Julia, Violinist For Hire

I have a hard time saying "no" when asked to help. I've been trying to recognize my limits, and turn down requests before I committ, and then have to back out several weeks later. Early yesterday, I was congratulating myself for bowing out of Jamestown Community Orchestra's May concert. Next month is completely filled with various events from Mother's Day to a graduation party to a Bachelorette Party. I knew I would be feeling the stress if I tried to cram in an orchestra concert with rehearsals on top of that.

That self-pat-on-the-back lasted mere hours, when I found myself agreeing to play in a concert in Clarion, Pennsylvania on Sunday. Instead of leasurily making plans for the weekend, I'm now frantically planning out when I'll go grocery shopping, when I should practice (since I just got the music last night), and what other chores I'll be able to accomplish tonight and tomorrow. I think I do this to myself because of the challenge of playing a concert of music I've never seen or heard before. An added bonus is that it's a paid gig, but that's not as important to me.

Another downside? I'm getting a ride to the concert with the woman who organizes the Warren Riverside Players, a chamber orchestra. She got me to commit earlier in the year to playing in their summer concert. I was considering backing out of that since we haven't started rehearsals, but I think she might hunt me down if I tried to now.

A sidenote: All this performing is pretty appropriate considering I will have been a Violinist for 20 years this August.

And Julia Goes Nuts!!

Holy Crap! What an AWESOME Sabres game tonight! I dvr-ed it so that Matt could see it all since he had to work for the first half of the game. So by goal number 6 (Six!!), I was on the phone to Rochester to share my excitement with my dad. "This is amazing!" we yelled. "JP had a hat trick!! Pominville got a goal!" I have to admit I felt bad for Philly Goalie Esche after he lost it in the first period. You don't usually see goalies skating all the way into the neutral zone to fight. And two hat tricks in one night! What a difference from Saturday's game, when I knawed on my nails through two over-time periods. Our poor dogs though. Each of the EIGHT times we scored, I scared the crap out of them as I yelled and pumped my fist in the air. Buddy would jump off the couch and Zak would spin around to see what was wrong.

I'll add that it's probably blasphemy that I read and finished the new Hamish MacBeth mystery... while watching the game. But I like to multi-task my entertainment sometimes.

Adaptation

This has a meme-ish ring to it, but Kottke.org's post on the 50 best book to film adaptations caught my eye. My personal favorite for book to film adaptations is The Age of Innocence. The book by Edith Wharton was handled with care in the adaptation done by Martin Scorsese.

For the list below, B=Read the Book, M=Saw the Movie. Note that if it involved blood/shooting/violence, or any of that happy stuff, I probably have not read or seen it. That is, unless it was required for AP English (Heart of Darkness). Sadly, I apparently am not into the habit of reading the book before the movie.

1. (B) 1984
2. (M) Alice in Wonderland
3. American Psycho
4. (M) Breakfast at Tiffany's
5. Brighton Rock
6. Catch 22
7. (BM) Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
8. A Clockwork Orange
9. [BM] Close Range (inc Brokeback Mountain)
10. The Day of the Triffids
11. Devil in a Blue Dress
12. (M) Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption)
13. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
14. Doctor Zhivago
15. (M) Empire of the Sun
16. The English Patient
17. Fight Club
18. The French Lieutenant's Woman
19. (M) Get Shorty
20. The Godfather
21. Goldfinger
22. Goodfellas
23. (B) Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)
24. The Hound of the Baskervilles
25. Jaws
26. (M) The Jungle Book
27. A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)
28. (M) LA Confidential
29. (M) Les Liaisons Dangereuses
30. Lolita
31. (M) Lord of the Flies
32. The Maltese Falcon
33. Oliver Twist
34. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
35. (M) Orlando
36. The Outsiders
37. (M) Pride and Prejudice
38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
39. The Railway Children
40. Rebecca
41. (M) The Remains of the Day
42. (M) Schindler's Ark (aka Schindler's List)
43. Sin City
44. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
45. The Talented Mr Ripley
46. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
47. Through a Glass Darkly
48. (M) To Kill a Mockingbird
49. (M) Trainspotting
50. The Vanishing
51. (M) Watership Down

Happy Dyngus Day!

In honor of the day after Easter, I invite you to all sing this song parody about Dyngus Day (HT: Alan).

And on a "serious" note. Apparently, bird flu has come to Cheektowaga, NY.

Avoiding the Crows

With Easter only four days away, I've started to mildly panic about what I'm going to wear. In my family, we have a saying that "if you're not wearing something new on Easter, the crows will shit on you."







I have a skirt I've never worn that I bought at the end of summer for $3 or something. Now the search for a pretty, white blouse or shirt begins. I plan to hit the mall tomorrow right after work. I've also given myself a mission to find open-toe, white, sling-back shoes. That might be the harder of the two tasks.

Along the clothesline, I also have begun looking at bridesmaid dresses. Unless something has changed, I get to pick out my own bridesmaid dress for Anne & Sean's wedding. It's not until next year, but I decided I better get re-acquainted with the latest styles now in case something snazzy shows up on the bargain rack. With that last statement, I fear I really have become my mother's daughter.

Tune to 91.3 WBNY For Alumni Weekend!

I have to plug the WBNY Alumni Weekend again for the Buffalo-area readers.

For more details about the big shin dig/fundraiser at Mohawk Place, check out:
Buffalo Rising's article

Art Voice's article
Buffalo New's article that was in Gusto

For all Buffalo's Original Alternative and DJ's of current and past fame,
Tune your Radio to 91.3 FM all weekend long.