November

The sky is drooling on us. It splutters in indecision, dribbling down rain one moment before spitting snow the next. The result is an unattractive squelchy mess I must slog through in my car. But the fact that it's trying to snow at all is encouraging. I love snow!

Thanksgiving was kind of... meh. It was just my parents and me so we went to the Davenport. The Davenport is great with its plush surroundings and otherworldlyness. It's like stepping into a different century. But it can't compete with home-cooking and a room full of relatives. Next year my Brother and Jenny will come and so will the Blegen clan, three excited and demanding children in tow. But this year it was just Mom and Dad and me, which was nice, but it wasn't Thanksgiving.
Now I am back from break and must grit my teeth as I plow through the next three weeks. It's not really that demanding. It's not. And yet the thought of juries and finals and projects all rushing up at once (not to mention my GPA being altered once again) makes me want to run away.

It was so nice being home all week, having a cat curled up in my lap and a dog at my feet and my parents pottering around the house. I can't wait for this semester to be over. Then my sister will come home and there will be Christmas choir and caroling and getting a tree and all that. And I'll be able to practice without dreading my teacher breathing down my neck the next week.

But for now I must trudge off to the music building and pray that my lesson goes well and that juries won't be too demanding and that I'll pass Ear Training and that my group will finish our project for CS-110 on time and that I'll get my article and my extra credit paper and my three papers for piano and everything else done. Whew. It's all little things. It's not that demanding. But it certainly adds up to a lot of headaches, as though I'm just finishing out the busy work that I need to complete before leaving.

I'd better go to the music building and practice now.

The Coolest Thing Ever to happen to this Blog

Look at the top of the blog. There is a little playlist thingummy. Click the play arrow. I dare you.

Have you clicked it yet? ISN'T IT THE COOLEST!?? That's not really a question. I discovered this really cool radio blog site where you can embed just about any song you search for into your page! Since I've been on a Scarlet Pimpernel kick recently I naturally went for The Riddle. Anyhow, expect me to provide regular musical samplings as I'm really extremely excited about this. I HAVE MUSIC ON MY BLOG! YAY! You can adjust the volume with that non-descript brown bar next to the question mark.

So here are the lyrics to this song, before I waltz off to the lovely lilting melody of this song.

See the moon slink down in the sky, darling

Let your fantasies fly, darling
Life is cold, and the game is old.
Just see how virtue repays you
You turn and someone betrays you
Betray him first, and the game's reversed

For we all are caught in the middle
Of one long treacherous riddle
Can I trust you?
Should you trust me to?
We shamble on through this hell
Taking on more secrets to sell
'Til there comes a day
When we sell our souls away

Through the mist your lover is beckoning
Comes that moment of reckoning
Faces change, even smiles grow strange
And we all have so many faces
The real self often erases
Enticing lies, flicker through our eyes

Feel the terror draw ever nearer
The more you stare in the mirror
But hold your own
Face the wind alone
Reel on love, toughen your scars
Year by year we're falling like stars
'Til there comes a day
When we sell our souls away

Can I run to you? Are you true to me?
I'll do unto you as you do to me!
And we slowly learn someone has to burn
Better you than me

Every Judas once loved a Jesus
But finally treason will sieze us
And only fools follow golden rules

We all are caught in the middle
Of one long, treacherous riddle
Of who trusts who
Maybe I'll trust you
But can you trust me?
Wait and see

A Special Day

Today is the first day I have ever been made money by being a musician.

YouTube is Amazing

So, I'm generally not an advocate of bootleg materials. That's probably not the best way to start off this post. Let's just say that 1. There are a number of original videos on YouTube that are very worth watching. For instance, I found a "Sherlock Holmes mystery" that was written by and filmed by a bunch of kids. If you can get over the number of deaths, it's really quite cute.

That said there are some things on there that probably shouldn't be on there. I'm kind of a stickler about illegal downloading and such. Sure, if I buy a classical CD Beethoven's not going to get a cut, but I want the stores to stock these things and I want people in the music business to be able to make a living for obvious reasons. So I generally either buy it or live with out it with a few exceptions (if it's not available in the US for instance). The only reason I have a bunch of Katrina's music on my iTunes right now is because it's easier than walking across the room to borrow her CDs. I will delete it all at the end of the year. See how legalistic I am about this?

However, I would like to thank all the people who have smuggled cameras into broadway productions. I spent a good portion of Saturday perusing videos from various productions of musicals I have mentioned before on this blog. Yep, I'm a dork. But it was amazing! I mean, the original actors are never going to perform these rolls again, I'm never going to have a chance to see it, so why not, eh?

"Do Not Be Afraid."

So, this is a random realization I've been meaning to post for some time. Last year in psychology I was taught that the most common human motivator is fear. Makes sense when you think about it. You can strip down even some of the most complex human emotions to some sort of fear.

The interesting thing is that in Great Themes of the Bible I was taught that Christ's most frequent command is "do not be afraid."

Musicals are fun

I'm obsessed with the Scarlet Pimpernel right now. I don't find the music to be absolutely stunning, but there's a couple of really good songs I enjoy. Credit Katrina with introducing me to it, along with Jekyll & Hyde. So here's some cool pictures I found online. They will have to do since I cannot see it. This first one is of Terrence Mann and Christina Andreas. I love the Chauvelin costume! Terrence Mann is an amazing talent, I love his voice (he was the Beast in the broadway Beauty and the Beast too). There are very few things about him on the web, but I think he's amazing. And he has really nifty boots. And a sash.







This is Douglas Sills in a hilariously funny song. He's also quite an interesting talent. That should be Douglas and Terrence below, but it's a different production. Spiffy shot though















And here's the original trio again. I love the smile on Terrence Mann's face. All in all, if you can pick up the album I'd recommend it. The book's definitely on my list to read.

Your wildest dreams will come true...

A few years ago, when I visited DC with my brother, we got to talking about the US (hmm, wonder why) and its origins etc. We eventually concluded that if any of the founding fathers could see it today, they'd be appalled. I don't mean this as a completely anti-American statement, but I don't mean it positively either.

What brings this on? First and foremost, a desire to get out of the "so this is what happened to me today" format my blog has been taking of late. So, here goes. It's an election year! Yay! I have the wonderful opportunity to exercise my right to vote. Great.

Don't get me wrong. I really do appreciate the freedoms we have in a democracy, er, republic like the USA. Sure, it's an imperfect system, as I'm about to rant about, but it's better than a lot of alternatives. A lot of people would die, and have died, for this kind of freedom. Government for the people. No more absolute monarchs as Strauch would say. Government serves the people, not the other way around. If only that counted for my reading response.

So what I'm trying to say is I take my responsibility as a United States citizen very seriously. A democracy can't function if its citizens don't participate. Sure, I have the freedom not to vote, but that goes against my responsibility.

With that said, what a mess! I've decided to be "open-minded" (or indecisive, or delusional, whatever you call it) and not affiliate myself with any particular party. I figure this is how it's supposed to work. Independently making decisions is a good thing, that's the point isn't it? Yet it's awfully tempting at this point to just tack a label to myself and follow the talking heads. I mean, it's ridiculous how difficult it is to get past all the screaming and finger-pointing and political mumbo-jumbo that makes me so detest necessary politics in the first place. Each side tries to demonize the other's point of view, which is ridiculous and childish and hopefully no one really falls for it. Sure, I don't agree with some things and even feel very strongly about the morality of certain issues, but I also understand that the other side feels just as strongly the opposite way.

Where it gets difficult is when you're trying to vote for the best possible option and trying to guage each side of the argument. Each side has valid points, obviously, but trying to get beyond that into actual logistics of anything is almost impossible. I thought it would take me a lot of time to catch up on all the issues and opinions flying around but I realized after half an hour or so perusing things that it's just the same rhetoric over and over again. And that doesn't really help someone trying to make an informed decision. It becomes simple point of view, which makes some sense because you still get a good majority decision that way and at least if we get messed up we're all in it together, but this point of view thing was what I was trying to avoid in the first place. I'm terribly naive. I don't deny it. It's not all bad.

Anyhow, there's a point when you just want to throw up your hands and give up. Excluding the option of become a poli-sci and economics double major I will never be able to fully understand the ins and outs of many of the policies on the ballot. "But the point is to have your voice heard." Yeah, well, I don't have much of a voice as of now being the ripe old age of 19. Do something about the cost of education. That's really the only issue I have any kind of experience with. Oh dear.