David

OK, so the last time I posted here was April 21st, 2006 - over 3 years ago! Some things have changed since then, but looking back at some of these entries, some things are still the same. I'm still in Cambridge; I still worry a lot; I still get "sucked into the computer" (http://muso83.livejournal.com/24209.html) and I still need advice from mum & dad from time to time. However, I now have a job, and new friends, and I don't think I'm as bad as I was then - not every day has been a struggle, as it was three years ago.
Meeting Daisy in a few mins. Haven't had dinner (been procrastinating again!) so will probably get a sandwich at the pub if they're still serving.

Click to see an animation of the moon's shadow

One more Music & Science essay to do and then there's no more work this term! Unfortunately the deadline was at 2pm, and I've been sleeping (or at least trying to) and procrastinating all day instead of doing it. I told myself I'd get it done by 9pm in time to hand it in, get some milk in town and then go to Compline at 10pm, but it's not looking hopeful - I've only written 400 words so far. I wanted to do a better job this time but it looks like it'll have to be another paraphrase of the lecturer's notes... oh well. I'll do as much as I can.

PS - tonnes of new photos!

My mood says it all after the last night of Sweeney.........

You scored as Bomb. Your death will be by bombing. You will probably be an innocent bystander, not doing anything wrong and not a person who was targeted at, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. </td> Bomb 87% Natural Causes 73% Posion 47% Gunshot 47% Suicide 47% Cut Throat 47% Disappear 47% Stabbed 47% Eaten 47% Accident 40% Drowning 33% Suffocated 20% Disease 13% How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com

Fair enough...

Last night I had one of the most embarrassing experiences - turning up to a concert late. It wouldn't have been that bad, except I was playing lead cello in this one! Basically I walked half way to King's with my cello (I was going to be punctual but not early) before realising that I hadn't changed into concert dress! I had to run back, change, and cycle over with my cello on my shoulder! I need to buy a new cello case - it's rather uncomfortable. Luckily I managed to stall the start of the concert enough for me to hurry in after tuning up and before the conductor arrived at the podium... I was incredibly embarrassed at the time, but it wasn't that big a deal in retrospect. Anyway, had an after show party where I drank a bit of wine and chatted to a couple of girls, then had to cycle back a bit tipsy. Now I have to get on with work before I get incredibly behind!

Just had another fun-packed day.

Finally, this week's workload is over - I managed to finish the Music & Science essay (basically a paraphrase of the lecturer's article on music & emotion), interrupted by Katherine Puffet's lecture on 12-note music, which wasn't delivered very well, but I managed to understand some of it - matrices seem vaguely interesting...

Then I had a Sweeney Todd rehearsal at Sidney, followed by Lydia's music perception experiment. Very confusing during the event, but interesting after it. Pairs of very similar extracts were played and we had to say which one we preferred - but they were identical! I kept listening out for differences but couldn't hear any... anyway, it turned out they were the same extracts played in 2 different tuning systems, barely distinguishable from each other. I couldn't tell the difference (although there was perhaps something there in retrospect), nor could a perfect-pitch musician also taking the test.

Now I'm eating tuna & sweetcorn & Dolmio with pasta (I was back too late to go to hall) while wondering if I have time to go to tonight's CUSO concert (inc. the Elgar Cello Concerto) AND the Sweeney Todd launch party in town...

Meanwhile, AVJ (aka Daniel) has left the following message next to a photo I took of him on the musos' punting trip 2 years ago: "Battle of the hats? I don't think there's a contest, actually."

Dumb things I gotta do today:

Go to singing lesson @ 2pm
Go to Sweeney Todd rehearsal @ 4.30pm
Eat something
Go to KCMS rehearsal @ 7pm
Do reading / start music & science essay (after deadline of 2pm)
Tidy up
Do laundry (about 2 loads' worth now)

Cool things I wanna/wanned to do today:

Go to Rachel's singing recital @ 1.20 (have to miss this now)
Update photos of last night's mad pancake party with the musos and other random photos I have on my computer...
Sleep (though not particularly tired at the mo, I will be later)
Procrastinate further on random stuff like this...

Sigh. Life is hectic!

...I've left my jazz essay (this time a 10-minute presentation) to the last minute AGAIN. My supervision is at 3pm today, and I haven't written anything yet. When will I learn to plan ahead?

On the other hand, I was feeling much better yesterday and the concert went really well - several people said they thought the Bizet was the best, despite (or due to?) me dropping my baton in the 2nd bar and slipping off the podium between movements!

Your IQ score is 138!

Your mind's strengths allow you to think ahead of the game -- to imagine or anticipate what should happen next in just about any situation. Because you're equally skilled in the numerical and verbal universes of the brain, you can draw from multiple sources of information to come up with new ideas and this makes you a Visionary Philosopher.

You also have a knack for matching and anticipating patterns in all sorts of situations, a talent that adds to your visionary philosopher mind.

Take the IQ test!

Firstly, thanks for your lovely card, Mum & Dad! I agree, it's great how I've progressed over the last year, and am finally feeling in good "heath" [sic] - I'm just too caught up in the present to be really appreciative of it!

Did a huge shopping spree this morning, spending probably over £100 in 1 1/2 hours. Went to Sainsbury's (provisions), M&S (dress shirts), Tie Rack (white bow tie & cummerbund), HMV (earphones), and Topman (clothes), where I found out I've grown another waist size... oops!

Yesterday was the first Bizet rehearsal, which was ok apart from a few things: the parts they were playing were a different arrangement from the Dover score I had, with no alto sax part :'( and different rehearsal marks, which caused some confusion and comedy moments... (e.g. I shouted out "K!" when it was actually J or something)

Am currently writing a song that needs to be finished by tomorrow @ 10am, which is not going to happen, but I'll see what I can do. It's got a bit of a mixture of genres in it: blues (I swiped a chord prog from "Jazzin' About"), classical and folk - I wonder what AVJ will think...

Need sleep. Have been really tired recently (probably 5th week catching up on me) - I struggled to keep my eyes open at the 12pm jazz lecture yesterday, and took naps both yesterday and today, the second of which was unnecessary but irresistible! Oh well. Will try and sort out my sleeping pattern... when I get round to it...

Your Eyes Should Be Brown

Your eyes reflect: Depth and wisdom What's hidden behind your eyes: A tender heart

You Are Likely a First Born

At your darkest moments, you feel guilty. At work and school, you do best when you're researching. When you love someone, you tend to agree with them often. In friendship, you are considerate and compromising. Your ideal careers are: business, research, counseling, promotion, and speaking. You will leave your mark on the world with discoveries, new information, and teaching people to dream.

So true.

Finished my Piano Trio!
More news tomorrow - I need to sleep...

Just had a fugue supervision with AVJ... with an incomplete fugue. It was alright though, and I should be able to finish it eventually! Haven't touched my Piano Trio yet this week - need to do something on it before tomorrow. Also have to write a Music & Science essay, as yet unstarted, but my supervisor says it's ok to hand it in after tomorrow's deadline of 2pm.

The Farandole (now along with one other movement, possibly the Pastorale) is to be performed on Sunday 26th Feb - it'd be great if you could come and see my conducting debut!

The Messiah concert I was going to be in has been cancelled, which brings more relief than disappointment...

Meanwhile, I'm now sort of in charge of the ArtBreakers, and we have some new members, including Jon on bass trombone (music-permitting).

Mum & Dad, when you come up on Thurs could you please bring my computer? I think it'll be more of a help than a hindrance now. Can't wait to see you and Miri!

Just finished the overdue jazz essay... it's pretty short cos I didn't have time to do much else with it, but at least it's something to go on. I did the best I could, honest!

Meanwhile, the Popper tonight went pretty well, despite minimal practice, and I gather the rest of the concert (by other Selwyn 3rd years) was good too! A success for Jon Galton.

Night night...

Am feeling great (due to alcohol) after tonight's 30-min gig at Burrell's Field. It went pretty well, considering it was our first gig. I played solos in "Chameleon", a funky Herbie Hancock number, and "'Round Midnight", by Thelonious Monk. Afterwards I managed to get 3 free drinks (the second two of which were called "Trinity Blue" - I'm currently wondering what was in them to make me feel this high) from the organisers, through Pete, our alto sax player.

I discovered that four of Selwyn Jazz (Adam - keyboard, Geoff - drums, James - bass and Jules - sax) were playing in the room next door to us, which was a nice surprise. I introduced Pete to Jules and Geoff, who have expressed an interest in joining us. I'm going to email them soon to confirm this. Also, Pete's delegated me to be in charge of the band, which I accepted, though I may regret it after a while!

Meanwhile, it's getting late, and I'd better get to bed.

P.S. Despite alcohol consumption, I'm still a perfectionist in spelling, grammar and punctuation! Tell me if I've made any mistakes above.

We tried out some new music in SJ last night - New York, New York, a Blues Brothers medley, Bad (where I sang the vocal line), and Hawaii 5-0. Most of it went down well! We also have a new bassist called Faye, who should be able to make more gigs than James... (plus she's female, which helps redress the gender balance a bit)

Matthew says the John's gig has been moved to the following eve, so I can do both that and the Selwyn gig after all! Hurrah!

I've almost finished my Piano Trio. Just seen AVJ and he seemed pleased with what I've done so far, although there are a couple of tricky areas (like where I try to incorporate the Tristan chord) that he thought needed rethinking!

Meanwhile, I have Jazz and M&S essays to start reading for, a fugue to write, a dozen or so concerts to practice for (well maybe that's an exaggeration), and my room's a mess, and I need to do my laundry. Oh well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIRI! Hope you have a fantastic day, even if you're not feeling as energetic as you'd like.

D.x

A very busy weekend! 3 gigs in 3 nights - 2 down, one to go now. The first one was great - we were in the Diamond which has a relatively good acoustic for big band music, and although the audience was small and not entirely enthusiastic, it went really well and I enjoyed it!

Last night was less good - the organisers of the Chinese New Year ball were running late by about an hour and a half, so we had to wait around. I forgot to get the music organised into a new set list which meant that we had to play the previous night's music again, with alterations - we had 4 deps, including Martha, who agreed to play bass for a few numbers! She did really well and said she enjoyed it, so I'm going to trust her with the whole of this evening's gig so I don't have to keep running from the front to the back of the band all the time.

But now very tired - so much to do and so little time... only managed an hour's work yesterday (apart from the supervision). Must get back to it - I'm on a roll with my piano trio but it would be a great help if I could have the version I started writing up on Sibelius, please, Mum!

OK, so it's 11.30 and I haven't started my essay yet. But I have joined several entertaining groups on Facebook, and found out that my life is rated a tame PG!

My life has been rated:
See what your rating is!
Created by bart666

So I'd better get on with it now... at least I've had some caffeine and won't sleep for a while!

Guten Abend!

I've just found an excellent translation of the song I've just started learning, Abendemfindung (Evening Thoughts) by Mozart. It even has an IPA transcription of the German, which I find especially interesting as I'm thinking of studying linguistics next year! Here it is:

http://www.ipasource.com/Documents/ArtSong/poets/German/Campe/Abendempfindung.pdf

Tschuss!

D.x

Thought I'd change my journal's style and go all minimalistic and black & white, with one of my favourite Escher prints as an icon, and some cute little emoticons - especially this one!