Happy Valentine's Day! I haven't updated since I went to Iceland back in November, so I'll try give short updates on what I've done since then. Christmas is quite a long read, but the rest should be more concise. Christmas (London) I missed the last few days of class before Christmas break to go see that London Symphony Orchestra being conducted by film composer Alexandre Desplat. When I arrived in London, I arrived at London Euston and went to my hostel, which was completely awful. There were many, many people there who were throwing and breaking dishes in the kitchen. Then, there were these two men who looked like they were 40. Apparently, they were staying at the hostel but just met. They had an extensive conversation outside my room door about how both of their wives recently cheated on them and so now they were trying to find somewhere else to live/someone else to be with/new job. It was so sad but so weird and awkward at the same time. It felt amazing to be in London again. Seeing the red double decker busses, red telephone booths, gorgeous buildings, and the busy hustle of the people were all warm welcomes back to this amazing city. I went to the British museum and Tate Modern, but sneaked down into the shop of St. Paul's Cathedral because that is my favorite place in London. I saw some really interesting things at Tate Modern this time around, and so I was very pleased with that visit! It didn't quite feel like London though until I saw Big Ben across the river. It was lovely to walk along the river again and to visit some of the places I visited before. People told me that the London Eye was a waste of money, which is sort of true in the summer time because it doesn't get very dark. However, as it was December, the darkness became speckled with the city lights. I figured it was now or never because I don't foresee myself visiting the UK in the winter time in the future with jobs and such. It was an incredible experience that lasted for half an hour. It was so incredibly beautiful! The streets in London are not in blocks but in strange, twisted and curvy designs. The lights of the city definitely highlighted that. Traffic looked like currants and even the dark water sparkled occasionally. The concert was nice! It was cool to see the composer actually there and conducting. The best piece (in my opinion) was the last one which was a compilation of the last two Harry Potters. It was definitely the most lively music that was played and probably the most technical. Desplat isn't a very loud composer like John Williams or Hans Zimmer, but I loved seeing how cleanly the orchestra played fast sixteenth notes and what I would consider to be tricky rhythms. I met with my teacher Richard from my study abroad trip from last year. His wife had a daughter named Neve and she was one of the sweetest little girls I've ever met. We went to the Children's museum and had tea and then played with his daughter for a bit, all while talking about life and school and London and Glasgow. We visited several small galleries and saw some small pieces of art. His daughter loves doing up and down steps, as this was a new skill she recently mastered, so we went up and down several stair cases for a while. Neve was definitely the highlight of my trip to London. Christmas (Ohio) The night I came home from London, I stayed up chatting with my roommates until I had to leave to go to the airport the next morning. My plane went to Amsterdam, Detroit, then Columbus. I didn't tell anyone but my mom, dad, and Collin that I was coming home. My family always has a big get together for Christmas at my grandma's house so I thought it would be cool to show up unexpectedly. Collin even got to come with me this year! It was a great time with family and everyone seemed to happy to see me. My sisters both cried when they saw me! <3 I've learned a lot while being in Glasgow, but one of the most important things to me is my family. I guess until I left, I sort of always took them for granted. I don't usually see most of my family except around holidays. In reality, the last time I saw my sisters to when I saw them at Christmas time was probably a shorter time than how long it usually takes for me to see my sisters when I was home in Ohio. It made me feel so loved anyway though. I visited Bowling Green as well and saw graduation. The Pulitzer Prize winning Jennifer Higdon spoke and I love her. She spoke about thinking outside the box. She mentioned that now is the time to break the rules. It was nice seeing people again, but overall, I am happy to be graduated from there. Collin and I dropped in on Dr. Bill Mathis and had a short but really great conversation with him. I always liked Dr. Mathis and will always have a special place in my heart for him. He is such a good listener and just a goofy character. Collin and I then went to see Dr. Penny Kruse and Mr. Dr. Steve Kruse for dinner. It was a really great time to sit and talk about everything! I can't wait to do it again sometime. End of Term 1 Once I returned to Glasgow, I didn't have class for another week. I had four huge projects due in that time period so I basically just worked and worked that week. One thing I did do though was go see John Barrowman (Doctor Who) and the Krankies perform as Buttons in the Cinderella pantomime. I'm not sure many people in the USA know about pantomimes, but I certainly didn't know what it was. It's basically a musical with small opportunities for audience interaction/participation. It's a family event (from what I understand, usually around Christmas time). While pantomime can happen as many times, the music and some of the text changes depending on popular events that happened in that year or recently. So for example, one of the songs they spoofed was Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball (they had a giant wrecking ball in which Wee Jimmy Krankie rode in the same fashion as Miley), and they also made several jokes about current political events, especially the Referendum. During the song right before the intermission, they blasted out foam from the top of the theatre so it would look like snow. I'm not going to lie, it was one of the most magical moments ever. Beginning of Term 2 I recently began my second term of grad school, which is exciting. I'm taking a couple new classes. Sound for the Moving Image II: basically, this is a continuation of what Sound for the Moving Image I was. Sound Culture: This class talks about sound in our culture today. Some of the broad topics we will learn will be sound and the self, sound and politics, sound and emotion, sound and the environment, and sound in space (not outer space). Music for Picture: We will learn about music in the silent film era, classical period, music from the 60s and 70s, television and theme tunes, popular music and cinema, music in world cinema, music for games, experimental film music, psychological implications of film music, and composition techniques. I love each of these classes very much. We are learning MaxMSP right now and that's exciting. It's going to be interesting to learn about music composition from a non-theoretical approach. I've been trying to review music theory and I am so rusty, it's embarrassing. I even practice aural skills too because none of those things can hurt me in this class. I feel confident when I'm improvising in Dr. Tom Rosenkranz's class, but composing is different and seemingly daunting. It'll all be okay. Ligeti's Musica Ricercata I had my first major performance in Glasgow! ... sort of. I designed and edited the visuals to accompany the piano and dancers. I loved the feelings I had before, during, and after the performance. It was a lot of work and I am planning on making and posting a more detailed video of the visuals onto Vimeo. Check it out. Overall, I've been having a nice beginning to a new term. I visit the tea cafe Tchai Ovna at least once a week, I had haggis on Robert Burns Day, and I even went to see Post Modern Jukebox perform at the Old Fruitmarket. I'm looking forward to working hard this semester and trying new ideas and seeing where I end up.
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Not every day can be spectacular. I had a pretty bad week last week. I had a big falling out with a teacher, I was pseudo-mugged, and extremely homesick. Thanksgiving isn't my favorite holiday, but I definitely missed it this year. I missed my family a lot. At Tesco, I found two misplaced cans of pumpkin pie filling and bought them. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I made a layered pumpkin pie dessert and shared it with a few people. I was glad I could share a traditional American holiday (that is often confusing to foreigners) with others. Even though I've tried to have good holiday spirit, I've been pretty discouraged lately and it's been difficult to stay positive. Meeting David Shrigley I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be happy and whether people in my field are happy. Some of them are, but others just have such a cynical view of the world and it's difficult for me to interpret whether they're being sarcastic or sincere. On Thanksgiving Thursday, I saw David Shrigley give a talk about his work and while it was entertaining, I couldn't help but feel a sense of being 'hoodwinked' by the artist. I like his art, but he didn't seem to have the same opinion as most people about it. So is the joke being played on me, the audience? And I thought about this whole idea/question of 'what is the relationship between artists and audience and consumers of art?' He talked about how he was commissioned for several different brands where he didn't particularly care for the brand or the company itself and would essentially mock their products in the pieces he made for them. If they didn't particularly care for it, they still used it, and then there were the brands which loved his work, even though he was blatantly mocking them, which was very interesting to me. During his talk, I didn't know what his opinion was of his own work, but there was a book signing afterwards. When I saw him, I felt that he was much softer of a person. I asked him if he liked GSA when he went there. Remembering the negative experience from the previous day, I was interested in his answer. I won't say exactly what he said, but it definitely helped me put things into perspective and I appreciated it a lot. I definitely think David Shrigley is a decent person and an incredible artist. I still think about his talk a lot. Psuedo-Mugged That same night, I walked home from the theatre when a woman was walking toward me with her arm out like she was flagging a taxi. I was on the phone with Collin at the time. She hit my head and stole my hat. I was okay because she didn't hit me too hard, but I was terrified. I thought for sure she would try to steal my book bag. I ran away from her and she started walking the opposite direction. I felt better, but a block later, I turned around to make sure she wasn't following me. Coincidently, she turned around with her arm stretched out holding my hat, started coming towards me, and then told me to take it. I slowly approached her, snatched it out of her hands as quickly as possible, and bolted away. I turned around again once I was surrounded by people and she had gone away. Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Iceland Luckily, for that weekend, I booked a short trip to Iceland. I booked it about a month and a half ago and felt really guilty about spending money on a small vacation like that, which is not something I would ever do in the USA, but I was so, so, so glad I did. Reykjavik, Iceland is an hour and 55 minutes away from Glasgow by plane. I arrived Friday night and planned to leave Monday morning, but there had been a hurricane storm on Sunday and literally everything on the island was cancelled: planes, boats, tours, etc. I didn't know this because I was wandering about the city. I was walking in an open area to the famous Hallgrimskirkja church when I thought to myself, "Wow it's quite windy here!" My bag with my camera, purse, and small souveniors was blowing horizontally to the ground. Even with a tight grip I felt I almost lost control. I should've checked the weather. Saturday was a really lovely day though. I had a truly wonderful time doing the Golden Circle tour. It's the most popular tour because it hits up a variety of natural sites in a day's worth of light (in the winter time, which is only 6 hours of sunlight). We drove around for a while before the sun actually came up, but it was so beautiful watching the sun rise around 11 am. The lava fields are just so simply beautiful and the geological structures that have naturally formed are fantastic. I really recommend visiting Iceland. The air is fresh, the tap water is drinkable, there is an incredible amount of exposure of the contemporary arts (you can even listen to Nadia Sirota's album on the plane to Iceland if you fly Icelandair), and the best part is that the food is tasty. The strangest things I had were probably fermented shark bits and reindeer soup. I liked the texture of the shark very much, but the fermentation made it a bit too acidic for my taste, but the reindeer soup tasted like sausage, which could've been the spice. It was served in a bread bowl, so that automatically makes it more appetizing. I planned on going to the famous Blue Lagoon, but unfortunately that was the day of the hurricane storm. Another unfortunate thing about Iceland was the currency exchange and price of goods. I thought the British pound was bad, but the krona is much more expensive. If you think about it though, the economy of Iceland is still recovering and they have to import so much of their diet. They have their gardens in greenhouses, which are charming looking against the magnificent landscape of mountains and cliffs. Beer is relatively the same price as the UK (always worth mentioning). This is also worth mentioning: The airport is my favorite airport I've been to. My flight ended up getting delayed from 7 am to 1 pm. I arrived at 4:30 am, so I had quite a bit of spare time on my hands. I had plenty of work to do for my classes, so I worked for several hours on that. The Wifi is free (take a hint, Glasgow!), the shopping area is set up like a warm cafe area, the shops aren't in your face, and it was generally pretty quiet, even during busy times. For any of my friends that are actually planning on going to Iceland, do not purchase the skincare products outside of the airport because they only allow 100 mL of liquids. This was a problem for several people who visit the Blue Lagoon because they sell many 200 mL products. It's expensive skin care product too, and they just had to leave it behind! They also have an amazing design store and a full grocery store, which is amazing to me. I hope to go back to Iceland sometime. It's not a very expensive trip from Glasgow, and I'd like to tour more of the country. It's truly an amazing place that is constantly changing. Tectonic plates (especially their mass) have always interested me, and it was amazing to see the landscape they've created in Iceland. I really recommend people to go there. Icelandair has a great stopover special if you fly with them. I was so happy to get away for a weekend. Well worth it. Current Projects
I've been busy filming interviews for a few projects. It's getting to be crunch time here. The semester doesn't end until the end of January, but certain classes end before others, which is nice, except for the fact that I'm only taking three classes and two of them end the same week with huge projects due very closely together. I have four major projects I'm working on at the moment. The first is a video about Scottish education. The second is an essay for my sound theory class. I'm thinking about writing about how sound can be "gendered" and maybe focus on the roles of the women in Sam Mendes's American Beauty. We'll see how that goes and if I stick with that idea. Third: I am working on a sound piece regarding conversations about contemporary music. And lastly, I am also shooting a sound-driven short film. I have my hands full for a while, but by the beginning of January, I will hopefully have completed each of these! At least they're projects that I am completely interested in and about topics I love. I need to say, if you are interested in contributing to my sound piece, please don't hesitate to contact me. I would love (and need!) volunteers for it. It would take between 8-15 minutes to complete, and I am looking for anyone: classically trained or not. experts or not. It's a casual conversation between yourself and myself and there are absolutely no wrong answers, just opinions. Please email me at shannon.bolen.musician[at]gmail[dot]com or message me on social media! Every day is a good day. This week was better than last week. While every day can't be spectacular, I agree with John Cage's quoting of the famous "Nichi nichi kore kōnichi" proverb. "Every day is a good day." Whether it's spectacular or not is irrelevant. Every day is a good day because I learned something from it. I am stronger than I was last week. My friend heard I was having a bad week, and drew this zucchini for me. |
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November 2015
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