this is a controversial blogpost. some of you are going to disagree vehemently with it. i got passionate in my writing. some of it is emotional. it is my reply to single dad laughing's post, "Worthless women and the men who make them."
http://www.danoah.com/2010/10/worthless-women-and-men-who-make-them.html
i've been thinking about this post for the past two or three hours and have made some conclusions:
1. we are responsible for what we think of ourselves. one of my favorite lines from the musical "AIDA" is, "you are your own master; if you don't like your fate, CHANGE IT." Yes, society does a PISS POOR job of building us up, but WE ultimately decide what we are and are not going to believe. and OF COURSE the people around us have a massive impact on us, but we also have the responsibility and CHOICE to surround ourselves with people who are good for us. women, there ARE good men out there. FIND THEM. and don't settle for less.
2. this article is about 60% good and excellent and true and noteworthy. but wow, does it patronize women. it says, "women, you aren't strong enough or aren't intelligent enough to decide what goes into your brain or not, so let's see if we can alter your world." NEWSFLASH: the world is NOT going to change. and it's only going to get worse. sure, the men in your life may be different, but porn and the like is only growing at an increasing rate. there will be more and more ads, storefronts, magazines, web sites, etc, and it will still be right in front of you. and although YOUR men may not look or may not comment, others will and you will still hear it. but will you LISTEN to it? i hope like HELL that you do not. i think i need to illustrate this point:
the SAME thing happens with guys. what about abercrombie models? jcrew models? viggo mortensen, johnny depp, brad bitt, george clooney, orlando bloom? Do our girls not stop and stare and drool at them? do you think guys just don't WANT a sixpack and don't want to have lats that can take out small buildings? the fact is that they do want it, but how many men do you know who do have those things or are as hot as those men? about as many women as you know who have an "ideal" bust, chiseled abs, and a super tight butt. but friends, you have to decide who are you and what you want to believe. i have decided that i am what i am and that I LOVE MYSELF. Now, this is not to say that I don’t believe that the vast majority of men are brainless pigs, but the point that I’m trying to illustrate is that things go both ways and women are just as capable as men in developing their own healthy self-image. I was initially impressed with this post, so I posted it on my facebook page. My friend (girl) replied shortly thereafter with this, which got me into this vein of thought:
“Whatever. I think he's a chauvinistic ass-hole who has a HUGE ego to think that men determine what women should think about themselves. Be it for evil OR good. So, if men suddenly become all perfect and not perverted, THEN women will love themselves? Don't flatter yourselves, guys. And women should GROW UP and stop blaming their problems on men. He's certainly right about some things, but the whole thing made me want to gag.”
I think it’s stupid that we are trying to say to women, “here honey, the naughty world is after you again; let’s see if we can pad things around you a little more so we don’t damage your fragile self.” It is just so condescending and patronizing. WOMEN—YOU *CAN* BE STRONG!! YOU HAVE *EVERY* CAPABILITY to be so. So do it. Be strong. Be yourself. And love it, dang it. I know I’ll love you. If only you could hear all the wonderful things people say about you.
Well, frankly, it doesn't matter how many complements people pay you; of course, they’re nice and wonderful and all, but ultimately, if it doesn't come from within yourself, you won't believe it. YOU have to change YOUR thinking and YOUR belief system or your life won’t get better. If the men in your life change, and start paying you complements, things might get a little better, but it likely won’t be lasting. You, yourself, ultimately have to make the change.
Something that helped me (and continues to help me) immeasurably was keeping a daily victory journal. I am not allowed to write anything negative in the journal. I now keep a journal recording God’s hand in my daily life—all the evidences of His involvement in my life. Wow, what a blessing it is for me.
now, i realize there a fair few women (ok, mountains of them) who are in some pretty tough situations. that is truly, absolutely devastating. i read the comments on this post and my heart just breaks and is shredded. honestly, i don't know what to tell you, except this: cast your burden upon the Lord and live your life. be your own person. you really are the master of your fate. yes, make your husband read this post and help him and don't give up on him, but there will be some situations that just won't get any better. gosh, that sounds so pessimistic, but i'm just trying to be realistic. But give your burden to the Lord and let Him take the pain for you. Let Him carry it. You don’t have to. There’s a whole book on this: “The Peacegiver.” I HIGHLY recommend it. Wow, is it good.
Those are my thoughts. I didn’t expect to write so much, but sometimes when I get going, apparently I have a hard time stopping. Feel free to email me your thoughts on this.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
From Survival Mode to Thrival Mode
General Conference (the semi-annual Church-wide meeting for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) was, as it always, wonderful for me. I am usually pretty good about taking fairly extensive notes during the various talks (sermons), but I decided to just sit back a bit more this time and only write down the things that really penetrated me through the Holy Ghost, knowing full-well the talks would be online (http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-1298,00.html) and I could go back and review them later.
During Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk of the Saturday Afternoon session, I had a particularly poignant thought come into my head that took me on quite the journey throughout the rest of his talk (so much so that I, till today, have no idea what he said). The thought was that for too long (namely this spring and summer) I have had the mentality of just “hanging on” spiritually and emotionally. I accept much of the blame for this mentality, but I also think our culture propagates it through the way its members view life. We focus so much in our culture on trials and dealing with them with a positive attitude, etc., etc. that we, as a people, get into this mindset that “if I can just get through this with a lot of prayer and scripture study, I know I'll be okay.” We think of "dealing with" trials, rather than embracing them and thriving, not only in spite of, but also because of them. I think this is actually a pretty dangerous mentality, to be honest. It puts us in survival mode, instead of … thrive-al mode – a mindset wherein we think of ourselves as able to not only survive, but thrive, both spiritually and emotionally.
That evening in Priesthood Session (a session especially directed toward the men of the Church. Don't worry – the women also have a session especially for them a week earlier.), President Monson mentioned a man in his talk (http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-21,00.html) who faced a ridiculously hard decision. In his decision-making process, he once thought to himself, “in my particular extenuating circumstance, it’s okay, just this once, if I [do] it. However, he says his entire life has turned out to be an unending stream of extenuating circumstances,” President Monson said.
I think this man's life, with all its extremes and ups and downs, is no exception to the majority of people's lives. We all have trials and hard times, many of them coming one after the other without much relief in the degree of intensity. It would be unfair to say we should put those aside or belittle them – they are, in fact, the building blocks of our personality and character, as so much of who we become is based on how we react to those things.
But if we get into the mentality of “just let me get through this,” then (1) we only view ourselves as victims of life and (2) we never get to the point where we can really thrive and succeed spiritually and emotionally. Frankly, there will always be more trials and hardships—isn't this life supposed to be a test? When did we get it into our heads that we would just float through this whole thing? We might as well as get used to the lemons life throws at us because there will always be more – some sweeter, some exponentially more bitter.
But how? How do I thrive amongst all this CRAP in my life?
Elaine L. Jack, the General Relief Society President during the early 1990s, gave a devotional at BYU on this topic in which she offered some of the most exquisite counsel I've ever heard on the subject. Her devotional, entitled “Get a Life,” focused on a few points she recommended to people on how they can love their life. The most poignant part of the talk (http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7097 ) was when she spoke of embracing our life, which Our Heavenly Father has given us:
"Sometimes I fear we have expectations that the good life is the life being led by someone else. The truth is that the good life is the life you have, for it's the only one you can lead. I believe Nephi understood that--with a full heart he could thank the Lord in the midst of trials that often were life threatening. To thank the Lord for his blessings to us is to understand how good life is, even when it seems unpleasant, unsuccessful, or just plain hard."
One thought I have after reading this is that we must embrace our trials—love them and all they bring with them. And then take everything we can from them to make ourselves better people.
Sister Beck, in her Regional Conference talk at the beginning of September, said “we are doing better than we think we are, but we can do better.” So very many of us are doing all the right things, yet we are still in survival mode, emotionally and spiritually. After her talk and after my experience at General Conference, I have felt like shouting both to myself and those around me “YOU'RE DOING IT!!! YOU'VE GOT IT! Stop worrying so much and being driven by guilt.”
I think one of the key steps we need to make to get from survival to thrival mode is to actually believe her! Believe that we really are doing so much better than we think we are. Yes, we can do better, but we need to look at what we've accomplished in our spiritual and emotional progress and realize that we are, indeed, becoming the people God wants us to become. And then we need to embrace life and all that comes with it and use it; if its going to be there, we might as well use it to our advantage instead of dreading and—heaven forbid—complaining about it (See post entitled “Happiness is...”). And we wonder how we can do better? If we do this, what incredible progress we will make in our lives.
And when we do this, I think we can really experience the true joy this life has to offer. In my deluge of thought from the Holy Ghost that I received in G.C., one of the reasons, He explained to me, that I was receiving that was so I could feel more appropriately confident in building the Kingdom of God on this earth. The Lord needs us, but if we are only grappling and floundering to stay afloat, He can't really use us. We must believe we are who and what He needs to build His Kingdom, because, frankly, we ARE. He sent us here and foreordained (not predestined) us to carry out specific tasks. He has given us the necessary tools--some of which are, in fact, our trials--to fulfill our missions and find in them the great happiness the scriptures so often reference.
Anyway, so those are my thoughts.
I don't know if any of this applies to anyone out there, but I suspect it does. Take from it what you will. It's at least super helpful to me. I personally need these braindumping sessions every once in a while. And I post these things in hopes that my thoughts will help someone out there who may happen to read this.
During Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk of the Saturday Afternoon session, I had a particularly poignant thought come into my head that took me on quite the journey throughout the rest of his talk (so much so that I, till today, have no idea what he said). The thought was that for too long (namely this spring and summer) I have had the mentality of just “hanging on” spiritually and emotionally. I accept much of the blame for this mentality, but I also think our culture propagates it through the way its members view life. We focus so much in our culture on trials and dealing with them with a positive attitude, etc., etc. that we, as a people, get into this mindset that “if I can just get through this with a lot of prayer and scripture study, I know I'll be okay.” We think of "dealing with" trials, rather than embracing them and thriving, not only in spite of, but also because of them. I think this is actually a pretty dangerous mentality, to be honest. It puts us in survival mode, instead of … thrive-al mode – a mindset wherein we think of ourselves as able to not only survive, but thrive, both spiritually and emotionally.
That evening in Priesthood Session (a session especially directed toward the men of the Church. Don't worry – the women also have a session especially for them a week earlier.), President Monson mentioned a man in his talk (http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1298-21,00.html) who faced a ridiculously hard decision. In his decision-making process, he once thought to himself, “in my particular extenuating circumstance, it’s okay, just this once, if I [do] it. However, he says his entire life has turned out to be an unending stream of extenuating circumstances,” President Monson said.
I think this man's life, with all its extremes and ups and downs, is no exception to the majority of people's lives. We all have trials and hard times, many of them coming one after the other without much relief in the degree of intensity. It would be unfair to say we should put those aside or belittle them – they are, in fact, the building blocks of our personality and character, as so much of who we become is based on how we react to those things.
But if we get into the mentality of “just let me get through this,” then (1) we only view ourselves as victims of life and (2) we never get to the point where we can really thrive and succeed spiritually and emotionally. Frankly, there will always be more trials and hardships—isn't this life supposed to be a test? When did we get it into our heads that we would just float through this whole thing? We might as well as get used to the lemons life throws at us because there will always be more – some sweeter, some exponentially more bitter.
But how? How do I thrive amongst all this CRAP in my life?
Elaine L. Jack, the General Relief Society President during the early 1990s, gave a devotional at BYU on this topic in which she offered some of the most exquisite counsel I've ever heard on the subject. Her devotional, entitled “Get a Life,” focused on a few points she recommended to people on how they can love their life. The most poignant part of the talk (http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7097 ) was when she spoke of embracing our life, which Our Heavenly Father has given us:
"Sometimes I fear we have expectations that the good life is the life being led by someone else. The truth is that the good life is the life you have, for it's the only one you can lead. I believe Nephi understood that--with a full heart he could thank the Lord in the midst of trials that often were life threatening. To thank the Lord for his blessings to us is to understand how good life is, even when it seems unpleasant, unsuccessful, or just plain hard."
One thought I have after reading this is that we must embrace our trials—love them and all they bring with them. And then take everything we can from them to make ourselves better people.
Sister Beck, in her Regional Conference talk at the beginning of September, said “we are doing better than we think we are, but we can do better.” So very many of us are doing all the right things, yet we are still in survival mode, emotionally and spiritually. After her talk and after my experience at General Conference, I have felt like shouting both to myself and those around me “YOU'RE DOING IT!!! YOU'VE GOT IT! Stop worrying so much and being driven by guilt.”
I think one of the key steps we need to make to get from survival to thrival mode is to actually believe her! Believe that we really are doing so much better than we think we are. Yes, we can do better, but we need to look at what we've accomplished in our spiritual and emotional progress and realize that we are, indeed, becoming the people God wants us to become. And then we need to embrace life and all that comes with it and use it; if its going to be there, we might as well use it to our advantage instead of dreading and—heaven forbid—complaining about it (See post entitled “Happiness is...”). And we wonder how we can do better? If we do this, what incredible progress we will make in our lives.
And when we do this, I think we can really experience the true joy this life has to offer. In my deluge of thought from the Holy Ghost that I received in G.C., one of the reasons, He explained to me, that I was receiving that was so I could feel more appropriately confident in building the Kingdom of God on this earth. The Lord needs us, but if we are only grappling and floundering to stay afloat, He can't really use us. We must believe we are who and what He needs to build His Kingdom, because, frankly, we ARE. He sent us here and foreordained (not predestined) us to carry out specific tasks. He has given us the necessary tools--some of which are, in fact, our trials--to fulfill our missions and find in them the great happiness the scriptures so often reference.
Anyway, so those are my thoughts.
I don't know if any of this applies to anyone out there, but I suspect it does. Take from it what you will. It's at least super helpful to me. I personally need these braindumping sessions every once in a while. And I post these things in hopes that my thoughts will help someone out there who may happen to read this.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
SUnday, June 6, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sabbath. Last week's sabbath was really good. I remember it well because I wrote about it. But this one was not quite as good. I think it was probably because I didn't keep it. We had an optional trip to Windsor to tour the castle and attend an evensong there. They made it perfectly clear that they trip was optional, but I wanted to go, so I did. It wasn't so much that we were paying money to do things, so much as the fact that it wasn't a day of rest, neither figuratively, nor literally. I cherish my sabbaths because they help me put everything in perspective and when I don't have the opportunity to do that, the day means so much less than it normally does. Even if I go to church, as I did this morning, and then go and do something else, it just doesn't allow me the rest and sanctity of a normal sabbath. And that is important. In the Bible dictionary, it talks about how entire nations' downfalls have been the result of their breaking the sabbath. While I do not think the Lord would destroy an entire nation just for breaking the sabbath, I do think it can be a starting point—a gateway drug—that can lead to other things. All it takes is us changing our scopes and direction once and if we don't get back soon (i.e. by going to church and being strengthened there), we get farther and farther off the path. It just doesn't take very much for us to stray a little bit to get us to stray a lottle bit.
Church was really good today. I went to a family ward in the morning and really liked it. The ward is pretty big, with TONS of visitors every week, but the actual members seem to be really awesome. It seems like they are a bit like one of my areas on my mission—really well-established, but they also have enough recent converts that it keeps the ward fresh and young at heart, in the gospel sense. It was really refreshing to be back in that kind of environment. I really liked it.
I skipped out on Priesthood and got something to eat, because otherwise, I wouldn't be eating till about 8-8:30, when we got back to London from Windsor.
And then we went out to Windsor by motorcoach. Windsor Castle was really cool. I felt like I connected much more with it than I did Versaille(s?). It was far more human and a bit more sensible...which is not to say it was not ornate and just decorated out the wazoo. But it was a little more down-to-earth out the wazoo decorating.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. Then we got food at a dirty pub. And missed Evensong because we got to the door one minute before the service started. That'll teach me to be late to things. Or not really early to them. Something like that.
Then on home for a chill night of talking with friends. As I was doing so, one of my friends had another friend over here who wanted to go visit another friend over at the London center and then had to get to her hostel a little ways away. My friend didn't want her to go alone, so she asked me to go with her. While I was over there, I met this girl who really caught my eye. We had great a super great, tintillating conversation and I fully intend on asking her out when I get back to Provo. It was really quite refreshing to meet someone that actually caught me eye. It hasn't happened since...September. I'll look forward to exploring that when I get back to Provo.
We got to my friend's friend's hostel at about 12:15, and then I had to make my way back on the bus system, since the Tube was closed. It's a good thing I lived in Sao Paulo for two years, or I'm pretty sure I would have been reasonably scared. But I was totally fine. I am glad I feel confident about getting around places. It makes life for easier.
Anyway, this is the last time I have to do an official journal entry for my program. I'll obviously continue blogging here and there, but it'll likely be a bit more sparse—certainly not daily. But keep in touch, ok? If you miss me, find me on facebook or email me. Love to all.
Sabbath. Last week's sabbath was really good. I remember it well because I wrote about it. But this one was not quite as good. I think it was probably because I didn't keep it. We had an optional trip to Windsor to tour the castle and attend an evensong there. They made it perfectly clear that they trip was optional, but I wanted to go, so I did. It wasn't so much that we were paying money to do things, so much as the fact that it wasn't a day of rest, neither figuratively, nor literally. I cherish my sabbaths because they help me put everything in perspective and when I don't have the opportunity to do that, the day means so much less than it normally does. Even if I go to church, as I did this morning, and then go and do something else, it just doesn't allow me the rest and sanctity of a normal sabbath. And that is important. In the Bible dictionary, it talks about how entire nations' downfalls have been the result of their breaking the sabbath. While I do not think the Lord would destroy an entire nation just for breaking the sabbath, I do think it can be a starting point—a gateway drug—that can lead to other things. All it takes is us changing our scopes and direction once and if we don't get back soon (i.e. by going to church and being strengthened there), we get farther and farther off the path. It just doesn't take very much for us to stray a little bit to get us to stray a lottle bit.
Church was really good today. I went to a family ward in the morning and really liked it. The ward is pretty big, with TONS of visitors every week, but the actual members seem to be really awesome. It seems like they are a bit like one of my areas on my mission—really well-established, but they also have enough recent converts that it keeps the ward fresh and young at heart, in the gospel sense. It was really refreshing to be back in that kind of environment. I really liked it.
I skipped out on Priesthood and got something to eat, because otherwise, I wouldn't be eating till about 8-8:30, when we got back to London from Windsor.
And then we went out to Windsor by motorcoach. Windsor Castle was really cool. I felt like I connected much more with it than I did Versaille(s?). It was far more human and a bit more sensible...which is not to say it was not ornate and just decorated out the wazoo. But it was a little more down-to-earth out the wazoo decorating.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. Then we got food at a dirty pub. And missed Evensong because we got to the door one minute before the service started. That'll teach me to be late to things. Or not really early to them. Something like that.
Then on home for a chill night of talking with friends. As I was doing so, one of my friends had another friend over here who wanted to go visit another friend over at the London center and then had to get to her hostel a little ways away. My friend didn't want her to go alone, so she asked me to go with her. While I was over there, I met this girl who really caught my eye. We had great a super great, tintillating conversation and I fully intend on asking her out when I get back to Provo. It was really quite refreshing to meet someone that actually caught me eye. It hasn't happened since...September. I'll look forward to exploring that when I get back to Provo.
We got to my friend's friend's hostel at about 12:15, and then I had to make my way back on the bus system, since the Tube was closed. It's a good thing I lived in Sao Paulo for two years, or I'm pretty sure I would have been reasonably scared. But I was totally fine. I am glad I feel confident about getting around places. It makes life for easier.
Anyway, this is the last time I have to do an official journal entry for my program. I'll obviously continue blogging here and there, but it'll likely be a bit more sparse—certainly not daily. But keep in touch, ok? If you miss me, find me on facebook or email me. Love to all.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Let's see...what did I do today?! Heavens, I really can't remember. Isn't that weird how after an incredibly eventful day or weekend, someone can ask you what you did and you can totally not recall anything that you did? I think it is.
Well, now I remember. I woke up at a reasonable hour (9ish, which, if I were at home, would not be a reasonable hour, but I've adapted slightly different sleep habits on this trip.), read the skippies, and then went to get tickets for a touring production of “Spamalot” with theatre friend Annalee and a few of her friends.
We went to Pizza Express, which is pretty similar to California Pizza Kitchen back in the states, before the show for lunch and then hit up the show.
Honestly, the show was kind of disappointing. I think in order to really pull it off, you have to go at it with about 400% dedication and these guys did it with about 94%. In a regular show, 94% might actually fly, but not this one; you need much more than that. I could see the show being just phenomenal, but they weren't totally committed to their humor and jokes, etc. I think I'm finding that I find British musical theatre to be fairly disappointing on the whole, actually. There have been very few times during this trip that things have really clicked in and made me think they really worked. Now, straight theatre is a totally different story. The straight theatre has been, on the whole VERY good. I've been super pleased with it. But I don't think I plan on seeing any more musicals in England (if/when I come back) unless I hear consistent rave reviews from extremely credible sources.
Since the show got out a bit early, I headed back home before our evening concert of the Croyden Philharmonic Choir. They did Haydn's “The Creation.” The orchestra was pretty decent and the choir was....well, as my friend, Emily, and I decided, not painful...mostly. The soloists were actually quite good though. I especially liked the soprano. She had a beautiful, Baroque-style voice and had not been singing for so long that it had gotten too warbly. Often, when sopranoes get into their career, they started being influenced pretty heavily by opera and other styles of music and they start developing a shrill, warbly sound. Well, it's not like it's a light switch and BAM, they have it, but they definitely do go that direction. Anyway, she had a very round, warm tone and it was very pleasant to listen to. I also thought the tenor was quite good. He placed his voice in fairly high placement, which lent itself well to Haydn's music. The baritone was....good, but I didn't like him. And he had some warbly notes, when it wasn't quite clear which note he was trying to sing.
I felt kind of bad tonight. I went to the concert not really in the mood to go to a concert. Consequently, when I saw that the concert was going to more less like the Ealing Choral Society from a couple weeks ago, I kind of tuned out a bit. I think I could have gotten a lot more out of the concert, had I gone in with the correct attitude. But then again, sometimes you just don't want to do things. And I suppose it is our responsibility to change our attitude, even if we don't want to do that thing.
One highlight of the concert was the conductor. He was about as ballistic as they come. When he wanted a really big rebound in his pattern, he would often have his hand explode into a brief jazz hands-like manner, usually accompanied by a swift head flip, which caused quite the hair flop. The man was all over the place. It was really quite thrilling to watch him and his animation.
And then back to the flat to hang out for a chill night.
Let's see...what did I do today?! Heavens, I really can't remember. Isn't that weird how after an incredibly eventful day or weekend, someone can ask you what you did and you can totally not recall anything that you did? I think it is.
Well, now I remember. I woke up at a reasonable hour (9ish, which, if I were at home, would not be a reasonable hour, but I've adapted slightly different sleep habits on this trip.), read the skippies, and then went to get tickets for a touring production of “Spamalot” with theatre friend Annalee and a few of her friends.
We went to Pizza Express, which is pretty similar to California Pizza Kitchen back in the states, before the show for lunch and then hit up the show.
Honestly, the show was kind of disappointing. I think in order to really pull it off, you have to go at it with about 400% dedication and these guys did it with about 94%. In a regular show, 94% might actually fly, but not this one; you need much more than that. I could see the show being just phenomenal, but they weren't totally committed to their humor and jokes, etc. I think I'm finding that I find British musical theatre to be fairly disappointing on the whole, actually. There have been very few times during this trip that things have really clicked in and made me think they really worked. Now, straight theatre is a totally different story. The straight theatre has been, on the whole VERY good. I've been super pleased with it. But I don't think I plan on seeing any more musicals in England (if/when I come back) unless I hear consistent rave reviews from extremely credible sources.
Since the show got out a bit early, I headed back home before our evening concert of the Croyden Philharmonic Choir. They did Haydn's “The Creation.” The orchestra was pretty decent and the choir was....well, as my friend, Emily, and I decided, not painful...mostly. The soloists were actually quite good though. I especially liked the soprano. She had a beautiful, Baroque-style voice and had not been singing for so long that it had gotten too warbly. Often, when sopranoes get into their career, they started being influenced pretty heavily by opera and other styles of music and they start developing a shrill, warbly sound. Well, it's not like it's a light switch and BAM, they have it, but they definitely do go that direction. Anyway, she had a very round, warm tone and it was very pleasant to listen to. I also thought the tenor was quite good. He placed his voice in fairly high placement, which lent itself well to Haydn's music. The baritone was....good, but I didn't like him. And he had some warbly notes, when it wasn't quite clear which note he was trying to sing.
I felt kind of bad tonight. I went to the concert not really in the mood to go to a concert. Consequently, when I saw that the concert was going to more less like the Ealing Choral Society from a couple weeks ago, I kind of tuned out a bit. I think I could have gotten a lot more out of the concert, had I gone in with the correct attitude. But then again, sometimes you just don't want to do things. And I suppose it is our responsibility to change our attitude, even if we don't want to do that thing.
One highlight of the concert was the conductor. He was about as ballistic as they come. When he wanted a really big rebound in his pattern, he would often have his hand explode into a brief jazz hands-like manner, usually accompanied by a swift head flip, which caused quite the hair flop. The man was all over the place. It was really quite thrilling to watch him and his animation.
And then back to the flat to hang out for a chill night.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010, 2010
I really enjoyed our day today. We started the day by going to class and having Brother Whimmer (our tour guide, more or less) lecture on the two World Wars, focusing largely on the wars from the British perspective. I really liked that, but found myself wanting more time to go through everything (as he did). He only had about an hour to do both wars, so it was rather rushed.
We then went through two choral pieces written during and/or as a result of the wars: Vaughan Williams' “Dona Nobis Pacem” and Britten's “War Requiem.” I really enjoyed the VW piece, but I still have a hard time connecting with Britten. I can accept and appreciate his music as very intelligent and complex, but I just can't connect with him emotionally. We did a piece by him this past year, “I Loved a Lass,” which which I actually connected fairly decently, but basically everything else I've heard by him has been just a little too disjunct for my liking. I feel a bit frustrated by it, because I often pride myself on being extremely open-minded about music and can fairly easily delve into a piece of music and a composer—if it is good writing. There are plenty of composers I just can't appreciate because they simply do not write good music.
Anyway, after class, we headed home for some lunch and then we all went independently to the Imperial War Museum, which I loved. In fact, I may even go back. One thing I found a bit frustrating about it was that they had INCREDIBLE amounts of uniforms and armory, but it was sometimes a bit thin on the information about the wars. I would have preferred to receive more information about what actually happened in the wars, as opposed to just seeing uniforms, guns, armory, etc.
They did have two exhibits that I enjoyed a great deal:
One was a trench exhibit/replica/simulation for World War I. It smelled really bad—probably not as bas as the actual ones—and they did quite a good job of modeling and designing it to look fairly haphazardly constructed, as I imagine the original ones were. I felt like I got a better grasp of what trench life was, though I am probably nowhere near where I should or want to be in regard to my knowledge of what it was. I wish there were more films about WWI so we would understand it better. I suppose the US wasn't nearly as involved in that war as it was in other wars and since the majority of films that come out in the US are made by Americans, they just aren't as motivated to write scripts about it.
Anyway, the other exhibit that I liked a lot was a bomb shelter that they used during the Blitz, when the Luftwaffe bombed the living daylights out of London. They had us all go into a super small brick room with two wooden benches. We stayed in there for about five or ten minutes while we were “bombed,” which consisted in recordings of loud explosions and screaming, among sounds of buildings collapsing. They then had us move out of the room once the bombing was over and we saw the ruins of the city. It was dark and there were tons of “fires” all around us. They narrated it simply by recordings of people talking to each other about the damages from the bombs. It was pretty cool.
After the museum, friend Emily and I went to get yummy Thai food. Then I watched “Saving Private Ryan” with a few friends. I don't necessarily enjoy watching that movie, but I think films or experiences like that are essential to understanding what WWII was and what war is. I remember not really appreciating war and WWII until I saw that film. That film brought to light all the things they had to suffer through. I hadn't seen it since I was about 15 or 16, so I thought it was about time I watched it again. It's a fabulous and powerful film.
Below are my notes from class today.
140 million deaths associated with deaths in 20th century
GB had had peace for about 100 yrs prev to WWI
problems within the empire, but no wars
previously constantly at war with Frnc
most powerful and wealthy country in the world at that time
highest standard of living, healthiest people
GB believed that war was a thing of the past—that they had established peace
We (U.S.) have a tendency to view war as moral conflict b/t good and evil—God and Satan, essentially
WWI was fought b/t abt 40 mi b/t France and Belgium (trenches)
gases used in trenches
effects lasted yrs and yrs
role of U.S.:
53,000 casualties
Amer perspective: “aw crap, we've gotta go save Britain again”
Brit persp: “Johnny come late.”
not a moral war.
Ex: cooks exchanging recipes, Christmas Eve celebration
ended bc both sides were totally exhausted and couldn't suffer any more casualties
often stated that God was one of the casualties – faith
WWII:
Germany got short end of stick
blamed largely for WWI
in Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to admit guilt
$40 Bill. Reparations due from Germany
hyper inflation
Sept, '39 – May '40 – not much fighting, but some gunfire
Hitler: “Give us the continent (incl Russia) and you can have the rest of the world.”
Churchill refused
England sent armada of little boats to pick up soldiers
May 29, 1940
Britain alone against Luftwaffe
Churchill gave speech declaring their aims against Germany
Hitler hated it – began 80 day war of personalities b/t the two
began preparations for operation Sea Lion – German Navy to take out Royal Air Force
RAF – only 1200 pilots
Battle of Britain
RAF was very effective, but couldn't afford losses
for every 1 RAF loss, there were 2.5 Germ. Losses
Sept. 7 – German Luftwaffe invades, supasses London, bombs civillian areas
50-60,000 Britons killed
although many civillians were killed, it gave RAF chance to recover and rest; retrain, etc.
Vaughan Williams
brought up in very affluent family
enlisted in WWI as ambulence man – carrying stretchers
horrific experiences
people who heard his music before said his music was never the same
Commissioned to write Dona Nobis Pacem as WWII was brewing
chose texts from several scs
began with mass, then moved to Walt Whitman poem (Whitman served as nurse during Amer. Civil War)
Went around and recorded people singing English Folk songs that had not been written down
much of his music sounds like English folk songs
I really enjoyed our day today. We started the day by going to class and having Brother Whimmer (our tour guide, more or less) lecture on the two World Wars, focusing largely on the wars from the British perspective. I really liked that, but found myself wanting more time to go through everything (as he did). He only had about an hour to do both wars, so it was rather rushed.
We then went through two choral pieces written during and/or as a result of the wars: Vaughan Williams' “Dona Nobis Pacem” and Britten's “War Requiem.” I really enjoyed the VW piece, but I still have a hard time connecting with Britten. I can accept and appreciate his music as very intelligent and complex, but I just can't connect with him emotionally. We did a piece by him this past year, “I Loved a Lass,” which which I actually connected fairly decently, but basically everything else I've heard by him has been just a little too disjunct for my liking. I feel a bit frustrated by it, because I often pride myself on being extremely open-minded about music and can fairly easily delve into a piece of music and a composer—if it is good writing. There are plenty of composers I just can't appreciate because they simply do not write good music.
Anyway, after class, we headed home for some lunch and then we all went independently to the Imperial War Museum, which I loved. In fact, I may even go back. One thing I found a bit frustrating about it was that they had INCREDIBLE amounts of uniforms and armory, but it was sometimes a bit thin on the information about the wars. I would have preferred to receive more information about what actually happened in the wars, as opposed to just seeing uniforms, guns, armory, etc.
They did have two exhibits that I enjoyed a great deal:
One was a trench exhibit/replica/simulation for World War I. It smelled really bad—probably not as bas as the actual ones—and they did quite a good job of modeling and designing it to look fairly haphazardly constructed, as I imagine the original ones were. I felt like I got a better grasp of what trench life was, though I am probably nowhere near where I should or want to be in regard to my knowledge of what it was. I wish there were more films about WWI so we would understand it better. I suppose the US wasn't nearly as involved in that war as it was in other wars and since the majority of films that come out in the US are made by Americans, they just aren't as motivated to write scripts about it.
Anyway, the other exhibit that I liked a lot was a bomb shelter that they used during the Blitz, when the Luftwaffe bombed the living daylights out of London. They had us all go into a super small brick room with two wooden benches. We stayed in there for about five or ten minutes while we were “bombed,” which consisted in recordings of loud explosions and screaming, among sounds of buildings collapsing. They then had us move out of the room once the bombing was over and we saw the ruins of the city. It was dark and there were tons of “fires” all around us. They narrated it simply by recordings of people talking to each other about the damages from the bombs. It was pretty cool.
After the museum, friend Emily and I went to get yummy Thai food. Then I watched “Saving Private Ryan” with a few friends. I don't necessarily enjoy watching that movie, but I think films or experiences like that are essential to understanding what WWII was and what war is. I remember not really appreciating war and WWII until I saw that film. That film brought to light all the things they had to suffer through. I hadn't seen it since I was about 15 or 16, so I thought it was about time I watched it again. It's a fabulous and powerful film.
Below are my notes from class today.
140 million deaths associated with deaths in 20th century
GB had had peace for about 100 yrs prev to WWI
problems within the empire, but no wars
previously constantly at war with Frnc
most powerful and wealthy country in the world at that time
highest standard of living, healthiest people
GB believed that war was a thing of the past—that they had established peace
We (U.S.) have a tendency to view war as moral conflict b/t good and evil—God and Satan, essentially
WWI was fought b/t abt 40 mi b/t France and Belgium (trenches)
gases used in trenches
effects lasted yrs and yrs
role of U.S.:
53,000 casualties
Amer perspective: “aw crap, we've gotta go save Britain again”
Brit persp: “Johnny come late.”
not a moral war.
Ex: cooks exchanging recipes, Christmas Eve celebration
ended bc both sides were totally exhausted and couldn't suffer any more casualties
often stated that God was one of the casualties – faith
WWII:
Germany got short end of stick
blamed largely for WWI
in Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to admit guilt
$40 Bill. Reparations due from Germany
hyper inflation
Sept, '39 – May '40 – not much fighting, but some gunfire
Hitler: “Give us the continent (incl Russia) and you can have the rest of the world.”
Churchill refused
England sent armada of little boats to pick up soldiers
May 29, 1940
Britain alone against Luftwaffe
Churchill gave speech declaring their aims against Germany
Hitler hated it – began 80 day war of personalities b/t the two
began preparations for operation Sea Lion – German Navy to take out Royal Air Force
RAF – only 1200 pilots
Battle of Britain
RAF was very effective, but couldn't afford losses
for every 1 RAF loss, there were 2.5 Germ. Losses
Sept. 7 – German Luftwaffe invades, supasses London, bombs civillian areas
50-60,000 Britons killed
although many civillians were killed, it gave RAF chance to recover and rest; retrain, etc.
Vaughan Williams
brought up in very affluent family
enlisted in WWI as ambulence man – carrying stretchers
horrific experiences
people who heard his music before said his music was never the same
Commissioned to write Dona Nobis Pacem as WWII was brewing
chose texts from several scs
began with mass, then moved to Walt Whitman poem (Whitman served as nurse during Amer. Civil War)
Went around and recorded people singing English Folk songs that had not been written down
much of his music sounds like English folk songs
Friday, June 4, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Canterbury!
Enchanting place, that one. After a nice lunch at Pizza Express with Heather, Emily, and Nick, the group took a tour of the Cathedral of Canterbury (the equivalent of...Temple Square for the Anglican Church, you might say, since that is where the head Archbishop resides), which was quite nice. It was an actual tourguide, which really made the cathedral come to life for me. I loved being able to ask him questions and get his take on things. There is a ton of history in that cathedral. My favorite stories from the cathedral:
When Oliver Cromwell was ridding England of all fancy piety, he had his men break all of the stained glass they could reach in the cathedral. They had fairly tall ladders, but could not reach all the windows, such as the ones a few stories up. So the top windows are from the 1200s and the bottom ones are from the 1600s. Beautiful stained glass. I'd say it's just as pretty as Saint Chapel in Paris, but the entire sides of the cathedral aren't covered in glass like Saint Chapel is.
The other story had to do with World War II. The Luftwaffe dropped tons of incendiary bombs on th cathedral and they actually had employees who would stay up there and kick off the bombs. Pretty incredible stuff. And amazingly enough, the cathedral was totally untouched through the war.
Really gorgeous place. Tons of history.
After, we went to an abbey that was totally destroyed in the bombings. It was cool. Really pretty. Not too much more to say about that.
And we went punting on a manmade canal and it was pretty. And then we went to a sung Eucharist at the cathedral. The choir was....well, bad.
And back to the flats to....well, I don't really remember. Must not have been terribly momentous.
Canterbury!
Enchanting place, that one. After a nice lunch at Pizza Express with Heather, Emily, and Nick, the group took a tour of the Cathedral of Canterbury (the equivalent of...Temple Square for the Anglican Church, you might say, since that is where the head Archbishop resides), which was quite nice. It was an actual tourguide, which really made the cathedral come to life for me. I loved being able to ask him questions and get his take on things. There is a ton of history in that cathedral. My favorite stories from the cathedral:
When Oliver Cromwell was ridding England of all fancy piety, he had his men break all of the stained glass they could reach in the cathedral. They had fairly tall ladders, but could not reach all the windows, such as the ones a few stories up. So the top windows are from the 1200s and the bottom ones are from the 1600s. Beautiful stained glass. I'd say it's just as pretty as Saint Chapel in Paris, but the entire sides of the cathedral aren't covered in glass like Saint Chapel is.
The other story had to do with World War II. The Luftwaffe dropped tons of incendiary bombs on th cathedral and they actually had employees who would stay up there and kick off the bombs. Pretty incredible stuff. And amazingly enough, the cathedral was totally untouched through the war.
Really gorgeous place. Tons of history.
After, we went to an abbey that was totally destroyed in the bombings. It was cool. Really pretty. Not too much more to say about that.
And we went punting on a manmade canal and it was pretty. And then we went to a sung Eucharist at the cathedral. The choir was....well, bad.
And back to the flats to....well, I don't really remember. Must not have been terribly momentous.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
And this is the full record of the day. It was a GREAT day, full of culture and learning.
I woke up at a leisurely hour and hit the road with Michelle, Scott, and Jessica to go get tickets for “All My Sons.” After getting over there, the four of us split into two groups and Jessica and I went to exchange her Macbeth tickets for a different day, after which we went to the British Library, where we saw such things as original Beatles sheet music, the earliest known manuscripts of Bible passages, an original score of Handel's Messiah (which he composed in 24 days....WHAT?), one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, among other original religious works. It was really fantastic.
I've been thinking about museums a lot lately. We go to them to see things and learn about them. But most of those things we find in museums we can also find on the internet. I guess the question is “what do you actually gain from seeing the item in person? People say (and I include myself in this) that it's just not the same as seeing the things in person. Perhaps it is similar to what happens to us when we hear live music—some endorphins get going in our head and it makes us all tingly inside. Whatever it is, it keeps us going back for more.
After the library, we had to skiddaddle like crazy monkies to get back to the theater for the matinee of “All My Sons,” largley because the tube map didn't show some critical information to our arriving at our destination. Anyway, we made it with a few minutes to spare and all was well.
Let me just say upfront that “All My Sons” on West End was THE best, most masterful acting I have EVER seen on stage and maybe in my life. It BLEW me away. All the actors were so incredibly saturated into their characters. They knew every singly knook and cranny of their characters and were so good at simply living on stage. They merely existed and were so believable. And I cannot even say just how amazingly spot-on their acting was. The script was just fantastically written. I can not get over how much Miller packed into one script. He was an absolutely phenomenal playwright. It is easily the best stage performance I have ever seen. I am still reeling from it as I write this entry three days later.
After being totally and completely stunned by the production, we went to get Thai food at a restaurant near China town. My dish was good, but not phenomenal. Jessica, who doesn't like spicy food at all got a green curry, which was quite spicy, but fantastic. So we basically traded. Both ended up quite pleased with the other's dish.
And off we went to see Tosca at the English National Opera. Beautiful music. Great voices. Not phenomenal, but good. I'll tell you what though, Puccini could flat out write music. Dang. That man could write emotion. All the operas by the ENO are done in English, which I honestly found a bit distracting. Since the music wasn't written originally to be sung in English, it ended up sounding a bit awkward. However, the plot was gripping for me.
And then back to the flats for a chill evening.
And this is the full record of the day. It was a GREAT day, full of culture and learning.
I woke up at a leisurely hour and hit the road with Michelle, Scott, and Jessica to go get tickets for “All My Sons.” After getting over there, the four of us split into two groups and Jessica and I went to exchange her Macbeth tickets for a different day, after which we went to the British Library, where we saw such things as original Beatles sheet music, the earliest known manuscripts of Bible passages, an original score of Handel's Messiah (which he composed in 24 days....WHAT?), one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, among other original religious works. It was really fantastic.
I've been thinking about museums a lot lately. We go to them to see things and learn about them. But most of those things we find in museums we can also find on the internet. I guess the question is “what do you actually gain from seeing the item in person? People say (and I include myself in this) that it's just not the same as seeing the things in person. Perhaps it is similar to what happens to us when we hear live music—some endorphins get going in our head and it makes us all tingly inside. Whatever it is, it keeps us going back for more.
After the library, we had to skiddaddle like crazy monkies to get back to the theater for the matinee of “All My Sons,” largley because the tube map didn't show some critical information to our arriving at our destination. Anyway, we made it with a few minutes to spare and all was well.
Let me just say upfront that “All My Sons” on West End was THE best, most masterful acting I have EVER seen on stage and maybe in my life. It BLEW me away. All the actors were so incredibly saturated into their characters. They knew every singly knook and cranny of their characters and were so good at simply living on stage. They merely existed and were so believable. And I cannot even say just how amazingly spot-on their acting was. The script was just fantastically written. I can not get over how much Miller packed into one script. He was an absolutely phenomenal playwright. It is easily the best stage performance I have ever seen. I am still reeling from it as I write this entry three days later.
After being totally and completely stunned by the production, we went to get Thai food at a restaurant near China town. My dish was good, but not phenomenal. Jessica, who doesn't like spicy food at all got a green curry, which was quite spicy, but fantastic. So we basically traded. Both ended up quite pleased with the other's dish.
And off we went to see Tosca at the English National Opera. Beautiful music. Great voices. Not phenomenal, but good. I'll tell you what though, Puccini could flat out write music. Dang. That man could write emotion. All the operas by the ENO are done in English, which I honestly found a bit distracting. Since the music wasn't written originally to be sung in English, it ended up sounding a bit awkward. However, the plot was gripping for me.
And then back to the flats for a chill evening.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Wednesday, June 4, 2010
Wednesday, June 4, 2010
So on Friday, it is Poppy Day, which is a holiday the UK celebrates to commemorate the two World Wars. We are going to the Imperial War Museum after a class of learning about the wars. I am super excited for it. In preparation for that day, they've asked us to write down our feelings about the wars and then research the causes of those wars.
So here are my feelings about the wars:
World War I:
World War I was such a long time that it is much harder for me to be personally invested in it than I personally invest myself in WWII. Nevertheless, when I read about WWI, I am absolutely blown away by the things they suffered through. Trench warfare just sounds like a terribly miserable experience. I think about all the standing water, as well as the gas bombs, the regular bombs and the schrapnel from them. It was just so unsanitary. I feel like war back then was just about as miserable experience as you could have. Now, it is pretty easy for the Army to set up shelters and the like to create an environment that is a bit more comfortable than it was then. Those guys suffered. I can't even imagine the amount of sickness there was in those trenches. And not only there, but also life was also super rough in other parts of the war. I've seen films on World War I pilots and the planes then were still super new (only 10-15 years old) and there were still a ton of problems with them and the firearms they used. It was just so elementary.
As far as how WWI impacts my life, it does, but I don't consciously think about its effects like I do WWII's effects on my life. I suppose there have been far fewer media productions on WWI, so I appreciate it much less because I know so much less about it. I am excited to go research it, learn about it on Friday, and see things from it in the Imperial Museum.
And now feelings on WWII:
Wow. So many thoughts. I have learned so much about WWII that I actually have some kind of idea how it affects my life. For some reason, I am fascinated by what happened to a country under the power of a powerful, charismatic, wicked man. There was so much sadness that he brought about to millions and millions of people.
I first think about the concentration camps and the suffering the Jews went through there. I have been to the Holocaust Museum in DC and it was truly moving. Such abject humiliation was thrusted upon them. I think about the Nazis and what must have gone through their minds as they assisted in the treatment and killing of the prisoners—surely some of them had to have felt totally lost as to what to do. They had to have dealt with immense amounts of guilt as they inflicted the pain on those poor people.
Lastly, I think of the soldiers who fought for the liberty of so many people. I remember watching Saving Private Ryan and seeing the immense courage the soldiers had to face bullets literally coming straight at their heads. Oh, how that must have been terrifying. They were not ordinary men, even if they were just like any other ordinary kid on the street. Those men had heart and impeccable courage.
I meant to write about an experience I had a few weeks ago when we went to Cambridge, but somehow never did. We stopped at a memorial for American soldiers who were stationed in Britain during WWII and died in the fighting, especially pilots who flew over the Channel to fight over France. It was a moving cemetery, with all the white crosses marking their graves, as well as a chapel dedicated to them, a wall with all their names on it, and an American flag. I felt quite a bit of reverence as I walked along the wall and into the chapel, but the really powerful experience came for me when I stepped onto the grass and among the graves of those soldiers. I could feel them. I have, on few occasions, held anyone in such high regard. And certainly not anyone my own age. Those men died so that so many others could live. I could feel the honor they felt in having fought for that freedom; the sadness they felt for what was happening in the world at the time; the happiness that we still honored what they and others did for the world. Who knows what would have happened if they had not done what they did. They saved thousands, millions. I thank my Heavenly Father for their sacrifice.
And now the causes:
WWI:
1879 – The Dual Alliance – Germany and Austria-Hungary form an alliance to protect themselves from Russia.
1881 – The Austro-Serbian Alliance – Austria-Hungary makes an alliance with Serbia to prevent Russia from taking over Serbia
1882 – The Triple Alliance – Germany and Austria-Hungary make an alliance with Italy to stop Italy from taking sides with Russia.
1894 – Russia forms an alliance with France to protect itself from Germany and Austria-Hungary.
1904 – Entente Cordiale – Agreement, not formal alliance between France and England, stating that they would thenceforth co-exist peacefully, unlike the past....forever.
1907 – Anglo-Russian Entente – This was basically an earlier version of the Cold War, but between the two, though they hadn't had any real conflicts. But it was an unspoken rivalry they knew would eventually boil over into a real conflict, so they thought they would stop the conflict before it happened.
1914 – Triple Entente – England, France, and Russia all agreed not to sign for peace separately. This basically formed an alliance that would counter Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. Other countries influenced this agreement, including the US.
And then Serbian revolutionary Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in August, 1914. And all hell broke loose. Essentially, the gun had been loaded for years, but the trigger simply needed to be pulled, which this assassination did. It was simply a huge blame game once the trigger was pulled on Ferdinand and wife, and people needed an excuse to get involved. And then all of Europe is at war. Bad news bears, I tell you.
World War II:
After the ending treaties of World War I, Germany was in a pretty sorry state. Before the war, there were 4.7 Francks to the dollar; at the end there were about 4.7 trillion Francks to the dollar. They were in dire need of a leader who could pull them out of the abyss in which they found themselves. And along came Hitler, a blastedly charismatic and idealistic man who presented a stance so convincingly that he got much of the country rallying behind him. Setting up a fascist dictatorship, Hitler created a country where he ruled with an iron fist and he simply got his way. Starting in 1933, he started building up the army and weaponry, as well as made military service compulsory.
In 1936, Hitler's troops invaded Prussia. Hitler also made two important alliances that year: the Rome Berlin Axis Pact, which allied Italy to Germany, as well as the Anti-Comitern Pact, allying Japan to Germany.
In 1938, Germany started reclaiming lands lost from the results of World War I, starting with Austria. In a vote forced on the country, 99% of the people said they wanted to be part of Germany. Hitler promised this would be the end of his expansion, but within six months, he was back on the move, taking back the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain met with Hitler, drawing up the Munich Agreement, stating that Hitler would stop there or risk war. Hitler again broke his word in March, 1939 and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. France and England knew they could not stand idly by, so they agreed that if Hitler invaded Poland, they would intervene. And that he did, in August of 1939.
And all hell broke loose again, involving country after country.
And the last part of the assignment is to write down all the choral pieces I know that are about war. They're not many, but here goes:
War Requiem, by Benjamin Britten
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Yankee Doodle
Un Soir de Neige – Poulenc
Star Spangled Banner
Dona Nobis Pacem – Vaughan Williams
Onward Christian Soldiers
Flander's Fields - Aitken
So on Friday, it is Poppy Day, which is a holiday the UK celebrates to commemorate the two World Wars. We are going to the Imperial War Museum after a class of learning about the wars. I am super excited for it. In preparation for that day, they've asked us to write down our feelings about the wars and then research the causes of those wars.
So here are my feelings about the wars:
World War I:
World War I was such a long time that it is much harder for me to be personally invested in it than I personally invest myself in WWII. Nevertheless, when I read about WWI, I am absolutely blown away by the things they suffered through. Trench warfare just sounds like a terribly miserable experience. I think about all the standing water, as well as the gas bombs, the regular bombs and the schrapnel from them. It was just so unsanitary. I feel like war back then was just about as miserable experience as you could have. Now, it is pretty easy for the Army to set up shelters and the like to create an environment that is a bit more comfortable than it was then. Those guys suffered. I can't even imagine the amount of sickness there was in those trenches. And not only there, but also life was also super rough in other parts of the war. I've seen films on World War I pilots and the planes then were still super new (only 10-15 years old) and there were still a ton of problems with them and the firearms they used. It was just so elementary.
As far as how WWI impacts my life, it does, but I don't consciously think about its effects like I do WWII's effects on my life. I suppose there have been far fewer media productions on WWI, so I appreciate it much less because I know so much less about it. I am excited to go research it, learn about it on Friday, and see things from it in the Imperial Museum.
And now feelings on WWII:
Wow. So many thoughts. I have learned so much about WWII that I actually have some kind of idea how it affects my life. For some reason, I am fascinated by what happened to a country under the power of a powerful, charismatic, wicked man. There was so much sadness that he brought about to millions and millions of people.
I first think about the concentration camps and the suffering the Jews went through there. I have been to the Holocaust Museum in DC and it was truly moving. Such abject humiliation was thrusted upon them. I think about the Nazis and what must have gone through their minds as they assisted in the treatment and killing of the prisoners—surely some of them had to have felt totally lost as to what to do. They had to have dealt with immense amounts of guilt as they inflicted the pain on those poor people.
Lastly, I think of the soldiers who fought for the liberty of so many people. I remember watching Saving Private Ryan and seeing the immense courage the soldiers had to face bullets literally coming straight at their heads. Oh, how that must have been terrifying. They were not ordinary men, even if they were just like any other ordinary kid on the street. Those men had heart and impeccable courage.
I meant to write about an experience I had a few weeks ago when we went to Cambridge, but somehow never did. We stopped at a memorial for American soldiers who were stationed in Britain during WWII and died in the fighting, especially pilots who flew over the Channel to fight over France. It was a moving cemetery, with all the white crosses marking their graves, as well as a chapel dedicated to them, a wall with all their names on it, and an American flag. I felt quite a bit of reverence as I walked along the wall and into the chapel, but the really powerful experience came for me when I stepped onto the grass and among the graves of those soldiers. I could feel them. I have, on few occasions, held anyone in such high regard. And certainly not anyone my own age. Those men died so that so many others could live. I could feel the honor they felt in having fought for that freedom; the sadness they felt for what was happening in the world at the time; the happiness that we still honored what they and others did for the world. Who knows what would have happened if they had not done what they did. They saved thousands, millions. I thank my Heavenly Father for their sacrifice.
And now the causes:
WWI:
1879 – The Dual Alliance – Germany and Austria-Hungary form an alliance to protect themselves from Russia.
1881 – The Austro-Serbian Alliance – Austria-Hungary makes an alliance with Serbia to prevent Russia from taking over Serbia
1882 – The Triple Alliance – Germany and Austria-Hungary make an alliance with Italy to stop Italy from taking sides with Russia.
1894 – Russia forms an alliance with France to protect itself from Germany and Austria-Hungary.
1904 – Entente Cordiale – Agreement, not formal alliance between France and England, stating that they would thenceforth co-exist peacefully, unlike the past....forever.
1907 – Anglo-Russian Entente – This was basically an earlier version of the Cold War, but between the two, though they hadn't had any real conflicts. But it was an unspoken rivalry they knew would eventually boil over into a real conflict, so they thought they would stop the conflict before it happened.
1914 – Triple Entente – England, France, and Russia all agreed not to sign for peace separately. This basically formed an alliance that would counter Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. Other countries influenced this agreement, including the US.
And then Serbian revolutionary Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in August, 1914. And all hell broke loose. Essentially, the gun had been loaded for years, but the trigger simply needed to be pulled, which this assassination did. It was simply a huge blame game once the trigger was pulled on Ferdinand and wife, and people needed an excuse to get involved. And then all of Europe is at war. Bad news bears, I tell you.
World War II:
After the ending treaties of World War I, Germany was in a pretty sorry state. Before the war, there were 4.7 Francks to the dollar; at the end there were about 4.7 trillion Francks to the dollar. They were in dire need of a leader who could pull them out of the abyss in which they found themselves. And along came Hitler, a blastedly charismatic and idealistic man who presented a stance so convincingly that he got much of the country rallying behind him. Setting up a fascist dictatorship, Hitler created a country where he ruled with an iron fist and he simply got his way. Starting in 1933, he started building up the army and weaponry, as well as made military service compulsory.
In 1936, Hitler's troops invaded Prussia. Hitler also made two important alliances that year: the Rome Berlin Axis Pact, which allied Italy to Germany, as well as the Anti-Comitern Pact, allying Japan to Germany.
In 1938, Germany started reclaiming lands lost from the results of World War I, starting with Austria. In a vote forced on the country, 99% of the people said they wanted to be part of Germany. Hitler promised this would be the end of his expansion, but within six months, he was back on the move, taking back the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Britain met with Hitler, drawing up the Munich Agreement, stating that Hitler would stop there or risk war. Hitler again broke his word in March, 1939 and invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. France and England knew they could not stand idly by, so they agreed that if Hitler invaded Poland, they would intervene. And that he did, in August of 1939.
And all hell broke loose again, involving country after country.
And the last part of the assignment is to write down all the choral pieces I know that are about war. They're not many, but here goes:
War Requiem, by Benjamin Britten
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Yankee Doodle
Un Soir de Neige – Poulenc
Star Spangled Banner
Dona Nobis Pacem – Vaughan Williams
Onward Christian Soldiers
Flander's Fields - Aitken
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, June 2
Tuesday, June 2
Great day again! I love it when those happen in succession!
We started off the day with a workshop by Paul Spicer, the conductor of the Finzi Singers, which is a professional choir here. A fantastic one at that. He taught a lot about directing technique (not conducting) and how to teach singing, as well as some of his personal teaching methods. It was super interesting. So that was the first session. The second was about the Finzi Singers, which was totally awesome, because we got to hear recordings of a whole lot of their stuff. Then lunch. Third session was about music and spirituality. It was super hard to stay awake because it was right after lunch, it was mighty warm in the chapel, he was largely reading his presentation, and honestly, a whole lot of it was over my head. So I didn't do so well on the whole staying awake thing during that session. After that, I took a nap, so I could be awake for the fourth session, which was about George Dysis and Herbert Howells, which I liked quite a bit. He read most of it, which I didn't particularly enjoy, but it had some good stuff (Spicer wrote biographies on the two men.).
Anyway, I really liked the day in class, though it was a little long (till 4:30). I really liked him, and I was actually thinking about how much I've liked so many Britons. They are just so wonderfully open, warm and frienly. I really enjoy them because they are simply so pleasant! I think they have maintained a real faith in humanity, whereas we Americans have lost much of our faith in the natural goodness of people.
I was talking about this with Chris and he pointed out how British people on the whole are not a terribly competitive people. He used the choral society to illustrate this. Here, there are levels for every skill set of choral singing, so you simply find where you fit in, and sing there. But I've never heard of anyone moving up on the ladder of choral singing. They only stay about where they are. In the US, we hear about people advancing all the time, because it is built into our systems to advance and to be a bit cut-throat. Because of that, we come to distrust people in general, because we are convinced they are out to get us in some way or other. However, British people instinctively trust people, and it shows through the way they treat total strangers; they are kind, gentle, warm, and cordial. It's just a blasted pleasure to talk with them. Anyway, enough on that.
After class, I went to wait in line to get tickets for a play called “London Assurance.” Scott, Michelle, and I ended up getting in, but we paid a pretty penny for the tickets—44 lbs. But frankly, it was worth it. It was some of the best comedic theatre I've ever seen. Just fantastic stuff. It reminded me quite a bit of “The Importance of Being Ernest,” but with more deceit, more clever writing, more puns, and more farce. So basically, a glorified version of “Ernest.” It was absolutely hysterical. It certainly kept our minds racing the entire time, just trying to keep up with their lines and puns. It was great fun. And we actually saw some pretty famous film actors in it too! Aunt Petunia, from Harry Potter, as well as the main servant in A Knight's Tale. Pretty cool stuff.
And then on home! Great day.
Great day again! I love it when those happen in succession!
We started off the day with a workshop by Paul Spicer, the conductor of the Finzi Singers, which is a professional choir here. A fantastic one at that. He taught a lot about directing technique (not conducting) and how to teach singing, as well as some of his personal teaching methods. It was super interesting. So that was the first session. The second was about the Finzi Singers, which was totally awesome, because we got to hear recordings of a whole lot of their stuff. Then lunch. Third session was about music and spirituality. It was super hard to stay awake because it was right after lunch, it was mighty warm in the chapel, he was largely reading his presentation, and honestly, a whole lot of it was over my head. So I didn't do so well on the whole staying awake thing during that session. After that, I took a nap, so I could be awake for the fourth session, which was about George Dysis and Herbert Howells, which I liked quite a bit. He read most of it, which I didn't particularly enjoy, but it had some good stuff (Spicer wrote biographies on the two men.).
Anyway, I really liked the day in class, though it was a little long (till 4:30). I really liked him, and I was actually thinking about how much I've liked so many Britons. They are just so wonderfully open, warm and frienly. I really enjoy them because they are simply so pleasant! I think they have maintained a real faith in humanity, whereas we Americans have lost much of our faith in the natural goodness of people.
I was talking about this with Chris and he pointed out how British people on the whole are not a terribly competitive people. He used the choral society to illustrate this. Here, there are levels for every skill set of choral singing, so you simply find where you fit in, and sing there. But I've never heard of anyone moving up on the ladder of choral singing. They only stay about where they are. In the US, we hear about people advancing all the time, because it is built into our systems to advance and to be a bit cut-throat. Because of that, we come to distrust people in general, because we are convinced they are out to get us in some way or other. However, British people instinctively trust people, and it shows through the way they treat total strangers; they are kind, gentle, warm, and cordial. It's just a blasted pleasure to talk with them. Anyway, enough on that.
After class, I went to wait in line to get tickets for a play called “London Assurance.” Scott, Michelle, and I ended up getting in, but we paid a pretty penny for the tickets—44 lbs. But frankly, it was worth it. It was some of the best comedic theatre I've ever seen. Just fantastic stuff. It reminded me quite a bit of “The Importance of Being Ernest,” but with more deceit, more clever writing, more puns, and more farce. So basically, a glorified version of “Ernest.” It was absolutely hysterical. It certainly kept our minds racing the entire time, just trying to keep up with their lines and puns. It was great fun. And we actually saw some pretty famous film actors in it too! Aunt Petunia, from Harry Potter, as well as the main servant in A Knight's Tale. Pretty cool stuff.
And then on home! Great day.
Monday, June 1st
Monday, June 1st
Rather enjoyable day today!
Yesterday I met some Brasilians at church and they invited me over to their hourse for a churrasco (Brasilian barbecue. I just realized I wrote about this yesterday. Oops.). After a chill morning of planning the rest of my time here, I took off to the area where we would have the churrasco. It was out in the Wimbledon area, which is absolutely GORGEOUS. It reminded me a whole lot of Indian Hill, actually, for all y'all Cincinnatians out there. For those not from Cincinnati, it was heavily forested and had large, luscious homes. It was such a fantastic place. It was a bit removed from the city and felt like a legitimate suburb. It was SO incredibly green and gorgeous. I loved it. It was a bit of a culture shock for me. On one hand, I was in London, doing the whole England thing; but on the other, I was hanging out with Brasilians, doing Brasilian things, like churrascando and speaking Portuguese. It was pretty funny.
Anyway, it was really fun to be with Brasilians, as always. They're such a good time. I even love just talking with them. They're so warm and welcoming. I am so happy I got to know that culture on my mission. They will forever bless my life through their example.
After the churrasco, I headed over to meet friends Emilie, Haley, and Chris to see “Legally Blonde, the Musical.” It was SO much fun! A bit irreverent at times, but it was just a blast overall. The stage totally exploded with energy any time they opened their mouths! And absolute blast. I loved it! I mean, it's not my favorite musical, and I probably don't need to see it again, but I still liked it quite a bit. The first act was a lot of light-heartedness and I actually was starting to get a little tired of it, but the second act got some more grounding and the show totally worked. And I laughed my pants off. It was ridiculous. We had a really good time.
Fun day.
Rather enjoyable day today!
Yesterday I met some Brasilians at church and they invited me over to their hourse for a churrasco (Brasilian barbecue. I just realized I wrote about this yesterday. Oops.). After a chill morning of planning the rest of my time here, I took off to the area where we would have the churrasco. It was out in the Wimbledon area, which is absolutely GORGEOUS. It reminded me a whole lot of Indian Hill, actually, for all y'all Cincinnatians out there. For those not from Cincinnati, it was heavily forested and had large, luscious homes. It was such a fantastic place. It was a bit removed from the city and felt like a legitimate suburb. It was SO incredibly green and gorgeous. I loved it. It was a bit of a culture shock for me. On one hand, I was in London, doing the whole England thing; but on the other, I was hanging out with Brasilians, doing Brasilian things, like churrascando and speaking Portuguese. It was pretty funny.
Anyway, it was really fun to be with Brasilians, as always. They're such a good time. I even love just talking with them. They're so warm and welcoming. I am so happy I got to know that culture on my mission. They will forever bless my life through their example.
After the churrasco, I headed over to meet friends Emilie, Haley, and Chris to see “Legally Blonde, the Musical.” It was SO much fun! A bit irreverent at times, but it was just a blast overall. The stage totally exploded with energy any time they opened their mouths! And absolute blast. I loved it! I mean, it's not my favorite musical, and I probably don't need to see it again, but I still liked it quite a bit. The first act was a lot of light-heartedness and I actually was starting to get a little tired of it, but the second act got some more grounding and the show totally worked. And I laughed my pants off. It was ridiculous. We had a really good time.
Fun day.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Let's talk about how much I love the Sabbath, shall we? Yes, let us shall.
It is just such a blessed day! It is so refreshing to focus solely on things that matter. While yes, I am reading Following Christ right now and am studying the skips or Conference talks on a daily basis, focusing on Christ and Heavenly Father for the entire day just doesn't really happen terribly often on non-Sabbath days. But when I do focus on them all day long, how I feel the Spirit so strongly! It is so refreshing.
So today was really great. This morning, roommates Chris and Jonnie and I went to Sung Eucharist, where they did Byrd's Mass for Four Voices at St. Bartholomew's church, actually very close to where we saw Peter Pan on Friday night.
The church was gorgeous. It was built in 1123, so the architecture was not as ornate and fancy was many other churches I've seen over here, but I kind of preferred that because it actually preserved the worshipfulness of the chapel, as opposed to focusing on the ornateness or fanciness, etc (I'm pretty sure I've used some words that don't actually exist in the English language in this paragraph). It was relatively small, but big enough that it was still a “legit” european church.
The service was super nice. The Mass for Four Voices is fantastic. William Byrd wrote it after some monarch (who I don't presently remember) came into power and forced everyone to convert to the Anglican Church, but he wanted to remain Catholic. So he continued having underground Catholic services in covert locations with those who wanted to continue in the Catholic tradition. Therefore, the masses for three, four, and five voices are fairly Catholic-sounding (rather than Anglican-sounding) and they are really great because they are also extremely intimate. Often, there would only be a few people at these services Byrd sponsored, so if there were only going to be three people at church the next week, he would write a Mass for Three Voices. If it was only going to be four, Mass for Four Voices. And then he wrote one more for five. I think my favorite is for three. It is just so intimate, yet, at the same time, Byrd manages to make it a bit intricate and really engaging. It's fantastic stuff.
So the choir was only six voices and it just had that intimate sound that I'm sure Byrd heard when he wrote the piece. I really loved it. It was really quite refreshing to hear. Loved it.
After the service, we rushed to the Singles' Ward at Hyde Park, where we had a super good Sacrament Meeting, mainly about dedication to the Lord and gospel study.
After Sunday School, I overheard some Portuguese from two girls just in front of me, so after a little, I asked where they were from in Portuguese, which took them completely off-guard. It was really funny.
And in true Brasilian form, I was immediately their friend and we started planning things to do together. I had had thoughts to go to Bath tomorrow, and they were possibly having a churrasco (Brasilian barbecue), so they were either going to come with me to Bath or I was going to join them for the churrasco. Anyway, it was super fun to speak Portuguese and be among Brasilians. Gotta love them.
After church, I ate my weight in food, since I hadn't had much for breakfast and it was 4:30 by the time I got home. I then went on a walk through Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens with my friend, Heather, which was really quite pleasant. It was the perfect day for a walk—sunny, 68 degrees, slight breeze. Fabulous. I walked most of the way barefoot, which was ever so enjoyable, since we were in the grass most of the time. We enjoyed the weather, the other people in the park, and good conversation. It amounted to a very nice stroll.
And back to the flat for a chill evening of games with friends and some blogging, skyping with the 'rents, and BED. Good night.
Let's talk about how much I love the Sabbath, shall we? Yes, let us shall.
It is just such a blessed day! It is so refreshing to focus solely on things that matter. While yes, I am reading Following Christ right now and am studying the skips or Conference talks on a daily basis, focusing on Christ and Heavenly Father for the entire day just doesn't really happen terribly often on non-Sabbath days. But when I do focus on them all day long, how I feel the Spirit so strongly! It is so refreshing.
So today was really great. This morning, roommates Chris and Jonnie and I went to Sung Eucharist, where they did Byrd's Mass for Four Voices at St. Bartholomew's church, actually very close to where we saw Peter Pan on Friday night.
The church was gorgeous. It was built in 1123, so the architecture was not as ornate and fancy was many other churches I've seen over here, but I kind of preferred that because it actually preserved the worshipfulness of the chapel, as opposed to focusing on the ornateness or fanciness, etc (I'm pretty sure I've used some words that don't actually exist in the English language in this paragraph). It was relatively small, but big enough that it was still a “legit” european church.
The service was super nice. The Mass for Four Voices is fantastic. William Byrd wrote it after some monarch (who I don't presently remember) came into power and forced everyone to convert to the Anglican Church, but he wanted to remain Catholic. So he continued having underground Catholic services in covert locations with those who wanted to continue in the Catholic tradition. Therefore, the masses for three, four, and five voices are fairly Catholic-sounding (rather than Anglican-sounding) and they are really great because they are also extremely intimate. Often, there would only be a few people at these services Byrd sponsored, so if there were only going to be three people at church the next week, he would write a Mass for Three Voices. If it was only going to be four, Mass for Four Voices. And then he wrote one more for five. I think my favorite is for three. It is just so intimate, yet, at the same time, Byrd manages to make it a bit intricate and really engaging. It's fantastic stuff.
So the choir was only six voices and it just had that intimate sound that I'm sure Byrd heard when he wrote the piece. I really loved it. It was really quite refreshing to hear. Loved it.
After the service, we rushed to the Singles' Ward at Hyde Park, where we had a super good Sacrament Meeting, mainly about dedication to the Lord and gospel study.
After Sunday School, I overheard some Portuguese from two girls just in front of me, so after a little, I asked where they were from in Portuguese, which took them completely off-guard. It was really funny.
And in true Brasilian form, I was immediately their friend and we started planning things to do together. I had had thoughts to go to Bath tomorrow, and they were possibly having a churrasco (Brasilian barbecue), so they were either going to come with me to Bath or I was going to join them for the churrasco. Anyway, it was super fun to speak Portuguese and be among Brasilians. Gotta love them.
After church, I ate my weight in food, since I hadn't had much for breakfast and it was 4:30 by the time I got home. I then went on a walk through Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens with my friend, Heather, which was really quite pleasant. It was the perfect day for a walk—sunny, 68 degrees, slight breeze. Fabulous. I walked most of the way barefoot, which was ever so enjoyable, since we were in the grass most of the time. We enjoyed the weather, the other people in the park, and good conversation. It amounted to a very nice stroll.
And back to the flat for a chill evening of games with friends and some blogging, skyping with the 'rents, and BED. Good night.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Fun day! A group of us (Jessica, Danny, Chris Buttars, Nich Herrick, Robert Mc Clellan, Chris Udall and I) rented a car and headed out to Stonehenge and then Portsmouth.
We woke up pretty early and proceeded to wait for a while while everyone got ready, far past the time when we were supposed to leave. Once we finally did leave, we headed out to the airport and grabbed the car. Since we didn't feel like paying extra to have someone “under age” drive, we only had Chris B. drive. It was definitely entertaining watching him figure out how to drive on the left side of the road, from the right hand side of the car. Listening to him say to himself “left, stay left,” every time he went around a turn really never got old. However, he did quite well, and we returned without incident.
So we headed out to Stonehenge, waiting a ridiculous amount of time in traffic (heaven knows for what—once we got on the road to Stonehenge, it wasn't crowded at all) all the way out there. Once we got there, however, the group found out it would be 6 lbs to take the tour and didn't want to go! Ugh. We waited 2.5 hours to get out there just to take a picture and leave? Kind of lame. But they didn't want to go, so I didn't want to force them. We stayed for a bit, I got some nice photos of the English countryside, which is BEAUTIFUL, and we went on our way to Portsmouth.
Because of the traffic on the way out to Stonehenge, plus the long(ish) drives to our stops, we got to Portsmouth just as everything was closing, so we spent the majority of our time just wandering the city, which I loved, of course.
Portsmouth has a great “English sea town” feel to it. It helped that the weather was kind of chilly, rather billowy, and a little rainy at times. It just felt like a true port city, aided of course by the fact that ships were constantly coming in and out of the harbor. There were a few small rock islands just off the coast, which totally reminded me of the scene in the first Harry Potter when they go out to the random rocky isalnd in the sea in the middle of the night. It was so dead-on that scene.
Anyway, we spent a good long time, going from one ruined, historical fort to another, taking lots of photos (soon to come—facebook), and eventually ending up in a pub, where we had some pretty yummy-but-not fantastic food. After dinner, we continued the wanderage around the harbor, which I really did love. It was just so.....seatownesque! I guess I just really love feeling towns. I love getting the feeling of the town. And the cool thing about Europe is that each town is so unique that they really do have a different feel in each town.
And then on home.
Fun day! A group of us (Jessica, Danny, Chris Buttars, Nich Herrick, Robert Mc Clellan, Chris Udall and I) rented a car and headed out to Stonehenge and then Portsmouth.
We woke up pretty early and proceeded to wait for a while while everyone got ready, far past the time when we were supposed to leave. Once we finally did leave, we headed out to the airport and grabbed the car. Since we didn't feel like paying extra to have someone “under age” drive, we only had Chris B. drive. It was definitely entertaining watching him figure out how to drive on the left side of the road, from the right hand side of the car. Listening to him say to himself “left, stay left,” every time he went around a turn really never got old. However, he did quite well, and we returned without incident.
So we headed out to Stonehenge, waiting a ridiculous amount of time in traffic (heaven knows for what—once we got on the road to Stonehenge, it wasn't crowded at all) all the way out there. Once we got there, however, the group found out it would be 6 lbs to take the tour and didn't want to go! Ugh. We waited 2.5 hours to get out there just to take a picture and leave? Kind of lame. But they didn't want to go, so I didn't want to force them. We stayed for a bit, I got some nice photos of the English countryside, which is BEAUTIFUL, and we went on our way to Portsmouth.
Because of the traffic on the way out to Stonehenge, plus the long(ish) drives to our stops, we got to Portsmouth just as everything was closing, so we spent the majority of our time just wandering the city, which I loved, of course.
Portsmouth has a great “English sea town” feel to it. It helped that the weather was kind of chilly, rather billowy, and a little rainy at times. It just felt like a true port city, aided of course by the fact that ships were constantly coming in and out of the harbor. There were a few small rock islands just off the coast, which totally reminded me of the scene in the first Harry Potter when they go out to the random rocky isalnd in the sea in the middle of the night. It was so dead-on that scene.
Anyway, we spent a good long time, going from one ruined, historical fort to another, taking lots of photos (soon to come—facebook), and eventually ending up in a pub, where we had some pretty yummy-but-not fantastic food. After dinner, we continued the wanderage around the harbor, which I really did love. It was just so.....seatownesque! I guess I just really love feeling towns. I love getting the feeling of the town. And the cool thing about Europe is that each town is so unique that they really do have a different feel in each town.
And then on home.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Chill day today. I seem to be having a lot of those lately....
I woke up exorbitantly late (10:37 to be exact) and then headed out to Barbican (on the other side of the Circle line) to get tickets for a new, completely different adaptation of Peter Pan. I then came back to the flat, determined to get caught up on my life, which I did a mediocre job of doing. I had a bunch of days of blogging to do, which I did, but then I was lazy for the next three or four days and it's now Monday and I have to make up for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Anyway, Friday. I blogged, chilled, read the skips, cooked a super yummy lunch of stir fry, and went to the show with Scott, Annalee, and other theater friends of hers. The show was INCREDIBLE. Like I said, it was totally different than all previous concepts of Peter Pan. It was the touring company from Scotland, where the show originated. Therefore, it was all done in Scotish accents, with a lot of celtic culture thrown in the mix. It wasn't a musical, but it did have a lot of celtic music in it. The script was quite a bit deeper and darker than the original script. It made Peter into more than just the hero of the show; he had more emotion and gave the character much more depth and flaws, actually. Hook wore a kilt and also flew, since he Tinker Bell accidentally sprinkled him with fairy dust. Most of the lighting was fairly dark and there was actually a decent amount of violence.
I think the thing that made it work so well was that the actors were totally committed to their characters, the script, the setting, and their movement. They made it work so well. After the show, I commented to my friends that my doubt has never been suspended so quickly as it was in that show. Within seconds of it starting, I was completely sucked into the show and I believed it. I was truly living in a fairy tale world, but IT WASN'T FAIRY TALE!! It was real. Oh, those actors were so, so good. What a fabulous experience. It was the best theater.....I think I've ever seen.
Oh, one more really cool thing was that Tink was literally a ball of fire. Somehow they used pyrotechnics to have this ball float around in the air and dance all ove stage. And it never burned anything, even when they were holding her in their hands. So odd, yet so awesome. Fantastic show.
Chill day today. I seem to be having a lot of those lately....
I woke up exorbitantly late (10:37 to be exact) and then headed out to Barbican (on the other side of the Circle line) to get tickets for a new, completely different adaptation of Peter Pan. I then came back to the flat, determined to get caught up on my life, which I did a mediocre job of doing. I had a bunch of days of blogging to do, which I did, but then I was lazy for the next three or four days and it's now Monday and I have to make up for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Anyway, Friday. I blogged, chilled, read the skips, cooked a super yummy lunch of stir fry, and went to the show with Scott, Annalee, and other theater friends of hers. The show was INCREDIBLE. Like I said, it was totally different than all previous concepts of Peter Pan. It was the touring company from Scotland, where the show originated. Therefore, it was all done in Scotish accents, with a lot of celtic culture thrown in the mix. It wasn't a musical, but it did have a lot of celtic music in it. The script was quite a bit deeper and darker than the original script. It made Peter into more than just the hero of the show; he had more emotion and gave the character much more depth and flaws, actually. Hook wore a kilt and also flew, since he Tinker Bell accidentally sprinkled him with fairy dust. Most of the lighting was fairly dark and there was actually a decent amount of violence.
I think the thing that made it work so well was that the actors were totally committed to their characters, the script, the setting, and their movement. They made it work so well. After the show, I commented to my friends that my doubt has never been suspended so quickly as it was in that show. Within seconds of it starting, I was completely sucked into the show and I believed it. I was truly living in a fairy tale world, but IT WASN'T FAIRY TALE!! It was real. Oh, those actors were so, so good. What a fabulous experience. It was the best theater.....I think I've ever seen.
Oh, one more really cool thing was that Tink was literally a ball of fire. Somehow they used pyrotechnics to have this ball float around in the air and dance all ove stage. And it never burned anything, even when they were holding her in their hands. So odd, yet so awesome. Fantastic show.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Good day today! We started our five-day weekend today, so I got to sleep in late. We went to see Henry VIII at the Globe for only 5 pounds, which was great. It was a pretty good show. They actually opened the run of the show with our performance, so we were their first audience. I was mostly pleased with the performance. There were some pretty fanastic actors who were big and showy, but still totally emotionally grounded and connected, which made their showiness totally work. It was refreshing to see that after some bad showiness in The Lion King a couple weeks ago.
The show itself was interesting. I had never read or seen it, but enjoyed seeing the story on stage. I am curious to know how Shakespeare got away with writing and performing it back in that day; it was awfully critical of the Court and Church.
After, half of our group went to see John Mayer and Scott and I went to Jersey Boys. We went to the theater, got 5th row seats for a great price and then went to get Chinese food in Chinatown, which was really close (the theater is in Soho). It was really quite good. I enjoyed the dinner a whole lot. I am really glad that Scott and I have gotten to be friends on this trip. He's a different kind of friend than I've had in a long time and I'm really grateful for him. He is super grounded and down-to-earth, but also can get down and have a good time, which is really great. We can have really great conversations, but he also has no problem being light-hearted. He is a really great friend for me to have.
Anyway, Jersey Boys. Talk about a disappointment! Holy cow, it was so half-hearted. The music was good, the singing, good, but the actors did NOT “go there.” I was really irritated. They just never really peeked in terms of energy and never really got to where the show asks them to go. I was really looking forward to seeing the show after having such a good experience in Chicago, but they really let me down. And they definitely had the potential to do it. So I'm only two for four as far as good shows on West End goes. Pretty disappointing, really. I noticed something today, actually: most of the musicals on West End right now are mere crowd-pleasers. The shows themselves have very little heart. Most of them are shows like Jersey Boys, Mama Mia, Lion King, and the like. I certainly think there is a place for those shows, but they also need grounded shows that have real heart.
After the show, we came back to the flate and I dilly dallied about for a while and now I'm here. Pretty enjoyable day.
Good day today! We started our five-day weekend today, so I got to sleep in late. We went to see Henry VIII at the Globe for only 5 pounds, which was great. It was a pretty good show. They actually opened the run of the show with our performance, so we were their first audience. I was mostly pleased with the performance. There were some pretty fanastic actors who were big and showy, but still totally emotionally grounded and connected, which made their showiness totally work. It was refreshing to see that after some bad showiness in The Lion King a couple weeks ago.
The show itself was interesting. I had never read or seen it, but enjoyed seeing the story on stage. I am curious to know how Shakespeare got away with writing and performing it back in that day; it was awfully critical of the Court and Church.
After, half of our group went to see John Mayer and Scott and I went to Jersey Boys. We went to the theater, got 5th row seats for a great price and then went to get Chinese food in Chinatown, which was really close (the theater is in Soho). It was really quite good. I enjoyed the dinner a whole lot. I am really glad that Scott and I have gotten to be friends on this trip. He's a different kind of friend than I've had in a long time and I'm really grateful for him. He is super grounded and down-to-earth, but also can get down and have a good time, which is really great. We can have really great conversations, but he also has no problem being light-hearted. He is a really great friend for me to have.
Anyway, Jersey Boys. Talk about a disappointment! Holy cow, it was so half-hearted. The music was good, the singing, good, but the actors did NOT “go there.” I was really irritated. They just never really peeked in terms of energy and never really got to where the show asks them to go. I was really looking forward to seeing the show after having such a good experience in Chicago, but they really let me down. And they definitely had the potential to do it. So I'm only two for four as far as good shows on West End goes. Pretty disappointing, really. I noticed something today, actually: most of the musicals on West End right now are mere crowd-pleasers. The shows themselves have very little heart. Most of them are shows like Jersey Boys, Mama Mia, Lion King, and the like. I certainly think there is a place for those shows, but they also need grounded shows that have real heart.
After the show, we came back to the flate and I dilly dallied about for a while and now I'm here. Pretty enjoyable day.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Cool day today. Class this morning was really intense. We went through the most notable British composers of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, including CHH Parry, Charles Stanford, Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, and Benjamin Britten.
The most notable composer/piece from the day for me was Elgar's “There is Sweet Music.” It is a piece that is written in one key for the women and another for the men. The effect is absolutely incredible. I was just totally blown away as we listened to it in class. It is a must-have in my opinion. The poetry, by Tennyson, speaks of music bringing sleep and by the end of the piece, the listener is almost guaranteed to be at total piece, and if given the option, would probably nod off.
Another incredible piece was Howells' requiem. Concert Choir did the first movement of it last year, “Salvator Mundi.” It was a really cool piece then and I really enjoyed it, but I had no idea it was such an amazing piece till today. It completely wowed me. Another must-have.
And the last was Finzi's “Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice.” Finzi is an absolute genius. He has such a way with rhythms that it makes it sound like there is no time signature and the choir simply knows when and how to move together at the exact same time. I noticed this in one of the pieces we sang this year in Singers, “Wherefore Tonight, so Full of Care.” He is masterful.
After class, I came home, made some lunch, and headed off to Tate Modern Art Museum. There was some really fantastic stuff there. There was, of course, a lot of stuff I didn't understand, but those things, I feel, give me such an opportunity to discover what the artist was thinking.
Today in class, someone made a comment that he connected emotionally much more easily with the 19th and 20th century composers' music. Dr. Staheli offered the explanation that the reason for that was that as music was becoming more and more contemporary, the composers had many more colors and musical ideas to choose from than earlier composers from the classical and baroque eras, so they could paint emotions much more easily. Perhaps we connect with the pieces because they better mirror modern thinking than older music. Anyway, having had that discussion in class, I think I discovered why I enjoy modern art so much—they have so many more media, ideologies, and colors (figuratively and literally) from which to choose. That makes their art, I feel, much more emotionally connected...or communicative. I feel like they can better express themselves because they have so much more on their palette they can use.
Anyway, I reinforced my affinity for Gerhard Richter, as well as a few other artists I've seen before, but whose names I do not presently remember. It was a really cool experience to go there. I loved going by myself; I think museums (shouldn't the plural of museum be musea? Medium → media, museum--> musea?) should be done alone because everyone has very different interests and preferences and moves at different paces. It's just too hard to please everyone and their likings, etc.
I had to leave the Tate a little early to get to the Holst Singers' concert of the Bach Motets at Temple Church (da Vinci Code). I was disappointed because I didn't get to see the entire museum and was really enjoying myself. I'll most likely go back another day.
The concert was really pretty good. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I meant to write this last week, but Bach is really redeeming the Baroque period for me. His choral stuff is really fantastic. There is tons going on all the time, but I no longer see it as just frills and superfluousness (osity?). Now that we have analyzed his music a bit, it makes much more sense to me and I can now understand what he was trying to do with his music. His cello stuff also is fantastic. The choir had a cellist playing the bass (vocal) line the entire time, in addition to the organ, and they broke up the motets with pieces from the Back Cello Suites, which I absolutely loved. The cellist was fantastic. Such a good Baroque player, though I thought his tempos in his first set made him a bit inarticulate and slightly sloppy.
I am starting to really enjoy the English choral sound. There is just so much color to it. Scott and I were talking about it today and we decided it is because they are so unafraid and are willing to take risks with their sound. In the States, many people in choirs are in choirs not because they are extraordinary musicians or soloists, but because they want to make music in a friendly atmosphere. Scott said today “you know, we are not as good as we think we are. We have the potential to be as good as we think we are, but we are not there yet.” And I agree with him. Many people back off of their own individual sound so they can blend into the choir. Blending is so important—don't get me wrong. But like I wrote about the Tallis Scholars earlier, I think creating a fusion of voices by singing into the blend is more important. And that takes guts to do. You have to really go out onto a limb, with your own sound, to do it. I started doing that toward the end of the year and as I listen to our recordings, I can tell a difference in our sectional sound. And frankly, I like it more!
Anyway, Scott, Michelle, and I stopped on our way home at this fantastic dessert place and got some ridiculously decadent desserts that basically blew my mind.
Then we watched “Stranger than Fiction.” Blessedly good film. Can't help but love Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffmann.
Whoah, that was a long blog entry. Hope you liked it.
Cool day today. Class this morning was really intense. We went through the most notable British composers of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, including CHH Parry, Charles Stanford, Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells, Gerald Finzi, and Benjamin Britten.
The most notable composer/piece from the day for me was Elgar's “There is Sweet Music.” It is a piece that is written in one key for the women and another for the men. The effect is absolutely incredible. I was just totally blown away as we listened to it in class. It is a must-have in my opinion. The poetry, by Tennyson, speaks of music bringing sleep and by the end of the piece, the listener is almost guaranteed to be at total piece, and if given the option, would probably nod off.
Another incredible piece was Howells' requiem. Concert Choir did the first movement of it last year, “Salvator Mundi.” It was a really cool piece then and I really enjoyed it, but I had no idea it was such an amazing piece till today. It completely wowed me. Another must-have.
And the last was Finzi's “Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice.” Finzi is an absolute genius. He has such a way with rhythms that it makes it sound like there is no time signature and the choir simply knows when and how to move together at the exact same time. I noticed this in one of the pieces we sang this year in Singers, “Wherefore Tonight, so Full of Care.” He is masterful.
After class, I came home, made some lunch, and headed off to Tate Modern Art Museum. There was some really fantastic stuff there. There was, of course, a lot of stuff I didn't understand, but those things, I feel, give me such an opportunity to discover what the artist was thinking.
Today in class, someone made a comment that he connected emotionally much more easily with the 19th and 20th century composers' music. Dr. Staheli offered the explanation that the reason for that was that as music was becoming more and more contemporary, the composers had many more colors and musical ideas to choose from than earlier composers from the classical and baroque eras, so they could paint emotions much more easily. Perhaps we connect with the pieces because they better mirror modern thinking than older music. Anyway, having had that discussion in class, I think I discovered why I enjoy modern art so much—they have so many more media, ideologies, and colors (figuratively and literally) from which to choose. That makes their art, I feel, much more emotionally connected...or communicative. I feel like they can better express themselves because they have so much more on their palette they can use.
Anyway, I reinforced my affinity for Gerhard Richter, as well as a few other artists I've seen before, but whose names I do not presently remember. It was a really cool experience to go there. I loved going by myself; I think museums (shouldn't the plural of museum be musea? Medium → media, museum--> musea?) should be done alone because everyone has very different interests and preferences and moves at different paces. It's just too hard to please everyone and their likings, etc.
I had to leave the Tate a little early to get to the Holst Singers' concert of the Bach Motets at Temple Church (da Vinci Code). I was disappointed because I didn't get to see the entire museum and was really enjoying myself. I'll most likely go back another day.
The concert was really pretty good. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I meant to write this last week, but Bach is really redeeming the Baroque period for me. His choral stuff is really fantastic. There is tons going on all the time, but I no longer see it as just frills and superfluousness (osity?). Now that we have analyzed his music a bit, it makes much more sense to me and I can now understand what he was trying to do with his music. His cello stuff also is fantastic. The choir had a cellist playing the bass (vocal) line the entire time, in addition to the organ, and they broke up the motets with pieces from the Back Cello Suites, which I absolutely loved. The cellist was fantastic. Such a good Baroque player, though I thought his tempos in his first set made him a bit inarticulate and slightly sloppy.
I am starting to really enjoy the English choral sound. There is just so much color to it. Scott and I were talking about it today and we decided it is because they are so unafraid and are willing to take risks with their sound. In the States, many people in choirs are in choirs not because they are extraordinary musicians or soloists, but because they want to make music in a friendly atmosphere. Scott said today “you know, we are not as good as we think we are. We have the potential to be as good as we think we are, but we are not there yet.” And I agree with him. Many people back off of their own individual sound so they can blend into the choir. Blending is so important—don't get me wrong. But like I wrote about the Tallis Scholars earlier, I think creating a fusion of voices by singing into the blend is more important. And that takes guts to do. You have to really go out onto a limb, with your own sound, to do it. I started doing that toward the end of the year and as I listen to our recordings, I can tell a difference in our sectional sound. And frankly, I like it more!
Anyway, Scott, Michelle, and I stopped on our way home at this fantastic dessert place and got some ridiculously decadent desserts that basically blew my mind.
Then we watched “Stranger than Fiction.” Blessedly good film. Can't help but love Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffmann.
Whoah, that was a long blog entry. Hope you liked it.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday, May 26, 2010
Great day today!
We were supposed to go to Canterbury today, but as we were about to pull out on the bus, the driver realized that the bus was overheating, so we had to deboard.
Here is where the day got great: our program directors, Sister Hall, Dr. Staheli, and their assistant, Nathan, immediately went to work on what we could do to make sure the day wasn't wasted. Luckily, we were actually right next to the London eye, so they paid in total for all 40ish of us to go on the eye, while they saw about the possibility of us seeing a play called “War Horse,” which is apparently a fantastic show. So we did the Eye, which was pretty cool. Not mind-blowing, but fairly interesting. Perhaps I was distracted by the fact that my stomach was really hurting. But is was cool nonetheless. And the fact that it was free made it worth it.
Anyway, while we were up on the Eye (the Eye is a giant ferriswheel-like thing (135 m high) that sits on the other side of the Thames River from Parliament and Big Ben and it gives you a super good view of the city), the program directors found out there were only four tickets available for “War Horse,” so they bagged the idea and instead gave us 40lbs to see any show of our liking! What?! SO cool!
I was so impressed with our directors selflessness in our situation today. They so easily could have said “ok, bag the day; go have fun,” but instead they went to great lengths to ensure we had a blastedly wonderful day. I am sure they were eager to have a bit of a break, but instead worked through the temptation to make sure we could still have a great day. So awesome. It's no surprise that they do these kind of things—they show their care for us so readily in class and in everyday situations, but their kindness and thoughtfulness still amaze me. Truly blessed people.
So everyone went off to their respective adventures, while I came home to sleep, hoping that would get rid of my tummy ache. I slept for a while, but it didn't really help all that much. So after lying around a while, I decided I could feel cruddy at home or I could feel cruddy while having fun.
I had made plans with Scott, Michelle, and Kim to go back to Cellar Door (musical theater open mic bar) and before that I was going to meet roommate Chris and friend Haley to see Legally Blonde the musical. So I went to get sheet music for singing later tonight and then while I was wandering around the Covent Garden area, I ran into roommate Matt, who accompanied me to Legally Blonde theater, when we promptly found out that the theater was having an irregular black night. Matt and I were late there, so we missed Chris and Haley. So we made our way instead to the “Billy Elliot” theater.
“Billy Elliot” was a super good show. I was really impressed with quite a bit of it. I felt like the show had a lot of heart and a lot of the performers were really in it to truly give of themselves. I was really happy with that. I felt like at times the show sold out to the fact that it was a musical and that many musical-attending audiences just want a pretty, fun song and a dance and they'll be happy. But that wasn't true to the rest of the show or the story. It bugs me that so many musical-attending audiences just want happy-go-lucky crap. That's not life; sorry, folks. I think that may be why I don't like so many of the classic shows—they portray some life that really is not true to reality and I just have a really hard time connecting with them emotionally because they aren't grounded. And frankly, I believe those are the shows that give musical theater a bad name.
Alas, I digress. Back to Billy Elliot. Really great show. I was SO impressed with Billy's teacher. She was a FANTASTIC actress and performer. Yeah, she was a great singer and dancer, but her acting is really what got me. I think just about anyone can learn to dance and sing, but to go where she went with her acting takes not only skill and training, but it takes a certain type of person. She was so in-control of her emotions and was so well-acquainted with them that she could truly bare her soul on stage and it such a beautiful thing. I absolutely loved watching her do it; it was extraordinary. And oddly enough, she looked DEAD ON one of the acting faculty at BYU—Stephanie Breinholt. It was actually kind of uncanny, really. There were a few other actors that were really quite good, including Billy's brother. He was really awesome. I guess it was simply rare for me to see real vulnerability out of the characters, but the few who did go there emotionally really made the rest of the show pretty great. And frankly, the show can stand on its own two feet with just the singing and dancing, but the vulnerability of the characters just gives it so much more depth.
After the show, Matt and I parted ways. I headed to Cellar Door, only to find none of my friends, so I walked down the bank of the Thames, taking night photos of the Eye, Big Ben, and Parliament. I got some really cool ones about which I am pretty excited. And then home.
Great day today!
We were supposed to go to Canterbury today, but as we were about to pull out on the bus, the driver realized that the bus was overheating, so we had to deboard.
Here is where the day got great: our program directors, Sister Hall, Dr. Staheli, and their assistant, Nathan, immediately went to work on what we could do to make sure the day wasn't wasted. Luckily, we were actually right next to the London eye, so they paid in total for all 40ish of us to go on the eye, while they saw about the possibility of us seeing a play called “War Horse,” which is apparently a fantastic show. So we did the Eye, which was pretty cool. Not mind-blowing, but fairly interesting. Perhaps I was distracted by the fact that my stomach was really hurting. But is was cool nonetheless. And the fact that it was free made it worth it.
Anyway, while we were up on the Eye (the Eye is a giant ferriswheel-like thing (135 m high) that sits on the other side of the Thames River from Parliament and Big Ben and it gives you a super good view of the city), the program directors found out there were only four tickets available for “War Horse,” so they bagged the idea and instead gave us 40lbs to see any show of our liking! What?! SO cool!
I was so impressed with our directors selflessness in our situation today. They so easily could have said “ok, bag the day; go have fun,” but instead they went to great lengths to ensure we had a blastedly wonderful day. I am sure they were eager to have a bit of a break, but instead worked through the temptation to make sure we could still have a great day. So awesome. It's no surprise that they do these kind of things—they show their care for us so readily in class and in everyday situations, but their kindness and thoughtfulness still amaze me. Truly blessed people.
So everyone went off to their respective adventures, while I came home to sleep, hoping that would get rid of my tummy ache. I slept for a while, but it didn't really help all that much. So after lying around a while, I decided I could feel cruddy at home or I could feel cruddy while having fun.
I had made plans with Scott, Michelle, and Kim to go back to Cellar Door (musical theater open mic bar) and before that I was going to meet roommate Chris and friend Haley to see Legally Blonde the musical. So I went to get sheet music for singing later tonight and then while I was wandering around the Covent Garden area, I ran into roommate Matt, who accompanied me to Legally Blonde theater, when we promptly found out that the theater was having an irregular black night. Matt and I were late there, so we missed Chris and Haley. So we made our way instead to the “Billy Elliot” theater.
“Billy Elliot” was a super good show. I was really impressed with quite a bit of it. I felt like the show had a lot of heart and a lot of the performers were really in it to truly give of themselves. I was really happy with that. I felt like at times the show sold out to the fact that it was a musical and that many musical-attending audiences just want a pretty, fun song and a dance and they'll be happy. But that wasn't true to the rest of the show or the story. It bugs me that so many musical-attending audiences just want happy-go-lucky crap. That's not life; sorry, folks. I think that may be why I don't like so many of the classic shows—they portray some life that really is not true to reality and I just have a really hard time connecting with them emotionally because they aren't grounded. And frankly, I believe those are the shows that give musical theater a bad name.
Alas, I digress. Back to Billy Elliot. Really great show. I was SO impressed with Billy's teacher. She was a FANTASTIC actress and performer. Yeah, she was a great singer and dancer, but her acting is really what got me. I think just about anyone can learn to dance and sing, but to go where she went with her acting takes not only skill and training, but it takes a certain type of person. She was so in-control of her emotions and was so well-acquainted with them that she could truly bare her soul on stage and it such a beautiful thing. I absolutely loved watching her do it; it was extraordinary. And oddly enough, she looked DEAD ON one of the acting faculty at BYU—Stephanie Breinholt. It was actually kind of uncanny, really. There were a few other actors that were really quite good, including Billy's brother. He was really awesome. I guess it was simply rare for me to see real vulnerability out of the characters, but the few who did go there emotionally really made the rest of the show pretty great. And frankly, the show can stand on its own two feet with just the singing and dancing, but the vulnerability of the characters just gives it so much more depth.
After the show, Matt and I parted ways. I headed to Cellar Door, only to find none of my friends, so I walked down the bank of the Thames, taking night photos of the Eye, Big Ben, and Parliament. I got some really cool ones about which I am pretty excited. And then home.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Can I just say that I love this? Because I do, dangit! This is GREAT.
This morning, we went to another rehearsal of the BBC Singers. This time they were doing a piece that fit them much better than the other day. It was a 16 part piece by a Scottish composer named James McMillan. It was extremely dissonant and extremely beautiful. I wish I knew real terms to describe it. It was contemporary and dissonant and beautiful.
We had a Q&A session with the producer of the Singers, which was really informative and fun. I enoyed it quite a bit. The rest of the Singers came in after a while and they rehearsed a few more pieces. I really enjoyed the rehearsal far more than I did last week's because this time, the Singers used a much different timbre in their voices, which was actually conducive to the pieces they were singing. It was pleasantly refreshing and surprising. Loved it.
After the rehearsal, we ate lunch at the BBC cafe, there in the studio where they were rehearsing and then headed to the Science museum, which was a pretty fun, interactive museum. I've discovered that I learn by doing. Reading to learn, except for when it's about the gospel, is maily boring. I find myself not caring about much of what I read, unfortunately. But when I do it, it clicks and makes sense and I love it. Anyway, that's why I like interactive museums; because I can do in the learning and it makes it come alive to me.
After the science museum, Heidi and I went grocery shopping, brought our things back to the flats and headed off to a rehearsal by the London Philharmonic Choir. It was....mediocre. What I did love about it was that they invited us to sing with them. There is a surprising lack of singing on this study abroad and I really miss it. Every once in a while, I'll break out into song on the street and it just feels so good! Anyway, singing with the choir was just great fun, even if it wasn't great music or great singers around me.
After the rehearsal, Michelle, Scott, the two Roberts and I all went to a Dutch pancake house, where they have a 5 pound any pancake on Mondays deal. It was fantastic. I got a chicken curry with mango chutney pancake, followed by a cinnamon pear desert pancake. Yummy stuff.
Then back home to skyp with mom. It was SUPER good to talk to her. I've missed her. Love her tons. She's about the best mom anyone could ever hope for. I'm super grateful for her.
Off.
Can I just say that I love this? Because I do, dangit! This is GREAT.
This morning, we went to another rehearsal of the BBC Singers. This time they were doing a piece that fit them much better than the other day. It was a 16 part piece by a Scottish composer named James McMillan. It was extremely dissonant and extremely beautiful. I wish I knew real terms to describe it. It was contemporary and dissonant and beautiful.
We had a Q&A session with the producer of the Singers, which was really informative and fun. I enoyed it quite a bit. The rest of the Singers came in after a while and they rehearsed a few more pieces. I really enjoyed the rehearsal far more than I did last week's because this time, the Singers used a much different timbre in their voices, which was actually conducive to the pieces they were singing. It was pleasantly refreshing and surprising. Loved it.
After the rehearsal, we ate lunch at the BBC cafe, there in the studio where they were rehearsing and then headed to the Science museum, which was a pretty fun, interactive museum. I've discovered that I learn by doing. Reading to learn, except for when it's about the gospel, is maily boring. I find myself not caring about much of what I read, unfortunately. But when I do it, it clicks and makes sense and I love it. Anyway, that's why I like interactive museums; because I can do in the learning and it makes it come alive to me.
After the science museum, Heidi and I went grocery shopping, brought our things back to the flats and headed off to a rehearsal by the London Philharmonic Choir. It was....mediocre. What I did love about it was that they invited us to sing with them. There is a surprising lack of singing on this study abroad and I really miss it. Every once in a while, I'll break out into song on the street and it just feels so good! Anyway, singing with the choir was just great fun, even if it wasn't great music or great singers around me.
After the rehearsal, Michelle, Scott, the two Roberts and I all went to a Dutch pancake house, where they have a 5 pound any pancake on Mondays deal. It was fantastic. I got a chicken curry with mango chutney pancake, followed by a cinnamon pear desert pancake. Yummy stuff.
Then back home to skyp with mom. It was SUPER good to talk to her. I've missed her. Love her tons. She's about the best mom anyone could ever hope for. I'm super grateful for her.
Off.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Restful day today. Love those. I woke up around 9ish and went with some of the students, along with the program directors, to the sung Eucharist at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was supposed to start at 11:00AM, but started at 11:30 instead. We had planned on going to Sacrament meeting at 1:00PM at the singles' ward, but that didn't quite work out, since it ended at 1:25. So, I decided I could either go to Sunday School....orrrrrrrr.....go home and rest and catch up on blogging. I chose the latter. And did not regret it.
The Eucharist was interesting. It was a brand new mass by Francis Grier, so it was uber contemporary. I mostly enjoy contemporary music, but this mass went a little too far for my liking. Emily Workman said, “it was like he said, 'hey let's make something that could be pretty beautiful and make it the most digusting thing in the world.'” While I didn't totally agree with her, and actually thought there were moments that were pretty amazing, I did see her point. I was later talking with Jonathan Evans (who reminds me so much of Loren Thomas it's not even funny) about the piece and he described a discussion he had in one of his classes about the definition of “good music,” all musical elements put aside. They came to the conclusion that “good music” is music that fulfills the purpose of its creation (remiscent of some other text we know?). Anyway, he purpose of a mass is worship, from the points of view of the composer, the performers, and most importantly, the congregation members. This mass, I felt, went beyond the mark. Even we, as choral nerds, had a hard time connecting with the music of the mass. We couldn't even imagine what the other people, who were just wanting to attend some kind of Sunday service at St. Paul's were thinking. It was just so disjunct and dissonant, without much direction to the dissonance. I have nothing against dissonance, and even enjoy it quite a bit, but like I said, this dissonance wasn't really going anywhere. It was interesting that the choir would have a part where it seemed to be going a certain direction and then some combination of one to four of the soloists would come in and halt their chord progression. It was a tough mass to connect with. However, I did really like the Agnus Dei a lot. The rest of the mass was.....meh.
One absolute highlight to the mass was a big black guy about 3 rows ahead of us who was so into the mass that no one could stop or interrupt his thought pattern. It was especially evident in the congrationally sung hymns, when he would sing the entire last verse, full voice, operatically, in the treble octave, and would finish it by singing the last note fortississimo. I especially loved it when the piece would end on an 'a' and he would end on an 'f.' I swear, it was his favorite note. And I have never heard such oscillating, forced vibratto in my life. My favorite was the last hymn we sang, when it ended on the word “Lord.” I could see him preparing for that ending consonant from 10 miles away; first, he was actually on the 'a'; he had that vibratto going like a fat kid eating chocolate cake; his eyes were cutting diamonds in some far distant universe; jaw tense; lips forming some awesomely fantastic funnel shape; that guy was going for broke, man. It was fantastic. And then that 'd' consonant—whoah dang, child, WATCH OUT! I'm pretty sure the choir got the specks of spit coming from his mouth. That guy was not kidding about praising his Lord.
As Steve put it “you know, I wish people could tell as clearly that I was so devout and concetrated in my worship.” He said, “you know, during some Sacrament meetings, you've got your grocery list going through your mind: 'Oh crap, I forgot to buy mustard.' Well, that guy does NOT have mustard on his mind!” And it was true—no doubt about that; that guy was clearly in the moment and his mind was on the Lord, snagdabbit. Pretty dang good entertainment. Emily and I were dying nearly the entire service and were glad to have been there. Good, good stuff.
The rest of the day was chill. We came home and I blogged for Friday and Saturday and hung out with people the rest of the day. Super pleasant.
Restful day today. Love those. I woke up around 9ish and went with some of the students, along with the program directors, to the sung Eucharist at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was supposed to start at 11:00AM, but started at 11:30 instead. We had planned on going to Sacrament meeting at 1:00PM at the singles' ward, but that didn't quite work out, since it ended at 1:25. So, I decided I could either go to Sunday School....orrrrrrrr.....go home and rest and catch up on blogging. I chose the latter. And did not regret it.
The Eucharist was interesting. It was a brand new mass by Francis Grier, so it was uber contemporary. I mostly enjoy contemporary music, but this mass went a little too far for my liking. Emily Workman said, “it was like he said, 'hey let's make something that could be pretty beautiful and make it the most digusting thing in the world.'” While I didn't totally agree with her, and actually thought there were moments that were pretty amazing, I did see her point. I was later talking with Jonathan Evans (who reminds me so much of Loren Thomas it's not even funny) about the piece and he described a discussion he had in one of his classes about the definition of “good music,” all musical elements put aside. They came to the conclusion that “good music” is music that fulfills the purpose of its creation (remiscent of some other text we know?). Anyway, he purpose of a mass is worship, from the points of view of the composer, the performers, and most importantly, the congregation members. This mass, I felt, went beyond the mark. Even we, as choral nerds, had a hard time connecting with the music of the mass. We couldn't even imagine what the other people, who were just wanting to attend some kind of Sunday service at St. Paul's were thinking. It was just so disjunct and dissonant, without much direction to the dissonance. I have nothing against dissonance, and even enjoy it quite a bit, but like I said, this dissonance wasn't really going anywhere. It was interesting that the choir would have a part where it seemed to be going a certain direction and then some combination of one to four of the soloists would come in and halt their chord progression. It was a tough mass to connect with. However, I did really like the Agnus Dei a lot. The rest of the mass was.....meh.
One absolute highlight to the mass was a big black guy about 3 rows ahead of us who was so into the mass that no one could stop or interrupt his thought pattern. It was especially evident in the congrationally sung hymns, when he would sing the entire last verse, full voice, operatically, in the treble octave, and would finish it by singing the last note fortississimo. I especially loved it when the piece would end on an 'a' and he would end on an 'f.' I swear, it was his favorite note. And I have never heard such oscillating, forced vibratto in my life. My favorite was the last hymn we sang, when it ended on the word “Lord.” I could see him preparing for that ending consonant from 10 miles away; first, he was actually on the 'a'; he had that vibratto going like a fat kid eating chocolate cake; his eyes were cutting diamonds in some far distant universe; jaw tense; lips forming some awesomely fantastic funnel shape; that guy was going for broke, man. It was fantastic. And then that 'd' consonant—whoah dang, child, WATCH OUT! I'm pretty sure the choir got the specks of spit coming from his mouth. That guy was not kidding about praising his Lord.
As Steve put it “you know, I wish people could tell as clearly that I was so devout and concetrated in my worship.” He said, “you know, during some Sacrament meetings, you've got your grocery list going through your mind: 'Oh crap, I forgot to buy mustard.' Well, that guy does NOT have mustard on his mind!” And it was true—no doubt about that; that guy was clearly in the moment and his mind was on the Lord, snagdabbit. Pretty dang good entertainment. Emily and I were dying nearly the entire service and were glad to have been there. Good, good stuff.
The rest of the day was chill. We came home and I blogged for Friday and Saturday and hung out with people the rest of the day. Super pleasant.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
London day today. After a fairly sleepless night last night (eight of us in a hostel room), I slept most of the way to London and then hit the sack for a while before meeting up with my friend, Kim, from the singles ward here. We went to Camden, this huge street market, which actually reminded me a bit of 25 de Marco, for you people who know what that is in Sao Paulo. It was really a HUGE place with SO much STUFF. It had regular stores, but also had a ton of small street vendors and small shops in crazy warehouse building-like structures. Tons of people, tons of stuff.
Then off to a really awesome part of London whose name I totally forget. It reminded me a lot of Hyde Park in Cincinnati quite a bit, actually. It was just super classy and quaint. It took quite a while to get there, but we walked and were active, so we felt pretty good about ourselves. It was a pretty dang hot day yesterday, so I was sweating most of the day. That, combined with walking, made me feel like a missionary again. We went through a park from which we could see the entire city. It was pretty extraordinary; I want to go there one day for the sunset. Too bad that all my evenings are taken up with attending rehearsals, concerts, or some other show of my own choosing (there is so much I want to see here!). Anyway, because it was such a beautiful, sunny day, the park was PACKED. There were probably upwards of four or five thousand people at this park where we were, which was probably about the size of Julifs Park (for you Cincinnatians) or Kiwanas Park (for you Provites).
After seeing that for a while we walked for a LONG time to some tube station to go to Brick Lane for Indian food. On this one street in Brick Lane, there are about 20 or 30 Indian restaurants, so you simply walk down the street and see what kind of deal you can get, and eventually go with the best one. Pretty cool stuff. We ended up at some place that was pretty good. Not a super fancy venue, but good food. I got shrimp chichinga. Chichinga is a green, squash-like plant from India that is prepared in a pretty spicy way. I liked it a lot.
We then tried to go to a musical theater sheet music shop in Covent Garden, which was unfortunately closed by the time we got there, much to our dismay. But I looked in and they seemed to have anything and everything musical theater ever created. I'm excited to go back.
Then I went off and met up with our group at a concert by the Ealing Choral Society. It was...lackluster. They were simply a very unprofessional group and they were quite sloppy. I was amazed at how little they filled up the space, compared with how the Tallis Scholars did a couple weeks ago (it was in the same venue—Cadogan Hall). I really don't feel like writing about all the things that bugged me, so I don't think I will. I will say this though: when someone really uses their voice, it truly is arresting. One of the soloists was really quite good and she kept me awake during the second half pretty well. I attribute that in large part to the fact that she was singing on the breath and was really using all the voice she had in her. It was fantastically refreshing after listening to the choir behind her. Even the orchestra wasn't playing “on the breath.” I remember when I played the cello the day I learned how to really play the instrument and get the true, rich, beautiful sound out of the cello. It was thrilling. The same thing happened last year in my singing. All of the sudden, using those instruments was just so thrilling because of the beautiful sound I could produce.
Anway, then back to here for the rest of the evening. I'm tuckered.
London day today. After a fairly sleepless night last night (eight of us in a hostel room), I slept most of the way to London and then hit the sack for a while before meeting up with my friend, Kim, from the singles ward here. We went to Camden, this huge street market, which actually reminded me a bit of 25 de Marco, for you people who know what that is in Sao Paulo. It was really a HUGE place with SO much STUFF. It had regular stores, but also had a ton of small street vendors and small shops in crazy warehouse building-like structures. Tons of people, tons of stuff.
Then off to a really awesome part of London whose name I totally forget. It reminded me a lot of Hyde Park in Cincinnati quite a bit, actually. It was just super classy and quaint. It took quite a while to get there, but we walked and were active, so we felt pretty good about ourselves. It was a pretty dang hot day yesterday, so I was sweating most of the day. That, combined with walking, made me feel like a missionary again. We went through a park from which we could see the entire city. It was pretty extraordinary; I want to go there one day for the sunset. Too bad that all my evenings are taken up with attending rehearsals, concerts, or some other show of my own choosing (there is so much I want to see here!). Anyway, because it was such a beautiful, sunny day, the park was PACKED. There were probably upwards of four or five thousand people at this park where we were, which was probably about the size of Julifs Park (for you Cincinnatians) or Kiwanas Park (for you Provites).
After seeing that for a while we walked for a LONG time to some tube station to go to Brick Lane for Indian food. On this one street in Brick Lane, there are about 20 or 30 Indian restaurants, so you simply walk down the street and see what kind of deal you can get, and eventually go with the best one. Pretty cool stuff. We ended up at some place that was pretty good. Not a super fancy venue, but good food. I got shrimp chichinga. Chichinga is a green, squash-like plant from India that is prepared in a pretty spicy way. I liked it a lot.
We then tried to go to a musical theater sheet music shop in Covent Garden, which was unfortunately closed by the time we got there, much to our dismay. But I looked in and they seemed to have anything and everything musical theater ever created. I'm excited to go back.
Then I went off and met up with our group at a concert by the Ealing Choral Society. It was...lackluster. They were simply a very unprofessional group and they were quite sloppy. I was amazed at how little they filled up the space, compared with how the Tallis Scholars did a couple weeks ago (it was in the same venue—Cadogan Hall). I really don't feel like writing about all the things that bugged me, so I don't think I will. I will say this though: when someone really uses their voice, it truly is arresting. One of the soloists was really quite good and she kept me awake during the second half pretty well. I attribute that in large part to the fact that she was singing on the breath and was really using all the voice she had in her. It was fantastically refreshing after listening to the choir behind her. Even the orchestra wasn't playing “on the breath.” I remember when I played the cello the day I learned how to really play the instrument and get the true, rich, beautiful sound out of the cello. It was thrilling. The same thing happened last year in my singing. All of the sudden, using those instruments was just so thrilling because of the beautiful sound I could produce.
Anway, then back to here for the rest of the evening. I'm tuckered.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Friday, May 21,2010
Wow. I tell you what sir, wow.
Well, here we are in Brighton, southern England. We don't have class today and we only have a concert tomorrow evening back in London, so we thought we would take a little trip down here to Brighton and see what it is all about. Scott and Michelle came down here in the week they had before the study abroad started.
The weather today is absolutely gorgeous—75 degrees and sunny. Quite the rarity for England. We (Danny Gray, Chris Buttars, Michelle, Scott, Jessica Jardine, Jonny Litster, Robert McClellan, and I) left this morning from the flats at about 7:20 and caught a bus down here to Brighton. Upon arriving here, we went looking for a bathing suit for Jessica. I got the basic feel for the town while we were doing that. I really liked it, actually. Well, I suppose that “actually” is not necessarily the right word, since I've been in love with pretty much every town I've seen on this trip.
Anyway, the town is situated on hills descending down to the sea, separating France and England and reminds me of most European beach towns I've seen in films and the like. Tight alleyways meander from street to street, most of them packed with stores, cafes, restaurants, pubs, etc. The streets have little rhyme or reason to the way they are set up (or at least not that I could tell). People, mostly tourists, from what I could tell, litter the streets and shops, eating food, buying clothes and souvenirs, large quantities of alcohol and cigarettes, and probably drugs, given the night life we later saw. In spite of all those last few purchases, Brighton was really quite a quaint beach town. I really liked it.
After shopping around a bit, we headed to the beach to meet up with Jonnie, Scott, and Robert. The beach actually didn't have any sand—rocks instead—but I liked it no less. Luckily, the rocks were mostly small, so when we lay down on them, they conformed to our body shape and it was actually pretty comfortable. We spent a good four or five hours lying around on the beach, talking, playing games, hopping briefly into the water (oh my cold! I just looked up the water temperature and the average for the month of May is 52 degrees), and people watching. It was super pleasant and relaxing. I often play pretty hard, so it was pretty refreshing to kick back a bit. After a while, we packed up our things and hit the town. We were going to tour a palace of a prince who had entirely too much money, but decided it didn't look worth our money.
So we went off to wander the town, exploring all those alleyways we had previously seen. Among them was a REALLY cool armor shop that had armor and weapons from just about any period of wartime imaginable. It was really cool.
Today was Scott and Michelle's six month mark of being together, so they wanted some alone time. We split up for a bit and got dinner separately. Chris, Danny, Jessica, and I went to a cheap little pub and had really fun, pleasant conversation for a good two hours before heading out to find a hostel to sleep in and meet up with the rest of the group. Scott and Michelle wanted to go to the pier and do carnival-like activities and we wanted to see Robin Hood, so we split up for a while with plans to meet up after the film.
And I am happy to report that it was quite a good film! It was about all the story leading up to Robin Hood being....Robin Hood. But no actual robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. It was pretty long, but packed with action and drama and I believe a promise of at least a sequel, perhaps two.
Anyway, upon leaving the theater, I came out alone because I had to use the bathroom (or “toilet” as they say here) and came out at the entrance of a club. That's where the beginning line of this blog comes from (“Wow. I tell you what, sir—wow.”). Let's just say that Babylon is alive and well. Suddenly, night life in Brighton had just exploded and it was no longer a quaint, pleasant beach town, but rather a buzz of late teens and young adults heading to clubs. I was amazed to find very few people above the age of 25 wandering the streets. Anyway, the immodesty of the girls was incredible. Most were drunk as they wandered from club to club, and I'm guessing some were high as well, given what we had heard of Brighon when we were in Cambridge yesterday.
Seeing all of them was pretty dang humorous. There were quite a few shouting matches between couples, followed quickly by make-up (make-out) sessions. Writing about it now actually makes me pretty sad for them and the state of the world, but at the time, it was pretty funny. We decided the enterainment was good, so we went wandering about the town for a while, people watching. We wandered around on the streets, making sure the girls were close to us at all times and then headed down to the beach, where two girls from Essex overheard us speaking and immediately became obsessed with us, by virtue of our being American.
So we talked with them for a while and then headed back out on the town for more entertainment. We decided to go to a pub just to see what it was like and it was basically as we had expected: loud music, lots of alcohol (heavens, it smelled in there), but without all the nasty dancing, actually. I guess if we had gone to a proper club, we would have seen some of that.
Anyway, after wandering around a bit, we finally found a place to sleep and called it a night. And here I am now.
Wow. I tell you what sir, wow.
Well, here we are in Brighton, southern England. We don't have class today and we only have a concert tomorrow evening back in London, so we thought we would take a little trip down here to Brighton and see what it is all about. Scott and Michelle came down here in the week they had before the study abroad started.
The weather today is absolutely gorgeous—75 degrees and sunny. Quite the rarity for England. We (Danny Gray, Chris Buttars, Michelle, Scott, Jessica Jardine, Jonny Litster, Robert McClellan, and I) left this morning from the flats at about 7:20 and caught a bus down here to Brighton. Upon arriving here, we went looking for a bathing suit for Jessica. I got the basic feel for the town while we were doing that. I really liked it, actually. Well, I suppose that “actually” is not necessarily the right word, since I've been in love with pretty much every town I've seen on this trip.
Anyway, the town is situated on hills descending down to the sea, separating France and England and reminds me of most European beach towns I've seen in films and the like. Tight alleyways meander from street to street, most of them packed with stores, cafes, restaurants, pubs, etc. The streets have little rhyme or reason to the way they are set up (or at least not that I could tell). People, mostly tourists, from what I could tell, litter the streets and shops, eating food, buying clothes and souvenirs, large quantities of alcohol and cigarettes, and probably drugs, given the night life we later saw. In spite of all those last few purchases, Brighton was really quite a quaint beach town. I really liked it.
After shopping around a bit, we headed to the beach to meet up with Jonnie, Scott, and Robert. The beach actually didn't have any sand—rocks instead—but I liked it no less. Luckily, the rocks were mostly small, so when we lay down on them, they conformed to our body shape and it was actually pretty comfortable. We spent a good four or five hours lying around on the beach, talking, playing games, hopping briefly into the water (oh my cold! I just looked up the water temperature and the average for the month of May is 52 degrees), and people watching. It was super pleasant and relaxing. I often play pretty hard, so it was pretty refreshing to kick back a bit. After a while, we packed up our things and hit the town. We were going to tour a palace of a prince who had entirely too much money, but decided it didn't look worth our money.
So we went off to wander the town, exploring all those alleyways we had previously seen. Among them was a REALLY cool armor shop that had armor and weapons from just about any period of wartime imaginable. It was really cool.
Today was Scott and Michelle's six month mark of being together, so they wanted some alone time. We split up for a bit and got dinner separately. Chris, Danny, Jessica, and I went to a cheap little pub and had really fun, pleasant conversation for a good two hours before heading out to find a hostel to sleep in and meet up with the rest of the group. Scott and Michelle wanted to go to the pier and do carnival-like activities and we wanted to see Robin Hood, so we split up for a while with plans to meet up after the film.
And I am happy to report that it was quite a good film! It was about all the story leading up to Robin Hood being....Robin Hood. But no actual robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. It was pretty long, but packed with action and drama and I believe a promise of at least a sequel, perhaps two.
Anyway, upon leaving the theater, I came out alone because I had to use the bathroom (or “toilet” as they say here) and came out at the entrance of a club. That's where the beginning line of this blog comes from (“Wow. I tell you what, sir—wow.”). Let's just say that Babylon is alive and well. Suddenly, night life in Brighton had just exploded and it was no longer a quaint, pleasant beach town, but rather a buzz of late teens and young adults heading to clubs. I was amazed to find very few people above the age of 25 wandering the streets. Anyway, the immodesty of the girls was incredible. Most were drunk as they wandered from club to club, and I'm guessing some were high as well, given what we had heard of Brighon when we were in Cambridge yesterday.
Seeing all of them was pretty dang humorous. There were quite a few shouting matches between couples, followed quickly by make-up (make-out) sessions. Writing about it now actually makes me pretty sad for them and the state of the world, but at the time, it was pretty funny. We decided the enterainment was good, so we went wandering about the town for a while, people watching. We wandered around on the streets, making sure the girls were close to us at all times and then headed down to the beach, where two girls from Essex overheard us speaking and immediately became obsessed with us, by virtue of our being American.
So we talked with them for a while and then headed back out on the town for more entertainment. We decided to go to a pub just to see what it was like and it was basically as we had expected: loud music, lots of alcohol (heavens, it smelled in there), but without all the nasty dancing, actually. I guess if we had gone to a proper club, we would have seen some of that.
Anyway, after wandering around a bit, we finally found a place to sleep and called it a night. And here I am now.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Cambridge today. Oh, it was fantastic!! I loved it so, so much. Yet another place I could live. I maybe even liked it even more than I did Oxford. Things in Cambridge seemed a bit more spread out, which I really liked. I also thought the architecture had a bit more diversity—in structure, materials, and color.
We started our visit to the town by punting on the Cam River. We were really pretty pathetic punters, but it was really fun and totally relaxing. The river was narrow and slow, with trees canopying it most of the way down, with the exception of a few openings, where there were lusciously green grass lawns leading up to the quadrangles of Cambridge's respective colleges. The colleges' architecture was so purely historical and beautiful. Simply put, it was the most romantic place I've ever seen.
After punting, Michelle, Scott, Jessica, Robert, Nick and I went wandering about the city, which has turned into our (Michelle, Scott, and my) favorite thing to do when we're in new cities.
After the wandering, we went to the Trinity College's rehearsal and Evensong. I LOVED that choir. They had that colorful, ringy British sound, but no murkiness. They had a lightness and brightness to them, while still maintaining the grounding in the sound. They of course were not flawless, but they were my favorite choir thus far, aside from Tallis and Sixteen.
The first piece they did was Arvo Part's Nunc Dimitus, which totally blew me away. I had never heard it (though I have heard a ton of other pieces by him) and it was one of the most exquisite pieces I've heard in a long time. It may have had something to do with the fact that I have been hearing mainly Renaissance and Baroque period pieces, but it sure was incredible stuff. I asked Dr. Staheli the other day if there would be any chance of us doing Part this year and he said it wouldn't be likely. Sad day. I had really hoped I would get a crack at some of his pieces, but it looks like it won't be the case.
I also really enjoyed a Paulus piece they did as well. I had never head of him, but am excited to get to know him.
Alright, off to get the laundry and get ready to go to Brighton in the morning.
Cambridge today. Oh, it was fantastic!! I loved it so, so much. Yet another place I could live. I maybe even liked it even more than I did Oxford. Things in Cambridge seemed a bit more spread out, which I really liked. I also thought the architecture had a bit more diversity—in structure, materials, and color.
We started our visit to the town by punting on the Cam River. We were really pretty pathetic punters, but it was really fun and totally relaxing. The river was narrow and slow, with trees canopying it most of the way down, with the exception of a few openings, where there were lusciously green grass lawns leading up to the quadrangles of Cambridge's respective colleges. The colleges' architecture was so purely historical and beautiful. Simply put, it was the most romantic place I've ever seen.
After punting, Michelle, Scott, Jessica, Robert, Nick and I went wandering about the city, which has turned into our (Michelle, Scott, and my) favorite thing to do when we're in new cities.
After the wandering, we went to the Trinity College's rehearsal and Evensong. I LOVED that choir. They had that colorful, ringy British sound, but no murkiness. They had a lightness and brightness to them, while still maintaining the grounding in the sound. They of course were not flawless, but they were my favorite choir thus far, aside from Tallis and Sixteen.
The first piece they did was Arvo Part's Nunc Dimitus, which totally blew me away. I had never heard it (though I have heard a ton of other pieces by him) and it was one of the most exquisite pieces I've heard in a long time. It may have had something to do with the fact that I have been hearing mainly Renaissance and Baroque period pieces, but it sure was incredible stuff. I asked Dr. Staheli the other day if there would be any chance of us doing Part this year and he said it wouldn't be likely. Sad day. I had really hoped I would get a crack at some of his pieces, but it looks like it won't be the case.
I also really enjoyed a Paulus piece they did as well. I had never head of him, but am excited to get to know him.
Alright, off to get the laundry and get ready to go to Brighton in the morning.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday, May 19 2010
Wednesday. May 19, 2010
Great day today. We had class, where we discussed and analyzed a bit of the Bach motets very quickly. It was a bit of a whirlwind, since I'm not terribly advanced musically. We did that because tonight, we went to a rehearsal of the Holst Singers. More on that later.
After class, we rushed off to a matinee for Les Mis. The theatre was a bit harder to find than we would have liked it to be, but that may have been due to our own stupidity more than any kind of complicated route to arrive there.
The show was great. I was really quite impressed with most of the cast, except for Marius. He literally sounded like a goat at times. Whenever he got angsty, he clenched down his jaw, produced some false vibratto, and nasalized the sound. It was ugly. Eponine was especially fantastic. She had an incredibly open resonance and was just so relaxed. It was an incredibly healthy belt. And she was just so emotionally connected. All of her vocals were super good, except for “On My Own,” ironically enough. She got a little too angsty and it was more like yelling than belting. However, the only reason I could excuse her faulty vocals on that song was that she was literally crying at the end of the song. She turned into a totally different character for me. Eponine had always been a whiny, “feel bad for me” character, but with this actress, she became a real person with feelings on the offensive, rather than the victim. It was really a great piece of acting. And she was really cute. That had no influence on my liking her....
The last time I saw the show, I think I was 15 or 16 and while I appreciated it then, both for the theatrical and musical elements and the storyline, I definitely didn't appreciate it at the level I did today. In the program, there was a quote from Victor Hugo about the people in the world—who are so many—who are alone, destitute, hopeless, and how they can still change their lives. The characters' stories were each so gripping as we watched them change and grow: Valjean, Fantine, Javert, Eponine. I loved watching Valjean's journey and how he infused hope into all those around him simply by loving them. Such a powerful lesson.
After some dinner, we headed over to a church for the Holst Singers' rehearsal of the Bach motets. I actually really liked the Holst Singers' sound. In fact, I liked them more than I did the BBC Singers, which is a fully professional choir. Holst had a much lighter, brighter sound, yet still grounded. They had a lot of height and loft to their sound, in addition to the ringy, pingy sound. It was quite the lively sound. Loved it. And the Bach motets were thrilling! Especially Komm, Jesu, Komm. I highly recommend you check it out on youtube, if not on a professional recording. The choir was about 30-40 people in total, and their balance was pretty good. However, like so many of these British choirs, I once again found the alto section lacking. Often, it was like a three-part choir. Altos of the world, man-up and blasted sing. You are not second-class citizens; you have beautiful instruments and you should use them proudly. No overkill, but play your part.
And then back here for a chill evening.
Great day today. We had class, where we discussed and analyzed a bit of the Bach motets very quickly. It was a bit of a whirlwind, since I'm not terribly advanced musically. We did that because tonight, we went to a rehearsal of the Holst Singers. More on that later.
After class, we rushed off to a matinee for Les Mis. The theatre was a bit harder to find than we would have liked it to be, but that may have been due to our own stupidity more than any kind of complicated route to arrive there.
The show was great. I was really quite impressed with most of the cast, except for Marius. He literally sounded like a goat at times. Whenever he got angsty, he clenched down his jaw, produced some false vibratto, and nasalized the sound. It was ugly. Eponine was especially fantastic. She had an incredibly open resonance and was just so relaxed. It was an incredibly healthy belt. And she was just so emotionally connected. All of her vocals were super good, except for “On My Own,” ironically enough. She got a little too angsty and it was more like yelling than belting. However, the only reason I could excuse her faulty vocals on that song was that she was literally crying at the end of the song. She turned into a totally different character for me. Eponine had always been a whiny, “feel bad for me” character, but with this actress, she became a real person with feelings on the offensive, rather than the victim. It was really a great piece of acting. And she was really cute. That had no influence on my liking her....
The last time I saw the show, I think I was 15 or 16 and while I appreciated it then, both for the theatrical and musical elements and the storyline, I definitely didn't appreciate it at the level I did today. In the program, there was a quote from Victor Hugo about the people in the world—who are so many—who are alone, destitute, hopeless, and how they can still change their lives. The characters' stories were each so gripping as we watched them change and grow: Valjean, Fantine, Javert, Eponine. I loved watching Valjean's journey and how he infused hope into all those around him simply by loving them. Such a powerful lesson.
After some dinner, we headed over to a church for the Holst Singers' rehearsal of the Bach motets. I actually really liked the Holst Singers' sound. In fact, I liked them more than I did the BBC Singers, which is a fully professional choir. Holst had a much lighter, brighter sound, yet still grounded. They had a lot of height and loft to their sound, in addition to the ringy, pingy sound. It was quite the lively sound. Loved it. And the Bach motets were thrilling! Especially Komm, Jesu, Komm. I highly recommend you check it out on youtube, if not on a professional recording. The choir was about 30-40 people in total, and their balance was pretty good. However, like so many of these British choirs, I once again found the alto section lacking. Often, it was like a three-part choir. Altos of the world, man-up and blasted sing. You are not second-class citizens; you have beautiful instruments and you should use them proudly. No overkill, but play your part.
And then back here for a chill evening.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Fabulous day! We went to a rehearsal of the BBC Singers, directed by Bob Chilcott (member of the original King's Singers). They were rehearsing for their recording session later this week, when they will record a bunch of stuff by Samuel Barber. Oh yeah, and this was their only rehearsal for the session. That's just how they do things here in the choral world here! It's unbelievable. They are just incredible sight readers. And the fact is that it shows on their recordings. Very few recordings of British choirs are nice and polished. If you listen to Polyphony's recording of Eric Whitacre's choral stuff and then listen to the BYU Singers' recordings of the same pieces, not only will you notice a difference in sound (which is a HUGE one), you will also notice a difference in the...cleanliness of the recording. We spend so much more time perfecting and polishing things, whereas if they simply get the notes right (they automatically include the dynamics written in the music), they are pretty much set to go. Yeah, there are some dynamic contrasts, but they mostly happen only as written in the music. Anyway, it is really incredible the level at which they sight read. I only wish I could do half as well as they do in the sight reading world. I have focused so much of my training on tone that much of the rest of my musicality has suffered. It's now catching up, but it is surely a slow process.
Anyway, here are some of my notes from the rehearsal:
- TONS of vibratto - makes the sections more separate and distinct, instead of homogeneous and blended.
- Sure on this Shining Night (Barber) - While there is too much vibratto, I really like the basic sound the choir makes for this piece.
- The Monk and his Cat (Barber) - too dark, heavy of a sound for this piece.
- if they lightened/brightened, chords would come to life, but because of the weight, the chords become murky and cloudy (see Polyphony's recording of Whitacre's stuff).
- it's not bad right now, but it's simple not as lively as it could be.
- I like the alto sound - not enough volume, but it is much better blended with the sopranos than other professional choirs.
- they get bored if they have more than a couple rehearsals on a piece?! Craziness.
- Unlike other British directors, Bob Chilcott actually has real icti! Oh the art of conducting!
- "Under the Willowtree" - fun operatic part; sweet rhythms. Singers did it a couple years ago--I want to check it out.
- "Praise Him" - has to have HUGE "p" on "praise" or it literally sounds like "raise."
- I love that Bob Chilcott took the time to inform us about a few of the things having to do with the pieces. It helped us connect more more to the choir and the pieces. In fact, I am SUPER impressed with the warmth and openness of the British people in general. They are incredibly friendly and haven't got the slightest bit of a problem striking a conversation with just about anyone. It's really refreshing and I feel like we Americans have a great deal to learn from them.
After the rehearsal, I headed out with roommate Chris, Heidi (dear, wonderful friend to whom I've grown pretty close on this trip), Caitlin, Heather, and Emily to take the audio tour of Westminster Abbey. It was great. There is just so much history that has happened in that building. Everybody who's been anybody in British history is either buried or honored by a sculpture of sorts in the abbey. It is an amazing piece of architecture. I really loved it. We went into one area of the abbey, off in a wind called the Chapel House, I believe, where there were the most incredible acoustics I think I've ever heard. I have never been in a more ALIVE place in all my life. It was AMAZING. Just humming, you could hear the note resonating for about 3 seconds after you hummed it. We decided we would “ooo” a few hymns in there and it just sounded so GOOD!! It was such simple music, but the harmonies really sprang to life and the sound was so full, even though we were singing as quietly as we possibly could. It was funny—after we stopped, a woman who had walked in after had started approached us after we had finished and told us she thought the music was some recording to add to the ambience of the chapel. Another funny thing that happened there was that we kept on telling each other we needed to leave, but it took us three or four hymns to finally get out of there because we were so addicted to the lively sound the chapel could produce. We were sad we were all in different choirs and didn't have any real pieces we could sing together. Perhaps at some future date, I'll head there with some renaissance group and do some fun stuff. I really don't think I've loved singing in a space so much as I did in there.
After the Abbey, Christ and I wandered a bit and got some dinner at a Portuguese restaurant before heading back to the Abbey for a concert by the Abbey choir. They did Vivaldi's Gloria, as well as Handel's Dixit Dominus. I enjoyed the Gloria, but once again, it was more of the Baroque. There were parts, however, that were simply exquisite. And those boy sopranos and altos....GAH. They are SO good. Man, when they are good, they are GOOD. Wow. I found the the Dixit a bit more pleasing to my ear—it was a bit more down-to-earth, so I liked that a bit more. It was a bit frustrating because we were actually behind the choir, behind a screen, so we could neither hear, nor see very well. Oh well.
After the concert, Michelle, Scott and I went to a musical theater open-mic bar, where we met up with a friend from the singles ward here, as well as a friend who is on the theatre study abroad here. The bar really had a FUN atmosphere and I really liked how positive everyone was. I sang two songs-- “Moving too Fast,” from L5Y and “The Old Red Hills of Home,” from Parade—both by Jason Robert Brown. It was a really great place, so we'll probably go back next week and jam it up a bit more.
Ok, I made up for yesterday today, so I have written about four pages double-spaced. I'm now starting to write everything twice because apparently my hands are falling asleep and can now no longer hit the correct keys. To the bed.
Fabulous day! We went to a rehearsal of the BBC Singers, directed by Bob Chilcott (member of the original King's Singers). They were rehearsing for their recording session later this week, when they will record a bunch of stuff by Samuel Barber. Oh yeah, and this was their only rehearsal for the session. That's just how they do things here in the choral world here! It's unbelievable. They are just incredible sight readers. And the fact is that it shows on their recordings. Very few recordings of British choirs are nice and polished. If you listen to Polyphony's recording of Eric Whitacre's choral stuff and then listen to the BYU Singers' recordings of the same pieces, not only will you notice a difference in sound (which is a HUGE one), you will also notice a difference in the...cleanliness of the recording. We spend so much more time perfecting and polishing things, whereas if they simply get the notes right (they automatically include the dynamics written in the music), they are pretty much set to go. Yeah, there are some dynamic contrasts, but they mostly happen only as written in the music. Anyway, it is really incredible the level at which they sight read. I only wish I could do half as well as they do in the sight reading world. I have focused so much of my training on tone that much of the rest of my musicality has suffered. It's now catching up, but it is surely a slow process.
Anyway, here are some of my notes from the rehearsal:
- TONS of vibratto - makes the sections more separate and distinct, instead of homogeneous and blended.
- Sure on this Shining Night (Barber) - While there is too much vibratto, I really like the basic sound the choir makes for this piece.
- The Monk and his Cat (Barber) - too dark, heavy of a sound for this piece.
- if they lightened/brightened, chords would come to life, but because of the weight, the chords become murky and cloudy (see Polyphony's recording of Whitacre's stuff).
- it's not bad right now, but it's simple not as lively as it could be.
- I like the alto sound - not enough volume, but it is much better blended with the sopranos than other professional choirs.
- they get bored if they have more than a couple rehearsals on a piece?! Craziness.
- Unlike other British directors, Bob Chilcott actually has real icti! Oh the art of conducting!
- "Under the Willowtree" - fun operatic part; sweet rhythms. Singers did it a couple years ago--I want to check it out.
- "Praise Him" - has to have HUGE "p" on "praise" or it literally sounds like "raise."
- I love that Bob Chilcott took the time to inform us about a few of the things having to do with the pieces. It helped us connect more more to the choir and the pieces. In fact, I am SUPER impressed with the warmth and openness of the British people in general. They are incredibly friendly and haven't got the slightest bit of a problem striking a conversation with just about anyone. It's really refreshing and I feel like we Americans have a great deal to learn from them.
After the rehearsal, I headed out with roommate Chris, Heidi (dear, wonderful friend to whom I've grown pretty close on this trip), Caitlin, Heather, and Emily to take the audio tour of Westminster Abbey. It was great. There is just so much history that has happened in that building. Everybody who's been anybody in British history is either buried or honored by a sculpture of sorts in the abbey. It is an amazing piece of architecture. I really loved it. We went into one area of the abbey, off in a wind called the Chapel House, I believe, where there were the most incredible acoustics I think I've ever heard. I have never been in a more ALIVE place in all my life. It was AMAZING. Just humming, you could hear the note resonating for about 3 seconds after you hummed it. We decided we would “ooo” a few hymns in there and it just sounded so GOOD!! It was such simple music, but the harmonies really sprang to life and the sound was so full, even though we were singing as quietly as we possibly could. It was funny—after we stopped, a woman who had walked in after had started approached us after we had finished and told us she thought the music was some recording to add to the ambience of the chapel. Another funny thing that happened there was that we kept on telling each other we needed to leave, but it took us three or four hymns to finally get out of there because we were so addicted to the lively sound the chapel could produce. We were sad we were all in different choirs and didn't have any real pieces we could sing together. Perhaps at some future date, I'll head there with some renaissance group and do some fun stuff. I really don't think I've loved singing in a space so much as I did in there.
After the Abbey, Christ and I wandered a bit and got some dinner at a Portuguese restaurant before heading back to the Abbey for a concert by the Abbey choir. They did Vivaldi's Gloria, as well as Handel's Dixit Dominus. I enjoyed the Gloria, but once again, it was more of the Baroque. There were parts, however, that were simply exquisite. And those boy sopranos and altos....GAH. They are SO good. Man, when they are good, they are GOOD. Wow. I found the the Dixit a bit more pleasing to my ear—it was a bit more down-to-earth, so I liked that a bit more. It was a bit frustrating because we were actually behind the choir, behind a screen, so we could neither hear, nor see very well. Oh well.
After the concert, Michelle, Scott and I went to a musical theater open-mic bar, where we met up with a friend from the singles ward here, as well as a friend who is on the theatre study abroad here. The bar really had a FUN atmosphere and I really liked how positive everyone was. I sang two songs-- “Moving too Fast,” from L5Y and “The Old Red Hills of Home,” from Parade—both by Jason Robert Brown. It was a really great place, so we'll probably go back next week and jam it up a bit more.
Ok, I made up for yesterday today, so I have written about four pages double-spaced. I'm now starting to write everything twice because apparently my hands are falling asleep and can now no longer hit the correct keys. To the bed.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Coming off of a week when we saw the Sixteen and Tallis Scholars AND went to Oxford all in a seven day period of time, it's a little bit of a let-down going back to class. Class is really fun and I love learning about the music we are hearing, but I'm pretty sure I'm a bit ADD and therefore have a pretty hard time sitting still for about three hours. But Dr. Staheli and Sister Hall are quite good at lecturing and they keep it pretty interactive, so I really like it almost all the time. I also really like analyzing and learning the history behind all the pieces.
There is SO much history behind choral music in England! I loved learning last week about William Byrd and how he wrote mainly for the Catholic Church, but when Henry VIII shut down that whole operation, Byrd still wanted to write music in the Catholic tradition, so he wrote masses for as many people as would be in their underground meetings that week. So we ended up with a Mass for 3 voices, one for four voices, and one for 5 voices. And actually his mass for three voices is one of my favorite pieces out there. It's so simple, but it has some gorgeous lines to it.
So today was a chill, recovery day. I've been a tourist for about two and a half weeks now, and I decided I needed a break. So after class, I just came back to the flat, made a simple lunch and hit the sack for about an hour and a half, after which I read the skips (can I tell you how much I love 2 Nephi 28?!?!) and edited some photos. More photos on facebook to come soon.
Overall, the afternoon was really wonderful and it felt great to just recup(erate) a bit.
We went to a rehearsal of the London Bach Choir tonight, directed by David Hill, where they were doing Bach's B Minor Mass, as well as a bit of Brahms' Requiem. There are parts of the B Minor Mass that I like, but speaking in general, Baroque is a bit too....frilly for me. Even most of the architecture from that era is a bit “too much” for me. Everything is just so blasted ornate and excessive in my opinion. Don't get me wrong—I think there are plenty of beautiful things from that period, but in a general sense, that is my opinion. So, when they started doing Brahams' romantic era stuff, it was much easier to take in.
Today was a really great day for a bit simple recuperation and regrouping. I am convinced that there are not many things in life that cannot be solved by some good scripture study and sleep. And today was proof. Life is good.
Coming off of a week when we saw the Sixteen and Tallis Scholars AND went to Oxford all in a seven day period of time, it's a little bit of a let-down going back to class. Class is really fun and I love learning about the music we are hearing, but I'm pretty sure I'm a bit ADD and therefore have a pretty hard time sitting still for about three hours. But Dr. Staheli and Sister Hall are quite good at lecturing and they keep it pretty interactive, so I really like it almost all the time. I also really like analyzing and learning the history behind all the pieces.
There is SO much history behind choral music in England! I loved learning last week about William Byrd and how he wrote mainly for the Catholic Church, but when Henry VIII shut down that whole operation, Byrd still wanted to write music in the Catholic tradition, so he wrote masses for as many people as would be in their underground meetings that week. So we ended up with a Mass for 3 voices, one for four voices, and one for 5 voices. And actually his mass for three voices is one of my favorite pieces out there. It's so simple, but it has some gorgeous lines to it.
So today was a chill, recovery day. I've been a tourist for about two and a half weeks now, and I decided I needed a break. So after class, I just came back to the flat, made a simple lunch and hit the sack for about an hour and a half, after which I read the skips (can I tell you how much I love 2 Nephi 28?!?!) and edited some photos. More photos on facebook to come soon.
Overall, the afternoon was really wonderful and it felt great to just recup(erate) a bit.
We went to a rehearsal of the London Bach Choir tonight, directed by David Hill, where they were doing Bach's B Minor Mass, as well as a bit of Brahms' Requiem. There are parts of the B Minor Mass that I like, but speaking in general, Baroque is a bit too....frilly for me. Even most of the architecture from that era is a bit “too much” for me. Everything is just so blasted ornate and excessive in my opinion. Don't get me wrong—I think there are plenty of beautiful things from that period, but in a general sense, that is my opinion. So, when they started doing Brahams' romantic era stuff, it was much easier to take in.
Today was a really great day for a bit simple recuperation and regrouping. I am convinced that there are not many things in life that cannot be solved by some good scripture study and sleep. And today was proof. Life is good.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Good Sabbath today. A packed Sabbath. Great scott. They certainly make sure we have enough to do around here. We headed out to Oxford for Church pretty early, where we met with the Oxford Ward and sang in their Sacrament Meeting. We sang the text of “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” to an arrangement of the tune of “If you Could Hie to Kolob” and an arrangement of “I Stand All Amazed.” It brought a really nice spirit to the meeting and the ward was really so appreciative of our singing. It was a really great experience. We then had a pleasant munch 'n mingle with the ward, where we got to know the ward a bit more. They were really just so warm, hospitable and welcoming to us. I really loved it. There was a Brazillian family from Rio who has lived there for six years, so it was really fun to speak to them in Portuguese. I love Brazillians. They are just so fun.
We then rehearsed a bit and then headed to Evensong. It was as we expected—not terribly wonderful, but still a good experience. We had drinks (sherry for them, orange juice for us) with them and ate with them. They were really warm and welcoming as well. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.
On the ride back, I sat next to one of my new friends who got me talking and I came to the realization that I am scared to seek out help. I am scared of being dependent on other people, so I distract myself from my difficulties and tell myself I'll figure things out on my own instead of facing them and figuring them out. And usually things do work themselves out on their own in the back of my head—most of the time because it's simply not that big of a deal and if I just let it cool down or work itself out or whatever the case may be, things get to a stable point on their own. But this week was one of those times when I was feeling particularly lonely and should have sought out help of some sort. However, because I have gotten in this habit of not seeking out that help when I need it, I still didn't.
I have always been so independent that most people don't ever really worry about taking care of me, and 99% of the time, I don't really need it, but I actually did need it this week. I have been having a hard time feeling like I have really good, true friends lately because I haven't been able to really connect with too many people since Ashley and that has led to a bit of loneliness. I fear I am now at the point that I am too prideful to realize that I need help and if I do, I am not sure I would ask for that help. So, I think I am going to do some hard praying and thinking and see what I can do to humble myself a bit and better diagnose when I need that help.
And then there is another part of me that says that perfect love overcometh all fear. Insecurities, I think, arise from fear, ultimately. And if I can love God with all I have and love those around me with real charity, then all of those things can be overcome.
It's late. I'm mostly past the point of coherence. Good night.
We then rehearsed a bit and then headed to Evensong. It was as we expected—not terribly wonderful, but still a good experience. We had drinks (sherry for them, orange juice for us) with them and ate with them. They were really warm and welcoming as well. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.
On the ride back, I sat next to one of my new friends who got me talking and I came to the realization that I am scared to seek out help. I am scared of being dependent on other people, so I distract myself from my difficulties and tell myself I'll figure things out on my own instead of facing them and figuring them out. And usually things do work themselves out on their own in the back of my head—most of the time because it's simply not that big of a deal and if I just let it cool down or work itself out or whatever the case may be, things get to a stable point on their own. But this week was one of those times when I was feeling particularly lonely and should have sought out help of some sort. However, because I have gotten in this habit of not seeking out that help when I need it, I still didn't.
I have always been so independent that most people don't ever really worry about taking care of me, and 99% of the time, I don't really need it, but I actually did need it this week. I have been having a hard time feeling like I have really good, true friends lately because I haven't been able to really connect with too many people since Ashley and that has led to a bit of loneliness. I fear I am now at the point that I am too prideful to realize that I need help and if I do, I am not sure I would ask for that help. So, I think I am going to do some hard praying and thinking and see what I can do to humble myself a bit and better diagnose when I need that help.
And then there is another part of me that says that perfect love overcometh all fear. Insecurities, I think, arise from fear, ultimately. And if I can love God with all I have and love those around me with real charity, then all of those things can be overcome.
It's late. I'm mostly past the point of coherence. Good night.
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