Some friends, Elisse and Hayden have a great blog "Occassionally Human". It's a nice way to catch up with what they are both up to, and is the inspiration for this page.
As a self-confessed workaholic i don't have the time to write proper blog entries here at the moment. For those of you who don't have facebok (or know what it is), i will start to use this space as a collection of the Melanie is- updates from my facebook.
M. is extremely excited that it was dry and warm enough today to start working in the garden. However she fears this was a freak weather occurence and can't see the soil being ready to plant vegetables in before 2010.
M. thinks it is time to call a plumber as the fun of trying to catch the water as it comes out of the washing machine before it floods the kitchen is starting to wear off.
M. was involved in a serious case of musical prostitution, heard playing arrangements of cliched wedding music for 3 VIOLINS...
M. is amused by news from Carolyn that; Stradivarius sells for $1.2 million US, camel sells for $2.7 million US
I am sitting in the library desperately hoping it will stop raining soon so i can ride home without getting drenched (not there is actually much chance of that happening...)
Now i have been living in my apartment for over a year now, the floor is still not entirely finished (there is no edging which is no great catastrophe), and i have no lights in the ceiling in the living room hall or bathroom. My guests are quite used to going to the toilet by candle light and love to make jokes about how dark it is with just 2 small lamps in the living room, so as you can see apart from saving my eyesight there was no real pressure to do anything about this problem.
Initially I had grand plans for the lighting in the living room, i bought some gallery style spots before i even moved into my apartment and was going to turn the living room into a small gallery (so i could charge my guests entry when they come to visit..). The problem is they need to be drilled into the ceiling and i don't own a drill. At some point i actually borrowed a drill but some preliminary research showed a mass of electrical cables just behind where i needed to drill into so i chickened out deciding i would hold off on short circuiting my entire apartment and electrocuting myself until i had the money for an electrician to come and repair the damage.
Finally i have money for an electrician but i don't know how long i am going to be in my apartment for, so i decided i would just buy the cheapest light from ikea that doesn't need drilling into the ceiling €2 for the fitting and €1.95 for the shade) and find some other to make money from my guests (maybe rabbit viewings)... First i had to cut the chord to the right length, stripping back all the outer layers to expose the wires, then install it to the wires dangling out of my ceiling which is no great drama after you've been living in the Netherlands as long as i have.
As a rule, i hate low ceilings, and i especially hate ...
One of the great benefits of playing Ooosterpoort lunch concerts with Ardesko is that we get free tickets to the concert of our choice (that we otherwise couldn't afford to go to). The other night Zoe, Pedro and I went to listen to a fantastic Vivaldi/Handel concert with Venice Baroque. In general only like to listen to Italians (Europa Galante, Giardino Armonico, Alessandrini, Venice Baroque, etc) playing Italian Baroque music (in fact most baroque music), they bring out the fun, the excitement, the drama and are not afraid of extremes (and unlike Dutch early music specialists, they refused sign the treaty that states; ‘under no circumstances whatsoever is the use of vibrato permissible.’)
In most parts of the world, a lot of musicians who live exclusively in the “early music” scene often fit a certain stereotypical image. In a baroque orchestra there is usually at least one skinny woman with hair down to her knees, one middle aged woman with dyed red hair, one man (usually a lute player) with long (but thinning) hair, and generally they all look like they haven’t seen the sun since the baroque period. But Venice Baroque didn’t look like a typical Baroque orchestra they just looked Italian. Mostly men (only 2 women), no long hair, no pasty faces, relatively short, and all except the bassoon player (who like many bassoon players around the world, shared the physique of his instrument) they looked like they enjoyed a glass (or 10) of wine on a daily basis (their protruding stomachs made all the more obvious as they stand to play).
In big concert halls where you can’t see the orchestra members clearly unless you are sitting in the front row, it is always fun to see which members of the orchestra remind you of other people. When playing this game it is important to look also at posture, movement and body language not just appearance. The Harpsichordist/director Andrea Marcon reminded me of Salman Rushdie, the principal 2nd violin had something of the Antonio Banderases about him, (or maybe it was Antonio Banderas as the cat in the 2nd Shrek movie.. anyway he looked like he would rather be in a testing the speed limits of a red Ferrari than playing ...
Hi this is Mel with the 3rd test of this blog (and last before i get back to practicing), I was going to finish the site before i started with the blog, but i am just testing it out for some other sites. Hopefully this time i can get the text in white! Puk is sleeping in his bed under the table and i have just finished my very uninspiring lunch/Dutch dinner.
Hi this is Mel with the 3rd test of this blog (and last before i get back to practicing), I was going to finish the site before i started with the blog, but i am just testing it out for some other sites. Hopefully this time i can get the text in white! Puk is sleeping in his bed under the table and i have just finished my very uninspiring lunch/Dutch dinner.