Wow, wow, and wow once again!

I don't normally write blog posts straight after shows - I'm incoherent even when I'm mentally at my best - but this one time I feel an exception must be made. I've just come back from seeing Apocalyptica with Maria and I simply have to write.

I don't normally feel both as exhausted and exhilarated as this after a gig. I guess the cycling home burned off the post gig adrenaline while my mind is still on fire from the experience. 

I didn't expect the band to be quite that amazing. I expected brilliance but they surpassed it. Wow.

Everything ready to go!

Apocalyptica are one of my childhood bands. I first discovered them back when I was first developing my own music taste. As I started to play the cello myself they became an inspiration. Seriously, one the first proper pieces I learned to play was one the parts of 'Cortege'. They could have been pretty disappointing and it still would have been an amazing night but, trust me, they were anything but disappointing.

Waiting for the show to begin, I tormented Maria with my excited bouncing. Poor girl, she kindly agreed to accompany me even though she wasn't a fan herself and then was subjected to an excited me! We decided to sit on the balcony which is not my usual style but was actually an excellent choice. The view was brilliant of both the stage and of the band. It was really interesting to watch the crowd dynamic from this angle - you don't see the patterns when you're a part of it even if you're aware they exist. It would have also been a great place to take photos but I gave up in the end because the lighting was not nice to my little compact and, with the number of pro photographers there, there will be plenty of images floating around in a few days :-)

Anyway, you'll notice I'm avoiding talking about the show itself. It's really hard to work out what to say, how to put it into words. The music was great. They're talented live musicians not just talented recording artists so that was not surprise. I guess the tech was a bit odd to start with as the drums were too prominent but that was quickly resolved and then everything was great.

What did surprise me was the dynamic on stage. Something that's to Apocalyptica's credit is the way in which each member has their own role within the band's sound. They're not just several cellists, and drummer, attempting to play coherent music but they're a band with defined roles melody, rhythm, bass... drums. While they make stray from this format from time to time it gives their music a real structure. But this wasn't what I was wanting to say... oh what was it? Yes, the fact that, on stage, there is also a clear structure. Eicca seems to be cool and in control, Paavo really interacted with the crowd and got them involved, Perttu was 100% full of beans and all over the place, and Mikko drew it all together with the drumming. In this sense, you have a really rounded stage atmosphere. There was a real feeling of fraternity amongst the band and that was lovely to see as an audience member. It felt like they were loving being on stage and that simply transferred. Yeah, it was great.

Not only was the potential of the important bits of music and performance fully realised but the design of the performance, both visually and set-list wise was also on form. I will admit that there were times when the strobe lighting was simply to flashy for me but then there were also moments of beautiful lighting design that really set up an atmosphere to compliment the piece in question. The louder, faster pieces saw the stage divided with beams of light and colour while the quiet, peaceful numbers received a more harmonious treatment. And the balance between those fast and slow pieces was just right. While the majority of the set was centred around, as one would expect, Apocalyptica's heavier pieces, it was interjected with two moments of calm. Not only were the tunes played in those moments stunning but this division of the set ensured that the heavier tunes did not fall into a monotony, allowing the audience to appreciate every moment.

So, a wonderful night? Undoubtedly. Did Maria enjoy it in the end? Well, from her grin at points during the show and from the brief discussion we had afterwards... I think she might be a convert ;-) Sadly, we didn't manage to meet the band afterwards (and I couldn't get my scrap-book signed!) but as I'll be seeing them next year I think I'll survive! Truly cannot wait to see them again - they've set themselves up at near top of my 'best live bands list' and exceeded the already high expectations I held. Wow.

Sorry for lack of decent images. I only took about 20 as I thought they were coming out even worse than they were. Of course, that means the semi-decent ones, and I use that term very loosely, are limited to no more than a few!

Help! The essays are coming to get me! (and other stories)

When I have a lot of work to do I'm always really productive. I clean my room, I send letters letters to friends I should have contacted weeks ago, I write useless blog posts. I guess I do a bit of the work too...

At the moment I have four essays weighing on my mind; two (and a bit) are due over the next week. In addition, with my parents visiting and both Sonja and my birthdays on the horizon I'm trying to get everything done early. It's not working out so well but there we go. And that's before I mention the 300 pages of reading for Monday.

That said, I'm kinda enjoying my papers. My history of art paper is looking at a stunning example of a Greek vase which also has some great links to culture and mythology and I'm rather enjoying studying that aspect, even if I'm not so sure on the paper style for this subject. I have chosen to look at one of my favourite films for literary and cultural theory although, as I'm analysing it psychoanalytically, I will probably ruin my childhood in the process. For my academic writing class I'm working on a paper about the reasons for conversion to neo-pagan faiths. Fascinating topic but driving me mad researching the thing ;-)

I've been lucky to be able to slot in social moments too, over the past week or so, with Laura and her flatmates (and ultimately her whole corridor, it seems) throwing a party on Tuesday night. Although I didn't stay for all that long - I'm quite boring at parties! - it was such fun to just mess around with friends. 

My only non-blurry photo from the evening. Sorry Leonoor!

Friday evening, however, really has to stand out as one of the best moments of the past little while. Running straight from class to catch a train into the centre to meet up with Maria and catch some of the final concerts of the Cello Biennale was a real change of pace.

Actually, Maria and I first started chatting, many moons ago, because of our shared love for the cello, although she plays 100x better than I ever did. Indeed, she was telling me about the Cello Biennale, a two week long cello festival, before I had even started playing with the idea of moving here. To go to some of the events was fitting.

Image from www.muziekgebouw.nl 

We managed to catch a concert of several students from the Boston Conservatoire before the main concert. This was a delightful way to precede the main event which was the final of the Nationaal Cello Concours. Not only was it an evening of high quality music, as one might expect, but it was a chance to really compare style of three talented individuals. It was also a good chance to practice Dutch as the prizes were presented and winners announced in the language despite the rest being conducted in English, oddly. I'll never get used to how English is casually used in this country, even among native speakers. Anyway, I digress, happily, the person Maria and I both voted to win did so.

The biennale is now over, and Maria will be having withdrawal symptoms, I'm sure, as she's been living there! We have got one more show related to it to look forward to, however, and that is the Apocalyptica concert which was supposed to open the event but was postponed until November. Looking forward to attacking Maria with some metal ;-)

Right, I better get on with this work. It's staring at me reproachfully as I type so I don't think I can put it off much longer!

This is a blog post, if you couldn't tell!

The last week or so has meandered by quite peacefully. I've been painting, playing music, going to singing lessons generally pottering.

As I write, I am procrastinating several things, the Marie Antoinette translation being one of them (don't hurt me), gardening being the other. Quite frankly, I think I might do the gardening first except I'm pretty sure there's a tribe of angry bitey ants living in my flower bed and I'm not sure if I have any proper shoes... anyway, that's my problem!

There was also the surreal incident of a few days back which some of you might have seen mentioned on facebook. Some gentlemen came by our house looking to build another house over land that belongs to us. After a bit of a heated discussion with my parents, it looks like they now want to buy our house and knock it down. Unlikely to come to anything, I know, but seriously that would be the answer to all our renovation issues!

I know this isn't a proper post, and it has no photos (boo!), but I'll be back properly soon ;-)

In the meanwhile, if anyone fancies recommending any songs/tunes for me to learn on 'cello, bass guitar, or tin whistle (high or low) please do so... I'm running low on ideas!

I am never again staying somewhere with comfy sofas

Today has been another lazy day which, quite frankly, is brilliant.

This morning I made the most of the two foot thick walls to practice low whistle to my heart’s content. Okay, low whistle might not be as loud as normal whistle but it’s still got some clout, particularly in the upper octave, and my own house has paper thin walls. It was also great to be playing somewhere where my hands weren’t cramping constantly because of the cold. It’s only a shame that the ‘cello was too poorly to come too… it would have been great to have played here.

I spent some time working on the Tanz der Vampire translation but I must admit that I wasn’t really in the mood for it. I am in a bit of a ‘snuggle up on the sofa in a blanket and watch a DVD mood’ so I think it’s another Harry Potter evening tonight. I will try and do some more Tanz before the film comes on the television but I have no guarantees. I can’t even get myself motivated to do any painting!

Now, if you excuse me, I need to go and save my brandy from my overzealous father!

When I wrote this post, I was without an internet connection. It’s been uploaded onto t’interweb since!

Getting away

Today is the day that I travel down to the cottage we're renting for Christmas.

I've been packing for a few days now as, due to the time of year, there's so much that needs to go with us. I've also learned that packing after a couple of (large) glasses of whiskey is not a good idea... yes, I did manage to get my head stuck in a suitcase. It took my parents about fifteen minutes to free me, although I'm sure that time could have been cut down dramatically if only they had stopped laughing!

En route to the cottage I am going to stop and visit a couple of siblings and, most excitingly, the diddy nephews! Yes, I am still planning on dressing as an elf!

As for where I'm going, it's a holiday cottage in the middle of no-where down in the south west. I'm close enough to Exeter that I can meet up with a couple of people if they bother to get back to me but far enough from everything that I can just get away from life for a while. I also believe that there is no internet at the cottage so I'm actually really looking forward to that. I'll only be there for a week, and one day of that will be Christmas day, but it will be nice to be stuck in 'real life' for a couple of days.

I'm taking a couple of musical instruments with me. Sadly, my 'cello is back in intensive care so she won't be coming but low whistle certainly is. I'm also taking a bundle of paints with me and will just see what happens over the next week. It'll be lovely to be free to just create with no strings attached and no real pressures.

So, I guess I'm off now. See you all after Christmas!

Christmas Song of the Day

Solstice Evergreen by Spiral Dance

Because today is Yule, or the Winter Solstice, it seemed only fitting to have a song relating to this festival instead of to Christmas per se. I'm still getting over the fact that we're not going to be able to really celebrate the festival this year but I guess the last couple of years have been strange for us as a family and what better time to remember that there's always next year!

As for the song, this is by a Pagan Folk band called Spiral Dance and is a great piece of music that works for Yule, Christmas, or just winter festivities in general. Enjoy.

(because I've been having some issues with blogger and youtube recently, if the video isn't embedded then click here to listen)

A day of little gifts, preparations, and music shop annoyance.

So, today I finally received something that I had been waiting for.

Peg paste bought from Hobgoblin Music's website

This little pot of gunk might just be the key to getting my 'cello in a playable condition again and, considering I've been working at doing just that for some months now, I'm quite excited. 

I first ordered some peg paste off 'DJM music'. Don't. I paid for next day delivery and got an email today stating that my order has just been dispatched. It's a week after I placed that order. Naturally, I've sent them a rather strongly worded email demanding a full refund and that they arrange to pick up their item from me which it eventually gets here. To add insult to injury, it's been posted first class royal mail not even as a next day parcel!

Anyway, this wasn't supposed to be a rant about them (trust me, I could go on!) but I do want to comment on Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin are a chain of folk music shops in England, with worldwide shipping, and I must admit that I love them. I have visited their Birmingham store quite a few times now and found the staff to be both welcoming and knowledgeable, which is rather rare in music shops, it seems. I ordered my peg paste from them, online, at 12:30 a.m. yesterday. It arrived today. I paid for standard shipping, which was a bit steep in price but that's Royal Mail's fault really and am really rather pleased with their service. The prices of their instruments and accessories are always more than fair and the quality of their items has always been high in the past so I have no doubt that I have received an all round good service here.

In short, DJM music bad, Hobgoblin music good.

I also received a little gift off of my mother today in the form of a diary for next year. I hate buying diaries for the next year because they're so expensive and at a time of year when money is tight anyway so I'm really pleased that I don't have to go through that pain this year! Actually, mother bought the diary for herself when we last visited Glastonbury but has since decided that it's probably not big enough for her. I don't mind getting pretty hand-me-downs!

It still smells of Glastonbury incense. I keep having a casual sniff!

Other than that, I'm getting ready for tomorrow which will see me going off into the sunset... ahem... going to a holiday cottage for Christmas. So much to do!

Christmas Song of the Day

'Baby, It's Cold Outside' as performed in Glee

Okay, I'm not a huge Glee fan but I did watch the first and (most of the) second season. Although I wasn't a great fan of the plot a few of the arrangements really did catch my fancy, this one being one of them. In fact, I bought the album just for this song, disliking the rest of the tracks!

Oh hello winter!

Over the last couple of days the winter chill has really crept in. Father claims that he saw snow this morning albeit not heavy enough to settle and, living in a house with no carpets and holes in the windows it's pretty darn chilly!

Actually, today was the first day of the season that caused me to struggle when playing. It always reaches a point where my hands get so cold that they cramp almost instantly. A pair of fingerless gloves make playing a bit more possible for a while but I've not managed to get a pair that are comfortable to play 'cello to any real standard. Of course, I'm one of those people who finds wearing rings while playing annoying so gloves and I were never going to get on well!

This year is posing a bit more of a challenge. Monster Whistle is about as cold as an icicle and getting him warm to play is a nightmare. In fact, I'm not sure if he's going to be happy until we have balmy Spring days blowing in once again. I did do a quick search of google to see if there was any advice for working with whistles in the cold and, other than sticking them in hot water or wrapping them with hand-warmers, didn't really come across anything that seemed like it would work. I did however come across an article on how to get your child's tongue unstuck from cold items which begs the question: "Who spends time googling that if their child has got their tongue stuck to the local lamppost?"

Art, music, life

The title pretty much sums up what's going on pretty now. By day I'm being a noisy pest playing various instruments and by night I'm attacking things with paint.

Art

Art wise, I'm mainly working on scrapbooks in various forms right now. I've actually not finished my Castlefest book yet. In my defence it does take a while to design/paint 100 pages of stuff. I have, however, started a new book for general life and that is actually pretty much up to date. I know. A miracle! I'm thinking about posting photos of my scrapbook pages onto tumblr as well as on facebook from now on. We'll see what happens. I know a few people want to see certain pages and it's hard to work out where to share them.

I'm getting a real itch to paint a portrait again. You may well know that the last ill fated attempt didn't work out so well. I guess painting a picture of a couple is always going to be risky and the pair I was painting happened to get a divorce in the short time between the sketch and first bit of paint being put down and the rest of it going on! Whoops. Although I was painting for my own enjoyment I hadn't the heart to go on and finish such a lovey-dovey painting. I'm not sure exactly who or what I want to paint though, and I'm not practised in portrait work either, so it might not happen. We'll see how I feel!

Music

As for music, did I tell you how much I am in love with my new whistle? He quickly gained a gender, which is as far as I tend to go with musical instruments, but Nené seems pretty sure he should have a name too. She suggested Felix and then Máté (the latter having a rude explanation) but I don't think either of those are quite right. Okay, the latter is just wrong! 

Lack of name aside I've been enjoying playing so much. I feel that I'm progressing in my playing very quickly, much quicker than I expected, and after just two weeks I'm a bit overwhelmed by the progress that's been made. I'm not great, not at all, and speed is something I need to work on greatly but things are going so well. 

Of course, the other major musical adventure for me is my singing. I had a lesson yesterday, the first in two weeks due to illness, and it was probably the best lesson I've ever had. I managed to sing a song through in a relaxed way and, do you know what, after doing that I managed to tell my teacher, honestly, that I thought it sounded good. I'm far from being a confident singer but that's such an improvement. In three months I have sung in front of someone for the first time in years, sung in front of an audience (albeit unintentionally), and finally I have managed to have a moment where I can admit that I enjoyed my own voice. I'm far from being a good singer, and far from getting over my phobia, but, step by step, I'm going in the right direction.

'Cello is still being played but we have some issues with tuning pegs going on. I think she may well need to have a quick trip to a luthier because we have some major slipping that I can't seem to fix. She also needs some new strings as I can actually see the A and D strings fraying. I think I've been neglecting her a bit recently, especially when one considers the abuse she suffered at the hands of my father. She got her own back on me by stabbing my foot. After this many years you think I'd remember to wear shoes when playing, wouldn't you?

Life

Things aren't really going to plan and this is not how I saw my gap-year panning out, for various reasons that I don't want to share randomly on the internet. However, I am actually really happy. I'm doing the things I love and I will be continuing to do these things next year, and more. I can't wait for next year's European adventure, even though it looks like I'm going to have to travel alone which wasn't my plan either, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Nursing an old friend back to health!

This is a blog of good news. Isn't it nice to have a bit of good news once in a while? Yep, I think so too.

Anyway, casual rambling over, lets have some targeted rambling ;-)

So, drum roll please...

I have mended the 'cello!

You might remember that she had a bit of an accident involving my father shoving her behind a wardrobe. It wouldn't do anyone any good to be treated in that way and she ended up quite injured but, thank the gods, not as badly hurt as she could have been. All the same it has taken me quite a lot of work to get her playable again, and she could still do with a new bridge at some point. I'm not complaining though because I didn't think I'd be able to do it. I'm also lucky there wasn't any internal damage because not only would that have been beyond my skills to repair it would also have been in the realms of the expensive.

I made sure she wasn't going to slip (and damage herself again) when
posing for this photo by jamming her spike into the floorboards hehe

I've also, naturally, had a little play with her today. It's weird because I haven't been able to play for over six months now - it's hard to be a nomad while carrying such a big bundle! I want to go back to playing the same as I was before my little break but physically can't do it. I seriously can't remember feeling such a burning feeling in my left fingers and right arm, and certainly not from playing for such a short period. On the plus side, I don't seem to have lost all the technique which was something that concerned me a little bit. I can't wait to get back to playing properly!

The other accomplishment of the day was the uploading of part three of Marie Antoinette, my current subtitling project. Technical problems galore but it's finally online. I won't bore you with ranting about that here but you can read about it on my subtitling livejournal account if you want. I genuinely feel that I've been productive today.

Now I'm going to go and relax with a nice cup of tea!

Getting back into music

Music has always been a passion of mine. I grew up with a mixture of country music, Elvis Presley, opera, and Native American chants. In all honesty, the latter was my favourite by far. I adored singing and would sing all over the place. Have you ever heard a six year old performing a rendition of the Flower Duet, solo? I can't imagine it was enjoyable to listen to!

However, things started to change a bit when I went to a certain prestigious girls school in the Midlands. I auditioned for the choir a couple of times and eventually gave in when told that my voice was "flat" and "hideous". With the benefit of hindsight, I was a nine year old with no vocal training who was simply enjoying singing along competing against other little girls who had been classically trained since they could speak. It was a snobby world. However, it was at this time that I decided not to sing in front of anyone again. Eventually I discovered that I was afraid of singing in front of anyone but this didn't develop until a few years on and quite by accident.

This same school did introduce me to a different side of music, however, and for this I am grateful. In our music classes we all tried basically every orchestral instrument, and a fair few beside. It was here that I met the 'cello and felt instantly in love. It wasn't until I moved to secondary school that I took 'cello lessons and I am not ashamed to tell you that I spent a fair bit of my first lesson crying because I was finally playing the instrument. I was given a 'cello for Christmas when I was twelve and so started the tradition...

You see, the problem was, my appetite had been whetted and I wasn't going to settle for 'just' 'cello. The next Christmas I got my bass guitar which I taught myself to play and played with a couple of bands for a while. The Christmas after was my keyboard which I taught myself to grade three standard and then had to put away because there simply wasn't room for her in the house. Flash forward to the present and I am the proud owner of several guitars, a bass guitar, a tin whistle, recorders, a keyboard and a 'cello and am coveting a fair few other instruments that are way out of my price range (Hello nyckleharpa and hurdy-gurdy)

A poor quality webcam photo I took of my bass when
I first got her. My pride hasn't faded!

However, my love for playing music dropped quite sharply with the study of music as a secondary school qualification. I guess I didn't get it. If I was going to listen to a tune then I wanted to think about what it made me feel, what the message was not how many violins were playing and where the accidental was in the fifth bar. I didn't see the point. I also wasn't that competent in comparison to my peers who had been learning since they were much younger than I and the teacher made it clear that he thought that was bad at the subject. Suddenly I was comparatively bad at something that I loved and history repeated itself. I stopped playing 'cello and keyboard publicly and actually rejected a couple of offers to join orchestras.

So, I'm guessing that right now I sound like a bit of a silly person. A bit of rejection and I allow it to affect me to such a degree. Well, yes. I agree to a degree. The thing is, I never stopped doing the things I loved I just didn't let anyone hear me doing it. I stopped taking instrumental lessons (except for 'cello which I carried on until I moved away from my teacher) but I carried on playing. I never even stopped singing.

About six months ago, and two years after my last music lesson, I felt ready to get into music properly again. I felt ready to actually learn again because I had rediscovered what music was for me. Music is beauty. Music is emotion. Theory is the stepping stones to get to the magic. You can play every note perfectly and without the feeling you not played music... you've made some sequential noises.

During my gap year I am going to play music as often as I can and I am also going to take singing lessons. I want to have the technique to back up my enjoyment. I am never going to be the best musician in the world. I am never going to have the best voice in the world. I am going to love every second.

And who knows? My art teacher told me not to take the subject to GCSE level because my technique was so bad yet I won an international UNESCO art competition. Lets see where music will lead me?