BMOP!

On Saturday night I headed into Boston with a wonderful group to see Alicia perform with the Firebird ensemble and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

The Cast:
Me.
Ryan Schenk
Ruth
Math Tim
Chef Sarah
Kelly
Chris

The Arrival

We all arrived in Boston at different times. Ryan, Ruth, and Math Tim met me in town around 6:40 for beverages . Chef Sarah, Kelly, and Chris came a bit later. As I walked these three up the stairs to our balcony seats Kelly asked…

“What type of music is this anyway?”
Mike D: “Modern.”
Kelly: “Modern?”
Mike D: “Very modern. It could be really strange.”

The show.

The event started with the world premier of a piece composed by Alejandro Rutty called “The Conscious Sleepwalker Loops.” It was fantastic. The music was sweeping and epic with some A+ percussion. Ruth spent much of the first song leaned forward looking over the balcony rail at the drum player who was rocking out.

The second piece was the world premier of a piece by Derek Hurst. The music is described on the bmop website as “a precarious balance between visceral solemnity and muscular jocularity.” The Firebird ensemble was featured and really? it was very strange. The beginning was really powerful and had the stringed instruments of the Firebird ensemble plucking their strings aggressively. I looked over towards Ryan Schenk who gave two thumbs up. After that the song became a bit more academic, and it was very tense and got me feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Intermission came and went and the second half started with the music Ken Ueno with yet another world premier. This one called “On a Sufficient Condition for the Existence of Most Specific Hypothesis”

DANG!

Ken is an overtone singer. and I was BLOWN away. He generated these powerful deep growls from within his throat that would occasionally be coupled with really high squeals. Behind his intense singing was some really wild string work which had the musicians sliding their hands up and down the strings creating a sensation of the music slowing and speeding. The other members of my group were not as thrilled with the vocals – they thought it seemed too painful or sounded too much like something you’d hear out of a horror movie. For me? I couldn’t be more awestruck. It was brilliant.

The final piece was a premier of a song composed by Lisa Bielawa called simply “Double Violin Concerto.” It was a very beautiful piece. The two violinists really worked well off one another. There were two things that were especially unique about this piece. The first was that there was an accordion player (yes!) The second was that the featured female violinist sang while playing. I don’t know how hard this is, but she did a pretty bang up job.

Overall, the event was really fun. It’s always a little weird going to these events, but definitely worth it to get a few new experiences.

Saturday & Sunday

This past Saturday was a blast. After a moderately intense kung fu class (we did conditioning… I’m sore), I headed over to the rock climbing gym with Irene, Tony, and Paulette. Where… wait for it… I started work on my first 5.13.

5.13’s are extremely hard climbs.

I didn’t finish it. In fact, I didn’t get much further than about 12 feet off the ground, but that alone is far better than I’ve ever performed on any 5.13 that I’ve tried in the past. Also, it should be said that I am still not a comfortable 5.12 climber. There’s a 5.12+ which is royally kicking my butt and a handful of 5.12-‘s and 5.11+’s that cause me considerable grief. Still, getting on a 5.13 and working the moves feels really amazing. I’ve been told that the crux of the climb is actually at the top… very far from where I am. But have faith! I’m climbing harder than I’ve ever climbed before and I think that this route may be something I can accomplish. I’ll keep working it.

Sunday we had band practice. We started working on a Soundgarden tune (My Wave) and dang. Let me tell you: Soundgarden does some truly amazing things. My Wave is in 5/4 and has some really intense transitions. We sounded pretty good. I’m hoping to be ready for a show by June-ish.

After the band rocked out, I came back and put together a monster turkey feast for the roommates and our Roller Derby crowd. Chris, Irene, Keller, and I went over to check out the CT Roller Girls. Check out the review over on the left. The bout was incredible. Keller and I ended up staying at the After-party until about 11:30pm. It was a good time.

The next bout is on March 16th. It’s an interleague match and CT’s stepford sabotage will need our support. Let me know if you’d like to join our group.

Weekend

This was a strangely busy weekend. I say ‘strangely’ because despite a somewhat busy schedule, I got a lot of stuff done and managed to close Sunday out with a little relaxation. Friday was the final class in my supply chain course, Saturday concluded Ethics. Both courses were okay, I’m not a huge fan of either topic so I’m glad to see them concluded. Let’s look at the progression charts.

schoolcomp2.PNG

Not too shabby.

Saturday night I helped Shamus move into his new place up in Vernon. Prior to going to his place I picked up a few things at guitar center including the “Guitar Grimoire” which, so far, has been quite a challenge. The Guitar Grimoire is a collection of scale exercises that should help to improve my speed and comfort with performing sick absurd riffs. The exercises themselves aren’t overwhelming, it’s just getting over the habits that I have already developed and learning new picking techniques.

Sunday saw some academics with Pete, a couple hours at work, and then some climbing. I finished a 5.12 that would best be described as “pretty darn hard.” After climbing I made some delicious Goulash, practiced guitar for an hour or so, and then got into some reading and half of a film that came highly recommended from Jess.

The book: The Tipping Point.
it describes the point where trends, illnesses, and ideas go from small to huge. I really like the ideas presented. I’ll write a more comprehensive review upon completing the book.

The movie: Everything is Illuminated
A Warner Bros independent film that, so far (I’ve only watched 45 minutes), is pretty excellent.

And now it’s Monday and we’re back in business. This year is zipping by rather quickly.

Countertenor

Before leaving for my sister’s Cape Cod wedding, I sent out a quick e-mail to my coworkers informing them that I would be absent.

I always try and include something fun in the e-mails because “out of office” e-mails are notoriously boring parts of the cubical lifestyle. This time, I described the music that was planned for the wedding:

Fun Fact:
My sister is a professional flutist. As such she has a lot of classical musician friends who have offered their services at the wedding. The ceremony will include the following music:

Pre-ceremony
Selective Airs From the Renaissance and Baroque periods by a professional violist and cellist.
Ave Maria sung by professional Soprano

Processional
“Spiegel im Spiegel” for Cello
A piece by an Estonian composer (‘spiegel im spiegel’ means “mirror in mirror” in German)

All Mass Parts are from the Renassance composer William Byrd to be sung in Latin by a countertenor and two tenors

A response psalm sung by my other sister accompanied by some guitar by me.

Next, I will rock the heck out of the Alleluia on guitar. My eldest sister asked for acoustic, but I might bring out the electric with some heavy distortion just to shock the classical crowd.

After the vows there will be a performance of a Bach Flute solo, a Bach gigue for solo violin, and Panis Angelicus for soprano and flute.

The recessional will just be rocking loud organ.

One of my coworkers replied with this fantastic response:
“Is a countertenor anything like a counterterrorist? Is that an anti-tenor?”

Hilarious.