The world has gone to hell, but how are you?

"wthis usedmto be the dream through which i walked, noww home is"

I typed this into my journal in the middle of the night last night so that I would remember to write about it today....this is what happens when 4:00-am-Robert tries to type with one hand over the headboard of his bed. Here's my realization that I made sure that i would remember:

In the days, weeks, and even months preceding my departure, I tried to anticipate many aspects of my experience here and guess as to what they would be like.....in some cases down to small details that, when they were proved different by actual experience here, seemed almost wrong at the time, so deep was my conviction that my guess would be accurate. What I mean is (and I won't go into any specifics, because that would be silly) that I dreamed what it would be like to live here and to study here, and in many ways for the first month or so I was really only living the dream: even if things weren't as I had anticipated, the whole experience had the same sort of dejá-vu one might have, say, reading a book having only previously seen a movie loosely based on it (Peter Pan and the Disney
movie version, por ejemplo). Although many differences would crop up, one would still have the distinct sense that they were aiming at the same things, and enough similarities would be apparent to keep this assumption true. This is exactly what it was like at first, looking back on it now. In some ways it seems as though I've been here forever, as the beginning of my experience had that timeless, amorphous temporal quality most often found in dreams. And yet, as one realizes about a dream, it has only appeared to have taken time, when in fact it happened only the flicker of an eyelid during a REM-cycle. I'm here now, about to wake up (and curiously having the same feeling as in dreams when you realize you are dreaming and attempt to use that to full advantage) and I don't know what to do with myself. I realize how much I've changed, but most importantly I've watched how much I've stayed the same. I suppose this is what it is to "find yourself," to remove all contextual apparati that life builds around us by thrusting oneself in an entirely different situation and forcing these external (and internal) images of oneself to adapt to new surroundings. Sure, I think I'm a "different person" here, as much as I'm a different person around Kelsey and my grandmother. But most importantly, my time here has given me a unique opportunity to factor out these shells, these modes of being, these different dance steps in samsara, and by ruling them out of the equation finally solve for 'x'': me. I don't claim to have solved or my problems, or to figure out the smallest percentage of life's problems, but I do think I'll come back a different person, but mostly I'll come back as the person I always was.

Und obwohl ich werde vielleicht nicht einmal diese Personæ tragen, ich vermisse die gemütliche Kleidung von meinem Haus.

And although I may never again 'wear' this Personæ, I miss the cosy clothing of home.
That isn't a good translation, which is why I said it auf Deutsch first. I realize that in a lot of ways I'll go back to the same habits, manners, and attitudes that I exhibited back home, but they were comfortable, cosy, gemütlich. (which is none of those words, but more....)

Great, now I'm starting to sound like Harpsie-poo.....I guess I've read too much of his blog. (inside joke *wink wink*) Now back to more important things.

P.S. I promise to continue trying to get up-to-date with the journal entries.....I just have never have time to reminisce!

Der Nußknaker

Kebap: €3
Drink: €1.60
Total Price of Nußknacker: €7.90
Beer: €3.50

Well, I worked for 6 hours, and afterwards I ran to the Staatsoper to see Der Nußknaker. I saw Kate there, so we sat in line together and played Mario Kart on my computer the whole time. It was fun. We went in and got spots right in the center of the Parterre! Sweet! Even though she had to sort of bitch at this woman for impinging on our reserved spots, she refused to move, and really it all ended up being OK (we both had enough room and everything) but it's still kind of crappy to come less than an hour before curtain and stand in a spot with people who had waited for 3 hours.

The ballet was very good, although there was a VERY different story....I won't go into specifics, but it involves the kidnapping of the royal princess, who uses her recent gift of the Nutcracker (which doesn't come to life or anything) as a tracking device, Hänsel & Gretel style, by breaking off pieces of it in each country her abductors drive through, which allow the prince to locate her with ease. As far as I can tell this new story is a recent person's "new adaptation/interpretation" of the Nutcracker, but at first I thought this was the original and we'd just gotten it wrong all of these years, which didn't make much sense to me. The dancing was good; far better than the other Tchaikovsky ballets I've seen there, probably owing to the fact that the choreography was far, far better: still very traditional, but better. (this was later confirmed by Gretchen, who had far better things to say about it when she saw it) After the ballet I went home briefly and then met everyone at the "Communist party" party, which conveniently was at "eat drink dance" social club, which is just down my street less than a block. It was a fun party: the theme was "communist," which basically meant everyone was to wear red or black. Having only black, I wore only black. People looked really good, and a lot of people got pretty decked out since this was the closest thing to an official send-off that IES was going to have (I was really surprised that there was no official good-bye dinner/talk/event where we could say all our good-byes, etc. oh well. Hopefully I'll see everyone that I want to say good-bye to before they leave. (admittedly, many of them live in my building, so it won't be that hard....) Anyway the party was great fun, and I'm glad that I was convinced to go! It was just great....I think it was then when I realized just how much I'm going to miss all of these people.

Recital

Cecilia CD: €10
Ticket for Hänsel und Gretel: €15

Singing cheesy operetta: Priceless.


I woke enough with just enough time to go to IES, drop off my stuff, and go back to the Leopold to meet Dr. O for an optional AA&A tour. Unfortunately she was about 20 minutes late (she's taking care of her mother, who must be absolutely ancient) and I had to leave right at 1:15 to get back to IES for a rehearsal with the Bach groups. (Allison and the three flutes) Carla and I took the U2 to Karlsplatz and walked back to IES and we rehearsed the Bach for a while....it was OK, but I still couldn't play it anywhere close to perfectly. Oh well....we finished up with that just in time for Kate and I to go through our duet, which was very beneficial. I also met up with Miriam at paid her back for the ticket the Hänsel and Gretel that she went to the Volksoper to get for us.

The recital itself was cool....it was great to hear everyone really shining at their instrument/voice, since I'd theretofore only really heard a few people at their full potential at that point. The Bach went first, which was good because it felt great to get it out of the way. Greta (one of the pianists) asked me if she should turn pages, and I joked with her that it would probably be better for everyone if she played and I turned pages....whatever. I only screwed up a couple of times, and it was no biggie. I got a few compliments, but I think most people really weren't listening to me anyway....the duet with Kate went swimmingly, and everyone got a real kick out of it. It's cheesy enough that it was nice relief from all the heavy stuff surrounding it.

After the recital I went over to the Konzerthaus in the hopes of scalping a ticket...unfortunately rather than the usual few people who you'll see outside a venue selling a ticket they don't need there were four people with signs that said "Suche 1 Karte" or some variation thereof....after going inside and in my dejection buying a CD of her singing Mozart arias I went out about 20 minutes before the concert was going to start and seeing that the same four people had still not had any luck I put any hopes that I might still have had to rest and walked home in dejection. In retrospect it's OK, and I hadn't gotten my hopes up too much, but it still would have been awesome to see her AND Marc Minkowski, whose babies I would have in a heartbeat. (he's amazingly talented)

So Much to Do!!!

Cakes for Potluck: €7.98
Pizza: €9

Talk about a full day! First, German, which was normal. Right after German I went to the Billa with Park to get Schütz treats and dessert for the Classical Symphony buffet. Yes, that right, we had a buffet in Classical Symphony. It was a long time coming, and the inception of the idea is a long story which I won't go into....in the end it just appeared as though Solvik was trying his best to put forth his congenial, anything-goes candor and chat up the students, although I can't tell if it was as disingenuous as it seemed. In any case, we had delicious food (I brought two Pannetonne-esque cakes, of which only one was partially consumed, the other I took back home unopened) and marginally discussed Beethoven's Ninth. Right after class I had a little run-through with Catherine for our duet....it's better now, and we have better staging. After that short little romp I practiced for a bit and then met Miriam and Dave to go over their duet in the Schütz, since Dave couldn't be at the last rehearsal. That went pretty well, although it was still pretty clear that Dave hadn't looked at his part......but what are you gonna do?

After that I had a bit of free time before going to see my roommates play in their brass quartet that they put together with the four brass players at IES this semester: James Hall from Lawrence and my roommates, Brad, JB, and Cabot, on trombone, trombone, trumpet, and tuba respectively. At 5:00 they had a quasi-ad-hoc concert at IES.....it was nice and short and to the point, but it was cool to hear them play. They also debuted two of my arrangements....one of them being "Ding Dong We Have Heard On High" a.k.a. "Angels, Merrily, Are High," and a transcription of my "O Little Town of Bethlehem" arrangement that I did for the Accidentals last year....I must say it sounds pretty cool with a brass quartet, but not as cool as with pretty women's voices! ^_^ The little concert was great, and since I recorded it with my computer I'll upload the files so you can hear it. The last piece is John's arrangement of "For the Longest Time" which, despite it's occasional inaccuracies, is a real gem. After the recital I worked at the library (covering for Reb) and then went on home.

Weihnachtsoratorium

Groceries: €19.20
Program: €2.70

Today was a holiday (the celebration of the assumption of Mary....I guess it's when you decide to assume that Mary was a virgin! ha ha ha....I know it's not funny, but I try....) so we didn't technically have any classes....although the instrumental performance workshop had class in the morning (since the concert is on Friday) and I had to be there to do the Bach with Allison and the three flutes....it went well, but I still choked up a couple of times. It was helpful to go through it in front of people (despite the fact that there weren't that many people there) but the comments we got from Ulrike and Russel weren't that helpful. (side note: apparently his name is spelled Russel....how embarrassing that I've been spelling it wrong this whole time!) After the workshop I went home and dilly-dallied for a while, and then went down to the Belvedere for an AA&A tour...I was a little late (since the bus didn't deliver me as close to the palace as I had expected) but they hadn't left yet. The museum is fantastic...I'll have to go again (since it's free with my museum card) and see the rooms we didn't cover in the tour...plus to see the Klimts again. We saw the Klimts that are trying to be recovered by the descendants of Adelaide Bloch-Bauer, a woman whose portrait was painted twice by Klimt (both hanging in the Belvedere) and whose assets were seized during the war (because she was Jewish). After the war the Belvedere (re-?)acquired them and they've been hanging ever since. Now the descendants of Bloch-Bauer in California (of all places) want the paintings back. It would seem open-and-shut, since courts have been pretty good about returning property seized during the Third Reich to its rightful owners: however, in Adelaide's will it expressly states that after her death she wanted the paintings to hang in the Belvedere. The catch with that is that technically her husband paid for them, so her estate has no claim over them. It's a complicated issue that'll be resolved eventually, but I'm glad I got to see them before they (possibly) leave Vienna. We saw a lot of Biedermeier stuff, which although pretty is kinda boring. I don't know....I enjoyed it, but we just spent too much time talking about it. How much can you say about peasants playing dice? Sure, it's pretty and exceptionally painted, but to get into this huge political discussion seems strange....save it for Klimt or Schiele....people about whom you could make a more clear political thesis. Whatever. The museum was fantastic, and I simply must go again soon.

Unfortunately I couldn't stay in the museum after the tour was over, as I had to get back to IES for a coaching with Russel with my duet with Allison: the Jägerlied by Brahms. It went quite well, and I feel good about doing it at the recital (not tomorrow, but Tuesday) After the coaching I went home, prepared a humble meal, and then went down to the Musikverein to see Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium...it was the Amsterdam Baroque Choir, Soloists, and Orchestra under the direction of Ton Koopman, who I'm familiar with as a famous organist. It was a fantastic concert, and due to the fact that I got in line an hour early I managed to get decent spots on the rail.....standing room was PACKED....I couldn't believe how many people were there....anyway everything was fantastic, especially the orchestra and the soloists. The choir was also amazing, but the tenor and soprano soloists really shone that evening....also the orchestra was really great, and Koopman looks like a great conductor. (he also played what must have been a portative organ during the non-choral movements, although someone was clearly another portative on stage right....maybe he wanted two? or maybe it wasn't an organ? it was certainly a keyboard instrument....) The tenor soloist was great....all the Bach stuff for tenor Evangelists (especially in this piece and the St. John Passion) make me want to be a tenor SO BAD.....it's just the greatest music ever. Anyway, the soprano soloist also had some amazing arias to sing, and the 20-piece choir showed an amazing versatility of tone and color considering their size...their blend was also incredible, but not in the weird smarmy American way where everyone sounds mushy: it was decidedly clear and every section had a different sound (helpful to make sense of the quasi-fugal passages) but the overall effect was of profound unity. The whole experience was great, and the audience went NUTS at the end. Counting the two encores we were there for another 20 minutes after the final movement of the oratorio. As their second encore they did one of the final choruses, which featured an extremely difficult obbligato line for the three trumpet parts, which were being played on natural horns (i.e. no valves, slides, or pistons, just your embouchure and your breath to control the overtones and a few little holes in the shaft for trills and the like....I can't even imagine how hard that must be...jeez)......when Koopman turned to the orchestra (after his 10th or 11th ovation) and told the orchestra what to play, a noticeable look of bemusement spread across the faces of the trumpet players. Despite their fortune, they played extremely well, the second time as well as the first. People (including me) were clapping until after he had motioned for the orchestra to leave and almost half of them had left the stage. Say what you will about the Viennese, they know good music, and when they like it they show it.

VPW and REST!

Baklava and Spinat-Käse Strudel: €5.10

After a normal set of morning classes (German and Classical Symphony) I got delicious Baklava from the Lebensmittel place next door....I ended up going back to get Spinat-Käse strudel, which was also quite good.

Performance workshop was OK....Kate and I did our duet (Meine Liebe, deine Liebe, a cheesy piece from Lehár's operetta "Das Land des Lächelns") after having not sung it together for many weeks....it's the easiest song in the world vocally and musically, but it's just so cheesy and silly that it's hard to know what to do! Once we loosened up a bit (she still didn't touch me, which is weird since we're singing about how much we love each other and there was that awkward not-quite-touching-but-still-trying-to-look-affectionate thing happening....) it was OK, and I think the class got a kick out of me trying to act. (as I have said many times, the effeminate servant is the only part I can play....) After that mini-travesty of embarrassment I went home and had a nice, long, restful evening and got to bed very early. It was a nice change of pace, and turned out to prepare me well for the crazy days ahead.

Faculty Concert and Colin Firth

Lunch at Billa: €1.68
Ticket for the Party: €3

Love Actually: Priceless


The day started out (as they tend to do on Mondays) with German.....pretty normal, except that I got to play the piano! It seems Birgit had brought in some Weihnachtslieder for us to sing through, and I was designated official pianist....I guess I'm the only one in my class who can play. It was fun, albeit a bit weird. (the song was cornissimo)

After German I got lunch with Mike at Billa (the ham and gherkin again) and went back to school, where I got a lovely surpirse: the package that Sue had sent nigh a month ago had just arrived! I was so exceedingly happy.....Gretchen and I immediately dedicated our evening to the watching of Love Actually, and there was much rejoicing.....not to mention all the fun I had with the nice big camera chip from CB and the little key ring hard drive from John (thank you ^_^) and I plan to watch the surprise DVD soon! After that I was off to AA&A and history, both of which were sort of blah. Gretchen and I played an excellent game of Exquisite Corpse during AA&A, but then we tried to play a couple more and they didn't work too well. There definitely seems to be an inverse proportion to quality and quantity when it comes to these games of EQ. Hm.....

After class I hung around IES until the faculty concert, which was very, very fun. Russell, Ulrike, Roger, and Barbara each played solos, Russell and Gerald did a four-hands thing by Ravel (La Mere d'Oye, original version), and Russell, Ulrika, and Roger did a trio at the end. They all did pretty well.....some were more communicative and gracious in their presentation then others (Ulrike in particular....she was AMAZING) but all in all it was fun, especially to hear what the faculty has to offer musically.

After the concert we all went out to Hietzing to Gretchen's apartment to watch Colin Firth, I mean Love Actually, with Gretchen, Mike, Josh (Gretchen's friend from home) and Kate. It was fun, except that Mike and I didn't catch the U-bahn or the first night bus, so we were out in the bitter cold freezing for about 40 minutes before the next night bus came....it was awful. Oh well. The rest of the day was awesome!

Carmina Burana

Bread for dinner: €1.50
Program: €3.70

Carmina Burana: Breathtaking.

Well.....I slept for about 12 hours, finally waking up around 1:30. I tooled around and pretended to do work until Mike met me at my place at 6:00 for dinner. I made pasta and my spaghetti sauce with Debraziner (delicious spicy sausage) except that somehow while we were at Egypt Man buying bread the sauce burned something terrible....I don't know how frankly, since I had it on the lowest heat, like I always do....maybe because I wasn't there to stir it.....anyway, after I picked out the huge flakes of burned stuff, it only tasted slightly charred.....whatever. Jess met us at a little before 7 and we went off to Carmina Burana.

Let's talk about Carmina Burana: it's the best thing I've seen here so far, hands down. I mean, that's a piece that you can really only experience live. I mean, we were sitting in the organ balcony behind and above the stage, so we couldn't see the orchestra or even much of the audience in the Parkett, but we could hear....boy could we hear! We were sitting under half of the percussion section, so every time that bass drum went off our feet were trembling like nothing else......oh my god I can't tell you how amazing it was!!!!!! Well, to start off, the first half of the concert was this other piece by Orff which I'd never heard of before....it was called "Catullus Carmina," or The Poems of Catullus.....it's for huge Carmina-Burana-esque double choir, soloists, FOUR pianos and full percission.....the latter two of which only play in the introduction and postlude: the bulk of the piece is acapella (although, as Jess pointed out, as was hard to tell sometimes that there weren't instruments, there was so much sound) I couldn't tell you what it was 'about', but it did have a narrative.....it was an amazing, amazing piece, though....I'll have to find a recording or a score of it. After an intermission they did Carmina Burana in it's glorious entirety.....there aren't any words, really......it was a perfect (and I mean PERFECT) performance of a tremendous piece. I honestly can't think of ANYTHING to complain about or that I wish had been better, and I'm usually pretty good at that. The conductor was great, the orchestra did well, the soloists were fantastic, the choir was AMAZING......I could go on and on. So, after that I went home COMPLETELY emotionally drenched....I could barely move for hours.....oh it was soooooo good. I'm so glad that I went, and I'm so glad I bought seats for us! Standing room (which we COULD see from our seats) was p-a-c-k-ed.....it looked awful.

Rehearsal and Rest Day

2 Krapfen @ Anker: €1

Not spending money: Fantastic


When I woke up this morning all of my roommates were gone....it was weird. They're never ALL gone at 10:00 am on a Saturday! I thought I had missed the rapture! Actually what happened was JB, Brad, and Cabot had all gone to some concentration camp near Graz for the day and Brad was just out shopping, but for about an hour I thought I was in the Twilight Zone or something....anyway at 12:30 I had rehearsal with Allison and the Flutes.....it was OK....I still can't play the damn piano, though! at 1:00 we all coached it with Russell....basically all he said to me was play my left hand louder....I guess he figured (from my awkward facial expressions) that I knew when I was really screwing up the notes....in any case that went how it did and I spent the rest of the day hanging around at IES with Mike....after going home for a bit I met back up with him and we watched First Wives Club....then I went back to my place and went to bed!

P.S. the €.50 Krapfen from Anker, although really not that good, really hit the spot occasionally.....today was one of those days!

I don't usually do this...

Yeah....funny quiz.

[I HAD to get rid of the ugly-ass picture....but it's still funny!]


You are 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing'. You take
Christmas very seriously. For you, it is a
religious festival, celebrating the birth of
the Saviour, and its current secularisation
really irritates you. You enjoy the period of
Advent leading up to Christmas, and attend any
local carol services you can find, as well as
the more contemplative Advent church services
each Sunday. You may be involved in Christmas
food collections or similar charity work. The
midnight service at your church, with candles
and carols, is one you look forward to all
year, and you also look forward to the family
get together on Christmas Day.

Hagen Quartet

Lunch and Candy: €5
Program @ Konzerthaus: €2.70
Garderobe @ Konzerthaus: €.90
Belated Birthday drink for Gretchen @ Konzerthaus: €2.50
Blutorange Punsch: €2.50

Live string quartet concert: awesome!!!

The day started off with a 4-hour shift at work.....fun fun fun! After 1 Mike and I hung around IES and got lunch at the Billa.....delicious (and cheap) sausage-and-gherkin sandwiches on Semmel.....oh so good! I also got these delicious coconut-filled chocolate things...they're like Mounds bars, I guess.....anyway afterwards I went back home and then met Gretchen at the Kettenbrückengasse stop at 6:50. At this point let me back up:

Amanda, who was to be in Vienna through Christmas Eve (we actually had the same flight out of Schwechat) had bought us tickets to see the Hagen Quartet at the Konzerthaus....funny thing was that she left early because the program she was doing here was sucky, so she was going to be back in the States by the time the concert came around, so she just gave me the tickets! She wouldn't accept money for them, which was very sweet of her. Anyway, so I decided to sort of re-gift them by taking Gretchen to the concert instead of to Die Fledermaus at the Volksoper tonight (which she had already seen).

So Gretchen and I went to the Konzerthaus.....it was fun! The concert wasn't in the big hall, but the hall was still a decent size....good for a string quartet concert. Our seats weren't bad, either....we were in the ground floor, between about 16 or 20 rows back and on the left side.....we could see pretty well, and the sound was great. They did the Ravel string quartet, which was AMAZING.....I had forgotten how much I love that piece! And their performance of it was just really good.....I never knew that there were that many colors in the piece! They really played out all the different timbrel possibilities or the phrases....it was breathtaking in some moments. The second piece they did was some contemporary piece by some guy I had never heard of......it was especially weird because it would switch back and forth between his weird ponticello-artificial-harmonics-atonal stuff to transcriptions of this Josquin motet..........the Josquin sounded great in the ensemble, but I didn't like how he tried to integrate it into his shitty avant-garde stuff.....but I'm an old curmudgeon that way, I suppose (especially about early music!). The funniest thing about it, though, was that literally four bars[?] into the first part of it someone's cell phone went off VERY loudly......and it was playing the toreador song (not the beginning, but the "to-re-a-dor mon gar-----de" [or whatever] part) everyone sort of giggled softly, and a few seconds later the players smiled at each other and stopped and had a bit of a laugh, everyone applauded, and they started again.....it was great. Intermission was fun....I bought Gretchen a glass of this ultra-buttery wine that she likes and we talked to Matt (who was there randomly....) for a while. After the break they did a Beethoven string quartet.....an early one, by the sound of it, but I don't remember the opus number. They played it well, but not as well as the Ravel....of course they arguably had more to work with in the Ravel, but the Beethoven just seemed like it was missing something....something small, but it just didn't measure up; and I know it's not all Beethoven's fault! As an encore they did a slow movement from some other string quartet.....I had no idea who it was by, but I was guessing early or middle Beethoven or someone like that.....to make sure I went up to the stage to try and take a look at the music on the stands....there were a few other people trying to do something, and one of them asked the stage guy who was cleaning up to let him see it.....he handed it to him and we all looked....it was Haydn! I would never have guessed.....a couple of them also said "Haydn?" in a sort of quizzical tone. (as quizzical as the Viennese ever deign to sound) All in all it was an amazing concert!!

Afterwards we went back to Hietzing for Duné's birthday party, which was OK....there were a bunch of people there that I didn't know or didn't particularly like, so the whole dynamic was a bit weird. When Jim and Carla asked me if I wanted to get Punsch with them, I jumped on it.....so the two of them, Natalie, Gretel, Beth, and I went to this little stand by the apartment which sells Blutorange Punsch, which was AWESOME.....by FAR the best Punsch I've had.....it was especially funny to watch everyone's tongues turn gradually red-orange.....anyway after that fun I went back to the apartment with Gretel, Beth, and Jim, mostly to say good-bye to Gretchen, and when I got back to the party there was a whole new group of people there that were a bit more hip.....I didn't stay too long, but I did stay and talk to Mel and her sisters, who are AWESOME can I just say......then I went downstairs, said good-bye to Gretchen and went home for some well-needed sleep!

More Organ!

OK.....so I had my last organ lesson yesterday, and I recorded three more tracks on the organ at Marianum. I uploaded them, and re-uploaded the old ones, all in AAC (iTunes) format. This means that it won't take hours to download them, but you really would need iTunes to play them. Enjoy!

http://students.oxy.edu/rbolyard/

Bridget Jones's Pi-ary

Treats for Schütz people: €7
More stuff for Pumpkin Pie: €3
Income from Library: €50

Playing the organ on a sprained ankle: Painful

Normal day.....we played a ridiculous board game in German class....it was to practice the subjunctive, but it was a bit strange...I won't get into it....sufficed to say the best answer I cam up with was to the question "Was würdest du machen, wenn du die Königin von deinem Land wärst?" (what would you do if you were the queen of your country?)...my answer was: "Das ist sehr leicht, weil ich bin schon die grosste Königin meines Landes" (That's very easy, because I'm already my country's biggest queen!) It's too bad Birgit wasn't there when I came up with THAT little gem.....(Mike wasn't there....he slept in! For the first time I was on time and he wasn't there! It was like the Twilight Zone or something.....)

I went to the Billa quickly and got goodies for the Schütz people...water, oranges, and Ritter Sport. It's funny how shopkeepers here warm up to you after seeing you a few times....maybe the first time they just think you're a stupid American, but when you come back (especially every week at a similar time, as is the case with this Billa in the 1st district) they figure you're staying here and probably are worth a smile or other small nicety. It's weird.

We talked about Beethoven's 5th in class....or actually really just the 1st movement, which is par for the course for Solvik so far.....but it was fun because I know so much about the 5th, so I really owned the discussion today!

A short while after class we had Schütz rehearsal (once again sans Dave...who told me yesterday that he couldn't make it because his plane to Amsterdam out of Bratislava leaves at 5:00 and not 7:45....) which went pretty well.....the piece is finally coming together, and now only the connections between movements and a few interpretation issues remain to be worked out. It's always fun to conduct, especially a small group of great musicians like them, but I'm always so gosh darn tired afterwards....Mike complemented me today about my rehearsal technique, which meant a lot coming from him.

After the rehearsal I headed down to see Dr. Schier, who was nice enough to belatedly refund me €100 of lesson expenses....(I lost my sheet somewhere, probably at Marianum, so I just had Michelle sign off for two lessons when I saw her yesterday) After that I headed to the goumet Spar to buy cinnamon: Zimt, auf Deutsch.....I was only able to figure it out by reading the history of the origin of cinnamon on the side of one of the bottles....having remembered that it came from China, I decided that this brown powder had to be cinnamon. Thank goodness I was right....there were certainly a lot of other brown powders with strange German names which I would not wanted to have accidentally purchased to put in pumpkin pie! I then ran back home to get my organ stuff and headed to Marianum.

I realized that today was going to be my last organ lesson because I have important things scheduled for almost every Monday and Thursday evening that remain me here in Vienna! It particularly irked me, therefore, that I was running a bit late. To top it all off, while I was on the U2 to Schottentor, I remembered that I had failed purchase whipped cream for the pumpkin pie, so I left the Schottentor terminal to try and find a grocery store in the vicinity. Spotting a[nother] Gourmet Spar down the block, I hastened my way towards it. It turned out to be tiny tiny tiny, so finding the whipped cream (Schlagobers) proved difficult. I finally did find it, bought it and started running back to Schottentor. And here's where the story gets interesting:

I'm running towards the Straßenbahn at a full clip, and to do so I was running in the bus lane of the side street I was on because the sidewalk was so crowded. Somehow my foot lands in a pothole, I fall flat in my face (actually, on my left hand and right knee) and twist my right ankle something fierce. Two people immediately stopped and helped me up, and after getting my bearings a bit I started walking towards the Straßenbahn again, albeit decidedly slower. Soon I realized that my ankle hurt like a bitch, but after ascertaining that it wasn't broken I continued. Sure enough I sort of "walked it off," but it still hurt and I couldn't bend it, so walking was a slow and painful process.

I finally got to Marianum 10 minutes late, but Gottfried was rather understanding when he saw me hobbling towards the chapel. He was a bit taken aback, I think, when I told him that today would have to be our last lesson, but I can't tell....he's sort of deadpan in a very Austrian way. The lesson was really good, and when he firmly shook my hand good-bye (as he always does, even to his young students) and expressed his gratitude at the opportunity to work with me, I was definitely getting a bit teary-eyed. I realized during the lesson that this was going to be the first thing that I would have to say good-bye to, and it was hard. Just as hard was 30 minutes later, when I had to say 'Leb Wohl!" to the organ itself. I took the time to make some decent tracks (which I uploaded), my favorite of which is definitely the last one, the "fond farewell," which actually was the last thing I played there.

I went home the conventional way, my foot in gradually increasing pain. I got home and prepared the apartment for the pumpkin pie and guests. Mike arrived first, then Gretchen came with the fix-in's and the guests: after David showed up it was me, Gretchen, Dave, Mike, Park, and Kate....it was a fantastic group. While Gretchen and I were in the kitchen making the pie they all sat in the living room listening to Margaret Cho....good times! The pie tins turned out to be really shallow, so we made two full pies with one can of pumpkin filling.....we put one in the oven, which baked during Bridget Jones, and was barely chilled enough to eat after the movie. Everyone left while the second pie was still baking, and somehow I managed to take it out at the right time. It was a fantastic evening, despite my ghastly swollen foot and the wet spot on the floor from all the ice I was putting on it.....oh well! It was still great, and the pie was AMAZING.....

Andréa Chénier

Gift: €15
Postcards: €1.60
My share of pumpkin pie fillings: €2
Pre-class sturm: €2
Voice Lesson €50 (free after rebate)
Total Cost of Andréa Chénier: €4.40

A full day: hectic.

First was the AA&A tour of the baroque section of the Lower Belvedere, which was tons of fun. Afterwards I loitered with Gretchen in the gift shop to find a gift for Andrew's parents.....I got something, but I think I'm actually going to get them something else....we'll see. Then, Gretchen accompanied on my little search for the knitting shop I've seen on the Wiedner Hauptstraße....we didn't find after walking around for a while, but we did find a little stall that was selling Punsch for €2, so we said YES and had a cup of delicious orange Punsch before she suggested that we head over to Bobby's supermarket, which sells a bunch of imported stuff from the UK and America for the ex-pats, mostly....it was great to in and hear the shopkeepers greet us and converse solely in English...anyway, when we walked in we saw three magic ingredients sitting by their lonesomes on a table in the middle of an aisle: pumpkin pie fililng, pie crust, and condensed milk. Sure enough, these were the Ausländer ingredients required to make something which I sorely missed on Thanksgiving: Pumpkin Pie!!!! So, without a second's hesitation, Gretchen and I purchased enough for two pies with the plan to make them on Thursday night, which was already designated as Bridget Jones's Diary night for her and I and Dave and Mike. (where we watch the whole movie...not just the Colin Firth parts like when Gretchen watches it with me....) After making the (rather expensive: each pie cost €8) purchase, she went home and I headed back to IES for to print out (and learn) my Purcell for my voice lesson this afternoon.....after some initial frustrations (which always accompany any printing experience) I went to class, and then straight from there to Michelle's place for my lesson. My lesson was OK.....I've definitely had better....she took me up to my falsetto, but somehow I scratched something and after that I had a lingering itch and cough whenever I sang anything.....I can't figure out why....I think I was pushing too much up at the top and trying to vibrate...whatever. The Purcell is such a great piece, and she got all excited as I was singing it...I mean, unlike the silly duets that she's heard me do, and the utterly simplistic Mozart concert aria she's also having me do, the Purcell is music that I can really get into. It's a great piece, as I mentioned.....

After my lesson I rushed over to the Staatsoper to see Andréa Cheniér, since today was the only possible day I could have seen it. I got there at about 6:20, so the line had already bought their tickets and everyone was waiting to go inside. I hastily bought my ticket for Galerie...so hastily, in fact, that when I paid for the €2 ticket with a €10 note the woman (who I'd never seen there before, incidentally) gave me back five €2 coins, so the ticket was free! I didn't realize it until I was already in line to go in, and I didn't feel too bad about keeping it....they've taken enough of my money over the months.....considering I was there so late the line was RIDICULOUSLY short.....I not many people ever show up for the Wednesday night operas...in any case I saw Ann right in front of me, literally, so we stood together and got great second-row spots in the middle-right section.....for reference, I would have to get there 2.5-3 hours early to get the same spots on a Friday or Saturday night.

The opera itself was quite good......it started off interersting, but got more and more melodramatic until the ridiculous ending, where the lovers (who barely know each other) choose death by the French revolutionaries rather than separation....well, he was going to die anyway, but she sacrificed herself so that she could die with him......it was insane. In the beginning it just seemed like it was going to be a normal opera with a bit of a political slant, but by the end it was almost Wagnerian in it's grand and far-flung emotional content with no basis on how real people act.....and José Cura being as loud as possible all the time didn't help either....I love his voice, but a lot of the time it's just a bit much. The soprano was good....I can't remember her name. It was still fun, though, and there were some absolutely glorious musical moments.

After the opera I went home, did some homework, and went to bed.