This may just be my new favorite musical humor site – the sketches are simple and on point. Plus some of them give me an opportunity to practice sight reading (so that I can to get in on the joke), which never hurts.
And this was too close to home to resist a cross-post.
After 20+ years of wearing glasses and contact lenses, I finally took the big jump last week and had LASIK. I say”finally” like I just up and walked into the clinic and said “slice my corneas open and wiggle that laser around there a bit so I can be rid of these pesky glasses.” The truth is, I’ve vacillated for years because that is EXACTLY what they do once they’ve got you sedated and in a chair with wavers signed. And I don’t know about you, but that’s not the kind of decision I make lightly. However, after an increasing inability to wear my contact lenses comfortably for more than a couple of hours at a time and my uncanny ability to lose a lens during an inopportune moment (ducking a wave in Costa Rica, hanging out upside down in handstand, for starters), I signed the wavers and wobbled my sedated ass into the chair.
The result has been pretty much magnificent as far as my vision goes. I was 20/15 in both eyes less than 24 hours after surgery. However from the cornucopia of potential side effects, I’ve picked up increased light sensitivity and headaches and a dependency on those little single serving preservative free eyedrops that makes me feel like I am single handedly destroying the environment every time I throw away a handful of the little plastic tubes. I’m also taking lots of little naps which helps with the headache and the dryness. Monday was my first day back at work and while I made it through the day, I immediately came home and slept for about 10 hours. Thankfully all of these should resolve themselves as my eyeballs recover from the trauma of the aforementioned slicing and lasering.
And being to see without glasses or contacts is totally worth it.
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So in between naps, I spent a lot of time this weekend working on the pieces for our next performance, “To the Stars and Beyond” on March 31st at the Edmonds Center for the Arts
A couple of things that have been super helpful this time around –
1. While napping (and driving and cooking and wandering around the house), I’ve been listening to recordings of the pieces – nice to know how everything’s supposed to sound. Even if I’m still working on getting there.
2. It’s also nice knowing our entire set well in advance of the performance. I’m sure for a seasoned musician that’s not an issue, but we’re talking about me here.
3. It’s always good to keep an open mind. Just because a piece is from a movie (and a series of books) that I have no love for *cough, cough TWILIGHT* doesn’t mean that the theme music from New Moon can’t be a fun and challenging piece to learn to play.
4. And when you get sick of sparkly vampire music, there’s aways the THEME FROM BSG.(Which is way trickier than it appears) Hells yeah!
I’ve been out for two rehearsals (one cancelled due to a freakish amount of snowfall in my fair emerald city and the other for the surgery) so I’m really looking forward to getting back together with the whole group on Thursday to see how it all sounds.
*the stack of books beside the bed, a.k.a. books that that have been on my reading list well past the “new release” period.
I’m not exactly sure why it took me almost three months to finish Emma Bull’s latest novel, Territory. It’s a slim volume about a period in history which has been so well-trod in movies and books that all I have to say “OK Corral” and I’m sure you could tell me how the story goes. Well at least some version of it. The story of Tombstone, Arizona during the 1800s (“The Town to Tough to Die”) has grown into American mythology. It’s been told and retold, fictionalized and revised for fact. We all have our favorite version.
Well, I now have a new one.
By now this shouldn’t be a spoiler but consider yourself warned:
Bull doesn’t spend her considerable talent retelling the events of the OK Corral. Her attention is fixed firmly on the relationships that bring the figures of Wyatt Earp (and his gaggle of brothers), Doc Holliday, Ike Clanton et al. to that famous moment. As it turns out, what happened at the OK was the tip of an iceberg. Beneath the surface, politics, intrigue and murder are rife in the burgeoning silver town. Since this is an Emma Bull novel and a touch of magic just beneath the surface like the scent of spent incense lingering in a room rests beneath Tombstone’s dusty streets. She resists the urge to define it rigidly, but when reading the book it feels that rules of magic in this world are concrete even if not always understood either by the characters or the reader. The descriptions of magic are lush but almost intangible. Its no surprise that, as one of the forerunners of the urban fantasy sub-genes, Bull knows how to avoid weighing down magic with words.
“Watch, Jess,” She’d said, and the candle flame went out.
“You blew it out. I’m not stupid.”
In the moonlight through the window he saw her grin, a fey, wicked look. “No, you’re not. So watch again.”
She’d stared at the wick, her lips thinned, her brows drawn together. The wick had smoked, glowed – and burned again.
He’d made her do it over and over until she had a headache. She tried to explain to him what she was doing, but he couldn’t do it, couldn’t even put the flame out, which she said was easier.
Think your way inside that wick, she’d said. You have to draw pressure around it, draw heat into it from the air.
On the writing desk before him, at the tip of the clean white wick of each candle, a flame wavered and rose.
What makes Territory feel like more than a fairy dusted western is how well Bull rounds out the cast of known characters with a host of other figures popular history has for the most part ignored: the Earp wives, Doc’s wife Kate Holliday, a thriving Chinese community, and many of the people who came west for reasons other than cattle or land. In this, the book finds unexpected depth in the relationships and interactions. This west is clinging desperately to the veneer of respectability, as evident the way Bull expertly captures the cultural and gender interactions.
Bull finds rich ground with her two main characters Jessie Fox and Mildred Benjamin. The former is anything but the stereotypical plains drifter, being partially college educated and semi-fluent in Chinese. The latter is a widow and typesetter at the local newspaper, who writes dime store western stories under a thinly veiled pseudonym that allows her readers and editors to assume she is a male writer.
Although both characters seem uncommon for their day, Bull creates a community around them that makes them feel even more believable. For Jessie, it’s the Chinese medicine man Chow Lung. The sense of their shared history of adventures imparts the relationship with that combination of affection and impatience that marks a master and his student. Widow to a much older man and Civil war veteran, Mildred treads the fine line of ladylike behavior even as she embraces her new found independence working for newspaper editor Harry Woods. To Mildred, Harry is far too concerned with her life, but it’s clear that he both encourages her fledgling career and has an eye on her future happiness.
If Jesse provides us with a view of of Chinese culture in the west, it’s through Mildred that see the world the Earp women: the wives of the brothers who have staked Tombstone as their territory. Also fascinating is the portrayal of Kate Holliday, Doc’s common law wife. A strong woman who goes up against every social convention, Kate is Doc’s match in every way. Their love affair provides the book with some of the most poignant moments.
Writing horses is always tricky – but unavoidable during a period in which horsepower involved hooves and teeth. Sam, Jesse’s horse, manages to avoid being a Disney caricature while still being involved in important scenes in the novel. I appreciate when writers either know horses or have done the legwork on research. Among Jesse’s many talents is as a horse trainer. His technique isn’t magic, but, to many of the people around him, it could be. The scene in which Jesse gentles one of the Earp’s fractious horses is as much about Jesse’s relationship to magic as about a style of horse training that, while uncommon for the day, was the building blocks for the type of equine psychology based training now popularized by modern day “horse whisperers.” (I also appreciate Bull’s opening caveat: don’t try this at home!)
The scenes with Fox and Benjamin shine. Their dialogue, through well grounded in “frontier speak” (thing Deadwood without all the swearing), sparkles with wit and chemistry. Thrown together by circumstance and initially mistrustful of one another, the attraction that blooms between Jesse and Mildred is born of growing respect and intellectual stimulation. Their scenes also feature some of the most delightful conversations about writing, authors and readers.
“I read [Twelfth Night] aloud to my younger sisters. They said it was pretty very pretty, but that no one would really have taken Viola for a boy.”
“They did if Shakespeare said they did,” Fox declared.
“I hope you aren’t that trusting with every author.” Mildred contemplated anyone getting their notions of human nature from “Stampede at Midnight” and quaked with guilt.
“I assume they’re trustworthy until proven otherwise.”
“How,” Mildred asked, feeling like a spy, “do they prove they’re not?”
Bull has a way of advancing the plot through dialogue in unexpected ways. Often times, it’s what is not said that is important, and seemingly innocuous conversations convey vital details. It’s not until last third of the book that the magic possessing the town is spoken about in any direct sense.
This may be why it took me so long to finish the novel. It’s not the kind of book I can read a few pages at a time before bed without having to backtrack a few pages the following night to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. It wasn’t until I sat down to finish it in a couple of solid chunks that all the pieces seemed to drift into place and hooked me firmly to the page. With this many characters, relationships, motives, and events magical and non-magical, the book is best enjoyed with devoted time.
I wonder if some readers will be disappointed to know that the OK Corral never features in Territory. I believe the novel ends right where it should, but perhaps not where we are used to seeing it end according to the familiar story. It’s a clever slight of hand: Bull takes the legend into her own special territory – infusing the western world with strong magic, rich characters, and well done romance. In this version of Tombstone, territory isn’t just claimed in land, but staked by the magic that binds people as much as loyalty, greed or love.
This one is for the Seattle area peeps:
I highly encourage anyone in the Seattle area who is either a current (or former) string player interested in playing with others to consider this opportunity. Playing with RCO has been great for my development as a cellist AND a musician.
One of the thing I look forward to in the writing world is award nomination season. Not because I have anything up for an award, but because award nominees are a great source for replenishing/refreshing the reading list.
Depending on the award, nominations can be by membership, readership or even, gasp, the general public. So making people aware of their work in the hopes of getting nominated for something or other is a major part of a writer’s marketing work. The joys of self promotion…
For the second year in a row, write and editor John Scalzi has devoted a post and the comments section on his blog as an opportunity for Science Fiction and Fantasy writers/editors to promote work that is eligible to be nominated for various awards.
Also, Tor.com’s 2011 Reader’s Choice Award post comes with spreadsheets (Squee!) full of fiction and votes are “cast” using the comments section.
It’s a bit of the wild west (the good, the bad, and the ugly). It’s not for the faint of heart. There are no guarantees that just because somebody loved it enough to add it to the list it’s worth reading (especially if that someone is the author) But I have discovered piles of wonderful new fiction from writers that I now look for that I would have otherwise missed by combing the lists. Over the next couple of posts I’ll be reporting back on items I’ve found worth passing along.
Feeling brave? See for yourself!
One of this year’s resolutions is to get off my ass and get myself an online home. Everybody tells me how easy this whole process is – especially these days. I believe the phrase is “push button.” But truthfully, I’m a mite intimidated by the whole process. What happens when I am intimidated by a process? I learn all I can about it before I get started. In fact, spending so much time learning about it that I never actually do it. I mean, I’ve been sitting on my domains for years.
So this week, I jumped in. I’ve said goodbye to GoDaddy and hello to Dreamhost. I’m up to my eyeballs in themes, headers, plugins and “HOW on earth do I (fill in the blank).” My to-do list is getting longer…
Thankfully you really CAN learn just about anything on the interwebs and Dreamhost makes it almost painfully easy to get started.
Long story short, there will be some changes around here in the next couple of days (weeks?) as I finally get my interweb self in gear. Hopefully the transition won’t be too painful.
In case you were wondering what I’ve been up to these days – the title of this post says it all.
I mean, really, what else is there?
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Well for starters we had our first orchestra rehearsal of the Spring term last Thursday.
Our next performance is at the end of March. The theme of the concert is Space and the Planets and my little geek heart is barely able to contain itself with joy. Until the sheet music started appearing on my stand and I was reminded of a few of my favorite quotes: “Miles to go before I sleep.” And “So near, and yet so far.” and “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” As I trundled through pages of new sheet music and tried to figure out where the hell my F sharp had wandered off to for two hours.
The good news is we have a lot of really interesting prospects. Listed here in order of my own increasing personal preference :
4. Blue Danube (2001: A Space Oddessey) Okay so I’m not a huge fan, but who doesn’t recognize this one?
3. Theme from New Moon – And yes, that is the TWILIGHT movie. The response to my inquiry as to how this wound up on the list: “It had moon in the title.” I asked if anyone was aware that this was from a movie about vampires and werewolves and not, in fact, little green men. (In it’s defense, it’s actually a fun piece to play and pretty dramatic. So I’ve made peace with it by giving it a new name: “Sparkly Vampires in Space” )
2. Moon Waltz (Albert Wang) which is even more fun to play than New Moon…and also has “moon” in the title
1. Noche de las Estrellas (Starry Night or Night of the Stars) by Caponegro – has a lovely latin vibe
AND MY ABSOLUTE “over the moon” favorite:
A medley from BSG (Battlestar Galactica, for the uninitiated in the room) which includes the Passacagalia and The Shape of Things to Come.
There’s a similar medley online here if you’re curious.
This makes the whole thing worthwhile. I’d love to add the theme from Cocoon and/or Total Recall to the mix, but I don’t want to push my luck. I’m calling it the international space station set and so far, I like it. Plus, getting to play BSG is sort of like a dream that I never knew I had come true.
Yes, I AM that much of a geek.
And see, all that BSG watching wasn’t JUST about the abs. It’s EAR TRAINING.
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So technically I’ve been “off” my cello for a couple of months aside from sub-regular recreational sessions. In preparation for orchestra rehearsal I did reboot my practice schedule time, but it was abundantly clear that I have a lot of shaping up to do before the performance. Thankfully, I’m no longer the only cello, so at least there’s no pressure of being in the the first and only cello chair.
Now I just don’t want to let down my section.
I have a LOT of work to do on tone, so for the near future I’ve upped my scale work and listening exercises. Our arrangement of Danube has a sh*t ton of A string E’s and F’s which I would like to play – as opposed to dropping an octave “to get by” – so I’m determined to be able to nail those shifts consistently.
I’ve broken out my tape and redone my fingerboard for extensions and shifting. This time I’m also color coding – green for natural, red for sharps, black for flats. Why? The advantage of being an adult is that I know my learning style and I’m a visual learner.
Playing in the mirror has always been super helpful. With color coded tape I can watch myself hit the right notes, which speeds up my muscle memory for finding them and reinforcing my ear’s recognition. At least that’s the theory and I have had some luck with this strategy in the past. We’ll see where I’m at when the tape comes off.
It’s also been helpful to sing/speak the note as I play – but that’s another trick entirely and helps mostly with sight reading.
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So that’s the update. Rehearsal is tomorrow so I’d better wrap this up and get back to business (aka practice) and on to the next episode. Here’s hoping I don’t wind up like these two:
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