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Nov. 8th, 2009 @ 02:45 pm Requiem recording
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As posted earlier, our choir did the Rutter Requiem last Friday night, and our director recorded the performance.  Normally I don't do this sort of thing, but here's an .mp4 file of me doing the Pie Jesu.  (People told me it was really good.  After getting a chance to listen to it... yeah, I'm really pretty pleased with it!)

EDITED to add: Our church site has been completely revamped (it's now all Flash-driven and pretty and stuff).  Among the other bells and whistles, it's got a "Music Clips" section under Worship.  I am rather pleased to note that this piece is one of the three on display (that's where I'm linking the file from now, actually; please let me know if the link quits working).
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tazz
Nov. 6th, 2009 @ 10:18 am Rutter Requiem TONIGHT
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My apologies for the late notice...

The choirs of Christ Church Portola Valley Woodside and Saint Bede's will be presenting the Rutter Requiem in the context of a requiem service tonight, November 6, at Christ Church.  My good friend [info]catagon3 and I will be singing the two soprano solos.

Location:
Christ Church Portola Valley and Woodside
815 Portola Road
Portola Valley, CA 94028

Time:
7:30 PM

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tazz
Oct. 15th, 2009 @ 09:22 pm A pondering...
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Often in the evening after dinner, I'm tired, and very much not in an "I wanna practice singing" mood.

Yet, much more often than not, once I start, I get extremely engaged in what I'm doing and generally feel like I've accomplished something come the end of it.  (Like, I think I managed to sing the sillily high D - the one up above the treble staff - cleanly, twice tonight.  That's once more than I did in lesson this past week!)  And I have energy while I'm practicing, once I've gotten into it.

Now, why can't I remember that?  Why can't I just remind myself, when I don't feel like practicing, that I'm almost always glad that I've practiced once I've gotten started?  Must be a little like various acquaintances and the gym...
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tazz
Sep. 17th, 2009 @ 09:28 pm Whoa. Big interval!
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I've just started learning "Mein Herr Marquis" from Die Fledermaus, aka Adele's Laughing Song.  (Story background: Adele is a chambermaid, to the wife of the Marquis.  On New Year's Eve, they all three of them end up at the same costume ball - Adele knows the Marquis and his wife are there, the Marquis and his wife don't know she's there.  But the Marquis thinks he recognizes her; this song is her rebuttal.  Basically, "Look how aristocratic I am, how could I possibly be a chambermaid, how funny the thought is!") 

Here is a YouTube link to someone who's much better than I am singing the piece (auf Deutsch.  I will be singing it auf English, which will make things a little easier). 

In my edition, near the end, there's a leap from D above middle C (just below the treble staff) to high C - the one waaaaaay up above the staff, just shy of two octaves above the D just before.  (The singer I linked to CHEATS, by putting a bit of cadenza-y stuff in between the two.)  Two octaves... well, a challenge is a good thing, right? 

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tazz
Sep. 11th, 2009 @ 08:15 pm (no subject)
Like [info]ladybird97 , I haven't posted anything of substance in a while.  So, I post!

Work has been going along in a mixed-to-reasonable fashion.  We've got positive expression for enough of our genes to make it worthwhile to start on The Big Interactome Project.  One thing stands in our way: the ELISA that we're figuring on using to detect interactions isn't working.  Again.  We plan to work on the problem next week.  But meantime, just about everything else is ready for launch.

We had a fantastic time over the holiday weekend at the giant gaming party hosted by cerebralpaladin and orichalcum.  We saw a number of people that we hadn't seen in quite some time, and met some new - and of course cool - people.  I played two D&D games: one set in ancient Babylon, in which my thief character helped figure out why it was raining on the Jewish Quarter and nowhere else (everyone else in town was blaming the Jews for stealing their rain - turns out that basically, they were right!), and one in which all the PCs were members of a theatrical troupe.  The troupe put on plays of heroic adventures, and in this one-shot, we had to basically *become* adventurers to get our hands on a kidnapped playwright who'd promised he'd write us a play.  The last game that I played was in a system called "Dogs in the Vineyard," in which the PCs were essentially lawgivers of the One True Faith in something like mid-1800s Mormon Utah.  You can get a sense of the mechanics of conflict resolution from this Wikipedia article and the character creation and gameplay from this review.  It is significantly more freewheeling than any game system than I've ever played before (not that that's very many).  The traits and relationships that you use to define your character have essentially no limits on them in terms of their definitions: "sense truth", "skeptic", "healer", and "joyful celebration" were some of the traits in our group.  Having played a session, I can pretty definitely say that the more vague you can be in your traits and relationships, the better - it means that you can more easily bring the die values of those traits and relationships into conflicts.  It was fun, and I wouldn't at all mind playing in the system again.

We had our first choir rehearsal of the season a couple of nights ago.  We have two new people: a strong bass and a strong soprano.  Having two whole basses to our name makes a huge difference, as does having a soprano who can actually generate volume on Wednesday nights.  I'm really excited about choir this year - we're gonna be goooooooood...... :D

And next weekend we're going to see Spamalot and Yellow Face, both should be good pieces of theater.  I'll be interested in hearing what y'all think of the movie 9; it's on my 'hmm, could be interesting' list.
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tazz
Jun. 2nd, 2009 @ 09:40 pm Singing event notice!
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I know this is late notice, but I thought I'd let you know that I'll be singing a fairly long solo as part of an Evensong service tomorrow night.  The details are as follows:

Location: Christ Church Portola Valley Woodside
815 Portola Road
Portola Valley, CA

Time: 7 PM

It's a little off the beaten path.  Probably the easiest way to get there is to take the Sand Hill Road exit from 280 (or up Sand Hill from Stanford Shopping Center); it's about 3.8 miles from 280.  The church will be on your right, and is the one after Valley Presbyterian Church and before the Town Center.  Hope to see you there!
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tazz
May. 3rd, 2009 @ 02:20 pm Good days
Current Mood: accomplished
Tags: , ,
Yesterday was quite productive.  We:

• got taught the steps to our first true ice dance, the Dutch Waltz

• got work done on my car
    This took longer than it was supposed to and I failed to bring anything to entertain myself with while waiting.  So I hung out in the customer lounge and watched a bit of Game Seven of the Boston/Chicago basketball game.  It's the first time I've watched pro basketball in literally decades, and the main thing that struck me was, wow those guys are beefy!  Muscles on muscles in their torsos and arms.  Way back when (in my kiddie memory of Larry Bird and his ilk) I remember that the typical basketball-player phenotype was tall and skinny.  When did that change to tall and burly?

• performed in the voice studio's recital
    Which went quite well, really.  Laurie's Song went at least as well as it's ever gone in practice, ditto the Doll Song.  The Green Dog was fine till the very end when I flubbed the timing.  Pretty much everyone was an active pleasure to listen to - it was really nice!

• had a fence between us and a neighbor built after the old one blew down a couple of weeks ago

And today, I've already done church and we've gone skating.  We need to go over to Stanford so I can pack up some supplies I'll need, take care of the neighbor's cats, and go grocery shopping.  Yes, busy.  But good.
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tazz
Feb. 24th, 2009 @ 09:05 pm Some good stuff
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I had a voice lesson today!  We stayed completely on topic, were very technical, and got some good work done.  Yay, makes me happy.  :)

I was able to listen to some of Obama's address to the joint Congress this evening on my way home.  And I came up with an idea when he started talking about tax cuts for bunches of people. 

I don't know whether the huz and I are going to end up qualifying for a tax cut.  I do know we don't make enough to qualify for a tax hike!  But I've told various friends on various occassions that gee, I like my government services: education, roads, police & fire, etc, and if it becomes necessary to increase my taxes to pay for these things, please go right ahead!  Yes, that's right: tax me! 

We happen to be very fortunate, financially speaking; we have quite sufficient to pay our mortgage, and no ongoing large expenses (e.g. kids).  I am fully aware that a lot of people will greatly appreciate (and in some cases, rather desperately need) any tax cuts they get; that's fine, that's who the tax cuts should be helping.  I also know that there are likely to be cuts everywhere  at city, state, and federal levels to try to start balancing budgets. 

So here's my idea.  If by some mischance we end up with an income tax break, we'll tote up what would otherwise be given to the tax man and donate it someplace useful, such as the education foundation for the city we live in (it helps fund music and science programs and stuff like that), or the library foundation, or some other civic-related thing that we know could use the extra money.  (We already donate to these programs already and will continue to do so even if we don't get a tax cut, don't get me wrong!)

I honestly don't have time to do community service as President Obama would much like me to.  But I do have the wherewithal to help pay the people who help run those services.
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tazz
Nov. 16th, 2008 @ 12:17 pm Concert announcement!
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The Stanford Symphonic Chorus and the Peninsula Symphony are joining forces next weekend to present a concert of American music. The program includes Copland's Quiet City, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and (most exciting) the world premiere of local composer Brian Holmes' Amherst Requiem, a setting of the traditional Latin text mixed with several of Emily Dickinson's poems medidating on various aspects of death. (I haven't heard the whole thing yet, as the chorus is present in only three of the movements, but I really like what I've heard so far!)

Performances are this Friday Nov 21 at 8 PM, and Sunday Nov 23 at 2 PM. Both performances are at Memorial Church on Stanford Campus. Tickets are $10 student, $20 adult. You may purchase tickets in advance from Peninsula Symphony's website, or purchase them at the door.
Hope to see you there!
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tazz
Jun. 2nd, 2008 @ 05:55 pm Eeek!
Current Mood: scared
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She wants me to start working on the "Doll Song" from Tales of Hoffman!

Here's a video of Moira Shearer doing it back in 1951.
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tazz
May. 27th, 2008 @ 05:02 pm Performance plugs
Current Location: work
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Local folks should go see the Hillbarn Theater's production of Elton John's and Tim Rice's Aida.  The first fifteen minutes feel a little like watching a low-quality Andrew Lloyd Webber show, but then it definitely picks up.  Really strong cast - I keep disbelieving that this is an amateur theater group! - and the story is as powerful and moving as it was when Verdi dreamed it up.  [info]nezumiko, a lot of the music is right up your alley.

And if you're interested, the Stanford Symphonic Chorus, Stanford Symphony, Stanford Taiko, and I forget who else are presenting the world premier of Cosmic Flames, a recently commissioned piece by Chinese composer Zhou Long.  It's about fifteen minutes of interesting stuff for, well, orchestra, taiko, and chorus.  Tonight is our first dress rehearsal, and I'll be most interested to hear what the orchestration is like.  It will be performed with the final movement of the Beethoven 9th Symphony.  We'll be performing these pieces, as well as Carmina Burana, when the music department tours in China at the end of June/beginning of August.
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tazz
May. 11th, 2008 @ 09:55 pm It is the greatest joy of any
Current Location: home
Current Mood: mildly embarrassed
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When many many Papagenas, Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ge-nas, Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ge-nas,
Upon their parents blessings bring!
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tazz
May. 10th, 2008 @ 10:24 pm Done with Saturday!
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I'm done!  The recital went very well; pictures later (probably tomorrow).  Service also went well; managed to make sufficient mistakes in rehearsal to force me to pay closer attention to the music during service, and everything went well there too.  Yay soloists (including [info]catagon3), and yay Carson Cooman for (1) writing kick-ass music, and (2) being a good enough friend of our director to come and play organ on his own compositions that we sang.

*blink*  That wasn't very grammatical, was it.

Anyway.  Done with singing for today; hopefully voice will be back for tomorrow's early service, where I get to sing even more!
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tazz
May. 4th, 2008 @ 03:11 pm New game in the house!
Current Location: home
We has Okami!  The huz started it earlier today.  It is really really really pretty.  As advertised in some reviews, the power slash is temperamental; we need to figure out how to use the Z-button to ensure a straight line when drawing.

Eeeeeee, pretty pretty pretty!!!!!

----------------

In other news, next Saturday will be even nuttier than I originally thought.  Current plan:

Set alarm for 8:15 to get to 9:15 skating class.  (This is standard.)
Come home, shower, and eat something.  Depart around 11:30 to be at my voice teacher's house at noon, for 12:30 (supposed) start to recital.
Sing; be closing duet act.  Hang around for indeterminate but probably short period of time to hang out, compliment other singers, and eat something.
Depart in time to drop huz off at house and drive to church for 3:30 rehearsal for 5PM cool Evensong service.  Sing some more.  Sing a lot more.
Hang about for indeterminate but somewhat more relaxed period of time, mingling and muching.  At some point, go home and RELAX!
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mii
Feb. 27th, 2008 @ 09:34 pm *sigh*
Current Location: back home
Current Mood: disgruntled
Current Music: *cof* *cof*
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Well, I did make it through the first half of choir rehearsal.  (Mostly.)  And I did have the intelligence to realize that trying to sing further would be just plain stupid because I was already in the process of losing my voice, and didn't care to repeat Sunday's episode.

Hrmph.  Wanna be all better.
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tazz
Feb. 21st, 2008 @ 06:42 pm Fenix Rite: I has it!
Current Location: home
Current Mood: tired
It came!  All nice and as advertised and appears to work fine.  Yay!

Still not totally healthy.  I've been going to work this week, and generally crashing around 4, 4:30 (at which point, body says 'lie down or else!').  I did go to choir rehearsal last night, and after some initial gunk-on-cords, was able to make high loud noises as required.  Happily rehearsal let out early - I really didn't have much left after an hour and a half!

And today, I got home a bit past five, made sure new game worked, left feedback for seller, lay down for half an hour, and practiced for about half an hour, at which point I was totally wiped again.  Oh well.  One of these fine days I'll be totally healthy again, I swear it.
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tazz
Feb. 17th, 2008 @ 09:20 am Cross your fingers!
Current Location: home
Current Mood: hopeful
Bidding on a copy of Phoenix Wright 1 over at eBay.  Wish me luck...

[EDIT: Got it.  For cheap!  $21.50 *including* shipping!  Yes, [info]nezumiko, you can borrow it when we're done.]

(I has a frog voice.  Good thing I didn't bother setting an alarm to go to choir this AM!)
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tazz
Feb. 16th, 2008 @ 11:03 am Nyquil = my friend
Current Location: home
Current Mood: still sick
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Yesterday evening was having lots of histamine action going on: sneezing, runny nose, runny eyes, etc.  Decided based on that (and the night before when I hadn't slept much) that it was time for NyQuil.  And it worked!  I slept quite soundly from ~11 when we went to bed (me in the living room as usual when one of us is sick) till 8:30 when the huz got up to get breakfast and get ready to go to skating class.

I'm still sleepy and muzzy from the drugs, but I'm more than willing to put up with that.  All it means, really, is that if I want to go back to bed and doze some more, it's fine, and it's more likely that I'll actually get some doze/sleep.  Which can't be bad with this thing I have.  :)  I expect to continue being drug-muzzy till 1 or 2 this afternoon; that's what happened the last time I took this stuff.

Stash peppermint tea with honey is also a good thing.  Feels nice.  When I woke up this morning I sounded distinctly frog-like, rather like the huz did about this time last weekend.  Choir director and voice teacher have been advised that I may not be up for singing in the next couple of days.

I do hope I'll manage to get into street clothes and go for a walk sometime this afternoon.  As it's been for the last couple of days, it's bright and sunny and is probably pretty warm out. 
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tazz
Feb. 12th, 2008 @ 10:49 am More various and sundry
Current Location: work
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tazz
Feb. 10th, 2008 @ 10:33 am Trading places
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So, I had a scratchy/sore throat for about a week.  (Bad Monday, slightly better Tuesday, rotten Wednesday, better Thurs, much better/almost-all-the-way better Friday for first Carmina concert.)

The huz has now caught it, worse than me - he's got much more nose action going on, and didn't sleep well the last two nights.  Poor huz!  He will not be singing in today's concert, natch.
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tazz

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