Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

CRS/HIPEC “Webinar” Video

There’s a good “webinar” video up on the HIPEC Treatment web site that you might want to take a look at if you’re interested in my disease — pseudomyxoma peritonei — and the surgery I’m going to have on July 19th to treat it. You may not want to watch the entire video. I think it runs about an hour. But after his introductory explanations, Dr. Foster does first talk about treatment of the DPAM version of pseudomyxoma, which is the kind I have. (DPAM stands for Disseminated Peritoneal Adenomucinosis.) There are some graphic pictures of guts, but they’re mostly fairly blurry so not terribly upsetting if you’re sensitive to that kind of thing. Probably the most interesting (and hugely reassuring) images are the CT scans of patients before CRS/HIPEC and after. It’s just amazing! Anyway… check it out if you’re interested.

HIPEC Treatment – Video Library.

Bunnies

This collection of Easter bunny pictures colored by children is charming. See them all at Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota. Based on the title given this picture, it appears it was colored by one Miss Vanessa Williams, age 7. Nicely done, Vanessa!

Bargain of the Day!

I stopped in at the Treasure Hound thrift shop this afternoon and made a MAJOR score there! I got two of the Great Courses (from the Teaching Company) on DVD – Joy of Thinking: The Beauty and Power of Classical Mathematical Ideas and High Middle Ages.

Each of these courses normally goes for about $70 when they’re on sale. When they’re not on sale they’re over $200 each. My price? $4.99 each.

Bargain!!

They had a couple other Great Courses there that I didn’t grab because they weren’t of interest to me: both related to the Bible. But if you’re a Bible sort of person I highly highly HIGHLY recommend you run right down to the Treasure Hound and grab them before someone else does. The Great Courses are always extremely well done. If you go, they were in the back room (on the main floor) on a shelf right when you come in the door to the back room. Go. Go now. Hurry.

News Video of BSO Academy Rehearsal

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Holds Fantasy Camp – Video – WBAL Baltimore.

You can see me at one point! Here’s a screen grab with a square around me.

Spencer

A woman named Lucy Heyman recently posted this tribute to her Bedlington Terrier, Spencer, on the Bedlington-L list. I think it’s really sweet and funny and she has given me permission to repost it here. Thanks, Lucy!

—–

Despite your aristocratic name and superb lineage, you do not have carte blanche around here. I have reseeded your excavations in the lawn and have forgiven you the book spines you have nibbled on the bottom shelf.

Yes, I know you don’t shed, but you must admit you collect. When you come in the house full of twigs, leaves, foxtails and sticks, are you trying to look like an Arizona Prickly Pear Cactus? And speaking of sticks, the day you ran off with the wooden stirrer from the can of paint I was using, I appreciated  the fact that you didn’t use the doggy door into the house but simply used your artistic ability on some plants brightening up the garden. There is something to be said for doggie graffiti.

I covered the vegetable boxes with chicken wire but somehow with your elegant nose, you managed to extract all the plastic plant markers. You made this growing season into a game of, “Name that plant.” It has added a note of adventure to the dinner table, you clever Bedlington.

However, today in the words of, was it John Donne, you have tried my soul. The dwarf apple tree I planted 4 years ago was finally going to bear. The first year it was too young to produce. The second year all the blossoms blew off in a wind storm. Last year the bees didn’t co-ordinate their appearance with the tree’s blooming schedule. But this year all the conditions were perfect and a dozen  Golden Delicious were ripening on its branches. Oh, joy!

What made you think you were an apple harvester? I thought you were playing with your tennis ball, but your ball didn’t bounce. Sadly seven immature apples lay at your feet. You knew this was big trouble way beyond trying to standoff a javelina or trapping a sparrow in one of the rose bushes. You hung your head as I hung mine looking at your wanton destruction. I placed the apples on the picnic table, and you followed me inside,

Then I heard an unusual noise and through the window saw a Ladder Back Woodpecker and his young son enjoying your harvest. Well, Carillon Winston Spencer Churchill, you have done it again turning disaster into triumph.

Come here and let me give you a hug.

BSO Academy Rehearsal Video

This is just a short video of Group 1 rehearsing to give an idea of how big the orchestra is with 40-some extra people.

BSO Academy Rehearsal

I can just about guarantee you won’t want the video to end as quickly as it does.

I’ll post links to longer videos or recordings as they become available.

And here’s a picture of my id badge.

BSO Academy Concert

If you’re my Facebook friend and have been reading my posts there, you already know that the concert on Saturday night went very well. I thought both groups played magnificently and I personally nailed all of my solos. I was pleased. Very very pleased. I’m only now coming back down to earth as I think about the week ahead and getting back to my regular life.

Here are scans of the pages of the program from last night’s concert, if you’re interested.

Yes, You Are In The Right Place

I just changed the appearance of my blog, so if you were disturbed by the very different look of it…don’t be.

BSO Academy Day 6

Well… this is it!! The big day! We had a joint rehearsal with Group 1 (I’m in Group 2) from 10:30 to 1:00, followed by a question-and-answer session with Marin Alsop. Some of the questions:

Q) How does rehearsing our combined group differ from rehearsing the BSO alone. A) She thinks about what kinds of comments will be actually productive regardless of who she’s conducting. She gets pickier as the concert draws nearer.

There were several other questions, but I honestly don’t remember what they were. They must not have been too interesting.

After that, we had lunch with Ms Alsop. Today’s salad had capers in it. Yum! I’ve got a jar of capers in my fridge and a lot of good intentions as far as using them, but so far I haven’t. Now that I know how good they can be, I may finally do something with them. Dessert was all sorts of little yummy tartlets, mini eclairs, tiny cheesecakes, and so on. Each one bite-sized. Now I have the rest of the afternoon off. We meet back at the Hall at 6:30 and the concert begins at 7:30.

The week has gone incredibly fast — seeming to speed up as we’ve drawn closer to the end. Thinking back on it, I’ve got some ideas about what I’d do different and what I’m glad I did. These may change as time goes by and I have a chance to reflect more, but for now…

What I’d do different:

I wouldn’t pay for the lunches in the Symphony Hall. While they were very nice, there weren’t enough choices for a vegetarian. Consequently, I pretty much got stuck with a big salad every day. I’m not saying it wasn’t good for me. God knows, I don’t eat enough vegetables. Only… I didn’t really feel like I got my money’s worth on those. This is pretty typical for flat rate food situations. The meat-eaters always get more value for their buck.

I would plan from the start to bring some of my own food. I made a trip to Target on my first full day here and got some bread, cheese, peanut butter, mayo, mustard, bananas, instant coffee and bottled water. Also, some cheap knives and forks and a coffee mug. Having these really has made a difference as far as making up for the lack of food other than salads. Also, since I’m not typically going out for dinner anywhere, I’ve got the makings of a light meal if I get hungry at night. (I should explain that the “apartment” I’m staying in has a microwave and a fridge.)

I would plan from the start to bring my own pillow and comforter and possibly my own towels. The blanket they provided in the dorm was a very thin cotton thing and it wasn’t warm enough for me. So, when I was at Target I also bought an inexpensive (though surprisingly pretty!) comforter, a second pillow (the room already had one), and some nice pillow cases. Just having these has made my room SO much more comfortable and home-y. I think I’d also bring some kind of caddy for toting shower supplies back and forth from the bathroom. (Though my roommate had no compunction about leaving all of her stuff inside the shower. I guess I just think that when you’re sharing a space with someone you don’t know well, you ought to leave the shared areas completely free of personal stuff.)

Things I’m glad I did:

There were seminars that, on paper, really didn’t look like topics I’d enjoy. Feldenkrais and Yoga for Musicians, for example. I very seriously considered skipping both of these, but I forced myself to go because, after all, I’d paid for them (as part of the basic tuition for the week.) I am so glad I did both of these. They were both much more interesting than I’d thought they’d be. I really did learn things and I also got to “bond” a little bit more with some of my fellow musicians. This is a good thing because I am really quite an introvert and I tend to want to just go off by myself a lot — especially when I’ve been spending a lot of intense time in a big group of people, like after a rehearsal. If I had avoided the seminars, I would probably have been spending too much time by myself and then I would have started to feel a little alienated. (Yeah… it’s a fine line with me. Too much time in groups is exhausting and irritating. Too much time alone makes me start to feel sorry for myself.)

There is a free shuttle that runs back and forth between the residence hall and the symphony hall. It’s a distance of maybe 7 blocks. I rarely took the shuttle. Most of the time I walked. I’m really glad I did because I haven’t been getting much exercise since the surgery in April and I want to build up a little more cardiovascular strength before the next surgery in July. Of course, the weather was really wonderful this past week and that made the prospect of walking significantly more attractive. If it had been 95 every day, you can bet that I’d have been on that shuttle! Putting the whole exercise aspect aside though, it was just really nice to be outside enjoying this neighborhood.

I took a couple of 90-minute lessons with Laurie Sokoloff and I’m really glad I did. Not only did I learn a lot but meeting her was really just nice. She’s such a warm and open sort of person. I’ve been “aware” of her as a world-class piccolo player for years and years, so there was also the aspect of meeting and spending actual quality time talking to someone who’s famous.

You can probably guess what my answer would be to the question: Would you sign up for the BSO Academy again? Absolutely, I would. In a heartbeat. The experience has been educational, fun, terrifying, thrilling, exhilarating, and fulfilling on too many levels to describe. All of the BSO musicians I had contact with were so nice. The other participants were great, too. Even the ones I occasionally found annoying. It was so worth doing and so worth the money.

BSO Academy Day 5

Today’s schedule was relatively light in some ways, but did include the big chamber music recital in the evening. I’ll go on at some length about that at the bottom of this page. No special post for that event. No sir. Uh uh. I don’t want to call any extra attention to it. So, on with the show… Today’s schedule:

10:00 am – 11:45 pm   Full orchestra rehearsal with Marin Alsop. Have I mentioned what a really fine conductor she is? I suppose it goes without saying. Maybe. I dunno, though… I’ve seen some very famous conductors who I thought would probably be AWFUL to try to follow. Ms Alsop is very easy to follow and I like how she doesn’t waste time. No screwing around! (Maybe that’s partly because we have so little rehearsal time and she wants to accomplish as much as possible. Whatever the reason, it’s nice.)

12 pm – 2 pm   Lunch. Yummy. They had a really good salad that had pine nuts in it today.

2 pm – 3:30 pm   Yoga for Musicians. This was good. We did some relaxing exercises with partners. (I teamed up with flutist Martine, another Academy participant.) Many of the exercises were focused on opening up the chest and keeping ourselves from folding our shoulders inward. Another big thing — and we’ve all heard this before, but it really bears repeating — BRING THE INSTRUMENT TO YOU. So many of us lean forward or go into some unhealthy position when we play our instruments. That’s crazy. The instrument is not your master. YOU are the master of your instrument. It should serve YOU.

4 pm – 5 pm   Using Tuners and Metronomes. Most of this was stuff I already knew, but I’ll just provide the blurblets anyway.

• Recommended tuner: Korg OT 12 or OT 120. (The 12 model isn’t being made any more.) I actually already have this tuner. You can set it to pick up your played note at slow, medium, or fast speed. I usually use the fast speed but apparently the medium or slow speed can be useful if you’ve got a lot of overtones in your note.
• Use the “play back” setting on the Korg tuner to have it match pitches that are in tune.
• Get the Korg Tuner Pick-up Mic to have the tuner hear just you even when you’re surrounded by other people playing notes.
• When you’re playing in a chord (as you usually are in ensembles), stretch the 5ths and narrow the 3rds.
• Tune these notes: unison, octave, fifth, then 3rd. In that order.
• Play a “drone” note on the tuner and tune to it while you’re practicing.
• Practicing with a metronome: Isolate a difficult passage, at least 3 notes, and practice it at the slowest speed needed to play it perfectly. Jot this setting down on your music. It’s your “beginning speed”. Play it perfectly 10 times (5 after you’re good at this technique) and then move the metronome up one “click” (4 bpm). If you screw up in the attempt to do it 10 times, you have to go back to 1 again. Eventually, you’ll reach a speed where you can’t play it right 10 times in a row. When that happens, jot that speed down as your ending speed and quit rehearsing the passage for the day. The next day, start somewhere between the two speeds and repeat the previous method. Jot down the new beginning speed. Continue as before. Your new ending speed should be a little faster than before. Jot it down. Gradually add notes on either side of the passage, one at a time, and bring them up to speed. Do this until the whole thing is connected and up to speed.
• Recommends the Dr. Beat metronome. (The expensive one — about $150)

7:30 pm – 10 pm   Chamber Music Recital. Sigh… I played a flute trio in this and, honestly, I was quite well prepared. The music wasn’t difficult and I was feeling relatively calm and confident. UNTIL..until I realized I had left my glasses back in my room. We were fourth on the program (only about 20 minutes in from the beginning) so I didn’t have time to go back for them. Now, I’m not all THAT far-sighted. I thought I would probably be okay if I kept the stand far enough away from me.

Wrong.

AAAAAAAggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!

I couldn’t see some of the notes, so I just kinda winged it in places. Some times that worked out okay. Other times, not so much.

It wasn’t a disaster of apocalyptic dimension, but it felt pretty darned awful from my point of view. My trio partners and the audience were very kind. Sigh… and that’s all I’ve got to say about that.