My First Opera

I went to the Opera for the first time last night. I never went before because I knew I wouldn't appreciate it, but lately that has changed. I've taken music history classes before, so I wasn't that keen on taking it AGAIN because the history for music minors and the history for music majors are "different." I'm still not that thrilled about it, but my teacher is pretty awesome and honestly I have learned some stuff I didn't already know. Like how to appreciate opera.

So, it was back in the time of Shakespeare, when people went to see plays a lot. Plays could be comedies or tragedies, and were performed in verse (i.e. iambic pentameter). Songs were/are also in verse. There was this group of guys in Italy who decided to try an experiment and write a play that would be entirely sung. Not that weird, really. They tried it, and it was cool. So they did it again. And it caught on. And the costumes, the scenery, the drama, it's all supposed to be overdone. It's a show. I get it, I can appreciate it now for what it is. Even the recitative parts, I knew that that was more dialogue-ish parts but the way he taught us was that he handed us each the first three lines of the Gettysburg address and made us notate the rhythm of the speech. I so GET it now. Then I figured I should go to the Opera because I would be able to appreciate it. And I did. And I will again.

2 Lists

List of things that are good:

my husband
music by Franz Liszt
computers
internet
eBay and Amazon
my pink pen
graduating
Filipinos
summer
techno-cello
Steinways
the Physics department


Un-named list of things that did not make it onto the first list:

Drivers License Division
Zions Bank
my hair
Science Saturday
piano lessons on Wednesday

The 1st of December

So, the first of December was the second-to-last day of class. I had a 7:30 class that day. When I was headed out the door at 7:15 (yeah, I know...) my mom says, "are you sure you want to go outside?" And I'm thinking like, of course, I have to go to school... She tried to talk me into taking the nice car but I didn't. Apparently much of I-15 was closed because of semis blowing over. Once I started driving I did realize it was quite windy. Up on the highway there was stuff blowing around like branches and trash, and I saw shingles flying off buildings. On the other highway I hit a branch but it wasn't bad. Getting to the building from the car was fun, being as light as I am. The door was really hard to open.

I was late and had somehow left my notebook at home so I didn't actually go to class. I went out the 2nd exit (even harder to open) and to the next building. It was really loud there with the wind blowing around, you could hear it. The guys I needed to see there didn't show up so I went back to the other building through the 3rd door. When I walked back through to where the 2nd door is, some people told me how the wind just blew it shut and all the glass shattered and it was an amazing mess! I was too scared to go look at it. As more people began arriving at school, the stories got more intense. They saw trees blowing over, debris smashing car windows and cars, fast-food signs exploding, power lines coming down, etc, I was sure glad I got to school early even though I didn't go to class!

The glass ceiling in another building was getting stuff on top of it and breaking it somewhat and the college sent everyone text messages to not leave the buildings they were in around 9:15. My 9:30 class was supposed to take the final exam. We tried contacting the professor to convince him that that shouldn't be necessary anymore but to no avail. We went to class, and had our exam, but the north wall is 80% glass and it was loud and scary and distracting. At around 11 the university texted everyone again to say that classes were cancelled until the afternoon, and to stay inside until it was safe. Not a problem for me, I had a lot to do.

I finally left around 4 and had to go to a copy place, but the standard one(s) I would have gone to (and everywhere else on or around Harrison Boulevard was closed for damage/power problems, so I had to go to this other place and they made me do it all myself which wasn't cool but it got done since Dec. 1 was the deadline. The trees by the parking lot had fallen down and crews were already cutting them up. Stop lights had blown off their poles and gotten lost. Many places between Ogden and Layton had lost power and places further south where the wind had actually been worse. Many homes (especially ones close to the mountains) lost shingles, fences, and trees.

I just figured it was December saying "Hello." So, I said "Hello" back, with the quip, "We love you too!" Sarcasm! Roofs are still shingle-less in places and many fences are still down. But we are all okay and that shouldn't happen for another 50 years or so. There's your story :-) Sorry I take so long sometimes!

Sorry

I have to rant again. I hate it when I send emails and texts to so many people and then they don't reply. People on the cool list right now:
Chelsea
Heather
Dr. C.
Sylves
parentals
Charla
That means all the rest of the people I have emailed and texted in the last 2 days either hate me or don't care about what I do. And that hurts. It really hurts. I know I shouldn't let it get to my self esteem but when it is such a common occurrence (trust me, it is) it makes me wonder, you know? I sometimes try to blame it on my phone... but that only helps so much, when I still get contact from other people using the same device.

Now let me try to balance out my attitude.... I can be happy because:
I don't have to get up early anymore
I'm going to CA next week
I have internet!!
I have a cute haircut
I got asked to do something on the organ for Sunday
I get to play with post-it notes now... no, really, that's what I'm going to do right now, and get at least one paper over with!

Hello December, we love you too

Fun story coming soon...

Small rant

Have I mentioned before how much I dislike flakey people? Yup, I still do. An example: person receives an assignment for a group project. Person leads me on to believe she will do said assignment on time. Deadline for said assignment getting super close, still not done. Me and some others are working on a different assignment for said project, up until 11:45 doing so. Other member of group asks if the other assignment was done yet. I say I don't think so. Other member offers to do it. Other member stays up even later doing it. Next day we find out, first member decided to go to bed when she got home from work.

Related example: Group member volunteers to do a certain assignment (for the same group project), a month and a half before it's due. Never hear from him about it again. Week before due-date: assignment reassigned to the same person. 2 days before due date: group meeting held, said member did not attend. Other member volunteers to do it. Later that night, first member says he did it and will email it. Next day: email received from second member, none from first member.

I think the moral of those stories is to do your group assignments when you have them. Or at least tell someone in your group what's really going on. if you think I'm talking about you, I still like you as a person but it really hurt that you didn't follow through. I am grateful that there are some really awesome people that stepped up to help get our project done. To those people, I am so glad to know you. Thank you for being extra responsible.

Ode To Distraction

So, here I am, yet again, unable to work on my papers but perfectly capable of using the internet. Blah. I want to do it this time, I do, but I'm just a bit distracted by the events of a few nights ago and ensuing dialogues. It's all I can think about. It's all anyone can talk about. And it's distracting. Let me elaborate.

First, imagine Ode to Joy. Now imagine a loud moaning/crying sound interjecting every 5 seconds. Annoying, right? Right. So now I'll tell you what happened. Last Sunday was an orchestra concert at WSU. We played Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (I got to play the triangle!). It's a pretty big deal in case you don't know--only thing on the program cuz it lasts over an hour. 75 person orchestra, 100 person chorus, 4 soloists, and the audience was full (1200 people) and of course it was to be recorded. Here's the scene as I experienced it from the back of the stage: the conductor was about to begin the final movement (literally he was already swinging the baton) and there comes a cry from the audience. He stops, puts down the baton, a little angrily, and turns around and says "Bye," obviously indicating that the offending child be removed. No one leaves. He waits for a while, turns back around, waits for a while, mutters stuff that only the 1st chair players can hear, and after realizing that they aren't going to leave he begins the movement really.

After a few minutes the cry was heard again. All of us on stage heard it, were annoyed, but kept going. Then it came again. Annoyed, yes. And again. A few times. These were about 5-10 seconds apart. Once the music settled into the Ode To Joy theme for the first time--it's a lovely delicate place--the cry was heard again and the conductor cut off the music, slammed down his baton again, and turned around to the audience. He said something about children not being allowed and that he was sorry but they shouldn't have been admitted. No one moved again but I was told later that another professor out in the audience approached the source of the noise. Someone yelled "they're handicapped" and then the audience was all disturbed. They either finally left or were escorted out but some other people talked back and left too. Conductor says we will begin the 4th movement again and we do, but the players are a bit flustered and mess up a difficult part so we start it one more time. Then we get to finish up the whole thing, I get to play my triangle part, and it was amazing and fun. I had put the incident out of my mind, it was more important that I had just been a part of the real and entire Ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven!

So that was the events. It's all anyone can talk about at school. I wrote the conductor a thank you email for letting me be a part of Beethoven's 9th. Now, I just found out today that a news article about it had been posted on a reputable news website. I read it and was utterly shocked to see it was a one-sided piece about how one person was offended that they would throw out a mentally handicapped person. Then the more-than-100 comments on the story. Most were completely uninformed. I've gotten more facts bit by bit from multiple first-hand sources, and the people associated with the disruptive audience member had been told to leave multiple times before the conductor did it himself.

So why did the conductor "cause a scene?" It is not his arrogance, nor insensitivity to the handicapped, nor pride, nor attentiveness to etiquette, nor anything else related to him. It is clearly the guardian of the handicapped individual. If you have been asked to leave for being disruptive, and you don't, it is extremely rude. You don't get a pass just because of a handicap. You are not exempt from concert etiquette, and to that guardian, what kind of example does that set to other children when you don't do as directed, and then talk back? That disgusts me. I don't hate handicapped people, but a handicap is not a free pass to be disruptive at a concert, ESPECIALLY after someone has asked you to leave.

I don't think I conveyed why I am so distracted. It's partly my disgust at the news for reporting in such a way as to make people think less of my school which is the best in the world at some things. Partly my disgust with society for arguing about whether or not it is appropriate to ask someone to leave a classical concert when they are being disruptive because of a handicap. Partly my worry about how far people will go to get back at the conductor because they disagree with him about having a quiet audience while recording Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Some of the other students started organizing other ways to show our appreciation to the conductor which I heartily joined. But there's not much else I can do, so why can't I freakin' concentrate and write my papers?