the truncated tree
Mar. 15th, 2018 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yamamanama4 days until the vernal equinox
But it feels like winter's only just begun and it seems kind of pointless to count down now.
I've reached the point at which I can no longer blame Jeff Vogel or Ian Irvine for not posting the sketchbook scans and if you think I'm going to be grateful to Ashley for not being nice or to Robert Mugabe for clinging on to life for these weeks and weeks of lousy Smarch weather and overcast skies, they've got another thing coming.
Allisandra looks like Leah but isn't an artist but her brother is.
I'm not sure if Sean's an artist.
Alicia got one ring, a moonstone or something else that's a milky white, inset in silver, in Savannah, Georgia, and got another one, which looks like smoky quartz, fitted for her in New York City. She has a snake tattooed on her other had. She's an artist too but she didn't have anything to show me.
Michaela is from Georgia. Atlanta, not Tblisi. She has forest green and deep black hair and wore a really oversized red plaid scarf, and her ferrets like to steal her hat, while her traveling companion has a streak of green in her hair. She also has two dogs and two cats.
You want to know how much I have Georgia on the mind? I looked at a Sporcle quiz of Georgia locales and if they're real or fake and I thought "None of those are real because I can pronounce them." The word for "flat" in Georgian is brt’q’eli.
The Armenian word for conscience is khghchmtank’. And Nuxalk has this: xłp̓χʷłtłpłłskʷc̓.
There's an Albany in Georgia. I wonder if they steam a good ham there.
They were going to the MFA as well and she was wearing Klimt socks.
There was a woman wearing pineapple socks.
There's a collection of Monuments to Us, for the people who are systematically excluded. There are the Schiele and Klimt sketches and Escher prints, and paintings by woman graduates of the MFA near the cafe and a collection of Japanese prints from the 1970s, and a collection of phantasmagoria, an optical effect made by projecting painted images against a wall. Some of the phantasmagoria were animated, a bat flaps its wings or a man opens the lid of a coffin and spirits come out. There are images that, when a light shines behind them, transform. A volcano erupts, protozoa are projected on a screen, a pear becomes two people. I don't get... Pair! It's pun for the whole family! There's an instrument called a glass armonica, which fell out of use because its ethereal sounds were thought to drive people to madness.
Phantasmagoria is also a game (read: a movie in which you occasionally click on things (or at least, the second one is that (okay, there's one really pathetically simple puzzle and one ridiculously obtuse one)))
When I have more time, I'll go into more detail.
There was a pair of Greek folk musicians (one on laouto, which is like an oud but tuned somewhat differently, one on fiddle, lyra, and perhaps bouzouki) playing at the MFA, but I could only stay for a dance from Lesvos and a brief primer on scales and modes.
I saw someone wearing an All That t-shirt. I know that if Ask Ashley was in Silent Hill, the monsters would ask her stupid questions instead of sending letters through the stinkin' mail.
I got mango curry at Phở and I and it was quite delicious.
Michael (no, not that one, the singer) was playing some game that involves cards used to build dungeon maps and various monsters. He and Stephanie (or some name that starts with S) got a new shih-tzu named Dara, which they pronounce as Dar-ra, which is Cambodian (Pali, actually) for star, who is the sweetest dog ever according to them)
One of the three Jordans asked him if it was like Dungeons and Dragons.
there was a sign with different languages, including Romanian and something that looked vaguely like Greek but had something that looked like a lowercase g and something that looked like a ∫. I can't remember if Korean was on there, but while I was waiting, there was a conversation in Korean. On the other side was NEC welcoming all races, ethnicities, sexes, gender identities, sexualities, immigration statuses, et al.
I showed Gabriella (and also Chantelle, Christina, and Krissy) a photo of a murre before you will get the chance to see them.
Gabriella had a leaf-shaped ring of green stones and a necklace of dark blue beads and a choker of purple beads.
For reasons unknown to anyone, the booklet listed the scenes in alphabetical order by composer name. So here they are, rearranged into their proper order. Also, for reasons unknown, the Thursday performance includes an excerpt from Lohengrin and lacks the exceprts from Monteverdi and Copland, and is slightly rearranged.
Giacomo Rossini - La Cenerentola.
The evil stepsisters wore gaudy outfits (one in a glittering top and skirt made out of pink, orange, and red feathers, one with a blue feather boa and a feathered headband), the Prince shows up in a beggar's cloak and Cenerentola gives him coffee. Whenever Cerentola sings, the stepsisters' expressions and posture says "give me a break." Don Magnifico is mentioned by name only.
Bedřich Smetana - Prodaná nevěsta.
For some reason, this was sung in English. Jeník comes to meet Mařenka and Mařenka is furious and weaponizes her singing because Jeník paid a marriage broker.
There are Czech people who have trouble with ř. Say "r" as in 日 and "zh" as in 中 at the same time. Something like that. I don't know, try having two voice boxes and two mouths.
Jacques Offenbach - Les contes d'Hoffmann
In this scene, she's forbidden from singing due to her ailing health but sings a duet with Hoffmann anyway and almost passes out.
Benjamin Britten - the Rape of Lucretia
With the men away at war, the women mime spin and fold linen, and contemplate their place in life. The opera includes a two-person Greek chorus, one narrating the women's thoughts and one narrating the men's thoughts.
I don't know if Romans used a Greek chorus. I know they did have a play in which someone actually died onstage (the actor was replaced with a condemned criminal).
In the actual opera, it's set to harp and flutes.
I found a recording of this and it sounds like it was performed in 1946.
In real life, Lucretia was raped by the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus' son, revealed the crime, killed herself, and Lucius Junius Brutus (ancestor of Brutus of Shakespeare fame) whipped up a mob against Tarquinus Superbus.
Time bound to a wheel indeed.
Richard Strauss - Ariadne auf Naxos
Auf means "upon." She's not from Naxos, she's from Crete.
Ariadne wakes up in a house on Naxos, attended by the nymphs Dryad, Naiad, and Echo. Ariadne laments Theseus leaving her.
the minotaur doesn't show up. Theseus killed him back when they were in the labyrinth.
Jacques Offenbach - Le mariage aux lanternes.
Two widows, Catherine and Fanchette, engage in a duel of insults for a man's hand in marriage, and his fortune. One of them wore a gaudily-colored skirt and shirt, one of them wore an ill-fitting dust pink dress and glittery leggings and her makeup gun was set to "whore."
You could kind of understand what was going on because they were hitting each other and at the end they threw their shoes. But they didn't project translations anywhere.
Carlisle Floyd - Susannah
Apparently Susannah is one of the most performed American operas, next to Porgy and Bess and maybe The Tender Land. I've never even heard of it.
Susannah was skinny-dipping in a creek and the Elders found out while scoping out places to perform baptisms and coerce Little Bat into telling them that she seduced him and her brother consoles her.
Later on, the reverend rapes her and then he's more concerned with taking her virginity than the actual act and then she ends up a pariah in the community.
Claudio Monteverdi - L'incoronazione di Poppea
The original performance calls for castrati. Now Valetto is played by a countertenor. So I looked it up and he says "years of intense and strenuous training" now that we no longer chop off the testicles of promising young choir boys. Damigella makes Valetto feel like his heart is aflame. She paints his lips with her lipstick.
Aaron Copland - The Tender Land.
I saw this opera a long time ago, back when I was in high school. Here, Martin and Laurie plan to run away together.
Gaetano Donizetti - Don Pasquale
Ernesto is in love with Norina. Ernesto's uncle, Don Pasquale. thinks she's completely unsuitable for him because she's an actor. Malatesta and Norina plot a way to teach him a lesson.
I'm not entirely sure what Malatesta's plan was.
George Frederick Händel - Orlando
Dorinda sees Medoro with Angelica and has to come to terms with this.
Yes, there's a castrato role but Medoro is not played by one. The opera is sung in Italian. I was surprised because Händel was a German immigrant in the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Georges Bizet - Carmen
This is the smuggler scene. The smugglers were dressed like bikers, and the woman who was moving the furniture around between scenes got her chance to shine. Not as Carmen, but as Frasquita.
On the way home, a man showed me his drawings of tigers and smilodon skulls.
Gabriella's sister lives in Philadelphia and they're ahead of us on the growth thing.
I think AnimeBoston also forgot Easter is a thing. I'll explain the "also" part when it's relevant. Or maybe they're all Serbs and therefore celebrate Easter when it should be celebrated. IN STINKING MAY. Actually, it's just a week later. I don't get it. The equinox falls on (Julian) March 7 (2017 or 2018, depending on who you ask) even in the Julian calendar. I guess someone just assumed Easter begins on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 22nd.
I didn't know if I was tired because I didn't get any sleep or because I think it's a lot later than it actually is due to the time shift. Although I have no reason to think that, because we've Smarched forth and it feels like it's earlier than it actually is.
I had to get up early on Monday and dreamt of a world-city, like H.R. Giger art deco, I had to get up early yesterday and am not used to getting up when it's still dark out. I also realized that every time I dream about being in high school, I'm cognizant of the fact that I shouldn't be there. And oh yeah, Ashley did not go to high school with me. At some point, it transformed into Baten Kaitos in a desolate marshland. I had a 40 minute hiccup attack right before I went to bed on Monday and wasn't able to sleep at all.
burning question: what kind of food would you expect a place called Venus to serve? I'd say seafood, because, well, Aphrodite was born when Cronus cut Ouranos' testicles off with a scythe and threw them into the sea.
But it feels like winter's only just begun and it seems kind of pointless to count down now.
I've reached the point at which I can no longer blame Jeff Vogel or Ian Irvine for not posting the sketchbook scans and if you think I'm going to be grateful to Ashley for not being nice or to Robert Mugabe for clinging on to life for these weeks and weeks of lousy Smarch weather and overcast skies, they've got another thing coming.
Allisandra looks like Leah but isn't an artist but her brother is.
I'm not sure if Sean's an artist.
Alicia got one ring, a moonstone or something else that's a milky white, inset in silver, in Savannah, Georgia, and got another one, which looks like smoky quartz, fitted for her in New York City. She has a snake tattooed on her other had. She's an artist too but she didn't have anything to show me.
Michaela is from Georgia. Atlanta, not Tblisi. She has forest green and deep black hair and wore a really oversized red plaid scarf, and her ferrets like to steal her hat, while her traveling companion has a streak of green in her hair. She also has two dogs and two cats.
You want to know how much I have Georgia on the mind? I looked at a Sporcle quiz of Georgia locales and if they're real or fake and I thought "None of those are real because I can pronounce them." The word for "flat" in Georgian is brt’q’eli.
The Armenian word for conscience is khghchmtank’. And Nuxalk has this: xłp̓χʷłtłpłłskʷc̓.
There's an Albany in Georgia. I wonder if they steam a good ham there.
They were going to the MFA as well and she was wearing Klimt socks.
There was a woman wearing pineapple socks.
There's a collection of Monuments to Us, for the people who are systematically excluded. There are the Schiele and Klimt sketches and Escher prints, and paintings by woman graduates of the MFA near the cafe and a collection of Japanese prints from the 1970s, and a collection of phantasmagoria, an optical effect made by projecting painted images against a wall. Some of the phantasmagoria were animated, a bat flaps its wings or a man opens the lid of a coffin and spirits come out. There are images that, when a light shines behind them, transform. A volcano erupts, protozoa are projected on a screen, a pear becomes two people. I don't get... Pair! It's pun for the whole family! There's an instrument called a glass armonica, which fell out of use because its ethereal sounds were thought to drive people to madness.
Phantasmagoria is also a game (read: a movie in which you occasionally click on things (or at least, the second one is that (okay, there's one really pathetically simple puzzle and one ridiculously obtuse one)))
When I have more time, I'll go into more detail.
There was a pair of Greek folk musicians (one on laouto, which is like an oud but tuned somewhat differently, one on fiddle, lyra, and perhaps bouzouki) playing at the MFA, but I could only stay for a dance from Lesvos and a brief primer on scales and modes.
I saw someone wearing an All That t-shirt. I know that if Ask Ashley was in Silent Hill, the monsters would ask her stupid questions instead of sending letters through the stinkin' mail.
I got mango curry at Phở and I and it was quite delicious.
Michael (no, not that one, the singer) was playing some game that involves cards used to build dungeon maps and various monsters. He and Stephanie (or some name that starts with S) got a new shih-tzu named Dara, which they pronounce as Dar-ra, which is Cambodian (Pali, actually) for star, who is the sweetest dog ever according to them)
One of the three Jordans asked him if it was like Dungeons and Dragons.
there was a sign with different languages, including Romanian and something that looked vaguely like Greek but had something that looked like a lowercase g and something that looked like a ∫. I can't remember if Korean was on there, but while I was waiting, there was a conversation in Korean. On the other side was NEC welcoming all races, ethnicities, sexes, gender identities, sexualities, immigration statuses, et al.
I showed Gabriella (and also Chantelle, Christina, and Krissy) a photo of a murre before you will get the chance to see them.
Gabriella had a leaf-shaped ring of green stones and a necklace of dark blue beads and a choker of purple beads.
For reasons unknown to anyone, the booklet listed the scenes in alphabetical order by composer name. So here they are, rearranged into their proper order. Also, for reasons unknown, the Thursday performance includes an excerpt from Lohengrin and lacks the exceprts from Monteverdi and Copland, and is slightly rearranged.
Giacomo Rossini - La Cenerentola.
The evil stepsisters wore gaudy outfits (one in a glittering top and skirt made out of pink, orange, and red feathers, one with a blue feather boa and a feathered headband), the Prince shows up in a beggar's cloak and Cenerentola gives him coffee. Whenever Cerentola sings, the stepsisters' expressions and posture says "give me a break." Don Magnifico is mentioned by name only.
Bedřich Smetana - Prodaná nevěsta.
For some reason, this was sung in English. Jeník comes to meet Mařenka and Mařenka is furious and weaponizes her singing because Jeník paid a marriage broker.
There are Czech people who have trouble with ř. Say "r" as in 日 and "zh" as in 中 at the same time. Something like that. I don't know, try having two voice boxes and two mouths.
Jacques Offenbach - Les contes d'Hoffmann
In this scene, she's forbidden from singing due to her ailing health but sings a duet with Hoffmann anyway and almost passes out.
Benjamin Britten - the Rape of Lucretia
With the men away at war, the women mime spin and fold linen, and contemplate their place in life. The opera includes a two-person Greek chorus, one narrating the women's thoughts and one narrating the men's thoughts.
I don't know if Romans used a Greek chorus. I know they did have a play in which someone actually died onstage (the actor was replaced with a condemned criminal).
In the actual opera, it's set to harp and flutes.
I found a recording of this and it sounds like it was performed in 1946.
In real life, Lucretia was raped by the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus' son, revealed the crime, killed herself, and Lucius Junius Brutus (ancestor of Brutus of Shakespeare fame) whipped up a mob against Tarquinus Superbus.
Time bound to a wheel indeed.
Richard Strauss - Ariadne auf Naxos
Auf means "upon." She's not from Naxos, she's from Crete.
Ariadne wakes up in a house on Naxos, attended by the nymphs Dryad, Naiad, and Echo. Ariadne laments Theseus leaving her.
the minotaur doesn't show up. Theseus killed him back when they were in the labyrinth.
Jacques Offenbach - Le mariage aux lanternes.
Two widows, Catherine and Fanchette, engage in a duel of insults for a man's hand in marriage, and his fortune. One of them wore a gaudily-colored skirt and shirt, one of them wore an ill-fitting dust pink dress and glittery leggings and her makeup gun was set to "whore."
You could kind of understand what was going on because they were hitting each other and at the end they threw their shoes. But they didn't project translations anywhere.
Carlisle Floyd - Susannah
Apparently Susannah is one of the most performed American operas, next to Porgy and Bess and maybe The Tender Land. I've never even heard of it.
Susannah was skinny-dipping in a creek and the Elders found out while scoping out places to perform baptisms and coerce Little Bat into telling them that she seduced him and her brother consoles her.
Later on, the reverend rapes her and then he's more concerned with taking her virginity than the actual act and then she ends up a pariah in the community.
Claudio Monteverdi - L'incoronazione di Poppea
The original performance calls for castrati. Now Valetto is played by a countertenor. So I looked it up and he says "years of intense and strenuous training" now that we no longer chop off the testicles of promising young choir boys. Damigella makes Valetto feel like his heart is aflame. She paints his lips with her lipstick.
Aaron Copland - The Tender Land.
I saw this opera a long time ago, back when I was in high school. Here, Martin and Laurie plan to run away together.
Gaetano Donizetti - Don Pasquale
Ernesto is in love with Norina. Ernesto's uncle, Don Pasquale. thinks she's completely unsuitable for him because she's an actor. Malatesta and Norina plot a way to teach him a lesson.
I'm not entirely sure what Malatesta's plan was.
George Frederick Händel - Orlando
Dorinda sees Medoro with Angelica and has to come to terms with this.
Yes, there's a castrato role but Medoro is not played by one. The opera is sung in Italian. I was surprised because Händel was a German immigrant in the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Georges Bizet - Carmen
This is the smuggler scene. The smugglers were dressed like bikers, and the woman who was moving the furniture around between scenes got her chance to shine. Not as Carmen, but as Frasquita.
On the way home, a man showed me his drawings of tigers and smilodon skulls.
Gabriella's sister lives in Philadelphia and they're ahead of us on the growth thing.
I think AnimeBoston also forgot Easter is a thing. I'll explain the "also" part when it's relevant. Or maybe they're all Serbs and therefore celebrate Easter when it should be celebrated. IN STINKING MAY. Actually, it's just a week later. I don't get it. The equinox falls on (Julian) March 7 (2017 or 2018, depending on who you ask) even in the Julian calendar. I guess someone just assumed Easter begins on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 22nd.
I didn't know if I was tired because I didn't get any sleep or because I think it's a lot later than it actually is due to the time shift. Although I have no reason to think that, because we've Smarched forth and it feels like it's earlier than it actually is.
I had to get up early on Monday and dreamt of a world-city, like H.R. Giger art deco, I had to get up early yesterday and am not used to getting up when it's still dark out. I also realized that every time I dream about being in high school, I'm cognizant of the fact that I shouldn't be there. And oh yeah, Ashley did not go to high school with me. At some point, it transformed into Baten Kaitos in a desolate marshland. I had a 40 minute hiccup attack right before I went to bed on Monday and wasn't able to sleep at all.
burning question: what kind of food would you expect a place called Venus to serve? I'd say seafood, because, well, Aphrodite was born when Cronus cut Ouranos' testicles off with a scythe and threw them into the sea.
