Heres things I want, by the way, blogger sucks.

Things that I want either now or in the near future or in the distant future.

Bass clarinet. I used to play it in HS and I love the sound, I'd really like to get one again and play in a local orchestra.




















New car. Maybe not new. But not an old busted piece of junk either. I need wheels!













See a Steve Reich piece performed live. Which I will be doing this May. :)










Finale 2010 so I can start making sheet music for my pieces at home.























A new office chair. My current chair sucks and hurts my back and is terrible for my posture.






















Ireland. I've been there once, would love to go back.

Time does go by quickly.

Here I am, a month and a half past graduating.

I went from 90mph to nearly a dead stop. Not that I'm not pursuing anything. It's just...when you have that time after you graduate and before you find full time work to support your dreams and goals and musical career, you can get very bored.

At least I can.

I've been relying on poker winnings to help pay for bills, while in the meantime I send out resume after resume, fill out job app after job app. And I've got two things weighing on my mind in the distance. Well, three technically ;). The big question is "If I don't get a job soon, how will I pay for these things?"

Anyways...Valentine's Day coming up. I'm going out with Crystal to Kincaid's, a pretty fancy steakhouse in downtown St Paul. And our 1 year anniversary is next month. What a year. <3 She is the best girlfriend I could dream of and the girl I know I will spend the rest of my days with. I am so blessed in that regard.

I checked out the score of "Vermont Counterpoint" by Steve Reich from the library and went line by line, inputting the notes into Ableton Live. I would have just photocopied the pages, but this was a better exercise and now I have the piece in format I can mess around with. I'm gonna go to the Minneapolis Library on monday I think and see if I can find some more of his scores.

And now it's time for the part of the blog where I review some random-ass product, service, or activity. Today's review will be Seattle's Best Coffee.

It's much more finely ground than my usual crap-coffee, which is Folgers. You open the bag and instead of a mix of dark and light brown pencil shavings (Folgers), you see a fine dark brown powder that smells delicious.

It is DEFINITELY way stronger than I'm used to. I made the mistake of using the same amount as I suaully do. I can usually drink 3 cups no problem, but after my second cup I was getting headaches and thinking "too much caffeine oh noes!" So now I scale it back a bit when using this stuff.

And lastly, the flavor. It's pretty good. Not bitter at all. I can drink it straight black and not want to puke in my mouth a little bit.

Overall rating: A-

Recital night is almost here!

Two more days until my recital. I'm both nervous and excited for it. I'll be happy when it's over, and when it's happening, but boy will it be a big weight off my shoulders when it's done. At this point all I can do is know that we've prepared like crazy for it, and trust that the performance will be great.

My fam gets into town tonight and tomorrow. My dad's bringing turkey and such - home cooked meals FTW!

I'm going home to MI for Christmas from the 20th to the 27th. $550 plane ticket. =(

I'm emailing my resume later today for a position at the Composer's Forum here in town. That would be soooo freaking awesome if I got it. But the application deadline is the end of December, so it looks like even if I do get it, I'll have some interim down time. I'll be grinding the pokers I think, it won't be too difficult to cover my expenses, even though I don't like the idea of having to do that "professionally". But money is money, I don't really care how I make it, as long as I can make music the major thing in my life.

Took Crystal to "In the Heights" last friday, as her Christmas present. It was really amazing! I enjoyed the show, our seats were really good, and I'm most impressed that Lin-manuel (sp??), who was the lead in the original cast, ALSO wrote the script AND the score, and won a 2008 award for best original script/score. Damn!

Last thing, my girlfriend is so supportive, and I'm very thankful that she's here for me when I lose it. Thanks babe. :)

Oh boy

My recital is fast approaching, and I'm getting excited and nervous at the same time. I know it's gonna be great, because we've prepared so much for it and I have great players. That's all I can do is prepare the best I can.

I wrote the "Thank You" section of my recital program today. I'll be honest, I got a little choked up. =) The first two people I mention are my parents, each specifically, and the memories of the various roles they've played as I've grown and matured sort of got to me.

I was doing a project in Final Cut Pro today. I don't really know wtf I'm doing in that program, so I was getting super frustrated, to the point of breaking down. Thank God I had Crystal there.

I get to meet her parents and bro next week when we go there for Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to that. =)

We'll only have 2 more rehearsals before my recital......eeek this is coming up so fast!! It still hasn't quite set in yet that I'm going to be a college grad in less than 30 days, but it sure started to when I got the letter in the mail that gave me the schedule of events (pick up cap and gown on Friday December whatever, Final day of classes wednesday the someteenth). I'm looking forward to it. Which reminds me, I need to get my resume in shape.

Till next time, friends!

More strings, fugue, recital, working out.

I've been amassing string quartet music and scores, and most recently, picked up 4 of Beethoven's string quartets, along with the scores. It's pretty interesting to see how differently each composer approached the ensemble and to (visually) see how they build each movement. Also I got Bach's 24 Prelude and Fugue's from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1. With scores. It's for a project for school but also as a personal interest. I think I want to attempt fugue writing at some point.

I'm getting closer to my recital and had my first full on successful rehearsal with my string quartet last sunday. I ended up hiring a new cello player, and I feel extremely fortunate with who I found. The girl is a graduate of St. Olaf's, which is apparently a very good music college, and she normally doesn't do gigs for what I could pay, but I talked her into coming to a rehearsal, confident that if she met the group and heard the music, she'd want to be a part of it. Fortunately, things worked out for the better, and the group got through all 3 pieces, fairly well too for their first full rehearsal. So I'm pretty confident about my recital now.

Crystal and I worked out together tonight. It was awesome. =) I really wish we had more time together...I love every minute we get to share, even if it's just being cute between classes or if I get an hour or something with her at her place before work. Ah well....we'll have our own place soon enough.

I'm planning on playing more poker this month and next month, because I want to buy a new computer and either Finale or Sibelius. I'm thinking around $2k should be plenty. After that, I want to save up to buy a vehicle.

Until next time!

Sippin' coffee, blogging, etc etc

It's the last day of midterm "break," even though I have to work and do some stuff for school.

Crystal and I were going to walk down this path next to the highway that I take to school sometimes, because there are alot of trees with leaves that have changed colors for fall, and we were going to take pictures. Unfortunately, autumn decided to go into hyperdrive mode and most of the leaves are now just yellow and light orange. But we're still going to take pictures anyways. =)

I'm seeing more and more things that scare the crap out of me, regarding our current state of government. There will come a day - too soon I fear - that people like myself will no longer be categorized at crazy conspiracy theorists, but will be looked to as leaders of a nationwide truth movement. I really want to believe, I really do, that the government is still "by the people, for the people" and that Obama is a decent person with good intentions. I would love to believe that it really IS a crazy conspiracy theory and that none of it is true. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google "Fall of the Republic," or "Pittsburgh G-20 police."

On a positive note, I may have found a cello player. =) She's a graduate of St Olaf's and from what I hear, that's an excellent music college.

Crystal and I will be going to a doctoral recital tonight, for "collaborative piano," whatever that means. I have to do a concert review for class and I've pretty much put it off until the last minute.

And! Hooray - only 3 more days of Valley Scare left! We had record numbers last saturday and my room got scare of the night again! But damn does that leave me exhausted. I'll do it again next year, but not work the same room, and probably get makeup and not a mask. Those things get hella hot.

AND! I got Crystal's x-mas present. All I'll say is - I will get a million boyfriend points for life. =)

So much stuff!

I am a slacker at updating my blog.

I know this.

I've slacked at updating every blog I've ever attempted.

But I'm working on it!

I accidentally came into work an hour early today. It worked out okay, Sean needed coverage and I studied for a midterm a little bit more. GOD I am not looking forward to that one! Western Art Music History 1, why oh why are you on my list of required classes?????

I lost my iPod (sadface) but ordered a new iPod Touch with PokerStars player points. I'm excited for it, but the crappy thing is, my other iPod still had like 2 years left on its 3 year extended warranty. Also I'm not looking forward to loading all my songs again.

October officially sucks. As if I didn't already have limited time to see Crystal because of Valley Scare, this past weekend was especially tough. I took it off (Thursday through Sunday) because I had a ton of stuff to get done for midterms and I couldn't put my grades in jeopardy. So for all of last weekend, I saw her for a couple hours before VS, and then possibly a couple hours after she got home, if one of us stayed over at the other's place. If not, I just talked to her through texts. It was really hard. =( I miss her like ALL the time.

We're still planning on moving in together ASAP, and hopefully that means before her lease is up next May. Every day, our relationship just seems to get better and better. We're sickeningly cute.

In other news, I chipped a tooth. Or rather, I broke part of my tooth in half. I was eating a piece of raw spaghetti (call me weird if you want, apparently this is not normal) and feeling no pain, I ended up cracking my back tooth completely in half vertically. Like...the front half is just not there anymore. So I need to go to the dentist and get this shit fixed up yo, before I get a cavity/exposed nerve/decay because of the broken enamel.

I had to replace my first violinist in my string quartet. Don't think she was too happy, but I need somoene I can count on. She missed last sunday's rehearsal and didn't let me know or respond to my texts. I've found a really solid player that I can count on, so I'm looking forward to that addition to the group.

And finally, I have a lot of new compositional ideas, but I have to wait until after I graduate and have more time to really put them into practice. I just have so much to focus on this semester that new projects will have to be put into the queue line. Oh, and I have an idea for a website that if I pull it off and it's doable, I think it would be a big hit. No spoilers as to what it is. ; )

Till next time!