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dragonlady7Long after I completed my list of wants-to-haves for family, I am finally realizing things that I truly want and need. This is the problem with doing Christmas shopping as well-- I so seldom buy myself things that when I'm in the frame of mind is when I find things for myself. But of course, that's when I don't have the budget. Oh well. So this is my list of Things I Wasn't Smart Enough To Ask For For Xmas:
1) The first I will share first, because it is something others of you will enjoy. I downloaded a Christmas playlist last year or the year before, and it had an astonishingly beautiful a capella selection by a group called Chanticleer. So I looked them up last night and oh my goodness-- their website has a little "radio" section where you can listen to selections from their latest album.
One of the songs is Ich bin der Welt, by Mahler. I had never heard of this song, but listened to it with interest. The opening didn't do much for me, so I paged away but left the window open and streaming while I did other things.
About halfway through, after a sudden build-up of beautiful that pulled my attention back, there is an absolutely breathtaking very high cascade of notes from a countertenor soprano, and it made me cry, out of nowhere.
I backed up the track and listened again, and same thing.
I have no idea what they're saying, I have no idea what the song is about, and as a dyed-in-the-wool contralto myself I have no particular affinity for the soprano register, but oh my Lord.
So that's an album I need and there's a thing you all should go and listen to, because I don't know what it is but it's beautiful.
The album also includes a version of Gershwin's Summertime, which I wouldn't think I would have enjoyed, but holy shit.
(Relatedly: I was looking up human vocal registers the other day, because a coworker had gone to a voice lesson and confided proudly that he had an octave and a half range and that seemed to me like nothing to be particularly proud of, so I looked up what's normal and I guess that's normal. I tried it in the car [the only place I do any singing anymore-- Z doesn't really like my singing and says I "bellow". :/] and I can do two octaves quite easily, but two and a half involves real concentration. Amazing! I guess most songs just don't span that much so I never really thought about it.)
2) A hair clip from Ficcare. If I recall correctly, I made this selfsame discovery at the same time last year. I need one of these things, but will never spend the $50 on myself. My hair is in a shambles and I am breaking plastic clips daily, but the very idea of hair jewelry...
3) New kneepads. Last night I was trying to make a sharp lateral cut and went over the side of my wheels on the very tight slick floor, and so I landed on the side of my kneepad. Not on the part that has a hard plastic cap. The padding, which covers more area than the plastic cap, has become noticeably thinner over the years I've had the pads. The padding did nothing to protect me, and now I have an enormous bruise on the side of my knee. Nothing is structural, but it was sharply painful, and hampered me for a few laps, which was a problem as it was a timed drill. I am unhappy; I absolutely cannot afford a knee injury. But I can't afford kneepads either. Especially since I just got a similar elbow injury (it is coloring up nicely from the impact sustained a week ago-- I posted a pic to Facebook that doesn't do it justice. It is excruciating-- there's a lot of soft tissue damage in there), and just a week ago today sat and sewed my wristguards back together with shoe-mending-thread. I need a new full set of pads. That's over a hundred bucks. I don't have it.
Ha ha. One of our old cliche phrases on our team is "Take chances! Trust your gear!" meaning that some of the manoevers are difficult and if done improperly mean you'll fall-- the wonderful thing about our sport is that protective gear makes falling less painful. Having gear I can't trust is really, really, really not something I can afford either, not if I want to keep up.
Boo.
4) And of course, a new helmet. I've wanted a new helmet for three years. I'm an idiot and never ask for one.
I'm writing all this down because it's possible I will be given money instead of gifts, since I won't be seeing anyone at all anywhere near Christmas (except Z's family, but we don't really exchange gifts-- this year we're giving one another books), and of course the minute I get money I will forget that there was anything I wanted, and will wind up just buying groceries.
Anyway. Mostly I just wanted to share that first link with you. Holy shit!
1) The first I will share first, because it is something others of you will enjoy. I downloaded a Christmas playlist last year or the year before, and it had an astonishingly beautiful a capella selection by a group called Chanticleer. So I looked them up last night and oh my goodness-- their website has a little "radio" section where you can listen to selections from their latest album.
One of the songs is Ich bin der Welt, by Mahler. I had never heard of this song, but listened to it with interest. The opening didn't do much for me, so I paged away but left the window open and streaming while I did other things.
About halfway through, after a sudden build-up of beautiful that pulled my attention back, there is an absolutely breathtaking very high cascade of notes from a countertenor soprano, and it made me cry, out of nowhere.
I backed up the track and listened again, and same thing.
I have no idea what they're saying, I have no idea what the song is about, and as a dyed-in-the-wool contralto myself I have no particular affinity for the soprano register, but oh my Lord.
So that's an album I need and there's a thing you all should go and listen to, because I don't know what it is but it's beautiful.
The album also includes a version of Gershwin's Summertime, which I wouldn't think I would have enjoyed, but holy shit.
(Relatedly: I was looking up human vocal registers the other day, because a coworker had gone to a voice lesson and confided proudly that he had an octave and a half range and that seemed to me like nothing to be particularly proud of, so I looked up what's normal and I guess that's normal. I tried it in the car [the only place I do any singing anymore-- Z doesn't really like my singing and says I "bellow". :/] and I can do two octaves quite easily, but two and a half involves real concentration. Amazing! I guess most songs just don't span that much so I never really thought about it.)
2) A hair clip from Ficcare. If I recall correctly, I made this selfsame discovery at the same time last year. I need one of these things, but will never spend the $50 on myself. My hair is in a shambles and I am breaking plastic clips daily, but the very idea of hair jewelry...
3) New kneepads. Last night I was trying to make a sharp lateral cut and went over the side of my wheels on the very tight slick floor, and so I landed on the side of my kneepad. Not on the part that has a hard plastic cap. The padding, which covers more area than the plastic cap, has become noticeably thinner over the years I've had the pads. The padding did nothing to protect me, and now I have an enormous bruise on the side of my knee. Nothing is structural, but it was sharply painful, and hampered me for a few laps, which was a problem as it was a timed drill. I am unhappy; I absolutely cannot afford a knee injury. But I can't afford kneepads either. Especially since I just got a similar elbow injury (it is coloring up nicely from the impact sustained a week ago-- I posted a pic to Facebook that doesn't do it justice. It is excruciating-- there's a lot of soft tissue damage in there), and just a week ago today sat and sewed my wristguards back together with shoe-mending-thread. I need a new full set of pads. That's over a hundred bucks. I don't have it.
Ha ha. One of our old cliche phrases on our team is "Take chances! Trust your gear!" meaning that some of the manoevers are difficult and if done improperly mean you'll fall-- the wonderful thing about our sport is that protective gear makes falling less painful. Having gear I can't trust is really, really, really not something I can afford either, not if I want to keep up.
Boo.
4) And of course, a new helmet. I've wanted a new helmet for three years. I'm an idiot and never ask for one.
I'm writing all this down because it's possible I will be given money instead of gifts, since I won't be seeing anyone at all anywhere near Christmas (except Z's family, but we don't really exchange gifts-- this year we're giving one another books), and of course the minute I get money I will forget that there was anything I wanted, and will wind up just buying groceries.
Anyway. Mostly I just wanted to share that first link with you. Holy shit!
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-30 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-30 08:42 pm (UTC)He doesn't like my writing either, which is a shame. But again, I can't take it personally-- he doesn't like any SF or fantasy writers. He's not the biggest fan of the things that I actually consider myself good at. On the whole, that's good, as it indicates that he must find other qualities redeeming, but it does discourage me from practicing the things I like most. I should do something about that but somehow haven't gotten around to finding much of an outlet for either...
no subject
Date: 2009-11-30 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-30 11:03 pm (UTC)I will try to look into it-- thanks for the heads up!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-01 08:07 am (UTC)