| Oh my God! Today is November 28, 2003 I decided to do something new with the front page. Just for some giggles, eh? Thanksgiving has come and gone and so now we prepare for the big one. Not only in choir with Madrigal Feast, but with our own lives and what not. I really like Christmas. Not the commercial part, but the part where everyone realizes what ass holes they've been all year long and decide to make up for it. No, I kid, I kid. It could be true for some people, though. Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I'll just say some "thankful" things. I'm thankful for my family; the time with them and the time away from them. For my friends, and my health, and my lymph nodes that are no longer swollen. I'm thankful for the safety of myself and others. I'm thankful for tea and sandwiches. I'm thankful for acceptance and understanding. I am thankful for music and what it brings to my life. I am thankful for a church that I can go to and grow spiritually. I am thankful for a really nice bed, and for Legos. I am thankful that I can spend time with my grandfather. And I am thankful for my life, for without it, I would not be here. Oh my God! Today is November 26, 2003 Yesterday I got the guts up to go and talk to my counterpoint teacher about class and stuff. He was very cool about everything and is going to let me do the work and pass the class. I haven't talked about this so it seems pretty vague, but I was happy enough to put it on here. Just know that. I still don't know what I'm going to get my brother for his birthday. He really doesn't like a whole lot I don't think. Perhaps a pack of gum will tide him over, eh? I'm going to do a little more with this site in the near future. And by future I mean Xmas break. I don't have time now. And even though there's a lot to "do" or whatever, sometimes it feels too empty. "Compared to what?" you ask. Compared to me I guess. What is a boy to do? Oh my God! Today is November 20, 2003 Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. -Oliver Wendell Holmes Oh my God! Today is November 16, 2003 What to talk about...hmmm... Today is my grandmother's birthday. She would have been 68 years old. I was going to go to my grandfather's but I decided to just call him instead. It was a pleasant conversation. My cousin is staying there and he can be annoying, and people know how annoying children affect me. But ya' gotta love 'em. I'm going to go read now, and fix a nice dinner. And curl up in front of a chestnut fire. But I don't have chestnuts or a fireplace so I'll have to use random things from Chase's room. The dangly mouse amuses kitty! Oh my God! Today is November 14, 2003 At the moment I'm listening to Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams. It's fast...but short. I haven't seen a machine yet, though. I've often wondered what kind of machine Mr. Adams envisioned when he wrote the piece. It could go so many ways. I think that I miss the country. My brother and I use to have this red wagon that we would pull each other around in. I think maybe it fell over now and then, too. Anyway, I remember that I use to just lay in the wagon when I was little and just look up at the sky and watch the clouds go by. Things were so much simpler then, especially living in the country, and even more especially because I lived in the same place for nearly all of my life. But I think perhaps it would be nice to set a day aside each week and just look at the sky and watch the clouds. I'm now listening to The Rite of Spring by Stravinski, which doesn't at all match the mood of what I'm writing. Well, now it sort of does. Oh my God! Today is November 11, 2003 Now that I've had some days to think about it, I don't know if discussing NATS in detail would be fulfilling for me or for this journal. I will talk about something else. At the moment I am listening to quotes from Eric Cartman from "South Park". They are too funny. There is one thing that is worth mentioning about NATS on here. There was a guest artist at NATS; a soprano by the name of Twyla Robinson. She was excellent. And all throughout her recital I kept thinking to myself, that I missed this. I miss hearing voices that give me chill bumps. I miss hearing music that has the power to tell me once again the reason why I do what I do. I miss musicality. A lot. Do I sound lame? I hope so, because that's exaclty what I feel. I'm not only writing of this on an outward level, but on a personal level as well. It's so simple to get lost in the hype, to get lost in what I think I should be doing. It seems I have let my ego overrun what I know to be the most meaningful way to sing or make music. It's not about being better, it's not about being loud, it's not about being on the top row or getting the solo, it's not about practicing at the last second, and it's not about how many pieces I sing in one semester. Perhaps I need a center; one with which to realize why music is and why I love what it is. Perhaps my mind-set has been more along the lines of me and not the music itself. Perhaps the word perhaps has been used too much in this entry. Ms. Robinson also mentioned something about her own experience of letting the stress get to her. She mentioned she was an apprentice artist at an opera company and how her life was filled with a huge and overwhelming work schedule that simply drained every fiber of musicality out of her; and that the meaning of why she was there was finally brought back after hearing some of the most superb pieces of music she had heard in a while. She sang those pieces at the recital, too. After hearing her voice, and the magnificent pieces of music she did, I felt exactly like she did after she had found her meaning again. Oh my God! Today is November 3, 2003 I have put a couple of new things on my "friends images" page and "Do" page. They should be interesting. It sure is warm today. There is a choir concert tonight and it should go well I think. We are rather good this year, but our repertoire isn't too hard so I really don't know what to say about that. Are we good because we're singing easy stuff? Maybe. When I was a freshman we did several songs that were much harder than the difficult songs that we're doing now. The funny thing is, is that we aren't doing our hardest song for the concert. By this time when I was a freshman we had our hardest song memorized. Of course, it was during spring semester and we weren't doing that many pieces. It's all relative, eh? |
| November 2003 |