Stupid dilemmas with no good answers. There goes my public venting for the day.

I've been watching the world cup nearly non-stop since it opened a week ago. Admittedly, yesterday I only watched half of one game, but other than that I've been watching at least two or three games a day. It's definitely cut into my practice time, but then it only happens once every four years, so I feel no shame. So far, it looks like Argentina may be the team to beat. They came out strong against the Ivory Coast, and then today CRUSHED Serbia/Montenegro 6-0. Admittedly S/M (lol) was the definite underdog, however, all teams in the world cup are made up of world-renowned players, so to win any game 6-0 is quite a feat. Brazil looked decent in its opener, but not great, as did England, and Germany certainly hasn't been winning quite as strongly as expected. Another one to watch is Ecuador. No one gave them much credit coming into the world cup, since they only managed to win games at home to qualify, and home is at high altitude in the Andes, which many people said gave them an unfair home field advantage. Obviously such talk has been put to rest. But tomorrow: tomorrow is the big game for the US team. A loss or even a tie means they are out of the tournament, and Italy is one of teh world's big soccer powers, so it's an uphill battle. Still, if the unthinkable should happen and the US team loses, I can always cheer for Mexico or Ecuador. I never like cheering for the traditional powerhouses, although it's true that England hasn't won a world cup since I believe 1966, so I can always cheer for the safely. Either way, it's been a fun week.
Two days ago I went to play my cello at a rest home for the elderly. I was invited because they saw an article about me in my home town paper, and there happened to be a former music teacher in the home that had suffered a massive stroke around 20 years ago and has been "locked in" ever since. They thought it would be great for him if I'd go down there and play, so of course I agreed (would have anyways). I won't chalk it up as one of my greatest performances. I didn't have a pianist, so working up the requisite amount of rep to fill the time was hard. I tried to pull out the arpeggione sonata (since that sounds ok without piano), and played the first and third movements. The first sounded fine, but the third was of course incredibly rocky. Still, I could actually get through it, which was good enough. I also played the first movement of Kodaly and four movements from the 3rd Bach Suite. I managed to put it all together literally the night before, but it was fun. What I found out after the performance, however, is something I'll definitely keep in my "inspirational moments" folder. The director walked up to me afterward and was talking about the music teacher; she was saying how communicating with him was very difficult, since the only way they could do it was by attaching some sort of sensor to his head and reading his brain waves, which apparently were strong enough to move a mouse cursor to various letters of the alphabet on a screen. So she said they'd be sending me questions/comments from him as he gave them; apparently the stroke only affected his motion, but his hearing and mind are still in top shape. What I found out, however, was that he was clearly over any sort of anger/depression resulting from being in such a state; in fact, they told me he was one of the only ones in the home who actually wantes to be resuscitated if his breathing gives out or somesuch. It gives me hope that someone can be completely at peace, being in a situation such as his. I guess he's hoping that research performed on him will ultimately help others in a similar predicament. I think they're trying to find a way to get his brain waves to generate actual speech, but currently are stuck at getting him to direct a cursor. Still, pretty incredible, I think.

So today, I was having a really good practice day, and was really getting into my playing, when suddenly the bottom of my frog cracked out. I had noticed the pearl inlay was looking a little funny, but I didn't take much notice of it until it cracked in half. I just got it rehaired a few days ago and I'm sure that's the cause, so I'm a little annoyed at the moment. Admittedly it's just the frog, but I'm leaving for New Hampshire in less than two weeks, and I NEED MY BOW! I mean I have a spare, but it's nowhere near as good.
I also finally bought myself some nice electronic equipment for my cello: nice bass amp and a digitech bass effects pedal. Probably the cheapest box that actually allows one to create many different preset effects (as opposed to a simple, one-at-a-time effect distortion pedal), but it's all that I need. Makes my cello sound badass. But to be honest I'm still too put out about my bow to happy about my new toys.

In case any of you still have doubts that our country's administration is completely out of control (OOC!), here's this from Andrew Sullivan's blog. Perhaps the most disquieting bit of news since Abu Ghraib. This virtually GUARANTEES that such horrific incidents will happen in the future, and likely enough with even greater frequency. One can well say "oh, they're just terrorists." Well, when some crazy country invades ours, and then on a random tip from some people who wish us ill, they pick us up off the street and whisk us away to some secret detention facility, again say, "it's just terrorists." Of course there are innocent men being held in these facilities, and of course guilty ones, too. I can well imagine that even the most hard-core proponents of torture as a reliable source of information would blanch (at least I hope) at the thought of torturing an innocent victim of circumstance. This is why torture MUST be banned outright; it reflects terribly on the humanity of our nation, and yes, we are ALL responsible.

On a lighter note, I spent 6 hours today composing. If Break of Reality won't pick up what I'm writing (one never knows), I can always use it for my project in the fall; that assures no riff will go to waste. And my pickup is due to arrive tomorrow. Yay!

Went to see Vicki and Kay's high school senior recital. Vicki is this violist from Madison who's going to Curtis next year. Flawless technique, flawless intonation. I don't even want to imagine how good she'll be in four years. Sigh.
I ordered a cello pickup a few days ago. It cost me an arm and a leg, but I think it's a wise investment. As soon as it arrives, I'm heading out to the local guitar shops to try out some equipment (ie distortion boxes, fx pedals, and amps). Altogether, everything's likely to run me close to $1,000. Still, it seems I'll have a band set up for next year, which is a thrilling prospect for me. I'm not sure what the lineup will be yet; so far the only certain members are myself on cello, my friend on violin (also amplified/distorted), and another friend on either amp'd cello or guitar. On top of that we're hoping to add drums and another guitarist, and then we should be set to create some crazy stuff. I can't wait until we have all the members pulled together, so that I can start writing music.
Last night I went to an absolutely amazing metal show down at this place called The Loft. The Loft was originally a small teen center located just off the capitol square, but then some guy named Lussier decided to donate a large chunk of money, so they moved it to a much larger space. Now it apparently is not only a teen center, but a standard music venue. I remember going to some "battle of the bands" type things there when I was in high school, which was always fun, but I never imagined I'd see a six band metal show there; there were at least 200 people at the show, which means a good 100 didn't get in. Which is too bad, of course, but I'm sure they drew in quite a bit of cash, which is great for a youth center. Necrophagist was headlining, and what a jaw-droppingly amazing performance. And for any of you into progressive rock type music, check out Alarum. They nearly stole the show with their incredible set. I'd never been much into them before, but last night's performance definitely had me singing a different tune.