Dead Symphony

Yesterday was quite a lovely day! Jenny and I caught the tram and went out into the city. I saw Flinders Street Station and we walked around the Arts Centre

and went exploring in the ACMI (Australian C_____ of the Moving Image). We did the interactive side first which was pretty fun- and then the rest of it was pretty much boring museum type displays. But still pretty cool :)
We then explored some laneways around the area including the Block Arcade and Degraves Street.

That was pretty sweet. I think Calgary should invest in these. They are cozy and full of little cafes and they're adorable. There was even a Tea Room which had a gigantic long line-up, and when Jenny and I got around to see the displays- it made perfect sense. They were absolutely delicious! YUM

We had a lunch of sushi and then at around 4 ish, we made our way to the arts centre to see the Dead Symphony which started at 5pm. Okay so we were really early and decided we should go and eat cake. So finding a place that had cheaper than $9 per slice cake was harder than it sounds. We were in the Southbank area so all the shops were along the river front and so it kind of made sense about the expensive pricing. We finally found a little shop and I got some baklava which was alright. I had definitely had better but it satisfied.

So the Dead Symphony was pretty darn sweet. They brought us down, down, down into the dungeons of the rehearsal room. (Jenny and I were thinking, if they're going to kill us- no one will even hear us scream..!) It was a tiny room and dim-lit. The seats were staged in a circle around the 5 performers which included the vocalist, harpist, cellist, pianist and a chimes/bell person. It was just a two ringed circle so there would have maybe been about at most 90 people in the room. There were a few long flickering lights around the musicians but that's it for lighting. We were in there for maybe 2 minutes all seated and ready before they started. It was very filling music. It left my mind blank and it was quite loud and just filled you up, making your ears ring a little on their own. But it was pretty cool- about 40-50 minutes of changing music that people have heard from near-death experiences. Afterwards, we got to have a Q&A session with Saskia Moore- the artist who composed and researched this piece. We had pretty much listened to music from people who've had near death experience from gun shot, skull fracture, giving birth, coma, falling, suicide, heart failure, things like that. It was very cool!
It was pretty silencing. Generally after I see a performance I talk about it non-stop afterwards, but this one- I didn't have much to say- it was neat.

Today- not sure what I'm doing. I still haven't decided yet. I probably won't do much, but tomorrow I'll be planning something for sure. I kind of want to be able to alternate days- so one day out, one day doing nothing- but I don't know that's probably not going to happen because I have quite a few things I want to see!

Oh yes, and the day before yesterday, the evening of the day Nicole and I went out, four of Jenny's friends came over for a craft night. We all ate fish and chips together and then made cards which were pretty neat to do! And then, one of those friends is a pastry chef and it was her birthday so she brought some delicious red velvet cupcakes for everyone. They were yummy.