Les said, the better II

Performance

I’m playing sousaphone in a piece by Neely Bruce called Convergence, which is a large, Ivesian, multi-marching band piece. It will involve several bands, two large choruses, a fife and drum corps, a carilon, a pipe organ and even more stuff. This piece is huge and not performed often. The special occasion is Wesleyan’s homecoming football game. We’re making a big deal out of football, despite being division 3 or 4 or hell, 5, I dunno, we can’t give sport scholarships. The alums love it though and give too much money, so yay jocks. And maybe thru football or extortion or just really great fundraising, the school just raised several million dollars in a capital campaign. So they want to have a very snappy half time show. And proving that they really are a worthwhile cause and a venerable institution, they decided to do Neely’s piece. This piece will be so awesome, I can’t believe it. And it was the administration’s idea. They came to Neely and asked him to do it instead of vice versa.

Even better, the insane, huge, fantastic, fine arts half time show will be broadcast on national TV. Some sports network that covers college sports will be broadcasting the Wesleyan homecoming and the half time show, says Neely. You will have to check your local listings. Kickoff is at noon. The halftime show will be around 1:30. All of this EDT, of course. Somebody must TIVO this.

Composition

I’ve been invited to submit a tape of my Ann Coulter piece to a festival next weekend in Toronto. The Red Festival will be having a “sound bar” where folks can listen to stuff via headphones, so if you happen to be in Toronto next weekend (or maybe if you have an email buddy up north, you can tell ’em), you can hear me at the sound bar. Hopefully. They haven’t heard the piece yet.

many of you are nerds, so you have opinions on fonts. nonono, this is a good thing. What font should I use for my thesis? I was thinking something serriffed would be easier to read when printed out. What is this important now? It’s not. but cast a ballot early. and speaking of ballots, wtf is with all these propositions?

my laptop hard drive has the click of death. no immediate death, but eventual hard rrive failer, wich is disenheratening, seeing as i’ve only had it since december.
I am listening to a box set from Ou, a poetry magazine. They got into speech art / spoken word stuff. Some of it sounds just like music. I want to listen to other people working with words so I can say something intelligent about such work. I think I’m going to get some of Steve Reich’s tape loops out of the library tomorrow. I tried something like Come Out with Rush Limbuagh and it just wasn’t working for me. Also, I want to read the program ntoes. What the heck was the point of those pieces? Look, you can get a nifty rythm if you loop folks talking about being beaten by the police? I mean, there’s political content, for sure, but especially in the case of Come Out, it seems sort of exploitative. That’s a major claim to make, so I want to read what he wrote about it before I say anything. But to my ignorant self, it seems like he’s using the words of African Americans and then slowly degenerating their meaning until it’s unintelligible. What does it mean when a white guy does that? I mean, I specifically tweak the words of people I don’t like as a form of disrespect. Furthermore, the piece Come Out: from the title you’d expect it to be gay. It’s not. It’s a snippet of speech by a preacher in a park, maybe Golden Gate park? I can’t remember. The preacher does not deliberately seem to be invoking a gay phrase. To what extent was Rech aware of the gay meaning of said phrase? If he was aware of it, why was he highlighing it? I’m reading a book The Queer Composition of America’s Sound, which talks about queerness and sexual otherness and a bit how that’s tied into race. African Americans can stand in for queers and vice versa in our cultural language, which is why “black” music, like jazz, stands for sexual experience, fludity, queerness, etc. For instance, Four Saints in three Acts had many African American cast members. So is Reich invoking this? Must find out.

What has been going on the last couple of weeks? Well two weeks ago, I went home for the weeknd and played a gig at 21 Grand. A few folks came out to see me, wich was nice. I played some works in progress, including my Ann Coulter piece. Because most of the friendly experiencers who came were from my list, I got some of the door. I then blew all of the door money by going to Trio, a wonderful French place, where I got cheese and noodles and Sangria. I started eating cheese again for Trio and for Spettros and for brie and for good cheese. Yet, somehoe, I keep eating dairy products which are scary and bad. Can I be some sort of snob-an, where I only eat good cheese?

Officially, I was in town for the Other Minds Board Retreat. I think as a result of this retreat, we’re going to re-write our mission statement.
Then I went back to Connecticut, where I attened classes and played at a House Concert on Wednesday night. I played my Ann Coulter piece (again), right before the presidential debate. Then I flew again to California for fall break. I did not take a week of classes off because I am a dedicated sudent.
In California again, I did only fun things and no school work. I bought some books and music. I went to the Famer’s Market on Saturday, then went to a theme park. Matthryn, Cola and I spent six + hours at Great America. We rode threeo rollercoasters and did one thing where you drive cars in little circles. IT was oodles of fun. Then we went to Sue’s in Mountain View for dinner. Sue died a couple of years ago, I just found out. Alas. Then we went to Lucy’s Tea House. I love Lucy’s tea house. Then we went back to Oakland to a place called the Mile High Club and saw Ratty’s band The Cold War play. It was awesome. Ratty is such a rock star! The band reminded me of Bikini Kill. I want them to put out a record so that I can buy it.
Sunday, I woke up tired, no surprise. My mom died October 18th 2002. What do these dates mean? Her birthday? The day she had brain surgery? The day she died? I was unhappy. I skipped brunch and went back to bed. Then I got up at noon and went to Mitch’s birthday party. The party started at noon. Cola and I walked to BART (20 minutes), then rode BART to Milbrae (1 hour), then rode Caltrain to Hillsdale (40 minute wait + half hour ride) then walked up the hill to Mitch’s house (lost track of time) to get there at 4:30. oy. Ate cake. Drank beer. Got a ride from Sarah Dotie back to Bart. I wish I got to see Mitch more often.
Monday, went clothes shopping. Was ok. Then spent the afternoon with my dad. We ate food and drank coffee and hung out and then had dinner with Cola. Then all of us went to Mills to see Amelia Cuni play in the SongLines concert series. she is a wonderful singer. Part of the event was also pedagological. She gave out tons of information about her singing style. My dad mentioned that Seymore died last spring. I had no idea. My Dad told me that if I want to know who has died, I should ask Brother Bob.
Tuesday I got on a plane. Today, I went to class.

IRL concert is at India House. Quicktime stream will be at rtsp://129.133.2.23/gradconcert.sdp. Concert starts at 8:00 EDT, breaks for debates and then continues. Some performers are planning on incorporating the debates into their material.

I went to grad school in order to learn to write new kinds of music, to be part of a music community, to have access to the resources of an academic institution, to spend some time away from CA hoping I could solve my (personal) problems by getting some distance.

I feel really happy. All these terrible things happened in the last 2.5 years, but there’s a sense of inevitability that I have about them. And the “if it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger” thing . . . I can see how many of the good thigns that are happeneing now would not have happened without the bad events happening first.

So, given that my grad school goals are working out so fabulously well so far (ask me about this again the week that my thesis is due), I’m wondering what I should do afterwards. More school? It would help me get an academic job (god help me). An academic job is good because it means a steady pay check, health insurance, access to the resources of an academic institution (I’m talking equipment, concert hall, library, etc) and the chance to warp young minds. There is also the possibility of doing exchange programs. I could go to Germany next fall. Then I could apply for a Dutch thing after that. Bouncing around Europe is cool because it enables travel, would expose me to other ideas about music and is just generally cool. It’s a bit more uncertain and bohemian. If I spend two years in euopre and then three years in a doctoral program, I’ll be 34 when I start looking to be a professor or a lecturer. If I want to have a kid, well, that would be a good time to have one, I guess. Timing, desire to be a bohemian all at odds. My mom started trying to have kids at 36, had a lot of health issues related to that and was 38 when I was born and 40 when my brother was born. That’s kinda too old.
I’m thinking about this stuff now because I want to have a plan. I don’t want to think “i should have done more bohemian stuff when I had the chance” or “gosh, I wanted a kid, but now it’s too late.” I mean, I know you can adopt forever, but there’s other age issues that I definitely saw in my childhood. Also, when people say “where do you see yourself in five years?” I can say, “well, hopefully, I’ll be finishing up my DMA/PhD and applying for professorships.”
Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan, but it’s nice to have one.

the irony of these things is that when interesting things are going on, there is no time to post.

I will be in California Oct 14th at 10:47 pm. I will leave california on October 19th at 12:30 pm. I was planning on riding the bus, but for some reason, i thought my plane was getting in much earlier.

My girlfriend says that I am insufficiently hyping my show. So let me repeat the info:

I will be playing a short set of laptop music TODAY, Friday October 8 at a show starting at 8:00 pm at 21 Grand, located at 449B 23rd St. in sunny Oakland, CA. The show costs $6-10.
Also on the ticket:

Livermore Jazz Band Trio: Damon Smith – Contrabass Marco Enedi – Reeds Moe! Staiano – Drums, objects)
+ David Slusser Trio: David Slusser – David Slusser, Chris Ackerman – Drums, ????? – Bass, guitar

Music all written at Wesleyan, approx half of it from this fall. Heck I just changed my Ann Coulter piece this morning with new sounds form her TV appearances. Nobody has heard the latest version but me and I wasn’t even paying attention!
Answer such questions as: what did Celeste got to grad school to study? What has she done with her hair lately? Is it true that a thid of the audience walked out last time she played one of these pieces? (err . . . )

Ann Coulter’s new book came out today. I know I am the only leftist in the world who is excited about this. Anotehr Coulter book = more media appareances = more insane sound bites. I love Coulter. Everytime you stick her in front of an audience, some insane quip will come out. Some short turn of phrase that is just unbelievable. Usually it is an over-the-top rendition of a republican talking point (note that the lame-ass phrase “over the top” has slipped into my vocabulary from repeated listening to Colmes trying futiley to argue with Coulter. (no, i don’t have cable, why?)), but sometimes the insanity comes direct from Mars, as far as I can tell. Media Matters for America tracks this insanity and documents it. Happily, sometimes the have mp4 files, but alas not always. When she said that women “we’ren’t that bright” not long ago, there was no clip. Alas. When she was on a couple of nights ago wondering why Bush was wasting his time arguing with the “knucklehead” John Kerry, it didn’t even merit mention.

Somebody (not me) should start a Coulter Watch project where they monitor all of her media appearances and then make her coundbites available for download in aiff format.
Why would I want that? Well, come see me play Friday, Oct 8 at 21 Grand, and there might be a bit of a clue. And it might be up-to-the-minute-updated. (What on earth does she mean when she says, “jock sniffers for war vetrans”?)
I need a tivo

a rare chance to watch the guy who actually runs the show argue with . . . somebody who probably won’t be doing very much except standing at the ready in case Kerry dies.

Pretty much everything that came out of Cheney’s mouth was a lie, but he seemed to ebelive those lies. They seemed credible. Suddenly he was reminiscing about fighting “terrorism” (otherwise known as popular democratically-elected governments) in south america and he really beleived what he was saying, or seemed to.
Cheney also seemed to be strongly opposed to the Federal anti-queer amendment (the one about not granting same sex couples rights that are given by god to opptosite sex couples, like britney speares and her latest match). I mean, he seemed to really resent being put in the position of having to say that he supported the president. After a long and meandering Edwards talk about how queers are somewhat icky but not 100%, Cheney replied only with thanking Edwards for his kind words about his family. I was left with the distinct impression that Cheney might even support gay marriage. If only he hadn’t said that people’s relationships aren’t anyone else’s business. Um, yes. It’s nobody’s buisiness. Keep it in the closet and everything will be fine.
Edwards got in a couple of good points, for instance that Cheney opposed a bill calling on South Africa to free Nelson Mandela from jail, because Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. Cheney’s anti-terrorism crusade has been going on for a long long time. Anybody who opposes corporate interests is a terrorist, whether they’re a peasent farmer in South America, leading a strguggle for democracy in South Africa or blowing up large buildings in New York. All morally equal.
And, Edwards is better matched to debate Bush. Or to debate Dan Quale. Or a trained chimp. He’s not very smart, it’s sad to say. I mean, he’s a member of mensa compared to the president. But Cheney is a very smart man and a skillful debater and it’s so sad that he uses his powers for evil instead of for good.
The moderater, an African American woman, asked an interesting question about AIDS death rates in African American women, a question about racism and classicism in addressing the AIDS epidemic in the US. And both candidates talked about Africa. We’re supposed to forget that there’s AIDS in the US. And if there is AIDS, only white fags have it. And there’s wonderful medicine for that now. Which is expenisive and isn’t covered for people on public assistance, but let’s talk about africa instead. The candidates could not focus for two seconds on black women in the United States.
well, to be fair, Edwards couldn’t focus for two seconds on anything. He didn’t even seem to be sure what the question was half the time. Maybe he could have used that pen he was holding to say, jot down the question, hm?
I really really hate the idea of voting for somebody who thinks i should be a second class citizen and that i deserve less rights than other people.

I will be playing a short set of laptop music on Friday October 8 at a show starting at 8:00 pm at 21 Grand, located at 449B 23rd St. in sunny Oakland, CA. The show costs $6-10.

This will be a good opportunity for us to see each other and you can hear what I’ve been doing while sequestered away on the East Coast. The other groups are:

Friday, October 8
Livermore Jazz Band Trio: Damon Smith – Contrabass
Marco Enedi – Reeds Moe! Staiano – Drums, objects)
+ David
Slusser Trio:
David Slusser – David Slusser, Chris Ackerman – Drums, ????? – Bass,
guitar

Personally, I’ve been meaning to see Moe! Staiano play for a long time. And Damon Smith is an awesome bassist. I don’t know the other group, though. 21 Grand is a very nifty space.