thought I'd post a photo from Germany, as I'm headed there again tomorrow, just a closer part. We leave for Berlin tomorrow at 8am, and get back monday night at 9pm. It'll be an amazing trip for the architecture and landscape architecture. I'm taking my camera, and have my friend's extra memory cards if I run out of space. I still might be shooting on a lower quality setting, though, since probably most of them will be for my own record of places and not for big prints... Ok, well better go, have a good palm sunday weekend, everybody!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
symphonies operas concert halls
Last saturday night Allison and I went to a symphony concert in Dvorak hall in the Rudolfinum. I ordered the tickets online, they were only 100 crowns ($5) for seats anywhere in the house, we chose row 7. It was the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Turns out it was part of a series of Prague Premiers, which means this was the first time the music we listened to had ever been performed. It was really amazing.
The first piece used the orchestra, including the massive and very ornate organ. The second piece was the orchestra and a soprano, (Liana Sass (forgive me, it makes it seem more important if I name the people as if you know them)) who was amazing. The last piece was the whole time after the intermission, I think at least an hour or maybe an hour and a half. It had the orchestra, choir, the soprano, as well as a tenor (Michal Leotsky) and a baritone (Roman Janal).
I enjoyed those three, especially during the parts where none of them were singing. Liana would have her chin lifted, eyes looking away dreamily, as she contemplated the music. Michal Leotsky would be staring at the music stand in front of him. always. Roman Janal would survey the audience or his fellow vocalists with a haughty expression on his face.
Another interesting thing was that after each piece, during the applause, the conductor would motion to the back and the composer would come up on stage to shake and thank and congratulate and be thanked and congratulated and applauded. I hate to admit it, but it did take us until after the second piece to realize they were the composers, we had sort of forgotten the series was premiers of new pieces. But it was fun. The first, according to the program, was called Verdoyances Crepuscules by Kimmo Hakola, of Finland. The second one was At the Yellow Emperor's time, by John Frandsen of Denmark. And the last, and longest was called Requiem by a Czech, Juraj Filas. He got the largest applause. We also were proud of ourselves for understanding a few words of it! We heard the baritone singing "REQUIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM" (he had quite a powerful voice, perhaps the source of his haughty expressions?) And I also understood the choir at one point when they sang "Sanctum Dominum" over and over again. The conductor liked that part, he was dancing along to it.
On Monday night, we remembered at the last moment that we had tickets to the opera (one of our school outings, and as our director was in London for the Dolly Parton concert, there was some confusion about if we had the tickets and where they were and who was going). It was a czech opera, Tajemstvi (Secrets), the last of Smetana's operas, apparently. Luckily for us, there were english subtitles. That didn't completely help us decipher what was going on. I had a slight advantage because I had read a summary of it beforehand, but partly because of the minimalist stage sets, it was still kind of confusing. I wasn't over-awed with the story, more so with the music and the room. This performance was in the National Opera house.
Both performances were impressive, and I'm glad I went. I feel more cultured now, even though for lack of time I'm ashamed to say I attended the opera in corduroys and sneakers. Luckily we were not the only "d*** tourists" as our czech professor lamented when we told him we had no time to change for it. In fact almost all the upper galleries were filled with people dressed as casually as we were. Well I believe I've rambled long enough on this entry, tune in next time to hear about why french and czech are confusing my head.
The first piece used the orchestra, including the massive and very ornate organ. The second piece was the orchestra and a soprano, (Liana Sass (forgive me, it makes it seem more important if I name the people as if you know them)) who was amazing. The last piece was the whole time after the intermission, I think at least an hour or maybe an hour and a half. It had the orchestra, choir, the soprano, as well as a tenor (Michal Leotsky) and a baritone (Roman Janal).
I enjoyed those three, especially during the parts where none of them were singing. Liana would have her chin lifted, eyes looking away dreamily, as she contemplated the music. Michal Leotsky would be staring at the music stand in front of him. always. Roman Janal would survey the audience or his fellow vocalists with a haughty expression on his face.
Another interesting thing was that after each piece, during the applause, the conductor would motion to the back and the composer would come up on stage to shake and thank and congratulate and be thanked and congratulated and applauded. I hate to admit it, but it did take us until after the second piece to realize they were the composers, we had sort of forgotten the series was premiers of new pieces. But it was fun. The first, according to the program, was called Verdoyances Crepuscules by Kimmo Hakola, of Finland. The second one was At the Yellow Emperor's time, by John Frandsen of Denmark. And the last, and longest was called Requiem by a Czech, Juraj Filas. He got the largest applause. We also were proud of ourselves for understanding a few words of it! We heard the baritone singing "REQUIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM" (he had quite a powerful voice, perhaps the source of his haughty expressions?) And I also understood the choir at one point when they sang "Sanctum Dominum" over and over again. The conductor liked that part, he was dancing along to it.
On Monday night, we remembered at the last moment that we had tickets to the opera (one of our school outings, and as our director was in London for the Dolly Parton concert, there was some confusion about if we had the tickets and where they were and who was going). It was a czech opera, Tajemstvi (Secrets), the last of Smetana's operas, apparently. Luckily for us, there were english subtitles. That didn't completely help us decipher what was going on. I had a slight advantage because I had read a summary of it beforehand, but partly because of the minimalist stage sets, it was still kind of confusing. I wasn't over-awed with the story, more so with the music and the room. This performance was in the National Opera house.
Both performances were impressive, and I'm glad I went. I feel more cultured now, even though for lack of time I'm ashamed to say I attended the opera in corduroys and sneakers. Luckily we were not the only "d*** tourists" as our czech professor lamented when we told him we had no time to change for it. In fact almost all the upper galleries were filled with people dressed as casually as we were. Well I believe I've rambled long enough on this entry, tune in next time to hear about why french and czech are confusing my head.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
drawing in the cold and st. nicholas' church
Drawing is our final class of the week. Technically, it's an LAR class, but really it's just an introductory drawing class, because none of us have really had a serious drawing class before. We started off drawing white cardboard cubes, progressed to perspective for one week, and then spent two weeks on figure drawing. Our model was approximately 65 years old, spoke no english, and was fairly vocal (having our drawing instructor translate). She enjoyed hearing herself sigh, too.
After that, we've been drawing mostly outside views or details around different parts of Prague. We've also drawn in a modern art gallery, and today in St. Nicholas' church on the lesser town side of the river. Now only one of those places that we've drawn in this past month has even pretended to have heat, since most of them were outdoor locations, that makes sense. The Manes art gallery did have radiators, but we only went there after drawing for an hour or two outside on the island where the gallery is, so I was still not very thawed out while I was drawing the spaces inside it. And it's Prague, and the few weeks of "warm spring" weather we had a while back have passed in favor of the cooler more normal end of winter weather. Today the high was 5 degrees Celsius, 41 degrees Fahrenheit, gray and windy. That, combined with maybe a few threatening raindrops has been typical for our drawing excursions.
Today, sitting and sketching in the (amazingly gorgeous and extravagantly opulent baroque style) church with my finger-less gloves, my ski jacket, and fleece hat on, seeing my breath in front of me, I was reminded of my optimism from the first few colder drawing outings. I remember thinking "well, if I learn to draw steadily with frozen hands, hopefully that will mean my lines will be extra straight and precise when my fingers actually have feeling in them!" The lines turned out pretty well, today, on the scroll detail I sketched. My straight lines were better than my curved ones, though, which was probably unfortunate for this particular church. Our teacher told us that the style of Baroque used often in central Europe and exemplified in St. Nicholas' is dynamic baroque. Basically everything is a curve, everything implies motion and invites you to move both with your eyes and physically. So there is almost no straight, parallel surfaces, certainly not on the details (which was all I attempted to draw) They're all curving and swirling and bending and angling different directions.
It's an amazing church, I'm going to have to go back with my camera. It also has a massive organ, (I think actually two) on which someone began to rehearse before we left, so I also plan on going back for one of their organ concerts. This is also a good church to visit because it's mostly for tourists so you can walk all around the main floor and there's part of the upstairs gallery open, also, so you can see the architecture and frescoes from a different angle. It was really amazing, as I believe I've mentioned before. Well, my hands have warmed up now after walking back to studio, it's time for dinner. Enough reflections on cold hands and beautiful churches, I'm hungry.
After that, we've been drawing mostly outside views or details around different parts of Prague. We've also drawn in a modern art gallery, and today in St. Nicholas' church on the lesser town side of the river. Now only one of those places that we've drawn in this past month has even pretended to have heat, since most of them were outdoor locations, that makes sense. The Manes art gallery did have radiators, but we only went there after drawing for an hour or two outside on the island where the gallery is, so I was still not very thawed out while I was drawing the spaces inside it. And it's Prague, and the few weeks of "warm spring" weather we had a while back have passed in favor of the cooler more normal end of winter weather. Today the high was 5 degrees Celsius, 41 degrees Fahrenheit, gray and windy. That, combined with maybe a few threatening raindrops has been typical for our drawing excursions.
Today, sitting and sketching in the (amazingly gorgeous and extravagantly opulent baroque style) church with my finger-less gloves, my ski jacket, and fleece hat on, seeing my breath in front of me, I was reminded of my optimism from the first few colder drawing outings. I remember thinking "well, if I learn to draw steadily with frozen hands, hopefully that will mean my lines will be extra straight and precise when my fingers actually have feeling in them!" The lines turned out pretty well, today, on the scroll detail I sketched. My straight lines were better than my curved ones, though, which was probably unfortunate for this particular church. Our teacher told us that the style of Baroque used often in central Europe and exemplified in St. Nicholas' is dynamic baroque. Basically everything is a curve, everything implies motion and invites you to move both with your eyes and physically. So there is almost no straight, parallel surfaces, certainly not on the details (which was all I attempted to draw) They're all curving and swirling and bending and angling different directions.
It's an amazing church, I'm going to have to go back with my camera. It also has a massive organ, (I think actually two) on which someone began to rehearse before we left, so I also plan on going back for one of their organ concerts. This is also a good church to visit because it's mostly for tourists so you can walk all around the main floor and there's part of the upstairs gallery open, also, so you can see the architecture and frescoes from a different angle. It was really amazing, as I believe I've mentioned before. Well, my hands have warmed up now after walking back to studio, it's time for dinner. Enough reflections on cold hands and beautiful churches, I'm hungry.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
visits, weather, beauty.
Visits make me happy. It was really good having my sister come over the weekend, I got a chance to be a tourists for a few days. We walked over the Charles bridge, around the castle, and took a tour of Jewish town and several historical synagogues. I also introduced her to czech food (beef with cream sauce and dumplings!) and the intellectual hangout, Cafe Louvre (I've never said no to a chance to have their amaaaaaaazing hot chocolate, it's sort of like very rich very dark hot chocolate pudding that you drink) and we also sampled two of their dessert choices. The weather was colder and rainy, unfortunately, but it was still good to see a familiar face and get out and to have an excuse to get out and see the city. Regardless of weather or the amount of mobs of Italians or British that seem to follow you everywhere, Prague is still a beautiful city. (I hope you agree, Elizabeth, since that was the only condition in which you saw it!). And despite the return of semi-wintry weather (bleah. gray. windy. drizzly.) I'm still enjoying a little snapshot of spring with a small pot of daffodils I bought yesterday. I think flowers are one of the best things you can spend a little money on, even though to our american practical sensibility they have no purpose. But they are so beautiful and delicate, I think "wasting" a little money on beauty every once in a while is very much worthwhile.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
crocuses opening
I would like to present this as proof that spring is indeed on its way, here in middle europe. And perhaps proof of global warming... if you consider crocuses do not normally bloom in Prague for another few weeks, or so I've been told. It's beautiful weather, though. Anyone up for a visit?
Monday, March 12, 2007
back... and thoughts on classes and opportunities
I'm back in Prague now, successfully navigating airports to and from our destination in western Germany, and the part in between the flights was soo fun... I don't know... just a really good time. Now I'm back and running in the everyday here in Prague. We've got to put our nose to the grindstone for our studio project, it's a pretty intense project that's really stretching all of us. Partly because the site is a little over a kilometer long... (!!!) and there's all sorts of other crazy factors that are involved. But we have an amazingly good teacher and professor in Martin, and he's definitely pushing us to do our best, beyond that, even.
We're also putting together a booklet of design principles - our second assignment was to basically take a word that one could use to describe a place (mine was mystery, as I've mentioned before, I think), and explore what physical factors about a place contribute to creating that feeling in the place. So pick apart the word and meaning and feeling and put it all back together again in a 4-6 pages, using our own sketches and photos and illustrations. So we're working on ideating for studio, on the layout and content of our parts of the booklet.
Then there's our czech class... czech is a tough language and it's harder because our class only meets on monday and tuesday of each week, which leaves 5 days in between to forget everything and usually results in everyone cramming a lot sunday afternoon/evening (or monday morning). It's fun though, I'm enjoying it. Even though I can only work things out on paper... there's no way I could hold a conversation... but at least as of today I technically can conjugate any verb in past, present, and future tense, and can decline nouns in the accusative and instrumental cases. We'll be working on more of those declensions, soon.
And beekeeping, this friday we're going on a field trip to Kutna Hora under the auspices of visiting a beekeeping museum, but also because it's a beautiful city within driving distance, (they've gotten a charter bus for us, apparently). And who knows what recipe we'll make in the second half of this weeks' class tomorrow... I'm sure it will match the honey cake and honey-gingerbread cookies in deliciousness. Although I'm a little concerned about the final, but of course that's a good month away still.
Our drawing class is so much fun, it only meets on thursday afternoons (our last class of the week). Our teacher is so nice, and very good at helping us and pointing out ways to improve our techniques. She normally teaches elementary-age children, so her patience is never-ending. None of us have really had a formal drawing class before, and we're all benefiting from the instruction. I just wish I could find more time during the rest of the week to draw some, not only in class. Now that the weather's better... maybe I will. maybe...
The opportunities here are so abundant, I'd have to be practically unconscious all day to not learn something somehow... But it's a new sort of juggling, between being on an extended holiday in a new foreign place but still devoting enough time to studio and the other classes to satisfy myself I've done my best at them. And our time here seems so short... shorter with each beautiful spring day that passes (no more winter for us, it's been a very mild winter), they're saying blue skies and warm weather practically until we leave at the end of April. well that's about all my brains' thinking about at the moment, that and summer plans and classes for the fall... once i get my photos from Germany up I'll post some about that.
We're also putting together a booklet of design principles - our second assignment was to basically take a word that one could use to describe a place (mine was mystery, as I've mentioned before, I think), and explore what physical factors about a place contribute to creating that feeling in the place. So pick apart the word and meaning and feeling and put it all back together again in a 4-6 pages, using our own sketches and photos and illustrations. So we're working on ideating for studio, on the layout and content of our parts of the booklet.
Then there's our czech class... czech is a tough language and it's harder because our class only meets on monday and tuesday of each week, which leaves 5 days in between to forget everything and usually results in everyone cramming a lot sunday afternoon/evening (or monday morning). It's fun though, I'm enjoying it. Even though I can only work things out on paper... there's no way I could hold a conversation... but at least as of today I technically can conjugate any verb in past, present, and future tense, and can decline nouns in the accusative and instrumental cases. We'll be working on more of those declensions, soon.
And beekeeping, this friday we're going on a field trip to Kutna Hora under the auspices of visiting a beekeeping museum, but also because it's a beautiful city within driving distance, (they've gotten a charter bus for us, apparently). And who knows what recipe we'll make in the second half of this weeks' class tomorrow... I'm sure it will match the honey cake and honey-gingerbread cookies in deliciousness. Although I'm a little concerned about the final, but of course that's a good month away still.
Our drawing class is so much fun, it only meets on thursday afternoons (our last class of the week). Our teacher is so nice, and very good at helping us and pointing out ways to improve our techniques. She normally teaches elementary-age children, so her patience is never-ending. None of us have really had a formal drawing class before, and we're all benefiting from the instruction. I just wish I could find more time during the rest of the week to draw some, not only in class. Now that the weather's better... maybe I will. maybe...
The opportunities here are so abundant, I'd have to be practically unconscious all day to not learn something somehow... But it's a new sort of juggling, between being on an extended holiday in a new foreign place but still devoting enough time to studio and the other classes to satisfy myself I've done my best at them. And our time here seems so short... shorter with each beautiful spring day that passes (no more winter for us, it's been a very mild winter), they're saying blue skies and warm weather practically until we leave at the end of April. well that's about all my brains' thinking about at the moment, that and summer plans and classes for the fall... once i get my photos from Germany up I'll post some about that.
Monday, March 5, 2007
hooray for being a tourist!
Spring break started off well, once it got going. Saturday we tried 3 different churches/museums, all of them were closed, and it was gray and rainy and bleah. So to console ourselves, we ate at KFC and decided to try another exhibit that we saw was actually open and not too expensive for student tickets. It was the Alphonse Mucha exhibit, right on old town square, and it was worth it. He was the art nouveau artist most famous for his paintings and illustrations, but he also designed jewelery, stained glass, and even a store front. He was Moravian, (that is, czech), but had most of his success in Paris. All they had in the exhibit were lithographs of his print work, but it was still worth it.
After leaving the Mucha exhibit, we continued on back to one of the churches that had been closed for a wedding, and luckily for us, the wedding was over and we could go in and take our tourist pictures. It was the church of St. Nicholas considered a Baroque masterpiece, and there will be photos coming onto my flickr site... I'm just a week or so (at least) behind at uploading them.
That night, after eating some take-out lasagna (would've been good... if it were heated up...), we went to a concert my drawing teacher had told us about. It was being held in the gallery where we've been sketching the spaces in it and the views from it, the Manes gallery. It was a piano and violin concert, and only cost us a dollar for student tickets, which we considered well worth it. They played some works by Czech composers, and some others, too, but both the pianist and the violinist were amazing. Plus you could really tell they were having fun. It wasn't a big crowd by any means, but certainly very persistent in the applause. No piece finished with out the performer(s) having to exit and reenter and bow again at least 3 times because everyone clapped for so long. Allison and I debated whether it was a cultural thing, to bow, walk off, pause, (still loud applause) walk back on, bow, walk off, pause (continued loud applause), walk on again, bow again, finally walk off and the applause ceased, or if it was just a very enthusiastic crowd. At the end they had to come back on 5 times. All considered, it was a satisfying day enjoying Prague.
Sunday we went to a park on the outskirts of Prague called Divoka Sarka, it's a beautiful kind of wilderness place with rocky hills that have been sliced through by creeks. There were lots of people walking, riding bikes, strolling children, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the place at all. And being a little chilly, it promoted walking a little faster than usual, so it helped us burn off our second fast food lunch in two days. It was nice to be out of the city, and to look up and see rocky mossy cliffs instead of city blocks. Not that I'm complaining about the architecture and history to be seen around Prague, I just like some trees and moss every now and then.
This morning I visited the Charles University botanical garden that's in the city, about 15 minutes by tram from our hostel, also from old town. There was one azalea blooming, and the snowdrops and crocuses (croci?) were out in full force. I had fun taking some pictures of those. Also to be uploaded at some undetermined time in the future. This afternoon we plan on going to the National Museum at the top of Vaclavske Namesti (that's Wenceslas Square), we read somewhere that it's free admission the first monday of the month.
Not sure yet about tomorrow, although we plan on sometime making sure we know how to get to the airport via the public transportation. We're pretty sure, but it'll be good to check before we leave the hostel with our bags and such at 8:30 am on wednesday. I am really excited about going to Germany, I'm sure we'll have a great time. Well I'm off to work on some of those photographs until we head off for lunch and the museum. Keep checking for more photos, they're on their way.
After leaving the Mucha exhibit, we continued on back to one of the churches that had been closed for a wedding, and luckily for us, the wedding was over and we could go in and take our tourist pictures. It was the church of St. Nicholas considered a Baroque masterpiece, and there will be photos coming onto my flickr site... I'm just a week or so (at least) behind at uploading them.
That night, after eating some take-out lasagna (would've been good... if it were heated up...), we went to a concert my drawing teacher had told us about. It was being held in the gallery where we've been sketching the spaces in it and the views from it, the Manes gallery. It was a piano and violin concert, and only cost us a dollar for student tickets, which we considered well worth it. They played some works by Czech composers, and some others, too, but both the pianist and the violinist were amazing. Plus you could really tell they were having fun. It wasn't a big crowd by any means, but certainly very persistent in the applause. No piece finished with out the performer(s) having to exit and reenter and bow again at least 3 times because everyone clapped for so long. Allison and I debated whether it was a cultural thing, to bow, walk off, pause, (still loud applause) walk back on, bow, walk off, pause (continued loud applause), walk on again, bow again, finally walk off and the applause ceased, or if it was just a very enthusiastic crowd. At the end they had to come back on 5 times. All considered, it was a satisfying day enjoying Prague.
Sunday we went to a park on the outskirts of Prague called Divoka Sarka, it's a beautiful kind of wilderness place with rocky hills that have been sliced through by creeks. There were lots of people walking, riding bikes, strolling children, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the place at all. And being a little chilly, it promoted walking a little faster than usual, so it helped us burn off our second fast food lunch in two days. It was nice to be out of the city, and to look up and see rocky mossy cliffs instead of city blocks. Not that I'm complaining about the architecture and history to be seen around Prague, I just like some trees and moss every now and then.
This morning I visited the Charles University botanical garden that's in the city, about 15 minutes by tram from our hostel, also from old town. There was one azalea blooming, and the snowdrops and crocuses (croci?) were out in full force. I had fun taking some pictures of those. Also to be uploaded at some undetermined time in the future. This afternoon we plan on going to the National Museum at the top of Vaclavske Namesti (that's Wenceslas Square), we read somewhere that it's free admission the first monday of the month.
Not sure yet about tomorrow, although we plan on sometime making sure we know how to get to the airport via the public transportation. We're pretty sure, but it'll be good to check before we leave the hostel with our bags and such at 8:30 am on wednesday. I am really excited about going to Germany, I'm sure we'll have a great time. Well I'm off to work on some of those photographs until we head off for lunch and the museum. Keep checking for more photos, they're on their way.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
it's march! and spring break!
It's been a busy week, hence the lack of updates in a while, but guess what? It's officially March, and it's officially spring break! The sun is shining the grass is green the flowers are blooming... well... ok the sun is shining somwhere behind the overcast clouds. And certainly the grass is green... it always is, this nice olivey yellowy green color, with a few patches beginning to wake up and grow. The flowers... well I've seen several crocuses blooming, at least a dozen or so! And there are gorgeous tulips in all the flower stands, (and I can see the leaves of the tulips poking through the surface in several parks around here, so they should be blooming within a few weeks, and that makes me excicted, I like tulips).
And I'm on break, but still sitting in studio working on things, and will need to until I leave Wednesday. Allison and I are going to visit my friend from camp, Jens, who lives in Dusseldorf, Germany. He's got lots of exciting plans for us, and promised to get us out of the city since we're seeing lots of cities between Prague and Krakow and Prague and Cesky Krumlov and Prague. There are parks here that are beautiful, but that was my main request, that we get out of the city. Allison's was that he not take us anywhere uncool. Apparently we'll be visiting his uncle who lives near lots of castles, (he called it "the castle district" no idea where it is... but sounds awesome.)
Well I need to get back to my work, but I'll try to update at least once before I go, to let you know what kind of amazing places we visit around Prague before we leave. We've decided this is our big chance to be tourists and take tours and photographs and wander to new places, so that's the plan for the next few days, interspersed with some studio work and emailing and such.
I hope you're enjoying this beautiful beginning of March, whether it's cloudy, chilly, and rainy (or snowy?), or sunny, bloomy, and breezy wherever you are!
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