my raisons d'etre

The Ani DiFranco concert was amazing. Though Ani herself didn't come on until after the intermission, which bugged me. However, Melissa Ferrick was very funny and she's a good musician. Ani took tons of requests. I meant to request Little Plastic Castle, but didn't get around to it.

The concert went until ten-thirty, which made me really glad that the next day was a holiday.

Since the eleventh was Remembrance Day, I didn't have class. Like last year, I went to the service at the Fredericton Cenotaph. Except this time I went with several people from the university residence where I live. And we left a lot earlier than I did last year--this time around I had a much better view. And it was just as moving. I'm about as close to understanding why we have to fight each other as I was ten years ago. In other words: I just don't get it.

Afterwards we went to Tim Horton's (I got a cheese croissant. I've had flakier.) and then back to the residence, where we made French toast with Beth (vice-president) and Aaron (hall proctor). I hadn't had French toast in several years, but it was worth the wait: this stuff was good (I topped it with margarine and maple syrup--the real stuff that comes from a tree).

I'm thinking very seriously about going to Dance Fredericton's performance of The Nutcracker on December eighth. I'll go to the matinée performance at two. This will be my first time seeing the ballet since I was five, and my first time seeing it in Canada (the other three times were at UMaine-Machias and the Maine Center for the Arts, all with the Robinson Ballet Company, though the MCA performance had live music by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. I still dream of seeing it one more time with the RBC and the BSO.). The performance is the week before assessment week, but since my time-management skills are much better than they were this time last year, I don't think I'd have any problems with taking in the magic that is The Nutcracker. Though I will have to resist the urge to hum along because I know the music so well now.

Part one of the Nutcracker Suite, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, Seiji Ozawa conducting (he's always fun to watch).


Part two.


Last year, one of the things we did in Media Explorations (Graphics) was create book covers using a combination of collage done outside the computer and Photoshop. This week my Photoshop class is doing--guess what?--book covers. Our only limitations are A. they have to be tasteful (duh), B. they have to include a minimum of five layers, including text, C. we have to save them as PSD files, and D. we can't flatten the layers and said layers must be labelled (we lose marks if they aren't). Other than that we can do whatever the heck we want. That freedom is one of the things I love about my school: we're given a small list of requirements and then told to go crazy with it.

I'd been trying to come up with ideas for my cover since Friday, but I wasn't coming up with any images that I liked in Google's Images search engine. This afternoon I started to form an image in my head of a woman walking down an empty road (clichéd, no?). After looking around on Google, I started to find images that I liked. And because I play violin and can't play guitar to save my life (don't even ask me the names of the strings or where those notes are located on the piano), I decided that she'd have a violin slung on her back instead of the usual guitar.

All of this was accomplished in about four hours this afternoon. I've still got a couple hours' worth of work to do on it before I'm finished.

The BSO played a concert this afternoon and I wish I could've appearated to the Maine Center for the Arts because they played one of my favourite pieces: Dvorak's eighth symphony. They played it at my one and only concert on May twenty-first, 2006. It was one of those times where I went to the concert thinking that I only knew one piece on the program (in this case it was Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals--or parts of it). But when they got to the Dvorak I recognized some of the melodies. Don't ask how--I just knew that I'd heard them somewhere. By the end I was in love with the piece. Thank you, BSO.

This video is dedicated to the musicians of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra (especially the violinists ;-) ).



PS In case you're wondering, my raisons d'etre are music, dance and photography, a.k.a. The Big Three.

home for the last time (until Christmas)

You! Now! Taken at the PBSO's concert in St. Andrews this past May.

The Passamaquoddy Bay Symphony Orchestra is playing in St. Andrews this afternoon. I'm not going this time (I need to go back to Fredericton and tomorrow I have to roll out of bed in time for a nine o'clock Communication for Visual Artists class). This will be the first time that I haven't gone to a concert since I started in May '09. They'll be performing Beethoven's eighth (they seem to be working their way through his symphonies--which is great for Beethoven fans like me) and Chopin's first piano concerto, which I've never heard.

This week we don't have classes on Thursday, because it's Remembrance Day. Last year I went to the ceremony at the Fredericton cenotaph and this year I plan on doing the same, except that I want to leave before ten because last year I was waaayyy at the back.

I'm home this weekend (for a few more hours, anyway). After this I don't plan on going home until Christmas Break (December eighteenth to January second)--which reminds me that I have to get started on my Christmas shopping.

This past week we had an intro to 4x5 cameras, which we'll be using for an assignment that's due a week from Remembrance Day. I can't believe how excited I get about things like that: yes, digital cameras are wonderful, and I love my DSLR (an Olympus Evolt E-510), but there's something about film cameras--especially really old ones (the 4x5s even have bellows--nice!). Sometimes I find myself contemplating getting a film camera of some sort (I love the Holga 120N, which is dirt-cheap, but super-cool) and using it for either business or personal use. Of course, then I'd have to have a darkroom...

a long-overdue update

I can't believe how long it's been since I sat down and wrote an entry--almost two weeks! YEESH! Well, let's just say that life has definitely kept me on my toes for the last little bit. This past week flew by so fast that I haven't quite figured out where the heck it went: one second I'm logging into one of the school computers at the beginning of Communication and Student Success (my first class of the week), and the next I'm packing up after Fashion Design (my last class).

But now I'm going to back up and start with the week before. I think the most major thing about that week is that I hardly did any homework, which meant that I had to spend from Friday afternoon to Monday night working. Needless to say, I was worn out by the end. After I got home from my history lecture on Tuesday evening I crashed and except for washing my dishes, I didn't do anything productive until Wednesday morning.

On the eleventh I went to my first Remembrance Day ceremony, which was just up the street from where I live. I've watched the national one in Ottawa on TV before, but as with just about anything, it was something else when I was right there in the audience. As a pacifist, November eleventh is always a painful day, as I can't stop thinking about how many lives have been lost to war since it was invented. However, being in the crowd at the cenotaph somehow made it more real and I was so overwhelmed with sadness that I cried several times.

The day after Remembrance Day, there was a hockey game in front of the school: photography studio vs. graphic design studio (which has now won at least two years in a row). I totally forgot about the game until I arrived at about twelve-thirty--about half-way through. I got to play for the photography studio for a bit (I was cheering for them anyway, since that's what I hope to major in next year).

On the homework front, this past week was better. I don't have it all in the bag (which is very funny, since we made garment bags in class yesterday--though I'll have to finish mine next week), but it's much more manageable. And this weekend I've imposed a strict no-schoolwork-after-five-PM rule (unless I need to finish a thought in an essay or I'm really close to finishing a project).

This past week I asked Mom if I could come home about a week later then originally planned because the PBSO (remember them?) will be performing in St. Andrews on December sixth. Gene will be performing, too.