got some template action in last night. this blog now validates as xhtml 1.0 transitional, i'll have pretty buttons up at some point. (actually, i have a lot of buttons to put up...)
had yet another great lesson yesterday. got a few new etudes, a wienawski caprice, another bloch hebrew-style suite, and some ideas for my senior recital. i know i've said this *cough* a few times, but i love walking out of my lessons feeling optimistic, feeling like something was accomplished. i will miss my teacher, come fall. it's been so nice to have professional teaching, rather than relational, how-do-you-feel, wish-wash. ah well, hopefully the new one will be just as good. heh, it'll be interesting to see what he does with my funny fourth-finger (pinkie, for the unenlightened) funkiness, which my teacher just discovered. i'm a bit double-jointed, so my knuckles have 'catch points'--like the clicks on the volume knob, you can't really set it before or afterwards. to properly place my fourth finger on the fingerboard, i have to twist my wrist rapidly to get the finger to 'lock' in the right position. very strange. every teacher i've had has at first thought i was being anal retentive about vibrato. when they grip my wrist while i play to keep it still, they get a confused look on their faces and say, 'what are you doing with your fourth finger?" eventually, they come to the conclusion that i'll just have to make do as well as i can. i've been dealing with it as long as i've been playing, but it would be nice to find a way around it--i definitely suffer in the agility department.
o right, recital ideas! if i can, i'd like to get me mum and me brother in on the action--i've such a musical family, it'd be a shame to waste the opportunity. my recital is on telemann's birthday (march 14), so it'd be fitting to do something from his portfolio. daniel wanted me to play a paganini duet with him a while ago--tough violin part--so that could be fun too. we'll see.
o while i'm at it, shrek 2 is out. not near the caliber of the first film, but it really is funny. spoofing another well-known movie or dead horse of a cliche every thirty seconds--mask of zorro, lord of the rings, the usual fairy-tale fare, ken dolls, etc. plot was minimal at best, but it's worth a video-store rental. cast includes john cleese, julie andrews, rupert everett, and antonio banderas, along with the usuals.
[how pathetic--i really enjoy writing and designing and modifying and tweaking, but my life just isn't that interesting. have to start topical posts.)