Air Force or Bust*
bust = continue school. win - win situation. yahoo.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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. :-)
-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. :-)
Thursday, September 18, 2008
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.
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.
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