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.

who's got the coolest studio?!

Assessment Week continued this week: because my Communication for Visual Artists class is a week behind the other classes because we're on Monday and missed a class due to Labour Day, we didn't have assessments until this week. Karen lost her list of who had assessments at which time so although mine was at 10:15, I had to wait for about half an hour until I went in. It went really well, though it was one of the unique ones: not only did we talk about my work in the class (which is very good), but we also talked about art and I showed her my mom's website (like WhiteFeather before her, Karen loved Mom's site)--and I raved about Adam's work for the umpteenth time (I'm not shutting up any time soon--especially while his work is hanging in the school gallery).

The next afternoon (3:00) I had an assessment for my lighting and Digital Imaging classes. Those went well, too. In the morning I had Film and Darkroom Techniques, which is usually on Thursday afternoons. Last week we took photos with Bronica ETRSi's, which are medium-format (takes 120 film) cameras. When I was taking photos with mine I couldn't help but notice how beautifully it focused: when I put my DSLR on manual focus I usually have to fiddle with it for longer than I want to to get the focus to where it should be--and even then I'm not sure if it's perfectly focused. With the Bronica I knew exactly when it was focused. Why can't all cameras be like that??

On Wednesday I did my presentation for Creativity in Photography. My partner, Emily, and I had chosen Jane Fulton Alt. When I was looking at her work I noticed the photos that she did in reaction to the BP oil spill, which had been covered by just about every major news site as well as environmental sites like Greenpeace (they had a contest inspired by the photos, challenging people to come up with photos protesting the spill).

After the presentation we set up the darkroom as a haunted house. Most of the studios did something (Ceramics didn't, and Textiles said they weren't, but they were lying. Graphics did the same thing they'd done for several years--ahem.). We were competing against each other for a five-hundred-dollar prize and yes, we spied on each other.

I just had one class on Thursday (I usually have two, but since my assessment with Rod was on Tuesday and I'd had my Thursday afternoon Darkroom class on Tuesday morning, I was free as of noon), though since Karen was away that day, we didn't really have a class: just pass things in to Drew and then work on whatever needed to be done (I finished and submitted my HDR assignment for my Photoshop class, since it was due the next day).

We had a Halloween pizza party on Friday at noon, complete with a self-serve candy bar, scary music (including Thriller), and a costume contest (I can't remember who won). And we found out who won the studio decorating contest: the (get ready for this) first-year Photography studio!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was beyond excited.

Last night was the haunted house at Maggie Jean Chestnut Residence. This was our tenth year so we went all-out with a carnival/circus theme. This year I wasn't the least bit scared when I went on the tour (I was last year, mostly because I didn't know what the heck I was getting myself into). I have no idea how much we raised for the F'ton Food Bank (the house charity), but someone will probably say something or post it on Facebook. Last year was our best up to that point.

Ani DiFranco's coming to the Playhouse on November tenth--and I'm going to be there (Drew also said that he and his wife have tix)! She was supposed to play there last year but the concerts were cancelled. I've been listening to her music a lot for the last few days and I really like her style.

Happy Halloween!

Both of these are from her latest CD, Red Letter Year, which was released in '08.