Fame

Recently I have become fascinated with the Jonas Brothers.

Fascinated.

Notice the choice of words there. Not infatuated, not in love with, not a fan of.

But fascinated. Intrigued, really. Because they're at the top, pretty much. Set for life, almost as famous as it gets. Maybe not universally respected, but almost universally recognized.

How do they do it?

And I know that the real answer is Walt Disney is pulling most of the strings. But that's what gets me interested. Just which strings, and how many of them are they pulling?

There are some people who believe that these people are completely legitimate: they write all of their own songs, they write all of their lyrics by choice, and the image that they give isn't manipulated - it's just who they are.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, people such as my younger brother Andy, believe it all to be a total scam. Disney buys songs for the group, writes their lyrics to be clean, and set up their distinctive image so that nobody can say they're a bad influence.

Musicians? Or Frauds?

Now I'm pretty sure that neither of these two sides are completely right; I'm pretty certain the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I've listened to some of their songs. It's alright. Nothing special, but they're alright. They're no fantastic musicians, but I'm pretty sure they at least qualify. But at the same time, I can't help but wonder how much of it was written by them, or bought by Disney.

And then there's the whole image thing. It's a big deal because it's perfect. The image. It's too... goody two-shoes, especially when you expect musicians to be involved with parties and alcohol and drugs and whatnot. These guys wear 'purity rings', basically the same concept as a chastity belt. They have a minister, who, if I'm not mistaken, is also their father, come to all of their concerts and say a prayer beforehand. And after hearing about all of this and then listening to their lyrics... it's just hard to take them seriously.

Another facet of the possibility of them being a sham is that they are actually trapped more than we know. For all we know, Disney's got them on a restrictive, long-term contract that restrains both their musical and personal freedom. It's hard to believe that they don't sometimes, after reading about how pure their music and lifestyles are. Parents and preteens are lapping it up, throwing money at these guys.

I just want to meet these guys and have an honest conversation with them. Are they frauds with no musical integrity? Are they trapped artists? Are they self-righteous, goody-two shows pricks, or just abnormally good influences for musicians?

Who are these guys?

What makes them tick?

My Music

This is as close as I could get to uploading my music directly to my blog.

Go HERE and log in as

mr.pianodude@hotmail.com

password - alcatraz

Or feel free to sign up to the website yourself. Just thought this might make things easier. Anyway, here are four songs from my first album, Save For Rachel. Enjoy listening!

Switched

I used to have an urge to write. And it was a considerable urge, perhaps comparable to some of my fellow blogger's motivation. It's what drove me to write in this blog so much in the first place.

Things have changed though, unsurprisingly.

The real urge is now to play music, and it's still not very strong. But it is strong enough to have led me to produce an album in the course of a year or so.

I may have mentioned it, but I am now studying with Del Parkinson, the head of the music department at Boise State University. He's a great guy, but furthermore he is impressed with me, and is pushing me harder, and pushing me to practice more.

At any rate, most of the motivation that got me to write my book, or got me to write daily in this blog, is now gone. It's a pity too. I can force myself to write, and I'd like to think I can still write well, but I lack the motivation to do so on a regular basis and I feel as if I have nothing to say.

So that's why I'm writing less.

Cause I'm playing more.

I'm still trying to figure out how to upload music to this damn blog...

More Dreams

Well we had our EDG3! show a while back, and it went very well. It feels great to finally get onstage and do a performance with the band. A real performance anyway. It's not like the Christmas concerts and stuff counted - this time we had lighting, and even a bit of choreography. It feels good - a big improvement on our concerts last year.

I got my name on a plaque for the second time this year. Felt good. I asked Mr. Haskell (band director) if it was possible to get the award next year, and he gave me some projects to consider.

1. Composing a piece for the band to learn and enter into a competition.
2. Composing a new piece of christmas music for the christmas concert.
3. Writing the show for next year, which very well may be a full-blown musical.

This is going to be awesome. You have no idea how this enthralls me.

On other news, now that summer has begun for me, I have found myself more bored than usual. I'm actually going to have to make up some credit in Algebra II over the summer, but I'm alright with that. I haven't started yet, that's the thing.

I'm beginning to mix up real life with my dreams. I store something, or find something somewhere, and when I wake up, part of me honestly believes that it's there. It's strange when you feel like you know where something is, and then realize that you based that off of a dream you recently had. It's like I'm going insane... I hope I'm not! Or, at least, I hope I'm not going more insane...

Oh! And I bought a microphone. Standard sort with the three prong plug in, not the greatest one out there, but pretty standard. Alon with that and the recently purchased boom stand, things are beginning to look pretty cool.

I had a piano recital this Thursday, and I played 'Oh Danny Boy' flawlessly. Listening to the other kids play their songs, I remember when I, like them, used to pause in the middle of a performance after a mistake, trying to correct it. I can't blame them. It's natural for them. But after getting used to performing, you get better and better at covering up your mistakes and truckin' right over them. It's and invaluable skill to have at this point in the game. It was a nice throwback though, and the recital was fun. Been so long since I've had a recital. Performances, sure, but recitals...

By the way, I'm bored. Anybody reading this nearby, take note, you should hang out with me. Yeah...

Focus

Alright Brian, I'll try to focus my points.

Today's theme! Music.

So I finally put Save For Rachel in production and managed to start selling it. Or finish selling it. See, we made forty copies, and I sold them for five dollars a piece.

They're all pretty much gone now. I'm sold out! What with this and the money from gifts for confirmation, I have more money right now than I ever have had on hand. I plan on using the money for musical equipment. Maybe a mic.

The equipment would come in handy, because I'm finally getting my own band together. No ideas for the name yet, but we've got most of our members solidly in place. By now we've had a couple of practices.

On top of that, as you may have gathered, the original cover concert concept for the band did not go through - EDG3 took it's place this year. Now that's it's summer, I've decided to start working on the production, making it into a full-fledged show with acting, stage presence, you name it. It'll be great.

EDG3! is tomorrow. Boy, am I excited.

My brother is begging to take the place of my current bass player and I'm considering it these days.

I played at mass a couple of weeks ago. Damn, that was fun.

Oh! And I believe that I'm going to have an audition with Del Parkinson at some point this summer. He's apparently the biggest name in piano in Boise. If I studied under him, it would be a huge boon to my musical knowledge. I hope it works out.

And I may have found a new album. I'll mention it later, don't worry...

What To Say...

Brian, help me out. What do you do when your life's so chaotic that you don't know what to blog about? It's hard to funnel these events in my life to produce some sort of moral or cohesive story at al. I just feel lost in my own life's happenings. It's all too much.

Well I'm having trouble filter it out, so I'll try to say it all.

School - My schoolwork's taking a hit because of my disorganization, and my absolute loathing of Algebra II. I'm going to have to pull out some serious studying for finals if I want to salvage myself. My interactions with my friends and acquaintances are changing rapidly, and I'm not sure how to react. Old friends suddenly start to look like trash, and bare acquaintances show an incredible person. Through it all, I find myself much more understanding than anybody in the school. I hear sharp, harsh 'shut ups' thrown around all the time to outsiders, and I hate it. I can't even remember the last time I said that and meant it seriously.

Music - The new piano lessons are going great. Did I mention? I may not have. I have a new teacher. Really cool dude. In contrast, the band is attempting a concert, but we are botching it terribly, and at this point, I dread that the thing will fail entirely - it won't happen, or won't be very good. Apart from that, I'm getting gigs weekly now, and it has had a profound affect on my life. Suddenly I work part-time (sort of). My income for a month has doubled. But on the other end of that, I'm spending a lot more on music as well - Save For Rachel is in final production stages, but with all the money by now that I've spent on CDs and cases and production in general, I'll have to sell at least ten albums to make up for my losses. Let me just say, I had better sell more than ten albums. If you're interested in receiving one, I will be selling them next week at school, and extras at any of my gigs (5 dollars a pop). If you're just a blog reader and interested, leave a comment and I'll try to figure something out. I'm still trying to get a band together...

Confirmation - I'm getting confirmed this coming Monday. I'm not sure what to think - my morality right now is still tossed about. I feel like I'm making progress, but I am so, so unsure of everything in life right now. Maybe this will help me find my way again. But I'm not sure it will.

I'm sure there's more to say, but there's too much too say to bother saying it. And if anybody knows how to upload mp3's to a blog, please, please leave a comment.

First Gig

Disclaimer: That is not me, nor is it my guitar.

Apathy and distraction suck, let me tell you.

I rue the day that teachers invented BlackBoard (online homework system). I had a tough enough time doing homework in my room all alone. I'd get distracted even then. How did they think it was that good of an idea? Wasn't it obvious that people would end up on Facebook, or YouTube, or anywhere but where they are supposed to be?

Ugh. It sucks. My grades for this semester aren't going to be too hot, not at all. My grades this first quarter were really bad with Dad and all, and I'm not having much luck trying to make up for it this quarter.

But it doesn't matter, and you know why? I've already made up my mind about my career, and I'm fairly certain that I'll want to do the same thing for ages. I want to be a musician, plain and simple. I actually just played my first gig this last Friday at the Dream Cafe. It didn't turn out like I expected (I was double-booked, took shifts with two other musicians, and ending up playing (and singing) mostly on guitar) but for the most part it turned out well. It's a miracle too - I got the job just as I ran broke, and now I've got enough to make it through the month. Barely, but still.

So I'll try to keep up with schoolwork, but I'm not honestly too worried about it. With my music, I've got plenty of backup plans. In fact, if I do go to college, it will be mostly to try to do something more with my music, maybe join some cool music program.

Also, I kind of lied about Save For Rachel. Underestimated production time and what-not. Still looking to get cover art and booklets and what not. So may be a couple of weeks, because I'm heading to Seattle this coming weekend. Sorry, any BK readers.

For now though I'll try to keep up with my homework after practicing piano. That's my priorities right there.

Save For Rachel

I may not have mentioned that I've done a lot of composing music lately, but I have been. In fact, with all of my old music (some of it having been remastered recently) and the new music I've managed to do, I've compiled a rough draft of my first album, called Save for Rachel.

The name of the album comes from an inside reference and I girl I'm falling for. The original name was Save for Wilson, and it was inspired by the first day of band. When we got to school, there were several boxes with 'Save for Wilson' written on them. Mr. Haskell pointed out that it'd be a good band name (or as he mentioned, at least better than 'Death Cab for Cutie'). At any rate, since that point I've been determined to start a band or do something involving that phrase. This is a compromise, and a step towards actualizing the full goal.

As for Rachel, she's a girl. And I like her. Enough to dedicate an album to her and give the prototype to her with a bonus track.

I've got other plans for the album, though. I think I'll keep the name, but I plan to add some more songs, fine-tune everything, and sell it at school for next to nothing. I can also use this to my advantage. You see, I'm running for Junior Class President. So, normally, I'll charge two dollars per album (still really cheap), but if it's a sophomore and they pledge a vote, it's a dollar. Say what you want about selling votes, but it's my material, and it's a fair discount.

I'd post some of the music up, but I don't know how. If anybody knows how to post up MP3s to a blog, please leave a comment, trying to explain, or just linking to something that will. Much appreciated.

In Other News

I've been working on an album lately. I've got about ten songs so far, and a few of them are decent. The others... well, some of them are decent. I've also been working on my book. I haven't and won't be posting on my Monday Musings blog anymore, or at least, I won't be posting that story. I hope to get it published at some point. That would be fun.

The Christmas Concert is tonight. I've arranged Wizards in Winter for it, a rock christmas song. The band is somewhat unprepared, but we'll pull it off. We'll be fine. Make it if you can (event details on the sidebar).

I have relatives and friends in town this weekend, including Grandpa Don, my Mom's best friend Beth, and her daughter Alyssa. It's actually Alyssa's birthday today. (Happy birthday Alyssa) They are staying at the house, which unfortunately means that I get to sleep downstairs on the couch. It wouldn't have been so bad if Mom hadn't given me a single blanket that doesn't even cover my feet...

I haven't started studying yet, but I plan to spend most of my weekend preparing for the finals. Except for Sunday. I may or may not have a racquetball tournament with some friends at the Y that day. A lot of guys I hung out with from swim team still want to get a chance to beat me at racquetball. I won't let them get that chance, though.

Micheal's coming on back Christmas Eve. Can't wait to see him.

That's all for today... I hope you've had a good day, and from all of us here at Alcatraz014, have a good night.

Teary-eyed Nostalgia

I went to mass a bit ago. St. Mary's is undergoing construction, and I took a walk around the old church. It's a construction zone. It inspired me to come up with this song, along to acoustic guitar.

I grew up in a small town
Didn't know what it'd do to me
Ever since I was a child
My childhood was happy, so perfect
No "come and go", just come and stay here
I graduated with a smile

Applied for college in California,
Made it in just barely, mind you
At the crossroads of life, there I stood
I packed my bags and left for Cali
I could finally follow my dreams but I
Should've know I always could

But I went back one day
Everyone had moved away and
I went back one day
Change had had its way and
I went back one day
And nothing was the same
So now I'm singing

Teary-eyed nostalgia
Can't do a thing to stop it
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Make it back the way it was
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why does it haunt me?
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Well you know what they say
Well you know what they say
You can never go home again.

I stand there speechless
Looking at what used to be my home
The old place wouldn't last
Worse yet, the school had upgraded
Bigger and better things for them, re-
Painted the walls, and they painted over their past.

But I went back one day
Everyone had moved away and
I went back one day
Change had had its way and
I went back one day
And nothing was the same
So now I'm singing

Teary-eyed nostalgia
Can't do a thing to stop it
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Make it back the way it was
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why does it haunt me?
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Well you know what they say
Well you know what they say
You can never go home again.

But nothing is the same
And nothing dulls the pain
of change

My childhood was happy, so perfect
No "come and go", just come and stay here
I graduated with a smile
But now I've got

Teary-eyed nostalgia
Can't do a thing to stop it
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Make it back the way it was
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why does it haunt me?
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why do things have to change?

Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Well you know what they say...
You can never go home again.

Keytar

Well, this is the keyboard. The difference is that mine now has two of the screws in the casing replaced with hooks, and a strap is strung between the hooks, allowing me to sling it over my shoulder and play.

AKA - the Keytar, the pianist's bid for looking cooler.

I've long been wanting one, but now with just a little bit of modification on my old keyboard, I have it! Admittedly, the setup's a bit... impractical to say the least. If I just want the piano sound, I have to have some sort of amp, a jack, and power to the keytar. But if I want to have different sounds, I'd have to use the computer program GarageBand. To do this, I'll need to connect the keytar to a computer, which means I'll probably need a USB extension cord to allow any mobility, and then hook up the computer to some amplification so people can hear me. And I'll have to either switch instruments by fiddling on the computer, or having somebody else do it.

Still, it could actually happen, despite the drawbacks. Our band director actually has a Mac with GarageBand, which leaves us needing a USB extension cord and a way to amp up the volume on the computer.

Speaking of band, the football season is over after the Halloween Game, so we're now in preparation for the Christmas concert and basketball season. I could maybe see myself playing keytar at either of these....

Moreover, Mr. Haskell (director) is gone this week, so guess who's in charge? Yeah. I have to say, it's not easy to try to be productive at that hour though, especially when the actual teacher is absent. To make things better, all of the drumsticks were broken on Monday! We came in, and all of them were busted. I ended up dismissing the percussionists about a third of the way through band, realizing it was pointless for them to be there. I used to want the Music Room open all the time, but now I'm trying to work out how to lock up the drumsticks so this doesn't happen again. How things have changed.

By the way, I watched Bill Nye this morning in Biology, and I have to say, that is some freaking funny stuff! It is so much funnier now that I'm older. It reminds me of Monty Python almost.

My Weekend Was So Busy I Can't Even Come Up With A Witty Title...

Whoa. All over the damn place this weekend. It was a four-day weekend, but that didn't help much.

Thursday - Woke up at twelve-ish, did chores 'til about three when I went back to school. See, we still had drama rehearsals over the weekend even though there was no school. That went well, but the fun began afterwards, at about six. Who had set up but Powderpuff football? For outsiders, Powderpuff football is an annual event where sophomore girls face off against the freshmen girls and seniors battle off the juniors in flag football.

So what was I doing?

Well.... I can't exactly tell you. See here's the thing - whenever I get in trouble for something, it's because of my big mouth. I mean I even blog about all of my mischief! But not this time. Because a week later, I still haven't gotten in trouble for it. If I keep up with the pattern I may actually get away with things! No hints. No clues. Nothing.

But I was back in time to see the Bonfire, which was incredible. Thursday was good.

Friday was better. That Friday was the Homecoming Game. The band didn't want to miss out and we promptly arrived with our gear. Although I was confined to a single keyboard, I still rocked out with the rest of the crew all the way 'til near the end of the game when it started raining. At that point we packed up. Unfortunately, the team lost. That was a bit of a bummer... but that was the end of Friday.

Saturday was the Homecoming Dance. And although that was fun, it wasn't quite as cool as last year due to a location change. But we won't be dancing out in that tent again if I have anything to say about it. And I do.

Sunday, finally, decompressed a little, and all I had to do was manage through Confirmation Classes at St.John's.

This was a special event weekend, but I'm not sure how I'm gonna manage everything... I'm already falling behind. The quarter's almost up and I haven't got the 4.0 I wanted. In fact I've got a C in History. I thought I could make it this year. I thought if I tried this hard, I would do great. I'd exceed.

I was wrong.

It's like every inch of my ambition is telling me...

"Oh Crap... This isn't good..."

(By the way, the next post will be my one hundred and fiftieth! Neat, huh?)

My Crazy Friday

This was quite an eventful Friday for me. We had the day off from school, probably because it was the very first football game of the season. And the band was performing for the game, so Troy and I left for Bishop Kelly at two. That was when our band director, Mr. Haskell told us to be there. He didn't mention that he actually wouldn't be there 'til 5. So I had three hours of absolutely no obligation and virtually nothing to do.

So, I looked around the school for anything I could help out. It was a big night after all, and I though some people could help. I walked into the cafeteria to find a some mothers setting up a dinner for the football players. I asked one if there was anything I could do to help. She handed me her keys and told me to drive her car over to the Carly Center and unpack some juice and food out of the trunk for some after-game party. I felt a dilemma for a moment. I mean, I didn't really have my license. But it was only like driving around in a parking lot for God's sake. I decided to do it.

Now this is what I like to call following the spirit of the law and not the word of the law. If that makes sense.

At any rate, I did this, and after cleaning up a mess I made dropping one of the juice jugs, I returned her car exactly as I found it and handed her keys. By now the cafeteria was filled with football players in line for food. I recognized several of my friends, grabbed some food and sat down with them. After a bit, I went back to the music room. I found Troy in here and we walked to Subway to get even more food. By the time we got back, Mr.Haskell was finally there, directing people to start packing and moving all of our equipment.

It was a fairly short process, but we soon found that we didn't have near enough extension cord. So Mr. Haskell told us to go grab some from the various maintenance closets/rooms throughout the school. So two others and I set out to do so. First, we scaled the school for Kenny, one of the custodians. Had we found him, we would have asked him if he could help us find some extension cords. But we didn't. So we started searching one of the maintenance closets. We didn't find any in this one, but we did notice the ladder up to the roof, and jokingly dared each other to climb it.

That was when the trouble began. A custodian (not Kenny) walked by, overheard this, and told us, somewhat rudely, that we weren't allowed to climb the ladder. We got out of the closet and told him we were just joking around. As we were walking, he proceeded to tell us that we weren't supposed to be in the maintenance rooms anyhow. Again, quite rudely.

"Well we were looking for extension cords." I said, and I'm not sure exactly what compelled me to do it, but I followed with a sarcastic "Excuse me."

"What did you say?" He said. "Come back here!" I stopped and turned around. "What's your name, kid?"

I paused for a moment, nervous. "My name.. is Juno McGruff."

"Well Juno McGruff, the Dean of Students is going to be hearing about this." he finished, and walked off. I did as well, finally laughing when he was out of earshot. I couldn't believe I actually just did that. I couldn't believe that he bought it either!

Later, I walked into another maintenance room, looking again for extension cords. He was there again. This time, he yelled at me about my attitude. I reacted calmly and apologized, just trying to get him to lend me the cords. Eventually he let up and gave them to me.

I sighed with relief as I walked away. I brought the extension cords back to where the band was set up and connected it. As I rearranged the surge protectors, I finally set it up so that I had three keyboards to play - two in front stacked and one to the right. I had no seat so I played standing up. I may have showed off, but I was having so much damn fun doing it. The band started off the game with the Star-Spangled Banner and played other various tunes from there.

Bishop Kelly lost by three points. To be honest, I wasn't watching most of it, so that didn't bother me so much. We packed up and brought all of the stuff back to the music room. Luckily that didn't take long, but afterwards a girl told me to carry a barrel over towards the cafeteria. There was a dance there it turned out, after the game. Of course I was staying!

I got in and observed for a bit before starting to dance. This was the standard high school mob of kids, most of them grinding some girl. I jumped in and went straight through it and out when I found a couple of my favorite teachers outside. I talked to them for a bit while I got some fresh air. Something about that night was euphoric for me. I really couldn't have been happier.

The dance ended at eleven and I went home with Troy after helping set up some tables for Monday. It was among the best nights of my life. But I do have a bad feeling about the whole custodian thing. Not necessarily guilt - I mean he got what he gave. If he had wanted me to be polite, he should've been. But I've got the feeling that it's gonna come back and bite me come Monday. Hopefully though, he won't figure it out. But I can see him walking into the dean's office.

"One of your students has been giving me trouble."
"I see. Well give me his name and we'll call him in."
"His name is Juno McGruff."
"We don't have anybody by that name. Actually that's a character from the movie, Juno."
"..."

VHL-Stock

Let me start by saying something: there is no magic but music, and there is no magic like music. I came to VHL-stock expecting to learn that, and sure enough, I did.

As many of you know, I flew in to Los Angeles on Saturday with my aunt Amy. Unfortunately, we ended up missing our direct flight to Los Angeles and had to go through Seattle. And then the rental car took hours to get. I finally was able to go to bed at around two in the morning. It was a long, long trip.

But the trip was worth it. In the morning I got up early and had some breakfast and I practiced with the band. The band consisted of Uncle David (Calvin's Dad on the drums), Uncle Brian (guitar), my cousin Calvin (guitar), Nick (keyboard and guitar), and Wes (6-string electric bass). I really never knew music could sound quite that good. I was lucky to be part of it.

As the day progressed and practice ended, we started setting up lights and equipment for the event. In case you don't know, VHL-stock was a fundraiser for the VHL foundation. VHL stands for Von-Hippel-Lindau syndrome, a rare disease that leaves the affected person(s) especially susceptible to tumors on the eyes and adrenal glands. Unfortunately, Calvin has it. When he found out, he decided to be active and put together this fundraiser-music event thing to raise money for the VHL Foundation. Just about the whole family showed up. Aunt Kimmi even pulled a few strings to get the event sponsored by Activision.

The music, as I've said, was incredible, and the whole event was really inspirational and a fun time. And for me it was the end of the summer. I went out with a bang having an incredible musical experience with my family.

So I'd just like to say, Thank you Brian, Thank you Uncle David, and Thank you Calvin. I'm so glad we got the chance to do this. I hope to see you guys again soon!

The Good, The Bad, and Brian

The Good: Well everybody I finally made it back from Camp Orkila in the San Juans, and I had a great time! We went on a six-day kayak trip, circumnavigating Orcas Island and staying at an assortment of the islands scattered throughout the San Juans. Probably the best two weeks of my life, although I don't really count my life by groups of two weeks, so I guess I can't say that but. But it was still pretty incredible. All the people in my cabin were smart friendly people who I hit it off with, and the counselors were the best-funnier than hell too. The highlight of the week was playing an island-wide game of capture the flag on Doe Island, and island that had the absolute best beaches for climbing. It was so fun. So good.

The Bad: When you play with water, you get doused. And that sort of thing isn't good for electronics. What I'm getting at here is that my camera is broken, and I have no way to upload the pictures I did take. Mom warned me but I put it on the kayak anyway. Oh well. I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Brian: So I got back home Thursday, but guess what? I'm leaving Friday for Los Angeles! Brian and Calvin have put together a fundraiser/music event called VHL-stock. All proceeds go to the VHL foundation. VHL is a rare cancer-related disease that Calvin unfortunately has. It leaves him especially susceptible to tumors on his eyes and adrenal glands. He has in fact already had two delicate operations to get two removed. And so he's putting together a fundraiser for the cure. So anyway, I'm coming down to LA to help them out, even sit in for a couple of songs! It will be really cool. If you're reading this and happen to live in the LA area, I would suggest going.

VHL-Stock
An evening of dessert, wine, and music
featuring Calvin Cieslak
Saturday, August 16th 7:00 p.m.
23515 Hatteras St. Woodland Hills
An event to benefit the
VHL Family Alliance Cancer Research Fund
http://www.vhl.org/

I'm 15!

This Friday the 13th, I turned 15. I'm quite proud to be this old and I had a really great time these past couple of days. It splits into two days really.

The first day was the day before my birthday, I got up and went to swim team as usual, and went to Troy's house afterwards. Following that, we took our bikes and went all over downtown - to the library, to book stores, the movies; in fact I didn't even go home except to ask Mom whether or not I could stay the night at Troy's, and I did. Basically what I'm getting to is that this was like an all-day party for me, and I was sure grateful for it.

I skipped swim team and slept in til I had to go home. And of course then we had a little birthday party there too. We ordered lunch from Flying Pie Pizzeria and had ice cream cake (yes this was lunch). After the food I was handed a huge box in wrapping paper. I ripped it open to find a notation software called Sibelius 5 and an incredibly cool keyboard compatible with the software. So I was set to write music!

Not yet though. Unsurprisingly, the software won't install because we don't have Mac OS X 10.4. So now we have two options-let all the money we spent on this gift to go to waste, or spend an extra $130 on upgrading our computer. Technology kind of cornered us into a spend more money or lose situation. Oh well.

If indeed we get this software to work and I can start writing music, it will allow me to do alot. I can start writing original pieces for the school band to play next year, and music for my own band. But it'll take a bit to get it up no matter how it goes.

An Upcoming Concert and a Broken Instrument

My zero period class this past month and a half has since become obsessed with one thing. The upcoming concert. We decided that it would be mighty fun to do a concert with themes from famous video games. And so that's what we're doing. We've got some famous themes in here - Mario, Zelda, Halo, Tetris, 007, and many more. For any of you who want to come, and trust me, it's gonna be worth coming, the actual concert is May 22nd, 7:00 PM in Bishop Kelly, Boise Idaho.

Meanwhile, we are in the throes of last-minute preparations and song-learning. One of the undoubtedly biggest obstacles that we've run into is that my ocarina broke.

An obvious question - What's an ocarina?

Well, and ocarina is a small flute/whistle-like musical instrument. It is essential to one of the pieces in the upcoming concert. I bought one back in January, but it broke. So I bought another one. This time, my friend broke it. So we bought another one, but that one broke in the hall. So I bought another one. (The thing's fragile). That third one lasted - I carried it around in a case, and only when the case got taken did I finally break this one. And it's a shame. I've fallen in love with this little instrument, and I'm gonna need it for the concert.

So now we're a week away from the concert and we're missing an instrument. We're trying to order another one, but it's a little hectic. Why did it have to break? Oh well. More on this later.

David Ford: Go To Hell

Freaking awesome music video I found the other day while I was surfing. All credit to David Ford. Good job man, you got crazy skill!

Everyday: Played By Us

I was practicing in the school band this morning and when we got out early, George and I stayed behind and jammed for a bit. This song is called 'Everyday' by Carly Comando. If you want to hear the real full version of it, go back to my post called 'Everyday' and go to the link.

A little bit more of Christmas

Important, eventful day today. I may have to break it down to describe it all. First period, it turns out we have a health test tomorrow that I am utterly unprepared for. Second period I found that I had actually done more work in English than I was supposed to. Break was chaos, and I couldn't get my friends together to practice. Third period, I found a fun way to entertain myself with reflections and minigolf. Fourth period, I had a test and almost a late assignment. And Lunch, I had practice with my band. Did I mention I'm in a band? It's called the Uncrowned Kings.

I'll go into that in more detail later, but fifth period we reviewed a little bit of Spanish. And sixth period was my speech. It was a big speech for me, and I was in a suit the whole day just for the occasion. Most people used flash cards and such, but not me. Because this was a competition. The speech was on a charity, and everybody brought in money to give to the class vote. And I wanted my charity to win. So I memorized my five-and-a-half minute speech and presented my speech with empty hands and full suit. And I don't mean to boast, but I nailed it. It was worth about one hundred points and I only got two points off for pacing.

Nothing happened in seventh, and I practiced with my band after school, until the bass player's folks gave us a ride to the scool band's christmas concert. I basically faked it; I read the chords and new the melodies, and that was enough to sound good. I guess it goes to show you, eh? At any rate, it was really a pretty incredible experience to hear these christmas songs performed by a whole band with brass, percussion and everything else. We even had a song at the end that everybody played, and everybody in the audience sung as well. The band director had me play miscellaneous christmas tunes in the background as people started leaving.

And yet after this hectic day, I can always look forward to the warmth of my bed and the promise of tomorrow, hoping that it will be even better than today.

It's shaping up to be a good week...


"It is my custom to keep on talking until I get the audience cowed." - Mark Twain