meanfreepath (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meanfreepath) wrote2005-05-28 12:31 am
meanfreepath) wrote2005-05-28 12:31 am
(no subject)
Yesterday was worth it even though I ended up going to bed relatively late. I slipped out of lab early around 5 and caught the R3 into Philly. I then went grocery shopping in Chinatown with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nightengalesknd, which was a lot of fun. I am now in possession of sufficient ingredients and flavorings to really cook, things beyond noodles and plain rice and omelettes. Sometime soon I think I'll try to make steamed buns with a sweet bean filling.
As I said before, CB was fantastic. The Cherry Hill East wind ensemble opened the evening with Frank Ticheli's Vesuvius, which I'm almost positive the College Wind Ensemble performed a semester or two ago. They next played some selections from a Respighi ballet, Belkas, Regina di Saba, which were also pretty good. The concert was a fundraiser for breast cancer research, so there was a check presentation and a ceremony where everyone in the audience was given flashlights, which were lit to honor those affected by various serious diseases such as cancer and AIDS. Perhaps it was a good thing there was an intermission thereafter, for something as upbeat as CB just couldn't have immediately followed it. At any rate, I now have a small flashlight which will go very nicely into my firefighter turnout gear. Some of the members carry a gazillion things in their gear (I've seen at least one guy with a survival rope), but small flashlights are common. Perhaps I'll eventually machine something to clip it to my helmet. Wooden doorstops are also common, as one wedges them into the sides of doors to keep them from closing on a hoseline, or worse, trapping an interior crew.
Back to the music. Initially I thought that the dynamic contrasts could have been more dramatic in the opening "O fortuna," but it's hard with the combined choruses of three large high schools. I was hoping for some more dynamic nuances from the baritone soloist in "Omnia sol temperat," but I shouldn't complain. The tenor was a pretty convincing roasted swan in "Olim lacus colueram." Last night they did all the movements, including the ones Swarthmore had to skip due to lack of men, including "In taberna", where the diction was sharp. The soprano soloist had to squeeze out the very highest notes in "Dulcissime" but was great on the other soprano solos. There is, however, quite a difference between a children's chorus and college women in the "O, o, o, totus floreo, iam amore virginali totus ardeo" refrain of "Tempus est iocundum" - Swarthmore's was necessarily rather lustier. Even as high school singers, "Ave formosissima" was as climactic and even orgasmic as it ought to be, with the crash of percussion and the reprise of "O fortuna" following it.
Yeah... when you hear someone else perform music you've gotten to know well, you tend to overanalyze the performance...
I had a great time though, and ended up running into a few people I knew, including former teachers, two former principals, and one person with whom I used to ride the bus. I somehow managed to find my brother in the midst of the post-concert chaos.
In other news, things in the lab are going OK. A lot of rather tedious reading and computations for the time being, until some of the parts Chris has been ordering arrive. Catherine Crouch has sent out an email about reviewing for the Physics GRE, which I suppose us physics seniors have to start doing eventually. While I wish I didn't have to worry about things like graduate school entrance exams this summer, I suppose they must be dealt with eventually.
This weekend should be pretty full with graduation and its surrounding festivities. Tomorrow night there'll be fireworks on campus; I'm pretty sure I'll get a nice view as the Swarthmore and Rutledge fire companies have been asked to provide a fire watch. We'll go up with an engine in case anything hot lands on a roof.
Also, the math department has announced that Don Shimamoto will not be teaching the section of Real Analysis for which I had signed up. Instead, Charles Grinstead will be teaching. This does not bode well; what I've mostly heard about analysis with Grinstead is that it breaks math majors. Grr...
nightengalesknd, which was a lot of fun. I am now in possession of sufficient ingredients and flavorings to really cook, things beyond noodles and plain rice and omelettes. Sometime soon I think I'll try to make steamed buns with a sweet bean filling.As I said before, CB was fantastic. The Cherry Hill East wind ensemble opened the evening with Frank Ticheli's Vesuvius, which I'm almost positive the College Wind Ensemble performed a semester or two ago. They next played some selections from a Respighi ballet, Belkas, Regina di Saba, which were also pretty good. The concert was a fundraiser for breast cancer research, so there was a check presentation and a ceremony where everyone in the audience was given flashlights, which were lit to honor those affected by various serious diseases such as cancer and AIDS. Perhaps it was a good thing there was an intermission thereafter, for something as upbeat as CB just couldn't have immediately followed it. At any rate, I now have a small flashlight which will go very nicely into my firefighter turnout gear. Some of the members carry a gazillion things in their gear (I've seen at least one guy with a survival rope), but small flashlights are common. Perhaps I'll eventually machine something to clip it to my helmet. Wooden doorstops are also common, as one wedges them into the sides of doors to keep them from closing on a hoseline, or worse, trapping an interior crew.
Back to the music. Initially I thought that the dynamic contrasts could have been more dramatic in the opening "O fortuna," but it's hard with the combined choruses of three large high schools. I was hoping for some more dynamic nuances from the baritone soloist in "Omnia sol temperat," but I shouldn't complain. The tenor was a pretty convincing roasted swan in "Olim lacus colueram." Last night they did all the movements, including the ones Swarthmore had to skip due to lack of men, including "In taberna", where the diction was sharp. The soprano soloist had to squeeze out the very highest notes in "Dulcissime" but was great on the other soprano solos. There is, however, quite a difference between a children's chorus and college women in the "O, o, o, totus floreo, iam amore virginali totus ardeo" refrain of "Tempus est iocundum" - Swarthmore's was necessarily rather lustier. Even as high school singers, "Ave formosissima" was as climactic and even orgasmic as it ought to be, with the crash of percussion and the reprise of "O fortuna" following it.
Yeah... when you hear someone else perform music you've gotten to know well, you tend to overanalyze the performance...
I had a great time though, and ended up running into a few people I knew, including former teachers, two former principals, and one person with whom I used to ride the bus. I somehow managed to find my brother in the midst of the post-concert chaos.
In other news, things in the lab are going OK. A lot of rather tedious reading and computations for the time being, until some of the parts Chris has been ordering arrive. Catherine Crouch has sent out an email about reviewing for the Physics GRE, which I suppose us physics seniors have to start doing eventually. While I wish I didn't have to worry about things like graduate school entrance exams this summer, I suppose they must be dealt with eventually.
This weekend should be pretty full with graduation and its surrounding festivities. Tomorrow night there'll be fireworks on campus; I'm pretty sure I'll get a nice view as the Swarthmore and Rutledge fire companies have been asked to provide a fire watch. We'll go up with an engine in case anything hot lands on a roof.
Also, the math department has announced that Don Shimamoto will not be teaching the section of Real Analysis for which I had signed up. Instead, Charles Grinstead will be teaching. This does not bode well; what I've mostly heard about analysis with Grinstead is that it breaks math majors. Grr...
no subject
the performance sounds like it was a lot of fun. it also looks like you're enjoying being a firefighter.
I hear ya on the research. my end has been very repetitive thus far.
good luck with the math...