Journal Entries
Heading off again
Posted Jun 23, 2006
On Monday my orchestra departs for its biannual (that's the word for every two years, right?) European tour. This year we're going to Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg and Moscow, for a total of 15 days. We'll be playing various pieces of symphonic literature, including Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Capriccio Espagnol, a movement from Sibelius' Finlandia and, as encore pieces, Copeland's 'Hoedown' from Rodeo and John Williams' Star Wars music. Of course, we're not playing all these pieces on one concert, so we'll mix and match. And moreover we're going to see and do some exciting things. It'll be the farthest I've ever been from home and the longest I'll have been away from my parents.
If anyone would like to be added to my email list to receive a few semi-regular bulletins from the trip, please give me an email addy that I can add to the list!
(I'm so dreadfully excited.)
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Latest reply: Jun 23, 2006
I'm back
Posted May 31, 2006
Well, San Antonio was nice. Losing matches was not. We won only two out of six matches, meaning that we did not make it to the playoffs for the first time in six years. Our coach was major upset. It also means we don't get invited back automatically next year, so we'll have to work hard in order to qualify.
On the other hand, meeting the other schools was fun and the actual act of playing the matches was fun too. Sometimes I don't care about losing or winning, I just love answering questions. We walked along the River Walk and went to the Alamo and saw X-Men 3 and spent four hours in the San Antonio airport (they'd overbooked our flight so we had to get there very early to ensure that we had seats).
I now have three big projects to get done in the next week: I have to write a research paper for my European history class (mine is on Olympia Press, the French publisher in the 50s and 60s that published a lot of vaguely erotic books that went on to be classics - I think there may be a guide entry in the making) and Euro class is also putting on a musical - my group is doing the scene about the Cold War. In addition, I have to do a final project for English class, and me and another girl are writing a skit summarising all the books we've read this year, entitled 'Death, Choices and the Importance of Being Earnest' (as Importance's theme didn't really involve death or choices).
I have friends my own age now, which is nice. The guys from the band, that is, and their friends and whatnot. I feel wanted for once and it's really quite nice. The band itself continues to go well; we've had a minor squabble over whether or not we're going to be the Scandinavian Six and also whether the girlfriend of one of the guitarists is in fact a member of the band - I hope it won't turn into a Yoko Ono incident. (Incidentally, I got a question involving 'Give Peace a Chance' at quizbowl.)
The other guitarist suggested the name 'Zeitgeist' - for the band, that is. I actually kind of like this.
So, yup. That's it - probably the longest journal entry I've written.
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Latest reply: May 31, 2006
Good thing I can type
Posted May 23, 2006
... because I've lost my voice and I'm definitely sick of whispering hoarsely at everyone. I'm so glad that one's typing is not affected by the state of one's larynx.
In other news, the fingers of my right hand have gone a strange purplish colour after having fingered notes on a guitar for the past two hours. The fingers of my left hand are suitably callused from seven years of violin and viola, but I'm left-handed and since I've started to play guitar I've had very painful fingers.
Hmmm, a journal entry, a scant few days after the last one, about my various aches and pains. I must be turning into BH.
Oh, and it's now only four days until my quizbowl team departs for San Antonio!
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Latest reply: May 23, 2006
An amazing quote from an amazing book
Posted May 17, 2006
I'm reading The Handmaid's Tale just now and I keep coming across little blocks of text that I want to remember. Here's just one:
"Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing."
I'm enjoying this book because it is an amazing work of fiction, but also because it is all too telling about what the world is really like. A couple months ago I read 1984, too, and I don't think that reading the news or anything like that has made me so aware of what our society is like than reading dystopian novels does.
Maybe I'm just too easily influenced by what I read, but I think my feminism is gradually being strengthened, partly by reading this book. There is no possible way that can be a bad thing.
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Latest reply: May 17, 2006
EMR makes her personal life into an event
Posted May 6, 2006
In an effort to come to terms with who I am and stuff like that, I'd like to announce that I'm bisexual.
There, I feel a lot better now.
Discuss this Journal entry [44]
Latest reply: May 6, 2006
echomikeromeo
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