Friday, April 28, 2006

The Peg

Well, we had our marathon o' concerts day yesterday, with our quartet playing at the Shoe Museum at 5:30-6:30, and then rushing down to the brand spanking new opera house for a concert with the COC. It was super fun, and all I can say about the new hall is wow. wowee wow wow wow. It is the most amazing hall! Even playing in the pit, the sound is amazing. They're doing a series of concert this week to test out the acoustics, and experimenting with putting the pit at different levels, and having different amounts of audience in the hall. It's a pretty cool thing really, through our rehearsals and even in the concert there was acoustics people throughout the hall and even in the pit who had microphones attached to their glasses right besides their ears, so it would record what their ears heard. They asked us to play this concert so they could test out the hall with a gigantor Mahler sized orchestra. Oh, and the orchestra pit in that hall is so roomy!!! They made it extra big, with is extra nice, because often when they cram you in the pit it does a number on both your playing and your body, because you have to sit awkwardly to find room to bow. But this was so roomy! Even with a ton of us in it! After Richard Bradshaw invited us all over to a jazz bar down the street - The Rex (you came there Graeme, when you were in town). And then he bought us all free beer. I only had a couple glasses, then at 10:30 I went home like a loser. But also because it had been a crazy and slightly stressful week, and I had to pack for our flight to Winnipeg this morning. Tom will be here shortly to pick us up - mostly because I don't trust Catherine on the subway because she didn't come home until about 7am, and while packing she keeps running off the the bathroom to puke. Not the best conditions for riding the subway to Etobicoke.

We fly to Winnipeg at about 12, then we have a little soiree tonight we have to play at, then tomorrow night we're playing at the big International Workers Day banquet, then on Sunday we're going to Gimli to play a concert there to raise money for our Icelandic trip. It's the largest settlement of Icelanders outside of Iceland I think - it's kind of like those Mennonite communities but more integrated into society. They all speak Icelandic, and keep Icelandic traditions alive, even if they and their parents were all born in Canada. We're off to see the Communists, the wonderful Communists of Winnipeg.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

It's The Pleasure Principle


I'm taking a break right now from odious school work. I've already written my paper for Canadian Rep, and prepared my presentation, but I still have to finish my masterclass journal and masterclass essay. It's the most odious thing ever. What teachers did you like and why? Blah de blah de blah. I've been working all day and it's odious. You know what a fun word is? Odious.

I've had this newspaper article in my wallet since Vancouver that I meant to post up here, because it's really funny. "Dutch busker squacks after saxaphone seized. The Hague. Dutch police have confiscated the saxophone of a busker who played so badly that his audience complained. The 43-year-old used to perform at the railway station at Leiden in the west of the country to the dismay of passengers, who found his instrument an ill wind." Man, I wish that cops did that more. Sometime you hear buskers on the street, and you're just like, 'oh, dude, that's disgusting.' At the market when we play at the spot inside, the people who work around there thank us because otherwise they're forced to listen to this really bad guy sing with a guitar all day.

Now I'll leave you with a rejected greeting card idea. "Spread some holiday cheer. (Inside) Or drink alone. Who am I to judge?"

Monday, April 24, 2006

I'm In

So it's official, I got accepted to UBC, and they gave me $1000. Vancouver, here I come.

Test this

Well, it's over. And it was thouroughly depressing. I mean, why would you ever need to know who invented the piano, or whether Phillipe de Vitry wrote Ars Nova or Musiche Gestutche. And my essays comparing theBaroque to the Classical and the Classical to the Romantic were just bad. Between the Baroque and the Classical, people wrote stuff. There were these guys, and they were really bored because their TV was broken, so they just wrote a new cantata every week. I wish that's what I could've said, but no. I had to be all analytical and shit. There was increased dissonance and chromaticism, with more idiomatic compositions and sacred music being written in the vernacular. Cause they were bored.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Cheese With That

I just want to go to bed now!!!! But I'm only up to the Baroque. I still have Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century left to study!!! I wasted the whole day at school for this stupid-ass chamber concert that went on forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111111111111111

Saturday, April 22, 2006

The Stretch

Well, I'm in the final stretch. I'm almost done. I have a chamber music concert tomorrow afternoon, and then mad studying for my history final on Monday, then I have to write a paper and make a presentation for my Canadian repertoire class on Wednesday, and then I'm done with school!!!! At least the school part of school - I still have lots of playing, but as of Wednesday at noon, I'll be done all my classes and assignments. Boo-yah. I'm excited but also apprehensive about moving across the country. I hate moving, mostly because I'm a clutterbug and have a ton of stuff, all of which is VERY IMPORTANT. How could I possibly go without my collection of moisturizers. I have the soy extract, radiance, renewal, collagen, almond, vitamin C, healthy defense, and deep comfort. And I need them all! So you can see my problem - I have too much crap. Of course, it will probably be good for me to go through it all and get rid of random stuff I've had for four years and never used. Although, as soon as I throw it out, I might need it. You never know. Last month I was feeling all maniacal in the middle of the night and I sorted through all my books and packed a box of books. It's been sitting in the middle of the floor since then....... My efficiency amazes me.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Yawn



You know, it always seems like such a good idea. Have a party at the end of the school year to say goodbye to everyone! I'll get all dolled up and go to the bar on a weeknight, but I won't drink much. Oh no, because I want to accomplish things tomorrow. Well, I think we all know what happened. I woke up this morning and my feet hurt, my eyes were gummed shut, I was really dehydrated, and I really really had to go to the bathroom. And it is now 2:58 pm and what have I done? I went to Starbucks and got coffee, then I came home and watched an entire season of Two Guys and a Girl. I can't stop!!!! It's not even that I'm hung over - I'm just so tired!!!! I walked home from the corner of Bathurst and St. Clair at 1:30 am in my bare feet! And I don't want to leave my apartment because it's cold out. And there are wolves after me.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

I Quit


So, I cancelled my recital. It was for a lot of reasons, the biggest being that I have a quartet gig on the same night at the same time. That's kind of a conflict. Also, I'm just really freaking busy finishing up school stuff, and with quartet stuff. We're going to Winnipeg for 3 days the weekend before, and we have a concert every day we're there. It's going to be crazy. So I cancelled it, and now I am zen.

I had my art history final yesterday, and I think it went pretty well. There was only one painting I hadn't studied, but I remembered what he had talked about with it, and I guessed the name and date and actually got it right. It was Vermeer, and the names for his paintings are usually pretty self-explanitory, so I put "Street In Delft". The title he had in our outline was "Little Street In Delft", but he'll accept what I put. And then for the date, all the paintings by Vermeer we looked at were from around 1600, so I just put that. And I was right. I rule.

Like the photo? It's my quartet and our Performance Manager from school at the bar in Stratford. I just thought it was a hilarious picture. The most hilarious ones are the ones you take at the bar.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Nathan Fillion


So, Michelle and I decided we should start one of those Gawker map websites where people write in real-time sightings fo stars, except just for Nathan Fillion. He's super hot, and who doesn't want to know where he is at all times?!!! We're all obsessed with that really bad TV series Two Guys and a Girl (and a Pizza Place) that both Ryan Reynolds and Nathan Fillion were on. I downloaded all four seasons, and have burned dvds for both Michelle and Ingunn. In fact, Michelle called me at 9:15 tonight, very distraught and saying she couldn't study for our Art History exam we have tomorrow morning because she couldn't stop watching Two Guys and a Girl!!!! I had to calm her down and point out that if she absolutly could not stop watching, she could always watch while she studied. It's only cause they're so hot and funny.

So, anybody seen Nathan lately?

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Van

Well, I'm back from Vancouver and I guess I'll give you a run-down of what happened. I flew in on Monday morning, and with the time difference I flew out of Toronto at 7:30 am and got there at 9:30 am. So I wanted to get sort of switched over to the time difference so I went out and wandered around downtown Vancouver for a while, and ended up going to see that new movie She's The Man. It was kinda funny. Then I went back to the place I was staying and crashed at about 8 pm. I got up on Tuesday morning and tooled around for a bit, and practiced, then I headed out to UBC for a lesson with David Harding. I left myself alot of time because I wanted to time how long it took me for my audition the next day. So anyways I went, and I had a good lesson, and he seemed to like me and all. So then I went home again, and watched Gilmore Girls and Pepper Dennis on the WB and then went to bed. I got up at 7 on Wed to prepare for my audition. I packed up my stuff and took my suitcase with me to UBC, and I had my audition at 10:40, and then I had an ear-training test at 12:45 (which I aced), and a theory test at 1:30 (which I also aced). Then I grabbed all my stuff and headed out the ferry terminal at Tswaassen to catch the ferry to Nanaimo. I got there at 8:30, and my grandma met me there and took me back to her condo.
On Thursday I tooled around Nanaimo with my grandma, then at 4:30 my cousin Gayle's husband Robert picked us up and drove us up to my Cousin Bob and his wife Amanda's place in Comox. They have a 4 year old, Nathan, and a 7 month old, Emma. Nathan was so excited to see visitors, and was running all over the place, and insisted on showing me all of his video games and dvds. We had supper there, and I crashed not soon after Nathan went to bed. On Friday morning we had breakfast, and then my cousin Bruce and his wife Ramona and their kids (7 year old David and 4 year old Joseph) took the ferry over from Vancouver and came for lunch. Joseph is so cute - he was completely enamoured with Emma, and kept hugging her and patting her. Bruce said he really likes babies - he has Down's syndrome, and he's been in the same swimming lesson class for the past three years, so by now it's Joseph and all the babies. After lunch my Uncle Gerry drove my grandma and I up to Campbell River to visit my cousin Gayle and her kids Spencer, 13, and Devon, 7. Bruce and Ramona followed as they would be staying with Gayle and Robert over the Easter weekend. We had a nice little visit, and were back in Comox by 5:30 to pick up my cousin Bob from the airport. He works for a trucking company based out of Calgary, and he's finding it really hard to be away from his family so much. He used to live in California, and owned his own company, but when they had Emma, and Nathan got to school age, he and Amanda decided they'd rather raise their kids in Canada. Especially since they were not only living in the land of Bush, but also Schwarzenegger. Ugh. Anyways, we went back to their house for supper, then after supper we went for a walk with the kids around Comox. It's very pretty there, though rainy..... And my flight was at 6:30 this morning, so Bob got up 5 to drive me to the airport. Anyways, I guess I'll probably be in Vancouver next year!

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Stratford

Well, I just got back from Stratford. We played two concerts there last night, one in a restaurant and one in someone's home. It was pretty fun, and it was nice for us to have a mini-holiday in the midst of craziness. The people we billeted with were so nice, and we were very happy to be billeted together - last year when we went they split us up, and we were very sad. I have to go pack now for my trip to Vancouver, and get my school shit together. Blargh.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Why?!!

So, new orchestra related drama today - a bunch of the violins just took off in the middle of the day randomly. They told the conductor that they were "required" to attend their teacher's concert, and then took off. Needless to say people were not impressed. Also Michelle arranged to have Liana replace her, because this week was basically killing her shoulder. Michelle then took off and went to see a doctor at the Women's College Sports Medicine clinic about her shoulder, and was diagnosed with a sore shoulder. And then the doctor kept trying to get Michelle to admit she was anorexic, and sent her away with some pain killers and a referral to a dietician. And if you know Michelle you know that this is hilarious. Sure, she's skinny, but she eats a lot. She's probably the least likely person of everyone I know to have an eating disorder. Anyways, I'm at Ingunn's right now with the girls + Liana, and we're having a 'guys suck and I love my friends night'. Because guys suck and I love my friends. Not that I can really relate to the guys sucking part, because I don't hold with all that drama the younger set seems to get off on, but I'm here to be supportive. And by supportive I mean writing in my blog. While they're in another room.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Orchestra

Well, it's been another exciting orchestra week. There was a big blow-up yesterday over the bowings, and it was actually quite dramatic. And it's one of those situations where it's not really anybodies fault, but the administration desperately wants a scapegoat to blame, so they blame us. As they always do. Because god knows when things don't go right it's always the students out to sabotage the school. But I digress....

Yesterday we played for the opening of Mastercard's new offices in Toronto, and it was one of those really annoying gigs where you're playing background music, but nobody pays any attention to you whatsoever, and they just talk loudly over everything. We even tried playing really loud, crashy, impressive sounding stuff like Piazzola, and the Four Seasons, but nothing! And it's a pretty well-paying gig, but it's through the school so I won't actually see that money for a while. Which is annoying because I could really use it now for my trip to Vancouver next week. But anyways. Hopefully they'll pay us up front in Stratford.

Oh yeah, Graeme made us this super cool site for our quartet which is now up and running. Check it out at constanze.ca

Monday, April 03, 2006

Home

Yesterday was a home day - it was just what I needed. I've been so busy, and living at Michelle's, I just needed a day puttering about the house. Good times. Anyways, we're into orchestra week, so we had 5 hours of rehearsal today, and 5 more tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. I was in the library during lunch checking my emails, and one of the trombonists was complaining about how they're only playing one piece. I'm just like, suck it up bitch! You know how much time you have now?! I have none!!! Tomorrow right after rehearsal we have this gig through the school playing background music for the opening of Mastercard Canada's new offices at Yonge and Bloor. Should be good fun. Anyways, I need to sleep now.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Well, at least I have that

So apparently Alastair is not moving to Michigan, but instead following Mr. Kadz to Calgary, and wants his quartet to come with him. I think we've basically convinced Catherine that it would be a BAD decision - especially since she got into the Cleveland Institute of Music, which is a big important school. But enough of that. I went and picked up Ingunn's parents and her brother Gunnar from an airport hotel on Friday morning and dropped them at their friend's house in Rosedale. I then went home and chillaxed for a bit, and then went to school to practice before Ingunn's recital. She called me slightly panicked 15 minutes before her recital because she couldn't find Michelle who she had apparently asked to page turn for her. Except Michelle was off coaching a YAPA quartet and was going to be late for Ingunn's recital. So Ingunn decided my jeans and sneakers were acceptable and I jumped in to page turn - we talked to Michelle after the concert and she vaguely remembered Ingunn offhandedly asking her at Catherine's recital the night before. But that's all water under the bridge.

After Ingunn's recital, Erik, Michelle, and I somehow got talking about Iceland salmon fishing with Ingunn's boyfriend Tim, and we were being totally sarcastic and crazy but he was taking it all very seriously, and we ended up getting into this big argument over Icelandic salmon fishing techniques. And so we just avoided Tim for the rest of the night because we just didn't care!! And then he thought we were mad at him. What a pussy. We ended up ditching the Icelandic afterparty early, but not after talking to Ingunn's dad for a while about our Iceland trip. He got us another confirmed concert at this church, as a fundraiser for new stained-glass windows. So Michelle decided she should write a piece called Stained Glass (but in Icelandic). So that's cool. Then we met up with Catherine, Peter, Mariko, and Poppa Cosbey at a bar near school and hung out with them for about half and hour, then we went home to Etobicoke.

When my alarm went off at 4:30 am, I wanted to kill someone. But I hauled ass out of bed and picked up Peter, and got to the market to get our spot. However, Pheobe and Liana are now fired from busking, as they showed up at 8 (a full 3 hours after we got there), refused to pay for parking (how else would we have gotten the spot if we hadn't hauled our asses out of bed and drove down at 5 am?), and also borrowed money from Peter and didn't pay him back. So Peter was very upset and will no longer ask them to go busking. We did make a little over $100 each though. Then I was driving Peter to the Mooredale house to give sectionals for their orchestra when Carolyn called him and asked him if he could cover the violas too, as she is super duper sick. And he was like, Katya's in the car, why doesn't she just do it? So I did some viola sectionals yesterday. They're doing this horribly easy Boccherini Sinfonia, and I went through it twice with them, and then ran out of things to do. It was the first rehearsal, and they were all sightreading, so I could get really picky or anything.... So whatever. Then Peter dropped me off at home, and I puttered around until I collapsed at about 8:30 pm. I slept almost straight through until noon today. It was fantastic. I love bed.

Oh, and I got an email today saying I got into McGill. So at least I have that.....