A lot of things have happened since I last blogged. Here are a few of them:
1) Went up to Sioux Falls with Lisa to visit Matt. He is living in a crappy apartment that smells like mold. He should get out of there. We saw the actual falls up there. There were a lot of hills, too.
2) Went to Cherry county to the grand lake called Merritt Reservoir. It was neat. Lisa's kin was there, and so was I. And so was Matt. He made a venture there from Sioux Falls. We rode the jetski and fished and had a heck of a time. It was a riot.
3) Roguing. I have been roguing. It is not as fun as it was the first week. I used to be all allstar on everyone, finishing way ahead of everyone, but now I just sort of slum through the field. I need some kind of motivation!
4) I thinkI am going to run the Long Beach Marathon in October. The LBC, that's where it's at. I started a little training program that is going good so far.
5) Little computer that I am using right now! It's really small, like something that you could put in your purse or in your coat. The keyboard took some getting used to, though, because all the keys are mashed together so you have to go all dainty-like when typing.
July 08, 2009
June 05, 2009
Detasseling, Beaver
I am going to detassel this summer. I am also going to hoe and rogue, which comes before detasseling.
For those of you who do not know what these things are, let me tell you.
Detassel, that means to be a male stripper. I am going to strip off my clothes for money.
Hoe, that means to get hoes, to prostitute your body. I am going to prostitute my body.
Rogue, that means flip out and start shooting the bad guys with your uzi. I am going to take out the bad guys.
•••••
No, it was all a joke! I am not going to strip off my clothes, or prostitute my body, or take out the bad guys.
•••••
Detassel means to take the tassel off the corn. De-tassel. It is simple enough to understand. The reason for detasseling is so that corn will not pollinate. Actually, I really don't know.
Hoe, that means to go and hoe the corn out of the middle of the row. If it is not growing on the little mound, if it is growing in the trough instead, hoe it out of there!
Rogue, that means to get the rogues out of there. The corn that looks weird. No one wants rogue corn mating with the rest. Get the rogues out of there!
•••••
Was that a simple enough explanation?
•••••
I watched a documentary about beavers. They are clever little creatures. They also make funny noises. I saw a tree fall on a beaver, and it let out a sound. It was not harmed. I saw a bear chase after a beaver. The beaver got away. A bear is not that fast, I guess.
For those of you who do not know what these things are, let me tell you.
Detassel, that means to be a male stripper. I am going to strip off my clothes for money.
Hoe, that means to get hoes, to prostitute your body. I am going to prostitute my body.
Rogue, that means flip out and start shooting the bad guys with your uzi. I am going to take out the bad guys.
•••••
No, it was all a joke! I am not going to strip off my clothes, or prostitute my body, or take out the bad guys.
•••••
Detassel means to take the tassel off the corn. De-tassel. It is simple enough to understand. The reason for detasseling is so that corn will not pollinate. Actually, I really don't know.
Hoe, that means to go and hoe the corn out of the middle of the row. If it is not growing on the little mound, if it is growing in the trough instead, hoe it out of there!
Rogue, that means to get the rogues out of there. The corn that looks weird. No one wants rogue corn mating with the rest. Get the rogues out of there!
•••••
Was that a simple enough explanation?
•••••
I watched a documentary about beavers. They are clever little creatures. They also make funny noises. I saw a tree fall on a beaver, and it let out a sound. It was not harmed. I saw a bear chase after a beaver. The beaver got away. A bear is not that fast, I guess.
May 20, 2009
Hello to you, young Larks!
Hello!
This Wednesday Octover 3. The Day of the Wednes. Wens. Wensday.
My name, as you know, is spelled like it sounds: C-H-R-L-S. Vowels, they are mythological. Like pneumonia. Like a unicorn horn.
The unicorn horn, it was actually a tusk of a narwhal. Narwhal. It means "corpse whale" in the great language called Norse.
Norse, what it is is a horse that lives in the north. Like north as in Kansas, as in Venezula, as in a rampart. A donut-paraguay. Parkay. The butter.
And so, with the greatest excitement bursting forth from my self, like a dragon busting a claw through a piece of romaine lettuce, you know it. You know it:
Jello pudding.
This Wednesday Octover 3. The Day of the Wednes. Wens. Wensday.
My name, as you know, is spelled like it sounds: C-H-R-L-S. Vowels, they are mythological. Like pneumonia. Like a unicorn horn.
The unicorn horn, it was actually a tusk of a narwhal. Narwhal. It means "corpse whale" in the great language called Norse.
Norse, what it is is a horse that lives in the north. Like north as in Kansas, as in Venezula, as in a rampart. A donut-paraguay. Parkay. The butter.
And so, with the greatest excitement bursting forth from my self, like a dragon busting a claw through a piece of romaine lettuce, you know it. You know it:
Jello pudding.
May 10, 2009
Dragon and Romaine.
There was a dragon. The dragon was a reddish color. A reddish-orangish-blue-color. The color of cool-aid mixed with jello.
There was a not dragon. The not dragon was not a reddish color. It was green. It was known among the locals as a piece of lettuce. Romaine, to be exact.
•••••
Dragon flares up his hide, the romaine, it whips out a can of whoop-ass, known among the bakers as a can of froth. The froth, it is sprayed upon the flared hide of the dragon. There is smoke. Smoke from the dragon's nostrils and smoke from where the froth froths upon the dragon's reddish-orangish-blue-colored hide. The dragon delivers a package to the piece of lettuce via Federal Express. The package is sent right that instant and is opened right that instant.
•••••
Inside, little crawlies you probably know by the name as jungle-ohs. The jungle-ohs, they are skilled in playing instruments from the Medieval period. The lute, the oboe. The jungle-ohs, they rear back on three of their nine hind feet, they blow into the lute and strum the oboe, and then there are fireworks.
•••••
Oh my oh my my oh my! says the romaine as it sees the fireworks being strummed forth from the jungle-ohs. How grandiose! How spectacular!
•••••
Dragon then smiles at the piece of romaine, laps at the green skin of the lettuce with a tongue that is of the color of the color of blueish-greenish-gray-lemur-mexicano. Romaine likes it and purrs. There is cuddling and drinking of papaya nectar. There is ceremony.
(this is all some random stuff written because there was nothing written on my blog for a while. You may like it, you may not. I like to eat oranges, when they are ripe.)
There was a not dragon. The not dragon was not a reddish color. It was green. It was known among the locals as a piece of lettuce. Romaine, to be exact.
•••••
Dragon flares up his hide, the romaine, it whips out a can of whoop-ass, known among the bakers as a can of froth. The froth, it is sprayed upon the flared hide of the dragon. There is smoke. Smoke from the dragon's nostrils and smoke from where the froth froths upon the dragon's reddish-orangish-blue-colored hide. The dragon delivers a package to the piece of lettuce via Federal Express. The package is sent right that instant and is opened right that instant.
•••••
Inside, little crawlies you probably know by the name as jungle-ohs. The jungle-ohs, they are skilled in playing instruments from the Medieval period. The lute, the oboe. The jungle-ohs, they rear back on three of their nine hind feet, they blow into the lute and strum the oboe, and then there are fireworks.
•••••
Oh my oh my my oh my! says the romaine as it sees the fireworks being strummed forth from the jungle-ohs. How grandiose! How spectacular!
•••••
Dragon then smiles at the piece of romaine, laps at the green skin of the lettuce with a tongue that is of the color of the color of blueish-greenish-gray-lemur-mexicano. Romaine likes it and purrs. There is cuddling and drinking of papaya nectar. There is ceremony.
(this is all some random stuff written because there was nothing written on my blog for a while. You may like it, you may not. I like to eat oranges, when they are ripe.)
May 05, 2009
Short Song
Anton and I made a short song today. I play a guitar riff like 77 times, and he plays a solo on the trumpet.
April 25, 2009
Cal Arts vs. Boston
Hmm...I could choose to go to either Cal Arts or the Boston Conservatory.
Well, the clarinet instructor from Cal Arts emailed to tell me I was accepted, called me a day later, and now this other person is trying to get me some more money, and two others are trying to arrange some other stuff. The clarinet instructor has called me many times since, and the lady who is helping me with financial aid stuff has left a couple messages. When I emailed someone else, they called back about 5 minutes later.
The Boston Conservatory...they haven't sent me out any information. All I got was an email saying that I was accepted. I called to see if they got my paperwork straightened out, and the dude said that he would get back to me. That was last week. I don't think they are going to get back to me.
Not that I care...
Because I was pretty sure all along that Cal Arts was going to be the place I went to...even back in January before the auditions...that's where I thought I would go, and that's where I am (fortunately) going.
Basically, The Boston Conservatory is the equivalent of The University of Maryland's Creative Writing Program: none of those two will ever get back to you!
Well, the clarinet instructor from Cal Arts emailed to tell me I was accepted, called me a day later, and now this other person is trying to get me some more money, and two others are trying to arrange some other stuff. The clarinet instructor has called me many times since, and the lady who is helping me with financial aid stuff has left a couple messages. When I emailed someone else, they called back about 5 minutes later.
The Boston Conservatory...they haven't sent me out any information. All I got was an email saying that I was accepted. I called to see if they got my paperwork straightened out, and the dude said that he would get back to me. That was last week. I don't think they are going to get back to me.
Not that I care...
Because I was pretty sure all along that Cal Arts was going to be the place I went to...even back in January before the auditions...that's where I thought I would go, and that's where I am (fortunately) going.
Basically, The Boston Conservatory is the equivalent of The University of Maryland's Creative Writing Program: none of those two will ever get back to you!
April 01, 2009
Magic Tractor, Trip, Barken
What happened to the magic tractor? It drove down the road and turned into a field.
Ha ha. That is some funny stuff.
I like that joke. It is good. It makes me smile.
•••••
:)
•••••
Took a trip with Lisa to West Virginia and Maryland. She was visiting schools. Turns out WVU is not as good as it seemed, and Maryland is better.
•••••
The people with who we stayed had greyhounds. Evidently, this specie of dog rarely barks. I got barked at.
•••••
Or is it "barken" as in "I got barken at by the greyhound."
Ha ha. That is some funny stuff.
I like that joke. It is good. It makes me smile.
•••••
:)
•••••
Took a trip with Lisa to West Virginia and Maryland. She was visiting schools. Turns out WVU is not as good as it seemed, and Maryland is better.
•••••
The people with who we stayed had greyhounds. Evidently, this specie of dog rarely barks. I got barked at.
•••••
Or is it "barken" as in "I got barken at by the greyhound."
January 27, 2009
California Trip
I was fortunate enough to take a trip to California with Lisa a couple weeks ago. 4 days, 4 nights. I am fortunate that:
1) I had money
2) I had time
It is good that I had some money to pay for an airline ticket and other fun stuff while in California. It is good that I only work part time. It is easy for me to arrange my schedule so that I can go do fun stuff once and a while.
•••••
The main purpose of the trip, for me, was to audition for the California Institute of the Arts. Lisa's main purpose was to see her best friend Katherine, who lives in Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento. Since my audition was in Berkley (about 1.5 hours from Sacramento), Lisa and I stayed with Katherine.
•••••
Tuesday.
The trip began on Tuesday afternoon, when Lisa picked me up and we drove to Omaha to stay with Lisa's friend Gretchen. Before getting onto the interstate, Lisa and I bought some chocolate and some scratch tickets. I also ate a whole box of some Special K bars. In Omaha, we went to eat at The Michael's, a Mexican restaurant in the Old Market. Too bad they didn't give us free chips and sals.
•••••
Wednesday.
Lisa and I had to get up at 5 am. We ate some granola bars. I had to clear off the ice from the window's, so Lisa suggested I use some de-icing spray. It didn't work that great. A half mile later I had to stop the car and get out to scrape the ice.
Good flights. In the Denver airport we got some kind of breakfast calzone. There was a Mexican place, too, where we decided to go on our way back. It was awesome to see the mountains as we flew over them. Clear skies pretty much the whole way.
Got to Sacramento. Katherine and her brother picked us up at the airport. Went back to their house. Did some stuff. I did about an hour of practicing while Katherine and Lisa went somewhere. Went to the grocery store with Lisa, Katherine, and her friend Esaw. He is from Honduras and had a cool accent. The grocery store was nice, probably the nicest one I had seen before. Had some cake for snack when we got back. Bummed around and talked for a while. Ate some nice pasta stuff for supper. Watched Ping Pong Playa in the evening.
•••••
Thursday.
Got up. Did some stuff. I don't remember what.
Ended up going into Sacramento to watch the very depressing movie Revolutionary Road. Felt depressed afterward. Drove to the old market area of Sacramento. Walked around for a while deciding where to eat lunch. Ended up going to a place called Fat's. The waiter was out of control. Once he got mad at something, and walked by going "gosh!" Stuff like that. Went to a candy store. Pretty much everything was $3.75 for a half pound. Was planning just to get the free sample, but ended up buying $6 or so on candy. Ate a lot of taffy. Also went to a hat store, where they sold hats.
Went to the capitol building. Stood outside of Arnold Schartenegger's office, hoping that he would come out and we could give him a high five. There were a bunch of news people outside his door, so we thought that something big was going to happen. Unfortunately, Arnold uses a different door, so we didn't see him.
Outside the capitol there are orange trees. Homeless people, or vagrants (as Katherine's mom calls them), collect oranges and eat them, so we decided to do the same thing. I managed to swat one down from a tree. Some others came down, but they fell in the mud, and turned out to be nasty looking, with their cuts spilling out and all.
Found another tree around the side of the building. These we were able to get down. I had to jump and grab at them. We ended up chucking oranges into the tree to get others down.
There was some mud that was hard to see. It was dark. Black mud, it was, just like black ice. Lisa stepped right on it and fell into a sitting position. It was as if she was sitting down for a picnic, except that she fell in some mud. Her right leg was covered. She had to go back into the capitol to clean it off. I walked around outside a bit, hoping that I wouldn't be attacked by a vagrant. I picked a white magnolia for Lisa to make her feel better. It later fell apart.
Got back to Roseville. I don't know what we did later that night.
•••••
Friday.
Woke up and ate some breakfast, probably an English muffin-egg-cheese thing. Then we went to this quarry somewhere and walked around for a while. Esaw and I turned into mountainmen and went down into the pits and clambered around on the rocks. I wanted to find a cave, but did not.
Then we went to a small town, the name of which I have forgotten. There were many little stores. I bought some rocks at one store, and these little pewter figurines of some gold mining people.
After we got back to Roseville, I went for an 8 mile run. Running through the neighborhoods was okay, but when I had to run along a busy road, the quality of the run took a nose dive. Half way through the run it started to mist a little bit. My hands got sort of cold, but it wasn't too bad. The tempterature was in the high 49s, so compared to Nebraska it felt like summer.
In the afteroon, Lisa and Katherine decided to go to the mall. I sensed that it would take them a long time, so I decided to not go and practice instead. But, I couldn't get in the mood to practice, so I just sat and talked to Katherine's parents for a while, then went upstairs and played some Call of Duty with Katherine's brother and his friend. I was sort of out of pracitce, so I didn't do too good.
When Lisa and Katherine finally got back, we went to In and Out, this sweet fast food place that looked like it was right from the 50s. There were only a couple items on the menu: hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, fries, drink, shake. That's the way it should be. Just a few choices. The prices were cheap, too. I got a cheeseburger and fries for just a little over 3 dollars. The place was packed, with mostly loud teenagers. When they left, it suddenly got quiet. Right before we left, I tried to climb a pillar that was outside the building, but couldn't get a grip.
•••••
Saturday.
Audition Day!
Woke up early so we could go to the coast. I had never seen the Pacific. Stopped at a little beach called Muir Beach. Hearing the roar of the ocean is wonderful! Clambered on some rocks while Lisa and Katherine did some other stuff. I ended up climbing up a huge hill, grabbing onto roots and plants so I wouldn't fall and roll into the ocean. Rolling into the ocean would be bad.
Had to leave only about an hour after being at the beach. How sad it was to go! I wanted to stay, to make a tent out of some logs and stuff like that. Maybe live like a wildman. But no...I had to do an audition.
Lisa and Katherine ate Subway, but my stomach did not feel like eating real food. I had a granola bar, I think.
•••••
The Audition.
The audition was in Berkeley, at Maybeck Studio. When I got to the door of the venue, I could see in the window a person playing piano. Evidently he was auditioning. I slowly crept in and looked around for the check in. There were two people over to the right so I went and talked to them. It turned out to be no one from CalArts; it was a girl and her mother, the girl who was auditioning for voice. Evidently, it was rather poorly organized.
For my audition I played the Rossini, Stravinsky, and a piece by Miklos Rozsa (I had already played this piece, so I got it out couple weeks or so before the audition in order to make the requirement of 3 pieces). The audition was incredibly relaxed, and the woman who was listening to the audition treated it as an interview as well. Between pieces she asked me questions and such. All the pieces went great! I started off with the Stravinsky, and the sound of the clarinet was almost captivating as the wood walls, ceiling, and floor made for very impressive acoustics. I think I played it the best I had every played it...and I think the person from CalArts really liked it. When I looked after the piece, she was smiling broadly. The Rossini went well, too. My tonguing had been getting quicker, as I had been practicing the final section at 144 bpm. The Rozsa went pretty good, too, except I sort of messed up on the last measure. It was a quick run from low E to high E, and I somehow managed to overshoot it and end on an F. I blame it on sweaty fingers, but maybe the person from CalArts thought that the piece was supposed to end that way (she is, by the way, the instructor of improvisational techniques).
Last week I drove up to Minneapolis to audition for the Boston Conservatory. I played parts of the Weber Concerto 1 and an etude by Miluccio. During my warmup, I was nailing everything, but during the audition things didn't go as well as planned. Probably 85 or 90% though, so it wasn't all bad. I just didn't feel as good about it as the CalArts audition.
•••••
After the audition I was feeling pretty good and happy.
Then we went into San Francisco and did stuff. There is a lot to say, but I'm not going to say it. Some things we did:
Went to Pier 39
Went to Lombard Street
Went to China Town
Pier 39 had a lot of restaurants and stuff. There were sea lions, also. Lombard Street was really crooked and weird. Fun stuff, it is. China Town had a lot of Chinese people. We went into one grocery-type store and looked at all this weird dried up stuff that looked like skin. I guess people eat it, somehow.
There are a lot of hills. My legs got tired. Some people were running up and down the hill training for something. We passed by a "park" thing...which was basically an area that was all cement and had fences. There was a guy kicking a soccer ball at a wall. Depressing.
For some reason or another, SF was not as great as I expected. Maybe it was because I was hungry and my legs hurt.
I carried Lisa's and Katherine's purses for a while. People probably thought I was a native of SF.
•••••
Drove home. I wanted to go to In and Out again, but was too tired. Woke up and went to the airport and came back to NE.
•••••
Dang, this California trip was awesome! It was incredible! I will need to go back sometime. Truly, yes.
•••••
If there is anyting else you want to know about the trip, please ask me and I will elaborate. Thanks for reading! There will be many more adventures to come!
1) I had money
2) I had time
It is good that I had some money to pay for an airline ticket and other fun stuff while in California. It is good that I only work part time. It is easy for me to arrange my schedule so that I can go do fun stuff once and a while.
•••••
The main purpose of the trip, for me, was to audition for the California Institute of the Arts. Lisa's main purpose was to see her best friend Katherine, who lives in Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento. Since my audition was in Berkley (about 1.5 hours from Sacramento), Lisa and I stayed with Katherine.
•••••
Tuesday.
The trip began on Tuesday afternoon, when Lisa picked me up and we drove to Omaha to stay with Lisa's friend Gretchen. Before getting onto the interstate, Lisa and I bought some chocolate and some scratch tickets. I also ate a whole box of some Special K bars. In Omaha, we went to eat at The Michael's, a Mexican restaurant in the Old Market. Too bad they didn't give us free chips and sals.
•••••
Wednesday.
Lisa and I had to get up at 5 am. We ate some granola bars. I had to clear off the ice from the window's, so Lisa suggested I use some de-icing spray. It didn't work that great. A half mile later I had to stop the car and get out to scrape the ice.
Good flights. In the Denver airport we got some kind of breakfast calzone. There was a Mexican place, too, where we decided to go on our way back. It was awesome to see the mountains as we flew over them. Clear skies pretty much the whole way.
Got to Sacramento. Katherine and her brother picked us up at the airport. Went back to their house. Did some stuff. I did about an hour of practicing while Katherine and Lisa went somewhere. Went to the grocery store with Lisa, Katherine, and her friend Esaw. He is from Honduras and had a cool accent. The grocery store was nice, probably the nicest one I had seen before. Had some cake for snack when we got back. Bummed around and talked for a while. Ate some nice pasta stuff for supper. Watched Ping Pong Playa in the evening.
•••••
Thursday.
Got up. Did some stuff. I don't remember what.
Ended up going into Sacramento to watch the very depressing movie Revolutionary Road. Felt depressed afterward. Drove to the old market area of Sacramento. Walked around for a while deciding where to eat lunch. Ended up going to a place called Fat's. The waiter was out of control. Once he got mad at something, and walked by going "gosh!" Stuff like that. Went to a candy store. Pretty much everything was $3.75 for a half pound. Was planning just to get the free sample, but ended up buying $6 or so on candy. Ate a lot of taffy. Also went to a hat store, where they sold hats.
Went to the capitol building. Stood outside of Arnold Schartenegger's office, hoping that he would come out and we could give him a high five. There were a bunch of news people outside his door, so we thought that something big was going to happen. Unfortunately, Arnold uses a different door, so we didn't see him.
Outside the capitol there are orange trees. Homeless people, or vagrants (as Katherine's mom calls them), collect oranges and eat them, so we decided to do the same thing. I managed to swat one down from a tree. Some others came down, but they fell in the mud, and turned out to be nasty looking, with their cuts spilling out and all.
Found another tree around the side of the building. These we were able to get down. I had to jump and grab at them. We ended up chucking oranges into the tree to get others down.
There was some mud that was hard to see. It was dark. Black mud, it was, just like black ice. Lisa stepped right on it and fell into a sitting position. It was as if she was sitting down for a picnic, except that she fell in some mud. Her right leg was covered. She had to go back into the capitol to clean it off. I walked around outside a bit, hoping that I wouldn't be attacked by a vagrant. I picked a white magnolia for Lisa to make her feel better. It later fell apart.
Got back to Roseville. I don't know what we did later that night.
•••••
Friday.
Woke up and ate some breakfast, probably an English muffin-egg-cheese thing. Then we went to this quarry somewhere and walked around for a while. Esaw and I turned into mountainmen and went down into the pits and clambered around on the rocks. I wanted to find a cave, but did not.
Then we went to a small town, the name of which I have forgotten. There were many little stores. I bought some rocks at one store, and these little pewter figurines of some gold mining people.
After we got back to Roseville, I went for an 8 mile run. Running through the neighborhoods was okay, but when I had to run along a busy road, the quality of the run took a nose dive. Half way through the run it started to mist a little bit. My hands got sort of cold, but it wasn't too bad. The tempterature was in the high 49s, so compared to Nebraska it felt like summer.
In the afteroon, Lisa and Katherine decided to go to the mall. I sensed that it would take them a long time, so I decided to not go and practice instead. But, I couldn't get in the mood to practice, so I just sat and talked to Katherine's parents for a while, then went upstairs and played some Call of Duty with Katherine's brother and his friend. I was sort of out of pracitce, so I didn't do too good.
When Lisa and Katherine finally got back, we went to In and Out, this sweet fast food place that looked like it was right from the 50s. There were only a couple items on the menu: hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, fries, drink, shake. That's the way it should be. Just a few choices. The prices were cheap, too. I got a cheeseburger and fries for just a little over 3 dollars. The place was packed, with mostly loud teenagers. When they left, it suddenly got quiet. Right before we left, I tried to climb a pillar that was outside the building, but couldn't get a grip.
•••••
Saturday.
Audition Day!
Woke up early so we could go to the coast. I had never seen the Pacific. Stopped at a little beach called Muir Beach. Hearing the roar of the ocean is wonderful! Clambered on some rocks while Lisa and Katherine did some other stuff. I ended up climbing up a huge hill, grabbing onto roots and plants so I wouldn't fall and roll into the ocean. Rolling into the ocean would be bad.
Had to leave only about an hour after being at the beach. How sad it was to go! I wanted to stay, to make a tent out of some logs and stuff like that. Maybe live like a wildman. But no...I had to do an audition.
Lisa and Katherine ate Subway, but my stomach did not feel like eating real food. I had a granola bar, I think.
•••••
The Audition.
The audition was in Berkeley, at Maybeck Studio. When I got to the door of the venue, I could see in the window a person playing piano. Evidently he was auditioning. I slowly crept in and looked around for the check in. There were two people over to the right so I went and talked to them. It turned out to be no one from CalArts; it was a girl and her mother, the girl who was auditioning for voice. Evidently, it was rather poorly organized.
For my audition I played the Rossini, Stravinsky, and a piece by Miklos Rozsa (I had already played this piece, so I got it out couple weeks or so before the audition in order to make the requirement of 3 pieces). The audition was incredibly relaxed, and the woman who was listening to the audition treated it as an interview as well. Between pieces she asked me questions and such. All the pieces went great! I started off with the Stravinsky, and the sound of the clarinet was almost captivating as the wood walls, ceiling, and floor made for very impressive acoustics. I think I played it the best I had every played it...and I think the person from CalArts really liked it. When I looked after the piece, she was smiling broadly. The Rossini went well, too. My tonguing had been getting quicker, as I had been practicing the final section at 144 bpm. The Rozsa went pretty good, too, except I sort of messed up on the last measure. It was a quick run from low E to high E, and I somehow managed to overshoot it and end on an F. I blame it on sweaty fingers, but maybe the person from CalArts thought that the piece was supposed to end that way (she is, by the way, the instructor of improvisational techniques).
Last week I drove up to Minneapolis to audition for the Boston Conservatory. I played parts of the Weber Concerto 1 and an etude by Miluccio. During my warmup, I was nailing everything, but during the audition things didn't go as well as planned. Probably 85 or 90% though, so it wasn't all bad. I just didn't feel as good about it as the CalArts audition.
•••••
After the audition I was feeling pretty good and happy.
Then we went into San Francisco and did stuff. There is a lot to say, but I'm not going to say it. Some things we did:
Went to Pier 39
Went to Lombard Street
Went to China Town
Pier 39 had a lot of restaurants and stuff. There were sea lions, also. Lombard Street was really crooked and weird. Fun stuff, it is. China Town had a lot of Chinese people. We went into one grocery-type store and looked at all this weird dried up stuff that looked like skin. I guess people eat it, somehow.
There are a lot of hills. My legs got tired. Some people were running up and down the hill training for something. We passed by a "park" thing...which was basically an area that was all cement and had fences. There was a guy kicking a soccer ball at a wall. Depressing.
For some reason or another, SF was not as great as I expected. Maybe it was because I was hungry and my legs hurt.
I carried Lisa's and Katherine's purses for a while. People probably thought I was a native of SF.
•••••
Drove home. I wanted to go to In and Out again, but was too tired. Woke up and went to the airport and came back to NE.
•••••
Dang, this California trip was awesome! It was incredible! I will need to go back sometime. Truly, yes.
•••••
If there is anyting else you want to know about the trip, please ask me and I will elaborate. Thanks for reading! There will be many more adventures to come!
January 18, 2009
Confused, Glasses
I was confused today. Once, I thought that it was Monday. Later I thought it was Thursday. Then, I thought it was Sunday night.
All wrong. It is Saturday night.
Drugs?
Only if they put some in the Burt's Bees Wax I have been using.
•••••
I hate it in those old movies when there's some librarian chick who wears glasses, then this guy who wants to have sex with her will come up to her and look at her and take her glasses off, then say "you look better this way," and then for the rest of the movie she doesn't wear glasses.
At least you get to see her stumble around a bit, though. Not everything is lost.
All wrong. It is Saturday night.
Drugs?
Only if they put some in the Burt's Bees Wax I have been using.
•••••
I hate it in those old movies when there's some librarian chick who wears glasses, then this guy who wants to have sex with her will come up to her and look at her and take her glasses off, then say "you look better this way," and then for the rest of the movie she doesn't wear glasses.
At least you get to see her stumble around a bit, though. Not everything is lost.
January 15, 2009
Cold
It is cold here. -6 degrees. There is no wind. If there were wind it would be in the -20s, at least. What is this? Minnesota?
January 04, 2009
Rubic's Cube
Rubic's Cube takes up a lot of my time. That's why I haven't been posting lately.
I bought a 3x3 and now, having done it for a month, am ready for the next challenge: a 4x4. After that, a 5x5...eventually, it would be awesome to get up to the 7x7. This is it (it is actually a V-Cube, not a Rubic's Cube):
I bought a 3x3 and now, having done it for a month, am ready for the next challenge: a 4x4. After that, a 5x5...eventually, it would be awesome to get up to the 7x7. This is it (it is actually a V-Cube, not a Rubic's Cube):
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