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Autumn, Secret Garden & Baseball

October 8, 2021 at 9:14 am by Claudia

Autumnal and Foggy Secret Garden.

It’s 9 am and it’s still very foggy out there! When I walked outside, I could hear the drip, drip, drip of water falling from the trees. It’s mysterious and wonderful.

Oh, Red Sox. Somehow, I think you’re not going to outplay the Rays. We’ll still cheer you on and of course, you never know, but I have this feeling. And no offense to Floridians, but I hate the indoor ballpark aka Tropicana Field. It looks fake. And I’ve been there in person. I watched a Yankees vs Rays game there with my sister and nephew several years ago. I understand of course, why it needs to be an indoor park, but on television – and in person – the colors look garish, there are ridiculous rules about the metal rings at the top of the dome and what happens if the ball hits the rings (which happened last night,) there are no outdoor sounds, and there’s no weather – it’s like an alternate world out of some movie.

Nevertheless, I applaud the Rays, especially since they aren’t a big budget team, like the Yankees or the Red Sox. Frankly, I think athletes earn way too much and it’s always refreshing to see a winning team emerge in spite of a limited payroll. “Limited” of course, only as compared to the astronomical salaries paid to professional athletes. Yes, their playing years are short, but so are the performing years of a professional ballet dancer and believe me, they don’t get paid anything remotely near that amount of money. Of course, I could go on with this and compare the salaries of professional athletes with teachers, and nurses, and grocers, and machinists, and bakers, and cooks, and on and on. It’s so skewed.

Well! I didn’t mean to go off on that tangent but that’s what happens when you write a daily blog. Posts aren’t planned ahead of time. They just spring forth out of the moment.

Something exciting is coming in today’s mail. I’ll share it with you tomorrow.

And we have an anniversary coming up next week…

There’s a problem with the email for this blog right now, so I’m not getting comments sent to me nor are my replies, etc., getting to you. My host is working on it. So check back if you want to read my reply! Thanks so much.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Misty Morning

October 7, 2021 at 9:43 am by Claudia

More misty mornings.

Spider webs everywhere, leaves turning color, an altogether magical-almost-otherworldly landscape. That is one of the joys of autumn.

I am coaching Ben both today and tomorrow, so this has turned out to be a satisfying week of working almost every day. That hasn’t happened in a long time! It’s wonderful to feel productive and valued and to have the opportunity to do what I do best. Though I am prone to the same doubts as everyone, I am good at what I do and I know it.

One of my former students wrote me the other day. One of the things I taught my students at both Boston University and the University of San Diego, was the International Phonetic Alphabet and its use in transcribing sounds and sound changes. Each symbol represents a sound (and there are far more out there than I had to teach my actors) and they are invaluable for transcribing sound changes for dialect work. Elisa, who I taught at USD, said this:

I was thinking of and channeling you today. After many years of not doing any IPA, I dusted it off today to transcribe Chinese. My son just started taking classes and I am working with him at home. Without IPA, I would not be able to capture the sounds that we need to have to refer to. At any rate, it’s not the original application, but I thought you might like to know that your teaching in phonetics helped me greatly in teaching my dyslexic son to read, and now I am passing my transcription skills to the next generation.

Isn’t that the best? I can’t tell you how much this kind of thing means to me. To see it being used in a new and fresh way that adapts to Elisa’s particular situation is wonderful. I will hold this close to my heart.

I also had a former student reach out to ask me if I could send her the phonetic changes for a German dialect, which I somehow managed to find in my files. I sent them off to her, with the proviso that they were general and if she needed more specific regional sound changes, she’d need to research them.

The coaching and the interaction with former students all happened within the past four days, so I’m beginning to recognize my professional self again.

We stayed up late watching the Red Sox vs Yankees the other night. The Red Sox won, thank goodness (sorry, Yankees fans – I was perfectly willing to accept a Yankees win, if it happened) and tonight they start their 3 game series with the Tampa Bay Rays (my sister’s team.) The Rays are really, really good, so this will be interesting. We don’t often get to watch the Red Sox because we’re not in their broadcast area, so this will be fun.

Okay. Have to get going and put makeup on to zoom coach! After a year and half of no makeup, I’ve been wearing it quite a bit lately.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

The Constant Lists Going On In My Head

October 6, 2021 at 10:21 am by Claudia

You can see all the wild asters that have sprung up next to the garden. The burning bush is turning red. I quickly snapped this picture just a minute or so ago. It’s definitely Fall. Leaves are on the ground everywhere. Normally, this change would leave me feeling more melancholy – I love summer and I dread the onset of winter – but I’m so busy right now that I just acknowledge what I see outside and move on.

I did some zoom coaching yesterday and I will do more on Thursday and Friday. I sent in all my receipts and my bill to the company producing the tour of Anastasia. Today, I’m going to do some cleaning around the house and start making lists for what needs to be done around here before I leave for NYC and what I need to pack and the many things that I do on a daily basis that I need to explain to Don. It’s just a little over two weeks before filming begins. How did the time go by so quickly?

I feel like I’m constantly making lists in my head and I’m also worrying about a possible strike by IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. This action doesn’t concern the theater, but it does address TV and film. They voted to strike for the first time in their history because of impossible working conditions on film sets – 15 hour days, not enough breaks, larger contributions to health and pension plans, and residuals for content aired on streaming services. They are absolutely in the right. They are on the set far longer than the actors, director, or people like me. They’re in a good negotiating position because film is getting off the ground after a long hiatus and no one wants to lose more money. Nevertheless, we are supposed to be starting this film in a few weeks, so this impacts whether I work or not on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

There’s too much going on in my head and, as you know, I’ve been a worrier since I was a child. I well remember lying awake at night, worrying about school, or gym class, or math, or what happens to us when we die, or why do we die?

Deep breath.

Okay.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Autumn, Secret Garden & Baseball

Misty Morning

The Constant Lists Going On In My Head

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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