If you are going to San Francisco be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

Well, alrighty then. I was not accepted to the Vancouver thing, so I am going to the Med Ren at Sonoma State. I leave this weekend and expect to have a great time. My friend Tom from Piffaro is going to run it next year and wants some feedback. I am really thrilled to get to meet a few west coast people, as this will be really practical for me. Margriet Tindemans, who was Shira Kammen's teacher, is coming down from Seattle. I am thrilled to get to work with her! I'm really looking forward to seeing Rotem again. I didn't get to work with her in Madison last year, but she was really nice and was very complimentary of my douçaine playing. I will be working a lot with percussionist Peter Maund. I love his work with Ensemble Alcatraz.
I am taking no fewer than 12 reeds on this trip. How dorky. The handful of players I know (Debra Nagy and members of Piffaro) would be quite happy with two reeds in an altoids box. I am going in different directions with this, however, and am having this time of my life experimenting with reeds and a wide repertoire. I wanted to share some of this stuff when I played at my mother's retirement home today for her birthday, but I went with a more conservative clarinet/bass clarinet with a former student.
I'll take the douçaine and play Machaut virelais and a few dances next time.

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

I absolutely loved playing all that Machaut on douçaine yesterday! The pop tunes that gave me great pleasure were Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves, Downtown, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Penny Lane and Those were the Days. I hate to admit it, but even Afternoon Delight was kind of fun. I also played Matador and Duerne Flyver, by Bent Fabricius-Bjerre, although Amercians would not have known those. I will take another look at the Icelandic tunes as well. I really like the work of Skarpheðinn Þorkelsson, Sigvaldi Snær Kaldalóns and Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. I just need to be more selective. I will put some of the Italian dances back in, just not the long ones. I was concerned about fatigue, since it was a three-hour solo gig. It's odd that douçaine does not kill my sinuses (like clarinet and oboe) with the whole cleft palate thing. I actually started a few minutes early, went a few minutes late and did not take any 15-minute breaks. The swabbing and chatting with listeners were enough of a break. A few friends dropped by, like Curtis Stigers, Mons from the Scandinavian Triplets Band and Ray from church. He even brought me coffee!

no kidding

It's not a good sign when my 42 x 30 britches feel tight . I have been doing crunches for the last few days so I at least look a little less blob-like. I actually thought about walking home from my gig yesterday, but 90+ minutes in the sun without sunscreen did not seem like a brilliant idea. Besides, I had already been on my feet for three hours playing solo douçaine at the Saturday market. That was a fun gig! I found myself wanting to do more medieval music and Danish national song treasury while being annoyed at most of the handful of pop tuness that I brought. I only had about a dozen pop tunes but did not play them all. I thought I would enjoy the Abba more. I had Chiquitita and Fernando, for heaven's sake! I was also not playing much of the Icelandic stuff, and I brought a lot. I do, however, love playing that stuff with Jen as Darkwood Consort. Bass Clarinet and viola takes a little of the cuteness out of it tonewise, but the quality and entertainment value are definitely there. Our Icelandic program is actually one of our favorites, so I was surprised to be so annoyed by some of the same material yesterday. I guess the difference with the Danish tunes is that a lot of them go back to the 15-16th century when the douçaine was still around. my early ornamentation skills work really nicely there. Even in the 19th century Weyse, they seem to work and I love them on the douçaine.

mandag, mandag, baa daaa, baa da daa da

Vores islensk koncert var godt. Vi spillede godt for et godt publikum. Efter det gik jeg til Leslie's recital på BSU. Her er BSUs ny assistant klarinet professor. Jeg gik med Erin, vores ny Pr. klarinet i BP, (som også kom til Darkwood) og Donovan. Efter det spiste vi med Kirk og så Brokeback Mountain. Det var første gang for Kirk!

Jeg er katolik, men stemte jeg et valg for Danmarks ny biskop. Yuzuru skrev til mig at sige Poul Joachim Stender, som var sognepræst på Kirke Såby hvor Jen og jeg spillede i 2005. Stender var den første at give Yuzuru et job i Danmark. Det var meget svært for Yuzuru om en eller to år i Danmark. Yuzurus mand Anders har været organist på Kirke Saaby i mange år. Yuzuru spillede få år på Værløse (hvor vi også spillede) og nu på Nørrebro.

Philharmonic var lykkelig sidste uge. Vores gæst direktør (jeg glemte det rigtig ord for conductor) var dejligt! Jeg glemte hvad hedder ham, men han var fantastisk. Vi spillede en Daugherty stykke Red Cape Tango om Superman!

Jeg har meget at gøre i dag. Jeg har en ny saksofon eleve på klokken ti og en prøve på BSU kl.12:30 og undervisningstimer fra kl. 15:30 -18:00. Jeg også skal til banken, øve og arbejde på Biotzetik musik.

jeg spiste for meget

Kirke lavede spaghetti og jeg spiste for meget.

Jeg forsøgte at spille med Joe's lille Academy of St. Giles i formiddagen. Vi spillede 4 eller fem stykker men det var lidt som herding katter. Joe er væk om få dage i Carribean.

Min islensk koncert med Jen skal blive dejligt! Vi skal spille på The River radiostation fredag. Darkwood er stadig fedt, men vi skal spille på en bryllupfest show i 2009. Vi vil gerne spise noget.

Jeg fik en kalde fra kunstkommissionen i Mountain Home i dag. Jeg var på toilettet med splatter ass, men jeg altid svar telefonen. Vi Skal spille en koncert og residency i Mountain Home i marts 2009.

Min egen MySpace går stadig sindssyg. Jeg får omkring 20-40 spiller hver dag!!! Jeg har 6 douçaine soloer. Det går skide godt på EMA hjemmeside også.

Det er bare nok!

Jeg er færdig med min engelsk blog. Jeg var en svin. Jeg elsker mine venner som bruges en gaffel som en kniv og spørges Where AT og gå mellem et rødt lys. MEN....jeg kan gøre hvad jeg vil.

Jeg lærte 6-8 elever og hat to prøver men øvede ikke. Jeg var næsten syg siden klokkken 3 og nu er jeg bare træt ud. Jeg var for træt eller glemte rosenkransen om en uge. Det er forkert og trist. Jeg savner Maria. Jeg tror at jeg kan bare bede en gang når jeg er træt.

Min Myspace går gangbusters. Jeg skulle gøre en link her, hvis jeg er ikke for dum.

Methodists don't have cathedrals

In the immortal words of Nina Simone,

'nuff said