And I climbed a fence and I wandered in Discovery Park and I planted a tree with the whitest bark

[sovay]

I am not one of nature's party animals, but if I had not attended the Ig Nobel cast party tonight I would not have had such a lovely interaction with two-time winner David Hu, mostly about earwax and eyelashes. Also I got an enthusiastic recommendation for Górecki's Symphony No. 3 from also-winner Tomasz Paterek, which is why I am now carrying a cocktail napkin with a famous twentieth-century composer's name scrawled on it. Also I got a ride home from one of the other singers and I think we may have tentative plans to hang out once we recover from having been part of an opera. People kept asking us all night if we were part of a regular company that maybe just performed scientific operas; we kept repeating that we had never met any of our fellow cast (including each other) before August and had had a grand total of five rehearsals (and each missed two!) before showtime. I said it came together very quickly, very chaotically, and very successfully, an assessment I stand by. A+, would impersonate weird personality quirks again. Or whatever the next year brings.

(I am extremely fond of this screencap from the webcast, brought to my attention by Thomas Michel who played the Director of the Museum of Bad Habits. The dead-eyed stare of the captive audience really makes it for me. Also the fact that I am being upstaged by the ass-scratcher. My bad habit, of course, was constantly talking.)

<

Before the party, I met skygiants and genarti at Athan's and discussed the surprising dearth of Ruritanian democracies; before the not-coffee break, I had my first rehearsal of the season with A Besere Velt, already preparing for our recording session this winter; before that I was asleep and that is probably the state I should attempt to return to. I have concluded my commitments to this very busy week, none of which I regret. I feel rather breathless and more than slightly burnt out and this has been a summer of sustained performance adrenaline, which kept the rest of me functioning even when my body was not necessarily cooperating, and that is not the most affordable fuel. I am having some difficulty thinking about the fact that I have received multiple compliments on my performance in the mini-opera, including from colleagues of spatch's, Ig Nobel laureates, and an actual Nobel laureate whom I passed on the stairs on my way out of the theater on Thursday night. (It never occurs to me that I am recognizable to people who are strangers to me. At least three people at tonight's party said the hair was unmistakable. I genuinely thought the glasses would be more of a confounding factor. Dammit, Warren Quimby.) But I also feel significantly more like myself than I have in some time and that is valuable to me.

Comments

[rosefox]

Thank you so much for the Ig video link. You're in splendid voice! And the magnetized cockroach demo was incredible.

[sovay]

Thank you so much for the Ig video link. You're in splendid voice! And the magnetized cockroach demo was incredible.

You're welcome! Thank you! I really need to watch the entire thing. I enjoyed so much listening to my parents describe the various components of the ceremony afterward; it was like the epic tradition.

[rosefox]

Watching it gave me such nostalgia. I don't know whether you've seen the Igs before, but many components have been there for decades and have a lovely patina now. I recognize Minordomos who were doing the gig back when I took my first turn as a Lurking Presence in 2006. And I can't believe Jerome Friedman actually showed up! Incredible!

I do like the replacement of the V-chip monitor with the NSFW alert. That joke needed an update.

I now have two excellent all-purpose reaction screencaps:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/el4ogml3vvk7q8d/why.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nf13ydyv9foh972/someone%20please%20tell%20me%20why.png?dl=0

[sovay]

I don't know whether you've seen the Igs before, but many components have been there for decades and have a lovely patina now.

I attended in 2002, of which my strongest memories appear to be the pre-show by the Dresden Dolls, the introductory rendition of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" on the theremin, that year's Miss Sweetie Poo, the Peace Price for dog-to-human machine translation, and the Physics Prize for beer froth obeying exponential decay. I feel a bit weird about not remembering the table made out of the periodic table more clearly. Also, yes, that was the year Enron won Economics for the inspired use of imaginary numbers.

I think my parents attended one of the early ceremonies, however, because my father still reflexively associates them with MIT.

And I can't believe Jerome Friedman actually showed up! Incredible!

"He may be the only human being you will ever see who spent twenty-nine years setting up a joke."

I do like the replacement of the V-chip monitor with the NSFW alert. That joke needed an update.

I don't remember the previous joke, but I loved that the NSFW bagpiper was someone I know tangentially from both Arisia and Burns Night, because my social life is a collapsing event horizon. spatch came backstage with me after the show and kept passing people he knew in the halls. Things happen when they happen.

I now have two excellent all-purpose reaction screencaps

Those look very useful!

The magnetized cockroach demo was incredible.

[asakiyume]

So happy you are feeling more yourself! And I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for your conversation on the dearth of Ruritanian democracies, which somehow sounds like it ought to e a Readercon panel.

[sovay]

So happy you are feeling more yourself!

Thank you! Today I am feeling very tired, but not sorry. I need a life that affords me the energy to do the things I care about.

And I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for your conversation on the dearth of Ruritanian democracies, which somehow sounds like it ought to e a Readercon panel.

You could suggest it . . .

[kenjari]

Górecki's Symphony no. 3 is indeed wonderful. But you may want to listen to it in a time and place when you won't mind crying a lot. It is so piercingly beautiful. I cannot get through it dry-eyed, and I made the mistake of listening to it for the first time at work many years ago. Thankfully, I was alone in the office.
I also recommend his string quartets.

[oracne]

I can recommend Górecki's choral compositions, as well.

Also, yay rehearsals. I have another two weeks to wait before we get started. We'll be collaborating with these guys https://www.nashirah.org/ for a psalms concert of Bloch, Gabrieli, Rossi, Hancock, Billings, Davidson, Shatin, Friedman, Mendelssohn and Ives. We've never worked with them before.

[sovay]

But you may want to listen to it in a time and place when you won't mind crying a lot. It is so piercingly beautiful.

I appreciate the warning. The scientist who was trying to describe it to me said it was "full of the saddest things you can imagine."

I also recommend his string quartets.

I recognized his name when written, but I do not think I have ever heard anything of his.

[sovay]

I can recommend Górecki's choral compositions, as well.

Cool! I will make a point of listening.

for a psalms concert of Bloch, Gabrieli, Rossi, Hancock, Billings, Davidson, Shatin, Friedman, Mendelssohn and Ives. We've never worked with them before.

I don't know of them, but that sounds like a great program. Have a wonderful time!