First and foremost: Triple birthday today! Two legendary
Hobbits and my Armenian friend E all have their birthdays on Sep 22. Many happy
returns of the day to all!
Earlier this week I went to Telegraph Hill, but unfortunately
I forgot my camera, so I cannot share the spectacular views with you. The
streets on this hill are so steep, especially Filbert, that they are actually
stepped streets and cars can’t drive on them. So it’s still public property,
but very quiet, with lots of trees and gardens. I also heard the famous parrots
squawking away, although I wasn’t able to catch a glimpse of them.
On Wednesday I put my Crock-Pot to use again so I can have
food for another week.
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| College kid's roast beef dinner. |
Also on Wednesday night I went to the SF Symphony, who were
doing Mahler 9 with MTT conducting. I have really missed going to symphony
concerts, and it felt so good to be back. I got a same-day rush ticket and
ended up sitting pretty close to the front. Interesting note: the SF symphony
strings sit in the old “Haydn-era” quartet formation, with firsts and seconds
facing each other, and celli where the seconds would normally be. Any thoughts
on this? Do you like sitting this way in orchestra/quartet? I liked it a lot when
my quartet tried it, but maybe that’s only because I (the violist) didn’t have
to sit on the outside.
At any rate, the music was sublime. If you don’t know this
piece, I strongly encourage you to have a listen.
Yesterday I went out to Bernal Hill, one of the highest
points in SF. Behold the entire city, spread out at your feet.
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| Due North (why is it so SLANTED?? >:( |
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| West towards Twin Peaks and the setting sun |
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| East (the prettiest due to sun being behind) |
Because this week’s post was pretty short on pictures, I’ll
throw this in (it’s just too funny NOT to be shared). Apparently, I picked the wrong
instrument. Oh well. I’d love to see everyone’s comments with their results.
.JPG) | ||||
| Should have been a Mandolinist. Close enough. |
Anything I'm missing that you want to know about, just write me. I love getting news from home.
- Antisocial Violinist
I wound up getting a Bassoon! I guess the instrument closest to mine is opera singer (since I guess I'm a choir singer), but I didn't get that. Happy birthday to the Hobbits and your Armenian friend! I'm glad you enjoyed the symphony so much.
ReplyDeleteThings are going pretty well at home. University is good; I had my first French and Statistics assignments and found them both easy. History of Europe is, of course, my favorite class. I got a new computer because my old one was really slow and kept freezing. I've heard that some students at Mount Royal were given threatening notes for parking near people's houses, even though it was a designated road, so I'm glad you're not over there now!
Currie Barracks look-alike...ha ha...maybe the bricks are standard army issue? Personally I like to play in the standard quartet formation: vln I, vln II, vla and vc on the outside. As an audience member, the vla is sometimes hard to hear when on the outside with the F-holes pointing in. How's the gamba this week? -Ms. V
ReplyDeleteI like that formation best as well, for the same reason, especially when I'm playing vla I don't like to be on the outside. Gamba is really fun, but sounds incredibly scratchy atm. Hard to get the angle of the bow right and draw it smoothly.
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