Rebuild

These days I'm reveling in the act of learning new music. Some of it is New Music while all of it is new music to me. Hasty's transcription of the Bach Chromatic Fantasy is beautiful and all, but it's awfully difficult. Thank the FSM for all the time I put into scales and the like. I can only imagine what my response would have been had I tried to learn this piece during my first years of undergrad. Probably something along the lines of uncontrolled weeping.

During my first year of undergrad, I worked on Copland's Clarinet Concerto for quite a bit. I distinctly remember spending quite a bit of effort on just playing the piece in tune with some kind of legato in the intervals. I can even hear the tone I had in my head. Strange...I'm toying with idea of adding this to my PhD audition list, but I'm not sure yet. I'll need to add at least one more piece, but the differences in the pieces involved are important. There should be quite a variety while still highlighting what I do well with the clarinet.

Typhoon really knows what the hell they're doing with the crispy duck. Apparently, their chefs are quite handy with the tofu too. My hippie veggie friend had very good things to say about their substitution of tofu into an otherwise meaty dish. I've also heard good things about the sushi. Perhaps I'll have to visit here more often.

Currently reading: Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. I'm only 38 pages into it, but I'm hooked. I'm going to have to try to avoid reading it when I should be doing other things. Any ideas on how I should globalize and/or outsource some of my work?

My day's work: learning these new pieces (Schuller and Bach) and doing a bit of research on a possible new job. Gotta study up so I'm fully aware when I start the razzle dazzle (Just looking for an excuse to use "razzle dazzle" there.)