my ultimate team went up against the best team in the league last night and i f'd up my knee :-( basically, i was defending a guy who was a handler, which means he wasn't running around a lot, making cuts, but instead stayed back and would make most of the throws up the field. anyways, he was walking up the field and a teammate of his had the disc. since my guy wasn't running, i decided i'd watch the guy who had the disc to see if i could anticipate his throw and step in for a block. i had a great look and right as he threw he looked at me - making me hestitate (cause i thought maybe he'd rethink his throw seeing me there) and i awkwardly laid out to block his pass. i missed my block, jumped up, and got back in the play. after the point was over i went to the sidelines to rest. after i was rested i went back out and after a couple seconds of running around, noticed my knee was bothering me. i looked down, and sure enough, it was swollen. i got ice on it right away, and it didn't hurt too bad, but the swelling looked terrible. my teammates saw me there with the ice and asked what happened, cause they hadn't seen anything. all i could tell them was 'i don't know, but i think blah blah blah.' injuries suck. especially knee injuries. makes me rethink having knees at all... (name that quote!)
so after the game i went home, popped 3 advil and went to the bar for a delicious cold drink, hobbling like a true gimp all the while. my friend matt stopped by this morning and lent me a brace which i've worn all day. it prevents me from moving it around too much, which is probably good.
on to other news...
he'll probably be writing about it in his blog soon, but colin has a 46-inch flat screen lcd tv on the way, as well as a blue-ray disc player. he's earned it through his 'job' playing poker. the site we play on offers a rewards program based on how much you play and after many months, he's accumulated enough points. when he was getting close, he really started to put in the time so we could get it by the time becker, justin, paul, and keith get down here so i ended up playing some sessions on his account as well to help out. colin plays higher limits than i do, because his bankroll is larger (for now ;-)) so it was fun to play on his account against a little tougher competition. well, i say 'tougher competition,' but really, there are still quite a few terrible players at his level. anyways, we're getting a sweet tv!
the weight gain stuff has been going well. i weighed myself yesterday after my workout and i'm already up to 152 pounds. that's 9 lbs in two weeks. i know the plateau will begin soon, and every pound will be harder earned from here on out (especially if i'm unable to do some of my leg exercises with my stupid, lame knee) but i'm happy with the progress so far.
well, that's about all i got to report on for now. it's gonna be a busy week, with lots of performances and visitors and excitement so i'm sure i'll have a lot to write about in a week or so. be sure to stay warm up der in the cold eh.
love,
james
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
the 90s
so i found this on a forum that i frequent and i couldn't help but laugh as i read down the list. i'm sure a lot of you can identify, and if you can't, well, you missed out...
You're a 90's kid if:
You can finish this [ice ice_ _ _ _ ]
You remember watching:
-Doug
-Ren & Stimpy
-Pinky and the Brain
-AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!
-Rockos modern Life.
-Cow & Chicken
You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"
You just cant resist finishing this . . . "Iiiiiiin west philidelphia born and raised . . ."
You remember:
-TGIF
-Step by Step
-Family Matters
-Dinosaurs
-Boy Meets World.
You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
You remember reading "Goosebumps"
You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.
You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not
when everyhting was settled by:
-rock paper scissors or
-bubble gum bubble gum in a dish or
-daddy had a donkey inky binky bonky.
when cops and robbers was a daily activity.
when we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb.
when we used to obey our parents
You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time.
"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game show.
Captain Planet. He's a Hero.
You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were meant to be together.
You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.
You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos . . . but never taped anything funny.
You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"
You remember watching:
-The Magic School Bus
-Wishbone
-Reading Rainbow on PBS.
You remember when Yo-Yos were cool.
You remember those Where's Waldo books.
You remember eating Warheads.
You remember watching:
-the 1st Batman
-Aladdin
-Ninja Turtles
-3 Ninjas movies.
You remember Ring Pops.
You remember drinking Surge, and Tang.
Oh, oh, oh! and JOSTA!!!
If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"
When they made the new lunchables so that you could make pizza AND tacos.
You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.
Making those little paper fortune cookie things, and then predicting your life with them.
You played and/or collected "Pogs" :)
You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.
. . . Furbies (yes, we hated them THEN, too).
You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.
And Windows 95 was the best.
You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja Turtles.
Michael Jordan was a king.
YIKES pencils and erasers were the stuff!
All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.
You remember when the new Beanie Babies and Talking Elmo were always sold out.
You collected those Beanie Babies.
Carebears
Gak was the coolest stuff invented.
Lambchop's song never ended.
The old dollar bills.
Silver dollars, which were cool to have.
You remember a time before the WB.
You collected all the Troll dolls
If you even know what an original walkman is.
You remember wanting to sit on the orange Nickelodeon couch.
You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"
You know the Macarena by heart.
"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said
You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"
You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace.
You remember playing on merry go rounds at the playground.
Before the MySpace frenzy . . .
Before the Internet & text messaging . . .
Before Sidekicks & iPods . . .
Before MIKE JONES . . .
Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .
Before Spongebob . . .
Back when you put off the 5 hours of homework you had every night.
When light up sneakers were cool.
When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.
When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.
When we recorded stuff on VCRs.
When the spice girls were cool.
When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our walkman.
When checking out drawing books and that one book about the rainbow fish from the library was THE cool thing to do.
You had slap braclets!
i would probably add zubaz, starter jackets, and the song 'whoop there it is' to the list. can anyone think of anything else?
love,
james
You're a 90's kid if:
You can finish this [ice ice_ _ _ _ ]
You remember watching:
-Doug
-Ren & Stimpy
-Pinky and the Brain
-AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!
-Rockos modern Life.
-Cow & Chicken
You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"
You just cant resist finishing this . . . "Iiiiiiin west philidelphia born and raised . . ."
You remember:
-TGIF
-Step by Step
-Family Matters
-Dinosaurs
-Boy Meets World.
You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
You remember reading "Goosebumps"
You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.
You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not
when everyhting was settled by:
-rock paper scissors or
-bubble gum bubble gum in a dish or
-daddy had a donkey inky binky bonky.
when cops and robbers was a daily activity.
when we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb.
when we used to obey our parents
You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time.
"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game show.
Captain Planet. He's a Hero.
You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were meant to be together.
You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.
You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos . . . but never taped anything funny.
You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"
You remember watching:
-The Magic School Bus
-Wishbone
-Reading Rainbow on PBS.
You remember when Yo-Yos were cool.
You remember those Where's Waldo books.
You remember eating Warheads.
You remember watching:
-the 1st Batman
-Aladdin
-Ninja Turtles
-3 Ninjas movies.
You remember Ring Pops.
You remember drinking Surge, and Tang.
Oh, oh, oh! and JOSTA!!!
If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"
When they made the new lunchables so that you could make pizza AND tacos.
You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.
Making those little paper fortune cookie things, and then predicting your life with them.
You played and/or collected "Pogs" :)
You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.
. . . Furbies (yes, we hated them THEN, too).
You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.
And Windows 95 was the best.
You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja Turtles.
Michael Jordan was a king.
YIKES pencils and erasers were the stuff!
All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.
You remember when the new Beanie Babies and Talking Elmo were always sold out.
You collected those Beanie Babies.
Carebears
Gak was the coolest stuff invented.
Lambchop's song never ended.
The old dollar bills.
Silver dollars, which were cool to have.
You remember a time before the WB.
You collected all the Troll dolls
If you even know what an original walkman is.
You remember wanting to sit on the orange Nickelodeon couch.
You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"
You know the Macarena by heart.
"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said
You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"
You went to McDonald's to play in the playplace.
You remember playing on merry go rounds at the playground.
Before the MySpace frenzy . . .
Before the Internet & text messaging . . .
Before Sidekicks & iPods . . .
Before MIKE JONES . . .
Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .
Before Spongebob . . .
Back when you put off the 5 hours of homework you had every night.
When light up sneakers were cool.
When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.
When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.
When we recorded stuff on VCRs.
When the spice girls were cool.
When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our walkman.
When checking out drawing books and that one book about the rainbow fish from the library was THE cool thing to do.
You had slap braclets!
i would probably add zubaz, starter jackets, and the song 'whoop there it is' to the list. can anyone think of anything else?
love,
james
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
somethin' new
as most of you know, i've spent a lot of time trying to gain weight. i've always been a skinny guy and never weighed more than 154 lbs (i'm 5-9). i've always kind of gone in spurts of working out and not working out, mostly when things like time and money get in my way, therefore i've gone from being skinny to being slightly less skinny over the years. one thing i've realized is that a lot of people don't understand what it's like to NOT be able to gain weight. anytime i talk to someone about how i eat and how i workout, they kind of laugh about it and are shocked at how hard it is for me to gain. basically, they think i'm weird. ok, i am weird, but not because i want to gain weight.
there are a lot of skinny people that wish they weighed more, whether they admit to it or not and it's completely normal. being underweight can actually be unhealthy, just like being overweight can be (not that i consider myself to be underweight at the moment). and the positive effects of losing weight for a person are the same for a person who wants to gain. people who've lost weight feel healthier, fit into their clothes better, and just feel more confident in general. it's the same for me.
so what's the point of all this? well, i'm gettin' back on the routine after having taken some time off and i'm going to use this blog to track some of the progress. i know it's probably not going to make for very interesting reading, so i'll still continue writing about all the other random things i chose to write about. however, i'm also going to use this blog to hold myself accountable for my workouts and eating to help keep myself motivated. and if hearing about my workout and diet inspires others, that's cool too.
right now, i weigh 143 lbs. my goal is to reach 160 by the end of the semester. that gives me 106 days or about 15 weeks to gain 17 lbs. so what's my plan to accomplish this?
basically, i'm going to eat everything in sight and workout 3-4 times a week. more specifically, though, i'll be drinking about 3 protein shakes a day and eating 3 real meals a day that are high in protein. i'll need to get about 4000 calories a day to start and increase that as i get bigger. the workout routine consists of heavy lifting and low reps. my workouts shouldn't take longer than an hour, although they may go slightly over towards the end as i add more exercises. i won't bore you with the details of the diet and the workout, but if you're extremely curious, i'll give you the links for both.
the workout
the diet
i've used these programs before and they have worked well for me. i'm not exactly sure how i'm going to use the blog to keep track of my progress, so i'll just play that by ear. at the very least, i'll leave weekly updates about how much i've gained.
well, that's about it for now. wish me luck!
love,
james (all 143 lbs of me)
there are a lot of skinny people that wish they weighed more, whether they admit to it or not and it's completely normal. being underweight can actually be unhealthy, just like being overweight can be (not that i consider myself to be underweight at the moment). and the positive effects of losing weight for a person are the same for a person who wants to gain. people who've lost weight feel healthier, fit into their clothes better, and just feel more confident in general. it's the same for me.
so what's the point of all this? well, i'm gettin' back on the routine after having taken some time off and i'm going to use this blog to track some of the progress. i know it's probably not going to make for very interesting reading, so i'll still continue writing about all the other random things i chose to write about. however, i'm also going to use this blog to hold myself accountable for my workouts and eating to help keep myself motivated. and if hearing about my workout and diet inspires others, that's cool too.
right now, i weigh 143 lbs. my goal is to reach 160 by the end of the semester. that gives me 106 days or about 15 weeks to gain 17 lbs. so what's my plan to accomplish this?
basically, i'm going to eat everything in sight and workout 3-4 times a week. more specifically, though, i'll be drinking about 3 protein shakes a day and eating 3 real meals a day that are high in protein. i'll need to get about 4000 calories a day to start and increase that as i get bigger. the workout routine consists of heavy lifting and low reps. my workouts shouldn't take longer than an hour, although they may go slightly over towards the end as i add more exercises. i won't bore you with the details of the diet and the workout, but if you're extremely curious, i'll give you the links for both.
the workout
the diet
i've used these programs before and they have worked well for me. i'm not exactly sure how i'm going to use the blog to keep track of my progress, so i'll just play that by ear. at the very least, i'll leave weekly updates about how much i've gained.
well, that's about it for now. wish me luck!
love,
james (all 143 lbs of me)
Sunday, January 13, 2008
i know...
...i'm long overdue for an update.
last time i wrote, i was a on boat out in the ocean, but so much has happened since then, i'll just wrap that up by saying that it was an awesome experience and i'm looking forward to goin' back out.
so i'm back at school now and this semester is lookin' sweeeeet. i didn't have a ton of time (or should i say time when practice space was available) to prepare for auditions while i was out on the ship, and playing tenor the whole time wasn't so good for my bass chops, but despite all that, i managed to get 2nd placement this semester, which i was really happy about. there are many good bass trombone players here and i had never placed better than 3rd placement (or maybe 4th...that first semester is a blur) so this was a much needed confidence boost for me. ordinarily, 2nd placement would put me in the top orchestra in the spring semester because top placement is wind ensemble, but, unfortunately, the guy who got top placement couldn't play in wind ensemble, so that's where i was placed. i'm gonna miss playing in an orchestra, but the section for wind ensemble looks pretty killer. also, i get to play alpine symphony with the top orchestra in april, as it requires two bass trombones. it's sure to be one of the performance highlights of the year for me. i love that piece of music. another performance highlight for me is coming up in february. i got an e-mail from carl today asking me to play in the faculty quartet for the audition eve recital on feb. 1. seriously? i get to play in a quartet with lenthe, ellefson, and fabio (dee's sabbatical replacement)? hot damn! words can't really describe how excited i am for that.
in addition to the performance opportunities, my classes totally rock. i'm taking a history of jazz since bebop class with pat harbison and a duke ellington class with david baker. and ya know what's sweet about the ellington class? it's my last music history class ever - with david baker. i rule. yeah, so those are my only two classes. oh, and i'm taking an orchestral rep class with ellefson that meets on tuesday nights.
on to non school related things...
my ultimate team played a great game on friday night against the #1 team in the league. we held the lead until about the last 10 minutes, when the other team realized they were about to lose and started calling some really cheap stalls (a stall is when you are marking [guarding] and you count to 7 and they haven't passed the disc yet) and fouls. ultimate is played without referees so it's kind of up to the players and observers to work that stuff out. i love the attitude of my team because i think we all realized how awesome we played and it didn't really matter that they beat us. plus, i think it's just gonna make us hungrier for the next game. i can't wait.
well, i think that pretty much gets us caught up. maybe i have more stuff to write but i think i've sufficiently covered the important stuff.
love,
james
last time i wrote, i was a on boat out in the ocean, but so much has happened since then, i'll just wrap that up by saying that it was an awesome experience and i'm looking forward to goin' back out.
so i'm back at school now and this semester is lookin' sweeeeet. i didn't have a ton of time (or should i say time when practice space was available) to prepare for auditions while i was out on the ship, and playing tenor the whole time wasn't so good for my bass chops, but despite all that, i managed to get 2nd placement this semester, which i was really happy about. there are many good bass trombone players here and i had never placed better than 3rd placement (or maybe 4th...that first semester is a blur) so this was a much needed confidence boost for me. ordinarily, 2nd placement would put me in the top orchestra in the spring semester because top placement is wind ensemble, but, unfortunately, the guy who got top placement couldn't play in wind ensemble, so that's where i was placed. i'm gonna miss playing in an orchestra, but the section for wind ensemble looks pretty killer. also, i get to play alpine symphony with the top orchestra in april, as it requires two bass trombones. it's sure to be one of the performance highlights of the year for me. i love that piece of music. another performance highlight for me is coming up in february. i got an e-mail from carl today asking me to play in the faculty quartet for the audition eve recital on feb. 1. seriously? i get to play in a quartet with lenthe, ellefson, and fabio (dee's sabbatical replacement)? hot damn! words can't really describe how excited i am for that.
in addition to the performance opportunities, my classes totally rock. i'm taking a history of jazz since bebop class with pat harbison and a duke ellington class with david baker. and ya know what's sweet about the ellington class? it's my last music history class ever - with david baker. i rule. yeah, so those are my only two classes. oh, and i'm taking an orchestral rep class with ellefson that meets on tuesday nights.
on to non school related things...
my ultimate team played a great game on friday night against the #1 team in the league. we held the lead until about the last 10 minutes, when the other team realized they were about to lose and started calling some really cheap stalls (a stall is when you are marking [guarding] and you count to 7 and they haven't passed the disc yet) and fouls. ultimate is played without referees so it's kind of up to the players and observers to work that stuff out. i love the attitude of my team because i think we all realized how awesome we played and it didn't really matter that they beat us. plus, i think it's just gonna make us hungrier for the next game. i can't wait.
well, i think that pretty much gets us caught up. maybe i have more stuff to write but i think i've sufficiently covered the important stuff.
love,
james
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
an outdated post...
the days are pretty much runnin' together now. i think it's saturday, but i could be wrong...
i'm sittin at a starbucks in nassau, where i'm using the internet for the first time in like 4 days or something like that? it's weird how quickly i lost track of time and days of the week.
thangs have been pretty good for me. i've met a ton of new and mostly cool people. i've actually done surprisingly well at remembering most of their names too. i'm learning that a ship is really just a small community floating in the ocean and people generally look out for each other.
i got off the boat yesterday in freeport and ventured to a resortish place called port lucaya. i tagged along with the musical director, will, and the sax player from our band, erick. after a somewhat terrifying cab ride that nearly ended in a head on collision, we visited some restaurant that served steak and ale pie bc will is from england and was craving a taste of home. he's a pretty funny guy. while we were waiting for our food he used his watch to shine a ray of light in some guys face who was sitting across the room from us. he did so for a good 15 minutes, laughing the whole time as the guy was trying to figure out where it was coming from. he eats really fast too. him and colin would probably be best buds.
musically things have been okay. we played 3 shows yesterday, the last two of which were clicked and tracked production shows. they were long shows and hung in the upper register for the most part, but i think i hung in there okay. it was kinda sad, though, to hear the other horn parts in the track and realize that these boats used to have much larger bands. i heard some pretty cool bass bone parts... i asked will and he told me they used to hire 3 trumpets, 3 saxes, and 2 bones. now it's one trumpet, one sax, and one bone.
welp, i think that's about it for this post. starbucks is gettin' pretty crowded now and i should probably give up my seat as i've been here for a while. i kinda feel like roamin' around anyways. thanks for readin'.
love,
james
i'm sittin at a starbucks in nassau, where i'm using the internet for the first time in like 4 days or something like that? it's weird how quickly i lost track of time and days of the week.
thangs have been pretty good for me. i've met a ton of new and mostly cool people. i've actually done surprisingly well at remembering most of their names too. i'm learning that a ship is really just a small community floating in the ocean and people generally look out for each other.
i got off the boat yesterday in freeport and ventured to a resortish place called port lucaya. i tagged along with the musical director, will, and the sax player from our band, erick. after a somewhat terrifying cab ride that nearly ended in a head on collision, we visited some restaurant that served steak and ale pie bc will is from england and was craving a taste of home. he's a pretty funny guy. while we were waiting for our food he used his watch to shine a ray of light in some guys face who was sitting across the room from us. he did so for a good 15 minutes, laughing the whole time as the guy was trying to figure out where it was coming from. he eats really fast too. him and colin would probably be best buds.
musically things have been okay. we played 3 shows yesterday, the last two of which were clicked and tracked production shows. they were long shows and hung in the upper register for the most part, but i think i hung in there okay. it was kinda sad, though, to hear the other horn parts in the track and realize that these boats used to have much larger bands. i heard some pretty cool bass bone parts... i asked will and he told me they used to hire 3 trumpets, 3 saxes, and 2 bones. now it's one trumpet, one sax, and one bone.
welp, i think that's about it for this post. starbucks is gettin' pretty crowded now and i should probably give up my seat as i've been here for a while. i kinda feel like roamin' around anyways. thanks for readin'.
love,
james
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
day whatever (4?)
Day 3
Part 1
Sittin at the Miami aiport in the boarding area for my flight to key west and felt like writin’ a little bit. I have no internet and am typing in word, just incase you’re wondering about the unusual amount of capital letters in this post…
So yesterday went as planned. I basically watched tv, practiced, and played a little poker. I gotta tell ya, football is much more tolerable if you mute the tv and have an instrument in your hand. I don’t mind watching football, but the commentators can be so annoying. I also saw some of the bewitched movie with will ferrel and Nicole kidman. I didn’t even know it existed until last night. Did anyone else see this? It was a total chick flick but I didn’t care because will ferrel is just that amazing. I also saw parts of a lord of the rings movie and walk the line.
Well, the lady at the front desk thing just warned me that “they” are famous for not getting luggage to key west with the passengers… awesome. So I’ll just show up without my tux then? That’ll go over well don’t ya think? I sure hope she’s wrong. I guess I’m a little nervous though because I had to go back out through security to get to this concourse, and it was quite a trek, which means my bags probably have a ways to travel too. F.
Well, I see people coming off the plane I’m supposed to board so I’d better wrap it up. Hopefully I’ll have some more interesting things to write about in the next few days. Not sure when I’ll have internet next so this post may be a little dated by the time I get it posted.
Love,
James
Ps –I’m gonna smack all 5 of these chads sitting next to me if they don’t quit being so chaddy. And if I hear Kenny g destroy another Christmas song in this airport, I’m probably gonna puke.
Part 2
Well, I made it to the boat. The plane I took from Miami to key west was a little bigger than my car with no overhead compartments. There was no door or even a curtain between the cabin and the cockpit, so I could see out the front window from where I was sitting. I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilots were younger than me. I was a pretty fun flight because we over a bunch of swamp looking land, then we flew by the nasa launch pads, then finally over the ocean to the keys. It was a beautiful day too. The key west airport was the smallest thing I’ve ever seen. There was one little carousel for the luggage and like one rental car place. I found a taxi to the boat and enjoyed a nice ride through what my driver told me was ‘old key west.’ It was a pretty cool lookin’ neighborhood.
Getting on the ship was relatively easy. Luckily I had luggage with me and the people in charge could tell I was boarding the ship for the first time and directed me where to go. After some paper work the musical director, Will, came down to meet me and show me around. He plays keyboard and is from England. Seems like a nice guy so far… when he was showing me around the boat all I was thinking was, ‘yeah, I’m definitely gonna get lost a few times before I figure this out..’ and I did. As soon as he showed me back to my room, my roommate took me up to this place where I could get some food. He explained to me that the staff was only allowed to eat in this certain restaurant at certain times and that I should bring my food down to the crew mess hall. I found a slice of pizza and basically walked around with it for a good 10 minutes before I figured out where the hell I was. Yeah, so imagine being a guest on the ship and seeing an employee wandering around with a slice of pizza on a plate, looking completely lost. Not only did I feel like a complete idiot, but I was afraid some high ranking officer or whatever was going to see me and ask me what the hell I was doing. I did manage to find my room and just ate my pizza there instead of in the mess hall, probably breaking yet another rule.
So I hadn’t been on the ship for even an hour until we had our first rehearsal. We have two shows tonight, one at 8:30, one at 10:30 and had a quick run through at 3:45. The guys in the band seem cool from the little time I’ve interacted with them. It was a relief to finally get the horn on my face and realize that I’m going to be just fine on this stuff. I’m actually more worried about getting in trouble from breaking some silly rule than I am about screwing up my parts.
Well, I may end up writing a part 3 after the shows tonight, but right now, I gotta go get some food. Some guys from the band just stopped by my room so I’m gonna go try to sit with them while there’s still room. It get’s pretty busy in the crew mess hall from what I hear.
Laters,
James
Day 4
Sheesh. Where to begin? Guess I’ll start with the shows. Basically, they were a lot of fun. We played for an entertainer named Tia Thompson, a comedian, whose name I forget, and a little schtick the cruise director did. The music was pretty straight forward and my parts didn’t go too high (which I guess is kinda my main concern, bein’ a bass trombone player and all…) we played “I Wish” for the walk on and walk off of the comedian and it totally felt like I was in a late night show band. I didn’t have a part, though, so I had to read off the trumpet player’s music, which was luckily just a C treble clef lead sheet. I’m sure I would have been okay if I had had to transpose, just because that’s a tune I already have in my ear, but it was nice to have that added pressure. The only other difficulty I really had on the gig was seeing the MD (musical director). I sit on the end of the horn section so he’s directly down the line to my left and there’s very little room for me to move to a place where I can see him. I think I only missed one cue last night because I was able to pick up on the fact that he was watching the performers on stage, so if I did the same, I’d probably be right.
In the second show, when the comedian was kinda telling the audience about himself, he mentioned that he did his undergrad at Eau Claire. Every ounce of me wanted to scream ‘gooooo blugolds!’ making a complete ass of myself, but I refrained. I want to be myself and have a good time out here, but there’s so many f’n rules and etiquette and crap that I haven’t yet figured out what’s okay and what’s not, so my default is to just keep my head low and not attract any attention.
Now writing from a starbucks in Nassau…Gosh I hope my roommate was right about the boat leaving at 9pm….
So it looks like I get cell service here? Hmm….hopefully I’m not being charged a million dollars a minute. I best figure this out.
Ok, so after the shows I went to the crew bar to hang for a bit. I didn’t stay long cause I had to get up and be at some safety thing at 9 this morning. Safety thing basically consisted of me finding my way to this room I had been shown once, walking into this smokey office where some officer with a really thick accent of some kind made me watch a video. I now know what to do when drunk people fall overboard, which I guess is good because there are a lot of drunk people from what I’ve seen so far. One thing I hate, though, is not being able to understand all the accents. Hopefully it’ll get better the longer I’m here but it sucks to look so confused all the time and ask people to repeat themselves constantly because I couldn’t understand them.
Well, I this post has become waaaaay too long so I’m gonna stop it here. No idea when I’ll get internet again, but I’ll probably have more to say by the time that happens. Miss you all.
Love,
james
Part 1
Sittin at the Miami aiport in the boarding area for my flight to key west and felt like writin’ a little bit. I have no internet and am typing in word, just incase you’re wondering about the unusual amount of capital letters in this post…
So yesterday went as planned. I basically watched tv, practiced, and played a little poker. I gotta tell ya, football is much more tolerable if you mute the tv and have an instrument in your hand. I don’t mind watching football, but the commentators can be so annoying. I also saw some of the bewitched movie with will ferrel and Nicole kidman. I didn’t even know it existed until last night. Did anyone else see this? It was a total chick flick but I didn’t care because will ferrel is just that amazing. I also saw parts of a lord of the rings movie and walk the line.
Well, the lady at the front desk thing just warned me that “they” are famous for not getting luggage to key west with the passengers… awesome. So I’ll just show up without my tux then? That’ll go over well don’t ya think? I sure hope she’s wrong. I guess I’m a little nervous though because I had to go back out through security to get to this concourse, and it was quite a trek, which means my bags probably have a ways to travel too. F.
Well, I see people coming off the plane I’m supposed to board so I’d better wrap it up. Hopefully I’ll have some more interesting things to write about in the next few days. Not sure when I’ll have internet next so this post may be a little dated by the time I get it posted.
Love,
James
Ps –I’m gonna smack all 5 of these chads sitting next to me if they don’t quit being so chaddy. And if I hear Kenny g destroy another Christmas song in this airport, I’m probably gonna puke.
Part 2
Well, I made it to the boat. The plane I took from Miami to key west was a little bigger than my car with no overhead compartments. There was no door or even a curtain between the cabin and the cockpit, so I could see out the front window from where I was sitting. I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilots were younger than me. I was a pretty fun flight because we over a bunch of swamp looking land, then we flew by the nasa launch pads, then finally over the ocean to the keys. It was a beautiful day too. The key west airport was the smallest thing I’ve ever seen. There was one little carousel for the luggage and like one rental car place. I found a taxi to the boat and enjoyed a nice ride through what my driver told me was ‘old key west.’ It was a pretty cool lookin’ neighborhood.
Getting on the ship was relatively easy. Luckily I had luggage with me and the people in charge could tell I was boarding the ship for the first time and directed me where to go. After some paper work the musical director, Will, came down to meet me and show me around. He plays keyboard and is from England. Seems like a nice guy so far… when he was showing me around the boat all I was thinking was, ‘yeah, I’m definitely gonna get lost a few times before I figure this out..’ and I did. As soon as he showed me back to my room, my roommate took me up to this place where I could get some food. He explained to me that the staff was only allowed to eat in this certain restaurant at certain times and that I should bring my food down to the crew mess hall. I found a slice of pizza and basically walked around with it for a good 10 minutes before I figured out where the hell I was. Yeah, so imagine being a guest on the ship and seeing an employee wandering around with a slice of pizza on a plate, looking completely lost. Not only did I feel like a complete idiot, but I was afraid some high ranking officer or whatever was going to see me and ask me what the hell I was doing. I did manage to find my room and just ate my pizza there instead of in the mess hall, probably breaking yet another rule.
So I hadn’t been on the ship for even an hour until we had our first rehearsal. We have two shows tonight, one at 8:30, one at 10:30 and had a quick run through at 3:45. The guys in the band seem cool from the little time I’ve interacted with them. It was a relief to finally get the horn on my face and realize that I’m going to be just fine on this stuff. I’m actually more worried about getting in trouble from breaking some silly rule than I am about screwing up my parts.
Well, I may end up writing a part 3 after the shows tonight, but right now, I gotta go get some food. Some guys from the band just stopped by my room so I’m gonna go try to sit with them while there’s still room. It get’s pretty busy in the crew mess hall from what I hear.
Laters,
James
Day 4
Sheesh. Where to begin? Guess I’ll start with the shows. Basically, they were a lot of fun. We played for an entertainer named Tia Thompson, a comedian, whose name I forget, and a little schtick the cruise director did. The music was pretty straight forward and my parts didn’t go too high (which I guess is kinda my main concern, bein’ a bass trombone player and all…) we played “I Wish” for the walk on and walk off of the comedian and it totally felt like I was in a late night show band. I didn’t have a part, though, so I had to read off the trumpet player’s music, which was luckily just a C treble clef lead sheet. I’m sure I would have been okay if I had had to transpose, just because that’s a tune I already have in my ear, but it was nice to have that added pressure. The only other difficulty I really had on the gig was seeing the MD (musical director). I sit on the end of the horn section so he’s directly down the line to my left and there’s very little room for me to move to a place where I can see him. I think I only missed one cue last night because I was able to pick up on the fact that he was watching the performers on stage, so if I did the same, I’d probably be right.
In the second show, when the comedian was kinda telling the audience about himself, he mentioned that he did his undergrad at Eau Claire. Every ounce of me wanted to scream ‘gooooo blugolds!’ making a complete ass of myself, but I refrained. I want to be myself and have a good time out here, but there’s so many f’n rules and etiquette and crap that I haven’t yet figured out what’s okay and what’s not, so my default is to just keep my head low and not attract any attention.
Now writing from a starbucks in Nassau…Gosh I hope my roommate was right about the boat leaving at 9pm….
So it looks like I get cell service here? Hmm….hopefully I’m not being charged a million dollars a minute. I best figure this out.
Ok, so after the shows I went to the crew bar to hang for a bit. I didn’t stay long cause I had to get up and be at some safety thing at 9 this morning. Safety thing basically consisted of me finding my way to this room I had been shown once, walking into this smokey office where some officer with a really thick accent of some kind made me watch a video. I now know what to do when drunk people fall overboard, which I guess is good because there are a lot of drunk people from what I’ve seen so far. One thing I hate, though, is not being able to understand all the accents. Hopefully it’ll get better the longer I’m here but it sucks to look so confused all the time and ask people to repeat themselves constantly because I couldn’t understand them.
Well, I this post has become waaaaay too long so I’m gonna stop it here. No idea when I’ll get internet again, but I’ll probably have more to say by the time that happens. Miss you all.
Love,
james
Saturday, December 15, 2007
day 1
hello from jacksonville, fl. yep. i missed the boat. the short version of the story is that i was delayed out of indianapolis and it all went downhill from there, resulting in the boat leaving without yours truly. the good news, however, is that carnival has put me up in a nice hotel and is paying for my meals until they can fly me to key west to meet up with the ship on monday.
so how's the weather down here you ask? well let me show ya...
tornado watch till 'bout 8am is what the tv says. i'm pretty beat, so i'm sure i'll just sleep right through it.
not sure what i'll be doin' tomorrow but it will probably involve tv watchin', practicing with my mute in, and wasting time on the internetz. gonna be a busy day, better get some rest.
g'nite,
james
so how's the weather down here you ask? well let me show ya...
tornado watch till 'bout 8am is what the tv says. i'm pretty beat, so i'm sure i'll just sleep right through it.
not sure what i'll be doin' tomorrow but it will probably involve tv watchin', practicing with my mute in, and wasting time on the internetz. gonna be a busy day, better get some rest.
g'nite,
james
Friday, December 14, 2007
bon voyage
welp, in about 12 hours i'll be on an airplane to jacksonville where i'll board the carnival ship 'celebration' for 2 1/2 weeks. i don't have my plane ticket yet, but they assured me it'd show up in my e-mail along with some other transportation details sometime before my 6am flight tomorrow. yeah, so right now i'm sitting in my lonely apartment in bloomington, in, blogging on my computer while some clothes dry and at this time tomorrow i'll be somewhere out in the atlantic, cruising to the bahamas...needless to say, i'm a little anxious, but excited. i've talked to a few people about the whole cruise ship experience before, but i still feel like i have no idea what to expect. if nothing else, it should make for some interesting blog topics right?
today my quartet recorded a christmas cd which we hope to give to our family members as inexpensive christmas gifts. it was a lot of fun but wore out the chops fairly quickly. we had only played some of the music before the session so after rehearsing a piece and then trying to get a couple takes of it, the face was pretty tired. hopefully it'll turn out well and i can post a track here that won't be completely embarrassing.
ok, so i gotta run to target for toothpaste and shampoo, return a movie to blockbuster (so glad the stupid film musical class is over!), put my netflix dvd in the mail, pack my clothes, tidy up the apartment, play my ultimate game at 11, and get 3 hours of sleep. no problem.
oh, and i hope you all have wonderful breaks/holidays with your families. this will be my first christmas without my family, and i'm definitely jealous of all the people that get to be with theirs.
love,
james
today my quartet recorded a christmas cd which we hope to give to our family members as inexpensive christmas gifts. it was a lot of fun but wore out the chops fairly quickly. we had only played some of the music before the session so after rehearsing a piece and then trying to get a couple takes of it, the face was pretty tired. hopefully it'll turn out well and i can post a track here that won't be completely embarrassing.
ok, so i gotta run to target for toothpaste and shampoo, return a movie to blockbuster (so glad the stupid film musical class is over!), put my netflix dvd in the mail, pack my clothes, tidy up the apartment, play my ultimate game at 11, and get 3 hours of sleep. no problem.
oh, and i hope you all have wonderful breaks/holidays with your families. this will be my first christmas without my family, and i'm definitely jealous of all the people that get to be with theirs.
love,
james
Saturday, December 01, 2007
some recent awesomeness
it was a pretty rough week for reasons i don't really feel like talkin' about, but the last two days have been f'n sweet.
last night was my first game of winter league ultimate. for those who don't know, i'm a nut for ultimate frisbee. i've always wanted to play in a league but have never had the time. well, finally my prayer was answered because there's a winter league here that plays at 9pm on friday nights at an indoor sports complex. nothin but parties on friday nights, so i can pretty much go to every game. and ya know what else? there's only one other guy in the music dept that plays and he's not on my team. i love music people, but an hour a week surrounded by nons does a body good. anyways, our first game was last night and i had a blast. the play was pretty competitive, something i'm not used to, but it's sooooooooo much fun. i suffered a minor injury when a guy i was marking pivoted and stomped on my left foot. it seemed fine during the game, but afterwards my big toe was hurtin' pretty bad. we wear cleats cause the field is this turf type surface and mine are really old and probably not protective enough. as long as i'm all good for the next game, i don't really care.
in addition to playing ultimate last night, i got to go rock climbing today. i hadn't been in quite a while, and today i realized again how awesome it is and how i need to go more often. my friend matt, who is an undergrad trombone music ed major who's starting his student teaching next semester, and i went to this indoor place called 'hoosier heights.' it was in this old steel wharehouse type building in the middle of nowhere. they don't heat the place, so it was a bit cold in there, but once you got climbing, it wasn't so bad. i started on a 5.6 (fairly easy) and then climbed a 5.7, 5.8, and a 5.9, all without falling. i basically decided i was gonna keep going up in difficulty until i got to where i couldn't get to the top without falling off the wall. i met my match on a 5.10. i think i fell off about 5 times before getting half way up. it was pretty challenging. my forearms are wicked sore right now too.
i hope you are all enjoying the snow you're receiving as i type this. i'm pretty jealous, i'm not gonna lie. those with digital cameras should probably send me pictures of it, or at least post them on facebook. i miss snow and just northern winters in general. and since i'm not gonna make it home for christmas, i could use some photographic reminders of what it looks like :-)
ok, as always, i hope you all are well.
love,
james
last night was my first game of winter league ultimate. for those who don't know, i'm a nut for ultimate frisbee. i've always wanted to play in a league but have never had the time. well, finally my prayer was answered because there's a winter league here that plays at 9pm on friday nights at an indoor sports complex. nothin but parties on friday nights, so i can pretty much go to every game. and ya know what else? there's only one other guy in the music dept that plays and he's not on my team. i love music people, but an hour a week surrounded by nons does a body good. anyways, our first game was last night and i had a blast. the play was pretty competitive, something i'm not used to, but it's sooooooooo much fun. i suffered a minor injury when a guy i was marking pivoted and stomped on my left foot. it seemed fine during the game, but afterwards my big toe was hurtin' pretty bad. we wear cleats cause the field is this turf type surface and mine are really old and probably not protective enough. as long as i'm all good for the next game, i don't really care.
in addition to playing ultimate last night, i got to go rock climbing today. i hadn't been in quite a while, and today i realized again how awesome it is and how i need to go more often. my friend matt, who is an undergrad trombone music ed major who's starting his student teaching next semester, and i went to this indoor place called 'hoosier heights.' it was in this old steel wharehouse type building in the middle of nowhere. they don't heat the place, so it was a bit cold in there, but once you got climbing, it wasn't so bad. i started on a 5.6 (fairly easy) and then climbed a 5.7, 5.8, and a 5.9, all without falling. i basically decided i was gonna keep going up in difficulty until i got to where i couldn't get to the top without falling off the wall. i met my match on a 5.10. i think i fell off about 5 times before getting half way up. it was pretty challenging. my forearms are wicked sore right now too.
i hope you are all enjoying the snow you're receiving as i type this. i'm pretty jealous, i'm not gonna lie. those with digital cameras should probably send me pictures of it, or at least post them on facebook. i miss snow and just northern winters in general. and since i'm not gonna make it home for christmas, i could use some photographic reminders of what it looks like :-)
ok, as always, i hope you all are well.
love,
james
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
back to it
thanksgiving recap:
went home to duluth
saw the fam
saw the dog
saw some snow
ate some food
the end.
it was pretty uneventful. i guess the weirdest part about it was that it was relaxing, but i didn't really feel like i needed that. when i think back on the weeks leading up to the break, i really should have needed a break, but i just didn't. instead it now feels like i was gaining momentum in a lot of things, then i had a week off, and now i feel lost. kinda like i forgot about all the things i had been working on and along with it, the motivation to work on them. hopefully it all comes back to me soon.
so i get to leave in about an hour to go get a physical. yay. i guess the cruise ships want to make sure you're healthy before you get on their disease infested ships. i'm kidding. i'm sure they're not disease infested, but the stigma is out there at least. i guess it's like how you can get sick when you fly because there's people from all over in a confined space. my dad told me that i had better get a flu shot before i leave. yeah, cause those are fun...
welp, all this writing (cause i've written so much...) has made me hungry and that leftover pizza in the fridge is calling my name so i'm gonna go shut it up.
love,
james
ps - i really need to quit eating pizza and get back to going to the gym...
went home to duluth
saw the fam
saw the dog
saw some snow
ate some food
the end.
it was pretty uneventful. i guess the weirdest part about it was that it was relaxing, but i didn't really feel like i needed that. when i think back on the weeks leading up to the break, i really should have needed a break, but i just didn't. instead it now feels like i was gaining momentum in a lot of things, then i had a week off, and now i feel lost. kinda like i forgot about all the things i had been working on and along with it, the motivation to work on them. hopefully it all comes back to me soon.
so i get to leave in about an hour to go get a physical. yay. i guess the cruise ships want to make sure you're healthy before you get on their disease infested ships. i'm kidding. i'm sure they're not disease infested, but the stigma is out there at least. i guess it's like how you can get sick when you fly because there's people from all over in a confined space. my dad told me that i had better get a flu shot before i leave. yeah, cause those are fun...
welp, all this writing (cause i've written so much...) has made me hungry and that leftover pizza in the fridge is calling my name so i'm gonna go shut it up.
love,
james
ps - i really need to quit eating pizza and get back to going to the gym...
Friday, November 16, 2007
lunch anyone?
i know this is a long shot, but i'm going to be hangin' in the mpls airport for a while on monday afternoon waiting for my dad to pick me up, so if anyone is around and wants to meet up, i'm game. i'm gonna pack as light as i can (hopefully just my horn and one suitcase) so i could possibly try finding the train that takes me to the mall of america. my flight arrives at 12:45 and my dad probably won't get there till 3ish so if you're in town and are hungry, lemmeno. otherwise, i'll probably just sit on my lappy and blog about how i wish i was having lunch with someone.
oh, and if anyone is going to be in duluth or wants to come up to visit, i'll be there till saturday. i probably can't travel too far to see people since i haven't been home since christmas and i'm not going to be home for christmas this year. mom would probably be upset if i left town. so would the dog. anyways, hit me up if ya wanna hang.
love,
james
ps - i guess it could be possible for me to grab a bite on saturday before my flight back to indiana if i got to the cities early enough. my flight is at 7 something so if that's an option for anyone, let me know :-)
oh, and if anyone is going to be in duluth or wants to come up to visit, i'll be there till saturday. i probably can't travel too far to see people since i haven't been home since christmas and i'm not going to be home for christmas this year. mom would probably be upset if i left town. so would the dog. anyways, hit me up if ya wanna hang.
love,
james
ps - i guess it could be possible for me to grab a bite on saturday before my flight back to indiana if i got to the cities early enough. my flight is at 7 something so if that's an option for anyone, let me know :-)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
whoops
i think i mentioned in an earlier post that i'd be taking an audition for carnival cruise lines and possibly sailing over my winter break. well, that audition happened today, and i must say, i'm quite embarassed. basically what happened was i played about as well as an 8th grade girl and they offered me a job. colin won't tell you how bad it was because he's a nice guy, but it was bad. they e-mailed me the music an hour before the audition and i practiced it and got some of it sounding okay, but by the time they called, i was a little fatigued and hadn't gotten some of the high stuff worked out. when i was playing i was missing a lot of partials and when that happens, there really isn't much you can do to get the notes and rhythms. i think i'm sailing on the carnival ship 'pride' from dec. 17 - 30 or something like that, which, according to their website, travels from la to the mexican riviera and back.. i don't have a contract or anything but i think that's what he told me. anyways, i've got a hella ton of work to do before i fly out for this thing. i know it's a heavy reading gig and i seriously have to get my act together in order to not be fired. colin told me afterwards that i probably would have played a little better on my bass (and i think he's right), but still, that sh*t was unacceptable.
speakin' of gettin' it together, i really should head off to practiceland. i'm reading some quartets tomorrow morning with ellefson (one of the trombone profs), a doctoral student, and another masters student and i know some of the music is written in tenor clef for me. note: don't write tenor clef for bass trombone players because we don't like it. damn you telemann.
alwighty... hope you all are well and happy.
love,
james
ps - did i really just say colin was a nice guy???
speakin' of gettin' it together, i really should head off to practiceland. i'm reading some quartets tomorrow morning with ellefson (one of the trombone profs), a doctoral student, and another masters student and i know some of the music is written in tenor clef for me. note: don't write tenor clef for bass trombone players because we don't like it. damn you telemann.
alwighty... hope you all are well and happy.
love,
james
ps - did i really just say colin was a nice guy???
Thursday, November 08, 2007
ya know what's annoying?
so i get up this morning and hop in the shower, only to realize that the new bottle of shampoo i bought was actually a bottle of conditioner disguised as a bottle of shampoo. f.
oh well. happy thursday everyone.
love,
james
ps - colin, i used your shampoo this morning.
oh well. happy thursday everyone.
love,
james
ps - colin, i used your shampoo this morning.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
gene kelley gets funky
i posted this vid on facebook, but it's so friggen sweet, it bears repeating on the ol' blog.
oh, and if you haven't seen the original, it's f'n amazing. so go find it.
anyways, i haven't written in a few days so i figured it's time to give the people what they want. let's see, what's new?
this friday colin and i will be going to chicago for a blues/blackhawks game. i'm really looking forward to it. not only do i get to leave b-town for a bit, but i get to road trip it with my favorite boy and see a sweet hockey game. i haven't been to a hockey game probably since high school, which is completely unacceptable. i only wish a decent team were playing, like detroit, but oh well.
also looking ahead, i've got an audition coming up with carnival cruise lines next wednesday. i'm hopin' all goes well because it'd be nice to try something like that. i mean, it 100% blows that i wouldn't get to spend christmas with my family (and my dog :-( ) but i need to make some money, play my horn, and put myself back in a situation out of my comfort zone. wish me luck!
i guess that's about it in the world of james for now. school is going well and if i can just get my butt back to the gym, i will have recovered from my insane week of recitals/concerts.
hope ya enjoyed the vid, and until next time, refrigerators, bunny rabbits, and coffee beans!
love,
james
oh, and if you haven't seen the original, it's f'n amazing. so go find it.
anyways, i haven't written in a few days so i figured it's time to give the people what they want. let's see, what's new?
this friday colin and i will be going to chicago for a blues/blackhawks game. i'm really looking forward to it. not only do i get to leave b-town for a bit, but i get to road trip it with my favorite boy and see a sweet hockey game. i haven't been to a hockey game probably since high school, which is completely unacceptable. i only wish a decent team were playing, like detroit, but oh well.
also looking ahead, i've got an audition coming up with carnival cruise lines next wednesday. i'm hopin' all goes well because it'd be nice to try something like that. i mean, it 100% blows that i wouldn't get to spend christmas with my family (and my dog :-( ) but i need to make some money, play my horn, and put myself back in a situation out of my comfort zone. wish me luck!
i guess that's about it in the world of james for now. school is going well and if i can just get my butt back to the gym, i will have recovered from my insane week of recitals/concerts.
hope ya enjoyed the vid, and until next time, refrigerators, bunny rabbits, and coffee beans!
love,
james
Friday, November 02, 2007
thewheelsonthebusgoroundandround
feelin' a lil better today. last night was round one of the concerto competition and i was really happy with my performance. i didn't advance, and i didn't even get 'honorable mention' but i dunno, i guess it doesn't even bother me because of how great it felt to play the way i did. it was for sure the best performance since i've been here and it's not even close. the nerves decided they were gonna stay home and watch 1930s musicals while eating cucumbers and banana bread instead of come to the performance class and mess with my head. for that, i thank them. as for not advancing or even getting the slightest hint of recognition for playing well, i just don't give a damn. i know i played the hell out of that concerto and i had fun doing it and that's really all that matters. can i play it better in the future? sure. but last night i exceeded my own expectations and it feels awesome. so yay.
why else do i feel better today? because its as;ldkfj'n friday! i'm pretty sure friday was the best day ever invented and mr. friday should get honorable mention for thinking it up. i just got back from my only class of the day and the only thing i have to do tonight is play at my teacher's recital. when i got back from class i tried to wake colin up to go to bob evans but he wouldn't budge. colin, you suck. i'm hungry and you need to wake up. it's f'n 11am and my belly wants a delicious bob evans omelette and you are depriving it. congratulations jerk. i hope you're having an awful dream with lots of bears attacking you.
i'm just kidding. but not really.
okay, i guess i'm gonna go make some oatmeal and watch the new episode of the office on my lappy. happy friday everyone.
love,
semaj
why else do i feel better today? because its as;ldkfj'n friday! i'm pretty sure friday was the best day ever invented and mr. friday should get honorable mention for thinking it up. i just got back from my only class of the day and the only thing i have to do tonight is play at my teacher's recital. when i got back from class i tried to wake colin up to go to bob evans but he wouldn't budge. colin, you suck. i'm hungry and you need to wake up. it's f'n 11am and my belly wants a delicious bob evans omelette and you are depriving it. congratulations jerk. i hope you're having an awful dream with lots of bears attacking you.
i'm just kidding. but not really.
okay, i guess i'm gonna go make some oatmeal and watch the new episode of the office on my lappy. happy friday everyone.
love,
semaj
Thursday, November 01, 2007
if you're gonna spew, spew into this
warning, this post will probably contain nothing positive.
you know you're having a rough day when it feels like your stupid internet blog is your best friend. i remember back in high school when i had an amazing friend, matt, who i could tell anything to and he always could either cheer me up or at least sympathize in a way that made me feel okay about whatever it was that was bothering me. between him and the girl that i was dating at the time, i was never without someone i could talk to.
things seem quite different now. i definitely feel like i'm all on my own. i know i have friends, and i know a lot of them care about me very much and if i told them i really needed someone to talk to they'd be there for me. i guess it's just those rare people that have a way of making you not ask for someone to talk to that i'm missing right now. like my blog. my blog isn't asking me if i need someone to talk to. somehow, it just knows that today is not james' happiest day ever and it's gonna let me spew all my problems onto it without making me feel bad about spewing.
i mentioned the other day that my horn is no longer doin' it for me. well, my teacher reminded me of that again today during a dress rehearsal we were having for his recital. colin and many others have said it as well that i sound so much better on this other horn was playing. if i wanted to put a positive spin on it, i would say that it's a good thing that i can sound much better by simply playing a different piece of equipment. the negative side, and the more daunting side of this whole problem, is that i seriously have no money for a new horn. new bass trombones are upwards of $5000. if i sold my car and my current horn it would still not cover the cost of a new instrument. so, it's not like i'm helpless right? i just need to find a way to afford this. yeah, but the hard part of this is that everyday i don't have the money for a new horn, i'm playing on my current one, knowing i could sound better on something else. and not only do i know it, but so do the people listening to me. it's hard to play music with those thoughts going through my head and it's hard to get those thoughts out of my head. alsdkfj;asdlkfja;lfkj
yeah, so, i'm pretty realistic about life and i know that music isn't everything, so obviously i'm not going to let that whole thing bring me down everyday on it's own. other things have been eating away at me too.
i really just need to go play frisbee or take a walk or something...
thanks for reading.
love,
james
you know you're having a rough day when it feels like your stupid internet blog is your best friend. i remember back in high school when i had an amazing friend, matt, who i could tell anything to and he always could either cheer me up or at least sympathize in a way that made me feel okay about whatever it was that was bothering me. between him and the girl that i was dating at the time, i was never without someone i could talk to.
things seem quite different now. i definitely feel like i'm all on my own. i know i have friends, and i know a lot of them care about me very much and if i told them i really needed someone to talk to they'd be there for me. i guess it's just those rare people that have a way of making you not ask for someone to talk to that i'm missing right now. like my blog. my blog isn't asking me if i need someone to talk to. somehow, it just knows that today is not james' happiest day ever and it's gonna let me spew all my problems onto it without making me feel bad about spewing.
i mentioned the other day that my horn is no longer doin' it for me. well, my teacher reminded me of that again today during a dress rehearsal we were having for his recital. colin and many others have said it as well that i sound so much better on this other horn was playing. if i wanted to put a positive spin on it, i would say that it's a good thing that i can sound much better by simply playing a different piece of equipment. the negative side, and the more daunting side of this whole problem, is that i seriously have no money for a new horn. new bass trombones are upwards of $5000. if i sold my car and my current horn it would still not cover the cost of a new instrument. so, it's not like i'm helpless right? i just need to find a way to afford this. yeah, but the hard part of this is that everyday i don't have the money for a new horn, i'm playing on my current one, knowing i could sound better on something else. and not only do i know it, but so do the people listening to me. it's hard to play music with those thoughts going through my head and it's hard to get those thoughts out of my head. alsdkfj;asdlkfja;lfkj
yeah, so, i'm pretty realistic about life and i know that music isn't everything, so obviously i'm not going to let that whole thing bring me down everyday on it's own. other things have been eating away at me too.
i really just need to go play frisbee or take a walk or something...
thanks for reading.
love,
james
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
i think it's a joke...
so i just got done with my presentation in that film class. the teacher loved it, or so it seemed. and ya know what i did to prepare for it? hardly a thing. i went to bed last night early (12:30, which is early for me) because i was pretty tired having only watched the movie and done nothing else in preparation. so i set my alarm for 5:30 so i could wake up and figure something out. well, i snoozed it until about 7:30 (class was at 9:30), took a shower, sat down at the ol' keyboard, turned the movie on, quickly transcribed the melody of 'honeymoon hotel' from busby berkley's 'footlight parade' and decided i was going to talk about how the song could pretty much serve any kind of spectacle you wanted to put on the screen. it really has no defining melodic or harmonic movement or rhythmic characteristics but serves really well as 'scaffolding' for which pretty much anything can be built on top of. i thought it was a pretty bs point but the prof liked it so that's all that matters. seems like the less effort i put in, the better grade i'll get. fantastic. (i actually think it's sad)
anyways, i really don't have time to be writing right now. i really need to practice my concerto competition piece before my orchestra rehearsal cause immediately after that i'm rehearsing with my pianist. and immediately after that i'm going to a concert, then to a help session for my improv class which gets me to 10:30 and the day is over. tomorrow is no better. neither is thursday. a;lsdfjkals;dkfj
hopefully you all aren't as busy as me this week, cause it's bummin' me out. if you are, then yay, we can commiserate together. have a good week!
love,
james
anyways, i really don't have time to be writing right now. i really need to practice my concerto competition piece before my orchestra rehearsal cause immediately after that i'm rehearsing with my pianist. and immediately after that i'm going to a concert, then to a help session for my improv class which gets me to 10:30 and the day is over. tomorrow is no better. neither is thursday. a;lsdfjkals;dkfj
hopefully you all aren't as busy as me this week, cause it's bummin' me out. if you are, then yay, we can commiserate together. have a good week!
love,
james
Saturday, October 27, 2007
who are you people?
remember that time when i was a freshman and i thought i knew everything? like how i thought edwards bass trombones were the best horns out there and absolutely nothing would sound better than them? yeah, well, turns out my horn sucks and it's taken me this long to realize it. basically, the gist of the story is that i sent my horn out for repairs and while it was away, i played one of the school's instruments and found out it was better than mine. i sent mine away because my valves leaked and my slide wasn't so great. while it was gone, i played on the conn 62h that the school owns. at this time, my lessons started going really well and my playing was improving. many people were telling my that they were noticing a huge improvement (and most of them didn't even realize i was playing a different horn). my horn finally came back and i was anxious to figure out if i was actually improving or if the school horn was the reason i was sounding better. to my sadness, it was, in fact, the horn. i guess i should have prefaced this by saying that i'm a firm believer that the instrument doesn't make the musician. i by no means blame my instrument for holding me back or anything stupid like that, but wow, is there a difference between these two instruments. and ya know what really sucks? i have no money to spend on a new trombone. time to save my pennies i guess... if any of you win the lottery and have a soft spot in your heart for the bass trombone, lemmeno.
ok, end trombone talk.
time to tell you about that time strangers came into our apartment...
(so) i got back to the apartment after going to the gym today and i was in the kitchen makin' my protein shake (yummy!) and i noticed a car out in the parking lot that i didn't recognize with two women in it. i say i didn't recognize it bc our parking lot is really small and all the cars look familiar now. anyways, they were looking up at me through the window so i kinda stepped behind the refrigerator as i was not wearing a shirt. why wasn't i wearing a shirt you ask? because i had just gotten done at the gym and i like to take it off and admire how huge my muscles are after working out, obviously. actually, the real reason is because it was a lil warm in the apartment and i was about to take a shower. but i digress. after getting out of view of the window i hear a knock at the door. i have no shirt on and colin is sitting at the table in his boxers (yeah, come visit us sometime...) so i yell, 'be right there,' run to my room, grab a shirt, and open the door to find a lady who seems just a bit younger than my mom standing there. she explains to me that she used to live in this apartment like 15 years ago and was wondering if her and her friend (who was her roommate in this apartment) could come in and see the place. awkward, but, okay, whatevs. so they come in and are lookin around and talkin' about how the carpet was new when they lived here because they did something to the old floor and how there used to be a really bad cockroach problem and yadda yadda. then, they go into my room... at this point, it hits me, what the f is going on? colin is still sitting at the table in his boxers and i'm in the kitchen and there are two middle aged women in my bedroom. then it gets interesting when one of them starts talking about what she did in that bedroom, which then prompts the other to start talking about what (and by what, i mean whom) she did in colin's bedroom. after a few awkward laughs they realize how creepy they are being and leave. congratulations bloomington. just when i thought the weirdness was coming to end you send those people to our door. awesome.
i'm sure colin will tell you all about it from his point of view in his blog.
ok, i'm done now. and what have you learned from all of this? hopefully nothing.
love,
james
ok, end trombone talk.
time to tell you about that time strangers came into our apartment...
(so) i got back to the apartment after going to the gym today and i was in the kitchen makin' my protein shake (yummy!) and i noticed a car out in the parking lot that i didn't recognize with two women in it. i say i didn't recognize it bc our parking lot is really small and all the cars look familiar now. anyways, they were looking up at me through the window so i kinda stepped behind the refrigerator as i was not wearing a shirt. why wasn't i wearing a shirt you ask? because i had just gotten done at the gym and i like to take it off and admire how huge my muscles are after working out, obviously. actually, the real reason is because it was a lil warm in the apartment and i was about to take a shower. but i digress. after getting out of view of the window i hear a knock at the door. i have no shirt on and colin is sitting at the table in his boxers (yeah, come visit us sometime...) so i yell, 'be right there,' run to my room, grab a shirt, and open the door to find a lady who seems just a bit younger than my mom standing there. she explains to me that she used to live in this apartment like 15 years ago and was wondering if her and her friend (who was her roommate in this apartment) could come in and see the place. awkward, but, okay, whatevs. so they come in and are lookin around and talkin' about how the carpet was new when they lived here because they did something to the old floor and how there used to be a really bad cockroach problem and yadda yadda. then, they go into my room... at this point, it hits me, what the f is going on? colin is still sitting at the table in his boxers and i'm in the kitchen and there are two middle aged women in my bedroom. then it gets interesting when one of them starts talking about what she did in that bedroom, which then prompts the other to start talking about what (and by what, i mean whom) she did in colin's bedroom. after a few awkward laughs they realize how creepy they are being and leave. congratulations bloomington. just when i thought the weirdness was coming to end you send those people to our door. awesome.
i'm sure colin will tell you all about it from his point of view in his blog.
ok, i'm done now. and what have you learned from all of this? hopefully nothing.
love,
james
Friday, October 26, 2007
thesis? who needs it?
so i just got done reading the 'model paper' my professor posted for us all to read. definitely no thesis in that opening paragraph. i dunno, i could go on about what i thought of it but what good does that do anyone? probably none. i'm not the quitter type, but i think i'm gonna surrender and do the educational thing and just kiss ass more in this class. i clearly wasted a copious amount of time studying the score in the library, doing research, and thinking about my paper way too much. i have a feeling i also wasted quite a bit of time preparing for my presentation, so i'm done doin' that. for the remainder of the semester, every ounce of effort for this class will come straight out of my ass in the form of bull shit. wait, that'd have to come out of a bull's ass wouldn't it. damn. i lose again.
well, what do you want to hear about now? hmm...
oh, i know, you want to hear all about how much ass i kicked in sight singing today. yeah, i got done singing this thing all by myself and the teacher literally stood up from the piano, threw his arms in the air, and cheered. yeah. i rule. oh, and it wasn't because it was the first time i sang something correctly but because i was the first person in 5 groups he had already heard that morning that sang it right. so go me. does that sound braggy? i hope so, because it's supposed to. i'm the f'n man. actually, if i was the f'n man, i would have passed the entrance exam in the first place. whoops.
ok, i've got a rehearsal in half an hour followed by another rehearsal after that with some super famous conductor fella. his name is herbert blomstedt and i think he conducted san francisco at one time. he's supposed to be amazing so i'm looking forward to it. i love brahms 2 as well so it should be fun as long as the strings don't decide to be bishes.
hope all is well with y'all.
love,
james
well, what do you want to hear about now? hmm...
oh, i know, you want to hear all about how much ass i kicked in sight singing today. yeah, i got done singing this thing all by myself and the teacher literally stood up from the piano, threw his arms in the air, and cheered. yeah. i rule. oh, and it wasn't because it was the first time i sang something correctly but because i was the first person in 5 groups he had already heard that morning that sang it right. so go me. does that sound braggy? i hope so, because it's supposed to. i'm the f'n man. actually, if i was the f'n man, i would have passed the entrance exam in the first place. whoops.
ok, i've got a rehearsal in half an hour followed by another rehearsal after that with some super famous conductor fella. his name is herbert blomstedt and i think he conducted san francisco at one time. he's supposed to be amazing so i'm looking forward to it. i love brahms 2 as well so it should be fun as long as the strings don't decide to be bishes.
hope all is well with y'all.
love,
james
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