Monday!

I honestly don't get the point of teenagers with minimal singing talent exposing themselves to the world's ears with the help of companies using synth machines. Besides money... But even from a financial perspective, wouldn't it be worth more to find someone who really has some talent in singing and songwriting? Or at least if you find a kid you like, give them some vocal lessons and some initiative for improvement. If they have a good stage personality (obviously we can't overlook the performance factor, which appears the largest) that's excellent, but you need someone who cares about the artistic and musical sense. What kind of impression do you think you're making on the younger generation?! Look at the crap they will consider to be "good music" just because it made it to MTV.

I think Pablo Cassalls is an amazing example of a prudent musician who made it to fame - because he was a good musician. He studied the Bach cello preludes for 15years before he even performed them for anyone. Our younger stars wouldn't have to go to that extreme, but really think what a difference it would make if they actually spent time gaining musicianship skills and really immersing themselves in the material. Even if it's pop - I don't care what genre it is - they need to take the time, really study it, know it backwards and forwards. Really understand it. Then I might have some respect for them. They may go through fire because they're famous, but that isn't any sort of excuse for cheap music.

Floating Papers...

Some poems I found from a while back. A few are decent. Most of them are either nonsense or plain misery. These are the better ones. I think the last one is the most poetic. The first one contains a reworded quote from Jon.

August 2009.
Don't you wish time would stop
So we could think and say
The things we really mean
Instead we live a puzzle
500 bits missing
Fill in the blanks with smiles
Tomorrow will be worse
Walking along the line
Don't look over the edge
Fate will take you all over
And bring you home in the end
Don't try to understand me
I guess you all the time
But perhaps it ain't you
Just the derangement of my mind.

September 2009.
Surrounded by these land sharks
I'm not a little surprised
How could this happen anyway
I can barely summarize
The face that I ain't in New Bedford
Nor shippin' out to sea
That I'm stayin' here in NorCal
It's sure dumbfounded me
But of course the saying's always been
"Jack Tar's a fool ashore"
And so I'll sail back out again
Where they'll be a problem no more.

October 2009.
Coffee warms my heart and soul
As I gaze through a misted windowpane
The streets are drenched in Pacific fog
Rolling from the ridge beyond.
Perhaps it's traveled from Hawai'i
Tahiti, Russia, or Japan
Now blanketing me with its presence
A thousand miles from home.
Is this the constant weather in England
I wonder as I watch
I've never been, so I wouldn't know,
Only what I've read in the books.
Then first it starts as just a dribble
That turns to a plop, then a pound
And my mind is off to Washington
As the rain keeps falling down.

March 2010.
Goodbye, the hardest word to say
Avoided until the end
Unhappy eyes that look away
Heart strings feeling a wrench.
Talk and laugh the minutes away
It's bound to come at last
Freely flowing, the unimportant
Cover the stillness in the air.
Until it's dropped quietly
Like a pin upon the tile
Could that little click mean so much?
Faces drop like birds in fall
The last syllable gone to the wind
One quick look, then gone forever
That's how our lives are spent.

Have you ever shot a man before? -No. Have you ever held a gun before? -No. What do you do for a living? -I'm a hairstylist. chk-chk.

I have not watched a more pointless movie in a long time. I can't remember one that was more random. It was about Brooklyn mobsters, a dude hairstylist, a hot chick, and a kangaroo wearing a red jacket with $50grand in the pocket. Set in the outback of Australia. Told you it was random. There were some funny lines, I'll admit ("This is the most romantic moment of my life. *splash* And now it's over.") and the kangaroo was awesome (actually the only awesome part of the movie), but overall it was the biggest waste of time in at least the past year. Afterward I modified that Relient K song, Crayons Can Melt on Us for All I Care... "I. Just wasted. 90minutes of your Life."

Gave in to the coffee this morning. How can you say no to espresso roast?... But I'm going to make up for those 90 wasted minutes last night and work on the Fauré Requiem. Singing in Latin is an interesting experience. Especially when you really don't understand it, and you hope the English translation underneath is somewhat accurate.

Väsen is coming to town Wednesday, March 16th! Amazing trad band from Sweden, performing at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. Tickets available here. Might have to skip rehearsal for that one.

Twitbook, MyFace, or Chitter...

Technology is incredible. What's more incredible is how much we have come to rely on it. Social networking, GPS, internet, cellphones... What will people think 100years from now? Or even 2,000?... During my communications with the faculty at the Maritime Academy, I was told that I would probably be in one of the last classes for celestial navigation. That is completely mindblowing to think about. They're planning to throw an over 1000year old tradition out the window because of technology. Not only a tradition, a science. A science that's been around almost as long as the earth. Not looking forward to old age, except being able to say "I told you so." Now back in 2010, when they used to teach navigation by the stars, that was before they realized we were about to lose all satellite-based communication from that solar flare... Of course at that point, the heavens might have changed so much that we will need new calculations and ways of using the stars, and all this other stuff won't be any use. Who knows what's going to happen, but I still think they're taking a huge step of faith considering GPS and all that hasn't been around that long, and the sextant & chronometer have.

A lot of weird flashbacks lately have caught me in outer space. But while endeavoring to live with as few regrets as possible, things have been going pretty well. I think either way things'll work out for an interesting future. The hard part is wanting to do the opposite of what certain people tell me, but then when someone I respect tells me the same thing it puts me back in the logical position. Hah. Logic. I'm starting to think it's a myth.

Totally poned the Dmajor Prelude. Oh yeah.

Some Lessons Learned

As of today:
1. Don't stay up till 2am with an 8am class that morning.
1a. Especially if you need to give a speech in that class.
1b. Especially if that speech is not prepared.

2. Don't assume you can make up the aforesaid speech.
2a. No matter how short it is.
2b. Even if you don't care, and it's on something you know.

3. Don't leave Fred's theory homework till the last minute.
3a. EVER.
3b. Even if you think you understand it.
3c. Especially if it's Bach.

4. Practice Cheryl's assignments next time.
4a. Because I know I'm going to regret not doing it tomorrow.

5. Don't ever waste a 4day weekend like that.
5a. EVER. AGAIN.

I was going to put "stop procrastinating" as #6, but that is pretty much impossible. Never going to learn that one. Have to love my logic teacher, though. It's midweek, and the homework on the board said, "Don't do any logic AT ALL." The worst mornings still have perks.

Celestial Navigation & the End of the World

Today I was informed about many spectacular things I never imagined could be floating out there. The end of 2011 is the end of the world in the Mayan calendar. 2012 is apparently the year we reach a "solar maxim" when the sun puts out an enormous amount of solar flares containing electromagnetic radiation, which apparently will destroy most of our satellites, and possible fry our electrical grid, which may take years afterwards to reconstruct so it works again. Needless to say, we will lose all internet, cell phone, and basically any electronic form of communication. We will be informed 6minutes before it hits by a satellite put up specifically for that purpose. Amazing theory. Can't wait to see if it happens.

First navigation class. I realized afterwards that I probably went way too fast with the concepts. Not many questions, and haphazard lame answers to the few that were asked... Please remind me I never want to be a professional teacher.

Page 3 of Goltermann is coming along, I'm so happy to be on to the beautiful theme in Bminor, it's so sonorous compared to the lively 1st and 2nd themes. Like something you want to sing whenever you see something beautiful. It's like a flower opening, a ripe apple falling to the grass, the sail filling with wind on a downwind course, the perfect ride on a fantastic wave, the unconditional love of the eternal Father.

A Beginning, a Muddle, and an End

That is the name of a book about writing (books), which was talked about at First Tuesday. Nice to be back, and doing some creative writing. I really think we need to work on our process for choosing prompts, we didn't like any of the suggested ones so we ended up with two that weren't objected to... hah. Writers.
Prompts: "Goody" and "Blur(ry)." Here's what I scrawled.

It was a dark and stormy night. Oh wait, it wasn't. On a lonesome island in the Caribbean, it was anything but "dark and stormy." A tall bearded man sat under a palm tree, thinking out loud to himself.
"Hmm, fiction, fact, or exaggerated history? I could write about the moron under the only other palm tree on the other side of the island... But I've only got this one slab of rock to carve on, and a history of his stupidities would fill an encyclopedia."
The memory came to him in a blur - the reason the 2 marooned sailors on a godforsaken strip of sand in the wopwops [Australian slang for "the middle of nowhere"] would be forever enemies.
It was a hot day, and they were arguing over whether it was Tuesday or Wednesday [it was actually Saturday] when this box had washed up on shore. It was an old worn wooden cask, with printing in bold black letters that spelled out, "GOODIES." They proceeded to argue over what language it was, because nobody would be stupid enough to just write "goodies" on a crate that would end up floating in the Caribbean. The argument raged on while they scrounged for shells to pry the box open with...

I actually like it, kinda reminds me of a Garry Larson cartoon. The one where the one guy finds a crate with an ACME Sand Blaster, and is looking sinisterly over at the other guy, who is happily building a sand castle... Anyways, this scrap of creativity interests me enough to want to extend it, maybe even make it into a story (!), what an idea. My only problem is that currently I can't decide on what exactly should be in the box. It can't be empty, I already thought about that... Well I suppose technically it could, but then I'd have to think about some other way to bring a big catastrophe about. Maybe let the little grey cells work on that one...