Well, it’s been a quiet week in Lake Woe– . . .
Oh no, wait a minute. Not only isn’t that my line, I’m in Wisconsin and the week’s been anything but quiet. Yeah, I finally finished the outline for SHADOWS, the second book in my upcoming ASHES trilogy, but the week has kind of been like this:
Now, neither of those are my cats, but you get the general drift. The house has been kind of busy. Not only has the little stinker sucked up a lot of time and attention–which I expected–I’d forgotten the amount of trouble a two-pound ball of fluff can get into. Nothing’s broken yet and I’ve only had to drag him away from electrical cords ten times instead of twenty (what is it about cords and cats?). After the tenth time, I finally wised up and started using the special stinky spray that keeps cats from doing stupid things like trying to electrocute themselves. But I still haven’t figured out how to keep one of my older ladies out of his food–or him out of theirs. In fact, Hubby says he finds it kind of amazing I can’t outsmart animals with brains the size of a walnut. Which would probably sting if there wasn’t some truth to it.
But the kitten is turning out to be one really cute little guy. In fact, he’s sprawled across my keyboard right now, napping–er, supervising.
And, really, who could resist a little guy who sucks his tummy hair to get to sleep?
Now if I can just figure out how to help my calico. She really belongs to my youngest daughter; they adore each other. Me, the cat only tolerates. Oh, she’s all lovey-lovey when I do what SHE wants–come upstairs, turn on the tap so she can drink from the faucet, play with her favorite feather, lie down so she can sprawl on my chest–but she’s not a buddy. Won’t set a paw in my office unless there’s a vacuum cleaner on somewhere and then it’s mainly to complain.
And, oh boy, does she HATE competition. This cat has despised every other cat who’s wandered through in the last eight years, and she hates the little guy something fierce. Just pitches a fit. The growling, the hissing, the yowling, the attack modes . . . what a drama queen. She’s bad enough that Hubby and I have started calling her The Evil One, Blessed be She. (You have to be Jewish to get it.)
My other girl is pretty mellow. She and the little stinker have gotten to the touching-noses stage and she tolerates him when she’s not ignoring him.
So, that’s kind of been my week: working, chasing the kitten . . . oh, and how could I have forgotten my book launch party? The ladies at the local library have been FABULOUS; I can’t say enough good things about them. These folks always go the extra mile to get books, even if that means buying them knowing that I’ll probably be the only one patron to use them. (Although the head librarian is a little peeved that the librarian in Draw the Dark is, well, kind of a witch. I keep telling her that it’s fiction . . .)
Anyway, the head librarian, Erin, threw the party and it was great. Went on way over time and shut the place down, and everyone walked away with a book. (And, yes–<eye roll>–more than two people showed.)
Honestly, though? I don’t think people came to hear me. I think they came to eat a couple of these scrumptious chocolate cupcakes, courtesy of a very talent local pastry chef who hand-painted every single barn. (And thanks to Jacqueline Houhtman whose cupcake-periodic table made me green enough with envy to try something similar.)
Oh, and yeah: the symphony chorus sang last night. Okay, back up . . . I’m in the local symphony chorus (lyric soprano, and while I might be a bit of a drama queen myself, I’m no diva). The chorus’s big concert for this part of the season won’t be until December when we do our annual Christmas concert, but we helped out the symphony last night with a fun piece: “Bravo Morricone!” arranged by Jonathan Schwabe, a professor at the University of Iowa. If you’ve ever seen one of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, then you’ve heard Ennio Morricone’s work. Recognize this from A Fistful of Dollars?
Schwabe’s piece is based on Morricone’s score for the 1986 film, The Mission. Yeah, the trailer’s a little dated, but this is a great movie, with strong performances by both Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons, and the music’s just so sumptuous.
Anyway, last night marked only the third time Schwabe’s arrangement has been heard, and I think we crushed it, I really do. I’ll have a nice MP3 of the performance as soon as they do the concert CD but, in the meantime, you can listen to a brief snippet here. The clip is the third one down.
Okay, I’m off to play with the kitten (oh, how horrible). I’ll leave you with this recording of the prologue to Boito’s Mefistofele, which we performed in May, 2009. This is a brooding, very atmospheric piece that really blows your hair back. So, if you can get past that tiny little trumpet blat a few measures from the end . . . well, I don’t think we were too shabby: Prologue from Mefistofele
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