summer stuffs

The funny thing about me and blogging is that usually when I feel like sitting down to write something, I don't have anything in particular that I want or need to say. So I end up rambling for a while until I happen on a thought and develop it from there.

But today, I think I'll just talk about what I've been up to.

Reading!! And playing violin. And a little viola.

I actually picked up my viola for the first time in *gasp* 3 weeks. I know, that's like, forever. It's ok, I can still play. There are two reasons I haven't been playing viola:
1. My bow is at about 2/3 hair right now. It could get warped or damaged in some way if I keep playing with it. I haven't rehaired my bow because, well I don't have a lot of cash and I needed to buy tires.
2. My viola just kind of sucks. It only kind of sucks, though. It doesn't completely suck. I can manage to get a pretty nice tone out of it but volume, projection, flexible sound color... not so much.
I started playing it again because my "violin" bow is really a super lightweight viola bow. So it works, and it gets a good tone but I have to put more weight into it than my other bow.

However, I have been playing my violin almost daily. I've been polishing up the Bach E Major Prelude, a fun little Vivaldi concerto I learned when I was like 13, and refreshing some of the Bach D minor that I learned years ago as well. I haven't attempted the chaconne yet, but I'd like to start it this summer. My wrist is still a little weak from spraining it in April so I think giant chords and crazy stuff like that are probably not the best idea right now. Maybe in another 4-6 weeks.
Tonight I checked out some Beethoven sonatas - Nos. 6-10 to be exact. I have a recording of No. 8 in G, which my teacher Igor also performed recently. I started reading No. 6 and I think I'll start learning it  sometime soon as well.

So about the reading. Well, especially because I had the flu last week, I decided it was time to start some reading again.

Finished reading so far:

Friends and Fiddlers
Catherine Drinker Bowen

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (3rd time reading)
Douglas Adams

Epicenter: why the current rumblings in the Middle East will change your future
Joel C. Rosenberg

Currently reading:

When God Talks Back
T. M. Luhrmann

The Help
Kathryn Stockett

Haven't started: 
Well technically I've started both of these books before, but haven't touched them in a while, and haven't started in again yet.

God Is Not Great
Christopher Hitchens

The Amadeus Book of the Violin: construction, history, and music. 
Walter Kolneder

I'll give more info later... this post is long enough for now. :)