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07/30/2006
Mischa Maisky plays Bach
I've just spent the last little while glued to my computer screen watching videos of Mischa Maisky playing the Bach Cello suites. (I've just discovered YouTube.com, so it's all still a novelty!) These are the famous/infamous Bach Cello suites I was talking about a while ago in a post, where I related the story of me getting sick of these cello suites and telling my cello teacher I just didn't feel like learning anymore Bach (blasphemy to a cello teacher's ears!). The particular piece which caused the meltdown in the first place is the Courante of the 2nd cello suite, and you can see a video of Maisky playing it here. (Let's hope this link works!) It's actually really cool to listen to, when played right. Let's just say, when I played it for the Kiwanis Music Festival, it lacked, I don't know, a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, such as, for example, correct notes, correct intonation, correct tempo...! It wasn't a pretty sight (or sound), let's just put it that way. This piece is definitely, definitely not as easy as Maisky makes it look!!
Actually, the one that had me the most entranced so far (I haven't watched them all yet), is the Prelude to the first cello suite, available here. The cello almost looks like it's playing itself! I love it anyway. I can play this piece too, but not as elegantly so this is why I've been glued to my computer screen. ("What's he doing that I can learn from?!")
Have a listen and/or watch these videos, anyway. He's pretty good! It inspires me to actually practice (or quit in shame, depending on my mood...)! That, and make lots of money to buy a cello that sounds as nice as his. :-)
00:00 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
07/27/2006
Death by Condiments
Well, my aunt and her family finally moved out of their house and off to Calgary. On Sunday, the day of their flight, Dad and I and headed over there to see if they needed any last-minute help. Everything seemed more or less under control (which was a huge improvement over the day before), but their (enormous) fridge was still reasonably full of food! Dad and I ended up coming home with two bankers boxes full to the brim with food. Or, more specifically, some food, and a whole lot of condiments. This includes three bottles of ketchup (all open), about 4 different types of marinades, 3 or 4 jars of jam, a few bottles of salad dressing, plus a whole variety of other things (spaghetti sauce, 2 jars of dill pickles, 2 jars of mayonnaise, the list goes on...).
In the fresh food department, we were given 9 onions, 10 eggs, and an astounding 9 bell peppers. I'm pretty sure we've never had 9 peppers in the house at any one time - ever - and here my uncle had bought 9 of them right before moving!! What was he thinking?!
Anyway, we got home with all this stuff, and fitting it all in the fridge was quite the conundrum. Miraculously, it all eventually fit, but there was no more room in the fridge at all, even after relegating the onions, nutella, and unopened jar of jam to the pantry! On the down side, while it all fit, the fridge was seriously gridlocked. It was a whole operation just to get at anything in the fridge, like a massive 3D Jenga game. One wrong move, and it's all over. :-) Finally we gave up and tossed the stuff we figured we wouldn't soon use, like the raspberry thundersauce marinade - the one which numbed my dad's tongue for the whole evening after he dipped the tip of his finger in it and tasted it! We also consolidated as much as we could (4 ketchup bottles became 2, for example). Now we're in the 3rd stage - cook with recipes to get rid of this stuff. :-) We made pepper casserole, salad with peppers, and we've got to make more recipes with peppers before they go bad. I made some squares which used up the marmalade we got, and today I'm going to make a St. Gallen Monastery Tart, which is a Swiss version of a Linzer torte. Should be good, and hopefully I'll make it through the jar of wildberry jam we got from my aunt.
One of these days we'll have space in our fridge again. In the meantime, if anyone needs salad dressing, there are close to a dozen bottles of it in the fridge, so I'm happy to donate. Especially since I don't even really like salad dressing. :-)
The lessons to be learned from this story:
1. More is not better, especially when it comes to perishables and condiments.
2. Make sure you've run out of something before you buy more!
11:35 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
07/16/2006
Jack Vettriano print
Today I was at my aunt's place (the one who is moving), and she gave me a Jack Vettriano print called "Dance Me to the End of Love". (See an image of it here.) I'm a fan of Vettriano's work, and I think this is a great painting - very elegant, very romantic, the people actually look like people (not a given, what with modern art these days!). It also makes me long for the days when things were simpler. Definitely also makes me wish I had some sort of a relationship at the moment and dance an elegant slow dance! (Not that I'm exactly any good at dancing...) Overall though it gives me a nice fuzzy feeling that maybe there's hope for that simple feeling of happiness and love. What can I say - it brings out the sappy romantic side of me!
And as a bonus, it will nicely match the blue-grey walls of my room. ;-) It was free, too, which was even better - my uncle decided he hated the painting and they don't have anywhere to put it in their new house, so they donated it to me!
22:26 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Everything's growing, growing, growing
Today I saw my grandma and some cousins, on quite short notice - we only found out about it yesterday. We spent the evening cleaning the house, and today gran updated us on all the news, plus whatever we could find out from my aunt and from observation. My aunt and uncle, who live in Montreal, have just bought a bigger house. This house has 5 bathrooms. Bathrooms, never mind bedrooms. Let's just say I was too chicken to ask exactly how big this house is and how much it cost!! (And anyway, it's hard to articulate questions when your jaw is in your lap.) Their son, my cousin, was here in Ottawa today, and though he's 12, he's already nearly as tall as I am and looks older than he is. At the moment he seems to follow a corollary of Moore's law - doubles in size every 18 months! I can remember when he was born. This is very scary. I'm getting old!
Back to the big houses and big money though! It's weird that my family seems to be the poorest of all my father's side of the family. My brother and I might quite possibly be the only ones of "us cousins" who have or will graduate from the public school system! Another aunt and uncle have a really big house in Mount Royal (a well-to-do area of Montreal) and also a cottage in the country which, from what I hear (I've never been there), seems to rival my family's permanent house in size and amenities. Then there's the Volvos and SUVs (aaaggh!!!), plus the constant jet-setting.
Meanwhile, on my mom's side of the family, the situation is exactly reversed - we're by far the richest of the families, and my brother and I are quite possibly the only ones who will graduate from university. I guess it's all about perspective! My family doesn't have an enormous house (by suburban Canadian standards), but it's a good house, meets our needs, and we like our fuel- and space-efficient Honda Civic. :-) We will never own a country cottage, and the jet-setting is only a fantasy, but it's good to be home with a good family.
The key is to be happy with what you have, and really, our blessings are abundant compared to so many others who are less fortunate.
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07/15/2006
The world needs Superman
Well, tonight I went to see the Superman Returns movie, and it was pretty good! It's actually the first Superman movie I've ever seen, so I'm not in any position to compare it to the older Superman movies, but hey, I thought this one was pretty good. The only thing is that the suspense never gets that terribly high because you know Superman is going to save the day! The part about the airliner and the shuttle, well, I would have to say I'm surprised the entire plane didn't just disintegrate on the spot, but at least having the fuselage in one piece is good if you plan to plop it down on a major league baseball diamond. :-)
Unfortunately, the sad news is that the world, the real world, does need Superman. Yesterday a Search and Rescue Cormorant ditched in the sea off the coast of Nova Scotia, killing three of the crew members (four more survived). I just wish Superman had been there to prevent it! It's a little closer to my heart than the average random accident, because the helicopter belonged to 413 squadron, which is the squadron my father commanded before he retired from the military. Not only that, but this is the second helicopter disaster 413 has seen in the time after dad relinquished command of the squadron (luckily there were no such disasters while he was in command - the commanding officer's worst nightmare). A few years ago one of the Labrador helicopters experienced engine problems, so they followed protocol and dumped fuel and started a descent to land. Unfortunately, in the process they flew through their own fuel plume, which caused an explosion that killed the entire crew. Anyway, back to the Cormorant, I sure hope they figure out what went wrong. Those helicopters sure have had their share of problems since they were introduced into the fleet! In the meantime, my heart goes out to the family and friends of those killed.
00:32 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
07/09/2006
World Cup teams - I sure know how to pick 'em...
... Not!
I haven't been lucky at all this time around. I don't think there was a single game (where I was actually watching, that is) where the team I was cheering for actually won. This includes today's final! Grrr! France is the team I always root for, and they played really well today, right up until Zidane's red card. (What was he thinking?!?!) Even after that red card and the Henry substitution, France still seemed to be the stronger team, and it basically came down to bad luck in a penalty shoot-out. Arrrrrgh!!!
It's kind of interesting watching the crowd dynamics here in Canada. We're supposed to be really multicultural, but when today's final happened, there were so many italian flags, you'd think Canada was Italy#2! Who knew there were so many italian-blooded Canadians around!! The French on the other hand, nowhere to be seen! A newspaper article this morning asked the question, "where are the French?" and the answer was, "still in France, mostly!" :-) Apparently the authorities in Toronto are glad it was Italy vs. France and not Italy vs. Portugal, given that there are big communities from both those countries in "the Big Smoke", and it would have been urban warfare!
Anyway, yesterday I watched the consolation game between Germany and Portugal. Actually, that's a lie. I watched until Germany scored its first goal and then I couldn't bear to watch anymore (plus I'd already run out of fingernails by then...). I was, as you can guess, cheering for Portugal but I guess it was not meant to be for them!
Good thing this World Cup stuff only happens every four years. I don't know how much of this heart-stopping suspense I can handle on a regular basis!
What I'd really like is a Canadian soccer team making it to the World Cup! Actually, we should also consider putting our resources towards getting the Stanley Cup back in Canada, "the land of hockey", for once. :-)
In the meantime, I'm going to go try to forget the soccer game I just watched. Everything seemed to be going so well, and then it all unravelled at the end leaving me thinking, "what just happened??" *pout* All I can say now is, I'm glad I'm not Zidane right now...
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07/08/2006
There's a rebel in me...
Somehow, and I'm not sure why this is, whenever I am playing the role of musician (or more specifically, cellist), something happens. I become the rebel-type character - the kind who bucks trends, laughs at the stuffy people who take themselves too seriously, and who comes up with the wacky, inventive, highly unconventional way of doing things that sends music teachers' eyes rolling heavenwards and wondering, "what did I do to deserve this?" I don't mean to say that all this results in genius playing because usually it doesn't, but at least I have fun along the way. What would life be if all I did was spend my life pretending to be classical automaton?
The funny part is, though, that in general I'm a goody-two-shoes. People usually think of me as quiet, strange maybe, reserved, but I don't think "rebel" crosses their minds. In music, on the other hand, somehow, a different sort of behaviour comes out and all of a sudden I may as well be a gum-chewing teenager wearing a backwards baseball cap and tattoos and piercings! I'm not confrontational. I just do my own thing, which is why I would never survive as a professional classical musician. :-) Orchestra musician is a bit of a stretch, too. I instinctively take it freestyle (particularly with bowing), which usually gets me into trouble, or constantly fumbling to match what I'm doing with what everyone else is doing. I wonder if there's sight-reading classes for bowing?
12:41 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
07/02/2006
Life is short - live it to the fullest
Today came an unexpected bit of news - the 35-year-old brother of a friend of mine died of a heart attack on Friday. It was very sudden and came as a surprise to everyone, as this lived a very healthy lifestyle, worked out regularly, rode his bike to work, ate healthy... the whole nine yards. It's particularly heartbreaking as he was married and has two small boys, the youngest of whom is only eight weeks old.
The last couple of times (before this) that I've encountered death, it has also been with young people. Around a year ago, the 2-year-old nephew of this same friend died suddenly during a nap. And before that, in 2000, a friend my age, Mel, passed away after a struggle with leukemia.
It was Mel's death at age 20 that snapped me out of my little bubble - at the time I was in 2nd-year university, and my whole life was simply school, school, school, and there was a growing list of things I always said to myself, "I'll do that later when I have more time"... or when I'm done school... or later... or whenever. Then when Mel died, I realized that, hey, it's quite possible I could die young too. You just never know. We all assume that we'll die old and grey, but this isn't always the case. At this point, I also realized that if I did die young, there would be all sorts of things I would regret not having done, and I resolved that from that day on, I would stop thinking of life-fulfilling activities as things of the future, and start thinking of the present, and living my life more fully. That way, if Mel's death spurred me to get out of my little shell and do something useful in the world, and start living up to my potential, then indirectly, her death was not in vain.
The two deaths in my friend's family have similar effects on me. While they are obviously quite devastating to the family, and very sad to me too, it also helps me remember just how precious every day is, and to never take anything for granted. This latest news also comes at a time when I was considering just starting to apply for any old job, whether I like it or not, just to get some money going, but this reaffirms the suspicions I have that there is more to life than slaving away in a cubicle for something I don't really feel like working on. I want my life to mean something, however long or short it is.
And to all my friends, family, acquaintances, I am so thankful for you and your presence in my life!!
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