Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Killing Time
Graaaaarg (a palindromatic poem):
Grarg.
Argra.
The dinosaur saysyas ruasonid eht.
Mirrored impatience ecneitapmi derorrim.
(unrelated): http://www.qwantz.com/
(further unrelated): DO NOT READ IF RELIGIOUS AND BAD-HUMORED.
With Love,
Joe
Grarg.
Argra.
The dinosaur saysyas ruasonid eht.
Mirrored impatience ecneitapmi derorrim.
(unrelated): http://www.qwantz.com/
(further unrelated): DO NOT READ IF RELIGIOUS AND BAD-HUMORED.
With Love,
Joe
Thursday, March 19, 2009
So here's why I refuse to live without REAL music for the rest of my natural-born life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UbS3WAPPSQ
This is a choral piece that Dr. Ferguson picked out for the Chenoa Easter Vigil (a service which I just started working with). It's a night easter service, and there's a bunch 'o music that some IWU Collegiate Choir men are singing, and we also get paid something like $100 to perform with it.
But this is REAL music. Performed at the highest quality by musicians of the highest caliber. This is what makes me the most happy of anything I've ever experienced in the entire world. Making real music gives me the highest high, more than any drug in the world. I got to experience a few touches of this kind of musicianship last semester, and after being without it for about 2 days (after the winter choir tour), I found myself so inexplicably empty. I was half the person that I just was.
During the three weeks off, I really soul-searched and re-examined myself from the past semester, and how much I prioritized music above everything else, even myself and even art. That's why I'm a music major now: living without that music this semester has been so difficult and trying, and I realize that making that music was what allowed me to cope with the stress of my academic and extracurricular load this year.
I know that next year will be really hard (10 classes and 4.25 credits/17 credit hours), but it's going to be worth it. Dr. Ferguson will be back, and we'll be making music again. It's going to be better. I know it.
With love,
Joe
P.S. I cried a little when I listened to that recording at the beginning of the post.
P.P.S.:
My ten classes are as follows: Major voice lessons
Minor piano lessons
Recital attendance
Co-choir
Chamber Singers
Music Theory
Functional Piano
Italian Diction
Fundamentals of Conducting
Vocal Techniques
Scary, huh?
This is a choral piece that Dr. Ferguson picked out for the Chenoa Easter Vigil (a service which I just started working with). It's a night easter service, and there's a bunch 'o music that some IWU Collegiate Choir men are singing, and we also get paid something like $100 to perform with it.
But this is REAL music. Performed at the highest quality by musicians of the highest caliber. This is what makes me the most happy of anything I've ever experienced in the entire world. Making real music gives me the highest high, more than any drug in the world. I got to experience a few touches of this kind of musicianship last semester, and after being without it for about 2 days (after the winter choir tour), I found myself so inexplicably empty. I was half the person that I just was.
During the three weeks off, I really soul-searched and re-examined myself from the past semester, and how much I prioritized music above everything else, even myself and even art. That's why I'm a music major now: living without that music this semester has been so difficult and trying, and I realize that making that music was what allowed me to cope with the stress of my academic and extracurricular load this year.
I know that next year will be really hard (10 classes and 4.25 credits/17 credit hours), but it's going to be worth it. Dr. Ferguson will be back, and we'll be making music again. It's going to be better. I know it.
With love,
Joe
P.S. I cried a little when I listened to that recording at the beginning of the post.
P.P.S.:
My ten classes are as follows: Major voice lessons
Minor piano lessons
Recital attendance
Co-choir
Chamber Singers
Music Theory
Functional Piano
Italian Diction
Fundamentals of Conducting
Vocal Techniques
Scary, huh?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Siiiiiiiick
Ugh. This cold feels like death. I'm stuffed up, coughing out lungs, and my throat is raw as all get-out. I can't sing, normal functioning takes about twice the effort, and I'm pretty drowsy most of the time.
However, there is a serious lining to this: It's a real reason to take it easy for a few days! Oh thank the giant pasta monster in the sky, I get to sit back for ONCE and relax while my body fights infection.
Being sick never felt so good.
Not that I'm completely cutting out responsibilities. I'm still working, still keeping up in classes, still going to the endless meetings that I'm required to go to. I'm still painting and throwing, still doing what I have to do.
But I get to take a freaking break. Right before spring break. Ha-le-lu.
However, there is a serious lining to this: It's a real reason to take it easy for a few days! Oh thank the giant pasta monster in the sky, I get to sit back for ONCE and relax while my body fights infection.
Being sick never felt so good.
Not that I'm completely cutting out responsibilities. I'm still working, still keeping up in classes, still going to the endless meetings that I'm required to go to. I'm still painting and throwing, still doing what I have to do.
But I get to take a freaking break. Right before spring break. Ha-le-lu.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Lots of things happening.
Well, not that much has happened. Small things and time passing, really. Life is all right, just a giant ball of stress and money going down the drain.
But! Dan and Bahia are getting married, and tonight Dan called me and not only asked me to be a groomsman, but also to sing and play piano at the wedding at some point. I figure I'm going to write them a toast song. I'm so psyched, and can't wait to start working on it!
I may enlist the help of someone more musically talented than I, but the performance will, rest assured, be taped and eventually posted on here.
In other news, choir choir choir, painting painting painting, ceramics ceramics ceramics, RA stuff RA stuff RA stuff, coffee shop coffee shop coffee shop. It's just life slowly sifting through my fingers without making much difference in the fingers themselves other than scraping away little bits of skin with each jagged grain that falls.
But I'm a fucking pessimist, and make myself (not to mention many others around me) feel a lot worse for no reason. I need a gigantic change in attitude, and I'm finally realizing it.
Optimism, maybe?
Love, Joe
But! Dan and Bahia are getting married, and tonight Dan called me and not only asked me to be a groomsman, but also to sing and play piano at the wedding at some point. I figure I'm going to write them a toast song. I'm so psyched, and can't wait to start working on it!
I may enlist the help of someone more musically talented than I, but the performance will, rest assured, be taped and eventually posted on here.
In other news, choir choir choir, painting painting painting, ceramics ceramics ceramics, RA stuff RA stuff RA stuff, coffee shop coffee shop coffee shop. It's just life slowly sifting through my fingers without making much difference in the fingers themselves other than scraping away little bits of skin with each jagged grain that falls.
But I'm a fucking pessimist, and make myself (not to mention many others around me) feel a lot worse for no reason. I need a gigantic change in attitude, and I'm finally realizing it.
Optimism, maybe?
Love, Joe
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