This is my life

* JIB con is going on and there are all these lovely tweets going on that make me happy. &SPN family;

* cupidsbow posted this amazing vid of Lana Wachowski accepting an award from the Human Rights Campaign. I honestly have no idea what the award is for (she doesn't seem to either), but the speech is incredible. She's so very articulate about her own journey (the nun story is terrible and also remarkably similar to something that happened to me in grade school - right down to not having words to express something to parents and experiencing frustration with their inability to understand) as well as the meaning of public and private personas, and articulating both what the loss of anonymity means to her as well as how she hopes it will help other LGBT youth (and that is clearly why she is doing it). I want to warn, because I feel like some of her stories could definitely be triggering (the story of the nun being one - there was some physical harm, there, when she was in grade school), but I feel like there are other items that might be triggering and I'm just not familiar enough to be able to put words to them. If you have triggers, ask? (I know that's a shitty thing to ask, but I don't know what else to do.) I will be happy to listen again and see if there is anything that might be triggering. ( Vid embedded under the cut. )

* We are rewatching Leverage. We're beginning season four right now. Thing said most often while watching: "I fucking LOVE Parker!" followed closely by "I fucking LOVE Hardison!" and then, in a sadly distant third, "I fucking LOVE Eliot!" Because mostly it's about his hair. And about how he is sometimes stunted in his feels. There are times he really reminds me of Dean, and now that it's finally clicked in my brain about how Chris and Jensen are friends, I'm all ;salkdjfa;slkdfa;sldjfsa;ldj about them, and the similarities of the two characters keep popping out at me. ( Spoilers about possible SPN events )

* Our move has been pushed back a couple of weeks - we'll be moving the second week of June-ish, and getting to the Midwest just in time to go to my niece's wedding and my other niece's graduation party. Gotta set some money aside for a graduation gift. Thing I'm most worried about at the moment: what to do with the cats while we're driving. Partially tempted to put them in the car (we're towing) but I worry about the heat (I'm thinking those reflective things in the windshield and putting the windows down - also possibly driving at night (which I prefer anyway)). I don't think there's going to be room for them in the front of the Uhaul, and I think it'd be a lot worse in the back of the Uhaul with the boxes and stuff - no ventilation back there. Suggestions welcome!

* The dude I shared an office with at MIT and I are keeping in pretty good contact, mainly because one of the things we had in common was The Voice, so one or the other of us usually feels the need to write something about the shows at least once a week (we cheered together that Caroline was gone), and he sent me this AMAZING vid of two violinists (Rhett Price and Josh Knowles) playing Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble. ( Embedded beneath the cut )

I looked at some of their earlier stuff and it's interesting but not quite as good (Rhett's longer hair notwithstanding). And I just realized why he sent me the link - the subway they're playing in is Boston, and it's the Red Line, which is the one you have to take from MIT to get anywhere. Ha. Awesome.

* So You Think You Can Dance starts next week. It is impossible for me to contain my feels about this. Except that I will have to miss it one week because of the move, which is already making me sadface.

So that's all my current feels this Sunday Saturday (I'm flying out tomorrow, it's like a Sunday to me). Now back to Leverage. :D

So I'm listening to I heart radio and I disliked a Weezer song. It was live, in studio, probably, and the guy was just out of tune. I can't handle people singing out of tune, it grates. So I disliked it and it went away, as these things do.

As if to tell me something, the next song up was Happiness is Overrated. And if that was enough of a message, the opening line was And speaking of, little miss Katherine.

Okay then, message received. :)

But no time to say them. D:

Got goosebumps in rehearsal today. Tomorrow's concert is going to be amazing. Anyone close-ish to Baltimore want to hear the Brahms 1st symphony tomorrow at 3pm?

Still job things - I have a huge post to write about that.

OTW grant things are happening - and it's the April drive week, um, if you haven't seen it all over your flist and need direction, let me know and I will point you.

Put finishing touches on my remix, that's one thing off my mind. Now on to my ABB. Impromptu or bust, baby.

ante_up_losers is hosting a bang! ATTENTION ARTISTS AND VIDDERS: can you let me know what kind of parameters you think would be a good way to equate art or vids to 10k words of fic? I don't know whether we want to do size of the art somehow, or how many pieces count for a big bang... not being an artist, I just don't know. Also, vids: how long does it take to make one? What could you produce if you had three months to produce it? I want to make sure all the possible options for bangs are both reasonable and kind of equivalent. Any suggestions or ideas welcome!

(You can't tell from that paragraph there, but we're allowing anything to be a bang piece, fic, art, vids, meta, poetry, graphics, podfic, crafts, filk, whatever. So we're trying to find parameters for everything so that the amount of work folks are putting into it is roughly the same, no matter what the media.)

Okay, you annoying terrible musician that played this music before me: if you play three Bs in a row, and you must write flats on ALL of them? I think it is time for you to give up and go home, and stop writing all the fuck over the music.

*snarls*

Things I want to talk about but only have time for summaries:

1. The Voice: ( spoilers )

2. SYTYCD: ( spoilers )

3. I has fresh brownies.

4. It's late. I should be in bed.

5. HOLY CRAP GUYS. Out of the blue, the orchestra manager quit. She was a sweet old lady that adored me! And then she up and left! With almost no warning! That was hard, but you know, it happens.

6. The NEW orchestra manager - she's got a doctorate in CLARINET PERFORMANCE and an emphasis in arts management, and she's worked as an arts manager with the National Symphony Orchestra. To which part of me goes: *gulp* and part of me goes: WTF are you doing in a part time job with this shitty little orchestra? I dunno, I dunno. I hope it works out for the best because I cannot stand one more political bullshit thing with this orchestra, I swear.

It's widely known that I have crap taste in music. Well, popular music. At least, this is what people tell me; I don't honestly care because I like what I like and I've never been one to be apologetic for what I like or be elitist in my tastes (I had plenty of that in conservatory, and it wasn't until too late that I realized what a detriment it was to my musical studies).

( Long long ramblings about my musical tastes and writing. )

I just got tickets to see Anthony McGill (clarinetist with the Met, and the one who performed Simple Gifts at Obama's inauguration) perform with the Poulenc trio at the University of Baltimore tonight.

The UB article about the concert.

I highly recommend both McGill and the Poulenc trio, and if you have the time and money (on such short notice, sorry!) and you're in the Baltimore area, I cannot tell you how awesome this concert is going to be. Well worth the trip and the cost.

DO NOT KNIT DURING A CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERT.

A) It is not as silent as you think.

B) It is super distracting to anyone sitting behind you that has you in their eyeline.

I've been listening to this all day. It is so compelling.

If you don't know it, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I'm not a particular Johnny Cash or Nine Inch Nails fan, so seriously. You won't regret it.

Ugh, I am sorry to be posting without the whole lecture; I will likely talk about this piece when I get my act together and do my Contemporary Classical Music for the Beginner bit of meta.

This piece is Contrasts for piano, clarinet, and violin by Béla Bartók. It's crunchier than the stuff I've put up so far, but very rewarding despite some of the tough harmonies. The third movement is a delightful little romp, and this is one of my favorite pieces of repertoire for clarinet (my main instrument). I've got a recording of it, matter of fact, though I'll probably never share, because my violinist is terrible, and I'm not 100% either.

ANYWAY. I'm packing for my roadtrip to Wisconsin tomorrow (18 hour drive after a nice long day at work, whee), so I don't have time to give you more. I will in the future, though!

Contrasts, Mvt 1: Verbunkos, Mvt 2: Piheno and Mvt 3: Sebes, by Béla Bartók. Performed by musicians of Chamber Music Northwest, including my very favorite clarinetist of all time - David Shifrin. The album also contains Quartet for the End of Time, by Olivier Messaien, which is one of my very favorite contemporary pieces, and has a great deal of historical significance. It will feature prominently on my starter kit for contemporary music. It's worth listening to, but will mean a lot more with a little bit of background about the piece.

Enjoy!

Okay, I know I should know this, but since clarinet is my main instrument, piano concertos are a little low on my listening list.

I need something late Romantic that is difficult and yet musically outstanding, touching those who listen without needing a huge classical music background to understand.

I would have gone with Rachmaninoff's third concerto (in fact I had planned on it when this was not a plot point but simply a throwaway reference), but now it's too big a deal, and I don't want to constantly be reminded of the movie Shine.

The ones I was thinking of were Scriabin's Concerto in F# Minor and Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. Tchaikovsky has three that might suit, and Liszt has two.

I know none of these works, nor do I have recordings of any of them. I'd have to say Scriabin, as a composer, would by my first choice, followed rather closely by Liszt. Tchaik and Grieg are both likely to have the big orchestral sound I'm looking for, but I think the Scriabin and the Liszt are more technically challenging.

Anybody have any thoughts?

So, you're just going to have to get used to the fact that on Monday nights, you are likely to get a lecture or a rant about music, clarinets, and/or conductors.

( Clarinet 101 )