Another Year Bites the Dust

New Year's Eve nearly turned out as Christmas and Thanksgiving did, with me sitting in my apartment all day practicing and watching movies. As 10pm rolled around and my "friends" were conveniently continuing radio silence, I decided to go find some fun or cause some mischief. As I had heard a rumor that there might be fireworks a few blocks from my apartment, I decided that would be my first stop. If I ran across nothing happening, I figured I could wander into a random Korean bar and drink my way into something interesting.

Well, I saw the fireworks a block away and they were arching over the streets. It was only once I got to that side of the street that I realized that citizens were firing off their own fireworks (which were purchased on the street legally for a small sum). As I rounded the corner and looked down Jongno, I realized I was on the wuss end. Further down the street was a fireworks scene that could have been pulled from "Saving Private Ryan." Awesome...I waded into the fray.

After a few blocks, I realized that I was in for more than a few sparklers. I had happened upon Seoul's version of Times Square in NY. There were very popular bands and singers doing their thing on a big stage set up in front of a traditional building. Actually, it was in front of a building that was the subject of my first picture on this blog. I was in the midst of a crowd so thick that I couldn't move freely in any direction. If I wanted to move a centimeter to the right, I would have had to shove someone out of the way. As it was, I was always touching no fewer than 4 people at once. That's how packed we were....Of course, the fireworks were going the whole time from the crowd. I had visions of a stampede running through my head. This was the kind of crowd that just asks for a horrific tragedy. It would be hard for any one to run, though. You've got to be able to lift your knee to actually walk, much less run. Yes...that packed.

I have many videos on my phone of the actual countdown and the the chaos that erupted after the turn of the new year. It's impressive. If I ever get the cord from my "friend," I'll try to post some of them.

After the show, I wandered around a bit. I went over to the man-made stream and its brilliant lights. Couples and families were walking around enjoying the atmosphere. Of course, I was just people-watching and delaying going back to my empty apartment with no television. I stopped for about an hour and a half to listen to a couple of young groups play traditional Korean drums. Now, anyone who has ever seen me happen upon a Berklee/Goddamn-Hippy drum circle knows that I like to have an aerosol can and a lighter free for those instances, but this traditional business is different. These guys are running a whole different operation. I got a small gist of what was going on, but I couldn't quite figure out the rhythmic patterns and cues. I'll have to get another chance before I leave.

As the last group had a small pile of cash from benevolent citizens, I decided that I should give them they money I would have probably spent on more nefarious activities. Hopefully they could use it to replace the head on the drum that broke tonight, or maybe they'll just blow it with a night out. Frankly, I hope they do the latter. They kept me occupied when I could have just as easily ended up miserable again. The kids were nice and a little surprised that I put down that much, but...well, they deserved it. It was much too cold to be out doing that. I wouldn't take my music out in that weather. Besides, for what appeared to be a bunch of junior high school kids, they were awfully good musicians.

Next!

In an effort to be the ugly American, I'm going for a freakin' cheeseburger and a few beers. Beethoven 9 is done, I've found an excellent mouthpiece for this orchestra, my friends got two last minute tickets to see the show, and I deserve a greasy, alcohol-filled evening. Now bring me the dancing girls! You are dismissed.

Amplified Clarinet

I spent all morning playing politics rather than playing the clarinet. Whoopdeefreakin' doo. It dumbfounds me sometimes why things can't ever go simply just once. Just once would be freaking amazing. In fact, I'd probably be so stunned as to be ineffective were anything to go as planned.

After a catered lunch (yum...I gorged, of course...Several platefulls of outstanding food. I haven't eaten so well in weeks.) I came home and practiced. As I'm using a newer mouthpiece (HJ helped pick it out...If she likes it, it has to be okay.), the practicing is tiring. I've switched to a mouthpiece that's a more resistant blow. Now, this isn't just another in the long line of self-abuses for which I'm so famous. Instead, it's a better piece for me to project my sound. If I'm going to compete against orchestral players who play loud all the time, I'll just have to use the right ammunition. I do like having to trim down reeds rather than complain about thin tips, though.

I'm losing my mind. This coming week, I've got to play Principal on Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto. My Spidey-sense has been going off for a few days on this one. It turns out that I have to do it with my NY orchestra again in March. This is also the second time I've done this piece. The first was with Leon Fleisher. Not a bad way to get to know a piece, eh?

Non-musical items:

Hot chocolate made with hot water is very good if you doubleup on the servings of chocolate powder. It's my own little "safe" addiction this week.

I saw the new Rocky film tonight. It's...well...it's a Rocky movie. It was better than the more recent crappy ones. How old is this guy? He's in amazing shape. The movie seemed to be a bonbon, really. No overpowering sub-message about the evils of the Soviets or anything like that. Just people beating the holy Jebus out of each other. Yay blood!

Now I think I'll go watch a little "House", finish studying some music, and hit they hay early tonight. BS takes it out of you, I think. Besides, I've got to play another concert of Beethoven 9 tomorrow night. I think that this is the last one while I'm here, so that should be good. There might even be a little post-concert revelry/debauchery if I don't feel too old and decrepit.

Proof of Life

Some of my favorite people: SooYoung, Sharon, DJ, Your Fearless Leader, and Yuri




More o' the same: SooYoung, Sharon, DJ, Yuri, Your Fearless Hungry Leader (I'm not too sure what's going on with those pillows either. Also, this pic seems to contain alot of hands in the vicinity of faces.)


These are pictures from the same evening as the last pics, although at YH's apartment after the initial feeding at the trough in the restaurant. This last pic is here just to prove that we don't carouse exclusively in the dark. How beautiful these ladies are...I'm surprised they let DJ and me in the door without some kind of call to the police. Don't worry...they're all taken. Nope, and not by me or DJ.

Another concert tonight: Beethoven 9 again. Same shit, different day. Nothing else too special.

Watched another movie tonight: Short Bus. I'd highly recommend it, but you should IMDB.com it before you go get it to make sure that it's right for you. It's absolutely something you don't want to watch with your parents. You probably shouldn't watch it with a first date either, unless you're on the kind of first date they show in this movie.

Boy I could go for a few beers/vodka tonics/brainings against a cement wall.

Catching up

Younghwa and Sharon








Yuri, Younghwa, and Sharon






Your fearless leader, DJ, and SooYoung






Don't blame me for the quality of these pics. These are from a little NEC alum get together (read "gorging") a couple of weeks ago. These are some of my best friends from undergrad and it's good to see them again. There are other pictures from this evening, but I wasn't able to save them from the Flash-nonsense in which they were imbedded, damnit. We'll see what happens.

I practiced all damned day. I then spent a few hours running repertoire for a friend. Oy vey. I was so tired...then we played duets. After... food of course. We picked up another one of the NEC old friends and whisked her off to watch us eat. I hadn't seen her in a few years either. Since the last time I saw her, she's moved to Europe for a little more education and quite a bit of concertizing, it seems. Right on.

Danny Pinkham died last week. Boo. What a sweatheart. Everytime I called him Mr. Pinkham, he corrected me and told me to use his first name.

Tomorrow is another day off. Tuesday, a day full of rehearsals...From Wed through Sat, I guess I have at least a concert a day. Oy vey.

Reeds...Oh reeds. I feel I'm actually learning about them. Know thine enemy, I guess.

Currently listening: A stream of "The War on Brains"

Chris-tmas in the Mountains

Okay. This is my house as it looks right now. Now, tell me...Doesn't it looks like liquor was involved somehow? Now, the actual lighting display itself could conceivably be created by a sober (but disturbed) individual, but there's another clue. The blur. Yup...Somehow I think the Busch family and the Bush family worked together on this one.

Remember, if you take the 'Chris' out of 'Christmas', you've only got 'tmas' and that's just a life not worth living.

Back on the Job

On the mend...this evening I partook in a massive amount of 삼겹살 and 김치 fried rice. Even a little 소주 to top it off. Holy crap it tasted good. I ate it with a mixture of whiteys and Koreans from the orchestra. A good time was had by all.

We peformed Beethoven 9 tonight for a very enthusiastic crowd. It was not an educational concert, but there were kids EVERYWHERE. It was an great sign. So many kids, adolescents, and even younger adults (20's). Wow...Wouldn't see that in the States. It wasn't even a free concert. Although this concert was a runout to a local university, I'm interested in seeing what happens when we play in our house on Wednesday night. I bet the place will be packed.

I have the next 2 days off...something about a holiday of some sort. I haven't checked my PalmPilot, so I don't know which holiday yet. Maybe I'll check tomorrow.

For those of you who miss Morning Sedition, go to www.marcmaron.com for a bit o' what he's doing. Click here if you want to listen to a stream of the old show. Awesome.

Drug-addled gasbag

Okay, so I'm not dead...that I know of. If I am, then shit, I'm going to stop with the music nonsense and get into showbiz.

I'm not all better now, but I think I've turned the corner. I'll let you know if I plan on taking three more corners in the same direction. (Do the geometry...That means that I end up in the same place, retard.)

Obviously, I'm still sick enough to be grumpy. You would be amazed by sheer amount of empty pill packaging littering my nightstand. It's truly astounding.

Bite Me

Truly awful day. I'm sick enough that I'm lucky that I didn't fall over in rehearsal. Of course, my playing did suffer. Even my skin hurts. If I feel this crappy tomorrow, I'm just going to light myself on fire. At least a little self-immolation will provide some humor for someone.

Too bad the damage is done. No one cares if you're sick in the orchestra.

Illin' Part The Second

So I'm sick...again. Over the course of yesterday, I managed to go from a small tickle in the back of my throat to a persistent cough that caused me to only get about 2 hours of sleep last night. Of course, this morning was my first rehearsal with my potential new Maestro. Blech...

I've just taken some pills for clearing up the throat and dulling the pain. We'll see how they do. I still have to manage to practice this afternoon, but I'm thinking about a little nap first. I wonder if I'll be able to wake up at all before sometime on Friday.

I hate being sick and I truly hate you for not being sick.

Snow!

Yup...Snow...and quite a bit of it. The flakes over in Apgujeong were easily as big as my thumbnail. Big fluffy snow. Wahoo! (just to clarify, that "Wahoo!" was yelped in earnest...I loves me some snow. No school!)

I just managed to get home through a harrowing car ride back from the movie theatre. I was lured out of my house this afternoon after a day of practicing and teaching with the promise of Taco Bell. Yes, of course there was a pretty face involved. When we got to the US Army base, one of our band o' three had the wrong kind of ID. Instead, we went to an American-style greasy spoon in Itaewon, where we loaded up on Cheeseburgers, fries, and wings (oddly spice-free wings...). Bascially, all the grease and fat your mother (and several million doctors) warned you about. Pour a couple of beers on that and you're talking about a nice relaxing dinner.

Then the pretty face (she's taken guys, and not by me; she's another old friend from school...Those of you who know my "aesthetically pleasing environmental regulations" please bring your neighbors up to date) and I went and saw a movie. The movie was either titled "Holiday" or "Romantic Holiday". Not really sure, eventhough it is an American flick with Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, and that frumpy (but oddly cute) chick from Titanic...You know, the Limey...Yes, that one. Anywho, total chick flick, but it kept me entertained. Oh, and Jude Law was in it. That Diaz chick is looking a little leathery in the face. (Gotta tear 'em down to make myself feel better.)

About the ride home: Boston has Seoul creamed in the street cleaning/preparing department. Now, it may look abyssmal outside due to the unexpected arival and quantity of snow, but I'm sure I'll have an opinion the next time this happens. Either way, I'm alive and I'm getting better at dealing with cabbies in Korean. Pretty cheap cabs compared to any of your major US cities.

Ah practicing...Daphnis and Chloe. Lots of recording and metronome work. My teachers might be proud of the work ethic, but the results remain to be seen.

I need to get ahold of two Eb clarinet parts: Shostakovich 5 and 6. Can someone help me here? I didn't have a reason to bring them, but I have run into a need for them. Is there a way to get them via pdf from one of my good good, ever-s0-angelic friends?

Oh, although I never did find a free, live feed to Stephanie Miller, I do get my daily does of Right Wing World, Stand Up News, and Tinsel Talk. Thank FSM for my daily does of inanity. Otherwise I'd have to provide the inanity.

Peter and the Wolf

Lovely concert, but the cat got a few scratches going up the tree. I blame TM for this. He never should have told me about his own problems with that clarinet cadenza. Now I look at it and say to myself "Jesus, if TM has a problem with it, what the hell am I going to do?" Whatever...so the cat hit a branch on the way up, but he got up and relaxed nicely. Next time I'm just going to have the cat shoot the wolf and the piece will be over earlier than anticipated. The check still cashes if I end the piece 15 minutes early, right?

Had some good reeds though. I'd like to hear the recording to see if it was all in my head. The audience was appreciative and the after-concert company was quite lovely.

On tap tomorrow: Practice, a lesson, maybe a little Taco Bell (although I wouldn't bet on it considering our past tries), a little more practicing, and oh-dear-fsm-some-sleep-please-oh-please. The Maestro begins flogging us on Tuesday, so I'll need to make sure all barrels are loaded for that (equals a little reed work). Oh, and a little more practicing, I'd expect.

To bed with me!

Between gigs

So here's my guess on this whole San Mateo business. More than likely, the culprit doesn't live in San Mateo, but in the general environs of San Francisco. His/Her ISP is probably located in SM, leading to a trail that ends there. Does this sound like you, dear reader? If so, leave a comment so I can finally stop thinking about it. My brain can only handly so many issues at once and this one has been clogging the tubes for a few weeks.

Messiah last night. Oh dear FSM...that's all I can legally say. Plus, the grief counselors tell me I shouldn't really speak about it in detail as it may traumatize others.

Concert tomorrow. This one should be fun. It may not be a roof-raising shivaree, but merriment should be had by all. Of course, I'm getting to play a few little flashy things and then be done, but the rest of the concert should be good. If you have the time at 8pm, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction. (If you haven't noticed lately, I'm being a bit vague about some of my work here as I'd prefer to keep my job and jobs. I'm not completely in the loop as to how blogs are viewed here by organizations, so I'd rather not be the test case.)

I get three days off in a row! Whoopee. Of course, I'll spend them practicing like a maniac. Boo.

Now I'm going to bed. My brain hurts.

Feces, Wolves, and Butter

Same sh*t, different day, as I always say, but today had a little less fecal a quality to it. Few hours in the morning of rehearsal that was constantly amusing. Notice I didn't say enlightening or educating. Amusing. There were actual moments where I laughed out loud.

This evening was amusing because it was fun. I had significantly less suckage on my part as the Cat in Pater und der Volf. Oh yes, please don't write to inform me that my German sucks. I'm fairly sure that there are all kinds of problems with my German as I don't know German. I make stuff up. In fact, I make up stuff in English too. My students are frequently the victims of that. Sadly, I've continued that bad habit even with my new Korean student.

I tried to have it explained to him beforehand (in Korea) that I'm a nutcase. I'm not sure if that ever happened. He's learning firsthand.

Okay, so a concert tomorrow night. You haven't heard Messiah until you've heard it in Korean! (With clarinets...I can't believe it's not Handel/butter.)

And a concert Friday...a benefit concert for the handicapped no less! (I've now hit my quote for exclamation marks.) I'll be playing as a guest with a flute choir doing Peter and the Wolf (all the standard licks) a couple of tunes from Bizet's Carmen, and maybe a few Christmas Carols. My friend JY asked me to do this concert and, as she's one of my favorite people and musicians, I said "What the hell? Where's my bowl of green M&Ms and my coterie of 6 Mini Schnauzers damnit?" After she rammed her pencil into my left cornea, I heartily agreed to play without any of the standard riders to my contract. Occasionally you have to take one for the team. It's for the handicapped, for FSM's sake.

Let me know if you want tix. If you're cute, I may give them to you. If you're male, however, it's a freakin' benefit for the handicapped. Buy the tix.

"Oh My God! You Killed Kenny!"

Holy Mary, sister-in-law to the FSM am I tired. Crapweasel...I started a perfectly lovely day by practicing (Yup, still hate reeds.). After a good clarinet workout, I had a leisurely lunch, followed by nearly three hours of dreck. Ever just run the Messiah, had a 15 minute break, and then run it again in reverse order? That's right. No rehearsal, just running. Holy crap was I burnt out after that one. Of course, then I jumped on the train and had ANOTHER rehearsal, this time of Peter and the Wolf.

It turns out that the music that was given me is riddled with mistakes and missing much of the part that the conductor expected. As I'm that kind of guy, I just happened to have 2 copies (Bb and A) of the orginal orchestra version (we're playing a transcription, heavily edited) and made myself useful right there on the spot. It's so tiring jumping back and forth to figure out what should be played and when I should return to the transcription. The conductor seemed to appreciate my effort. Tomorrow should be better as, now that I know what I need to do, I'll have a map laid out. I'll use tomorrow's rehearsal to work out the kinks in my map and then make a new part for Wednesday's rehearsal. It's the orchestra librarian in me rearing its beautiful head.

I did have a kind of shrimp and kimchee fried rice afterwards that was thoroughly enjoyed. Frankly, after not having eaten since 11am, I was quite ready by 9pm to rip the arms off the nearest flutist and gnaw on that for awhile.

Of course, a room full of Koreans didn't expect a rather goofy looking white guy to stumble into the room for the rehearsal. I was certainly the animal in the zoo and not the patron. They even made a special point to introduce me. Oy.

So, I've only had 5 hours of rehearsal today plus a few hours of practicing. I shouldn't be complaining at all. Somewhere, there are people having to rehearse 10 hours, barefoot, through 10 feet of snow and gravel, at high altitude, while juggling live grenades...or something like that.

"You bastards!"

Now -that's- a useful day

Movie o' the day: Elizabethtown.
Verdict: Outfreakingstanding. I'd recommend it to anyone, moreso if you've left the South for a while. If you're hitting an age where you're just old enough to really screw up your life, that's also a good perspective for this movie. If you just like good movies, that'll also work. Oh, and I'm sure you can't miss for watchin' with a chick. Oh yeah, there's one explosion even (but not very dramatic), and an almost-stabbing. Yup, that's two almost-stabbings this week for this blog. Even the soundtrack is good.

Other business of the day: Massive amounts of practicing. I've got to play Principal on Beethoven 8 soon. Now, as this will be my first encounter with the Maestro (the thumbs up or thumbs down giver), I've been taking special care to not...how you say...ah yes...suck. Lots of time with a tuner, a metronome, and a microphone. And I'm starting to line reeds up so there is a bountiful supply available. One less thing to think about. In a few days, I'll run the Trio to the 3rd mvt. with the Horns. They've been hitting their parts hard too.

Occasionally, I am dumbfounded that people actually pay me for this. Shh...don't tell anyone.

Finished the D. Sedaris book. On to Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. If you know his work, you know I'll spend just as much time researching his literary/philisophical/historical references as I will actually reeding the book. Thank God for Google, though. It didn't exist the last time I read one of his books.

Damnit, I still haven't gotten the Lee Jung Hyun album. Sometimes I'm so lax in my utter poor taste in pop.

My poor student...poor, poor kid. He got a two hour lesson today because I had the energy (emphasis on "had" as I was thoroughly exhausted post-lesson). The poor guy hopefully knows by now to block off most of the afternoon for his lessons. I told him that I was relentless when I was interested. Poor guy. He must have been a puddle of exhaustion when we were done. Actually playing the lesson is always more tiring than just yelling and waving one's arms (AKA-teaching).

To bed with me. On the docket for tomorrow: Practicing, Messiah, running across town and playing Peter and the Wolf (and perhaps a Carmen Suite if the mood moves me). See you in the funny papers.

(Holy crap...I just realized that Elizabethtown even has a stabbing machine. It's not a stabbing robot, but it's pretty damned close. There's a dark undercurrent running through the blog this weekend. There be evil doings near, I reckon.)

Blogshares?

http://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http%3A%2F%2Fctbush.blogspot.com%2F

What in the hell is this?? I've never heard of this. Not only that, but how in the hell did I get added nearly a year ago? Who added me? Anyone got any clue?

A Cornucopia of Tidbits

Okay, just to show my friends that I haven't totally been wasting all of my Korea time by playing music constantly, I'll list today's movies:

Little Miss Sunshine: Hilarious. How come this is the first time I've seen an 8 year old do a dance like that, huh?

Slip: Crap. Crap covered in crap with a crappy sprinkle (only one) on top. Oh, and the production quality was only slightly better than the original Star Trek series (by today's standards, not the 70's standards). I'm dry heaving thinking about why I allowed myself to lose that hour and a half.

30 Rock (not a movie, but I watched an episode anyway): Funny. Still...I'm sure that'll change soon. However, Conan was attacked by a Stabbing Robot, so it's amusing.

There you have it...a good 4 hours of total laziness. Oh, and I read most of a David Sedaris book today too.

Not that one should think I'm not working. I spent most of the day with the clarinet in hand, practicing or in rehearsal. We're doing Handel's Messiah right now . In Korea, though, it seems to be pronounced "messy-yah" as if we're in Northern Minnesota. Now, the Messiah, in its original form wasn't orchestrated for clarinets. Mozart came along and did an edition with clarinets. Now, don't be fooled by that last little tidbit, because we aren't doing Mozart's version either. Yup, we're doing some ghetto version that should probably be done by your local high school orchestra.

Here's the redeeming factor: They're doing it in Korean! It's awesome. The musical accents infrequently make any sense at all since they're not singing with an English cadence. It's like watching a car wreck in slow motion. You know you shouldn't, but you're awfully fascinated as to exactly how it's going to go down.

Strangely enough, I like hearing the Hallelujah chorus in Korean. They say Hallelujah, oddly enough. Guess there's not really a translation for that word. What's the origin of that word? I guess that I could wiki it, but that would require effort.

Tomorrow, more practicing and gotta teach a lesson. Then maybe, to Taco Bell! (A brief update: I did not, in fact, go to Taco Bell last week as I was waylaid.) Two lovely young ladies have requested that my friend and I take them onto the army base for a little of the Bell. (No, I don't have the right to sign them on base. My friend has to sign me on as it is. They just think that Americans can walk on and off the base since it's our gov't.) One called me today and said that she was sick. I asked her if she wanted anything from the base and was greeted with incredulty that we would go without her. Ha ha...The Bell waits for no one. (I need to get rid of some dollars that those bastards gave me as change the last time I went there.)

After the Messiah, the Maestro is in town. People are pretty worried and seem to actually be practicing. Strange.

A Quick Note Before Slaughtering some Veggies

I just got home from a thoroughly exhausting concert (It's 1130pm here.) and I'm (hence the previous adjective) thoroughly exhausted. And to boot, I accidentally picked out a vegetarian sandwhich from the bakery downstairs for my late night snack. The bastards. What are they even doing stocking this crap?

Having lunch with my friend Richard tomorrow afternoon. I haven't seen him in a few years and it seems that he's doing well. It'll be a nice way to break up a day of practicing. Of course, I'll end the day playing with a cutie from NEC. Oh, does it ever end?

Vegetarian? What the hell are they thinking?...Someone could get hurt.

Tonight's concert consisted of Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet, a crapload of arias and duets, and some Strauss. We got quite the ovation. After the encore, the audience was vocally disappointed that we weren't planning on playing more. I did not play my best. There were a few small slips. Most of the concert consisted of music that I had never performed before. Two of the pieces I've conducted, but hadn't performed before coming to Korea. Weird. At least those two pieces were solid.

I still hate the Blue Danube.

I was told tonight by a Korean male that Korean girls expect a very complicated dating ritual involving no one admitting that they're interested. The whole thing seemed to be a step in the wrong direction and I'm fairly sure this guy is wrong. In fact, I'm sure he needs a bit of edumacatin'. But, I'm much too lazy to do the job. In fact, I'm much too lazy to traverse any "complicated dating ritual." Apparently, going out to dinner or coffee is considered an expression of some intent. If so, I'm an utter whore. Uh...unless the intent expressed is that of getting some caffeine and calories in me. Help me out here, folks. What's the word on this? (Everyone knows I'm hopelessly unwilling to take part in such a game, but I'm interested to know if this guy is right. If so, that means that I'll just need to find a lazy girl.)

If I don't get to sleep now, I won't have the energy to burn down those vegetarian bastards in the bakery before my morning practice. They deserve it.

Swag

Okay, so I didn't quite make it to Taco Bell this weekend. I got sidetracked and never quite made into onto the base. You see, there's only one Taco Bell in all of Korea and it's on the Army Base. Apparently, Taco Bell attempted to infiltrate Korea, but failed miserably. Perhaps Korean people just don't want to buy food from a small dog when they could just eat the small...oh, I'll leave that one alone.

I did visit one of the local clarinet shops yesterday after rehearsal. My friend acted as translator and general "smoother of the way" as he frequently does. I just sat around playing with stuff and poking things, as I always do in these shops. This time, however, I walked out with a new clarinet case cover/bag (sweet! The word Prada was used to describe it. It's a little fancy, but I'm not complaining.), some swabs and other accessories, and two new barrels. No, I didn't pay for them. No, I didn't steal them. Holy crap. After I have a chance to try some of these products out, I'll throw up a small review.

However, I did use both barrels in rehearsal today after our break. Significant improvements. I'll probably use them happily in the concert on Thursday.

So, I'm supposed to head back to the shop soon and show them my fancy schmanzy Eb as well as some linguistics/spectrography software. These guys are nerds like me, but with shiny tools and a total lack of laziness. If we're lucky, we'll see more of their shop's products in the US. They already make that 8-reed plastic clarinet case for VanDoren. Anywho, I'll yap about specifics later.

Lower Intestine? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Lower Intestine.

Taco Bell, here we come...bitches.

Return to our Regular Scheduling

Just finished watching "Domino" with Keira Knightly. No, Keira wasn't here this time to watch it with me. In fact, she was starring in the movie as a asskicking bounty hunter. I expected the movie to be crap, but was highly entertained. In fact, it's a movie that I probably should have seen in the theater. Yup, I would have paid to see it. Nope, I didn't pay to see it this time. What do you take me for?

Okay, so now I'm teaching this college student here in Seoul. He's a good player, but doesn't speak much english. I don't speak much Korean. For those of you who have suffered through a lesson with me, this means that I'm not allowed to drone on and on while (eventually) trying to make a point. Basically, I just stare at him until I can come up with a way to pantomime, play, or explain in pidgin-Korean what I want. Poor kid. He's paying through the nose. Since I spend very little time explaining -why- we do something, I feel like I'm not completely effective. It's something akin to giving a man a fish as opposed to teaching him how to throw dynamite in a pond. Er...Or something like that. Perhaps I've seen too many movies involving Paul Hogan. Well, at least he's getting LONG lessons, along the lines of Bobby Ray's LONG lessons. I made sure to have it explained to him that he only pays for the first hour. After that, any extra time is just me keeping myself amused.

I was about to write next about how I have some good reeds, but decided not to since I didn't want to tempt fate. Oh...damnit...I did it anyway. While I'm at it, why don't I just beat up a Rabbi or pee in some holy water? (Exactly how many Rabbis do you think are wandering around Seoul at any one time? I haven't seen hide nor hair of a Temple since I got here. It's not exactly Brookline around here.)

Oh, and Tina Fey's 30 Rock is funny. That means it'll be off the air soon, so enjoy it while you can.

Drivel with a little Bitching (Note: not Bitchin')

My brain has officially leaked from my ears. I've spent the last two days holed up in my officetel (nearly exclusively) practicing and studying. The last couple of hours have been spent studying scores and listening to recordings. When a friend called to chat, my brain could produce little more than sputtering. Apparently I might be heading out to a jazz bar tonight. I'm not sure. I'm sure I'll get another phone call if I'm really expected somewhere.

I hate the Blue Danube. Soon it will be the putrid, crimson Danube when I'm done with it. C clarinet? Why? Really...why? It's not any more difficult to write for Bb and it really doesn't matter (All you Sneezy people and DLeeson can avoid commenting here.). Why doesn't the composer just include the transposition with the set? Crap...It's not a difficult piece. All the transposition does is add a layer of nerves to the whole shebang. The bastards...

One of these days, I'll hold Johann Strauss for the crimes he's committed. Oh, and they're numerous. I blame him for Rieu, after all.