Going Junebuggy

Sheesh...I never thought it would come to this, but...

....I haven't had time to blog lately!!

Yes, shocking, but true. But understandable and even logical, given the work I've been doing for our quintet's huge Symphony on the Square feature concert debut this Thursday at noon at Cathedral Square. I'm really psyched about it. I did arrangements of Star Wars, Joplin's Elite Syncopations, the Stars & Stripes, Harry Potter, and am currently working on a Phantom of the Opera medley. It's a lot of work but it's fun. And for those of you who know Finale 2004, I learned how to fully use Speedy Entry mode, which combined with the MIDI keyboard, makes the previously lugubrious entering of complicated rhythms fly like lightning! I blew through the Joplin in one day, and the Stars & Stripes in one day as well! (My arrangement of Star Wars was B.S.E. - Before Speedy Entry, har har - and took me over a week...but that was also because I wanted all the juicy ostinatos and underlying rhythms that John Williams uses in the original Main Title for the movie.)

So tons of things have been happening lately. The MSO's season is almost over. We played our last subscription concert a few weeks ago which featured the Saint Saen's Organ Symphony, the music used as the Soundtrack for the movie "Babe". (David relayed to me that he heard that the translation for this movie title in China was "The Pig That Talks and Solves Agricultural Problems." I thought that was hysterical.) All of the horn solos in that piece are 3rd horn so it was a lot of fun (and work) for me. It went extremely well for all 4 concerts, and that pleased me.

Before that, the Florentine Opera did a production of Aida that was incredible. For those of you who know opera, Aida is all one big huge spectacle. I had done Aida years ago with the Cincinnati Opera - memorable not only because of the great singing but because one of the horses took a huge dump on stage right in the middle of the 2nd act.

Maybe when I have time I'll do one of my "Opera for non-OperaDorks" synopses of Aida for you. It really is a compelling plot and I found myself getting very drawn into it more and more every night. I sit on the audience side of the pit, so I can see the stage quite well. The sets were just gorgeous, and were gargantuan - I have no idea how they got those things on stage, much less on a truck to get them here. Aida, sung by Angela Brown, was probably one of the best, if not the best, sopranos I've ever heard. She had a gorgeous, incredibly resonant and powerful voice but she never sounded like she was forcing or belting like so many singers do.

But my favorite part of this production of Aida was, by far, the dancing. In the first dress rehearsal during the Triumphal March section in the 2nd act, where traditionally all the animals are paraded across the stage, something caught my eye. I thought I had seen a naked man's buttcheek fly by. I thought to myself, "no way!" and took another look. Incredulously, there were these gorgeous male dancers in gold Roman/Egyptian style coiled-rope loincloth-esque thongs, with gold body paint smeared all over their gluteal glory and dancing in a very aboriginal style with spears. Yum! For a while I was very disappointed after the 2nd act because I knew the manbutts weren't coming back in the 3rd or 4th acts.

Meanwhile here we are in the brass section, playing all kinds of juicy fanfares. It was loads of fun. And I had to laugh - the women were completely covered in body veils. Definitely indicative of the Egyptian culture, of course, but also of the fact that two gay men were producing/directing this production. ;) I have to say, it was a nice role reversal from the usual exploitation of women's bodies and sexuality! Ha ha!

The other fun news - David and I planted a large vegetable garden in the strip of land to the north of our garage - we have a fence there and lots of land we don't use, so we figured it would be a good place for it.

So the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, David went to Home Depot and rented a sod cutter and hauled it to and from our place in my CR-V. (I would have helped him do all this except I was in rehearsal at work.) For those of you who have never seen a sodcutter, it is a behemoth of a machine, weighing at least 200 pounds. David cut a plot of about 10' x 13'. We planted 5 different varieties of tomatoes (Sweet 100's, Better Boys, romas, grape, and cherry), jalapeno peppers, red peppers, pole beans, parsley, and basil. I am most excited about the tomatoes. I remember our neighbor Nancy bringing over Sweet 100's last summer when we first moved in in August. She had a bumper crop from two plants that had apparently gone wild. I used to eat them like candy. They were so sweet, popped in your mouth and you could still taste the sun in them. I am sure I will turn into a tomato by September!!

Anyway, there's much more to write about, so I'll go to another post for it. Ciao!!

XO Love,
Darcy