Dog Eat Blog

Appreciation: Visitations; Change; Sweaters; Coffee.

Me: General good mood continues. I'm living my dream life.

I love when people come to London to visit and I get to go to a nice dinner someplace and have a fine evening out with friends. This week's instalment was with Duncan and Renike, last night – we found a great cocktail bar in Soho for pre-dinner drinks, then shared an excellent meal at 10 Greek Street (one of my faves). I never get tired of that sort of thing.

The Food Report: I made Jambalaya in the slow-cooker at the start of the week, and it was not only the exact right thing to eat because I had a stupid cold, it made enough to last all week, padded out with the keto rice I found. I'll definitely make that again. Dinner, last night, reminded me that leeks are amazing and really under-appreciated in our culinary lives, and that I should bust out the leek/lentil gratin recipe soon.

Villa Formaggi Resort & Spa: Dusty AF, of course, but I'm broadly staying on top of things.

The table that I bought to go under the window that was way too big for the space is now living its best life in my bedroom, allowing me to get my laundry baskets off the floor, and the piles of things off of my bed. I realise it's just moving piles around, but it's contributing to a sense of organisation which my brain is really enjoying, right now.

Reading, Watching, Listening: Reading: . . . Watching: YouTube Listening: A lot of subliminals.

Eagerly Anticipating: . . . Christmas, I guess. Not a lot on the horizon in the short-term.

SCA: I still owe my student a drawing of her device - she wants a red panda "rampant," so I'll need to figure that out. I have some other scribally things to do, so hopefully I can have a spate of arting soon. I did not do the things for Crown that I mean to do for Crown, but one of the recipients will be at Yule Ball, and one of the recipients will be at 12th Night, so Yule Ball has become my new deadline.

I need to fix the sleeve lining on my green dress, and maybe embellish the neckline. We'll see when I get to that. I'm having thinky thoughts about 16th c. stuff, though - I need to retire the two dresses I have as they don't fit properly. I also need to make more chemises of all sorts.

I think I now have the energy and the impetus to sew together the collection of fabric that's been aging for a year into the Langobard stuff. I still need shoes, but I'll be better-placed to sort that out in fairly short order.

Projects: Green sweater frogged and restarted, and it's trundling along at a good pace. I took the hood for Ma to Dorchester and made good progress on it. I also wore the black cowl I made for my Singing in Drafty Churches Capsule Wardrobe, and may rip it out and do it over, since I wasn't completely happy with it. I also need to have a think about the gloves for this collection, since my hands did get cold, even though it was broadly warmer than the last time we were there.

Lots of thinky thoughts about modern clothing sewing, but stopping just short of buying fabric for that, so far. I consoled myself for not buying super expensive plum-coloured wool from Merchant & Mills for a coat I don't need by buying some gorgeous yarn in the exact same colour for way less money.

Work: So. Two weeks in, and I still like it, not that the bar was particularly high. It's just such a different vibe than the previous place. I'm still working through some of my PTSD, but managing to get settled in.

My manager was off to Spain, for most of the week, to present the new branding to the leadership team, so I'm looking forward to hearing how that went, and getting more involved in things. I think I'll be moving to my permanent desk on Monday, which will help, as I'll be sat directly next to the people I'm working with, rather than hidden by a giant monitor on the other side of the row of desks.

Seems changes are afoot. Find me at Dreamwidth using my usual moniker...

...and waiting an extra hour at Peterborough, because that seems to be my lot in life, I have arrived, none the worse for wear, in Oakham where I am enjoying the free WiFi at the Old Wisteria hotel, and wondering where everyone went for dinner.

Tomorrow, it begins. But not until after breakfast. A meal that I sorely missed, today. Dear British Airways: you did reasonably well for a gluten-free dinner, but a few orange and grapefruit sections with...orange juice...for brekkie? You couldn't throw a hard boiled egg in there? I'm disappointed. And hungry.

At any rate, I got a lot of good music studying in on the flight, and am fairly confident that I won't embarass myself when things commence. Heh.

This was the Day of Singing. Our first performance was at 11am (or, 9am in our time zone). It went well, which was both surprising and not - surprising because it was early and we were all tired, and not because we can now sing this piece in our sleep. (In fact, I think my roomie actually did that.)

After a bit of down time, we had the sound check for our first evening performance at the Orchestra Hall. Very fancy! It felt a bit weird to be on a big stage, like that, after singing mostly in churches, but the acoustics were great. There was time to leisurely change back into our concert dress and get back to the venue where we completely nailed all 20 minutes of the Strauss. It was fantastic, and several people lept to their feet to applaud when we ended. Very gratifying!

From there, we hiked several blocks to our third performance of the day. Chicago Temple, United Methodist Church. The outside looked like an office building. The inside was exquisitely carved wood, stained glass, and gothtastic painted embellishments. Also, it had superb sound. We had a respectable audience, and delivered a great performance of all four movements of the Schnittke Concerto for choir a capella. Before we got started, a woman came up to Eric, the director, and thanked him for bringing the "meatiest and most important music of the entire conference." As it turns out, she did her doctoral thesis on the piece we were about to sing. :) It's nice to perform for an educated audience.

After THAT, we headed back over to the main hotel where we were being hosted at a party by the guy running the convention. (In the fancy suite that Conrad Hilton (THE Hilton) built as his personal apartment at the top of the fancy hotel. Very posh!) It seems that this gentleman held the same opinion as the nice lady, and wanted to thank us by giving us snackies and cocktails. He also wanted us to sing the Strauss for him. So we did. It sounds WAY crazier after a little wine, but it was a Choir Nerd moment of the highest magnitude. After that, things devolved into show tunes and pool, so I bailed.

Today, we've had nothing but time until the bus arrives to take us to the airport. I was originally going to head to the Art Institute, but the notion of standing on marble floors was, in the end, largely unappealing. So after having a nice coffee in the glorious sunshine, I cruised the exhibitions at the convention, and am now happily sitting down - not walking - at the Chicago Public Library, exploiting their free Wi-Fi. I even managed to catch a bit of a free lunchtime concert of Irish music. :)

So, a lovely trip, all in all.

It's a pretty impressive piece of music. I'm really proud of what we did, here:

Movement I

Movement II

Movement III

Movement IV

I hope they post the Strauss, too, but I think it's too long to do in one chunk. :(

Thanks, Esoterics, for letting me be a part of this!


(Ed. Note: This post is public. Feel free to pass it along to anyone you think might appreciate this!)

Today's trainwreck brought to you by the letters Heth, Teth and Jod and the number 5.

QOTD:
PP: "You have to put more energy into it, or I might kill myself."

PP: "Well anyway...that's what he's got there, so you've got to sing it."

Liz (about Gombert's Magnificat): "Well that's...uvular."


And on the Seventh Day...we had two rehearsals, two talks, two meals, walked up to the Cathderal twice, blew the doors off of the concert, had a lovely compline and then ended the evening with The Hustle at the post-Gala party (with special guest, Malcolm).

On the Eighth day we rested.

It was both surprising and not that our last rehearsal was a comedy of errors (they'd double-booked the Cathedral, so a wedding rehearsal of the "Cast of Thousands, including a wailing baby" variety was going on at the same time we were ruining Lassus' Lamentations), yet we managed to pull up our socks/put on our big girl panties and give, really, a very good concert. This year's music was very challenging, both in it's virtuosity and it's vocal range (2+ octaves, for me), and there were several moments (several times a day) where I wasn't at all sure that we'd pull it off. But we did, for the most part and, judging by the looks on their faces at the end, Peter and David (as well as Jan and Deb) were pleased with the results.

It's rather hard to believe that the week is over. It's so intense, and we pack so much into it, that Friday arrives somewhat abruptly, with no small sense of sadness, and I wake up on Saturday feeling a little empty. It never ceases to amaze me what the Tutors know, and how generous they are with that knowledge. Peter is encyclopedic when it comes to this music, and it's always a joy to put a quarter in him and just listen to him talk about it. And it's the same with Deb - it never gets old. Jan and David are such great...shepherds, really...of our voices and our technique. I told David that I'm leaving a much better musician and a little smarter - not bad for a week's worth of work.

It was a good mix of participants, I think. The "kids" banded together, as is their wont, but they weren't exclusive or snotty, which was really nice. They were fun, bright and delightfully talented. :) It was lovely reconnecting with familiar faces, and getting to know a few new ones, too, with lots of little fun moments (Cathy's fake nose ring for the Sharing concert, discovering that Peter is dreadful at waltzing but quite good at stamping, loads of wonderful conversations with Michelle, Jan's "Desert Island Disks"...). The overall feel of the week was just...pleasant. No divas (that I knew of), no one treating it as a week-long audition, people being supportive and kind...

I couldn't possibly articulate everything that happened over the week (and, in some cases, I absolutely shouldn't), but once again I leave utterly exhausted and utterly inspired.

Mission accomplished. :)

Today's train wreck brought to you by the letters Omnes de Saba and the number 8.

QOTD

PP: "Well, just kill the person who was doing it rather than looking meaningfully at me, expecting me to do it."

PP: "Altos, you just can't make yourselves. Maybe that's what he wants."

We sang an actual Mass today - the Kyrie and Agnus Dei from Josquin's Missa Ave Maris Stella plus Lassus' Alma Redemptoris Mater and Omnes de Saba, at St. James Cathedral, which meant that the morning was as it usually is, and the afternoon schedule was a bit messed up. Mass went very well, though, with the Shortest! Homily! Evar! We also had the joy of hearing David play some Howells in an organ recital beforehand, and the bonus of hearing Joseph play Peter's request of Liszt afterward. It's pretty cool how many parishoners will stay in their seats and listen until Joey's done playing. They're big on music, there, at the Cathedral.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, really. Barbeque for dinner, small group rehearsals, Dude's Night compline and a quick drink at the pub.

Oh! And I had a voice lesson with Jan in the afternoon, which was lovely. There isn't much time to cover a lot, but I managed to get something out of it. And I taught Jan how to do "The Hustle." Should be a fun warmup today.

Today's Train Wreck brought to you by the letters Omnes de Saba and the number 8.

QOTD 1 (Re: St. Bernard's Waltz during warm-up):

PP: "The stamping is very gratifying!"

QOTD 2

DW: "Basses, you got to the top of that phrase, got very pleased with yourselves, then took a half an hour to come back down."


So, things continue apace.

Rehearsal, break, rehearsal, food, lather, rinse, repeat.

Today's Super Cool Lecture, though, was from Deb about Singing in the 16th Century, with bonus Radiohead and video of Your Larynx In Action (very cool!). Some very interesting stuff about speculating on performance practices, the make-up of choirs in 16th C. England and how voice parts weren't what they are today. I forgot to re-charge my iPod, so I had to rely on my friend, Ginger, to record it. Hopefully she was able to get the whole thing.

I also got to work with Deb in the afternoon on a really cool canon - O Virgo Splendens - from the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (XIV c.). It's really pretty - all 9/8 triplets (but doesn't sound anything at all like a slip-jig). Later was more working with Deb on a Josquin Alma Redemptoris Mater that we ended up singing at Compline tonight. Lovely stuff!

Stuck in there were two small group rehearsals (Vox in Rama, which I think sounds like a Thai noodle dish, and Ne Irascaris, which I've sung before) and a near-meltdown from an almost-migrane. Thanks to a little lie-down and Better Living Through Chemistry, the crisis was averted.

It was Ladies Night at compline, which was really lovely and soothing. It was dedicated to a woman, Robin, who had done the course for the last several years but passed away over the winter. It was a lovely, and fitting tribute.

(I'd like to take a brief moment to mention how lovely many people on this course are - not only are they talented and intelligent, they're very thoughtful, caring and generous. It's really wonderful to spend this kind of time with people who are like that. Seriously.)

Came straight home after Compline, and tomorrow is a half-day of rehearsing in the morning, followed by the afternoon and evening off to go explore the city (and by that, I mean "do laundry and some shopping, work on a bit of music, and probably take a nap"). The weather has been glorious, so those who are off to see the sights should have a great day for it.

After getting there, checking in and helping Rebecca get some things set up, we started with the usual drill of Meet and Greet, followed by a brief warm-up, followed by the Singing Safari.

"What's that?" you ask?

Being randomly set into a group and sight-reading a really hard piece of music for a half-hour, then switching up groups to do it again three more times. This year's selections were:

Ave Virgo Gloriosa - Richard Dering (c. 1580-1630)
Dont vient cela - Thomas Crequillon (1505-1557)
Adesto dolori meo - Giaches de Wert (1555-1596)
Alma Redemptoris - Orlandus Lassus (1532-1594)

We were treated to a tasty dinner, and then went straight into our first large-group rehearsal. We revisited the Lassus Alma Redemptoris with a little more attention, as well as plowed through the Kyrie of Josquin's Missa Ave Maris Stella and some of Maginificat Tertii et Octavi Toni, which has the potential to be a hot mess. There's always one piece like that, though, and we always manage to pull it out in time for the concert.

Then it was compline and now we're done for the day.

There are quite a few people I know from the last time I did this in Seattle, and about six of us from Sine Nomine, and another woman I sing with periodically. It's lovely to see the Scholars, again, too. It's a VERY different feel, though, as compared to Oakham - I really miss the English Village atmosphere. (And the concurrent Filipino conference with Grand Ball in the room next to our rehearsal space would have been much more tolerable if they'd brought me over a giant tray of lumpia.) There really isn't anyone in my age bracket, this year, which is kinda *meh*, and it will be interesting to see how the cliques all sort out over the next few days. Because there are always little groups that form - it's what people do. Oddly, Texas is very well represented, as is British Columbia. It seems to be a decent group, though. I suspect that it will be fun.

Tomorrow we really get into the regular schedule and start forming up small groups for the Sharing concert on Thursday. Also: Concert of the Tudor Choir with the Tallis Scholars at St. James. If you're in the Seattle area and are looking for something to do, you should come. :)

Now, my very demanding, facist kitty is informing me that it's bedtime.

So, this all actually started because Williams & Sonoma have a cute, wee hand-pie mold that I want to get, and I knew that I'd be getting cherries from my CSA, today.

Necessity is the mother of invention, I guess.

At any rate, portable food is awesome, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I started here:
From A Boke of Gode Cookery

( To make a tarte of cheries )

Which led me to this:

( To make a tart of damsons )

And here's what I did/am doing:

( Redaction-daction, what's your action? )

The goo is cooling. I'll bust out some pastry in a bit and bake up a test run, then post my findings.

( Right, then. Moving on )

( And the verdict is in! )

I would do this again. And I'd like to try it with plums. That would be tasty, methinks.
Mmmm...pie...

ETA again: I think I'll track down some wine that is closer to period Claret - a little research this morning turned up some interesting options, and I'm pretty sure it would make a HUGE difference in flavor.