and bind my Electro score at the same time. I came home to print it out in the early afternoon. It took me more time than I expected to tidy up the score, due to Photoshop battles, but I got it done. Then I convinced myself that I should do my parts photocopying while waiting for the binding.... that seriously took me HOURS to tidy up all the parts and print them out so I could take them to photocopy them onto big paper.
Long story short, it was after 8 before I got home. I had my first Kinko's experience and generally it went pretty well. The binding is KILLING me, so damned expensive.. to think that I was able to do it myself, and for free at the ballet....
ANYWAY, moral of this story is that I am finished with Electro and Orchestration, for now. I might be completely finished with Orchestration; we are meeting on Tuesday (a day before the reading) to edit and search for mistakes. If we find them, I'll have to reprint and whatnot to the effected parts.
For now, I'll assume that everything is perfect with everything, thus freeing myself up to working on my compositions!
My meeting with the singer was great. She helped me clear up one wishy-washy notation thing and gave me very good feedback, I was also able to show the piece to a percussionist. She pointed out that one thing was just impossible - I had misjudged the size and span of the Marimba.... it's freaking HUGE! Nevertheless, there is a simple suggestion - the singer will play the wind chimes in one tricky little area!
I'm going to ignore that piece for a few days because it's pretty much done - I'll come back in a few days and make edits and then send it off to the performers so they can get started on it.
I feel very good about my productivity lately! It's Wednesday evening and I'm all ready to start on the weekend I thought I would only be able to get to on Friday.
Monday, January 14, 2008
So, that weekend just flew by in the blink of an eye...
Here's the update on assignments for this week:
Orchestration is pretty much done, save the act of printing and organizing parts. Conclusion - I'm glad this isn't 30 years ago or whenever things all had to be done by hand, I wouldn't have the patience for it. I barely have the patience for it now... For Thurs/Friday, I need to have the score to the conductor - so all I need to do is buy 8.5*11 paper and then print it out and get it bound - that much I can handle. The rest of the printing and part prep work will take place over the weekend and into next week, I have a week tomorrow to get that all done. I think I can say that I have everything under control for that.
Electro - I need to finish up my score and get it printed/bound for Friday, I'll do that together with the Orchestration Score. I also need to do some reading for Max MSP and do some tutorials as part of my weekly course work - I'll try to do that tomorrow.
With those two major things out of the way, the weekend will still be just as busy, but even more focused on what remains:
Piano Trio - I really haven't written anything since before the break. I feel awful about it, so now is the time to make it up. My creative slump is now over, so it's time I apply that to this piece. My longstanding task was to write something completely new for trio - I have lots of ideas and pitch/melodic material that I've generated this past week, now I need to turn it into something. I'm thinking it is going to be contrapuntal in nature, which will most likely expose my weaknesses, haha! I've been trying to do little bits of work on it along with everything else, but I totally prioritize based on what is most urgent time-wise, so the trio is suffering. Nevertheless, over the weekend, it will rise sharply in the priority ranking.
[Now that I think of it, I should get the orchestral parts out of the way before the weekend so I can be focused.]
Autumn Song Cycle. The last poem is in a state of finality. I finished composing the vocal line to the percussion parts, which have been finished for a while now, and while changes are bound to take place, it is close enough to being finished that I can justify setting it aside while I work on the other 2 poems. One of the two remaining poems has the vocal line completely composed, waiting for the glockenspiel accompaniment to be finished, while the last poem needs a healthy dose of EVERYTHING! I am meeting with a singer friend with a very similar voice type to the singer friend for whom the pieces are being written tomorrow to go over some things. I know that everything is possible and singable; tomorrow will tell me if anything is awkward/unidiomatic. Moreso, it will give me something tangible to hear - and even try some things with. I can test out some accompaniment things for the poem which needs the glockenspiel accompaniment.
Over the break, I did a lot of fence sitting in regards to thoughts about my thesis - I got an email from the choreographer which helped put me in a more go-get'em mood about the whole thing. I will be seeing her tomorrow; I think she is having a rehearsal with the dancers who would be in my piece and I'm going to go watch / maybe play some piano for/with them. Also, I have a meeting with a potential thesis adviser later this week. Some of my worries were brought up by the department head, but I need to talk to profs in my area in order to either dispel or affirm those worries.
That is a brief glimpse into what I have going on for me these days. I'm very excited for Feb 8'th after my Trio is submitted, then all of these things (except the last paragraph) will be done and finished. Heck, even after Jan 22'nd, 2 of the things will be gone!
Here's the update on assignments for this week:
Orchestration is pretty much done, save the act of printing and organizing parts. Conclusion - I'm glad this isn't 30 years ago or whenever things all had to be done by hand, I wouldn't have the patience for it. I barely have the patience for it now... For Thurs/Friday, I need to have the score to the conductor - so all I need to do is buy 8.5*11 paper and then print it out and get it bound - that much I can handle. The rest of the printing and part prep work will take place over the weekend and into next week, I have a week tomorrow to get that all done. I think I can say that I have everything under control for that.
Electro - I need to finish up my score and get it printed/bound for Friday, I'll do that together with the Orchestration Score. I also need to do some reading for Max MSP and do some tutorials as part of my weekly course work - I'll try to do that tomorrow.
With those two major things out of the way, the weekend will still be just as busy, but even more focused on what remains:
Piano Trio - I really haven't written anything since before the break. I feel awful about it, so now is the time to make it up. My creative slump is now over, so it's time I apply that to this piece. My longstanding task was to write something completely new for trio - I have lots of ideas and pitch/melodic material that I've generated this past week, now I need to turn it into something. I'm thinking it is going to be contrapuntal in nature, which will most likely expose my weaknesses, haha! I've been trying to do little bits of work on it along with everything else, but I totally prioritize based on what is most urgent time-wise, so the trio is suffering. Nevertheless, over the weekend, it will rise sharply in the priority ranking.
[Now that I think of it, I should get the orchestral parts out of the way before the weekend so I can be focused.]
Autumn Song Cycle. The last poem is in a state of finality. I finished composing the vocal line to the percussion parts, which have been finished for a while now, and while changes are bound to take place, it is close enough to being finished that I can justify setting it aside while I work on the other 2 poems. One of the two remaining poems has the vocal line completely composed, waiting for the glockenspiel accompaniment to be finished, while the last poem needs a healthy dose of EVERYTHING! I am meeting with a singer friend with a very similar voice type to the singer friend for whom the pieces are being written tomorrow to go over some things. I know that everything is possible and singable; tomorrow will tell me if anything is awkward/unidiomatic. Moreso, it will give me something tangible to hear - and even try some things with. I can test out some accompaniment things for the poem which needs the glockenspiel accompaniment.
Over the break, I did a lot of fence sitting in regards to thoughts about my thesis - I got an email from the choreographer which helped put me in a more go-get'em mood about the whole thing. I will be seeing her tomorrow; I think she is having a rehearsal with the dancers who would be in my piece and I'm going to go watch / maybe play some piano for/with them. Also, I have a meeting with a potential thesis adviser later this week. Some of my worries were brought up by the department head, but I need to talk to profs in my area in order to either dispel or affirm those worries.
That is a brief glimpse into what I have going on for me these days. I'm very excited for Feb 8'th after my Trio is submitted, then all of these things (except the last paragraph) will be done and finished. Heck, even after Jan 22'nd, 2 of the things will be gone!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Talk about irony!
This afternoon, there was a major power outage at the university, the power was out for well over an hour and a half.
How do I know this? Because I was in class while it happened - all of a sudden, the lights went out and the speakers crackled as their life source was harshly wrought from them. After waiting a few minutes, we decided it was a lost cause and we huddled around my prof's laptop for the remains of the lecture (one of the benefits of small class size).
After the class, thinking of all the academic classes that were probably let go after a short waiting period, I thought it delightfully ironic that my class continued. If there was one class you would expect to be cancelled in the case of a power outage, it would be mine:
ELECTROacoustic music.
But no, we continued and learnt!
We learnt that even a Mac with only 40% power can last longer than my laptop when it has 100% of it's supposed battery-life.
How do I know this? Because I was in class while it happened - all of a sudden, the lights went out and the speakers crackled as their life source was harshly wrought from them. After waiting a few minutes, we decided it was a lost cause and we huddled around my prof's laptop for the remains of the lecture (one of the benefits of small class size).
After the class, thinking of all the academic classes that were probably let go after a short waiting period, I thought it delightfully ironic that my class continued. If there was one class you would expect to be cancelled in the case of a power outage, it would be mine:
ELECTROacoustic music.
But no, we continued and learnt!
We learnt that even a Mac with only 40% power can last longer than my laptop when it has 100% of it's supposed battery-life.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Is the internet slowing down/thinning out, or is it just me?
I used to be able to procrastinate for hours with blogs and facebook, but it seems that when I am in need of some distraction, those sources are empty. It was once the case that I would have needed to visit facebook every quarter hour to keep on top of all the 'news'; now, half a day can go by and there still won't be anything new to update me on.
There are two possibilities: 1) that I have become hyper-efficient at checking everything so that it just seems like things are thinning out. or 2)People are actually being less active on the internet.
I think it is both. I am terribly efficient. I have my homepage set to Bloglines - a blog feed organizer that tells me when people have or haven't updated their blogs - this way I only have to load the pages of those who have updated. Before this, I regularly visited about 13 blogs a day. That still didn't take much time, as I would recognize that there was no change.
It could be that there is a lull in people's activity online - I have noticed that I'm getting fewer and fewer emails, more junk mail, but less actual email.
Most importantly, people have almost completely stopped commenting, except for my absolute favourite reader who comments SO regularly, she is also one of the few consistently updated blogs which I frequent - Thanks Mai!!!
Ok, now some posting with substance. Over the last few days, there's been a change. I've had some kind of writer's block for over a month, I think it was building over all of last term. Anyway, last night and today, I've been writing lots. It's not excessively nor simply pouring out of me, but it has a flow that I've been missing. I'm glad to have it back. I'm also interested to see if things have changed in other areas: For quite a while, improvising has been bland, if existent at all; also, I have not been emotionally moved by music in quite a while. Long story short, with all the symptoms I've listed in some form or another, I think I'm coming out of some sort of mild depression. I don't want to jinx this refound creative outburst, so I'll just say that I feel that things are on an upswing right now!
And what perfect timing...
There are two possibilities: 1) that I have become hyper-efficient at checking everything so that it just seems like things are thinning out. or 2)People are actually being less active on the internet.
I think it is both. I am terribly efficient. I have my homepage set to Bloglines - a blog feed organizer that tells me when people have or haven't updated their blogs - this way I only have to load the pages of those who have updated. Before this, I regularly visited about 13 blogs a day. That still didn't take much time, as I would recognize that there was no change.
It could be that there is a lull in people's activity online - I have noticed that I'm getting fewer and fewer emails, more junk mail, but less actual email.
Most importantly, people have almost completely stopped commenting, except for my absolute favourite reader who comments SO regularly, she is also one of the few consistently updated blogs which I frequent - Thanks Mai!!!
Ok, now some posting with substance. Over the last few days, there's been a change. I've had some kind of writer's block for over a month, I think it was building over all of last term. Anyway, last night and today, I've been writing lots. It's not excessively nor simply pouring out of me, but it has a flow that I've been missing. I'm glad to have it back. I'm also interested to see if things have changed in other areas: For quite a while, improvising has been bland, if existent at all; also, I have not been emotionally moved by music in quite a while. Long story short, with all the symptoms I've listed in some form or another, I think I'm coming out of some sort of mild depression. I don't want to jinx this refound creative outburst, so I'll just say that I feel that things are on an upswing right now!
And what perfect timing...
Monday, January 07, 2008
Moderate Sadness
I got an email tonight saying that my SSHRC application was not sent on to the national level. Apparently the whole university can only send 53 (+5 alternatives) applications forward to the national level, so I'm not surprised that out of the thousands of Grad Students here, I am not one of those. Especially looking at those numbers, I'm really not surprised, but I'm still disappointed. That extra 5 grand would have been really nice...
Currently, I'm still in the running for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, which would also be an improvement on funding for next year, though not quite as prestigious or lucrative. No matter what, I will still get the same funding from Western next year as I did for this year, I'm just hoping to get a little more.
Today I was officially back to classes. Teaching went well, I had a good first class back - not only was I on time, but I had time to do all my prepwork (photocopying) for the term. I hate photocopiers and I can't really use them!! My students only mildly mocked me for the packets whose pages faced different directions and had a blank cover page.... but I wasn't going to spend 10 minutes putting each packet back in proper order -they had all (most) of the information in them!
Orchestration was interesting and useful today, although we didn't look at either of our work that we've done over the break... We talked quite a bit about the practical side of score preparation - who needs which markings, what information is necessary, even what type/size of paper we should print on. It was incredibly useful information that we will put into good use. We've decided that we'll treat the performance as a presentation after which we will have a seminar/defence of our work. This means we will get to criticize each other, it will be fun!
Currently, I'm still in the running for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, which would also be an improvement on funding for next year, though not quite as prestigious or lucrative. No matter what, I will still get the same funding from Western next year as I did for this year, I'm just hoping to get a little more.
Today I was officially back to classes. Teaching went well, I had a good first class back - not only was I on time, but I had time to do all my prepwork (photocopying) for the term. I hate photocopiers and I can't really use them!! My students only mildly mocked me for the packets whose pages faced different directions and had a blank cover page.... but I wasn't going to spend 10 minutes putting each packet back in proper order -they had all (most) of the information in them!
Orchestration was interesting and useful today, although we didn't look at either of our work that we've done over the break... We talked quite a bit about the practical side of score preparation - who needs which markings, what information is necessary, even what type/size of paper we should print on. It was incredibly useful information that we will put into good use. We've decided that we'll treat the performance as a presentation after which we will have a seminar/defence of our work. This means we will get to criticize each other, it will be fun!
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Well, it's getting to be Sunday evening. I start back to school tomorrow. I teach bright and early at 9:30 am. I don't have a class list, so I don't know who I will be teaching. I'm also not completely sure of which room I am teaching in.. I was hoping to have that information on my class sheet, but I suppose they don't want me to know that either! I believe there are only 2 possibilities, but I should be able to find out in the morning anyway. I also need to make photocopies of the course outline for the students. Long story short, I have an early morning tomorrow and it will not be pretty. I only woke up before 10/11am twice over the break - once for a meeting with my filmmaker and once for the flight home, ok, also for the drives to and from Thompson, but the point still stands that I mostly slept late!
Now, as the break comes to its close tonight, I should tally things up with my productivity. Numbers-wise, things haven't changed much since the other night. I input my autumn song into the computer, which will save me a lot of time later, so that is good, but I ended up spending my time doing that instead of adding to my creative output.
As I type, I am taking a break from the addition of the text to the autumn song. The process is going well and I expect to be at least close to finished by the end of the evening, if not altogether finished. If I have time, I would like to do some work on my Piano Trio, but I need to make sure it is an early night. I will have all tomorrow afternoon and then more time Tuesday morning to get more work in.
Ok, back at it.
Now, as the break comes to its close tonight, I should tally things up with my productivity. Numbers-wise, things haven't changed much since the other night. I input my autumn song into the computer, which will save me a lot of time later, so that is good, but I ended up spending my time doing that instead of adding to my creative output.
As I type, I am taking a break from the addition of the text to the autumn song. The process is going well and I expect to be at least close to finished by the end of the evening, if not altogether finished. If I have time, I would like to do some work on my Piano Trio, but I need to make sure it is an early night. I will have all tomorrow afternoon and then more time Tuesday morning to get more work in.
Ok, back at it.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Quick status update
As you may remember, over the break I had 4 tasks/projects to do.
After leaving Winnipeg, the dance film commission was done - 25% complete.
As of a few minutes ago, I have finished what I needed to do for my orchestration assignment. I tidied up a whole lot of details and reevaluated many of the decisions I had previously made. Surprisingly, the time I took away from this assignment seems to have done me well. I was able to look at my work with a fresh perspective. I feel that I have not only retained what I learnt in the first term, but it seems to make more sense to me now than it did in early December.
That brings us to a 50% completion rate.
Last night I finished the instrumental / percussion score for one of the autumn songs. My task for tonight is to write the vocal line in conjunction with it. If I am successful, I will be working toward an approximate 60% completion rate.
Then comes the Piano Trio... Both of the commissions I was working on over the break really worked with the layering concept that my prof was talking about before the break. I don't think that I understood that before, but now I think I might. I know that my writers' block was not because I subconsciously didn't want to continue with that material - the block was effecting other areas of creativity... the reason why I didn't get anything done in the first bit of the break. I'll attribute it to the stress of the end of term.
Anyway, I want to continue with the concept of layering that I explored over the break, and I think that I'll be able to successfully use it in my piano trio piece. That will take place on Sunday and Monday.
Ok, no more blogging today... except to give a progress report on my completion rate later tonight...
On to productivity!
After leaving Winnipeg, the dance film commission was done - 25% complete.
As of a few minutes ago, I have finished what I needed to do for my orchestration assignment. I tidied up a whole lot of details and reevaluated many of the decisions I had previously made. Surprisingly, the time I took away from this assignment seems to have done me well. I was able to look at my work with a fresh perspective. I feel that I have not only retained what I learnt in the first term, but it seems to make more sense to me now than it did in early December.
That brings us to a 50% completion rate.
Last night I finished the instrumental / percussion score for one of the autumn songs. My task for tonight is to write the vocal line in conjunction with it. If I am successful, I will be working toward an approximate 60% completion rate.
Then comes the Piano Trio... Both of the commissions I was working on over the break really worked with the layering concept that my prof was talking about before the break. I don't think that I understood that before, but now I think I might. I know that my writers' block was not because I subconsciously didn't want to continue with that material - the block was effecting other areas of creativity... the reason why I didn't get anything done in the first bit of the break. I'll attribute it to the stress of the end of term.
Anyway, I want to continue with the concept of layering that I explored over the break, and I think that I'll be able to successfully use it in my piano trio piece. That will take place on Sunday and Monday.
Ok, no more blogging today... except to give a progress report on my completion rate later tonight...
On to productivity!
My jaw has been getting more and more tense over the past month. It could be one of two things:
A) I'm generally stressed
B) My final adult tooth is not happy where it is
In case I've never mentioned before, B) refers to the fact that on my upper right side of my mouth, one of my molars was a baby tooth until I was 18 years old. At that point, my dentist just ripped it out and told me that it would just come in on its own. He was partially right...
Over the past 6 years, that adult tooth has been moving its was into what I assume will eventually be it's proper resting place. At one point, I went to an orthodontist who told me that the tooth would never move unless I paid thousands of dollars to have my mouth reshaped and the tooth pulled down. While he too was incorrect, years later, if I could have afforded that then, I'd be much happier now.
I'm thinking the tension is due to B.
More recently I've also noticed that I'm having sensitivity in that area, so there is a possibility that either pressure is building on that tooth or one around it, or that tooth is suffering some decay. The tooth has been partially exposed now for at least 4 years and quite honestly, I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least some decay...
In conclusion, I need to get to a dentist... but it's going to be costly. Hopefully it will just show up as a cavity or something that can be easily rectified and then I can just continue letting the tooth shift around. If it turns out to be something more major, I'm very close to the point of just getting it yanked, but then what would I have to do to replace it - a spacer? braces?
Should I go to the University Dental School or to a regular dentist? My coverage through univ. dental plan is 70% of everything, up to $500.
Long story short, I hate teeth.
A) I'm generally stressed
B) My final adult tooth is not happy where it is
In case I've never mentioned before, B) refers to the fact that on my upper right side of my mouth, one of my molars was a baby tooth until I was 18 years old. At that point, my dentist just ripped it out and told me that it would just come in on its own. He was partially right...
Over the past 6 years, that adult tooth has been moving its was into what I assume will eventually be it's proper resting place. At one point, I went to an orthodontist who told me that the tooth would never move unless I paid thousands of dollars to have my mouth reshaped and the tooth pulled down. While he too was incorrect, years later, if I could have afforded that then, I'd be much happier now.
I'm thinking the tension is due to B.
More recently I've also noticed that I'm having sensitivity in that area, so there is a possibility that either pressure is building on that tooth or one around it, or that tooth is suffering some decay. The tooth has been partially exposed now for at least 4 years and quite honestly, I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least some decay...
In conclusion, I need to get to a dentist... but it's going to be costly. Hopefully it will just show up as a cavity or something that can be easily rectified and then I can just continue letting the tooth shift around. If it turns out to be something more major, I'm very close to the point of just getting it yanked, but then what would I have to do to replace it - a spacer? braces?
Should I go to the University Dental School or to a regular dentist? My coverage through univ. dental plan is 70% of everything, up to $500.
Long story short, I hate teeth.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
It's nearly midnight. Considering I will have to wake up for 5:30am tomorrow on account of my ridiculously early flight, I should get to bed soon, but instead I am packing.
So much stuff to pack. I stuffed my bag as full of clothes as I could when I left London, and now I am also taking back Christmas presents. To fit everything, I am taking an extra suitcase with me, but I am down one carry-on because I am taking my violin back with me to London. If my roommate didn't already have reason to hate me, he will now - haha!
Anyway, I don't mind stuffing and cramming my belongings into a suitcase as tight as possible - I love the efficiency of it.
I just wandered away and finished packing - it all fit without much fuss at all. I still have to put in my toiletries tomorrow morning, but that shouldn't be a problem. However, early in the morning, anything can be a problem!
I think I'm about ready for bed.
In conclusion, I had a great Christmas and a wonderful time in Winnipeg. It was great to spend time with so many friends. Now it's back to work. I need to get a LOT of work done before Monday, so wish me well!
So much stuff to pack. I stuffed my bag as full of clothes as I could when I left London, and now I am also taking back Christmas presents. To fit everything, I am taking an extra suitcase with me, but I am down one carry-on because I am taking my violin back with me to London. If my roommate didn't already have reason to hate me, he will now - haha!
Anyway, I don't mind stuffing and cramming my belongings into a suitcase as tight as possible - I love the efficiency of it.
I just wandered away and finished packing - it all fit without much fuss at all. I still have to put in my toiletries tomorrow morning, but that shouldn't be a problem. However, early in the morning, anything can be a problem!
I think I'm about ready for bed.
In conclusion, I had a great Christmas and a wonderful time in Winnipeg. It was great to spend time with so many friends. Now it's back to work. I need to get a LOT of work done before Monday, so wish me well!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Tonight, friends from high school and I finally had our Festivus dinner. It's been years in the making, but finally it happened!
There was a nice spread of food which we ate more as appetizers, never actually sitting and eating at the table.
There was no Festivus pole, and the house was incredibly decorated for Christmas, but we ignored those oversights in the true spirit of the season.
The airing of grievances was superb. We were toying with the idea of not doing it at all because... well, it could easily end badly. In the end, we did it and I'm glad we did. No one went overboard and even the serious ones were stated in an entertaining/lighthearted way. We decided that a true airing of the grievances would be ideal for a family setting, where they are forced by law to love you, regardless of what you say!
The Feats of Strength was not quite as it was described in Seinfeld. Kyle and Vince were the ones to battle, so about half of us went outside to watch - In the end, everyone who was outside ended up being tackled and in the snow!
All in all, Festivus was a resounding success.
There was a nice spread of food which we ate more as appetizers, never actually sitting and eating at the table.
There was no Festivus pole, and the house was incredibly decorated for Christmas, but we ignored those oversights in the true spirit of the season.
The airing of grievances was superb. We were toying with the idea of not doing it at all because... well, it could easily end badly. In the end, we did it and I'm glad we did. No one went overboard and even the serious ones were stated in an entertaining/lighthearted way. We decided that a true airing of the grievances would be ideal for a family setting, where they are forced by law to love you, regardless of what you say!
The Feats of Strength was not quite as it was described in Seinfeld. Kyle and Vince were the ones to battle, so about half of us went outside to watch - In the end, everyone who was outside ended up being tackled and in the snow!
All in all, Festivus was a resounding success.
Happy New Year!
Well, it's a new year today.
I drank last night.
It's been quite a while since I had been that inebriated. I always find it surprising that I never forget my nighttime insulin, no matter how much I drink. Knowing how nasty it would be to have no insulin in your system as well as lots of alcohol, I'm glad that I don't forget.
Still, last night was a little bit hazy and when I awoke this morning, I wasn't quite sure if I had or not, so I went to my bag to look; it wasn't there. Long story short, I left my bag at the party. Without my bag, I wouldn't be able to look at the amount of insulin left to see if I had taken the shot the night before. After a few hours, I could tell by the way my sugars reacted to my short-acting insulin that I had indeed taken my dose. Furthermore, I discovered that my insulin was in my jacket pocket - and it proved my case.
The other point of confusion this morning was my glasses... where were they? Upstairs. When I was living here, I always left them in the same place, on the little table upstairs, but since I've been back, I've always taken them downstairs with me. It's a small detail, I know, but it's closer to what I do in London, representing the fact that this is no longer my home -this is a good thing. It's not that I feel out-of-place here, it's just that things are different.
Anyhoozle, I'm only in Winnipeg for today and tomorrow, then I fly back on Thursday morning. The amount of visiting and socializing I've done has been amazing, but still I wasn't able to see everyone.
I did a big chunk of work on one of the Autumn songs yesterday and I'll do more this afternoon, things are looking promising!
I drank last night.
It's been quite a while since I had been that inebriated. I always find it surprising that I never forget my nighttime insulin, no matter how much I drink. Knowing how nasty it would be to have no insulin in your system as well as lots of alcohol, I'm glad that I don't forget.
Still, last night was a little bit hazy and when I awoke this morning, I wasn't quite sure if I had or not, so I went to my bag to look; it wasn't there. Long story short, I left my bag at the party. Without my bag, I wouldn't be able to look at the amount of insulin left to see if I had taken the shot the night before. After a few hours, I could tell by the way my sugars reacted to my short-acting insulin that I had indeed taken my dose. Furthermore, I discovered that my insulin was in my jacket pocket - and it proved my case.
The other point of confusion this morning was my glasses... where were they? Upstairs. When I was living here, I always left them in the same place, on the little table upstairs, but since I've been back, I've always taken them downstairs with me. It's a small detail, I know, but it's closer to what I do in London, representing the fact that this is no longer my home -this is a good thing. It's not that I feel out-of-place here, it's just that things are different.
Anyhoozle, I'm only in Winnipeg for today and tomorrow, then I fly back on Thursday morning. The amount of visiting and socializing I've done has been amazing, but still I wasn't able to see everyone.
I did a big chunk of work on one of the Autumn songs yesterday and I'll do more this afternoon, things are looking promising!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Ok, finally, after a grueling set of edits and more edits, I am done with the dance film. On Wednesday, I am going to part of the tech run for the show where the film will be premiered(after I've gone back to London), so at least I will have a chance to see the film and music together.
I think that brings my total productivity for this break to 26%, or something like that.
Nevertheless, I still have just over a week before I am back to school, and I have every intention of completing that remaining 74%! Please, someone remind me of that when, in a week's time, I am making up excuses for not having met my quota.
As for my time in Winnipeg, I have something social to do every night from now until I leave. Fortunately, that gives me something of a schedule with which to work. I will work in the morning/afternoon and then socialize in the evening. I think it should be a matter of just not sleeping in too late. Sleeping the days away is really not so good.
Tonight is sushi. Maybe I should have something to eat first, there's only so much sushi I can handle, so I don't want to be hungry later on. Oooh, I have jellybellies!
I think that brings my total productivity for this break to 26%, or something like that.
Nevertheless, I still have just over a week before I am back to school, and I have every intention of completing that remaining 74%! Please, someone remind me of that when, in a week's time, I am making up excuses for not having met my quota.
As for my time in Winnipeg, I have something social to do every night from now until I leave. Fortunately, that gives me something of a schedule with which to work. I will work in the morning/afternoon and then socialize in the evening. I think it should be a matter of just not sleeping in too late. Sleeping the days away is really not so good.
Tonight is sushi. Maybe I should have something to eat first, there's only so much sushi I can handle, so I don't want to be hungry later on. Oooh, I have jellybellies!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Bright and early tomorrow morning, we head back to Winnipeg. It has been a spectacular Christmas. It was nice to spend a bit of time with sister and brother-in-law, dare I say we may have even overstayed our welcome by a day...
Nevertheless, it's been great.
Last night we all gathered into the hot tub with some drinks. Now for the fun part... the hot-tub was OUTSIDE! It was awesome! Gareth and I both dunked out heads completely under the water and within minutes we were sporting iced hair-dos! It was a little nippy on the wet shoulders, but I think we were in there for at least 45 minutes and no one had frostbite or pneumonia.
I'll see what we have planned for tonight, anyway, I won't mind staying up late to finish the Dance Film music, I can sleep for the first 4 hours of the drive tomorrow anyway! If I get it done tonight, GREAT! If I need more time to finish it tomorrow after we get home, that's fine too, I'll still have it done a few days early!
I was the only one to buy something today for boxing day, aside from my mother buying some chocolates from Giant Tiger. It was so different from our normal boxing day experiences. Firstly, we all slept in quite late and were in no rush. It's Thompson, so even though the stores might have been busy, they were nowhere near the madness of Winnipeg's boxing fiestas.
I bought some nice speakers that I can hook up to my laptop, or anything else for that matter. They are quite fancy, with a control interface ON the speaker. Rather than just changing the volume of the speaker, it communicates through USB to the computer or device and changes those settings - ie, it communicates and interacts with the controls in Sibelius!
Nevertheless, it's been great.
Last night we all gathered into the hot tub with some drinks. Now for the fun part... the hot-tub was OUTSIDE! It was awesome! Gareth and I both dunked out heads completely under the water and within minutes we were sporting iced hair-dos! It was a little nippy on the wet shoulders, but I think we were in there for at least 45 minutes and no one had frostbite or pneumonia.
I'll see what we have planned for tonight, anyway, I won't mind staying up late to finish the Dance Film music, I can sleep for the first 4 hours of the drive tomorrow anyway! If I get it done tonight, GREAT! If I need more time to finish it tomorrow after we get home, that's fine too, I'll still have it done a few days early!
I was the only one to buy something today for boxing day, aside from my mother buying some chocolates from Giant Tiger. It was so different from our normal boxing day experiences. Firstly, we all slept in quite late and were in no rush. It's Thompson, so even though the stores might have been busy, they were nowhere near the madness of Winnipeg's boxing fiestas.
I bought some nice speakers that I can hook up to my laptop, or anything else for that matter. They are quite fancy, with a control interface ON the speaker. Rather than just changing the volume of the speaker, it communicates through USB to the computer or device and changes those settings - ie, it communicates and interacts with the controls in Sibelius!
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas in Thompson
Well, the weather actually isn't that bad here. I mean it's cold, but not as bad as I was expecting/fearing.
My sister and her brother have both been working opposite shifts since we got here, but now they're done working. It was nice today that we were finally all together for lunch.
Having the family all together for the holidays is very nice.
The schedule around here has been crazy, last night, my brotherinlaw went to work around 7pm, the rest of us stayed in and watched movies, sister went to bed around 11 cause she worked in the morning. I ended up staying awake until about 5am working on the Christmas music as well as trying to get a fire started. I was awoken by my sister on her way out the door for work. I must have slept through my brotherinlaw coming home, but was awoken again by sister calling the house. Anyway, by the early afternoon, everyone was awake and home from work.
Since people were working, I managed to steal some time away for my own work (ish). I was making the family a Christmas soundscape to make use of the 5.1 surround sound system my sister has up here. I finished that and played it for them today so now that's out of the way.
I had a meeting the other day with my filmmaker and we discussed timings and changes to the score for that. I am now working on those, and unless I run into some huge problem, I will have that done before we drive back to Winnipeg.
I should also try to knock back on of the autumn song cycle poems while I'm up here, that or do some work on the orchestration.
I'm finding that time up here in Thompson has been very relaxing, but at the same time, I can get a fair deal of work done. Good times all around!
It's Christmas Eve Day!!!
I think I actually got all of my shopping done. I tried to be subtle, but it's hard when you are shopping with the people you're shopping for. Anyway, I really hope my sister is surprised. I asked my mom what she wanted, she replied with the thing that I was holding in my hand so I replied "that would be a silly thing to buy for Christmas, you can get that for yourself when you get back to Winnipeg", I felt bad because she looked kinda sad, but I couldn't ruin the surprise! That's what surprises are all about, making people sad so they'll be even happier later on! haha
My sister and her brother have both been working opposite shifts since we got here, but now they're done working. It was nice today that we were finally all together for lunch.
Having the family all together for the holidays is very nice.
The schedule around here has been crazy, last night, my brotherinlaw went to work around 7pm, the rest of us stayed in and watched movies, sister went to bed around 11 cause she worked in the morning. I ended up staying awake until about 5am working on the Christmas music as well as trying to get a fire started. I was awoken by my sister on her way out the door for work. I must have slept through my brotherinlaw coming home, but was awoken again by sister calling the house. Anyway, by the early afternoon, everyone was awake and home from work.
Since people were working, I managed to steal some time away for my own work (ish). I was making the family a Christmas soundscape to make use of the 5.1 surround sound system my sister has up here. I finished that and played it for them today so now that's out of the way.
I had a meeting the other day with my filmmaker and we discussed timings and changes to the score for that. I am now working on those, and unless I run into some huge problem, I will have that done before we drive back to Winnipeg.
I should also try to knock back on of the autumn song cycle poems while I'm up here, that or do some work on the orchestration.
I'm finding that time up here in Thompson has been very relaxing, but at the same time, I can get a fair deal of work done. Good times all around!
It's Christmas Eve Day!!!
I think I actually got all of my shopping done. I tried to be subtle, but it's hard when you are shopping with the people you're shopping for. Anyway, I really hope my sister is surprised. I asked my mom what she wanted, she replied with the thing that I was holding in my hand so I replied "that would be a silly thing to buy for Christmas, you can get that for yourself when you get back to Winnipeg", I felt bad because she looked kinda sad, but I couldn't ruin the surprise! That's what surprises are all about, making people sad so they'll be even happier later on! haha
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Uh Oh,
I sense that opportunities for productivity are dwindling; 2 of my friends arrived back in town in the last day or two, and I would like to see them both before I go to Thompson. Plus, one of my friends got a new puppy, so I have to go play with it this afternoon!
I also have to do my remaining Christmas shopping. I did a good chunk of it online, but I still need to get something for my dad and a few smaller things. My sister also called and asked me to pick something up for her husband's present - basically that's what's kicking my butt to go out and get stuff; my own shopping isn't enough motivation.
Anyway, I hate stores at this time of year, but I'm not organized enough to do the shopping before it gets crazy, so I'll live in my own hell-that's ok. Also, maybe going shopping and managing my time today will force me into productive mode, here's hoping!
I sense that opportunities for productivity are dwindling; 2 of my friends arrived back in town in the last day or two, and I would like to see them both before I go to Thompson. Plus, one of my friends got a new puppy, so I have to go play with it this afternoon!
I also have to do my remaining Christmas shopping. I did a good chunk of it online, but I still need to get something for my dad and a few smaller things. My sister also called and asked me to pick something up for her husband's present - basically that's what's kicking my butt to go out and get stuff; my own shopping isn't enough motivation.
Anyway, I hate stores at this time of year, but I'm not organized enough to do the shopping before it gets crazy, so I'll live in my own hell-that's ok. Also, maybe going shopping and managing my time today will force me into productive mode, here's hoping!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Well, after my last post I DID try to be productive. I went to the university Saturday evening to get some work done. I got a tiny bit written. I just don't understand, it's like I have no creative juice lately. Anyway, I kept taking little breaks here and there wandering around the music building, reminiscing and reading lots of the postings people had outside their doors and whatnot. Long story short, I ended up accidentally setting off a security alarm during one of these wanderings, so I got kicked out of the building. It was late at night and I was done being productive, so it didn't bother me much, but it seemed so silly.
Regardless, I am continuing to try to force the creativity out of myself, little by little. Here's an account of my productivity so far during this break:
Orchestration- Nothing, haven't even opened the file.
Dance Commission - Nothing, waiting on instructions from the director
Voice Commission - I've set the first 2 lines of one of the poems, amounts to 1%
Piano Trio - Nothing
In conclusion, 1 % of one of my projects amounts to 0.25% completion of my December work. And I believe that 55% of the month has passed... Something doesn't quite add up, haha!
Regardless, I am continuing to try to force the creativity out of myself, little by little. Here's an account of my productivity so far during this break:
Orchestration- Nothing, haven't even opened the file.
Dance Commission - Nothing, waiting on instructions from the director
Voice Commission - I've set the first 2 lines of one of the poems, amounts to 1%
Piano Trio - Nothing
In conclusion, 1 % of one of my projects amounts to 0.25% completion of my December work. And I believe that 55% of the month has passed... Something doesn't quite add up, haha!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Damnit, socializing has been SUCH a bad influence on me over this break!
It hurts me on the inside to think that this month is already half over and I've done nothing towards my goals and what I need to get done during this break!
Even just Christmas shopping has been going slowly... I've only done a bit online. Anyway, I'm going to waste no more time [Famous last words] and I'm going to do some serious composition work for these Autumn Songs before I go to bed.
Autumn song cycle this weekend. I'll work on my new piano trio during next week because I'll have access to the piano. Also the Autumn cycle. While I'm in Thompson, I can do some of the sound editing as well as orchestration stuff. I'll set aside two hours a day to work on that and boom, there will be 10 hours! ish
Quick note, tonight and last night I hung out with the XIE ensemble people - I miss those people and that group. We had so much fun last year, I really want to get something like that started and going at Western, who knows...
Here I go, to see how much work I can do before passing out for the night.. it is already 2am...
It hurts me on the inside to think that this month is already half over and I've done nothing towards my goals and what I need to get done during this break!
Even just Christmas shopping has been going slowly... I've only done a bit online. Anyway, I'm going to waste no more time [Famous last words] and I'm going to do some serious composition work for these Autumn Songs before I go to bed.
Autumn song cycle this weekend. I'll work on my new piano trio during next week because I'll have access to the piano. Also the Autumn cycle. While I'm in Thompson, I can do some of the sound editing as well as orchestration stuff. I'll set aside two hours a day to work on that and boom, there will be 10 hours! ish
Quick note, tonight and last night I hung out with the XIE ensemble people - I miss those people and that group. We had so much fun last year, I really want to get something like that started and going at Western, who knows...
Here I go, to see how much work I can do before passing out for the night.. it is already 2am...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
I'm back in Winnipeg and it's surprising how much stuff there is to do which has tracked me down.
I know it's mostly the fact that it's the holiday season so there's lots going on anyway, but it makes me feel like this homecoming has been filled with love and friends and lots of good food and good company!
My sugars have not been in .... good control lately, which causes me to be irritable and I regret that that's been aimed at my parents because they're around at just those moments. The control is a mix of not having really done any walking since getting here and then the eating of holiday goodies- as much as I don't like bitching... you people with working pancreases don't know how good you have it. Most of the time, I eat foods of which I know how many carbs they contain, or generally, so I can get my dosing somewhat in the ballpark, but the holidays just kills that. And you know me, you know my belly... I lack the willpower to not jump into the deliciousness!
Surprise surprise I'm meeting with some friends for lunch today, but I'm going to walk there, so at least I'll have 20 minutes of walking.
Generally, I need to get my ass in gear. I've slipped into vacation mode, but I can't afford to do that. I've done no composing, and I have so much I need to do; I haven't started my shopping; I've generally been lazy. Bad Michael, haha. Oh well, I'll get on that starting today!
I know it's mostly the fact that it's the holiday season so there's lots going on anyway, but it makes me feel like this homecoming has been filled with love and friends and lots of good food and good company!
My sugars have not been in .... good control lately, which causes me to be irritable and I regret that that's been aimed at my parents because they're around at just those moments. The control is a mix of not having really done any walking since getting here and then the eating of holiday goodies- as much as I don't like bitching... you people with working pancreases don't know how good you have it. Most of the time, I eat foods of which I know how many carbs they contain, or generally, so I can get my dosing somewhat in the ballpark, but the holidays just kills that. And you know me, you know my belly... I lack the willpower to not jump into the deliciousness!
Surprise surprise I'm meeting with some friends for lunch today, but I'm going to walk there, so at least I'll have 20 minutes of walking.
Generally, I need to get my ass in gear. I've slipped into vacation mode, but I can't afford to do that. I've done no composing, and I have so much I need to do; I haven't started my shopping; I've generally been lazy. Bad Michael, haha. Oh well, I'll get on that starting today!
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Ok, so the tone of yesterday's post was a wee little bit negative. Today, it's a completely different story.
I was up very late last night finishing my electro piece and getting it relatively well notated. We had our class at noon, so I still got a solid 6 hours of sleep! The hardcore work I did on the piece paid off, it was fairly well received by my prof and the other student. I got a few suggestions of how to improve the piece - unfortunately I don't have time to do those before I leave, so I'll basically just have to revisit the piece when I get back.
After our performances, we went to the grad club for some drinks and pretzels. It was nice to drink and socialize with the prof. I really like the grad student relationship with profs, governed by a strong sense of respect, but sprinkled with comradery; more of a mentorship through which they are welcoming us into the world of professionalism/academia.
Later tonight, I went for Thai food with some other music grad students. It was the most delicious thing I've eaten in quite a long time. Also, socialization is something I've been missing lately; more of that will come this next month.
I leave London tomorrow evening, I'm not excited about the fact that it is currently 26 degrees colder in Winnipeg than it is in London, but oh well. I grew up there, I should be used to it...
I was up very late last night finishing my electro piece and getting it relatively well notated. We had our class at noon, so I still got a solid 6 hours of sleep! The hardcore work I did on the piece paid off, it was fairly well received by my prof and the other student. I got a few suggestions of how to improve the piece - unfortunately I don't have time to do those before I leave, so I'll basically just have to revisit the piece when I get back.
After our performances, we went to the grad club for some drinks and pretzels. It was nice to drink and socialize with the prof. I really like the grad student relationship with profs, governed by a strong sense of respect, but sprinkled with comradery; more of a mentorship through which they are welcoming us into the world of professionalism/academia.
Later tonight, I went for Thai food with some other music grad students. It was the most delicious thing I've eaten in quite a long time. Also, socialization is something I've been missing lately; more of that will come this next month.
I leave London tomorrow evening, I'm not excited about the fact that it is currently 26 degrees colder in Winnipeg than it is in London, but oh well. I grew up there, I should be used to it...
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Just a bit stressed...
Mostly, I haven't been unreasonably stressed as the term has been winding up.
Today, I was.
I need to have my electro piece finished for tomorrow. The only available time was today from 12-5. I made myself a schedule of what to do in that time. After 2 hours, I had only done what I needed to do in the first. Anyway, things were coming along, I changed the piece altogether so that one of those hours just disappeared.
Skipping the boring parts - Just before 5, I had reached a point where I could be done in the lab, I needed to make it into an audio file so I could take it home and finish notation. At some point in the afternoon, I had renamed the file... apparently this cause the save function to not be usable, only 'save as'. When I went to save the audio file onto my flash drive, the program froze; I waited - nothing happened. Finally I force-quitted the program. When I re-opened the file, I was expecting to lose maybe 10 minutes of work which I could redo without too much guff. As it happens, everytime I hit apple-S or whatever, it did nothing and I had lost over an hours worth of work.
I was expecting the other guy booked in the room to show up any minute, but I was devastated, I literally threw myself off of the chair and onto the ground. Anticlimactic - I didn't burst into tears, I just thought, "Wow, that was overdramatic". Anyway, the next guy didn't show up til 6pm, so I managed to rectify things, but it was horrible. I couldn't recall what exactly I had done, in what order, or how exactly I did everything, so there are a few minor changes. I listened to it a few times, each time noticing another thing that I had forgotten.
Tonight - I have to fill in the gaps that not having given myself enough time has caused in my piece. I also need to notate it - I haven't decided whether or not I should do it in Sibelius. Maybe I'll start with the outer sections in there and see how easily that comes.
I'm not excited about how much work I need to do tonight, but I will do it and I will be a better person for it. And tomorrow, it will all be over, yay!!!
Today, I was.
I need to have my electro piece finished for tomorrow. The only available time was today from 12-5. I made myself a schedule of what to do in that time. After 2 hours, I had only done what I needed to do in the first. Anyway, things were coming along, I changed the piece altogether so that one of those hours just disappeared.
Skipping the boring parts - Just before 5, I had reached a point where I could be done in the lab, I needed to make it into an audio file so I could take it home and finish notation. At some point in the afternoon, I had renamed the file... apparently this cause the save function to not be usable, only 'save as'. When I went to save the audio file onto my flash drive, the program froze; I waited - nothing happened. Finally I force-quitted the program. When I re-opened the file, I was expecting to lose maybe 10 minutes of work which I could redo without too much guff. As it happens, everytime I hit apple-S or whatever, it did nothing and I had lost over an hours worth of work.
I was expecting the other guy booked in the room to show up any minute, but I was devastated, I literally threw myself off of the chair and onto the ground. Anticlimactic - I didn't burst into tears, I just thought, "Wow, that was overdramatic". Anyway, the next guy didn't show up til 6pm, so I managed to rectify things, but it was horrible. I couldn't recall what exactly I had done, in what order, or how exactly I did everything, so there are a few minor changes. I listened to it a few times, each time noticing another thing that I had forgotten.
Tonight - I have to fill in the gaps that not having given myself enough time has caused in my piece. I also need to notate it - I haven't decided whether or not I should do it in Sibelius. Maybe I'll start with the outer sections in there and see how easily that comes.
I'm not excited about how much work I need to do tonight, but I will do it and I will be a better person for it. And tomorrow, it will all be over, yay!!!
Monday, December 03, 2007
Damnit, I need an ice-tray.
Tonight was a long evening of class with a lot to digest, therefore I would love to drink something on the rocks. I have Rye, but no rocks. I wonder if it would work with frozen veggies.
I got in over an hour of walking today, I walked home in the late morning from my first part of the day. Then I walked about 20 minutes before I hopped on the bus that takes me very close to home.
I really have nothing new for my composition lesson tomorrow. My prof gave me one very specific task to do on the piece and I wasn't able to do it. I spent most of the week on orchestration. I sat down at a piano to do that task three times during the week and it just didn't come. I'm not sure if this is writer's block or what, but I feel guilty about it. I will try again tonight and tomorrow morning, otherwise I'm certain there will be something we can discuss in terms of composition in general, what I should focus on over the break, or some such thing.
As of right now, teaching and orchestration are done for the term. Tomorrow afternoon, I will have finished with comp lessons for the term, then all that remains to finish up is my electro piece.
Of course, I say all of this like the work will magically end once classes end... NOT!
this is going to be probably the busiest 'breaks' I've ever had. Let me list:
1)Orchestration - making yet more decisions and making the score and parts all pretty
B)Composition - ever developing, I'll have to force myself to do that task once I'm in a house with a piano.
iii)Commission 1- I need to edit the dance film soundtrack to better fit the timings of the film. I have a feeling this might be more work than I had anticipated on doing, but I think my work in the electro course has given me better ideas and tools to make things go more smoothly.
d)Commission 2- The Autumn song cycle; I've done a lot of the prep work and now I just need to write the music. Like B) I have a feeling that when I'm in a house with a piano, things should start to flow. Not having a piano in my apartment is a bad thing. I think I thrive on comfort - that of my own piano or the pianos at U of M. UWO doesn't have that for me. I think I need to invest in a good digital piano next year (eek money) which I can use both as an instrument as well as midi input for notation.
As well as that work element, I need to do lots of knitting and socializing while I'm in Winnipeg. As daunting as it may seem, I'm excited for the change of pace that December will bring. The pace will be changing in both directions, interesting...
Tonight was a long evening of class with a lot to digest, therefore I would love to drink something on the rocks. I have Rye, but no rocks. I wonder if it would work with frozen veggies.
I got in over an hour of walking today, I walked home in the late morning from my first part of the day. Then I walked about 20 minutes before I hopped on the bus that takes me very close to home.
I really have nothing new for my composition lesson tomorrow. My prof gave me one very specific task to do on the piece and I wasn't able to do it. I spent most of the week on orchestration. I sat down at a piano to do that task three times during the week and it just didn't come. I'm not sure if this is writer's block or what, but I feel guilty about it. I will try again tonight and tomorrow morning, otherwise I'm certain there will be something we can discuss in terms of composition in general, what I should focus on over the break, or some such thing.
As of right now, teaching and orchestration are done for the term. Tomorrow afternoon, I will have finished with comp lessons for the term, then all that remains to finish up is my electro piece.
Of course, I say all of this like the work will magically end once classes end... NOT!
this is going to be probably the busiest 'breaks' I've ever had. Let me list:
1)Orchestration - making yet more decisions and making the score and parts all pretty
B)Composition - ever developing, I'll have to force myself to do that task once I'm in a house with a piano.
iii)Commission 1- I need to edit the dance film soundtrack to better fit the timings of the film. I have a feeling this might be more work than I had anticipated on doing, but I think my work in the electro course has given me better ideas and tools to make things go more smoothly.
d)Commission 2- The Autumn song cycle; I've done a lot of the prep work and now I just need to write the music. Like B) I have a feeling that when I'm in a house with a piano, things should start to flow. Not having a piano in my apartment is a bad thing. I think I thrive on comfort - that of my own piano or the pianos at U of M. UWO doesn't have that for me. I think I need to invest in a good digital piano next year (eek money) which I can use both as an instrument as well as midi input for notation.
As well as that work element, I need to do lots of knitting and socializing while I'm in Winnipeg. As daunting as it may seem, I'm excited for the change of pace that December will bring. The pace will be changing in both directions, interesting...
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Post number 601!
Wow, I don't regularly pay attention to how many posts I have made, but my eye caught the number this time... SIX HUNDRED posts!
How much time have I wasted on blogging?!? It's really unfathomable. I'm going to see if I can download all my blogging posts so that I can somehow do a word-count and see just how many novels I could have written.
Someday, I'll be able to save a biographer the trouble of even asking questions about this portion of my life, pretty much everything has been detailed online... or has it?!?
This blog has been with me through a lot of development over the past few years. I've learned the responsibilities of publicly posting information and it's resulted in a veil which separates the blog version of Michael from the real version.
Anyway, I shouldn't get so philosophical about this, this is a happy occasion!
Cue balloons and champagne!
Other happy news - I just finished my Orchestration assignment. 'Finished' is a very subjective term here; there will be much editing, but I have somehow translated all(ish) of the piano version into my orchestrated version. I have my class tomorrow during which I hope to learn what I've done wrong, what I've done well and what things I need to reconsider and fix.
I spent a LOT of time on this orchestration assignment this weekend and over the last week especially. Unfortunately, I feel that I have spent less time on my other work as a result of it. Composition especially - my piece seems to have reached a plateau, my prof had really amazing suggestions last lesson and I was excited about them and ... I just never did those things and I'm not sure how much I can do before my lesson on Tuesday. Regardless, I will spend my free time tomorrow working on that piece of my electro.
Calculations - Let's say that above is an average length for a Michael Post - I will now plug that into MS Word and get a word count:
315 words
times 600 posts
=
189,000 words.
According to random internet statistics, the average novel is from 60-100,000 words in length... that means, I've written between 2 and 3 novels through this blog!
Maybe over the break, I'll find a real word count.
How much time have I wasted on blogging?!? It's really unfathomable. I'm going to see if I can download all my blogging posts so that I can somehow do a word-count and see just how many novels I could have written.
Someday, I'll be able to save a biographer the trouble of even asking questions about this portion of my life, pretty much everything has been detailed online... or has it?!?
This blog has been with me through a lot of development over the past few years. I've learned the responsibilities of publicly posting information and it's resulted in a veil which separates the blog version of Michael from the real version.
Anyway, I shouldn't get so philosophical about this, this is a happy occasion!
Cue balloons and champagne!
Other happy news - I just finished my Orchestration assignment. 'Finished' is a very subjective term here; there will be much editing, but I have somehow translated all(ish) of the piano version into my orchestrated version. I have my class tomorrow during which I hope to learn what I've done wrong, what I've done well and what things I need to reconsider and fix.
I spent a LOT of time on this orchestration assignment this weekend and over the last week especially. Unfortunately, I feel that I have spent less time on my other work as a result of it. Composition especially - my piece seems to have reached a plateau, my prof had really amazing suggestions last lesson and I was excited about them and ... I just never did those things and I'm not sure how much I can do before my lesson on Tuesday. Regardless, I will spend my free time tomorrow working on that piece of my electro.
Calculations - Let's say that above is an average length for a Michael Post - I will now plug that into MS Word and get a word count:
315 words
times 600 posts
=
189,000 words.
According to random internet statistics, the average novel is from 60-100,000 words in length... that means, I've written between 2 and 3 novels through this blog!
Maybe over the break, I'll find a real word count.
Friday, November 30, 2007
I'm getting a little worried...
Smart Michael wouldn't worry about this until he finishes his school work, but that's not the Michael we know and love... [That one is a little more narcissistic]
At the end of the summer I had sent out my permissions requests - there were two. I heard back promptly from one and I'm still waiting on the other. I had sent a request for confirmation that my request was being processed and I received that over 10 weeks ago. The whole process is supposed to take 6-10 weeks total. I'm fairly certain that it had been in processing for 5-6 weeks when I sent that request. Moral is: it's been about 15 weeks and I just want to know already.
While I really want a yes, I would actually prefer an email on Monday saying, no, rather than having to wait any longer. Basically, I need to get the bulk of this composition done over my Christmas break. I knew my time line and I made sure to send out requests with extra time. As in - I sent a confirmation request with enough time that even if it magically disappeared, I would have time to file a new one.
Right now, I'm at the point where if I don't hear within the week, I need to cut and run and pick a new poem altogether. Of course, I send the most recent email tonight, Friday night - so that I get to wait all of Saturday and Sunday and then maybe have a response on Monday, if I'm lucky!
With all the copyrights issues in general, it's a wonder that ANYONE would be willing to use any previously written words!
Anyway, I've bitched enough for the night, back to work.
By the way, things are going well with my work so far. I've spent all afternoon/evening/night... working on orchestration and I'm making good progress. Tomorrow I'll continue, but work more on my own compositions, be they electroacoustic or for piano trio. Therefore, I will be going to the school tomorrow, and actually leaving my apartment!
At the end of the summer I had sent out my permissions requests - there were two. I heard back promptly from one and I'm still waiting on the other. I had sent a request for confirmation that my request was being processed and I received that over 10 weeks ago. The whole process is supposed to take 6-10 weeks total. I'm fairly certain that it had been in processing for 5-6 weeks when I sent that request. Moral is: it's been about 15 weeks and I just want to know already.
While I really want a yes, I would actually prefer an email on Monday saying, no, rather than having to wait any longer. Basically, I need to get the bulk of this composition done over my Christmas break. I knew my time line and I made sure to send out requests with extra time. As in - I sent a confirmation request with enough time that even if it magically disappeared, I would have time to file a new one.
Right now, I'm at the point where if I don't hear within the week, I need to cut and run and pick a new poem altogether. Of course, I send the most recent email tonight, Friday night - so that I get to wait all of Saturday and Sunday and then maybe have a response on Monday, if I'm lucky!
With all the copyrights issues in general, it's a wonder that ANYONE would be willing to use any previously written words!
Anyway, I've bitched enough for the night, back to work.
By the way, things are going well with my work so far. I've spent all afternoon/evening/night... working on orchestration and I'm making good progress. Tomorrow I'll continue, but work more on my own compositions, be they electroacoustic or for piano trio. Therefore, I will be going to the school tomorrow, and actually leaving my apartment!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Who was I kidding - of course I'll find time to blog: that's what keeps me sane!
Electro class - went surprisingly good. For the protools section, it seems like I've spent endless hours and still only gotten a lukewarm response to it. I had only spent a few hours preparing the keyboard sections for class today, and yet, the feedback was super. While this is not good for motivating to continue the hard work, I will pull through. The basic consensus was that I should take some of the ideas of the keyboard stuff and relate the protools more to that. In the end, I have about 1 week to pull it all together and then it will be spectacular!
Tomorrow I'm giving the final test to 2 of my 3 sight-singing classes. This term has wrapped up so quickly. I'm glad that once this test is over, I'm done for the term, I just have to hand in the marks.
Things coming in the mail - Since no-one has sent me anything in the mail, even though I published my address on facebook and email... I had to start ordering things online to make use of my mailbox...
Today I got a USB keypad for my laptop. Sibelius uses those keys for some functions, so now I can use the program more efficiently.
Yesterday I got a book that I ordered used off of Amazon. It was a library book - complete with markings, stamps, and catalogue number and label. I've bought books from libraries before and they are always clearly stamped 'discharged' or 'discard'; this was not. This got me thinking - Who would steal a library book and then sell it for profit?!? I saw the opportunity to make use of my US/Canada long distance freeness and I looked up and called the library in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (I love their accents).
In the end, they are a small library and not-computerized so they don't have a record of having or discarding the book. The lady seemed to be in disbelief that someone would call about that, and thanked me for informing them, but told me not to worry about it - that they most likely wouldn't have use for a book like that anyway.
It was a bible thumper Evangelist bible college library. They put me on hold and it was the namesake evangelist talking about the devil and stuff like that; between that and the accents, the phone call was totally worth my while!
A week and a day until I fly back to Winnipeg, I'm excited! Mostly to see friends and family, but also mostly because then I'll have finished with school work for a while ish (I know it's a lie, but let me believe it just for a while).
Electro class - went surprisingly good. For the protools section, it seems like I've spent endless hours and still only gotten a lukewarm response to it. I had only spent a few hours preparing the keyboard sections for class today, and yet, the feedback was super. While this is not good for motivating to continue the hard work, I will pull through. The basic consensus was that I should take some of the ideas of the keyboard stuff and relate the protools more to that. In the end, I have about 1 week to pull it all together and then it will be spectacular!
Tomorrow I'm giving the final test to 2 of my 3 sight-singing classes. This term has wrapped up so quickly. I'm glad that once this test is over, I'm done for the term, I just have to hand in the marks.
Things coming in the mail - Since no-one has sent me anything in the mail, even though I published my address on facebook and email... I had to start ordering things online to make use of my mailbox...
Today I got a USB keypad for my laptop. Sibelius uses those keys for some functions, so now I can use the program more efficiently.
Yesterday I got a book that I ordered used off of Amazon. It was a library book - complete with markings, stamps, and catalogue number and label. I've bought books from libraries before and they are always clearly stamped 'discharged' or 'discard'; this was not. This got me thinking - Who would steal a library book and then sell it for profit?!? I saw the opportunity to make use of my US/Canada long distance freeness and I looked up and called the library in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (I love their accents).
In the end, they are a small library and not-computerized so they don't have a record of having or discarding the book. The lady seemed to be in disbelief that someone would call about that, and thanked me for informing them, but told me not to worry about it - that they most likely wouldn't have use for a book like that anyway.
It was a bible thumper Evangelist bible college library. They put me on hold and it was the namesake evangelist talking about the devil and stuff like that; between that and the accents, the phone call was totally worth my while!
A week and a day until I fly back to Winnipeg, I'm excited! Mostly to see friends and family, but also mostly because then I'll have finished with school work for a while ish (I know it's a lie, but let me believe it just for a while).
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Wow!
This term is ending so quickly. So much to do, so I'm not sure how much I'll be posting in the next little while. Orch and Comp will be hardcore until monday and tuesday, respectively.
I have my last electro Class-class tomorrow, we are presenting our pieces the following week, so it's not as much of a class. If there are major things to change from that presentation, I'll try and get them done in the few days before I leave for Winnipeg because after a month of not touching it, I'm not sure how familiar I will be with what I wrote... at the same time, I will need to play it at the end of the year, so it needs to be detailed. I basically want it to be finished before I leave. I am going to the lab tonight. While most of my work has been focused on the ProTools playback element, I'm going to focus tonight on the performance element - using the keyboard - this makes up the outer two sections of the piece. I also need to do a fair bit of work on the ProTools, but argh, time management...
Long story short, I have a heck of a lot of work to do this week!
This term is ending so quickly. So much to do, so I'm not sure how much I'll be posting in the next little while. Orch and Comp will be hardcore until monday and tuesday, respectively.
I have my last electro Class-class tomorrow, we are presenting our pieces the following week, so it's not as much of a class. If there are major things to change from that presentation, I'll try and get them done in the few days before I leave for Winnipeg because after a month of not touching it, I'm not sure how familiar I will be with what I wrote... at the same time, I will need to play it at the end of the year, so it needs to be detailed. I basically want it to be finished before I leave. I am going to the lab tonight. While most of my work has been focused on the ProTools playback element, I'm going to focus tonight on the performance element - using the keyboard - this makes up the outer two sections of the piece. I also need to do a fair bit of work on the ProTools, but argh, time management...
Long story short, I have a heck of a lot of work to do this week!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The Saga Never Ends
I know there's a few of you out there who will enjoy the punchline of this story.
Last week I was on the bus and my glasses fogged up, I took them off and out popped my lens. No big deal, I put them in my pocket and since then I've been wearing my other pair, the RayBans; you know, the one's I've had for about 2 years now.
Long story short :
Punchline - Sitting with a friend at a recital on Friday, she looks at me and asks, "Are those new glasses?"
In conclusion - the world is still not ready for a person who owns and switches between wearing more than ONE pair of eyeglasses.
Last week I was on the bus and my glasses fogged up, I took them off and out popped my lens. No big deal, I put them in my pocket and since then I've been wearing my other pair, the RayBans; you know, the one's I've had for about 2 years now.
Long story short :
Punchline - Sitting with a friend at a recital on Friday, she looks at me and asks, "Are those new glasses?"
In conclusion - the world is still not ready for a person who owns and switches between wearing more than ONE pair of eyeglasses.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
I just thought I'd let you all know that it's nearing 4pm on a Saturday afternoon and I still haven't showered or even changed out of my pyjamas. I might get dressed if I decide to go to the school to work on electro tonight. That all depends on how much of my orchestration project I get done today.
For those of you who know how indecisive I am, you can still only imagine how difficult orchestration is for me, not in the academic sense, but in terms of being forced to make decisions. Orchestration is making endless decisions and every one effects the other decisions you will have to make around it. The key is finding the important areas where the decisions are the most important and then working around that.
Nevertheless, I find it fascinating and very interesting to see how one little change can really open up so many doors to new possibilities that weren't previously there.
For those of you who know how indecisive I am, you can still only imagine how difficult orchestration is for me, not in the academic sense, but in terms of being forced to make decisions. Orchestration is making endless decisions and every one effects the other decisions you will have to make around it. The key is finding the important areas where the decisions are the most important and then working around that.
Nevertheless, I find it fascinating and very interesting to see how one little change can really open up so many doors to new possibilities that weren't previously there.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Weekend = busy with worky!
This week just flew by.
In electro class today, my prof commented that my piece had really come a long way since he last saw it. That made me feel good. Then he went on to make comments on how I can make it better. After having spent a lot more time on it this week a)it damn well better have improved and b) I was feeling anxious to hear his comments - what if it still sucked?!? Luckily it didn't completely suck, he had some good things to say - he just wants me to change the focus from events to developing textures.
The internet seems to think that I am now foreign... Google is giving me search results in Spanish, and craigslist seems to think I always want to go to Berlin... which I do, but it used to always go to the last city I had been to. Maybe this is its way of telling me to stop looking at apartment rates in other cities... Berlin is the place to go.
I just realized right now what a good influence my roommate is on me. He is always working/studying around the apartment, it makes me feel like I should do the same, so I do. He is gone for the whole weekend, so - alone in the apartment- I am lacking that drive to be as productive. Nevertheless, that drive has to be there, so I will force it into high gear. This is my second last weekend to do work.
AHHHHHH! I just looked at the calendar... not only is next weekend my last weekend to finish up these term projects, but in 2 weeks and a day, I will be flying back to Winnipeg!
I am almost one quarter finished my Master's!!
It's an odd sensation to be working with such momentum right now at the end of the term. It is momentum for the sake of momentum.... with no real end goal.
None of my term projects actually have to be completely finished by the end of this term. Orchestration needs to be finished by Jan 15th, meaning that I will basically be using the break to do the parts and score, so I do need to have a good sense of what I will be doing before I leave for the break. My composition doesn't need to be finished until the first week of February. For electro, on the last day of class, we are having a close-to-finished performance, but the piece won't actually be performed until the end of the year. At the same time, I will need to write another piece next term, so I won't want to be spending my time editing the first one, so I'll treat the end of this term as an actual due date.
After having just typed that out, I don't believe what I said before about no real end goal... these things TOTALLY have to be done in 2 weeks, yay for buckling down as of now!
Good Night!
In electro class today, my prof commented that my piece had really come a long way since he last saw it. That made me feel good. Then he went on to make comments on how I can make it better. After having spent a lot more time on it this week a)it damn well better have improved and b) I was feeling anxious to hear his comments - what if it still sucked?!? Luckily it didn't completely suck, he had some good things to say - he just wants me to change the focus from events to developing textures.
The internet seems to think that I am now foreign... Google is giving me search results in Spanish, and craigslist seems to think I always want to go to Berlin... which I do, but it used to always go to the last city I had been to. Maybe this is its way of telling me to stop looking at apartment rates in other cities... Berlin is the place to go.
I just realized right now what a good influence my roommate is on me. He is always working/studying around the apartment, it makes me feel like I should do the same, so I do. He is gone for the whole weekend, so - alone in the apartment- I am lacking that drive to be as productive. Nevertheless, that drive has to be there, so I will force it into high gear. This is my second last weekend to do work.
AHHHHHH! I just looked at the calendar... not only is next weekend my last weekend to finish up these term projects, but in 2 weeks and a day, I will be flying back to Winnipeg!
I am almost one quarter finished my Master's!!
It's an odd sensation to be working with such momentum right now at the end of the term. It is momentum for the sake of momentum.... with no real end goal.
None of my term projects actually have to be completely finished by the end of this term. Orchestration needs to be finished by Jan 15th, meaning that I will basically be using the break to do the parts and score, so I do need to have a good sense of what I will be doing before I leave for the break. My composition doesn't need to be finished until the first week of February. For electro, on the last day of class, we are having a close-to-finished performance, but the piece won't actually be performed until the end of the year. At the same time, I will need to write another piece next term, so I won't want to be spending my time editing the first one, so I'll treat the end of this term as an actual due date.
After having just typed that out, I don't believe what I said before about no real end goal... these things TOTALLY have to be done in 2 weeks, yay for buckling down as of now!
Good Night!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Starting to feel real progress!
For the first time today, I felt like I was really in control of what was going on in the electroacoustic studio. 2 minutes of my piece is pretty much completely done and it was the finniky part - the middle section where I took the sound samples and sculpted them into a little 2 minute piece which serves as the middle section of the piece. I will probably have to revise this a little to allow for the performance aspect to be involved, but generally now I just have to make the outer sections which should mirror each other.
I did a lot of the prep work today using the keyboard and the digital effects editor that I will be using as the live performance element of the piece. For the longest time, I was not able to find a digital effect that had what I was looking for; today I did! On second thought, there's probably a lot of different effects I could use, there was a problem with the mixing board that was making me think none of the effects were working properly. Nevertheless, this one is good and has a lot of reverb. There are a few parameters of the effect which I can change in small intervals to make it seamlessly change from a highly processed to an unprocessed sound.
I did a lot of the prep work today using the keyboard and the digital effects editor that I will be using as the live performance element of the piece. For the longest time, I was not able to find a digital effect that had what I was looking for; today I did! On second thought, there's probably a lot of different effects I could use, there was a problem with the mixing board that was making me think none of the effects were working properly. Nevertheless, this one is good and has a lot of reverb. There are a few parameters of the effect which I can change in small intervals to make it seamlessly change from a highly processed to an unprocessed sound.
Monday, November 19, 2007
I listened to a lot of Scriabin today, and over the weekend. While reading scores, I have listened to and studied(somewhat) all 10 of his piano sonatas and the his first two symphonies totaling nearly 4 hundred pages of music. I also listened to his piano concerto, his fourth symphony and his symphonic poem "Prometheus". I think I am now much more aware of his style in general. I realized that the sound which I had long associated with Scriabin is that of his early works, of the Romantic period. However, the sound of his 'chord of mystery' which characterizes the Scriabin that most musicians think of and refer to, doesn't appear until later in his output.
The development through his musical output is astonishing. His influences of Chopin and Debussy are obviously there, but one also hears his own influence on all of modern pianism. I can now trace the line of Debussy to modernism in piano writing that I never really understood before.
In terms of my own composition. After the reading session, I applied the notation changes and added in tempo markings and now I have quite a detailed score. I think I have a good balance of enough detail, but not stiflingly so. I also started to re-evaluate the piece itself. My prof's major comment was that the piece lacked counterpoint - looking at it, I agree. I had tried to emulate the rhythms of speech/conversation, but I guess I forgot that dialog is never limited to back and forth - my musical depiction where the two voices never cross really doesn't represent that with any realism. My initial thought is that I will be able to fix this with some additions, then I will have to reevaluate that and see if it needs some structural alterations as well.
Aside from the dialog element, I had earlier left a more 'pure music' section with a blank area so that a secondary melodic line could interweave there, but I was at a loss for words when it came to filling in that blank. I feel a little refreshed about the piece after this weekend, so that should sort itself out when I get to a piano next.
I still have to do some work for my orchestration meeting tomorrow, while the listening I did will surely benefit what I learn in the course, I still have to have the work to show for what I've learned!
The development through his musical output is astonishing. His influences of Chopin and Debussy are obviously there, but one also hears his own influence on all of modern pianism. I can now trace the line of Debussy to modernism in piano writing that I never really understood before.
In terms of my own composition. After the reading session, I applied the notation changes and added in tempo markings and now I have quite a detailed score. I think I have a good balance of enough detail, but not stiflingly so. I also started to re-evaluate the piece itself. My prof's major comment was that the piece lacked counterpoint - looking at it, I agree. I had tried to emulate the rhythms of speech/conversation, but I guess I forgot that dialog is never limited to back and forth - my musical depiction where the two voices never cross really doesn't represent that with any realism. My initial thought is that I will be able to fix this with some additions, then I will have to reevaluate that and see if it needs some structural alterations as well.
Aside from the dialog element, I had earlier left a more 'pure music' section with a blank area so that a secondary melodic line could interweave there, but I was at a loss for words when it came to filling in that blank. I feel a little refreshed about the piece after this weekend, so that should sort itself out when I get to a piano next.
I still have to do some work for my orchestration meeting tomorrow, while the listening I did will surely benefit what I learn in the course, I still have to have the work to show for what I've learned!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Yesterday was a long day. Rather than an electro class, I had a meeting with the prof. Basically I have been feeling really negative about the class because it seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to do anything. He as reassuring, as well as two other people I talked to during the day; letting me know that everyone takes excessive time at first. It's amazing how having your feelings validated can change your outlook on a situation. Now that I know it is pretty much a matter of spending more time, even though I knew that all along, I will spend more time more often in the lab. I will go today.
The big event of yesterday was the piano trio reading. They played from the version I had sent a few weeks ago so a lot of the finely detailed things had been fixed since then. However, they gave me some helpful feedback. The common thread between most composers yesterday was a lack of tempo markings and details. The trio questioned my use of 'free' notation - they found it hindering. This was something that I wasn't completely convinced with myself - it is difficult to find the balance of enough detail to give the performer what they need, while not nailing them down to the fine details. While I didn't get a cut in stone answer of how I need to notate it, I now have some good insight into how to approach it.
I wanted to go to the masterclass they were doing today with my piano trio, but I think I slept in too late. I had a very active dream night - it's interesting that my subconscious is so thinly veiled when I do have dreams.
I always dream about daily events. The main dream late this morning/afternoon was me going to the masterclass of my trio and talking to the Fibonacci players afterwards - the dream did not actually involved my trio's players. In my dream, as I talked to the violinist, she commented on how unfortunate it is that our school has such strong performers, but composers who don't even write tempo indications. Can you say Self-Confidence Issues?!? Nevertheless, notice that subconscious Michael wasn't willing to label Western's composers as bad, only pointing out that they don't write tempo indications.
Perhaps this is subconscious Michael trying to cope with the fact that no judgement was shown by the trio yesterday, only constructive criticism. I was probably expecting some subjective judgement, and now I'm trying to read some into it.... But there isn't any, so I will stop.
The moral of the experience with the trio is that I need to be more detailed in my indications. This has been something I've been battling since my very first composition lessons. I need to come to terms with the fact that while I want freedom in music, not everyone has the same definition of freedom, or means of attaining it.
I have spent too much time writing this already. Now I am going to write in some edits for my trio score and then head off to the school and spend the evening making electronic music!
The big event of yesterday was the piano trio reading. They played from the version I had sent a few weeks ago so a lot of the finely detailed things had been fixed since then. However, they gave me some helpful feedback. The common thread between most composers yesterday was a lack of tempo markings and details. The trio questioned my use of 'free' notation - they found it hindering. This was something that I wasn't completely convinced with myself - it is difficult to find the balance of enough detail to give the performer what they need, while not nailing them down to the fine details. While I didn't get a cut in stone answer of how I need to notate it, I now have some good insight into how to approach it.
I wanted to go to the masterclass they were doing today with my piano trio, but I think I slept in too late. I had a very active dream night - it's interesting that my subconscious is so thinly veiled when I do have dreams.
I always dream about daily events. The main dream late this morning/afternoon was me going to the masterclass of my trio and talking to the Fibonacci players afterwards - the dream did not actually involved my trio's players. In my dream, as I talked to the violinist, she commented on how unfortunate it is that our school has such strong performers, but composers who don't even write tempo indications. Can you say Self-Confidence Issues?!? Nevertheless, notice that subconscious Michael wasn't willing to label Western's composers as bad, only pointing out that they don't write tempo indications.
Perhaps this is subconscious Michael trying to cope with the fact that no judgement was shown by the trio yesterday, only constructive criticism. I was probably expecting some subjective judgement, and now I'm trying to read some into it.... But there isn't any, so I will stop.
The moral of the experience with the trio is that I need to be more detailed in my indications. This has been something I've been battling since my very first composition lessons. I need to come to terms with the fact that while I want freedom in music, not everyone has the same definition of freedom, or means of attaining it.
I have spent too much time writing this already. Now I am going to write in some edits for my trio score and then head off to the school and spend the evening making electronic music!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Can you say snow?!?
Holy Moly!
Yesterday, it was the first time it was actually snowing, I had snowflakes all over my sweater - made it look all sparkly, however, I never expected it to stay. Muchless did I expect it to look like it does this morning.
I am terrible with estimates of how much snow in terms of centimetres and whatnot, but there is a thick layer of snow covering the ground, the trees, and the cars outside - it is now, visually the middle of winter. This is shocking and exciting.
I've been warned about the buses here when it snows, so I'm going to leave extra early today, enough time to make sure that I'm not late for class.
Today, the Fibonacci trio is playing my piano trio at the workshop. I am also going to an opera concert tonight - not an opera, but random selections from the repertoire.
Anyway, the snow has me filled with happy energy, so off I go!
I had time to snap a quick photo:
Yesterday, it was the first time it was actually snowing, I had snowflakes all over my sweater - made it look all sparkly, however, I never expected it to stay. Muchless did I expect it to look like it does this morning.
I am terrible with estimates of how much snow in terms of centimetres and whatnot, but there is a thick layer of snow covering the ground, the trees, and the cars outside - it is now, visually the middle of winter. This is shocking and exciting.
I've been warned about the buses here when it snows, so I'm going to leave extra early today, enough time to make sure that I'm not late for class.
Today, the Fibonacci trio is playing my piano trio at the workshop. I am also going to an opera concert tonight - not an opera, but random selections from the repertoire.
Anyway, the snow has me filled with happy energy, so off I go!
I had time to snap a quick photo:
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Today was just not my day for timing.
I intended to work on my electro piece for hours this afternoon. I got there at 3:35ish. The other guy in my class had the exact same intention, except at 3:30, therefore, I went home and did some reading and listening before I went back to the school in the evening.
I helped a friend with separating some tracks and burning a cd for an audition. I could have gotten it all done in about 15-20 minutes on my laptop, but I was forcing myself to do it on the school computer so I could get better at using protools. This was a mistake - it took well over an hour. and seemed needlessly complicated.
Anyway, after I finished that, I started working on my own project. Slow progress. I started to play around with some of the sounds, creating sounds that do not sound like the original. This was kinda the moral of my last class. The prof's comments were that some sounds were useful, but when they sound too similar to something concrete, it will be difficult for the listener to divorce those connotations from that sound.
I think I've changed directions with the piece. I'm going to have the interface/performance element be interactive via the listener. It will take advantage of that connotation element. Nevertheless, I need to spend more time in the lab and with the sounds - so I will go again to the school tomorrow.
I intended to work on my electro piece for hours this afternoon. I got there at 3:35ish. The other guy in my class had the exact same intention, except at 3:30, therefore, I went home and did some reading and listening before I went back to the school in the evening.
I helped a friend with separating some tracks and burning a cd for an audition. I could have gotten it all done in about 15-20 minutes on my laptop, but I was forcing myself to do it on the school computer so I could get better at using protools. This was a mistake - it took well over an hour. and seemed needlessly complicated.
Anyway, after I finished that, I started working on my own project. Slow progress. I started to play around with some of the sounds, creating sounds that do not sound like the original. This was kinda the moral of my last class. The prof's comments were that some sounds were useful, but when they sound too similar to something concrete, it will be difficult for the listener to divorce those connotations from that sound.
I think I've changed directions with the piece. I'm going to have the interface/performance element be interactive via the listener. It will take advantage of that connotation element. Nevertheless, I need to spend more time in the lab and with the sounds - so I will go again to the school tomorrow.
I had completely forgotten.
This is not just another day that was randomly named by some facebook group, or on the internet. The recognition of a day around the world for diabetes was a joint venture of the International Diabetes Foundation and the United Nations.
World forces are recognizing that diabetes is an epidemic.
They are trying to raise awareness amongst the general population.
The question I pose to everyone today is -
What do you know about diabetes?
The answer, whether you are diabetic yourself or not at all affected is -
Not enough.
I ask everyone to do something today to become a little more aware of diabetes. Maybe you will type in 'World Diabetes Day' in google and read up on events and the day itself. Read about the Unite for Diabetes Campaign or go to the World Diabetes Day website.
But don't limit yourself to the internet - your ability to effect positive change today is two-fold. Talk to other people - you can both inform yourself AND get other people involved just by asking them a)what they know about diabetes and b)to learn a little more.
Please don't treat this like a facebook request to send out an email or other intangible. Use your voice and words to talk to people.
Have a great day everyone!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Wow, long time without posting... I feel a little guilty.
The weekend was a blast - it was awesome to have Fi out here to visit, even though she killed my gnome. RIP Gnorman.
[Insert hour long pause here]
Wow, I just ended up doing a last minute extensive edit to my piano trio which will be played on friday - suddenly I don't feel like typing a blog entry... I'm going to go watch some TV and maybe I'll feel inclined in a little while.
The weekend was a blast - it was awesome to have Fi out here to visit, even though she killed my gnome. RIP Gnorman.
[Insert hour long pause here]
Wow, I just ended up doing a last minute extensive edit to my piano trio which will be played on friday - suddenly I don't feel like typing a blog entry... I'm going to go watch some TV and maybe I'll feel inclined in a little while.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Damn it - today was pretty much a total waste. It was icky out, so I didn't leave the apartment except to check the mail... and I did laundry, but that's just down a flight of stairs.
Not to be completely negative, I did do some good things today : I cleaned a bit, room looks bigger without clothes all over the floor. I did laundry. I got a little bit more of the piano trio notated into the computer - no new material written, but more has been specified in terms of notation.
Regardless of the weather, tomorrow I need to get to the school to a)compose at the piano b) do more electro homework and c) buy groceries.
I am achy right now, while I'm tired, I know that I won't be able to sleep. Legs hurt from the humidity. It's been raining all day, might have even snowed... it was supposed to be a mix of rain and wet snow.
My electro class is for sure not happening on Friday = good. I'm waiting for confirmation, but it will most likely be on thursday so I will have that completely out of the way for the weekend.
Not to be completely negative, I did do some good things today : I cleaned a bit, room looks bigger without clothes all over the floor. I did laundry. I got a little bit more of the piano trio notated into the computer - no new material written, but more has been specified in terms of notation.
Regardless of the weather, tomorrow I need to get to the school to a)compose at the piano b) do more electro homework and c) buy groceries.
I am achy right now, while I'm tired, I know that I won't be able to sleep. Legs hurt from the humidity. It's been raining all day, might have even snowed... it was supposed to be a mix of rain and wet snow.
My electro class is for sure not happening on Friday = good. I'm waiting for confirmation, but it will most likely be on thursday so I will have that completely out of the way for the weekend.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Despite a massive chunk of doing nothing in the middle of the day, today was a fairly successful day. In the morning I finished giving the SightSinging tests and then I went to the electro lab to do some work. I got the necessary samples into the synthesizer for my project. From there I need to play around and figure out how the samples need to be transposed and used so that they relate mumbly. I know what needs to be done, it's just a lot of listening and playing around in order to get things to the point of being usable.
I came home and internetted/napped/ate lunch from 1 - 4pm. Then I went back to the school. Originally I was going to go to school, work and then take a break for dinner. While I left my house at 4:30 for the bus, I didn't get to my bus transfer point until after 5pm... I literally could have walked in 15 minutes, BUT I waited for the bus out of spite. It should have been there right when I got there... Bastard Bus! Pissy, I went to Wendy's for supper and had a frosty, Yum!
Eventually I got to the school. I did got some composing done and then I went to the electro lab again, this time to do the listening assignment for this week. They were long pieces, but I enjoyed them. By that point, I was ready to go home, but then I stopped in the big class/room with piano in Talbot College and I ended up composing for another hour or so. I forced myself to fill in certain gaps before leaving. Basically, the opening dialogue of my piece is well, certainly not finished, but in formation.
The 'dialogue' sections are based on the rhythm and shaping of speech / language. I had marked the rhythm of these sections, but not notes. I had a few of the gestures notated with notes, but today I forced myself to choose notes and gestures. For the first time in the process, I allowed myself to just compose, like my prof had suggested, rather than planning everything and fitting the notes in as result of the plans. Especially for the piano part, it was great to be writing this at the piano.
Speaking of piano - I started relearning a piece that I played for my ARCT examination / undergrad auditions. Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5 in E minor. It is a great piece and I want to be able to play it again, not just random snippets that I recall vaguely how to play.
I am feeling some of the contrast between how I used to play it and how I am trying to relearn it. I can feel it, it's blatant which areas I never really learned reliably the first time around. Applying some of the practice methods and technical skills I learned over the last few years will make the relearning process efficient and I will be able to play the piece super well with less than major effort. It was the first really big piece I ever played. Huge and Romantic and I played it with a certain passion back then, but I think now I'm a little more mature and wiser, and I think I will be able to do more with the piece this time around.
I'll be honest, I've been toying with the idea of entering a performance competition here. I need to find out some details about it. It wouldn't be much, I would just have to submit a recording of myself for the first round. I could use this piece as the second and third round piece if I even made it that far. Anyway, I'll see what my options are...
I came home and internetted/napped/ate lunch from 1 - 4pm. Then I went back to the school. Originally I was going to go to school, work and then take a break for dinner. While I left my house at 4:30 for the bus, I didn't get to my bus transfer point until after 5pm... I literally could have walked in 15 minutes, BUT I waited for the bus out of spite. It should have been there right when I got there... Bastard Bus! Pissy, I went to Wendy's for supper and had a frosty, Yum!
Eventually I got to the school. I did got some composing done and then I went to the electro lab again, this time to do the listening assignment for this week. They were long pieces, but I enjoyed them. By that point, I was ready to go home, but then I stopped in the big class/room with piano in Talbot College and I ended up composing for another hour or so. I forced myself to fill in certain gaps before leaving. Basically, the opening dialogue of my piece is well, certainly not finished, but in formation.
The 'dialogue' sections are based on the rhythm and shaping of speech / language. I had marked the rhythm of these sections, but not notes. I had a few of the gestures notated with notes, but today I forced myself to choose notes and gestures. For the first time in the process, I allowed myself to just compose, like my prof had suggested, rather than planning everything and fitting the notes in as result of the plans. Especially for the piano part, it was great to be writing this at the piano.
Speaking of piano - I started relearning a piece that I played for my ARCT examination / undergrad auditions. Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 5 in E minor. It is a great piece and I want to be able to play it again, not just random snippets that I recall vaguely how to play.
I am feeling some of the contrast between how I used to play it and how I am trying to relearn it. I can feel it, it's blatant which areas I never really learned reliably the first time around. Applying some of the practice methods and technical skills I learned over the last few years will make the relearning process efficient and I will be able to play the piece super well with less than major effort. It was the first really big piece I ever played. Huge and Romantic and I played it with a certain passion back then, but I think now I'm a little more mature and wiser, and I think I will be able to do more with the piece this time around.
I'll be honest, I've been toying with the idea of entering a performance competition here. I need to find out some details about it. It wouldn't be much, I would just have to submit a recording of myself for the first round. I could use this piece as the second and third round piece if I even made it that far. Anyway, I'll see what my options are...
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Gitch!
Since people have stopped commenting and assumedly reading, I'll write one of those "why the heck would be blog about That?!?" posts.
After I blogged this morning, I realized I should do laundry as I was running out of clean underwear. Then I realized that it's always the underwear I run out of first. I was suddenly hit by the universal truth - why wash if you can buy!?
I kid you not, if I won the lottery, high up on my list of to-do's would be buying new socks and underwear everyday. A brand new pair everyday?!? wow!
Off I went to my favorite underwear store - Giant Tiger!
Needless to say, I now won't have to do laundry for another week!
Although I don't think Laundry Day would be Fiona's idea of fun while she's here for the weekend.
I did a fair bit of planning today for my electro piece... After I teach tomorrow, I will be going to the lab to fiddle around with some of the plans I have. I'm actually really interested to see how my piece will start unfolding. Lately I've been working the wrong way in the lab - using random sound samples merely to do a function that I know the lab can do. What I need to do now is use the tools of the lab to explore what it CAN do that I don't already know about = explore!
I talked on the phone tonight, too much so I wasn't very productive. Focus Mikey, Focus!
Before I go to bed, I will try and input some more of my piano trio score into the computer
Good Night.
After I blogged this morning, I realized I should do laundry as I was running out of clean underwear. Then I realized that it's always the underwear I run out of first. I was suddenly hit by the universal truth - why wash if you can buy!?
I kid you not, if I won the lottery, high up on my list of to-do's would be buying new socks and underwear everyday. A brand new pair everyday?!? wow!
Off I went to my favorite underwear store - Giant Tiger!
Needless to say, I now won't have to do laundry for another week!
Although I don't think Laundry Day would be Fiona's idea of fun while she's here for the weekend.
I did a fair bit of planning today for my electro piece... After I teach tomorrow, I will be going to the lab to fiddle around with some of the plans I have. I'm actually really interested to see how my piece will start unfolding. Lately I've been working the wrong way in the lab - using random sound samples merely to do a function that I know the lab can do. What I need to do now is use the tools of the lab to explore what it CAN do that I don't already know about = explore!
I talked on the phone tonight, too much so I wasn't very productive. Focus Mikey, Focus!
Before I go to bed, I will try and input some more of my piano trio score into the computer
Good Night.
I just realized as I was lying in bed before getting up just how busy this end of term is going to be. At first I thought it wouldn't be bad because I only have the electroacoustic piece which is to be performed in class on the last day of term. but then, I realized that both my Piano Trio as well as my Orchestration assignment need to be handed over as soon as I get back from break. This means that the break will be spent making sure all the parts look nice and generally editing the pieces. I'm not even sure if I will have a class/lesson on them before having to hand them in, so basically, I need to have them finished before I leave London for Christmas.
At the same time, maybe I just need to accept the fact that this IS independent work and I shouldn't be latching on to what a prof might say.
The moral of this story is that I am going to get as much work done as possible on my own for everything so that I am prepared for whatever might change along the way.
For electro, we are supposed to have a relatively detailed plan for our pieces by next class - from there it will just be a process of doing the work and processing the sounds and setting things up for the performance. I want to get that done this weekend so that it's out of the way, then during the week, I can actually start to implement some of those plans!
I am very excited for next weekend. My friend Fiona is coming to London to visit. I really haven't been social lately, so her visit will be timely, she is a genuine FunMaster!
I will let the weekend serve as inspiration for me to get as much done this week as possible. My lesson is on the Tuesday right after the weekend, but Fiona is here until Monday evening. I don't want to be a bad/boring host, so I need to make sure that school work won't interfere too much with her visit. There's already going to be a big chunk of lame on Friday because I have class pretty much all day - nevertheless, that means that Electro will be out of the way and I can ignore it until the following tuesday/wednesday.
At the same time, the studio is really cool and I think Fiona would enjoy seeing some of the things you can do with it so maybe I can incorporate some work into that...
Anyway, I don't really have anything planned for her visit because, well, it's me AND its Fi. We're random and planning things would be LAME!
Ok, I've wasted enough of my Sunday morning blogging. It's time to go and do something productive, YAY!
At the same time, maybe I just need to accept the fact that this IS independent work and I shouldn't be latching on to what a prof might say.
The moral of this story is that I am going to get as much work done as possible on my own for everything so that I am prepared for whatever might change along the way.
For electro, we are supposed to have a relatively detailed plan for our pieces by next class - from there it will just be a process of doing the work and processing the sounds and setting things up for the performance. I want to get that done this weekend so that it's out of the way, then during the week, I can actually start to implement some of those plans!
I am very excited for next weekend. My friend Fiona is coming to London to visit. I really haven't been social lately, so her visit will be timely, she is a genuine FunMaster!
I will let the weekend serve as inspiration for me to get as much done this week as possible. My lesson is on the Tuesday right after the weekend, but Fiona is here until Monday evening. I don't want to be a bad/boring host, so I need to make sure that school work won't interfere too much with her visit. There's already going to be a big chunk of lame on Friday because I have class pretty much all day - nevertheless, that means that Electro will be out of the way and I can ignore it until the following tuesday/wednesday.
At the same time, the studio is really cool and I think Fiona would enjoy seeing some of the things you can do with it so maybe I can incorporate some work into that...
Anyway, I don't really have anything planned for her visit because, well, it's me AND its Fi. We're random and planning things would be LAME!
Ok, I've wasted enough of my Sunday morning blogging. It's time to go and do something productive, YAY!
Friday, November 02, 2007
musings at the end of a rather long day
Being at the university for 7am was rather early, but not the worst thing. The sun wasn't even up when I got to the university. It was cool, dark and unpopulated - just how I like it!
I got to play a bit for my choreographer and some of the dancers. It wasn't as inspiring as my initial experiences with the YoungLungs, but they are a very receptive group and things look promising. We're all going to start thinking about possible topics/subjects for the thesis project(long term), but there are going to be some opportunities to work on some smaller project during this year - a good way to get to know each other.
Two of my sight singing classes had their second test today. They did SO much better. Almost too much better. I was a little more lenient this time, but their skills were much better. It's not just a matter of seeing that the numbers are better for their marks, but I could hear the improvement. The students have actually been working and the classes have been going smoother. I'm a happy teacher!
Electroacoustic class was not so hot today. The piece I brought in for my listening example ... the prof labeled it 'compositionally weak'. It's not like I chose it specifically and loved it, I chose it because it was one of the few tracks of a suitable length off of a compilation album. One would assume that a work done by someone who teaches electro composition at a US University would be sound, but I guess not. The piece gave us some stuff to talk about, but I still felt a little down that I didn't make a good selection.
There are only two of us in the class, and it's pretty clear that I am the weaker of the two students. I need to spend much more time in the studio so that I might be able to come close to catching up, but the other guys has more electro experience. It should be encouraging me to do better, but I'm finding it a little frustrating that he always seems to be going that sizable step beyond what I am doing.
I took a nap this evening, but I'm still tired, so I'll go to bed somewhat soon.
I read for pleasure tonight, only 37 pages, but it's a start. I need to increase my reading speed because next term I will have to do a lot of reading for my academic course. Also, I should generally be reading a lot more than I currently am. I should also be listening a lot more and looking at a lot more scores. I should also be composing more. I should do more.
I should also increase the quality of what I am currently doing, rather than simply adding more quantity.
Michael, it's time to step it up.
I got to play a bit for my choreographer and some of the dancers. It wasn't as inspiring as my initial experiences with the YoungLungs, but they are a very receptive group and things look promising. We're all going to start thinking about possible topics/subjects for the thesis project(long term), but there are going to be some opportunities to work on some smaller project during this year - a good way to get to know each other.
Two of my sight singing classes had their second test today. They did SO much better. Almost too much better. I was a little more lenient this time, but their skills were much better. It's not just a matter of seeing that the numbers are better for their marks, but I could hear the improvement. The students have actually been working and the classes have been going smoother. I'm a happy teacher!
Electroacoustic class was not so hot today. The piece I brought in for my listening example ... the prof labeled it 'compositionally weak'. It's not like I chose it specifically and loved it, I chose it because it was one of the few tracks of a suitable length off of a compilation album. One would assume that a work done by someone who teaches electro composition at a US University would be sound, but I guess not. The piece gave us some stuff to talk about, but I still felt a little down that I didn't make a good selection.
There are only two of us in the class, and it's pretty clear that I am the weaker of the two students. I need to spend much more time in the studio so that I might be able to come close to catching up, but the other guys has more electro experience. It should be encouraging me to do better, but I'm finding it a little frustrating that he always seems to be going that sizable step beyond what I am doing.
I took a nap this evening, but I'm still tired, so I'll go to bed somewhat soon.
I read for pleasure tonight, only 37 pages, but it's a start. I need to increase my reading speed because next term I will have to do a lot of reading for my academic course. Also, I should generally be reading a lot more than I currently am. I should also be listening a lot more and looking at a lot more scores. I should also be composing more. I should do more.
I should also increase the quality of what I am currently doing, rather than simply adding more quantity.
Michael, it's time to step it up.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Fickidy Fuch!
It's 10pm and I'm still not finished filling in the blanks for this composition excerpt. Once I finish that, I need to make sure the parts look alright and then save them as a PDF and send that off to the prof in charge.
I wouldn't mind and I'd just stay up really late doing it, BUT:
Tomorrow morning at 7am, that's right SEVEN in the MORNING, I am meeting my choreographer and dancers to get to know each other in terms of music/movement styles.
I wouldn't mind and I'd just come home and sleep after, BUT:
Tomorrow is a pretty busy day anyway - I am giving 2 sight singing tests. I have a listening assignment for my electroacoustic class (also tomorrow), which obviously I won't be getting to tonight. I have a few hours between classes tomorrow, so I can use the library to do that!
Anyway, enough wasting time on here - I have work to do!
While this is quite stressful, this is what I've been waiting for and excited for with grad school! May the craziness begin!
It's 10pm and I'm still not finished filling in the blanks for this composition excerpt. Once I finish that, I need to make sure the parts look alright and then save them as a PDF and send that off to the prof in charge.
I wouldn't mind and I'd just stay up really late doing it, BUT:
Tomorrow morning at 7am, that's right SEVEN in the MORNING, I am meeting my choreographer and dancers to get to know each other in terms of music/movement styles.
I wouldn't mind and I'd just come home and sleep after, BUT:
Tomorrow is a pretty busy day anyway - I am giving 2 sight singing tests. I have a listening assignment for my electroacoustic class (also tomorrow), which obviously I won't be getting to tonight. I have a few hours between classes tomorrow, so I can use the library to do that!
Anyway, enough wasting time on here - I have work to do!
While this is quite stressful, this is what I've been waiting for and excited for with grad school! May the craziness begin!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)