CHRIMAS

It was brought to my attention today that when I say "Merry Chrimas!" that I'm essentially quoting Brian Neal. This is a relief to me. The abbreviated holiday greeting is something that I find hilarious, and usually more fun to say than regular December exclamations. But the other day I did indeed find myself thinking,"Where the freak did that come from anyway?..." Now, thanks to AJP I do know where, indeed, it came from. So...in the vain of Brian Neal (is that a proper way to use that?) MERRY CHRIMAS!

Here I go again on my ooooooown

Air Force or Bust*





bust = continue school. win - win situation. yahoo.

Teaser

I just saw something neat on the internet. Thanks old friend.

SO - when I was at harding, there was this lil "club" of us who at some point decided that living at the music building every night was a desirable thing to do. Many reasons for this, for one, now all of a sudden we had a group to belong to within major that didn't allow us to do much else. (I'm not asking for pity, I wouldn't change that for the world) For 2 - being at the music building among those people allowed me to practice, cause they were practicing. And it was in a relaxed environment that didn't make you feel isolated from the rest of the world. For 3...well...friends and practice. And it was like our little place to be.

When I moved to memphis, I didn't realize how important that was to me. I had good friends in memphis, but no one that just inspired me to practice, no one who's energy and determination I could leach off of, which was fine, because at that point I learned to practice on my own. Now - as I read that, it just sounds like I have no self-sustaining drive. And to a point that is true, I'll be the first to admit that if there are other people around that practice, I practice.

So enter the Rutgers Period a few years later (present), I'm talking to a friend who is almost finished here, and I say," Hey Smiles McGuillicutty (that's not his name...but we'll say it is), how much do you practice?" Now smiles is a VERY accomplished player, and makes a great living freelancing in NYC doing alot of what I would like to do. He said to me,"Not much...just like 3 hours a day." As Scott broke it down for me last night, Smiles practices 1/8th of his entire day, everyday, and that's including sleep time. We'll say - 1/5th of his day is spent practicing. at THIS POINT I realize, it's time to get my butt in gear. So I say," Tough balls - get in the practice room and practice even if you don't know anyone else who is practicing." So I do.

Anthony Williams is a DMA trombonist at Memphis right now, and a general Bad-A trombonist, and he told me about his routine at UNI where he would get up and get into the practice room early in the morning for a good 3 hours and get it all in, a good "workout" if you will. So I thought I would try that, half the time Ashley gets up to go to work by 6:30 anyways, why not go to school and put in some good time?!

Lo and behold. I found a group of people who like to get to the practice room early, and practice like crazy. Meet Mika, Todd, Greg, and Sam (sam is usually in the other building, but she's ALWAYS there...I can count on that)

I'm excited. I live for this stuff!

Things I miss

-Harding University Marching Band
-Late nights in the Reynolds Center with a trombone and my good friends
-A Time with no Credit Cards and Student Loans
-Homecoming festivities (being a part of them, not attending)
-David Pietzman spending more time at my apartment than his own dorm
-Trips to Troy, MO to see crazy show choir action (granted I only did that once)
-Faculty that care about more than whether or not you are practicing
-The CAF
-Joshua Lundin being the best roommate ever (pre-Ashley of course!)
-Jon Schallert and I getting on Dr. Casey's bad list...and then removing ourselves somehow
-the "cheers" environment (think the theme song to the TV show)
-Wal-marts that aren't filthy.
-Cheap, clean and safe apartments
-Brian Neal's antics, whatever they may have been
-Rees Jones and his casual pronunciation of "Sicut Cervus"
-Stupid bear, Dumb bear, and fat bear
-CHORUS
-Sycamore View Church in Memphis
-My Hondas
-Searcy at Christmas Time
-DASH
-Scott's Fro
-Serenading the entire campus with a polka band
-Performing with Abby Smith
-8-part O Holy Night.
-Holiday parties at the house of the man formerly known as "Mr." Chance
-Bible Study at the Murray's.
-My family and my lil sister being 5 minutes away

It's good to go back and think about this stuff sometimes. :-)

NYC

New York City. Greatest city in the world!

BULL Crap.

New Post because of DASH

First to explain:

DASH - You'll notice that when I spell the name "Alice-Anne Murray" there is a small symbol that is not a letter. This can be called a hyphen, or in some cases a dash. Ergo - Dash = Alice-anne murray-soon-to-be-Light.

So...the last post was saying that we need an apartment in NYC. Oh how things have changed. Ashley's job is very stressful and fast-paced. We didn't want to live in a hole-in-the-wall in the same sort of environment so I struck a deal after something. "Ashley...(i said to her), if we live in New Brunswick (where rutgers is)...I'll buy you a new chihuahua puppy named bubble." To which she replied,"Done." So there you have it.

We live very close to the cook douglass campus, which is where I work and have rehearsals and class. Also - only about 5 minutes from the train station, which ash takes in to work everyday. The train...not the station...just in case anyone needed clarification. OH! And we shipped the mustang up here! But I forgot my bike. Boooooooo.

I'm taking 2 classes: Instrumental Lit & Study of Musical Analysis. Let me break it down for you

Instrumental Lit - historical and contextual study of instrumental literature
actually - A holistic approach to the humanities using liberal generalities and worldviews. But in all honesty - I think I'm going to REALLY like the class. It's not a normal "memorize and regurgitate" history class. The professor is quirky, but knowledgeable and it's gonna be good I think.

Study of Musical Analysis - exactly what is says. But it's taught by a young professor, who, as far as I can tell, is fresh out of Columbia University with his PhD (WITH distinction even!). He is brilliant, the class is engaging, and is probably gonna be hard as butt.

They seem to be interaction based classes which is nice because lectures get boring, the student to teacher ratio allows it to be a very engaging class. Yesterday was my first time in the analysis class (i was in a different one before...that's a whole other post), and they discussed an article they had read for yesterday for about 2 hours. I had no idea what the article said, but was interested and didn't fall asleep! It's gonna be a good class!

On the playing front - Orchestra, Jazz 'Bones, Brass Quintet, Trombone group of some sort
We are playing sibelius 2 which I did when I was at memphis. I had forgotten what an amazing piece of music that is. Go and listen to the 4th movement, and then the 2nd, and then the 1st, and then the 3rd leading to the 4th again. GO NOW! It's greatness. Or don't...whatever, I don't care. Punk.

I got recruited to play in Jazz Bones which I'm VERY excited about, I want to play underneath Conrad Herwig's direction. It's gonna be awesome.

I'm playing the show "The Secret Garden" in october! Small world - Billy Nobel, who is the piano player from the Carnival Ship I worked on, went to school with a girl named Meg. Shayne Mims auditioned for Secret Garden and was cast in it, the musical director really liked him, her name is Meg. They are one in the same - anyway - so I talked to shayne, found out about the show, employed the power of google to find out who the MD was, emailed her, only to realize that she was in the same piano studio at Carnegie-Mellon as my dear friend billy. Small World, eh?

*OH! and if you like country music, listen to the song "So do you believe me now" by Jimmy Wayne. It's currently No. 1 on the billboard C&W chart. Billy is Jimmy's pianist. And while he may not be on the actual recording...if you go see Jimmy Wayne in concert - there you will find billy. Proud of that boy!*

Hmm...time to analyze the first song of Dichterliebe. Wahoo.

Apartment

And now I need an apartment in NYC. Help!!!!!!!!!







and I still need to sell the washer, dryer, and mustang. ugh.

for sale

Anyone want a 2005 mustang?

or perhaps a washer and dryer? I can deliver it as far as philadelphia...

DDS

6.16.08 - Comprehensive Exam, X-rays, Deep Scaling on left side
6.19.08 - Deep Scaling on Right side.
6.27.08 - Upper Wisdom Teeth Extraction


Kids - don't forget to floss.



Believe it or not - one can grow tired of milkshakes. They do NOT bring this boy to the yard.

small town america IS small

So the perp in the previous entry - just happens to be the high school ex-boyfriend of a coworker's sister. HA.

Searcy, Arkansas. Town of around 45,000. Though that could be a city. A city, according to merriam-webster's online dictionary is "an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village." So then I guess I would call Searcy a city and not a town. Ok, so start over.

Searcy, Arkansas. CITY of around 45,000. Harding student population makes up almost 10 percent, but I'm not sure if the population on the sign reflects that. I love that place. Yes, I was ready to go when I left to start my Master's at memphis, but Searcy was a good time. Brandon edwards and I drove my old iron box on wheels out to a house at CW Road, and scraped paint off of the ceiling, while blasting the theme song to Friends. Soccer - every tuesday, thursday, and sunday night after church during the summer. I was in the best shape of my life. There is a picture somewhere on my facebook, and it was from my senior year of high school. My abs were ripped! Now they are as ripped as a memory foam pillow. WAHOO!! That's ok, someone told me that that's just a sign that marriage is agreeing with me. I'd agree with that also.

I worked in the video services department at Harding for one of the kindest, smartest, and Godly men I have ever known. David Hurd was Incredible. He gave me a chance, and I paid him back! He taught me about hard work, and what it takes, and about videos, and about doing something right the first time so you don't have to go back and fix it later. His wife and daughters adopted me as a family member after he passed away. And then an unnamed ogre and moron took advantage of mine and daniel evan's work...so we quit :-)

Acapella group, youth group stuff, soccer, band, the edwards house, cree-mee drive thru, the library, james wylie's awesome grand prix. Good times had by all. Wahoo.

It seems as though I've been saying Wahoo lately. Well - future update: Ash and I will be moving out of our apartment at the end of this month and staying with the in-laws for just a bit. We're moving northeast this summer! It's Doctorate time at Rutgers. And it's bigtime fashion design time in the Big Apple...or perhaps the city of Brotherly love. I've been researching housing, and jobs, and places that we can live, and utilize public transportation. I think what I have figured out is that in the apple (or close by) we can do it with just 1 car. But...it looks like in philly, we're gonna need 2 cars. I don't think there's a way to get around it. Ian is gonna help me look into that...though I don't think he knows that yet. Ian? whatcha think? I guess I should get back to my last day of work now. and again - WaHoo.

have I mentioned I love small town america?

I am currently working out in the Weatherford, TX branch of EECU, my job I held for about 8 months prior to the Little Women tour. One of the tellers just brought me in the local paper which is warm from the sun, and is already showing the wear of the weather. A front page article has to do with a man caught in a theft attempt by an off-duty officer. The man, 27-year-old Ray Earl Penkert, was observed stealing, and then apprehended. Rightfully, this article is on the front page! Do you know what he was stealing? Paper Lunch Bags.

I love it - Keep it classy, Weatherford!

Legend

DUDE. I met Slide Hampton today.

i like most of this. even though we know how i feel about cliche.

THE INVITATION..

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love, for your dream,
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic,
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can hear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul;
if you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty,
even when it's not pretty, every day,
and if you can source your own life
from it's presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"YES!"

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up,
after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or
what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you, from the inside,
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

the 90's

So I think that I am going to play bass in a 90's cover band this summer. It's gonna be rad. See?? I'm already catching on to the lingo. We went over to Jason and Erica's house last night and hung out, and had pizza and listened to the tunes that'll be on the set list. I haven't seen erica in Forever - and now she's 7 1/2 months pregnant! She's a really cute pregnant lady :-)

We had this pizza from a place called pizza patron - which is a skich name, but nevertheless, the pizza was great. Jason stopped by and ordered it after work, and told the guy he wanted pepperoni on one, and then every vegetable they had on the other. The guys response was,"Even pineapple?" Which I don't usually consider a veggie, but what the heck. Jason said yes. And that pizza in all of it's jalapeno-bellpepper-onion-mushroom-pineapple-olive glory, was one of the best pieces of pizza I've had in a long time!

Back to the 90's band - old skool maroon 5, Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Vertical Horizon, All the stuff that people my age listened to in High School - early college. When he was playing through the list, nostalgia ran rampant. Brandon Edwards and I used to drive around in my gargantuan beast of an SUV listening to this stuff and harmonizing on the fly. It was a trick to see who could ACTUALLY get all the words to "One Week" or "Semi-Charmed Kind of Life." If the songs were too high - he'd just scream, if it was too low, I would sound like a dying cow as I exhaled hoping to hit the notes. These were the songs that would play as we drove out to play soccer on tues/thurs/sunday nights during the summers. It was an amazing time. James Wylie would drive out and visit me when I lived slightly out of town, and we would sit in his car and chat and listen to the radio, or come in and do the same thing in my room. Life was simple then. Ahh...Nostalgia you double-edged blade.

The Circumference of the earth

SO - I am sitting here at the Pittsburgh Airport about to try and get on a flight to Dallas via Atlanta.

Today the bus driver informed us of a few facts that I found extremely interesting.

1. We spent a good 460 hours on that bus. That is over 2 weeks out of 3.5 months spent on a bus.
2. We spent over 18K on fuel alone.
3. We drove over 26,000 miles...the circumference of the earth is around 24,500 miles.


We practically drove around the world.

Dallas here I come - and i've never been more excited about it. :-)

The final stretch

10 days left. I can not WAIT to get home to my apartment, my wife, my dog, my own bed, even my awesome minivan. Things learned thus far.

1. Having amazing talent can get you very far, but if you've got connections and a moderate amount of skill, you'll probably go further.

2. I've learned alot about how to search for work in my field.

3. There will always be someone who is gonna make it difficult to just exist in your everyday life.

4. I've learned how to deal with that person.

5. Did I mention that connections are important?


Currently I am in Muncie, Indiana, home of Ball State University. Yesterday the propsmaster for our show flaked out and left, and also attempted to sabotage the crew. Petty man. The crew is resilient, and big props to Jon and the rest of them for calling a great show yesterday.

I will be working at EECU again this summer, happy day for having a job! Thank you Lord.

And now....back to the "grindstone!" Showtime.

You're Arrogant! You're Aloof!

The title is a quote from the musical that I am touring with. Jo March says this to Professor Bhaer before their relationship turns into a loving one, after Professor Bhaer speaks his mind to her, which she asked him to.

As unfortunate and as embarrassing as this may be - I have a problem.
I can be an arrogant moron. I've always had a problem with it. Sometimes it has been under control, and other times, Pride's ugly head seems to look very much like me when I look in the mirror. I know that I am with people in saying that the 2 hardest lessons for me to learn are lessons of patience and humility.

There is a stereotype within the musical world.
Sopranos and Trumpet players = Arrogant/cocky/condescending.
This is not always true, but sometimes I wonder if perhaps I should've played trumpet...and then I am reminded that my lips are WAY to big for all that. The trombone sounds better anyway ;-)

Forgive me if you've ever had to put up with this side of me. *Cue jokes* (I can take em!)

dilemma

My first thought as I started writing this blog was whether or not I spelled Dilemma correctly.

I am currently listening to an mp3 of Glenn Dodson - he was Joe Alessi's teacher, and the recording is of him performing Pryor's Fantastic Polka with an ol' skool US Marine band. He's extremely impressive.

Well I have 2 offers on the table now, and I'm not exactly sure which one HE will have me take. Lots of factors: Commute, Chamber Music, Orchestra, Class Schedule, MOOLAH.

Still shooting for the Coast Guard.

I was on Joe Alessi's website today and i copied all of his playing tips that he has on there. I'm always looking for more advice. And sometimes I wonder what goes on in the juilliard school. So I thought I'd find out. I did find out that his son is in a glee-club-esque group called the Alley Cats at yale.

I'm looking forward to school. I am NOT looking forward to moving.

reminders

Let's never forget - life is a gift. I knew him, not well, but I knew him well enough to feel this.

Let the small things roll off, and remember what matters when the big ones come.

Once More

United States Coast Guard Band
Principal Trombone
June 9th, 2008 - New London, CT.


Here we go again.


Has anyone heard of J.C. Heed's Storm and Sunshine? Cause apparently I need to play it.

Lessons Learned

A few things that I have learned on tour:

1. No matter what, in this biz - there will ALWAYS be at least one diva.

2. There will always be something that is going to bother you, the tough part is knowing how to keep your trap shut about it.

3. More than likely - there will also be somethings wrong, and something has to be said to prevent further damage.

4. Suprisingly enough - the trumpet player is NOT always the one with the biggest head in the band. hahaha!

5. Love can be hard. But I love her more and more everyday.


New picture posts on my picasa site.

I talked to Jon Schallert today - that was splended, he seems to be doing well, and living a wonderful dream! It made me miss school - he was on his way to a quintet rehearsal. Why is a good horn player always so freaking hard to find when you want a quintet. Maybe I should go to Michigan.

Next Stop - Gulf Shores, AL. Be jealous.

AFM

So - I think that it has been decided. If I want to be able to make a pretty penny in NYC - or ANY penny - I'll be joining AFM. For those of you who don't know - that's the American Federation of Musicians. That's the union. Local 802 for Manhattan and the Five Boroughs. Thoughts?

Union, NJ

The theater house in Union, NJ at Kean College was very dry inside, but i played a great show. However, that is minimal in relation to this news.


TANK HAS A SUPERBOWL RING!!! WOO HOO!!!!

Franklin, PA

Today we had a travel day, and then the band was off for the rest of the evening! It was great - a couple of band guys and I went and met up with some of the actors at a local coffee house. That mocha was FABULOUS. We are here in Franklin, PA - this is a fantastic picture of small america. I'll post a picture of the main drag tomorrow. It's great. I'm reading a book by bill bryson that reflects upon his travels in small town america. The tour I'm on isn't an equity/union scale tour - and the nice thing about that is that it is shorter, and I'm going to see so much of America (and a bit of Canada!)...and it will be the small town america that I love and adore so much.

Shout out to a few people - NICK O'SULLIVAN - you rock! Bonnie's parents came too - holla.

And joe!! You rock dude - but I killed you in Foosball ;-)

Hiking

Hiking inLaVale, MD

careers

If you're a musician - you can relate to this - You're sitting in a rehearsal, things are going well, very well infact. But you're continuing to have to repeat something over and over and over again, despite the fact that the ensemble is playing (or singing) well. And you get this feeling of,"Man...I'm so ready to be done with rehearsal. Ugh." - or at least some variant of that. Well, I started feeling that last night around 10...We had been playing practically since 9 that morning. My lips are chapping and my face is drying out. And I had such a thought as the one described above. And then I had another thought - "this sure beats the heck out sitting in a cubicle having someone yell at you about how they can't control their checkbooks, and that you're taking money from them." So I smile and think how blessed I am that I play for a living right now. Even though a small payroll fiasco threatened the whole pay thing yesterday - that has been cleared up, and now things are cool again.

In other things - guilt is unfortunately a double edged sword. On one hand - it has the benefit of sometimes being the media through which our conscience speaks to us. On the other hand it can be used as a manipulative tool by human or spirit. I guess the hard part is distinguishing which one it is at the time it hits you.

For anyone curious - the show schedule is posted a few posts below this! Come and see it! The show is really good!

Coming soon: Pictures of Frostburg State University

jopaige

Paige Faure is Jo March in the Windwood productions tour of "Little Women."
Hands down - she is better than the recording.

Yesterday we had a run through with the assistant M.D. - the music is fantastic. If any of you are able to some see the show, you should. We watched the run through with piano yesterday - it was AMAZING. The staging is fantastic - the music is great - the actor/singers are off the chain.

My roommated is Professor Bhaer - his German accent is really cool :-)

day one

Well - here's the scoop:

First of all - I forgot my camera, so I'm going to be ganking my friend bonnie's for at least the first half of the tour.

We're staying for 8 days in this best western here in La Vale, Maryland. When I looked up the hotel name before we left, it said it was the braddock motor inn. I thought..."motor inn? sounds cheapish...." but it's actually really nice. Apparently it's a hotspot for winter birthday parties for kids because of the very large indoor pool. Don't you just want to jump in there?!?!

My roommate is Shane - he plays professor Bhaer in the musical women. He's 31, and married with two puppies. And very cool - and if i snored last night (which I warned him about) he said it didn't bother him. :-)

Off to rehearsal - two 3-hour practices today. I love it.

I love ashley, my darling wife, miss her like crazy. check out her blog

adgcount.blogspot.com

Little Women Itinerary

here's the itinerary for the tour folks. Tell your friends!

Lessons Learned

Well - I guess the number of posts can be expected to decrease. This is my last day at EECU - so the time that I have to just chill WITH access to the internet is about to decrease. Though the drive was long at times, and sometimes people come in and are completely incompetent at large aspects of life, and sometimes I get cursed at with multiple instances of the F-bomb...and sometimes I get fussed at for dancing on the job...(I'm listing these things for humor...), and I have to tell people who really need a loan that they can't get one...this has been a good job!

Things I have learned while working for EECU - Your Community Credit Union

1. Keep a freaking Check register and write down your DEBIT CARD PURCHASES ALSO. I can't tell you how many people get charged overdraft fees because they simply don't keep track of there purchases chronologically. NEWS FLASH - you can't spend 50 bucks on your debit card one day when you only have 25, and then expect to deposit 100 bucks the next day hoping that you won't be charged. That's just dumb. No e-commerce, e-banking, or e-anything can take the place of writing down what you spend.

2. Your credit score is all-important in like...everything. It's AMAZING how much the simple 3 numbers making up your equifax, experian, or transunion credit score can affect what you can and can't get in life. For example - first year in memphis - I had to pay rent with money orders, what a freaking pain, having to go to the post office, or kroger and buy a money order just so I could pay rent, because I had limited credit. 2nd year - I got to write a personal check!! WOOHOO! That's not the same every where...but you know...

3. Health Insurance and Dental Insurance don't cover near as much everyone wants them to, including me.

4. Did I mention that it's important to keep a check book register? Unless of course you are rolling in it beyond belief and don't know what to do with all the money.

5. Be on your boss's good side.

6. My wife would be a hott teller.


Ian - I would like your lessons learned - since you are a fellow credit union employee.

M.A.S.H.

Love is a good thing. Painful in a good way at times. I LOOOVE my ashley :-)


We were watching MASH last night, season 4 I believe where Col. Sherman Potter and Captain B.J. Honeycutt arrive on the scene. I have made a MASH fan out of Ashley, it took some patience and forcing her to watch it...but now she really enjoys it. I think that it's an aquired taste.

I was reading in a friends blog the other day about a literal spiritual healer. And yes I do believe that on occasion, the spirit is manifested in this way. Just perhaps not as often as back in bible times (if you will. haha!)

I'm playing the waiting game at this point with Grad Schools - the two that seem to be working are Stonybrook University (a part of the State University of New York system - located on long island) and my former institution Rutgers University. Temple has also been a option, but it has been terrible to try and get any contact with them. I guess they aren't willing to work with me as far as auditioning is concerned. Or perhaps I just have the wrong person, or wrong email...or maybe both.

vision

I just went to the eyedoctor - and apparently my vision has gotten worse. from -3.25 to -4.25. This is fairly encouraging - because it means my perscription hasn't changed in about 5-6 years.
Weird thing though - I only actually sat with the eye doctor for about 5 minutes. He checked the fit of my contact lens - and then proceeded to charge me 89 dollars for it. That essentially means that he's making about $1068 per hour on me alone. Why the heck am I getting my degree in music???


I miss small town america. I could get out of the eye doctor for 100 bucks. that INCLUDED boxes of contacts. I just spent 114 - and I don't even have a box of contacts to show for it. And I have a headache from my eyeballs bein' dialated.

*END RANT*

the future

Coming Soon - Itinerary for Little Women. Unfortunately for places I have lived the most - being Texas, Arkansas and Memphis, TN....we aren't coming there. BOOO.


I love bein married.

New Horizons - and black Chihuahuas

Sorry for the lack of updates (to all 5 of you who read :-p ) but here I am again. My last day at work is in exactly 7 days. It has been a great job - but I supposed it's time to start on that path again.

I'm wondering why I haven't utilized the beauty of the world wide web as a tool for promoting my playing. Not that I would want to now - but it could be a good thing to do. I know alot of people use myspace for that - but I think that I want something that looks a little snappier. Anyone know of a good webhosting service? Kelly Neill has one. I like it - and he's spectacular. I was reminded the other day that every one is human. This wasn't a profound thought, it was a funny, encouraging observance. Apparently - a VERY famous principal trombonist for a premier orchestra Kacked the most notable note in the trombone solo for Bolero. 2 things about that - 1. I still respect that man incredibly, because 1 out of 2000 high Db's is not bad, it's excellent... 2. Makes me feel better about the times I screw up huge! I'm gonna be that caliber of a player one day. I think i'm gonna keep a log of how many times I botch something in the Show. Expect an update on that every now and then - but don't be dissapointed if I forget!

So I auditioned at Rutgers last month. Apparently, there is competition for the one trombone fellowship slot. We'll see what comes of that. Stonybrook application is almost done - just trying to find an old term paper to send them, and hopefully that will come to fruition. I'm just praying for God's will, and i'm gonna let that be that. Sound good?

Cirque de Soleil is looking for musicians for a stationary 2 year show in Macau, China and Tokyo, Japan. Thoughts anyone?


I love being at home with my wife. And when we're somewhere where it's feasible - I'm gonna buy her a lil black Chihuahua puppy named Bubble.