I am going to Montreal.
Everything worked out so Claire's coming for the first 3 days to see the city and take it all in with me. And now, since I'm leaving 2 days earlier than I had initially planned, and my train tickets are $30-40 cheaper, I feel better about taking 3 days in transit and in New York to see Spring Awakening, Row G Orchestra.
I now have 2 definite interviews, 2 pending, and 3 pending inquiries:
Associate Dean for the Schulich School of Music, the VP of Programming for les Francofolies; Professor of Communications and Art History at McGill, Quebec Studies Professor; Jim Corcoran (A Propos radio host), Pierre Landry (Daybreak Montreal culture columnist), Osheaga, Salsafolie.
I've also got a very friendly invitation to coffee by a girl who I didn't rent a room from. How nice!
I hope I can get the interviews with the latter 3, especially because I can compare perspectives from 2 different music festivals and get points of views from people that have had a lot of experience studying the music and culture (and in the first case, actually a singer/songwriter in the music industry).
Now I have to work on:
- McGill graduate student in music
- More concert venue curators! (indie/large-scale)
- Recording studio execs/producers/employees! (indie/large-scale)
- Try others that work in radio? what about tv? Fuse?
- ARTISTS (sample a large variety: pop and folk and rock and diverse)
I should work out a schedule from here on out which books, internet sources I should cite and how I should research, exactly. Notecards? Printouts? Memory? What categories?
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Manic Monday
Manic-depressive--it's been up and down since last night.
Yesterday, even though Joanne had left and left me a bit sad, I was back by the afternoon with good news. I finally told my parents about Montreal. I thought they would be pissed: I asked my mom over the phone where my birth certificate, and why, I needed to buy a ticket for Canada and she pulled one of her "I need to go" and then hung up without saying goodbye (a common occurrence, though it shouldn't be). I thought they would come back home all angry and interrogatory.
I heard the car door shut, and I was tense by the couch by the door waiting for their angry silence and pursed lips. But they came in, easy going, taking off their shoes like they were coming back from the tennis court and then my mom just asked what I needed. You should a passport to be sure, she suggested. When are you going? (She didn't even need exact dates.) Who's going with you (I had that answer)? She didn't even ask about where I was going to stay, I mentioned it and then an hour later she asked about the area (a high-rise apartment where all the McGill kids stay). She was so calm and limited about it, it was freaky. It must have been the effect of letting my sister go to live on her own for 2 months, the postcard from Amanda from Portland (and she already lived in apartments all over way before this).
And so I bought the tickets. I was so excited by their reaction I couldn't think and thought a single ticket was $174 when it really was only the price of two tickets (singles were $87). I used my sister's information for it even though I know she won't be the one going with me since she'll be in school. I needed a place-keeper.
I was such in a good mood I didn't notice the 5 o'clock surprise until something like 6:30--Spring Awakening started to offer Digital Rush and stage seats were available again. I was really excited, talking about Montreal with Staci and how we'd have to get in Spring Awakening sometime before that before Blake!Moritz left.
I spent a couple hours and the entire Tonys writing and surfing everything Montreal and Spring Awakening.
And then, today, I woke up early and went to an appointment a month early. I would have to get a new passport and I neglected to realize that the post office probably did photos, too. I got a call from work asking if I was going to come in today. We talked about professions and money and happiness in Sociology which reminded me that I needed to find out what to do with my life by the end of the summer. When class ended it was rainrainraining and so I went downstairs to the library to wait it out.
And there I got the news that Staci wouldn't be able to come to Montreal. A few hours later, and 5 Spring Awakening OBCast members announced their departure from the show on July 19th. Plans for another trip to NYC are confused again. I wanted someone to talk to. I ended up trying to work in the open space in my sister's room which kind of worked but I was tired and distracted.
Convince the parents to spend July 1st week in NYC (orchestra tickets $56)? Wait until Rowena and the crew plan a trip for mid-July? Will it happen? Will it happen while I'm in Montreal? Take a $130 bus to and from Montreal and NY during my 2 weeks "in Montreal"? Buy tickets now, or wait? July 24-August 5 or July 23-August 4 to leave more room for Claire? Go back on my semi-promise to Ting and drop his room/apartment for another one with roommates that can check on me if I have to be out alone at night? Send books and crash at Brendan's for the night I arrive since it'll be nighttime and the key's with the janitor? Should I be worried? Should I beg everyone in the world and everything to work out the way I want it to?
I called Joanne 5 times and got a call from UVA at 8:58pm.
How is it looking up? I'm working on getting 2 interviews right now (will email more people this week). Walmart Pharmacy's already checked the references. I don't know... I'm waiting for the weekend.
Yesterday, even though Joanne had left and left me a bit sad, I was back by the afternoon with good news. I finally told my parents about Montreal. I thought they would be pissed: I asked my mom over the phone where my birth certificate, and why, I needed to buy a ticket for Canada and she pulled one of her "I need to go" and then hung up without saying goodbye (a common occurrence, though it shouldn't be). I thought they would come back home all angry and interrogatory.
I heard the car door shut, and I was tense by the couch by the door waiting for their angry silence and pursed lips. But they came in, easy going, taking off their shoes like they were coming back from the tennis court and then my mom just asked what I needed. You should a passport to be sure, she suggested. When are you going? (She didn't even need exact dates.) Who's going with you (I had that answer)? She didn't even ask about where I was going to stay, I mentioned it and then an hour later she asked about the area (a high-rise apartment where all the McGill kids stay). She was so calm and limited about it, it was freaky. It must have been the effect of letting my sister go to live on her own for 2 months, the postcard from Amanda from Portland (and she already lived in apartments all over way before this).
And so I bought the tickets. I was so excited by their reaction I couldn't think and thought a single ticket was $174 when it really was only the price of two tickets (singles were $87). I used my sister's information for it even though I know she won't be the one going with me since she'll be in school. I needed a place-keeper.
I was such in a good mood I didn't notice the 5 o'clock surprise until something like 6:30--Spring Awakening started to offer Digital Rush and stage seats were available again. I was really excited, talking about Montreal with Staci and how we'd have to get in Spring Awakening sometime before that before Blake!Moritz left.
I spent a couple hours and the entire Tonys writing and surfing everything Montreal and Spring Awakening.
And then, today, I woke up early and went to an appointment a month early. I would have to get a new passport and I neglected to realize that the post office probably did photos, too. I got a call from work asking if I was going to come in today. We talked about professions and money and happiness in Sociology which reminded me that I needed to find out what to do with my life by the end of the summer. When class ended it was rainrainraining and so I went downstairs to the library to wait it out.
And there I got the news that Staci wouldn't be able to come to Montreal. A few hours later, and 5 Spring Awakening OBCast members announced their departure from the show on July 19th. Plans for another trip to NYC are confused again. I wanted someone to talk to. I ended up trying to work in the open space in my sister's room which kind of worked but I was tired and distracted.
Convince the parents to spend July 1st week in NYC (orchestra tickets $56)? Wait until Rowena and the crew plan a trip for mid-July? Will it happen? Will it happen while I'm in Montreal? Take a $130 bus to and from Montreal and NY during my 2 weeks "in Montreal"? Buy tickets now, or wait? July 24-August 5 or July 23-August 4 to leave more room for Claire? Go back on my semi-promise to Ting and drop his room/apartment for another one with roommates that can check on me if I have to be out alone at night? Send books and crash at Brendan's for the night I arrive since it'll be nighttime and the key's with the janitor? Should I be worried? Should I beg everyone in the world and everything to work out the way I want it to?
I called Joanne 5 times and got a call from UVA at 8:58pm.
How is it looking up? I'm working on getting 2 interviews right now (will email more people this week). Walmart Pharmacy's already checked the references. I don't know... I'm waiting for the weekend.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Chickens in Trees
I had no idea that the natural habitat of chickens were trees. Like any other bird, that's where they sleep. My mom was talking about how at night they huddle into the tree branches and in the morning you can hear them crow and drop off onto the ground. She loved the chickens, and there were so many, except the only part she didn't like was butchering them. Apparently there was one time she typed for someone and in return got a chicken which she and Grandma Remy had no idea what to do with because they didn't want to butcher it.
She talked about the 3 uses of umbrella (shielding from sun, rain, and the eyes of others when peeing in the grass) and how she would often walk to school without shoes on, even when she had slippers. And during the rainy season her grandfather would carry her over the fields because she was scared of the worms (all of them except earthworms). Her grandmother was mestizo, fair-skinned with a Spanish nose, and her grandfather was heavily built with black skin. Sometimes, people would call my mom mestizo because her nose wasn't as flat at others. She talked about how she lived with these grandparents and was sleeping next to them when they died, quickly and painlessly from a heart attack or stroke.
She talked about Bebot, the bad boy brother who drank a lot and would always be on the run to Uncle Ben's house, who would whip him into line. All of her brothers she said lived there and Uncle Ben would teach them right from wrong. She talked about how there were A classes and B classes and how she was in the A class while Marilyn was in the B class--she probably got her smarts from Grandma Ansing.
Grandma Ansing was salutatorian in high school, and her husband (my mom's biological father) was the valedictorian. They had competed a lot in high school, with clubs and academics, and go figure, ended up married. My grandfather was a bookkeeper in town, a really smart one apparently, especially in geography and history. He could have gone far, she said, except for his gambling. Grandma Ansing still reads his love letters.
Mommy talked about how she came to America: a federal order from the government brought her there after passing the international exam to get in and another exam to stay once she and 25 of her friends came to the U.S., living in government-subsidized apartments next to D.C. General Hospital. The first time, she failed the exam because they had only 2 weeks since arriving and had no time to adjust, especially when the exam was in New Jersey and they were living in D.C. Lifesavers the candy and lifesavers the tire were confusing, and when they ate at the cafeteria, they would keep their paper plates and plastic silverware as to not waste, to reuse them all.
Growing up, they used everything from everything. Their shampoo was dried rice stalks, burned, and mixed in a coconut shell mixed with water. It made your hair smooth and shiny, and though it wasn't very bubbly, it was soapy. She hated to beat the bundles of drying rice, but it was much easier when the mill separated the bran (fed to the animals) from the grain (fed to the people). The best, though, was the cacao that they would roast and pound together was tagapalut (molassas/sugar). And the large blueberries you would smash between rocks and combine with salt to make a tangy sweet and salty snack. She remembers the bonfires keeping them warm when it was cool, and how her grandmother would be pleased just to get a match from town because the way she did was by striking flint and sparking a fire.
She talked about the 3 uses of umbrella (shielding from sun, rain, and the eyes of others when peeing in the grass) and how she would often walk to school without shoes on, even when she had slippers. And during the rainy season her grandfather would carry her over the fields because she was scared of the worms (all of them except earthworms). Her grandmother was mestizo, fair-skinned with a Spanish nose, and her grandfather was heavily built with black skin. Sometimes, people would call my mom mestizo because her nose wasn't as flat at others. She talked about how she lived with these grandparents and was sleeping next to them when they died, quickly and painlessly from a heart attack or stroke.
She talked about Bebot, the bad boy brother who drank a lot and would always be on the run to Uncle Ben's house, who would whip him into line. All of her brothers she said lived there and Uncle Ben would teach them right from wrong. She talked about how there were A classes and B classes and how she was in the A class while Marilyn was in the B class--she probably got her smarts from Grandma Ansing.
Grandma Ansing was salutatorian in high school, and her husband (my mom's biological father) was the valedictorian. They had competed a lot in high school, with clubs and academics, and go figure, ended up married. My grandfather was a bookkeeper in town, a really smart one apparently, especially in geography and history. He could have gone far, she said, except for his gambling. Grandma Ansing still reads his love letters.
Mommy talked about how she came to America: a federal order from the government brought her there after passing the international exam to get in and another exam to stay once she and 25 of her friends came to the U.S., living in government-subsidized apartments next to D.C. General Hospital. The first time, she failed the exam because they had only 2 weeks since arriving and had no time to adjust, especially when the exam was in New Jersey and they were living in D.C. Lifesavers the candy and lifesavers the tire were confusing, and when they ate at the cafeteria, they would keep their paper plates and plastic silverware as to not waste, to reuse them all.
Growing up, they used everything from everything. Their shampoo was dried rice stalks, burned, and mixed in a coconut shell mixed with water. It made your hair smooth and shiny, and though it wasn't very bubbly, it was soapy. She hated to beat the bundles of drying rice, but it was much easier when the mill separated the bran (fed to the animals) from the grain (fed to the people). The best, though, was the cacao that they would roast and pound together was tagapalut (molassas/sugar). And the large blueberries you would smash between rocks and combine with salt to make a tangy sweet and salty snack. She remembers the bonfires keeping them warm when it was cool, and how her grandmother would be pleased just to get a match from town because the way she did was by striking flint and sparking a fire.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Tiny Dancer
These musician types, dammit. They offer me a room and I wait 2 weeks for a solid response and then they email back (finally) saying that it's taken, or it won't work out.
I'm so frustrated.
Now my option is renting a room from a McGill? student who is leaving town on the 11th so I don't even know how I'll be able to get the keys/room... I don't know. I'm getting more and more stressed about this project and it's becoming less and less appealing as things are piling onto my plate.
I have to call my (unpaid) work.
On top of that, my sister texted me last night saying that she was leaving for 2 months on Monday and that I would have to drive the car back from Charlottesville and when is your class on Monday I guess you'll have to start out at 6am so you can make the exam for the class you've missed a week of classes in. Surprise!
I wanted to cry, but I just breathed and went to sleep.
I'm so frustrated.
Now my option is renting a room from a McGill? student who is leaving town on the 11th so I don't even know how I'll be able to get the keys/room... I don't know. I'm getting more and more stressed about this project and it's becoming less and less appealing as things are piling onto my plate.
I have to call my (unpaid) work.
On top of that, my sister texted me last night saying that she was leaving for 2 months on Monday and that I would have to drive the car back from Charlottesville and when is your class on Monday I guess you'll have to start out at 6am so you can make the exam for the class you've missed a week of classes in. Surprise!
I wanted to cry, but I just breathed and went to sleep.
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