lately

1. friday: return from paris vers 17h to the states, one large valise m.i.a. with all of my clothes, sauf my beautiful graduation dress and button necklace that matches it perfectly. chinese takeout (string beans and kung pao chicken, 2 of my all-time favorites) and then dropping a few old things in my small suitcase (vide of all the books and music) before hitting the road for pennsylvania.

2. saturday: arrival by car vers midi to oberlin, oh, for the conservatory luncheon. i think many were surprised to see my cropped hair/open smiling face...i dashed down the chicken salad (still quite jetlagged and on a weird meal schedule) before going to meet up with my friends alex and darcy in tappan square.

we did nothing, sauf bavarder et relaxer, in wilder bowl on benches before heading out to clio's for a little reception at the old apartment (316 w. college). everyone was there, all the old dinner party crew - gwen, solon, elisa, stephanie, lilly - plus wendy, of course, and affiliated family members. lots of clio's clan. yummy warm pasta salad with cherry tomatoes and cheese; double gingerbread with crystallized ginger (a personal favorite of mine that clio makes so well); raw veggies and plenty of delicious fresh fruit and juices.

after, the commencement recital part I (meh); swing dance at wilder bowl (free, live band, fun to see and dance w/ brandon ramos and daniel who lives in nyc); dorm room with darcy, chatting about life, just like barcelona/fez!

3. sunday: leisurely morning, breakfast at oberlin market (soundtrack: stevie wonder!!) - chili/ cumin bagel with strawberry jam, chai with milk and honey; shuffling around with kitchen stuff that clio and i decided i would take for my place in new york...

wobc open house for a t-shirt and 2 stickers (one with an old design to replace the one i lost on my green nalgene before leaving for france); chem open house to see all the kids that i missed (zany mia casale and david smith, eben lichtman, rishana cohen, manasi bhate, all my old profs -- ackermann, whelan, elrod, craig)...

then i wandered around a bit before finding (trouver! god, my franglais) some friends to sing with at nuernberger's house. the crew ended up being steve lind (bass), noah horn (tenor), sarah allen (soprano), and zoe weiss (alto/tenor) and me (alto/soprano). we really needed another tenor, but i think he was truly thrilled to have us sing in his living room. it was intimate. i liked it.

caught a ride with noah and relaxed a little in front of gibsons before doing some shopping in town (earrings from the bead store, cards from ginko gallery, another green nalgene [how could i resist?] from dave's army/navy) and grabbing a feve burger (grilled onions and avocado), great lakes beer (local to cleveland), side salad with mango-lime dressing and a side of tots. i didn't finish everything, but it was delicious!!

i was somewhat courted while drinking my beer by these 2 musicians from new york city in town to see their bandmate graduate (they play klezmer music)? i got the business card of the mexican violinist, he sometimes plays gigs on broadway, i thought he might be a good contact? because really that's what it's all about, i think...

met up with the parents for the second part of the commencement recital, in which solon, clio and johanna played the lovely slow movement from the symphony concertante, alice/jon a great xenakis duet (flute/percussion) and stephanie washington sang a stunning rachmaninov set.

4. monday morning: graduation!! i was right behind the lovely sarah allen (who got high honors in neuroscience, p.s.) and received an envelope with nothing in it, sauf a little thing that said "your diplomas will be in the mail" once we receive the appropriate things, blah. but i got to walk anyway, and shake people's hands, and feel like college was actually over. which it is, and that's a little frightening.

back to france?

glittery aftereffects

joyous because i didn't have schenkerian analysis tonight. i left early, grabbed a crêpe sucre on my way down st michel (my flute on my back, after going to my last cat cantin lesson and my final islamic architecture class ), and waited around for 15 or 20 minutes expecting people...and then vaguely remembered my prof had assigned the rest of the class projects and wished me a bon retour aux états-unis last week...

but - some things restent sur mes épaules, unfortunately. the rest of this islam dissert, and something about domaine musicale and the total serialists of the 1950s, i like to wave my hands about it but it has to get written tonight. then pascal's final tomorrow afternoon, is it worth looking at? memorizing a few titles of salient oeuvres? meh, is what i say...things are coming to a rapid close, and like i told him earlier tonight, if i start packing it means i really have to leave. i'm stubborn.

inevitably, mes derniers jours il y a de bon temps en paris. sans doute god's way of saying "stay, martha, stay!"

jeudi vers 22h/salsa-ing/balajo/1o€ cover/anyone who can give up their dignity and shake their collective booty. it's my going away party i'm holding for myself! (encore)

wishing on a star

and so it was bench watching the sun glaze the seine
dizzy with nervous energy this man this voice
unassuming letting the mic pick up the little notes
funny glissandi scales chord progressions interwoven
all his household fights dissipating into beatboxing wars
passing down his incredible lineage cultivating what they had
two rows between bodies into it singing along bopping delighted
long braids clasped behind his head lights creating a dense jungle
light touch of the accordeon player musicians at play
improvisational banter so simple and yet complex incredible ears
pure joy the glee of musical conversation spinning audible threads
imagining bobby mcferrin in the metro on the bus divining up
webs of sound melodies mind constantly humming i do pretty
well til after sundown my heart is still with you
midnight knows it too near the village the peaceful village
where troubles melt like lemon drops thats where you'll find me...

crusty bread, the smack of balsamic vinegar, and honey from the south.

the latter in a thin layer over a carton of yaourt nature (activia, danon, the green one). these are staples of my existence chez cheminal. shoutouts to those who have written me letters, i think i wrote more to you than you did to me. i've been getting writer's cramp lately, filling out neverending paperwork for the abroad program whose credits don't really count for much at oberlin except to say that i did something in paris and taking frantic notes in the cm section sur "les dynasties en inde" so as not to make an ass of myself when i decide it's a good idea to open my mouth and answer one of her questions that she so intimidatingly leaves suspended in the air for 10 or 15 seconds.

warning: the following text is french, because i'm having writer's block in english. ça arrive de temps en temps.

cet après-midi j'ai vu meredith benjamin, finalement, une camarade de cupa (pour manger un crêpe chocolat et prendre un café crème dans un petit café que nous aimons bien sur rue de rivoli et pour discuter la vie d'une parisienne) qui est maintenant en train de finir un dissert de 12 page parce qu'elle part demain à londres! et c'est un jour ferrier demain, alors il n'y a pas beaucoup de bibliothèques ni magasins qui sont ouverts - tant mieux si elle peut le finir ce soir. moi, franchement j'ai complètement peur de commencer mon dissert pour "le monde islamique," parce qu'il y a un article que j'ai trouvé dans le journal muqarnas de 1996 qui était écrit en anglais sur l'architecture de la mosquée à al-azhar. c'est mon sujet, mais il faut dire l'information 1) en français et 2) dans une autre manière. il faut que je trouve un autre traitement de l'histoire de la construction et la renovation de la mosquée, mais il n'y reste pas beaucoup de temps pour le faire...alors, il faut que je sois prudente, et que je ne ressasse pas trop sur ce que je vais laisser ici...

frolicking and trying not to panic

oola...maéva was crying tonight, i think she was absorbing some of my stress...my body is collapsing inward, not so much from the stress but from the utter lack of planning and the fact that the time is just evaporating. how is it that it is 1.15 am on may 15? perry j o'halloran blew his happy british swaggering self through town this weekend, really helped to clear my head but at the same time screw my head on straight. i have this little gnat buzzing in the back of my brain saying "wouldn't you just love love to stay in france, work at cité de la musique and do your doctorate in musicology with michel fischer whose name is so very close to that of a southeast asian history professor i had for a winter term advisor freshman year at oberlin? who did his doctoral thesis on polymodality in the music of messaien?"

...but i digress...he is in strasbourg, i am in the city trying to sweep out my brain of all the extra stressors and distractions. bnf was a success this afternoon, and if the stars are aligned i will wake up, get the right score to xerox from michelet, print everything out, and make it to the sorbonne by 11 am.

see you at the finish line! prance, prance, prance.

bull castration

i added a sticker to my small grey nalgene: a spanish bull, apparently, bought by the roman amphitheatre in arles (provence). the weekend with my parents was fun, if stressful, and yes, i can read a map, quite well actually, even if i'm nul at determining distances.

i saw these pinchers that castrate the bulls, also - ouch, poor things.

suny-purchase next year for my masters with tara helen o'connor (anyone familiar with dawn upshaw's golijov disque "ayre"? she plays on it with the andalusian dogs). i will find people to sing with, and maybe even will get to play with gulia and clio (they'll both be in the city) and frolick the streets with katherine cohn, my longtime something of a soulmate.

jonathan from québec is coming to paris this weekend, as is my friend perry from london from french woods! hooray! i think some good chinese food grâce à ching-min is in order for a group of 5 on saturday...

more soon...plagued by work and thoughts of not leaving...