WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE MY LIFE

I switched majors again. I'm still in the School of Music, so this switch isn't quite as radical as the previous one. Nonetheless, it's another change, this time to music education. I think, purely as a degree, a music ed. degree will serve me better. If I chose to make this big, risky jump to music, I might as well have some padding.

Once I have a teaching certificate, I can at the very least get a decent job, and it's not too difficult to get certified in other subjects, as well. With K-12 certification, that leaves a lot of job opportunities. This isn't to say that I'm going to end up as a HS choir director (though that's basically what they are teaching me to do). It is something that I wouldn't mind doing, though, and something that could position me for further musical endeavors.

And so I did a lot of thinking at the beginning of this semester.... It's 3 years into the future... you've graduated college, took a LOT of years to do it... you've got a composition diploma...Great, you are now armed with the completely unmarketable skill of composing avant-garde sonic brain-fuck music that any normal person would probably cringe hearing.

I'm serious in my assessment of the University faculty's music here. I'm not being bitter because they didn't accept me at first and told me I was "unsophisticated" (you can read about that one in the archives). Being completely impartial, I can tell you that the music is not pleasant-sounding. It is not inspiring. It is not evocative. It is a sin against the Music Gods, because it represses all considerations of what one is supposed to feel, think, imagine when hearing music. These professors are interested in music purely as a philosophical, academic exercise. It's all numbers and matrices and pitch classes to them. Sure, they have concerts for an audience occasionally, though the audience is composed of primarily other university composition teachers, and their students, who are graded on the number of "new music" shows they attend.

But I've said enough unsubstantiated things... go listen to their stuff. Click on any one of the faculty members' name at the left of the page. Many of them have sound clips in that sidebar. What do you think of it? I decided that this was not the kind of aesthetic that I would want guiding my compositional development, but you are free to think differently.

GREECE (Part 3 of a 3-part Series)

The photo above is from Santorini, taken in the evening. It gives a pretty good idea of a typical town on the island (if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all) -- A lot of small, white buildings (which almost hurt to look at in broad daylight) and steeply descending terrain. I guess the three-car garages must be hidden underground or something.

The beach at Naxos -- beautiful by virtue of its monotony. Swimming here feels like bathing in God's swimming pool. I went butt naked -- I figured God would think I was more of a badass if I went sans fig leaves. I have eaten of the tree of knowledge and I still have no shame. The water was cold, and the beach was filled with coppery naked old people. These folks had even less shame than I; I think even God may have winced seeing the old man doing calisthenics with the waves lapping at his ankles and his nutsack lapping at his knees.

This castle was built by the Venetians on Naxos several centuries ago when they controlled the Greek islands. Several nearby islands are visible from its windows. Now, it is a museum, as well as a performing space. We spent an evening there listening to traditional Greek music as the sun set, and were warned that we could not leave until the audience finished several hundred shots of various Greek liqueurs laid out before us. The music was good -- mostly performed by a fiddle accompanied by a lute. Also interesting was a burly, red-faced shepherd from the island who played a whiny, bagpipe-type instrument -- the diaphragm was made from the complete hide of one of his goats.

Rascal Flatts Concert (12/3) -- Review

This group writes some great songs, and singer Gary Levox performs them with such unbelievable skill, that I had to see the Rascal Flatts live.

Keith Anderson and Blake Shelton (two acts that I had never heard of) were the openers. Their acts consisted of pretty standard rock grooves with overlaid country vocals, the occasional attempt at a guitar solo (more on that later), and too many shoutouts to the audience.

Performer: D'you folks like beer??
Audience: Yea! Wooo! Beer! Woo!

Performer: All the redneck girls in the audience, make some noise!
Chicago suburban chicks with cowgirl hats: *SCREAM* YEAAH!!!

ad nauseam. It annoys me when performers ask the audience to "make some noise" too often and too early in the concert. Let your music and your performance inspire the noisemaking. Overall though, the opening acts sufficed; they did what opening acts are supposed to do -- Inspire eventual cries of "Get off the stage! Let's hear some Rascal Flatts!"

The Rascal Flatts sounded great. Their harmonies were amazingly tight, considering the guys were busy playing instruments while singing. Gary sang well -- You could tell that he was a bit fatigued, though, and he let the crowd sing quite a bit.

When the Flatts weren't playing their standard radio songs, they pulled out some interesting stuff that revealed a lot about them to me. The violin player had a giant improvizatory solo number that could have been a sideshow act for Yngwie Malmsteen (a 1980s shred guitarist). It was amazing, but I couldn't help but think how out of place it was at a country music concert. There were several other jam numbers that sounded like YES songs, too. It became really clear to me that these musicians are not finding enough of an outlet in the tightly structured, ultra clean radio singles of the Rascal Flatts.

And yet, it is a bit of a precarious balance... too many 80s hair band jams, and a large body of fans get alienated. Not enough jamming, and the musicians will be unfulfilled.

Don't believe me about this 80s phenomenon? Then you won't believe this encore:

"Pour Some Sugar on Me, You Give Love a Bad Name, Born in the USA" MEDLEY.

I was amazed at how overtly they were pushing their audience towards classic rock. Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen -- I mean, damn. I definitely enjoyed it, but I can just imagine some chump in the front row with acid-washed ambercrombie jeans and a cowboy hat having an identity crisis.

"B-b-b-but this isn't country... am I supposed to like this music or not? Someone please tell me how I'm supposed to react!!!"

I never thought I'd say this, but country music is quietly filling the space left by the disappearance of rock 'n' roll. Yes, you heard me - Country is turning into classic rock.

And it's not just the Rascal Flatts -- the opening acts were trying the same stuff. So many of their songs had the design and instrumentation of regular rock songs, with nothing but a cowboy hat and a southern twang to differentiate them. Once you start regularly using overdriven guitars with screaming 10 second sustains, it's not long before the "country" label becomes little more than a semantic distinction.

And speaking of cowboy hats... I was amused how Gary Levox gently put one on his head for about 15 seconds (taking care not to ruin his gelled hair), and then threw it out into the crowd. A nice, symbolic gesture. Next assignment -- kiss a baby in front of the camera.

GREECE 2005 (continued)

One of the exports of Naxos is marble. This marble quarry seemed like a piece of abstract mega-art, carved out of the side of the mountain.

This is an unfinished statue that has been laying near another marble quarry on Naxos since the 7th century BC. It is about 35 feet long, and apparently it cracked while it was being carved. The sculptor just left it and no one has bothered to move it since. We see so many sculptures from the golden age of Greece, but how often do we get to see failed attempts? To me, this sculpture was more interesting than many of the finished ones.

And here is one of my favorite shots of the famed Santorini sunset. The colors never get as fiery and wild as they do in more polluted atmospheres; sunsets here are more subdued, but very peaceful. One can see vauge, misty outlines of neighboring islands in the distance, the calm sea below, and the Santorini "skyline" hugging the cliffs. It feels like a Greek myth.

GREEK ISLANDS, SUMMER 2005

Just a few shots from the beautiful Greek isles from this summer. The two seascapes are from Santorini, a small volcanic island most famous for its sunsets and its wine (there is almost no rainfall, I learned; the grape vines get nearly all of their water from the nightly dew).

The interior mountain landscape is on Naxos, a larger, more functional island. I know what you're thinking -- is that a "functional" road? Indeed, we drove around for hours on roads like this one, snaking back and forth between mountains, without really going very far as the crow flies. It was beautiful, though, and thrilling (God bless my dad and his nads of steel for navigating our teeny stickshift 6-person "minibus" through this landscape).


I say "functional" because Naxos is actually capable of sustaining itself without tourism -- the inhabitants even recently voted down a planned airport on the island to curb the tourist influx.

(My family and I visited Greece this summer -- These photos are from our digi album, taken by various family members.)

Briefly about my current goings on:

- I had my audition/interview for the School Of Music at UIUC this past friday. The audition (voice) went well... but the interview with the chair of the composition department was a bit of a slap in the face. The guy looked through my three compositions for a total of 30 seconds, and told me that my music was unsophisticated. Should my portfolio be placed alongside those of last year's applicants, I would probably not get admitted, he told me. He was looking for something more "modern" (ie. experimental, not tonal).

So, right now my future at this school is completely up in the air. There is a "bachelor's of arts in music" degree which is my fall-back option -- I may very well end up doing that, with an emphasis in composition.

- Xtension Chords have a concert this weekend, Nov. 12th. It's called XFEST, and it's a fest because we're bringing in the creme de la creme of a cappella groups from all over the midwest. Visit the website for more details.

- I have not done laundry for a very long time. The situation is bad.

Leaves

The greenery bathing in the summer sun
has tanned itself a gentle autumn brown
and the leaves descend contented
having seen the sights on high
the smooth fall breeze it eases slowly
it gives way, lets them fall to rest.

I watch, through the window, waiting,
seeing them gather and grow in number upon the grass,
soon the rusty snow of autumn is a carpet on my lawn.
The leaves, they sleep, unsuspecting, nothing do they know of my intent.
I step outside, rake in hand, the cool crisp air rushes in as I breathe,
I am the shepherd. With a swift stroke the slumbering ones are tossed
they awake, disoriented, they are flying! only to tumble back down
in a jumbled heap. Deftly maneuvering the rake I bring them in
from far and wide, until the haphazard mound grows to a mountain
of leaves upon leaves, a mighty brown fortress of foliage.
Not another one dares to descend from above,
lest it share the fate of its fallen brothers.

A deep breath, the rake tossed to the ground, beside me lying.
step, step, step, pump, pump, pump, pump
the leaf pile I am eyeing
my feet race thump thump and jump!
I am flying!

This is something I wrote a while back for an English class in high school. It was supposed to follow this odd, antiquated poetic form, called a "bob and wheel", or "box and whisker" or something of the sort. It goes with the season. Enjoy!