I can sing high...and low

so yesterday in my lesson I sang a C3, and a F6, with in minutes of each other.
ummm so an F6 is the one the queen of the night sings above the staff.
and a C3 is the one that's the second space in the bass clef.
I've definitely always known that I can sing low, and my teachers have always told me that I'll "get" the F soon. But sheesh.
My teacher said that something must be wrong with me (haha) because most singers have a three octave range, and I just sang three octaves and a fourth.
She also commented how awsome it would be if someone with my size voice sang the queen of the night. It would actually be scary. Usually the women who sing the queen of the night are teeny teeny women, so you're all like "oh no the queen of the night is coming scary...oh wait hello wee one, are you trying to frighten me?
Anyhow it'll be a long time before I feel ok performing either of those extremes

winter has not left

I woke up this morning and noticed that it was very gray, not surprising nor particularly concerning. I then looked out the window and exclaimed out loud "oh man!" (in the less than thrilled fashion). After pretending that it was spring briefly it is winter and snowing. I'm not surprised, but I had stopped wearing a hat, something I was really sad about yesterday.

Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, a day that I did not know existed before I was asked to sing for the service. In the Passion story, I think that what happens on Maundy Thursday is the most intriguing to me. I think it is because Christ is begging God the Father to not let this happen. He is fearful. I'm not going to write a ton more on this except for that I find that really fascinating and far more powerful than what happens on Good Friday. On Good Friday all that he predicts goes down. I'm far more interested in the prediction I think.

I've seen two operas at the Lyric recently. The first was Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The production was really lovely, leaves all over the stage. They really focus the story on Onegin and his struggles rather than on the melodrama of Tatyana the girl who falls for him. Beautiful overall, the choral work was good, and the orchestra was great!

After as I was hopelessly waiting for the bus to arrive (it seems to always take forever after the opera) I saw Dimitri Hvorostovsky walk swiftly by, silver coat, red scarf, collar up. Following him were two girls about my age "Mr. Hvorostovsky!" He stopped and autographed a number of people's programs. I was tempted but couldn't bring my self to do that. It was cool though.

I also recently saw Il Barbieri di Siviglia this week. Again I really enjoyed the production, the sets and costumes were based on Magritte paintings which was really cool. There was a nice mention on our critical edition in the program (it was of course written by my big boss, he wrote the notes for the La Traviata program as well). I thought the ornaments were both tasteful and really exciting, a combination that is difficult to achieve!

I'm sick :(

Not really sick just the beginning of a head cold, but sick none-the-less.

Now this is the same cold, presumably, that my brother had all last week and skied through. So it's not a super bad cold (though I hear he has it back this week). But I have a fairly important audition on Monday. So it's been not very exciting here for me!

I've been feeling this come one for a few days now, I've been feeling like I've been bludgeoned, I've just been slow hurting and tired. And my voice has been feeling like I've been pushing it to the edge more frequently. Last time I sang in a lesson and it hurt, I got sick very shortly after that, so I've sort of been expecting this.

Of course that doesn't make it suck any less. So lots and lots of liquids for me, and vitamin C. As long as the cold stays in my head I really don't care. I can sing through a head cold all day long...well not really it still is unfortunate, it's that I really don't want it to settle into my throat. I don't have any singer tricks to share with you about how I do that, because I don't know any.

Anyhow it'll be a movie with lots to drink and bed for me, and then tomorrow I'll be up early to sing at church (I have a semi-permanent gig out in Hinsdale filling in for an ailing section leader/soloist!) and then I'll come back and take it easy all day. I'll probably warm up some and perhaps run through my songs to reinforce my Thursday coaching, but I'll just really really hope that my voice will take care of itself by not being used and be there for me on Monday!

Skiing and Flying

I think that someone once described skiing to me as the closest someone can come to flying. I certainly can understand the sentiment, the speed and the rushing through the air gives it a flying sensation. However I think that I am more aware of the ground when I am skiing than I ever am. Your success or failure as a skier is entirely based upon your ability to read and react to the mountain.

There are two basic types of skiing: times when you are owning the mountain, and times when the mountain is owning you. The trick to skiing well is to make the mountain do the work for you. there is no question when you're skiing well, the bumps pop you knees up and turn your legs for you. When you're skiing poorly you hit the troughs hard and you can't keep your edges on the mountain.

Either way you are acutely aware of your feet and their interaction with the ground. My first run of the season cruising down Redtail at Beaver Creek (map), I remembered just how fast skiing is and consequently how scary it can be. Of course after the first run that's why you ski to go fast and do exciting things!

Taxes!

How can you charge me $29 to file Illinois? Why should it cost me money to file taxes? I don't know how to make a grumpy emoticon, but I would. harrumph!

I've had quite a busy week! I had two auditions that were the near miss type that all singers try to avoid. It wasn't the singing that was a problem but communication and transportation.

Tuesday I was in the midst of A: doing my taxes, and B: trying to figure out how to politely word an e-mail to a group that I had applied to audition for. This e-mail was going to somehow say, you should give me an audition, and if you don't I'm going to come and sing for you anyway.

However I then received a phone call asking me where I was because I was supposed to be auditioning for this very group at that moment...did you receive our e-mail? Why no I didn't but I will come as soon as, well I take a shower! So went down town and sang Una Donna and If I Loved you (in a really stupid key). It went quite well! He complimented my Italian and then told me that I gave the smartest performance of If I Loved you that he had ever seen. So that was fabulous. He then chatted with me for quite a while about the research that I'm doing for CIAO.

I haven't heard back from them. Which isn't really concerning considering that it hasn't been that long, but I'm worried that they have my e-mail wrong some how and the same problem that arose with the audition will again surface.

The second audition was down at the University. The first anxious thing about it is that I had to completely learn and memorize the andante movement of Mozart's Exultate Jubilate for this audition in a week. The second problem was the traffic. I left with plenty of extra time to get down there, but I did not remember that the car show was this weekend. So. It took me a half an hour to get from Balbo to the McCormic center. Needless to say I arrived late for my audition. That's really not something that I want to do, ever. Even though this wasn't an audition that was something that I was banking on. They should give it to a student, which I am no longer. The audition was fine, except for that pianist made the cut we had agreed on a phrase early cutting out my cadenza.

No big deal really. I just was really confused for a brief moment, because I thought for sure that I had somehow blithely missed a whole phrase of music. No matter I continued on to the Alleluia which I sing with gusto!

Now a week of vacation before I return to more auditions!

Walking Through a Cloud

If we suspend our disbelief for just a moment, and forget the physical impossibilities of walking on a cloud, it still does not appear to be a very pleasant experience. I'm fairly certain that I have no interest in walking on a cloud, as I imagine the experience would be rife with windy dangers, not to mention cold and clammy.

I bring this up merely because yesterday was a day that we lived in a cloud. The miraculous four inches of snow that appeared during the super bowl disappeared in a cool haze of drizzle. The air was so thick that you felt the particles enter your nose and begrudgingly make their way down to your lungs, where they settled.

Mia said that it was the sort of day that you see in the movies. Everything was dramatic and mysterious due to the weather. It was, it certainly was not the tormented sky that Duff loves, but it was not without its own allure. The sky was very hidden or very close, depending just how you're interested in defining "sky".

Weather is one of those things that we not only can not control, but we still can only somewhat predict. It is frustratingly more like an art than a science. I think I like it that way; defying our attempts to control it. We have made these attempts as counter-intuitive as it may seem. Ski resorts have machines that expel dust into clouds to promote the formation of snow flakes, but ultimately nature can not be contro0led or contained in this way.

None of nature can be contained for long. I read a very interesting book over the summer: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It described step by step and piece by piece what would happen to the earth if humans simply and suddenly disappeared. Nature has this incredible and persistent way of erasing the things that we do to it.

This of course should be in no way taken as a promotion of us doing whatever the heck we want to the earth. The earth will fix itself, but only in the presence of much time and the absence of humans.

Two interesting facts that I will share with you from this book, though there are many and it's an easy read so I recommend it.
One: one of the most harmful things that we are putting in the environment right now are tiny plastic pellets that are the base of plastics. They are what are melted down and formed into things, but first they are tiny pellets. They are too small to be filtered out of water but too big to get out of fishies systems. They are mixed in with the sand on beaches as well as in animals bellies.
Two: There is a giant gyre in the Pacific ocean where all of the currents converge (the North Pacific Gyre to be precise). There you can find miles and miles of ocean that our trash floats to and stays. Miles and miles of trash all on the surface and presumably under the surface of the Pacific ocean. What a sight that must be to see.

West Randolf

So it was a tremendously snowy week! I'm pretty pleased about this. Though I got stir crazy this afternoon (I think I'm pretty much done with the song review stuff that I've been doing for work! this means I get to start editing music, which I think will be a nice change of pace).

I went off to return a woefully overdue blockbuster movie buy bus passes and walk around in the snow. I decided to take a closer look at all that's going on on Randolf in the West Loop. The answer....everything?

It looks like one of those places where I could purchase just about anything that I could think of. There are a lot of whole sale food places meat, veggies, lots of pre-made stuff. There are whole sale paint places, little Mexican places, a pizza place, a schmancy French place, a hookah bar, what I think is a strip club though it could be simply a erotic store, Harpo studios are there too, umm and lots of other things. Anyhow it's a place to be explored further, I think that there are cool things to try there.

you should check out my friend J's music. He played Tony in West Side Story when I played Maria. I was 16 and he was 21. I was totally totally enamored with him. He was pretty cool, we were friends and AND I got to kiss him! Which was pretty cool. They weren't good kisses or anything, we were on stage, but still.

Anyhow it should be a good weekend, though it is unclear to me who to root for in the Super bowl. Mom's rooting for the Giants 'cause they were grandpa's team, I think Dad might be rooting for the Patriots to stick it to the Dolphins. I dunno, I guess we should just hope for good football right?