Name: Cheryl BonciminoLoves: Art in all of its forms
Hates: Uncooked tomatoes, mean people, roadkill
I will: Learn to love unconditionally, give Ashley a raise in allowance, Do something big, Change the world, finish laundry
Cheryl's awesome daughter tweaked and applied this skin - a task that is extremely difficult and underappreciated. Don't you think she deserves a raise in allowance?
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
It's Almost Time!!! Here is a note I wrote to my dear friend, Christi Chavez today! She came to the rescue of friend on shaky ground with just the right thing to prop my confidence up! I thought it was a good summary for a post!Registration and orientation are successfully completed, and I am now waiting for Monday classes. Orientation yesterday was actually quite fun. The schedule included all kinds of good stuff like meeting the faculty and staff, having the rules and grading system explained to us, and some time with the 'course leader' for the Berkley Transfer Program and my Foundations Certificate in Music and eventual Bachelor of Professional Music. So, the BTP (Malaysians LOVE acronyms!!) students will be at ICOM (International College of Music) for two years and complete their degree at Berklee in Boston and the rest of us will study for 4 years and receive a degree awarded by Westminster, UK.
Yesterday started out with introductions led by Victor, a spunky professor and director of marketing. We were joined by some returning students who supervised a competitive game of charades. That was a hoot with the language and culture differences although much more reserved than your typical college freshmen in the states. That is the norm with Asian culture in general, really. Too bad I am so NOT reserved! Even though I am aware of it and feel like I simmah don na', I could not blend in if my life depended on it. I will settle for being a complimentary shade. It’s going to work well; there is so much to learn from the other students, most of them accomplished musicians already, and music crosses any boundary you can think of.
One cool thing is that two students introduced themselves and right away said they were Christians. I really admire that especially in an environment that values the collective group and shies away from being singled out. Not to mention our faith is one more thing we have in common. During some down time I whipped out the ipod and swapping favorite artists and music ensued. I also got some laughs when I opened my computer and showed everyone the pictures of my big fluffy dog and the rise and demise of the late great towers.
Today we had placement and evaluation auditions. I called a taxi to come at 11am because there are two parking spots in front of the school and I didn’t want to risk being late for the 12pm audition. The driver shows up 30 minutes early and I decide to be grateful that he is not late and resolve to snag a practice room at school and warm up there. Except there are none open and I have to sing in a class room on the same hall as auditons with the students outside. No biggie, that’s how it goes in school- but I was surprised to see several peeking faces through the window during the auditon. They were giving me thumbs up (international sign language for ‘way to go’ ). That felt good. =]
We already have assignments that are due in the end of the term and I am a bit intimidated by all these things I said I wanted to learn and now must turn in for a grade! Among them are sequencing a song with sound changes, value changes, sine waves, and a jet engine for good measure (ok, something a bit less complicated but just as unimaginable), and writing a Bach-style chorale with all kinds of stuff like deceptive cadences, borrowed chords, SATB voicings, and progressions I’ve never heard of. Mommy!
I can do this. Heck, I have teenagers- I can do anything! And if I can’t figure it out, I’m sure Ashley and Brooke can help me with my home work! I mean, of the very legal and acceptable-to-ICOM's-administration sort.... The girls already have to explain all the junk on my computer. Then there is Greg who could teach a doctorate level seminar on time management. Not to mention my successful, encouraging, super-smart friends and family! What a bunch of smartypants!
*Sigh of Relief Here*
Love to all~
Chryl
chryl left the ground at 17:05 4 comments
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Sweet Destruction Today Cheryl has invited the first-ever guest blogger to make a post on her super cool blog. Yep, it's me, Greg, as the guest for the day. Today we will bring you in on the fun we had yesterday bringing the life of our "world's largest" gingerbread Petronas Twin Towers to a sudden and rather shocking end. In previous years, we simply destroyed our Christmas gingerbread houses with a firecracker, or maybe a hammer, or MAYBE a sledge hammer. But those forms of destruction would be far too tame for this masterpiece. For this destruction to be done right, we had to drop them from the roof of our house here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!What follows is the telling of the story in full color. Enjoy....
Here we are, preparing to move our beloved Towers from the driveway onto the roof of our car port. What we didn't yet know was that our Towers were going to help us by self-dividing upon our attempts to lift.
Greg the Destroyer carries Tower One to the launch pad. We handled our masterpieces with the utmost in love and care....
Cheryl can't resist taking a nibble off of Tower Two while Greg is transporting. Ahh, the taste of four-week old stale cookies and M&M's...
Greg carefully places the base of Tower One onto the launch pad and begins his descent for more Tower...
Note Greg's skillful (yet artful) method of carrying the base of Tower Two to the car port launch pad.
Alfredo the Clean-up Canine pre-licks the driveway to make sure it's ready to receive its new cargo. Note how CLEAN the driveway looks now...
Greg and Destroyer Brooke make some adjustments in the positioning and orientation of Tower One.
Ready for the Countdown... Brooke sheds some final tears while Greg gleams with unbridled joy. 'Tis so much fun to break stuff...
Let the countdown begin. Greg and Brooke moments before the Towers met their date with destiny...
And THIS is what became of our beloved Towers. The video (at the bottom of this post!!) shows how the Towers exploded upon impact. Cookies went EVERYWHERE... Under the bushes, under the car, into the lawn, you get the idea. It's amazing what 30 cases of cookies look like upon collision. We think David Letterman would be proud.
View from Ground Zero. Ashley shot this impressive landscape of cookie shrapnel. Pieces of the Towers remained partially intact in various places...
Ashley brings some of the larger pieces to justice by "helping" them to a more comfortable pulverized state...
Brooke drops additional pieces from the roof as well. This is so much fun...
Ashley and Cheryl toss their cookies... Literally. Is this a picture of cookie joy or what? Note the flying wafers at the top of the frame!!
Greg with his super-duper Caterpillar Cookie Plow. Actually this was a very good way to clean up the crime scene.
A beautiful photo of crumbled Christmas cookie construction. The high resolution version of this is now on our computer desktop as the background. Let us know if you'd like the JPG for your own!!
Super Brooke reacts to the display with "Shock and Awe" as anyone would do. Her "powers" of cleaning were soon put to the test...
Our memorial to Christmas 2006, complete with commemorative candy cane:
One final moment of silence. Ashley snags a mouthful of stale cookie...
Here is what 30 cases of cookie, 10 pounds of sugar, 3 dozen eggs, and 5 bags of candy look like at the end of a successful BONCIMINO Christmas:
AND NOW....THE GRAND FINALE -- ACTUAL video of the destruction event. ENJOY!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures and the video. As always, please give us your comments and feedback. We also need to figure out how we are going to top this next year. Suggestions?
Love,
G, C, A, B, and A...
chryl left the ground at 14:17 10 comments