Madame Nostradamus, a witty little knitter…

Since I know there are some crafty people who read this:

Project Linus makes blankets for traumatized children from birth to 18 years of age. There are chapters all over the place, the website should tell you if there’s one near you.

Warm Up America! has been around for a while and is still going strong – and you don’t even have to make a whole blanket. Just a 7″x9″ square. You can donate as many squares as you want to be stiched together by their volunteers, or you can find a WUA! circle in your area and help stitch them yourself. If you’re local to this area, JoAnn’s does a WUA! stitch party every year. Watch their class calender.

And if you’d rather make something else like scarves or sweaters or chemo caps or socks or any of the endless things that people make out of yarn and donate, LionBrand.com’s Charity Connection can hook you up. Local or national; you can search by area.

I’ve been listening to some coworkers in the break room having a conversation about gay/lesbianism, and their attitudes towards such people in general. I’ve always found it amusing and, I’ll admit, rather beneficial that when one is a quiet person, the rest of the population tends to forget that one has ears that work just fine. Not that the attitude was hostile; the general consensus seems to be “I don’t think anyone should be mistreated for their lifestyle, but if you ask me if I think it’s right, I’m going to say no.” It’s fascinating, though, to learn what assumptions people make about others, co-workers in particular. By and large, I think, most people see what they expect to see, and miss the subtleties.

And, nothing to do with anything, merely making my day better:

 Maria Callas in Norma: Casta Diva.

Arrivederci, Luciano. Li mancheremo.

“Some can sing opera; Luciano Pavarotti WAS an opera.”

apple, orange…kumquat?

Paris Opera takes a risk with Kusturica’s gypsy-punk opera.

Now I’m all for new and innovative, especially when it comes to the world of opera, but…how many changes can you make to a thing and still call it that thing? If I take a dog and give it a cat’s tail and a bird’s beak and a fish fins and a giraffe neck, can I really call it a ‘new, improved dog’ just because it still has fur?

I’d love to see this show. I’d love to see in the Bastille Opera House. (Hell, I’d love to see anything in the Bastille Opera…) What I balk at is the classification of this species of stage show.

today’s entry brought to you by…

This is how it works: comment on this entry and get a letter.
Write 10 words beginning with that letter, including an explanation of what the word means to you and why.
My letter, from hipsterdad is R.

1. Rrrr – As in, the sound pirates make. Reminds me of Jack Sparrow, KWP, and quietmadman‘s Kiss Me, I’m a Pirate shirt.

2. Rum – As in cocnut rum. Because I’d like some. 🙂 (But not till all this work is done and I’m safely graduated.)

3. Rupert – Rupert P(ercival) BockB’Gock, glove-puppet-chicken extroardinaire.

4. Rasputina – the best cello-playing, Victorian-underwear-wearing goth/rock/punk/neoclassical band ever.

5. Reiki – body energy manipulation. That I really need…

6. Ren faires – Renaissance festivals. As in, that crazy summer job I used to and sometimes still do have. Miss them terribly right now.

7. Red velvet – fist cake I ever tried to make, more because it looked so pretty than because Iliked it. (although I do)

8. Ritardando – one of the most made-fun-of (and probably most misspelled) musical terms. Means to gradually slow the tempo.

9. Raspberries – hate them. Haaaaaaate.

10. Ring Cycle – a series of operas (yes, a series of operas) by Richard Wagner based on elements of German/Norse paganism. Collectively called Der ring des Nibelungen, the four seperate operas are: Das Rheingold, Die Walkurie, Sigfried, and Gotterdammerung. The collection took Wagner 26 years to write and is about 15 hours longs, in total. (usually performed on 4 or 5 consecutive nights, for obvious reasons)He eventually had a perfomance space built in Bayreuth to accomdate the production; it has the best acoustics in the worlds and excels at projecting natural voices so the singers don’t have to strain themselves when singing 5-hour operas. In true Wagner fashion, the scores are dramatic, complex…and a tad long-winded. 🙂 Yes, there really is a character named Brunhilde, and yes, you really do need to weigh 240 pounds and wear a horned helmet to sing the role because damn the man demands a lot from his sopranos. You need a huuuge sound to do it right, and bits of the operas aren’t even in keys. They’re in ‘key areas.’ Oy vey.

(Why yes, I do ♥ Wagner, what makes you ask…)

Opera Time!

For any who didn’t know, or those who knew and forgot:

Tonight, APSU Opera Theatre Presents: Gianni Schichi!!…..and some other stuff.

6:45 – Opera Cafe — come here some of the opera performers in a special solo concert before the show begins.

7:30 – The Main Event:
– A Gypsy scene from Bizet’s Carmen (A French opera. Set in Spain. Confusion and fun and gypsies!!)
– Three Scenes from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. There’s dragons. There’s (almost!) death. There’s funny hats, teddy bears, and scantily clad spirits! You know you wanna come. 

Approx. 8:00 — Intermission

And after that…The Main Event: Gianni Schichi
A clever and cunning tale of death, betrayal, thieving relatives, and true love. A little something for everyone. 🙂

It’s in the Music/MassComm building on the Austin Peay campus – not hard to find, parking located directly across from the building. Tickets are, I believe, $8 at the door. What, can’t come tonight? Well, ok, you won’t get to hear me sing, but you can still see tomorrow’s matinee at 3pm. (Opera Cafe at 2:15ish.)

Why are you still reading this and not on your way here??

speak slowly, i’m a soprano..

Quote of the Day: “Talking during an opera rehearsal is like throwing mud at the Mona Lisa.”

— Dr. King

…not that we have a high opinions of ourselves or anything.

Also, I have gained a new role in the opera: I’m now a dragon’s backside! Woot!!

personal bubble

{Lilly is hiding behind the computer monitor. I only know this because I can see her little white paws. )

Stayed up way too late last night, trying to soothe a headache that was threatening to either implode my brain, or re-enact that scene from Alien and send slimy creatures shooting out the front of my skull. Finally conqured it with some Dayquil (because if I’d taken the night-time variety at 2:30 in the morning, I’d have slept through class.)

Opera rehearsal today. I got there early and had the accompanist all to myself. I was going to wait for the others, but she advised me to take advantage of the individual coaching, since all the others had had the chance so sing alone, and I hadn’t. She said I had an absolutely scrumptious voice. I think I like that word…scrumptious. It feels yummy.

Turned my brain off today and went to the park and played on the swings till I got queasy, and now I am home. All the way, in Nashville, not the crazy dorm room half-way house. I have cats, fried chicken, and a whole blank evening ahead of me. It’s been a fuzzy, goose down-comforter of a day.

And I really needed it.

whirlwind

Very very awake.

Very very bored.

This does not bode well…

Received a really nice Pocket Guide to London from the CCSA the other day — and I can’t stress the ‘nice’ part enough; this thing retails for around $30, and we all got them for free. It breaks the city down into regions and addresses hotels, resturants, pubs, tourist attratcions and historical features in each one seperately. I’ve started cross-referncing my list of must-see’s against their listing in the book, and I’m grouping them by region in my London Notebook; I only have two weeks, and a goodly chunk of that will be spent in the theatre, may as well maximize all the free time I can. I’ve been told that if I use my hotel room for more than sleeping and laundry, I’m doing something wrong.