where?

sorry i haven't posted lately. been somewhat busy but also this past week was less than exciting as my seminars sort met at unusual times and locations (attended british library for a stupid useless introductio to the library and then went to pitt rivers museum in oxford and that was also a bit silly). i suppose i could elaborate. maybe i will in another post. i'm kind of tired at the moment.

yesterday i had my first andean band performance, in brighton. it was fun.

sorry for the lack of photo updates but i am waiting for my battery charger to come in the post. i forgot it at home and my mother had to mail it to me.


happy halloween.

An unclear line

"Well, I suppose you aren't pro-Israeli?"
"Sorry?"
"Are you Pro-Israel or Pro-Lebanon?"
"Oh. Uhm...I think I would have to say I'm not pro either country."
"I guess that is a good place to be."

Interesting how a conversation about being senior reporter for the London Student can take a rapid and serious turn. I attended an event sponsored by UJS (Union for Jewish Students) called "Israel: After the Conflict." It was an interesting discussion. Actually, it was an interesting atmosphere.

I was happily greeted by other students eagar to know my name, where I was studying, and what I was studying. I sat at a table next to the girl who let me into the building (for security reasons, you have to be buzzed in first). She apologised for ignoring me because she was reading for a course. I told her she shouldn't worry about it, at all. I do it all the time to other people. She then suggested that if I was bored I could read a newspaper she had with her. I asked her which newspaper it was. I think it was London Lite or something similar. I said, "Oh yeah. I wouldn't mind. I saw someone reading that on the train and I saw a bit on Irwin's daughter that I wanted to read." It was only a few paragraphs about how the little sprite would continue doing her Discovery channel show without her father.

"Actually, I have a newspaper in my backpack." I said after I finished reading the blurb. The girl said, "Oh I imagine it's probably a more serious newspaper than the Lite." I said, "I guess. It's the Guaridan." She seemed to think it was a slightly better newspaper but then she said something else that caught me a bit off.

"It's a bit liberal." I said, "I guess so." In my head I was thinking, "Good. I'm glad I picked the right paper." Then she said, "I wonder how much of what they print is really true." I thought, "What? What is she talking about?" Then I said, "Well I guess it's hard to say what is really true in any of the papers we read." She agreed.

Strange. Where did that come from? I think that about Rupert Murdoch owned papers, not papers like the Guardian! That was the start of what would become a slow realisation that my understanding of Israel within the context of English society was really off.

The talk was good. They had someone come out from the Israeli Embassy and talk about the 'government' stance. That was, of course, very strongly behind Israel's decision. He skirted the issue of cluster bombs by saying that there is no international law that makes the use illegal and therefore if there is a problem, it should be taken up internationally. Fine. Drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes are both legal but also very bad for your health. Just because it is legal, it doesn't make it the best choice, does it? I didn't bring that up in the question and answer. I decided to ask a very safe question.

"Is Israel doing anything, diplomatically, in terms of working with Lebanon to remove Hezbollah from Lebanon--without the killing of people on either side, that is?" His response was that Israel had tried before and that he supposed the door for such talks was still open, should Lebanon wish to pursue such talks.

So that was last night. Today I got a phone call from the News Editor for the London Student about being a Senior Reporter for Royal Holloway (RHUL apparently does not have one at the moment). We talked about what the job would entail. I then remembered something that was mentioned last night. The wife of one of the Israeli soliders that was captured (and is still being kept away somewhere by Hezbollah) was making a visit to England to give some talks and share her story. She was looking to talk to students and I imagine that UJS will be putting something on for that to happen.

I mentioned that to the News Editor and I got an strange response which led into the quoted discussion at the start of this post. British society thinks Israel should not exist. People tend to see the Israeli army as terrorists. Was she saying that it wouldn't be a good idea to do a report on her visit? I am not sure. Apparently the media in England tends to focus mostly on the people that Israel's government attacks. They say Israel is racist and terrorists. I told her that we've never really heard anyone say that in the states before. Generally, the media is very pro-Israeli.

No wonder the vast majority of Jews out here are so pro-Israel. What a world.

And These Are The Days My Friends

The Pub, originally uploaded by vansgirl12.

I got a copy of 'Einstein On The Beach' from the library today. I had not listened to the opera before but it's always been a title floating around in my head. So I decided to have a listen.

I don't have a comment on it yet. Sometimes it makes me laugh especially when one of the voices is keeping count. I like "Knee Play 2" at the moment.

I wonder if I should be frightening my classmates with my comments. Haha. I am pretty awful. Yesterday I said that Mark Slobin was a jerk and everyone was shocked that I could have said that about someone. I guess my idea of jerk is not the same idea as everyone else. Ah well, it is always fun to get a rise out of people.

I don't know how I feel about my seminars, to be quite honest. The discussion starts off when us trying to piece together what the articles were about and then discussing certain ideas in the articles. "What's your opinion on so and so?"

My goal is to say something that will make people argue against me. I generally try to get to the controversial point of the argument of the writer because I know at least then, hopefully, it will spark a discussion. However it doesn't always work and I feel like I am sometimes hogging to the discussion.

Actually, there was a point where a debate involved the entire class. It was mostly about what place Ethnomusicology has in today's academic world. However, we had to cut that discussion short because it was going off from this week's main discussion.

The other day I spoke to someone who thought that Reich was hardly accessible. That was interesting. I don't think I have ever met anyone who didn't think Reich was easy to listen to and enjoy. I guess that might be saying something about taste more than anything. I would say that it is because I am an academic musician that he is highly accessible to me but I know people who aren't even musicians who can enjoy Reich. So I don't know.

If you want to know an interesting fact about Ethnomusicology, here it is: Ethnomusicology comes out of a field known as 'Comparative Musicology' that originated in Europe, specifically Germany and then more so in Berlin, that was school of academics/scholars/scientists that were not actually musicians but had degrees in other fields like Chemistry and many of them had degrees in Psychology.

I find that to be rather interesting. Ethnomusicology is more credited to a guy named Hornbostel than Bartok even though Bartok was more of an Ethnomusicologist than Hornbostel could ever be.

We like Bartok.

Swimming is good for you. Caffeine is bad.

Budgens, originally uploaded by vansgirl12.

I went swimming this weekend. I spent the entire weekend away from my readings. I think I probably needed the break after having such a busy week!

Swimming was really nice. We went to a fitness centre in Guildford where Richard had guest passes to. There was a sauna, jacuzzi, and steam room as well so I really got to unwind! The steam room was so great.

After having a relaxing afternoon we decided to head over to the high street to eat dinner. We ate at a restaurant that was not really specifically any sort of asian food but a mixture of all types. I pretty much ate my usual Thai Basil style dinner. Veggie spring rolls, vegetable yellow curry, and fried rice. The pad thai wasn't vegetarian so I didn't get any of that. The curry was a bit spicy for me but it was good. I topped it off with a pot of soothing jasmine green tea.

So I thought it was soothing! I have been having problems with caffeine lately that perhaps I have always had (as I can at least recall a few other occasions where I have reacted this way to caffeine when i was younger and there is a reason why I cut out coffee from my diet when I was 17) but have simply ignored because it has not always been such a serious problem.

Caffeine makes me feel agitated and anxious. My thought process gets cloudy and I am highly fidgety. My heart starts beating rapidly and I feel like running away from whatever I am doing at the moment. I have no idea that this is being caused by the caffeine in my drink when I'm at the peak of the...I don't know what to call it--reaction? It's not any fun.

So I ended all tense by the end of the night! What a way to end what started out as a relaxing day.

It's Monday now and I am reading for my seminars this week. We got our schedulel of deadlines for the rest of the year and my first assignment is due on the 31st October. I have to do a couple of transcriptions of 'non-western' music and present my findings to the class. I am finding that it doesn't matter how accurate you are, actually. Mostly what you got out of it. Should be easy.

My least favorite seminar is "Techniques of Performance Studies" but I am going to attend the seminar even though I find it annoying because I imagine there must be something I can get out of the lectures and discussions. I am not required to do any assignments for the course since I am just auditing it.

My most favorite is probably "Techniques of Opera Studies" because we actually talk about operas that I like. We've gone over Kurt Weill operas, Monteverdi operas, and this week we are going to even discuss some Steve Reich stuff and John Adams' "Nixon In China." That is going to rock. I remember talking about that with Lloyd in composition class once. We were talking about text setting and I brought up how the libretto to Nixon in China seemed so cumbersome for Adams to have set.

Carl, that's what the Budgen's in Egham looks like. It's a "quickstop" that is why it looks like a liquor store and not a supermarket. Egham is tiny, everything is either "express," "metro" or "quickstop."

Cheers all.

Avoiding already?

I am listening to some Radiohead b-sides while I avoid my reading. I know. It's only the third week and already I am procrastinating? Well, it is just that I made a mistake today and photo-copied the same chapter I had photo-copied earlier this week and now I have to risk being late to a course I am auditing called 'Techniques in Performance Studies' and possibly not even finishing the reading in time for my 'Music and Muisicology' course. I guess I am feeling a bit down about it. Also, some of the reading is really boring as it tends to get caught up in theories about expression in performance and making it all quite scientific. I really have no care to read about that. It does not make me a better oboe player. What makes me a better performer is performing in ensembles and well, practicing, and listening.

Anyhow, performance studies isn't about performing it's about STUDYING performances, recordings, etc. What rubbish. Yeah, I am feeling a bit negative about my courses at the moment and I suppose it really just stems from a bad day (never again will I believe my fellow students when they tell me that they know for sure the train will get us there on time when I know for a fact they are wrong) and waking up to absolutely no view of the sky due to a very thick layer of gray clouds and then pouring rain, thunder, and even lightening. However, by the time I got into London the rain had cleared and the sky seemed to show up. It was actually warm enough so that I took off my jacket and walked around in a short-sleeved blouse. I read that London is really feeling the effects of global warming and can be anywhere from 7-9 degrees celcius warmer than usual. Sounds bad.

Right now I feel like I don't care about my courses but usually when I sit in the lecture/seminar I feel much better about them. I get a bit frustrated with my classmates who don't always say anything good or really they don't say anything. I don't know what I am expecting. I don't even want to talk to my classmates anymore. I am being too harsh on them and too judgmental. I should really lighten up.

Well, I should really get back to my articles and get to bed as I have a seriously long day tomorrow.

About The Reich Concert

The concert went quite well on Sunday. The Barbican encourages it's concert goers to bring their drinks into the hall so I was more than pleased to buy a vodka tonic at the bar and take it at the start of the performance.

The concert began with Reich's new Cello Counterpoint. It was interesting to see that he had chosen to add a visaul element to his piece. The visual element was a pre-recording of Maya Beiser on cello as she performed the various cello accompainment to her live part. It was, in typical Reich style, in phases across the screen. I can't remember how many images were used but I would say around 6-8 clips of Beiser were used in the visual portion. In other words, as I realise I am being unclear, the screen was divided up into 6-8 parts and in each part a recording of Beiser playing a different part of the piece was being displayed. So it was very much an obvious take on Reich's ideas of phasing in music and just putting it to video. It was alright. It was easier to watch that than Beiser on stage.

Nonetheless, the piece was good. It is interesting to hear how Reich has changed musically but still kept to his original ideas that made his as famous as he is today. I wish I could give a better description of the music but as it is already Wednesday and I do not have access to the recording, I can't give you specifics.

The second peice was the Daniel Varations. According to the program notes it was also the World Premiere of the piece. Lucky for us living in the London area that we got to be a part of the World Premiere! It was a very sincere and compassionate piece of music. I do not really recall hearing much dissonance in Reich's works but in the Daniel Varations there is quite a lot of it, the piece really begins on a diminished chord (I suppose...from what I could tell). The text setting was nice and clear and certainly in the traditional minimalist style. What I could perhaps make out that was different from old Reich works was that there seemed to be more a prevelant melodic line or melodic idea that floated above the rest of the music or maybe not floated, but interweaved.

After the intermission, or as they say in England, "interval", Music for 18 Musicians was performed. It was quite a site to see and it was just such a good piece of music. It is nice when music came at least seem a bit timeless. Certainly we can hear it and date it just by the style. It reminds me so much of his other counterpoint works of that era, especially New York Counterpoint. it was really a wonderful 65 minutes of music and perhaps the most fun was in being able to see Reich perform with his friends on stage. It makes me smile in a way. I think it is really important that composers are also performers although many composers these days would disagree with me.

Minimalism is dead. Long live miminalism.

Elephants gone mad....?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html

Worth a read. It is long but it's detailed and fairly well written. I hope to post more about the Reich concert soon. I am just busy with reading for my courses and later on I have to go sell books at my professors 'book launch' in London.

Cheers all.

Today Amongst Other Days

Steve Reich, originally uploaded by vansgirl12. Photo credit: Wonge Bergmann

So I am getting very excited over the tonights concert. It is entitled, "Quintessential Reich" and I don't know why but I feel like a small child going to the fair on a warm summer day. Where is the cotton candy? Ice cream? Sodas? Well, none of that will be at the Barbican, I am sure of it. I suppose this what happens when you get a bit older. Nonetheless, I am excited. I suppose I am so excited because Steve Reich is acutally going to be on stage and he is a part of my young musical past that is coming to life right from the pages of the scores, the music books, the recordings. It's is going to be live! Wow. How exciting. I got to see Terry Riley last year and now Steve Reich.

Alright, that is more of my inner self than I should ever like to reveal about those secret idolizations of old-time composers. Perhaps you are more interested in what is going to be performed. I would be. Firstly, Maya Beiser (whom I saw doing a really annoying sound check yesterday before the Gamelan performance--she is the epitomy of ego-driven performance practice that Plato rightly attacked), Steve Reich & Musicians with Synergy Vocals, and Brad Lubman will be performing. I don't know who Brad Lubman is, perhaps he is the director of Synergy Vocals? I am sounding ignorant now because I know someone who is reading this knows. The pieces are as follows: The Daniel Variations, Cello Counterpoint, and Music for 18 Musicians.

At 6:45pm on the Free stage there will be a performance of several shorter pieces by the Bang On A Can All-Stars. Who needs to live in America when you have the Barbican to extract all the familiarities and bring them to my door step? (If only they would invite PBE, then I would be really happy!) BOACAS is going to be performing the following (by the way is a free performance that is held in the lobby): Michael Nyman's Manhatta, Julia Wolfe's Believing, Evan Ziporyn's Music from Shadowbang, and Louis Andriessen's Worker's Union.

I am hoping to get there in time for the free show. According to the Barbican web site, the show Reich show is sold out. I was lucky to get the tickets when I did! Cost me 25 pounds for a ticket which is a pretty dollar but hopefully worth it. I would never spend that much on Bach. 6 pounds for a nosebleed for a Bach performance, thanks. Not that I do not like Bach, it is just that Bach is dead.

It is a nice day so I will take my camera with me to London and hopefully get some nice shots. I need to remind my mother to post me my battery charger for my camera because it is about to die on me.

Cheers!

Responsible drinking

Ok. One more! This is just too good not to share.

Can't pass this one up.

While I could comment on my past few days here in England, I thought I should post this gem of a find, instead. When in Rome...

rain rain here to stay

well it is raining at the moment, here in london. i am sitting in the computer lab of the Bedford Square campus in London. this is the satellite campus, if you will, that postgrads must trek to for courses because of reasons i otherwise do not know understand. alas, though, here i am.

the rain is a bitter rain, is probably how i could describe it. it is bitter in the sense that it probably makes the average person a bit bitter from having to deal with it but it is also bitter in a way that it seems to have a bitter attitude toward everything else. it comes with a bit of wind so it is pointless to use an umbrella. it also comes down in a slightly annoying steady sprinkle. it just feels bitter. evil rain.

i am just around the corner from the british museum bit it is unlikely that i will be visiting that mamoth of a place anytime soon. classes have been going fine, stressful at times, and time consuming at other times. first days are always rough and i am no exception to them. if i have some free time, i will post more about how my classes went. in the meantime, just know that they were all equally filled with surprises of all sorts.

i am in a bit of an irritated mood and i can really only say that it is probably because of the gloomy rain. i'm not used to it raining every single day. it sun does come out but i mean, even if it was a beautiful day it will still rain at night. the floor is generally always wet. i'm surprised the whole of england doesn't just disappear under alll this water.

i am currently waiting for my 'music and musicology' course to begin. i am debating whether or not i should audit the 'techniques of theory and analysis' course because the first portion is all on schenkerian analysis. the second portion seems more interesting but it seems that schenker will never really leave the course. i guess it is worth learning how to do it properly so that i can teach MUS419 better than certain persons at CSUF.

speaking of such figures, i alighted (a popular british term) at russells square behind a couple from spain. one of them looked a lot like lloyd rodgers and i sort of followed him with a it of a smile because he was so much like lloyd! it was fun. i found out that his name was carlos when his wife said, 'carlos?' and he just nodded.

well that is all for now. so i don't have a picture to accompany this entry but i haven't taken out my camera lately as i've been busy with reading materials and courses. hopefully i'll get some new ones this weekend!

Sci-Fi thrillers and first day nerves

Barbican Centre, originally uploaded by vansgirl12.

Last night I saw the 1925 silent film 'Metropolis' at the Barbican. The score was performed live by the famous german film orchestra, Orchestra Babelsberg. It was really awesome. Fritz Lang put together a really great film it had just the right amount of sci-fi, love, struggle, drama, etc. The score was nice as well as it was a perfect example of what a good film score is! Obviously, if it is a silent film then the score is essential to the film. It was just nice to hear a good score for a change.

This weekend I am going to experience some more music at the Barbican Centre. It's the birthday celebration for Steve Reich out here (somehow he has becomed the most loved American minimalist in London). It's a week long celebration versus the one day concert I attended at UCLA for Terry Riley. It is also probably a less relaxed atmosphere than the Riley concert. There are quite a few free stage events going on as well that tie to the series so I'll be attending as much of those this weekend, as well. Apparently there is a concert at 5pm that features Glenn Branca and I thought of the Paul v. Glenn deathmatch. Good times!

I am going to audit the Techniques of Opera Studies at 2pm because I figure I should take advantage of all of the courses available to me. For all the courses I audit, I am only required to read the weekly articles---no exams. So that is nice. I suppose I will spend Thursdays in Bedford Square auditing other classes as well. Pack a lunch!

Today my first official course begins at 4pm. That is my Techniques of Ethnomusicology course. I am excited. I have my notebook ready to go. I have misplaced my eraser though, so I am bummed about that. I did the reading, I chose some Nigerian musics to listen to and I'm ready to go! I hope I don't make a fool of myself on the first day.

The weather has been great today, sunny and no rain! Let's see how long that lasts...it always rains in England.

In the picture above, do you see the man standing under the light? I didn't know he was there until after I took the shot.