On Dedication: Types and Degrees

It took passing 2 jocks in fishnets, a guy riding a bike in neon orange short shorts with matching tube socks and pasties, and a girl wearing a shiny dominatrix outfit (as much as a few inch wide straps of pleather can count as an "outfit") complete with chains for me to remember that tonight is Safer Sex Night.

Definition Time! Safer Sex Night is an annual Oberlin celebration of skimpy costumes, loud music, alcohol, and (often) glitter or pleather (because we love the animals). Oberlin students journey to the 'Sco wearing almost nothing in order to celebrate their sexual freedom.

I might add that I was on my way to the library.

It is currently 31 degrees and dropping.

Questions:
Who is more dedicated?
Does Oberlin hold this event in November on purpose?

In other news, I should be working.

I'm not dead.

B is for Bluegrass.

Other things B is for:
-Badass
-B Major
-Blues
-Bass
-Awesome! Wait, no...

I'm not dead. I'm in fact more alive than I've been in a long time. I do, however, fail at updating you about my life. You'll be happy to know (at least I hope so) that the reason I fail at updating you about my life is because it's been so good lately.

Things in My Life That are Good, in no particular order:
-Music
-Friends, bandmates, and friends that are bandmates
-My wonderful pancake-making, hug-giving, sharp-dancing California Honey
-Environment and Society class. Obies, if you have a chance to take this, do.
-Sunshine. Like peekaboo, today I see you, tomorrow it will snow.

Things I know about Hexachordal Combinatoriality:
-My teacher said this word a couple times in music theory class. No one but me snickered.
-This word is too long.
-Bill Monroe didn't know what this was.
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How the Black River Belles Came to Be -OR- We Were Bored
Me: Hey Sara, you ever played fiddle? Wanna start a band?
Sara: Sure.

Winter in Ohio is a terrible thing. Imagine a LOT of snow that doesn't go away, with no footprints in it because it's too miserably cold to go outside. There is no sun, and everyone is bored. This, incidentally is the perfect condition in which to create a band with your girlfriends.

Black River is actually a creek. It thinks it's a river, so everyone humors it. Many things in Northeast Ohio are named after the Black River and several of them are awesome.

Awesome things named after the Black River:
-Black River Cafe
-Black River Antiques
-Black River Lanes (bowling)
-Black River Pirates (Sullivan, OH high school football team)
-Black River Belles.



So my girls and I started a folk/bluegrass band. It makes me very happy.

We are:
Helena Thompson, on vocals, guitar, beauty, and haircuts
Sara Sasaki, on fiddle, vocals, adorableness, wardrobe, and organization
Erin Lobb, on bass, vocals, and bad jokes.

Places You Might See Belles:
-Agave
-The Cat and the Cream
-Tappan Bandstand
-Science Center Atrium
-Cracker Barrel
-J-House
-Outside your window RIGHT NOW! (haha, you looked)

The Belles are good friends with the Outhouse Troubadours. If fact, Belles love Troubadours so much they gave them a bassist...

Wait that's me!

I also joined an established campus band with some really great pickers and singers to serenade the outhouse. It's a lot of fun:

Every now and then I scream "I LOVE MUSIC!" in complete seriousness and sobriety. At least 7 people agree with me.

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Here's a link to download a recording of the April 19th show the Outhouse Troubadours played at the Cat in the Cream (with me on bass!):
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=7b5bd021150ab69391b20cc0d07ba4d2a6f24f56d5aa9e8d

In Other News:
-I got eggs from under a chicken, and they were warm! She pecked at me!
-The tulip trees are beautiful.
-Thunder Over Louisville was last weekend. Daniel stole me an official No Stopping-Special Event sign. I knew I liked that kid.
-It was great to see my family last weekend. Now-back to work!

Illusions

Last night I watched a 3D movie without 3D glasses. The movie was my life. I saw my world in one piece, normal and together. First I was walking alone on a path. As I walked the scenery started to change with increasing rapidness, mostly between different places I've lived or spent a lot of time, like I was inside a television whose channels kept flipping. Sometimes there were other people on the path, but they weren't there for very long.

Then things started to separate. Everything around me dissolved into its double picture the way 3D illusions do when you take off the glasses and look with just your eyes. Everything was doubled, but not just doubled exactly. It was as if there were multiple overlapping versions of the same thing. It was all moving and overlapping and sometimes I could see the insides of things...it was very confusing. Then suddenly I knew. I knew, the way you just know things in dreams without knowing why you know them, that this was the way the world really was. The pieces I glimpsed underneath everything were the real truth, and the togetherness I usually saw was just an illusion.

As I started to surface from my dream this morning I still believed it was real. Before I opened my eyes, I thought I could choose which version I was going to see today.

I couldn't decide.
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I'm writing to you from northern Ohio. It's very cold, and has been snowing persistently for a few days now. Someone, I don't know who, has made an igloo outside my dorm. Maybe they're in there.

I'm in an orchestra this month. We're playing:
Mahler's 1st symphony
Beethoven's 4th piano concerto
Huang Ruo (an Oberlin alum) Hanging Cliffs

Rehearsal is going well, and even our terrifying conductor seems pleased. The Huang Ruo, however, is a disastrous mess of sloppy writing and painful dissonance. Luckily it's a premier, so no one will know whether or not it's really supposed to sound that terrible (it is) and everyone will be afraid to appear old-fashioned by criticizing it. After the disaster that is Hanging Cliffs, however, the remaining audience members are in for a real treat. The Mahler is frightening, glorious, funny, tragic, and heroic at once. The Beethoven concerto is the sort of beautiful that can only be described in musical form, and pianist/professor Angela Cheng gives her interpretation to each listener like a loving gift between intimate friends. If every audience member does not have a musicgasm by the end of this concert it will not be our fault.

I'm enjoying the peace and quiet in my little northern hideaway. I think I probably have a few neighbors left in the dorm, but I haven't seen them. Sara and I have been cooking up plans and rich food, and are very excited about the possibilities once our singer is healthy again and we've bought more buttermilk. The snow is more pristine than it is allowed to be when 3000+ people live and work here, and the top layer has crystalized and reflects the sun as I look out my window. My bike is frozen again, but I find I don't need or want to go anywhere that a leasurely walk can't take me. I am quite content, and as always remain

yours,
Erin
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For an amusing video of composer Huang Ruo explaining his Great Vision for "Hanging Cliffs," see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1wqQNVPXY

Conclusions

So I'm trying to decide whether or not today was a good day. As you may know, every decision in my life involves lists. Let's take a moment to compare:

Today Sucked, Winter Sucks, Ohio Sucks, and School Also Sucks (and I Hope Tomorrow Is Better, Though I doubt it):
-It snained, slushed, and hit me with ice balls. And it's cold. And grey.
-I lost my ID card and keys.
-Five minutes before class I remembered to do my Aural Skills homework.
-Music Theory and Aural Skills. Must we really? 9 semesters? Really?
-I have way too much to do and I'm stressed out.
-Freshmen Composition Module Concert.
-I'm nervous about a favor I agreed to do for a friend that involves me being hypnotized in a circus show.
-I didn't get to go to the lecture I really wanted to go to on the neurobiology of decision making.

Today Was Awesome! I Love Going to Oberlin, it's So Pretty and Everyone is So Nice! WOoh Exclamation Points!!1!1!one!!
-Snow!
-Sara found my ID card and keys and gave them back to me.
-Freshmen Composition Module Concert (Eugene played Graham's piece)
-I put together my Halloween costume: I'm going to be a Southern Belle! (I think the fact that I'm just wearing the clothes I wore on Derby day last year/what I wear to every contra dance undermines my protests when Graham and Eugene point out that I am already a Southern Belle.)
-The theatre department had a costume sale.
-I got a package from home! Containing: love. (Also a "Someone in Louisville Loves Me" t-shirt, and candy/baking supplies)
-I have a pumpkin to carve tomorrow!
-Swing Class was awesome, we learned the "rock-step down clap step step snap ba-dum."

When I first wrote these lists, right after aural skills, I was going to conclude that the only conclusions I can draw here are that I am too busy. I've since decided that today was an wonderful day. This is because I am now factoring in some pretty awesome wild cards.

Reasons Why No Matter What Goes Wrong It's All Right:
-You.

To my family back home: Hope things are going well, I miss you, don't worry I'll call soon,
love,
Erin

The Smug Blue Rooster

Last night I met a beautiful Spaniard. Santiago was his name, and I shall never forget his eyes: dark, mysterious- and wide with fear and surprise.

You see I- uh- well... I threw a shoe at him.

It was an accident! I was dancing with the tall red-bearded fellow who always lifts me in the air when we swing, and my shoes kept falling off. I had 2 1/2 beats between my do-si-do and balance-and-swing. I'd planned it during the last allemande: in the next free moment I would gently kick off my shoes to the side of the set and dance the rest barefoot.

No sweat.

Of course anyone who knows me knows I rarely do anything "gently." The thud with which the second shoe hit the wall (three feet from Santiago's beautiful head and about 15 feet from the other shoe) was startlingly audible over the 13 piece band, 60 dancing people's stomps, and frequent raucous "yee-haws!" As Red-Beard lifted me off the ground he laughingly remarked that he'd never had a partner try and kill anyone in the middle of a dance before.

My flush at that moment cannot be attributed entirely to the exercise.

The "kicker" was getting the shoes back. The first was in a corner by the door. The second posed more of a challenge. I made brief eye-contact with my near-victim as I bent to pick up my worn out red flat. Keren is of the oppinion that the next thing I said to Santiago-the-beautiful-spaniard qualifies as a pick-up line. I disagree. You be the judge.

"Sorry about that. You know, I promise I didn't throw a shoe at you to ask you to dance but...would you like to dance?"

That's totally not a pick-up line. Right? Right?!

So we danced. Either Mr. Beautiful-Eyes was traumatized by his near-disfigurement, he has a jealous girlfriend he doesn't want to cross, or he's just naturally very shy (hence his position in a chair in the path of my shoe). Regardless, he was quiet through the last dance, and we ended the night with a rather tame but well coordinated swing.

I laughed all the way home.

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Today I saw a terrible painting by a wonderful painter. The proportions were off, the brushstrokes haphazard, the eyes looked creepily asymmetrical, inhuman and cold, and the light was confusing. My primary reaction: inspiration. If Mary Cassatt, one of my favorite painters, can produce something like this, then I figure it's ok when my paintings are terrible.

I went to the SPEED museum with my mom today. Did you know we have a Chagall there? It's pretty cool too, with the characteristic bright yellow cow, smug blue rooster, and busty bride floating over a red and purple village clutching bright yellow and red flowers. I've never seen a Chagall in anything but books before, and I kinda expected the paint to have more texture. The strokes seemed meticulous and deliberate, not at all what I was expecting. There was also a Cezanne still life of (what else) apples, some Matisse line prints (naked women), a Monet view of a cathedral in Normandy, and a beautiful still life of peaches and raspberries that made me so hungry I had to leave. Overall a successful trip.

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Only two more days till I go to California!

Wish

Today I did not write any papers. I did not work, and I did not make any effort to look nice. I did not go anywhere, I did not put on shoes, and I did not get up early.

I did, however:

• sleep in
• wear my ratty (read: well loved) multicolored, funny-collared paint smock with entertaining silver snaps
• play bass
• eat black raspberry chip ice cream
• wipe Prussian Blue and Yellow Ochre on my legs and smock

Did I mention the part where I LOVE SUMMER?

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Wish
12x16, Acrylics, fingerpaint + brushes
8/5/08
Fender
7x9, acrylics
(for Eugene)
7/21/08
Calm Before The Storm
7x9, acrylics
7/30/08

Sparkles

I’m haphazard about most things, but when it comes to choosing books I am meticulous to the point of obsession. When I go to the bookstore with my mother, she knows me well enough to plan for more hours than seem sensible, and when the critical decision has been made I can always find her patiently engulfed in one of the overstuffed chairs in the history section. For all my careful combing through summaries and frustrated flips through first chapters, though, it seems that somehow the book I need to read always finds me when I need to read it. It’s a very rare favorite that finds me by my own careful choosing. The latest in this string of necessary books only ended up on my bedside table because as I halfheartedly meandered through the overflowing aisle of Book and Music Exchange I happened to see sparkles on the spine (and happened to be intrigued by sparkles, and happened to be feeling impulsive).

The title of the following list was going to be Books That I Needed to Read, Which You Might Also Enjoy For Your Own Personal Reasons, which is a really terrible title and too long anyways. Besides, once I made the list, it was clearly a list of-

Books to Empower (anger, touch, and ignite) Young and Old Women:

• The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
• The Secret Garden, by Frances Burnett
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
• Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (whoever borrowed that from me, I want it back)
• Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
• Girl With the Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier (also Virgin Blue and The Lady and the Unicorn)
• The Painted Kiss, by Elizabeth Hickey-the book that inspired this blog and list. It details the affair of Gustav Klimt (who painted The Kiss and Judith and the Head of Holofernes) and Emilie Floge, as Emilie grows from a naïve young art student to one of the most important independent women in Europe. I’m not done yet. If the ending’s terrible, this entry will be edited. (The ending was a little anticlimactic, but it's still a good read. That's the problem with historical novels I suppose: you already know the ending.)
  

Please add to, rip apart, and denounce this list in comments, and as always, I'm thinking of you.

Yours,
Erin
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Panna Cotta*
(Inspired by St. Antons near the convent in Arrezzo)

3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
4 cups heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
(or approx. 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
1/2 cup sugar
Mixed berries

Satin Chocolate Sauce:
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup hot water

In a small bowl, combine the water and gelatin and let soak about 10 minutes (don't stir). Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, heat the cream, vanilla and sugar to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. As soon as it simmers, turn off the heat and add the gelatin mixture, stirring to dissolve the gelatin. (If the gelatin doesn't completely dissolve after awhile, return the mixture to the heat and warm gently until dissolved.) Pour the mixture into 6 to 8 dessert cups (or muffin cups in a muffin pan..a muffin pan, a muffin pan).
(If you want honey almond panna cotta, fill the bottom of the cups with honey before adding the cream and chilling. The honey ones stay together better if you chill them longer, maybe overnight)

Chill, uncovered, 2 hours.

Satin Chocolate Sauce: In the top half of a double boiler, combine the 2 chocolates over simmering water. Stir constantly until melted, then whisk in the syrup and water without removing the double boiler from the heat. Whisk until smooth and shiny. The sauce can be made up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerated. To rewarm, stir over low heat or heat in a microwave.

To serve , dip the cups in hot water for 10 seconds, then turn the panna cottas out onto dessert plates (or, serve in the cups). Arrange the berries on top and drizzle with the chocolate sauce.

(option: instead of the chocolate sauce put two tsp honey in the bottom of each mold before adding the cream and refrigerating, then top with honey and toasted chopped hazelnuts or almonds.)