Um … I don’t get it

12. October 2007 · 13 comments · Categories: Links

Star Wars Trumpet Stacy Hedger is just bizarre.

And I can’t get the dancer to twirl any way but counterclockwise.

Update
I’m going to post results as I get them:

  • me: counterclockwise
  • Dan (my husband): clockwise
  • Cooper: counterclockwise
  • mom (mine!): EITHER WAY (wow!)
  • Rachel: sounds like she can see it either way, although at first it was clockwise
  • Jeannette: “She flips back and forth, clockwise/ counterclockwise/ clockwise etc Made me quite dizzy.”
  • Darlene: Clockwise, “I see no way she is going counterclockwise at all.”
  • David suggests it’s in the definition: “Maybe the disagreement comes because “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” have no firm definition in this situation. …” (go to comments to read it all)
  • Nat: “Gosh, it’s strange! First it went clockwise… Then when i looked away and looked again it was the other direction! Eeeeek.”

(I agree with the problem defining the directions, but the trouble I have with that answer, David, is that some people can make her go each direction. My husband and I sat together and looked at it, so we described the way she was twirling in order to avoid confusion.)

OboeRAMa

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on OboeRAMa · Categories: Announcements

OboeRAMa at Colorado State University
November 29 & 30, 2007
Colorado State University, home of the Rams, will present OboeRAMa, hosted by Gary Moody on November 29th and 30th, 2007 in Ft. Collins, Colorado at the University Center for the Arts. Guest Eric Barr, retired principal oboist with the Dallas Symphony, will perform the Francaix Flower Clock with the CSU University Symphony on the Thursday evening the 29th. Activities on Friday the 30th will include a reed making session and master classes. A closing recital will finish the day with a performance by a participants’ double reed band.. For more information contact Gary.Moody [at} Colostate [dot] edu

Orchestral Prima Donnas

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on Orchestral Prima Donnas · Categories: Links

Read all about it. From April 25, 1938.

GustavGraffiti

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on GustavGraffiti · Categories: Links, See

Gustav Mahler Graffiti

More photos

Bizarre. (I love Mahler, but I don’t like graffiti. Oh well.)

That’s the way I’ve always heard it should be …

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on That’s the way I’ve always heard it should be … · Categories: Links

Okay, maybe not. It’s just the way I think it should be!

It was so relaxed, so comfortable, so intimate – but not a drop of professionalism or musicianship was lost at any moment, by any of the performers. Intimate doesn’t have to mean sloppy, relaxed doesn’t have to mean lazy.

-Anne-Carolyn Bird, The Concert

(Not that I could wear red skinny jeans or anything. Nope. Not these days. Skinny isn’t quite in the vocab any more. Sigh.)

I Wanna Go!

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on I Wanna Go! · Categories: Links

The critics will discuss topics including the role of the critic in American musical life, the state of music education and the classical music recording business.

The critics are Anthony Tommasini and Tim Page. (RTWT)

I Wanna Play!

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on I Wanna Play! · Categories: Links, Ramble

About Eternal Sonata:

This classic role-playing game takes you back to 19th-century Paris, where you are absorbed into the final dream of dying composer Frederic Francois Chopin.

The world created in his dream is filled with people and places with names referencing musical terms. The primary characters — Chopin, Polka, Allegretto and Beat — possess special powers they are able to harness due to the effects of their failing health from incurable diseases. Together they battle enemies using magic, while caring for the townspeople of Ritardando as they search for an understanding of the magical world they are in.

(RTWT)

I’d read about the game before, but hadn’t read about the characters before, or the town’s name. I’ve never played a video game before, but this one has me interested!

Hint: I have a birthday in a month and 7 days. 😉

Update … I kept the site running as I was looking at other things. After the first work (Chopin) the orchestra music begins. Ah yes … sounds like the music we played at the video game concert. It’s like cookie cutter music, I guess. It’s interesting to me that video game is so frequently “same old same old” … is no one allowed to do something unusual? I wonder.

Wishful Thinking

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on Wishful Thinking · Categories: Ramble

Dan sometimes goes over to the Apple campus for various events. He’s an “Apple Distinguished Educator”. Nice, eh? So every time he gets home I ask him something like, “Did you suggest an oboe in residence program to them?”

For some reason he never gets around to it.

This last time, though, he did promise me that if, the next time, he saw “Steve” (no, they aren’t really on first name … or any name? … basis, but still….), he’d definitely bring it up. (Remember Dan, that was a PROMISE.) And no, Mr. Jobs isn’t around when Dan goes to these things. Not as far as i know.

So what a surprise to read this:

Recently contacted by a colleague from Microsoft Reading, I was surprised to learn that Microsoft would be running partner training on Oboes.

So okay, it isn’t really true, and it’s Microsoft anyway, so not my cuppa. But still … it got me back to wishful thinking about Apple.

An oboist can dream, right?

What Many Lives Look Like

12. October 2007 · Comments Off on What Many Lives Look Like · Categories: Concert Announcements, Ramble

Ingle has been the Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s principal oboist for a decade, and holds the same honor with the Northwest Indiana Symphony, the New Philharmonic in Glen Ellyn at College of DuPage and, in what’s been her hometown since June, the South Bend Symphony in Indiana.

When not performing, she’s an instructor at Valparaiso University, the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and, most recently, Goshen College.

(Read here)

Yes, really. Four orchestras. Two schools. And a music festival. Put together you finally have a career. Maybe. 🙂

But would I have things any other way? I don’t think so. I realize that the top notch players in the big orchestras don’t have quite that kind of life, but, well, I find the variety of what I do lots of fun. And I’m rarely bored.

Me? Let’s see: symphony, opera, ballet (at least for Nutcracker), musical theatre (when they need me), private students, two universities. It’s a good life. You just have to be very good about keeping the calendar up to date!