Thursday, September 18, 2008

NYC

New York City. Greatest city in the world!


BULL Crap.

Friday, September 12, 2008

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.