It's here, it's here, it's here!!! The event I've done nothing but talk about for a month, have scraped my meager savings together to attend, have annoyed everyone at WJC by talking about, yes, THAT event is here!
What event you ask?
Why... CSA 2010! It's the 33rd Annual Conference, and it's right here in my own backyard (figuratively speaking of course), downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
It's a great weekend to be a Celiac.
I hope I sleep tonight, I'm buzzing with little kid excitement.
I promise to come back and report on the fabulousness that has to be this weekend. I hope you want to read about it!
A couple of thoughts though (prayer points if you're so inclined):
- I don't do well in crowd situations, especially when I don't know a soul going in. So pray that I can be at ease with my public persona, and NOT scare anyone off by being standoffish, as I am wont to do.
- It's been an exhausting week, and this weekend is going to set me behind on homework. Worth it, but it will be a tough week next week because of my attendance this weekend.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Scarlatti
It's Scarlatti's birthday today. He would have been 325 years old. That... is a lot of years.
Scarlatti gets mentioned in today's post because, well, I love piano music. Scarlatti wrote almost all piano music. See the connection? Plus, I love Baroque music, and Scarlatti spent the majority of his life composing at the beginning of the 18th century, quintessential Baroque period.
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, the son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti, was born in Naples in 1685, the same year that both JS Bach and GF Handel were born. He however, unlike his contemporaries, is not generally referred to as GD Scarlatti, but rather Domenico Scarlatti. Who knows how we make these music history traditions. He is considered a Baroque composer, but his music was highly influential in helping develop what we think of as the Classical style. Much of his keyboard music is Italian and Spanish in influence, and includes singing melodies, overdramatic (or operatic) influences and embellishments. During his own lifetime he was known as one of the premier virtuosos at the keyboard. There's a tale of a contest between Scarlatti and GF Handel, and upon the harpsichord, Scarlatti won out, but on the organ, Handel was judged to be superior. Scarlatti was known to cross himself in veneration of Handel's skill when it came up in conversation.
He was primarily a keyboard composer but he also wrote a number of operas for the Queen of Spain. However, in order to find an untrodden viewpoint, or to expand your horizons, I'm going to recommend that in honor of Scarlatti's birthday today, you look up a few of these sonatas for piano, since he wrote more than 550 solo piano sonatas during his lifespan. Prolific much?
Here are my top five favorite piano sonatas:
1. Sonata in E Major, K. 380, L. 23
2. Sonata in C Major, K. 502 *** (absolute favorite!)
3. Sonata in B minor, K. 87
4. Sonata in G Major, K. 427
5. Sonata in D minor, K. 214
Scarlatti gets mentioned in today's post because, well, I love piano music. Scarlatti wrote almost all piano music. See the connection? Plus, I love Baroque music, and Scarlatti spent the majority of his life composing at the beginning of the 18th century, quintessential Baroque period.
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, the son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti, was born in Naples in 1685, the same year that both JS Bach and GF Handel were born. He however, unlike his contemporaries, is not generally referred to as GD Scarlatti, but rather Domenico Scarlatti. Who knows how we make these music history traditions. He is considered a Baroque composer, but his music was highly influential in helping develop what we think of as the Classical style. Much of his keyboard music is Italian and Spanish in influence, and includes singing melodies, overdramatic (or operatic) influences and embellishments. During his own lifetime he was known as one of the premier virtuosos at the keyboard. There's a tale of a contest between Scarlatti and GF Handel, and upon the harpsichord, Scarlatti won out, but on the organ, Handel was judged to be superior. Scarlatti was known to cross himself in veneration of Handel's skill when it came up in conversation.
He was primarily a keyboard composer but he also wrote a number of operas for the Queen of Spain. However, in order to find an untrodden viewpoint, or to expand your horizons, I'm going to recommend that in honor of Scarlatti's birthday today, you look up a few of these sonatas for piano, since he wrote more than 550 solo piano sonatas during his lifespan. Prolific much?
Here are my top five favorite piano sonatas:
1. Sonata in E Major, K. 380, L. 23
2. Sonata in C Major, K. 502 *** (absolute favorite!)
3. Sonata in B minor, K. 87
4. Sonata in G Major, K. 427
5. Sonata in D minor, K. 214
Friday, October 22, 2010
What the future holds - Part 1
Not that I have necessarily on this, but I'm really beginning to hope for it now.
AmeriCorps was suggested to me as I was looking for plans that would involve... non-academics for next year. It's a US federal program (think Peace Corps, but for America!) created by former President Bill Clinton in 1993. The work accomplished ranges from environmental outreach and cleanup, to community development. I've looked and looked and looked through the programs, and found one called: VolunteerMaine VISTA. Being picked for this program would be awesome, I'd be working with establishing a Service Learning program in Maine, especially focusing on schools.
So ducks in a row: Basic profile created.
Still to do: Oh so much.
AmeriCorps was suggested to me as I was looking for plans that would involve... non-academics for next year. It's a US federal program (think Peace Corps, but for America!) created by former President Bill Clinton in 1993. The work accomplished ranges from environmental outreach and cleanup, to community development. I've looked and looked and looked through the programs, and found one called: VolunteerMaine VISTA. Being picked for this program would be awesome, I'd be working with establishing a Service Learning program in Maine, especially focusing on schools.
So ducks in a row: Basic profile created.
Still to do: Oh so much.
Monday, October 18, 2010
10 Things
I've decided as part of this blog I'm going to run a weekly series called "10 Thing" featuring ten things about a subject, something that's on my mind, or just general musings. Today hits the musings button. I was having an interesting discussion with someone recently and throughout the conversation they kept saying things like "I had no clue!" or "I didn't know that about you!" and that struck me as funny first, but then curious second. So, in the vein of sharing a little, ten things you might not know about me:
1. I have enough mild allergies that I keep them written down on a little card in my emergency pack. That way in case I can't remember I can look them up.
2. I love French pop music of almost all decades in the 20th/21st centuries.
3. Speaking of music, I can't listen to Barber's Adagio for Strings without wanting to melt/cry/do something else ridiculous
4. I am an ardent feminist, but would probably choose to be a stay-at-home mom if I ever had kids.
5. Remember all those Disney movies the 20-something set cut their cultural teeth on? I only saw four of them as a child; Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, and Beauty and the Beast. The rest I've seen in the last two and a half years. Except Pocahontas, which I'm still missing.
6. I've always wanted to be just like my Dad. Just without the financial whiz brain.
7. I'm incredibly passionate about groups that work with women, especially groups like MOCSA and Veronica's Voice.
8. I danced for ten years during grade school and junior high
9. I collect antique Charles Dickens novels, but I can only buy them in second-hand bookstores, that's one of my rules. I have The Pickwick Papers, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Barnaby Rudge. They're all at least 90 years old, and my oldest is at least 110 years old, there's a signature from 1900 on the inside cover.
10. I blush when I'm happy, not when I'm embarrassed.
1. I have enough mild allergies that I keep them written down on a little card in my emergency pack. That way in case I can't remember I can look them up.
2. I love French pop music of almost all decades in the 20th/21st centuries.
3. Speaking of music, I can't listen to Barber's Adagio for Strings without wanting to melt/cry/do something else ridiculous
4. I am an ardent feminist, but would probably choose to be a stay-at-home mom if I ever had kids.
5. Remember all those Disney movies the 20-something set cut their cultural teeth on? I only saw four of them as a child; Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, and Beauty and the Beast. The rest I've seen in the last two and a half years. Except Pocahontas, which I'm still missing.
6. I've always wanted to be just like my Dad. Just without the financial whiz brain.
7. I'm incredibly passionate about groups that work with women, especially groups like MOCSA and Veronica's Voice.
8. I danced for ten years during grade school and junior high
9. I collect antique Charles Dickens novels, but I can only buy them in second-hand bookstores, that's one of my rules. I have The Pickwick Papers, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Barnaby Rudge. They're all at least 90 years old, and my oldest is at least 110 years old, there's a signature from 1900 on the inside cover.
10. I blush when I'm happy, not when I'm embarrassed.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Organization?
Question marked because I generally think of myself as decently organized. I have the planner, the software, and a brain that categorizes and compartmentalizes fairly well. But in the last couple of weeks my normal routines just aren't cutting it for my life. I'm trying to turn this idea of "new paths" and "untrodden viewpoints" into my new needs for organization. Senior year is turning out to be a more spread out busy, with lots of long term projects. After googling everything from "organization tools for adults" to "checklist ideas" to "task management" I finally ran across a blog called "simple mom". Alright laugh, go ahead. But her ideas are pretty awesome, even for a twenty-something single girl. I think I may try some of her ideas in the weeks ahead, but I'm still open to suggestions. Let me know if you have a system you use that works particularly well for you.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Brand New Thoughts
I've been reflecting recently on where life is sending me next year. Americorps, Oxford, graduate school and programs galor, I have no idea how to get where I want to go in the next few years. I've discovered some fresh thoughts, perspectives, outlooks may be in need. These are the musings of a girl deciding to hunt for the new perspective, the untrodden viewpoint. Join me while I keep things fresh, and try to figure out what life after Jewell looks like, or what it doesn't look like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)