food
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Weighty Matters
In 2012 I was fresh off a summer tour with Sting, starting to get some really interesting guest conducting opportunities, living with a loving husband in a beautiful house in a great neighborhood; life, by all outward accounts, looked good. I was also clinically underweight, eating less than half the calories I needed for baseline bodily functions every day, suffering from amenorrhea and hating everything about my physical being. This post isn’t meant to be a précis about eating disorders – that information is available elsewhere, and it doesn’t feel right to me to speak of other people’s experiences, as I can barely comprehend my own. Suffice it to say…
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The glamorous life
I was in Belgium a month ago conducting concerts with the Antwerp Symphony. I’d never been to Antwerp before, and was delighted to discover a city of beautiful architecture (Central Station), exquisite art (Rubens) and delectable food (moules frites and waffles). The orchestra was great, and their schedule was such that I had enough time to make the hour long trip to Bruges, which was utterly charming, if overrun by tourists. On a sunny Saturday morning I set out for a run in the brisk autumn air of Stadtpark. And on the afternoon before my last concert I had time to troll the city for the best chocolate boutiques to…
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What time zone am I in?
I travel. A LOT. I’ve frequently had months where I have concerts every weekend in a different city, which means I’m home Monday-Tuesday, swapping out suitcases and musical scores before heading to my next gig. One memorable week last year had me doing a 36 hour turnaround between weeks in Brisbane, Australia and Montreal, Canada. Good times. I’m frequently asked how I deal with jet lag when I’m on that kind of crazy schedule crossing multiple time zones and spending, at max, 5 days in any one zone. So I’ve compiled a list of tips to of what keeps me (mostly) functional and (somewhat) sane: Hydrate like you’ve just…
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Wild foodstuffs of Pacific Heights
I’ve always been kind of sensitive to things being out of place (I chalk it up to having a neat freak Asian mom, but maybe it’s just my nature). It’s useful when I’m editing for mistakes in a musical score (I’ll write a whole blog post on that some time) but less so when I’m rearranging leggings at Costco because they’ve mixed in some navy with the black ones. So lately I’ve been trying to use this proclivity of mine, not to judge my environment but to use as a tool to be more aware of the little moments of wonder I might be missing in the world around me.…