So as much fun as typing this all out is, I had a thought today in line with yesterday's post about posting videos on YouTube. I have had a number of people tell me (particularly Russians) that my blogs are just too long. Because they have to translate all of it, scrolling down to see how long the post is and finding it goes down a way can be off-putting and some don't even read the whole thing. I was thinking about starting to just record and post blogs each day instead, or perhaps do a joint venture, wherein you can choose to read, or choose to watch, or maybe I can find some way to collaborate the two. Opinions? Questions? Comments? Rude Remarks?
I want to make you all happy, because that's really what's most important. I'm averaging a fair number of readers each day, and I know my posts can sometimes be lengthy, so I want to find a way to make your lives easier. Let me know what you think! If you don't know where to contact me (since I had limited responses given yesterday despite lots of people reading the post), my Facebook is http://www.facebook.com/cooper.cunningham/ and my В Контакте is http://vkontakte.ru/id92961923. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter as well @McShiney
On to my day! I got up about 11.30 or so and today for the first time I really felt like my energy has finally recovered. I'm still not 100%, and still have some problems breathing and some hacking and coughing, but it's pretty minimal now. Got a text from Sasha to meet at 14.30 and so I headed out about 12.30 or so and arrived a bit early around 14.00. Today, after our lesson he offered tea as usual, but with the bread he offered a spread that Лёша had made from cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and garlic that was ... well, it was magical. It was absolutely fantastic, and I didn't mind smelling like garlic because it was just so darn tasty.
Headed back to the train and made my way to Mayakovskaya station to meet with Irina, who had told me she was running a bit late because work had gone over. I hooked up my headphones and enjoyed to Them Crooked Vultures while I waited... for those that haven't heard them yet, listening to them is like putting ice cream in your ears (an analogy that made Irina laugh when she arrived), and so although I waited about 10 minutes or so, I didn't mind in the least. We headed to Starbuck's as usual, and afterwards she asked what my plans were for the evening. She told me she had been invited to an orchestral performance and had an extra ticket. Of course I accepted the offer, not having plans, and not having been to a performance in some time.
The orchestra was phenomenal and I was highly impressed. The performance was divided into 3 parts. The first and second parts consisted of one musical piece each, and the third part consisted of 4 shorter compositions. The first part was magical, and I closed my eyes, leaned back and let the story unfold. At the beginning of the second part, they brought out a special performer and I was intrigued when they moved chairs to allow him to stand to the side of the conductor. I was in no way impressed by his playing at first, and I couldn't decide if it was because the song was horrible or if he was. It sounded a little like someone was butchering hundreds of baby pigs with machetes with one hand while slamming violins into running chainsaws with the other and I had to resist the strong urge to run screaming from the room with my hands over my ears to protect my future children from being exposed to the horror.
About halfway through the second part, the orchestra crescendo'd (not positive that that's a real word, just go with me on this one) and crashed together, and the music took on a quick, almost frantic pace and I was instantly re-captivated. The solo violinist was magnificent, and although I have no idea what was going on in the first half of the second part, the second half totally made up for it; it was absolutely magnificent. I discussed briefly with the ladies that had invited us during the intermission what they thought, and although they seemed less terror-stricken than I did by the beginning of the second part, the agreed that they enjoyed the other parts much more.
The performance resumed and each composition was more fantastic than the previous one. My only observation is one that takes into account my history as a musician. I would sooner throw my babies into a den of starving lions than perform with that conductor. The man was either insane or retarded. I have never seen any conductor that was so .... well, bad. He didn't conduct at all. He just flailed his arms around like a windmill, and I'm surprised no one misjudged his "performance" and called the ambulance thinking he was having a seizure. The orchestra didn't bother watching him because what he was telling them to do didn't make any sense. You could tell they were used to it by now, but it didn't help things really.
For the percussion in the back, it was pretty awful. The man kind of remotely indicated the tempo he wanted to go, but I tried to follow him and the tempo he was trying to set was so erratic that a baby beating a kitchen pot with a spoon would have been more consistent. He didn't set any tempo at all, and was was worse, he wasn't even trying to indicate the measures on the down stroke. He was indicating the beginning of measures on the upstroke of his baton, which besides being terribly difficult to predict, he was constantly changing tempo, so his hand would sometimes bottom out near the floor, and he would just hold it there... and the orchestra would play the note not realizing he was just going to randomly stop half way through the line.
The percussion in the back were trying desperately to anticipate what he was going to do, but with his crouching to touch the floor with his baton and then jumping as high as he could as if he were trying to touch the ceiling with it, no one had any clue what he wanted them to do. Every crash that the percussion or band were supposed to play with the strings missed entirely because they were all just guessing because for all intensive purposes, they had no conductor. Still, I was incredibly impressed. More so, in fact, because they managed to do so magnificently without any real direction. I still think at the end when the conductor received so many flowers that he must have sent them to himself or they were maybe a formality that is given to all conductors, because I was terribly unimpressed.
That being said, Irina and I left after the performance and ate dinner at McDonald's because it was the only restaurant in the pavilion next to the metro we recognized the name of (best to avoid the little once you don't know about, never know what you'll get). I thought it was a little funny that I went 5 years without eating McDonald's and then started eating it in Russia, but whatever. Despite the fact that it was getting late, we chose to stay and eat rather than run and carry a McD's bag with us on the train, and I got to Prince Plaza at 22.57 expecting to have to catch a city buses since the shuttles stop at 22.30. Turns out I was wrong, and the shuttles run until at least 23.00 because I hopped on one just as it was leaving.
Made it back home about 23.45 and I'm entirely exhausted. I am meeting with a new student in the morning at.. some station I've never been to. I have no idea where I'm going, and I'm too tired to try to figure it out tonight. I have a busy schedule tomorrow, meeting with 3 students, so I need to get some shut-eye or I'll pass out again on the train tomorrow. I hope everyone had an awesome day, and make sure to let me know what you all think about my idea for vlogging! Take care, and see you tomorrow!
I want to make you all happy, because that's really what's most important. I'm averaging a fair number of readers each day, and I know my posts can sometimes be lengthy, so I want to find a way to make your lives easier. Let me know what you think! If you don't know where to contact me (since I had limited responses given yesterday despite lots of people reading the post), my Facebook is http://www.facebook.com/cooper.cunningham/ and my В Контакте is http://vkontakte.ru/id92961923. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter as well @McShiney
On to my day! I got up about 11.30 or so and today for the first time I really felt like my energy has finally recovered. I'm still not 100%, and still have some problems breathing and some hacking and coughing, but it's pretty minimal now. Got a text from Sasha to meet at 14.30 and so I headed out about 12.30 or so and arrived a bit early around 14.00. Today, after our lesson he offered tea as usual, but with the bread he offered a spread that Лёша had made from cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, and garlic that was ... well, it was magical. It was absolutely fantastic, and I didn't mind smelling like garlic because it was just so darn tasty.
Headed back to the train and made my way to Mayakovskaya station to meet with Irina, who had told me she was running a bit late because work had gone over. I hooked up my headphones and enjoyed to Them Crooked Vultures while I waited... for those that haven't heard them yet, listening to them is like putting ice cream in your ears (an analogy that made Irina laugh when she arrived), and so although I waited about 10 minutes or so, I didn't mind in the least. We headed to Starbuck's as usual, and afterwards she asked what my plans were for the evening. She told me she had been invited to an orchestral performance and had an extra ticket. Of course I accepted the offer, not having plans, and not having been to a performance in some time.
The orchestra was phenomenal and I was highly impressed. The performance was divided into 3 parts. The first and second parts consisted of one musical piece each, and the third part consisted of 4 shorter compositions. The first part was magical, and I closed my eyes, leaned back and let the story unfold. At the beginning of the second part, they brought out a special performer and I was intrigued when they moved chairs to allow him to stand to the side of the conductor. I was in no way impressed by his playing at first, and I couldn't decide if it was because the song was horrible or if he was. It sounded a little like someone was butchering hundreds of baby pigs with machetes with one hand while slamming violins into running chainsaws with the other and I had to resist the strong urge to run screaming from the room with my hands over my ears to protect my future children from being exposed to the horror.
About halfway through the second part, the orchestra crescendo'd (not positive that that's a real word, just go with me on this one) and crashed together, and the music took on a quick, almost frantic pace and I was instantly re-captivated. The solo violinist was magnificent, and although I have no idea what was going on in the first half of the second part, the second half totally made up for it; it was absolutely magnificent. I discussed briefly with the ladies that had invited us during the intermission what they thought, and although they seemed less terror-stricken than I did by the beginning of the second part, the agreed that they enjoyed the other parts much more.
The performance resumed and each composition was more fantastic than the previous one. My only observation is one that takes into account my history as a musician. I would sooner throw my babies into a den of starving lions than perform with that conductor. The man was either insane or retarded. I have never seen any conductor that was so .... well, bad. He didn't conduct at all. He just flailed his arms around like a windmill, and I'm surprised no one misjudged his "performance" and called the ambulance thinking he was having a seizure. The orchestra didn't bother watching him because what he was telling them to do didn't make any sense. You could tell they were used to it by now, but it didn't help things really.
For the percussion in the back, it was pretty awful. The man kind of remotely indicated the tempo he wanted to go, but I tried to follow him and the tempo he was trying to set was so erratic that a baby beating a kitchen pot with a spoon would have been more consistent. He didn't set any tempo at all, and was was worse, he wasn't even trying to indicate the measures on the down stroke. He was indicating the beginning of measures on the upstroke of his baton, which besides being terribly difficult to predict, he was constantly changing tempo, so his hand would sometimes bottom out near the floor, and he would just hold it there... and the orchestra would play the note not realizing he was just going to randomly stop half way through the line.
The percussion in the back were trying desperately to anticipate what he was going to do, but with his crouching to touch the floor with his baton and then jumping as high as he could as if he were trying to touch the ceiling with it, no one had any clue what he wanted them to do. Every crash that the percussion or band were supposed to play with the strings missed entirely because they were all just guessing because for all intensive purposes, they had no conductor. Still, I was incredibly impressed. More so, in fact, because they managed to do so magnificently without any real direction. I still think at the end when the conductor received so many flowers that he must have sent them to himself or they were maybe a formality that is given to all conductors, because I was terribly unimpressed.
That being said, Irina and I left after the performance and ate dinner at McDonald's because it was the only restaurant in the pavilion next to the metro we recognized the name of (best to avoid the little once you don't know about, never know what you'll get). I thought it was a little funny that I went 5 years without eating McDonald's and then started eating it in Russia, but whatever. Despite the fact that it was getting late, we chose to stay and eat rather than run and carry a McD's bag with us on the train, and I got to Prince Plaza at 22.57 expecting to have to catch a city buses since the shuttles stop at 22.30. Turns out I was wrong, and the shuttles run until at least 23.00 because I hopped on one just as it was leaving.
Made it back home about 23.45 and I'm entirely exhausted. I am meeting with a new student in the morning at.. some station I've never been to. I have no idea where I'm going, and I'm too tired to try to figure it out tonight. I have a busy schedule tomorrow, meeting with 3 students, so I need to get some shut-eye or I'll pass out again on the train tomorrow. I hope everyone had an awesome day, and make sure to let me know what you all think about my idea for vlogging! Take care, and see you tomorrow!
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