I think you're due for another post. Not that anyone reads these.
Why do I not post? I blame Twitter.
So I need to interview some people for a podcast feature for my Audio Production class, I'm thinking a Young Musicians type thing with John Bradford and Grant Woell, maybe Will Mesler.
I've started trying to develop a career as a "professional" bass player, like independently playing for musicals and stuff. The worship pastor at my church recommended me to the local company- you know what, I linked to LCC in the last one so I don't even care if you know where in the world I am. You can find out from a Google search, and besides, no one reads this. Let's try some paragraphs.
The Holt/Dimondale Civic Players put on "A Year With Frog & Toad" October 15-17 and 22-24. You know the series of kid's books that no kid actually buys? Well it's a conglomeration of various adventures. My favorite actor was Toad. It was interesting to see what he would do differently every night. You know what? I think I was waiting to post until I had enough Twitter-sized snippets to make a blog. I forgot about my tendency to share ALL of my thoughts on a particular topic. Anyway, I could've posted a blog post every night with the summary of how the show went. I think that the best shows were the 17th (at night) and the 23rd (also at night). My bandmates are so awesome; should I say "are awesome", because they are still awesome? Except they aren't my bandmates anymore. Left to right on the picture: Me; The flute player, I forgot her name. Emails tell me it's Nicole Smith. I'll refrain from revealing email addresses, although I like doing mailtos. She had the flu on the 23rd, I think. Her sub was really good;
Kristin or Kristen the piano player. I could get their last names from the emails if I felt like it, but would they appreciate it? Would they care? I think that once you're a legal adult, you don't really need to worry about having your name inline. It is the future, after all. Kristen Choi is also playing at my church next week. This week we're playing some hymns with some sweet chords. Anyway Kristen is pretty awesome, she's actually my age. In the first rehearsal I was struggling to play some of the parts, but she was playing my part and other stuff with her left hand! She was used to playing by herself though, so she rushed a lot. Moving on;
Doug Wozniak is an awesome drummer that is also seventeen and plays in the LCC Jazz Band. I don't know if I should do that next term or wait until I'm better. I'm still pretty new at this jazz thing, and I don't want to be a royal no0b. Maybe I'll continue to take private lessons and take the lesson class at LCC, so I'll get twice as much instruction. The people in the band say that Ed Fedewa is the best bassist around here, so I'm in good hands. Like a good neighbor who loves saving you money. Anyway, he's very talented. I hope my grammar is not awful with these semicolons...In other news, I decided I like DragonForce. The key to enjoying music is to open up your emotions and adjust your expectations. Anyway;
Jeananne Nichols is the band director at Olivet College and was the music director for the play. It's incredible how effectively she coordinates, coaches, educates, and performs. She is really knowledgeable and generous and accomodating; she wasn't as mad as she should've been when I had to run home during a rehearsal to take the A string off my six string and put it on my Ibanez. That was extremely unprofessional of me. I will tell you about the six-string later. See that? I put a hyphen in it that time. Doctor Nichols hosted the band at her house and provided a delicious dinner and some awesome Wii action. I discovered I'm a good cow racer.
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Seth Story is the trombone player. He's a great improviser. He goes to Olivet and he was one of the older musicians at 27.
Matt Meeuwse is a really nice guy, and a great trumpet player. He had so many mutes, it was crazy. He's somewhere in his twenties, also goes to Olivet, and he's student teaching for music. I wish I could provide more information, but when I start talking to people I tend to prattle on about annoying stuff that no one really cares about. So I'll leave all that to here. And Twitter.
So this is based off of my fernsareourfriends@yahoo account, but I'm trying to switch everything to astrapto@gmail.com. I downloaded winPenPack and I'm trying to use Thunderbird. Olivet is affiliated with the Reformed Lutheran Church, but it's pretty clear that they're not a Christian college.
Jay Briggs is an older dude who plays clarinet and alto sax. (I think) He's a cool guy, didn't talk with him too much. I respect his playing, his maturity, and modesty. Oh did you see that, I didn't include the "his" the third time. I've been listening to "Into Eternity" a lot today. I can't find my 1/8" cord that hooks my iPod to the car stereo, so I burned a Between the Buried & Me compilation on CD. Fun Stuff.
Kenny Lowe is a lot of fun. He's a very adept musician, with a lot of knowlege about bands and stuff. He was talking about jamming with Doug. He also likes Dream Theater and Rush, so you know, awesome dude. He's engaged and dyes his hair silver. Which is awesome. He plays tenor sax (I think it's tenor anyway; let's call it contralto).
I got a lot of compliments on my playing, but to be realistic, This was stuff I practiced for hours and read off of a music stand. It's not like I had it memorized (except for four of the hardest pages; after practicing them for two hours I liked to play them twice as fast), or I was doing walking bass just based on the chord chart. I was not improvising. I was just playing the part. So I sincerely appreciate those compliments, but I accept them in stride.
I wanted to go see Dysrythmia and STATS at Mac's Bar last night, but Mom wouldn't have it. She then proceeded to explain how even being near a bar is sinful (I'm exaggerating) but failed to provide a way to succeed as a band while avoiding bars. She also cannot explain exactly what commandment I would hypothetically be violating. But I will do her the honor of not ripping her opinion to shreds. My friend Grant Woell played there earlier. Really, I couldn't see much of either show because I finally returned to Bikers' Church after a month of rehearsing for the musical on Thursdays. I made some mad connections.
My pastor and his wife, who is one of the best musicians I know, is putting on the church Christmas play and a fundraiser for Riverwalk Theater. I will be in the movie and the puppet team for church, and I will be onstage as the house bassist in a 1953 radio variety show. My dad was also invited, but turned down the offer because of the time commitment. (He sings in the "Brown Bag Choir", our church's infantile moniker for the choir that sings on the two holidays. Guess) (So named because their practices conveniently occur right after church, so people must nring their own lunch to church with them, commonly in a brown bag. I hope my commas are properly sequestered. I don't care about that word choice.) I will finish this tonight!!
Also my dad detests secular Christmas carols. I don't mind them, I think they're legitimate. Some issues with being on stage as the radio show's band:
1) I have long hair. Everyone I know has been telling me to cut since around March. This does not bother me. In metal, hair is street cred. I want to be like James Lomenzo in that regard. However, I don't enjoy that my hair is the default topic of conversation. Since I don't see my old friends very often, there's a noticible difference in length, which they must in turn comment upon. ("upon"?) Happy Birthday to the GROUND!!! Check out Scale the Summit's Progressive Nation blog. (Oh how I wanted to go to that. But it will be a year or two before my parents let me go to a place which MAY SERVE ALCOHOL!!!!!!! by myself, and they won't go to a "headbanger" concert with me. My summary may be a bit harsh. But exaggeration generally represents emotion, not the facts. So the injustice administered upon me (there it is again!) is out of sync with my experience. I bore even myself. Suffice to say, the Beatles' hairdos were controversial in the sixties, and both length and time are altered in a disfavorable (?) direction here. Might I hide it in a hat? Hats were standard. I want a milkshake hat. As opposed to a beer one. I am boring once more.
2) Gear. Electric bassists in '53 were very rare, and only played single-coil P-Basses. Crossovers from guitar played with a pick, so I'll pretend to be an upright crossover. (That means "in good standing".) Elderly may sponsor us (fat chance, I say) which may prevent me from resorting to our drummer's Squier. Actually I'd probably use my pastor's P-Bass-Mustang hybrid that I played for my first year back in eighth grade. Speaking of the drummer for our worship team, he'll have to play traps instead of his electric set. ("Traps"? Why this terminology?)
Period clothing might be a problem. (the prequel to maternity clothing?) I'll just spend ten dollars (I refuse to say "bucks") at Hidden Treasures and call it good/let it be done with. Can you read this with all the self-referential parenthesis?
I tire of this post. Six string post sometime later (no hyphen that time).
