Alive

Yes, I'm alive. I'm still trying to get settled in...a bit. I'll try a substantial post when I head back up to Glens Falls Thursday. I'll try to take along my laptop so I can wireless at the Villa during my downtime.

Vroom Vroom

Heading to Washington, D.C. tomorrow the long way. The really long way. At least I'll get good company for a lovely meal. And then a day to recover. Then, it appears, I will go somewhere else, again. Yay and stuff. I hope I can find some practice time.

Happy Day After My Birthday

Yup, I'm telling you that the day after the birthday is where it is. You know what I'm planning? Sleeping way in, waking up long enough to get a bite to eat, sleeping some more, and then a little practicing. Somewhere in there, I'll play with the dogs. Then I'll sleep.

For my birthday, however, I ate some fairly good Thai food here in Asheville. Duck. Mmm...duck. Not enough duck, but the curry was fantastic.

Hey Miss Reader-in-Taiwan: How was Australia? I still haven't come up with a good excuse to go. It seems like all of my friends are doing it now, though. Should I get on the next plane?

I managed to follow up a perfectly lovely day and meal with a useful practice session. Oh yeah, and more dizziness. Don't worry, I took two of the pink pills. Mmm...pills. I'm starting to think that the FSM doesn't want me to play the clarinet. I'm trying to avoid downgrading to the financially lucrative, but bottom-dwelling, position of conductor. I gave that crap up to be a musician. Now where are my pills?

No Pictures, I Promise

Finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point this afternoon. I can recommend it to nearly everyone, assuming you have an attention span. I have several issues with Gladwell (and his sources) claiming causation where only correllation is clear, but it's certainly a compelling read. With an edit or two, I might not have any objections. Of course, I'm sure Malcolm is going to get right on gaining my my complete acceptance. Probably at the top of his list.

Frankly, I'd like to see how some of his ideas can be put to a purely selfish use. As a musician, I'm certain that I'd like to be on the good side of Gladwell's Mavens and Connectors in my own industry. Would a pointed effort at identifying said individuals and associating with same improve my own efforts at a career, much less just paying the rent?

Don't misunderstand me, this book isn't about the classical music world. In fact, Gladwell's book is about social epidemics, large and small. Of course, he delves into viral epidemics as well, but they're really just payloads of social forces at work.

Couple of recent books:
Haruka Murakami's Dance, Dance, Dance - Er...Can't really describe this one in terms of plot. The narrator is quite a vivid character, as are the immediate circle of characters surrounding him. However, as we move away from him, everyone becomes horrible obscurred in several ways. Frankly, it's a fantastic book and I'll get another one of his soon, I'm sure.

Also read the collected letters of Richard Feynman. I'm much too lazy to wander over to the bookshelf to find the title, but I'm sure you'll get over it. Frankly, I'd start with the plethora of Feynman biographies and memoirs out there (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman and its sequals were highly amusing for a middle schooler.). These letters give a little more insight into the man, but they're not all that compelling if you've not got prior knowledge of the lovable wacko. Whether you're a physicist or just a weirdo like me, anyone with a sense of humor and a rudimentary knowledge of physics should get to know this guy.

The Musical World According to Janos Starker by Janos himself. I'm pretty sure that's the correct title, but my laziness again precludes me from checking to make sure. The stories of his life during WWII are particularly interesting. I was amazed at the several times that Starker would head off to a new country or city in the hope that there might be musical work for him. Oy...I can imagine my family's response if I said "Yo whities, I'm gonna catch a plane to Budapest 'cause I heard the freelance scene is really kickin'." (Yes, I do frequently refer to several members of my family as "whitey." I also frequently need the use of apostrophe's to stand in for the loss of letters in my speech.) I never should have told them the Shanghai kidnapping story.

Part the Second

Er...So I tried to make one big freakin' post, but the damned Google version of Blogger wouldn't let me post all of the photos in one post. Bastards.



The Art Institute of Chicago is right across the street from the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I took a couple of hours and wandered through a little of it. I kind of dug the front of the building anyway, but the Lions-as-football-fans made me giggle. I mean, those are LARGE helmets. I probably should have rapped on them to see how they were made. I also should have returned at night and stolen the helmet. I could have been a real-life bobble head while wearing that thing down the street.

Yeah, the sign out front was an extra for the dozen or so protesters wandering around the intersection. Several of their signs asked for honks from the motorists in order to show their support for the idea of impeachment. There was quite a load of honking.

Yay...A big bell. I just thought that I'd have to bring this around to music somehow. I think it's horrible that the AIC would put a big bell in its exhibit and not set it up to be rung. I understand that it's a bad idea to be ringing ancient Chinese bells and all, but damn. The placard tells the patrons what the ring sounds like, but no one gets to hear it. Tease. Make a copy and let someone hit it!

There was an exhibit with great big sharp pikes and spears. There's no musical reason that I should include a picture of these. I just thought they would be appropriate given the pics of the guards at the palace in Seoul and their great big sharp objects. Can someone get me one of these?

Out Under the Wire

So, apparently Chicago is going a little nuts right now. Something about snow and all that Nature business. My first flight out of Chicago was delayed only about an hour, but that was plenty. That meant that I missed my connecting flight through JFK. As a result, I had four extra hours to bum around the terminal at JFK. Real freakin' fun. There was a high school youth orchestra there. They were ironically inattentive to knocking into others' baggage.



This is my Russian gun runner...Er...This is actually Eugene O., another clarinetist. He's back in the States and took a few hours out to hang out with the Whitey on the left. Of course, we took at least an hour of that just to chat about our classmates and try to catch up on what they were doing. Everyone, Eugene says "Hello." I've been instructed to pass along his greetings to all. If you'd like to get in touch with him, drop me a note and I'll pass along his email and cell number. Even if you don't, I expect you clarinet players might see him in Fort Collins.

I had to hang out here for a little on Sunday. Not horribly exciting looking, is it? They need to snazz it up a little. Maybe some Herald Trumpeters or dancing girls in cages. I'm not sure which would be more appropriate, but I do know which I'd prefer.

Chicago on "Business"

Well, I'm already done with my work in Chicago. It seemed to go well, but one never knows. NEXT!

Met a friend from school, so I'll probably hang with her tonight rather than obsessively update ye olde blog. Another friend, a Ukranian clarinetist, may join in the fray. I expect they'll show me some sights other than my hotel and my hotel lobby's free coffee.

Everyone keeps complaining about the cold here. It isn't really that bad. Nothing a warm coat can't cure. I've been wandering the streets without my coat buttoned up. The locals are looking at me, sans hat or other headgear, as if I were the Son of Sam. I guess all those years in Boston, and a few years in an overly airconditioned house, made me somewhat tolerant of the cold in the short term. (Crap, I'm not sure about the proper use of a hyphen in the last two words of the last sentence. I'm much too lazy to figure it out. )

The architecture in this town is fantastic, at least in the part of town near Symphony Center. What in most cities would be be a boring office building is here an amusingly detailed piece o' art. I'll see if I can snap a few pics without getting spotted, killed, and dumped in a culvert. Do they have culverts in this part of town? If not, they're going to have to work hard to get me all the way to a culvert. Got to give THEM credit for that.

Oh yeah, I've already found the Dept. of Homeland Security here. I'm just going to assume that they found me well before I found them. On the way over here I was reading WIRED magazine. One article I was reading was titled "Making a Homemade Bomb." People were looking at me oddly. Maybe they were just admiring my spiffy new coat. Or the shoes...It's always the shoes.

Electric Cool-Aid (blech) Test

Sick, so sick. I managed to play for a couple of hours before an increasing dizziness crippled me for the day. I managed to spend nearly the entire day in bed trying to stay immobile. Everytime I moved, the room around me moved at a rate that varied exponentially according to the strength of my movements. Eating dinner was horrifying. It was an awfully tasty meal that moved around my plate. I could only eat by closing my eyes, which dampened the dizziness a bit, and shoving food indescriminantly in my mouth. That's no way to eat anything, especially when it's this tasty.

Goodnight, sir. I said Goodnight.

Weekend in Balmy Chicago

Nothing too horribly exciting today, unless you count the further dismemberment of Santa Claus. Poor sod.

On Friday, I head off to Chicago to play clarinet for a little bit. Now, the last minute nature of my flight and hotel arrangements mean that I will actually be there for two extra days. Strangely enough, it's only costing me a little extra money to stay that extra period. I couldn't get a flight on Sat. night after my business. On Sunday, if I left I'd be getting back to NC at ass o'clock at night. So I get to stay a little bit and look around Chicago after my business. It's not usually the case when I make these kinds of trips. Usually, it's more of a guerilla warfare type insertion and retreat.

So here's the quesiton: What do I need to see in Chicago on Sat night and Sunday all day? I leave in the early afternoon on Monday, so I may even be able to see a museum that morning. Anything someone can recommend? Hm? Come on, don't be shy.

A Very Bad Thing

I've done something wrong...Something HORRIBLY wrong. I just bit the head off of Santa Claus. It tasted good. It tasted of chocolate. I'm so ashamed. The poor bastard. He never knew what hit 'em. Now he's headless, still wearing so much red. Oh god...I'm going to need therapy. It's too disturbing to post a pic.

The horror...the horror...

A little balance

Alright, there's a special purpose to this post. The point was made yesterday to me that nearly all of the pictures I post seem to be of attractive young ladies. Now, I'm sure that said young ladies find that flattering, but I thought that I'd better throw in a little variety. A special request was made for a pic of one of the dogs looking like an ewok.




This here piece o' pottery was found in the throne room at the palaces at Gyungbokkyung. Well, I didn't exactly find it. It wasn't hidden under some brush or secreted inside a wall or anything. Regardless, it's pretty neat, right? If you're really into it, open the file in your photo viewer and magnify until you can see the detail. I thought about stealing it, but my friend Hyun kept saying some claptrap about "National Treasure" and whatnot. Maybe next time.

This is Ziggy. I named him, supposedly, after the Dragonslayer of Wagnerian hoopdeewho. I slipped that one in and my folks never knew the difference. He's a little quirky. Frequently, he'll grab a stuffed little man and chew on him heartlessly. I like that about him. The devil eyes are the norm for him. Something about swallowing U235 a few years ago.

(Does he look like an ewok?)

This is Bob Listokin, the teacher whose voice frequently rings in my head when I'm teaching my kiddies. I'm looking awfully young in this one. I like that. This is after a 3-hour lesson that made my brain hurt. This guy doesn't miss a thing and will let you know (in a nice way) when things are going awry. Those first 2 measures of the Mozart Concerto are HARD.

Hopefully, my next pictures will involve more young ladies. I'm already going into withdrawal.