Musical Rant #3

Dr. Steve Brule, for your health

She spent over an hour on one movement! It was so very nice to have been invited to the violin section today in orchestra. Man I shouldn't have gone to orchestra at all today. She should have broken us into sections to work on the new bowings. That way the winds and percussion wouldn't have wasted their time sitting there doing nothing. 

It just bothers me that we spend so much time with the violins on one movement when we have yet to even look at the 3rd movement or the ending of the 4th movement. This concert is going to suck, unless we buckle down and work on them. 

It makes me so angry.

Last minute crisis?

A few of the Raiders form the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion

This week I've been playing catchup with a project that I should have completed over winter break. I now have three days to complete my second transcription for my internship from the summer. This past summer a few of my colleagues and myself traveled to the Twin Cities to interview members of the Marine Raiders at one of their reunions. It was a great time, I got to hear some amazing stories from the men that served in the Raiders.

The Marine Raiders Regimental Patch

The one interview that I just finished transcribing the Raider was in from Chippewa Falls. I knew about all the locations that he mentioned in his beginning/youth life. It was pretty darn cool to know exactly where he was talking about when he was talking about where his cemetery plot is and the farm that his grandparents built. When we were done interviewing him, at the ending dinner, I got to chat with him and his daughter and his grandchildren. It was just so amazing that I was able to get to connect on that level.

I just hope that I can complete my second interview by the 1st of March. I know I am totally pressing my luck by waiting to the last minute. But that is just what I do. I'm a last minute type of gal. 

I'm a Hamster!

Image of a hamster

Yesterday instead of dong my homework, like a good student, I spent my evening rearranging my  bedroom, much like a hamster with their cage. I have a new living arrangement and hopefully a new outlook on my semester. 

At my house we have taken in a long term visitor. Kara is not to happy about this new friend. For the next few weeks Cooper will be staying in the house. I hope that they learn to get along. Once that happens living will be much less stressful for the two of them. 

Winter Wonder Land?

A wintery scene 

I went to bed last night thinking that I was going to be going back to Whitewater this morning. Little did I know that I was going to wake up in a snowstorm. I am now stuck up in Chippewa Falls at my parents for the night. I was not planning on this. 

I will soon be moving my history project posts to a different blog due to recent information given to me. Here is a link to follow to get to my history posts in a new blog.

Research Proposal 2.0

WPA poster

Topic:
I intend to study how the New Deal affected families in Wisconsin during 1933 to 1941. I plan on doing this by concentrating on the Works Projects Administration (WPA) in Milwaukee.

Research Question:
The question that is making me interested in this topic is, how did the Works Projects Administration effect families in Milwaukee with the toy loan centers that were created for the children that had parents in WPA programs. What I want to find out about this project is what type of programs the children's' parents were in, and how other families were effected by the toy loan program. The types of answers that I am trying to search for are that the families that were able to participate in the program were able to provide for their families better then those without the program.

Historical Context:
At the same time this was going on President Roosevelt was creating more public programs to help get the country out of the Depression. Also at this time there is military buildups around the world in Europe and Asia.
Historiographical Context:
Historians have not written much on this topic, but what they have written is that the children needed something to help them be children during the hard times of The Depression.

Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Sources:
Conkin, Paul K. The New Deal. ed. 2. Edited by John Hope Franklin and Abraham S. Eisenstadt. Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harlan Davidson Inc, 1975.
This book discusses the different programs that were created by the WPA that helped people escape from the stresses of not working and providing services to other Americans.
Flanagan, Hallie. Arena. Edited by William E. Leuchtenburg. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
This book describes the extreme conditions that citizens were in during the depression and how no matter what was done it was wrong.
McCarthy, Dennis. "Toy loans teaching kids integrity." LA Daily News, October 20, 2008.
This column discusses how the program got started, by shoplifters, and how in LA it is still running smoothly.
Pawasarat, John, Lois M. Quinn, Laura Serebin. Jobs for Workers on Relief in Milwaukee County, 1930-1994. Employment and Training Institute Division of Outreach and Continuing Education Extension, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, February 1995.
This paper discusses the different programs and jobs that the WPA created.
Daryl Webb. "Scooter, Skates, and Dolls: Toys Against Delinquency in Milwaukee." Wisconsin Magazine of History. vol. 87 no.4. (2004) : 2-13.
This article discusses the Toy Loan Project that was created in 1938 to help the children in Milwaukee County get by during the Depression. This project was created to help curb juvenile crime in the county.
Wecter, Dixon. The Age of the Great Depression, 1929-1941. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1948.
How under the WPA the moral of the American citizen grew, there was a new sense of pride.

Annotated Bibliography of Primary Sources:
Chicago WPA workers. "personal Reactions of Assignees to WPA in Chicago." Interviewed by Bristol, Margaret C. Social Service Review (March 1938)
How families were effected by the pay of the WPA and the conditions that they were forced to life in.
Children in Urban America. Play and Leisure Photo Gallery.
http://www.marquette.edu/cuap/gallery/play/pages/Play39.html .
Image of children picking out this toy for the week at a toy loan center.
Children in Urban America. Play and Leisure Photo Gallery.
http://www.marquette.edu/cuap/gallery/play/pages/Play40.html .
Image of a large family picking out their toys.
Children in Urban America. Play and Leisure Photo Gallery.
http://www.marquette.edu/cuap/gallery/play/pages/Play41.html. .
Image of boys in peddle cars and girls with dolls in a toy loan center.
Hopkins, Harry L. The War on Distress. Edited by Howard Zinn. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merril, 1966.
This essay discusses the steps that the government took to help revive the WPA in 1937.
Mason, Alpheus Thomas. Free government in the making: reading in American political thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956.
New Deal Network. Milwaukee WI Toy Loan Project Photo Gallery. http://newdeal.feri.org/library/i_3g_ly.htm .
A collection of eight photographs of one of the first Toy Loan Centers in the United States.
Toy Loan History. Toy Loan, History of the Toy Loan Program.
http://dpss.lacounty.gov/dpss/toyloan/history.cfm .
United States. Work Projects Administration. Milwaukee Toy Loan Centers: 1939-1940 Scrapbook.
This is a collection of newspaper clippings, pictures, and a report about the WPA toy loan centers in Milwaukee.

stress

I have come to realize that I need to keep certain types of people around in my life. These people help me to reduce the stress that I've given myself this year. But I tend to surround myself with stressful people that with their characteristics they give me more stress then one person should ever have.

I came to this conclusion this weekend. This past week I was extremely stressed. I believe it was because of the type of people unloading their drama on me and me letting myself stressed about it. 

I cannot wait for March, for spring break.

emotional base gone hay wired

Under the "Bean" by Grant Park, Chicago IL

My life is a little crazy like this picture appears to be.

I have become an emotional mess. It has been pointed out to me on many occasions. I am either stressed out one day, angry the next, and crying at just about everything. One of my co. workers at Young Auditorium has told me that it it more then likely stress that is making me like this. I agree with him on that, and also that I am a women. We tend to have many mood swings. I just really need to have a vacation that is away from Whitewater. That should make me not stressed about life. 

Scary Ronald McDonald Doll from a Fond du Lac antique mall.

Clowns are supposed to make people happy that is why Ronald is on here. To try to make me happy and not upset with everything.

Music Rant #2

Somedays I wish that professors would start respecting their students and their time. Today in orchestra the conductor worked for about 15 minutes on solo passages in the orchestra while the rest of the sections sat and waited. It was like pulling teeth for the orchestra to stay quite while they weren't being worked with. I wish that she would have either taken all of the soloists in the orchestra and told them work on your solo with your studio professor, or tell the rest of the orchestra to take a break for 15 minutes and keep the soloists for the time. 

Research Proposal version 1.0

This is what I have so far for my research proposal for my history seminar class as of yet. I hope to get the rest of it up on here eventually. 

Children playing with toys supplied to them by the WPA Toy Loan Center

Topic:

I intend to study how the New Deal affected families in Wisconsin during 1933 to 1941. I plan on doing this by concentrating on the Works Projects Administration (WPA) in Milwaukee. 

Research Question:

The question that is making me interested in this topic is, how did the Works Projects Administration effect families in Milwaukee with the toy loan centers that were created for the children that had parents in WPA programs. What I want to find out about this project is what type of programs the children's' parents were in, and how other families were effected by the toy loan program. The types of answers that I am trying to search for are that the families that were able to participate in the program were able to provide for their families better then those without the program. 

Historical Context:

At the same time this was going on President Roosevelt was creating more public programs to help get the country out of the Depression. Also at this time there is military buildups around the world in Europe and Asia. 

String Bass Story #2

This is a scary topic for any orchestra, private lessons teacher, and student. When a string bass falls the world goes silent. In all the years that I've played the bass one has fallen three times. 

The first time a bass has fallen was when I was in seventh or sixth grade. I had just taken one of my middle school's basses home for Winter Break. Whenever I wasn't playing it, I had to put it up on my parents couch. That way the cats wouldn't be able to get at it. Well one day, I had just put it up and walked away from it and it rolled off the couch. I took it out of its case to find that in the bottom bout there was an inch long dent that had cracked its way through. When my parents got it back to school I had to tell my teacher the story of how the bass got damaged. She told me not to worry about it and that it would cost more to fix the bass then it is worth. 

My 2004 Strunal Romanian String Bass at the 2008 Winter Bassfest at UW-Whitewater

My second falling bass story happened when I was in eight grade. There were four bass players in orchestra and only two uprights. To fix the problem the teacher let us switch from playing upright to electric bass every other day. One day when I was on electric bass, us bassists were fooling around while she was working with a different section of the orchestra. At one point I felt that I needed to push one of my fellow bassist, to bad he was playing upright at the time. He went down with the bass. We both got in BIG TROUBLE. We both lost 20 points for the quarter. Good thing extra credit was easy to get. I ended up going to two concerts that quarter and made up for the damage that I created. 

My third story occurred my sophomore year in college. I was leaving the bass storage room in the basement of the Center of the Arts building to go up to my end of the semester jury. I had my bass, stool, music, and bow in hand, all out of their cases. I made it a few yards away from the bass storage room, and I put my foot down a little unbalanced. I fell with everything!  I know there were people practicing in the practice rooms that I fell in front of, but no one came to see what the large noise was that had just occurred in the hallway. I was pinned under my bass with music thrown around the hall. My bow was by my side and stool was up against the wall. It must have been some great sight to see. Eventually I was able to get up off the floor and collect my things. I then continued my journey up to the main floor of the arts building to perform my jury with only a few bruises and no damage to my bass. 

I hope that in my upcoming years of bass playing that there are very few stories to add to this collection of mine. 

Happy Playing.

falling to a side

An unbalanced cart

For some reason I've been getting unreasonably angry about silly things that normally wouldn't bother me. I have been out of balance and need to get back into the swing of things. For this to happen I need a few things to happen.

1) the sun needs to stay out longer

2) spend at least an hour outside a day

3) walk more drive less

4) get my school work done with time to spare

5) workless, but have money to survive on

6) play with Kara more

7) cook and bake more

8) move out of my apartment

9) my apartment needs to be clean for more then one day

Once these things happen I will finally be balanced.

Music rehearsal rant #1

Me in a music museum in Venice this past summer

Today was one of the worst sectional I've been at for a while. What was meant to have been a brass and string section turned to being a violin, brass, and solos sectional. The other sections of the sectional did not get much of a chance to play until the last few minutes of the class. She even found it fitting to give us a 15 minute lecture about how we need to not talk once she put the baton down. It would have been more fitting if our limited sectional time. The basses could have been excused from class for the first half.  

Where is the daylight?

I don't remember where I took this from. It is from the bottom of Donatello's Bronze "David."

This is how I feel days.

Where are these long days coming from? I would have thought that by taking 12 credits I would have short days on campus and would be able to be at home more. Boy was I wrong. Today started at 6am with my alarm followed by 8am class with 930 work until 230pm. Lunch. 3:45 rolled around then it was time for orchestra until 525pm. Dinner. 700 usher recital until ? 900 Delta Omicron meeting until ? followed by reading for tomorrows class and finally bed.

Don't get me wrong I do enjoy being busy but I woudl like to be able to get to my class work before 10pmish. More then likly I'll get to it around 11om.

Tomorrow is going to be a little better because I start with a 215 class that ends at 330 then work from 445pm until 10pm. Sounds like fun.

Happy busy days.

Thanks Phil

Image from Corbis

Thanks a whole lot Phil. You saw your shadow today and that means six more weeks of winter. Way to go. 

I was thinking about silly holidays that we celebrate and this was the main one that I came up with. The other one  being Columbus Day in October, that has fallen out of favor due to racism towards Native Americans.  Back to Groundhog Day, and not the movie, this has to be the oddest and silliest tradition that Americans have. Every year on the 2nd of February Americans and Canadians pull out their respective groundhog to see if Spring will come six weeks earlier. 

According to the Wikipedia article, this tradition goes back to an ancient European weather lore about a badger or bear are in charge of determining the weather. It then goes on to say that the Catholic holiday, Candlemas is pretty close to this too, and the Pagan festival of Imbolc also bears similarities.  

I think this is one of those strange traditions that I will need to partake in eventually. They are all over the country. The closest one in Sun Prairie, WI with Jimmy the Groundhog. If I do get a chance to witness this first hand it better be with Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania. 

Happy six more days.

ACCEPTED!

APPLICATION STATUS

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities welcomes you.

I got into Red Wing! I hope that that means that I got into the program that I want. All that I need to do is send them an Immunization record. I am so excited about this. I was meaning to check on the status of my application, but never got around to it. I am so happy. I can't let anyone take away my happiness that I have right now for this news. I am so excited to get the chance to become a luthier. Now I need to get my butt over there and find a place to live for the next two years! 

String Bass Story #1

From the eleven years that I've played the string bass I have collected a few stories of string basses falling, breaking, and travel tips. 

Picture from hnwhite.com

This story is going to be about how I started playing the bass, and the reasoning behind it.  

When I was in fifth grade the orchestra teacher in the school district came to my school to see if anyone was interested in learning how to play any of the instruments. Later that day when I was at home, I told my parents that I wanted to play the viola. Later that week we went to the music store in Eau Claire to get my instrument. Up until talking to the man behind the counter I thought I was getting a viola. 

My mother said the dreaded phrase, "Do you have any violins?" 

I was heart broken. I gave her one last plea, "But I want to play the viola." 

Her response was just "I should have asked about the bass."

I stuck with the violin until a month into sixth grade when the new orchestra teacher was asking if anyone wanted to learn the string bass. Suddenly, I knew what I needed to do. I raised my hand signifying that I was willing to learn. That was the day that I got back at my mother for not letting me play the viola. 

I continued to play the string bass through middle school, high school, and college. 

Happy Playing.