Okay okay, I have been very bad about keeping up with this blog. I will revive it soon(ish), though my experiences have ceased to become very Boston-specific.

Experiments are still failing; future is still uncertain; music continues to be my best buddy; Andrei and I started dating. I think that just about sums up my past few months :)

Trader Joe's Southwest Salad is amaazing. I don't know what's so amazing about this particular one, but it's the only salad I've ever liked :D

Current weather in Boston is disgusting. It's 80-90% humidity and 80+ degrees Fahrenheit... gross. It has also been thunderstorming a lot overnight, which always wakes me up. It's cool though - I like watching thunderstorms, as long as I'm indoors. Recently I got reminded of Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek (such cool harmonies), and I've been listening to it on loop - it's so melancholy though... goes well with the gloomy weather I guess.

My rental wooden cello bow started falling apart, so I went to the rental store to get a new bow, and decided to try the carbon fiber bow. While I'm not a big fan of the carbon fiber instruments (they look so... unnatural), I've heard some good stuff about carbon fiber bows (they're more stable/reliable/consistent, they can sound much more powerful if they are well crafted, blah blah blah), so we'll see how this goes :) I am also getting tired of the wooden bow expanding like craaazy when the weather gets warm and affecting the playing.

Speaking of which: this weather (high humidity and temperature) is really shitty for cello playing -- cello in particular because it's easy to sound dull on the cello I think, because of its lower register. Everything I play sounds sooo clumsy and dull no matter what I do. Oh well.

Eunyong says in a month or two, we might think about moving onto a different project because this current one "isn't moving forward"... he's working on a publication right now, but once he's done with that, he'll actually do benchwork with me on this project, and if we can't make progress in the following month or so, we'll ditch it and move to something different. This is why crystallography projects suck - it's an all or nothing deal, and if it doesn't work, god knows why it didn't work... there's not much we've "learned" in the process. I also feel bad that after 9 months of being in this lab (and 7 months working on this project), I haven't really been able to make any intellectual contribution to this project :-/ Hmph.

After an exciting 3-day weekend with Ana and Scott in Boston I was totally exhausted, and since this was the first Monday I didn't go into lab in a long time (if ever?), my sense of timing was totally screwed up. I completely forgot we had our group meetings on Tuesday mornings, and I freeeeaked out when I realized that this morning, but then I regained sanity when I remembered that our group meeting was postponed to Wednesday, just for this week. Phew.

I bought the cutest plush seal doll at the Aquarium, and this will have to serve as my furry friend for right now because I can't afford a real pet :) This seal is adoooorable.

Ana reminded me I had a twitter account under the username of "raurenree" haha :) And my tweeting stopped back in November, with the last tweet being: "ate too much." Typical me.

I have found my love at Harvard Square - a whipper. Make fun of me all you want, but this guy was cute ;) But then I saw him smoke a cigarette afterwards. So, moving on :)

A full week of not biting my nails! I am proud. Seriously. I've had this habit for as long as I can remember, and wasn't able to quit. I don't know what inspired me recently other than "I want pretty nails," though this has never worked long enough before. Not that I want to jinx it.

Lastly - June is here! This means we are already 42% done with year 2010, which is a scary reminder of how fast time goes by. But back to happy thoughts - this is the month when I go back to VA twice for family and friends :) I am super excited. I haven't been back at UVa for over 6 months, and there are only 23 days left till I revisit Charlottesville (soon to be 22)!

Weekend in summary:

1. Went to cello lesson -- I am at the same position I was in a couple of years ago with Mr. Colwell on Bach. Siiigh. But no matter what anyone else says (!!), I am very big on the super-mushy, heavily-romanticized rendition of Bach. The end. Ok, well, HHahn overdoes it just a tad, and MMaisky is just really, really, too indulgent sometimes, but... I still insist that the "historically accurate" performances just don't have the same level of intensity (I know half the world, if not more, disagrees with me on this one :P).

BUT! Despite my failure to play Popper #2 to anyone's satisfaction (unless one is deaf), my teacher gave me another one to work on - a whole page of double stops (with occasional left-hand pizzes. so cool so cool). It is a very pretty etude :)

Sadly, I have not touched the cello since that Sat AM lesson.


2. Went out for a drive -- sad story, but it was fun. Let me preface this by saying that I did not have a GPS or a map. Only written directions. So when I made one wrong-turn in a neighbor full of one-way streets or unlabeled streets with cars tailgating behind me because I'm going at 15 mph trying to figure out what turn to make, I was really lost. It became pathetic when I got lost multiple times :) But I somehow made it back. I also pulled some dangerous maneuvers on the highway -- at one point, I really just thought "ughhh I cannot miss this exit that's 3 lanes over that's coming up in 1/4 a mile. I'll have to change lanes now and pray I don't get hit." And I didn't get hit. :) Oh well. You can only get better at driving through practice, riiight??

But anyway, the route was pretty scenic :) And I've now gotten all desire to drive out of my system. I no longer want to drive for a while haha.


3. I am on a streak of FROYO obsession! The word "froyo" is soooo adorable. Anyway - now that the weather's getting warmer, I've been wanting some every day. But this isn't boding very well for my plans to lose belly fat. Hm, I guess it is non-fat frozen yogurt though. :) Ok, I just need to go exercise - that's all!


4. I cannot believe the class of 2010 just graduated!!! Where is time going?? (though, Happy Graduation to all those who graduated this past Saturday!!)

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Sol is having his defense next week (already!)! He sent out an invitation for a party at his house that weekend. The options for the RSVP were:
- "my test tube runneth over!"
- "depends how the experiment goes"
- "sorry. i'll be in lab"
And the party is scheduled for 9:30pm-9:45pm on a Saturday :)



PS: when I hit the low point in my day, I went into the lunchroom, and shortly after, Robin walked in with a cup of Starbucks coffee, and upon my "omg is that coffeeeee?!" he decided to share the coffee. That totally made my day :D

Okay. So Facebook is getting creepy (though not very new or surprising):

On a different note, it's a little creepy that people on Facebook -- all 400 million of you -- are unwitting participants in these research studies, isn't it? As if there weren't already enough performance anxiety when writing one's status update. Now you've got to write about what you had for lunch and worry about what researchers think that says about your happiness level. Link

Apparently, facebook statuses were "studied" to come up with a statement that "getting engaged makes women unhappy." This is so ridiculous in many levels.

Also, Facebook/Zuckerberg "knows" who I'll date next:

“By examining friend relationships and communications patterns (Zuckerberg) could determine with about 33 percent accuracy who a user was going to be in a relationship with a week from now. To deduce this he studied who was looking which profiles, who your friends were friends with, and who was newly single, among other indicators.” Link

Seriously? -_-

I guess the internet is a creepy place in general. "Academia" lets me know when people google search my name, and I got googled twice this week. It also told me what search terms they used and from the fact that both searches were made in the U.S. :P I'm not sure why one would google me.

A bunch of random notes again!

- apparently I do not need a permit to busk at Boston Common, especially if it's just an acoustic instrument that's not amplified. Well, the info desk person sounded fairly sure (though not 100%). As long as I don't get arrested...

- I remember seeing posters for Wicked coming to boston in Sept/Oct. I really wanna go!! And well, I will :) I was listening to the original cast recording today, and it's sooooo good. I never ever want to be a broadway musical musician myself (can you imagine performing the same show night after night for months??), but it must be amazing to be in a show like that at some point in your life.

- I finally found a book of Killer Sudokus at Brookline Booksmith!! After my first purchase of it, ever, during 1st year at UVa (and another one-time purchase of it at a B&N in Mville), I literally have not been able to find a book of it at ANY bookstore I've been to. It's a shame because it's so much more fun than the regular sudokus :)

Some wonderful quotes from "The Cello Suites" (by Eric Siblin):

"We find a world of emotions and ideas created with only the simplest of materials." ~Laurence Lesser

Prelude of the Second Suite: Three notes establish a gut-wrenching sadness. There's a slight tremor on the fingerboard, the bow harbinger of difficult news. The cello, wavering at first touch, recovers its equilibrium and reports a painful chronicle. ... The listener is forced to imagine what is going on. There are hints, gaps, half-uttered statements, and fragmented lines in the Cello Suites. This stems from the cello itself, which is a melodic instrument, melodic because no more than two strings can generally be bowed at the same time. ... Harmony was Bach's specialty. So how does Bach accomplish harmony with just one cello? He does it by creating "implied harmony." He hints at it, suggests it, plants the seed of harmony. He removes as many notes as possible to strip the polyphony down to its bare essentials and let the listener fill in the blanks. 

I think this is why the second suite, in particular, is so challenging to play. There aren't very many notes on the page, but there's so much that the performer has to do with the sparse notes in order to fill in the blanks and make the performance convincing. Literally, "music is silence between the notes" (yay Debussy).

There seems to be suggestions linking the Second Cello suite (d minor) and his Second Partita for unaccompanied violin (also d minor) to the death of his wife that he's been married to for 13 years and had 9 kids with. Sad...

I had no idea Felix Mendelssohn had Jewish roots:

As the grandson of the Enlightenment's most famous Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, Felix was an unlikely spark plug for Bach's posthumous glory. Although his family had converted to Christianity, Mendelssohn remarked on the irony that it had taken a Jewish musician to introduce Germany to its most impressive Christian music. In fact, Mendelssohn had Bach in the blood. His great-aunt, Sara Levy, studied with Bach's son C.P.E. and knew his eldest son. Mendelssohn's mother had studied music with one of Bach's most devoted pupils, and Mendelssohn himself was technically a great-grandpupil of Bach.

Apparently I have biceps tendonitis on my right side. This is in addition to the previous diagnosis of a right wrist tendonitis + thumb pain. Of course the only thing they told me today is to take pain relievers, do ice massages, and do less of the pain-inducing activities. Siiigh. Not useful.

Yay! Group meeting presentation is overrrrrr. After what was one of my worst procrastination period of all times (seriously, I don't know what hit me), I managed to present without major problems. Well. Introduction/Background Info was just bad. It occurred to me during the presentation (oops) that I was not familiar enough with the material to fluently speak about them... and as I was babbling on, I realized what I was saying was very confusing, mixed-up, and nonsensical even to me, but I didn't know how to revert the situation. And I don't know if this is the normal perception from the speaker's point of view, but everyone in the room had this "what the hell is she talking about..." look. But then afterwards everyone said it was very good, including Tom and Eunyong! I think that's partly because they had low expectations from me considering I knew squat when I joined the lab... haha, but anyway. Time to catch up on sleep.

The guy who works at Starbucks is very cute. And tall (which, as you know, is an important criterion for me). However, he makes the wrong drink most of the time - it's very disappointing. Of course, when I mean "wrong" drink, the situation is not as critical as water versus juice, but more like regular milk versus nonfat milk. But you know.

Okay. Now that I've done everything around the house in avoidance of the actual work I have to do (the list includes, but not limited to: doing 3 loads of laundry, 3 big rounds of dishes, emptying the refrigerator that I've been meaning to do since March, sweeping the floor, throwing out lots and lots of trash, and finally arranging good riddance of my 100 pounds of MCAT books. All today), I guess I should go get real things done. After practicing :)

Hm... having 2 emails all forward to my UVa mail and viewing these on an email client application and also my blackberry is getting confusing to sync properly.

UVa Mail tells me I have 16523 items in my All Mail box, taking up 32% of my 7451 MB space because I don't delete anything!! I should un-clutter this some day.

It's been a weird few days with a surprisingly low level of music in my life. Yes, I've still been practicing; Yes, I fooled around with the garage band program; and Yes, I am excited (so far anyway!) with the Popper etude that I got started on (because it's... Popper. and my first one ever.)! So perhaps it's more appropriate to say that I haven't been as available for or excited about music emotionally. I'm not sure why. :-/

I'm definitely living on the edge... financially anyway. It's gonna take me some time to recuperate from the Mac purchase (!@#$%). Ok, so that's it, I wanna play gigs! I've put this on the back burner before because I figured there are so many professionals and conservatory students in this town. However, as part of my "think positive" plan, now I am thinking: so what? what if I didn't graduate from NEC, CIM, or Curtis? It doesn't take a prodigy to play Ave Maria, really :)

Back to the Popper etude - ... #2 and it's already hard o.O.
The biggest problem is that there are just so many accidentals that I have a hard time knowing where I am tonally. There are too many instances of the hard-to-hear notes like G-flat, D-flat, and C-flat at the top of a large shift, and this is all the while trying to maintain smooth grace with the bow arm. :) But the occasional thumb position is cool. Oh Mr. Popper.

Personally, I don't know how many of the Poppers I can go through, given its reputation:

Popper's intention in composing the etudes in the Hohe Schule was to meet the needs of the virtuoso and to help his students deal with "…the technical problems which Popper had met in the music of…Wagner, Liszt, Berlioz, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, and Volkmann…"... Whether or not Popper intended it, the study of his Hohe Schule has now become a rite of passage for all cellists.

That's right. I glanced at some of the latter etudes; they are devilish.

On a random note, I bought a peach pie a few days ago. I keep eating just the crust though :D The peach and the syrup-y stuff inside is too sweet.

Reading the news these days is giving me a headache - really, from the oil spill story to the flood in Tennessee to the Arizona immigration law to the NY bombing incident to Yeardley Love's murder to the craziness going on in Europe? What a mess!

I made so many decisions in the past few days! I'm getting better :)

First and foremost, I'll be applying to med schools this summer, even if I still have residual anguish towards the admissions system...

Secondly, I'm not going back for a re-perm (or more accurately, a re-re-perm). If I don't have much perm left by June, I will just admit the fact that my hair is a wimp.

Third, I'm gonna take a light load (bench-work wise) in lab this week and not feel like a slacker for it :)

Fourth, a trip to Charlottesville this June is in order (I am thinking either June 12-14 or June 25-27).

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Positive thinking, positive thinking, positive thinking. 

The Nanocourse that I went to today was surprisingly therapeutic. It was a 4-hour session on how to give good scientific presentations from the perspective of an actor -- that is, how to think about scientific presentation as more than just a dry powerpoint session where you just click click and ramble away dense material, but making it an engaging and communicative story-telling session where you show your passion in the subject, like a performing artist. But a lot of suggestions made today are things one can apply on a daily basis - not just during a presentation - especially for a person like me :P

And well, most of it wasn't very new for me. A lot of them were things I was taught by music teachers anyway - how to cope with stage fright physically and mentally, etc - but it was not something I made the connection with scientific/academic presentations. It was cool to see the relevance.


On a similar note, the big "conclusion" at the end of my last cello lesson is that I just need to relax and take it down a notch. It happens particularly when I am playing Bach... though it shows up when I'm playing anything at all more intense than Twinkle Twinkle.

I think all Bach Suite movements build up in intensity fairly gradually, over the course of the whole movement: there's usually one big climactic moment, and it calms down to the conclusion from there. In my opinion, the fact that Bach builds up the intensity so slowly over a long period of time is what makes the climactic moment all so amazing. But it's also what makes Bach hard to play (among many other things) because it is hard to pace myself -- it's hard to play the movement if I get so worked up over every note that's "special" because not only do I run out of somewhere to go prematurely, but it's really draining mentally and physically.

So I need to learn to know when to take it down a bit, just so I don't die by the end of the movement :) Same thing with my work habits I guess. I think learning to relax on the cello will also be pretty therapeutic :)

Okay. Boston. Really? How dare you inconvenience me.

Apparently there is an 8-million gallon water leak from the main water source for Boston, so we are now getting water directly from a reservoir (i.e. untreated water. gross.). So... they recommend that we wash our hands (and of course brush our teeth) with bottled water or pre-boiled water. Apparently it's okay to do laundry with this water or shower (as long as you take minimal time and don't let water go into your eyes or mouth). To wash dishes, however, we have to soak washed dishes in bleached water for a couple of minutes and let air dry.

Siiiiigh. I was going to do a LOT of dishes and potentially 3 loads of laundry today and tomorrow. Bad timing I guess :( I should go buy bleach tomorrow.

My neighbors (who generously gave me like 20 bottles of water), who were just coming from the grocery store, told me that the grocery stores were wiped clean of bottled water within like the 30 minutes of the announcement. Apparently, people were literally fighting over the gallon bottles of water; asking their spouses and children to carry as many bottles as physically possible, etc.

Yay!!!! I bought the new Mac :) Shortly after, I received this email:

We detected irregular activity on your Bank of America Check Card on 05/01/2010. For your protection, you must verify this activity before you can continue using your card.

Haha thanks for checking, BoA.


PS: I fiddled with it more, and I'm loving it!! I can record videos! And I really like the screen :) And the new magnetic power adaptor? It's beeeautiful!

After long day #1000 in the lab, I go to the bus stop at 10:26pm. No bus came until 11:09pm. Needless to say, I was really pissed off by that point, and I wanted to say something mean to the bus driver when the bus came, but I refrained. But really, *three* buses went in the other direction during this wait! Shortly after 11pm, a bus in our direction *was* seen, but it prematurely made a turn and never made it to our stop for a mysterious reason. Oh well.

My wrist is in terrible pain today - it actually started before the mad pipetting began, and it hasn't gone away yet :(

I'm gonna call up the salon and tell them my perm is almost gone already, again -- today is day #8 after the re-perm. But I am afraid my hair might fall out if I perm *three* times in a month, and I will probably piss off the stylist at this salon. But... I paid my money and the service was ineffective! Of course, it's not the stylist's fault per se (though ideally, they should know enough about the different kinds of hair out there  and how to work with them) - my hair is just that resistant to perming reagents, I guess - but that doesn't make it any more satisfying from my end.

Tomorrow is probably gonna be a no-work-gets-done day... a seminar hosted by our lab in the morning; OO club noon-ish; structure club mid-afternoon; happy hour early-evening.

My entries are so sparse now! There hasn't been too much to update, really. My MCAT score came out yesterday, and (thankfully?) it's not horrendously low to the point where I cross med schools off of my list ;) But I *freaked out* for a few hours surrounding the score release. And apparently, some people responded accordingly:

Rolando: hey lauren

Rolando: are you alright?

Rolando: listen, if you are really upset about this all we can consider giving it away to adoption ... or even abortion

Well, in any case. It's decided - I'm gonna go buy the 15" Macbook Pro this Saturday, with the glossy screen that it comes with, with iLife, and without Applecare.

Apparently, there's a Brookline Symphony Orchestra that's making a comeback after a 10-year hiatus. The obvious advantage to this - it's in Brookline, so I won't have to travel all the way to Newton, Cambridge, Longwood, or whatever the alternatives are. It looks like they have some Wagner, a Mozart Symphony, and Beethoven #7 (!!) on the first program, and they plan on having just 3 concerts in the upcoming season. I'm debating whether to audition or not (audition date? it's really soon, May 9 or so). My poor violin hasn't been touched in... 2 months.

My yield at this point in the purification is unbelievably high. I remember this batch of cells grew really fast also (by more than 33%). I wonder why they are so happy, if that's what this even is!

Good lord. Why can I not decide for the life of me?

For instance, after much debate, I've decided to buy a MacBook Pro (other options were: just wait it out and keep surviving with my current PowerBook, get a small netbook to carry to lab, get a cheap PC and expect to just last until Fall 2011, get a new Mac, get a desktop, etc). Then there was the hard decision of a 13" vs a 15" Mac. Now that I've finally settled on a 15" Macbook Pro, NOW I am debating:

• whether to pay the extra $150 for a matte screen (the glossy screen looks like a mirror because it's so reflective, but the general consensus is that it's not so bad once you take it out of the insane spotlight at the Apple store and use it indoors only)
• whether to cough up extra $250 for Apple Care (everyone recommends it for the extra 2 years of warranty, but... I don't even plan on carrying this new MBP anywhere and it'll only be used for general browsing/MS-office/movie-watching/etc)
• pay $45 for iLife? or get a UVA friend to get me MS Office for $10? iLife seems really neat.

This is tough :P But I've also never spent $2000+ for anything before, so I might as well research everything before I splurge...

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I am learning Faure's Elegy on the cello now :) Apparently, this piece was premiered at Saint-Saens' personal home -- how cool is that! I love reading program notes, and here's a paragraph from one of them:

The simple grandeur of its ABA layout, in which Fauré allows the most telling melody to sing without complication, no doubt accounts for the Élégie's phenomenal appeal. Over steady, dirge-like chords, the cello dramatically embarks upon an expansive lament that quietens as it unfolds in tones of somber oration. Then, accompanied by the cello, the piano essays an effusive song – as of joy recalled in grief – taken up by the cello to culminate in a sudden vehement (and rather unconvincing) cadenza before the funereal opening returns, shadowed by the central section's plaint, to sing itself into nothingness.

While it's just a 7 minute piece, and by no means a timeless "masterpiece" (at least I don't think so), there's such incredible intensity and climactic moments fitted between moments of bittersweet lyricism and somewhat of a contained grief -- it's really beautifully composed :)

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To put me in a really tragic mood, my beginning on this Elegy happened simultaneously with my start on Bach Cello Suite No. 2. I think the Second Suite is the most depressing and introverted of the 6 suites. I think Yo-Yo Ma played the somber Sarabande at his father's funeral. That's how sad these are!

One can imagine [the Second Cello Suite] to express a person's self-examination of life from the view of opportunities lost, close relationships abandoned or not made, and longings not fulfilled. This isn't cheerful stuff to reflect on, and any great performance has to dig down into the depths of the soul and bring up those hard to face emotions; I also think that the listener has to do so also in order to get the full impact of the music.

 A review on Maisky's recording of the 2nd suite Prelude:

Mischa Maisky - "Mournful and sad" well describes Maisky's performance; in fact, if a listener tends to shed a few tears hearing this prelude, Maisky's version should have the person crying buckets. And his conclusion is power-packed.

Hahaha, I don't know about "crying buckets" but I do think his interpretation is power-packed. I'm growing really fond of Mischa Maisky! Haha, some say he has a Jesus-look, probably because of his hair. He is a godly player though, and he comes second only to Jacqueline du Pre (you knew that was coming).

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Funny (or sad; depending on how you look at it) research to conclude this post:

According to our data, the average American experiences a 0.8-second window of happiness upon awakening, before remembering that they're conscious beings in a relentlessly bleak and numbing world," said Dr. Derek Moore, lead author of the paper. "Other periods of happiness include 1.9 seconds after a good meal; 0.6 seconds upon receiving a paycheck; 1.1 seconds following competition of a scientific study; and the 2.5 seconds approaching orgasm, just before the guilt sets in.

Yoko defended her thesis yesterday, after Tom's hilarious introduction with funny pictures of Yoko (and her desk). It was sweet :) Then around 11:30am, we started the celebration. This commenced with Yoko wearing her hat (the one that Robin decorated with ER network), Tom's reading of a really funny poem (2 pages long!! and he even made the whole thing rhyme. it was hilarious) that he wrote for Yoko, and a round of congratulatory champagne. Then mid-afternoon, Tom announced that he got his HHMI funding renewed for the next SEVEN years (he just heard. big day!). So he's all set. I don't think any of us was surprised, but it's good to know for sure.
Today's lesson will be the third (THIRD!) cello lesson for which I've done less than 50% of the practicing I've wanted to do. It's partly because I came home way too late during the week, and it was in the 30's outside without heat in my apt (i.e. my fingers were freeeeeezing and I didn't want to get out of my bed), but also I've been less excited to practice. Remember back in October when I was screeching on the cello for 2-5 hours a day, every day of the week! Well, now I've hit that point in cello playing where I'm not super excited about how cool octave double stops look :P It's misery to play. Thumb positions aren't as exciting as I once thought either -- the thumb is so incompetent for getting a sense of where the notes are on the fingerboard, compared to the other 4 fingers. I've also hit a plateau with Kol Nidrei -- I can hit all the notes, but it's hard to make it sound the way I want (story of all musicians' life). But after weeks, Kol Nidrei is also beginning to feel like un-seasoned pasta. It's kind of a bland piece. Needless to say, I was so excited about the cello to begin with, that I still have a lot of motivation. And if nothing else, perseverance/patience is a key trait of any musician, right? :) [and scientist. bleh]

Wee, surprise surprise, TB test negative :) I guess now I just have to wait and take another one in late May.

I hate when people cash their checks a few weeks after I give it to them (i.e. I've forgotten about them), and they all happen to cash it within a one day period... so overnight, I go from having lots of money, to a dangerously low level of money.

My sister also got into UVa as an Echol :)

Lots going on in my life right now, but I'll update later! Really! I need to un-clutter first. Next big item on the list is the group meeting presentation that's in about a month. !@#$ I don't have very much.

"Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school. Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66 percent of music majors who applied to med school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. For comparison, (44 percent) of biochemistry majors were admitted." So if I did a music major and a biochemistry major, does that negate the effect? Because otherwise, fail.

I saw Hilary Hahn in person, and now my life is complete!

Sigh. She must have been like 5 feet tall -- this tiny girl who looks like she's still 12 with skin like a baby (in reality, she's 30). And really, she looked much younger than she does in any of her (photoshopped) publicity pictures! But her music? So incredibly mature.

I think a lot of violinists tend to pull out the more "conservative" side when they know they are being recorded (studio recording a CD; a concert where they are being video/audio taped) because their one-time performance will be on permanent record... but then they free up in live performances when they aren't as permanently bound. I'd have to say this was true here!

I remember seeing HH's Prokofiev on youtube and being turned off by it. It was too fast, too cold, and I didn't like it. But tonight - it was awesome :) Incredible beyond words! The opening was eerily beautiful, with Prokofiev's light orchestration, and HH's bow never ending through the entire page-long melody. I wonder how she has amazing bow control like that. This was bundled with beautiful shifts, perfect intonation, and an amazing build up of intensity. Then when the music transitioned through Prokofiev's typical military-like (very Shostakovich-like) passages, HH owned it, ladies and gentlemen. Fantastic articulation, bow control, left hand clarity, and perfect coordination. The technically dense passages? Difficult runs? I heard every single note. Not that I expected any less from HH, but seeing it happen right in front of my eyes made it even more unbelievable.

She did miss 2 notes in the entire concerto (:P), but that made the performance all the more human. Her sound had so much depth in it (more so than what any recording could reproduce), and it seemed like she captured all the pain and emotion in the world, expressed it through her violin, and have it resonate through Symphony Hall. I've usually associated HH with clarity and piercingly perfect intonation/technique (almost machine-like), but I'd have to add expressiveness onto that list.

One thing though - her violin didn't seem to project too well... I was wondering if it was where I was sitting, but then again, all other violin soloists sounded just fine. Even Yo Yo Ma's cello sounded fine. But HH sounded a bit covered up and her sound also didn't seem to carry too well. de Burgos seemed to be shushing the orchestra at multiple points as well. Perhaps it was that Prokofiev's orchestration got too brassy and massive at times and/or the BSO is way larger than what Prokofiev's original orchestration called for. Or maybe it is where I was sitting, or it's HH's violin not liking to project (though it's great for close-up mic recordings). Who knows!

She was pickier than the other BSO soloists so far. At the dress rehearsals, soloists seemed to just get a good run-through the piece, and walk off. HH had a few minutes of discussion with the conductor at the end of each movement, and certain passages were rehearsed additionally. She picked on tempi changes and articulation, in particular. The tempi changes, though, I noticed that there were some off-moments. I think HH had a clear tempo in her mind (not always the "typical" tempo most people play Prokofiev at), but wasn't together with the BSO, and those got fixed one by one. And at the end, she turned around to thank the orchestra for being amazing before she left stage, which I think is unusual (but nice!) as well.

Another point - when I've seen her videos, the way she moved always bothered me because it looked really unnatural, for some reason. Well, I'll say that this wasn't the case at all. She looked totally at ease, she took advantage of the humongous space given to her, and it all looked so natural. Everything from immobile during difficult passages to literally getting bouncy when the music called for it. It really added to the music, rather than distract from it.

Well, anyway, I will write more about the rest of this concert later (Malcolm Lowe in Scheherazade was really incredible as well!!).

Wow. I found out how much grant money our lab is getting. Now I see why Tom keeps emphasizing the 5% budget cut from HHMI on a daily basis.

5% of a LOAD of money is still a whole lot of money.

It looks like the 2010 DMR season is beginning at UVa... I miss it :( Exactly 351 days ago, I had my recital!!

"What do you want to do?" Ughhhhh, I don't know >:(

Hardest question to answer, apparently.

"Do you wanna go to med school or grad school?"
"I don't know!! I want to do both, yet I don't want to pick either one."
"Well, do you wanna do research?"
"Sure!"
"Go to grad school then"
"But..."
"Do you wanna practice medicine and work with patients?"
"Of course!"
"Then do med school!"
"But... *sigh*"
"Then do an MD/PhD!"
"... but with the competitiveness of admissions, that could be a suicidal move at this point..."
!@#$%


And truthfully, I'm really not that apathetic about the world, but I don't know why I don't know what I like... (that was a terrible sentence).

I think I need to go chillax, but who has the time?!? I feel like I don't even have the time to breathe these days.

Life hasn't been too eventful in the past few days. So here are some random, uneventful notes:

- Well... my bathtub was clogged and Mr. Drano fixed it :D It totally made my day.

- Boston got a winter storm warning but what did we get? I think maybe 1 inch of snow. Maybe. Roads were salted beforehand and we got plenty of rain beforehand, so not much stuck. Grr Boston. I'm losing faith in you.

- Something's wrong with my purification plan in lab. Not sure what the problem is. Grr ribosomes :(

- Sigh. Another dilemma time. Take next Monday off or no? It's an "official holiday" but the "unspoken rule" of this lab says that I should come in anyways.

- My sister is officially the valedictorian of her high school! This probably means I'll have to edit her speech neurotically between now and June, but... she's valedictorian!

- Come on Apple. Release the new Macbook Pros already. I'm waiting... :)

I've decided that I want a Macbook Pro, 15". Since I'll leave this current PowerBook in lab, this new laptop won't be destroyed from my banging it while on the bus and whatnot. I'd imagine that with less abusing, this MBP will last me more than the current one (~4 years before it started showing signs of annoyance), so might as well invest... since I don't have a TV and my laptop is my source of DVD-watching, and since my iTunes is bursting with music, the large screen size and memory capabilities should be great.
The only dilemma I have now is: When?!

There are so many rumors of new advancements coming out in the Macbook Pro models, and they are all thinking "any day" now. But this rumor has been circulating since late last year, and everyone predicted "early January," then the rumor got delayed to "late January, but certainly before February." Now it is a week into February and still no news! Well, actually, I don't care if I buy the current model as opposed to the new Intel processor (or whatever this "new update" is); just looking at the current models' specifications, I am 110% sure that it will be significantly better than what I have right now. And whenever I decide to buy a new Mac, there's always gonna be something new coming out within the following few months. But... the price?? Will the current MBP's price drop when this new version comes out? Or, actually, will they stop selling this current model...? Or even disregarding this, will the new iPad's release affect the price level of the MBP's? Hm, actually, I guess the latest speculation is doubtful.

Well, anyway, I really want one soon. But I don't know how much longer to wait...

This is too much computer-related thinking for me. I feel technologically deficient. I'm gonna go get a cup of frappucino.

Some soloists performing at the Tanglewood Festival this summer:

- Pinchas Zukerman (Mozart #5)
- Lynn Harrell
- Yo Yo Ma again (Elgar Cello Concerto... yeeeeah, I don't think I'm going)
- *Hilary Hahn (SIBELIUS ahhhh)
- Frank Zimmermann (Beethoven violin concerto)
- Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
- Alisa Weilerstein (Golijov's Mariel for cello)
- Steven Isserlis (Schumann cello concerto!)
- Joshua Bell (Mendelssohn Double Concerto in D minor for violin and piano; Beethoven Romance in F)
- Gil Shaham (Bach Double Concerto in D minor; Sarasate Navarra for 2 violins; Sarasate Zigeunerweisen)
Emanuel Ax (Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2)


Oh, and the Emerson String Quartet...


This promises to be another expensive "season"... How do people save money again?!?? :-/

rawr rawr rawr

Vanguard - stop sending me mail! I seriously have like 10 thick envelops of crap from Vanguard I haven't even opened yet. Ughhhhh.

And then there's the pile of opened-but-not-read junk from HHMI about long-term plan blah blah blah.

lskdfjlksjfkdlshsfdljjfdshfidk

Holy crap. Almost a quarter of February 2010 has already passed. What am I doing with my life?!

Big debate of the moment: Macbook vs. Macbook Pro? 13" vs. 15"? Buy now or will the price drop when the iPad comes out?? I can't decide :( Any input would be awesome.

I went to the Harvard Med School Library yesterday (there is a whole journal issue dedicated to "musicians' hands." The journal is called "Hand Clinics." Haha, Harvard didn't have an online subscription, although they had the paper copy). The library was... beautiful :) Really serene, though I'm sure people studying there weren't so serene.

I hate cucumbers, tomatoes, cauliflowers, and celery. Oh, and carrots and eggplant. And cilantro. Plus coconuts.

according to weather.com, it feels like -15 *F in boston right now. brr.

The pressure is on. Well, more than before... Basically, a postdoc in Tom Steitz's lab is working on the very project that I am. Supposedly - though this was stated very ambiguously - he already got a crystal of this complex (I have not been able to get this yet). His crystal didn't diffract well though, which means the current crystal he has doesn't mean much. But this really blows :( My stress level has gone up exponentially in the past few days, if that was even possible.

Yay! I'm starting the crystallization screening process. Here's to hoping I get something pretty.

------------------

On a completely different note, Hilary Hahn's bow control is top notch. Really! In the 3rd movt of her Sibelius, the opening bow stroke (which... I have to say is very difficult) is incredible. I feel like I can actually hear the bow gripping on the violin strings and producing a "sticky" sound, while still being rhythmically sharp. But when it comes to melodic passages, I think her playing is the epitome of the "endless bow" notion. In her latest Bach album, sure, people say that you shouldn't play Bach that way, but I think it's beautiful! All the notes are crystal clear, her intonation is perfect as always, and I can't hear her bow change at all, whether it's in the midst of crazy 16th notes or long, melodious, slurred notes. Everything is so continuous, and shaped beautifully.

Nikolaj Znaider, playing with the BSO led by Sir Colin Davis, playing the hour long Elgar violin concerto = tonight. Though... I have to admit: this is one of the violin concertos I'm really unfamiliar with. Because it's an hour long piece (double the usual length), it always seemed too daunting to get through.

I bought 3 CD's today! I usually buy used CD's on amazon because they are soooo much cheaper, but I bought CD's at B&N today... (1) physical purchasing at stores = stress relief, and (2) Hilary Hahn CD's don't seem to get too cheap online anyway. So, I bought:

• Hilary Hahn's Schoenberg & Sibelius
• Hilary Hahn's Bach: Violin & Voice
• Ashkenazy's Rachmaninov selections

The outer movements to the Sibelius are... fantastic. Mindblowing. The second movement, not so much, for me anyway. I can't really stand the Schoenberg yet. It's just... :-/ Ick.

The Violin & Voice album is interesting. The compositional style is all very Baroque, of course, but the sound I'm hearing... not so much. Well. The presence of a harpsichord/organ makes it feel very baroque-ish... but the very continuous, "sticky" sound that's really typical of Hilary adds an interesting twist. I guess I've gotten really used to hearing solo Bach in a romanticized manner, but not as much in this category (arias and duets from mostly cantatas). I'm not surprised though :)

---------------

I wish life would slow down a little! 

Ana: okay, not to stress you out, but have you thought about what you're gonna apply to?

 me: ANAAAAAA

lskjdflksjkfldjlsdkfjkfs x-(

 Ana: hahaha

  ok ok

  NVMMMM

 me: that's like asking a girl how much she weighs

 Ana: HAHAHAHA

Hm. Okay. So that was that. It's creepy how fast time is going by though. Holy crap, it's already past mid-January 2010!! I don't know where time goes anymore.

Concert Review time :)

So... I was crazy and went to both the dress rehearsal and the concert. Let me start with the dress rehearsal:

It was supposed to start at 7:30pm. There was a pre-concert lecture starting at 6:45pm. Of course, running late from lab, I made it there by 6:50pm. The entire Symphony Hall was 80% full at that point... already. So I had to sit in the back. The conductor (Koopman) didn't wear a microphone, so I could barely hear anything he said during the rehearsal, but the great majority of the rehearsal was a full-run through of the piece, followed by ~10-20 minutes of rehearsing particular spots. It was pretty cool; it reminds you that even BSO-caliber musicians are mortal beings who wear jeans and t-shirts outside of a concert setting :P But at the same time, it felt weird: it's kinda like... having an orchestra rehearsal, and having hundreds of people in the audience observing you at work, like animals in a zoo. It's a funny concept.

Anyhow, this program consisted of:

1. Haydn's Symphony No. 98

2. Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1

3. CPE Bach's Symphony in G

4. Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony.

Soloist: Yo Yo Ma

Conductor:  Ton Koopman

The pre-concert lecture was very cool. They played snippets of each piece/movement, while explaining some of the musical motifs and analysis, historical background, info about the composer, time period, etc. It's funny because for the Haydn Concerto, they played segments of Jacqueline du Pre's recording of the Haydn... and as you might imagine (or not), Yo Yo Ma has a completely different interpretation of the piece, so it made me laugh that they picked Jackie's recording as an example.

------------------------------

Haydn's Symphony No. 98: I am not well-educated in symphonic repertoire... and I've never heard this piece before. And all I could think was, jesus, Haydn wrote how many symphonies?! But... it was well performed :) Pretty light and full of character. And I found it amusing that the harpsichord has a big solo in the 4th movement, which lasts about 3 lines on the score. So for the entire Symphony (first on the program), Koopman conducted with the harpsichord in front of him, and when it was time for the solo, he sat down and played crazy stuff for about <30 seconds, and immediately got up to resume conducting. And of course, before the cello concerto, they took away the harpsichord and put up a podium instead. And the poor harpsichord tuner had to tune the harpsichord during intermission before the CPE Bach's Symphony (both during the dress rehearsal and the concert).

For the first three pieces of the program, only the reduced version of the BSO strings section performed. That is, about 14 violinists, maybe 6 violists, 3 cellists, and 2 bassists. For the Schubert, a couple of more people joined in each strings section, but still it wasn't the complete BSO. Interestingly, none of the usual section leaders were in this program, including Malcolm Lowe.

Haydn's Cello Concerto: So... I think Yo Yo Ma deserves another section dedicated to him. But I'll just say... his performance was just what I expected from what I've seen of his performances on youtube, and I hate the way he plays. Haha :) But... he's undeniably good, of course. His interpretation was very skewed to the side of "historically accurate" performance, which I hate. But it was interesting because it wasn't completely faithful to that. It actually incorporated the aspects of "historically accurate" interpretation that I hate... but with an addition of the harshness of what I'd consider a more "modern" interpretation. By that, I mean, he had all the old-fashioned aspects: extremely swift bows, [too much] swelling of notes, some rhythmic modifications on 16th notes, and most of all, playing with the orchestra when it's marked "tutti." But... his playing was so harsh and rough-edged at some points, that it was a little weird.

Yo Yo Ma: He makes grunting noises when he plays. Actually, it's kind of a cross between grunting and snoring sound, I can't quite describe it accurately. But... I could tell that the people in the first few rows were a little disturbed by it. Hahaha. One thing I have to say is, everything he does on the cello feels so vertical. The way he bows, the way he puts a bow down on the string to start a note, how he plays chords, and most significantly, how he moves when he plays. I don't know if anyone's noticed, but sometimes his cello goes so vertical, almost like that of a bass player. Also, his left fingers always collapse so much, which is usually categorized as "bad cello playing." Of course, Rostropovich did that to some extent, too. But they both somehow manage to play extremely well... so, whatever works I guess :)

Conclusion: I'm not the biggest fan of Yo Yo Ma, mostly interpretation wise, but he was interesting to watch, nonetheless.

Encore Encore! Yo Yo Ma played Bach Cell Suite No. 6 Sarabande as the encore. It was quite beautiful, actually. Very difficult... very well played :)

The Davidov Stradivarius: Yo Yo Ma currently plays on the Davidov Stradivarius (ie. the first of the TWO Strads that were gifted to Jacqueline du Pre). Jackie switched to another Strad after playing with the Davidov for a few years because of it's "unpredictability." To that, Yo Yo Ma said: "Jackie's unbridled dark qualities went against the Davydov. You have to coax the instrument. The more you attack it, the less it returns". Well, I think Yo Yo Ma attacked the Davidov plenty of times in the Haydn! But anyway, this cello... is such a work of art. It was *beautiful*. It made me want to drool just looking at it :)

Okay, I think I am going to stop the concert review here. The CPE Bach piece, I wasn't familiar with, and I didn't think it was particularly memorable. The Schubert was... the Schubert :) It's a beautiful piece, mesmerizing!

Yo Yo Ma decided to join in at the back of the cello section during the Schubert, it was funny :) But I guess he really loves the orchestra!

I'm too tired to write an actual entry, but here are some random notes:
--> It is getting too cold in Boston :( I feel like my face is about to fall off.
--> I squirted some e.coli cell lysate on myself today. It was disgusting.
--> me: ahh lunch was excellent
      now i cannot wait for dinner
      haha
      Ana: hahahha
      we think way too much alike, it scares me sometimes

Haha, apparently, every year Tom tells everyone "Successful and Happy New Year! and in that order :)"

At our group meeting today, we had a new postdoc candidate come present his stuff as part of his interview day. He's from Germany, and he's currently a grad student with a PI who was one of Tom's "star students" from many years ago! Haha, pretty cool, all these connections! His presentation was really very good, and to imagine that came from a 4th year grad student (or maybe starting his 5th year this January, I think?) was pretty crazy. So much clean data, so much knowledge on his own project and all the publications in the field, what he wants to try next, what's questionable, etc.

His presentation was also very entertaining =):

"This protein structure, however, doesn't have the supercoiled helix motif as we imagined, and actually looks like a piece of tortellini."

"Here's a sausage diagram of the protein structure."

"It seems that the probability of getting a protein to crystalize is inversely proportional to our interest in their biological function!"    (how true!)

"... [trying to say "specifically" in the middle of a sentence towards the end of the presentation, getting tongue-tied]... speciFIca... speCIficity-ally... er, speciFIcality... erm, [reading off of the slide syllable-by-syllable] s-pe-ci-fi-cal-li-t... huh? ...you know what I mean! Anyway!..."

Haha, but as a non-native English speaker, I can attest to the fact that saying "specifically" vs "specificity" are very difficult!

Happy 2010!

I head back to Boston tomorrow (or today...) evening :(
Saturday 6pm train, arriving in Boston on Sunday  ~7:30am.


Today, I watched more footage of the famous Trout quintet performed by one of the most powerful compilation of soloists (or at least one of the most fantastic combinations):
- Itzhak Perlman, violin
- Pinchas Zuckerman, viola
- Jacqueline du Pre, cello
- Zubin Mehta, bass
- Daniel Baremboim, piano
There was such, such, incredible talent and energy in that room/stage, it was ridiculous.

I wonder who reads my posts.

Anyway... On reflection, 2009 was quite a year:

The oh-god-last-semester-of-undergrad + med school craze --> DMP recital where I played some crazy stuff (did I really do that?!) --> graduation (holy crap, 2009 always seemed so far in the future) --> the awful summer of 2009 where... wow, don't let me get started on those brats again --> getting a "job" (sigh, the "real world"?) and getting my first real "salary" (or, pity pay) --> being in *Boston* --> finally getting to playing the cello.

All of this, mixed in with plenty of crappy situations with too many people and a truly, truly strange turn of events with a few. Hm, better luck next year?

My posts are so scattered! Often it's because I don't update enough (or maybe that's a lie), so I have little bits of multiple thoughts I end up writing about. All in one post. But here it goes...

String Review, Continued: As of today, the two sets of strings are getting closer to each other. The Larsens are getting a little more lively while the Spirocores are getting darker. The C string is getting a little too dark already for my taste, too "grr." However, the G & C strings still have their metallic edge. Sigh. I'll give them a few more days of hardcore playing :)

According to Benjamin, my Korean-ness sometimes shows in my English! Who knew that "fiction" cannot be pluralized! Heh, don't answer that. This reminds me how one of my high school friends was really bothered whenever I said "yesterday night" and told me that it's common practice in English to say "last night" although it's fine to say "yesterday morning" or "tomorrow night." But of course, it's abnormal to say "last morning" or "next night." What a strange language.

Cello Strings Trial #1: Larsen Medium A & D + Thomastik-Infeld Spirocore Tungsten G & C.

Ok, let me begin by saying that I don't think these trials will go far, seeing as how ridiculously expensive cello strings are. But these -- I purchased these strings ~3 years ago for some reason. I'm sure the prices have gone up since then, but currently, they cost: $248.60. But since they've just been sitting on my shelf, I figured why not try it now.

It's mainly the tungsten strings that cost nearly a $100 per string. But I hear that they don't need to be chanced for... ever. As in, they're good for a few years without the sound getting weak and muddy (as opposed to, well, at least on the violin the general rule of thumb is to change strings every 120 hours of playing). The tungsten-core strings have great longevity, but I think they are a hit or a miss as far as the sound-quality.

Review at Time 0: The Larsens have such a warm, rounded sound... the Spirocores have a borderline aggressive, strong, kinda metalic (though this might go away with time?) sound, but really resonant too. At the moment, there is way too much contrast between the 2 lower strings and the 2 upper strings. This better go away soon, or I may have to switch to something else, because it's that noticeable. I never quite noticed such differences when I tried violin strings -- everything seemed so subtle. I wonder if all this is because the tonal qualities among different strings/brands are amplified on the cello.

Well, anyway, Merry Christmas Eve!

BY THE WAY, wow, Boston = dry. No snow whatsoever. I swear, Charlottesville got so much more snow than here this year, it's unfair. I love snow, too. I've been snow-deprived for years and years, and the first year I'm out of VA, the big snow storm hits VA?! ::steam coming out of my ears::

The new renter in the unit downstairs had a holiday gathering today. Apparently, she moved from two blocks away 2 months ago, and she's lived in Boston forever, so she has a lot of family and neighbors around. There was tons of food and she even had us take the leftovers. And she still had a ton of leftovers for herself, after serving 30+ people. That's how much food she had. And being the poor graduate I am, I stuffed down so much food, it was gross.

But it was really funny, apparently, I'm the "cellist upstairs."

For the whole six hours, as I talked with different people:
"where do you live?"
"right upstairs in the studio unit"
"ohhhh you're the cellist that Emilie told us about! She told us, man, thank god she's a good cellist! We figured out that we can hear you best from our TV room over there!"
"haha.... oh..."
"so, I hear you're working on the Elgar cello concerto! boy, what a beautiful piece, you should play that for us next time!"


The pressure is on. Apparently, I'm fully audible from the downstairs TV room when I practice. And they want to hear me play the Elgar. Ha ha ha!

Something I found online:

"Hello Amtrak here."
"Hi. May I purchase a child seat for my cello?"
"Is the cello over 15 years of age?"
"No. It's only 4."
"Well...you should be fine, then. Does the cello have a name?"
"It's Llew."
"That's really good. I'm trying to figure out what to put here."
"Llew Chelo?"
"No...I want them to be able to realize that it is a cello. We'll put __ Cello."
"Wow! Thank you so much!"
"Just make sure Llew Behaves."
"Of course."

"I asume if the cello is over 15, then it's an adult fare?"

"And antiques get a senior discount then?"

Hahaha :) Looks like I will also be Amtrak-ing (an overnight one) back to VA with the cello! Except I didn't buy a seat for it.

Some of my more recent Youtube obsessions:

• Bach Cello Suites -- I've been listening to these on loop all week on my ipod. Each suite has such a distinct character! But all beautiful...
• Suite 1, Sarabande (Mischa Maisky): Such a gorgeous sound... A bit on the heavy side of interpretation, but I love it!
• Suite 2, Sarabande (Micha Maisky): Haha, what a depressing movement... almost too dampening, but it's so beautiful. There's something so melancholy about the double stop 5ths. I also love how it looks on the cello, haha...
• Suite 3, Prelude (Mischa Maisky): I'm loving all these Mischa Maisky videos for the Bach Suites on YT... more so than Yo-Yo Ma or Rostropovich! Such smooth yet powerful (and romantic) interpretation! Anyway, this movement is currently at the top of my chart. So many unexpected harmonic progressions and funky moments! Aww I love it! :)
• Suite 3, Gigue (Janos Starker): What a sharp and crisp performance. And what a movement! Looove the part from 0:27-ish and on! Oh Bach... <3.
• What's so incredible about Suite 3 is that all of the openings sound so plain, scale-like, and etude-like. And all in C major, I mean, really :) But soon enough, it progresses into something so complex and intense! Not plain at all...
  
• Suite 4, Prelude (Mischa Maisky): Bach to Mischa... what can I say, I guess I like my Bach heavy. But this thought-provoking prelude, whose "rhythm" is almost entirely in just 8th notes, captures so much with its harmonic progression. Amazing how Bach does that... (and I just noticed, holy crap, Mischa's endpin is soooo long...)
•  Suite 6, Prelude (Mstislav Rostropovich): Besides the minute-long introduction, I think Rostropovich's is my favorite rendition of this movement! It's very dymanic and I think he captures the essence of this movement :) 

The Bach Suites are so incredible... Not to mention all the other amazing movements I didn't list above. But moving on!

• Bach, Arioso from Cantata No. 156 arranged for the cello (Julian Lloyd Webber): Yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber's little brother! Again, a heavily romanticized performance of a Bach piece, but who cares! Also, it's very reminescent of cheesy wedding music, but I still like it :) :) I can play this now too!! The whole package, with vibrato and all :)
• Saint-Saens, Allegro Appassionato (Jacqueline du Pre): You all knew that Jackie had to show up on my list at some point. Honestly, I've never heard of this piece until I started working on it. Apparently it's a really popular encore piece for cellists! I wouldn't call this my all-time-favorite piece any time soon, but it's a cool piece nonetheless. Very fiery!
• Mark Summer, Julie-O (Martin Nocedal; Char Prescott): Now a change of pace... Julie-O! I fell in love with the original version written for a solo cello, but I'm starting to love this duet rendition more. Haha, when I first heard this a couple of years ago, there was another surge of "I want to learn the cello!" It's suuuch a fun piece! I heard the violin rendition too, but it's just not the same.
• Kodaly, Sonata for Solo Cello Movement 3 (Alisa Weilerstein): I'm not big on ridiculously dissonant modern compositions, but... woah. Haha, first of all, what an insane piece. Secondly, what a crazy performance of it. I loveeeeee it! So much passion and fire!
• Haydn, Cello Concerto in C Major, Movement 1 (Han Na Chang): I find Han Na's interpretations pretty radical -- very different from the standard interpretations, and usually I don't like them very much because they get sooo temperamental. But for this piece -- I do like it! What an enthralling performance!
  
• Haydn, Cello Concerto in C Major, Movement 3 (Han Na Chang): So playful! Looking very nonchalant with this beast :)
  

I read that most people who pursue cello seriously during and/or beyond college typically own a cello worth ~$15,000 as a minimum. Craziness... But then again, that will only sustain me in this Boston apartment for slightly over a year.

Ugh I'm getting sick. I haven't had coffee in a few days... because I didn't want any! Also, the last time I stepped into Starbucks was when the new barista who screwed up my drinks many times in a row was working again. I stepped right back out. Meh.

It snowed very little in Boston last night... so I didn't really get to see it. There are still some piled on top of cars and stuff but most of the snow on the road/sidewalk has been shoveled as soon as the sun rose this morning. Seriously?!?! I guess people here are just well trained to shovel whenever they see snow. But I also haven't really felt like going outside. But the next time it snows more, I shall make a snow figurine of the RNC complex (and if I'm confident enough, the channel). Unfortunately, I left my camera back in VA over thanksgiving break, so I can't take a picture of it now anyway!

Oh, and I forgot to mention -- Thursday evening was Brookline's 1st "Light Festival." Strangely, there were no lights (and I mean, besides the normal level of traffic lights and store signs). I guess I expected something like UVA's Lighting of the Lawn, but I'd imagine that lighting up the whole town like that would be a bit tough.

I think my big project until I leave for Christmas break is to finish the food in my apartment, especailly after I bought the bagel pack from Panera's yesterday. Now things fall out of my freezer every time I open the door. I also noticed that I have two bottles of soy sauce, two bottles of sesame oil (same brand, might I add!), and two bottles of maple syrup. Apparently, I don't grocery shop very rationally. No wonder my food expenses were worse when I grocery shopped and cooked versus when I ate out a whole lot.

I am 22 now. Sigh, from this point on, I can only get older without the additional excitement as with turning 16, 18, or 21.

Being back in VA was good! Visiting Charlottesville was great! I wish I could have stayed longer :( And I have to say, all of you folks with a car -- enjoy it! The hour long drive on 64 West/East has never felt so liberating :). Having to depend on public transportation 24/7 can feel so restricted.

The weekend is here!

First, I have to do laundry.

Second, I have to figure out my life. Or at least figure out how to prepare for Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.

Third, I shall practice.

Yay.

Happy Thanksgiving! Since I have another hour of wait at Logan Airport and not so much to do, I thought this would be perfect time to update my blog while watching Gilmore Girls.

Yesterday, we had a birthday pie + ice cream in the lab for Mirco and myself. Mirco is one of the post docs whose birthday is today. Apple pie and vanilla ice cream! Delicious :) Several traditions for these lab birthday gatherings were enforced, as usual:

• The birthday person has to do all the work: I sliced and distributed the pie for the 13 of us (harder than it sounds with all the apples falling out) and Mirco scooped the ice cream. And we also cleaned everything up afterwards. Haha, yay, birthday work!
• The most senior German in the lab counts down to the birthday song so everyone starts singing at the same time... in German (the countdown, not the song; the latter would be incredibly difficult): usually it's Tom (of course, he's German; hence this tradition :D)  But yesterday it was Daniel, one of the German post docs. And the lab sang the most pathetic birthday song up to date. I think it keeps getting worse very time; there were at least 10 different keys. Hahaha it was so bad that everyone started laughing in the middle of the song and commented on the group's lack of musicality. That's okay. As long as they excel in science.
• We have a discussion about how we're all getting old. Mirco is turning 30, and most of the post docs were like: oh, sigh... turning 31 was the hardest, so don't worry yet; when you're 30, you're still on the "borderline," juuuuust getting out of the 20s, but when you're 31 years old, you're clearly in the new 31-40 age range. Hahaha so then a couple of visiting professors in their 40s were like: anyone else wanna complain about turning 40?? Man, 30s is so young! And a post doc was like "well, when you hit 40s, you're so old that you have alzheimers and don't even remember to worry about such things!" 

Tom walked in when we were almost done wih the pie/ice-cream (he literally flew back in to Boson like an hour before; the typical Tom move), and everyone insisted he sings the birthday song alone since he was late. Hahaha, he actually did sing part of the song: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you... hahaha um, ok."

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A while back, I lost the combination to my lock on the basement storage unit. A few days ago, I kinda realized that I needed the suitcase that's in there. Yesterday, I spent about an hour cracking the combo to my lock after learning how to do it from google :) And I got it!!!!!!! It was a little concerning how easy it was once you understood the instructions and had some time/patience. If done correctly, you have to just go through 80-100 combination possibilities before finding the correct one. Thank goodness there's nothing but empty boxes and my my suitcase that I have to store down there.