* Lots of sadness expressed over the two social-media platforms I use (Twitter and Ravelry) over David Bowie's passing. I acknowledge he was a gifted musician and writer but I was never particularly a fan. Interesting that his newest album came out, and then he died....could this have been a case, as I have heard of in other instances, of someone simply WILLING themselves to hang on until something has been accomplished? I've also heard of cases of people living *just long enough* to see a loved one graduate, or marry, or to achieve some important milestone.
* Was briefly concerned: I knew I had a doctor checkup coming up, was worried it was tomorrow (scheduling, plus I'd like to get back into exercising/eating better for a bit after Christmas first). Found the card in my purse: it's not for two weeks. I don't know, it feels like more of a relief than it should be to know it's not tomorrow.
* I did something today that, as I said on Twitter, is going to "weird up" my Amazon "recommended items" page - I ordered six dozen mini frisbees.
I do a lab that is a simulation of dispersal to islands. The original lab I based it on has you use plastic Petri dishes to represent the species but there is a big flaw with this procedure: plastic Petri dishes are very brittle, and if one hits a wall or lands hard, pieces will fragment off them, and they can get sharp. Also the Petri dishes are clear, so you can't always see them so well.
I decided to pay for the frisbees myself and "donate" them to the department because we're under really strict budget constraints and I couldn't easily justify asking my department to buy $50 worth of frisbees for me....but I have the money to do it. And it will make my life easier, and will make the students happier, and the custodian happier after lab. They should get here in plenty of time; the one thing I will need to do is mark each one with a letter code (the set up is there are 20 different "species," each coded by a letter, A through, if I remember right, U?). There's more math to it than that and some graphing and stuff. But it's a fun lab and hopefully the frisbees will make it better. I have threatened to do this for over a year and finally one day just did a search on "mini frisbees" and found Amazon had them, and even more, they could come via Prime shipping, so....
* I was going through some of the sheet music I have accumulated (some of it, a lot of it, was given me by my uncle, who got it from a client of his....it's older music, some dating back to the 20s and 30s). I realized I had a copy of Eric Coates' "By the Sleepy Lagoon." I guess I never recognized it before because in the sheet music I have it is incarnated as sort of a pop song, complete with cover with a couple sitting on a swing on it, and it has lyrics (I had only ever heard the more-instrumental "British Light Music" version of it). I pulled it out and at some point am going to attempt it. I also bought a copy of Elgar's "Salut d'Amour" some months back and intend to work on that some day. There's something to be said for playing pieces you particularly *like.*
One thing I am finding about working on the piano on my own: I do not push myself to "move on" to a new piece nearly as fast as my teacher did; I am only really happy "moving on" when I feel I have nearly 100% mastered the piece and can play it mistake-free (She was willing to accept a few mistakes now and then). I don't know but that maybe it's allowing me to get better at finding the nuances of the piece and to do things like work on dynamics that tend to get lost for me when I'm just struggling to find all the notes.
I also find I am learning to hesitate less over things when I play, to push through and maybe push past the minor mistakes.
* I also made the joke in class today, as part of my brief "this is who I am" spiel, that I played the piano "but badly" and you know? Saying it makes me accept better that I will never be an expert.
(It got a little laugh from the students, though my comment that "I need to find a long poke-y thing to be able to turn the projector on" got a bigger laugh - and fortunately there was an insect net with a long handle in the room I could use)
Maybe something else I am "too old for" is not enjoying something merely because I am not an expert at it. I tend to be way too competitive (either with myself or others) and have often in the past had feelings of "why bother?" if it's something I'm not outstanding at. (Which led a colleague to once remark that one of my problems was probably "You were too good at too many things.") But if I enjoy it, is there really anything so wrong with doing it "badly"? (And really, I'm not a BAD pianist, I'm just slow to gain mastery of a piece, my repertoire is limited, and there are some things I still really can't play: I will probably never be able to play much of Chopin or the more complex stuff by Beethoven). I'm not dependent on my playing to earn a living; no one will ever judge me on it save for me and possibly my teacher (if she can pick up a few new students and start teaching again).
If nothing else, I can say that playing helps stave off incipient arthritis in my hands (cross-training from all the knitting, crochet, and quilting) and it's probably good for my brain to be "thinking in another language" and all of that. And really, at my best, when I have the time to play without feeling I'm stealing it from things I "should" be doing, I enjoy it.
I'm working once again on the simple Clementi sonata I played for my teacher a while back - I find I like circling back around to pieces I learned earlier and seeing how quickly I can regain fluency with them and also how I can take them a little further (as I said: in terms of dynamics, but also mood and "touch") than I did before.
* I had someone who stood in front of me at the Christmas Eve service compliment my singing (for one thing, she said I had a "clear, strong voice") and it makes me think of something I've contemplated before, for some time when I have more free time than I have now: I think I would kind of like to join a choir or a singing group. I think I would value that; the idea of creating something (music) with other people, of having something to work on that I am *responsible* for but that is not-work.
Oh, I won't be doing it any time soon, but maybe some day (God willing) if we get more members at church (attendance is up and we had some guests last week) and we get more people, and I can maybe gracefully slide a few of my responsibilities onto people who need something to do? Maybe I could think about joining the choir. Or there is also a civic choir in town, I think - they meet more infrequently but I think I've seen e-mails about them.
I don't know for sure what part I sing; I used to sing alto years ago in school choir but I don't have the bottom range that a true alto has, and it hurts to try to sing too low. I generally sing the soprano part in church just because it's the "easiest" to hear from the pianist and also it's generally the most interesting, but I can't generally hit the v. highest notes (The E above the C above middle C - I think they call it E5 - I can hit that on GOOD days, but not above it, and some days I can only make the D5). I suppose I'm what's called a "mezzo."
(I think I was singing kind of loudly on "Angels we have heard on high." It's one of my favorite Christmas hymns and I think it's one that sounds good sung *loudly.* Also I am slightly proud that I have enough "wind" to make it through the chorus part without taking a breath)
* Thinking about new projects. I have to finish Hagrid first, but as I said: one sleeve is essentially done and just the second sleeve, sewing up, and neckband remain. I really SHOULD pull something out of my stash and start it, I'll have to look and see what I have, but every time I go over to Ravelry, right now on the home page, there is a shot of a hat being started in a grey and sort of acid-green color, and I admit a slight longing for a striped sweater in yellowish/acidy green and grey. I don't know why; those are not colors that particularly suit me, and it would be hard to find the right shade of green (a quick check of some of what was available on KnitPicks and Loopy Ewe didn't turn up the "perfect" shade). I also need to get back to Starbuck if I can remember where in the pattern I left off.
Actually, I have some yellowish-green (well, more just plain pale green) Shibui fingering weight bought v. inexpensively on closeout from Webs to do a Thermal 2.0 and maybe that will be the next sweater, I don't know - it would make a good invigilating sweater as the thermal rib is easily memorized and as I remember there's not a whole lot of shaping to Thermal.
* I want to photograph the finished things from break (two teddy bears and two pairs of socks - and that was all, except for the work on Hagrid. But one of the bears was huge and complex because it was an Anna Wilschut pattern) and get them up here eventually.
2 comments:
I recently read that singing is good for you, both the act of singing (using your brain that way mathematically) and the group aspect of it feeds the interaction part of the brain. Where you want/need to be with people but are not required to interact socially except before and after the practicing part. The interaction comes from doing something together.
My grandfather and father were both Barbershop singers. There is a female version called "sweet adelines" which you can see if there is one near you. Out on the east coast we have morris singers and general choruses. We have the gilbert and sullivan chorus, the folk chorus, etc. It is entirely possible that since you are not in the "scene" you might not know what is out there.
I like singing. I am not consistently good at it. I wonder if I would be one of those who got better with practice, or if I am partially always off. My mother says I was perfect pitch until I got my bronchitis/pneumonia bouts at an early age. I know that I can sing my favorites and that is all that matters to me, but I do miss going to hear music with my family.
After looking at the video for Bowie's "Lazarus," which begins "Look up here, I'm in heaven," I am persuaded that he did in fact hang on just long enough to finish the Blackstar album and see it released (last Friday).
And yes, singing is good for you. Stretches some things that might not otherwise get stretched (and not just physical things, either).
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