bear

hyounpark and I wrapped up our extremely concert-filled June last weekend with two shows in Wine Country, backing up Andrea Bocelli and friends. Three rehearsals in ten days with almost entirely new-to-me repertoire - it felt good to have that kind of intensity of practice again. It's different from regular rehearsal, where we have a month, two, sometimes even three to slowly, steadily polish a single piece. Harder to cram into daily life, but always worth it.

Saturday was also Hyoun's birthday, so I was highly amused when the sound check opened with La donna è mobile from Rigoletto. Because I originally learned that melody in fourth grade as a birthday song!

( Archiving the lyrics here because I know I was able to find it on the internet at some point in the past, but no longer. )

( the rest of the Bocelli concert experience )

And now, my Wednesday nights are free for a (very) few weeks! (Summersings start July 23, and then after that we're right into rehearsals for Verdi; I hope I'll be able to cram in one or two Wednesday night Friends With Bikes rides during the time off, but we'll need to see.)

happy birthday, cretak and kazulrw!

tonight at summersings: mozart's requiem! $4 to listen, $8 to sing along, bring a fan and a water bottle. i didn't have time to bake this weekend, but there will be snackies, regardless. old south church, 645 boylston st, doors at 7. bitty and bubblebabble and hyounpark and perhaps luminaepona will be there - will you? :)

object lesson of the weekend #1: oh dear GOD, i'd missed kayaking. this is something i need to be doing far, far more often. (even on the rumored pollution of the charles? maybe some of the lakes around here do boating and rent kayaks?)

object lesson of the weekend #2: yours truly is out of shape. like, limp-as-udon arm muscles out of shape. this is not helpful when one is moving this month. this is not helpful in general. you have 5lb weights sitting in your living room. it's time you use them. (any of you ladies who do free weights recommend any particular routine or series of exercises for strengthening arms in particular? time to put the humiliation to work so i can be paddling up in front next year - after eleven years of doing it every summer, i certainly have the knowledge of how to do so, just not the endurance to do it for four hours, which is the humiliating part.)

before that, zuania had her graduation party friday; hooray for yummy indian food! and salsa dancing afterwards. introvert h seems to be holding up okay as i run him through the social gauntlets of my friends :) sorry honey, they haze because they love!

question of all y'all: updating my calendar for the remainder of the summer and the fall, and: is there anything i need to be saving the date for? birthday parties, housewarmings, concerts, the like?

and finally, goodbye, dancing apple. you were the face of news for many, but my favorite memory of you will always be you bopping around onstage in a gigantic apple costume at the zumbyes concert.