an interesting weekend

tomorrow's monday. that means the weekend is over....sad.

my family came down on friday to see the cabaret stuff i had been telling them about. just so ya know, i didn't encourage their visit. cabaret is nothing i would want people to travel 2.5 hours to pay $35? to see. it's fun for us, but it's not that good. when all was said and done with cabaret i successfully, however latefully, wrote the ricky martin set, which, i received praise and guff for doing, and played the solo on 'hit me with your best shot' during the 2nd overture. received an equal amount of praise and guff for that one too. i believe the words doc schwartzhoff used were 'taco bell' and 'flatualants.' well, my response to that is that atleast my flatualantly sound stayed in time and on pitch. just kidding...mostly...don't be offended.

seeing the fam and the dog was cool. i didn't get to see my parents much, unfortunately, because they had to take off early on saturday morning for a funeral. i guess one of my dad's friends suddenly dropped dead during a hockey game. man, life is so freaking fragile and unpredictable.

my bro hung around for the weekend, which was cool. he came to phil's surprise party with me after seeing cabaret on friday night. i was happy to make it to phil's party. he's just a sweet guy and we both came to the awesome conclusion that we need to hang out more. congratulations to him for making principal in orchestra too. that's uber cool to be playing principal on mahler 3. good for him.

speaking of phil's party and birthday stuff, i'm reminded of a conversation with someone, i won't name names, who once again put me back in my humble position towards the female race. quick story; we'll call her...um...crazy girl (it's an affectionate term, don't get upset). so i'm talking to phil about what he did on his birthday and he tells me that lauren took him to a dragonetti's. it's an italian place and i've never eaten there, but always wanted to. so i said jokingly, 'man, i need to find a girl who'll take me there on my birthday next friday.' so crazy girl walks up and i propose that she take me there. 'yeah right,' she says 'it's expensive and i don't have a car.' fair enough. 'so i'll give you some money and let you borrow my car,' i say. phil chimes in and says that's a great idea and tries to convince crazy girl to take me up on my offer. she declines, despite much prodding. you know you're a loser when....you can't lend a girl your car and give her money to take you out to a nice restaruant on your birthday. i probably would have been willing to dress up in a suit and everything. her loss right? ok, end of story. and crazy girl, if you happen to read this, you know it's all in good fun and that you're still loved.

so that about sums up my weekend. partied a little too late last night, so i'm gonna shower up and try to get some rest so i can make it to the gym before rehearsal tomorrow.

oh yeah, and if you're interested, i think i'm going to try to get my friends together for a nice lunch or dinner at dragonetti's on saturday sometime. gonna try to make my last birthday in eau claire a classy gathering of my friends.

love,
james

stuffage

just returned from cabaret. it was loud, it rushed, the jokes were terrible, and the audience loved every minute of it. good for them. funny things included mr. baca talking to the orchestra in the pit while being recognized by dr. schwartzhoff out in the house and the entire audience looking back at the pit during the 'moment' in the josh grobin (sp?) set while we waved our horns back in forth in the air (i think i started that one...oops). 3 more performances to go. ugh.

tomorrow is going to rock. my family is coming down tomorrow. my parents are coming to see the show. they're way too excited to hear my ricky martin set and to hear my play a solo on pat benetar's 'hit me with your best shot.' couldn't get them to come to an orchestra concert during my 5 years here, but apparently they'll come to hear that. sheesh. my brother is coming down as well. he just turned 21 on wednesday, so i think he wants to go do some boozin'. the most exciting thing, however, about my family coming to visit, is that they're bringing my dog. her name is gert and she's the coolest dalmatian to ever have spots. she's going to stay at my apartment and i'm pretty friggen excited about that. you all should definitely stop by.

dad stopped by today and dropped off some mail from home. i got a diploma and a check from the university for my new york trip. also got a birthday card from grandma. overall it was an excellent mail day.

gonna cut this one short. i'm off to the joynt to hang out with my wonderful friends then up early to play routine with becker, rehearsal at noon, then working on some jazz stuff with my teacher, ben herpel-derpel.

thanks for reading,
james

a post about jazz

so it's 1.23am and i just got home from the stones throw. lots of people came out tonight, which was awesome to see. a lot weren't even music majors. i'm happy that monday night is staying alive because i realize it's been good to me all these years.

so lately i've been sitting in, trying to improve my improvising chops. to say the least, it's difficult for me. (i just had a random idea....i should record myself next time i go down.) i'm finding out that no matter how much i study a tune and practice it, it's going to be completely different when i go down and play it. things such as tempo (i played mercy, mercy, mercy tonight and it was so much faster than i had been practicing/listening), volume of the ryhthm section, and how well i can hear myself changed drastically for me tonight. in addition, i thought i knew the form of the tune and became slightly confused when we played it tonight. it was my own dumb fault i'm sure. so as i always do, i assess what i can do to improve the things that caught me off guard. the only thing i could really come up with is to listen to different versions of the same tune and play some of the licks i learn faster and slower. those are the things i can do on my own. other than that, i've concluded that i just have to get my ass down there every monday and play on something to get used to it.

i'm gonna start working with ben a little too. we're gonna meet on friday, which i'm looking forward to. i think ben will be a gentle and concise person for me to learn from. he sounded great tonight.

i'm gonna hit the hay now. maybe do a little reading or something to calm my mind, which is racing with so many thoughts about practicing and improvising. i got a gym membership today and need to get up at a decent time tomorrow and make use of it. i'm looking forward to working out again. it's been too long and i miss it.


g'nite,
james

ahem

first, some musician jokes that i haven't heard before that i think are funny.

Q: how does a violists brain cell die?
A: alone

Q: how do you stop the spread of aids?
A: let BMG distribute it

Q: what do a viola and a lawsuit have in common?
A: everyone is relieved when the case is closed

and finally....

Q: how many trumpet players does it take to pave a driveway?
A: seven, if you lay them out correctly.

that was fun. i should start my blogs with jokes more often. now on to something relevant.

my first professional website went live today. www.fancypantsproductionsinc.com is now up and running. this is the first time i've developed a website for a client as a professional and i'm pretty proud of it. i'm pretty sure it's going to get some good exposure too, as dorney park's website is linked to it. i have a link on the bottom, crediting myself as the designer, and i'm hoping it will draw people to my site to hire me. that would be excellent.

hmm....what else. oh yeah, if you haven't seen my new facebook picture you should probably check it out. i laugh everytime i look at it. it combines my love for two very special people in one spectacular image.

on the horizon...gig for the luther midlefort employees party tomorrow night. then off to the cities on sunday for a rehearsal before leaving for new york city.

i got a haircut today and that's about it.

wuv,
james