The Aviary

My concert is tonight, so I thought I'd post a poem that we're singing. You can click the link to hear it. (I think it kinda works better sung, myself.)


Choose Something Like a Star, by Robert Frost

O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud -
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.

Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says "I burn."
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.

It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keat's Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.



( cut for religion )


(Bonus poem/choral video - The Sounding Sea, composed by Eric Barnum, which is a setting of the poem by George William Curtis. This is my favorite thing we're sining this session.)

Today was a day of pretty good, framed by blargh.

( Cut for angst )

Choir rehearsal was excellent. I always enjoy the first rehearsal after a break - everything is new and exciting and we all have so much energy. The music is pretty good this time, too - several spirituals and folk songs, which I always enjoy doing. We are also doing two pieces from West Side Story, though, which I'm a little less sanguine about. I'll admit that I don't really like singing show tunes as chorale numbers, but I can live with them, I guess. And the arrangement of Somewhere is really very nice. But we're doing America, too and, well. I don't know. I feel awkward about it. Outside of the context of the play, it feels a little offensive. Especially since the Bainbridge Chorale is, with the exception of I think three people, very incredibly white. And, okay, it's not like the song isn't often sung by white people when the play is being performed and I don't really know how that's better. And I don't know why this makes me feel uncomfortable, but I feel pretty much perfectly fine about singing spirituals or gospel numbers. And I certainly don't want to stick entirely to Music By And About White People, because that's horrible. I don't know. It's an odd thing.

Anyway. Also, I took my knitting along with me. There is a definite difference between crocheting in public and knitting in public. When I crochet in public, people ask me if I'm knitting. Then the find out it's crochet and tell me that it looks cool or that they always thought crocheting was hard or that they've never seen anyone crochet anything like that before. When I knit in public, people ask me what I'm knitting and then, when I tell them, they give me advice. Which is not a problem in any way, but I don't expect it. I suppose it's due to the fact that there are a great many more knitters out there. I feel a bit like I'm letting the side down or something by learning to knit, honestly. Which is ridiculous, but there you go.

Choir was awesome tonight. I'm really enjoying the jazz repertoire - it's just so much fun, all the time. I spend the whole rehearsal dancing and come home totally energized. Which is why I am typing this and not in bed yet. 8) We only have something like 4 more rehearsals counting dress. I'm going to be so sad when it's over.

Also, I was awesome at choir tonight. Because I am awesome generally. But it is still more fun when other people acknowledge one's awesome and I had several very nice compliments on my voice tonight, as well as the director telling me that she was very impressed by the fact that I have most of the music memorized. (Hey, she said she wanted most of it memorized. So I did it.)

I did not get the solo I tried out for a few weeks ago even though I am a better singer than the woman who did [/bitchy] but that is all right. Because this is still going to be a frelling great concert and I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

In conclusion - choir is fantastic, also go me!

And now, bed.

Things of lately:

- Went roaming around with Mom today. We went to Port Townsend and Glass Beach (to find beach glass, natch) and poked around in little shops and generally had a lovely time. Hurrah!

- Yesterday was the Celluloid Bainbridge film festival, which shows films made by local filmmakers. I caught the tail end because they were showing Zombies of Mass Destruction, which was shot in Port Gamble. Apparently, this is the first horror movie ever shown at this festival. About half the audience for that film was there because it was a zombie movie and the other half was there because they wanted to see local films and were willing to sit through all of them, so it made for an interesting culture clash. I'm pretty sure the woman sitting behind me had never seen a zombie movie in her life. She seemed to enjoy it, though. And nobody walked out, even during the icky parts, so good for them.

- As for the film itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not terribly scary, but it has an enjoyable level of gore and gutmunching and I found it to be pretty funny. And, ( spoilers )! Hurrah! It did recast Port Gamble as an island, which I'll admit I found somewhat confusing to begin with. It makes sense for the plot, of course, but I spent about 20 minutes going "What ferry are they getting off? There isn't a ferry to Port Gamble - you just drive there." This, of course, would not matter to people who don't live in Kitsap. All in all, a fun little film. I'd watch it again and I think I'd recommend it, if you like zombies and don't mind lower-budget movies.

- Somewhat relatedly (kinda): So, hey. I wrote a thing. It has no actual zombies, but off-screen zombieness is implied. Yeah.

- Tonight, we begin rehearsal for our summer session with choir. Which will be jazz music. I am excited about this because jazz is fun and a little nervous at the same time because, y'know, we are a choir that normally does not sing jazz and it requires different things. Still, it should be enjoyable.


Apparently, these lists are all I'm posting now. Maybe someday I will get back to more regular posting.

Things thus far today:

- Today, I am confronted by a rash of people who don't know the passwords that came with their library cards. Now, we tell you when you sign up for a card that you need a four-digit PIN and that, with that PIN and the barcode number on your card, you can log in to any of our computers or to your library account on our website from home.

I have seriously had five people already today ask me, not what their PIN is, which would be understandable. No, they have asked me how to set up a thing that they set up and had explained to them when they got their cards. And we haven't even been open half an hour.


- Also, there was a patron who was trying to get to her webmail account by typing her email address into the google search box. "It works at home," she tells me. No, ma'am. No, it does not.


- Chorale concert tonight. Call is at 6:30, which gives me an hour and a half to get home from Kingston, change, brush my teeth and hair, and drive to Bainbridge. Possibly I should eat something in there as well. Possibly in my car.

I think the concert's going to go well, though. We finally got the Sanctus movement of the Missa Kenya correct for the first time ever last night, so that's hopeful. I am crossing my fingers that we can do it again tonight. (If we miss it on Sunday, it will suck but not so much. My family's coming tonight and we're recording as well. I'd like us to get things right for posterity.)


- Why do people come in to the library and say things like, "You're missing a beautiful day outside"? Do they think that is helpful in some way? Are they just horrible spiteful people? Possibly, they think we are going to close the library on account of beautiful weather somehow. Alas, it doesn't work that way.


- Oh, I almost forgot! So, I drifted away from Doctor Who in the middle of season 4 and didn't come back for the specials. But now everyone is talking about the new Doctor and their squee is terribly infectious and I am excited about Doctor Who again, you guys! So I will be downloading episodes when I get home tonight. Hurrah!

Things:

- Choir tonight. Our concert is in (checks calendar) four weeks and I feel less than ready. I'm sure that things will work out but I'm not used to feeling this ill-prepared this close to performance time. It's stressful.

- I know that I've had TED Klein's Dark Gods sitting in my to-be-read pile for a couple months now, but I was in the mood for horror tonight so I finally picked it up tonight and started it. I only managed to get a few pages into the first story on break at rehearsal tonight but those few pages were enough to remind me that yeah, I really like TED Klein. I feel...hmm. I feel oddly at home in his writing, as though my mind is comfortable there. Not entirely comfortable - it's a horror story, after all - but a little like a place, a room, that you've been in so many times that you can walk around the furniture in the dark. I don't know what's going to happen in this story and I'm glad because horror should be a surprise the first time. But I can sink into Mr Klein's stories like a comfortable chair. It's lovely.

(The little author blurb in the back of the book is kinda hilarious. "He is currently at work on a new novel". Ahahaha. I mean, not that I would not jump up and down in immense glee if there ever was one. But, y'know, I'm not holding my breath.)

- I have also been reading Ursula K Le Guin lately. Every time I do that, I end up thinking "Wow, I really like this. Why have I not read more of her books?" I finished The Dispossessed the other day, which I loved, and now I am reading Always Coming Home, which is really good. And has a huge glossary in the back. I love fiction with glossaries and made-up words. One of the (many) reasons that I keep rereading Dune is so that I have an excuse to say "shai-hulud". Try it - it feels really good in your mouth. It's one of my favorite made-up words; that and Y'ha-nthlei and Elbereth Gilthoniel.

What made-up words do you guys like?

Things of today (so far):

- My boots should be arriving today! My old boots had sprung a leak, so I decided to spend my Christmas (and birthday) money on a pair of Doc Marten proper big black stompy boots, which (gods willing) should last me for years. And they should be arriving today! Man, it will be such a relief to have a pair of wearable boots again. I basically have two pairs of shoes that I wear every day, dependent on season - boots in the winter and sandals in the summer. Being without either of those throws me off somewhat. I mean, I have a pair of sneakers and some dressy shoes, but those are staples. My sandals are Docs and I've had them since the summer of 2001. They've held up marvelously well, only once needing a slight repair, so I have high hopes for these boots.

- There is a new chair behind the counter today. We had one chair, which was a huge inconvenience as there is no place to store it when it's not in use. I don't ever use it by some of my coworkers really like it, so I manage to tolerate it but dear gods, we did not need another one.

- I am eternally amused by the fact that one of the major reasons we got these new desks was to give the staff more mobility and options in getting out from behind the counter and then we immediately proceeded to block those new exits with a returns bin on one side and these damned chairs on the other.

- We have been having mild and understated drama in chorale. I imagine that it hasn't actually been mild out where people can see all of it but all I get is vague emails after the fact. Our director is leaving. We knew he was leaving at the end of this season but apparently, he has decided to leave after this last concert. Which is a little disconcerting and saddening and I feel oddly betrayed about it. But oh well. Today, I got an email telling us about our temporary director for the spring session and our program. We are doing Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes! I did those once before back in Delaware and really enjoyed them, so at least that is something to look forward to.


And that is my day so far.

Things:

- Yesterday, we had our Christmas cantata at church, of which I was (again) the director. I think that it went quite well. The choir were all wimps and made me sing the solo, but they did a great job with the rest of it. (They do keep telling me I'm a good director. This is very kind of them but, y'know, I've worked with good choir directors and I know that I am not one. What I am good at is explaining how to be a good choir member. But still, it's nice to hear.)

- I discovered, just before we were about to go onstage for the cantata that my boots - my black stompy boots that I wear all the time - have a hole in them. I am sad about that, as it is winter and wet and I have no other boots that are quite that comfortable and stompy. I will have to replace them after Christmas.

- Yesterday was also the Revels, which is in the running for my favorite family Christmas tradition. This year, they did a lot of Spanish music - incorporating some Sephardic and Turkish stuff - along with more usual British/French stuff. Also, there were holy fools and death stealing the sun and moon and stars, but the fools got them back by trickery and also by singing the most badass setting of St Patrick's Breastplate ever. I'm really hoping that I can find an mp3 of that floating around somewhere. I love the Revels because, though it's nominally Christian (being about Christmas and all), what little story there is in the show is always very welcoming to pagan viewers. It's always more a solstice story than a Christmas story. And there's Morris dancing, which is awesome.

- Dentist this morning. I have cavities - that's what happens when you don't go to the dentist for several years. They are all on the left side of my mouth, too, which is completely unsurprising as that's the side of my mouth I chew on. The molars on the right side don't meet when I bite down. I know this, because every time I have ever gone to the dentist since I got my adult teeth, someone has told me about it. Also, I know it because it is my frelling mouth.

- I made cookies today - the cherry-and-mint cookies that I tried to make last year but was defeated by. This year, I am successful and they are delicious. Go me!

Net positive, I think. 8)

Things:

- Part One of the Bainbridge Chorale Christmas Concert is tonight! Whee! (And part two is tomorrow afternoon.) I think it's going to be a good show - we're doing some fun music and we always get a good turn out for the Christmas concert. There's going to be carol singing at the end, too, which should be lots of fun. We have a brass quintet and an organ and that's going to make the carols awesome. La familia is coming tonight, and people I know from the library and church are coming tomorrow. I hope they enjoy it.


- Rehearsal last night seemed like the longest rehearsal ever. It was only our second time this session practicing in the actual performance space and with all the instruments (rather than just a piano) and it just went on and on forever. I mean, it was a good rehearsal and, honestly, I enjoy rehearsing music a little bit more than performing it (just a little), but still.

Last night was also the first rehearsal with the actual risers in place, during which we did the thing we always do once the risers are up, which is realize that we do not actually fit into the space the way that we thought we would. That is stressful but also a little bit fun, in a mean-spirited kind of way. See, the first sopranos are really loosey-goosey about where we sit. We know who's in our section, we sit in that section, everything's fine. The second sopranos, on the other hand, are apparently really particular about where they sit and who they sit next to, even though we should all know by now that the way we're arranged in rehearsal is never going to be the way we're arranged when we perform. So it's kinda fun to stand a row back and watch them desperately try to shuffle themselves the way they want to stand in a space that doesn't allow it. (I ended up right smack against the bass section this time, which is awesome. I like being right next to another voice-part than my own.)


- In non-choir-related news, I have a new podcast thing I have been listening to. It is the Cthulhu podcast and it is really pretty awesome. As the name implies, they do readings of Lovecraft stories, which is neat, but they also read weird bits of history from the 1920's and play music from that period. And occasionally they read stories by contemporaries of Lovecraft, which is pretty nifty. Yesterday, I listened to The Yellow Sign and The Beast With Five Fingers, both of which were read very well. Mostly, I'm just delighted that there are people out there who apparently really want to read The King in Yellow to me. (I should see if they've done The Repairer of Reputations...)


- I don't have to work this weekend! I'm terribly pleased about that. Tomorrow is going to be full of church and choir but today, I am free till call at 6 o'clock. Hurrah!