drawing to a close

Earlier this week I wrote an open letter to the FVA Class of '11, which you can read here. I can't begin to say how much I sympathize with the FVAs right now: I know what it's like, as I was an FVA last year and will never forget it (and if I ever do, I'll hunt Adam down and beg him to do his worst to me because forgetting the FVA experience is not an option).

I'm gradually getting assignments done, and I'm glad I don't have to spend the weekend ploughing through the entire 2D design section of Launching the Imagination. Instead I have to write a couple of papers: a critical review for Communication for Visual Artists and a paper on Julia Margaret Cameron for Photo History (I also have to do a five-to-ten minute PowerPoint presentation based on the History paper). Both are relatively easy, though. I have a few other things to do, but I'll accomplish them at school starting on Monday.

This coming week will be a bit wacko: due to three of my teachers doing assessments this week instead of the week of the fifteenth (happy birthday Mom!!), I won't have class on Tuesday (though I'll go to school to work on stuff), Wednesday (though I have my assessment for Creativity in Photography in the afternoon), Thursday afternoon (Film and Darkroom Techniques and Photoshop: Tools and Techniques assessment), or Friday. Yow. The next week is the official assessment week, so I won't have any classes. I'll have assessments on Monday (Communication for Visual Artists), Tuesday afternoon (Lighting: Available Light and On-Camera FlashTech and Photographic Digital Imaging, which I could've done this coming week, but I want time to do the final assignments with as little stress as possible), and Thursday (History, though I don't know what time). And then I'll go home some point Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday I handed in my final Photoshop assignment, which was my entry for the Bridgestone Photo Contest (which, I believe, is worth twenty per cent of the final grade for that class). Drew printed the entries off yesterday afternoon on the studio's big Epson photo printer (he'll mail them on Monday). I'm really happy with my entry.

Also yesterday, I found out that the Met Opera Brass has released a new CD: Waltzes, Songs, and Festive Scenes, which I've asked my parents for. Check out the video--and prepare to have your socks knocked off. GO MOO FRENCH HORNS!!! (In a couple of clips you can even see my favourite hornist--at two minutes in and three minutes, three seconds in. The first time is a still photo, but the second time you get to see him in action--with a strong horn part to boot.)



Speaking of the Met Opera and the MOO, there are now exactly two weeks until the first radio broadcast of the season (Don Carlo by Verdi)--which also happens to be Nutcracker Weekend for the BSO. BRUBAKERS FOR THE WIN!!!!!! French horns! Violins! Favourite musicians (who happen to be siblings)! **swoons**

I also got my schedule for next year this week: I have no class on Mondays (YAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!), class all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then one class on Friday afternoon. I'll be taking Lighting: Professional Lighting Studio, Photographic History: People, Representing Ideas, Professional Practice, Lab Techniques, Photoshop: Professional Techniques, and Design: Shaping Space. Here's to an awesome second semester for all of us (diploma students and FVAs alike)!