Archive for November, 2008

“Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd”

Published by
jessi
at November 14, 2008 in Arts and Entertainment. 1 Comment

It’s been a week of the arts for me it seems. At the beginning of the term, there was an announcement made at the morning briefing that one of our colleagues was going to be in an amateur production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleetstreet. I didn’t know Allison very well (I still don’t) but I thought I would go ahead and sign up to attend.

I made arrangements with Sally to meet me at the station so she could show me how to get to the theatre. I was grateful for the offer ‘cuz I’d have been very lost otherwise.

The venue was in a community center hall called Stanley Hall in South Norwood. From the exterior it looked like a swank old-fashioned house. I’m sure there’s some kind of technical name for it, like Victorian or something, but I’m hardly an architect. I just know it looked cool.

They had chairs set up in rows. It wasn’t too bad except that the seats were awfully close together. It was a bit hard to sit comfortably. I was fortunate enough to have a seat next to me that was empty, which afforded us a bit more room. I was sat by a few of our other colleagues. I was glad to have Miss Barber by me ‘cuz I know her a bit better than the other faculty (she’s one of the teaching assistants who comes in to some of my classes).

I think one of the funniest things was the fact that there was a bar and people were bringing in pints of beer. I guess I’m just used to the Prairie Center where food and drink are not allowed into the house.

Now I’ve never seen Sweeney Todd before and I can’t say it’s one of the shows I’ve always wanted to see. I’m not a Sondheim expert, but the two shows I do know of his ( Into the Woods and Assassins), I know that he doesn’t really tell jolly tales.

Still, I enjoyed it. It was pretty damn good for community theatre. I liked some of the lighting choices they made during some of the numbers; and I have to admit the guy who played Anthony kinda bugged me. He didn’t suck, but something about him bothered me. Weird, I know.

Much like the orchestra concert made me miss music, seeing the show made me miss theatre.

I wish I could say the experience was absolutely fantastic, but the people behind us were really pissing me off! They just kept talking! It was so bloody annoying…and I didn’t feel comfortable enough to turn around and tell ‘em to shut the hell up. But I did turn and look at ‘em a couple times.

Sally had said something similar during intermission. I was feelin’ kinda stupid again ‘cuz I didn’t have a lot of people to talk to, and I didn’t want Sally to feel like she had to come and talk to me. I mean, I had my book with me, so I woulda been more than happy to have just read that. But I appreciated her making the effort.

After the show, she offered to walk me back to the station, but I was doubly lucky ‘cuz Miss Barber offered me a ride home since she lives close to the school as well. Miss Barber said if she had known I was coming to the show she would have picked me up as well. I made it home before midnight so that was a definite bonus.

I’m glad my experience with Sweeney Todd went well. It was definitely better than On the Town and I’d actually pay to see it again. In fact, I think I’ll rent the DVD when I go home for Christmas.

The Misadventures: London Symphony Orchestra

Published by
jessi
at November 13, 2008 in Arts and Entertainment. 0 Comments

I finally got to see (and hear) Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”! AND it was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra (under the baton of Marin Alsop) no less.

I’d debated about going to see the symphony for a while. I know it seems like a no brainer, but it was going to be on a school night and I’m reluctant to do much of anything on a school night. But when I mentioned to a few of my colleagues that I couldn’t decide what to do, they all told me I was crazy and I should just do it.

So I totally did. And it was totally worth it!

The program for the evening included Bartók’s The Wooden Prince — Concert Suite for large orchestra and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 2 in A major, S125 performed by soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. I cannot say that the first two pieces were particularly memorable for me, but that was probably because I’d never played either of them before.

I’d forgotten how entertaining it is to watch orchestra conductors. As a wind player who mostly played in concert bands, I’m more used to a distinct conducting style, whereas there are times when I can never quite figure out what the orchestra conductor is actually doing since I can’t always discern the ictus. I think orchestra conductors, especially ones at the professional level, have more of an opportunity to be expressive in their conducting.

As for the Dvorak itself, well, it was everything I could ever hope it to be. I’m so accustomed to listening to my recording of it that I’d forgotten that there could be other interpretations of it. There was some whimsical phrasing from the string section in the Adagio – Allegro molto that I was incredibly amused by, and some of the tempos during the Allegro con fuoco (my favorite movement) that made me think they’d lose control or something.

It was all so freaking cool.

I managed to get home round 11:00 or so. I ran into Michael at the bus stop and told him all about my misadventure. He thought it was a good thing that I managed to get the hell away from school stuff for a night. I was pretty damn happy about it too, and it made me realize how much I miss that part of my life. I’ll definitely have to remedy that.

I have no face!

Published by
jessi
at November 08, 2008 in On Fighting. 2 Comments

I went to The Boar’s Tooth again last night. I was running late and considered not going at all, but then decided that if anything I’d get to watch the fun and games.

Luckily for me, The Dave still let me play. Barry was there again, but A Dave and Emily weren’t. In their place were two other fellows. Barry was working with one of the others with rapier and I got to continue with longsword.

There was more drilling involved with the sword energies, but then The Dave said we would do some light sparring. My second lesson in and we were going to spar. To both of my opponents, I told ‘em not to kill me too badly.

It was so much fun! I have no face! As I mentioned last week, a lot of the killing blows are to the face and head. I got one or two good body shots in, but for the most part I have no face! :-D

I won’t be able to go next week but I’m going to try really hard to go the week after. If I’m lucky, there will be more sparring AND I won’t be late!! :-)

I wish I was going to be home in January

Published by
jessi
at November 05, 2008 in Arts and Entertainment. 0 Comments

Not only because I want to watch the inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama, but also ‘cuz of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. They just put up a new trailer…I am so psyched!! I know, I know, I shouldn’t get my hopes up…but come on! It’s Joss Whedon!! AND Eliza Dushku! Can it get any better than that?

:-D

Remember, remember the fifth of November indeed

Published by
jessi
at November 05, 2008 in Random Reading. 0 Comments

It’s not often that I wish I was home for a major American event, but I really wish I could have been home for Election Day this year. I didn’t hear the official news until this morning, hence why I will remember the Fifth of November.

Within the first twenty minutes of being at school, three colleagues asked me if I was proud to be an American. I can’t say that I am ‘cuz I wasn’t able to vote and hence had nothing to do with this historical event, but I’m happy that the country has made such a progressive decision. I can’t write about it as eloquently as most everyone else in our gang, but I wanted to throw this out there as well. I’m not going to pretend that I’m as excited as the rest of the world because now I want to see what will happen to the country. How will it change and frankly, will it?

But in general, I’m pretty interested in seeing what will happen next.

Election Day not just for Americans anymore

Published by
jessi
at November 04, 2008 in The Misadventures: Lost in (Greater) London. 2 Comments

This is my first time living abroad during Election Day and I have to say the Brits, or maybe just my colleagues, are really psyched about the elections. It was even a partial focus of our Year 7 assembly today. Students and colleagues alike have asked me if I was excited about today and I’m not gonna lie, at first I had no idea what they were talking about. I honestly thought they were asking me if I was excited about our first day back from half term holiday. I really think everyone else is more enthusiastic than I am! It kind of makes me wonder if I’m really an American (despite the blog title).

Can you believe the fate of the world hangs in the balance because of these elections? I never thought of it that way, but that’s the way one of my colleagues put it to me. He was like, “Whatever happens tomorrow affects everyone, not just your country.”

It appears I’m not going to be the only one at school tomorrow anxiously awaiting the results.

It’s true. I used to be in a sorority.

Published by
jessi
at November 01, 2008 in Random Reading. 0 Comments

But not quite to the same degree that Al was in a sorority. My sorority was The Band Sorority. And our letters were “TBS” but it actually stood for Tau Beta Sigma.

My first two year of the sorority were uneventful. By the end of my sophomore year, I strongly considered dropping out. It wasn’t until I started to really befriend some of the other more active members that I really started to get into it. And I’m really glad that I did. Heck, they even let me be on the Exec Board for like two years.

I was recently facebooked (is it a verb yet? I think it is…) by one of the current members inviting me to join the alumni group. I bet if I knew how to work facebook back in the day when I was Alumni Chair I wouldn’t have been such crap at it. It actually kinda bugs me that I didn’t keep in touch with my brothers and sisters as much as I should have. I’m in vague contact with one or two of them, but even that is sketchy at best. I hope by joining the group I’ll be able to keep in better touch with that part of my life. It was only three years ago that I was an active, but it feels like so much longer ‘cuz I lost touch with it. It’s weird how time does that.

I have found my people

Published by
jessi
at November 01, 2008 in In Good Company and On Fighting. 3 Comments

Much like I’d resolved to be touristy this week, I’d also resolved to go to The Boars Tooth for a session on longsword technique.

I hate that this part of my life has had to be put on hold.

I got in touch with the instructor for The Boars Tooth and I felt lucky to be able to start right away. It seems to be the jump-in-whenever sort of class which is absolutely five-by-five with me.

The sessions that I signed up for are located near Southwark Tube Station. I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to find the building, so I ended up going nearly an hour early. Lucky for me, the Columbo Community Centre had a waiting area in the gym and I had Ender’s Game with me.

At about 7:50 or so, someone else came and sat at the table. I put my book down for a moment to ask the girl if she was here for the sword class too. I was happy to discover that she was. We ended up chatting for a bit. (I later discovered her name was Emily.)

I can’t remember how it all came about, but eventually, our inner geeks bonded. Not only did she have the same kind of interest in swords as I do, but she also understood fic-speak.

But the best part of all? Emily’s a Browncoat.

The class started a bit late, but that was okay ‘cuz I had a Browncoat to talk to. There were two other guys in the group as well, Dave and…I forgot the other guy’s name…but I think it started with a “B” so I’m just gonna call him “Barry” for now. When Dave introduced himself to me, he made it a point to say that he was just “a” Dave, not “the” Dave, as in our instructor Dave. Apparently they have a Dave club.

The Dave was setting up and Barry took us through warm-ups. I was happy that running was not involved, as it had been with my fencing classes.

The part that threw me off completely was The Dave’s method of teaching. It was a just throw you in and hope for the best. Personally, I prefer structure, but I was all right with this method. I don’t think I did anything correctly, like at all, but The Dave didn’t kick me out of his class so that’s gotta count for something right?

I’ve never used a nylon waster before; I only have vague memories of the wooden waster Jonathan bought but the nylon one seemed heavier. Then again, whenever we would spar with Fight Club all we had was shinai.

The first position we learned was vom Tag, which is just one of the many en guard positions. This version of vom Tag had the blade resting on the shoulder. Next, we had Zornhauw, which means something like “wrath cut”. It’s essentially a diagonal cut from vom Tag. From there, we made a thrust to the “face” of our imaginary opponents.

This was the first drill we practiced. I wish I could say I did well at it, but I was quite clumsy. The blade is heavier than what I’m used to and my footwork always defaults to fencing.

One of the next things The Dave talked about was blade energy (I think it was “blade energy” ). There were five energies, but we only practiced the first three: dead, alive, and lively. This was new territory for me so I had trouble wrapping my brain around the concept. (I still do.) In fact, I can’t really get into it much more ‘cuz I’m not sure I’d be explaining it correctly.

I really liked what we were doing, though. It’s much deadlier than anything else I’ve ever practiced. I mean, pretty much every thing we did ended in a kill shot to the face/head. (We had masks.) We didn’t spar, but that was probably for the better.

There were bits and pieces throughout the lesson that led me to believe The Dave is pretty damn good at what he does. The fellows were chatting about the inner workings of Western Martial Arts world (the class was Emily’s third session and my first) and I guess there was some kind of tournament and The Dave’s student won.

It wasn’t long before the class ended. They all joked that I’d probably never come back, but I told them honestly that provided I can make it to the class even when school is in session I would be back.

We were all pretty much milling about outside the community center when our geeks unleashed. A Dave said something and I replied with “Shiny”. He laughed and said I’d been watching too much Firefly. That made me happy ‘cuz it meant he was a Browncoat, too. We all geeked out for a spell, but then we had to be on our way.

Emily and I walked back to the Tube station together. I told her how happy I was to have found my people. It’s not like the people at the school suck, it’s just none of them really savvy geek. The people I met at the Boars Tooth are more my kind of people.

It only took me about two months, but I finally found the geeks.