valentine finale

Valentine's Day hasn't been as bad as it could have been. I got candy from my quintet coach (which I wolfed down in lieu of dinner on the way to teach), a little bit of very tasty lamb (that I ate too quickly as soon as I got home) from Cindy, and a box of chocolates from my student, Chuck. Traffic was horrible (it took me an hour to get from USC to the Feders, urgh). I talked to both my parents, who are sadly separated from each other til Sunday, when my mom returns home from NYC. I think poor dad's a little lonely, but mom was happy for some extra time (she was supposed to leave yesterday but couldn't because of the weather) with old friends in her home town. A responding text message from that same city made me inordinately happy. I haven't seen most of the couples I know today, so that hasn't been icky. And I had an invitation to go out with friends which I unfortunately had to decline to do some desperately-needed laundry. I had coffee Kim, who was feeling very down, and I think I made her feel at least a little better, and I had a lovely lunch in the California sunshine with Shirley.

I haven't really practiced for a few days, been spending far too much time in rehearsal or working, but there's nothing I can do about this. I'll just have to keep trying, and maybe I'll get something done tomorrow. I'll have to, really. Reeds for oboe and EH are driving me nuts, but maybe I'll get some good ones soon.

And Shirley's right, my blog looks like a morgue, so, PLEASE, people, STOP DYING!!! Thank you, Gabrielle.

what gives???

and now i must add Norman Herzberg.

and yet another

Gian Carlo Menotti.

77019

I found out that, unfortunately, I have yet another person to add to my mourning list. Molly Ivins, the liberal Texan newspaper columnist. She died of breast cancer. I didn't read her columns regularly, but I had read a few and enjoyed them, and I'd heard her on Prairie Home Companion once. And I felt a sort of affinity to her because she went to St. John's and was on the school paper there, the same as me. And she was from the same, very red, very oily zip code, so now I can point her out if people give me guff about that :) Along with my other Texas dems that I mention (Babara Jordon, Lyndon B Johnson, Ann Richards, Sheila Jackson Lee, etc).

I myself have been a little psycho lately. Having three friends visit in three weeks was great fun, but now there's a ton of catching up to do. So if I've been rude lately, it's because I've been very stressed, and although I'm not sure that will actually get much better anytime soon, I hope that I at least can keep up with everything with fewer distractions.

Kim's here!

Kim's here! Northwestern Kim, as opposed to LA Kim, who's obviously always here. And who needs knee surgery :( I'm really glad to have her, I think we're meeting some oboe friends at the Huntington Library tomorrow, perhaps catching an LA Phil performance with Gil Shaham. Things have been crazy busy lately, and will be again soon, so I'm glad to have this weekend to enjoy with Kim.

Jessica sent me a postcard AND a letter, and after quite a long time, it was good to hear from her. She's in Alaska now. I wish I could go to Alaska. I think I'm developing the need to travel again. Sometimes after particularly adventurous journeys I lose any desire to travel for quite a while, but it has been a long time, and I want to do something fun this summer. Which means I'm really stressed out about summer music festival crap. I still need to find a few more to apply to that I can actually get into, since at this point I might not have any summer plans. Urgh. Must stay sane.

random concerts and conversations

I finally got to see the LA Phil tonight! I had a lovely time with Jenny, Kim, and Julianne. We saw Mahler 7, with Esa-Pekka Salonen (who's kinda hot. am i allowed to say that? well, he is. plus i think i developed Finnish Fascination while working on my thesis last year). It was a good performance, though I didn't love the sound of the first clarinet or bassoon, especially compared to those I'm used to in Houston & Chicago. The oboe section sounded great, though. And the giant churchbells at the end were pretty cool. The piece didn't have as much emotional oomph as I would have liked, but I think that might be my reaction to the symphony, not the performance. Actually, maybe because the Webern didn't really involve emotions, I preferred its chrystalline performance. Anyway, I'm really glad I finally got to go.

The crappy Aspen tape has been mailed, but I have a lesson tomorrow and nothing to show for it (hi Allan, I went to the LA Phil last night instead of practicing?). I've been really frustrated lately, especially because I've been spending an exorbitant amount of time on reeds without any results. Maybe Allan will set things right.

It was good to have quintet again, and Wind Ensemble wasn't so bad because there are mainly chamber pieces and a several good people in the rotation. I'll need to practice the parts a bit, though. Playing with Lot is fun, though I'm having issues sitting next to someone else playing English horn solos. At least I'll be playing Galadriel with Debut very soon.

Missing someone still. As always.

Odd that I mentioned Gustavo Dudamel the other day, because today on line at the post office I had a long conversation with an older Korean gentleman about him, and the Venezuelan youth orchestra system, and how nice it would be if we could implement that system, or part of it, here. It was a nice surprise to have a conversation with someone who actually knew and appreciated classical music, and didn't ask what an oboe was (he commented on my backpack, which I explained was actually an oboe case).

Well, I guess that's all. Goodnight!

Agreed.