I was supposed to play at a company holiday party at the Four Seasons Hotel tonight. At the last minute I was informed that the son of the CEO had already been hired. A glitch, no doubt, though possibly a lie. Maybe when they found out it would cost them $700 for a jazz trio they balked. Why, Trent's band will play for NOTHING!
Awesome, dude. I bet they rock.
But I am not crying into my beer. Instead, I have been posting on various boards for about--yikes! 5 hours now. Mostly Randi Rhodes' message board. I like a lot of the people there--they are clever and have a sense of humor. There are also many socialists so I don't feel so all alone. The latest big news stories are 1) Repig senators walking out of closed door meeting to decide whether to pass 14 billion auto company bailout bill. (House already passed it) Of course the steaming white male piles of excrement (as Mike Malloy refers to them)did the following:
[from Fox News, which is reporting real news now out of desperation]
Republicans, after reviewing the latest version of the proposal in a closed-door meeting, balked at giving automaker federal aid unless their powerful union agreed to slash wages next year to bring them into line with those of Japanese carmakers.
Oh, and one other thing:
Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio, a strong bailout supporter, said the United Auto Workers was willing to make the cuts, but not until 2011.
Where have we heard this vile shit before?
Only every single time a U.S. company gets into trouble through the ineptness/malfeasance of its upper level management. Blame the unions! It's their fault, dammit, for insisting on a living wage and benefits! Whatever you do, don't blame COMPANY POLICIES which over and over again refused to build fuel-efficient vehicles and so led Americans to buy foreign cars in droves. COMPANY POLICIES that fought emissions standards every step of the way.
Be sure that all the top level guys (and I do mean guys) get at least $4 million apiece of our hard-earned taxpayer money as they have at AIG. They really need to be bailed out! Shit, they are only earning seven figure salaries because the damn unions are forcing them to hand over the company profits! They could be earning BILLIONS!
It's great being a bankster. You get to hold up the American people without even using a gun.
And now that whiny wimp Harry Reid is afraid to see the stock nmarket fall tomorrow as the result of NO BAILOUT (yet) Why did he and the other Dems cave and say the unions should concede? Why doesn't anyone ever ask the fatcats to concede any of their millions? People who never built a car. Or if they ever did, they forgot what it was like to really work for a living, work as in getting your hands dirty. Not work as in
diddling around on your Blackberry while you ride in your corporate jet drinking expensive booze.
It makes me sick.
I'm so angry I could spit.
b) Oh yeah, and story b, I totally forgot in my outrage: the gov of Illinois with the unpronounceable and unmemorable name and a penchant for filthy language has gotten busted for a "pay to play" scheme in which he has attempted to extort money from Obama's successor in the Senate. Naturally the wingnut lunatics are trying to paint Obama with Rod Blagojevich's (sounds like a character on The Wire) brush--guilt by association. Even though they dislike one another and Obama's campaign refused to allow Blago to speak at the Dem Convention. Apparently Blago is a real Clay Davis (The Wire again, sorry, I saw all 5 seasons on DVD recently and it's all too easy to find life imitating art) and has a history of shaking people down. His wife is a nasty little twat, too. So there is a lot of outrage over yet another corrupt pol (I'm shocked! shocked that extortion is going on in Illinois politics.) I don't believe Obama has anything to do with this particular scandal, though it doesn't mean he's squeaky clean. You can't be uncorrupted by years of playing the Chicago political machine game.
I have a bad taste in my mouth which is only going to get worse.
I don't want to see 3 million auto workers get laid off, but it looks like it is going to happen because our lawmakers didn't care enough to bail THEM out, not their bosses.
This could have been done but the political will wasn't there. For shame.
Bank of America is letting 30,000 go.
Citibank has let go I don't know how many.
This nation is teetering on the brink of a depression, a depression caused by the implosion of capitalism.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
In the heat of July
As a musician, I have not been very busy with gigs this summer, due to the fact that recession-prone restaurants and clubs are cutting their entertainment. However, this week was busy--Wed., Thurs. and Friday I played 2 concerts and a private party with my band. The second concert at a Russian restaurant in Brookline, MA, was particularly enjoyable.
I have been at work on a book I'm writing for use in the Berklee comping labs. ("Comping" means accompanying by playing chords.) I
have about 40 pages of the manuscript so far. I am quite proud of my work--this is by far the best comping book I have ever seen for beginners. Amazingly, Berklee doesn't already have one. This is part of the dossier I must submit this fall in order to bepromoted from Assistant to Associate Professor at Berklee. I spend a ridiculous amount of time rendering my music examples in Finale, which has got to be one of the world's worst computer programs and certainly the worst notation program--but it's the one Berklee uses!
Other projects this summer include taking bead stringing and wire wrapping classes. My plans for a second career include jewelry making but I need to improve my techniques. Beading is very addictive and calming (knitting is supposed to be that way but it doesn't interest me.) I have been wearing some of my bead creations. They look good!
On the health front: I'm recovering from a bout of mono (Epstein-Barr virus) which left me very fatigued--it's just as well that I decided not to teach this summer although I am broke as a result. At least my boyfriend has some money and we are getting by OK until I resume teaching in Sept. Actually, this break from teaching is good for my sanity.
BF and I just finished watching 4 seasons of The Wire on DVD--the 5th season is coming out soon. I never saw the HBO drama when it was on TV. It is a masterpiece of the caliber of The Sopranos and I highly recommend it, although the level of violence is quite
high. There are scenes that are very difficult to watch.
As the mother of a 21 year old son, I could not help feeling protective of the teenage characters caught in the unescapable misery and horror of the Baltimore drug trade. What makes the show even more upsetting is that it is certain that the drug wars are still going on and children are being hurt and killed in the crossfire.
But you should watch it. Every American should watch it--particularly us white folks--we all need a reality check from time to time.
I have been at work on a book I'm writing for use in the Berklee comping labs. ("Comping" means accompanying by playing chords.) I
have about 40 pages of the manuscript so far. I am quite proud of my work--this is by far the best comping book I have ever seen for beginners. Amazingly, Berklee doesn't already have one. This is part of the dossier I must submit this fall in order to bepromoted from Assistant to Associate Professor at Berklee. I spend a ridiculous amount of time rendering my music examples in Finale, which has got to be one of the world's worst computer programs and certainly the worst notation program--but it's the one Berklee uses!
Other projects this summer include taking bead stringing and wire wrapping classes. My plans for a second career include jewelry making but I need to improve my techniques. Beading is very addictive and calming (knitting is supposed to be that way but it doesn't interest me.) I have been wearing some of my bead creations. They look good!
On the health front: I'm recovering from a bout of mono (Epstein-Barr virus) which left me very fatigued--it's just as well that I decided not to teach this summer although I am broke as a result. At least my boyfriend has some money and we are getting by OK until I resume teaching in Sept. Actually, this break from teaching is good for my sanity.
BF and I just finished watching 4 seasons of The Wire on DVD--the 5th season is coming out soon. I never saw the HBO drama when it was on TV. It is a masterpiece of the caliber of The Sopranos and I highly recommend it, although the level of violence is quite
high. There are scenes that are very difficult to watch.
As the mother of a 21 year old son, I could not help feeling protective of the teenage characters caught in the unescapable misery and horror of the Baltimore drug trade. What makes the show even more upsetting is that it is certain that the drug wars are still going on and children are being hurt and killed in the crossfire.
But you should watch it. Every American should watch it--particularly us white folks--we all need a reality check from time to time.
Friday, March 14, 2008
The economy is going to hell
Falling dollar, rising oil prices, subprime lenders collapse, bailout of Bear Stearns by our terrific government (first such bailout since the Great Depression.) Hey, we might be in the Great Depression now.
I still hold stubbornly to my belief that good things are going to happen.
I don't know why.
What good things, you may ask.
Well, for starters: I will have to spend less, therefore shop less, thus freeing up time that could be spent doing stuff that is fun, creative, productive. Practicing. Writing tunes. Planning my professional development project and documenting it (groan)
Gardening. Cartooning.
And, there's always good ol' Doing Nothing.
My personal favorite.
Doing nothing is easier if you have no money to spend.
I still hold stubbornly to my belief that good things are going to happen.
I don't know why.
What good things, you may ask.
Well, for starters: I will have to spend less, therefore shop less, thus freeing up time that could be spent doing stuff that is fun, creative, productive. Practicing. Writing tunes. Planning my professional development project and documenting it (groan)
Gardening. Cartooning.
And, there's always good ol' Doing Nothing.
My personal favorite.
Doing nothing is easier if you have no money to spend.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Musings
I often wonder what it would be like to live in a pre-technological society. Is there any going back? (I don't mean the 1950s; I'm thinking of a society like Jane Austen's Napoleonic era England.) If I were fortunate enough to be born into the landed gentry, I would have all the necessary accomplishments to catch a rich husband: I can play the piano quite well, can do needlepoint (though I prefer not to) am no slouch at drawing and painting, and can speak French. No computers. Not even an electronic keyboard. One wonders what Lady Catherine de Bourgh would have thought of her daughter playing a keyboard! Of course, electricity wasn't in general use then. Ah, for the good old days!
My computer has been noncooperative at best and exasperating at worst--I'd swear it was animated by an evil spirit, sworn to frustrate me at every turn. It inexplicably goes to sleep and refuses to wake up. iTunes keeps popping up like an excited dog even when I haven't opened the application. It refuses to let me play an mp3 from my CD on a message board using either of my browsers.
And then there's Finale...but don't get me started on that. Finale is a notation/orchestration program. It is quite possibly the worst computer software ever written. And that's quite a distinction.
I have been writing new music lately and attempting vainly to get my MIDI working (it's a lot easier to get your mojo working) It's really pathetic how unmusical everything ends up sounding. Also, unless you are extremely careful, Finale will transcribe your rhythmic notation incorrectly as you play it. Sometimes it will do that anyway, even if you are careful. And then there's Simple Entry. Finale delights in taking text instructions in the score and putting them in the wrong place. On the screen, they appear in the correct place, but once they are printed out, you will see "Tenor Saxophone and piano duet" on the last page, sprawled across the final staff, mocking me.
I'm sure if I read every word of the 5000 page manual and viewed all 700 video tutorials I'd figure out how to delete measures without fruitlessly attempting 3 or 4 commands in a row. Yes, the fault is mine for not expecting a steep learning curve (what is the opposite of "steep learning curve?") But as long as it takes me roughly half the time to write scores the old-fashioned way, I will be lacking an incentive to continue being flogged by Finale. Oh, I forgot: this is my promotion year, I am working on what they call a "proposal for professional development," which involves, among other things, completing the first draft of a book on comping which I have spent the better part of the last 3 years not writing. I used my breast cancer in 2005 as an excuse to stop writing the book, but now that I've been given a clean bill of health, I've run out of excuses. Well, not quite. There's always the old musician's excuse: I had to practice/gig/write music. The dog ate my homework. Life has a way of getting in the way of your plans, but it never prevents procrastination.
My computer has been noncooperative at best and exasperating at worst--I'd swear it was animated by an evil spirit, sworn to frustrate me at every turn. It inexplicably goes to sleep and refuses to wake up. iTunes keeps popping up like an excited dog even when I haven't opened the application. It refuses to let me play an mp3 from my CD on a message board using either of my browsers.
And then there's Finale...but don't get me started on that. Finale is a notation/orchestration program. It is quite possibly the worst computer software ever written. And that's quite a distinction.
I have been writing new music lately and attempting vainly to get my MIDI working (it's a lot easier to get your mojo working) It's really pathetic how unmusical everything ends up sounding. Also, unless you are extremely careful, Finale will transcribe your rhythmic notation incorrectly as you play it. Sometimes it will do that anyway, even if you are careful. And then there's Simple Entry. Finale delights in taking text instructions in the score and putting them in the wrong place. On the screen, they appear in the correct place, but once they are printed out, you will see "Tenor Saxophone and piano duet" on the last page, sprawled across the final staff, mocking me.
I'm sure if I read every word of the 5000 page manual and viewed all 700 video tutorials I'd figure out how to delete measures without fruitlessly attempting 3 or 4 commands in a row. Yes, the fault is mine for not expecting a steep learning curve (what is the opposite of "steep learning curve?") But as long as it takes me roughly half the time to write scores the old-fashioned way, I will be lacking an incentive to continue being flogged by Finale. Oh, I forgot: this is my promotion year, I am working on what they call a "proposal for professional development," which involves, among other things, completing the first draft of a book on comping which I have spent the better part of the last 3 years not writing. I used my breast cancer in 2005 as an excuse to stop writing the book, but now that I've been given a clean bill of health, I've run out of excuses. Well, not quite. There's always the old musician's excuse: I had to practice/gig/write music. The dog ate my homework. Life has a way of getting in the way of your plans, but it never prevents procrastination.
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