a southern gal in the north

too much happened last week…. a visit from my mom up from Louisiana – my two nephews’ bdays(thu and fri) – off from work to sightsee etc with mom .

Visited Met Museum – Fra Angelico (saw all the originals in Florence but its still a lovely exhibit ) , French Drawings from the British Museum – more on both later.

saw Elaine Stritch Live at the Carlyle (82 ? cant be!) – Andrea Marcovvici at the Algonquin (all Fred Astaire – fabulous!) – Goode and Budapest at Carnegie Hall (incredible energy ) – TWO nights of NYCB (the last SWAN LAKE and a great 3 of 4 Balanchine evening including the fantastic Symphony in C).

and then a birthday party for the two nephews and 14 of their friends and parents on sunday  – and then i crashed last night.

back to a normal schedule this week – except i am so wired i am still up …. got up at 630 am and practiced 2 hours this morning – decided on a new Mozart (YEAH) more later and reviewed Bach. 

NO STUCK KEYS!  yahoo!  more about the piano tuners comments anon.

and now that alarm will be ringing soon so off to snooze

This weekend, I am organizing my study – its been a long time since i had a room dedicated to my office/knitting/sewing/hobbies – the first apt i had in manhattan – on the upper west side on 109th st many years ago when it was TOTALLY UNSAFE for three white girls to leave there – but we were fairly broke – i had the front two rooms of a railroad – the front room i turned into a study with a mirror and ballet barre along one wall and a wall of steel bookcases and then a big butcher block table (which i STILL have) on wheels (thanks to a sweet stagehand at the Met where i was working) and it was great – of course i wasnt knitting then.

The next apt was a studio and then two small tiny one bedrooms – now in this six room railroad – i have a study/studio/office finally – its the last room to do  as you can imagine its the hardest because of all the stuff – paperwork, knitting mags, gardening mags, home improv mags, opera mags, sewing supplies, yarn, yarn and more yarn. and lots of other stuff.

i had ordered some lovely bookcases from Gothic Cabinet Craft and they came sat am.  look great.  my great and lovely carpenter had put up standard/bracket shelves on one wall and we convereted an existing closet by adding shelves and then he built out onto the side of the closet – out to the edge of the room – more shelves – and then an long additional shelf across the front of the room (its one of the interior rooms that has the "hallway" along the outside wall  i have created two interior rooms – a bedroom with a sleeping loft and walkin closet underneath and then this study – by using bookcases i had to create the "fourth wall" so when you look from the front room or the back room down the hallway  you will see bookcases and louvred doors that my carpenter suggested we do – its really very nicely done but it wasnt cheap .  but it will be worth it – i dont see leaving anytime soon – my last apt i was there 15 years and thought i would be there 1! 

anyway, as is my usual method – i spent most of yesterday afternoon rearranging the bookcases so that they would be in the best spot – and i have two lower bookcases which will go under the wall shelves – so now i am in the  "lets figure out where to put everything" 

i was going to put the yarn in baskets on the top of the bookcases but they dont really work well as they are open – so until i buy the rubbermaid storage bins – i will use the boxes they are in now.  cotton will go down into the basement and the wool will stay up here with cedar in them.  i am getting my carpenter back this week to put some boards on the other side of the top of the bookcases to close off that top section and then the plastic bins wont be in view.

i must have been a bear or a kangaroo in a previous life – i love small enclosed spaces.  and usually nest in them very effectively.  i dont know what i would do with a real house with real rooms and lots of space – it would be overwhelming for me i think.  i have lived in such small apts for all my adult life – since i left home after college – dont know if i will ever get a house of my own.  oh well.  this is fine for now – the biggest space i have had on my own.

ok back to work. photos and progress report later!

Yesterday and Tuesday were fraught filled.

Tuesday there was a mini family crisis – with four sisters and various in laws these happen from time to time.   However this one threw me and was pretty upsetting.  Oh well. 

My wonderful carpenter came by right on time as usual and dealt with the wood closet doors taking them off and sawing them – they we’re 10 ft –  so we could dispose of them. Of course now I have an idea of what to do with them.   Probably next week. 

Then late. – really 1030 – Tuesday night Steve the piano repair man came bearing a newly reconstructed lyre. He said they had to basically take it apart and put it together again. Its solid now. He spent some time putting it in place and settling it in.  Unfortunately it was too late to do any tuning but he did UNSTICK those pesky keys – e and f.  And bless him did some adjustments with the dampers.   So it looked very good.

And yesterday I had the first unencumbered practice session in months. Oh joy.  The piano is playing better than it has so far.

The bad news is that he said its not a very good instrument.  And that it never was. His advice is to sell it and get a steinway S model. That’s actually exactly what I want.   And so that means spending around 20K.   Phew. While I know that is appropriate in terms of range, its a big investment. Will have to put up with this one for now. Need to buy a car first.

Have been reading and looking at several Mozart sonatas. Read thru K 457 this morning. Wonderful work and with the fantasia a nice companion. But I wonder how often they are programmed together.

Its between that and the 576.  Ill read thru it tomorrow or Saturday and see what I think.   Sight-reading eats into my twohour practice block.

The allemande is cooing along. Reviewed the first half and started learning the second half.    Reviewed the sinfonia. 

Should look at some schubert or Schumann and another nocturne or maybe start on the etudes.

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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

life is full of problems and i am feeling full up of all of them! 

since i moved to this little village north of NYC, life has been very busy and full of change.  the entire fall flew by so fast i don’t even think i have breathed since the beginning of august when i found the ad for the apt.  now i am tired of change and flux and fixing/solving problems.  there is still much left to do/fix/resolve.  usually i am resilient and can troubleshoot and resolve problems but in the last month it seems as if everywhere i turn things are falling apart, expired or just plain broken.

1. my ipod is dead – this is SO NOT good for many reasons the least being my need to have a music fix each day – if i don’t listen to an opera or piano music or chamber music at least once a day – and this means listening while not doing anything like now i am recording the webcast of Washington Opera’s MAGIC FLUTE while doing a lot of stuff at the computer – anyway, i get very very cranky.  the other problem is that i have NO idea what i had on there – but at least one opera webcast – the unbelievably passionate and heartrending performance from Bayreuth 03 of Walkuere with Dean Smith and Urmana was on it.  heaven only knows what else is on there.   UPDATE – lovely people on the OPERA-SELL list have copies and i will be getting my own again soon!  this performance is one of the most amazing live broadcasts i have ever heard – these two were on FIRE in act one…absolutely incredible.   *

2. i had bought the two year extension care plan but of course APPLE says they don’t have it on record so now i have to find the original receipt – of course i can try to get a copy from COMPUSA – but you can only imagine what that will mean in trying to get someone to do this.and to find my receipt means sorting thru the study/office boxes and files for which i have nowhere to put since i moved   **

3.  the lyre on my new (old) piano is broken – this was discovered in a visit by the new piano repair guys who were recommended by my old NYC piano tuner who doesn’t make house calls to westchester.  and those D^$%d E and F are STILL sticking – making practising and playing EXTREMELY Annoying.   Also in the last visit the guy (named Guy) said the soundboard has a crack (which i see now) and there is TONS TONS of dust in the piano and the action needs regulating. 

so i was really stupid for buying this Chickering baby grand from a friend without checking it out – i realize that i trusted too much and WILL NEVER do it again – but after $3000 already spent i am feeling trapped – the WHOLE point of this move was to give me space and a place for my FIRST piano ever (the family piano was a console so i only had good pianos at school) and here i have probably bought a lemon – and the move was so expensive and fixing the apt etc.  ugh

i really cant afford to spend tons on fixing this up – and supposedly it was rebuilt by Beethoven pianos – i have to get the serial number from the previous tuner and call B and see what they have to say – the current guys say it couldn’t have been rebuilt as there is too much dust – but that they must have just done “surface” work.  anyway, i had a long talk with the head guy and the guy bringing back the lyre (it was taken away before Christmas and is being taken apart and reglued and fixed up) on Tuesday will do an eval and then we can discuss what would be the best next step – if its only regulating the action which is still a couple thousand (YIKES) then I’ll do it and hopefully that will do until i can save up enough to buy something really nice.– who knows when that will be. oh well six months ago i didn’t even have a piano much less a broken one. 

ok.  MAGIC FLUTE is almost over – time for a nice hot bath and a mystery (finally catching up on the PDJames’ that i am behind on – HOLY ORDERS right now). 

**tonight i have ordered three two-drawer filing cabinets to come this week so i can start dealing with the papers/files/etc that are in boxes in the study and in the basement and get some order back to my records, etc.

* i bought a sony psyc (which is the new name for the DISCMAN of old) for very little and it has radio reception built in so now i can have tunes on my commute to and fro nyc – and actually this will be a good chance to re acquaint with all my cds and it plays mp3 cds so i am actually now not in a hurry to deal with the ipod – i have til march 06 on the plan so that gives me a little breather.