Back to the golf swing

On October 25th, 2008

I went to the driving range and practiced my golf swing. Boy, I seem to have forgotten how to properly swing a golf club and it had only been a few weeks since my last practice. It wasn't a good session. I managed to hit only a few good balls.

I also tried out my new Nike Unitized Neo putter. I bought it online from Golfsmith for $125, a great deal. I love it. It came with a head cover too. Very nice. :)

In the evening, Eric and I went to dinner with Anna and her friends, Jeanie and Jen, at the Spot, in La Jolla, CA. Jen and Regi brought along their two daughters, Mia and ?. Jeanie just got back from Thailand. She came to dinner with a friend named Paul. We were invited to run in the triathelon, half of the running course. I thought I would do it and hoped that I won't injure my legs.

I went to the gelato place downtown La Jolla. I had a scoop of chocolate gelato and another scoop of pistascio. Pretty good, but not as good as Choa's chocolatier gelato. :0

Great cookies

At the Farmers' Market in Mountain View, CA, I bought some really yummy cookies that are made from pure almond meal and no sugar added. These are great for diabetics. Each cookie contains 10 grams of fat, but good fat of almond.

http://www.natashashealthnutcookies.com/index.php

Tips from Devon Cass Class

Recently, I've become interested in photography. I took a class at CSC 2007 with Devon Cass. Here are some tips for men I learned.

Foundation: Mac studio fix provides full coverage. No powder is required. For men, it can be applied around eyes' corner to take away many years.

Clothing: no pattern, no white. Classic neckline.

For women, here are some short tips:

Eyebrows are very important and need to be finished off evenly on both side.

Eye Shadow: For day look, use light eye shadow, pressing harder at arch brow bone. Colors: brown = night divine charcoal, black = carbon night shadow.

Contouring: start at mide ear and brush down to accentuate cheek bone line.

A pleasant weekend

This past weekend was quite pleasant and relaxing. The voice lesson on Saturday was very helpful technically. I feel that I'm now making some progress on inhibiting the muscle tension in the tounge with the start of a sound.

I also saw Shrek 3 this weekend. The movie contains many great concepts but the writing for the ending was weak. I wonder how such a top notch studio would turn out a product that was definitely less than the first two installments. It could have been much better.

I also helped plant a purple Bougainvillea by the side of the house. Attached to a wood mesh, the Bougainvillea, currently green and leafy, will hopefully fill out the side wall with some beautiful flowers soon.

Back to the Basics

Sarah and I decided that we should work on the basics of vocal production again. I've been holding much of the tension in the tounge. Therefore, that's where we begin.

First, place one finger inside the mouth, underneath the tounge by the base or on either side. Second, use a finger from the other hand to press up underneath the chin so that the two fingers should feel as if there were touching, only separated by the skin. Third, vocalize on the sound "ah" without the tounge muscle tensing. The fingers will monitor, for any tounge tension will cause the muscle tension between the two fingers.

Another exercise is the "nga...." vocal starter. Thinking of a tall egg being at the back of the mouth seems to help.

Execute these exercises 3 times a day. This is this week's lesson.

First Time in San Francisco

After the Classical Singer Convention, I moved from Sir Francis Drake hotel near Union Square to the Omni Hotel by China Town. And, how glad I am now that I did move! Only a few blocks away, the feel of the city was quite different. The Omni was a wonderful hotel with excellent staff, all so friendly and helpful. The room was spacious and decors were pleasing. The bathroom was large and well decorated. The invigorating walk up and down the steep hills paid off handsomely. As I walked along dragging my carry-on luggage, an older couples were also on their way uphills with their luggages. She sighed, "Ah, my back!". I couldn't help but smiled as I personally thought, which could be considered sadistic by some, that the walk was fun!

So I heard that San Francisco is food heaven. Fortunately, I found "House of Nanking", my personally all-time favorite Chinese restaurant. Occupying a small and modest space in China Town, the wait queue was way out the door at 4pm in the afternoon. Service was fast and the food was a wonderful treat to the taste buds. Pictures of celebrities on the wall with the chef added a nice touch.

The next 2 days I enjoyed the company of my dear friends. We saw the production of "The Merry Widow" by West Bay Opera in Palo Alto, in which one of our friends was singing in the chorus. We drove around San Francisco. We visited the racy club Asia SF. We weathered the heavy, cold wind at the mountain top absorbing the majectic sights of the Golden Gate bridge, Alcatraz, and the distant San Francisco skyscrapers. We visited Sonoma Valley for wine tasting. In a short time, we visited Chateau St. Jean, Arrowood and Viansa vineyards. Viansa was the first vineyard into the valley with visitor information house. An outdoor concert was playing while Viansa's visitors are tasting wines and enjoying the warm sunlight. Arrowood is the place for wonderful wines where I discovered the Special Select Last Harvest White Riesling. I don't drink very much. But, this dessert wine is simply amazing, riched in aroma and fruity flavors of apricot and peach. Chateau St. Jean was a big tourist destination with its beautiful landscape. We sat in a rocking chair in the beautiful garden under and big lush pine tree, enjoying the cool breeze in the warm summer day.

San Francisco is really a beautiful place to visit. I wish I had a few more days to enjoy the food and culture there. Next time...

CSC 2007 in San Francisco

I attended the 2007 Classical Singer Convention in San Francisco this past weekend. This was the first time I visited the beautiful San Francisco. The convention was held at Sir Francis Drake Hotel, conveniently located near the Union Square, during May 24th-May 26th.

I flew United Airlines, took the BART, arrived at Sir Francis Drake on Wednesday, May 23rd. My flight from San Diego to San Francisco was on-time, pleasant and short, lasting only 1 hour and 20 minutes. I didn't have to spend much time waiting at the airport this time either. Confirming the flight online and printing out the boarding pass saved time at the airport and let me avoid the crazy, long check-in line. I found that it matters which security gate you go in. With UA boarding pass, I could only get in through the assigned UA security check point. I chose a window seat and during the descent, I saw beautiful San Francisco terrains. Water channels and land mass seemed intertwined. Green, brown and red patches of the earth seemed so lushly in play with the diaphanous blue and white of the river and ocean that surrounds them.

I love the transportation systems in San Francisco. I was so excited to discover so many ways to get myself from the airport to the FD hotel downtown. Adventurously, I decided to take the BART, which only costed $5.15, as opposed to the $16 plus tip I would have had to pay if I took the shuttle. The internal airport railway made an easy transit from the arriving terminal to the BART terminal. The BART comes by every 15 minutes and I was conveniently downtown at Union Square in about half an hour. The only negative point for the BART was the loud noise when the subway travelled through the subway tunnels.

Sir Francis Drake was only a few blocks away from the Union Squre/Powell BART station. If I had not gotten a little bit lost walking in circle, I would have arrived at the hotel in five minutes. FD was an ancient but recently renovated hotel. Although the room was tiny, the bed was comfortable. Westin St. Francis was just across the street and would have been a much better and more comfortable stay.

Comparing the CSC 2007 to the 2005 one in New York City, the classes this year were not as exciting as the previous year. The space wasn't as nice and there was not as many classes as in the prior year. However, there was one master teacher that resonated so much with me because of her solidly technical teaching methodology. Victoria Hart is her name and her grounded understanding of human anatomy makes her a wonderful instructor.

Victoria spoke of the two elements of the singing posture: structure and release. Structure includes the posture and the jaw, while release includes the freedom of the tounge and the breath. I had a chance to sing for her. As obvious as the sun in the blue sky, Victoria pointed out my problems and attempted to guide me in correcting them.

Another interesting experience was my singing at the spotlight recital, which was held in the mist of amazingly loud noise and clamor of the exposition. As nervous as I was frustrated, I sang "Ombra Mai Fu" and the bravura aria from Gluck's ORPHEE. I was convinced that even the gifted accompanist was not able to hear me and the Gluck aria flew so swiftly passed that I couldn't attempt to keep up and let alone breathe! To my astonishment, I gratefully received various complements throughout my stay on this feeble performance of mine.

The highest note of the convention was the AUDComp Finalists' Concert. The winner sang Puccini's "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" and Gounod's "Poison aria" from Romeo et Juliette. Most of the singers sang extremely well. However, I didn't hear enough overtone. It might have been the banquet hall's acoustics. I thought of how beautiful Leontyne Price sang, with all the space and resonance, which I did not hear much in this concert.

CSC 2007 was overall a good time, especially because my voice teacher was also there. I learned some interesting bits, met a few wonderful people and enjoyed the time near SF's Union Square.

A Spring Concert on April 29th

My 2007 spring concert program features 2 sets of short pieces.

3 Spanish songs
"La rosa y el sauce" by Carlos Guastavino
"Adela" by Joaquin Rodrigo
"Cancion del Duero" from CON ANTONIO MACHADO by Joaquin Rodrigo

3 Italian songs
"Ombra mai fu" from SERSE by G.F. Handel
"Donna, vorrei morir" by Paolo Tosti
"Ideale" by Paola Tosti