Jennifer Grucza

Just uploaded my first video to YouTube: a short clip of Chloe acting crazy.

Right now I’m trying out a viola made in 1978 by David Wiebe. It’s about 16 3/4″, so not quite as large as the Michele Ashley instrument I was trying before. What a powerful set of lower strings this instrument has! I think it’s even boomier than the Marilyn Wallin viola I tried. I’m not quite sure what I think of it. At first I thought it was nice, but not exactly what I wanted, but the more I play on it, the more things I like about it. Though it’s not quite as easy to play some things as the Ashley was - I’m not sure if the upper bout is wider, but it feels slightly unwieldy on occasion. And it picks up a lot of bow noise. I have orchestra tomorrow, so I can see how it does in that setting (it seems just fine in chamber music). Also I can get someone else to play it for me, so I can hear what it sounds like from a little farther away. It definitely has potential, though like the Ashley viola, it’s on the upper end of the price range I was aiming for.

I just recently joined a site called PaperBackSwap.com. The idea is simple - you enter the ISBN numbers of any books you’d like to get rid of, and request books you’d like to receive. It all works on a credit system: you get three free credits once you’ve posted nine books, and then you get one credit for each book that you actually send to someone. You pay the postage on any books you send (you don’t pay anything when you request a book).

So I found nine books that I didn’t have any reason to keep, entered them into the system, and found three books I thought I’d like to read. And the first one arrived in my mailbox today!

What makes this so easy is that you can print out the shipping label, which doubles as the packaging (you just wrap the book like a present), on a sheet of normal computer paper. And they tell you how many stamps you need for postage for a paperback book. No boxes required.

It’s such a nice, elegant concept. Cheaper than buying books that you’ll only read once, and no worries about overdue fines from the library.

How cute! I wonder if the book is done in pictures, or if I need to teach Yo-Yo and Chloe to read first…

I’ve been tagged by Matt Thommes and Shawn Anthony (from Lo-Fi Tribe)! Matt tagged this blog, and Shawn tagged Perfect Fifths, so I’ll just post this in both places.

Four jobs I have had

• Cashier at Wal-Mart
• Office assistant for a hospital’s accounting department
• Occasional musician for weddings, retirement parties, and conference dinners
• Software engineer

Four movies I can watch over and over again

• The Princess Bride
• Center Stage
• Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
• Amadeus

Four places I have lived

• Champaign, Illinois
• Cambridge, Massachusetts (MIT dorms)
• Cambridge, Massachusetts (apartment)
• Watertown, Massachusetts

Four TV shows I love

• What Not to Wear
• House
• Project Runway
• American Idol

Four places I’ve vacationed

• Montreal
• London
• Prague
• Vienna

Four of my favorite dishes

• Macaroni and cheese
• Mashed potatoes
• Chicken yellow curry with pineapple
• Mandu (Korean dumplings)

Four sites I visit daily

• violinist.com
• weather.com
• dooce.com
• Yahoo! Mail

Four places I would rather be right now

• Somewhere warm
• With my family
• On a European vacation
• In a big house that I own and can paint whatever colors I want

Four bloggers I’m tagging

• Classical Watch
• Christian Watson (Smiley Cat)
• Volkher Hofmann (Living With Music)
• David Thomas (Buzzing Reed)

I think tonight may have been a first for me. I just got back from playing in a house concert featuring a couple of singer-songwriters. Both women had very nice voices (and guitar skills).

Some songs were voice and guitar only, some had bass and drums, and some had viola (me) and cello.

They kept telling us how great we sounded. But really, it’s not very hard to sound good when the music is relatively simple like that - nothing too rhythmically tricky, and nothing in high positions. In fact, we had a brief rehearsal before the concert and that was it. Mostly we just had to play with a nice warm sound and make sure we stayed with the singers.

I guess having the strings did add a nice touch to the songs, though - easy or not.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure that was the first time I’d ever played backup for a non-classical singer. It was pretty interesting - I’d do it again.