And so we enter Valentines Day....

Hey all, sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Me being busy and well, lazy can account for me not putting a post up in the past few days.

Anyways, the past few days have been INTENSE. For example....Wednesday was a masterclass with the Maia Quartet, which I have to say, kinda kicked my butt. In a good way of course. It was nice to get some feedback, especially since my group is playing a Prokofieff quartet that's really difficult. But their recital was really cool, although they played a Danish piece that I didn't get AT ALL.

Thursday was the usual weird day it is, for example, I didn't go to my 12:30 class, so I got to eat lunch, and take a nap, before quartet. YAY! Oh, and I went to The Hub with Scott, Jenn, and Megan so we could watch Jazz 1 play. I didn't get to see my beloved Mad play though, which saddens me to the depths of my soul.

Friday night was the Wind Symphony/Symphonic Band concert, sat with Melissa and Scott's family and had a good time. Definitely fell asleep during the Irish songs though. I was so freaking tired. But the rest of the concert was SPECTACULAR. The Candide piece made my life.

Saturday was...interesting. Went to the Waterloo Mall with Megan and Scott, then went to a movie with Scott later. We saw True Grit, excellent movie, the ending sucked, but what ever.  Then Scott and I hung out with Madeline and Marion and watched 101 Dalmations. Good times. haha


Tonight, I was inducted as a probationary member of Phi Mu Alpha (Beta Nu Chapter), and I have to say, I'm really excited. I never saw myself joining a fraternity, but I mean, come on, music fraternity? Must join.

Okay, now to my lesson dealy thing. The lesson I'm talking about today is love. In the day to come, a lot of people are going to give presents, and be ridiculously happy with their significant other, and love them a lot. But I mean, come on, people act like Valentines Day is a renewal of their love and caring for each other, but honestly, shouldn't you care about your significant other equally throughout the year? It just seems kind of pointless.

Now, for us single people out there, don't let Valentines Day get you down. It's a celebration of love, but use it as an opportunity to tell your friends/family that you love them! It's a day that reminds us that we're all alone at some point, but we have to accept that fact, and get comfortable in our own skin. As awfully hard as that is for some people, take heart friends, we all have to face this. You can always talk to someone else about it. So, general lesson is this: Couples, please love each other and have a good time. But always remember that just because it's Valentines Day, doesn't mean you can't say 'I love you' any other day of the year. To all the Single Ladies (and Gentlemen) out there, we can keep going, get comfortable with yourself and have a good time with your friends or family tomorrow! Make it a celebration of having great people in your life!

Off With Your Head!

Yes, I titled my current blog post after a Yeah Yeah Yeahs song, which I have only ever heard of because of Glee. You would think that with my brief obsession with Brit Pop I would have discovered them or something. Apparently not. Regardless, "Heads Will Roll" is a very good song. Kinda creepy, but the lyrics are very definitive.

On that note, Glee on Sunday was SPECTACULAR! I missed it so. The music, the characters, the drama. Mmmm....it makes me quiver with antici..........pation.

Anyways, past few days were interesting. Scott went home again this weekend (although this time it was for work/family stuff) so I had the room to myself, again. Did I do anything social? Not really...I played Mass Effect, A LOT. I should have gone out and done something, but being my slightly anti-social self, I declined doing any such thing!

Megan and I went to a Super Bowl party in Haggeman and I ate a TON of food. I was soooo hungry, and watching football didn't help. I cheered for the Steelers. Why? Because I dislike the Packers (mostly on principle, because my roommate adores them), but regardless, I actually attempted to care about football. It was pretty fun watching it with a bunch of people. But I can't see myself ever just watching it myself.

I got this book a few weeks ago that I am currently skimming through (for the umpteenth time since it arrived at my room), and I can't stop reading it. The book is called "Hero" by Perry Moore. This guy is the producer of the Chronicles of Narnia movies, is that cool or what?

Anyways, the book is about this kid, named Thom Creed. He lives in a universe that is almost like someone smashed DC and Marvel Comics together and created some sort of super-mega-foxy-awesome-hot universe where there are tons of superheroes. Don't get me wrong, I've always had a superhero fan standing. But this book has pushed it beyond normal. Thom, the main character, plays basketball, and has the ability to heal people he touches. But, he also is gay. Now, in this universe, gay superheroes are unheard of. He's still in the closet, but as the book goes on, he eventually comes out and is removed from the League. It also forces him to have various confrontations with his dad, a former superhero who is now retired, and is a homophobe.

I'm not going to spoil the end, but this book seriously hits home. I've had plenty of confrontations with my dad, and even though he and I love each other, there are plenty of points where I feel like I want to punch him in the face or something. But parents do that, they irritate the hell out of their children, but we still love them anyways.

This book has also hit home in the fact that there are NOT a lot of gay superheroes. In fact, Perry Moore has a list on his website of all of the gay superheroes in existence, and there are not a lot of mainstream ones. The ones that are have horrible things happen to them, or eventually become straight. It's a manipulation of the comic book industry that discriminates against the LGBT community. Honestly, it's disgusting the fact that the LGBT community has been mistreated so in the comics.

So, I've started writing about gay superheroes, not mainstream ones, ones of my own creation. I'm determined that there should be more mainstream gay culture, which includes comic books and superheroes. We shouldn't have to hide in the closet ever in real life, but hiding in the closet AND hiding a secret identity, isn't that a little much to ask?

DEATH STORM 2011 (Otherwise known as a rather cold Tuesday)

So, as I wait to go to the Phi Mu Alpha meeting, I ponder why meteorologists feel the need to make a huge deal out of every weather event in existence. In the beginning of winter "OMG WE'RE GOING TO HAVE, LIKE, 30000000000 INCHES OF SNOW! THE WORLD'S GONNA END!!!!"

...and that's when we end up having an inch of snow.

But, if tomorrow does turn out to be as bad as they say it will be, it seems like it might be a pretty good idea to not have school (here's hoping...).

Anyways, enough about the awful weather. I had a pretty good day today. Stayed inside (mostly), I went to class, went to quartet, went to practice, you know, all that good stuff. The food in Piazza was awful today. I'm not sure if they're running out of ideas/ingredients/plausible meal choices...but it was just not pleasant. I mean, come on, tonight they had a decent dinner set. Awesome. At lunch? They had...six different directions of junk. It wasn't pretty. Just saying.

Gender Studies was interesting today. We talked about six different ways that women are assimilated into masculine words! And there was a rather amusing argument where one girl decided that she should announce that the 'n' word apparently was defined as a 'stupid person' in the dictionary, and if we simply stated that we were using the dictionary definition, it would be okay for people to use it in conversations. Yeah...that didn't go so well. A guy sitting a few rows ahead of her started arguing with her, and made a very valid point: all words have history, and all words have power. The power and history of that particular word is too strong for one to even THINK about using it in a conversation. I mean, come on, really? That's not a good word period.

Anyways, it was rather interesting to think about how women are degraded through the use of words like "ladies" or "girls", because in a sense, they are demeaning the women by purposing them as inferior to men. If you call a fully grown man a boy, you will probably get punched in the face. It's an insult. But people assume that it is correct to call women that. Gender-stereotyping in language is a terrible thing!

Quartet practice was interesting, as we spent about the first ten minutes of rehearsal waiting for the cellist to show up. I plunked out some Spring Awakening (although I can only play about 10 bars of Whispering (before I epic fail at playing piano). I also did some practicing with the stuff Tori talked about yesterday. Yay!

Anyways, I also got to spend a lovely two hours not having to do anything before Quartet. It was fabulous. I got to like, breath. You know, that necessary life thing? Yeah.

UPs and DOWNs time!!!!

UPs
- I got to listen to copious amounts of Spring Awakening today.
- Phi Mu Alpha meeting tonight!
- Good piano practicing today.

DOWNs
- I didn't get to see my Madeline today. :(
- It's freaking cold as hell outside.
- None of my classes were canceled today. 
- Food in Piazza sucked.

So, lesson of the day? Be careful of the words you use. They are potent, and even if you don't think they are particularly powerful, it doesn't mean that you should use them. 

Off to my meeting. S'later all!