I don't normally write day-logs, unless I have several interesting things to talk. Or one
really really interesting thing. It's all subjective I guess. Here are my interesting things -
PARANOIAHow did I turn into one of THOSE people? On Monday morning I was talking to Wendy from the
American Composer's Forum when someone knocked on my door. It was a kid selling magazines. I told him to come back in ten minutes when I was off the phone and he did. This is how I met Sean.
Sean had bad skin and he smelled like
pot. He was a few years younger than me and on a nationwide selling spree, trying to win $5,000 for college. He was a good salesman - I know this because my father is a
car salesman, and he's so good it's scary. I invited Sean in because it was cold outside. I gave him a cup of my good
coffee and bummed a
Marlboro Red off him. We talked about what we want to really do with our lives. We talked about
music. We talked about what a crock
Rolling Stone has become. I wrote him a check for forty dollars for a two year subscription to
Spin. He proclaimed that my order put him in first place, gave me an official-looking receipt, thanked me, and promptly left after finishing his coffee and stubbing out his cigarette.
Later that day, I had mole removals performed on my right shoulder blade and right
ass cheek. As I was limping up the stairs back to my apartment, parts of my
conversation with Sean started sounding suspicious. "What time is your
surgery?" "Nice computer." "Do you live alone?" Etc. etc. By this time I hobbling up the stairs far too fast,
making my ass bleed.
My door wasn't kicked open. All my stuff was still there. I instantly felt
guilty. Poor kid. I guess I deserve the
stoicism I've run into as I've tried to obtain funding for a new project this week.
COMPOSITION Last Friday I finished my latest composition, a 90-second film score for
Turner Classic Movie's Young Film Composers Competition. It was a milestone in my career and the reason
everything2 has gotten the business end of the Ignoring Stick for a while. This was the first thing I've written from a compositional standpoint that I've completed since 1997. True, it's only ninety seconds long, but its the best thing I've written and has opened up mental doors and removed blocks from my creative process. Everyone that's heard it has been amazed, even me. I like surprising myself.
PROJECTI'm getting the wheels spinning on a new project I want to start. It involves the composition of new solo and chamber works for young instrumentalists. For many symphonic and orchestral instruments (and I think
themusic would agree with me here), a huge gap exists between music for beginners and literature for advanced and
virtuoso players: very little music exists for the median student. I think this has something to do with why many kids who take up a
musical instrument just give it up after a while. To put it in geek terms, if you had to go from writing simple
HTML to
Assembly and
C++ with nothing in between and you had no way to learn the ins and outs of the language before you began, would you still be a programmer?
I'm beginning by writing "Five pieces for
Clarinet", a programmatic piece in five movements which requires five different types of clarinet to be played by one performer. It will be aimed at the clarinetist who has a decent level of experience with the common Bb instrument and will introduce that player to the other four types of clarinet normally in use today. I'm hoping this could turn into a large-scale series of pieces for each instrument (by several composers) which suffers from a lack of literature.
BIRTHDAYMy 22nd birthday is Monday, April 2nd. I'm doing my 21st year over again, since my 21st year kinda blew until last week. I got a fatty tax return so the
composition train can keep rolling for a few more months.
If you'd like to hear my film score or you would like more information on my educational series,
/msg me.