looking down

Looking Down

May 2008

My iTunes: Don Quichotte a Dulcinee: Chanson romanesque composed by Maurice Ravel

As promised, I've moved away from the photoshoot pictures. But this is still a shot of yours truly. (I've never had so many pictures of myself -- it makes me feel rather egotistical!) Tomorrow we'll branch out to other subject matter, I promise! I thought it would be fun to just change perspective momentarily.

If you're a people-watcher, you may notice that everyone walks a little differently. Some saunter, some shuffle, others glide. Some look up, some look down, and some can't seem to stop moving their head around. I tend to hear things like, "If you look down when you walk, you're insecure" or other such psycho-analysis. I'm not sure I agree. I think there is something to be said for occasionally looking at where you ARE. In America, everyone is so concerned about where they are GOING that sometimes we forget to live in the moment. We forget our grounding and our roots. We're always moving and never standing still.

This shot reminds me of others I've taken in my travels, usually in museums, and especially those in Europe. Everyone is so busy looking at the artwork, they don't notice the character of the building itself, and no one ever notices the floor! But the floor often has a lot of character. I think the floor in the Vatican museums is my favorite -- it's all tilework, some imported from Ostia Antica. Maybe I'll dig up one of those pictures.

I took this picture a couple weeks ago when I was in Romeo et Juliette with the Baltimore Opera Company. My guess is that most people would find the floor ugly, but I think there is a lot of character and maybe even beauty in it. No other floor is exactly like it -- it shows stains and marks of so many productions, each one telling a different story.

This is the first song in a gorgeous cycle of twenty songs by the 20th century composer, Maurice Ravel. Ever since reading Don Quixote for half of my "Great Literature of the Western World" course my first semester of college, I've hated the book. The professor was so obsessed with Don Quixote that I think he was becoming Don Quixote -- he even had a figurine of the character that he brought into class every day and would say, "Now don't I look like him?" The funny part is that he was right. It is the first book (and hopefully only book) that I've ever hated. The only way I made it through was by reading it in Spanish to entertain myself. I never thought I'd be able to stand anything connected with it. These songs are so beautiful that they may have redeemed Don Quixote in my mind.

I feel like I have accomplished a lot over the past few days. I wrote eight papers and only have one left. I'm hoping to spend the rest of this week preparing for my audition on Saturday. I hope I can teach myself how to sightsing between now and then. I have a performance tonight that I'm looking forward to. I'll be singing In Uomini, In Soldati from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, which I am also preparing for the audition. Wish me luck!