I've moved my blogging activity to my website. I'll occasionally post here, but for up-to-the-minute detail please visit:

www.chadlangford.com

den haag, nl: 7:14 sunday morning. 14 degrees and sunny

Congratulations to Ana Ivanovic on her win at Roland Garros! Georgie and I caught the end of the match yesterday afternoon. In other sport news, the European Football Championships got underway today in Switzerland. The Netherlands side are in Group C, and they'll have their first match of the three-week tournament tomorrow night. With my trip back to the states I'm going to miss the entire tournament! It's a really big deal here in the Netherlands, and although the Dutch aren't typically given to overt "patriotism" or national pride, over the last two weeks we've seen a steadily-increasing number of national flags, little orange streamers, and "Hup Holland Hup!" signs posted haphazardly in the windows of homes and shops all over the country. Go Nederland! :-)

Yesterday we went to Scheveningen harbour to check out Vlaggetjesdag, the annual Dutch celebration of the first herring catch of the season. Thousands of people were packed in along the water amongst the countless herring stalls, craftspeople, and musicians who turned out for the day. And yes, I had my first proper herring-with-onion!

Vandaag gaan we misschien naar Middelburg met de fietsen. Of Tilburg, vlakbij de grens van België: wie kent? Het platteland in het west van Noord-Brabant is heel mooi, met groen velden, koeien, en veel sloten.

monday 20:03

Okay, the Netherlands' first match of the European Football Championships starts in 40 minutes, and we can already hear people driving by on the street below, honking their horns and whooping....

Georgie and I have just finished our homework for Dutch class and had our dinner and now we're gonna tune in and watch the match! :-)

Friday, May 30th. 16:00 :
Tonight we're hosting the folks from our Dutch class for a little "feestje" at Georgie's. Amazingly, everyone could make it except Anne-Laure, who had theatre tickets. 13 people will be packed into miss G's little third-floor place; should be cosy!

I'm going to start posting in Dutch as well as English. It will be full of errors, but will be good for me, of course. I know there are a few Nederlanders out there checking this page: zeg je me, a.u.b, of iets te veel verkeerd is....

Nu ben ik bij de tandarts met Georgie. Ik wacht samen met twee of drie andere mensen. Dit morgen heeft Georgie een beetje te zwaar "brushed," en dat heb veel pijn ertoe gebracht....

next day, 6 p.m. /// morgen, om 18:00 uur :

Dit morgen hebben we Gabor and Kinga ontgemoeten, en hebben allemaal een beetje getennist! Dit was de eerste keer met mijn nieuwe Prince racquet dat mijn vader heeft van Amerika gebracht. Er zijn een publiek tennisbaan vlakbij de Reinkenstraat. We hebben over twee uren of zo gespeeld, toen terug naar Georgie's en geluncht. Deze middag hebben we thuis gebleven, want de weer zo slecht is...regen, regen. Vanavond? Weet het niet....

next morning, sunday the first /// zondagmorgen, 1 juni

Mild temperatuur vanmorgen, bijna viertien grade! Nu zijn we de BBC world service luisteren, en lekker koffie drinken. Mevrouw Georgie heb niet zo wel geslapen, omdat haar tandpijn doorgaan...

Vandaag wil ik naar de conservatorium gaan, een vleugel te gebruik. Van een uur tot en met vijf uur werk ik aan mijn nieuwe stukje voor Post & Mulder. Ik moet de computer door een microphone op de vleugel aansluiten, toen mijn nieuwe software testen. Voor de gescheven muziek: een van de twee vleugel's moet binnen spelen, de andere buiten op de keyboard spelen.

sunday, may 18th
Sorry that I haven't posted for awhile. My parents were here for two weeks and Georgie and I are just getting back into a semi-normal routine. We'd been traveling and visiting or hosting travelers and visitors since Eastertime!

Had a great time with mom and dad. We got to see quite a bit in Zuid-Holland and took a six-day trip to Belgium and Germany as well.

top 5 in brugge:
- the view from our room
- the beautiful, beautiful buildings and houses in the old town
- lounging with georgie near the windmills on the eastern wall
- puur chocolade
- grachtrondvaart!

top 5 in köln:
- the seven chapels in the cathedral
- the "früh" brand of kölsch
- sauerbraten, rodekohl, and dumplings
- hearing "sunny side of the street" at papa joe's
- bargewatching at dusk

I've started work on the piano duo for Post & Mulder, getting some code written for the SuperCollider modules. The pianos will both be triggering samples from the computer; yet another something that I've wanted to figure out in SC. Last week Georgie gave me a book, A History of Language, by Steven Roger Fischer, that has been very interesting reading. The first chapter deals with some of what humans have learned about non-human languages, and has fascinating sections on whales, horses, bees, and ants. I may be using some of the material on whales for the piano piece, recorded as vocal samples and triggered from the pianos. We'll see....

monday, may 19th
On the train back to Den Haag from Amsterdam. I just met with the Pauline Post and Nora Mulder, the one and only POST & MULDER piano duo. I went to their studio in Amsterdam Noord, a great little hideaway on the water, seemingly far-removed from the bustle of Amsterdam, but easily accessed via a free ferry across the IJ river, behind Amsterdam Centraal. I spent just over an hour with them and got a great feeling; this will be a fun project. They're just looking for a 5 to 7-minute piece, so I should be able to comfortably get it finished before returning to the states on June 12th. They're great players AND they like to have a laugh, so we shouldn't have any troubles working together.

The sun is out again today! It's cooler, but at least we have the sun....

Georgie just called. She's back home from school already, getting the tea together. I should be there in 40 minutes or so, just in time for a cuddle....

Den Haag, NL: sunny and 16 degrees. Finally some warmth!

Hello again, everyone. It's been busy; sorry I've neglected to post over the last couple of weeks. Here are some observations from last week:

- €25 return (with Georgie's 40% discount) is about the maximum that you'll pay (per ticket) for even the farthest-flung destinations when traveling by train in Nederland. Pack your own lunch and see the country on the cheap.

- They make Jane Austen action figures.

- One can fly from Amsterdam to Sydney, via Beijing, in about 29 hours for $2000 US. Seems like Australia is always $2000 away....

- If the foundation of your piece is irony or sarcasm, it had better be really, really good and deep. Takes the same amount of time to write as a non-irony-or-sarcasm piece, but usually has a lifespan of one hearing only....

Last week was SpringFestival week at the Royal Conservatory. From Tuesday to Saturday we put on two or three concerts per day, featuring new pieces written by the composition department. I had three premieres this week: Meer Voor Minder, (in English, "more for less"), for violin, harpsichord, and computer; Blowup, for computer alone, and; Cairns, for two laptops and electric guitar. Asamidori, my piece for SSAT choir, was to be sung on the Wednesday night vocal concert, but alas this new choir, while very dedicated and hardworking, was not ready for such a challenging piece. The director and I decided to postpone it until they can get it in hand. Other than this slight disappointment, it was a very inspiring week!

My parents are coming to visit in later this week. They've not met Georgina yet. I'm excited! :-)

Den Haag, NL: 10 degrees and partly cloudy. Spring is really trying...

Last weekend, with the help of the amazing Reed family and their stalwart wunderwagen, I moved to a new flat! Hier is de nieuwe adres:

De Vriesstraat 44 - 1
2593 XJ Den Haag
Nederland

(Feel free to send housewarming gifts)

Wow; I haven't posted in awhile, and quite a bit has happened over the last three weeks! Georgie and I went back to beautiful Norfolk, England, for the Easter weekend, staying that Thursday through the following Tuesday. It really was a charmed weekend: although there was snow off and on throughout the weekend (which was very pretty, of course), the sun managed to come out for all of our activities, some highlights of which included (a somewhat abbreviated list):

- a trip to Cambridge: strolls around some of the most famous colleges, a beer and a meal at the Eagle, punting on the river Cam;

- Easter Sunday church in Fakenham: my first Church of England service;

- meeting more of Georgie's friends and family;

- multiple drives around Norfolk: too much to tell, but we did get to do some drive-bys of Blickling, Felbrigg, and Holkham Halls, in addition to multiple stops in many beautiful little villages and towns.

For some photos from the trip, check out Georgie and my new-ish flickr page.

We flew over on EasyJet, but came back in Georgie's parent's car, via the Dover-Dunkerque ferry! I've always wanted to see Dover and take a ferry there; it's just one of those things that means "England" to me....I was very excited and moved by the whole experience. We had perfect weather again for the crossing: no wind, no clouds. It was amazing. You could see France very clearly from Dover, which doesn't happen so often, Georgie's father told me. You can see some shots from the day on the flickr page.

Georgie's parents have been here since last Tuesday, and they're just sticking around one more day before heading back on Friday morning. Since we've returned I've been quite busy with this last violin/harpsichord piece for the SpringFestival, but I've made some time to hang out with the Reeds. They've pretty much been driving all over the south of Holland for the last week, exploring little towns and just having a great time. It's strange to think that MY PARENTS will be here in just over three weeks! It does seem a shame that the parental visits couldn't have been in sync; when will we all be in the same place? It's hard to know....

I'm looking forward to long cuddles this weekend.

VROLIJK VRIJDAG, alles! Ik ben heel blij, omdat een mooi vrijdag is eindelijk gekomen....I'm ready for a break, yo.

Tomorrow Georgie and I are heading to Utrecht for the day, just to get the hell out of Den Haag again, see some new things. I haven't been to Utrecht yet...who knows what we'll do? There's a speelklok museum that we're going to check out, and you have to go up the domtoren, but other than that, we'll see....

This week I've been working on my new piece for violin and harpsichord. I met with the players on Wednesday at the harpsichordist Marcin's place. Just last week he got his NEW harpsichord, made for him by Christian Fuchs in Germany. People: it's BEAUTIFUL. I'll bring my camera next session and post a photo. And the sound of the thing....my god. So beautiful. Anyway, we had a nice session, and I got some new ideas for my piece. Yesterday I realized that I'll probably involve the computer as well (surprise, surprise!). I've been working with these collections of pitches for each player, which have correspondences at the group level, but which may be played freely (as regards rhythm, dynamics, etc.) within each set of groups. My initial thought was that each player could play his bit and then, should he finish first, wait for the other player. This probably would work okay, after the guys got used to the flow, but I left the Wednesday session feeling dissatisfied with the approach, feeling like it created a certain anxiousness in the players which distracted from the flow. So, yesterday I got the idea to use the computer as a traffic cop. I'll sample 20-30 doors, opening and closing, and use these sounds to cue the players to change pitch groups. Probably also throw in some footfall sounds, walking and running. This will create the impression that the listener is visiting different rooms in a huge, amorphous dream house....should be very cool! And reasonably easy to make. The deadline for this sucker is in two weeks, and Georgie and I are in Norfolk from next Thursday to the following Tuesday....

Okay! To work!

Hallo, iedereen. It's been a while. Sorry.

I'm into a new piece this week, a klein stukje for violin and harpsichord, that's supposed to have an "improvisatory element" in it. It's for a specific duo, to be performed in Voorburg during the SpringFestival week. So far I've got a written bit that returns in various transformations, interspersed with block-like collections for each player, consisting of one-to-eight pitches that are played freely, but with strict correspondences between the collections. It's like the idea behind last month's computer piece, Antiquariaat, but with humans making the choices. The idea is to give them collections that will sound good (and at times surprising) in any configuration or distribution, and which allow them to react to each other as regards the rhythm, dynamics, articulation, etc. In other words, I will rely on the logic of the pitch/harmonic flow to hold things together. For me, it's the intervals which create continuity in any piece, not the rhythm, timbre, dynamics, or any other factors. For me, it's that simple. If the fabric of the pitch structure tells some kind of story, then you can do whatever you want with these other parameters.

I've got a session with the players tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see if this is all b.s. or if there's something to it!

Georgie and I leave for Norfolk next Thursday. I'm excited, and ready for a more substantial change of scene. We went to Groningen last weekend which was lovely, but it was only a two-day trip. I've been in the same day-to-day routine since new year. It's been a really productive winter (three pieces finished and ready for rehearsal!), but now I'm ready for a break....

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Tomorrow, March 1st, myself and three friends will begin another yearlong photo project. I'm so excited to see what happens with this one! For those of you that were tuned into Billie and my 1383: A Year of Evenings, this one should be even better, with TWICE the daily photo madness, from even farther-flung ex-Montana residents. Check it out:

Bande À Part: A Year Of Photos

Today, at school, Reinbert de Leeuw is giving a talk to the conducting students on Messiaen's "Couleurs de la Cité Céleste"! It's in a small-ish room, so better get there early, denk ik....

Tonight it's the ASKO ensemble, also at school, performing works by Heiner Goebbels.

Tomorrow night it's this, in Rotterdam.

Okay, I'm TOTALLY chuffed!!!

I've just been asked to write a piano duo for Post and Mulder, to be premiered at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, during Gaudeamus Music Week 2008!

Feeling good.

Den Haag, NL: 11 degrees, wet and horrible.

I'm on "voorjaarsvakantie" this week, a February version of spring break. Just getting started on a new piece, for a violin / harpsichord duo at school. They want new pieces that have an element of improvisation. But, I can do whatever I want. Both players are experienced improvisers. Hmmm.

BTW: Last Saturday, Luc, Guy and I did get the network problems solved, mostly. There's still a niggling issue, but I guess I couldn't have expected flawless operation right from the start. I've never done a networked piece before. Plus, Saturday morning was the first one-on-one time I'd had with them. They leave for South Africa in a couple of weeks for some gigs.

Looks like Georgie and I will be heading up to Groningen weekend-after-next for some sightseeing, and to wish our new friend Sarah a happy birthday. We met her on a flight back from the UK a few weeks ago. G and I will check out Groningen on Saturday, find a little place to stay the night, and then go see Sarah on Sunday. She lives in a little town nearby. Fun! I haven't been to the north of Holland as yet....

In other news, Georgie and I have a new flickr site, with photos from the last couple of months. I'll sincerely attempt to keep the photos updated!

location: beeklaan 288
music: jaki byard, hazy eve

den haag, nl: 9 degrees and overcast

Sitting in Gilius' studio at the KC, waiting for the POW Ensemble to set up.

One hour later: Okay, we're STILL having problems with SuperCollider finding the bloody samples (they're right there in the root folder...wtf?) and also with the network triggering. Luc and I had everything working at his place two Mondays ago. This is more than a bit frustrating, as everything works perfectly at my studio, with my two machines. I know that we'll get it worked out and that everything will be fine, but what I really want right now is for them to hear how the frigging piece sounds! I'm really excited about the music and am proud of the work I've done, but nothing's working outside of Beeklaan 288....

Anyway, I'm meeting Guy and Luc again tomorrow morning, just the three of us, to (hopefully) work it out once and for all. After that....Georgie and I head to Rotterdam for the ABN AMRO tennis championships! We've got tickets for both semifinal matches. :-)

Okay, ik moet het boodschappen doen, daarna een beetje lezen (met koffie), op mijn gemak! Vanavond, zal mijn fraai engelse engel thuiskomt; natuurlijk, wil ik een volle koelkast en een schoon apartment voor mijn lammetje....

Day one:

After one last cuddle at quarter-to-six, I see my beloved to Station Hollands Spoor. She's gone now. Catch the tram and I'm back to the studio by 7:15. Coffee. Emails. School-related nonsense. Settle in to finally finish Cairns, this week. We meet with the POW Ensemble again this Friday. I'll be ready to dump this overdue child on them and have done with it....

Mid-morning: composing. Coordinating miss Georgina's recorded whispers for Cairns. Balancing volumes, getting the density and timing just right. Good; now on to the guitar parts this afternoon.

Supper : Miss G's ratatouille on pita bread.

More guitar parts. Listening to the world service while getting today's guitar music onto the computer. Text from G. When will she call? It's now quarter-to-nine, but actually I realize that it's beer-thirty. I'm knockin' off for the day....


Day two:

A foggy morning, but it burns off early. Not too cold on the dark ride to the studio. I post some new photos from the last couple of weeks on our flickr site, then catch up with a few emails to friends. Bread and jam. Strong coffee.

Ready to get an early start on Cairns, trying to get it finished this week (barring revisions once the rehearsals start), while my princess is gone....

8:30 : I recorded my vocals, chopped and edited them. Balanced the volumes, density, and timings. Tested everything in a mock-up scenario, using both my laptops and, after a few hours of debugging and retesting, I have everything working (mostly). There are a couple of quirky things, specifically: one guy has to initialize his code first or the other machine throws an error, and; neither player can press any buttons on their GUI until computer #1 hits the "start" button, or it messes everything up. Eventually I'll get those issues resolved so that the system is rock solid, but for right now it's just nice to know that, those two bits aside, my new software works correctly, flows logically, and is otherwise stable. This is far and away the most complicated performance system I've ever created....

During the testing my three-year-old iBook acquitted itself honorably; no matter how many synths I triggered, it never got over 75% CPU load. Luc and Guy's machines are much newer, with intel duos in, so there shouldn't be any problem for them....

Now it's time for a late lunch. Then it's finishing the guitar parts and getting them onto the computer. Do the preliminary computer layout (i.e. make sure that at least it's legible, for Friday's rehearsal), then finito. If everything works for Wiek (the guitarist) on Friday, then I'll dig into the layout and finish it up over the break next week. Next week Georgie's back to school and I'm the one on voorjaarsvakantie. Shame that the timing didn't work out between us. Then again, maybe it did. It does feel good to just wrap this piece up. I started thinking about it in late October....


Day three:

Ended up reworking two of the six guitar modules (not the two I was planning on completing!) before dinnertime last night, so I've still got to finish those other two today. Everything's feeling like it's really coming alive, though, so I'm not worried about being "behind" a day. I had hoped to have the guitar parts done yesterday, but I'll shoot for today. Then I can finish up the rough score layout tonight and email them to Wiek on Thursday morning, still in advance of Friday morning's rehearsal.

13:30 : Just finished guitar module number five. I'm really proud of the writing; it's idiomatic for the guitar, but feels very honest and personal. A bit quirky. Everything should fit nicely with the panoramas from the computers, but we'll see when the rehearsals start. I'm halfway finished with module six, the last one, which I'll take up again after lunch. Should be done today!

15:50 : Just finished the last guitar bit. Also, my beloved Georgina just called from Cambridge, where she's just finished lunching with friends. Now she's wandering around, window shopping and killing time before heading to her brother's in Newmarket this evening.

I turn my attention to the computer layout. The world service says that Obama took Wisconsin and Hawaii yesterday, and McCain has started taking pot shots at him. Here we go....

20:00 : Almost finished entering the score. I'll finish the fine tuning and page layout tomorrow morning. I need a break. My beloved G called about an hour ago. She arrived in Newmarket quite early and was sitting outside her brother's place waiting for everyone to turn up. She said that she bought a skirt today! This is unprecedented. She also bought herself some new jeans and some "cutoff" trousers (from her description, I'm guessing that these are capri-style pants). Two more days until she's home....


Day four:

12:38 : The score is finished, at least until revision time. I think the POW starts rehearsing in earnest in a couple of weeks time. The given deadline for this piece was March 1st. Right! Next case....

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** A shout out to mom and dad in Chi-town: I'll call you later this afternoon / morning! To all of you other readers out there: if you ever have the opportunity to stay at the Drake in Chicago, don't pass it up; the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen. My parents are there this week for the annual AARD meetings.

den haag, nl: 3 degrees and foggy, at noon...

Until today, the weather this last week has been beautiful. Yesterday, Georgie and I met after work at the zuiderstrand in Kijkduin: we've decided that this is our beach! It has a very cute, not-too-crowded touristy bit (charming, really) and not many people. We'll see what it's like in the high season, but it seems so easy to head south along the shore and get away from the people....

Monday night at the Korzo Theatre was a success; a really good concert. With the KC composition department between producers at the moment, three of us dove in and organized the evening. It was nice to get to know the the tech people at the Korzo and have an opportunity to work fairly closely with them; we'll certainly be seeing more of each other.

Georgie's half-term school holiday is all next week, so she'll be heading to Norfolk from Monday through Friday. Hmmmm...

den haag, nl: 8 degrees and sun. sun forecast through next week...!

Tuesday afternoon I started keeping a log on my progress for the week. It was fun; maybe I'll do a bit more of this....

-----
Tuesday, around 15:00...
I'm working on Antiquariaat for next Monday's concert at the Korzo theatre.

Grumble. I've got a cool routine in SC that analyzes two free melodies (melodies that I wrote last year, really liked, but haven't used for anything), and then combines the intervals to create "shadows", mirroring the original melody above and below. Usually the results are very good, maar. I'm trying to figure out how to get it under control a bit more; I want the unexpected but not the undesirable. In short: how to achieve just the right amount of random-ness?

One hour later:
Okay, first I slowed the tempo of the entire piece, and it's working better. I chopped up the first melody (originally 46-notes) into 4 pieces; same with the second. The results are less chaotic; the harmonies don't drift as far afield, and there is some audible repetition. Getting closer. Shorter melodies, with slower tempi and wider swings of tempi...

Several hours later:
Got the harmony happening, at least for a short first section. Rhythm?

----
Wednesday, 17:59...
This is starting to work. Got a cool background panorama (10 seconds of me breathing in and out, stretched to 6 minutes with a sample grainer) piped thru a noise gate so it cuts in and out. Shifting stereo white noise, like when you're trying to fall asleep and it's so much easier if you've got something going on in the background. It gives the celeste some space to inhabit, and the noise in the celeste patch matches with the breath noise sometimes. Cool. For the rhythm, I used a similar rhythm module to the one I'm using for "Cairns," but this one has 30 instruments that build and fade over about 7 minutes, really far back in the mix. Their rhythmic regularity is really nice with the slowly oscillating tempo of the celeste's sequence. The breath panorama creates a sine of dynamics, interacting with the tempo sines of the celeste. The noise gate gives it some pulse at times, and the 10-per-second grain rate adds some real rhythmic drive during the louder bits. Three sections?

Thursday, 10:05...
Just got through a round of emails from some fellow students who run a new, contemporary music choir at the conservatory. I had sent them Asamidori, my new work for choir, last month, and they want to give it a première on April 16th during the Spring Festival! Wow, I'm totally chuffed. Must send a copy of the recording to Lowell Hickman, back in Montana...

Antiquariaat needs one more thing. Don't ask me what it is...

several hours later...
Antiquariaat. I put in a different breath sample that's working a bit better. Edited the percussion routine. Have a little mini-coda with the celeste returning, down two octaves. Still needs one more thing....? One more sound.

Thursday, 14:45
Okay, I think it's done. We'll see how I feel tomorrow, after a night away from it....

Ladies and Gentlemen: Antiquariaat I, for computer, is complete. duration: 6' 30". If you live here in the Hague, come to the Korzo Theatre this Monday night at 20:30 to hear the première....

kijkduin, nl: 8 degrees with sun, sun, sun..

Georgie and I went to the Haagse Markt this morning ("De grootste markt van Europa!") and stocked up on cheap n' tasty vegetables and fresh fish and prawns. After the gale-force winds and plummeting temperatures of the last three days, a calm, sunny morning was quite welcome! After lunch, we took the bus to Kijkduin and walked south along the strand. With the sinking sun in our faces, lighting the sparse, slow-moving clouds and reflecting brilliantly off the rough sea, it was easy to daydream of spring and summer; stolen afternoons picnicking and relaxing by the beautiful Noordzee.

For those of you who've been following the 1383, "A Year of Evenings" photoblog, we finished our year this last Friday! We'll be keeping the page up so that others can discover it and go through the back catalogue. We had such a good time doing it, that on March 1st we're starting another year-long project, this time with four far-flung photo correspondents! Ladies and Gentleman, we give you bandeapart....

den haag, nl: 4 degrees and early in the morning. chance of brightening toward midday.

Had another meeting with the POW Ensemble today, in preparation for the SpringFestival performances at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in April. All three guys were there today, with their instruments: Luc Houtkamp (NL - computer), Guy Harries (UK - computer), and Wiek Hijmans (NL - electric guitar). It's gonna be good. The piece I've created involves network communication between the two computers, who send each other little synthesizers over the network. Een stapje verder: this could be done over the internet as well....next project! The guitarist has 7 sets of material to work with, making his choices depending on what the computers are doing.

Miss Georgina and I are heading back to the film festival in Rotterdam on Friday night to see this.

Just started looking for new digs here in the Hague; can't keep paying what I'm paying. Anyone know of a cute studio or one-bedroom for around €400 per month in the city of peace and justice?

den haag, zuid holland: 7 degrees and dark, with sun in today's forecast.

Één mooi week, maar heel bezig en een beetje "stressful." I'm trying to work on three pieces at the moment, with deadlines for two of them fast approaching. I'm in good shape, but am in that phase where I'm ready to wrap up and be on to something else! I just got an email from the ISCM, a score call for the 2009 meeting in Sweden. It looks like they've got several vocal ensembles on the roster, so I'll send my latest choir piece, Asamidori, in hopes of a performance. I finished it over the break; it's a reworking of some of my favorite material from an aborted flute quartet I sketched out a couple of years ago, on poems by Ono no Komachi, a tenth-century Japanese poetess.

The Rotterdam International Film Festival began this last Wednesday, and Georgie and I will be heading over there on Saturday to check out a couple of films. We just bought tickets for Little Flower (1979), which appears to be a patriotic, post-Mao Chinese epic. Joan Chen's first picture as well, I'm now reading in the blurb. Speaking of films: a new Ang Lee?! Unfortunately, this reveals just how out of it I really am these days; I just heard about Lust, Caution TODAY. It's playing here in the Hague from this week; I'm there. Whoa! A new Paul Thomas Anderson as well?! My cup runneth over...

In travel news, it looks like Georgie and I might be in England for Easter time, thanks to some super-cheap tickets that miss G found! Can't wait to get back there; beautiful country, wonderful people...

More later,
C

It's been nearly six weeks since I've posted; oh my. Sorry. So much has happened since that little "vijf december" post; where to begin?

Okay, first things first: HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE. I had a great holiday break, with a trip back to Montana over Christmas and a week's trip to Norfolk, England to spend new year with my beloved Georgina and her family. England is beautiful. I can't wait to return.

Georgie and I returned to the Hague on January 6th, just in time for school and work to begin. We've already hit the ground running, as it's a very busy term for G, and I've got pieces coming due and the Conservatorium's "Springfestival" to plan. It feels great to be getting really busy again, after such a lull since September!

Georgie and I found time to visit the southern province of Limburg last weekend, staying overnight in Maastricht on Saturday and exploring the area around the "drielandenpunt" on Sunday morning. The weather was perfect, sunny and mild....and there were proper hills to walk through! We couldn't believe it; with the varied and textured landscape it didn't feel like we were in Holland anymore...

This weekend is quieter, thank goodness. We're sticking around the Hague. Last night we hosted a few of Georgie's colleagues from the British School for a dinner party, and we're quite exhausted today...

More very soon, I promise.
Chad.