In the last few days, I have been stricken with a bit of a plague. Is it the worst cold I've ever had? No. This time, however, I'm referring to my illness as piaga di morte so it can be an Italian musican term. IT BEING IN ITALIAN MAKES IT A MUSICAL TERM. So I was up late at night fevering and snotting and the like until I took DayQuil. Yes. I took DayQuil at 3am. Because I don't like NyQuil or anything that puts me to sleep. I feel weird about it. So I snotted everywhere (which was real attractive - guys were banging down my door ("SHOW US YOUR SNOT!!!)) and then watched "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" for the 87 billioth time and slept for not enough hours before my voice lesson. Tim wanted me to do some singing on "ng," I suspect partially because he thought it would be funny to hear me gurgle through my clogged nasal passages. It was funny and not totally gross, because I only made funny nose noises and did not in fact snot everywhere, as attractive as the boys at my door the previous night ("SPEW WHAT YOUR MOMMA GAVE YA") seemed to think it was. Made it through the voice lesson fine, and I like Tim a lot. Bought a lot of music today at his instruction.
Today, went to a "Special Topics in Voice" class which was helpful, although there were many things said I'd heard before. I'm not saying I have perfect technique, or pronunciation, or anything, I'm saying that the presentation (intentionally, I think) didn't have advanced material in it. I think on some level that was the point - that he wanted us not to forget the basics of pronunciation and keeping our speech and singing connected and "on the breath" - that the basics make the most difference. That's all well and good but...Lauralyn spent seven years hammering in "the basics," and I want to hear something new! I feel that way about a lot of my classes here (although, thank God, Tim's lessons are a fresh perspective)- I have to keep reminding myself that there are always new things to learn, and I'm getting another shot at material that might not have been properly learned the first time around. Music History and Research 501, for instance - this is my chance to do Lydia's material the right way, the way I wasn't prepared or grown-up enough to do the first time. And I will learn a lot from the "Research" half of the course. And it's not as if I'm learning nothing new in my performance classes either. In the class this morning, I learned that double consonants in Italian are really one consonant ending a preceding syllable and the other starting the proceeding one. That may have already been learned and forgotten, but I found the perspective interesting, and helpful. It's just...frustrating, because new (or new to me) lessons like that are hidden behind things like "Don't diphthong your vowels" over and over again. I know about the goddamn diphthongs! It would feel better if I felt like they weren't treating the repetitions as new material. The faculty says "These are graduate courses, things are different now, etc." but the fact is, none of these classes are nearly as difficult as classes at Hamilton, academically speaking. And the sad part is, a lot of my classmates haven't done these things before. They've given recitals, and not written program notes. They've studied voice and diction, but they don't have language study. They've had music history, but only broad study without concentration on Early or 20th century Music. I don't want to continually be thinking "Done it. Done it. Done it," but it's hard to stay in the moment when you've...well, when you've already done it. *sigh* I think it will just take some time to shift my perspective to see performing as my work, and that just because the courses aren't academically challenging that doesn't mean I'm not getting a lot out of my time here. It feels too easy, because I only do what I like to do, as opposed to fulfilling difficult academic requirements that take up practice time. It's different, and I like it. I like it. I really do. I will like it.
Today I had fun (despite the plague) because a lot of my time was taken up with buying all the things. Hooray for consumerism in a country plagued by poverty! Here are the things I bought:
1. A Barnes and Noble membership! FINALLY! Vin, this means that you can now buy coffee with my discount.
2. The Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver
3. A sweet little set of Creative speakers for the compy so I can hear my super-quiet Netflix operas.
4. Groceries: soy milk, Muenster cheese, turkey, Hefty one-zip bags, toilet paper, a thermometer (no I won't be eating the last three SHUT UP)
5. Lots of music for voice lessons: 40 Strauss songs, Donaudy (all the possible), 15 Bellini songs, Puccini's "Vocali da Camera," a volume of Respighi art songs
6. Soon to be purchased: a bunch of books on singing technique as recommended by Tim: Singing Technique by Joseph Klein, How to Sing by Lilli Lehman, On Studying Singing by Sergius Kagen, and The Art of the Song Recital by some Emmons guy.
7. Gas (for the car SHUT UP)
In other news, I have discovered that I spend much of my time here talking to myself. Not conversation per se, but random commentary on life, as if there's a television audience...but there is none. Sometimes I talk to me about the condition of my skin. Or...make fun of me. It is confusing to describe talking to yourself because you are talking to you, and you does not talk back unless you consciously talk back so you are not crazy, despite the fact that you are answering you. CAPISCE???
Being that I've been piaga di morte-y, I haven't had the voice or the concentration for practice or the energy for going out (unfortunately) so I spent the evening with tea and the television. And, I must say, that three episodes of "Law & Order: SVU" and an episode of "Rock of Love" were just what the doctor ordered. It's almost as good as "I Love New York," which is coming up for another season soon! God, I forgot how much I loved VH1. Also, omigod Christopher Meloni. Major hearts for that man.
There was a link on top of my Buddy List that I decided to click today. The click path went this way:
Buddy Psychic!
Female aged 9 to 26?
Ask me!
*mouse rollover*
[ ] Will I ever be happy?
[ ] Will I find true love?
[ ] Will I have a long life?
*[x] Will I find true love?*
Outlook good!
You can also protect yourself against cervical cancer and genital warts!
Click here for more info!
*WTF*
To conclude, Dinosaur Comics today was about the way Heatherspeak works (I'm using Heatherspeak as the umbrella term for the result of the fusion of the speech patterns of many friends in my personal, convoluted dialect). Please click the image below for clarification.
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