Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Spinning out of control.

Monday, Feb. 6, 2006
7:22 p.m.
Lentil soup at lunch makes afternoon teaching interesting. That�s what I picked up for myself in the Grill after Latin class, where we finished translating Ovid�s Pygmalion today. What a sicko. This guy, disgusted with women, a king yet, and an artist, makes himself a statue of a young girl, let�s say around 13, out of ivory, which is so lifelike that he takes it to bed and caresses and kisses it, bestows gifts on it, plays dress-up, and basically acts as though it were a blow-up doll. Then he sacrifices to Venus, prays for a woman �like his ivory maiden�, and when he gets home starts kissing his creation, which turns to flesh and blood in his arms. Now, if I were that girl and the first thing I saw was this guy kissing me, I think I would start screaming and run as fast as I could out of there. But no, he marries her and nine months later she gives birth to a son, after whom the island is named. Oy.

But that�s not what I was going to talk about. I took my lentil soup and tuna fish sandwich up to the Loft where I met Little Princess� friend A, who asked me to join her and another couple who were lunching together. The other two are still at the college, which makes them about 18 or so, and they are both into what we used to call �punk� when I was at university, but I guess is more referred to as �goth� nowadays. They were both bigger than is considered healthy on the insurance charts, they both had chewed off black nail polish, she had a pierced lip, nose and tongue, he had straggly black hair that really needed cutting. They were both suffering from a malady that will be cured just by growing up, and A admitted to me after they left that she can only take them in small bites.

So, after that I planned to go practise, something I don�t do nearly enough, but met Vlad in the office so felt obligated to chat with her for a while. She told me that after her recital on Friday, she and the violinist came down with a 12-hour gastro-intestinal bug that laid them both low. She was running from one end, and the violinist was running from the other.

Finally I got into the practice room, worked tolerably hard on a new piece, the composer of which wants me to record it with a MIDI version of the accompaniment (flute, cello, piano) sometime this spring, and spent a fair bit of time on La Wally, which I think is going to be rather brilliant. Then I taught two baritones in a row, the first one not having really spent that much time working on his recital repertoire. We went over the Apollinaire songs by P0ulenc, and he�s totally forgotten them. I�m rather concerned for this guy�s final mark.

Anyway, this was followed by belly dancing, where I argued with my teacher about my inability to do turns because I get dizzy. She thinks it�s because I don�t �spot� properly, and I showed her a perfect head swivel (she admitted it was perfect) but just that one pirouette left me feeling ill. So she had to admit that I must have a particularly sensitive inner ear, and I don�t have to do any more turns. Yay!

The weather is wintery again. It�s been snowing off and on since yesterday, the temperature has dropped to a seasonal -6�C, and so has the price of gas fallen, which is quite welcome.

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