(no subject)

Today will be a long day - but i finished all my homework - I was pleased that it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be - the texts were a little rough though - especially since i have a really crappy uzbek-english dictionary that doesn't translate anything useful for me.

But I got up and made kasha for breakfast and watched some TV - I continue to be amazed at how much sport and music are blatantly used to stir up patriotism and demostrate what a prosperous country Uzbekistan is - it is also amazing how many different programs and public service announcements there are pushin this message and how the material in them - estrada music, shots of traditional instruments with their synthesized counterparts sounding non-diagetically, kids playing football, kids playing volley ball, kids doing judo - all in huge lines, etc.

And the dancers - traditional dancers in full out costume, but in huge groups and lines so that they look like a giant folk dancing marching band. This is quite a carry over from the Soviet time, but there is a new, electronic flavor to it - like they're trying to make a point about Uzbekistans modern status at the same time as they are trying to emphasize its traditions.

anyway, Im going to buy some fresh bread on my way home and eat lunch before my lessons start for the day.

(no subject)

hee hee - I survived today - my uzbek lesson went well, though my teacher and I chatted for quite a while, not paying attention to the lesson - so he gave me LOTS AND LOTS of homework - so I wont be bored over the weekend...heh.

Then I went to my dutar lesson - Malika toldme I need to work harder on my right hand technique (big suprise) and my kashishi. But she let me start shashamaqom!!!!!!! I learned the 1st hona and the chorus of the tasnif of maqom dugox and it is the most beautiful thing I think I have ever played. Most of the peices I know give me goosebumps in a couple of places but this little section of a peice gives me goosemups with every note, with ever ornament - it is so hard but so amazingly beautiful.

Then we went to the Physics laboratory and I showed them what I'd just learned and Malika and Rustam aka played a section of maqom segox together - they look so serene and loving when they play together - it is obvious the way that they interact musically that their friendship is decades old. It is hard to tell who is considered more knowledgable, they are all the time deferring to one another and having little arguments about parts of the melody - it is terribly endearing.

Oh yay, and I just got an email from Firuza opa at ACCELS that the conservatory letter came in - this means it can all be DHLd to UCLA in time for my grant applications to go in - hurrah!