what's been going on lately:

So yeah, I've been busy, and I make no excuses for not posting! I was sleeping, and doing homework when I could have been posting for the last month. the AP tests are looming ever closer: AP music theory, AP US history, and AP Language and composition. The teachers are really cracking down, and piling on the homework, plus study sessions after school every day, plus cheer, plus my piano recital creeping up (which i am totally unprepared for. I still have a page left to learn, plus the third page doesn't seem to be going anywhere no matter how much i practice. curse you Scott Joplin!!)

In May i have on week that goes
BAM! ap test
BANG! ap test
BOOM! ap test
WHAM! piano recital.
then CRASH! There goes Caroline, collapsed on the floor. does she have a pulse? no? oh. pity.

well I'll try to post more up until then. Then I shall post as a ghost.


oOoOoOoO!

OK. anyway I could never be as cool as the Ghost of Bacon.

I'm singing one of my favorite songs in my singing lessons :) Here it is! Enjoy.



I'm excited :) well, really it is getting late, and I'm going to be kicking myself for this tomorrow morning when i have to get up early to go to an APUSH seminar from 9-12. also! if the video is cut off, just right click on it, and open it in a new tab :)

well i should've posted about sadies by now

but i haven't, because i know it's going to take a long time :P and I'm not on the right computer, as i would have to scan some pictures in so I'm going to post about something different :D





I'm going to post about what i will someday posses: a fazioli (fatz-ee-oh-lee)





it's the Ferrari of pianos

ahhh see that gleaming-ness??? it's like a mirror of ebony wood *drool*

i got the chance to play on one last weekend and it almost broke my heart. only a baby grand, entry-level piano, it cost a mere $90,000. *siiiiiiiigh* playing on it was like.... i don't even know what. there's nothing to compare. but i was just testing it out, alas, and as i played, the salesman was eyeing me, and i could physically feel it. (probably eager to wipe down the piano after i left with polish and a microfiber cloth, feverishly.) i barely played one page of a song. i asked the salesman (actually the owner of the store) if he played the piano and i was floored to discover he did NOT!!! i was like 'wait, what??? then how do you appreciate the sound, the feel??!!!! life is so unfair!!! why do YOU get to own this piano store, and you play the lousy bass!!!!' (my apologies to bass players, the bass isn't lousy, but seriously!!!! how dare he own a piano store!? ok forgive my overreactions but i love pianos. anyway.) of course i didn't say this out loud, but that's what i was thinking heh.

here are the reasons this piano sounds so good:

clarity: a sound in which harmonic components are even throughout. if you don't speak piano and player, it means that when you play a musical phrase, no note is left out of your hearing, it resounds, no matter how quietly played.

uniform: a timber that presents equal characteristics in every area of the keyboard. if you hit a key up around C6 or C7, you can expect the same resistance and volume if you hit a key around C1 or C2 (given you exert the same force on the key of course)

wide dynamic range: a sound that goes from pianissimo (aka really really quiet) to fortissimo (aka really really loud) without any distortion in fortissimo.

long duration: the duration of the sound is extremely important for the legato (smooth and connected sound) and cantabile playing, thus the sound must not decay rapidly. when you hit a note, you expect the sound to linger until you lift your finger, or the loud pedal. it hangs in the air.

selective: this means the pianist is able to distinction of the single parts, melodies (or voices, as my piano teacher calls them), especially during the performance of polyphonic works. examples of polyphonic works (some of the hardest songs to play!! but gorgeous!!!!!): bach's tocatta and fuge, the little fuge in g minor by bach, and other fuges. also inventions are poly phonic, but not as complicated as fuges.

ah here's what i am going to own some day: the concert grand. at 3.08 meters in length (that's a little more than 10 feet) and 1.58 meters (a little more than five feet) in keyboard width, and 1.88 meters tall when the lid is open fully as in the picture (that's a little over six feet) it weighs 1521.19 pounds. the wheels are designed to take the weight without damaging the floor (but just in case, then have special pads you put under.

oh there's so much more to talk about! but i have to cut it short, because it's time for me to be in bed. i"ll probably add more tomorrow. haha like anyone is going to understand my weird obsession anyway, let alone read more than the first paragraph before getting bored. but eh whatever!

Hey, here i am sick, so i better post on my blog, or i"ll feel guilty (i already am, as i've been sick for three days, and still haven't posted yet.)

haha wow that was a rather long title, don't you think? it would've been longer, but it ran out of characters. it was going to say something like 'wow this is a rather long title, don't you think?' OK enough tautology (actually, the more correct term is recursing... but tautology sounds smarter. but thinking back, tautology really doesn't apply at all except in my wishful thinking).



wow. OK. i am a little distracted today obviously, as i can't hold on to a single train of thought. it must be the lack of food. i haven't had much appetite the past few days.



today's post is going to be on......... how i should be practicing the piano right now because megan's gonna kill me if i don't! (piano competition, march 10th)



ps. i should've named this post ("shortest and most boring post ever. dont bother to read." so, to compensate, please be entertained by this picture of tiny people! right...... NOW!)

pps: for those of you with a dry sense of humor like me (well, sometimes) here's a cartoon you might enjoy. lol it sounds like something my friend mike would say or a club he'd start. http://xkcd.com/703/ don't forget the tooltip, just roll over the image, it's the best part!

He doesn't cook or clean!

haha i love it! "who organized all of my ex-girlfriends into a choir and got them to sing?"

The Cabin This Weekend

when we got there, Saturday around noon (or something, it seems so far away) there was about 3-4 feet or snow (or more, depending. some piles were much taller than me, at my humble 5'2"). it was a promising start. except i was the ONLY ONE WHO THOUGHT TO BRING SNOW CLOTHES!? come on! we still had fun though. earlier today me and Hannah had a ton of fun messing around in the snow.






the snow was dry, and fluffy, making it very easy to sink in deep, throwing off balance and making movement sluggish, but still fun! we took to making silly videos of me doing cartwheels (or attempting to) in all my gear, plus powder :P Hannah took out her phone and was like "Carrie! do some parkour!" and it started from there. lol but this is NOT parkour. cause i can't do parkour, but i can mess around and have fun! it was way more fun wrecking then trying to land the cartwheels :P

haha there's one more, but where i attempt a toe tough, but i bet you're sick of these lame videos anyway x-p

we also found the SWEETEST horses!! (not that I've ever tasted one, but i know someone who has!...i forget who...huh. anyway!) here are some pictures of them! me and Hannah's fav was the bay horse (if you don't speak horse and rider, a bay is a brown horse, with black/dark brown on the nose, feet, and a dark stripe down the back. the mane and tail are also black/dark brown). the paint kept getting jealous of our attention to the bay, and nudged it out of the way repeatedly. they were very curious horses, trying to nibble our clothing, and sniff our hands for possible treats.

this one (above) is hard to tell, but the horse's nose. She was smelling my phone. i was worried she was going to take a bite!!





speaking of taking a bite, these horses seemed hungry! they look fine and healthy, the there was a GIANT stack of fresh hay behind them, under a roof, but for some reason, they all chewed on the wood! any wood they could get their teeth into, as you can see by the chew marks on the side of these stairs!

















"please let me come with you! i just know i can fit through these bars if i turn my head just like this!"

ah, just gorgeous isn't it? untouched! i actually got in trouble from my mom for walking out in the snow like that :P what was i supposed to do! i couldn't help it!

oh and one more story haha...

there's this farm dog across the street, at the little dairy farm, named Piper. i love piper! he always plays with Maggie, my dog. they are perfect for each other, and are best friends. this time, we didn't bring Maggie up to the cabin (thanks to SOMEONE who complains of her "mess" psh) and piper was very sad. i went for a walk, to enjoy the beautiful earth, when i see piper trotting along behind. the sweet dog he is, he comes up and leans against me, wagging his tail. then, he begins to howl, the really sad-pitiful-lonely kind of howl. i could tell he missed Maggie! i felt very sorry for him, so i let his accompany me on my walk. just as i am pausing for a moment to call back to the cabin, i notice that piper is lifting his leg... ON ME!! "PIPER!!! GAH!!!" *this is where i dive for the snow, and writhe around like I'm on fire* i take it as his was of showing his appreciation for me letting him come along on my walk. or asking me to be his valentine. something like that. luckily i was wearing my waterproof snow pants, so it just beaded up, and came right off. wheew. but still, poor piper. he showed up on our porch early this morning, hoping to find maggie, but having no such luck, proceeded to howl on our porch, very loudly. i forgive him for taking a leak on me, out of pure pity for his loneliness.

hey, yeah it's been a while... (but don't expect any apologies)

here's kind of what's been going on in my life:

1. getting read for a piano competition in march. Here's what I'm playing: Fantasia No. 3 in d minor, K. 397. by W. A. Mozart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deNZCpBLrEk (ps, if clicking on that link doesn't work, try copy and pasting it or typing it out. it's worth it i promise!!! this song is absolutely GORGEOUS.


2. cheer still, four games a week!! too... many...


3. teaching piano- two students (two girls) and I'm about to start two new boys (O.o)


4. tumbling has been put on hold!!!!! (indefinitely.......) :'(


5. young women's basketball just started! we won our first game :)


6. and now singing lessons!

idk how much time i have left, but i seem to be surviving, i suppose.

so singing lessons. very odd. i have to do these really weird exercises everyday, singing arpeggios (my teacher calls them scales but they are SO not scales!!! i should know :P). today, she had me making that b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b noise (idk how else to spell it...?), you know, like the noise little boys make when they play with trucks. i for the life of me could not do it!! i kept cracking up at her making that noise!! haha i hope she wasn't offended.

teacher: "OK, do it like this Caroline: B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

me: *earnestly trying to screw my face in to something that can make that noise, but the laughter overcomes all* "b-b-b-BAH HAHAHAHA!!!! sorry sorry sorry!!! I'll try again!! i can do it! i promise!"

teacher: "OK. remember, it's B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B!!!!!!!!! not b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b."

me: *completely loses it again* "pbbttthhh HAHAHAHA!"

teacher: *gives me a weird look, like 'what is wrong with this girl?'* "oh. kay. well you'll have to practice that every day till you have it right"

me: *internal wince* "sure i can do that!"

Masquerade!

October 30th, MASQUERADE! i went to the school dance as Christine daae (die-yay) after slaving away to make my dress for a long time, it turned out great!! thanks again mom! here's what we based the dress off of. :)




and here's the actual dress! we made a mask too (well my mom made it, amazing huh?!)














the dress is actually a wedding dress we found on KSL, that we changed to be more costumey. it was so huge!! i couldn't fit in the car very easily lol, but the WORST thing was trying to go up stairs without tripping on myself. when i walked in to the dance, everyone stared at me, like seriously. it was so embarrassing! i hate everyone staring at me, but yeah, when we walked in the gym to take pictures, the whole crowd turned... haha must have been a good costume? :P anyway it was sweltering in the ballroom where the dance was held. never been so hot in my life! but it was awesome! i could dance just fine, well mostly in that dress it turns out. i had a ton of fun! my date was Ubeeng Kueq (yeah, go ahead and try to pronounce that one :P) he's an amazing pianist, who has played with the Utah Symphony :P he practices 4 hours a day. i only wish i could practice that much!! but I'm lucky if i get one hour in :'( it's not fair! anyway yeah he so good, i don't think i should consider myself a pianist anymore...pretty much. anyway he's nice guy :) here are some pictures of us.














as you can see it was a little awkward, but that was when no one else was there, lol and we really didn't know each other, like I've said before :P oh well! we had fun. here's our group, we went as different movies (and in my opinion we were the cutest group, because there were about 5 groups going as cowboys and Indians! and 80's workout, and sports, SO hackneyed)

Gerardus and Sarah Jane as Sweeny Tod and Mrs. Lovett



Susannah and Greg as Tinkerbell and Smee


Amanda and Marcus as Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner


Celeste and Jeremy as Galadriel and Frodo their costumes were SO perfect haha, Jeremy didn't even wear shoes! and he drew hair on his feet haha

here's a Eliza and Sterling as Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak from 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' (their costumes were SPOT on too.

here are Shannon and Taylor as Queen Amidala from Starwars and here are our group shots at my house

and here's us eating dinner :P i might as well post them all :D my mom set the table REALLY fancy.















We ate chicken cordon bleu which was SO delicious! and spinach salad, and really good rice, and the most delicious rolls! and for dessert we had chocolate mousse, SO perfect! mmm :D but one of the coolest things about the dinner was what Celeste's dad made. it was a GREAT idea because if we hadn't done it, i reckon it would've been pretty quiet and awkward ;) so what he did, was create a mystery story, using the characters we dressed up as, just like clue. it was amazing! we all got parts of what happened in the evening, then we had to try to figure out who killed 'mr. body' haha. we all thought it was smee!!! but it turned out to be darth vadar lol. it was really cool! there was a map and list of things found on his body and EVERYTHING! it really rocked. :D well that's all I'm going to say for now, because I've now spent an hour posting this :P and i didn't get home last night till 3:30 bye !

**BTW! click on the pictures to see them bigger :)**