Tranced, fanatical they shrieked and sang

I've been toying around with the idea of singing Ives' song "General William Booth Enters into Heaven" for my upcoming recital this summer. The song is a huge mess: multiple musical quotations, the occasional 4.5/4 bar, a hefty vocal line (including an Ab), not to mention the singer has to compete with a typical Ives "elbow" chord peppered accompaniment.

Where would one get the inspiration for a 5 minute religious revival?

One of the best movies ever.

That's right, Elmer Gantry.

Charlatan doesn't begin to describe Burt's character...it was probably the turning point in my childhood that distorted my view of any "man of god" into a degenerate snake-oil salesman.

Elmer Gantry was a typical role for Burt. He only ever played the alpha male, a hyper-masculine sexpot. Like an ape in a suit (Sorry, Wrong Number is perhaps the most conspicuous example), his animal magnetism was so raw you had to watch it through spread fingers, like a jury looking at autopsy photos.

Look out!

From the great state of California

So much has been happening lately that I can't keep up.

1. I graduated from college (2 degrees suma cum laude). I was also the banner bearer at the A&S graduation --to my horror and my mother's elation--so a throughly embarrassing experience was had by all.

2. I went to Puerto Rico for 3 weeks during January for the winter nursery, and Craigers got to come for a week on the cheap. I should have some posts about that, but the internet down there (in the south, aka the poor part of the island) was ridiculous. Had lots of fun, but was so ready to come back.

3. Grad school: I got interviews at Duke, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, Emory, and Wash-U. So far I've been accepted to Harvard genetics and Duke genetics/genomics.

4. I am in California for 9 days (suck it Missouri!) to visit UC-Berkeley and Stanford, so I'm really excited about that. If MBK wants to come and rescue me from the nerdery and show me a good time in SF, I wouldn't complain.

5. I am missing the maize meeting (boo whore) but I am doing some really cool research at work. I'm sure I'll eventually get around to posting something about that. I was super freaked about my plants and when they are going to time out in the greenhouse, etc, but I think all that crap will work itself out.

6. I am putting together one crazy recital with RA. Tentative date is going to be late spring, and I'm doing the Wolf Harfenspeiler, Chausson Serres Chaudes, a Sibelius set, an Ives set, and probably arias from Il Dulca D'alba and Eugene Onegin. I'll put together a post about all that crazy lit, but it looks like for now that I'll be singing in 6 languages. Seriously, whiskey tango foxtrot.

7. I am doing a one act opera called Three Sisters Who are Not Sisters by Ned Rorem. The libretto is by Gertrude Stein, so you can imagine the inane-ity to ensue. Right now, we are going to do it as a student production--so that means that we will have to find funding, performance venue, do the staging-costuming-lighting, organize rehearsals, etc. I'm post later about this, but I expect it to be crazy like a fox.

I also plan to do some posts about Sarkozy, Slava Mogutin, Maeterlinck, and my latest thoughts on Bette Davis.

TTYL chaches.

I'm a murderer.

I killed a mouse with my bare hands Thursday night, put it in a Shakespeare's cup and threw its seizing body out the front door. I didn't feel the least bit guilty--at the time--because:

1) It was loud and slow. Being Darwin's handmaiden is an ugly job, but someone has to do it. I am just Jules striking "down upon thee great vengeance and furious anger".

2) While I am far from being a neat housekeeper (all those threats of cleanliness imbuing godliness), a mouse crapping in my house was too much of an affront to my pride.

I had initially toyed with the idea of buying a live trap, but I guess this is the last nail in the coffin of my compassionate conservatism.

Where does this bloodlust originate? I may have inherited it:

When I was home one weekend, my father beat an armadillo (that had been eating the salad greens from the garden) to death with a baseball bat in our backyard while my horrified sisters and I watched. It bounced at least 2 feet off the ground.

Man of action indeed!

The Immolation scene from Götterdämmerung is lofty background music for my midnight biscotti making, but who can resist a good multi-tasking opportunity?

Don't you love how letting your mind wander at 2AM can resolve hitherto unarticulated aversions?

Crewcut sporting lesbians, invariably standing on courthouse steps dressed in pantsuits, have been a fixture of gay-marriage debate for as long as I can remember. I concede that they have a vested interest in the struggle, as a biological clock (the main impetus for seeking "equality") seems to not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. To each her own.

My repulsion by the side-show comedy that is the same-sex-marriage debate was caused by something more sinister than the "morally-bankrupt heterosexual institution" tripe. And thanks to Florence King, I finally have figured out how I feel.

I might as well have said, "I don't want to get married, I'd rather live in Paris and have affairs like George Sand."

I CAN'T WAIT TO GRADUATE.

I'm so close. Seriously, so close.

Continuing in our long line of costumes in *poor* taste, here's a Halloween recap y'all.
05: Batman and Robin
06: Pitcher and catcher
07: Priest and altar boy

Last weekend was spent at NATS and associated activities. Besides staying at a hotel that was hosting a blind person convention, I spent time with the real crazies: singers.

I am also wrapping up a NSF GRFP application, studying for the GRE, and gearing up for the fun that is filling out grad applications.

Time will tell what becomes of all this crap.

I also realized what is up with my tomatoes. Apparently, I didn't really follow my carefully drawn map, because what I thought were brandywines were actually yellow boy hybrids. So that's why they started rotting after turning a light orangish. Hmm. So today I picked a basket of tomatoes (in November!) and made what might be the last feta, EVOO, tomato, kalamati olive, and lemon basil salad of the fall. Sigh.

My garden was a productive and therapeutic experience, and I plan to increase the plots next spring. In addition to a cutting garden with more herbs, I want to put in some cucurbits and other fruit (blackberries, strawberries?). Ack! How will I make it through winter?

In other horizons, Craiger and I are excited about the live (in HD!) Met broadcasts that will finally come to Columbia. Going to Met on a regular basis would be a luxury that I will probably never be able to afford, but this is almost as good right?

What does one wear to an opera broadcast? Are the exotic-bird plumages still required?

Living life as one big resume-building experience gets old. I have begun seeing people as commodities/tools to be optimized and exploited. Is this normal?

I'm currently knee-deep in the NSF GRFP application...I'm proposing a rather ambitious project to elucidate paramutation mechanisms (Lit reviews are more fun than homework). I guess it's a good sign that I really enjoy this part, being as it's what I am going to do for a living, haha.

A portrait of my mind at the end of its tether: every time I think about how many things are on my to-do list, I envision Ursula singing "I'm a very busy person and I haven't got all day!"

Disney allusions: the ultimate litmus test for insanity. Or as Michael J Budds would say, (referring to Joan Sutherland as Lucia) "she's nuttier than a fruitcake!"

A more mundane tid-bit: I made salmon cakes with some grated zucchini, yellow squash, lemon juice, pepper, and fresh tarragon from my garden. Yum!

Happenstance:

Right now, there are three (3) construction worker-types (with chain saws and toolbelts, oh my!) in my backyard cutting down branches from around the telephone lines.

The kicker: none of them are as beefy as my boyfriend.

And I would really rather just take a nap.

Ok. I'll just say it.

I am obsessed with Strauss' Elektra. Craig and I checked out the DVD and watched it a couple of weeks ago (The 1989 Eva Marton Vienna Staatsoper). Most of the scenes can also be found on youtube.

It can be angular yet voluptuous--and Eva Marton is a beast...basically it requires shouting for two hours over a full orchestra with constant brass.

The opening line "Allein! Weh, ganz allein" gets me every time.

Things that make Ed happy:

1) Only having one class tomorrow (at 8AM though, boo)
2) Finishing some fine mapping tomorrow at work
3) No opera rehearsal
4) Going to the batting cages with Craig tonight

Hello, gentle reader. I emerge from my chrysalis of blogging seclusion to bring you this tid-bit:

Every once in a while I have a striking epiphany (usually completely inconsequential to anyone but me).

I just finished reading an editorial by Ann Coulter (that vituperative vagina--or as I prefer: "the venomous cunt") about Senator Craig's Bathroomgate.

Coulter is a gay camp figure on par with Bette Davis or Divine.

There you have it, my words of wisdom, brought down like biblical fire from a mountaintop.

After having a 30 minute (predictably) frustrating phone conversation with Mediacom (the unholy bastards!) I took out some frustration on my new dumpster dive find: a fabulous solid wood dresser in need of total refinishing. Which, by the way someone had not single, but double veneered.

Men have been hung for less.

Dividing my time between:
1) Work--I'm almost done genotyping (30,000+ data points, lol)! It's almost time to run mapmaker...
2) Gardening--I'll post pictures when it starts to look good. Let me just say that just looking at my opal basil makes me happy. Sigh.
3) Finding time to practice. Taking a break from the pretentious seriousness of Chausson's symbolist serres chaudes (how fitting, I know), the disturbing Wolf ala the Spanisches Liederbuch, and focusing on the Charles Ives. Old Charlie and Poulenc are probably my two favorite composers. I just get what they wrote--I often imagine myself taking walks by the Houstatonic with Ives or lunching with Francis at Maxim's.
4) Having a social life. I feel surrounded by friends more now than ever. What is it with summer?
5) Finding time for some strenuous exercise. Lane and I have been going mountain biking occasionally, and I am forcing myself to go the gym tomorrow. To continue with my Norman Rockwell fixation, here's a representation of my body image (Lord knows how many times I perused our coffee table book and wound up crying over this one).

Learn something new every day

So I just spent the last two hours trying to figure out how to add a column of text to a column of numerical values (so I can print out some plate arrays).

Turns out that Excel has an operation called "concatenate", which comes from a Latin word meaning "to link together in a series or chain". Who know, right?

Yes, I'm proud. I feel as if I've defeated Microsoft.

1) Is there another Shakespeare waiting to be discovered? Some Emily Dickinson-style bard with a hence-to unrecognized bureau drawer full of genius?

2) I now find Eluard decadently introspective, brooding, and pretentious. The emperor has no clothes.

3) I'm having a hard time striking a balance between taking myself too seriously and sinking into flippant silliness. The age old Mahler vs. Poulenc?

Free booze is a dangerous thing.

The jury is finished

And now I can concentrate on:
1) Making a Greek salad with the works: artichoke hearts, feta, red onions, kalamati olives, and salad greens so I can enjoy lunch tomorrow while I:
2) Study all day (seriously all day) for the evolution final, after I have:
3) Done some annual planting in the north garden after I have:
4) Gone for a bike ride in the morning, and in the evening:
5) Fall asleep by myself curled up with a rather large bottle of amaretto (whom I am cheating on with midori) while:
6) Listening to "Mira o Norma", the fabulous Serafin recording with Callas from 1952ish

In other news I am feeling overwhelming Protestant guilt about leaving the science to enjoy the world (NYC and FL). Suggestions?

Who would have known that this week would be so busy? Jesus! Probably my jury is the most stressful part of the schedule because it also reflects on my teacher.

Been reading, writing, and such all day since Sunday night. No end in sight.

I did find time to make it out to the 'last' "Monday night"--a group of friends that take their Monday night debauchery seriously. Nostalgic? Perhaps.

Everyone was dressed up in some sembalence of a costume, Nick was 'white trash' (surprise?), Rebecca was 'from the future', Natalie was classy Natalie. After trying on a tux and then a lesbian outfit, I decided to go as someone who got lost on the way to the beach (I'm in desperate need of some sun) and happened to be holding a mug full of peach schnapps and ice. Wow, I know.