Blatherings

A nice and noisy weekend

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 20:35:44 GMT

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that after a long and busy Friday, Mr. 42 brought home bougie pizza after work, I slept like the dead, and had a pretty decadient lie-in on Saturday.

I did very little, apart from organize and learn my Evensong music, snug with Hildy and give her nice-but-still-limited walkies, figure out a time to bring Pop's watch in to be serviced, and indulge in comfort reading. I did have a truly lovely conversation with my uni bestie ED, who was at our alma mater for Homecoming. She sent photos of many beloved faces, inlcuding hers, and we chatted about everything. ED worked for a government agency that was recently decimated by the current administration, so the reason she was able to go was because she and her family were recalled from overseas. We have tentative plans to take over the world, just FYI.

When Mr. 42 got home from work, we hot-footed it down to Liberty Station to take in Sondheim's Follies at the Cygnet's brand-new theatre, The Joan. This is very exciting to me, because this is the first time since the pandemic that we've had a subscription at Cygnet, so thank you, Mr. 42 for the excellent birthday pressie! Broadway World loved the production, and so did I!

( Read more... )It was such a pleasure to see several of Sondheim's most famous and frequently misunderstood tunes in their original context, as well as some new-to-me songs that were absolute scorchers, like Could I Leave You. The sheer quantity and variety of musical numbers was nearly overwhelming, but utterly perfect for a show that switches gears freqeuently between oppressive nostalgia and determined, not-entirely-sane freneticism. The Cygnet's is a dynamite production of one of the better, if bonkers shows in Sondheim's oeuvre.

In other news, Sunday marked the observance of St. Francis of Assisi's feast day, so all the Episcopal churches did a blessing of the animals, so there were lots of adorable doggos in residence. After the service, wherein all four of the sopranos had a brain fart and failed to come in on a phrase in support of the alto melody. We came in on our next entrance and were totally fine, but AW apologized for messing up, as did I, but then I pointed out that we'd showed remarkable sectional unity. *giggle* We sang "All Things Bright and Beautiful" at the blessing ceremony after the service and oohed and aahed at all the good pets.

After a lovely chat with Mom, I gave Hildy a short walk and skedaddled down to Evensong, which I figured from the repertoire would be with the Cathedral choristers. I missed the first chorister service of the season because it was that horrible weekend after I'd been sick and when Clara had to be hospitalized. But the new crop of choristers is roughly double the size of last year's, which is wonderful to see. They also have ruffs for their vestments, which is eight kinds of adorable. However, it did make things a bit wild voice-distribution-wise, so MG ended up switching me to alto, which went well because I got to sing with the wonderful B instead of flailing around on my own on the Noble canticles in B-minor. Thankfully, most of the music was familiar to me, and I usually sing A1 on the Smith responses, so nothing was wholly out of left field. I also ended up singing sop on the psalm because most of the child trebles weren't singing that, so we had a more even distribution of S/A. This was a relief because it's hard to sight-read Anglican chant if you don't know your part of the tone.

Also notable was our new organ scholar, SP, who played the anthem and closing voluntary beautifully and also conducted the canticles with great aplomb. She is a wonderful and welcome asset to the music program, and also has a lovely soprano singing voice to boot!
Everything went well, I'm pleased to report. And we also had one of the current Schola members who started as a child chorister give a brief statement about what the music program has meant to him personally and professionally, and it was absolutely lovely. So well done, JY! There was also a reception after the service, so yay for treats!

I was pretty pooped when I got home, and Mr. 42 had a very long stretch of teaching, so we did little other than order Persian food for dinner and watched the first episode of the newest season of Great Pottery Throw-Down before heading to bed.

Today in renovation news, J is removing our drop ceiling/soffits, framing the water heater opening, and scoping the ventilation, which will hopefully enable us to get the final-final estimate for the renovation this week. Mr. 42 and I are ready to hit LendingTree as soon as we have a total for the renovation and figure out how much financing to seek. We're scheduled to start electrical on Wedensday, which is good, because our driveway is being tarred and sealed today, so parking near our place will be limited until everything re-opens on Tuesaday morning. Also on Tuesday, I have scheduled my very first laundry service, which feels like an enormous indulgence. But despite neighbors kindly offering to let us do laundry at their places, it's an enormous inconvenience for them and our schedules are bonkers, so I hate to ask it of folks if we don't need to.

Oh! And over the weekend the universe's reason for the comedy of errors that resulted in me being excluded from ProChoir's upcoming concert, about which I have been butthurt for months now, finally became clear. It wasn't just because the 42 household is going through it at present, though heaven knows we have been. It's because the J family just announced the date for the celebration of life for CJ, their much loved and deeply mourned patriarch, and it's the same day as ProChoir's concert. If I'd been on the roster, I wouldn't have been able to go to Ventura County with Mr. 42 for it. So our plan is to drive up the Friday night before, go to CJ's send-off and see people we love and haven't seen in too long on Saturday, and then drive home Saturday night, since both of us have busy Sundays.

A relatively quiet week ahead:

Mon: work onsite, Magical Monday (band practice)
Tue: vacation day at home, drop off watch with watch wizard, prepare laundry pickup, free night
Wed: work from home, electrical work on the house, free night
Thu: work from home, Heavenly Choir rehearsal
Fri: work onsite, free night
Sat: FREEEEEEE EVERYTHING
Sun: Heavenly Choir morning service, Cathedral Evensong

Here's hoping I can spend some quality time with my Hearts & Cauldrons GiftFest piece. I have decided where it's going next, but I haven't figured out the work-problem we're solving. I have a metaphor but not a physical manifestation thereof. And it has to be under 6K words so it has to be relatively simple problem to solve once the two of them are on the case. At least they have different areas of expertise, so it's just a matter of finding common ground within the metaphor. *ponders*

Right. Lots to do and think about. And hopefully a hair appointment to book!

Smooches to All!

Lib
Mun42

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OMG ~iz ded~

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 16:57:23 GMT

Y'ALL.

My holmestice gift posted yesterday and it is a WORK OF SODDING GENIUS:

The Affair of the Command Performance

It is an ACD crossover with one (two, if you squint) of my favorite other universes (The Muppet Show with a soupçon of Doctor Who) and is UTTERLY BONKERS, but is also sheer perfection!

Here's the thing: crossing these universes is TOTAL DEEP-CUT BRILLIANCE, because there's actually a sketch where Rowlf is Sherlock Holmes and his Watson is played by Baskerville the Hound, AND The Muppet Show was produced and filmed in the UK because Jim Henson couldn't get any US networks to look beyond his work on Sesame Street and Lew Grade came to the rescue. So it's not quite so daffy a crossover as it might first appear. Throw in the longest-running British sci-fi show for fun, and you've got a neat and world-appropriate solution for the timeline wibbly-wobbliness.

AND! As any in any proper episode of The Muppet Show, there are SONGS! An inspired parody of Flanders & Swann's Gnu Song and a winning, winsome take on "My Friend the Doctor" from Doctor Doolittle. They're whimsical, charming, expertly crafted, work perfectly in the world of the story and of the show, and also had me cackling with glee from start to finish!

AND!! My Mystery Giftor also provided delightful bonus content, including the Muppet Show performance of The Gnu Song, the original Doctor Doolittle song, and not one but TWO Doctor Who fanvids of "My Friend the Doctor" (one with the original words, and one that filks the tune with 50th anniversary themes).

So if you're in the mood for some delighted laughter and a couple of A++ earworms, run, don't walk, over to AO3 and partake of this loony, daffy, utterly MAGNIFICENT work!

Yours in raptures,

Lib
Mun42

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Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 22:41:14 GMT

My composer friend AB just sent the mostly-finished Credo and IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD!

Like I had goosebumps and teared up just listening to a midi file and following along in the score.

And I'm not just saying that because all there is of the Credo text is an "I believe" ostinato in the lower voices and the rest is ALL MY WORDS AND THEY WORK REALLY WELL BECAUSE HE SET THEM SO SENSITVELY AND BEAUTIFULLY!

It's gorgeous, y'all. I

f JCA doesn't want to program the piece on the strength of the Credo alone, I'm calling shenanigans.

AB also sent the first bit of the Gloria, and I think that's gonna be super fun, too. I skewed a bit Whitmanesque on the text, but I still like it quite a bit.

And now I'm wondering if I shouldn't rewrite the Kyrie, though it does make sense for it to be a bit different from the others, seeing as it's the oldest text in Ordinary and the only one in Greek. Ah well. I'm DEFINITELY writing texts for the Sanctus/Benedictus and the Agnus Dei that are AT LAEST as long as the Latin texts, because the Sanctus is a bit short and the Agnus is a bit repetitive. Plus, it's much nicer to have to cut down than it is to add things. It also tends to result in stronger texts, too!

Right! Back to work and all that rot, but YAY YAY YAY I am so excited!!

Smooches to All,

Lib
Mun42

PS Had a bit of excitement earlier. A guy with a knife was spotted on campus. Nobody was injured and he didn't threaten anyone with it, but it was still a relief to be in a locked corridor until campus police gave the all-clear.

PPS Oooo stuff from the [university] era is coming out in the comments section of the Huberman NY Magazine piece. Popping some popcorn because DAMN I swear I know at least one of the people talking about it...

PPPS I totally forgot I had a New York Magazine subscription so I went through and upvoted the good comments and made a couple of small comment (one corrected the breed of the dog in question, the other was a reply saying that I checked in with one of his [university] lab members and said that they'd all been reaching out to one another, so hopefully folks were feeling validated in the wake of this coming out.

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The best kind of negativity

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 18:16:13 GMT

As of last night, I am plague-free! WOO HOOOO!

I know there's a slight chance of a false negative from a rapid test and tomorrow is day ten from my onset of symptoms, so I slept in the guest room again last night and will wait to restart standard smooching protocols with Mr. 42 until Sunday. But I'm so, so happy. It feels like the clouds have parted.

Also, after 10 days of sleeping in the guest room, my back has informed me that it's definitely time to replace the guest room mattress, which wasn't new when we inherited it 23 years ago. I did a bit of poking around and have found an excellent though not inexpensive option that we can get $300 off on if we wait to order it on Monday, so we're hoping this one will last us another 30 years, especially since it won't see daily use. Fingers crossed it will arrive before our friend AQ does next weekend!

The dogs have been wonderful snugglers, though Clara ate something gross on Wednesday night walkies and needed to go out twice in the wee hours of Thursday. Thankfully, whatever it was seems to have passed quickly, possibly thanks to the probiotic tables the girls get with every meal, so last night resulted in much better sleep.

In other news, though I'm experiencing a bit of HP Con Envy, as LeakyCon is currently happening in Chicago, a city I adore full of people I adore, I'm really, really glad I didn't attempt it. Between this bout of the plague and how much I've been able to accomplish for Clarion West's flash fiction workshop, I'd have had a breakdown trying to get everything prepared and probably would have cancelled due to illness anyway (and there's no WAY I would have kicked kovid to the kerb so kwikly if I'd been trying to do ALL THE THINGS).

Speaking of the workshop, we wrap up tomorrow and our final critiques for week 5 are due next Wednseday. I'm a bit sad it's ending, but also really happy that I manged to write 6 brand-new stories in as many weeks. I'm also totally stoked because Tara, who created our video lessons and prompts each week, had some amazing ideas for self-generating writing prompts that I'm looking forward to trying. I'm also a lot more confident in my ability to look at a theme or prompt, have an appropriately-sized idea, and execute it in a short amount of time, which is going to make the calls-for-submissions digests I get each week a potential source of inspiration rather a list of potential homes for existing pieces.

Also! Have a scoop on the DL: Potterwatch is releasing our full-length album on Halloween. We're announcing it officially on the WZRD Radio Podcast that we recorded last Saturday (I was sick and rambled but I probably would have done that even if I hadn't been sick). ProChoir has a leisurely start this year in October, so JCA will have more time to work on it and now that we have a due date, I think it'll be a priority. I'm also conspiring (with myself LOL) to pressure the band to add the ska song I wrote to the track list, so we'll see if I can get them excited for that. And if not, I have my silly ERWA side project idea that I hope to complete by the end of the month. JCA is loaning me an electric guitar so that'll be fun!

Right. Loads to do, administrative roadblocks to push through, minutes to take, a lunch to arrange, I'm swamped!

Love to All,

Lib
Mun42

PS Fandom Forward reminded me taht yesterday was Esther Day, so if you're reading this, I adore you and I'm so glad we're friends!

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Wank of the fandom variety, #EndOTWRacism

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 17:23:21 GMT

So.

Being a straight white cis fan based in the USA, it took me an embarrassingly long time to have a clue about how much racism there is in fandom, from reliance on stereotypes in fic to people literally writing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories into their stories or harassing, dogpiling, and/or doxxing BIPOC and AAPI fans who speak up about about racism. I'm not proud of how many years I lived in ignorance, and as everyone trying to implement antiracist practices does, I constantly have to push back against my own instincts to extend the benefit of doubt to those with large platforms who benefit from the status quo when they push back again accusations of racism and/or suggestions of how they might make fandom spaces more inclusive.

That said.

I have zero patience for the purity police who conflate characters' behavior, regardless of context, with the beliefs of the author. I myself have been called racist for having Lucius Malfoy exhibit racist behavior in a fic.

Lucius. Malfoy.

Which he later atones for. In a fic that I had sensitivity-read because it contains an OC whose race is different from mine. Which taught me that there is no pleasing the purity police once they've decided you're guilty, but also that no one person's experience or opinion is universal, including that of sensitivity readers. All I can do is try to ramp down my instinctual defensiveness, consider what's at the root of the accusation, and try to determine to what degree my writing is to blame and to what degree the expectations of the reviewer are out of line.

And y'know what? I've made tweaks to long-completed stories, even in situations where I felt that the reviewer was wrong, to make things harder to misinterpret. And if I'm being completely transparent, there are some things I've written in the past that now make me cringe, even if nobody's called me out on them, often because they're in drafts never saw the light of day or published to less accessible venues. Those past mistakes, more than any entitled twit trying to gotcha me in a review, are what keep making me want to do better.

Also? This is not to say that the fleeting and petty annoyance of being called names by a handful of reviewers over literal decades of writing hundreds of thousands of words of fanfic is in any way comparable to the organized campaigns of harassment that target the folks who write regularly about fandom (and canon) bigotry. Such harassment includes getting dogpiled in comments, being booted from discussion spaces, receiving barrages of copypasta flames on their work that have nothing to do with the work itself, DM and public threats, bigoted insults, race-and sexual-identity-based harassment across platforms. And that's just the stuff that's happened to folks I know!

So all of this brings me to #EndOTWRacism. As the current owner of Twitter has shown us repeatedly, free speech absolutism is a scam concept intended to protect oppressive voices and silence their critics. Whether or not they originally meant to, OTW/AO3's large umbrella currently shelters and platforms oppressive voices and those operating in bad faith. OTW/AO3 absolutely needs policies on harassment and abusive content. They absolutely need a diversity consultant to get strong policies in place, and they absolutely need to be transparent about the process. OTW could be a force for positive change and inclusivity and has paid lip service to those things. Now they need to carry through on their promises.

My own experiences in fandom do make me sympathetic to those on the receiving end of puerile criticism and unfounded accusations, but it would be false equivalence and utterly inane to claim that those things are in any way comparable to the widespread, longstanding, vile, bigoted harassment and abuse visited on vulnerable fans (*cough*The Author*cough*).

With respect, OTW, it's well past time to step back, stop pointing fingers, and get the fucking work done.

Lib
Mun42

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Touch and Go

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 00:19:22 GMT

After a somewhat hairy end to the week, I'm relieved to report that things are looking up.

Of course, that's sometimes when a passing bird poops in your eye, but I'm trying not to think about that.

Friday was the Annual Endowed Lecture (not to be confused with the Big Lecture Series, which is next month), and the on-campus part of it went well, but our poor speaker (who was wonderful) has a spouse in the hospital, so everything with her travel was very last-minute, and I ended up having to change her flight late on Friday night because she emailed my work email instead of notifying me on my cell the way I asked her to. I got that taken care of, mostly, but was up until midnight doing so.

I was so exhausted from the long and stressful week that I slept in so late that I was nearly late for my 2pm call for the Master Chorale Honor Choir concert (because walkies and figuring out what to wear and oh yeah feeding myself).There was also a text from Mom that COVID had done a number on poor Pop and he'd been unable to clear his lungs despite all the coughing, so they scheduled a bronchoscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage for Sunday morning, which meant I wasn't in the most calm or focused headspace for the concert. However, I didn't do terribly, the concert was mostly lovely, I loved all but one of the pieces we sang, and the kids did a fantastic job, but I was still dragging. No surprise, since I've been feeling on the edge of coming down with Mr. 42's cold since Thursday evening, though thankfully, I had just enough voice to make it through the weekend, and I've been extra-punctilious about masking.

When I got home from the concert, there was an email from MG saying that the Cathedral was experiencing power outages with no immediate fix in sight and wanted to warn us that it might affect how we do Evensong on Sunday. He warned the tablet users to download all the music beforehand because the wifi was out, but he'd have hard copies of music and book lights for everyone else, since we would probably be doing Evensong by candlelight. What he didn't say was anything about the organ, which is powered by electric blowers, but I figured we could also switch to a cappella rep if needed. I was absolutely brain dead after the interminable Friday and spending what little bandwidth I had singing the Master Chorale concert, so I gave myself permission to skip prepping Evensong music and watch The Force Awakens with Mr. 42 before hitting the hay.

Note: I hate this time change with the utmost loathing. Daylight Saving Time sucks, benefits nobody, is terrible for us, and should be abolished.

Shockingly, I was dragging less than expected on Sunday morning. My voice was not the absolute best it could be but more than up to the magnificent repertoire we sang for our morning service. I got to duet with A-M a bit at the end of the Kyrie of Stephanie Martin's Requiem for All Souls (which RV commissioned for us in the before times), we did my absolute favorite anthem for offertory: Purcell's Hear My Prayer, O Lord, and the gents did themselves proud on Howell's yummy Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrooks (we made people cry! I saw!). We stuck around after the service for a short rehearsal on some of the upcoming music, and I confess, my voice was getting a bit tired and crunchy, so I thought I might skip calling home between services to save voice, especially since I still had music to learn.

Fortunately, MG saved me the trouble by cancelling Evensong due to the continued power outage. While it's definitely a bummer for MG and the Cathedral, I confess, I was not sorry have my Sunday afternoon free, especially since Mom texted with good news: Pop's lavage was a huge success, he was awake, sitting up, and futzing with the TV so he could watch basketball. So after walking the dogs, I called Mom and we had a nice chat, after which I sat down and wrote a bit, and when Mr. 42 got back from teaching, we walked the dogs, changed into fancier duds, and went down to St. James by-the-Sea in La Jolla to hear the wonderful British chamber choir Tenebrae, whose final tour stop was in San Diego.

My friends: I have never heard a choir of that caliber live before and they were mind-blowingly fabulous, with beautifully shaped phrases, transparent diction, precisely wrought textures, impeccable balance, and a warm, supple sound that filled the space at every dynamic level. And the rep was both sumptuous and elegant. I think I cried about three times, the first that got me was Lotti's Crucifixus (new to me), and I had nonstop goosebumps during Allegri's Miserere (theirs is my favorite modern performance of it on YouTube). They just sang the heck of one choral banger after another and ended with Harris's glorious double-choir motet Faire is the Heaven.. And their repertoire was right up my alley, too. I think we got three encores out of them, too, which was delightful. I was also delighted to run into Cathedral suborganist GA and his partner DL (with whom I had lunch just last week!) at the concert, and we sat with them and my friend KN and just vibed on gorgeous choral music. So clearly I wasn't the only one not wholly sad to have a more relaxed Sunday afternoon and evening!

Mr. 42 and I went out for ramen afterwards, which was lovely and filling and warm, with toothsome yakitori and avocado tempura, and then went to bed pretty much immediately after getting home. Unfortunately, I woke in the middle of the night to find that my voice and I weren't just tired: the cold is here.

Thus, after working a had-to-be-here day, I'm taking tomorrow and Wednesday as sick days (the most I can take is 2 without a doctor's note, which could be a pain to get). I still have so much crap to do before I can go home, but I'm really looking forward to taking some time to heal and not having any rehearsals until Thursday of this week.

A nice thing: the doves nesting in our patio bougainvillea have chicks now! It's so nice to see them when we come and go (the patio separates the house from the garage) and say hi.

Sending love and hugs,

Lib
Mun42

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Well, now I know. (CW: doggy digestion, doggerel)

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 18:42:03 GMT

So a few years ago, Clara had an earplug-eating thing. Before Mr. 42 got his sleep apnea diagnosis in 2016,he snored to wake the dead, so I got used to sleeping in earplugs, and I still sleep better wearing them.

For no reason I could discern, Clara started stealing them off my nightstand and eating them, and I wouldn't discover the theft until the next morning, when I would be faced with irrefutable evidence on walkies. I had to start putting my used earplugs in the drawer so she couldn't get them. Mr. 42 suggested that she liked them because they'd been in my ears, which was gross but also kind of complimentary, y'know? And then just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. I reckoned she'd lost her taste for my earwax.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I usually keep a weather eye on the dogs' deposits on walkies, since they are decent indicators of their overall state. Both dogs' digestion has been a little weird of late because walkies times and durations have been erratic due to wave after wave of atmospheric river rains, and the girls are not fans of wet weather. I was mostly concerned about Hildy, since she was off her feed s bit yesterday and ate grass until she puked not once but twice.

So I was downright shocked when on morning walkies, Clara squatted and instead of a normal poo, she produced what looked like pellets. "WTF?" I thought and examined her deposit when I bagged it.

Her poop was almost entirely earplugs. At least ten of them! I confess, I wasn't too thorough in counting, so there may have been more. But then I recalled that I've been somewhat lackadaisical about picking up earplugs that I accidentally knocked off the nightstand in clumsy sleepiness, since it had been so long since she'd eaten any. But also that I'd had to replace them twice recently. And now I know why!

The earplug thief herself has thankfully suffered no ill effects, and her midday deposit was earplug-free. However, I did discover that another pair of earplugs disappeared from my night stand, so we may have another pellet incident, albeit a less dramatic one with one pair of earplugs instead of, y'know FIVE.

My dog is an earplug-eating weirdo and she is ridiculous and I love her.

I was also reminded that I have been remiss about sharing my poo-themed walkies songs here, since I usually just put them on the Book of Faces. So please enjoy (?) this scatalogical song that I wrote in September of 2021 to the tune of "Pure Imagination" from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:

Come away, greet the day
With a walk of doggy defecation!
You can hunt cats and play,
But please also defecation.

Sniff the grounds, lovely hounds,
Such olfactory anticipation!
When you poo I’ll give you adulation!

Your digestive health’s paramount,
Which is why we walk each morning,
Grassy lawns with poo adorning,
Thankfully you squat
To give me warning!

Neighbors stare, some will glare
At the sight of doggy defecation.
Please don’t nag, I’ve a bag,
And the girls are both a-wag.

In non-poo-related news, a German wizard rock band I particularly like, POTTÖRHEAD, released a rather brilliant little album of 23 songs of 23 seconds apiece for 2023 and I attended a virtual release party yesterday that was delightful. They seem like the sweetest guys, and their stuff rocks ridiculously hard. I'm antsy for my band to get our album out, but it's not up to me at this point, so it's nice to be able to direct my enthusiasm somewhere fun.

Also and alas, RV has contracted COVID (mild symptoms, thankfully and already on the upswing), so last night's Heavenly Choir was a bit bonkers, though we did manage to run everything for the morning service and Evensong. We've got a pinch-hitter ready to step in for Evensong, and my fellow sop section leader AW stepped up for arm-waving on the offertory anthem, and that was fun because I've never seen her conductor face before (it is formidable and excellent), despite knowing she's been a high school choir teacher for decades. RV hopes he will be well enough to lead us on Sunday, but it's good to know we'll be in good hands regardless.

Fri: work on campus, freee night, tidying/cleaning
Sat: virtual friend meetup, tidying/cleaning, work on music for Heavenly Choir, Master Chorlae, and ProChoir, Master Chorale social media?
Sun: morning service, Evensong, tidying/cleaning, social media?
Mon: work on campus, Master Chorale rehearsal
Tue: work from home, finish tidying/cleaning, host Bach Collegium homestay (assuming RV is well again?)
Wed: work on campus, either Wizarding Wednesday or see a show at the Casbah with Mr. 42 possibly
Thu: work from home, Zoom with Master Chorale Exec Director, Heavenly Choir rehearsal

I've got loads to do at work today, so I'd better hop to it. I've got a busy week coming up (and Pro Choir starts up again the week after that!), so I should try to do what I can. Y'know, around Drag Race, because somethings are important.

Love to All!

Lib
Mun42

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Buried treasure

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 22:44:12 GMT

Well. It's been a Summer. Okay, it's still very much a Summer, as most of the state is baking on day 9 of a heat dome, and for the first time in my 22 years in San Diego, the denizens of Chez 42 broke down and obtained a portable air conditioning unit for the bedroom (a princely hand-me-down from Ellienihon), which has enabled us to sleep soundly for the first time since the heat dome settled in. Fortunately (?), the heat dome has also sucked in an arm of hurricane Kay (now a tropical storm), so we're getting some grayer, cooler, wetter weather, which has been lovely, especially since the A/C unit dehumidifies as well as cools. I've been using the condensation to refill our wee patio fountain and water the lemon tree and rosemary.

Speaking of home improvements, I got sick of stepping on tack strips where dogs had dug away the wall-to-wall carpet and finally managed to strong-arm Mr. 42 into going flooring shopping. And as I expected, it took us all of 20 minutes to decide on flooring and take a few samples in different colors home to ensure what we liked would work with our paint and furniture. We gave the nice people money, and they hooked us up with an installer.

Y'all. I am SO glad we didn't try to install it ourselves.

Yes, we went with a click-down hybrid flooring, but once the flooring was up, our installer F discovered what looked like a trap door in the concrete slab under our floating stairs. He pulled it up and we discovered that the foundation for our townhome was poured with a damn hole in it to serve as a planter! It was mostly full of wood chips, but I did find a plastic leaf, and cursory excavation revealed nothing exciting like buried treasure. We did bury an angry-looking plastic skull in the hole just before F filled it in with concrete.

Unsurprisingly, having a damn hole weakens one's slab, so when a tree root pushed the foundation upward, it cracked out from the corners of the hole, so it took an additional two days and MANY bags of self-leveling concrete before the flooring could start going down. And while all this was happening, the wonderful SolarWind was staying with us! Unfortunately, I had to stick around while F was working per the installation agreement, but SW was able to go visit other friends, which turned out to be a VERY good thing, because one of the folks she was visiting had a mini-stroke while she was there and had to take him to the hospital.

F finished installing the floor the day SW left and the day before my mom arrived. We sent him home with some very lovely beer and enormous thanks for the beautiful job he did. Unfortunately, the adhesive on the transitions needed 48 hours to drive, so when I brought Mom home from the airport, there was literally no furniture on the ground floor.

"Well, you DID want to see the new floors!" I joked.

It was THE BEST visit with my Mom! Mr. 42 and I both took time off work, and we just relaxed and did nice things and ate delicious food. On my birthday proper, we had a leisurely day at the zoo, enjoyed a whatever-looks-good-from-Whole-Foods dinner al fresco, and went to see Midsummer Night's Dream at the Old Globe, the first play I've seen since the pandemic started.

The play was fun, with a DJ spinning the music live, and different takes on an "Afrofuturist superhero" production, with an urban-punk aesthetic for Oberon's cohort and kinda circus-glam for Titania's, and Hippolyta looked like Rihanna at the Met Gala only in armor elements, and the mechanicals were adorable and played like a bunch of theatre kids putting on a show (complete with entering singing "Into the Woods" at one point). The set was simple and elegant-looking, with some really cool uses of light installations in the woods. And the cat fight between Hermia and Helena was magnificently choreographed and executed. All four of the lovers were superb, the sometimes-staid foursome was also enlivened by having a nonbinary actor playing female!Lysander, which was utterly delightful.

But frankly, the production was tonally uneven and felt like a university show. Definitely not at the level I expect from the Old Globe. And there were some questionable choices, notably Puck's facial makeup was half Grinch green and half Braveheart blue and he had scruffy facial hair under it and it looked repulsive, which is a shame, because the actor was adorable. The script also felt over-pruned to me, which I get is a thing when you don't want the audience to get bored or bogged down in redundant description, but I still felt the lack, especially because there was a fair amount of ad-libbing in contemporary speech. I don't mind that practice, really. I just missed some of my favorite lines.

I guess what I want most from contemporary Shakespeare, especially a play I know well like Midsummer, is to consider some aspect of the show in a way that that I hadn't before, an "Ahah!" moment. And I didn't get that. It may also be that compared to many of the other productions we've seen there, with the exception of Titania (who had Broadway credits and it showed!) and Egeus, the cast was relatively inexperienced--a lot of young actors with a few regional credits to their names. To be fair, we've had several crops of MFA kids with relatively few theatres to perform in, thanks to the pandemic. But yeah, I'm hoping our next return to live theatre will be a bit more mind-blowing.

So yeah, that was a great visit!

In other news, my wizard rock band Potterwatch had our first live performance as part of Wizrocklopedia's PediaPalooza!

Our set was the closer, so if you want to hear my first attempt at playing bass and singing for people, we start at 1:46:41! We perform our songs Dolores Umbridge and The Love You Seek Is All Around You, BUT we also premiere three songs from our upcoming album: Potterwatch Anthem, Follow the Light, and 'Til We Go Of The Air (wot I wrote!)! So keep an eye out for that!

I dunno if I'm going to be able to update at my previous levels, but I do hope to be on here at least a bit more often. I miss all y'all and I feel like I'm missing out on important goings-on.

Right! Gonna go finish up the work week and try to figure out how not to look awful for a ProChoir photo shoot.

Smooches,

Lib
Mun42

PS Oh! Exciting thing! Master Chorale is paying me to sing now! So apart from fan project that is Potterwatch, Y'ALL I AM A 100% PROFESSIONAL SINGER! WOO HOOOOOOO!!

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