Doing Time

We got our third piece for the orchestra this week. It's from Barber - Second Essay or something like that, not a memorable title, really. However, as I was playing through it, I found myself often uttering things like "this is so strange", especially regarding the time signatures. The piece changes time signature fairly often - not really an uncommon occurance, but this seems to do so more frequently than most of the stuff we've played - and while most of the time signatures that are used aren't really all that strange, there's some less than common stuff in there like 12/8 or 5/2. But the one that prompted a "that's so bizarre" was a single bar of 7/4 on the last page. Fun stuff, that.

In other news, the first performance for FASS 2010 was last night. It seemed to go well with no noticable major gaffaws (unlike skipping 20 lines in scene 1-4 in the dress rehearsal) and the audience was larger than is typical for opening night so that may be a good sign. The audience named the Silent Protagonist "Balthasar" last night which is respectable choice. Tonight we have the double feature, including the infamous "Friday Late" which will make for a long night.

Slightly related to that, I've had a cold this week and, as a result, did not sleep well at all on Tuesday night (or that's what I'm blaming, anyway) which meant I was veeeery tired on Wednesday. Tired enough that I had a nice two hour nap when I got home. I felt nicely rested afterwards, but was slightly disoriented as it felt a little like Thursday morning and had to check my watch a couple times to reassure me that it was, in fact, still Wednesday. I figure that was at least partly because when I woke from my nap I basically went through my typical morning routine: turn on computer, prepare food, eat whilst surfing the web. Ah well!

Anyway, that's all for the present.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

You wait... time passes.

So, it's been about a month since I last blogged, though I can't say I've had a burning desire to say anything into the ephemeral winds of the internets in that time. The last year ended, a new one started (as they are wont to do) and stuff has happened.

January is usually, at the very least, a slightly busier time of the year for me due to FASS. I'm not going to say too much about that at the moment. I was somewhat disappointed with my part (again) as it feels like I'm being type cast which I'm not sure I like. The part itself is not really a bad part, per se (it's in one of the scenes I wrote, after all), but it's not interesting enough or significant enough for me to look past the type casting and the fact that I'd really just rather have had a different role - there's quite a few parts I'd have preferred, actually. But as it turns out, as of yesterday I'm also doing another (small) part that was vacant after the original actor dropped out. I hope that it didn't come about as a result of me complaining to certain people, though I suspect that may have played a part. Ah well.

School has, of course, started up again as well. I am taking two classes this term, one in non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) and the other in computational photography. The first assignment for NPR was due yesterday so here's a link to my write-up: here. Most of the pictures are on the results page if you just want to look at some images (some of my readers may see some familiar faces in there) rather than worry about the technical details.

Since I actually need to be on campus five days a week this term, unlike the past couple of terms when I've been able to get away with only going in every other day, I decided to buy a bus pass for the term. Part of this was also because I decided in December that I just didn't feel like walking during the winter (I know, I know, my reader(s) in Edmonton will say I'm a wimp), but that aside, my walk is long enough that I'd be rather foot sore at the end of the week if I walked in every day. A plus to taking the bus is that my commute time is shorter and I'm generally in favour of shorter commutes, though I do have to set aside some time to go down to the exercise room now that I'm not getting my exercise through walking, though I don't view that as a problem. On the down side, I do have to schedule around the bus, but that hasn't been too bad so far and it's also cheaper than driving and parking every day would be.

And, of course, the orchestra has started up once again. This term we're doing Brahm's Symphony #4, a Rachmaninoff piano concerto and probably one other thing that hasn't been decided on yet. We have a small cello section again this term, but I suppose we'll manage.

Anyway, that's all for the present.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Those Wacky Russions

This week was the first rehearsal of the UW orchestra for the fall term which is the open rehearsal at which the newbies get to check things out and decide if they want to join or not. (It also seems to be traditional for me to mention it in my blog.)

We basically sight read two pieces at the rehearsal. One was an overture from some Verdi opera, the name of which escapes me at the moment. We've played this piece before during one of the summer terms. It's an easier piece and was used as a warm up (it's not one of the actual pieces we're playing this term).

The second piece, and one of the pieces we are playing for read were the 2nd and 3rd movements of a symphony by Shastakovitch (if I'm spelling that right). He's one of those crazy Russian composers. We've played a shorter piece by him in a previous term.

I'm not quite sure what I think of the Shastakovitch symphony just yet. It sounded... strange. Now, part of that is probably due to the fact that everyone was sight reading and I'm not at all familiar with it yet or how it's supposed to sound. Even so, it sounded fairly different from most of the other stuff we've played. If I had to try to describe it, I'd compare it to more atmospheric music or perhaps movie sound track-ish, perhaps even more "modern" (whatever that means) than other stuff we've played. Well, we'll see how it goes.

There were 9 cellos at the open rehearsal this term (down from our high of a whopping 13 over the summer) so it seems like a decent amount and, assuming everyone who came out decides to join, everyone will probably get it. If I recall correctly, we had 8 cellos during the most recent winter term. The most we've had during a non-summer term was 11. (Yes, the cellos went to 11 one term.)

On a related note, I am current doing some wrangling for some of the string auditions and have my trusty lap top to entertain me (hence this post).

That's all for now, so until next time,
Freak Out.
-TFitC

End of Term Report

Classes have ended for my first term back in school. This also means that the termly UW orchestra concert was this past week. Overall, it seems to have gone pretty well. I know I slipped up in places and I think I played some things better during rehearsals, but still it seemed like things went well. Now there's a month before orchestra starts up again for the summer (presuming they do something for the summer) which means that my cello is more than likely going to be sitting in its case for the next month, despite my best intentions of pulling it out and playing a bit - I always mean to, but it never actually happens.

Also, today was the FASS AGM. Now, the AGM is kinda dull, really as it's mostly just business. The only particularly interesting thing is that the theme for next year's show is selected during the meeting. A theme brain storming meeting was held early during the week and a short list was presented at the AGM. We had 4 themes to vote on: Disney, King Arthur, Video Games and Zombies/Survival Horror. Video games won the vote (with Disney coming in second), so that's the theme for FASS 2010.

Anywho, that, as they say, is that, for the present.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

P.S.

I'm happy that the Video Games theme won, as it's one of the ideas I've mentioned from time to time (I didn't bring it up at the theme meeting, but I have mentioned it in the past).

Musical Convocation

The UW orchestra played at convocation this term (which was today). To prepare, we had our regularly scheduled rehearsal time on Thursday night, then dress rehearsal for convocation last night and finally played for both the morning and afternoon convocations today. As a result, I'm a little orchestra'd out, so I think the cello will be neglected a bit for the next couple of days.

Not much to say about the convocations themselves. The chancellor's speech was the same at both of them, as far as I could tell, at least. I also noticed that one of the PhDs in the afternoon convocation (which was the math, CS, engineer, science types) had a Star Trek tie that looked exactly like one I've got, though I've not worn it in years and years, seeing as I generally try to avoid wearing ties whenever possible.

That is all, Freak Out,
-TFitC

Classical Cacophony

With the start of the new term, the UW orchestra is starting up once again with the open rehearsal last night. So, I dusted off the cello (much neglected over the summer) and off I went! It's looking like there'll be 9-10 cellos in the section this term, which is pretty similar to the past few terms. There were 11 signed up on the list, 10 showed up to the rehearsal and 1 left part way through proceedings. If I'm remembering correctly, the largest cello section we've had was a whopping total of 12, so I'd imagine that all the cellos that decide they want to stick with it will get in.

This term, we're playing Borodine's 2nd symphony (we played the 3rd movement two summers ago, and it's one of the easier movements so it won't take long to polish that one off, the rest of the symphony, who knows?), a flute concerto from Mozart, I think, and other things. In addition to our regular end-of-term concert, we're playing at convocation this term, and one of the things we're playing there is a medly from South Pacific, which I gather is a Rogers and Hammerstein musical, though I'm not familiar with it. The medly actually seems more in line with my actual skill level than our normal fare, but I couldn't help thinking that it was more boring than the harder stuff.

Of course, I use the term "boring" relatively in this case, as it's always fun to be playing (and easier means less practicing for me).

Freak Out,
-TFitC