CRS results

The gods of CRS have been good to me!

It looks like the College of Science will be my new tambayan this sem.

If all goes according to plan, two out of the five days of the week will be spent like this:

7 - 8:30 am       Nat. Sci. 2

8:30 - 10 am      Nat. Sci. 1

10 - 11:30 am    STS

I'm hoping that our Department will offer MuPC 161: Oratorio Voice Lit. this sem, so I can cut out Nat. Sci. 1 from my schedule.

Hmmmm I wonder which 2 schools I will be teaching in this sem for my MuEd 125 practicum?

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And yet more musical jokes

An old man was playing the fiddle at a barn dance. He was sitting on an old pickle barrel and his pants zipper was unzipped. While playing, the family jewels fell out and were hanging down in the barrel.

 

An old lady observed all of this and felt obligated to tell him what had taken place. She went up to him and said, "Do you know your zipper's unzipped and all of the family jewels are hanging in the pickle barrel"?

 

The old man said, "No lady, but if you can hum it I'll play it".

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Alternative Lyrics to YESTERDAY

Yesterday, All those backups seemed a waste of pay.

Now my database has gone away.

Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, There's not half the files there used to be,

And there's a deadline hanging over me

The system crashed so suddenly.

 

 I pushed something wrong - What it was I could not say.

Now all my data's gone and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

 

Yesterday, The need for backups seemed so far away.

I knew my data was all here to stay.

Now I believe in yesterday.

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Female vocalist asks her keyboard player, "I'd like to do 'My Funny Valentine' tonight... but can you think of a way to 'jazz' it up?"

 

Keyboard player replies, "Sure, we can do the first chorus in G minor, then modulate to G#minor for the second chorus in 5/4 time, then modulate to A minor in 3/4 time for the bridge, then cut off the last 3 bars!"

 

She claims, "that might be too complicated to do without a rehearsal!"

 

Keyboard player responds, "Well, that's how you did it last night!"

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Definitions:

* upbeat: a threat made to singers, i.e. sing, or else....

* crescendo: a reminder to the singer that he has been singing too loudly.

* conductor: a musician who is adept at following many people at the same time.

* transposition: the act of moving the relative pitch of a piece of music that is too low for the basses to a point where it is too high for the sopranos.

* vibrato: used by singers to hide the fact that they are out of tune.

* coloratura soprano: a singer who has great trouble finding the proper note, but who has a wild time hunting for it.

* bar line: a gathering of people, usually among which may be found a musician or two.

* cadence: when everybody hopes you're going to stop, but you don't.

* lamentoso: with handkerchiefs.

* music: a complex organisations of sounds that is set down by the composer, incorrectly interpreted by the conductor, who is ignored by the musicians, the result of which is ignored by the audience.

* treble: women ain't nothin' but.

* bass: the things you run around in rounders.

* clef: what you try never to fall off of.

* major scale: what you say after chasing wild game up a mountain: "Damn! That was a major scale!"

* audition: the act of putting oneself under extreme duress to satisfy the sadistic intentions of someone who has already made up his mind.

* interval: how long it takes to find the right note. There are three kinds:

         1. Major interval: a long time.

         2. Minor interval: a few bars.

         3. Inverted interval: when you have to go back a bar and try again.

* Agnus Dei: a famous female church composer.

* metronome: a city-dwelling dwarf.

A couple of Music Jokes

Note: All the jokes below (except for the last one) were thought of by my friend, Maestro Raymond Sanga... copyright 2005! I posted his jokes in my old blog.

Q: Where is Frederic?
A:  Shoppin' (Chopin)

Q: Where does Johann Sebastian have his birthmark?
A: In the back (Bach)

Q: Where is Joseph?
A: Hidin' (Haydn)

Q: Bakit hindi sumasagot ng telepono si Claude? / Why is Claude not answering the phone?
A: 'de busy (Debussy)

Q: Students of AMA, THEY USE what kind of cheese? (AMADEUS)

A: MOZARTella

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The following joke was told to us by Sir Eudenice Palaruan. (Disclaimer: It's way better when told in person, complete with all the acting & nuances.)

-------------------------

There was a very famous soprano who was singing an important solo accompanied by a full orchestra. The conductor motions for the strings to come in... then the woodwinds...then the brass... and then makes eye contact with the soprano, cueing her for her entrance.

 

Soprano: *looks at music score and sings with a very low, bass-type of voice*

 

Conductor looks up, startled. The other musicians stop playing and stare incredulously at this professional soprano.

 

Being a very kind, open-minded man, the conductor thought to himself, "It's just a fluke. Don't make a big thing out if it."

 

Smiling tightly through his lips, the conductor motions for the strings to come in... then the woodwinds... then the brass...and then looks at the soprano meaningfully, giving her THE CUE waaaay ahead of time in order for her to be able to prepare herself for the first high notes.

 

Soprano: *squints and looks at music score... and belts out low notes worthy of the most bovine cow.*

 

The conductor and musicians stop, shocked & not a little angry.

 

The conductor motions for yet another repeat, sweat forming on his brow. "Again, again," he tells everyone.

 

He motions for the strings to enter... then the winds... then the brass...

 

Soprano enters right on cue, but still sounding like a cow.

 

The conductor moves to her side, gets her music score, and flips it over. Simultaneously, the soprano's voice goes WAY UP! And she FINALLY sings correctly.

------------

Hopefully this makes you guys laugh. *crosses fingers*

Book lover or notebook lover?

I spent more on notebooks than I did for buying books yesterday, during the 1st Ex Libris Philippines Booksale Warehouse Raid aka THE GREAT RAID!

A big THANK YOU to princevogelfrei! He was the one who discovered the fabulous Moleskine notebooks for sale at the back of the warehouse... for a fraction of their original price!

I swear... my heart almost gave out when I found out how much they were being sold for...

all of 140 pesos.

My memory's pretty fuzzy from that moment on... it's all one big blur of desperately searching for more Moleskine 'rejects.' Some big shot had apparently bought a thousand pieces and rejected a few flawed notebooks which the Ex Libris gang fought over. Hehe. Am exaggerating. I don't think anyone went home emptyhanded. Good thing there were still enough notebooks left over for all of us.

I am F-U-L-F-I-L-L-E-D!!!!!

Apart from the notebooks, I managed to buy several bee-ooo-teee-foool children's books (singable ones! hehe), several Fodor's and Frommer's travel guides worth about a hundred each lang, a big book of Dr. Seuss stories, and the Rough Guide to Jazz. 

Great (note)books, great company, and a workout all in one day! Can hardly wait for the next Ex Libris Phil. outing. ;)

Shrek 3, anyone?

I need to work out

I've started doing weights this week. My arms are S-O-R-E!!! *whimper whimper* Is it only my imagination or do they seem less jiggly and more toned? Haha yup it's only my imagination. But seriously... I need to tone 'em up.

Am considering buying: http://www.coresecrets.com/core_secrets/core_secrets.php?pactvid=a0c6388cbb4b04f131d18e1d65da7949

It's 3000 pesos if you buy it from the Home Shopping Network.

Then again, there's the cheaper alternative of JOGGING AROUND THE U.P. ACADEMIC OVAL. I used to do this often with Raymond... ah... the good ol' days. I remember one summer where we did this thrice a week, before our 9 a.m. Soc.Sci 2 summer class.

I have a day off from work next week Thursday. If all goes according to plan, I'll be losing a pound or two. I mean to jog around UP with Raymond early morning., next Thursday. I won't stop even if it hurts (It's going to... I haven't jogged since sem break 2006!).

Later.

Teaching 3 to 6 year olds is fun!

I've been a CASA teacher for one week now. I handle the Creative Music Experiences class for 3 to 6 year olds, one hour a day, everyday. Being amongst the little ones is such an enjoyable experience!! They are so innocent and affectionate, not to mention so adorable and cute. True, they can be noisy. But then, "Noisy kids are smart kids," I always say!

They take such joy in doing the littlest things, and squeal in delight over the simplest songs and games. They're so excited about everything. I feel so jaded and old next to them! I emerge from these music lessons tired but happy. The secret to eternal youth, I find, is teaching youngsters.

My schedule nowadays is as follows:

6 a.m. Breakfast with the family

7 a.m. Leave the house with the parents

8 a.m. Teach Voice

10 a.m. My Creative Musical Experiences class 

11 a.m. Teach Voice / Pass on to the other teachers what I know about Kodaly Method... and a bit of Musicianship also

12:30. Lunch with the parents

1 p.m. Quick nap

2 p.m. Plan for the next day's lessons

5 p.m. Leave the school. We sometimes go malling and have merienda, as a family. BONDING!! :)

8 p.m. Dinner with the family

9 p.m. Finalize lesson plans/ Make visual aids/materials for the next day's lesson/ Practice the piano accompaniment for my voice students' pieces

10 p.m. Goodnight world!

Am currently reading SOPHIE'S WORLD. It's a philosophy textbook "masquerading" as a novel, Tata says. No problem with me. Am liking it thus far.

New musical find: LIBERA! It's like a boy band, only it's composed of young boys from the best choirs all over England. Search for them in youtube! You won't regret it, I swear.

Tata's back! My twinnie's back from a week-long retreat in Baguio with the other Ateneo de Manila high school faculty. I missed her terribly. The house was so silent when she was gone.

We're going out tomorrow night to celebrate Tata's return and to watch Jaime in Greenbelt 2. Ooooh... whattowear whattowear whattowear?