Archive for June, 2007
A sucker for Swearingen
Sometimes I have ideas which I’m not sure whether or not to post here. It’s true that this space is really mostly for me, but I like for the things I post to at least be interesting to other people (other people being the small circle of friends who I know read the site). I had one of those moments this week.
My relationship with music is kind of an odd thing. On the one hand, I have this oddly personal and emotional connection to the music I like. I get the feeling it’s a bit atypical (and probably a bit comical at times *grin*). On the other hand, I have friends who have much more training and talent in music who probably understand that connection but are puzzled at my tastes. I’m not as drawn to the purely original as most musicians are. So, you, my readers, end up getting really odd posts about Debbie Gibson videos and concert band music. 
Anyway, I sent an email to one of those very musically talented friends the other night. I figured she would understand, but I thought it a bit odd for posting. She thinks that I need to share it with all of you, though, so I’m going to trust her. The text of that email follows…
I’m sitting here listening to some music, and wanted to write you, because I think you’ll understand what I’m thinking right now.
You know how some people are pushovers for cheesy romantic movies? They go in knowing that the filmmaker is going to shamelessly manipulate their emotions, and it still works. Same thing with some people and romance novels. Then there’s the old cliché about people who “always cry at weddings”.
Well, I’m a pushover for a Swearingen song.
Anyway, I have a CD of the Washington Winds playing some of Swearingen’s pieces, and there’s one in particular that just gets to me. It’s called “Centuria.” One of Swearingen’s common things is to start out fast, slow down into a very sweet middle section, then pick back up with the original fast theme at the end (”movements”, in a sense). The slow part in “Centuria” just messes with my emotions. I know Swearingen is manipulating me, and I don’t care.
It’s polished pop music at its best, and I’m a sucker for it.
Hi. My name’s Jeff, and I’m a pop band musiholic. *grin*
One little song
This is twice now that one of Thomas’s journal entries has sent me off to find really cool things on the interweb.
This time it was a cool video he embedded in his entry. It’s of a group of electric string performers playing a very lively medley of familiar tunes. Hearing it took me back to my 7th grade year. I was a member of an area honor band that year, and one of the songs we played for our concert was a piece called “Instant Concert” by Harold L. Walters. It’s a medley piece that romps through snippets from something like 30 different well-known pieces of music… all at a constant tempo. It was an absolute blast, and ever since I’ve been able to remember the melody all the way through.
I did a bit of poking around in Google, and I found out that playing this one song might actually give me something in common with more people in the world than most things I’ve done. Go to YouTube and search for “Instant Concert”. I found 10 different videos of people playing this exact song, and several of them are of people that don’t speak English. I think my favorite band performance is the performance by the Nanyang Junior College Symphonic Band (from Singapore). You have to skip to 4 minutes into the video to get to “Instant Concert.” It’s reasonably well-recorded compared to the others, and they do a very good job playing it.
My favorite link of all, though, was of a video made by some band kids who were apparently blowing off some steam and had obviously played this song a bunch of times. They decided to sing it for fun. Amazingly, I’m able to get past the fact that they’re hideously off-key, because I can so see myself having done this back in school. I was laughing through the whole video and singing right along.
It is indeed a small world.
Senior memories: reader participation!
I just noticed today that my senior memory meme post has no question 12. I didn’t skip it. Eeyore didn’t have one either. At first I was going to be all boring and just try to find out what the missing question was, but then I figured out that this is the perfect opportunity for reader participation!
That’s right! You, my 3 lucky readers, have a once-in-a lifetime chance. Drop in a comment that contains what you think should have been question number 12 about my senior year of high school. I will answer all questions from people I know (so don’t ask what you don’t want to know!), and I’ll probably answer even if I don’t know you. Just be sure I have your email address… I reserve the right not to answer publicly.
Senior year memory meme
Stolen shamelessly from Eeyore:
Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be.
1. Who was your best friend? John Hancock. No, I’m serious.
2. What sports did you play? Well, according to the plaque that I have stored away somewhere, I lettered in varsity basketball my senior year but played no other sports. I was the statistician for the girls’ varsity team that year.
3. What kind of car did you drive? A maroon 1976 Volkswagen Beetle with aluminum mag wheels. Oh. And fuzzy dice. It was unmistakable.
4. It’s Friday night, where were you? During the fall, I was in uniform being trumpet section leader for the band. It’s one of the things I actually do miss about high school. Once football season was over, I was probably at home. I can count the number of dates I had in high school on one hand.
5. Were you a party animal? *snork* Seriously. Do I even need to answer this one?
6. Were you considered a flirt? It depends on who you ask. In general, no way. I had my moments, though.
7. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Band. I played trumpet from 5th grade up, and I was section leader all but my first year marching.
8. Were you a nerd? What’s this past tense thing you’re using? But yes. Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Cumulative high school average of something like 98.18/100 (we didn’t do the 4.0 GPA scale thing). In my class that was good enough to get salutatorian.
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Are you kidding? It got back to me years later that the principal actually delayed an intended policy banning backpacks by one year to allow me to graduate after he found out I really liked carrying a backpack. (”I just can’t do it to him. He shakes my hand in the hall!”)
10. Can you sing the fight song? Probably, but I’m not sure I’d get all the words right. I can play both the trumpet and baritone parts from memory, though. The baritone player was one of my best friends, and we would often swap horns for at least one iteration of the song. I also knew the silly chant used to the teach the snare part to the fresh meat (”Come to the table, ABC the goldfish, Come to the table, ABC the goldfish”).
11. Who was your favorite teacher? Oh, I’m not touching that one. I can’t pick, anyway. If I did, though, I wouldn’t be able to go home again.
13. School mascot? Wildcats
14. Did you go to Prom? Nope. All that sinful dancin’, you know. Actually, though, by the time I was a senior, it wasn’t as much about that as it was that from every direction I was getting the message that I had to go. That pretty much by itself meant that I wasn’t going to. Instead, I went to a multi-church-sponsored event specifically designed for prom refugees.
15. If you could go back and do it over, would you? Emphatically no. Does anyone ever really want to relive their teenage years?
16. What do you remember most about graduation? As we were lining up outside (minutes before it started), I was asked to sing the alma mater for the ceremony. I had to learn the words on the spot (I had been playing it every year since 6th grade and had the 1st trumpet part memorized, but I’d never sung it).
17. Where were you on senior skip day? Are you kidding? I was in school. A classmate of mine has shown up (in the comments below) and corrected my addled memory. The school’s Scholars Bowl (basically a quiz bowl) team went to a competition in Tuscaloosa that year. I remember that trip very well (I drove one of the cars), but I didn’t remember that it was on senior skip day.
18. Did you have a job your senior year? Yep. Worked as a deli cook/cashier at the convenience store next to the school from something like middle of my sophomore year until I left for college.
19. Where did you go most often for lunch? No one was allowed to leave campus for lunch.
20. Have you gained weight since then? Uh. Yes. *snork* I’m convinced that this is the reason why I won the “most changed” award at our reunion dinner.
21. What did you do after graduation? Right after graduation, me and my closest friends in the class went over to one of their houses and had a pool party. I’ll never forget that night. It was the perfect endcap on my high school career. These were my “Scoobies” in school. Now if only I could remember who won that game of chicken in the pool… me and Chastity, or Michael and Samantha.
22. When did you graduate? May of 1993.
23. Who was your Senior prom date? No prom for me, and no date to the substitute function.
24. Are you going / did you go to your 10 year reunion? Yep. Went, took my wife, had a BLAST snarking with one of my best friends, wrote a post about it.
25. Who was your home room teacher? Kind of an anticlimactic last question, isn’t it? I don’t remember. They were messing around with how our schedules worked, so I’m not sure we had a traditional “home room” that year.
What SAG has to say about babies
Here’s your random link for the day:
Where do Hollywood babies come from?
My vote for the most bizarre detail from this article:
Screen Actors Guild guidelines do cover condiment usage. Grape, red currant, and cherry jelly can be used to simulate birth-related fluids.