I love the Met!

Tom and I went to see Avatar yesterday afternoon. This was his first 3D movie and he was just as amazed by it as I was the first time I saw it. This was my first time seeing a movie more than once at the theatre, and it was just as magical as it was the first time around.

I've been keeping up with my homework--this was the second week in a row in which I had everything finished by the weekend.

However, last semester I did well during the first two weeks--and then got completely derailed during Week Three, so I admit I'm a bit nervous about this coming week.

The Met played Carmen on Saturday, and by the end I'd named it my fourth favourite opera. Afterwards I posted a thank you note on their Facebook wall: "THANK YOU for helping me to name "Carmen" as my fourth favourite opera this afternoon! BRAVISSIMO!!" I've been listening to various pieces from the opera since forever--Tom has a recording of Suites 1 and 2 by l'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal--but I completely fell under the spell of the MOO's version (all in a day's work for them). And since I was so familiar with so many of the pieces I couldn't resist humming/singing along.

Here are some videos from '87 of the MOO playing the Overture,

the Entr'acte from Act II,

the Entr'acte from Act III,

and the Entr'acte from Act IV.

I love watching an orchestra play. As I watch, I think about all the practising and rehearsing that went into the pieces that they're playing, and the teamwork needed to pull it all off (especially when said orchestra is as big as the MOO--if you count every single musician on the orchestra roster page, the total is a hundred and forty-five musicians).

One more thing: the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra RULES (these videos prove it)!

seeing "Avatar": truly an experience

I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with going to Chapters (I took a taxi to the mall because the buses don't run on Sundays), which I did first thing: a book that I'd been waiting for had just been released (after having the publication date pushed back several times), so I bought it and a DVD of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. However, I was so caught up in the moment that I forgot that I had a $25 gift card in my purse that I could've used (I only remembered it after the movie).

Since it was early enough in the day, I couldn't resist going to Starbucks (which is at the back of the bookstore). I got a tall Skinny Vanilla Latte. Delish.

At that point I decided to head over to the movie theatre (which is directly across from Chapters) even though I still had about half an hour before show-time.

After buying my ticket and getting a pair of 3D glasses, I went in, took one look at the screen (which was almost as big as the one that I saw Turandot on), and chose a seat in the back of the theatre, which was a very good choice.

Then I went back out and bought cinnamon pretzel bites and fries (I wanted some sort of treat, but I didn't want popcorn).

The "pre-show" seemed to go on forever, but eventually a sign came on that basically said, "glasses on!"

The 3D was less intense than I expected: I thought it would be very "in-your-face," but it wasn't. And of course I had to take my glasses off a couple of times to see what the movie looked like without them. The result: it would still be watchable, but it's not as fun (of course).

It took me a while to figure out what the "avatar" thing meant: it's not like a body-suit. The human is inside a casket-like thing (that's the best I can do at describing it), controlling the avatar (though they hear, smell, and feel everything).

The scenery is magnificent, and I can't remember seeing a movie with colours as intense as the ones in Avatar. By the end of the movie I kept thinking, "I wanna go to Pandora!"

This is one of those stories where there are hardly any unimportant moments: everything matters. If they'd shoved anything else into the plot, it would burst at the seams.

Several times I was reduced to tears, either because of the beauty of Pandora or, close to the end, the destruction of the moon (Pandora isn't a planet--it orbits a planet that looks like a blue version of Jupiter) by the sky-people (i.e. humans), which brings out the worst in our species (the colonel who's in charge of the mission has no respect for the fact that on Pandora everything is connected).

Avatar is one of those "great" movies--the kind that I thought they didn't make anymore. I think it's even greater than the LOTR movies, and those are really good.

And one more thing: if you still haven't seen this movie, PLEASE DO!!

getting back into the groove

My creation in Textiles (before I trimmed the loose threads). Get the full effect of the textures and colours.

What We do in Art School (I have no idea who drew that, but this was for an assignment about camera obscuras last semester)

Both of the above photos were taken at NBCCD this afternoon.

Once again I'm waaaay behind. But not a whole lot happened over Christmas break: I slept in; listened to the Met (turns out, I love Richard Strauss--Elektra, which involved the entire MOO, just about knocked me off my feet; and I'd forgotten how beautiful Hansel ünd Gretel is--I must get a recording of it at some point); stayed up late on Christmas Eve; woke up early on Christmas Day; opened presents (I got Metropolitan Opera Brass and cannot even begin to describe how beautiful the MOO's French horn section is in the Hunters' Chorus from Der Freischütz); read; laughed with Mom and Tom; cuddled cats; enjoyed the fire; binged on music (MOO's horn section, Green Day--I also got 21st Century Breakdown--the epitome of non-Classical cool--and André Rieu); watched movies; fumbled and stumbled my way through almost the entire first act of The Nutcracker (not just the March, though that's where I started) while the BSO played it in Bangor; and slept in some more. Not necessarily in that order.

I thoroughly enjoyed my break, and it took almost the entire three weeks to recuperate from the past three months (I'm not surprised--last semester was intense).

This past week I started the second semester, which, from what I've heard, won't be as brutal as last semester. The schedule's more balanced, too (starting with the fact that on Tuesdays I don't have class until one--and the most classes I have per day is two).

Tomorrow, Lisa (who also lives at MJC) and I are going to see Avatar at the Empire Theatre (where I saw Turandot in November). This will be my first 3D movie and although I'm a little nervous, I've been told by just about everyone I know that I must see this movie.

A couple of NBCCD/Avatar-related bits: during my Colour Theory class on Wednesday afternoon, Jen included the poster in her slideshow and talked about how colour was used (blue face/yellow eye) and how it works.

Next week we'll make colour wheels--something I haven't done in years, but that's one of the most basic things out there, like port de bras in ballet or scales in music.

In Textiles (which is one of my Media Explorations this semester) we had to pick out a magazine image that had a colour scheme that we liked from one of the bins. As it turned out, the image that I picked had the same colour scheme as the Avatar poster. Subconscious pick? We then used the colours in that image as the base for weaving (see photo titled textiles, above). I got so into the weaving that I stayed after school (my class ended at four) and kept working on my weaving (a.k.a. homework, which we could come in and work on any time between then and Friday) until I had the required twenty-four (thin yarn, which is mostly what I used) to thirty-six (thick yarn) inches. Once I hit the twenty-four-inch mark I wove a few more rows (making it slightly longer than twenty-four inches) and then chose a colour that wasn't in my colour palette and wove a few rows of that.

Six-and-a-half hours. Done.