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!

hooray!

I just got home from dinner to see a little package wedged in front of my door but behind the grate.

I just received my acceptance package from Peabody!

i guess i could proto-blog...

That's the trouble with starting things ahead of time. Or at least, if you're me. You get this insane urge just to start them, even if it would be premature, just like the urge to pick a scab. You keep justifying why you should go ahead and do what it is that you really want to do, and honestly, I think I'm just going to.

Of course, I can't start blogging according to my original conception of this whole thing (a repository of thoughts as I took my first steps as a conservatory student [which can't very well happen until I'm accepted to a conservatory, the factualness of which is unknowable at this point] with more of a bent towards technical details, since it would not only be useful for me [in serving as a pseudo journal] but may satisfy a niche in the blogosphere that I have yet to encounter).

However, since I can't seem to stop myself (omg, links! pretty pictures!), I might as well start writing little informal ditties and perhaps in my ramblings discover topics I hadn't really considered before. But first, a pretty picture. mmmmm

Anyhow. This Saturday was interesting. After filling out (mostly) the final domestic conservatory app, I decided to take in a movie I had planned on seeing a lot earlier, Copying Beethoven. I had gotten the feeling that the introduction of the fictitious Anna Holtz bothered some people, and to be honest, my knee-jerk reaction to musical biopics tends to be skepticism, buuuut I had read that the movers and shakers behind the movie were pretty firm in restricting the soundtrack to music actually written by Beethoven during the timeframe the move takes place (final year[s]), at least where a Beethoven piece is to be used.

So that meant, no Eroica, no 5th Symphony, no to a lot of things, and I was impressed that something that would seem like a fairly mundane, academic decision was held to. Melted some of the skepticism. Have to say that I rolled my eyeballs during the opening sequence (the movie plays out of order like Zeffirelli's Traviata movie: spoilers: Beethoven dies!) as it seemed kind of needlessly affected, but I became so caught up in the movie at certain points that the opening sequence makes sense at the end of the movie. Well-played gambit, I think. I actually surprised myself a little bit at how strongly I reacted -- tears, gulpy throat, flaring nostrils -- all of it. It's not without its flaws, and in retrospect, it seems kind of insubstantial. But while I was watching it, it was pretty great stuff.

Then I went home and prompty fell asleep watching a VHS transfer of a Manon at NYCO from 1977 (Rudel/Sills, Henry Price -- hadn't heard of him before, but apparently went to American Opera Centre at Juuuuuuilliard and now teaches at Pepperdine, some other people, and Sam Ramey [!!!]). This is actually my first Manon, and I'm digesting it slowly -- I've just got the final act to go. I'm having the same sort of reaction to Sills (at least at this point in her career where the voice seems to harden a lot) as Maury D'annato seems to have with Anna Netrebko (the biggest difference is that I'm not experiencing Sills in house). The thing is, I really *liked* the voice before it calcified -- check out this youtube of Traviata (with Bastianini!)




In 1977, her stage presence is still remarkable. She's much more moving in Manon's introspection/regret than in the bubbly bubbly that characterizes much of Acts 1 and 2 (though, the seduction of [cute!] Price at Saint-Suplice is intensely lustful, which adds a lot more dimension to Manon than playing it for love would be, I think), though still wonderful to watch throughout. Henry Price has a very pleasing voice, with an elegant weave of sound. His French (particularly his vowels..."eh" [reaches for IPA symbols..] becomes more "ah", so lui-même becomes lui-ma'am. Maybe it's because I studied French and more attuned to its sounds, but even beyond comprehensibility of the text, I find that there's just so much more to enjoy in the sheer sound of the vowels and phonemes of a language. I suspect that virtually all composers of opera would have such a sensitivity to the simple aural pleasure of language (Louise's delicieusement), so it's always a shame to lose it, I think. Mmmm, the pleasure piggie hedonism of rubbing vowels together in your mouth between consonants... But other than a lack of heft for vocal ensembles or big orchestral moments, Price was beautifully ardent, and I'm sure his cherub's curls and handsome face don't hurt him in my sympathies.

But OMG, Sam Ramey. I thought a little uninflected, even if he is just singing Comte des Grieux, but it's kind of hard to resist cello-like timbre of his voice when he lets it out so naturally. Mmmmmmmm.

Alright, I think I've scrubbed enough for another ("first") post. Maybe I'll finish Manon tonight...though looking at the time, perhaps not.

"could i put you on hold for a couple months?"

placeholder text/post here mostly for aesthetic adjustment. I would say also saving the name and addy, but I can't imagine someone else snagging this particular combination or single part thereof. in any case, it is a little premature considering everything is still pending, and it seems kind of silly to blog what I have in mind when the result is still incredibly tentative.

random link

pretty pictures! (clearly not of me)

Sweet! Ok, the time has come to put the place-holder post to work. I'll be using this to keep all of my links on a tidy page so that you (and I, but mostly I) can keep all of them handy without unduly cluttering up the sidebar with their nattiness.

...sights...

1. Grayling - slowly finishing, philosophical graphic novel envisioning an alternate reality with a rich, articulate mythology


2. Kuchipudi - a gallery of images dedicated to the Indian dance form of Kuchipudi. My "guru" is also pictured; will update as more of her materials become available.


3. Order of the Stick - a touch OCD webcomic about a humorous adventure romp with "inside" jokes referencing any and all gaming genres.


4. Penny Arcade - intensely irreverant and ribald humor commenting on and around the video gaming industry.


5. Prague Conservatory - picture gallery at the Prague Conservatory website.


6. Santa Cecilia Conservatorio di Musica - picture gallery.


7. Taiwan - the food gallery from Taiwan Tiger's blog.

...and sundry.

1. Desperate Operawife - what it's like observing the profession from yet another "inside" perspective


2. My Favorite Intermissions - NYC mostly-opera blog with delicious wit and a coruscating turn of phrase


3. Opera Chic - la bella donna in Milano


4. Opera Daddy - Bass-baritone cum daddy with a side of giggles and glorious profanity


5. the concert - written with acuity and a prescient eye for goodness, this is a blog about being a living, growing person first and a musician second (but it's such a delicious second!)