so a couple days have passed since i received word of my full tuition scholarship to indiana and it still hasn't sunk in yet. the two days that have passed, however, have made me realize how fortunate i am to have such a supportive family of friends here in eau claire. the saying "it takes a village to raise a child" could not be truer in this case. when i came to eau claire, i was truly a musical child. i think i've grown to become a toddler now, thanks to my teachers and, just as importantly, my friends. the musicians i've grown up with here have had just as much impact on me as any lesson or any class i ever took. to think that you can go to school, take your classes and your lessons and shut yourself off to everyone and everything around you and conquer the world alone is foolish, to say the least. so, with that realization, i owe my family and friends a huge thank you for every little thing you've done for me.
the search for my trombone continues. i've exhausted every possibility to find that damn serial number. i'm such a fool for never having written it down. i assure you, however, that the sn for my bass is now written down in many different places, including my brain. that's right. i have it memorized. i'm actually looking into installing a tracking device on my bass. hmm.....a tracking device in the counterweight of a trombone...quick, i need the inventor's hotline number. ok, i'm a dork. you got me.
not much else to write about i guess. jazzfest is this weekend and i'm looking forward to the concerts very much. i visited the rehearsal last night and was really impressed with what i heard from the band and especially the guest artists. should be a fun weekend all around. good luck to all who are involved!
take care,
james
Friday, March 31, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
that's what i'm talkin' bout!!!
this is the kind of news i need to wake up to more often. read below.
Dear James:
Congratulations on your admission to the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music!
I am very pleased to inform you that in recognition of your successful audition and/or interview, the Jacobs School of Music has awarded you a music merit-based scholarship. We have sent this information to you via mail as well and you will receive it soon.
You are eligible for the following scholarship funding beginning in the 2006-2007 academic year:
Award renewal is dependent upon your meeting the requirements outlined in the financial aid policy which is in the mail with your letter.
For information about federal need-based financial aid, you may contact the Office of Student Financial Assistance at (812) 855-0321 or visit their website at www.indiana.edu/~sfa. The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) will notify you of your federal financial aid eligibility in June, 2006.
In order to remain eligible for scholarship from the School of Music, please sign and return your letter to the Office of Music Admissions by April 15, 2006. Congratulations and please accept our best wishes for a successful academic career.
Sincerely,
Anne Vaught, Director
Office of Music Admissions
it's gonna be a good day.
love,
james
Dear James:
Congratulations on your admission to the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music!
I am very pleased to inform you that in recognition of your successful audition and/or interview, the Jacobs School of Music has awarded you a music merit-based scholarship. We have sent this information to you via mail as well and you will receive it soon.
You are eligible for the following scholarship funding beginning in the 2006-2007 academic year:
Award renewal is dependent upon your meeting the requirements outlined in the financial aid policy which is in the mail with your letter.
For information about federal need-based financial aid, you may contact the Office of Student Financial Assistance at (812) 855-0321 or visit their website at www.indiana.edu/~sfa. The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) will notify you of your federal financial aid eligibility in June, 2006.
In order to remain eligible for scholarship from the School of Music, please sign and return your letter to the Office of Music Admissions by April 15, 2006. Congratulations and please accept our best wishes for a successful academic career.
Sincerely,
Anne Vaught, Director
Office of Music Admissions
it's gonna be a good day.
love,
james
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
things that cheer james up
1. sympathetic friends sending their condolences regarding my trombone
2. beer
3. delicous bread that colin's mom made for me (it's reallly good)
4. insurance
5. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10340.htm
6. listening to good music
7. quasi-acceptance from indiana
8. wearing my sandals for the first time this year
9. playing my bass trombone
10. making lists about things that cheer me up
ok, so thank you all for your sympathies regarding my instrument. i understand there's not much anyone can say to cheer me up, but just knowing you care and feel for me is much appreciated. so thank you.
today was basically spent making phone calls, sending e-mails, and rummaging through pawn shops in search of my trombone. not fun, but i had to do it. i didn't find it, but i can atleast eliminate a few places that it is not, which gives me some sense of coming closer to finding it, oddly enough. i received an e-mail from the person i bought it from and he gave me the phone number of the music store where it was originally purchased. i will go to bed tonight praying that this leads me closer to getting the serial number.
not much else to report. mr. baca asked me, today, to adjudicate for jazzfest. talk about short notice. i'm glad he asked, however, because it will be fun and i can use the little money that it pays. i'm now reminded of what mark lundin told me at the joynt the other night. he said that he was working on the program and it was the first time in 3 (or 4, i can't remember) years that he had to delete my name from the program. sad :-( i'm happy to know that it is being replaced by a worthy name, however.
so that's about it for now. i'm gonna find some food, turn on the tv, and fall asleep.
love,
james
2. beer
3. delicous bread that colin's mom made for me (it's reallly good)
4. insurance
5. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10340.htm
6. listening to good music
7. quasi-acceptance from indiana
8. wearing my sandals for the first time this year
9. playing my bass trombone
10. making lists about things that cheer me up
ok, so thank you all for your sympathies regarding my instrument. i understand there's not much anyone can say to cheer me up, but just knowing you care and feel for me is much appreciated. so thank you.
today was basically spent making phone calls, sending e-mails, and rummaging through pawn shops in search of my trombone. not fun, but i had to do it. i didn't find it, but i can atleast eliminate a few places that it is not, which gives me some sense of coming closer to finding it, oddly enough. i received an e-mail from the person i bought it from and he gave me the phone number of the music store where it was originally purchased. i will go to bed tonight praying that this leads me closer to getting the serial number.
not much else to report. mr. baca asked me, today, to adjudicate for jazzfest. talk about short notice. i'm glad he asked, however, because it will be fun and i can use the little money that it pays. i'm now reminded of what mark lundin told me at the joynt the other night. he said that he was working on the program and it was the first time in 3 (or 4, i can't remember) years that he had to delete my name from the program. sad :-( i'm happy to know that it is being replaced by a worthy name, however.
so that's about it for now. i'm gonna find some food, turn on the tv, and fall asleep.
love,
james
Monday, March 27, 2006
note to a thief
dear asshole,
you stole my trombone and i want it back. it was a bach 42bo, standard yellow brass with a rotor valve. put it back where you found it and never step foot into the music building again.
if you choose not to put it back, you will be sorry. maybe not now, but later, you will be sorry. the money you make from pawning it will not cover the hospital bill. it may cover the ambulance ride, depending on how far you will be from the hospital when you are beat down, but it probably won't cover the rest. i'm not a violent person. never thrown a punch in my life, actually. but, i've never had to either.
i will be looking in pawn shops, classified ads, music stores, grocery stores, treetops, mountain tops, underneath large rocks, and any place else you can possibly imagine. i'll be on ebay, and will be sending e-mails to every trombone player in the country. i have no job, and i'm not currently in school. so i have a lot of time on my hands. probably more than you.
trombone players don't steal trombones. you don't play trombone, but i suggest you start, because if you try to sell it, you will be found. you don't want to be caught holding an angry trombone player's horn. so start taking lessons, and enjoy my trombone. you will be caught.
sincerely,
james yardley
you stole my trombone and i want it back. it was a bach 42bo, standard yellow brass with a rotor valve. put it back where you found it and never step foot into the music building again.
if you choose not to put it back, you will be sorry. maybe not now, but later, you will be sorry. the money you make from pawning it will not cover the hospital bill. it may cover the ambulance ride, depending on how far you will be from the hospital when you are beat down, but it probably won't cover the rest. i'm not a violent person. never thrown a punch in my life, actually. but, i've never had to either.
i will be looking in pawn shops, classified ads, music stores, grocery stores, treetops, mountain tops, underneath large rocks, and any place else you can possibly imagine. i'll be on ebay, and will be sending e-mails to every trombone player in the country. i have no job, and i'm not currently in school. so i have a lot of time on my hands. probably more than you.
trombone players don't steal trombones. you don't play trombone, but i suggest you start, because if you try to sell it, you will be found. you don't want to be caught holding an angry trombone player's horn. so start taking lessons, and enjoy my trombone. you will be caught.
sincerely,
james yardley
Friday, March 24, 2006
the things james wants
ok, just got back from the joynt. maybe a little drunk. but i deserve it. here's the list of things i'd like before i die.
1. an acceptance letter from a grad school
2. a little bit of money to pay my bills
3. a really sweet dog
4. a pretty girl to hold my hand
yeah...that's about it. call me a simpleton. i don't care.
grad school auditions are over, so when i sober up, i'll maybe write about it all tomorrow. till then, g'nite.
love,
james
1. an acceptance letter from a grad school
2. a little bit of money to pay my bills
3. a really sweet dog
4. a pretty girl to hold my hand
yeah...that's about it. call me a simpleton. i don't care.
grad school auditions are over, so when i sober up, i'll maybe write about it all tomorrow. till then, g'nite.
love,
james
Sunday, March 19, 2006
holy cow
so i just finished up a big project and need to unwind the ol' brain a little.
andy neesley called me a few days ago and asked me to code a web site for new york artist jerry kearns. andy had done a basic job and needed me to do my thing with it. i agreed, but when i looked at the files, i wished i hadn't. all the pages were basically done with ms word html and it was all f*ed up. so, i poured a many hours cutting, pastings, deleting, etc. just to get it to function properly in any browser other than internet explorer (ie sucks by the way, download mozilla firefox). i couldn't fix EVERYTHING, but the average person to view her site won't know the difference. i just hate doing work that is below what i'm capable of.
if you're curious about the site, you can visit www.jerrykearns.com. remember, i didn't do the design, just the code (for example, getting larger images to pop up in new windows, etc.). her art is pretty neat i think.
other than that, not much else is new. i'm making some barbecue chicken in the crock pot and when it's done i'm going to cook some of my dad's canned corn and make some baby red new potatoes and feast like a king. yakob just sent me a message and i think i'm gonna go to the house and hang with him and erin k. for a while around 10ish.
thanks for readin'
love,
j
andy neesley called me a few days ago and asked me to code a web site for new york artist jerry kearns. andy had done a basic job and needed me to do my thing with it. i agreed, but when i looked at the files, i wished i hadn't. all the pages were basically done with ms word html and it was all f*ed up. so, i poured a many hours cutting, pastings, deleting, etc. just to get it to function properly in any browser other than internet explorer (ie sucks by the way, download mozilla firefox). i couldn't fix EVERYTHING, but the average person to view her site won't know the difference. i just hate doing work that is below what i'm capable of.
if you're curious about the site, you can visit www.jerrykearns.com. remember, i didn't do the design, just the code (for example, getting larger images to pop up in new windows, etc.). her art is pretty neat i think.
other than that, not much else is new. i'm making some barbecue chicken in the crock pot and when it's done i'm going to cook some of my dad's canned corn and make some baby red new potatoes and feast like a king. yakob just sent me a message and i think i'm gonna go to the house and hang with him and erin k. for a while around 10ish.
thanks for readin'
love,
j
Friday, March 17, 2006
i found my tire wrench!
so i was changing my tire last night (because i still had that tiny little donut spare on from our mishap on monday) and i discovered where my change wrench was hiding. i had it the whole time. it was underneath the cover for the holding well that holds the spare and the jack and everything. ok...so...imagine you have a jar of peanut butter and there's label that says "free spoon inside." where would they put the spoon? they wouldn't put it inside the peanut butter because that'd just be a big mess. they'd attach it underneath the lid. so yeah, that's where my tire wrench was. i'm smart. laugh it up because i still blame randy for the whole thing.
last night had to be one of the funnest nights of the whole year. at about 7:30, colin, randall, justin, becker, rachel, dunphy, and i journied (sp?) out to the ostrander residence for some winter time fun. we showed up with trays from the caf, a large shovel, and some hot chocolate. when we got there, becker and i began work on an igloo, while colin and the rest started sledding down the front yard (their house is built right into the side of a hill) on the trays. the ostranders were completely oblivious to what was happening outside their home until we started taking pictures. when dr. ostrander saw the flash, he opened up his back patio door and threatened to send a dog out after us. which was immediately funny to me because i knew they didn't have a dog. but then i later realized that doc pao had told me that he was dog sitting for a friend and he actually did have a dog inside. eventually they came out and, while mrs. ostrander took the dog for a walk, an all out snowball fight broke out. pao was wearing a hockey helmet and using his hockey stick to defend against our snowballs. then it turned into a bass trombone versus tenor trombone battle, which then turned into colin and james versus the world. after the snowball fight becker and i finished out igloo and started sledding in the front yard. colin and i figured out how to go tandem using the shovel and a tray. eventually they invited inside and we made the hot chocolate that we brought with us. we left around 10. i went to the joynt about 40 minutes later and there was pao and mrs. pao sitting at the bar. we actually convinced them to come down after attacking their home.
we may not be the smartest, the best looking, or even the most talented studio, but we definitely have the most fun with our teacher.
so today is st. patty's day. not sure what kind of trouble is going on tonight but i have some web work to do for andy that he needs to be done by tonight or tomorrow. hopefully it won't interfere with hanging out because i think josh hertel is in town.
well, that's all i've got.
love,
james
last night had to be one of the funnest nights of the whole year. at about 7:30, colin, randall, justin, becker, rachel, dunphy, and i journied (sp?) out to the ostrander residence for some winter time fun. we showed up with trays from the caf, a large shovel, and some hot chocolate. when we got there, becker and i began work on an igloo, while colin and the rest started sledding down the front yard (their house is built right into the side of a hill) on the trays. the ostranders were completely oblivious to what was happening outside their home until we started taking pictures. when dr. ostrander saw the flash, he opened up his back patio door and threatened to send a dog out after us. which was immediately funny to me because i knew they didn't have a dog. but then i later realized that doc pao had told me that he was dog sitting for a friend and he actually did have a dog inside. eventually they came out and, while mrs. ostrander took the dog for a walk, an all out snowball fight broke out. pao was wearing a hockey helmet and using his hockey stick to defend against our snowballs. then it turned into a bass trombone versus tenor trombone battle, which then turned into colin and james versus the world. after the snowball fight becker and i finished out igloo and started sledding in the front yard. colin and i figured out how to go tandem using the shovel and a tray. eventually they invited inside and we made the hot chocolate that we brought with us. we left around 10. i went to the joynt about 40 minutes later and there was pao and mrs. pao sitting at the bar. we actually convinced them to come down after attacking their home.
we may not be the smartest, the best looking, or even the most talented studio, but we definitely have the most fun with our teacher.
so today is st. patty's day. not sure what kind of trouble is going on tonight but i have some web work to do for andy that he needs to be done by tonight or tomorrow. hopefully it won't interfere with hanging out because i think josh hertel is in town.
well, that's all i've got.
love,
james
Thursday, March 16, 2006
need a pick me up?
came across a video today that should be shared. it's not funny. it's not sad. it's not political. just a good story that makes ya feel good.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/motion/echo/index?id=2346970&category=Page%202
enjoy.
love,
james
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/motion/echo/index?id=2346970&category=Page%202
enjoy.
love,
james
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
i love music
as music majors, i think we all go through a period of time (or most likely more than one period of time) when we question if we should really pursue music as a career. or maybe i'm the only one...
anyways, i'm listening to some music right now and feeling pretty damn good. i can't tell you what i'm listening to because some of you may disown me and pretend like you never met me before in your life. i love you all too much to allow that to happen. so i'll just say that i was searching through the depths of my hard drive and found some stuff i downloaded from napster, back in the day, you know, when napster was the shit. it brings back so many memories that i didn't even know i had. i can't think of many other things that can conjure up so many vivid memories for me. imagery like pictures and video doesn't do it for me like music does. neither does the written word. something about music and sound does it though.
i've been counting my blessings lately, and music is definitely up there on the list. some of the happiest and saddest moments of my life have been influenced by music and right now i'm feeling pretty thankful for it all.
guess i just felt like writing that down.
today was a good day. i played tenor trombone in a quartet with becker, randall, and dr. ostrander for south middle school kids at 9am this morning. i spent some much needed quality time with a friend. i got my tire fixed (still have to put it on though. that'll be tomorrow's project). i shoveled lots of snow. and finally, i got some good trombone playing in.
that's about it.
love,
james
anyways, i'm listening to some music right now and feeling pretty damn good. i can't tell you what i'm listening to because some of you may disown me and pretend like you never met me before in your life. i love you all too much to allow that to happen. so i'll just say that i was searching through the depths of my hard drive and found some stuff i downloaded from napster, back in the day, you know, when napster was the shit. it brings back so many memories that i didn't even know i had. i can't think of many other things that can conjure up so many vivid memories for me. imagery like pictures and video doesn't do it for me like music does. neither does the written word. something about music and sound does it though.
i've been counting my blessings lately, and music is definitely up there on the list. some of the happiest and saddest moments of my life have been influenced by music and right now i'm feeling pretty thankful for it all.
guess i just felt like writing that down.
today was a good day. i played tenor trombone in a quartet with becker, randall, and dr. ostrander for south middle school kids at 9am this morning. i spent some much needed quality time with a friend. i got my tire fixed (still have to put it on though. that'll be tomorrow's project). i shoveled lots of snow. and finally, i got some good trombone playing in.
that's about it.
love,
james
Monday, March 13, 2006
a quick story
okay okay...i know i posted once already today...but...this story can't go undocumented.
after studio class today colin, becker, randall, and i decide to go get some food. arby's is chosen..to my disappointment. so colin is going to drive but realizes he left something in the building and goes back to get it. i decide that i'll drive instead so we don't have to wait for colin.
we get to arby's and wait too long for our over priced food while listening to the gangster rap playing in their kitchen. the guy working the register has an extreme lisp and colin and company are giggling behind me as i'm the first to order.
we get our food and the lisp guy comes to our table to ask us if the music is bothering us, while colin is talking about him... smooth one.
after eating we get in my car and drive away. i drive about half a block and notice that something is wrong with my car. i think i have a flat. i say something aloud shortly after that i think something is wrong and randall says "oh yeah, i totally forgot to tell you, when we got out of your car at arby's i heard a hissing sound and thought it might be your tire." thanks randall.
so i pull into the quality inn parking lot right next to shopko and begin taking all of the spare tire stuff out of my trunk. when everything is out i notice that i don't have a tire wrench. crap. then becker flashes his aaa card and we call them. it's freezing out so we get back in my car with the heat on and hang out. randall decides he's going to walk back to campus. thanks for ditching us jerk. then becker notices he has a missed call but doesn't know who it's from. it's the towing company calling to tell us that there's a guy at our car but we're not there. hmmm....i definitely didn't see a tow truck anywhere. becker calls them back and reminds them we're at the quality inn on clairemont ave. they sent their driver to the wrong place.....but we told them we were in a blue buick regal...so why would he have thought it was us??? weird. he shows up and informs us that he went to the excel inn, found a blue buick regal, took the back right tire off of it, and was looking for us. whoops. so he changed my tire, and we were on our way.
the end.
lessons of the story:
1. don't go to arby's because their parking is full of pointy things and they play ghetto music.
2. if traveling with randall, be sure to ask him if he has heard any weird sounds coming from your car before driving away
3. be nice to tow truck drivers because they go out in the cold and change tires for the unfortunate traveler who doesn't have a tire wrench.
okay, i'm going to the stones throw now. see ya later.
james
after studio class today colin, becker, randall, and i decide to go get some food. arby's is chosen..to my disappointment. so colin is going to drive but realizes he left something in the building and goes back to get it. i decide that i'll drive instead so we don't have to wait for colin.
we get to arby's and wait too long for our over priced food while listening to the gangster rap playing in their kitchen. the guy working the register has an extreme lisp and colin and company are giggling behind me as i'm the first to order.
we get our food and the lisp guy comes to our table to ask us if the music is bothering us, while colin is talking about him... smooth one.
after eating we get in my car and drive away. i drive about half a block and notice that something is wrong with my car. i think i have a flat. i say something aloud shortly after that i think something is wrong and randall says "oh yeah, i totally forgot to tell you, when we got out of your car at arby's i heard a hissing sound and thought it might be your tire." thanks randall.
so i pull into the quality inn parking lot right next to shopko and begin taking all of the spare tire stuff out of my trunk. when everything is out i notice that i don't have a tire wrench. crap. then becker flashes his aaa card and we call them. it's freezing out so we get back in my car with the heat on and hang out. randall decides he's going to walk back to campus. thanks for ditching us jerk. then becker notices he has a missed call but doesn't know who it's from. it's the towing company calling to tell us that there's a guy at our car but we're not there. hmmm....i definitely didn't see a tow truck anywhere. becker calls them back and reminds them we're at the quality inn on clairemont ave. they sent their driver to the wrong place.....but we told them we were in a blue buick regal...so why would he have thought it was us??? weird. he shows up and informs us that he went to the excel inn, found a blue buick regal, took the back right tire off of it, and was looking for us. whoops. so he changed my tire, and we were on our way.
the end.
lessons of the story:
1. don't go to arby's because their parking is full of pointy things and they play ghetto music.
2. if traveling with randall, be sure to ask him if he has heard any weird sounds coming from your car before driving away
3. be nice to tow truck drivers because they go out in the cold and change tires for the unfortunate traveler who doesn't have a tire wrench.
okay, i'm going to the stones throw now. see ya later.
james
a good weekend
so the weekend was pretty good all in all.
friday was cool. played routine with becker and hung out. colin and i setup the stage for the chip valley concert around 5:30, then we went to acoustic for food. dress rehearsal for chip valley after that, then to the house to make chicken with becker and colin.
the chicken was amazing. i think those chickens must have been sent from heaven or something because they're little legs tasted like amazingness. after we got done eating our chicken, colin and i, and a couple of other people from the house went down the block to the hastings house for a special viewing of conan. conan had spent a week in finland because he looks like their female president and the friday night showing was an hour long chronicle of his time there.
after conan we went back to the house and the party had pretty much died. by 12:30? lame! i walked home and went to sleepy sleep.
saturday was mostly spent cleaning my apartment. i was really happy to get that done and my place has returned to sweetness. i went to the state a little early and got a good warm up in on my tenor, in the hopes that it would be a little nicer to me than it was on friday. it worked, i think, because i made it through that damn wedding march without completely embarrassing myself. cavis pointed out that my part is higher than his part for the entire piece. note to mendehlsohn: don't friggen write trombone parts that are consistently higher than the trumpet parts moron! just kidding mendy. it was good for me. i won't go into detail about what i thought about the rest of the performance because ya just never know who reads these things.
after the concert we went down to the acoustic to hear john raymond's group. they sounded good and they had a huge audience, which was cool to see. i hung till the end just so i could hear them play kenny garret's "happy people." i love that tune.
so i went home, changed out of my tux, put some normal clothes on, and went to the joynt. we played darts pretty much all night and it was cool. the uncool part is that i broke down and started drinking again. dammit. colin was drunk and made some comment, while we were kicking his ass in darts, about how i was sober so ofcourse we would be beating him. little did he know that my dart game actually improves if i have a few in me. his taunting wasn't the real reason i went and got that glass from the bar though. the real reason is that my stress level was higher than i wanted it to be and i just needed to relax for a night and let go of my inhibitions. and let go i did. i had a lot of beer in two hours time and it felt great. now would probably be a good time to publicly thank mcginnis, lydon, and ben for taking care of my sorry ass that night. nuff said about that.
sunday:
practice, wind symphony concert, practice, dinner with mark, chill, then dooley's with evan and mark. in typical fashion evan came over 45 minutes later than he had told me. i wuv that little guy. we played darts and i didn't drink. we basically had the whole place to ourselves which was cool because it wasn't so loud that we couldn't talk. one of the bartender's was playing really crappy music, but i laughed about it more than i got upset. however, the hanson brothters "mmmbop" was pushing that tolerance level.
so here it is, monday morning and i'm pretty excited about all the snow that is falling. we basically had no winter here so this is cool. i don't care what you think, snow is a beautiful thing.
today will be spent mostly practicing with a trip to the gym thrown in there somewhere. thanks for reading.
oh yeah, and i finally figured out how to put links to my friends' blogs on the right hand side. if you'd like to be added or removed, please let me know. i just put the ones i could think of off the top of my head over there and may have forgotten a few. i love you all so don't let me leave you out.
love,
james
friday was cool. played routine with becker and hung out. colin and i setup the stage for the chip valley concert around 5:30, then we went to acoustic for food. dress rehearsal for chip valley after that, then to the house to make chicken with becker and colin.
the chicken was amazing. i think those chickens must have been sent from heaven or something because they're little legs tasted like amazingness. after we got done eating our chicken, colin and i, and a couple of other people from the house went down the block to the hastings house for a special viewing of conan. conan had spent a week in finland because he looks like their female president and the friday night showing was an hour long chronicle of his time there.
after conan we went back to the house and the party had pretty much died. by 12:30? lame! i walked home and went to sleepy sleep.
saturday was mostly spent cleaning my apartment. i was really happy to get that done and my place has returned to sweetness. i went to the state a little early and got a good warm up in on my tenor, in the hopes that it would be a little nicer to me than it was on friday. it worked, i think, because i made it through that damn wedding march without completely embarrassing myself. cavis pointed out that my part is higher than his part for the entire piece. note to mendehlsohn: don't friggen write trombone parts that are consistently higher than the trumpet parts moron! just kidding mendy. it was good for me. i won't go into detail about what i thought about the rest of the performance because ya just never know who reads these things.
after the concert we went down to the acoustic to hear john raymond's group. they sounded good and they had a huge audience, which was cool to see. i hung till the end just so i could hear them play kenny garret's "happy people." i love that tune.
so i went home, changed out of my tux, put some normal clothes on, and went to the joynt. we played darts pretty much all night and it was cool. the uncool part is that i broke down and started drinking again. dammit. colin was drunk and made some comment, while we were kicking his ass in darts, about how i was sober so ofcourse we would be beating him. little did he know that my dart game actually improves if i have a few in me. his taunting wasn't the real reason i went and got that glass from the bar though. the real reason is that my stress level was higher than i wanted it to be and i just needed to relax for a night and let go of my inhibitions. and let go i did. i had a lot of beer in two hours time and it felt great. now would probably be a good time to publicly thank mcginnis, lydon, and ben for taking care of my sorry ass that night. nuff said about that.
sunday:
practice, wind symphony concert, practice, dinner with mark, chill, then dooley's with evan and mark. in typical fashion evan came over 45 minutes later than he had told me. i wuv that little guy. we played darts and i didn't drink. we basically had the whole place to ourselves which was cool because it wasn't so loud that we couldn't talk. one of the bartender's was playing really crappy music, but i laughed about it more than i got upset. however, the hanson brothters "mmmbop" was pushing that tolerance level.
so here it is, monday morning and i'm pretty excited about all the snow that is falling. we basically had no winter here so this is cool. i don't care what you think, snow is a beautiful thing.
today will be spent mostly practicing with a trip to the gym thrown in there somewhere. thanks for reading.
oh yeah, and i finally figured out how to put links to my friends' blogs on the right hand side. if you'd like to be added or removed, please let me know. i just put the ones i could think of off the top of my head over there and may have forgotten a few. i love you all so don't let me leave you out.
love,
james
Sunday, March 12, 2006
journey to manhattan, part II
well, as promised here is installment number 2 of my trip to the MSM audition in NYC (don't ya love acronyms?).
Sunday
i woke up at about 7:30a and popped right out of bed...or should i say, andy's couch. i had used my north face jacket as a blanket and slept with no pillow. colin was on the hardwood floor with a blanket, using one of the couch cushions as a pillow. despite going to bed at 2:30a, being woken up by colin's phone ringing at 4a, sleeping on a couch with no pillow or blanket, i felt surprisingly awake at 7:30. i'm pretty sure it was the adrenaline of being 3 hours away from my audition. anyways, i took a shower, put on my suit, woke colin up, waited for his slow ass to get ready, and we hit the subway.
the manhattan school is on 122nd and claremont so we knew that we'd be getting off at the 125th st exit. having parked my car in front of the school last summer on a trip to the city, i had an idea of landmarks to expect when we got out of the subway. i didn't see those landmarks and began to wonder where the crap we were. so, we walked to 122nd and turned in the direction i thought we should. after a block i realized it wasn't the right way and we turned around and went the other direction. after a couple of blocks we came to a T intersection....which was no good because we hadn't run into our cross street yet. so we went down to 123, and then continued in the same direction. finally we recognized where we were and found the school. phew.
with an hour before my audition, i went to the practice rooms only to find that they were full. all 3 floors of them. with about 45 minutes to go, i found one and began warming up. luckily the auditions were running behind and i was able to feel warmed up before i went in. right before my audition colin came up and sat down next to me. he gave me his headphones and said "here, listen to this, it'll relax you." we were probably the only two that dared to listen to jimmy smith before going into our classical trombone auditions at the manhattan school of music. it worked though, because i felt a little more relaxed.
the audition went well. the panel was steve norell (bass bone of the met. opera), dave finalayson (2nd in the ny phil) and a tuba player whose name i can't remember right now. i played a solid audition. i didn't receive much indication of what they thought of my playing. just a couple "nice job" and "sounds good" type comments. i've figured out, after taking a number of auditions, that that's about all you'll ever hear from the panel. they just have so many people to listen to and are constantly surrounded by good musicians that you're just never going to wow them. even if you did, though, i'm sure they wouldn't say much to you immediately after you're done. which is fine. i can wait for the letter.
after colin finished his audition we went back to andy's place, changed out of our suits, and hit the town. first we grabbed some pizza at a place just a few blocks down from andy's. then we got on the subway and went down to soho to visit the apple store. colin hadn't seen it and soho is a pretty cool place. it was gorgeous outside too, so we bummed around down there for a while.
next we went up to rockafeller plaza because colin wanted to revisit the sharper image store. when we got there we went up to the ice rink and watched all the skaters. there was one guy that instantly grabbed our attention. he was wearing his iPod and skating around doing all these crazy awkward moves, inspired by whatever crap he was listening to, i'm sure. at first i kinda chuckled, then i lost it and was laughing so hard i almost started to cry. he was doing this move where after almost running into another skater, he would skate backwards on one leg while thrashing is other leg back and forth in the air, then turn around and do this thing with his shoulders. then....a girl fell down next to him and he was instantly transformed into romeo. the problem was that juliet was interested at all and he didn't catch the hint. he kept putting his hand out for her to hold and i can't imagine how awkward the conversation must have been. colin and i began talking as if we were them. you can only imagine some of things we said. all and all, we laughed for a good half hour which is exactly what we needed after the traveling and auditioning. release is a good thing.
next we went to the sharper image store and sat in their massaging chairs for a while. as i was sitting there i witnessed an all out religous debate that again had me in stitches. there were two couples, probably average age of 40 or so, who, from what i could gather, didn't know each other. one couple was looking at a gps system as the other couple walked by. one of the guys kinda looked over at the other guy and said something like "aren't these things incredible." the other guy kind of acknowledged and said something about how times have changed, or something to that effect. from there, and i have no idea how they got to this, they began arguing about jesus while i sat there in the reclined massaging chair, trying to hold my laughter in. after about 15 minutes i couldn't take it any more and we left. the last thing i remember hearing was one lady saying "do you think life is easy? because i sure don't." yeah, maybe that's because you spend your time in sharper image stores arguing about the bible with random people...gotta love the colorful people of new york city!
after that we met up with andy and got burritos at this really good mexican place. they were huge and i barely finished half of mine. colin, of course, demolished his. i love that guy. after dinner we watched a movie called "16 blocks" at a nearby theatre. it was pretty good. maybe not $10.50 good, but it was still nice to relax in a comfy chair and be mildly entertained for a couple hours. after the movie we went back to andy's and crashed. we were completely exhausted.
to be continued...
Sunday
i woke up at about 7:30a and popped right out of bed...or should i say, andy's couch. i had used my north face jacket as a blanket and slept with no pillow. colin was on the hardwood floor with a blanket, using one of the couch cushions as a pillow. despite going to bed at 2:30a, being woken up by colin's phone ringing at 4a, sleeping on a couch with no pillow or blanket, i felt surprisingly awake at 7:30. i'm pretty sure it was the adrenaline of being 3 hours away from my audition. anyways, i took a shower, put on my suit, woke colin up, waited for his slow ass to get ready, and we hit the subway.
the manhattan school is on 122nd and claremont so we knew that we'd be getting off at the 125th st exit. having parked my car in front of the school last summer on a trip to the city, i had an idea of landmarks to expect when we got out of the subway. i didn't see those landmarks and began to wonder where the crap we were. so, we walked to 122nd and turned in the direction i thought we should. after a block i realized it wasn't the right way and we turned around and went the other direction. after a couple of blocks we came to a T intersection....which was no good because we hadn't run into our cross street yet. so we went down to 123, and then continued in the same direction. finally we recognized where we were and found the school. phew.
with an hour before my audition, i went to the practice rooms only to find that they were full. all 3 floors of them. with about 45 minutes to go, i found one and began warming up. luckily the auditions were running behind and i was able to feel warmed up before i went in. right before my audition colin came up and sat down next to me. he gave me his headphones and said "here, listen to this, it'll relax you." we were probably the only two that dared to listen to jimmy smith before going into our classical trombone auditions at the manhattan school of music. it worked though, because i felt a little more relaxed.
the audition went well. the panel was steve norell (bass bone of the met. opera), dave finalayson (2nd in the ny phil) and a tuba player whose name i can't remember right now. i played a solid audition. i didn't receive much indication of what they thought of my playing. just a couple "nice job" and "sounds good" type comments. i've figured out, after taking a number of auditions, that that's about all you'll ever hear from the panel. they just have so many people to listen to and are constantly surrounded by good musicians that you're just never going to wow them. even if you did, though, i'm sure they wouldn't say much to you immediately after you're done. which is fine. i can wait for the letter.
after colin finished his audition we went back to andy's place, changed out of our suits, and hit the town. first we grabbed some pizza at a place just a few blocks down from andy's. then we got on the subway and went down to soho to visit the apple store. colin hadn't seen it and soho is a pretty cool place. it was gorgeous outside too, so we bummed around down there for a while.
next we went up to rockafeller plaza because colin wanted to revisit the sharper image store. when we got there we went up to the ice rink and watched all the skaters. there was one guy that instantly grabbed our attention. he was wearing his iPod and skating around doing all these crazy awkward moves, inspired by whatever crap he was listening to, i'm sure. at first i kinda chuckled, then i lost it and was laughing so hard i almost started to cry. he was doing this move where after almost running into another skater, he would skate backwards on one leg while thrashing is other leg back and forth in the air, then turn around and do this thing with his shoulders. then....a girl fell down next to him and he was instantly transformed into romeo. the problem was that juliet was interested at all and he didn't catch the hint. he kept putting his hand out for her to hold and i can't imagine how awkward the conversation must have been. colin and i began talking as if we were them. you can only imagine some of things we said. all and all, we laughed for a good half hour which is exactly what we needed after the traveling and auditioning. release is a good thing.
next we went to the sharper image store and sat in their massaging chairs for a while. as i was sitting there i witnessed an all out religous debate that again had me in stitches. there were two couples, probably average age of 40 or so, who, from what i could gather, didn't know each other. one couple was looking at a gps system as the other couple walked by. one of the guys kinda looked over at the other guy and said something like "aren't these things incredible." the other guy kind of acknowledged and said something about how times have changed, or something to that effect. from there, and i have no idea how they got to this, they began arguing about jesus while i sat there in the reclined massaging chair, trying to hold my laughter in. after about 15 minutes i couldn't take it any more and we left. the last thing i remember hearing was one lady saying "do you think life is easy? because i sure don't." yeah, maybe that's because you spend your time in sharper image stores arguing about the bible with random people...gotta love the colorful people of new york city!
after that we met up with andy and got burritos at this really good mexican place. they were huge and i barely finished half of mine. colin, of course, demolished his. i love that guy. after dinner we watched a movie called "16 blocks" at a nearby theatre. it was pretty good. maybe not $10.50 good, but it was still nice to relax in a comfy chair and be mildly entertained for a couple hours. after the movie we went back to andy's and crashed. we were completely exhausted.
to be continued...
Friday, March 10, 2006
post no. 27
well, this isn't a continuation of my journey to the manhattan school, but i need to write about some current happenings before i continue the rest of that chronicle.
we had chip valley rehearsal tonight. it sucked. tenor trombone wasn't nice to me. tomorrow will be better, i'm sure. becker made us laugh, which i definitely needed (and desperately need right now). he basically just made an entrance in the wrong place, but the visual exchange between him and nobu was funny enough for colin and i to crack up and begin our spatula choreography. then we continued laughing and couldn't play. it was great.
after the rehearsal we went to the house and made chicken. it was friggen delicious. and it was done just in time for us to eat it and run to the hastings house to watch the special conan o'brian episode of him in finland. i don't watch much tv these days, but it was fantastic to watch conan with a bunch of cool guys.
the drinking sabbatical continues and it is getting harder by the day. why did i decide to do this again? oh yeah, i want to get the crap out of here.
actually, i don't really WANT to leave eau claire. i like it here. i love my friends and i'm going to miss them sooooo much. but, i do need to move on i guess... i just wish moving on involved staying here with my friends.
so, anyways, i just had a good walk home from the house. it is absolutely gorgeous outside. the stars were out, the moon was bright, and it was warm and smelled of spring. settings like that always get me thinking, which is exactly why i chose to walk home instead of getting a ride from my dear friend colin. i needed to do some good old fashioned thinking. i'll be mysterious and keep my thoughts off this blog because it's not the most appropriate place for me to share what i had to think about. it involves people, places, and things. just like on the wheel of fortune. and isn't the wheel of fortune just one big metaphor for life? i mean, you have a pretty woman (vanna white), a buddy who helps you out(pat sajak...he tries), money problems, and random successes and losses. sounds like life to me.
gosh, i think it's bed time now. my random thought meter is telling me to quit writing now. did i mention that i haven't had a drink in a while?
with much love,
james
we had chip valley rehearsal tonight. it sucked. tenor trombone wasn't nice to me. tomorrow will be better, i'm sure. becker made us laugh, which i definitely needed (and desperately need right now). he basically just made an entrance in the wrong place, but the visual exchange between him and nobu was funny enough for colin and i to crack up and begin our spatula choreography. then we continued laughing and couldn't play. it was great.
after the rehearsal we went to the house and made chicken. it was friggen delicious. and it was done just in time for us to eat it and run to the hastings house to watch the special conan o'brian episode of him in finland. i don't watch much tv these days, but it was fantastic to watch conan with a bunch of cool guys.
the drinking sabbatical continues and it is getting harder by the day. why did i decide to do this again? oh yeah, i want to get the crap out of here.
actually, i don't really WANT to leave eau claire. i like it here. i love my friends and i'm going to miss them sooooo much. but, i do need to move on i guess... i just wish moving on involved staying here with my friends.
so, anyways, i just had a good walk home from the house. it is absolutely gorgeous outside. the stars were out, the moon was bright, and it was warm and smelled of spring. settings like that always get me thinking, which is exactly why i chose to walk home instead of getting a ride from my dear friend colin. i needed to do some good old fashioned thinking. i'll be mysterious and keep my thoughts off this blog because it's not the most appropriate place for me to share what i had to think about. it involves people, places, and things. just like on the wheel of fortune. and isn't the wheel of fortune just one big metaphor for life? i mean, you have a pretty woman (vanna white), a buddy who helps you out(pat sajak...he tries), money problems, and random successes and losses. sounds like life to me.
gosh, i think it's bed time now. my random thought meter is telling me to quit writing now. did i mention that i haven't had a drink in a while?
with much love,
james
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
my journey to the manhattan audition, part I
last night i returned from nyc where i was auditioning for the manhattan school of music. today, i will start to document my trip. while it's tempting to tell about the most recent happenings, i'm going to start from saturday morning and work to the present
so here goes...
Saturday
colin picks me up, about 20 minutes later than we planned, at 10:20a and we drive to the msp airport. we were going to make a stop for lunch at chipolte, but decided we were cutting it close enough and skipped out on burrito heavenness.
we parked off-site and took a shuttle to the aiport. when we got to the airport we navigated our way (it was complicated...) to the northwest airlines (who i will now refer to as nwa) counter. after entering all of my information into the automatic check in computer thing, it told me i needed to speak with a nwa representative behind the counter. i waited patiently and was eventually informed that our flight had been cancelled. our fully booked flight was cancelled? really? the dude tells us that we can take different flights and get there about an hour after we were scheduled. however, we can't be on the same flights because there's only one seat left on each flight. one of us has to fly to boston and make a connection and one has to fly to toronto and make a connection. so they book me to fly to boston and colin to toronto.
so we go through security...
colin gets through just fine. james' bags go through and the lady working the x-ray screams bagcheck as if the bomb i planted in my backpack was about to explode in 10 seconds. another lady comes to her aid, takes me backpack and asks me "is this yours" in an accusatory tone. i politely say "yes it is" and i follow her to the table where she proceeds to take out everything i had just carefully packed. after going through everything (i know it's her job, and i'm not mad about that) she says to me "there are lighters in here, where are they?" hmm...i don't smoke so i'd like to know where they are too... i tell her i have no idea, and she continues to look as if she didn't even hear what i had just said. she frustratingly gives up and decides that she's going to send everything i have in my backpack through the x-ray individually. after doing so she comes back, gives me all my stuff in a bin and says "you're good to go." i ask "did you find them?" she says, "no, you're good to go." i quickly re-pack my stuff, and hurry to my gate with 10 minutes to spare.
phew.
my flight left as scheduled and i got to boston in time to make my connection to nyc.
when the plane touched down i turned my phone on and listened to a voicemail colin had left me. his plan had made an emergency landing in detroit and it looked as though he was going to miss his connection in toronto. i'll spare the details of this whole thing because i believe colin is going to write about it in the next couple of days but basically, it involves him going through canadian and then us customs with no passport or birth certificate and eventually landing at la guardia around 11p where he then tries to board a bus to get him to the subway without a metro card and eventually ends up fronting a $30 cab fee. his rendition is more detailed and comical.
to sum up the travel, we paid nwa $267 for a non-stop flight from msp to jfk that left at 12:55 and arrived in nyc around 4. what we got was two seperate connecting flights that didn't get us to our destination until 11p.
no worries. we got there. however tired...and annoyed...we got there.
we got some chinese food and went to bed at about 2:30a.
to be continued...
james
so here goes...
Saturday
colin picks me up, about 20 minutes later than we planned, at 10:20a and we drive to the msp airport. we were going to make a stop for lunch at chipolte, but decided we were cutting it close enough and skipped out on burrito heavenness.
we parked off-site and took a shuttle to the aiport. when we got to the airport we navigated our way (it was complicated...) to the northwest airlines (who i will now refer to as nwa) counter. after entering all of my information into the automatic check in computer thing, it told me i needed to speak with a nwa representative behind the counter. i waited patiently and was eventually informed that our flight had been cancelled. our fully booked flight was cancelled? really? the dude tells us that we can take different flights and get there about an hour after we were scheduled. however, we can't be on the same flights because there's only one seat left on each flight. one of us has to fly to boston and make a connection and one has to fly to toronto and make a connection. so they book me to fly to boston and colin to toronto.
so we go through security...
colin gets through just fine. james' bags go through and the lady working the x-ray screams bagcheck as if the bomb i planted in my backpack was about to explode in 10 seconds. another lady comes to her aid, takes me backpack and asks me "is this yours" in an accusatory tone. i politely say "yes it is" and i follow her to the table where she proceeds to take out everything i had just carefully packed. after going through everything (i know it's her job, and i'm not mad about that) she says to me "there are lighters in here, where are they?" hmm...i don't smoke so i'd like to know where they are too... i tell her i have no idea, and she continues to look as if she didn't even hear what i had just said. she frustratingly gives up and decides that she's going to send everything i have in my backpack through the x-ray individually. after doing so she comes back, gives me all my stuff in a bin and says "you're good to go." i ask "did you find them?" she says, "no, you're good to go." i quickly re-pack my stuff, and hurry to my gate with 10 minutes to spare.
phew.
my flight left as scheduled and i got to boston in time to make my connection to nyc.
when the plane touched down i turned my phone on and listened to a voicemail colin had left me. his plan had made an emergency landing in detroit and it looked as though he was going to miss his connection in toronto. i'll spare the details of this whole thing because i believe colin is going to write about it in the next couple of days but basically, it involves him going through canadian and then us customs with no passport or birth certificate and eventually landing at la guardia around 11p where he then tries to board a bus to get him to the subway without a metro card and eventually ends up fronting a $30 cab fee. his rendition is more detailed and comical.
to sum up the travel, we paid nwa $267 for a non-stop flight from msp to jfk that left at 12:55 and arrived in nyc around 4. what we got was two seperate connecting flights that didn't get us to our destination until 11p.
no worries. we got there. however tired...and annoyed...we got there.
we got some chinese food and went to bed at about 2:30a.
to be continued...
james
Thursday, March 02, 2006
when to say no more
well, against my better judgement, i'm going to write at an hour when i'm probably not thinking as clearly as i should be.
just got back from the joynt. my drinking sabbatical is still going strong. tonight i had a sprite and a water. the second i walked in there i reminded myself of what my goals are in the next couple days. manhattan grad school audtions....probably the biggest opportunity i've had yet, just a couple days away. pray for me.
the joynt was fun tonight. colin got in a verbal bout with some really drunk guy. i admit i was a little anxious about what drunk guy was going to do because he was getting loud and his judgement probably wasn't quite spot on. the last thing i wanted to see was colin getting whacked in the mouth at such an unfortunate time. on a lighter note, lydon and i teamed up and did well on the dartboard until we got beat the last game. kevin and jake were up to 120 points with 20s and 18s closed after two rounds. ouch.
i had a thought as i drove home...
at what point do you give up and at what point do you keep trying at something? is it a matter of how much something means to you or is it a matter of how long you've been at it and how close you think you are? should trying for x number of years with little success be a sign that it's just not going to happen? i can't remember the last time i gave up on something...well, something moderately important anyways. i've been having this thought about music, and other things... maybe i'm just at a point where it feels like it's do or die, but in the end it's really not. personally, i think giving up blows. but then again, so does mental anguish and i know that i have the ability to let it all go once and for all. my problem is that once i let something go, it's gone forever (which is what i want), so it's hard for me to take that step. no worries though. i'm not about to give up on trombone (yet anyways) and i'm not giving up on life or anything like that. in the grand scheme of things, my problems are miniscule (sp?) and for that, i'm thankful.
dad came down today and we had lunch at the acoustic. when i got in his car he had a page of the newspaper folded open to an article titled Impeachment would solve many of country's problems written by garrison keillor. a surprising find for me since my dad is a republican. here's a link to the article; http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/editorial/13997364.htm if you've taken the time to read this far into my post you probably have a couple more minutes to invest in reading it. i'm not sure how long that link will work either. keillor refers to dick cheney as "gunner" which i found to be pretty freaking hilarious.
welp. that's all i got for now. i probably won't get a chance to write before i leave for nyc, so i'll be sure to save up some good stories for the next post.
g'nite,
james
just got back from the joynt. my drinking sabbatical is still going strong. tonight i had a sprite and a water. the second i walked in there i reminded myself of what my goals are in the next couple days. manhattan grad school audtions....probably the biggest opportunity i've had yet, just a couple days away. pray for me.
the joynt was fun tonight. colin got in a verbal bout with some really drunk guy. i admit i was a little anxious about what drunk guy was going to do because he was getting loud and his judgement probably wasn't quite spot on. the last thing i wanted to see was colin getting whacked in the mouth at such an unfortunate time. on a lighter note, lydon and i teamed up and did well on the dartboard until we got beat the last game. kevin and jake were up to 120 points with 20s and 18s closed after two rounds. ouch.
i had a thought as i drove home...
at what point do you give up and at what point do you keep trying at something? is it a matter of how much something means to you or is it a matter of how long you've been at it and how close you think you are? should trying for x number of years with little success be a sign that it's just not going to happen? i can't remember the last time i gave up on something...well, something moderately important anyways. i've been having this thought about music, and other things... maybe i'm just at a point where it feels like it's do or die, but in the end it's really not. personally, i think giving up blows. but then again, so does mental anguish and i know that i have the ability to let it all go once and for all. my problem is that once i let something go, it's gone forever (which is what i want), so it's hard for me to take that step. no worries though. i'm not about to give up on trombone (yet anyways) and i'm not giving up on life or anything like that. in the grand scheme of things, my problems are miniscule (sp?) and for that, i'm thankful.
dad came down today and we had lunch at the acoustic. when i got in his car he had a page of the newspaper folded open to an article titled Impeachment would solve many of country's problems written by garrison keillor. a surprising find for me since my dad is a republican. here's a link to the article; http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/editorial/13997364.htm if you've taken the time to read this far into my post you probably have a couple more minutes to invest in reading it. i'm not sure how long that link will work either. keillor refers to dick cheney as "gunner" which i found to be pretty freaking hilarious.
welp. that's all i got for now. i probably won't get a chance to write before i leave for nyc, so i'll be sure to save up some good stories for the next post.
g'nite,
james
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