University of Central Florida Steel Band | 02/26/04

Man alive, there were a lot of hits from the University of Central Florida today. I just glanced online to see why anyone from there would be checking out this page. They do have a steel band, Black Steel but I couldn't find any sort of recent information. I did find a concert program here but it's from 1998. I couldn't find any sort of site so maybe they're on the prowl to make one. Unlike the website Sunshine Steelers at the University of Florida, I have nothing against UCF. When we played at last year's Day of Percussion at Stetson, none of them really did anything to irritate me, which says a lot. In fact, the only thing that pissed me off was when they were looking for a soloist and someone from USF said something really arrogant--my reply was the now-famous "Just watch my solo. They're going to stop, look at me and say nothing but Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!." I can't believe that trip was over a year ago. In retrospect, that reply wasn't nearly as funny as I remember it at the time. Sadly, even if it was was funny at the time, it's now been replaced by "g--dammit, sometimes you just need a Twix". Unlike the attempt at humor in Lakeland, the Twix comment wasn't intended to be funny at all but Matt Flynn was able to make it funny somehow. That's the magic of Matt Flynn. Anyway, UCF is a-okay in my book.

Teaching was uneventful today and as far as I can tell most of my students got their projects done. Tomorrow morning I need to check them, which means getting up early so they don't have a chance to sneak into the lab and do it after the deadline. As I was walking to class, this huge guy was walking in the opposite direction as me. He was dressed to the nines and obviously had spent all morning getting primped and proper. He and I nodded as we passed but the he says somewhat quietly, "get a haircut". Pissed, I turn around and look at him. Unlike my clench-up at PetCo., I was able to whip out "Go on a diet--all the nice clothes in the world aren't going to help you." Ok, so maybe once the Friar's Club hears about this, they're not going to let me roast Ray Romano, but still at least I said something. I told my students about it. Music Bibliography was unbearable again. What a grandiose waste of my time. At least Meg was there today. I hope she was kidding about skipping next week. We had a surprisingly effective rehearsal tonight and afterwards I made some chicken and dumpling soup for Chris and Mike. Jamie is in Orlando until Sunday night. PARTY!

Art of the Day

This is called Mountain Passage because I couldn't think of a good name when I started it. Unlike with composing pieces, it's easier to name an art piece when its done. That way it's not called "Still Life: Grapes and Tobacco Tin" when it looks like "Baby Vomit: Cocktail Wieners and Mashed Plums". People always seem to like this particular painting and I have to admit that I do too.

As I take down the more hideous paintings, this will be one of the few to be framed and moved to a prime location.

I feel like I should fill in the rest of this space since it's here. Hmm...

Boy, I am just drawing a blank--I started to learn The Kinks' Lola on guitar today but I gave up after identifying a F# chord, which is just impossible for me to play. While I am getting the hang of barring chords, I can't really get to the ones up the fret board very quickly and rather than completely hacking through pieces, I figure it best to stick with U2 songs that only involve one chord for the whole piece. Ooh, burn U2. You like that? Speaking of two chords, we were listening to a piece in my Music of the Caribbean class that consisted of two chords which my professor misidentified as a I and a IV chord when it was clearly a I and a V chord. Admittedly, I don't hear function in music but I can tell you a D - A7 progression is not likely an A7 - D and back progression. Sorry, but it's not. I didn't want to say anything since the class is only about 1/2 music majors and of those, most are ethnomusicology students so I'm sure they'd collectively come up with some reason that "theory" doesn't matter to them. Well, if it doesn't matter--please don't use our labels for chords. You may call them...wait, don't even call them chords. Make up some B.S. term like you do for everything else whenever I try to have a real conversation with you.

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