The shoes of the fisherman's wife are some ___ ___ ___ (fill in the blanks!)
Well... "jive"... come on, jazz fans! I thought that this icon was cute, even though I think it's a quote taken from some show or story or something for which I don't understand the reference; oh well.
Anyways. On to less esoteric things.
My parents visited last week! Except for the fact that dad got sick from being on the plane, and I got sick from catching whatever it was from him, it was all good. The sickness, though, that sucked... because I was just getting over my sickness from January when I got hit with it again. Urgh. But... I'm over it now. And it was nice to see my parents! I think my dad was glad to see where I lived, but he didn't say much as to what he thought... I don't know what that means, except that I know that every building in Boston is like, a million times older and crappier than a comparable building in Edmonton. My house, though for a rental house in the Allston area is in pretty decent shape, it's crappy. Like... it's just a crappy house. But considering it's in Boston, it's not bad. Anyways, we had a good visit, and I got to see things in and around Boston that I probably wouldn't have otherwise seen or done. We took a tour of Fenway Park, which is a pretty interesting place. I bike by there almost every day, but I haven't ever been inside it; I'm not a huge baseball fan, or rather I'm not a big enough fan to go spend like $35 on a ticket way out in right field. But, on a tour, we learned some of the history, which is a LOT considering how old the stadium is, so that was cool.
We also went to Salem, which is famed for the witch trials. It's a half-hour train ride north of Boston, and now it's just a little suburb, nothing special about it. But, man... all I can say about that is that it was some messed up sh*t that went down. Holy crap. It wasn't like it was in Europe, where the witch-hunts and stuff went on for hundreds of years, but it was really only an isolated incident in 1692 that caused it. It was really interesting stuff; go read up on it, you'll be surprised.
The weather in Boston has improved SO MUCH since last week; today there was a high of 21 degrees Celsius (~70 degrees Fahrenheit)! It was awesome! I just got a new bike, and it is lovely to ride, especially in this weather. It's going to cool down a bit on the weekend, which is too bad, but seriously... today was glorious. I was out riding on Comm Ave with just a t-shirt and my green zip-up thingy, and it was wonderful. Oh, bike riding in the sun. I love it.
This has been stirring at the back of my mind all week; in my conducting class, we're starting opera conducting, and we're doing "Mi Chiamano Mimi", from La Boheme by Puccini (and I learned that the musical Rent is a modernization of the same story; all you have to do is sub out "tuberculosis" for "AIDS", and "Paris" for "New York" and you'll have done it - so now I wonder if I should hate La Boheme on principle... but I can't because it's Puccini... I'm so torn, I tell you!!) and we were listening to it in class, following along with our scores. Valerie, our conducting teacher, is this bat-shit crazy old lady whom I love. She is hilarious, and can actually teach, instead of just yelling at us like my last teacher did. She wears capes and medieval dresses and stuff, and she knows a lot about everything, and refers to James Levine, principle conductor of the BSO, as "Jimmy". Anyways. She is awesome. Anyways, as we were listening along to this aria for the first time, I and a few other people noticed her making quite a big deal of rolling up her sleeves and feeling her arms at some certain point during the music. I didn't think much of it, exactly, because, you know, she's crazy, but after the piece was over, she explained herself. I wish I could remember exactly what she said, but it went something like this:
"Some of you may have been wondering why I felt my arms in the middle of Puccini. Well, I just had to make sure that the little tiny muscles responsible for producing goosebumps were still working. If, one day I should find myself teaching Puccini to a class of Conducting II's some years down the road and find that those little tiny muscles are indeed not working, I shall quietly finish teaching, and when I dismiss the class, I shall ask one, maybe two students to help me down the stairs and to the corner of Mass. Ave and Boylston Street, where I will ask them to hail a taxi for me. I will tell the driver to take me over the Mass. Ave bridge and into Cambridge, and to the Mount Auburn hospital, where I will check myself in, for the day that I fail to get goosebumps for Puccini is surely the day that I will die."
And with that, I leave you!
Anyways. On to less esoteric things.
My parents visited last week! Except for the fact that dad got sick from being on the plane, and I got sick from catching whatever it was from him, it was all good. The sickness, though, that sucked... because I was just getting over my sickness from January when I got hit with it again. Urgh. But... I'm over it now. And it was nice to see my parents! I think my dad was glad to see where I lived, but he didn't say much as to what he thought... I don't know what that means, except that I know that every building in Boston is like, a million times older and crappier than a comparable building in Edmonton. My house, though for a rental house in the Allston area is in pretty decent shape, it's crappy. Like... it's just a crappy house. But considering it's in Boston, it's not bad. Anyways, we had a good visit, and I got to see things in and around Boston that I probably wouldn't have otherwise seen or done. We took a tour of Fenway Park, which is a pretty interesting place. I bike by there almost every day, but I haven't ever been inside it; I'm not a huge baseball fan, or rather I'm not a big enough fan to go spend like $35 on a ticket way out in right field. But, on a tour, we learned some of the history, which is a LOT considering how old the stadium is, so that was cool.
We also went to Salem, which is famed for the witch trials. It's a half-hour train ride north of Boston, and now it's just a little suburb, nothing special about it. But, man... all I can say about that is that it was some messed up sh*t that went down. Holy crap. It wasn't like it was in Europe, where the witch-hunts and stuff went on for hundreds of years, but it was really only an isolated incident in 1692 that caused it. It was really interesting stuff; go read up on it, you'll be surprised.
The weather in Boston has improved SO MUCH since last week; today there was a high of 21 degrees Celsius (~70 degrees Fahrenheit)! It was awesome! I just got a new bike, and it is lovely to ride, especially in this weather. It's going to cool down a bit on the weekend, which is too bad, but seriously... today was glorious. I was out riding on Comm Ave with just a t-shirt and my green zip-up thingy, and it was wonderful. Oh, bike riding in the sun. I love it.
This has been stirring at the back of my mind all week; in my conducting class, we're starting opera conducting, and we're doing "Mi Chiamano Mimi", from La Boheme by Puccini (and I learned that the musical Rent is a modernization of the same story; all you have to do is sub out "tuberculosis" for "AIDS", and "Paris" for "New York" and you'll have done it - so now I wonder if I should hate La Boheme on principle... but I can't because it's Puccini... I'm so torn, I tell you!!) and we were listening to it in class, following along with our scores. Valerie, our conducting teacher, is this bat-shit crazy old lady whom I love. She is hilarious, and can actually teach, instead of just yelling at us like my last teacher did. She wears capes and medieval dresses and stuff, and she knows a lot about everything, and refers to James Levine, principle conductor of the BSO, as "Jimmy". Anyways. She is awesome. Anyways, as we were listening along to this aria for the first time, I and a few other people noticed her making quite a big deal of rolling up her sleeves and feeling her arms at some certain point during the music. I didn't think much of it, exactly, because, you know, she's crazy, but after the piece was over, she explained herself. I wish I could remember exactly what she said, but it went something like this:
"Some of you may have been wondering why I felt my arms in the middle of Puccini. Well, I just had to make sure that the little tiny muscles responsible for producing goosebumps were still working. If, one day I should find myself teaching Puccini to a class of Conducting II's some years down the road and find that those little tiny muscles are indeed not working, I shall quietly finish teaching, and when I dismiss the class, I shall ask one, maybe two students to help me down the stairs and to the corner of Mass. Ave and Boylston Street, where I will ask them to hail a taxi for me. I will tell the driver to take me over the Mass. Ave bridge and into Cambridge, and to the Mount Auburn hospital, where I will check myself in, for the day that I fail to get goosebumps for Puccini is surely the day that I will die."
And with that, I leave you!