Jotting down thoughts post-recital. You know, my Ravel-only solo piano/string quartet show filled with an hour of insanely ambitious repertoire.
All posts by ravenguild08
March around Iceland
Iceland. Land of Ice and Fire.
As a subarctic volcanic island, Iceland looks so unreal because its volcanic rock and black sand are contrasted by pristine snow and ice. Everywhere you turn, you can see where the geologically young island is being battered by water in many forms—the ocean, the glaciers, the waterfalls. Moreover, Iceland’s disturbing lack of trees makes it look even more alien. Instead, the land is studded with glaciers, moors, jagged cliffs, eroding mountains, and mossy lava fields. Continue reading March around Iceland
Iceland Tips
I did loads of research for a thorough road trip around Iceland. This is what I’ve got in text form, but contact me and I’ll happily rave about the place. I’m organizing all my photos for a photo book, but I’ll see how that shapes up for a website post.
Tips for Traveling in Iceland
General: Iceland, a land of raw natural attractions, is quite rural but weirdly tourist-friendly with hotels everywhere. It is always cold but not super cold (20s in winter, low 50s in summer), but Icelandic weather is notoriously fickle.
Seasons: High season is May-Aug., filled with lush greens, sheep, midnight sun, and way too many tourists. Winter has a genuine winter wonderland feel, but days are short, and many roads and trails are closed. You can chase aurora (forecaster: http://en.vedur.is/, but I estimate only 25% chance that clouds and solar conditions favor you) and do wintry tours like snowmobiling, dog-sledding, or ice caves, but pursue commercial tours at your own peril. March/April, when I went, is thawing season, so it’s muddy.
Where to go: Read below but also I MADE A THOROUGH MAP. Reykjavik, the only city, is in the southwest. Visit, in order of priority: the south coast, the nearby Golden Circle loop, the western Snæfellsnes peninsula, the northern Mývatn region, the southern highlands (if summer), the distant northwestern Westfjords, the Eastfjords. Reykjavik itself needs only a day at most. Blue Lagoon? If you like luxury spas, then definitely go. However, wading in mining runoff amongst hundreds of tourists in the least Icelandic attraction for $100 was not for me. Continue reading Iceland Tips
Young Ravel: a recital
You probably know that I’m playing a lot of Ravel on piano because I talk about it incessantly. You might’ve even read at about it here in Illusory Standards or Temptation, Dread, and Terror on Piano or #Ravel. Well, guess what: It’s senior recital time, featuring all Ravel! See above for the poster. Continue reading Young Ravel: a recital
To Just See
It’s match week. Read about the residency match system in a previous post Schrödinger’s Match; it features cats. I thought I’d share my personal statement, pasted below.
Today at 11 am, I will find out if I failed to match to my first-year “preliminary” residency or my radiology residency. If I didn’t, my life will be in shambles and I would spend the week frantically vying for leftover slots around the country. Hopefully not. <1% chance, I estimate. Continue reading To Just See
Scallion Pancakes
The ingredients are simple, but man it has taken so many tries to iron out the details in the technique. For honest flaky layers, you need to oil it well. For the right elasticity and structural integrity, you must rest the dough. For the right texture, a steaming step really helps. For uniform scallion distribution, you need to spread them out in a certain way.
Schrödinger’s Match
I assume you know about Schrödinger’s cat, which represents quantum uncertainty by existing simultaneously both dead and alive in its box. The cat will only establish a singular state because it is observed as you open the box.
And as all imminently graduating medical students can tell you, that’s kind of what the national residency matching process feels like. Continue reading Schrödinger’s Match
Illusory Standards
I’ve lost count of how many times recently that I’ve stumbled back into my apartment past 2 am, dazed, tired, hungry, and with sore hands after a three- or five-hour session at the piano. For the last six months I’ve been playing nothing but Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, which makes it, by far, the biggest musical project of my life. Now, I can play it front-to-back from memory, but still I’m so vexed and worn down by this damned piece that frequently I think to myself: “I wish I had a different hobby.”
In its 22-minute expanse, I have an interminable list of details to refine: the smoothness of the cascading double-stops in Ondine, the constancy of the bell in Le gibet, the snappiness of chord pairs in Scarbo, so on. I’m resigned to the fact that I will never play Gaspard precisely no matter how much I practice — it’s just that hard — but now I start to wonder: with these diminishing returns, when should I stop? Continue reading Illusory Standards