*Squeek*

Every summer of my life a terrible thing happens; what ever it was that I was doing musically for the rest of the school year, be it theater, youth symphony, choir, whatever, it stops. In a way this is a relief. Whatever I do, I always end up leaving out and neglecting part of my musical interests. Some years I did a lot of violin and not singing, sometimes it's all musical theater and no Church music to be heard. So when summer starts I dust off whatever it was that got left out and play around with it on my own for a few weeks of summer. It's nice to have time for variety. So this year, and for the last few years, actually, my poor violin had been sadly attention starved.

When we had our floors refinished all our bigger instruments, the guitars mostly, got hauled down to my parents room and we never bothered to bring them back up. My fiddle was down there with them and the other day mom cleaned her room and brought them all up and left them in the living room for us to deal with. So I was innocently typing on the computer (okay, I'll admit it, I was probably on Facebook) when I heard my violin calling me. It was calling for help cause my six year old sister had it and was... I don't know what she was trying to do with it but it sounded desperate. I ended up clipping my finger nails and spending about an hours quality time with my old four stringed friend. Boy, three years of not practicing sure don't do anything for your tone. It doesn't help your memory either. I couldn't even remember my favorite Suzuki standards. I knew that would happen. But it was still sad. So here I am complaining about my own failure to practice.

So that's why there has been all that violin music playing here. I'm going through withdrawal. I get opera arias stuck in my head and get chills when someone sings really well and I'm sure there is nothing quite as beautiful as my favorite motets by Byrd. Then I find myself at a symphony concert featuring Sarah Chang and I'm totally hypnotized, hardly breathing. *sigh* Someday I'll have time to be a singer and a violinist. I feel like Sam; always torn in two.

Dang, I missed it!

Better late then never.

Happy birthday to... um... me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear
SPLATness!

This blog was officially a year old on June 7th but since I was in Malibu on the seventh I didn't even notice. This is the seventy-second post, by the way. Seventy-two pointless bits of nonsense! Cheers! *dances*

The mystery of the missing blogger.

Where is Zita Louise?

I don't really know. She's in la la land I guess. ^Z. L. in La La Land. Okay, under a parachute, same thing.

There is this giant stack of books, a long list of silly things to do, a swimsuit and beach towel, a tennis racket, some hiking boots, colored pencils, a piano, lots of song books, a few movies and a baby brother between her and the computer.

Okay, in reality this is what I have been doing that has kept me from posting.

Mostly the books but also the little brother.

He has a way of monopolizing my time.

All I need is *mublesomthingaboutkissingmumble* and music, Music, MUSIC!

It's been a long, full week. So I'm going to rant about it now. I guess I shouldn't use the word 'rant,' cause that kind of implies that I'm angry about it. Wouldn't want to give that impression. I tend to use that word to mean that I have a lot of thoughts on the subject in my head and they are going to be spilled all over the place and probably not in anything like a logical fashion. I don't know what you would call that if it's not ranting. It's too late to think of good words. In any case, I don't think I'm capable of doing this sort of 'ranting' out loud (and my sisters would get sick of it and stubbornly change the subject) so I put it on the blog.

For those of you who don't know, I was at an a cappella sacred music symposium at Peperdine University. Let's see if I can find a link... There we go. The Ascending Voice

Peperdine is a Christian university; Church of Christ by denomination. I didn't know anything about the Church of Christ. Apparently they have a long standing tradition of using only a cappella music in their worship. So they put on this symposium to celebrate this tradition and invited some other faith traditions to come and share their love of a cappella. So the Gregorian Schola got to go and me with them.

The Schola being respectable musicians And in proper concert formation in our starched white robes. Who would guess we are capable of so much Dufay? Don't be fooled by the innocent looks.

I have always loved singing with people more than anything in the world. It's never mattered much what we sing or how we were accompanied as long as I got to blend my voice with someone else's. This is still true but now I can say that a cappella music is my favorite. This week was Amazing.

There were all sorts of choirs and little groups who came and sang throughout each day and panels and presentations and workshops in between. The presentations were great and I learned all sorts of interesting things but the performances were my favorite part. There was not a single group that I didn't enjoy but I tend to gravitate
towards the simpler music. I enjoyed the really polished, complex music like a grommet meal but I really prefer the spirituals and simple harmonizations for everyday wear and tear. I guess that's cause I've been raised on so much folk music and the like.

The 'schola gang.' Don't we look fierce? Wouldn't want to meet us in a dark alley would you. We might sing Terra Tremuit at you or something.

Our concert went really well. We have worked hard on it since November. When we practiced together in the common room of our dorm for the first time since school got out I think we were a bit nervous cause our end of the year concert was recorded and we had all heard that it was not particularly brilliant. So we started working really hard and things started to click. We did a months worth of singing together in about three days and we went from sounding okay to sounding quite lovely in most places and pretty darn good everywhere else. I really wish I could hear or see a recording. I personally was not at my best cause I was quite sick a few hours before we sang. Someone must have been praying cause I recovered very quickly. That's an other story. But I did alright, I think. I have grown SO much as a singer in the last year it amazes me. I'm amazed at my own musical brilliance. Just kidding. I have a long way to go but Dr. Ed has picked on me enough this year for me to hear a significant difference. Now, if I only I can keep it up...

Under all this excitement was a bitter sweetness cause we knew that our director Dr. Ed was leaving and probably not coming back. This was his last concert with us. We were at the air port home at last and suddenly he was getting in his car and driving away and I realized that that was good bye for a very long time. Sad.
Dr. Ed
It's up to us students to continue the schola now. The director they hired to replace Ed for the first year is very talented and knowledgeable but it takes some specialized knowledge and skill to direct the schola and not many people have it. There are simply not many people out there with a passion for Gregorian Chant. The fellow we have for the next year is not even Catholic. How do you lead a musical group thats main purpose is to sing at a service you don't understand or believe in? So it's all up to us. What big shoes to fill! And we will just miss Ed for his own sake of course.

So, it was an amazing week. On top of all the music, Peperdine is a pretty nice place. You have to walk up a lot of hills and stairs but at least we stayed in shape and there were all these deer that pretty much owned the campus. There was a whole family of them that wouldn't let me walk to my dorm one evening. They were stubbornly standing in my path and looking at me as if they were considering getting a camera to take a picture of the strange creature that wondered into their yard as if it owned the place. Okay, my sentences are getting really long. I better stop now.

Ring Bling

My last jewelry class was yesterday and I finished up my ring. If I had had the wax for another week I would have done some more with the band and made it a little less heavy but I am pretty pleased with it in general. I think I may have to take this class again, in the fall perhaps. I was floating when I got home last week cause our teacher asked me if I was interested in wax carving seriously cause she knows a jeweler who is looking to train a new wax carver. She said I had a natural skill for it. Ego Boost! Or maybe she was just being sweet. Mom thinks I should look into it. I sure did have a good time. I definitely want to do some more jewelry work. 3D is incredibly fun to work with.

Oh the cleverness of me.

How many Lord of the Rings geeks like me have done this I wonder. I like to play with charts and things. Pretty colors and all. I was reading the Silmarilion and well...

I get really excited about dead people.

Especially when live people pretend to be them so we can know what they were like. For several years now I have wanted to see the Civil War reenactment but this is the first time I have found out about it in time and had someone who was willing to go with me. The Civil War is my favorite period in American history. There are so many great characters and ideas being tossed around and fought about. Can you imagine what it would be like if the Confederates had won? Scary! But those southerners were Really set on winning. They didn't loose for lack of determination. In fact, some times it's hard to figure out how the south managed to loose. U. S. Grant was brilliant of course, but so were Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Lee sure was licking the North and good for a while there, despite being out numbered and out resourced. Apparently God was for the Union.

I was really impressed with the way the reenactment was set up. As we were driving in there were signs on the side of the road that had dates of great events in American history starting with man landing on the moon and working backwards to the beginning of the Civil War. So it was like you were driving back in time. Then you could walk right into the Union camp. I guess some of the actors actually live there for the weekend! Cook their food over a camp fire and sleep in the tents. They really went all out to make you feel like you were there, seeing it as it happened. The only unrealistic thing was that they would stop to explain things to you.

I got to talk to some Confederates Zouaves (do you know what Zouaves are?) and a guy from the Union navy. The Confederate Cavalry was amazing. I even posted a picture of the Heidi's favorite horse. There were all these little kids in Confederate uniforms drilling each other. They were adorable beyond belief. The little boy leading them was SO In Charge. He's yelling orders and keeping the civilians (us) from getting in the way and waving his little sword around. Very serious in his little Zouaves uniform.
The battle was amazing. I can't describe it. The guys working the cannons were just little blobs from where we were sitting but when the cannon fired the air vibrated so much hit felt like something it us. It would have been much scarier in real life but I guess that's about as close as we get. And who would want to be any closer anyway?

This picture is of the surgical tools they used. They are quite gruesome. The helpful fellow standing there was explaining them to us and showing us some shells found on the battle fields and some balls that would have to be dug out of soldiers. Yikes.

The girl standing on the side was a kind of nurse only not. This was something I had never heard of before. There were women who held the unofficial rank of corporal and were kind of like a mascot for their company. I can't remember the term she used. It sounded something like 'bevondie' or 'vivondea' but I'm not sure and I have no idea how to spell it. Darn French words. She said that the soldiers thought of her like a little sister and she worked as a battle field nurse. She carries a keg of brandy to dull the pain of surgeries. She wears something very close to a regular uniform only with a skirt over top of her pants and a few other more feminine details. She would actually go into battle with them. She didn't carry a weapon but she said that some did for self defense. It was very dishonorable to shoot at a woman so she was relatively safe but I can't help but think of the battle descriptions I have read where the bullets were flying so thick that trees came down. I wonder how much action these women saw. I can't find anything about them on the web. It's most aggravating.

I learned a whole lot and I could have learned a lot more if I had known how. Next year I'm going to be an expert at getting the most out of the experience. I'm going to ask as many questions as possible. Some intelligent ones and some silly ones too if I have to, just get the reenactors talking. Everyone we talked to knew a ton about their part and were just waiting for someone to be interested. So I resolve to be interested next year. I am definitely going to make this an annual event.