time to update your links

here is a new post for you to look at and comment on (or whatever).

i have a new page with music and songs and a bunch of really neat stuff. also, new friends' blogs and stuff.

 but really, does anyone seriously even look at this blog anymore?

the new blog

if you haven't been following my other blog, you're in the dark mate.

word

BIG NEWS HERE

it looks funny but it actually says...BIG NEWS HERE

UPDATE

UPDATE

HEY YOU

BIG NEWS HERE

access granted

hello maties.

so i did this in the long forgotten past, but like a phoenix from the ashes i have given a rebirth to a website committed to me. you can find music i've created here and as i develop it further, video, and maybe even one day i will transition my blog over. who knows. i'm feeling crazy.
so bookmark it (if you wanna) because you never know what you may find here!

spring break, the gateway to heaven

in the past three weeks i have had 5 vocal/choir performances. now my voice is on hiatus. they were all fun. then i had a week of finals followed by a string quartet reading of my composition from last term. it was read by a student quartet who hadn't had any opportunity to look at it before hand. so unfortunately it wasn't of the highest quality. although i'd rather have a poor reading as opposed to no reading at all.

then after finals week, Ruth and i went to the coast for the weekend to get a nice break from...whatever. it rained the first couple days and then the sun finally came out on Sunday morning. quite a wonderful end to the weekend.

so now i'm at home at the beginning of the spring break week. already i've finished a song that means nothing...and everything. soon i will finish the final cues to 1 in 9.
i don't know what else.

what i'm doing

right now i'm in the PSU library beginning a paper for cartoon music.
i just finished eating a slice of pizza from pizzacato (yum), and for desert i picked up a fudge brownie and peanut butter cookie, and a "brambleberry" tazo tea to wash it all down.

what are you all doing?

for Ian

so i've been pretty busy lately with school (of course), and haven't done anything out of the ordinary to warrant a blog post. however, my good friend ian asked me to blog because he's bored.

AIGHT.

we just got done with a Brahms Concert which was very fun and was the source of the picture above. (if you want to see a very blurry me, i am in the top row on the very right hand side.)
i also joined another choir at school and was recommended to join a community choir for their performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah on March 11.

for my cartoon music class i have to write a paper analyzing a cartoon. i am choosing a Warner Bros. Cartoon with Carl Stalling as music director, just because i like what i've heard so far. also have to make a 20-30 minute presentation on the birth of sound syncing with motion picture. so that's fun.

and next term is the piano proficiency exam that i must pass or i cannot proceed on course in the music dept. so i have to practice A LOT!

i just recieved a 101 percent on a theory exam...so that's good. and i have for the most part finished my string quartet...just a little polishing and articulations. if i had another quarter to do it, i would change quite a few things. but i think that a string quartet called the "Borodin Quartet" is visting PSU and is going to read student compostitions. that would be muy awesome.

not much else going on here. although i would like to give some props to Battlestar Galactica for being so damn interesting and Lost...for pretty much the same reason.

does anyone have any questions?

also. congratulations to my cousin Lincoln for recieving his nursing license.

school. still fun? of course, what else would it be?

so i am getting quite busy now. i am still only taking fourteen credits, but as i'm sure most if not all of my music friends can attest, it turns out to be closer to 20 (without the actual number showing up either on your transcript or (thankfully) the tuition bill.) however, the time spent on school things is quite disproportionate to what you get credit for.

anyways, i haven't been able to do some of the things i want, or maybe, need to do (sorry Sherwood. i'll get your computer sent out this weekend! i promise.)

so what have i been doing? well i have a choir concert in a week and 3 days. the music we have had in our hands roughly 3 weeks. also, i am composing a string quartet for class. i had a good chunk composed and ready for show and tell. when i ran it by the prof, she encouraged me to re-write with a more modern style. because i am a great fan of all things romantic (i.e. Sibelius, Chopin, Brahms) and not such a big fan of some contemporaries (i.e. Crumb, Messian) i have a much harder time composing in the style.

maybe its not that i'm not a fan, but that i've never taken the time to learn/appreciate that style. right this second i Bartok's 4th string quartet playing and it sounds so foreign to me. non-diatonic just isn't colse to my soul...yet.

it definately isn't the Portland Rep. Singers (that one's for you Buck...where are you?)

so yeah...other than that, just trying to stay on top of homework and everything else. taking a class called cartoon music which is very, very fun and quite enlightening as far as arranging music in that style. it is really crazy and quick paced, i wouldn't mind trying to tackle something like that once or twice!

i will be back in North Dakota / Minnesota over the summer (June 17 - Sept 16) building railroads again (unfortunately for Ruth and myself, but very good for our savings account.) so if any of my compadres are going to be around, and i'm on one of my weekend breaks, lets break some bread or drive downtown with Kelly Clarkson blaring! bocce ball, i don't know, whatever comes up. tattoos? sure, why not?

how's everyone else out there doing?

SNOW DAY. YAY!

Today it snowed in the Portland area. most schools closed right away. mine didn't, however, i decided that i would rather be safe than sorry.
so i drove Ruth to work passing several stalled cars, and city buses (including my own) that were sideways in the road. i'm glad i decided not to go. when i got back home i saw that PSU cancelled their school today too.

what to do, what to do. homework. i have a piano quiz tomorrow, and i am having an abnormal amount of fun composing my string quartet. in 2 weeks we are supposed to have at least 15 measures. i think i can do that. i have 41 so far, but they need a little tweaking.

how's everyone else doing?