busy fall

things are going well but by this time on tuesday nights i can barely think straight. this fall has been moving so fast and i'm really excited about it except one problem...

i'm too tired to keep this blog updated.

the biggest change is that the wife has started her internship as a therapist. the short story is i don't see her each week until friday night. its only fair because my she had to take care of things when i was in grad school, but now i have to carry the load. it doesn't leave much free time and makes tuesday especially challenging.

this past tue, i taught my normal morning schedule and got home on the train about 3pm. after feeding and walking the dogs i then drove back to csuf for my 7pm class technology class. no matter how i plan it, sitting in a car for two hours does not put me in the proper mindset to lecture. i even tried leaving earlier so i could decompress before class started, but the traffic is worse and i only got to school 2- min before class.

this week i tried a partial solution, planning only simple demonstrations in the first part of the lecture and saving the complex demonstrations until the end of the lecture or to one-on-one discussions during the lab time. it went better this week, but i don't like not bringing my A game.

the rest of the classes are going fine (or so i think) hopefully more to come soon.
one higlight is that we had a great discussion connecting the dots between alex ross's new yorker article on music education (learning the score, sept 4th 2006) and the menc's national standards in music in a discussion with my mused preservice teachers.

there are many other things i wish i had time to share but on humorous but sad note;

this past monday at my wife's school (thomas starr king-los angeles) Vons Grocery Stores, Maria Shriver, and Corina Villaraigosa, unvield their program to "encourage families to sit down to meals together." for the past few weeks the event organizers and the physical ed. department talked frequently about the organizational details of this event.

to put this in context, events like this happen pretty frequently in lausd schools. big name celebrities, politicians always seem to be stopping by to annouce something, get some free press and shake a few hands. my groups were frequently bussed all over town playing some event for the mayor. the one thing all these events have in common is they are organized by an overbearing staff who have no regard for the students or educational systems.

their 'suggestions' were all too common and clueless:

can we get you to read this prepared statement during the ceremony?

since time is short can we just have all the students (over 400) come out to the bleachers and our staff can take roll?

can you have the students read these prepared statements?

can we get a picture have all the students standing and facing the podium watching mrs. villagarosa and mrs. shriver address them?

sadly, like most 'student' events its easy to see who is the focus.

congratulations john zorn!

courtesy of stephen colbert via youtube.

past and future (good times)

thanks again to all who came out to last night. its great to play for such a big and enthusiastic crowd. where else can you see somebody serenade a ikea lamp, alt-classical garage band and band with balloon bass? thanks again to dorian wood and unpopable for their unique and wonderful performances.

because of the success of last nights show, i'm probably going to start hosting an early show on 2nd sundays of each month. we just have a few details to work out, but if all goes well the next night would be october 8th. the goal is to promote other bands like us who don't really fit in on "rock nite". kind of the 'bad news bears' musical cabaret.

we also have a good recording and video of the show. look for parts of it to be posted online over the next week or two.

our next show is sept 14th with ninja academy at midnite. on sept. 17th i'm going to be sitting in with the cat hair ensemble at safari sams. show starts around 7pm. we also are looking playing a few other clubs starting in oct and i'll also be sharing a faculty recital at csuf on march 15th.

the retrace cd is picking up steam...
i'm just starting work on creating a graphic novel illustrated libretto. we also recently rerecorded some vibe and bass clarinet parts because of mic bleed in the original recording session. the first two movements need one more mixing pass and i need to finish comping the vibe and bcl parts in mvt. 3 and 4. right now i would say we are about 85% done with the whole project.

we also have started laying down tracks of all the new music we are playing. i hope to have most of it recorded by jan. this cd will be much less complex and will feature the smaller six-piece ensemble that has been playing in the clubs. if all goes well we could have the demo's out by summer.

besides all of this, its great to be back in school. classes are going well and i have started out on an ambitious project by overhauling how i teach my musicianship classes this fall. i spent all summer reading all the research that was out there and emailing some of the experts. the final result is an interesting cross that brings my jazz training and current music education research, with my secondary school classroom experience.

i have a much longer post on this to come, but basically i have brought instruments into eartraining class. in past semesters i found that most my time was spent encouraging students work on eartraining at home with their primary instrument. i also know that the level we expect most students to come in at is probably never going to happen (especially at a state school). i could put my head in the sand and complain about how my students cannot hear anything or adjust my methods to teach the class that is in front of me. so far i think they are hanging on (its still very early), but anything i can do to lower the stress level and give them tools to develop great ears is probably the most important thing i could do.