banana

I'm going to write six minutes worth of an entry right now. In six minutes I will leave to practice. Now five minutes.

I should have transferred to UW-Madison while I had the chance. I might just transfer to UT as an anthropology major, since the deadline has passed for music majors.

At Southwestern, I would be okay for the next two years. I would just be really uneasy the whole time... unless I just left for Austin every weekend. At this point, for various reasons, I don't really dig the idea of going to private school, or of being an academic, though I want nothing more than to keep learning as long as I live. I just think I would rather work with people who haven't been spoonfed privilege their whole lives.

Time's up. More later.

Did I mention that I'm now more broke than I ever have been, ever? It's my own fault. I don't want to kick my new baking habit, though, even though it's part of the problem :[. I keep joking that I want to open up my own bakery. I'm half serious.

a word collage thingamajig of my livejournal.

Facebook Connect (Extra Episode 01) from ImJustSayin on Vimeo.

http://www.thewebissocial.com/2008/12/how-will-users-feel-about-facebook.html

i'm up way too late reading way too many blogs and i should really really really be sleeping right now. just thought this was of interest and worth sharing with my lj peepz.

I hope being so bad at life now that i'm young pays off when i'm older.

vegan potluck at bill schupp tomorrow, if you're interested, and please bring a friend. i'd be so happy to see a few good friends!

we'll try to do the potluck again at least before we go back to school, i think, too. maybe this weekend. maybe this weekend plus another weekend.

I got back to McAllen Sunday night.

And I got sick Monday morning. It's really annoying me that my body totally freaks out and my immune system abandons me whenever I get back home. Not a good cycle. I'm going to try to keep a closer eye on my health and hope that this doesn't happen again.

When I went to the doctor on Monday, I realized that I have gained 10 lbs since the last time I weighed myself, and I don't even remember when that was. There are enough pictures to prove I enjoyed myself in Vienna what with all that good gelato and pastry.



Lol. I had a great time being busy and kicking back with friends who I grew to love so much and who I miss so much now. I received a lot of encouraging words about my potential as a performer, and I think I'm going to change my major to performance, though I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with my life yet. Right now I feel like performance is the most interesting, exciting challenge for me (as opposed to how restless I get doing a ton of reading and writing... though I love doing both, they wear me out when I'm being graded on them). Getting a performance major will allow me to more closely study what I'm directly interested in -- for starters, it will give me room to take two languages... and just do more performing.

Anyway, in Vienna I learned a hell of a lot about singing, and I feel like I have some solid things to work on now, though I am still slightly confused with the differences in technique between my teacher at school and my teacher in Vienna. I'll figure it out eventually.

Forging friendships with amazing musicians from all over the U.S. has been an amazing, inspiring experience. I got to sing in a trio with two of my roommates! It was so stimulating and fun being surrounded by such talented people every day. Luckily I will be 30 minutes away from one of them next semester.

Okay this has been lovely but now it's dinner time und ich bin sehr hungrig.

P.S. I'm really loving all of this unexpected rain. Thanks for the monsoon, Valley! It's so refreshing after sweating my ass off in Wien every day.

I miss grocery stores being open until 1 a.m. (They close at 7 p.m. here). I miss dryers. I miss my Valley friends and seitan and tempeh and cheap fruit and comfort. And Spanish.

But I am having fun here, even though my stomach hates me and I am not getting enough sleep.

What are y'all up to? What are you going to be up to when I'm back in July?

To bed!

I have been thinking about so much since I last wrote but have had very little time to reflect and write about my experiences, and it has left me feeling a little disconnected. I want so badly to remember my experiences here, and I know they will float away like balloons if I don’t write about them. I’ve had a lot of great discussions with my housemates lately, but with practicing, reading, and socializing to do, life gets crazy and you don’t get to soak in the memories all the time.

Here’s my attempt at holding on to those damn balloons.

I don’t have a lot of time before I need to take off again. In 30 minutes my housemates will get back to the apartment and we’ll leave for another friends’ house to celebrate Elana’s birthday over dinner and tiramisu. Elana, a violinist, is one of six people I live with – there’s also Hayley (piano), Elizabeth (violin), Andrew (voice), Kenya (piano), and Ben (our badass German resident assistant).

So I’m not going to be able to write much, but at least I can give you an outline of what I will be writing about as soon as I can get it down. Each post is going to just try to cover at least one topic or event. For now, I’ll give you a miniature sketch of concert life in Vienna as I have experienced it so far.

My first concert here was Wiener Symphoniker’s performance of Missa solemnis by Beethoven at the Musikverein on Wednesday, May 28. Arriving an hour ahead of the performance and donned in our Sunday best, we were about 40 minutes early and unnecessarily well dressed. As we have figured out over the four concerts we’ve attended at the Musikverein, the standing room audience is a varied bunch. When tickets cost €6, no one feels too obligated to dress up. This is great, considering I have about 2 fancy outfits here.

The earliest arrivers stake out their spots along the rail that separates them from the seated audience members, and other people fill in the space behinds them. Some take a seat immediately on the floor – for them, it is enough to just listen. Or, they are too short and watching is futile.

Depending on the concert, the density of the crowd varies. For instance, the standing room was packed for the Friday night performance of Maurizio Pollini, and we arrived just early enough to claim a spot on the floor where we could at least hear what was generally going on. (Luckily, we got a more central view once everyone cleared out to get snacks at intermission.) Missa solemnis, on the other hand, was probably the least crowded concert we’ve been to so far. But generally, the Viennese (and the tourists) love their classical music, and they show up in droves to daily concerts at the Musikverein, the Staatsoper, the Konzerthaus, and several other venues throughout this city.

People clap for a long time here, too. After Pollini finished his concert, I think he played about four encore pieces. I’d never seen such a long, enthusiastic applause.

Experiencing so many high caliber concerts has really gotten classical music under my skin and I am appreciating it more with every exposure.

Time to go. More later.

[My blog is located at http://sixweeksinvienna.wordpress.com]

I don't think I've talked about Vienna on here yet.

I'm at Houston Intercontinental right now, and I'm waiting at the gate for my 10:20 flight to Atlanta. From there to DC, then to Vienna. I'll be taking German I, a music performance workshop, and a music lit course, and will be there for six weeks.

I'm going to keep a public blog about it, so if you want to see what I'm up to, go to

http://sixweeksinvienna.wordpress.com

Love y'all. Be safe :D

http://southwestern.fm.googlepages.com

So I'm just posting this link everywhere. It will lead you to SU Radio. We just got our final equipment and our account with Live365 today, and thus the station was born. Official launch is Monday, but right now, we're just playing around with it. A playlist is going, and if you want to request a song or several you can leave a voice message and we will most definitely acknowledge your patronage. (see the website for the phone number.)

Anyway, I'm sleepy, just wanted to post this link everywhere I could think of. Pass it on! Request good music for us to play!