July ‘08 Retrospective

August 1st, 2008

Spam YTD: 149981 (2391 making it to my inbox)

Books:

TBR, I mock thee.

Events:

  • Happy birthday to:
    • Unrulyduckling
    • Jeff MC
  • Games at Dolly’s
    • Is this the one I wrote about for June?
  • Unternull @ The Church
  • Mini-Con
    • Wherein Serenityspring’s tarot cards present me with many cups.

Was July really that slow? I guess that’s how I powered through 6 books.

One, Two, Three. One, Two, Three.

July 15th, 2008

The second suite Menuets are, I’ve discovered, an exercise in awkward chords. One of which I haven’t figured out how to play without dropping the bottom note entirely. Argh! I guess I should try to figure out what fingerings Rostropovich is using. He’s doing way more up in 4th+ position than I am for these things. So often when I watch these videos I wish the camera were simply pointed straight at the performer so I can see exactly what’s going on. Bugger cinematography and “art”. I need fingerings that don’t suck.

June ‘08 Retrospective

July 11th, 2008

Spam YTD: 138159 (2067 making it to my inbox)

Books:

With half the year gone I’ve read 18 books, 9 of them being on my TBR list. That makes me more than half way to my self imposed goal of reading 31 books this year, and by the end of July I should have technically completed the TBR challenge.

Events:

  • Happy birthgay Fictionfiend.
  • Reverand Horton Heat @ the Dallas City Arts Festival
  • White Ghost Shivers @ Late Nights at the DMA
    • Cool things to do downtown two weeks in a row? What city am I in, and what have you done with Dallas?
  • Happy birthday Tiff
  • and Jason
  • and Snackstealer
  • Games at Dolly’s
    • I’m pretty sure I lost every game I played.
    • I also got whined at for using the dictionary at a time not precisely convenient for everybody else at the table. Said whiner can either donate several copies of the house dictionary or, with all due respect, go to Hell.
    • Fun, nevertheless.

Celtic Passage Performance?

June 17th, 2008

Recently I bought a new set of cello strings*. For grins I queried the retailer for celtic cello music. Lo and behold I found “Crossing to Scotland” by Abby Newton and “Celtic Passage” by David Eby. I added them to my order and I now have the sheet music in my grubby paws. What I don’t have is a recording of “Celtic Passage”. The closest I’ve found is the publisher’s sample mp3, but it’s only a sample. (It’s enough of a sample to tell me this is going to be a beast to learn.) So, interwebs denizens, a beverage of your choice to the first person to locate a full recording of this piece. Any format will do, though 8 track would not be my first choice.

There’s a bit of trivia the UnrulyDuckling might find amusing. David Eby used to be a member of Pink Martini.

* The new strings sound quite nice. It turns out my original A and D strings were Helicore Heavy while G and C were Medium. Now all four strings are medium. It’s startling how much easier the medium A and D are to play. Apparently I’m too much of a girly man for the heavier guage. Also the medium strings are more forgiving of imperfect bowing, imperfect being the only bowing I know how to do.

May ‘08 Retrospective

June 4th, 2008

Spam YTD: 112231 (1659 making it to my inbox)

Books:

Events:

  • Ireland!
    • Finally made it. It was quite fun.
    • I lost my liver in Liverpool.
    • I need to write up the trip before I forget everything.
    • Pictures are available at the gallery.
  • Lunchstealer.age++
  • Bar.age++
  • Moved to a 1 hour cello lesson spot
    • Strangely enough, this has done my playing some good.
  • Murder Mystery Party
  • Sealegs had a birthgay

This should give you a sense of the sheer scale of the Ireland trip. It’s no wonder life slowed down a bit for the rest of the month..

View Larger Map