back in the thick

being back in school is great, but it comes with all the cuts, scrapes and bruises that go with taking long summer breaks.

1. somehow the first day i lost my wallet, luckily i cancelled the cards before they were used. it could still turn up, but these things always seem to happen when i radically change my daily schedule. i'm lucky i got home that first day. they wont let you ride amtrak without an id. i hopped on without a ticket to plead mercy. i guess they were running so far behind that the engineer never got to my car. thank goodness i didn't have to take a bus home.
   
2. most transfer students were not properly placed in theory classes, so now we have to be the bad guys and not only drop them, but they are going to have serious problems finding a lower level class in their place. things like this always seem to happen at big state schools, and i know from experience it happened to me also. even so it doesn't make those students feel better. i tell them if they every join the army it will feel similar.
3. good news! we finally upgraded the computer lab. bad news... nobody could get msword to run in osx because of a permission problem. result... first night of the mused technology class down the drain.

still, these problems are nothing compared to what my former private school colleagues are currently experiencing. i'll take these any day compared to the horror story that is elite private school education.

a heathly respect for the job

its my first day back to school tomorrow and i can't sleep. right now those who are sleeping like babies are probably have no idea what is in store for them or too burnt out to care. someone once told me its the last bit of our animal instinct trying to 'keep us on our toes' so after 12 years of teaching i agree with that.

a heathly respect for the job i figure never hurt anybody.

so what to do... take stock of how things are going?

lately i have been thinking on how strange it is to still be teaching. when i was a kid that is all i wanted to do, but as i became older its clear that it wasn't enough.

not long ago teaching was the only thing i did, the only thing i had done, the only thing i had succeeded at;
early morning rehearsals, music festivals, 5th grade instrument selection, football games, concerts...

and just like that its all changed; sunday morning pbe rehearsals, late night gigs, the endless cycle of writing, recording and mixing.

i love it, i love them both and wonder how i ever got this far with such an unbalanced life. i'm so happy to have the time to be composing, performing, and teaching that i think its too good to be true.

some would say that teaching college is easier (those are the ones that are sleeping soundly tonight),

teaching is never 'easy' and is best explained by my friend scott:

"if you don't know who the sucker is at the table, its probably you"

i'm really looking forward to taking the train into work in four hours. i can always nap later.

reach around and touch yourself

welcome to myinner myspace.

new wine in old bottles

since our last performance at whittier college we have added a new guitarist (bruce gallego) and workshopped some new new tunes. i have updated a piece that i wrote a year ago (myinnersatan), and arranged one of michael nyman's more lively chaconne's from the movie the draughtsman's contract.(eye for optical theory)

my good friend and orignal guitarist, sean ferguson, is back in town for a wedding and is going to sit in for a few numbers, and our original bass player matt menaged has managed to be in town long enough from his ongoing indian casio tour with the kid and nic show.

setlist:
overcoming tourism
the palimpsest
eye for optical theory (nyman)
myinnersatan (revised)
obsessive love (with sean ferguson)
112505 (with sean ferguson)
summerland (with sean ferguson)
cheap admiration
sweater song

Thursday, Aug. 17
9:00 p.m.
Mr. T's Bowl
5621 1/2 N. Figueroa
Highland Park, CA 90042
(between Ave. 56 & Ave. 57; parking and entrance behind club)
myspace

show order
9pm.RICE CUB
http://www.myspace.com/ricecub

10pm.DORIAN WOOD
http://www.myspace.com/dorianwood

11pm.pbe
http://www.paulbaileyensemble.org/

12am.CAT HAIR ENSEMBLE
http://www.myspace.com/cathairensemble

island of broken toys

the pbe has been going through some personnel changes this summer. we just added a new guitarist (bruce gallego) and are working in another vibe player (ryan nunes) so that carl can play bass when matt or john are not available. it was one year ago that i started experimenting with having a variable ensemble, and it has had its high and low points. it does take a high level of musicianship to pull it off, but it also offers more chances for the group to perform.

the new guys are working in pretty well. on sunday i think we had our first taste of how good it can be when everybody is the same place. i know its never going to be perfect, one of the problems of having a larger ensemble is that somebody is always going to be coming or going, but it seems like we all in the same place right now.

besides working in new players we also focused on the "island of broken toys" set. its basically a collection of music that isn't quite ready for performance, but with a few edits and some rehearsal it might find its way into a show. last sunday we brought back my inner satan. its a pretty severe counterpoint exercise that somehow became a piece. its different from anything else i have written is a nice contrast to the music we are currently playing in the club show. its a little longer and unfolds a little slower than my earlier works. i don't think its ever going to be great piece (like cheap admiration), but i'm going to give it another chance to get off the island.

next off the island should be fearless leader. it started as a traditional chaconne, but then morphed into a modular version. its got a few flaws, but i'm going to give it few weeks of work and see what happens. its based on a great idea and i think it would be a shame to shelve it. after our unsuccessful last attempt to perform it, i transcribed a few chaconnes by nyman and purcell that i thought worked really well. i had admired michael nyman's an eye for optical theory for quite a long time, but once i wrote it down i was shocked to see how simple it really was. conceptually only made of of 8 lines, its built on mostly on fake counterpoint, which seems to be orchestrated piano noodling.

although not really a broken toy its another piece that we have added, our version is even simpler than his. i wrote out one page and turned it into modular chaconne like my others. its fun to play and, we can play a new version each night based on the size of our group and what kind of trouble we want to get into.