Last day of Hot Springs Music Festival

I just heard back on my car. I'm not sure all the details, but basically the verdict is my car is undriveable more than 15 feet at the moment. From what I understand, it overheated, leaking water and motor fluid (you guys can correct me if I'm naming the wrong things), which did something to one of the cylinders. Not quite sure yet if it is worth replacing yet or not, it will depend on what all in there needs to be replaced or not. I'm kicking myself becuase all this is something that could have been prevented days ago. Not just that, but could have prevented even if I didn't drive home the night it broke down on the road. Again, life lesson: check your gauges regularly!! (and take it immediately if it's making funky sounds. That too.)
So Dad is driving up with a flatbed trailer to pull it home, since they can't fix it in time for when we need to leave.

Dang it!!

Anyway, today is the last day of the festival. I'm kinda sad...it went by too quickly. All the concerts were good, but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to get any cd's...if I do it will be of the Potpourri concert, the one where the apprentices bring their own music and put together chamber pieces themselves and then audition them in to play in the concert. I didn't play in it this year. There was a quartet arrangement of some pieces from the opera Carmen that my mentor brought, but we could never get it together in time. I also got to play Hans Strauss's Nocturne for french horn and piano that my friend Doug the tuba player brought to try out on tuba and harp. It was really cool, and really pretty, and we got to discuss different ways of rearranging it with both our mentors.

The opera theatre production of Carmen was sooooo good. It was adapted from the original to a much smaller chamber orchestra, down to only the main cast (no chorus), and ran without intermission for a total of 1 hour and 20 min, roughly. And it was transcribed to english. If you know anything about Bizet's Carmen, there was no fluff in this one...just the nitty-gritty emotional story that is Carmen. It was really intense, and so good! The singers were absolutely fantastic...and the set was built by my mentor's husband (who runs all the setup stuff at the festival) on very little budget and mostly stuff laying around....and it looked so good! The stage was set up like an arena, bales of hay outlined a small circular stage on the feildhouse floor.

So, I'm officially done playing harp. I don't play on tonight's orchestra concert, but I do get to play with the percussion section. Yep you read right. It is a piece that allows anyone to participate in. So there are a lot of us, who aren't playing on the piece, that are doing various percussion instruments as a group...and you don't really have to read the music either, you just watch and do you're rhythm. There is some african drums, tom-toms, clave (which is hard wooden sticks banging together), whistles, cowbell, and clapping hands. I get to play the maracas. WOOHOOO!! It's really fun.

Here are some pics from the festival. This first one is of that fried banana cheesecake thing I told you about. It was sooooo good....

This is a brass quintet jamming songs from West side story at the Brauhouse patio:Here is a pic of a fountain walking along the sidewalk, and of the Quapaw bath and spa, one of the historic bathhouses on bathhouse row (now remodeled and working) here in historic district of Hot Springs:

Oh, and Stephanie, just so you know I met you're stunt double.......:o)

car trouble

OK..........yeah.

My car broke down. On the road. While I was driving it. Yep.

It had been running fine...or so I had thought. Then it started making funny noises. Then it just died on me last night. Couldn't get a hold of a tow truck, got a cab home. Called the tow truck this morning. Dad came back up. (He came up for my concert and then left to drive home and got stuck by the storms all night so he wasn't far away. My car broke down driving home from dinner.) Took it to a highly recommended auto place. Took a look at it, could be serious, may not be. I hope I don't have to get a new car, that would really be unfortunate, don't you agree?

So, waiting on the verdict. Apparently the water level was at zero and "smelled hot"....which means that I didn't notice my water temp gauge moving into the hot zone. Stupid me. But I had been driving so little while I was here (just a mile or so here and there) that I never stopped to just look at it. Which is still stupid becuase it is something you're supposed to check every time you turn your car on. woops. So yeah, I feel awful, and hope I didn't just ruin my engine. Life lesson here folks :l
I still have 3 days before I have to leave, so hopefully what can be done will be done by then. Cross your fingers!

Other than all that, I'm great! Concert went great last night. My duet with the flute was as close to flawless as you can get in a performance. And I got to stand and be recognized, so that was cool. Dad came out and really enjoyed the concert too. Anyway, I'm going to go watch a movie, maybe play on my computer...just be lazy today since my hard part is over in the festival. I just got back from the Colonial cafe where I had a stack of peanut butter chip pancakes....yum. Bet you're jelous huh?
:o)

Hot Spring Happenings

Ok, so tonight is the concert where I play Bizet's l'arlsienne suite 2 and Shulman's cello concerto. It is a pretty big concert. The Shulman is pretty modern, but I love it, and kind of has some middle eastern vibes to it. The Bizet is awsome. Everyone knows the 4th movement too....unfortunately the only movement I don't play on. But I do have an exposed duet with the flute in the third movement. So. Excited!!

Ok, so other than that, nothin much. Except yesterday my car decided to not start while at a movie rental place. Called a tow truck and everything....and then it started an hour later. So cancelled the tow truck, which was good. It has been fine since, other than this occasional click-clack sound the engine is making. I'm worried that my car has lost it's will to live. It just got out of the shop for bad coils and spark plugs. But we are thinking that it might have been vapor locked, whatever that means. But it made me miss the African drum piece on the chamber concert and the Brauhms so booooo!!!

Gotta go eat dinner before the concert. Love to all!!

..............

I am exhausted.

Day 7...I think...

Today was busy. Got up early, took a shower. Went to the farmer's market at 8:00. Got some blackberries...mmm...went to rehearsal at 9am. We rehearsed Mahler's 10th symphony, first movement...which is the only movement of it he finished before kicking it. It is not my favorite piece and we did a lot of sitting there because we were playing an edited version by Richard our conductor so there was a lot of checking to make sure everyone had the right notes in thier parts. That and the fact that there is not a lot of harp part in it. But, we played beautifully when we could. So all in all, good.

Then Shana (my mentor) and I practiced, then went to lunch at a fusion cuisine place. Talk about fusing cultures together...yep they mastered it but it is all soooo good. We got a fried banana cheescake thing with ice cream that was so good...I'll post a pic of it tomorrow.

Then we went back and practiced some more for the Family/children's concert that we were playing on tonight, which went really well. There are these 2 cute girls that I keep seeing at all the concerts and one is really interested in the harp. So we played a little piece on the program, along with a bunch of others, talking about different instruments and when they came about. The African drums were probably my favorite, though the saxophone quartet was awsome too...as well as the clarinet piece...it was all good. Then I went to half of the Piano Mania concert, which I just got back from. Whew that was a lot! I also might go to the Brauhouse pub to listen to the brass jam session, as well as some polka. Shana plays the accordian in the polka music jam sessions and I really am in the mood to hang out and hear it. (Which is the only reason I'm even going to the bar.)

My leg is doing much better still. It's still bandaged and wrapped up but it is not hurting much and is not enflamed anymore. I could actually walk like a normal person today. YAY!!

Tomorrow is Shulmer and Bizet. Tell you all about it later.
;o)

Day...I lost count. But it was my day off.

So today I did absolutely nothing. There were recording sessions all day so no rehearsals and my fingers hurt still so I just gave them a break today.
I went to breakfast at the Pancake Shope....it was amazing. I might have to buy some of their apple butter. They are known for their pancakes but I will go for their wheat toast with apple butter and a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice...this is literally the best orange juice you will ever taste. Yep.

Then I took a walk down historic district, cause it was nice out...a little chilly, but compared to heat it was nice. I then went back to the room and fell asleep reading. Then woke up, and fell asleep again. I got up at 4pm and my roommate and I went out and had ice cream for dinner....yum...and rented some movies, which we are about to watch. So that was pretty much my day off.

Day 4 in Hot Springs

Soooooo......yeah. Not much to write about right now. My leg still hurts, but it's getting better. We have our first concert tonight...pretty excited. I play on the last piece, Ravel's Daphnes and Chloe. Awsome piece, very emotional. I love emotional pieces. And it's programmatic too, which are my favorites to play.

I am not practicing today, other than rehearsal this morning. My fingers are so sore, I need to rest them for tonight or I will be unable to make myself heard. I can't even do a glissando with my right index finger right now....I'm having to use my picks instead. It makes the glisses sound louder anyway. So wish me luck, hope I don't mess up -_;

Anyway, I just read some amazing news that makes my day so much happier!!! My best friend is going to have another baby!! I am so excited for her and can't wait to talk to her...it's been awhile and I feel really bad. But yay!!!!

Here is an impromptu pic I took with my camera while sitting at a stoplight in the middle of downtown historic district of the town of Hot Springs.

Hot Springs Music Festival: Day 2

Nothing exciting really happened today. I'm peeved that I can't run. And rehearsal was not so fun. My fingers have blisters on them from playing so many glissandos and he kept wanting me to play louder, as if I don't know that I have to. AHH!! I'm trying to save my fingers for the concert OK?! Besides that, Richard Rosenburg is one of the better conductors I have played under. He has a keen ear, knows the music really well, and is easy to follow. That's a lot more than a lot of conductors out there. Even more annoying is when conductors cue you for harmonics and they don't sound. That's embarrassing.

So, I don't think I posted about this. 4 days ago I cut the backside of my leg right along the inside of my knee. Pretty bad. Apparently it was hilarious, according to Mom and sister Kimberly. We have about 3 acres. My mom was mowing the field with the bushhog attached to the tractor (google it). There was a big branch that got wedged up where the bushhog connects to the tractor. I was trying to pull it out. I overbalanced and starting flailing becuase I was falling over backwards...and most of the branch was behind me, with part of it pressed up against my leg. All I could think of was "someone please help me becuase if I fall backwards this piece of tree branch is going to go right though my knee." And "oh snap." It was one of those moments. Mom and Kim were standing right there but just watched as I fell. Their excuse was that they were stuck in the mindset of "oh my gosh she's going to fall flat on her back!" and never got to the part where maybe they should help me. So they just stood and ogled.

Well, I managed to fall in such a way that the branch just scraped my leg instead of going through it. Go me.

Here is what it looks like today:

Apparently it looks really bad. I didn't think it was all that bad and ppl are asking if I had surgery or got in a bike accident or something. And it looks a lot worse in real life...this is just a pic off my camera. It wouldn't be that bad but it is taking a long time to heal becuase it is in an area where the skin is bending all the time. There is bruising too. So I walk with a limp becuase I'm trying not to bend it. It's really not as bad as all that though. Just makes me furious that I can't run yet.

Aren't you glad I'm sharing this with you??