Music + Colors

So a couple months ago I found this poll that basically asked musicians if they associated colors with certain music keys and if so, what they were. (This is called synaesthesia, if you were wondering.) Anyway, I found it very interesting because not only do I associate colors with keys, I'm known to plan my recital outfits around the keys that my pieces are in. This is often tricky because I don't want to have to change what I'm wearing, but then I don't want to "clash" with the music. The strongest key/color association I have is E-flat Major/green and F minor/red(dish). (And if we want to be really dorky, those are the keys of the Brahms viola/clarinet sonatas.....) Anyway, the results of the poll have been published. Now, there are no right or wrong answers, but I found it interesting that the colors I picked generally went with the majority, but not always. Here were mine:

E Major - yellow
E-flat Major - green
D Major - blue
D-flat Major - purple
C Major - white
C minor - black

This was REALLY interesting - "the colours shift from red to violet in the rainbow as the keys move from sharp to flat." I had never realized that, yet I always picture scales in my head as rainbows.

Ok, I apologize for the obscene amount of nerd content in this post.

Whoa.

Gobble, gobble.

SO FULL.



Happy Thanksgiving!

Some food for thought.

While driving back from Akron the other night, I got to thinking about how many people travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. Sure, it's meant to be a time for togetherness. But really, when you think about it, most people eat turkey for Thanksgiving and most turkeys are rather large and therefore feed a large number of people. So blame it on the birds, yeah? Then there are turduckens... If you don't know what these are, you should look 'em up. I've never had one myself, but really, I'm ok with only one type of meat. What's funny is Yahoo! had an article about them and then had a link saying "consider tofurkey instead". Honestly, if someone is wanting to have a tri-meat dinner, are they really going to change their mind and cook up some tofu instead? Quite literally, it's:

vs.

Personally, neither look very appetizing, but the tofurkey looks a whole lot better...

"Ich spiele die Bratsche!" "WHAT??"

My last official recital was a year ago today (well, not technically because it was the 19th, but it was a Saturday). I should remember it by hacking through some of that music again. Afterall, since then I've pretty much been practicing ONLY orchestral excerpts... What an awful realization! Maybe I should finally listen to that recital CD just to reassure myself that I can play sonatas and such. Or at least that I "used-to-could"....


Aww, I miss Alicja... I'm pretty sure she probably doesn't miss Cleveland and that LA is suiting her just fine. ;)

Oh, hooray.

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I think I would have freaked out if it said anything other than that (as in more than 1) because I'm pretty sure most people with my last name are related and there aren't any other Jessica's.

By the way, I saw Borat yesterday in Toledo of all places, so I'm content now. It was hilarious, but if you haven't seen it, be prepared for a lot of male nudity....

For some reason, I'm so sleepy today! I guess it's because I ran this morning. Brrr, it's really cold in here. I'm at work (yes, I'm a bad person...judge away!), but am still getting things done because I'm blogging in spurts. Time to stop now, though.

My bedspread is in the dryer.

Haha, wow....I turned pages for a friend's recital tonight, and I'm not in school anymore! Makes me feel useful, I suppose.

It seems like no one has ever seen Ali G and I want to see Borat!! I guess it's not a prerequisite, but it seems like one would appreciate it more... Jill, you've seen Ali G, right? I feel like I had watched some episodes in NY with you and Julianne on her computer... BOOYAKASHA!

Just saw Running With Scissors, and wow, it was a lot more depressing than the book! The book was hilarious, but if you kept in mind that what you were reading actually did happen to the author, it's pretty shocking.

Methinks it's time to wake up my viola. See, it's been sleeping since I tucked it in after its little audition in San Diego. Now I've got to learn some music for Toledo and Akron.

I feel like this blog is a lesson in the use of "it's" and "its". And is it "use" or "usage"? Sometimes I get really paranoid about my grammar.

Ok, I think my bedspread is done now.

Halloweekend! ....and California

Boy, am I glad that it's November, or what! The past couple months have been crazy, and October was no exception. This last week was especially eventful.

First off, a few friends of mine threw a Halloween party last weekend, which was fantastic, of course. However, I was still trying to figure out what to be a few days before. Procrastinating can sometimes be good, but for this instance it was bad because I needed to be practicing a lot and my costume needed to be cheap. Here is where cheap means make-your-own-costume, and that I did! Well, that I tried. To make a long story short, I wanted to be the Green M&M and thought it would just be like making a round pillow, which should be easy. Well....my one and only creation that involved a sewing machine was a sunflower vest I made in my 8th grade Home Ec class. Luckily, Heather (happily!) came to the rescue and helped me with my costume on Thursday night and I must say the end result was quite fabulous!


Here are some pictures from the party. I know I posted them on Facebook, but they got all messed up on there! By the way, click on 'em for the full size.

This is my friend Lauren who is going to Kent with her quartet.
We went to Peabody together!

Here are the Bad Girls reunited...OW!

There's always room for some roommate love.

So we went out after the party, and this is one of
the pictures I took after we got back...

So yes, it was a fun night indeed, and the next morning I got on a flight to San Diego. (Side note: my feet and legs HATED me for wearing those heels all night!) My audition was Monday morning, and I was number 2, as in the second person of the day because I was in the 8:30 group. Lovely... Anyway, I thought I played pretty well because I didn't mess up or anything, but I guess it wasn't perfect since nobody advanced in my group. Oh well. Luckily, I have an aunt and uncle out there, so it was like a mini vacation! They showed me as much of San Diego as they could because it had been 15 years since my last visit there. Let me just say that they certainly fed me well... It was a good time, and the weather was nice. Now I'm back in Cleveland and guess what? It's snowing! :( Here are a couple pictures from CA (more to follow once I get some off my phone):

This is my aunt and me eating Mexican food
and drinking mango margaritas! Yum...

Me in the botanical garden at Balboa Park.

A giant palm tree!

Purdy orchid...

Mango martinis! Such lushes.