There was a turf war

and I was the turf.

Our Saturday morning rehearsal for the afternoon concert got pushed back an hour, so there was going to be a significant overlap between the afternoon concert rehearsal and the evening concert rehearsal. I was sitting there, all warmed up, and all of a sudden, there was a fight going on over who needed me more.

Afternoon concert won, and I think they probably did need me more, since we had a lot of non-sight readers singing with us. So I didn't go to the evening concert rehearsal, which meant I couldn't perform in the evening concert. Kind of a bummer, because they had an outstanding piece that I was looking forward to singing, composed by Jessica Rudman. (It's her SSA "Two Poems" - so, so beautiful.)

Local Women Composer's Concert

...or how I gave my week to women composers.

One of the women in my a cappella group asked if any of us were interested in singing in a local women composers concert. I said yes, because I have been looking for songs to sing for my eventual audition into a music ed program, and I was specifically hoping to sing pieces composed by women.

So I got the music, and I talked to the woman organizing the event, and had a rehearsal on Saturday morning. She gave me postcards and brochures for the event, and we quickly went over most of the music. We had another rehearsal scheduled for tonight.

(This was happening, btw, during the music marathon that is Holy Week).

Tonight, I got another new piece, and I got to meet the composer, Sebastiana (I can't remember her last name). Sebastiana speaks at least three languages, and she set the song to a poem by Goethe. It's gorgeous. It's not an easy piece, but somehow, it is easy to sing - I think that's the mark of a good composition. This one will be performed tomorrow evening, so that's an additional concert I just found out about today.

We also went over another piece, one that the organizer asked me sing tenor on, and this one kicked my ass and then played a game of keepaway with it. Ho. Lee. Crap. I'm not sure I'll be able to get this one. It's one of these pieces where it's not so bad when you sing you're own line, but as soon as another part is singing, it all falls away.

Then the organizer asked me to go to another location where the other choir was practicing for another concert, which will take place on Saturday evening.

This is probably getting difficult to follow, so I'll just point you towards the website for the event, which has been going on all month: The 8th Annual Women Composers Festival of Hartford.

(oh, and hey, there's Sebastiana's last name: Sebastiana Ierna, from Sicily. Which means she speaks at least 4 languages: Italian, English, German, and Portuguese.)

So I went down the road to the other rehearsal, they were just finishing up with the SATB pieces (S-soprano, A-alto, T-tenor, B-bass, for the non-singers), and I had just enough time to get all the music and practice 2 pieces, both of which were lovely.

So, if you're in the Hartford area and you would like to either meet me, hear me sing, or are generally interested in women composers, I will be in the following concerts:

Wednesday, March 26, 2008: 7:30 p.m. at the Hartt School of Music, Konover Building - Women of the World Concert.

Saturday, March 29, 2008: 2:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Meeting Hall, Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford - Local Woman Composer's Concert.
AND

Saturday, March 29, 2008: 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Meeting Hall, Bloomfield Avenue, Hartford - Concert Pro Femina

And as my choir director would say, I'm putting the music under my pillow.

RFA

Or, Request for Assistance.

Can anyone help me figure out the correct HTML coding (and where in my template it should go) to increase the amount of white space between the timestamp/comment line and the title of the post below it? This is bugging me, I've tried increasing the margins that are in the template, but I can't find the right one for the space that I want to change.

I'm not sure I like it

Well, I've made all these changes, and I'm not sure I like any of them. But they are made and I probably won't go through the hassle of changing it again for another few years.

One More Thing....

Does anyone know how I add additional white space after each blogpost?

Working on it

Blog changes are underway, but I have a very short lunch period, so more updates will be coming...including an updated blogroll.

Updating ye olde blogge

I'm going to be updating the blog soon, and if you think I would enjoy your blog and you would like to be included in the new blogroll, let me know.

For today, I've added Sir Robin Rides Away. I first noticed Sir Robin over at Shakesville, when he agreed with me about something, and I love when people agree with me. I didn't read his blog until recently, but I like it very much, so I included him in the Friends and Family section.

I always loved Gene Kelly

He apparently had good taste in women, too.

This is what happens when I clean

Monkey lost something very important for school, and we turned the house upside down looking for it, until we figured out that it had accidentally been disposed of. Which sucks, because now she'll have to do the work all over again, but it did provide me an opportunity to find pictures from our 2003 trip to England. You can double click the pictures to enlarge them.



This is Sio, Monkey and me using the Underground. Sio and Monkey are singing something, and damned if I can remember what. ETA: I finally remembered: they were singing a song they learned from the Peter, Paul & Mommy CD, Leatherwing Bat . As an additional sidebar: I was watching a documentary about Peter, Paul & Mary at my parents house last weekend. Mary Travers was the shit when she was a young woman, I couldn't take my eyes off her.



I love this one of Sio & Monkey. We were shopping with my cousin Eileen in Enfield (north end of London), and Sio was keeping Monkey entertained by reading her a Power Puff Girls comic.



Driving by not just a henge, but THE henge: Stonehenge.



Great picture of the girls on their way up to the Glastonbury Tor. Loki took this one, I was writing postcards down in the village, where it was lovely and sunny and warm; it was a wee bit colder and windier up where they were.



Monkey and I on the London Eye - you can see Big Ben behind us.



Loki and the girls. I can hardly remember him without his beard!



This white peacock was at Leeds Castle. It was kind of a sad story - he had a mate, an albino peahen, but she was killed by a fox, and none of the other peahens would have anything to do with him because he was albino.



Sio and Monkey enjoying a picnic lunch at Leeds Castle.



Honestly, I cannot remember when or where this picture was taken (although it's obviously on a boat), but my god, Monkey is a gorgeous child. Not that I'm biased.

I don't know if you noticed, while you were looking at the England pictures, but if not, I'll point out the unusual thing in all of them: sunshine. Everytime I've been to Ireland the UK, the weather has been gorgeous. They really should pay me to visit them.

Obligatory St. Patrick's Day Post

Apparently, some people are bothered by pipes and fiddles, so here's a harp. Go ahead, try and complain about the sound of a harp.

Photo Meme

I've been meaning to do this one for a few days, since I saw it over at Konagod's. Today I saw at Brave Sir Robin's, and I have insomnia, so here we go:

what's your first name?


where do you live?


what is your relationship status?


what is your favorite color?


favorite food?


what are you listening to right now?


what is your favorite movie?


where is your dream vacation?


what are you thinking about right now?


who is your best friend?


nickname?


where do you work?


what (who) makes you laugh?


what are you going to do after this?


how do you feel right now?


and



and



what are your plans for the weekend?


what is your favorite thing to do?


what school do you go to?


what are you addicted to?


what's your best feature?

If you're wondering why I've been quiet...

...it's because I've been playing this game over and over again.

I've made it to level 9 a few times, but the continent of Africa kills me. To be fair, when I took Geography, Rhodesia had only just become Zimbabwe, and there was this place called the Soviet Union.

Update: I'm now regularly making it to level 10, but so far I've come 15 points short of advancing to level 11.

Four Years Ago Today....

I started writing this blog. It was, as I have mentioned many times, a response to a round of "where are the women bloggers?"

In the beginning, I mostly wrote about politics, but that subject has reached epic levels of burnout with me, so now I mostly write about movies or music or random stuff that wanders through my brain.

Thanks to everyone who stops by here, even if only occasionally.

One Man Guy

People will know when they see this show
The kind of a guy I am
They'll recognize just what I stand for and what I just can't stand
They'll perceive what I believe in
And what I know is true
And they'll recognize I'm a one man guy
Always was through and through

People meditate
Hey that's just great
Trying to find the inner you
People depend on family and friends
And other folks to pull them through

I don't know why I'm a one man guy
Or why I'm a one man show
But these three cubic feet of bone and blood and meat are all I love and know

'Cause I'm a one man guy in the morning
Same in the afternoon
One man guy when the sun goes down
I whistle me a one man tune

One man guy a one man guy
Only kind of guy to be
I'm a one man guy
I'm a one man guy
I'm a one man guy is me

I'm gonna bathe and shave
And dress myself and eat solo every night
Unplug the phone, sleep alone
Stay way out of sight
Sure it's kind of lonely
Yeah it's sort of sick
Being your own one and only
Is a dirty selfish trick

'Cause I'm a one man guy in the morning
Same in the afternoon
One man guy when the sun goes down
I whistle me a one man tune
One man guy a one man guy
Only kind of guy to be
I'm a one man guy
I'm a one man guy
I'm a one man guy is me

Movie Quote Meme

I've added hints
Now I've answered the last one left

Lifted from Toast:

Instructions: Look up 15 of your favorite films on IMDb and take a quote from each. List them below. When someone guesses the quote correctly, cross it off the list. Leave a comment with your answers. And NO CHEATING.

I don't know how to cross out, so I will just post any answers under the quote, along with the name of person who guessed it.

1. "She can't act, she can't sing, she can't dance. A triple threat."
SOLVED by Hazel: Singing In The Rain

2. "She said her fiancé had run off with a student cosmetologist, who knew how to ply her feminine wiles."
turn to the right
SOLVED by Hazel: Raising Arizona

3. "I've met another man. He's the best man I've ever met. He's bright, handsome and he's crazy about me. And, he's married. There's only one thing; he doesn't like my hat."
based on a philosophical novel
SOLVED by Tart: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

4. "It's okay to leave them to die."
SOLVED by Deborah: Serenity

5. "It's been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable."
SOLVED by Tart: Pride and Prejudice

6. " I can remember everything. That's my curse, young man. It's the greatest curse that's ever been inflicted on the human race: memory."
SOLVED by Hazel: Citizen Kane

7. " You know Mr. Gorbachev, the guy that ran Russia for so long? I am a firm believer that he would still be in power today if he had had that ugly purple thing taken off his head."
Suzanne was willing to do anything to get on TV
SOLVED by Angelos: To Die For

8. "Like I'm gonna put a bullet hole in your fuckin' forehead, and I'm gonna fuck the brain hole! "
SOLVED by Deborah: Grosse Point Blank

9. "As a matter of fact, Father, I know I can get my hands on an entire shipment of religious relics, blessed by the Pope himself. The Germans swiped them and put them on the open market. As I understand it, the stuff includes a wrist and collarbones of some of your top saints!"
Norman Fell, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel
SOLVED by Tom Hilton: Catch-22

10. "I got off that boat with nothing but my dancers belt and a tube of CHAPSTICK! "
ASSFACE
SOLVED by Angelos: Waiting for Guffman

11. "We are number one. All others are number two, or lower."
anger, vengeance, silverware, farting, invisibility, shoveling
NOT SOLVED: Mystery Men

12. "He's the fastest jack in Jefferson County!"
SOLVED by MuzakBox: Groundhog Day

13. " I must have some booze. I demand to have some booze. "
classic British comedy from the '80s
SOLVED by Tom Hilton: Withnail & I

14. "He's payin' so he don't have to look. See... guy goes to work every day, eight hours a day, seven days a week. Gets his nuts so tight in a vice that he starts questioning the very fabric of his existence. Then one day, 'bout quitting time, Boss calls him into the office and says, "Hey Bob, whyncha come on in here and kiss my ass for me, will you?" Well, he says, "Hell with it. I don't care what happens, I just want to see the expression on his face as I jab this pair of scissors into his arm."
dancing in Grand Central
SOLVED by Angelos: The Fisher King

15. "Holy dog shit. Texas? Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy. And you don't look much like a steer to me so that kinda narrows it down. Do you suck dicks? "
SOLVED by Mr. Furious: Full Metal Jacket

Read, guess, enjoy.