rdm_ation

Far out I'm tired. I'm sitting here, watching Packed to the Rafters, and doing my best to focus on anything.
I even got a decent night's sleep and everything (9 hours) - my body has just realised how little sleep I've had for the past week and is crashing. Pity I can't just collapse as I have work to do.
Edit: that was now nearly 2 hours ago.

( Random updates about my life )

I went to Newton Faulkner's concert tonight. He is absolutely amazing. I can't even begin to describe how brilliant it was, but I'll just say this: I was speechless by the end of the night. And for those that know me, you'd know that that's a fair achievement as I usually don't shut up.

( A truly amazing night out )

I have well and truly caught the travel bug. There is this chamber music trip to Italy at the end of the year that I was kind of interested in going on until I went to the information session. Now I really really really want to go! Seriously, 3 weeks of ensemble rehearsals and masterclasses with experts from around Europe in a little town outside of Florence sounds damn good to me. And you know what the best bit is? Student overseas study loans (gets added to HECs, but I can deal with that later) and study grants (that don't have to be paid back) cover almost the entire cost of the trip. I'd just have to save up spending money. It actually could happen! So pumped =D

Other than that, my day was pretty standard, rushing from class to class, trying to work out exactly what I have to do for each of them etc etc etc. Oh, and discovering that my friend H loved Bran Nue Dae as much as I did. Singing at the top of our lungs to the soundtrack on the way home = WIN.

I'm also not in too much pain from the gym and physio yesterday... which is nothing short of a miracle. Honestly, I thought I wouldn't be able to move.

On another random note, I managed to get my homework list down from 20 items to 6 - but of course that was added to again today. So I'd better hop to it.
Rdm

*laughs hysterically*
harpisan and I went to a show last night - it was freaking amazing. 'Spontaneous Broadway' is a show improvised around song titles given by the audience. With some absolutely hilarious results XD
I was crying with laughter within about 2 minutes, and continued all the way. I highly recommend you go see it if possible - not that the same show will ever be repeated! We had another 'muso moment' at the beginning though, laughing quite enthusiastically at the 'Overture' - made up on the spot, of course. We were laughing for two main reasons. 1. The guy was reminding us of our Aural teacher, and the way he would just respond to comments made in class. (actually the whole show would have been right up his alley) 2. He completely stuffed the second last chord. We knew this because it was clearly supposed to be a V chord, and it wasn't. He then proceeded to crack up.
The best part of all this? It didn't cost an arm and a leg =D

So anyway, earlier on yesterday I had my audition for Music (at the 'same' place I'm at now) and I was pretty happy with how I went. Let's hope it's enough. I'm happy with how I went with the Musicianship test too - it was so much easier than last year's, almost ridiculously so. What was even better than this is that I had the chance to catch up with a friend from violin/school who I haven't spoken to much lately. And working out that I seem to make friends with people with the same interests all the time (even outside of music). It makes me happy, because even though C and H don't necessarily know each other, neither were ever left out of conversation. *grins*

So I've gotten to today, in a rather roundabout fashion... Nonetheless I got to catch up with E - an old friend who I also haven't had a decent chat to in ages. Twas good to just wander and dream about all the dvds and cds and dresses that we'd like to be able to afford.

All in all, a good couple of days. Now, on to Monday - then I can relax! And by relax, I mean do a heap of shifts at work to earn some last minute cash for this trip.
Rdm

*chuckles* I love musicals, and the fact that the random people on the street just know the songs. The line in my title is so apt though. It's from Enchanted and being a Disney nut I absolutely adore that movie. If it wasn't the by same people there would be so many lawsuits for all the rip-offs! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9JB5VAHDMo - dodgy quality but you get the idea)
So, why am I talking about this? It's what I do. Well, actually, I was showing harpisan , who unbelievably hasn't seen it. It's now on our really long list of things we want to do in the near future. Youtubing at midnight after a concert = win.

Ahem, yes. Concert. Andre Rieu. As a classical musician, I am ashamed to say I enjoyed myself. I'll admit, I went in with the attitude that the whole thing is so smarmy and cheesy and that I didn't have much respect for the whole idea or him for that matter. But the second item just got me. Beautiful, pure and simple. My respect for him as a violinist jumped about a mile. And then people started clapping before it had finished. Snapped me out of my spell - and I remembered where I was. And realised that yes, I am a classical music snob. Having said that, I did end up relaxing and enjoying the show for what it was. They are all completely NUTS. All of them. I am vaguely worried that his sense of humour is rather similar to ours...
For example, he had way too much fun messing with all the non-musical people in the audience. He would encourage them to clap, and then suddenly slow down. Or when they were dancing (yes, corny) to The Blue Danube, he would pause. He did it so often that we were left in amazement at how they would fall for it *every* time. Ahh musical schadenfreude. Love it. And the joke about his heart beating in 3/4 time - we were in hysterics and the people around us were just like "it's meant to be funny, we'll smile, but we don't get it".
Let's not forget the heart attacks this poor violinist had at an $11 million Stradivarius violin being swung around the stage...

Oh something else that appealed to us happened earlier in the day. This random guy was letting me pull out in front of him, not with the usual handwave though. He pulled out this EPIC flourish and bow. Made our afternoon.

So that was Friday. On Saturday, I had to work - I was so incredibly tired. I was dreading my violin lesson, quite frankly, because I thought it was going to suffer because of my lack of energy. Amazingly, my teacher had almost nothing to say about the Schubert, and bar a few memory slips in the Bach it was also fine. The Legende wasn't too bad either, I just have to consciously *relax* or my hand tenses up and those chords just sound like crap. But in comparison to last year - well it's like a different person is playing it. One thing I love about doing essentially the same pieces now as I did last time, it's really easy to see an improvement in my playing. This could be the reason that I'm actually excited about my recital - as opposed to nervous. Touch wood I'm not speaking too soon.
The bad thing about that, of course, is that I'm getting pretty bored at the moment. I can't wait to do the exam so I can start some new stuff. What to play though?

Saturday night - Halloween. I don't celebrate it, never have, and don't really have any desire to. So what do I do? I had the house to myself (my parents didn't actually remember to tell me that I had to get my own dinner but ah well) so I blasted my music, cleaned up my room, all the while dancing to said music. Such an awesome use of my time. Especially dancing around to 'You Make My Dreams'. Just saying. I was incredibly bouncy, for one main reason. I realised that because it was the 31st of October, it was 8 weeks until I leave for Indonesia. It's certainly snuck up on us - but it's so exciting.

Yesterday I went to church for the first time in a while, it went for sooo long. I'm still struggling to connect - but it's nice to know that the people are so sweet, they do keep encouraging me to come. Bah. I don't know how to explain it, other than it's not the Salvos. Which is all I've known. On that note, my family decided this week that at the end of the year they are going to leave my old church too. The whole situation is pretty sad really, considering my mum has been there her entire life - but you have to move on when it's not going anywhere. As I've discovered.

So we get to today. What have I done? Almost nothing. Cleaned out my desk (there is something satisfying about organising my life haha) and chatted on msn. One last rehearsal with my accompanist (who is brilliant I might add) this morning, but that was the extent of my productivity. Ah well.
One other thing I managed to do today: I tripped up my stairs. I now have a huge lump just under my knee, that will probably be black and blue by tomorrow. Nearly swore at the top of my lungs too - with Mum home. Luckily I caught myself, she wouldn't have been to pleased with me.

Well that's quite enough for one post I think, so I will go back to reading this webcomic that pebblegosling so kindly showed me, and laughing at all the ones mocking my own religion. They're just so damn funny.

Damn it pebblegosling, that song is firmly lodged in my head. And I want to listen to the rest of the soundtrack.

Today was another good day. I managed to get in 2.5 solid hours of practice as well as playing in Performance Seminar - twice! I was slightly pissed off that a certain person (who shall remain nameless) agreed to play for someone else after brushing me off, but I got over that fairly quickly. I actually wasn't all that happy with how I played  - but I got some pretty good comments about my tone in the middle section, so I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought. I hate it when I start really awkwardly, and just know that the sound isn't projecting. I tried to fix it as I went, but that section just didn't carry properly. Bah. Then I got up and played one of my Bach pieces, spur of the moment, and I knew immediately that the tone of this was better. What made me even happier was that harpisansaid my intonation was really good - the main challenge of that movement is to get 'true tuning' because it's essentially broken chords, that have to be spot on so they ring and sound like they're being played as chords. *grins* Ah the irony of the piece I haven't worked on being better than the one I did.

It's also great to see how much people have improved over the few months since we last heard each other play. A couple of people in particular. I was completely amazed by the progress B has made since I heard him play the same study a while ago. Just wow. He has gotten those pesky nerves (the 'n' word - 'I SAID IT AGAIN') under control, and his playing is so much better for it. The other is harpisanherself. Even though I listen to her practice occasionally, the difference between the last time she played in performance seminar (a month ago) made me so proud to hear =P. I forgot to record it though, oops  The expression, the balance of the parts, and just the tone projection in general have improved so much - and they will continue to do so I'm sure.

After all this, I went to see the MSO - love free tickets (thanks pebblegosling). I had to laugh when I the person introducing the world premiere of 'Re-Collecting Asteroids' came out, and she's gone "Wow that violinist is tall" Me: "Uhh that's my teacher" J: *makes LOL hand gesture*. I'm happy that I finally saw her playing, considering every time I go she doesn't! Ahaha. She also makes me laugh with her excited-ness over new compositions. It's cute.
It's also pretty awesome to hear one of our history pieces performed live - even with the applause fail at the end of the third movement. I guess it's Tchaikovsky's own fault for making that one the fast one =P

I'm getting slightly worried at the frequency with which I've been managing to leave my violin behind. *facepalm* Thank goodness I have friends who notice ... I'm such a moron sometimes I swear.

Well I'd better get to bed, I'm afraid I've made a habit of staying up too late - and so far still maintaining the early morning walks. I'll get there - I just want a sleep-in. Perhaps Wednesday. Perhaps.

You know those randomly awesome days? Well today was one of them =)

It started off as normal, hearing my phone alarm go off, ignoring it. Hearing my radio alarm go off, ignoring it. Proceeding to sleep for another hour... I win at life. Luckily for me, I had realised that this would happen and I still had plenty of time to get ready. Except for moving my car for Dad, my bad. Thanks Mum hehe.

I only had one formal class today, string workshop. It can be quite draining sometimes, and time always seems to drag - no idea why, because everyone always plays so well! Today was a little like that, but not as much as normal as there were heaps of different people and pieces. I discovered a couple of things that I found pretty strange. A Bourree from a Bach Cello Suite (can't remember the number) that was today played on a double bass - i distinctly remember playing it on the violin. And it was much easier on the violin than it *looked* on the bass. It's kind of weird to think that when I learnt those pieces, I had no knowledge of what instrument they were written for or how they related to each other. Not that at 12 years old I would have thought to ask about it either. Mental note: when I teach, explain background! On a completely separate note, there is a girl, S, who is a cellist (and an amazing one at that, adore the piece she played, almost considering rocking up to the open day to hear it again) - she reminds me so much of my friend, E. I don't really know why, because they don't really look all that much alike, for one thing S is asian, E well isn't. Every time I see her, I think about how much she reminds me of her. It's so strange! Ah and lol-ing with L, "I'll just stop talking now. Before I make even more a fool of myself" Then comparing her (with C, of course) to someone in our course, J, and how we tend to laugh *at* him because of his tendency to not know when to stop talking. I'm quite ashamed of that fact, but to tell you the truth, if I didn't laugh, I'd have to punch him ... seriously.

Well, after workshop, C and I went wandering again - surprise surprise. Then, back for our first violin and harp ensemble rehearsal. Not just the first with our tutor (who is also C's teacher) but the first one (we couldn't get a practice room yesterday, ah well) at all. It went fairly well, considering. It's actually a really cool piece of music  - and i love the tutor's analogy of the flamenco dancers and their entries, corresponding to changes in mood. Apart from being lectured on setting up before she gets there, there weren't too many things that she wasn't happy with. I certainly felt like I was back in school orchestra for a minute there >.< oops

And then, a miracle happened! I was motivated, and thought 'I'll try to practice, and see how long I last'. I was in shock, when an hour later I was still going, and my back hadn't even twinged. *beams* Which meant, two hours of solid playing and no pain. So so so so happy. AND I got the pesky run in that ensemble piece first go, and then three times in a row. AND I can play most of those excerpts. AND I can play the chords in a piece I learnt last year, perfectly in tune, from memory. I was absolutely amazed, and to say I was pleased would be the understatement of the year.

There was one other thing that made me really happy today, and that was my music playlist. Now, I'm not one to listen to songs on repeat - but said list of songs started with two on repeat, and gradually progressed. It is so eclectic, and completely awesome. I've literally been listening to it every chance I got today, including all afternoon/evening. If you know me, you'll understand that this is epic.
Listing them here, in the order I added them to the list.

Augustana - Boston
Ephemera - Air
Just A Little Band - Crazy Show
Lisa Miller - Eleven
Jon McLaughlin - So Close
Eva Cassidy - Songbird
The Script - I'm Yours
Frou Frou - Breathe In
Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth

I have no idea what they all have in common, except that I adore them.
I'm also not sure how a playlist full of mostly sad songs makes me so happy, but I'm not going to fight it. =)