The Post That Had No Title

Which isn't this one, clearly, because this post does, indeed, have a title.

It's been a long time since Olivia has done a Musical Monday. In order to make up for this, she's going to do something special. Or maybe it isn't so special. You will have to see.

First, imagine it is Monday. You still haven't quite gained full consciousness since your alarm clock jabbered at you at an inhuman hour this morning. You yawn and groan, because you were half hoping as you went to bed last night that the power would go off at 2 am and reset the clock's settings, and conveniently be restored by the time you wake of your own accord. But that didn't happen. And you drag yourself from bed, shivering as your bare feet emerge from the warmth of the covers and face the cold morning air on the way to your fuzzy bunny slippers that your great aunt Matilda gave you for Christmas last year.

You shuffle through your morning routine, perhaps brushing your teeth already if you're awake enough, or brewing a heavily caffeinated warm beverage if you're not, and turn on your computer as you mouth the minty taste lingering on your tongue or inhale the aroma of brewing coffee or steeping tea.

You check email, finding several new junk items that were sent out by computer systems at inhuman hours of the night. (Ever wonder why they call them inhuman hours? It's because that's when the robots send out spam! Or so Olivia has now convinced you, despite the fact the term is much older than the internet, but you're still so groggy and disoriented and irritated that the weekend is over you don't notice or care.) So now you trundle over to Blogger, which Olivia keeps typing as Bloggoer for some unknown reason, but she makes lots of typographical errors so never mind her, and--gasp!--what do you see? It's a new Musical Monday post!

"Um, okay, Olivia," you say, "sorry, but your representation of my Monday mornings isn't quite accurate. For one, my great aunt Matilda didn't give me bunny slippers for Christmas last year. I don't even have a great aunt Matilda! I only have a great aunt Geraldine! And my slippers aren't from any great aunt at all. They're from my second cousin Frances, and they're not bunnies, they're baby seals, and she didn't give them to me for Christmas. They were for my birthday. And why are you making me pretend it's Monday anyway? Just get to the point of the post already, will you?"

Er, yes, that.

Well, anyway, Olivia's piano teacher makes all of her students participate in a music festival each February. What is this music festival, you ask? Well, basically Olivia goes into a room with a judge and a piano, and she plays the piano, and then the judge gives her a rating and some comments. This will happen on Saturday. But the weekend before the fateful Saturday, Olivia's piano teacher's students perform in a recital, in order to prepare for the coming festival. Because, as her piano teacher puts, if you can play in front of a roomful of people, surely you can play in front of one person! Olivia actually finds it quite distressing to play in front someone who judges you, but that's besides the point.

So on Sunday, Olivia played at her recital. Olivia's mother recorded it. Olivia reviewed the recording and concluded her playing was just presentable enough to post publicly. So Olivia posted it publicly.

You will have to forgive the shakiness of the footage and the quality of the sound, for Olivia's mother had to film it on Olivia's digital still camera, which probably doesn't have the best audio capabilities, without a tripod. (Also, never mind the coughing and screaming children in the background.)

The first piece is not a classical piece but a contemporary one (which Olivia actually likes, unlike many of the contemporary pieces she plays, though she's getting a bit tired of it after practicing it so long). It is called The Promise of Spring, and is by a composer named Dennis Alexander, in case anyone wants to know. She played it with a few minor errors. The second, however, is Schumann's Knight Rupert, which she played much better, though with a handful of wrong notes.

Well, all of that took long enough. Now enjoy. Or run far away. Your choice. Although it would probably be wisest to just--well, Olivia won't delay you any longer.

Instead, Blogger will. It's giving her grief about embedding that video. She'd rant about it in detail, but she's already taken a lot of your time. So she made lots of strange noises, and decided to just post the link instead.

Here you go.