there was no way i was going to to let day 311 of married life pass without some kind of musical celebration.  

chad sexton via pearl

311 was yesterday (211) and we paid homage to the extra special number with a long workout followed by dinner, all with the perfect musical accompaniment. there may have been some westside connection thrown in the mix.

i had a hard time picking a theme song for the day from music, my favorite of their 10 albums (#11 comes out on 311 of this year), but i suppose the most appropriate for a married life post is my stoney baby.  happy 311th day.

yesterday the first day of our official furlough began.  after a meeting instructing us how to conduct our agency's shutdown, i went to my office, checked everything off the list, and left the building.

it was kind of weird aimlessly walking around town because a lot of people were still working.  so what do you do with the unexpected free time?  you can't leave town in case they re-open.  you can't go shopping - don't know when i'll get my next paycheck.  can't walk over the museums and check out exhibits... actually we're not even allowed to walk on the mall!

seeing the bright side of being forced not to work, i said goodbye to my building and walked up to g street to check out the washington bach consort's free noontime cantata (where i worked before the government).  it was great seeing old friends and colleagues and i even went out for lunch with them just like old times :)

^^i can't take a picture in focus, but his shirt says "johann sebastian front" and "johann sebastian bach"^^

now to start day 2!  lots of DC restaurants and bars are generously giving away free food to govt employees, so i plan on taking advantage of that!  and some are charging congress double :)

i started working at the national endowment for the arts a couple of weeks ago, and so far i've learned a ton and am really enjoying my work.  aside from the job itself, it's been very novel to be working downtown.  during lunch one day of my first week, i walked to the natural history museum to check out a photography exhibit, oh you know, natural history museum, just during my lunch break :)  i can see the capitol from my building and everyhing is literally a 5 minute walk away.  if you're going to move to dc, you may as well work for the government right in the middle of everything, right?!

this past week we had a very cool field trip to the national gallery of art's east building (modern art).  they have an exhibit going on until october 6th called Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929: When Art Danced with Music.  the show tells the story of the original russian ballet under the leadership of Serge Diaghilev.  i knew of the russian ballet and their performance of stravinsky's rite of spring, and i knew they were known for using contemporary music in their shows.  i had absolutely no idea how inclusive they were of music and art contemporaries in their performances, and that they were so forward thinking in all of thier costuming and dance techniques.

just look at the artists that collaborated with diaghilev and the ballet over only ten years: stravinsky, prokofiev, erik satie, debussy, rimsky-korsakov, picasso, matisse, coco chanel (ha!)

^^original rite of spring costumes!^^ (via)

 ^^costumes for the blue train by chanel^^ (via)

^^costume for the song of the nightingale by matisse^^ (via)

a co-worker in my division is friends with one of the curators of this exibit and she met up with us to give us a behind the scenes guided tour.  i loved hearing about everything from the preservation of the original costumes to who decided to paint a big blue wave on the wall of the space.  overall, i have to say they did a beautiful job with the presentation.  if you have any interest at all in the history of dance, ballet, music, theatre, or visual arts (or history in general), i would make sure to check out this exhibit. it's so well done and so entertaining that you don't even realize how much you've learned until you leave.

my favorite video installations were of baryshnikov dancing (i could watch him dance all day long) and rudolph nureyev playing the faun in the afternoon of a faun. (video here)

^^original costume design for the faun by bakst^^ (via)

^^because yes^^

the museum has set up a small, temporary shop right as you exit the exhibit.  i die for museum shops and couldn't resist this little hand-painted turkish bowl. 

loved this exhibit and highly recommend it!

note: any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity.

have you ever been inside of an organ?  i hadn't until reilly took me up into the huge organ at national presbyterian.  with 7000 pipes, this multimillion dollar instrument is over three stories tall and about twenty feet deep.

^^reilly poses with some of the metal pipes^^

^^once you climb inside, there are mazes of planks to access different areas but no real walkways that would obstruct the sound^^

^^reilly pretends to lift one of the massive low register pipes :) ^^

after my tour, reilly climbed back down while i stayed to hear something played from the inside.  then something really cool happend that i wasn't expecting.  when we listen to live music it always comes at us from one direction.  even if you stand in the middle of an orchestra while it's playing, it's still not quite three dimensional.  but when you are inside of an organ, pipes are all around you in every direction, some close and some far, so the sound comes at you from every direction and from many different distances.  it's kind of like the first time you heard dolby surround sound in the movie theatre and it gave you chills.

i'm not especially into organ music, but this was moving.  it was surround sound, but live.  and loud. and the vibrations actually move your body.  this video kind of gives you an idea of it.  it's dark in the organ so you can't see anything in the vid.

 
inside an organ from Katie Gill on Vimeo.

my last day of work was our sunday concert at national presbyterian.  it was bittersweet to be so excited about leaving, getting married, and going to australia but at the same time saying goodbye and enjoying one of these beautiful concerts for the last time as an insider.  schutz's musikalische exequien and bach's trauerode were both on the program.  they are both for funeral services and since we're kind of leaving one life and starting another i thought it was cool :)

it's really crazy how many people you meet and how much you learn in only three years of working somewhere.  there are lots of people to miss in this town!

todd studies a score while reilly plays for brandenburg vi.  the weather was nice so we had lots of light coming in those awesome windows.

my last week of work was full of concerts, galas, and receptions.  it was a good way to end a job, lots of time out and about, and not much time at the computer.  one of the days we headed out to the plains to pick up some flowers for a gala and stopped by instrument makers tom and barbara wolf's.  the old schoolhouse they live and work in is such a cool space filled with lots of light, beautiful instruments, and interesting tools.  reilly, of course, was in heaven and had to play each and every one of the keyboard instruments currently being restored :)

it's been a busy and productive week ending with my last CCS concert ever (as an employee).  only 12 days of work left! i can't say it wasn't a little bittersweet, though.  the cathedral is a beautiful space and the sound is always moving.  and you always notice a new detail, no matter how many times you've been in there.

so long cathedral!

the cathedral choral society held their 3rd annual wine and chocolate tasting fundraiser this past weekend, and like always the chocolate was beautiful (tasting and looking) and the food was delicious.  the whole thing is pretty much run by volunteers, even the flowers!

there was also a silent auction with many items donated by embassies.  last year eric and i won a basket of everything you need to make tablea tsokolate (filipino hot chocolate), but nothing was in our price range this time.

if you haven't been to one of the choral society's concerts, it's worth checking out.  the cathedral filled with music is a magical experience.

the virgin freefest is an all day music festival at merriweather.  richard branson hosts, a bunch of bands perform, and people can wander around and check out different booths, eat and drink, and hang out.

branson didn't parachute in like he has in years past, but there were some great overall highlights: ben folds, zz top, and tie-dyed shirts! (that's not the name of a band, there were really more tie-died shirts in one place than i've ever seen, and i was a child of the early 90s) i had no idea there were this many neo-hippies on the east coast :)