Weather: Lotsa snow, sunny
Listening to: Sarah Slean, "The Score"

Concert Season

When I was about nine, my family and I went to a Christmas carol service at a local United church (not our usual church). We received an order of service upon entering, which listed not just the songs that were to be sung, but all of the lyrics to all of the songs as well. While I liked Christmas music and still do, the service was quite long, and I distinctly remember reading ahead in the program to gauge roughly how long we were going to be there based on how long the songs were. The next song was listed as "Air & Chorus from Handel's Messiah" and the following four lines were printed beneath it:

O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain.
O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength;
Lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God!
Arise, shine, for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. (Isaiah 40:9/60:1)


In my nine-year-old mind, I figured -- oh well, how long could that possibly take? As the song we were listening to finished, I sat back, ready to hear the alto soloist sing this brief piece and hustle us towards the inevitable conclusion of the evening.

Ten minutes later, as the choir was finally joining in for the last line, I realized that Handel's Messiah was not quite what I'd bargained for.

Now that I'm a bit older, I recognize most of the well-known choruses and airs from the famous oratorio -- the Hallelujah chorus is probably the best-known (and the most frequently corrupted/adapted), but I've also long loved For Unto Us A Child Is Born and The Trumpet Shall Sound, not to mention the Amen. What I've learned only recently is the history around it. Handel, during a low point in his career, cranked out this his most famous work in just 24 days; after writing it he declared "I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God himself". Either despite or because of whatever spiritual visions Handel may have experienced, Messiah is incredible, and is currently being performed downtown by Tafelmusik, a well-known Toronto baroque group. When I first entered the church, the first thing I noticed were the small size of the choir and the orchestra -- only 24 singers, 6 for each part, and 22 instruments. From listening to the complete recording, which CBC radio typically broadcasts on Christmas morning, I had imagined a much larger company -- hundreds of swelling violins and triumphant trumpets, thousands of clear sopranos and rumbling bases raising their voices. But these 46 people did the work of thousands more. When the sopranos hit their notes, it was like taking a bath in pure, molten light.

The next day I travelled downtown once again -- this time with Julie, to the Harbourfront centre, to a concert of a different sort. Although we both saw Sarah Slean in Hamilton just over a month ago, neither of us saw fit to resist buying tickets for her Toronto concert, so off we went. Of course, it was the night of the biggest snowstorm in ages, and we were typically running late, so we wound up taking a taxi from Union station instead of waiting for the buses temporarily replacing the Union streetcars. Fortunately, although we were about five minutes late arriving, the concert was late starting, so we didn't miss anything. Sarah is a great peformer -- a fantastic blend of ingenuous, bizarre, and mischievous. Furthermore, she clearly loves to sing and play, and, although she doesn't put quite as much of her body into the piano as Tori Amos does, she nevertheless makes the keyboard sing.

This concert involved a string quartet, which the Hamilton concert did not; at times while they were playing, I found myself wishing for just Sarah's delicate piano treatment -- particularly on the wrenching "I Know". Nevertheless, they did add a certain depth to the evening, and I particularly enjoyed their treatment of "Playing Cards With Judas" -- they did this really neat string-plucking thing, which added just the right amount of funky syncopation to a song that, otherwise, I get kind of tired of by the end. Tomi Swick, who opened for her Hamilton show, came back to perform -- surprise! -- a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" with Sarah. It was delightful to hear them do it...I've always wanted to hear the song performed live and, although I admit I've been secretly dying for Tori to do it, I loved their rendition. The only other non-Sarah song that she sung was a beautiful, ethereal "Pie Jesu" from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem. It was amazing to hear her classical training being put to classical use.

A particular mention has to be made of "Eliot", which I think must be a favourite of hers to do live, and every time she does it, I fall a little more in love with the song. Also, her rendition of "Mary" was particularly emotional as, she explained, its inspiration, her grandmother, was there to see the show.

Finally, however, I think this is what made it a truly great concert: while I obviously adore hearing her sing my favourites, I came out of this concert (and the last) loving and appreciating songs that had never really made an impression on me before. ("The Score", previously a song I skipped, is now one of my favourites.) She brings her music to life onstage, and that can only be done by a good peformer.

In Other News:
-there's a cardinal right outside my window, and he's beautiful
-I'm done Christmas shopping, or very nearly
-I'm caught up with Season 2 of Veronica Mars, and I have to say, it's rocking second season much, much, much better than LOST is
-I'm hungry, so I'm off to forage some food.

~SQ

Weather: Cold with periodic snow
Listening to: Pandora radio station, "candles and hot chocolate"
Taking a break from: fuzzy-slipper-style shopping, studying for comparative literature on Friday

Odi et amo

In order to apply to the medical school at the University of Ottawa, a candidate must fill out a long form elaborating on all the entries in his or her general autobiographical sketch -- the ABS being a list of all the activities he or she has engaged in since the age of sixteen. In this spirit I present you with Ups and Downs: The Ottawa Application Edition.

Crossovers: My residence bought out an entire theatre for an evening viewing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on opening day, so there I was: 9:50 pm, Coke in hand, surrounded by a bunch of giddy university-level Potterheads, waiting to see the latest installment. Just over a week later, I was sitting in a theatre in London, gripping Boyfriend's wrist as the opening chords of "Seasons of Love" signaled the beginning of RENT.
I can't explain how cool it is for me to watch stories I know intimately be played on screen, and to be able to SEE what the writers and directors are doing and why. To see pages of narration and exposition conveyed with a single facial expression. To see one scene tied to another scene in a new way, a way that lets it carry more meaning. To see complexities and subtleties distilled into a strong, refined story arc. Making a book into a movie and turning a stage musical into a movie are of course completely different challenges, but November has shown me that in order for a movie to be a faithful representation to its source material, it has to be true to its own medium as well -- which revels in the power of single images and quick glances.

TV: I love House. I love Dr. House because he's predictably sarcastic but never predictable; because he's brilliant but wrong twice or three times an episode; because just when you think he has no compassion at all he does something kind in an underhanded way; because I've never understood a character's "deep emotions" so strongly with so little obvious evidence to go on before; because he wields a sophisticated originality that makes everyone in his wake sound like jabbering parrots; and because, even though I'd love to think that he'd like me, I know he'd hate me, because he's consistent like that. Oh, and I love the show because Robert Sean Leonard is on it, and I love him, and I've loved him ever since he talked Ethan Hawke into throwing his desk set off the bridge at Welton Academy.

Finishing things: I love the warm feeling of my intestines unknotting that I get when I hand in term papers, major assignments, final exams, etc. Funny, you'd think that if I liked finishing things so much, I'd do it in a more timely fashion...

Decorative trees: There is a tree in my living room. The central pillar of our residence room is the trunk; twists of newspaper covered with dollar-store drawer liner vinyl give it the texture of bark. Long branches, constructed of dollar-store greenery and string, stretch from the trunk to all corners of the room. Dollar-store festive lights complete the effect. Yes, Virginia, I AM the dollar store's favourite customer.
Why? Any number of reasons. We were having a party and we have a reputation to protect; I'm crazy; I've always wanted to build a tree from scratch; I like to procrastinate; what else do you hang candy apples from; it means we didn't have to bring up a Christmas tree; it's our last year here and it was time to do something sensational; I COULD, and so I did.

RENT blog: The cast has been doing great video blogs every step of the way, and I really believe that they're a tight, close group. Many of them are the Broadway stars who originated the roles, and suffered the crushing loss of Jonathan Larson on the day of their first public preview. I genuinely get the feeling that they've taken the message of the musical to heart. Ok, I'm letting down my side of the Cynics Anonymous crowd...but damnit, RENT is just so life-affirming.

Wunderbar: New favourite chocolate bar, nuff said.

Pandora: At www.pandora.com, you can "seed" a personalized "radio" station with your favourite artist or song, and it will play you new songs based on the musical qualities of that song or a song representative of that artist. It's ALL song based, so it doesn't matter what genre artists are supposedly part of, or how famous they are, or anything. They have a selection of holiday music, too, which I'm into at the moment. Speaking of which...

Holiday music: What IS it about Christmas music that makes it so wonderful to me? It's a precious few weeks of the year that I get to enjoy these compositions....

Dishes: I swear they spawn in the sink.

Not respecting my authority: I'm trying to figure out a way to stop, or at least drastically reduce, my procrastination. It's gotten entirely out of hand this term and it's shameful. I have no excuse for starting essays at 1 am the day that they're due, or failing to study for midterms. One of the problems I think I've identified is that I don't feel I have jurisdiction over myself. If I say "I'm going to work on this tonight!" another part of me says "yeah, but you're not really going to get anything done...are you?" And I cave in. I undermine my own authority. I need to lay down the law.

Mold: I swear it spawns in my dishes.

Gastrointestinal mutiny: These days, instead of getting hungry like any normal person, I get headachy and nauseated. This makes it a tremendous effort to actually EAT ANYTHING, since I feel like I'm going to throw up at the thought of food. I can't figure out why my own GI tract is trying to starve me.

Being dead weight: Further to my procrastination issues comes the feeling that I'm not contributing sufficiently to any of my endeavours. I'm afraid of being seen as useless. But instead of making me work harder, I think the fear just contributes to the procrastination. Fear begets fear begets fear. I need to spend at least some of my Christmas break giving these fears names; dragging them out of their dark places into the light; snapping the connections between them so I can be productive again. Otherwise I'll just continue this retreat into a fetal position of stress and shame, which is really kind of boring.

Tinnitus: My dad's affliction and my pathophysiology term paper topic. No one knows how it happens and why it's so bad in certain people, but early theories on the issue postulate involvement of everything from the brainstem, arousal systems (the thing that keeps you awake and focused) and auditory cortex to the limbic system (centre of emotions like fear and anger) and behavioural adaptation centres. I was half-doing this project because, deep down, I hoped that I would stumble across some new research into some kind of treatment or cure...but...nothing. Somehow I'm not as disappointed as you might expect. It's been long enough now that there's a new normal, and I'm not sure I even remember clearly what things were like before tinnitus entered our house. Sometimes I wonder if Dad remembers what it was like not to have it. But I don't want my parents to know how quickly I've forgotten.

Electioneering: Merry...campaign season? *sigh*.
That said, I'm not complaining about the January election date. An election is an election; we have these mechanisms in place for a reason; we should be glad that we get to vote at all. And actually, I haven't been following the campaign at all yet, so I shouldn't judge it yet. It could be completely civilized, respectful, and condusive to rational judgement, for all I know. Although somehow I doubt it.

Dubious honours: Presenting...the Goldfish Award...for the shortest term memory ever...to Suzy Q...for forgetting why she wrote this in the first place, four days ago.

~SQ