memorable words from one musician to other musicians...

i still remember when liz convocated from berklee college of music back in 2002 like it was yesterday. it was a sea (ermm...a small sea in comparison to other universities on account of it being berklee - not everyone can make it in!) of people wearing black graduation gowns with colourful tassles hanging from their caps and the hoods you wear once you've actually graduated. anyway, the year she graduated was also the year that they berklee gave david foster and shirley horn honorary doctorate degrees. i remember when david foster went to give his speech to the graduating class of 2002 he said something that really struck a chord with me. (haha. gotta love the cheese.)

his words of wisdom: don't be a "music snob".

i think that ever since i heard him say that, i've consciously tried to be more open with regards to listening to music in general...i don't want to miss out due to arrogance or stupidity. (i do, however, have my limits: the songs that make my head spin are songs that i just cannot listen to. i've tried many times...i just can't do it.) it's easier to be a snob than to not be one, but really, ultimately it's the music snobs who lose out more than anyone else.

sometimes it's crazy to think of all the music i have yet to be exposed to out there...one step at a time right? ;)

unfortunately my little pretties, we need to wait.

i stand corrected. i checked the dates and ticket times for wicked, and it's coming to toronto again in october/november alright.

october/november of 2006. :(

suddenly, the wicked witch doesn't seem so "wicked" anymore...

after listening to my sister's soundtrack of the broadway musical, Wicked, (it's coming to toronto in october/november! :D) and reading a little bit about the plotline in the CD insert, i discovered that the musical was actually written and composed after gregory maguire's book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

a spin-off of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (which was adapted for the classic film musical "The Wizard of Oz"), the book is pretty much a biography of the wicked witch of the west. from what i could tell from the lyrics in the musical, the whole story is pretty sad. poor elphaba (the wicked witch of the west). :( i was teary eyed from listening to one song on the CD at one point. (okay i admit, i actually cried. :P i'm turning into such a sap. i haven't even seen the musical.) how embassaring. haha.

i really want to to read this book now.

i went as far as looking up its availability at the library but there are a ridiculous amount of holds on this book now...*waaaaah*.

should i wait? or just buy it? hmm, maybe i'll do the next best thing: anyone up for a trip to chapters? ;)

oops, excuse me!

today i had my final exam for the phonetics course i was taking at UT. since i had my exam i basically studied all day, which would have been okay except my allergies (when did i start getting allergies?!) were pretty bad today and i kept sneezing every 2 minutes...

fortunately i was able catch the majority of my sneezes before they happened so i didn't get myself into too much trouble (i.e. making sure there was no food in my mouth before sneezing, making sure i wasn't holding anything that would spill when i sneezed...etc.)

unfortunately i wasn't able to catch every one of my sneezes. the result: my super demented "m". hehehe. i was writing "egressive glottalic airstream" when all of a sudden my sneeze came out of nowhere. oops. heehee. i couldn't help but laugh outloud.

i just added in the tissue mountain because i thought it was funny. a little gross, but funny. :P
______________________

on a completely different note...

my sister is 25! :O heehee. (please excuse the blurry picture, i guess i was a little too excited. haha. :P)

her birthday was technically "yesterday" (June 27) even though it's still "today" to me, because i haven't gone to sleep yet. :P since she has moved back home (she's the "great and totally worthy cause" i was talking about earlier with regards to my cleaning of the house) some of her friends took advantage of that fact and threw her a surprise birthday partay. :) plans got a little sticky with the whole meeting her in the park thing as the mosquitoes were vicious (so i heard), but nevertheless when liz got home she was super surprised, and really that's all that counts. this year there were no tears (heehee, remember?), just laughter and good times all around.

happy (belated) birthday liz! :D

procrastinator me.

the past 24 hours have been crazy; i've been cleaning like a mad person on crack. (haha okay so i exaggerate.) i know i really should have done this earlier instead of waiting until the very last minute...but really what's the fun in that? :P

i generally don't enjoy cleaning, but this time i don't mind as much. why? because it's for a great and totally worthy cause...

more on this later. ;)

www.fredflare.com = most random products ever.

from green bug luggage tags to librarian pins, this website has got it all.

look what i came across...iPOD hoodies!!

hahahha i think they're funny. hhehehehe

i'm not sure how these really stack up to iSkins (or other protection products) in terms of actually being able to protect your iPOD (mm...lemme see, flannel vs. silicon...) but they're really cute! :P

look what else i found on the site! a plush pb+j sandwich!!

so random...haha.

a good mistake?

so i purchased my tsoundcheck tickets today and instead of giving them only $20 for the two tickets, i mistakenly donated an extra $20 to the toronto symphony orchestra. ooooooops. i didn't catch my mistake until i received an e-mail from the tsoundcheck people thanking me for my donation. i'm sure my facial expression must have been an interesting one. hahaha. ah well, at least i'll get a tax receipt, the board of directors will match my donation, and i get an invite for me and friend to watch an open rehearsal during the 2005/2006 season.

oh yah. and i made a donation to the toronto symphony orchestra... ;)

to be completely honest with everyone, i was a little upset with myself for making that mistake, but at least it was for a good cause...geez, i could slap myself right now. i was upset at myself for accidentally making a donation for a good cause. man, i really need to be more giving. donating definitely shouldn't be viewed as a mistake. ooooops. as for my "mistake", i guess it could have been worse; i could have mistakenly donated $200 instead of $20, which i suppose would have been great for the TSO but not so great for myself - i just don't have that kind of money...i'm a student! :P

on a more serious note, i'm actually really looking forward to this concert. we (my mom and i) are going down to roy thompson hall to see the thursday night show featuring music by debussy and ravel, my two favourite french composers. i'm pretty excited...it'll be a good concert for sure. :)

big school, little school.

i'm taking a course at the university of toronto this summer as a visiting student from wilfrid laurier university. oh me oh my, i can't even begin to tell you how different these two school are from each other. here are some observations i've made (they're pretty obvious, but i thought i'd put them in anyway):

- size: UT is massive, Laurier is tiny. (anyone could told you that. :P) for the first time, i actually feel like i'm in a "real" university. hahaha. sad, but true.
- buildings: UT has some really nice historical-looking buildings. laurier on the other hand...i think that the john aird overpass thing has been compared to a firestation, or hospital. either way, that overpass is ugly. some of the newer buildings are nice, but...they're new so they can't really be compared to the old buildings with the ornate architecture and historical value. but i guess laurier itself (est. 1911) isn't even old enough for ANY of the buildings to be considered historic anyway.
- cultural diversity: this is the first time in my whole university career where i haven't been one of the few chinese people in my class. in fact, the majority of my class in chinese. it's kinda refreshing in a wierd way...
- class size: well, it's a summer course so i'm thinking that during the year most classes at UT are bigger than the number of people in my class (there are maybe about 50, maybe a little more?). at laurier (in my year), there are 6 of us (including me) in the music therapy PROGRAM. hahah. enough said.
- the commute: it's a hassle. i like that i live 5 mins (walking) away from campus at laurier. when i leave, i know how long it will take me to get where i'm going. the commute sucks because you're at the mercy of traffic and subway delays...not to mention, walking from the subway stop TO the building you need to go to would probably take at least 5 minutes in itself.

at the end of the day, they are both great respective universities that are each good in their own way; one is a more established, sophisticated and a little cut-throat, while the other more is community centred and small-town-ish...i'll let you decide which one is which. ;)

in any case, education is education and i'm happy for the opportunity to be at either. :)