If this tableau I recreate...

perhaps my thoughts I'll ventilate.

OK that was bad (here's why, halfway down), but it's only going to get worse....

I've been meaning to do this for a while, but I keep putting it off. I just could never keep up a blog, you know? I tried other things, like blogging just haiku and posting to Twitter, but nothing inspired me to keep it up. So, I figured now's as good a time as any, for what better inspiration than not having lots of thoughts and suddenly no omnipresent social situation in which to share them? Also, I find it harder and harder to find just the right word now that I write so rarely. So here we are.

Truthfully, I had another impetus: I just deleted my old Livejournal page (for reasons understandable to anyone unlucky enough to read it) and I wondered what my life would be like in 5 years if there wasn't some horrible remnant of embarrassing past self I could expunge with a simple series of clicks. So as possible fodder for that future self (hi!) here goes.

My lofty plan: maintain this blog as a journal/venue for ruminations, while trying to maintain an aura of interest for my friends in faraway places who might like to see what I'm doing. I also plan to finally start the little blog I dreamt up when I got all that obscure music from the Yale library this summer: namely to write little Simon-esque reviews/synopses (many are operas) in the hopes that if someone really wanted to know about Marin Marais' opera Alcyone, for example, then they might find me. So take that, Robert Bolyard and Robert Bolyard!! (oh wait, that second one is totally me......)

But really, this is all a selfish ploy to get my name on the internet more.

Oh, and I wanted to shove down those pictures of our xmas tree.

It's complicated.

Xmas tree!

Here's our christmas tree! (you'll notice the Wii on the TV stand next to it)


















Another angle (sorry they're not too in focus.....)

















That's all! Time to go to rehearsal!

Allright

I give up. Even the haiku didn't tempt the blogger in me to be more forthcoming. So here you are, a short update that's more than 19 syllables, but is more bullet form.

Andrew and I set up the christmas tree....it's beautiful. Pictures will come soon I PROMISE.

Meanwhile, the rest of the apartment is a complete disaster, but we will spend the next two weeks cleaning to prepare for the party we're throwing: we've invited all the conductors to come over and sing carols....its going to be quite fun.

Ophelia was featured on http://www.cuteoverload.com in a picture taken last year of her when we lived with Kelsey....its priceless, and quite an honor to be selected, I'm sure.

Classes are going well, almost no work involved for my history class except for sporadic bursts of activity centered around a presentation or (perhaps) the upcoming 10-page paper. My job as Publication Assistant is a little more stressful than I anticipated, but its fine...I've also been doing a lot of odd jobs up at the ISM, so I'm earning lots of extra money! (sadly, its never quite enough to really break even.....)

That's all I can think of for now....maybe in another month I'll post again. yay!

Apparently....(I don't remember this, but Andrew does)

His alarm went off
I sang.......yelled "No! That's 'The Rose!'
Not 'The Swan!'" and slept.

Rain, rain, go away;
Glad I'll soon be in LA
(Take that, no-rhyme-scheme!!)

Drove to East Rock Park:
Beautiful panorama
Of Yale & the town.

Got a job today:
Publication Assistant
For the ISM! ^_^

Busy weekend of
Brubeck Rehearsals, Concert...
Now I'm SOOO behind.

Once more, Trader Joe's
Gave me everything I want:
Lots of tasty bread.

Talked about Hassler
In both Hist'ry and lesson.....
A great composer!

Went shopping again:
More essentials for the house
Not just clothes for me. ^_^

Church was fun today:
World Communion Sunday meant
MANY kinds of bread.

While watching TV
Saw what I thought was a roach.....
But 'twas a mouse! EEEEEEK!

Made my first smoothie
Only soy milk, fruit, and ice.
Yay for Trader Joe's!

Last night was frat-esque
Crowded: lots of students came,
Plus the dean..........creepy.

Woke up almost late
Shopping and cleaning since class
Tonight I party.

Visited the gym
Inside a large cathedral...
Silly Ivy League!

Woke up late, coughing:
Sang softly at rehearsal,
Cancelled voice lesson.

Biking everywhere
Will make me feel so healthy...
Not every day, though.

Précis

I think I'll blog more
If I reduce every day
To just a haiku.

Testing

Just got my new PowerBook and, yes, I'm blogging from the dasboard. My, how far we've come!

In case anyone is still listening...

So...here I am again, blogging for the first time after Vienna. Hopefully I'll continue to do so fairly regularly, despite the fact that my life will be way more boring now....hee hee hee.

Semester just started on Wednesday....classes are going well, my new job at Kaldi is going exceedingly well, Glee Club is consuming my life this week (then again, when isn't it consuming my life??) and the househunt continues as soon as I get my financial aid check from Oxy next Friday. I know some of you are interested in this, so I'll give you my schedule. (Sue, I'm looking at you....)

-----
Monday:
09:30-10:30 - Computers and Reality
13:30-14:30 - Music of Asia and the Pacific Islands
14:30-15:30 - Astronomy
15:30-16:30 - Topics in Jazz History
16:30-17:30 - Drive to Culver City
17:30-18:00 - Tone Chimes Rehearsal
18:30-19:30 - Handbell Choir Rehearsal
20:20-22:00 - OFMC Rehearsal

Tuesday:
15:00-16:00 - Drive to Culver City
16:00-17:30 - Children's Choir Rehearsals
19:30-22:00 - Glee Club Rehearsal

Wednesday:

09:30-10:30 - Computers and Reality
13:30-14:30 - Music of Asia and the Pacific Islands
14:30-15:30 - Astronomy
15:30-16:30 - Topics in Jazz History
17:00-22:00 - Work at Kaldi

Thursday:
19:30-22:00 - Glee Club Rehearsal (so far, that's all I have scheduled today!)

Friday:
09:30-10:30 - Computers and Reality
13:30-14:30 - Music of Asia and the Pacific Islands
14:30-15:30 - Astronomy
15:30-16:30 - Topics in Jazz History
17:00-22:00 - Work at Kaldi

Saturday:
15:00-22:00 - Work at Kaldi

Sunday:
08:00-12:00 - Church (3 Sundays a month)
13:00-15:00 - Cadence Rehearsal
-----

So that's the busy life of Robert....oh, and in case you want to see even MORE pictures of Vienna, I would direct you to a smugmug site that I started for my abroad collegaues to post their pictures: http://iesvienna.smugmug.com There are a lot of good pictures there, and mostly they're pictures of the things we saw every day and not so many silly artsy ones, so it's probably better for getting a feel of what it was actually like.

I'm going to go to the gym now, but I'll be back!

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)