Week 24: March 9

On Tuesday I got another Embarcadero cache. Plenty of those around. There are some places one would NEVER stick one's hand if not for cache potential.

Ugh

But look, treasure!

I also found some more streetside poems at the light rail station. I am ordering them from my least favourite to most favourite.

 

Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing??

Also this week I found a winged carrot in my bag of carrots. Before anyone rolls their eyes and thinks how pathetic I am for posting pictures of a carrot on my blog, please refer to the blog's title for a disclaimer. 

Backside

Belly up

Ash Wednesday was this week as well. I had a dress rehearsal right after Mass, and everyone was asking me what the smudge on my head was. "You mean people actually DO that??" Yes, yes we do. "Does it have special powers or something?" No, no it does not. "What is it for?" It's a symbol for repentance. "Repentance for what?" And that's when I look them straight in the eye and say: I'll tell you my sins if you tell me yours. This is usually enough to make someone stop laughing at me.

On the way to the abovementioned dress rehearsal, I had an interesting experience. I offered to buy a sandwich for a homeless dude, and he asked if I would buy him some tomato soup. So we went into Walgreens and I got the soup and ran into two MALE colleagues, whom the homeless dude greeted (collectively) as "Jennifer". Then as we were leaving, he turned to the three of us students with a huge grin on his face and announced that he was the greatest warrior who ever lived. He then walked away in triumph. I may start buying soup for local bums more often.

Thursday night I stayed up until 1:30 reading a book Maddy lent me.

THIS IS A BRILLIANT BOOK

This weekend....finally, finally, FINALLY.....was the SFCM baroque ensemble's production of Serse, by G.F. Handel. My first full-length opera performance, my first baroque opera, and what better way to start? We have been working towards this since December. Much blood has been spilled, many tears shed, but we have got here at last!! The opera is three hours long (3.5 with two intermissions) and I loved every minute of it (ok, some minutes more than others).

What follows will be mostly nerdy ravings over various aspects of the opera and detailed descriptions of things that happened during the performances. If this is not your cup of tea, feel free to stop reading the post now. I won't be offended. Again, see title for disclaimer.

There were two different casts for the two performances (Saturday and Sunday). Each cast had its own chemistry. About halfway through the first act on Saturday, Kristina's E string broke, and halfway through the second act on Sunday, Maddy's E string broke. What made it funny was that both times, it happened during a recitative, so we weren't even playing. We were just sitting there holding the violins, and suddenly *SNAP* *GASP* Quickly, hand it to the ringer who has a spare and knows what he's doing. FYI trying to put on a gut string is no joke. It's not at all like restringing a modern violin. Unfortunate that it happened in both performances, but not unexpected.

For me, the turn-on moment came near the beginning of the first performance. It was when the audience unexpectedly laughed at one line, and I realized, "They like it! They really LIKE it!!" From then on I no longer felt like I had to convince the audience of the music's worth, to apologize for its length and repetitive nature. They know its worth, that's why they came. They're here to be entertained, not to pass judgement. They came to enjoy, not to criticize. They know exactly what to expect from a Handel opera, and that's what they love, and all I have to do is say, "Wait til you hear THIS one!! You're gonna love this one!"

 I had a great time watching the cast (who did a superb acting job) and reading the supertitles to figure out what was actually going on in the story. All the characters in both performances were very strong, but I have to say that I found the title character the most compelling in terms of music, acting and sheer personality, especially with the Saturday night singer. I suppose that's why he's the title character. Serse is a cruel, self-centred tyrant, the King of Persia, and he thinks he can have whatever he wants, at least until his conversion in the final scene. At times he displays insight which fosters respect and allows us to sympathize with him, which makes his arrogance even more effective.

What clinched him for me was his final "Rage Aria" when he discovers that the woman he has been pursuing for the entire opera has married her true love instead - who also happens to be Serse's brother. Oh, how furious he is! The jealous, selfish, arrogant tyrant in all his cruel glory!! "Savage furies from the hideous abyss, pour out your black poison upon me!!" "Let my wrath spew forth and cave in the world and eclipse the sun!!" Wow!! The shivers! I had shivers up and down my entire body for the full length of that aria!!

Here it is! In case you're wondering why a woman is singing - Serse is a trouser role, meaning that it was originally written for castrato. But we don't do that now so we use mezzos instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0sDqqoRtXc    (copy and paste)

Can you hear those downward flourishes in the violins? That's the black poison pouring down upon Serse!! Handel is such a master at word painting. I find myself constantly surprised throughout the opera by how literal the music is.

Anyway, I've picked up some Italian lately and can't stop myself from singing "CRUDE FURIE DEGLI'ORRIDI ABISSI!!"

Oh yeah, and then right after the baroque opera I went and played modern violin in the school concerto competition and broke my own modern E string in the middle of the second movement. The judges let me rush backstage and borrow an E from a colleague. Why didn't I have a spare? Well, that WAS my spare, which I put on less than a week ago.......

- Antisocial Violinist

Week 23: March 2

Early this week I went out and grabbed a virtual on Ferry Plaza. The air was damp, the sky low and the water restless.

Ship in the distance (can you see it?)

Getting closer

Really close

Gull 1

Gull 2

I found this funny. Reminds me of Chinglish.

We are learning about the Middle Ages in Western Civ class, so this week Dr Hohmann brought a real sword to class and dubbed Nick a knight with it. This was doubly fitting because Maddy's name for Nick is already "Nickith" and now it is "Sir Nickith". The most entertaining class all semester, even though according to another professor, we are much too young to be learning about middle ages.....Do any of you readers between the ages of 40 and 65 live in a castle??

This week my quartet also played in the chamber masterclass. There are twelve teachers at this class, members of both the string and piano faculty, and they take turns working with the groups, although none of them have any qualms about jumping right in when they have something to say. Often they will get into discussions and debates with each other, and they all have wonderful stories to tell about their experiences playing these pieces. I love the energy that comes from two or three or four passionate musicians working with you at once. Everyone seemed to like our quartet - in fact, after we played, one of the viola teachers said, "I can't believe I've never heard this piece before! It's great!" I like playing little-known pieces. It's refreshing for the audience and you can take more liberties as performers.

I was killing time in the school library the other day and found myself browsing through all sorts of interesting things. Some of them were so funny I had to come back the next day with my camera.

Unfortunate name

Some of the periodicals crack me up. The Lute Society???

Do we have a Canadian Viola Society?

There is a whole magazine devoted to this.

That's a lot of medical problems

This is the auto detailing place across the street from school. See if you can find the misspelled word. If you find it, email me for a prize. Bonus points if you find 2 misspelled words.

I was out looking for a brand-new cache in SOMA yesterday and found a little streetside poem.

Also yesterday I played in a composition student's grad recital. I was subbing for a classmate who had to drop out at the last minute. So I picked up the music yesterday morning, put in some fingerings and made mistakes in the dress rehearsal but not in the concert. The piece was called "Silence" which I found ironic. If it's music, isn't that by definition not silent? There were six movements to the piece:

The Silence of the Stars
The Silence of Defeat
The Silence of the Sick
The Silence of Age
The Silence between Father and Son
The Silence of Death

Cheerful, eh?? We were playing in the pit and there were dancers on stage, but I couldn't see what they were doing because I was too busy counting. Luckily there were not that many notes so it was okay. For some reason at the reception afterwards there were cases and cases of "Kombucha" or "hippie juice" as the others called it. It has live bacteria cultures in it and is supposed to be very good for you. I tried it but it tasted like vinegar.

This evening I went to a geo-event at Yerba Buena Gardens. I met some local cachers, a couple from Austria and the event host who was from Slovakia. Geo-events are extremely revealing as to the nature of the sport, and of the people who do it. You can show up to an event by yourself, without knowing a single person there, and spend hours chatting with the other cachers as if you've been friends for years. I picked up a few hints for puzzles I've been working on, heard some urban lore about prolific SF cachers, and was told about the "Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Challenge" which sounds like an absolutely fantastically glorious adventure.

Oh, how awesome the sky looks

The "Shaking Man" where we met

At this point I am not yet sure how many of these people are cachers

This one definitely is

So is this one

Shaking Man gone Geo

Geocachers tend to be down-to-earth, outdoor-loving, somewhat quirky, generally likable people with real appreciation for the little things in life. Being around them and talking about hikes and power trails and challenges reminds me of why I really do this. It's not just about getting on the train, finding a little container on a street corner, writing your name and going home; it's about adventure, it's about exploring wild spaces and trekking over hill and dale and getting into the Real World, the Interesting and Exciting and Amazing World.

There is something funny that I always see on the way to Yerba Buena Gardens and only now have I remembered to take a picture of it. There is a hamburger place just outside the gardens and their advertisement on the wall looks like this:

But since the word is painted over two doors, and that "G" is on the part of the wall that sticks out.....when you approach from the southwest (which is what I normally do) the advertisement looks like this:

BUT I DON'T WANNA GO TO THE BUGER JOINT!!!

Myself, I find this hysterically funny. Others may not find it so. My apologies.


Anyway, I wish I was already retired so that I could just go on awesome adventures and hikes and explorations and life-risking missions and glorious cache-finding sprees all the time.


- Antisocial Violinist

Week 22: February 23

This Friday I performed in a production of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor". Our graduate student conductor had gotten together a little orchestra and some singers to perform the second act, and this week we had a couple of rehearsals and pulled off the show. It was a lot of fun and some great music, although I find the Italian gibberish highly amusing (opera characters really like to shout at each other).

Yesterday I went out to the Embarcadero with a friend, to introduce her to geocaching. The limpid late-afternoon light was lazily lapping the Bay......and the day was clear and bright.

Fully loaded

Then today I had the greatest adventure of the month so far. I woke up at 6am, went to 7:30 mass at St Patrick's, then met Nick and Maddy at the CalTrain station and went expeditioning down to San Jose for a competition. We had an awesome time studying the maps, hiking through the city and arguing over which way to go. The CalTrain is a LOT of fun to ride as it's a real train, with two levels.

AWESOME!!!

                                                

We sat on the top. There's a guy sleeping in the lower level

Luggage racks, just like an airplane

Explorers!!

Found this in the SJ station

Dorks on a train

"Zanker Road"

Coyote Creek!!

The competition atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, and there were only eighteen of us, and this afternoon I got an email informing me that I had tied for second place, and that Nick had gotten an honourable mention. So it was a good day for SFCM and for Ian's studio and for the Three Explorers and for my bank account.

- Antisocial Violinist

Week 21: February 16

Interesting Things I Did This Week:
- found out that the reason Ian snorts when he laughs is because his father's from New Jersey
- went sightseeing in the Byzantine Empire
- fought and defeated a frost giant
- watched a colleague's junior recital (many of you know this girl, originally from Armstrong BC)
- single-handedly knocked down a whole bridge, rebuilt it, knocked it down again and re-rebuilt it
- watched four great civilizations build themselves from scratch and then make violent war against each other


Uninteresting Things I Did This Week:

- attended Western Civilization classes
- chipped a whole lot of ice out of our freezer
- accidentally knocked my violin bridge over TWICE while trying to straighten it
- managed to put the bridge back in the same place (I think)
- was introduced to the online multiplayer game "Age of Empires" by Maddy, Nick, Paul and Oscar


If you look closely, you might be able to spot a few parallels between the two lists above. You may choose which you believe - for myself, the first list is unquestionably preferable.

Friday was Valentine's Day and while striking the orchestra after rehearsal I came across this on one of the stands.

My kind of valentine

Also I would like to (finally) introduce you to my humble little parish on Fell Street, of which I have grown quite fond. The community is small, close-knit and very friendly, and many of the parishioners have been attending here for their whole lives.

Little place squeezed between buildings....easy to miss

They have to gate it to discourage vandals

Ta-daa....the teeny temple

I usually sit up here in the balcony with the choir and organ. That's my music on the stand

View from the balcony. I think that dome with the cross looks like a scoop of ice cream

The parish hall, which ALWAYS has Christmas decorations up, no matter the season. Must be because it's "Church of the Nativity"

Things I can't read

More things I can't read

Here is something funny my mother sent me. If you are not a musician, my apologies. Please email me for an explanation of the joke.

- Antisocial Violinist