Wednesday, March 08, 2006

My day in review

Hours watching DVR: 2 (even less minus commercials)
Hours making reeds: 3 (ta-da! Good ratio today!)
Fingers cut while gouging cane: 1
Hours practicing: 1 (a little Mozart, a little Ravel Sonatine...high G# and A's, baby!)
Number of reeds that work in my box: 1, plus 3 blank oboe reeds and 3 blank EH reeds
Amount of cane that I'm happy with: 0. For those oboists out there: why the heck would Charles Double Reed send those three-piece samples of tube cane, but send twisty crappy cane? Maybe it's just an accurate reflection of what they have in stock. In that case, thanks for being honest! Why would I waste $100+ on a pound of cane when a three piece sample gives me nothing? Alliaud: bad. Rigotti: three pieces out of three tubes. Charles: worse than Alliaud. Not a single piece was straight.
*My apologies to non-oboists for that cane rant.*
Number of husbands in my house: 0. Dave left for Eugene today. He has his primary exam (saxophone) on Friday, his defense next Thursday, and his secondary exam (jazz) next Friday. Phew! What a trip! 10 days is a long time though. Whenever I'm gone, Dave lives off of frozen pizzas. So far, I've had leftovers to sustain me. Whatever shall I do once those are finished??
Pieces of leftover cake: 1
Miles run today: 0 (bad ratio)
Sudoku puzzles: 4
New clothes in the mail: 3! (sweaters from Ann Taylor Loft--yeah!!)
Cats brushed: 1
Equivalent number of cats collected in cat hair off the floor: 3
Phone calls to husband since 1:30pm: 6
Phone calls left tonight: 1 or 2
Planes Dave still has left: 1
Hours of sleep I intend to have tonight: 10 (ambitious, I know!!)

TV update:

Amazing Race. Who I love: BJ & Tyler ("hippies"), Fran & Barry ("old" couple), Ray & Yolanda (young, athletic couple). Who I used to like but now am annoyed with: David & Lori (self-proclaimed "geeks" who tell each other "I love you" about every 5 seconds). Who I can't stand: Eric & Jeremy (brothers who are complete horny jerks), Lake & Michelle (married couple--another typical Southern man's man that they seem to like having on this show), Lisa & Joni (annoying older sisters who, thank God, were eliminated this episode).

American Idol. The men. Who needs to go, pronto: Kevin. Yes, he's a cute little kid. But please stop telling him he's the next sex symbol. Do him a favour, quit patronizing him. Do us a favour, get him off the show. Who else needs to go, soonish: Bucky (ugh), Will (another "cutie", but puh-lease). My favourites in order: Chris (the rocker), Taylor, Ace (the hottie, but he can occasionally sing), Gedeon (the 17-year-old who looks 30--full of himself), Elliott (doesn't have the look and I'm not crazy about his singing...ok, maybe he should go "soonish" as well).

Young and the Restless update: Lily is blackmailing Dru...ah, the cornerstone of every mother-daughter relationship. JT slept with Victoria...when did that age gap close? Mac had a miscarriage...a very unrealistic one. Goes into the hospital with Kevin, grabs a doctor, goes into a room, comes out after the commercial break "Oh, I lost the baby. Let's go home." Phyllis and Nick are still pining for each other. OK. None of us want to see Nick and Sharon split up. Get over it already. Then again, Brad and Sharon? Hot couple possibility.

My dirty dark obsession has been revealed. Daytime television.

OK. Time to get ready for my 10-hour snooze. And to answer those of you who are thinking, "must be nice": yes, it is nice. And I don't feel bad!! Goodnight!

3 comments:

Patty said...

Have you ever tried "straightening" cane? I know that some oboists on the IDRS list have talked about getting cane that is twisted and one player there talked about how he soaks cane and then manages to straighten it out. Others tried it and were amaze that it worked.

I'm a "baby": I don't gouge my own cane. Is that pathetic or what? But hey, if I could find a reed maker I'd even stop making reeds! I'm not proud. About that, anyway.

Jillian Camwell said...

I've heard of straightening cane, but if the cane doesn't already have that quality to it, I think doing that would only weaken the cane and then compromise the rest of the reed making process. I would think that even if you could get it to temporarily straighten, the natural grains would want to return to their original direction. That's why we scrape the way we do in the first place--to make the reed vibrate most efficiently. Sure, straightening the cane "could" work, but when we have so many steps, and we're trying to control so many aspects of this process as possible, why risk it? What do you think?

Patty said...

I'm the World's Worst Reedmaker, so I don't have a clue what I think nor would it be of any value at all! I just know I hate making reeds. Jonathan Dlouhy (sp?) of ... Atlanta, right? ... swears by straightening the cane.

I just think reeds are annoying a curse. That's all! :-)

As I tell my students, "you have two choices: learn to make great reeds or learn to play great on bad reeds."

You can guess what I chose!