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I have links about Star Wars! Here is an article on why The Phantom Menace is needed: http://www.jedinews.co.uk/news/news.aspx?newsID=12452

I never understood the theory that midichlorians=the Force. The movie implies they are an indicator, not an agent that causes the possessor to have the Force.

But what better reason for TPM than we get to see Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan go on an adventure? On a gorgeous planet like Naboo, no less? The older I get, the more I cringe (I always fastforward through any Padmé and Anakin scene) but I liked the adventuring very much.

And a ridiculously cute comic about Leia and Darth Vader: http://subaroosmiles.tumblr.com/post/49827583031

--

Choir! CHOIR omg omg omg. I found out our program. Do you know what we're singing this season??

Haydn's The Creation.

!!!

The Creation (actually, technically, Die Schöpfung) is an oratorio about...the creation of everything, with a libretto set to mostly Biblical text. This is one of the works I learned about in music history. A snippet of the chorus' singing was included on the anthology's CD track ("The heavens are telling", plus a chunk of the recitatives before it), and I loved it. It seriously boggles my mind that I'm singing what was on our curriculum; it is a big work, and famous, and I always thought of it as too difficult to really do--not just me personally, but the choir has to be skilled enough too.

To put the icing on the cake--the trills in the aria? the cadenza on the ending?--we're singing with an orchestra! Our conductor also conducts an orchestra, so we're teaming up, and it's going to be such a cool sound.

The only drawback is the German. I can...kind of deal with Latin now, but I'm pretty sure one of the reasons Lobet den Herrn was so horribly difficult was trying to deal with German on top of Bach's madness. (I have such conflicting feelings about that man. For now, I don't want to do any of his stuff, piano or vocal.)

--

I tried to type about piano, but...I don't think it's actually very interesting. In the heat of the moment I think about all sorts of things (usually thoughts that go "third finger there! move under now! THREE TRILLS INCOMING! be quieter! be louder!) Except I don't really think about fingering in terms of words, just feeling--you know how the thumb goes under? Words are longhand. If I try to think about something else, or about my playing on a meta level, my playing deteriorates. This is especially obvious any time I'm sightreading.

Instead, please try Marina and the Diamonds! Her voice is so distinctive and powerful.

silverflight8: Barcode with silverflight8 on top and userid underneath (Barcode)
It's been raining all day, I just finished Guns of Avalon which ended on a cliffhanger (also WAT), and this is the most obtuse, un-illuminating article I've ever had the dubious pleasure of reading: More is More and The Art of Perfection – Master Piano Technician Peter Salisbury Turns a Steinway Into Two, an article from Piano News, which I'm still inexplicably subscribed to. I believe the pertinent points--indeed, all the points--can be summarized as follows: "I'm not going to tell you anything substantive or explain the article's title because I am a professional (way better than youuuuu!) and know better." Honestly, what on earth is "an action"?

I mean, is it me? It can't just be me. Flist, validate me!

*

I think I've gotten over my temporary insanity of the last few weeks when I only craved really loud heavy music (this is a technical term) which led to mainlining Top 40 hits like Taio Cruz's songs and Macklemore and Lady Gaga's back catalogue and ANYWAY the exciting news is twofold:

a) I've come round to Choir #2's pieces and
b) I FOUND A PIANO TO PRACTICE ON.

Number a) is not exactly all that flattering. I was tired and grumpy when a lot of them were introduced (sleep is most definitely correlated to mood, and it's alarming) but I do actually like the stuff we're doing now! There's a lot of folk songs (e.g. "To Cecila", [drink to me only with thine eyes, and I will pledge with mine--the Ben Jonson poem], "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening", which is a TTBB piece so the altos get to do the tenor bits! Low but wonderfully expressive). And also Queen's "Somebody to Love". I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like some of Queen's stuff, but this one isn't really clicking for me. On the other hand, we got to hear the conductor sing it, and it was fantastic. You know, my conductor is a classically-trained tenor soloist, who I would seriously pay money to hear in concert (asdfjkl;). But he always is ready to belt the weirdest things (including the sopranos' lines in their octave), so the choir got to hear his rendition of Mercury's solo lines. And scat singing, too, when we were doing "In the Mood", which you should listen to because it is swingy and everything fun about big band music. Here is the original instrumental version by Glenn Miller:



According to the list of music we're doing, we're doing Loch Lomond, which is also one of my favourite songs (out of a very long list, I suck at making favourites) and I. can't. wait.

The second bullet point is more personal but I FOUND A PIANO TO PRACTICE ON. Five actually. More specifically I found a 'music club' that will allow me to practice. I am over the moon about this. I also have a big spreadsheet thing to track technique. What I've learned: E-flat minor arpeggios are STILL OF THE DEVIL. It is the worst ever.

snip of spreadsheet under cut )

Possibly the spreadsheet is a wee optimistic. I think my wrists would kill me if I tried to do all the major and minor scales in octaves, but I can always hope!

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