My Favorite Holiday

Yes, it's true, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I mean, I love all the other holidays and all, but Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart. Coming together with family, eating great food, and taking some time to reflect on what we're truly grateful for. It's a true American tradition (and Canadian I suppose). I love this time of year.

Of course, since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I'm always a scrooge about all that Christmas stuff that comes out before Halloween. This year though, I didn't mind so much. I dunno. I guess I've been too busy to notice. Oh well.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Our Concerts this Weekend

This last weekend I got to sing in a concert with BYU Singers and Concert Choir. It was a lot of fun. It was full of ups and downs, but we came out soaring. One of my favorite parts of the concert was our format. When our two choirs perform we don't just have one choir perform than the other and that's it, we actually go back and forth alternating between the two. When one of the choirs isn't performing, they're seated upstage behind the group that's performing. That way, both choirs get to rest between sets and enjoy hearing what the other choir has prepared. I can't really imagine any better way to perform a concert now.

BYU Singers started the concert with two 12th Century Irish pieces, "Armaque cum scuto," and "Christus resurgens," both arranged by Michael McGlynn. To be honest, it wasn't our best, and I wish we could've had another chance at both of these. Overall, it was okay. The percussion we had was really cool though and really added to the effect we wanted.

Next was the set that we've really been preparing for, our pride and joy. We sang Un Soir de Neige (A Night of Snow) by Francis Poulenc. If you're not familiar with this work I encourage you to listen to it, and study it for a bit. It's a remarkable piece that's really hard to learn and even harder to master. We've been rehearsing it since early September and have been continually understanding it more and more till the moment before we performed it. It went really really well.

Next, Concert Choir performed their set of songs called, "Savior of the World." It was magnificent from beginning to end. They performed,
"Salvator Mundi" from Herbert Howells' Requiem
"Dare to Call it Good," by Thomas Tallis,
"Alleluja, Christ is Risen," by Stephen Paulus and
"Jesus, the Very Though of Thee" by Bert Vander Hoek.
It was a moving set of music, especially the "Alleluja" by Stephen Paulus. Concert Choir's interpretation was stunning with their trademark shimmering sound.

After this set, Singers got up and sang a set called "Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum" of four Latin pieces. These are old and new works of familiar latin text. These included,
"Cantate Domino" by Claudio Monteverdi,
"Kyrie in Eb major" by Josef Rheinberger,
"Alleluja, Christus resurrexit" by Colin Mawby and
"Gloria" by Greg Knauf
I could go on for a while about each of these pieces. but I'll just say that our "Gloria" was rockin'. The piece is so dynamic and electric that it's hard to not be caught up in it's tour de force.

Concert Choir sang next a delightful set called "Seasonal Shakespeare." Three Songs of Shakespeare texts set by different composers. They sang,
"It Was a Lover and His Lass," by William Mathias,
"Blow, Blow, Thou Winder Wind," from When Icicles Hang by John Rutter and
"Summer Sonnet" by Kevin Olson
The last piece was my favorite, using the words "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day," the composer set it to a jazzy, rumba theme that just made everyone smile.

We finished the concert with a set called "The Road Home," which included pieces that will be on our fourth PBS concert film. Concert Choir sang, "Shenandoah," by Steven Samertz, and "Ain't That News" by Stephen Hatfield. Singers sang "I Feel Like I'm on My Journey Home," by Dr. Staheli. Then both choirs together sang a brand new arrangment of "Whither Goest Thou, Pilgrim Stranger," by Dr. Staheli that brought the audience to their feet.

It was a really fun concert to sing, and I had a blast both singing and listening. In case you couldn't make it, they taped it to be broadcast again on KBYU next year. So, so if you can catch it then.

Un Soir de Neige

Check it out, I get to sing with these guys!


Rehearsal with the Singers from BYU Singers on Vimeo.

Sunday Ramblings

This week I got sick from too much stress. I don't think I have a heavy workload but when the Music 301 tests come around . . . I feel like I haven't prepared enough (even though I studied till my brain hurt) and I start to worry. Then, when I start feeling my throat get sore my mind starts racing, "No, I can't get sick. I don't want to get sick. I don't have the time to get sick. I hope this doesn't get any worse. What if it does?" and then stress myself into sickness. At least it's not laryngitis like last year.

While I'm ill I've started to make some preparations for my junior recital which will probably be early to mid winter semester. I'm trying to figure out how much music to prepare, and who I can share the stage with (junior recitals only half and hour). I'll probably have a few French songs by Fauré and Duparc. German songs by Wolf and Brahms probably. As for Italian and English, I don't really know what to do. Any suggestions?

Yesterday I recorded all the guitar tracks for my recording project. I'm really happy with the results. I recorded an acoustic pretty much the same way I described before, and then recorded my electric with a D.I. box and by putting an EV RE27 on the cabinet. I tried a Sennheiser MD421 on the same cabinet and didn't like the sound. I mean, it was bad. I was just really glad to get all the guitar parts out of the way, now it's just drums, bass and vocal.

I'm still in the process of composing a really cool choral work. At least, I think it's really cool. It's actually the longest piece of music I've written so far. That's why it's taking so long. When I finish it and start polishing I'll write about it here.

Rehearsals are going great and our concert's coming up next weekend. Nov. 14th and 15th. Stop by and check it out. BYU Campus, Harris Fine Arts Center, de Jong Concert Hall.

Just dreaming of surfing. . .

All I'm thinking right now is, "Man I want to go surfing again." I learned for the first time this summer and had a blast. Surfing is as much fun as it looks. Yeah, it's hard and stuff, but it's completely worth it. There's no feeling like it in the world. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it. If you've been putting off learning for a while, what are you waiting for? I put it off and regret having wasted so much time. So yeah. Surfing is great.

Awkward Bible Moments

I've been reading through the Old Testament and have been learning a lot. I know this is out of the ordinary from what I usually post but I've come across some very interesting bits in the Book of Second Samuel that I felt I just had to share.

Background: When Saul was being a bad king, Samuel anointed David to be king. David serves Saul for a while and even gives his daughter Michal to him in marriage. Cool stuff. Eventually, Saul becomes jealous and tried to kill David. Michal helps David to escape and live. While David's gone, Saul gives Michal to another man in marriage, and technically becomes David's ex-wife. Awkward.

Okay, Saul dies and David becomes King and marries several other women and somehow still remains Israel's "most eligible bachelor." One day he takes the ark of the covenant into the City of David, sacrifices accordingly, and begins dancing. 2 Samuel 6:14 actually says, "And David danced before the Lord with all his might. . . " which I actually think is a pretty cool verse. But who else is at this party but David's ex, Michal herself! In verse 16 she looks out a window and sees David "leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart." Awkward.

After a while Michal comes out to meet David and says in verse 20, ". . . How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!" Basically she saying, "Hey man, you're looking cool. NOT! Jerkface. You were totally dancing way more naked in front of those girls/groupies than you should've." How would you like it if your ex come up to you and said that? Awkward.

David, of course, shoots back and says in verse 21, "It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house to appoint me ruler . . . over Israel . . . Therefore will I play before the Lord." Essentially, "Whatever. You don't know what you're talking about. I've got your dad's job now, so get outta my face." He goes on in verse 22 to say, "And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in min own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour." Or in other words, "You ain't seen nothing yet." Awkward.

I literally laughed out loud when I read the final verse: "Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death." Of course! It seems so logical. I thought it was hilarious. Not sure if you all read it the same way that I do, or even if you thought this was funny, but whatever, I was in stitches.

By the way, "Dr. Awkward" is a palindrome.

Guitar Track

At my work I'm one of the student engineers in one of the school's recording studio. This week I helped start a project for a friend in one of my classes. We laid down the click, the scratch and then the guitar track. We wanted to try out some different techniques and see what we liked. We also wanted options when it came to the mix down.

Basically we took a AKG C414, stuck it aprox. in front of the sound hole (but without getting that low woof typical of directly in front of the hole), put it in omni-directional mode without any roll-off or pad. Then we took a pair of SE3s (pencil condensor), put one pointed at the fretboard, and the other pointed at the back of the guitar's body on the right side of the player. We then panned the SE3s hard left and right. The result was spectacular. Phase wasn't a huge issue in this set up for us, and if we deside that the mix gets a bit too busy for this sound we can take out the SE3s and work just with the 414.

I always find it hard to describe sounds in words (besides actually immitating the sounds) such as "rich," "full," "present," "warm," "squishy," "biting," or "velvety." If you have the opportunity to try this set up and hear it for yourself I really encourage you to do it. It's appropriate for this project, but not be appropriate for other projects. I've taken the same SE3s and X and Y'ed them infront of guitars and gotten great results which work better with other projects. This is one of my favorite parts of working in recording sound: There's not really any wrong answers, there are just better answers depending on the situation.

I Still Can't Believe it . . .

I've got some very exciting news to share. After a long and sometimes painful audition process I was accepted to sing with the Brigham Young University Singers. I still can't believe it. I've sung the last two years with the BYU Concert Choir and absolutely loved it. It's very hard to leave Concert Choir, but I feel that this is something I need to do right now. I'm excited to see the possibilities of singing with this group and the rewards of singing with them. We've already gotten most of the music for this year and it's pretty exciting. For those in the Utah Valley area, you've got to hear some of this stuff.

We're planning a tour to Ireland this April for nearly a solid month. I'm especially excited for this because I lived there for two years. I love the island and have many great friends there. I'm very excited to go back and meet up with friends again. Also, someone's got to be a translator for Dr. Staheli. Ha Ha! One of the things that drew me to audition was because Singers performs a lot, and records a lot. I'm really looking forward to it!

I have to admit, at the first rehearsal I felt like an imposter. Not because of this "I'm not worthy" fake humilty garbage, but simply because I've always been on the spectator's side. I've always watched and admired as a member of the audience. Now that I'm standing there singing with them, it just feels weird. Also, I found out how fast the choir moves in learning music. I sat there thinking, "Whoa. This is hard. This is gonna take a lot of work." You barely have time to breathe let alone think. I'm loving it already.

I'll update more about upcoming concerts later. This is going to be a good year. By the way, if any of you in the Utah Valley want to come to the christmas concert buy your tickets now. They sell out beginning of October.

Leaving California

Well, I've moved back up to school now, and am twisted with mixed emotions.

I love to travel. I love to pack up and go, but moving is much more different. Picking up everything and moving becomes the most stressful times in my life. I've been doing in constantly for the past five years and will continue to do it for a long while still.

Going home to California for the summer was exactly what I needed at the time. I had such a great time and unwound from a stressful semester (and year). My trepidations of returning home after a long time away evaporated when I made new friends and reunited with old. My desire to root myself in the area came in conflict with my knowledge that I'd be leaving at the end of summer.

At the same time I've got some exciting possibilities for this semester. I've got lotsa friends up here that I really wanted to see again. I'm learning something that I love. There are so many good things about this school.

I'm divided between wanting to stay home in California or going to school in Utah. I've got friends in both places and reasons to be in either place. This internal conflict is nothing new but presently stings more than usual.

I'll just have to keep busy.

Radiohead in Golden Gate Park

I've been looking forward to this concert since May when I bought my ticket. This was going to be my great way to end the summer. The Outside Lands Festival was also the first amplified concert at night in Golden Gate Park. A friend of mine and I decided to go together since we are both huge fans. I want to divide my comments and thoughts between sound engineer, musician and spectator. But before I do that, I want to gloat a bit. With a recent surgery I was able to get myself a handicap placard for my car. Not only can I park in handicap spaces, and metered parking (without paying), we got to park inside the park mere feet from the concert entrance as opposed to outside the park two miles away. Aw yeah.

Sound Engineer: This was my first concert where I decided to wear earplugs. At previous concerts I just bore the brunt of it, or left early when my ears started to feel it, or the concerts have never gotten loud enough to need them. I decided to buy some good ones this time and see how they fared. Finding the right position for them in my ear canal took some trial and error, but eventually I found the ideal to attenuate just enough sound without muffling it. As a result, after a full concert I had no ringing in my ears when I went to bed last night. None! And for those of you who don't know, that ringing in your ears is BAD, BAD NEWS. I met a man who had tinnitus by age 15, and has to deal with ringing ears the rest of his life. There's no cure or treatment. None. So protect your ears with GOOD ear plugs. Okay rant done.

I felt the mix had way too much bass and way too much kick. It's almost like they built the mix around the kick, which I don't understand, 'cause I build the mix around the vocals. The biggest disappointment though was when the audio failed, TWICE! Right in the middle of Airbag and All I Need. Needless to say we were all upset. At first, I thought "I understand this happens sometimes," but the second time I thought, "Ya know, we just don't tolerate failure in audio anymore." When the audio got cut out the monitors on stage were still working, and the cut was so clean (no pop or hiss) that it was probably a digital component that failed. The audio just failed going through the main house mix. Thom said something about how they didn't have much time to set up and apologized.

Musician: Something that was truly impressive was when the audio did fail the band kept playing like nothing happened (even thought they totally knew). Sound was gone for at least 30 seconds, but the band kept playing and getting through it. To me, that's what separates the good from the great. Lesser bands would have just stopped and waited for the problem to get fixed. But to keep playing, that takes guts.

The band performed up to standards and beyond. They did not disappoint when it comes to performing the best that they can. They also played some of the best songs in their catalog. Some highlights were "15 Step," "Airbag" (before the audio failed), "Nude," "Talk Show Host," "National Anthem," "Karma Police," "Just," and "Fake Plastic Trees." I was so excited to hear "Talk Show Host" not just cause it's one of my favorite songs but also because as far as I know they don't play it a lot. It was a really good performance of it too. For the entire set list go here.

One thing that I wish was different was how the band just went from song to song to song without talking much to the crowd. To me that's one of the things that makes a concert so special. It felt a bit too much like a jukebox. When the band started playing "You and Whose Army?" Thom started laughing and started messing around at the piano before starting again. With the camera right on his eye he started making faces and creeping us out. It was hilarious, and wish there was more of this throughout the concert.

Spectator: The biggest disappointment for me was how much pot there was. Now I know it's a hippie fest in Golden Gate Park and all, but my friend and I were both surprised at how much marijuana there was. Neither of us smoke so it was really uncomfortable for us. It wasn't just three or four people, it was literally everyone around us. We were both surprised at how indiscreet it was too, and WHO was lighting up (I swear, they could have passed as my grandparents). All we wanted to do was enjoy a Radiohead concert, not worrying about holding our breath waiting for the smoke to blow away (thankfully it was breezy). It seems so inconsiderate and rude.

The lighting was incredible. One of the best lit shows I've ever seen. It was so creative and simply remarkable. When the band concluded with "Everything in its Right Place" and left the stage it didn't feel over. Yeah, it was a two hour set, but it felt incomplete. I don't know. I was waiting for more. It was like there was no closure.

The biggest shocker was as we were walking away: the ground was covered with litter. This is Outside Lands, the whole point was to get out the message of global warming, recycling, composting, leaving smaller carbon footprints. With all this rhetoric about saving the earth it seemed so hypocritical to have so much trash on the ground. How bad was it? It was worse than litter left after a ball game. My friend and I don't exactly swallow the whole climate change pill (we're both skeptical of either sides), but we wouldn't even think about littering. It was a shock.

So, all in all, it was a good show in a crappy circumstance. I wanted to just pick up the show and drop it into a better place. I can't fault Radiohead at all. They were phenomenal. Everything else was a let down.

My Sister's Wedding

Yesterday my little sister got married. It was a big day with lotsa stress. She was married that morning and had the reception that evening. The weather was very pleasant. It's California, that's a given.

I have to say, the ceremony that morning was so beautiful it made the reception seem anti-climactic. I love her new husband. He's a great man and seeing him make her so happy is all I've really wanted for her. I'm glad I got to be there to watch them make promises to each other for eternity, not just till death. It was so beautiful. I wish them all the best.

The sad confession I make in all this is that I still haven't gotten them a wedding gift yet! I'm always late on stuff like this (I have a friend in England who still hasn't gotten one from me yet . . . It's on it's way mate!). I have a good idea on what to give them, but I have yet to make good on it. It's gotta be something personalized and awesome. Something they wont want to return. Ha Ha!

Standing on the edge . . .

Currently, I'm on the brink of something that's potentially very cool. I'm in the middle of writing two new pieces. Each of them is for a different type of ensemble and each of them has their own sound, color and tonal language. It's very exciting to go back and forth between the two and shift gears so dramatically. It's like speaking in Japanese and then suddenly in Swahili. Both pieces have multiple movements and

The main challenge right now is that one of the pieces is being written by stream of consciousness. I'm basically writing it as it comes; as it falls out of my head. I've got a general idea of the form, but the actual music is just coming in consecutive order. The second piece on the other hand is not so easy. I've already got the last movement composed in my head, and the second to last as not to far behind, but they're room for flexibility. The first and second movement are still very vague in my head. The transition between these movements are meant to be smooth and seamless. I'm worried that if I start dictating the last movements it might not match up with the first movements. I'm also worried that if I start writing the first two with this vague idea, it wont turn out as good as I'd hoped. I'm sure this makes no sense, but this is my dilemma. Exciting!

Anyway, should be fun to see what happens. I'll keep you posted. I noticed that I'm just writing mostly about my composing and not much about audio or my singing. Well, that'll come later I suppose.

Helping a Friend

Sometimes, life happens. Good and bad. We can't always foresee it, prevent it or anticipate it. It just happens, and it's a shock. None of us are exempt. Life just happens.

I've got a friend whose going through this right now. Only problem is, this friend is hundreds of miles away. I can't be there in person to help out. The only option I have is the phone and email. It's a huge limitation to what aid I can offer. In a way, I feel powerless.

This is a friend whose helped me many times in the past. This is what friends are for, to help when the other is down. I suppose I'll just have to do what I can with the phone.

Hang in there friend.

Chihuly is a Genius

So, last week I went to the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park to see the Chihuly exhibit. Unbelievable. I enjoyed his works before, but seeing so many different works in person was a dream come true. You might have remembered his works from the Bellagio in Vegas? Truly remarkable works. One of the keys to this exhibit was the lighting, and it was interesting to see how the light had so much to do with the final result.

I've read a comment recently from an author that modern music is "pretty again," and I'm sure that some people have said this about art as well. It's finally "pretty again." I'm not sure if I would say this myself although I do hold similar reservations about modern works. I would even somewhat agree with this point, but I've never felt that something has to be pretty to be good or that something good is pretty.

Chihuly's work on the other hand is both. If you wanna sit back and admire the colors you can. If you want to delve more deeply into it, there's plenty to find. All his works have a story behind them. I can't say that there's some sort of message behind them or that they're meant to make a statement. I personally feel that the whole idea was to create something that looked cool. He just wanted to make something that looked cool. And what's wrong with that? Make something enjoyable to look at, something with aesthetic appeal, sit back and enjoy it. What emotions are evoked when you see these works? When these colors are put in these patterns on this medium? It reminds me a lot of Rothko, that color can have a powerful impact on the soul. But what'do I know?

I highly recommend seeing more at Chihuly's website but more importantly, to find the nearest place that has his works and see them in person. These photos, as lovely as they are, don't do them any justice (especially the lavender reeds below). I've always felt photos undermined sculpture anyway, but until I can afford a $6,000 piece myself, I'll have to settle for this.

You've got the nerve to write a fugue. . .

So, I'm writing part of a fugue into one of the aforementioned pieces and needed some brushing up. So I google "how to write a fugue," and find this video. I started cracking up. Say what you will about Glenn Gould, but he could write and had a great sense of humor. Enjoy.

Sunday Musings

Wow, today is such a beautiful day. First of all the weather here in California here is just so beautiful, but also, today's just been a great day all around. I spent at least two hours on the phone with my sister in Boston. It was a great time chattin' it up. One of those genuinely lifting conversations where both parties end up learning so much. Also, I've got good friends around to lift me up and keep me on my feet.

I listed out all the music that I've started sketching out but haven't completed yet. There's about 8 pieces in total. Some of them are short, but others a quite long. It's a bit daunting, and I'm kinda thinking to myself "Where did all these come from?" and "Where in the world do I start?" I don't see it as overwhelming. I'd like to finish two, maybe three by the end of summer.

I'm still quite busy, and there are bumps in the road, but I'm very happy. In fact, I don't remember being this happy in a long time. I'm just genuinely happy, not just temporarily amused. I don't really know how else to express it. I have a lot to be grateful for.

Le Sacre du printemps

Everyone wants to have some sort of exclusive hold on music that most of their peers have never heard of. To listen to something that no one else is listening to. For me, that's classical music.

Here's a video I found of the LA Philharmonic playing one of my favorite sections from "The Rite of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. It was taken from their Grand Opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (which is a phenomenal concert hall both esthetically and acoustically). Enjoy.

"New World" at the San Francisco Symphony

Last night I saw the San  Francisco Symphony for the first time. It's kind of embarrassing, I've lived in the Bay Area all my life but never taken the time to go see the Symphony. I decided I finally needed to go and see what I've been missing this whole time. Turns out this was the best opportunity: The played Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 5, "Emperor," and Dvorák's Slavic Dance No. 8, and Symphony No. 9, "New World." In a few weeks the San Francisco Symphony will take their summer break and come back in September when I'll be back up at school. I really lucked out here.

Entering the concert hall was great. I did a research paper on the acoustic renovations of this hall and had seen so many photos of the place that I felt I had been there before. I looked at the famous "acoustical cloud" made up of over 100 adjustable glass convex squares and saw how they were arranged. It's hard to explain. To see what I'm talking about check out this movie and this panorama.

The orchestra was a bit smaller that I was expecting, I suppose it's because it's the summer. It was conducted by James Gaffigan for the summer instead of Michael Tilson-Thomas. Gaffigan turned out to be a really good conductor. The Slavic Dance was played very well and despite it being short, it was bursting with energy.

Next, Natasha Paremski came onstage to play the "Emperor Concerto." She is a stunning pianist. Her interpretation was incredible, and played with great sensitivity to each passage, and maintained a fluid sort of grace the whole time. You could tell at the same time that she owned that piano; she let it know who was boss. It was probably the best "Emperor Concerto" I've ever heard. I would like to hear this girl play Rachmaninov and see what she does with it. The only down side was that she didn't play an encore.

Dvorák's ninth was the final work on the program. I've heard it played life once before, and it wasn't very good, so I was more than confident this was going to be awesome. I was not disappointed. The SFS made the whole work sound tremendously exciting from beginning to end. Even though some of the players probably had the attitude of "Well, this is a summer concert. It's not part of the real season. I don't really have to work as hard," it didn't keep the rest of the players down. For the first time I could really hear America's influence on Dvorák. He didn't quote folk tunes but he wrote new tunes and made them sound like they were quoted folk tunes. Genius.

The highlight of the evening was the Largo, the second movement. The English Horn player doesn't really do much the rest of the evening and he's got to be warmed up, tuned and really to impress by time the huge solo comes up in the Largo. He was right on the money tonight. Along with the strings, it was just an emotional powerhouse. Gaffigan led them well through the dynamics (albeit a little too fast for my taste) and phrasing of the piece.

All in all, it was a great evening of music. You really can't beat actually going there to hear it in person. All I gotta say is: Keep Music Live.

Fragments

Just as small update here,

I've finished three pieces of music in the space of just a few weeks. This never really happens. To think that I just spent four months in writers block. I've just recently become flush with ideas. I have the problem sometimes where I think of all these great ideas and never really flesh them out to their fullest potential. Out of 20 good ideas, I'll finish maybe three. I wish I had the capacity and ability to finish them all. This week though has been good for finishing ideas. If I can just keep up with what's falling out of my head...

Future of Audio

I just got a new USB turntable to convert some of my parents vinyls to CD. Meanwhile, while I'm capturing the recordings through the turntable's USB output, I'm listening to all these vinyls on my stereo through it's analog output. Simply put, the sound is amazing. The high frequencies are beautifully rounded off and clear; everything is full-bodied and everything has a lot of presence. This is something you just can't get from a CD or MP3. Audio sampled at 44.1 KHz starts to fall apart at 5 KHz. MP3's quality is even worse. The quality just doesn't compare.

There are some draw backs though. Vinyls are quite fragile and easily damaged. Pops and cracks are a common place. They are large and unwieldy, without any shot at portability. Despite it's incredible sound, it's not quite the ideal medium.

So what's the solution? The sound quality of vinyls with the durability and portability of CDs, does it exist? By way of digital audio there are two options: PCM and DSD. PCM is the way digital music on CDs are sampled. We can increase the sampling rate into triple digits, say 192 KHz. Bluray disc can handle high sampling rates, but still takes a lot of processing power to make it happen. DSD isn't sampled the way that PCM, and for that it sounds fantastic. This is closer to analog that any other option (some say it sounds even better). Super Audio CDs (SACD) can playback DSD. The problem is with the way it's sampled, It's pain to edit and tweak in the studio. It's not supported very much in the professional world.

Do we have a solution? Not yet.

Disappointing Baseball Game

Tonight I went to go see the Oakland A's at McAfee Stadium (smelly place) with some friends. I'm pretty disappointed. I don't know what the problem is, but we played bad the whole night. It seemed like every inning we got three outs in five minutes or less. What's going on here? These aren't the A's I remember. Granted I have been away at school and Ireland for the past five years, I just thought our team was better than this. I guess that's why the tickets cost $2 and the hot dogs were $1 each. Can't beat that. Even still, the stadium wasn't even half full (or half empty).

I'd probably be more disappointed if Baseball was my favorite sport. Football (or what the U.S. calls Soccer) on the other hand is my favorite sport to watch. I can get pretty involved with it, if we Americans ever played it or broadcast it on TV. I don't even know how to tune in for the EuroCup! I've gotta change that. I haven't gotten my "footie fix" for quite a while, and I'm feeling it. There's nothing quite like a good ol' game of football, but then again, every sport has it's perk.

Random thoughts about composing recently

Well, I just finished polishing a piece that I've been writing for some time. I finished it last night and spent today fixing all the crappy things I did. Now, it goes away for about a month. I'm currently working on polishing another piece I wrote almost two months ago. It's pretty exciting stuff.

Yesterday, I printed out an piece I've written for choir and orchestra. I decided to go to Kinko's to print it on tabloid paper. The thrill of seeing my piece printed out on huge paper is hard to express. There's just one slight hang up. I wanted to get the thing spiral bound with a covers on the front and back but Kinko's doesn't have any tabloid binding. I ended up just stapling it together – kinda killed the magic.

I've got a lot of projects that I'm working on that I wonder if I'm spreading myself too thin. I have lots of ideas I'm currently trying to flesh out – which has always been one of the hardest parts of composing for me. Sketching is usually one of the easiest. The best part about composing though, is finishing a piece, having people perform it, and then hearing people unconsciously hum it to themselves. Now that's a great feeling.

California High Speed Rail

Yesterday, I heard about the possibility to built a high speed rail system here in California. I had heard about it before, but I didn't know how much had been planned. I found this website and a YouTube video. I also found a great article in the Fresno Bee.

I must admit, this sounds so flippin' cool and would be a amazing novelty, but more importantly this is the future of our transportation. We just can't afford to continue doing what we're doing, we've got to think of other solutions. I've always been big on improving the public transportation of the United States. After being in Ireland for two years and seeing what there system is like impressed me. We need something better here in America, and this is a good step.

Inauguration

This is all a little weird for me...

I didn't think I would start a blog for a number of reasons. One of which was that I had already done this before six or seven years ago in High School. I was blogging before blog was even a word. But here I am, after all this time, at it again.

It leaves me with a lot of questions. How much do I make this a self-indulgence thing? How much do I reveal about myself. Besides the obvious answers, I guess it's a boundary I'll be learning about.

So a little bit about myself. I love music. I'm pursuing a degree in music, and it permeates just about every part of my life. Some might consider it the professional invading the personal, but I'm loving every minute of it. I really can't see myself doing anything else. People ask me what I specialize in, my reply is always, "Listen, I've finally just narrowed it down to music. I have no idea yet." It's kind of a lie. Technically my emphasis for my degree is in Sound Recording. I still have many interests though and have realized that what you do for work is not always closely related to what you majored in. I'm also a classical singer, and a free-lance composer. I'll post some of my music later on.

Why this title? I dunno. It sounded good. It was a sign I saw on the mirror in a Reno gas station bathroom. When I saw it, I knew I had to capture it on my phone's camera. When I was talking to a friend about starting a blog and what I should use for a title, she suggested the sign I saw in Reno. I guess it works. It's the kinda thing that gets my attention, and makes me laugh.

Well, I think this is a good start. More later. Cheers.