Red Zeppelin

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Saturday: May 01, 2004 - History of May Day Happy May Day! Jamie and I got an early 7:30am jump on the morning to go garage saling. She made a master list of all the estate sales around town. There were five hits, in each corner of the Tallahassee Pentagon but I foolishly spent my money at the first one. My eBay sales finished at $85, which was the amount I spent on new stuff. I know what you're thinking--but Mike, you have no room left to put stuff. Ah, but I do! I avoided buying books and other general clutter and instead bought a replacement leather chair (seen to your left) for $40. I also bought some new places to replace my old, chipped Target plates. It will be weird to have a matched set. I feel like Chris with my matching salad bowl and salad-dispensing-ware. I also came away with 20 CDs, as espresso set and a couple movies. This guy's house was being taken care off by his just-in-from-German sisters, since he had died. He was young (judging from his music) but old enough to have really, really nice things. If we had gotten there earlier I think we would have left with even more stuff. Jamie bought a couple movies and a set of pots and pans (with lids) for $2. We drove by a storage-center-sale, where I picked up a much needed metal filing cabinet for $5. We ate lunch at the Tally Grill, where some lawyer was stabbed to death about a month ago. The breakfast food was ok but no Ma Fischer's. We then headed to Beethoven & Overcharge since I hadn't been there for a while. I immediately went to the Dover scores, which are already marked in price by Dover, to avoid having to explain my outcry over $65 for a four-page Varése score. I bought a copy of the Rite of Spring and the Ravel & Debussy String Quartets but had to put back Dvorak 9 and something else nice that I can't remember currently. I spent the afternoon working on the second draft of Soca Chompy, which, you'll be pleased to know, is going to be smashing. Jamie woke up from her name and went to hear Michael play with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. The first piece was really quite terrible, although they did play it well. The second piece, one of my favorite violin concerti, the 3rd Mendelssohn, was ruined by the 17-year old soloist. I know I'm being harsh on a 17-year old girl but she shouldn't have been up there. I'd rather hear an adult play it well than a kid who can play most of it. To her credit, her accuracy was decent, except on sixteenth-note passages, where the middle notes were blurred together but the fact of the matter is that she looked like she was some sort of violinist-marionette being controlled by the marionette master's new apprentice (who suffers from debilitating seizures). This girl was flying around the stage and couldn't have looked more indignant when she wasn't playing if I had offered a pony-tail extension. She actually left the ground in a few places--it was like watching a 17-girl version of Matt Flynn and extremely distracting from the music. The first movement was pretty good but things slowly deteriorated due to the fact she has no concept of how to play musically. Admittedly, this comes with age and maturity---so LET HER WAIT UNTIL SHE HAS AGE AND MATURITY TO PLAY. I admit, I fell asleep because her performance was so uninteresting. And, while I'm complaining, the conductor--what sort of time-displacing hallucinogen was he on? As if violin-girl couldn't keep time enough as it is, David Hoos kept pushing the orchestra in the other direction, causing huge gaps in the beat plane. The ended with the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, one of my favorite pieces and, aside from it lacking a little energy, it was still awesome. I can't get over how much better the brass section has become--they used to be terrible and now, dare I say, they sound good. The strings sounded good, but they always have. This was my first TSO concert in three years (not that I attend religiously) that there were no obvious fracted notes in the brass section. Anyway, the Berlioz kicked ass--it's one of those pieces that when people get dragged to the symphony by their wives they can actually get into because Berlioz does such a great job of painting his ideas musically. To TSO's credit, they captured all of these techniques really well. After the concert we went to On The Border for some post-concert snacking and gossip. Then, sadly, it was nap-time. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Sunday: May 02, 2004 - Battle of the Sexes Board Game Today was just one of those days that you're too lazy to download a picture for the webpage. I did nothing all day. Jamie and I drove around in the rain for a while looking for a black-leather sofa to match my chair but we didn't find anything except an ugly painting and the Battle Of The Sexes board game. I only got the ugly painting because it was $4 and I would have had to spend $25 to buy a blank canvas of a similar size. I hung out with Mike and Chris and played them the third draft of Soca Chompy, which will be done very soon. I still need to ship all my items from eBay. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Monday: May 03, 2004 - SimCity 4 Stupid SimCity 4. Taking over my life like that. It only I wasn't OCD about new things. I stayed up until 3:30am last night playing and woke up at 5:30 to play some more. No, just kidding. I did wake up around 5:30(am) to get ready to play a concert as Woodville Elementary School. The kids were great and the kindergarten class drew us some cute pictures. The Tallahassee Democrat was there snapping pictures and interviewing everyone except for me, Mike and Matt. We're not disgruntled. No, not at all. We had some really disgusting Ruby Tuesdays after playing and then I came home to play my game some more. I went out to dinner with Jamie and her parents and then I came back and played my game even more. Just like with everything else, I'm sick of it now. You can only make your city so great, you know? [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Thursday: May 06, 2004 - St. Augustine Bed and Breakfasts Well, it looks like I have my work cut out for me tonight. Jamie and I took a little trip to St. Augustine, FL to get away from the constant hustle and bustle of Tallahassee. This trip was made possible by the generosity of one Michael R, who watched the ever-skittish Chompy while we were away. Thank you, thank you, thank you! On our trip we stayed at the Charlotte Inn, which was a bed and breakfast in downtown St. Augustine. The place was really nice and had plenty of comforting amenities. We checked out Flagler College, which was built within an old hotel in the Spanish Renaissance style. It was nothing short of beautifully amazing. I would love to teach there. Today we checked out the oldest settlement in the United States, the Castillo de San Marcos. The most interesting part for me was the coquina bricks that were quarried to make the walls. It's a really laid back town and is the perfect place to get away. Being nerds, we spent a lot of time at historical places but there's no shortage of fun things to do. Go there! Especially if you live in Florida. It's only about a three hour drive and well worth the relaxing atmosphere. In other news, I received a bunch of rejection letters in the mail. At least now I know people are looking at my applications. Chompy and all the fish are doing well and they left me very nice notes to say how well Michael took care of them. We went to the big outlet mall (and I mean BIG) but although we were there for three hours we bought nothing. On the way back we stopped in Jacksonville and had dinner with Jamie's sister and her husband, where we had dinner at an "authentic" Mexican restaurant. I thought if I drowned by tacos in tabasco sauce I'd be able to put up with one of my least favorite ethnic foods. My God, Chompy. That was some hot stuff but also delicious. I need to start using that stuff. My lips finally got feeling back about five minutes ago but it was totally worth it.

Before we left I received word I would be working with the Virginia Arts Council's Brass 5, some NEA sponsored brass quintet. Apparently the guy in Roanoke liked my stuff so much he recommended me to start doing some brass quintet stuff for this group as well as a bunch of big band charts. All in all, there's about thirty pieces that need to be written between now and September. Go me. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Friday: May 07, 2004 - Brass Quintet I did nothing today except for work on a piece for Virginia. Except for the binding it's done. I guess I shouldn't say I did nothing else because I took Chris and Mike to the airport and tried my hand at garage saling by myself. All I found were relics of the old and/or dead. I also fed Chris' fish, Abner. Damn that fish is getting big! I also found out that Brian knows someone in the brass quintet I'll be working with. What a small world. Good night! [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Saturday: May 08, 2004 - Happy Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day! I did nothing today except finish the two last songs of this set for Virginia. I managed to get them all done while I watched the Cubs escape certain death in extra innings? Who is the best team in Chicago? That's right, the Cubs. Better updates tomorrow, I promise! [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Sunday: May 09, 2004 - Schenkerian Graphs Shown here are a couple pictures I made using Schenkerian graphs as art. If it's not a useful tool for analysis (but it is), at least it makes for some pretty cool wall-hangings. This was done about eight months ago and currently resides in Jamie's dining room.

I woke up around 9:30am and immediately ran errands. My first stop was to the school of music to mail off my set of three pieces (Brazil, Tico Tico and The Chicken Dance [gag]) to Roanoke, VA. I also was able to reclaim my student ID from the homely library girls after some forced flirting. I left school to go to the bank where I deposited my first check from the school in VA. I then hauled ass to the UPS Store (formerly Mailboxes, etc) to get the boxes to ship my eBay items. It cost me $27 but at least it's over now. I also got an enormous box to ship my mom's mother's day present (3ft x 2ft x 8in)but I'm worried that I won't be able to afford to ship something that big. Once home I packed up all but one of the items before Matt came over to work on his wedding music. We got all of it done except the recessional, which will hopefully be completed tomorrow. Once he left I tried to convince Chompy to go out (she has not wanted to go out for two days--she head-butts me to go but as soon as I grab the leash she hides in the bathroom). I told her we were going to the dog park and she finally came around but really I took her to PetCo to get some more food. Upon our safe return home I busted out my arrangement of Toto's Africa and got to work making it a workable score. I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening working on that but it's still not done. I don't know how the small group was able to make it sound so good when there were so many mistakes in the score. Yikes. Chris, Mike, Jamie and I went to the Atlanta Bread Company for dinner and then Jamie dragged me to the mall. My only purchase was a muscle-man shirt (a glorified T-shirt with no sleeves). I've been trying to motivate myself to get back to the gym and that wasn't going to happen unless I felt bad about myself. Unlike most self-esteem issue people, I'm really good at convincing myself I look great. No haircut? No problem! Tiny body? No problem! I think I look like a million bucks. Well, not in the muscle-man shirt. I look like your stereotypical San Francisco queen of the late 1980's. It's definitely humiliating enough that I'll be going to the gym tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep in this shirt every night so that I can look at my skinny-little body and be depressed enough to pump iron the rest of the day. After we got back from the mall, Jamie and I played Cranium. It's not a very fun two-player game but neither Chompy, nor The Ab could sculpt clay or act out dead presidents so we had to make do. I would imagine it to be a lot of fun with the recommended amount of people. My goals tomorrow are to: a) work out, b) mail eBay items, c) go mattress shopping with Mike, d) finish Matt's wedding music e) finish my corrections on Africa f) send out more job applications. With only six things on my list, I'm confident I'll be able to get them all done, but at the same time I can't really judge my own apathy until I'm in the moment. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Monday: May 10, 2004 - You Should Not Be Writing Music Well, well, well. If it isn't the easy-going me needing a haircut. So I didn't make it to the gym today for logistical reasons. Those reasons were that I didn't have the needed parking pass and I was too lazy to walk. I also put it off to work on some stuff. I got my eBay stuff shipped out, tagged along for some mattress perusing and purchasing and finished my Africa parts. So 3/6 is not bad for me. I did a lot of work on other songs and made labels for most of the folders in my new organizational filing cabinet. My printer is now out of paper so I guess I'll have to mooch some from the university tomorrow (on my way back from the gym, of course). In going through so many pieces that needed editing I was surprised to find so many poorly written pieces. Hence, here is my rant tonight.

You should not be writing music.

By Mike C.

You should not be writing "classical" music if you are uninspired. Sure, everyone goes through periods of non-inspiration but honestly, you have to look at yourself and say, "Am I a creative person?" If the answer isn't a resounding yes, stick with performing or teaching or theory or whatever you're good at. You should not be writing music unless you have something to say. Honestly, Composer X, I looked at six of your pieces today and the were all the same. And, what makes it even worse is that, like the oft-maligned U2, you have nothing to say. I don't care that you're supposed to be writing for a beginning steel band. I don't care at all. There are a great number of composers that wrote great children's pieces and you, my friend, are not one of them. I know you love the excitement of labeling yourself a composer and having all your friends refer to you as Maestro or Beethoven, but do us all a favor and just stop it. Even when you do unorthodox things, you don't have a reason for it. There is no need to cross voices to make a line disjunctive with steel pans. Especially for a beginning piece, you want to make the parts linear, not all cho(m)ppy. Now, I'll be the first person to admit that I come up with really stupid titles for my pieces. I do. Constantly. I don't think I've ever had a good one. But honestly, if you're going to be trite, at least have a sense of humor about it. Go to NY and look up Jim B., the master of titles, and have him help you. The problem is that not only are you going to continue to do it, *I* have to clean up after you. You're like The Ab, running around peeing Nazca Lines into the South American soil that is my carpet because you deem yourself a "creator" and I, the lowly pauper, have to fix it. Well, create this: you suck. Do you not even know the ranges of the instruments for which you're writing? Make a little chart, or (Glord forbid) memorize the ranges. There's only six different voices (five in your "music") and it will take all of two minutes. Now, buddy o'mine, don't get me wrong. We all hate the time it takes to stick dynamics and markings into a piece. And fine, I understand it's my job to decipher if your handwriting is saying f as in forte or f as in fine because of course, you have no knowledge of how to write a D.S. al Fine and your haphazard placement of dynamics sporadically above and below the barlines can't help but make me wonder if you're having a hiccup seizure while you're "composing" this "piece" of "music" but come on(!)--write a TEMPO or a STYLE. I'll be happy to fill in the drum set parts for you on my time when I could be writing something good but at least tell me if you want a calypso or soca. Agh! If you had any skill whatsoever I could discern this from the bass line but obviously your knowledge of the theory of Caribbean music wouldn't dare allow you to write anything close to a normal line. Oh, nice try, poopy. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "I wanted to break away from the traditional styles, etc". Ok, genius, then why is there NOTHING for the style? You don't even have the knowledge to break away from ANYTHING except from the mediocre-composers-club because they're too good for you. Just like a freshman in Theory I, you think you can be cool and write parallel 5ths all over the place and say "Debussy did it, so booyah". No. No booyah. You don't even recognize you're doing things wrong! And believe me, I'd love to help you out but you're too good to even listen to my suggestions. Now listen up, dork-o. You're the reason that people only think of steel drums as background music at Hawaiian themed parties with Red Stripe and leis.

And then there's college professor X at X University (no, not Xavier) that thinks his music is so great. You suck too! Take a class on composing! At least the first guy wasn't raving about his music like you, you idiot. Your "original compositions" (that you're asking $70/each for) are nothing but glorified arrangements of good pieces! But do you even acknowledge this? Hell no. Why? Because you're a hack and you think no one will notice that you lifted entire lines from other pieces and stuck your stupid name at the top of the page. Well guess what, poop-scoop, I noticed. And just because you stuck the lead part into the cello part doesn't mean it's ok. At least write some new chords around it or some new counterpoint! And, by the way, when I googled you and found your picture at X University, you look like a total sleaze bag. Nice mustache you creep.

I would love to see some "real" composers (of the classical vein) try writing for the steel band. Maybe then some good music would turn up and we wouldn't have to play regurgitated versions of the same three songs. I'll even do the editing. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Tuesday: May 11, 2004 - The Cubs Suck How dare the Cubs play so badly? I mean seriously, it was ok to suck before this year because you didn't have more than two good players but now? Your payroll is something around $90,000,000. I felt obligated to write out the ninety million so that I could see all the 0's. Much like the 0's you keep posting in the runs scored column. Tribune Company, do you realize the only break in my monotonous day is watching your employees run around? From guys that can't catch to others that urinate on their hands to prevent calluses, no one can step it up! You probably think it's easy for me to sit in my computer chair, drinking a beer and petting my dog to criticize and it is. But a .650 willing percentage is great for you and failing for me, so I've got good reason to complain. My advice is to get a good shortstop and trade Moises Alou for...something, a puppy, a cup of coffee...anything. He's at bat right now, so I'll forgive you if he hits a homerun. Nope, struck out looking. Probably busying thinking about his next pee.

I've decided to make my name as a steel pan composer I need to create a new identity. See, this new identity needs to be an older, cranky Trinidadian that now lives in the United States. I'm still trying to think of what to call him but some blackish sounding name is crucial. Anyway, the plan is for him to be writing music too but in a more "natural" style than my american-higher-education-institution style. See, he and I will hate each other and I'll be sure to publicize this highly on the message boards. This should build anticipation for the new pieces we write to see what the other is going to say. Naturally it will all be negative and hopefully two camps will form: one for me and one for him. He will be a recluse, of course, and never make appearances. I will have never met him, but only receive cruel emails from him--which I will also post on the boards. Eventually he will have to die. I'm nervous about being a suspect. But there will be no body. Well, whatever, I'll still get to cash both of our checks.

Oh and congratulations to the 3600th visitor. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Wednesday: May 12, 2004 - Baity is Dead I have to be honest. Until tonight I hadn't showered for a few days. More than two days? Yes. I'm not proud of it but it's true. It's been so long that now by whole body itches from the shock of Lever 10,000. I spent the time that I wasn't in the shower cleaning my house. I must say, it looks pretty good. It would look better if I had a working vacuum. Saturday night is going to be some sort of game night so if you're reading this, you should come. Jamie and I watched the series finale of Fraiser tonight and even though I never watched the show regularly I always enjoyed it when it was on. I discovered that Baity the Beta had died. Apparently fish need water to swim and...(arguably more importantly) live. Apparently he had not had water for a number of weeks and I couldn't find his body amongst the rocks and dried algae. Matt and I finished up the music for his wedding so now I just have to make parts (gee..hooray) and then mail them out. Once that's done I have to learn my part, which is surprisingly hard. I was hoping to pass it off to the other tenor player but I guess that wasn't an option. In other news, my pan is in California at the chromer and should be done within a month. Unfortunately, I won't really get to use it but hopefully I can con some of my bandmates into have a no-reason rehearsal with me so I can test it out. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Thursday: May 13, 2004 - Who Loves Sleeping? No gnus are good gnus. I spent the morning...sleeping. Big time sleeping. Matt Flynn came over around noon and he and I went to school to pick up our last checks. See, in the religion department they can make up to $9k a semester in assistantships where as in the School of Music tops off at $3k. Funny how that works. Anyway, even though his teaching assistantship didn't happen this semester, he still cashed in for $6k. That bastard. That's the maximum a doctoral student can get teaching a full load for a YEAR in the Music School. Whatever. Anyway, he and I picked up our last checks and then he took me out to lunch at Jimmy John's, an establishment I haven't patronized since I lived in Milwaukee. Matt, being somewhat aloof walked to the front of the line and started ordering even though there were five people standing there. Since he was paying for me, I too had to slide up to order. This obese woman behind us was whispering not-so-quietly to her obese husband some nasty things about us. Well, chunkos, I'm sorry we cut but you probably shouldn't have been eating there anyway. We brought our food back here (after I stole a handful of straws) and watched some Family Guy before he left. Once he left I ran some errands to the pet store, Publix and picked up my reprinted check from the University Center. Upon my return home I tried to take a nap but people kept calling me. Michael and Jamie came over for my nearly-blackened chicken and although I had never made it before I think it turned out really well. Go me, it's my birthday. After dinner we played some Rummikub and Trivial Persuit Pop DVD. Michael was our honorary winner after getting the first five pieces in about three minutes. A lucky book on comic books gave me an edgy win, though. Tomorrow is another garage sale day so we must awake early in order to shop before game night take two. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Friday: May 14, 2004 - A Friendly Game of Pictionary Since there are so many pictures and I don't want to waste space next to them, today is going to cover every minute of my day.

6:15am: The alarm goes off and I'm supposed to go estate saling. The alarm is dutifully ignored for at least thirty minutes. I finally get up, convince furry animals to urinate, throw on a bandana and head off. My first "estate" sale was an old couple selling scary war memorabilia. If I anything about value, I would have bought it just to sell it for those freaks that watch the history channel all day and discuss different strategies that should have been implemented in WWII. Since I know nothing about such things I passed on all the war medals and other crap and moved on to the second one on my list. This one was in fact an estate sale but the blue hairs were already ransacking the home, haggling the 2 cent butterfly magnets down to a penny and the seven cent doilies down to five. The deceased's daughter-in-law offered me a home gym for $150. It really was a home gym, with about six painfully looking pieces of torture that I'd only seen at Leach. Upon looking it up when I got home, the woman was not lying when she said it cost upwards of $6k to put it all together. I admit, though, I was a little hurt that she asked me in particular if I needed a home gym. I asked her how she selected me and she told me it was just because I was a young male and in her mind we're the only demographic that would have use for such things. Deep down I know it was because I am anti-buff. Whatever, no big deal. If I had room I would have bought it so I wouldn't have to go to Leach but I have no room left in my apartment, so I had to pass. I then went across the street but alas, they only had enormous cardboard boxes filled with plush Nemo fish. Probably knock-off plush Nemo fish. Saddened, I headed to the last location. Little did I know that it was going to be awesome. The house was filled with modernist art (and I mean FILLED) form the '60s and '70s. It was selling at the bargain (no really, bargain--I'm talking museum quality) price of about $450 per piece. Although I couldn't afford any of the art, I did manage to get an ottoman chair and matching rocking chair for $35. Michael was kind enough to take me back with his mini-van. As we were packing, I saw some of not-nearly-as-awesome-but-still-way-better-than-my art pieces were priced to move. I couldn't afford them all but I picked out a couple (the two on display) as well as one that looked like a wood-cut but actually painted with oil. Suddenly, the son of the deceased informed us that if we (Michael and I) helped move the dining furniture we could have the art for free. Score! With everything safely in tow, we drove back to my house where Michael met up with Chris and we hauled the new finds to my already-cramped apartment. Jamie and I got some lunch and I cleaned and nap in preparation for game night.

Everyone arrived promptly at 10:30pm for the 9pm start. First up was Pictionary: Ian, Jamie and I dealt crushing blows to Beth & Kathy and Meg, Marty and Dave en route to an easy victory. We next settled in for the longest, most painstaking game of Trivial Persuit Pop Edition, possibly, in the history of the world. Theory-Chris came mid-way through to boost team #2 (me, Jamie, Dave and Kathy) almost to a last-second win over Beth, Marty, Meg and Ian but alas, we couldn't take advantage of our "For The Win" questions. Dave serenaded us on guitar for a while and then Kathy and Chris defeated me and Jamie in a late-night Euchre match. Once everyone left, Jamie and I settled into some Super Pretzels and called it a night. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Sunday: May 16, 2004 - Online Canasta My seven game winning streak came to an end tonight, but not before I got a demoralizing victory. Although it was a pretty big win, my biggest was still over 7500 points, leaving my opponent with a score in the negatives. The rest of my day was occupied primarily by sleeping. After an early rise a little before noon, I took another nap around 4pm. Once awake for the second time Jamie bought me some Jimmy John's before we set off to play some tennis. We dodged the massive bugs and displayed our lack of prowess for a couple hours. If only I had a serve and backhand that didn't spin me completely around I'd be in pretty good shape. It's not that I can't hit the backhands--but literally I have to spin 360 degrees to get back to hit the next shot. I'd definitely do best in doubles tennis when I can stand up at the net and just whack balls back, ideally from people who think they can get it past me. Don't hit it too high, though. I don't like to run. [Comments: 1]· permalink · · ·

Monday: May 17, 2004 - Lion Steel--Leon High School Oh man. I slept so much of today away. I finally got out of bed for good a little after 3pm. Roughly the time Brian was getting back from work after a full day. The only thing on the agenda was the Lion Steel concert, where my large-scale version of Hey Ya was going to be premiered. Playing with Lion Steel was the Kissimmee Riverside High School Steel Band. The crowd was frenzied and it reaffirmed the fact I could never, EVER, teach high school kids. Groups of twenty plus high school kids were quite literally running around the entire auditorium following one kid dressed up as a large toucan. The first group from Leon had made REMARKABLE progress compared to when I went to hear them a few months ago. The kids from Riverside played condensed versions of some major pan hits, such as Under the Sea, Oye Como Va, Hot, Hot, Hot and Pan in A Minor. There were a lot of them and they certainly had a big, cleanish sound. They were obviously taught by wrote but the arrangements were really poor and I'm sure easily learned. The second Leon group clearly had the best overall player, a double seconds/lead player named...oh man, what was her name. Some name from MTV...Oh well, I can't remember. In addition to playing well, she also did some acceptable arrangements as well as an original composition. Daria! That's it, Daria. The acoustics were very poor in that room and adding in a drummer that was playing ridiculously loud with a bass drum that was lacking the needed blankets inside made for some rough sounding sections. They ended the piece with my most-hated pan piece of all-time, Sunset. Jamie didn't rush the stage to play with the en masse group. We did manage to see a lot of people we knew there including: Jenny (Matt's fiancé), Ross, Evil-Chris, Dr. Gunderson, Forrest and David Knapp. After the show Jamie and I got some grub-grub with plenty of leftovers. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Tuesday: May 18, 2004 - Way To Go Jamie A congratulations is in order to Jamie, who was accepted into the MSW program at the University of Michigan, easily regarded as the top program in the nation for social work. I'm trying not to be bitter, since UM was one of two schools (UC-San Diego as well) that rejected me for my masters. I guess that's the difference between a 3.40 and a 3.97 GPA. Oh well, good for her. Being a slacker-loser, I did nothing today. I spent my morning and afternoon updating all the nedstat counters for some of the pages of the Mas N Steel site and cleaning up my journal pages so people with slower connections can actually see the pictures I post. This evening Jamie and I played our second round of tennis. She was a lot better but I still am pretty sucky. My backhands were slightly improved but I still suck at serving from the right-hand side of the court.

People keep coming to this page via "Facts About Steel Drums". So, since I'm not tired yet, I'll post some facts.

Steel Drum Facts

1. Before cut, a steel drum can hold 880 cups of coffee. (or oil)

2. The steel pan is the most widely used (acoustic) instrument invented in the 20th century. Thanks a lot 80s bands with your tripped-out synths!

3. The steel pan was originally hammered outward. This convex shape apparently was too difficult to play on so it was developed into the concave shape.

Feel free to use this as part of a term paper! I can't cite the accuracy of any of this. Sorry. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Wednesday: May 19, 2004 - William and Mary Interview Hooray! I received my first interview of the year today, from the College of William and Mary. Located in historic Williamsberg, VA, I would be lying if I said I wanted to live in a city of 12,000 but at the same time, it is a well-respected school and apparently has done well-enough to succeed for the past 311 years. 311 years! It's the second oldest college in the country after Harvard. Take that Yalies! The interview will be of the phone variety and while I'd rather do one in person, at least I do not need to get a haircut. I'm going to take the advice of (now professor) Scott Baker and dress up formally to get into the mindset of a real interview. Apparently they were willing to forgive the sentence in my cover letter that had no spaces after the period that went into the next sentence.Like this.

Chompy's visit to the vet was a success and she received a clean bill of health (and a good number of shots). The vet told me I could stand to feed her more, since she's lost a little weight since a year ago. It's hard to believe that my vicious attack pit bull weighs a meager 42 pounds. After the vet I went with Michael to Tallahassee's favorite music store, Beethoven & Overpriced. On our adventurous way home we wound up at the CFA, where I was treated to a feast. Once home I partook in my favorite activity, a nap. Jamie and I got a pizza as an early celebratory dinner for our victories and then we hauled off to 119 for some Cranium. Yes, that's right Chris and Michael had Cranium the whole time. A fun time was had by all, even if tensions were high during Michael's rendition of Princess Leia from Star Wars. Michael wins the award for eyes-closed drawing ability, Chris for all-questions-red, Jamie for humming pop hits and me, well, I'm the clay-master.

In other news, Bono was given an honorary degree from UPenn. As I said to Marty, I've been writing crappy music for years and never received a doctorate. Maybe I need to stick my nose into the political affairs of countries that hate me. I guess by that qualification I could run for president, though. Maybe I need to get dorky classes and only write music over the same chord progression for twenty years. Yes, that's the ticket! [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Thursday: May 20, 2004 - Start Your Car I was awoken out of a deep sleep by a phone call. Twas Jamie. Apparently her car wouldn't start. When I arrived on the scene I was informed it was because there was no gas in the car. If you've driven with Jamie then I know you're shocked. She's so good about keeping gas in the car! And when I say good, I mean bad--real bad. Anyway, I threw Chompy and The Ab into the Taurus and we hauled off towards the Shell gas station on Railroad. When we got there I was volunteered to go in and buy a gas can, which I did. We filled it was gas and then went back to try to get it into the Jetta. After spilling about half a gallon of gas all over ourselves and the ground, we decided it best for her to take my car. Since it was now 7:30am I decided to do some more research for W&M for the upcoming interview. After a couple hours of trying to navigate their down-for-so-long-it's-not-even-in-google's-cache-fine arts site, I worked on some music and mailed another batch. Ahoy, though. I was supposed to go out to lunch with Bryan Richards and my goal was to get everything done before he gave me then "Where ARE you" call. Alas, I got the call. I also got a ream of paper from the stockroom. No more having to reduce things to 25% and duplex to fit eight pages per sheet anymore. Hooray. We went to the American Cafe in the mall and I somehow managed to drink seven Hawaiian Punches plus a to-go cup. I don't even really like that stuff. Anyway, he dropped me off and I fought the urges to take a nap. I spent another couple hours researching the school and trying to come up with scary questions for myself. Jamie came over as I was falling asleep and we went back to work on the car. I temporarily stole a gas can with a long spout from Potbelly's (because they're the type of fine establishment that leaves gas cans littering their yard) but the screw-on top didn't work. Finally, we took the old can, screwed the top on as hard as we could and just poured without worrying about spillage. Surprisingly, this tactic worked and a gallon of gas later the Jetta was running. I topped of the Taurus' tank and washed up. I tried to watch the Cubs game but TV Guide's online listings were wrong for the third time this week and it was not on. Jamie took me out for dinner to Applebees. Afterwards, we stopped off at Publix to get some deserts but I fell asleep at 10pm--as soon as we got back here. Flash to 12:45am. Chompy is killing Abby. Seriously, Chompy is killing her. Maybe since I was in the deepest of deep sleeps and didn't know any better and (without my contacts in I can't see anything) instinctively jumped into the middle of it, grabbing the first dog I could find, flipping her over and shielding the other one with my body. In this case, I learned it was The Ab and she, thank God, is ok. In the process I cut my knee and foot on the table in my bedroom and gave myself some pretty disgusting rug burns. My heart was racing so fast I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I didn't, of course, but now I'm wide awake. It's now 1:30am and my interview is in a mere 8 hours. I spent the last 45 minutes doing some bonus research from students of W&M and they all praise the school but hate (and I mean hate) the town. Not that I'm a bar guy but there are only two real ones to choose from. I spent some time on Mapquest this morning trying to find the distances between Williamsburg and some major cities. It's at least an hour to Richmond but it appears that I can get to the beach pretty easily. If this all works out (and OH MAN I hope it does), it might be nice to live in a place that come 5pm and my workday is over I can sit and compose or relax in peace and quiet. No Dave Matthews Band cover-bands wrought with four-chord prodigies keeping me awake at night. No more Potbelly's! That is probably what I'm most excited about getting away from, pardon the bad grammar. In other news, we may have another gig on the 30th. Speaking of dates, somehow I managed to screw up the dates of this whole month. I tried to fix it but then I realized that no one cares, including me. Today is right, though. It's weird to think that in 24 hours my future could be completely different. The salary range of ths job is between 35-42k/yr. That is so much money to me! I could have a nice little townhouse or condo-type deal and still be able to buy a new cichlid every week (Mike's cichlid's of steel to your searchers) WHILE buying plenty of treats and toys for sweet pups. Abby just went back into the bedroom. I don't hear any growling yet, though she is squeaking, which drives Chompy crazy. And no one likes Chompy when she's crazy. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Friday: May 21, 2004 - Second Round of Interviews What an exciting day. I ate my good luck apple and bided my time between 7:30 and 9:30 by playing Euchre and petting Chompy. Once I had worn away a sufficient amount of fur I got online and had a quick pep talk with Brian until about 9:20. I watched my fish for a couple minutes to calm down and then, right as the clock struck 9:30 I heard the melodious monophonic version of a Bach piece--it was my phone. The conversation went very well in my opinion and the professor I was speaking with seemed like a really interesting guy. I have to admit, I thought it would be dull with a lot of silence but it wasn't nearly as awkward as I was anticipating. Don't get me wrong, I stuttered amply and couldn't provide ideal answers to all the questions but it was good enough get me onto a second date. My schedule is now clear so I can pop over on a moments notice. I basked in my success for the next couple of hours and then applied for graduation. I also finished up the arrangements for two more gigs, now on the 29th and 30th. It will be nice to get back and play with some of my favorite people, now that enough time has past that there won't be any need for heads on the gates of the city. Jamie and I made our celebratory feast tonight, VERY blackened chicken and mashed potatoes. Mmm, mmm. I used a ridiculous amount of both Cayenne pepper and paprika but it still wasn't quite as hot as I would have liked it. I was really looking for the kind where you have to wait a couple minutes between bites. It's good for your colon, you know. Jamie got a rape call and left for the hospital but before she left I noticed a 3.5" roach slowly ascending my bedroom wall. Like a good dog owner, I fled the immediate vicinity and called in Chompy. Fortunately, this is old hat to her and a simple "Chompy, attack" with a finger point caused her to go into an uproar. Within seconds she had leapt up the wall high enough to knock it down and within a minute it was breathing its last roach breaths. After supplying her with some treats we went back to eating until we saw some of its legs move. Again I called upon my savage pit bull and she pawed and chewed it into a bunch of 100%-dead pieces just to appease me. I also discovered some unexpected users reading my journal. I guess technically it is in the public domain but come on. There are enough blogs out there to not have to read MINE. After Jamie left for the hospital Mark whipped me in Yahoo canasta and I cleaned my fish tanks. Ooh, the exciting life I live. Ooh!

=====Friday, May 21=====

I have made it successfully to the final round of interviews--the on-campus visit! [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Saturday: May 22, 2004 - Bowling for Burgers I found this game via a link on the Western Illinois University res life floor page--the floor where my brother lived. The guy who runs the page is pretty incompetent but nonetheless his random selection of links yields some interesting results. Anyway, this game is a huge red ball and you drag these items along the edges onto the ball one at a time. Different items effect the ball-world differently and cause certain other items to grow. Once you get them in the right order, everything grows to its full potential. It's really kind of dumb but nonetheless I spent about a half hour on it until I got the right order. If you want to play it (now that you have directions [it's called Grow 3] since there are none on the site) click here.

I woke up around noon yesterday. I tried to watch the Cubs game but TV Guide was wrong for what seems like the 20th time this year. Until an hour before game time the game appears on ESPN but then *bam* it's not actually on but rather some sort of curling competition or competitive eating. I drove out to Ox Bottom to meet with the party-throwers for Saturday and it is a NICE place. I got sufficiently lost in Ox Bottom, since apparently wealthy developers are lacking basic math principles. She didn't seem to mind that I was a little bit late but I still felt bad. I got even more lost in my way out, getting stuck in huge circles with traffic circle exits. I stopped at the mall to try to find some new shoes but nothing there seemed chic enough to clinch a job interview. Since I was on the other side of town anyway, I decided to check into Petland. Jamie and I agreed to not shop at Petland any more because they sell dogs for profit. Nonetheless, they had some nice fish. The $5 peacock I bought in November (as a fry) is now being sold for $39.99 (as an adult--like mine) I can't believe that! Maybe I should raise exotic cichlids as my only source of income. Jamie wanted to do something active, so we set our sights on bowling. Chris and Mike came over around 9:30 and we trotted to the bowling alley, where we waited for a half-hour before we got a lane. We were all pretty terrible the first game, combining to score less than a professional in a good game. The second game was marked by the tremendous turnaround by Chris, nearly doubling his score from the first game. I was able to fend Michael off in the 2nd game to beat him by a pin, although I definitely went over the line on a half-dozen shots (by about a foot), so I don't exactly feel like I deserve a crown. We then came back to my house for some gossip and hanging-out and called it a night around 2am. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Sunday: May 23, 2004 - Cal Poly Greetings, visitors from one of the best schools in California. I do know some people that go there, so hello. Despite your excellent track record of genius, it might be nice to center the logo on your welcome page. I would do it myself but I wasn't feeling so hot today. The Cubs won and Jamie made me some soup for dinner. I see that my plants are growing. I've done a good job watering them the past few months and so far none of died. This big, tallish weird looking one by my desk is especially large. I hope if/when I get a job I can keep some nice plants in my office. By my window, assuming I have a window. Assuming I have an office and not a cubicle. Oh please, not a cubicle. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Monday: May 24, 2004 - 7 Year Cicadas I found out today my options for flying up to W&M and elected to go earlier rather than later. I think going first shows that you're confident. True, going last might help you stick in their brains a little more, going first makes the other candidates play to your level. This can backfire, of course, if they're better than you but if they're better than you, they're going to get the job anyway. Although this isn't the case (I'm sure), I'm trying to operate under the mindset that I'm the only candidate. Sure, these other two people not only exist, but are most likely just as (if not more so) qualified to be there. While I don't know their backgrounds of course, I imagine my advantage to be that I've taught before. There's no doubt in my mind that a lot of people could do this job extremely well if it weren't for the fact they had to collaborate with professors who (in some cases) want nothing to do with them. Although I'm not a faculty pet by ANY means, I do have a tendency to get along with the toughies. Whether it's my bad-boy attitude, rugged good-looks or cocky gleam in my eye, since high school I've always been better situated with the bad kids than the good kids. And not that they're bad, just misunderstood. While there are a lot of things on my mind, the biggest is: cicadas. What if one flies into my mouth while I'm eating or talking? What if they get stuck in my hair and I don't know about it and then have to give a lecture on technology and hygiene? What if one flies into my Indian food and somehow gets sautéed into it (oh wait that's roaches and Tallahassee) and then they won't take it back and everyone is looking at me like it's no big deal? I bought some new shoes yesterday that have two very important qualities: very thick soles and high on the sides. This way, the cicadas will have a more difficult time penetrating my exterior clothing. Why couldn't Virginia be infested with snakes right now? Or Morey Eels? Or something that I wouldn't want for a pet but could still handle stepping on. I don't know a ton about cicadas but apparently they lose their shells. I'm not sure if they molt these shells or when a bird eats them, they suck out the guts and leave the shell. I'm definitely hoping for the second option because as far as I'm concerned a shell is almost as bad as a live cicada, so if these are molted shells, then there's going to be twice as many bugs. Bleh. My dad pointed out of this is the worst things I'm thinking about, I'm probably in pretty good shape. Hi Nathan and Jara! [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Tuesday: May 25, 2004 - Nervous Font If only I had a nervous font. Today went smoothly save the wrong order being handed to me at the dry cleaners and the mischeduling of a haircut. I spent the rest of my day researching various technological aspects of the Fine Arts.

Wish me luck. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Wednesday: May 26, 2004 - College of William and Mary Interview I got less than an hour of sleep between the fact I wanted to over prepare and I was really nervous. I made eight large packets of information assuming I might need about four but I was going to play it safe. I made sure each was bound with tables of contents, section dividers on card-stock: the whole nine yards. I was successful in this attempt but I just could NOT fall asleep. I fell asleep around 4am and woke up at 5:30 to take Chompy out and to get ready. The morning itself was not too stressful since I was so thorough the night before (thanks insomnia!). Jamie waited with me at the airport while I blathered on with my nervous chatter. Between having really short hair and being scared of cicadas, I spent the first flight (to Atlanta) worrying if I shouldn't have traded in my afro from this close shave or if the cicadas could smell fear. The wait in Atlanta seemed to take a while so I decided just to curl up and take a nap. I miraculously woke up right as the flight was boarding. I had some great seats on the airlines and other than the fact the woman next to me bumped me in the eye with a crocheting needle, it was great. Getting the rental car was no problem and I tore down 64W to Williamsburg with my first good omen, the start of a Led Zeppelin block on the radio. The hotel, Hospitality Hotel, was very nice at $200 a night. There was no time for relaxing, though! I had managed to sleep some wrinkles into my suit so I spent the next half-hour ironing very carefully.

I arrived to the assigned meeting area a little early. GR was right on time (this man is PUNCTUAL!) and we walked over to his office. He briefed me on the jobs of the various liaisons and gave me a chart of what each of them do. I showed him my research on the departments that I was planning to give out during the last meeting. From there I got a tour of the incredibly nice campus and was told of the many traditions there. I countered with the ever-impressive tradition of throwing people into the fountain on their birthday (thanks for all the great traditions, FSU!). I was then sent on an IT Tour with the education, et.al liaison, ME. He seemed to know everyone and did an excellent job of managing the conversations tactfully to keep us on our way. I was asked the loaded questions PC/Mac/Other? question many times and although I thought of changing my answer to match the posters in each room I decided to stick with my honest one. Some people elected to flex their brain at me and I humbly waved some white flags while battling others. The atmosphere was very relaxed. Surprisingly relaxed. What scared me the most was the mention of the head of the Music Department, KP. Whenever someone said her name, the others in the room would wince. And this happened without exception. I met TL, as I said in the synopsis, a true Renaissance man. He struck me in the same way Dr. Jones does--no matter what the area of the question is, he can answer it. Also much like EJ, he is extremely nice. We went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant and, breaking interview rule #1, I didn't eat everything on my plate. I just couldn't do it. If nothing else, they at least know how I am: someone that doesn't eat all their food. I went home and was trying to see the score of the Cubs/Astros game but fell asleep, fully clothed.

I woke up to complete silence at 4:40 the next morning. Sweet, sweet silence; something that is unfamiliar to me in my current apartment. There was no bar noise, no street noise and no Chompy noise (not that Chompy makes much noise anyway). I threw on my jeans and a hooded sweatshirt and walked around the area before going to Dunkin Donuts for some stale marbled-frosted fried-fat and a couple chocolate milks. I went back to the hotel with a couple hours to spare. I took a long shower and reviewed my notes. My eye was still red from the previous day's poke but my glasses were not as sharp as I remember them once being so I went back to the contacts. The second day started with me meeting with one of the engineers and one of the other liaisons. I was able to answer "the most difficult IT question that would be asked", though that was about the only one I could answer with total completeness. The answer, by the way, is "make sure the Ethernet cable is plugged in". We went out to lunch with the head honcho and one of the other liaisons. She was very cool and, like the rest of the liaisons, very knowledgeable in a wide range of areas. After lunch I had my last meeting with the last liaison and the heads of two of the arts departments. The head of the Theatre, et.al departments was a really laid-back yet serious guy. He was undoubtedly an effective teacher if for no other reason than he had perfect control over every word that left his mouth. The music chair clearly knew she wanted things changed and had some good ideas on what to do--she was so prepared she didn't really leave anything for me to say. The warnings I received from just about everyone about her scared me a little bit, but she seemed very reasonable in our meeting. In fact, all of the things she had requested not only seemed feasible but readily accomplishable. We all said our goodbyes and I left for the airport, feeling pretty good.

For as good as my maps were for getting *to* Williamsburg, they were equally poor getting me back to Newport News. I did get horribly lost but eventually settled on just driving east and worrying about the rest later. Fortunately for me, it was late enough in the day to determine "east" and I drove that way until I hit a busy route 99. I followed that in the spry little Cavalier until I mercifully saw a 64E sign. Climbing onto that, I was home free. I listened to NPR the ride back to calm my nerves but the conversation was devoted to the war, surprise surprise, so I didn't really pay much attention. I bought myself some disgusting Burger King before boarding and knocked a couple chapters out of Bach, Escher, Gödel: An Eternal Golden Braid on the flight back. It's a weird book and although I read it for well over six hours, the fact I keep having to re-read sections for clarity makes it very time consuming. The arguments for reverse-logic are particularly interesting, though, and I'm eager to try them out on an unwitting suspect. The time has come, however, for the description of the worst part of the trip. It is so bad and vile, it must be contained within a subparagraph:

As I was boarding the flight, I noticed the vast, vast majority of my flight-mates were of the Army persuasion. They were all on leave for various destinations and their commanding officer was there, hoping to get on a flight via stand-by. They agreed to make a deal with him. They would draw straws to see who stayed for the next flight, on the condition he was not to reprimand anyone on the flight for ANYTHING. He, in his infinite wisdom, agreed. A small, Hispanic guy was the loser and went back to the terminal while we boarded. My seat was terrible: in the aisle and in the center of this corps of the nation's finest young-adults. Their first group activity was to drink. They took turns buying $32 rounds and each had no less than four beers. Under normal circumstances, this would fine. However, on an hour-long plane ride, this was no good. Our poor steward was a gay man in his late 40s and was teased mercilessly behind his back by the Pride of America. As if their collective stupidity and ignorance wasn't enough, it was time for their second favorite activity: The Wind Breaking Contest. Each member was awarded points for one of two categories: volume and stench. In a twist of good fortune, my seatmate was the champion. It wouldn't have been as bad (though still horrible) had they not had to play it in a single-elimination tournament. I tried to play down the ironic twists of them referring to their gas-passing as "genius" while I read a book about the isomorphic relationships between Bach and Escher. The only upside is that I wasn't going to be on the next flight with them, when they'd really be wasted.

The flight to Tallahassee was uneventful but left an hour late. Jamie picked me up on time and I went to bed and slept. All in all, I would love to work in that sort of atmosphere and I think I'd enjoy the fact that no two days would ever be the same. Oh! And no cicadas! That was my other good omen. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Thursday: May 27, 2004 - College of William and Mary Interview: Part II I have returned! Although I have many fun stories, I'm not sure anyone one but me cares to review the minute-by-minute replay of the past two days so I'll just put that at the end and you can stop reading after a small synopsis.

My flight down was highly uneventful, which was fine by me. Since I didn't get a lot of sleep before I left, I snoozed through the second flight entirely, only waking to wipe drool off my mouth and to shift into a less snoreful position. My directions getting in were perfect and made it with a half hour to spare. I was met by GR, my potential-future boss in the lobby of the hotel and we went back to his office for a quick meeting and tour of the campus. I met with one of the other liaisons and he gave me the extended tour through the heart of the IT world. I confessed that I liked Windows despite the number of apples pasted to peoples' doors. We went out to dinner with TL, the man who has retired from the position. He struck me as a Renaissance man--one of those people that is good at everything and obviously well-liked by all. After dinner I went back to the hotel and accidentally fell asleep instead of giving myself the driving tour of the area. Since I fell asleep around 8:45pm the night before, I woke up at 4:40am the second day. I managed to fall asleep before I filled out the "what I want for breakfast form" so I had to drive to the 24 Dunkin' Donut shop down the street. at 9am I met with JH and WA and they were most helpful in describe the day-to-day life of a liaison. They dropped me off for, in my opinion, the most interesting of the liaisons, Px (x=?). He and I discussed a lot of media aspects and he filled my head with good ideas. For lunch, I met the penultimate liaison, Tx. Her responsibilities were the sciences but both she and I were both into acrylic painting. My final meeting was with the last liaison and the heads of the Theater, Speech and Dance departments and the department of Music. The head of the TSD was also an accomplished bassist and the kind of guy that everyone must like to have around. The head of Music was a little more focused on what she actually wanted than interviewing me, so I did a lot of sitting and listening. The flights home were fine, save the inbound to Tallahassee that didn't leave until 11:45. Jamie picked me up right on time and then I fell asleep.

On the whole, it seems the liaisons remind me of a show my brother used to watch incessantly: The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. While, no, they don't morph into anything (at least in the most literal sense of the word), they all have very powers. I can see them coming together to form a very impressive think-tank sort of deal. What I liked the most about them is that they're all really smart in so many areas. I love the fact they all have graduate degrees in their field and them BAM, they're incredibly intelligent on a host of other topics. What's even more amazing is that I didn't feel even the slightest bit of competition between them. They all seemed very supportive of each other and had nothing but praise to lavish behind the others' backs. What a serious change of environment that would be for me. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Friday: May 28, 2004 - Schedule Conflicts After my mini-vacation life returned to normalcy today. Cleaning out my voicemail, I discovered three out of my nine messages were about me composing pieces. I'm happy that more work is coming in, of course, and I don't want to turn down composing jobs, but they're starting to pile up a bit now. It's not that I'm not working on them, it's just that you can only transcribe/arrange/compose/edit so quickly. The editing takes the most time, as anyone who has worked extensively (or not) with Finale knows. Sure, you can make an ok-looking part, but ultimately, you're going to be the one that has to explain all of the details when you should have just put all the things in the music the first time. I learned this the hard way in undergrad after handing out pieces with no articulations or dynamics and telling performers to "play how they feel". That's a mistake because (present company accepted) performers don't understand how music is written. This is not their fault, though--it's yours for being so lazy. After the butchering of one my brass quintets I decided from that point on I'd be more meticulous. The problem is no matter how meticulous you are, you're going to miss stuff. This isn't the end of the world but it always baffles me how even if I look at a part a dozen times I miss something completely obvious, like a note a half-step out of range. My biggest problem is that I'll make a mistake in the score and then find it in the parts, correct it, and then not change it in the score. Of all the problems, this isn't so terrible since (assuming the director and performers don't lose their music), no one will be playing from the score. Anyway, long story semi-short, there is a lot of new music to be created by me in the next few weeks. In addition to the normal pay-for-write stuff I'm putting together an arrangement of Zeppelin's Kashmir for steel band, small orchestra and brass. I think it'll be pretty cool. Hopefully Matt Flynn will take it over to Leon and they'll play it either over the summer or in the fall. I think it will be good for their steel band to collaborate with some of the other musical disciplines.

Jamie brought me some TCBY after work and then Chris and I headed to Best Buy so he could buy his new computer. My going was two-fold: moral support and to give the commission-wanting salesman dirty looks when he tried to peddle unneeded crap. I appreciated his attempt to see if I too needed a new computer but I elected to go with a simple "no" rather than explaining how I could build their nicest one for half the price. After Best Buy we headed to Borders to browse. We saw Kathy's roommate Emmy there but she was of little help in Chris' quest to procure a Tolkien language book. Jamie, Chris and Michael came over for a little get-together around 10:30pm and we called it a night around 1am. Potbelly's, my favorite bar, decided to call it a night at 2:30am. Once the frat boys had distributed enough ruffies to ensure Jamie would be called for rape issues for the next week and left, the remaining employs elected to play their single favorite game in the world: Smash the Beer Bottle. While I have never played this game, nor actually seen it (my contacts are always out by this point in the night and I'm blind as a bat without them), it goes something like this.

1) Wait until 3am.

2) Grab a beer bottle.

3) Throw it at indiscriminate targets (walls, the road, my personal favorite: the inside of a dumpster, etc).

4) If the bottle breaks--you win!

So now, you're thinking--what do I win? You win a trip back to step number 2!

I called the police around 3:15am but they must have seen my light go on because it was silent (well, as silent as it can be) immediately thereafter. Move-away job or stay-in-town job, I'm definitely getting out of my current apartment at the end of July. In other news the Taurus won't start AGAIN. If All-American Ford didn't volunteer at Habitat for Humanity with Jamie's dad I'd condemn them all to hell but apparently they're good people, just bad employees. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Saturday: May 29, 2004 - Are You Elitest? I'm really not trying to be mean nor elitist but come on. It's 2004 and for those of us fortunate enough to be born in the United States, isn't it sort of a given that Child X will graduate high school? In 2002, 80% of Americans graduated high school. {X} I'm sure that the figure has at least stayed at least near than mark two years later if not increased a smidge. Now, I was not the model student in high school. Like a handful of the "gifted" kids I wasn't particularly hard-working, motivated, or any other sort of positive adjective. Nonetheless, I graduated. Although my family has not been in the US for centuries, they too also graduated high school. My grandparents have high school diplomas and my parents have dabbled in both college and post-graduate work. Now for my main point: What's the big deal about graduating from high school? Last night we played a gig at a very nice home, filled with intelligent people who obviously have not only attained successful careers but good educations. They were there, of course, celebrating a high school graduation. In my family high school graduation was no big deal. Maybe 15 members of my family showed up, we ate some of my mom's home-cooking and everyone went home. Even graduating from UWM was not that much more illustrious. Now, don't get me wrong--I love playing music and I love that people want to hear our music so much that we're able to make money a decent amount of money to play but the amount of money we made last night could have never (and I mean NEVER) been paid by anyone in my family. When I get my D.M. the total cost of the party might be 1/4 of *just* what we (the band) made last night. Again, I don't mean to complain because, of course, we like to make money. I just don't understand why this lavish celebration is necessary. The people last night were not elitist at all--they couldn't have been any nicer nor accommodating so I don't want to give any sort of false information about them--they were great. I just don't understand what's going on with the huge ceremonies for something that the vast majority of Americans readily do. Oh, look at the time. Time to shower and do it all over again. (Not that I'm complaining!) [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Sunday: May 30, 2004 - Weark Barometric Pressure Here I am looking at my back-up copy of the gig address. In clear letters it says 503. The original copy is in the Taurus, which I brought to the dealership for even more work on the alternator. In my infinite wisdom I made a reduced back-up copy. I managed to transfer the information correctly to my sheet but somehow transposed the digits on the directions that I handed out into a 204, a non-existent address. Fortunately for us, the tent was spotted at the right house and we were able to get set-up with no difficulties. The family was very nice and the residence was even more impressive than the mansion from last night. In the driveway was a brand-spanking-new 2004 Infiniti G-Series. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not really into cars but this was an impressive machine. Ok, I'm trying hard to follow Matt's tenet's of life and not become overwhelmed by mere possessions but geez...it's just a high school graduation, not the awarding of a Pulitzer Prize. Good for them, though, for making a success of themselves. The band went over well and we handed out a good number of info sheets and we were assured we would be back. We received a lot of compliments and were asked by a half-dozen people about our schedule for the rest of the summer. Go gigs! Although Matt didn't play these gigs with us, the five of us pulled it off really well. They had some really well-maintained cichlids in their living room as well as a couple of enormous plecos. Ah, one day I too will achieve a good life with more than cinder-block furniture.

After the gig we went to school to unload some of the equipment and then *bam*, the fire alarm goes off. The police and fire department came and as they were leaving they asked if someone knew Spanish to translate their code book to see the reason the fire alarm went off. Apparently they have a book with all the various fire alarm codes...but the book is only in French and Spanish. I volunteered to translate the selected section but even translated, they weren't sure how to fix the weak barometric pressure. Coincidentally, "weak barometric pressure" is not your typical Spanish phrase so I have to admit I'm proud of myself for getting it. Chris could have translated it in French but I got to be the hero since they asked for Spanish first.

Jamie took Chompy and The Ab to her parents' house and I took a much-needed nap. Once awake, Jamie came to pick me up and we met up with the rest of the group for a celebratory Olive Garden dinner. It was an interesting meal, complete with hysterical laughing. I would usual label myself as someone too cynical to laugh hysterically over anything but I was wrong. REALLY wrong. Jamie opened the dam on one of my embarrassing stories and once I told it I couldn't stop laughing. I can't believe the group of us, with nearly a dozen college degrees between us as well as some graduate degrees (for good measure), were that obnoxious in a restaurant. I don't think we were being particularly loud but we were all laughing pretty heartily. Once we got back, we picked up The Ab and hung out for a while.

The theme of the day was that we're really lucky to make money by playing music. Is it trite and cheesy? Oh yeah. But seriously, how many people toil at dead end jobs counting the days until they retire while we make $300/hr to play music? Man, we're lucky (and talented). [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·

Monday: May 31, 2004 - Matt's Wedding Matt needs to call me. And sooner rather that later. Sure, he's getting married and that's the most important date in his 30-year life so far but he needs to call me. Apparently in the hustle and bustle of making wedding plans he never gave me any sort of directions or schedule. This would be fine if the wedding were not 13 hours away. Ok, a good swing of fortune just happened. The sitter at their house miraculously answered the phone and now I have Jenny's cell number. Now, having Jenny's number is arguably just as bad as having nothing at all. There is no doubt in my mind when Fox films its next When Brides Attack the program is going to be centered around Jenny. I respect the fact that Jenny knows what she wants and knows how she's going to get it but I thank God every day that her wrath has never been aimed at me (to my knowledge). Well, I guess never because I'm sure I would know about it. Anyway, now I have to call the bride, beg to speak to the groom and have him give me a bunch of phone numbers and directions. What if she sees its me and doesn't answer, thinking I'm just calling Matt to ask if he can play another gig that she can prevent him from playing? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I have to call. My other plan is driving to Ohio and waiting for them to call me, which I have to admit, isn't the greatest of all my ideas.

Happy Memorial Day. One of the things that baffles me is the fact that now that we're in a war, people are shocked to hear that Americans are dying. In the second world war, almost a million people were killed or wounded {X}. I don't mean to sound like a terrible person, but isn't death one of the inevitablities of war? Don't we go into assuming that maybe, just maybe, some of our guys will not come back? I would never go to war unless the war was right here, on our soil. I'm not going to regurgitate all the theories on why we're fighting in the Middle East and I can safely say I would be too pacifist to ever be a good president. What irritates me is that a draft is in the works. A draft? Hello, US Government, if those of us who weren't currently fighting had any desire to fight for your causes, we would have signed up to do so. Hearing the Army kids on my way back from VA scared the hell out of me and I want nothing to do with them. While I'm sure there are some socially, politically and intellectually gifted people in the armed forces, I have yet to encounter so much as one. In a draft, they'd be my boss. Am I being terribly elitist in thinking they, 19-year old kids with tattoos of eagles carrying nuclear bombs in their talons (on the back of their necks), would tell me, a card-carrying member of MENSA, to go die because we had to control some semi-decimated fort in the middle of nowhere is horribly wrong? I'm sorry anyone has to die in these skirmishes but at least we're not losing Nobel Laureates, you know? And, apparently women might be selected in this draft. I would happily vote for a female president (e.g. Hillary Clinton)--I think it would be a pleasant change of pace but I think all of the women with the necessary kill-or-be-killed mentality are already in the armed forces. I certainly don't have a kill-or-be-killed mentality--I'm not saying that anyone sitting safely in their home watching reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond would want me defending the country on the other side of the world either. I'm just saying that there needs to be a new plan because this one is not working. [Comments: 0]· permalink · · ·