Interesting.

Goodbye Jetta! It's been fun, but it's time to move on.


I promise I'll blog more if I end up going to Canada (not counting my chickens before they hatch haha!). Waiting for the last things in the approval process to go through - the tick from U of T to say that they'll accept me!

In any case, uni is starting again and I'm super stoked to be doing subjects with all my silly 4th year friends. Yeah, you guys, you're silly!

- Michael

Wicked.

First post for a while, I know.

I've finally been accepted into UQ exchange hooray! So I now need to fill in more forms (because they're too lazy to share information. Strange, I know...) and get that off to UQabroad by Monday. Lame.

Went and saw Wicked (again!) last night - in Brisbane! Woo! Hooray for the Brisbane arts scene, being able to host such a major musical (they weren't going to come originally, so this is awesome for us).

It was pretty good - particularly the lead roles, which were characterised amazingly and sung (well, with the exception of the lady who couldn't sing but had a lead role). Bert Newton was wonderful (haha, get it?) as the Wizard - he brought so much life into the role.

There were a lot of irritating things about the production, however. Of note were the moments where the orchestra was scored for strings, but of course, all you had were tremolo keyboards, which were being played by pianists who didn't really care about the way tremolo strings sounded. The orchestra sounded really thin - there were parts missing from the full score, particularly a lot of brass chorale writing. There were lots of issues with the sound production - the whole cast were EQ'd incorrectly - you couldn't hear the chorus properly and the two leads were creating destructive interference with each other. Someone's being paid to make sure that things like that don't happen! FIX IT

Also, the flautist couldn't rhythm and couldn't tune his/her piccolo, meaning a lot of the high stuff was laggy and out of tune. Ahh well, I love being a music student.

The orchestra weren't credited anywhere, which was interesting. You'd think that they'd be treated at the same level as the sound production team, but, no...

But still, it made for a very very enjoyable night.

Lame.

University of Toronto is slow.

I am very happy to tell you that you all meet the eligibility criteria of UQ Abroad, so we are intending to accept you into the UQ Abroad program, but the host university that we will be able to nominate you for is not yet determined. The University of Toronto has been a popular host university preference for semester 2, 2011 but there are only limited places available, so we are trying to find alternative host universities for the applicants who are not able to be nominated for the University of Toronto.

So I think I'll just have to hope, and hold my breath....

Who I am.

On one hand, a very old Russian man, who has worked and collaborated with greats such as Rostropovich and Knushevitsky, and on the other hand, me, who is hoping that one day I can do the same. Communicating through the waving of his hand, and single word sentences (recognisable language notwithstanding), he was able to impart his vision of a piece to me, all those years ago.

An ability to speak without words - to empathise and to express without language, is why I chose to do a music degree. To learn to interpret and communicate through something that you do not see or hear directly - I find this to be highly compelling and incredibly powerful.

Music isn't just about something that I study as a hobby. It's a lot more powerful, a lot more integral to the way people live. A lot of people define themselves by what music they listen to, or produce. To be able to study it with an open mind is a great blessing to me - and God has blessed me with the ability to produce and to interpret music.

Am I wasting my time? From a practical point of view, music has absolutely nothing to do with medicine. Music is linked very strongly to that which you cannot define - the soul, the emotion, the psyche of a person. It helps one understand what cannot be taught. In such a way, it's much more beneficial to me than any Science degree could have been.

Studyyyyyy loungeeeee

Everybody!

Get Excited!

Study Lounge is in the works at Coopers Plains Public Library for the year 2011!

:D

www.studylounge.org - check it out!

Canadia

Hello Guys,
It's been a while.

I've just submitted my UQ Abroad application, and I'm stoked because it means there is something which I can aim for in the future. There's so much more world out there, and we are so content to sit in this corner of the world and say that we are doing fine. Canada, here I come - there's lots of leaves to be stomped on and lots of Winter there, so I'm incredibly excited. Nine months to wait now...

I've been contemplating what I'll end up doing, because BMus / MBBS is a ridiculously long career path that will eat up my next decade of my life. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll finish this course, and go to bible school. It's like that feeling I had, back in grade seven, that I'd go and do a dual degree in Music and Medicine. God's made that possible (even though back then it was impossible) and, honestly, I'm not surprised.

If you guys would like to join in, Operation Christmas Child need volunteers at their warehouse! We're going this friday :) so if you'd like to come, meet us there. Their address is Gate 2, 167 Hyde Road, Yeronga. Wear closed in shoes and bring a waterbottle.

- Michael

Creepy Stalker

Well, God has been kind to me, and has allowed me to share my faith with many people lately. Pray pray pray *pray* that it will go well - that God will change their hearts and show them His awesome power and glory :). It's hard, because (as the UQ Music bible study leader says) there are people who you don't want to share the word of God with. Because we are so prideful and so caught up in hating (or liking too much) who they are for us to want them to change.

This sort of attitude has got to stop. Be bold and share your faith, guys. A hundred years is a very very very short time, especially when you go about it a day at a time. If you are living the Christian walk, remember that we're given the commission to go out and make disciples of all nations. In doing that, we proclaim the amazing power of salvation to the world. If we hide behind our inhibitions, we miss the chance to show God's amazing love to people.

Life has been pretty good at the moment (ignoring everything that's happened in the last year and a half) - things like cartown, Dvorak concertos, Shostakovich, AYO excerpts, the Brodsky Quartet, mum coming home, having amazing friends and managing to just keep going.

Prayers to my friend Zoe - who faces a similar dilemma to mine. Pray for healing for her, she needs it way more than I do.

Ravel's String Quartet makes me happy, and I hope it makes you happy as well.
- Michael