30 Day Lolita Challenge

I saw this post on Millions of Bows for those who want to blog about Lolita stuff but aren't sure what to blog about.  This is the list of topics:

Day 1 – 10 things about your lolita bubble.

Day 2 – 10 things you love in lolita.

Day 3 – 10 things you hate in lolita.

Day 4 – 10 different kinds of food you like.

Day 5 – 10 items from your wishlist.

Day 6 – 10 things you can’t live without in lolita.

Day 7 – 10 people who inspire your lolita style.

Day 8 – 10 songs that inspire you for lolita.

Day 9 – 10 things you will never do in lolita.

Day 10 – What’s in your bag?

Day 11 – One day in your lolita life in pictures.

Day 12 – A picture of yourself before lolita came in to your life.

Day 13 – A picture of your favorite sweets.

Day 14 – A picture of your dream item.

Day 15 – A picture of your last lolita purchase.

Day 16 – Your outfit for the day.

Day 17 – What do you want more then anything right now?

Day 18 – A picture of your favorite lolita style.

Day 19 – What’s in your make-up bag?

Day 20 – A picture of a lolita friend.

Day 21 – Your favorite fictional lolita.

Day 22 – A picture of your room.

Day 23 – A picture of your handwriting.

Day 24 – A picture of you from a meet.

Day 25 – Your favorite lolita themed artwork.

Day 26 – Your Facebook profile picture.

Day 27 – One song that fits your favorite lolita style.

Day 28 – A picture of the perfect lolita location.

Day 29 – A picture of a lolita you would love to meet for real.

Day 30 – A photo of yourself taken today and 3 good things that’s happened over the last 30 days.

Now, I'm not too keen on doing a few of these because some of them seem a little boring, or are things I could literally only write one sentence about.  So I'm not going to post about a picture of my handwriting, or my favourite fictional lolita (everyone's is going to be that chick from Kamikaze Girls anyhow - although now there's Deka Wanko too).

Another thing is that I'm not one of those "lifestyle" lolitas.  I like reading the blags and I like wearing pretty dresses, but I'm not super heavily into the culture and I don't do things like wear false eyelashes or do pincurls.  I like going to the occasional meetup but don't like wearing knee-high socks or nail art.

Despite my shortcomings as a Lolita, this is a good list of things that I can blog about from time to time.  I've edited the list quite a bit, but here are some posts I'm going to try to complete over the next few weeks:

About my lolita bubble (whatever the heck a bubble is)

Things I love and hate in Lolita

Favourite foods

Another wishlist post

Inspirational people

Favourite songs

What’s in my bag?

A picture of my last lolita purchase

Your outfit for the day

A picture of my favorite lolita style

What’s in my make-up bag?

A picture of me from a meet.

 A picture of a person I would love to meet for real.

A lot of this depends on having a good camera or a good friend to take photos for me and - yay - Charles is coming back in 12 days!  Unfortunately, I'm going to be super busy for the few days surrounding his arrival, but that's okay, because he'll be there for me to come home to!  Anyhow he has a good camera and will probably take photos for me because he's a sweetheart.

Yay blogs!  I've been reading other girls' blogs following this list and seems nobody else knows what a "bubble" is either.  Huh.

Music for 18 Musicians

(Photo from the 2004 version)

For the past few months, our ANU Percussion Ensemble (DRUMatiX) and some other ANU instrumentalists have been rehearsing Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich.  We finally performed it today at the Fitters Workshop as the grand finale of the Canberra International Music Festival.

I personally have fond memories associated with Music for 18 Musicians.  It was performed by the DRUMatiX back in 2004 when Charles was in first year and I was still in year 11 (See above photo from GaryFrance.com).  It was in a concert with lots of pieces, and I went to see Charles perform mostly.  He wasn't in 18 Musicians so we could sit and watch it together.  It blew my mind!  That was my first Reich exposure.

It's a piece with lots of instruments: 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones, vibraphone, 4 pianos, 4 singers, 2 bass clarinets, a violin and a cello.  It's a minimalist piece with not much in the way of melody, so I would call it a sound work rather than a regular instrumental piece.  It's exploring the different sounds that the combinations of instruments and harmonies can create, in a very repetitive and mesmerising way.

I was the Xylophone 1 player - that meant I had the easy part of playing on the beat while my friend the Xylo 2 player had to play off the beats.  Difficult for her!

Today it was kind of cold in the venue so I wore my cardigan - but that turned out to be a huge mistake!  I got extremely hot playing and almost died.  I managed to take off my cardigan in a resting part and felt better.  The piece itself went very well indeed!  All the wonky bits went very smoothly.  We got a standing ovation and each got a flower.

The performance was in the Fitters Workshop in Kingston.  There has been a lot of fuss recently in Canberra about that venue, because it is going to be scrapped as a music venue and turned into a gallery or something.  Musicians from all around are throwing hissy fits because they claim that it's a wonderful venue for music, acoustically and visually.  There have been petitions and letters to the paper and blogs and speeches.  I agree that it's okay acoustically (if you're a singer or a solo guitarist or something) but the problems associated with performing there outweigh the benefits.  Charles wrote a great blog about it recently, and I have some thoughts to add to his.

(Fitters Workshop, Kingston.  Basically a barn.)

I've been rehearsing and performing there on and off for over two weeks now.  And I have to say it's one of the more unpleasant places to play in Canberra.  During the day, the sun shines in the giant windows and blinds everyone - players, audience - and also is really hot on whoever it hits.  At night, it becomes super cold and the drums all tighten up. 

All the venue is, is a hall.  Everything else has to be provided - toilets, seating, heating, lighting, ushers, even the stage needs to be brought.  There's no backstage area and no foyer. No toilets, you guys!!

Why do people like it so much?  It's trendy because it's in Kingston, the venue has an arty sort of history, it's next to the Glassworks and the Markets (two very fashionable places to be seen), it's nice to look at, it has free parking, and it's cheap to hire.  Oh, and apparently it has a nice acoustic.  When rehearsing 18 Musicians in the venue, we've been having enormous trouble hearing each other from just metres away.  The sound is good out in the audience, but it's extremely difficult to stay in time.

So in short: today they had a petition to save the Fitter's Workshop and I didn't sign it.

Here is the link to some Photos!  All photos by Greg Marginson.

Me before I took my cardigan off!  I had a hot flush!  But I played very well nevertheless!

Christina Style Evolution! Photo diary.

I used to be an absolute dag.  I didn't care about clothes or appearance at all.  My clothes were all bought for me, and although my mum is extremely stylish, I was fairly stubborn.  I refused to wear skirts or the colour pink.  I just didn't care.  When boys started coming on the scene though (well, the one and only boy) I started to pay more attention to how I looked.  Problem was, I still didn't have much taste!  My favourite item of clothing was a pair green wide-leg trousers with patches on the knees and embroidery on the pocket.  You would never catch me in high heels!

I continued being a total dag for many years.  I had (and still have!) a boyfriend who loved me anyway, and I could scrub up all right if I made an effort.  I had grown some taste in fashion but still didn't put much effort in on a daily basis.  Cardigans and jeans daily.  Gross hair.  Weird t-shirts.

When I went to Japan at the end of 2008, it was a real eye-opener.  There are seriously NO dags in Japan.  When I look at my trip photos, my evolution over those 3 weeks is astounding.  I discovered Lolita, having never really considered it before, and bought my first blouse and skirt from Bodyline (the blouse was so ita I reconstructed it last year, but the skirt is still a winner).  I also bought a buttload of magazines (hair, lolita, regular fashion) and clothes and a really nice winter coat, makeup, plus a couple of pairs of shoes.  I even got a cute haircut with a fringe!  I think that going out every day and seeing how beautifully people were dressed made me want to fit in, that really did it for me.  At home in Canberra it's okay to be a dag!  In Japan it's not done.

So on my return I started trying harder to look good.  I started wearing skirts with tights instead of only jeans, and I kept my hair looking much nicer.  My second trip to Japan really cemented my idea of how to dress well.  I'm not saying that I dress perfectly now, or that my style won't change at all.  It's constantly changing!  All I'm saying is that now I'm way more aware of how I dress and look.  

Here's my style evolution over the last few years in 9 photos!

This is probably from about 2007.  Walking my beautiful dog in a TERRIBLE coord.

Getting off the plane in Japan - our first trip!  End of 2008.

In Akihabara - nice new coat, scarf and haircut.

Home again and trying to make a cute skirt!  Early 2009.  That's my Bodyline shirt pre-modifications.

Japan trip no. 2 at the end of 2009!  At a cafe post-haircut.   I just like the haircuts I get in Japan!

Looks like I bought a beret!  First photo of me in tights and a skirt.

First shopping service purchase - my favourite dress, the Adele Bustier dress.  Early last year my man friend.

Late last year, going to see Bill Bailey.

Early this year in Sweden, wearing my new Milk dress!  Quite a change from the first photo, but more casual than most of my other recent photos.

Well!  This blog is kind of embarrassing!

Mother's Day

Unfortunately on Mother's Day I had a concert and couldn't spend much time with my mum, but this is what I bought her!

My mum is very fond of Royal Albert china.  This particular jug was released as part of the 100 Years of Royal Albert collectors items, and I think the print is called Country Roses.

 Aww it has a little rose on the handle!

You can look at more beautiful Royal Albert and Royal Doulton china here.

Photo from the radio peeps!

Last Thursday, some lovely chaps from ABC Canberra's local radio station came and did some interviewing, recording, and photographing of a rehearsal for the Harrison Organ Concerto.

Here's the link to the page on the Triple 6 website - Clicky!

They took a great photo of me playing my boxes (and a bass drum): 

These are boxes that my dad hand crafted according to instructions in the score.  They took him ages and ages to make!  They are cubes, 21", 16" and 11" (not that I usually use Imperial, but that was the specification).  The striking surface of each cube is a thinner gauge plywood.  It took a lot of calculations and measurements and tricky pre-drilling of holes, but we made them and then my mum varnished them.  Aren't they good?

My dad is the best.

Yay craft!

2 Concerts on Friday!

It was a dark and stormy night... on Friday the 13th...

On Friday the percussion ensemble met at uni at 9am to begin our giant day of concerts.  We had two to perform in the one day - one in the High Court, and one in Albert Hall.

Each concert was to use a giant percussion setup, none of which overlapped at all.  We hired a truck and started packing for the first concert, which needed lots of cymbals, two marimbas, two vibraphones, and a giant tam tam, amongst other things.  We played that first concert with Synergy Percussion, which was fun.  They played a great piece called Good Medicine which I really liked.

After that concert, we packed up all our stuff and shoved on over to Albert Hall.  Gary took some boys in the truck back to uni to get the rest of the gear (sooooo much stuff...) and left us girls to set up what was left.  Eventually everything was there and we set up for the concert.

It sounds so easy when I write it down!  It was super exhausting.

Then we played the concert, with a huge re-set in the middle.  Photos:

 This is the first piece we did, you can juuuust see me in the back there.  This was the Lou Harrison Organ Concerto we played with the amazing organist Calvin Bowman.  It says on the website it was with Synergy, but it was NOT.  Every time it says "DRUMatiX", that's us!

 Next piece: Carmen, as arranged for small string orchestra and percussion ensemble.  More gear!

After the concert, the organiser said "We need to have the stage clear in 20 minutes... there's another concert on" so we had to run around like hairy goats trying to pack everything down.  Then it was back to uni to put everything back!  Two truck trips!

So we eventually got to leave at about 10:30pm after starting at 9am that day.  Long day!  But it was good fun to be with my percussion friends all day!

Lego cake!

My friend had his 21st birthday party the other night and we threw him a surprise party with a Lego theme!  He's really into Lego, which is awesome, because Lego is the BEST TOY EVER.

I was given the task of a Lego birthday cake.  I'd seen a few on the internet which looked amazing, but mostly used fondant icing which I don't like.  So I made do with buttercream icing (sooo delicious - I always make too much on purpose).

First I baked two vanilla cakes - a rectangular loaf cake and a square cake.  I cut them into pieces, after planning it out.  I made a 2x4 block, a square 2x2 block, and two 2x1 blocks.

Here are the bits of cake prior to putting the knobs on.  That pile at the back is my offcuts!

Nobbly bits cut out of cake.  They were a bit uneven but that's what happens when you're not a baker.

Finished product!  Looks a bit homemade, because I had trouble with the icing not wanting to stick to the cake.  But gosh it tasted delicious!

I like making themed birthday cakes!  The birthday person is always so thrilled!

Pics from yesterday's concert!

All photos are by Peter Hislop.

The stage setup.  Pretty cool!

Percussion crew with Peter Sculthorpe.  Bryce Leske, Jonathan Griffiths, me (Christina Hopgood), Peter Sculthorpe, Cary Finlay.

Canberra International Music Festival - Concert 1!

Today I played in the first concert of the Canberra International Music Festival.  It was mostly a choral concert, but one piece had 4 percussion as well.  It was the three first-year boys and me.  My teacher wanted me to be principal percussionist as a learning experience.  I felt like I was their mother.

The piece we were in was Requiem by Peter Sculthorpe, a renowned Australian composer.  It was for a large SATB choir, timpani, 3 percussionists, organ, and didgeridoo.  The choral parts were fairly straightforward - lots of "kyrie eleison" and "sanctus" and stuff.  Percussion parts were nice and easy and we worked them up well in only one rehearsal.

The composer, Peter Sculthorpe, was there for the concert and made a little speech too.  He's a really old lovely man, and quite famous.  My workplace, the ANU Music Library, has so many Sculthorpe scores.  People love it.

As Principal Percussionist (or maybe just as the one with a car) I was the driver for the boys - that meant a lot of driving over the last few days.  I also made sandwiches for them today.  Once, I made a musical suggestion to one of them.  And that's how you be a section leader!

Lots more concerts coming up for the festival too.  On Friday we have 2 big concerts on the same day and then we have another in a couple of weeks.  It means lots of rehearsals and lots of packing and unpacking trucks full of percussion!

Jacket work in progress!

The other week, Vogue patterns were 40% off at Spotlight for VIP members, so mum and I hurried off to have a look!

I intended to buy some of the vintage Vogue patterns but they were all a bit ho-hum.  I ended up getting this pattern for a jacket, dress, pants, and skirt.  Find it online here!

I got it for the jacket, but I also really like the dress!  The pants and skirt are super boring.

I also bought some of the lovely blue tartan fabric you see in the background.  My intention is to make a jacket similar to this Vivienne Westwood one!  In blue, obviously!

It is pretty similar to the pattern!

This is pinning pattern pieces.  I have to be super careful to line up the pattern on the fabric or I'll end up with a weird looking jacket.  A lot of thinking was involved in placement of pattern pieces!

It was long.

I'm terrified to start sewing!  This will be the most complicated project I've ever started.  I have lining, facing, interfacing... gosh!  But I'm looking forward to having a rad jacket!

Concerto is done!

Well last Friday I finally performed my concerto.  Thank goodness it's over!  It was video recorded (unfortunately the video was small and cut out my lovely accompanist!) and I uploaded it to youtube.

It went well!  I did fluff some bits and I did make some bits easier for myself (by taking it at a slightly slower tempo etc.).  But the most important thing is the music, and communicating that to the audience.

More than being just a performance, it was actually an exam worth about 25% of my final Honours mark.  I had three panel members!  I was nervous!

It was really wonderful that so many friends came to see me play.  Even though I feel lonely and sad a lot of the time without Charles, it's a reminder that people do care for me.  I appreciate every member of the audience!  Particularly my old piano teacher, who actually has WHOOPING COUGH and sat right at the back and waved to me from afar so I wouldn't catch it.  Isn't that crazy!

So here's the recording!  I particularly like the second movement, but a lot of people said that they liked the third.  All up it goes for about 24 minutes!

Movement 1 - Water Running in High Mountain:

Movement 2 - Reflections and Dreams:

Movement 3 - Walking on Clouds: