Jam-packed

Half-assedly edited once for several exhaustion-induced typos.

In the midst of working like a dog, I've been reminded that my blogging has not been plentiful as of late. Here's been my standard schedule:

Each weekday: teach from 8:30am-4:30pm - a variety of students at different levels in their studies, from "What's a clarinet?" to "I can play anything." (Remember that brief moment when you thought you had mastered your instrument, only to find out that you were horribly mistaken? Ah, to be 13 again. Not really. 13 was a pretty miserable time. I wouldn't mind skipping to about 16 when I went away to school. That was fun. I'd work harder at the clarinet and spend less time gallivanting around with those troublesome dancers.)

Mon-Thurs: I do a bit of consulting for a local classical music group in the evenings. Afterwards, at around 9pm each night, I begin my practicing/reed work. I tend to get home after midnight every night.

On Friday afternoons, recently I've been heading to NY (upstate and down near the city) for work and fun. It's a little tiring, but I always manage to find a way to sleep in when I'm there. If I stayed in Boston, I'd probably get roped into some lame early morning meeting.

So apparently this getting-really-sick-near-the-end-of-July thing is common for me. Looking back at the blog, one can see that I had a rather unpleasant occurrence last year at the same time. It too was sinus/allergy related.What in the hell is blooming in mid-to-late July that's screwing with me so much? Anyone? Bueller?

Was yelled at on the street today by an old pianist friend just in town for a few days from Australia. Looks like I'll be forgoing most of my evening practice for a little catching up instead. How come even the Australians I know are Korean? She was a good pianist back in the day, though.

Damn, this cough is annoying.

Two Tons of Rusting Art

Okay...so I'm a little early again to the salt mines. Here's the latest rundown:

Practicing is ramping up again, both for PhD auditions and job auditions. There's ALOT of repertoire to be polished and some to be learned. I've now got the Bach mostly under my fingers, but it's a bear musically. I'll just have to keep working bit by bit on it until it doesn't sound like a bad Rode exercise.The Schuller is coming along very slowly. The multiphonics are very difficult to play in tune. There's one that I can't seem to be able to do at all, which is a problem. No one but me and anyone with the score will notice, but that's enough.

Welcome to the frequent reader from Petaluma, CA. Petaluma? What kind of name for a town/city/burg/hoopdedoo is that? Drop a comment so I know who you are, lurker.

Two separate readers in the past week have reached my blog after searching for "Ay Papi" on Google. What in the hell were you guys looking for? Hm? (disappointed/shocked/appalled voice saying "Oh Jeffrey!" here)

I saw the Richard Serra exhibit at MOMA this past weekend. "Sequences" made me physically ill. When was the last time a piece of sculpture (granted, one that's freakin' huge) made you respond physically? It's not that I don't dig the piece, but rather that I couldn't catch my bearings while walking through it. Between that and the recurrence of the dizziness, I'm a littly loopy.

Now bring on the students! Nothing better than a zonked out teacher.

On 7th Day, He Rested...Sort of

Oh spacely FSM, we thank you for the infrequent day off. We promise to sleep in until 11:18 am (check), eat a tastey brunch alone with reading material (on my way), take care of business emails and phone calls (grumble grumble, but that's the plan), and practice (wahoo). If all is said and done in a leisurely manner, we promise to partake of the libations in your name. If the libations are truly plentiful, we may call in some favors and have an illegal, undocumented polar bear delivered to another of your supplicants. All hail the FSM!

Pimpin' ain't easy

It's 8:21 am and I'm already at work. I must have really displeased the FSM this week. I didn't get home last night until around midnight due to a Pops concert with my orchestra Upstate. Boy was it long...I'm fairly certain I saw an audience member actually age during the concert. There was also a "multimedia" extravaganza, which apparently translates to "slideshow" for those of us not into XTREME advertising.

On the ride home, I had a long, involved (are there other types when stuck in a car with me for seveal hours?) discussion of the pitiful state of music education in the States. As both my companion and I knew many students currently preparing for or already using their Music Education degrees, we each had a number of incredulous stories of stupid "educational" approaches to music. It all boils down to this: If you use bad music to teach people about music, those same people will think music is bad. Ta da. Now...go solve the problems out there.

I'm going to really need my nap after lunch today. I'm not sure about the quality of my teaching in this exhausted state. Perhaps every lesson can somehow b turned to "how passing out helps your clarinet playing" or some such. Someone work on a lesson plan and email it to me (or MSN Messenger for instantaneous help) so I can put it into action immediately.

Next, doing the same concert again. At least I had excellent company this week and plan to do the same next week. It's enough to put a polish on things.

Bring on the vomitoriums!