So. My flat has been getting a little goofy recently. Oddly we've all been home at the same time recently, which usually never happens. Last night we had a late supper together (read: most of us had eaten, but Latana had made a casserole and wanted to fatten us all up, so we all ate some more!) and had a lovely chat. Tonight Latana came home tired and a bit depressed, so I taught her two of my tiny tots songs that involve much dancing around.
We got a little bit rowdy and started accidentally knocking stuff off of the shelves by jumping up and down too hard. Moises got involved and we were all laughing so hard that Ella turned red and almost missed an important call she had to take.
Awesome.
Showing posts with label flat mates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flat mates. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Comments
There have been a bunch of advertising comments recently- so I have just enabled comment moderating and changed it so that you have to type in squiggly letters before blogger.com will let you post. This should completely rid the blog of spam comments- but it does mean that comments may take longer to actually show up now because I have to receive an email saying that you have posted a comment and then approve it.
So, a little more work- but hey! No more spam!
I'm back in London and I went shopping again today- this time for clothes that I can actually wear in the Gambia. (We leave on FRIDAY. Everyone is sending emails back and forth, I'm getting excited) I went to Camden and found this awesome shop that sells light, but fitted clothing from India. So I'm totally down with the fabric and the cuts. I bought a very nice shirt that I think I will even be able to wear to work after the trip- and a pair of Aladdin pants. They are billowy and peacock blue and a bit silly but I *like* them.
I've just about gotten over my jet lag and am having crepes with Latana tonight. She got back from Paris this morning and I met her at the St. Pancras Int'l station. There are more creperies then normal there. Probably this is because that is where the Eurostar leaves from and why not get a head start on Parisian food?
So, a little more work- but hey! No more spam!
I'm back in London and I went shopping again today- this time for clothes that I can actually wear in the Gambia. (We leave on FRIDAY. Everyone is sending emails back and forth, I'm getting excited) I went to Camden and found this awesome shop that sells light, but fitted clothing from India. So I'm totally down with the fabric and the cuts. I bought a very nice shirt that I think I will even be able to wear to work after the trip- and a pair of Aladdin pants. They are billowy and peacock blue and a bit silly but I *like* them.
I've just about gotten over my jet lag and am having crepes with Latana tonight. She got back from Paris this morning and I met her at the St. Pancras Int'l station. There are more creperies then normal there. Probably this is because that is where the Eurostar leaves from and why not get a head start on Parisian food?
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Open Call
On Wednesday I finally got the opportunity to go to 'Open Call' which I have been hearing about and been dying to go to since I auditioned for Guildhall. Open Call is not a class or a performing group- it is a space for musicians and actors to get together and explore what happens. Open Call is run by Sean, the head of the Professional development department (what my program falls under) and Christian, the head of the drama department.
The format is different each time, but this past week what we did was each of the musicians (50/50 instrumentalists and singers) had to play/sing a piece of music or a fragment of a piece or an improvisation that meant something to them; and then everyone else in the room had to react.
I went first because I'm volunteery like that. I played a couple of phrases from the second movement of the Eccles Sonata which is very dancey and lively and baroque. I had everyone stand in a tight circle so that their shoulders were touching and played to them from outside of the circle. After a minute or so Christian came over and whispered to me that I should move into the circle, so I did. But keep in mind that this is a very small and close circle so my audience was right there. The next thing Christian told me to do was to make eye contact with the circle. People were very much of the mindset "I am being serious, this is serious" so they would just stare back with a totally straight face, either that or smile in an embarrassed sort of way because having someone play music to you while staring at you is a fairly intense experience. Then Christian had the circle start whispering to each other. I started faltering in my playing-I don't really get nervous for performances but oh my gosh that was awful. So now I sort of feel like I know how people who get a lot of stage fright feel.
One of the things that Christian pointed out after the first few of us had had our turns was that we were each allowing the audience/main group to remain solitary and independent- away from the group. I started out mine with every one's backs to me. The next singer started out with everyone sitting on their own somewhere in the room. He asked us to make it easier on ourselves- both from the audience point of view to be welcoming and engaged and the from the musician's point of view to be engaging- making sure that everyone is engaged and exploring how to do that. He pointed out that the audience wants to feel important and needed- like the performance couldn't happen without them.
As we went on we got more and more open to what was happening with the rest of the group. A cellist played and asked us to imaging that we were walking in a forest. We decided fairly quickly that we were no longer in the forest and (oh, all of this is non-verbal by the way) the music changed as well. Somehow at the very end of his turn all of us were on our hands and knees, aggressively rushing towards him. All of us. And it happened in an instant. The general consensus after that cellists turn was "well, that was intense."
A pianist played and we moved the piano around while he was playing. Christian pointed at the actors and said "text" so they started spouting Shakespeare. Well, Ashley did- Patrick started reciting a poem about silence which none of us really knew what to do with...
At the end of the evening (the class/session/whatever was supposed to last for two hours and instead lasted for nearly three. The building was closing up as we left) we split into two groups to write a short piece that had to involve everyone in the group and text. Hennrikke- my Norwegian oboe buddy started playing this totally schmaltzy theme from a movie I haven't seen so we decided to just embrace the cheese and make the piece as syrupy and ridiculous as possible. Patrick recited part of a famous poem that I really should have known but didn't about death and the rest of us improvised around Hennrikke's oboe line. We giggled as we rehearsed because it was just so ridiculous. Then the other group came back into the group and we played our piece for them and suddenly it was sincere and affecting and one of the other group got teary eyed...where on earth did that come from? We were trying to be over the top and somehow once the audience came in, even though we were playing what we had played only a moment before, the mood changed and we were all being honest with the material. It was extraordinary.
After Open Call Dave (of the dinner club) came over because he now lives far away from school and likes using my kitchen so we made dinner back at the flat and Patrick and Latana and Moises were all cooking too so we were all jumbled over each other on our little hob and Patrick and I were enthusiastically telling everyone about Open Call and Latana brought some soul music into the kitchen and we were all dancing around and singing and oh, I love my flatmates.
Since Wednesday those of us who were at Open Call have been running into each other around school and talking about how even if it doesn't get continued next term officially we should totally get together and keep it running ourselves. Because that is how awesome it was.
The format is different each time, but this past week what we did was each of the musicians (50/50 instrumentalists and singers) had to play/sing a piece of music or a fragment of a piece or an improvisation that meant something to them; and then everyone else in the room had to react.
I went first because I'm volunteery like that. I played a couple of phrases from the second movement of the Eccles Sonata which is very dancey and lively and baroque. I had everyone stand in a tight circle so that their shoulders were touching and played to them from outside of the circle. After a minute or so Christian came over and whispered to me that I should move into the circle, so I did. But keep in mind that this is a very small and close circle so my audience was right there. The next thing Christian told me to do was to make eye contact with the circle. People were very much of the mindset "I am being serious, this is serious" so they would just stare back with a totally straight face, either that or smile in an embarrassed sort of way because having someone play music to you while staring at you is a fairly intense experience. Then Christian had the circle start whispering to each other. I started faltering in my playing-I don't really get nervous for performances but oh my gosh that was awful. So now I sort of feel like I know how people who get a lot of stage fright feel.
One of the things that Christian pointed out after the first few of us had had our turns was that we were each allowing the audience/main group to remain solitary and independent- away from the group. I started out mine with every one's backs to me. The next singer started out with everyone sitting on their own somewhere in the room. He asked us to make it easier on ourselves- both from the audience point of view to be welcoming and engaged and the from the musician's point of view to be engaging- making sure that everyone is engaged and exploring how to do that. He pointed out that the audience wants to feel important and needed- like the performance couldn't happen without them.
As we went on we got more and more open to what was happening with the rest of the group. A cellist played and asked us to imaging that we were walking in a forest. We decided fairly quickly that we were no longer in the forest and (oh, all of this is non-verbal by the way) the music changed as well. Somehow at the very end of his turn all of us were on our hands and knees, aggressively rushing towards him. All of us. And it happened in an instant. The general consensus after that cellists turn was "well, that was intense."
A pianist played and we moved the piano around while he was playing. Christian pointed at the actors and said "text" so they started spouting Shakespeare. Well, Ashley did- Patrick started reciting a poem about silence which none of us really knew what to do with...
At the end of the evening (the class/session/whatever was supposed to last for two hours and instead lasted for nearly three. The building was closing up as we left) we split into two groups to write a short piece that had to involve everyone in the group and text. Hennrikke- my Norwegian oboe buddy started playing this totally schmaltzy theme from a movie I haven't seen so we decided to just embrace the cheese and make the piece as syrupy and ridiculous as possible. Patrick recited part of a famous poem that I really should have known but didn't about death and the rest of us improvised around Hennrikke's oboe line. We giggled as we rehearsed because it was just so ridiculous. Then the other group came back into the group and we played our piece for them and suddenly it was sincere and affecting and one of the other group got teary eyed...where on earth did that come from? We were trying to be over the top and somehow once the audience came in, even though we were playing what we had played only a moment before, the mood changed and we were all being honest with the material. It was extraordinary.
After Open Call Dave (of the dinner club) came over because he now lives far away from school and likes using my kitchen so we made dinner back at the flat and Patrick and Latana and Moises were all cooking too so we were all jumbled over each other on our little hob and Patrick and I were enthusiastically telling everyone about Open Call and Latana brought some soul music into the kitchen and we were all dancing around and singing and oh, I love my flatmates.
Since Wednesday those of us who were at Open Call have been running into each other around school and talking about how even if it doesn't get continued next term officially we should totally get together and keep it running ourselves. Because that is how awesome it was.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Saturday
Patrick the missing roommate (who now has a picture) and Isabel (1st year acting, Colorado) and I walked to the British Museum on Saturday. It was a lovely day and a great walk. I made us pop into the London Review Bookshop which is actually heaven. I ended up buying a book called "Necropolis" which is a history of London's dead and looks totally fascinating. We had lunch at a mediocre french sandwich shop and then braved the museum.
Patrick wanted to see Egypt, but on the way to Egypt I got distracted by the Great Death Pit of Ur. Needless to say, my fascination with the great death pit as well as my recent purchase of the Necropolis book made Patrick and Isabel look at me oddly, but whatever- it was totally cool.
There were a lot of cuneiform receipts and tax records and such. A few thousand years later (and the room next door) there were these cylinders filled with writing that were placed at the edge of a plot of land. They said who owned the land, the dimensions of said land, the circumstances under which the land changed hands, etc. Basic legal stuff. But then they also had buckets of curses on them so that people wouldn't scratch out the name of the landowner and render the legal document useless.
I suggested to Angela when I spoke to her than night that it might be a good idea to use this technique when her housemates are stealing food: take that milk carton, cover it with curses to turn the milk stealers bright orange, and then sit back and see if it lasts longer. She wasn't terribly impressed.
On our walk back to Sundial we were stopped by a man who had heard us talking and asked if we were American. It turned out that he was a bass player with the LA Philharmonic who were playing at the Barbican that night. We walked with him to the Barbican and he brought the three of us back stage to take a look at their instrument flight cases. Each of the bass cases were custom made for the bass they carry. All of the cases are large rectangles with lots of padding and compartments so that a: they fit in freight carriers, and b: the bass players don't really need a suitcase. So that was neat.
Patrick wanted to see Egypt, but on the way to Egypt I got distracted by the Great Death Pit of Ur. Needless to say, my fascination with the great death pit as well as my recent purchase of the Necropolis book made Patrick and Isabel look at me oddly, but whatever- it was totally cool.
There were a lot of cuneiform receipts and tax records and such. A few thousand years later (and the room next door) there were these cylinders filled with writing that were placed at the edge of a plot of land. They said who owned the land, the dimensions of said land, the circumstances under which the land changed hands, etc. Basic legal stuff. But then they also had buckets of curses on them so that people wouldn't scratch out the name of the landowner and render the legal document useless.
I suggested to Angela when I spoke to her than night that it might be a good idea to use this technique when her housemates are stealing food: take that milk carton, cover it with curses to turn the milk stealers bright orange, and then sit back and see if it lasts longer. She wasn't terribly impressed.
On our walk back to Sundial we were stopped by a man who had heard us talking and asked if we were American. It turned out that he was a bass player with the LA Philharmonic who were playing at the Barbican that night. We walked with him to the Barbican and he brought the three of us back stage to take a look at their instrument flight cases. Each of the bass cases were custom made for the bass they carry. All of the cases are large rectangles with lots of padding and compartments so that a: they fit in freight carriers, and b: the bass players don't really need a suitcase. So that was neat.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Pictures!!
The big tall Spaniard- that's Moises. His eyes don't normally bug out that much. The one with all the hair- that's Latana. She's not keen on having her picture taken. The other one- that's Meredith. She's more than okay with having her picture taken. She's holding a cilantro/corriander plant that subsequently died. Her miniature lemon tree is quite happy though, so alls well that ends well. A question you might have is "where's Patrick?" and I would say "Wow, good job remembering my fourth flat mate!" and then would explain that sadly I have yet to take a picture of him as my camera tends to come out during dinner parties and he hasn't come to one yet.
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