...all that, and I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last weekend

I did get my flute fixed, but not without a lot of fuss. Through a number of phone calls, internet sites, and conversations, I discovered a repairperson in Moncton (40 minute drive away). Another flute player was generous enough to lend me her old flute for the rehearsal with my accompanist, K, which was strange but better than nothing.

The trip to Moncton took up the rest of Tuesday afternoon:
-walking to the bus stop (20 min.)
- taking the bus (40 min.)
- walking through and out of Moncton following directions (at least 30 min.)
- giving up finding the street and taking a cab (2 min.)
- waiting at the person's home for the repair (nearly an hour)
- and taking a cab back (40 min.) here and directly to Choral Society without dinner.

It wasn't entirely unpleasant. There were some kittens in a shop window in Moncton -- downtown Moncton was pretty nice in general -- , and the repairperson was pleasant. And I had a rather interesting conversation with the cab driver on the ride home about possible avenues for his nephew's musical education; somehow our conversation also meandered to classical music and Jethro Tull.

( the rest of the week )

My big news: I have a job! Unless the university decides not to grant the same funding to the music department as it did last year, I am going to be the new music [computer] lab administrative assistant! This is the first job I've ever held during the school year. I hope I can manage it. I work about three hours a week for (if I recall correctly) $8.25 (Can.) helping students with the Mac platform, managing user accounts, collecting MacGamut stats, cleaning mouses (mice?), and possibly fiddling about a bit with the server computer. (Geeky tendencies coming in handy? I hope so.) I meet with the professor (the real music lab administrator) on Tuesday to begin my "training". Wish me luck.

All fun and no work makes... well, a bad student

There's a poetry reading / improvised music jam at the coffeeshop at 7pm, Jest in Time at 8, and John Campbelljohn at 10. There's only so many places I can be at once!

(Besides, I got basically no homework done today. Big surprise.)

Later note: I chose to see Jest in Time. Some of the sketches were a bit predictable (not surprising when you've seen as many comedy shows as I have), but others were really good and one or two of them simply blew my mind away.

(no subject)

I just attempted to run through one my pieces with accompaniment (MIDI file, played off my roommate's computer). To me it seemed like it went just awfully. I couldn't stay with the accompaniment, which made me tense up, which messed up my sound and fingering fluidity. I just can't relax while playing through that piece, and I don't know what to do about it.

I'm also pretty sure that one of the keys is leaking, and neither I nor anybody at the Conservatory can do anything about it because there's no screw attached. (Having to press extra hard on one of the keys adds to the tension, naturally.) This thing is cursed.

It didn't help either that a music student was visiting the room next door. Needless to say, I've given up for the night. Any more playing might improve my technical facility, but it terms of my worst problems (tension, pain) it would just make matters worse.