Baca baca boof!

the title actually isn't in reference to the king of jazz, mr. baca. although i miss him quite a lot, it's in reference to how my orchestra conductor used to sing different rhythms to the orchestra. we just finished our second concert of the season last sunday and i think it went pretty well. the conductor was mark gibson, who teaches at the cincinatti conservatory....yeah, he travelled back and forth for our rehearsals... he was a pretty intense conductor, well, atleast from my limited experience with conductors. if the orchestra was not ready in time it was never a small thing, but instead a very serious offense, which oddly enough, i came to appreciate. the man heard every single detail and every single mistake, even if it was the 100th chair violin using a different bowing. i think what impressed me more, though, was the way he didn't take ownership over the orchestra. he constantly reminded us that he wasn't rehearsing for his sake, but for our own. if we didn't feel like something needed to be rehearsed (and he would ask constantly), he wouldn't rehearse us on it. likewise, if we thought we needed to do something over again, he'd let us do it. pretty cool i thought. so far my orchestra experience here has been awesome and i can't wait for the next concert.

so now a little follow up to my last post.

i'm coming to the realization that things are what they are and that the only thing i have control over are my opinions of them. sometimes i just shouldn't form opinions on things. i'll try to explain.... it's a fact that i've come into a routine of getting to the gym, doing well in classes, and improving on the trombone. it was my opinion that this meant i was getting stuck in a rut and becoming somewhat "bored." i think it had something to do with "reporting" to my friends and family how i'm doing here in indiana. if i talked to my mom, a friend from eau claire, and wrote an e-mail to a buddy from high school all in one day telling them what i'm up to, it seemed to me that things were becoming quite routine and boring here. i simply formed a false opinion.

on the other hand, i'm starting to go explore a little more to break up some of the monotony. last weekend i randomly decided to go checkout a local restaurant at 10 o'clock at night. i discovered some huge music festival that was happening downtown and just roamed around for a while. it was refreshing. i'm also looking for a couple good coffee shops around here where i can go to do homework. although i didn't frequent racy's and the acoustic until my last couple months in eau claire, i miss those places a lot. i also miss the bistro and obviously the joynt. i need to find some similar places around here to get away from the apartment and the music building.

ok, so those are some thoughts for ya...

now for something fun. i laughed myself into tears watching this clip the first time i saw it. 5 points if you can identify what the bunny is singing. 2 points for composer, 2 points for genre, and 1 point for the date it was written. it's music history time!



thanks for readin'

james