bullets to a new day

Eeeek, I have been remiss in writing on this blog for quite a bit of time, but I think now is a really good time to bring this thought-repository up a little bit more to speed. Well, let's not waste more time!

• In the interest of disclosure, it's been a tough personal time recently. I doubt anybody really wants to know the details, but I think it's important to acknowledge that it did happen, especially since the bigger issues touched upon (like ego, body image, intimacy) are likely to be recurring. I suspect I'm not unique in this situation, but I think it's important that I log the good and the bad (at least that the bad occurred and the good that was entangled in it, so I can get better at separating the two).


• I have my motorcycle endorsement! Yes! I am now on my way to getting myself wheels for much less than it would cost to own a car. Yes, it is more dangerous than driving a car, but I think the benefits outweigh it: namely it is mobility and flexibility (I hardly need a vehicle for every day), it's easier to park, it's cheaper both to own and to pay for gas, and let's not forget the *awesome* factor. I want to be this dude on a motorcycle!


• I went a dear friend's wedding in San Diego. Leaving the wedding aside, what the hell was I thinking when I went to school on the east coast? And why am I staying there? (reminder to self: music school, sigh). I could have studied environmental engineering at Berkeley, but instead I studied chemistry...uh...somewhere else. Not that I regret anything, but San Diego was amazing. I got to sit in a clover patch next to the beach and watch the bees hum. It was a fantastic weekend.


• I also went home to visit my parents (and my sister and her boyfriend came to visit at the same time too, so that was good). We took the boyfriend about the state to see the White Sand Dunes, Carlsbad Caverns, and of course, the UFO Museum in Roswell. In between, there were amazing sights that forcibly struck home how much I love New Mexico. I have a list of 5 different places I would want to live incognito when I get older. Maybe I can convince my sister to send me the pictures she took of some of these places.


• In terms of vocal bootcamp...it was that. Sort of. I'm pretty much convinced that the next big battle is figuring out how to deal with the passagio and the upper register such that I actually can sing lines up there rather than just isolated tones. I'm pretty convinced that *something* different has to happen mechanistically, but nobody I've really studied with has made much progress in helping to illuminate that. I think that's the biggest technical thing that's sitting right in front of me right now, so I'm hoping that studying with someone for several years at a stretch will help facilitate that work. (And who am I kidding, there are plenty of other things to take care of as well.) I did make quite a few strides. Before going home, I had toyed around with a "Kermit the Frog" placement. In its tightest incarnation, it gives a golden and tightly wound vibrato to the sound. I definitely sound like a tenor when I sing this way. But it also does really unpleasant things to the larynx, so I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate that space with the other throat-tension-diffusing things that I am doing. I think I've made quite a few strides forward in that case, still maintaining the range height that I have and not killing the bottom of the range either. I'll have to play with this a little bit more, but it's a nice avenue to look down.


• My parents are visiting! So I've been madly cleaning (which the apartment needs anyway because I've been gone for 2 weeks!). I think that about catches everything up to the moment. I best get back to cleaning -- but I *definitely* will get back to posting all the things I've been promising (e.g. Nordic Voices, eeek!) to post about.

WEEEEEE!