The world as I see it…

Just got back from WGI – Percussion. It was incredible!!! I’ve never seen so much amazing talent and I’m so proud of my close friends in Aimachi winter line. They placed 3rd overall in IW and definitely was the crowd favorite. Their visual presence and style of show design far surpassed anything else that went on the floor that night, in my opinion.

I don’t know diddly about what’s the best show when it comes to this. I may be a tad biased, but I thought Aimachi had THE best musical book out there and didn’t rely on trying to be the loudest. And in combination with their wonderful use of the fantastic color guard, they were second (or third) to no-one that I saw or heard. I think the design was incredible and as much as people will see that and think it’s different, I think it’s the way it should all be. Or it could just be Aimachi’s speciality.

One thing is certain and Aimachi got every single person in that arena out of their seats at the end of the show. No matter what they placed or who they impressed or whatnot, the line connected with each and every person in the stands and performed the best show they could have. They didn’t just send a message with their performance and placement, but I know they just picked up a whole new set of fans that will pass the word around about just how much Aimachi impressed them and how much they enjoyed their presence at WGI this year.

Moving on…

I did very much enjoy RhythmX also and I congratulate them on a terrific performance and coming away with the top spot. I have to say their use of costumes and set design is what won them a title… I think. Not saying they didn’t play their butts off, which they did… but just the bass drums alone had me saying “whoa… wow!” every time they would flip. *Mind you, I only saw all of these shows once… which I planned so that I wouldn’t need to ‘expect’ anything, if you know what I mean. I like to be surprised at the moments they try to surprise you. That being said, RX definitely

Riverside… meh! Didn’t do anything for me. Veyr clean and cute… but in a way, seen the show already but with different costumes and different beats. Nothing cool to take home with me in my memory.

MCM – Now, this show rocked. I was a little disappointed to see them get 4th, but honestly, any of the top 4 or 5 could have won and I woulda been fine with it. But my favorite part about MCM is they used a tune that I’ve been DYING to hear used in an indoor setting, and that is Steven Bryant’s “RedLine”. They did a masterful job transcribing it for the drums and I got so excited when they kicked into it as it was intertwined with “Circuits”.

Northcoast just rocked the intro. Though, I loved this show and had them in the top 3, I’ve never seen/heard a cymbal line like theirs. When they started the show, after about two seconds I was saying “Holy effing @#$%^…” Maybe it’s easy to impress me, but I was just stunned by the cymbal feature at the start. just… wow!

For some reason, the rest of the show was a blur.. haha… maybe I’m too burnt out to remember much of anything right now.

So, that being said I’m just going to wrap this up. I didn’t mean to make it sound like a ‘review’ so don’t read it like that.

And I would like you to take note of that picture that I took with my phone Saturday night. It’s of Aimachi in the lot after their show. And even though the pic is bad quality and dark, it was a miracle that I even got this to come out as good. My phone camera doesn’t have a flash and I knew taking a pic in the dark of night would just be a wash-out of blurry blackness. But somehow I got lucky… on the first shot I caught the group at the exact same moment someone else’s camera flash went off and I got what is probably an improbable pic on my phone camera. I know it’s probably kinda lame to get all excited over it, but I am!

Okay… that’s it for now. Time to wash up and take a nap. I lost a lot of sleep the past 4 days. I went through so much stress and so many phone calls trying to get things straightened out for the weekend and now that it’s over… time to call it a night… and a very very early one at that.

See ya!

Okay… I’m pissed. And no, I’m not going to stop and think about this before I say it here publicly. I don’t care who sees this or who reads this… this is friggin’ ridiculous.

My life and my job only depends on a few ‘outside’ commitments per year and some of those involve making arrangements to go out of town to events like BOA, DCI, WGI, TMEA, etc. – all on my own expense. Maybe I don’t need to attend all of those functions, but considering the number of people I run into at these places and the fact that getting my name out there is essential in the building process of my career, I have to do everything I can to make it happen.

For the first time since 2003 I made arrangements to attend WGI. Not only have I not been able to see BOA or DCI in the past several years, TMEA has been the one and only function I’ve been able to attend since 2003 (’05-’08) and that’s only because it’s local. (I was at BOA/DCI in 2004).

This year I’m a little tight for money. No big deal though… I chose this job and career and that’s just the nature of it sometimes. But this trip to WGI had to get put on hold… and longer on hold… and until exactly 5 days ago, I had not yet bought a ticket. I can’t express to anyone how bad I need to go to this event. I have never been to the percussion championships before and since I’m still trying to get IN to the wgi circuit for percussion, where better to start or get the name out there?

So, as in years past, this year looked bleak at best for me to be able to afford the trip. Every year around tax time I am broke. Literally broke!

My beef is this… here’s an e-mail I received on March 28, 2008 from one of my clients (no names given), copied and pasted, word for word: “My Boosters should be in the process of sending you a deposit this week.” And another e-mail from another client sent on April 9, 2008: “I’ve got a check in hand for your deposit. I’ll drop it in the mail in the next couple of days“.

Okay… let me get something straight… If the check is not in the mail, don’t tell me it will be in the mail soon, or we’re “working on it”. That’s a bunch of crap, and do you know what that does to me? That puts me in a fucked up situation where I spent every dime I have to go to wgi on the assumption that the check would have arrived by April 17. Both of which have not.

I’m an idiot… plain and simple. No, no… all of you reading this can say it’s their fault and they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain… but how does that help me? How does it make up for the fact that I have $20 in my bank account right now (yeah, boo hoo) and I bought a non-refundable flight to Dayton? Not only that, not a single “friend” of mine here is willing to give me a ride to the airport that is 10 miles away. I’ve asked everyone in town and around and no-one will help me out. Most of that may be because I had to book an early 5:50am flight, but the cab/shuttle services that are usually around $25 are instead $40 because of an extra $15 charge for “red eye” pick-ups.

What good is charging these guys extra money for being late? Money doesn’t make me feel any better. It doesn’t “bring back” wgi to get me another chance to go and see it. Technically they aren’t even “late”. But they still told me the “check was in the mail” and I’m just an idiot for assuming that 3 weeks was enough time for the USPS to deliver a check from a school located 17 miles from here. (I coulda walked there, picked it up, and walked back and still had time to spare).

I just want to cry right now and I don’t know why. I don’t know what to do or if it would make sense for me to even go. In a way, I threw away $260 on a plane ticket and the way it looks right now, I just can’t go on the trip anymore. I can’t even get a ride to the airport, and if I paid all the money I had in my account, I wouldn’t have a car or be able to pay for food or a place to stay when I get there. What the hell happened? Why did I put myself in this position? Why do I read something someone says in an e-mail and automatically accept it as truth?

I’m done with this… and I’m not saying this out of frustration from this instance or because it just now happened… but this will be my final year as a drill designer. I’ve come to a conclusion that would be very difficult to get me to change my mind at this point. This whole experience was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

For all of my clients I’ve made out contracts, set deadlines… yet no matter what happens with a “late” payment or anything like this, it doesn’t make up for missing wgi. It doesn’t give me another chance to go this year. It doesn’t make up for the fact that I won’t get to see friends of mine from Japan and the Aimachi line… as well as be there to see people I love and care about.

It’s a huge joke and I am so livid right now. My job is a blast when it involves the actual writing process. But this bullshit regarding payments and misleading e-mails is something I don’t want to deal with anymore.

* and by the way, I just got an e-mail back from the one director who said they were gonna send it in the “next couple days…” on April 9th… they just told me it was dropped off TODAY and should be on its way.

Why did you tell me it would be mailed in the next couple days and not mail it for a week?

Again, my words are not that of someone who’s going through a tough time right now… this has happened every year for the past 4+ years and I’m dead sick of it. I’m disgusted with working a job that requires so much of my patience and dealing with people who will refuse to be honest with me, or seem like they aren’t. They’ll treat me wonderfully through e-mail and phone conversations – and once I’m out of the line of sight, it’s like I’m suddenly yesterday’s garbage. That might not be their intentions but that’s what I end up getting in the end. I feel like I’m being treated like garbage.

But as I said… this is my fault. In a way, I’m being selfish. I could have saved the money before and planned for this. I could have not spent so much money some other time and been ready for this. But I saw the potential that with the contracts signed and agreements set that everything would work out smoothly this year. I got confirmations nearly a month ago saying that the “check was in the mail” and not from people that far away either. I made the assumption that even though money was tight that since the money was “on its way”, I would be fine. Tax season came and went… it cost me a little more this year than last but it’s done. Maybe I underestimated how much I would owe. Maybe I just screwed up.

It doesn’t even matter anymore. I just can’t go to WGI now. I have to stay home and eat the money I spent on the flight. There’s nothing else I can do.

It’s so sad when I have roommates and friends that say they’ll do anything for me… but if I desperately need a ride at 5am to the close-by airport (Hobby), it suddenly turns into “well, anything but that”. I’ve never turned a friend down for a trip to the airport. Unless it conflicted with class or work or something equally as important. But when I start out by asking “are you doing anything Saturday morning/afternoon?” and they say, “no, nothing all day…”, I then ask about a ride to the airport and they suddenly get all “well, I wanted to sleep in and I was planning on going to a party and staying out late Friday night”.

What the hell? Are you all really my friends? Why are you doing this to me? Do I deserve this? Does anyone deserve this?

Those of you that read this, spare me the whole “if I was there, I’d help you…”. I know you would and I do appreciate it. But you’re not here… and I know there are people out there that could and would help me but can’t because of where you are. But I’m surrounded by a bunch of spoiled assholes that can’t spare 30 minutes of their morning to help out a “friend” because they want to spend all night Friday partying and getting hammered off their asses, leaving me here to just sit and do nothing. And the fucked up part about this is I’ll wake up sometime in the afternoon on Saturday, see some of these “friends” and the first thing they’ll say to me is “I thought you were going to Dayton?”. I’ll just look at them and say “no, I just didn’t feel like going” or make up some other equally pathetic excuse. There’s no point in rubbing it in or complaining. I don’t agree with the whole shoulda, woulda, coulda stuff… what’s done is done, and even if they had the balls to say “well, geez, if you really needed a ride that bad, I woulda…” That thought just makes me wanna puke, because I know everyone would say that. It’s so easy to do that, isn’t it?

Can you believe that I actually routed a trip to ride my BIKE to the airport? It would take me an estimated 2-3 hours with the non-freeway route, but it’s possible. Then I look at that and think of how ridiculous that is. It’s hopeless.

I’m getting the hell out of this job… and the hell out of Houston. I don’t need anyone to tell me that everything will be okay or shit happens. Yeah, I know. Everything will be okay… shit will always happen… and drill writers are now a dime a dozen. I know I’m good at what I do, but it’s not worth this. It’s not worth getting stressed over and literally brought to tears because I can’t find one person who’s generous enough to give me a ride to the airport when I don’t even have enough money for a simple taxi.

I’ve decided… I’m just going to go back to school. After this year of writing and the fall is over, maybe there’s a chance I go back to Japan and work or march with Aimachi. But from that point on, I’ll probably save every penny I earned this year and I’ll get myself back into school. Where? who cares… I just need to get as far away from this activity as I can because as much pleasure as I’ve gotten out of it in the past 7 years of doing it, I’m getting pushed further and further away from actually being happy.

I may do it again though… I won’t eliminate that possibility. You can’t eliminate anything at this point. However, my resignation from this hassle of dealing with “the check is in the mail” and multiple multiple apologies for lateness or “my treasurer forgot to…” this or that, all is a result of not just this instance but years of excuse after excuse… and in the end it’s no-one’s fault but mine. Poor money management and not learning from one year to the next that I cannot depend on my clients to pay me on time or when they say they will. I should have set this money I needed aside a long time ago, knowing full-well this could happen. But every year it happens I get the same “we’ll do better next time” excuse and when it doesn’t happen, I get another excuse. Last year it was the fault of the post office… this year it’s a lazy treasurer.

So, I’m done… and not until I figure out a better way of managing my finances am I going to do this anymore. This isn’t a joke. I’m very serious about this right now.

For those affected by this that had nothing to do with these issues that caused the problems, I am very sorry and you can thank those other clients of mine that don’t have a clue. (sorry, but you don’t).

I doubt that more than 5 people will read this… and I wouldn’t be surprised if publishing this comes back to bite me in the ass. I’m aware of the controversy that might surround me with this too, if any.

No-one will ever understand just how shitty I feel right now. How I literally went from being sure everything would work out with the wgi trip and had to wait and wait until I bought the ticket… I waited so long that by the time I couldn’t wait any longer, the price was close to $600 to leave Friday and come back Sunday. Instead, I had to settle for Saturday and coming back Monday, and because of switching planes and stops, the only way I could get to Dayton early enough was to take a 5:50am flight outta Hobby. Now I ask everyone I know… being as polite as I can and even offering all I can for gas money, but NOT A SINGLE person will help me and get me to the airport.

I’m over this… I really am over this.

I’m sorry to those that were at wgi and I didn’t get to see. I really wanted to go. And I’m sorry to those that are finding out now that I will no longer be working as a visual designer after the 2008 year is over. I’m still going to do my job and do the best that I can. I wanna go out with a bang of sorts… maybe make people go, “damn, look at that guy’s drill… I wanna hire him”.  I’ll have to just turn them down and say “Sorry… this was my last year.”

Maybe I’ll be back… but not for a while. I need to go to school… and do something different.

I needed to come here and blog, even though I’m dog tired and up way later than I need to be right now.

First of all, I threw together a simple new Flash intro on my site. Nothing too fancy and I’m planning to redo it later. This was just to experiment. We’ll see what I can come up with later.

With my trip to Dayton coming up this weekend (and looking at the extended forecast, looks like rain… again), I’ve been busier than ever. I just wrapped up about 4 straight hours of frustration with writing sketches for Spartans’ opener and Pasadena Memorial’s intro. I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s “bad”… just not quite what I want yet.

A few years ago… maybe it was 2005… I just started working with Pyware Java. Every year since I start off slow, which didn’t happen before. To be honest, there are several shortcuts I used with the old 3D that I miss dearly. Although I can’t find anything really wrong with the Java version, the lack of the Shift+<shape tool> is killing my creativity sometimes. They have this “Beziers”? tool, but I hate it and always have trouble using it. Well, it’s not so bad… just takes up more time to tweak than I’d like. Plus the software is so finicky that I can accidentally click slightly off the line and create a new anchor point and then I have to go “undo last” and try it again. That happens at least a few times, every time I’m using that tool.

Blah blah blah… I’m just frustrated. I spent a lot of time working on sketches and demos of random things all winter/spring, but now it’s different. I guess it’s the fact that while I was messing around I never had a deadline or a time schedule to worry about. It might just be that I feel rushed when I don’t need to be. All I’m doing right now is sketch, but I’m trying my hardest to make it work from the start… or at least by attempt number 3.

Overall, the ideas are working great. Spartans opener this year will be quite unique. I think the fact that the numbers are so small (15 brass, 15 drums and 15 guard) will make room for some different-than-the-norm staging and marching than you’ll see from the other corps out there, and it’ll be presented in a way that (I’m hoping) will be much different than most other designs you’d expect from smaller groups.

As for the Memorial show… well, right now I’m just trying to get a fix on how to start it. I’m trying my best to get what the guard director wants to happen but I’m having issues making it work in the time (number of counts) she wants it to. I don’t think it’s possible, but I’ve been proven wrong about stuff like this in the past. *shrug* I’ll just do what I can with it and see if she digs it.

Other than that, nothing else developing on any other shows at this time. With the winter season just about over and taxes done, schools in TX are finally getting done with UIL and my e-mail inbox is already overflowing. This is a good thing because I’m starting to get a little cabin fever. But let me say this… being stuck at home – not a big deal to me usually, if ever. But being stuck at home and not having anything to do for work… trying to entertain myself… sucks! I can only take so much of guitar hero… watching movies… working on drill ideas… After a while, everything just turns to mush. I’m playing guitar hero and I just stop moving my fingers and start staring at the screen. I’ll be watching Scrubs on TV and start daydreaming about being an astronaut or something equally as random. I’ll be working on drill ideas and take the pencil tool and start scribbling words in the drill. It literally all turns to mush after a while.

What this feels like (to me) is if you were stuck in the hospital or something. I mean, I can move around and have many things to “entertain” me… but after a while of looking at all the same stuff in the same place and the same games and the same nothing that happens on Facebook and Myspace… mush… lame… blah! That was me the past few weeks. I’m still kinda stuck in that mode too.

I went to my friend Jacob’s percussion recital on Sunday. He did an amazing job and I’m really glad I went. I enjoy percussion recitals and percussion ensemble concerts probably the most of any, if I had to choose. Why? Mostly because they are always filled with such a variety of music and instruments that I’m always introduced to something “new” when I go to one of these. Whether it’s just a marimba solo… duet… anything Keiko Abe… something cool with multi percussion…. whatever.

One of my personal favorite ensemble pieces was by the Michigan perc ensemble from like… geez… 10 years ago now? wow! Anyway, they played something where all were on keyboards (8 of them?)… someone was on some multi perc and a snare… a couple more on timp, bass drum maybe. I can’t remember the instrumentation. They broke into some skat deal mid-way through and ever did some sort of stomping, while they played their stuff. (Maybe like “Stomp” but not quite). It was really fun to listen to. It was pretty much perfectly in sync and there were moments that the music was antiphonal and would ripple around the stage. I love that stuff. Jacob’s recital had some things in it like that that Ilove about percussion writers. They add little things like tapping on the shell of the timpani for an effect. Or a simple “Shhhh…” sound during a snare thingie. (Jacob didn’t do that… I just remember…. it was a solo someone played a long time ago with several “Shhhh”s and some were soft and some were loud. It fit with the snare solo SO well… I couldn’t help but shake my head while smiling and think of how cool something so simple is).

Tomorrow is hopefully the day I get my new phone. It all depends on if a paycheck shows up or not. This is the same check that I was told was mailed off to me the last week of March. Umm… yeah. But I might as well tell you all what phone I decided on getting.

As my other blog about this went on and on about how I loved the HTC Touch, though I still want it, I just can’t afford a $500 phone right now. Well, the one that I wanted of the three they have was actually the $700 one. I mean, screw that. I’d much rather get an iPhone and pay the extra cash for another number and extra phone service with AT&T. It might come out to be the same until my contract with Verizon ran out. I won’t do that, but it’s a money thing and I just can’t get myself to do that right now.

The other hot phone through Verizon is the LG Voyager. I’ve looked at it several times… heard great things from most everyone that owns it. But I don’t like it. I really don’t. It’s like carrying a small brick around in my pocket. (I know… go ahead and tell me it’s not that much clunkier than the iphone… not even close). It’s just not what I want. My dad always said to me, “If you don’t want it, don’t buy it”. I don’t wanna get something I’m not completely satisfied with just for the sake of getting it or because someone else liked it.

That also goes the other way too… don’t ever not get something because someone told you they didn’t like it or it would break or whatever. Before I got my RAZR last year, I had at least 4 friends that told me how flimsy it was and how it was a rip-off, etc etc. I got it because it was only $40 with the new contract and I played with it and loved it! It works great still today and I have NO issues with it whatsoever. People write reviews, give opinions… when it comes to phones, I turn the other way and ignore everything. If I play with it and try it out and like it, I’ll get it. If I don’t… I won’t. Simple!

Then there was the Samsung Alias. I mentioned to my roommate and her boyfriend that it was my favorite of the phones out there that I was probably going to get. They both immediately said “Don’t get that phone… it’s crap”.

So, okay… so someone you know (or you) got it and had issues. So what? They said that his brother had one and opened the flip part and it just fell off. Do you know how many times I’ve heard that story with ANY phone? Not only that, do you know how many times I’ve seen people abuse their phones and not actually take the least bit of care of it? In both cases, SO many times I just have to laugh.

Guess what my friends… my Motorola RAZR… never had a case for it and owned it since August 2006. Never dropped it once and not a single scratch on it. Oh, and no it has never fallen apart or broken. I just never throw it around, nor carry it out when it’s not necessary to do so.

I don’t mean to sound like people don’t know how to take care of their phone… but if you’re one of those people who treats a cell phone like a tennis ball that you can just bounce on the floor or table whenever you want, don’t come to me and say anything bad about any phones out there. I’ll just laugh at you and still get what I want to get.

Well, regarding the Alias, when I went back to the Verizon store, they no longer have it in the Black/Silver color I wanted it in. Now it’s in some faded blue color and I think it just looks fugly! I don’t know how lame I sound that I just want a phone that is plain as black & white & silver, but that’s what I want.

I moved on to the LG Venus… liked this one a lot. I wasn’t sold though on the features it had and the limitations it seemed to have regarding the multimedia. I dig a portable player for music and stuff, but I have my ipod touch and it works just fine. There wasn’t too much about this phone that I didn’t like except for the slider deal. I remember looking at the Chocolate a couple years ago when I got my RAZR (they were pushing the Chocolate at that time). I didn’t like it at all. I just didn’t like the feel. The Venus feels okay in the hand… but it’s one of those weird things where I just don’t like it enough to get it.

The funny thing is that I feel like I would totally break it too. I was playing with one in the store, sliding the top part with one hand and one time almost pushed the whole thing outta my hand and onto the floor. I can be totally clumsy like that sometimes, and I know for sure I’ll be “that guy” who pulls out his phone to answer it, takes his thumb to slide it open and instead it goes flying out of my hand onto the concrete, shattering before my eyes. Ouch!

So, after about an hour of looking through and playing with every phone, (literally… e-v-e-r-y phone), talking through the specs and features of each with Ricardo (my Verizon guy), including plans and such, I came to conclude that I found the perfect phone for me and my lifestyle:

The Blackberry Pearl 8130.

** Okay, James… if you read this, this was always on the top of my list… I was just yankin’ ya the whole time. The phone is undeniably bad ass!

I did have a problem with it at first… only the fact that it’s kinda small in my hand. But after taking a little time getting used to it, the fact that it was small being the only negative thing about it to me, I decided this was my new phone. (click here for a size comparison from razr to pearl 8130). I actually love it… though I still have yet to get it, activate it and start using it. I doubt I’ll use the actual phone as is that often since I typically use a bluetooth earpiece. But the features it has includes everything I want and need right now. Well, more “want” than “need”. But having the features of the blackberry in the palm of my hand will make life on the go a lot simpler and more organized. This is something I need, and since the iphone is out of the picture (only because I have Verizon), this turns out to be the best plan for me.

I’m so excited and I am praying I get paid soon and can get it before the weekend. There’s really no rush, but I would prefer it just because I’m impatient.

But what to do with my RAZR?? I can’t sell it… those are going for free with a new contract now a days. I guess I’ll just keep it as a spare. You never know what might happen, right?

Okay… I need to stop rambling and go to bed. Little sleep the past few days, yet I still find myself procrastinating instead of going to bed. Sometimes I feel almost as if I’m losing valuable time if I sleep. ha! Oh well.

Goodnight kiddos!

GH

Okay… I’m going to vent for a second here… and it might sound very random and stupid. Whatever. I have to complain about a couple things that may or may not offend people who read this (if I call you out, that is) and it’s probably something that you could look at in retrospect and see how insignificant it might be? I don’t know. I don’t see it as insignificant… but you be the judge.

I went to my close friend Marivy’s violin recital the other day. It was wonderful. She’s a great musician and I wish her all the best. The turnout for the recital was amazing. They pretty much filled all of Dudley and I would have even been pleased to have half that many people at my recital. (I think there were 20 people at mine?).

So, here’s my gripe. cell phones… specifically – text messaging! This is the same argument I have said to people (not on here though) about going out to the movies. I think the term “silence your cell phones” has been misconstrued and translates to most people as “you can use your phone and text during my recital, but make sure I don’t hear it ring”.

What bothered me the most is that while I sat in the back of the hall and DURING the recital, every damn minute I saw a light flash from someone opening their cell phone… bright as hell, I might add, and they text away. At one point I counted 7 people texting at once. I don’t know if they were texting each other… or just communicating with people outside. Why the hell can’t they just turn OFF the phone?

I found that absolutely appalling. Most of those people might be younger and not educated with the proper etiquette, but seriously folks… turn your phone off and watch/listen to the person on stage.

This only upsets me because I am very passionate about music. I’m not saying I get bothered by every cough of shuffle or baby crying during a concert or performance… those are usually inevitable. What I’m talking about is, what I believe is, disrespectful to the performer.

I know we have all probably done it at one point. Don’t think I’m calling you out as if I think you’re a terrible person… but Marivy is one of my close friends and I feel like there were at least 8 or 10 people that could have cared less if they were there… maybe just sticking around to get credit for going to the recital and get free food at the reception afterwards.

For me, it was very distracting and as someone that was looking forward to this, I was unexpectedly thrown off by the number of people who would open their bright phones in the dark thinking they were invisible.

This might sound like common sense to some, but I think in fact this is an issue that may need to be addressed in future discussions about concert and recital audience etiquette. This is turning into a possible new problem that can (and did, with me) interfere with other’s enjoyment of the performance. I believe only in the event your pregnant wife has the chance of going into labor you can do that. Otherwise, turn your damn phone off. The recital is about an hour! And if you really want to get technical… 30 minutes until intermission… then you have 15 minutes to do what you want… 30 more minutes of performance and you can go home. Who are you talking to that is going to take offense to the fact that you are at a recital?

The next gripe I have… and I’m sorry… maybe I have just had bad luck seeing this happen WAY too many times. But if you come late – that’s one thing. You come through the doors during the performance of the movement or piece, well, it’s okay and long as you are very discrete about it. But if you are late, come in during the performance, walk ALL the way to the very FRONT row (not even 2 feet from the person performing) and start signaling and waving at the person on the other side of the row, making gestures or whatever they were doing… …. ??????

I don’t know… I just… I don’t know what to say. That’s just all kinds of wrong. If you absolutely have to come into the hall in the middle of the performance because you were late (I’ve been there), either stand there in the back quietly OR sit in the first and closest seat available until the piece ends. There were at least 20 seats right there… I know because the whole back row I was in was empty on my left, the side they came in.

Why? Why not move up there in between pieces? Do you think you are invisible? I just… …why?

Just so you know, I’m talking about a lady in her 40′s perhaps… had a kid with her who was maybe 13. I think they were looking for her husband. Either way, they should know better, I think. This recital hall is small and the stage goes right into that first row. Maybe Marivy didn’t see her (being in the moment) but the entire audience sure did. (ironically, one of the people texting the whole time looked over at me shaking her head). psh!

I have witnessed this happening several times. This is not a first for me and though it doesn’t happen that often… I still have to wonder if people believe they have superpowers and have this ability to be completely invisible for those 30 seconds.

And lastly… I know this one might sound like a very weak thing to complain about… but it just bothered me. She was playing this sonata… ended the first movement… thankfully no-one clapped. (not a big deal, but I’m always the guy listening for it). Anyway, she finished it and it was awesome… There were about 20 seconds of silence between that and the start of mvt. 2. I swear you could have heard a pin drop a mile away… absolute silence. No-one twitched… no-one coughed… it was unreal silence, actually.

As she set and gave her slow nod to start the beautiful ballad-like movement, she started playing this sustained note… and after that I couldn’t hear her because every damn person in the audience coughed or moved… someone dropped a program… I even heard someone whispering.

Why Why Why???

Okay… you have to cough… maybe you can’t help it, but does it have to be while she’s playing? And while it’s the softer and pretty stuff??

I know this might sound weak… but this is something I see that happens a lot.

Or maybe it’s not so much ‘weak’ as it might be more psychological?? I think it’s a mind-body thing. I have seen/heard performances where during the loudest sections, everyone is still and silent… but during the softer, is when everyone moves and shuffles… as if the softer and prettier music is just a ‘transition’ to the next loud section and it translates to the audience as a “break time” between loud sections. I don’t know. You never see anyone move (not that you can hear them… but you can see) or do anything during the loud stuff… but once the brass cut out or the not releases and the string come in an pianissimo and start with their pretty melody, people shuffle, move, whisper, cough.

I honestly think it has something to do with the psychological effect music has on us and our bodies. I’m no expert and this might not even make sense… but maybe the louder and more driving music stimulates us and keep our bodies in a state of control, while the softer music kind of lets it go. I’m not about to research this but it has been something I have noticed and thought about a lot over the years.

I don’t know man… Maybe I’m just over thinking things here… but I do have an issue with the cell phones and texting. If I ever get to do a recital again, instead of a sign on the door that says “Please Turn Off Your Cell Phones”, there will be a similar sign that reads “Please turn off your cell phones and DO NOT set it to ‘silent’ and text during my performance… Thank You”. And there would be a big smiley face.

Well, I wouldn’t be that sarcastic… but I think it’s disrespectful not only to the performer, but those around them that get distracted by the light or the sound of the clicking. (And don’t even get me started on the people that switch it to vibrate and believe it’s actually ‘quiet’).

Oy… yeah, sorry about my rant.  Just needed to get that out there.

I did enjoy Marivy’s recital immensely and I know she was very nervous going into it. She did a wonderful job and I wish her the best in her pursuit for grad school and whatever summer festivals she does this year.

On a lighter note, the Red Wings won today!! And I finally sold my dining table that has been sitting in my living room here, waiting for the last 6 months to get sold.

Sorry I didn’t include any pictures today… I really didn’t feel like digging anything up and it’s almost 3am. Frances is picking me up in about 9 hours to go to a meeting at Memorial. I still need to sit down with the show music and write some notes… after I wrap this up. Damn, and I just realized I haven’t printed out the scores yet either. bleh! Oh well. I’ll be getting little sleep tonight. It’ll all be okay though. I just hope we get better weather tomorrow. Lets get some sun, please!

Just felt like sharing this on here. Some have seen the link on my site, but for anyone else interested, this is the multi-cam vid of our Aimachi performance in Tokyo – Dec. 16, 2007.