skipping church

Well, I did in fact get switched to the internet section of English Comp (hooooray for Marla!) so my College of the Mainland summer schedule turns out to be exactly what I wanted from the beginning.
Joseph rehearsals have hit the ground running. The scores and vocal books (the music books) we were given are no good at all; I think they were really meant to be colored in. They have these rinky-dink easy versions of all the songs that just sound terrible. Hardly any harmony; chock full of mistakes, wrong notes, wrong lyrics, mis-numbered measures; and just sounding nothing like any 'real' production of Joseph would. So, they've got their assistant music director (named Sam) converting all the vocal parts to match the movie. It's taken a whole lot of time, but I'm nearly done with all the vocal parts (then there will be the orchestra to deal with) and it's making very good use of all the theory I've spent the last 13 years of my life learning. For United Players' sake, it's a good thing I don't do this for a living, they'd never be able to afford me.
I've had one voice lesson with Paul Brusselburg, the professor at San Jac. He's excellent, and we agreed that when summer stuff starts up, I'll have weekly lessons with him on the weeks that we're both in town.
Umm, so there's no rehearsal tonight, but I'm not at church right now (obviously). I've had two really long and busy days, and when it came time tonight to go or stay, I was too exhausted, and there remains much to do today.

Refrigerator for sale

So I got a mini-fridge for my dorm this past year, and it worked really well. However, I'm moving into an apartment in the fall and it will have a full-sized refrigerator. I had planned to bring my fridge home in the fall or over the summer and store it at my parents house. But now they're saying that they'd prefer me to get rid of it up there and not have to haul it to Houston. So, they've agreed that for $50, they'll sell it.
If any of you college bound people don't have a fridge yet, this one's less than a year old, and I'm the only one who has used it. Let me know. If I still have it at the end of the summer, I'm gonna leave it at home until I get my first teaching job, and then I'll put it in my office.

Heroic Computer Dies to Save World From Master's Thesis

May 17, 2006 | Issue 42•20

WALTHAM, MA—A courageous young notebook computer committed a fatal, self-inflicted execution error late Sunday night, selflessly giving its own life so that professors, academic advisors, classmates, and even future generations of college students would never have to read Jill Samoskevich's 227-page master's thesis, sources close to the Brandeis University English graduate student reported Monday.

Enlarge Image

The brave laptop, even after fulfilling its mission, steadfastly resists a technician's data-recovery attempts.

"This fearless little machine saved me from unspoken hours of exasperated head-scratching and eyestrain, as well as years of agonizing self-doubt over my decision to devote my life to teaching," said professor John Rebson, who had already read through three drafts of Samoskevich's sprawling, 38,000-word dissertation, titled A Hermeneutical Exploration Of Onomatopoeia In The Works Of William Carlos Williams As It May Or May Not Relate To Post-Agrarian Appalachia. "It was an incredible act of bravery. This laptop sacrificed itself in order to put an end to Jill's senseless rambling."

Added Rebson: "I only wish some of my other students' computers could be as selfless and brave as this one."

Good news/bad news

Bad news first. The hot water pipe under the kitchen sink came unhooked somtime during the night Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and flooded the kitchen, study, living room, and part of Marla's room. Half the stuff from our house is now sitting in the garage and the empty half of our house has been filled with these giant fans that blow air under the carpet to try and dry out the carpet padding.

The good news is that the carpet may be salvageable, and we might be able to put off being an "all tile" household for at least one more flood. Also in the good news category, Joseph auditions are over and Dad landed the role of Rueben, the oldest of the 12 brothers. In the script, Rueben is the most prominent of the 12 brothers as far as solos and such. I, as already planned before auditions, will be the assistant music director. Exactly what that means is still a bit up in the air, but it involves conducting the orchestra.
Still more good news, I got registered for my summer classes at College of the Mainland. It was a very frustrating experience that made me feel sour all day, and really made me not like some of the people down there, but it's done and I got the classes I wanted. The section I wanted for "English Composition II" was full (it's taught over the internet), so they put me in one of those regular classes with the whole 'show-up-to-class-with-a-teacher-in-a-desk' sorta thing. However, through Marla's connections, there's a good chance I will be added to the internet class. I must recommend to any college student considering getting some basics out of the way at community college to send your older sister to work there about a year and a half ahead of time so that she can make things like that happen.

I have my first voice lesson with this Julliard guy in about an hour, and so this post must now come to an end.

Back home

I don't feel like I have that much that needs blogging about, but it's been a busy weekend so I feel I should. Finals all went well, I think, but I won't uncross my fingers or quit being nervous about them until I see the grades sometime this week.
After finishing my last test early on Friday, Dad helped me move out of my room and check out. I'm telling you, if I didn't have that cello, I could have moved all my stuff home in one car.
We met Justin at the our second choice apartment complex, and since they were willing to match us with a specific apartment that day, we decided to sign with them. Our first choice, while clearly still nicer complex in our minds, is just taking too long to make any real progress as to if we're going to be off the waiting list by August. It was a huge relief to drive home for the summer knowing there won't be any long distance apartment hunting going on this summer.
Got home Friday around 7.
Saturday went to children's auditions for "Joseph." Getting things rolling on the summer show felt exciting and got me anxious to get my first real taste of music directing this summer. I guess the results of those auditions aren't really public information yet, although there's nothing shocking or scandalous, but it'll all have to wait, I suppose. After auditions, I spent most of the day with Marla. She took me shopping and bought me these shoes called Crocks for my birthday. They're like sandals/clogs, and they're REALLY comfortable. I wore them last night and all day today. Last night I went to the choir's Pop Show at Brook. Fun show. Music was, eh?, alright I guess. But since it was Saturday, all the alumni got to go on stage and sing "One Voice" just like they do every year. That's always fun, but I think it means more to the choir people that we come back, than it does to most of us who've left and then come back.
This morning I got to see everybody at church which is always fun after being gone a semester. For most of the college students, this was their first Sunday back so there was a lot of catching up and visiting and updating to do.
embarassing anecdote: While standing around in the foyer before worship this morning I got
asked to help serve the Lord's Supper this morning. I gladly agreed and went to the little
pre-service meeting just like they always have it. The only problem is that since I've been
away at school we got a Spanish minister who repeats all of the Lord's Supper talk as well as
prayers in Spanish. We went up to to the table before Barry prayed, and of course I stood
there with my hands folded behind my back and my head bowed. As soon as he said 'amen' my
head popped up and I started reaching for the bread trays when Elias started into his 'Nos
Sancto Padre en . . . . ' and I quickly resumed the prayer position hoping that nobody saw.
For Mother's Day, Mom decided she wanted to go to the Astros game, and so we did. It was a great game, we beat Colorado 3-0 and Andy Pettite pitched all nine innings, with 7(?) strikeouts.
Tonight I went to life group (home group) with the people from Marla and Josh's church. I really enjoy that group, they really have an active and lively singles/college/young adult group.
Anyways, tomorrow and Tuesday nights are the auditions and callbacks for 'Joseph' which promise to give plenty to talk about. Other than that, this is a somewhat un-exciting but full week of errands and unpacking and all the things I need to get done before I can settle into summer classes after Labor Day.

Well Said

I'm pasting part of an e-mail that was forwarded to me. According to the e-mail it's a speech that Ben Stein wrote and gave on CBS a few weeks ago. I like Ben Stein. I wish I'd gotten to know him better (or at all for that matter) while we were at Pepperdine together.

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife. Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad. Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that Americans are an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

Poor Little Amish Boy

Two finals down, three to go. Friday is it. No finals today, so I worked on the review for the theory final, worked on the apartment situation for the fall, and further packed up my stuff. At church tonight, I handed off my printer, microwave, refrigerator, and a box of winter clothes and desk supplies to their summer keepers. So here I am, just like my ancestors, pioneers, sitting with no lamp, no TV, no fridge of food, no microwave with which to heat the food, and the knowledge that there will be no coffee before my 8am final in the morning. As I surf the web and talk on the cell phone, I realize that this is what it must have been like a hundred years ago before all the technologies that I take for granted were invented.
Just in case you're not open minded enough to imagine what this experience is like, I've attached a picture of myself. Because just like any good Amish kid would do, I'm convincing you by taking a digital picture of myself and posting it to my blog.

[insert clever title here]

So "Secret Garden" never really got better. In fact, I got the feeling the last two nights that pianist/director didn't even care enough to try and fix stuff. We just ploughed straight through. Luckily, with very little personal attachment or investment in this show, I was able to keep a straight face and inwardly die of laughter. Also, they re-did the orchestra's seating arrangment on Sunday so I got to see the show a little better. I swear that I saw some very similar choreography as is used in the romantic love duet of the movie "Waiting for Guffman." Any of you who have seen that will understand. If you haven't seen it, don't watch it just on my account, it's got some dirty parts.
This is finals week. Just took my brass methods final an hour ago. Nailed it! Wasn't really worried about that one. Tomorrow is government, and I'm doing fine in the class, but I'll have to memorize a few things for this one. Same with American History (Thursday). I know the material, just need to cram a few names and dates so I can spit them back out in essay form one last time.
Friday is the final I'm worried about. Theory IV has been the hardest theory class I've taken, and theory is one of my strongest subjects in college. I have had difficulty understanding this professor when he lectures, and even when I go to his office for one-on-one help, I cannot understand but half the words that come out of his mouth, his accent is sooo thick. I'm not worried about failing the class, I'm worried about losing my streak of straight A's for theory on the very last course. And if, even worse, I get a C, I have to choose between taking it again and dropping my minor in theory.
On a lighter note, I'm going home Friday. The theory test is over at 10:30, and after that I'll finish packing (most of which will be done before then, no worries, Mother). My dad is coming up either late late Thursday night or early on Friday. We'll load up both of our cars and I'll check out of the dorm, hopefully before too late in the afternoon, but I have to be out by 5 no matter what; the dorm is closing.
And while everyone enjoys a few days after the end of a semester to relax and recover, I start my summer stuff first thing Saturday morning with the children's auditions for Joseph.
Saturday night is Alumni Night at the Brook choir's Pop Show. It should be fun. Marcum started the tradition his 2nd or 3rd year there where every Saturday night of Pop Show, every year, the show ends with the song "One Voice." Since the song is the same every year, all former members of CB choir are invited to come up on stage and sing it. When in choir, it was my favorite thing about Pop Show, because old friends and choir buddies would come back and there'd be lots of reunion hugging and fun. Anyways, last year I missed Alumni night, and for a completely stupid reason. One of my choir friends had given me a date to write down, and I thought it was Pop Show, but it was Choir Banquet. So the week after the show, I show up at Clear Brook on Saturday night at 7, all dressed up and excited; I'd been looking forward to it all week long. Sad day.

The garden that's best kept secret

Last semester I played the cello gig at the campus theater in Denton, "Suessical the Musical." It was a very fun experience, and one of the best musicals I ever worked on.
Now they're doing "Secret Garden." This show is one of my personal favorites. I have never found another show where the music is any more beautiful. This was the first show that I played cello for (at United Players) five years ago, and the cello part has ruined me from fully enjoying any other cello part in any other musical ever again.
Well, tonight was the final dress rehearsal for Secret Garden. I went to watch, and was grossly dissappointed. To be fair to the people who were good, and for those of you who are familiar with this show: Lily, Dickon, Martha, and Ben are all great! Colin and Mary both have nice voices, but the acting is hardly there at all; they're just kids, probably the victims of negligent directing.
Archie and Neville are both pretty good actors, but bad singers and both too young and swift to be two grumpy, shut-in, hunchbacked men. Considering that the beautiful music is the best thing about these two roles, the fact that they couldn't sing is quite an atrocity.
The chorus is unemotional, and their music (all the chorus does is sing in this show) mechanical, as if they were a MIDI file off of an old version of Finale. Anyone who doesn't know the entire show by heart will not be able to understand half the lyrics in their music, or hear any harmony in their music. All that comes across are slow and long, seemingly unmelodic songs.
The people running spots leave actors in the dark for noticeably long gaps of time, and the mics could never be predicted.
The orchestra sound is predominanlty piano and drums, and they drown out the stage the whole time.
That being said, as I watched tonight I was dissappointed that none of the cello lines were coming through, as this score is written to be strong in strings. I found out that they didn't even have a cellist.
That being said, I'm going back for the next three nights to play cello. I can't play next weekend, because I'm going home. But since they're not paying me, I don't feel bad. I hope that this weekend will make them realize how important a cello is to this show when they go back to not having it next weekend. But no matter what happens, I'm afraid adding a cello to the orchestra is nowhere near what this show would need to get to a point of doing justice to the score.

AND ALSO: Good luck to Jordan and the rest of the cast in "The Last Night at Ballyhoo." They are in Austin this weekend for UIL state theater contest. They compete this afternoon (5/5/06) at 4 pm.

PIATIGORSKY!!!

Had my juries yesterday. The cello one would have gone great except for the fact that the piano was nearly a half step flat. When I tuned my cello down to where the piano was, my cello did not adjust at all (string instruments NEVER adjust to having their tuning changed that drastically that suddenly) and kept slipping. I could not get through a single phrase of the piece without the strings slipping out of tune. Luckily the jury understood that this was not my fault, and they all seemed upset with the piano and not me. I got good comments. The violin jury was no big deal at all, just a formality.
I was meeting Clark outside the recital hall (he had other juries to play today) to give him his check, and he showed me something he'd found: It's a miniature sized score of the Dvorak Cello Concerto. It had some writing on the front, and just looked old and tattered. He explained that he has a friend who he used to do symphony work with in New Mexico. This girl's dad used to go to Tanglewood for concerts during the summer, and he'd buy cheap mini-scores of the pieces on the program and try to get them autographed by the performer.
I was excited to get it, just because it was free and it's one of my favorite pieces. Then he pointed out that the unreadable signature is that of Gregor Piatigorsky. I didn't believe it at first until I took a close look at it. I also showed it to Mr. Osadchy, who confirmed that it was his. Crazy. I guess if you're not a cellist you can't fully understand the significance of what he did for the cello. It's like Babe Ruth to baseball; not the greatest of all time, but certainly the first to make it what it is.