Saturday, February 28, 2009

Grease

Freaking Grease medley running through my head. Why? Why?!

Sigh

You know, the truth is I'm not having much fun these days. Everything is work work work work work. I miss writing. This morning I woke with a twist on an old idea and managed to get the gist of it down in two paragraphs. But when would I have time to write?

I'm beginning to wonder if this whole composing for film thing is for me. I'm not saying I'll drop out, but I may make a gradual shift to screenwriting or something. I don't like having so much on my plate. The opposite is no good, either, but it seems I can't find a happy medium. I just feel stretched really thin right now, and the stress isn't good for me or for my ears.

Okay. I'm done bitching.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Not as GAH as yesterday

Things are heating up now. Need to finish the music for Summerfolk this week. Lots to do this weekend. Aside from Lab, I seem to be keeping up. A forthcoming gig fell through, which actually works out okay, as it sent my to-do list through the roof. Now the list is doable. Although I still have to do my taxes and turn in my financial aid application. Also want to finish a short story to turn in to Glimmer Train, but we shall see about that.

In other news, congrats to Chris Eldin for getting her short story "Johnny's Addiction" published!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Oscars Redux

I didn't see the entire show (fell asleep), but what I saw was pretty awesome. Hugh Grant was a great host. Most of the jokes I heard worked well, and the set was amazing. Loved the acceptance speeches. The Oscar balancing act was quite amusing as well.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Taken

Squandering my chance to see an Oscar-nominated film last night, a classmate and I saw Taken, the new Liam Neeson movie. By the end of the film, I was in love with Liam, but the score nearly ruined the film for me. It was like underdone chicken in most places, and in others it foreshadowed emotional moments rather than highlighted them, rendering it obtrusive. Its saving grace was in the last scene, but even that was underdone.

And the story. Luc Bessom was one of the screenwriters, and I have to say I was disappointed with his efforts in this. I hate saying that, because there's SO MUCH a writer can't control in the making of a film. Hell, by the time it's done, the film may not even bear any resemblance to what the writer(s) wrote. Still, there were parts that needed more fleshing out.

But my, Liam is handsome, and he puts in a good performance, as usual.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Life Rating Today: 10

Learning jazz piano. Actually, right now I'm just learning to beat the shit out of the piano. Life is good.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Pickup Lines For Those of You on the Prowl Tonight

WARNING: Those of you with delicate sensibilities be forewarned regarding the content. NOT WORK SAFE, exactly. Or kid safe. Or possibly spouse safe. Unless of course you're both Democrats, nerds, geeks, or a combination of all three.

For those of the Democratic persuasion, I have Wonk Pickup Lines, courtesy of Ana Marie Cox (who used to write for Time but is now on Air America):

"Let's go back to my place and play 'bad bank.'"

"My member doesn't NEED a stimulus package."

"My filibuster lasts all night long."

"Is that a stimulus package in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

"Let's reach cloture together."

"If I were a Congressman, I'd give you franking privledges."

"That's not a gavel, but don't stop pounding it."

"Wanna come back to my House and see my Rotunda?"

"I heard you're great at tying things up in committee."

"I'll turn your loophole into a full-blown moral hazard"

"And then this one time, at The Sidwell Friends School..."

"Shhhh. We can talk about this during Morning Joe tomorrow at my place."

"I was the 'sprinkling of gay' in Rahm's basement apartment."

"I've got this thing and it's golden and i'm not just going to give it away."

"When the President does it, it's not illegal."

"Let me show you what I learned at the Clinton White House."

"I'll show you some sustainable long term growth...IN MY PANTS!"

"Want a tour of the Capitol? I could introduce you to the whips."

"Rahm personally approved my hard pass."

This inspired my Geek Pickup Lines, which are in a post below. (Don't have time to repost, but check out the comments for friends' lines!) There's also a link for Nerd Pickup Lines in that post. So now you shy ones have some ideas.

Magic Tricks

Does anyone know any good books on magic tricks? Send only titles of those you've read and liked, please. I've already done the Google/Amazon search and found one or two I may get, but I'd like more titles from which to choose. Thanks!

Friday, February 13, 2009

How Not to Read a Love Poem

"And this one time, at band camp . . . . ?"

Love Poem

My love poem thingie is coming this afternoon or evening. I'm behind on composing stuff. See you tonight.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Geek Pickup Lines

So I've been following Ana Marie Cox on Twitter. She is a journalist who also happens to be a political junkie. She came up with wonk pickup lines, which has inspired nerd pickup lines, and now geek pickup lines.

My first one is: "I wanna be your internal hard drive."

Put your geek pickup lines in the comments!

EDIT: I love what I'm seeing so far. We gotta come up with more for Valentine's Day!

I have more: "Let's go back to my place and hook up your interface to my hard drive."

"Check out my fire wire."

"Let's go back to my place and play 'Computer Repairman.'"

"With my hard drive, you'll never need a thumb drive again."

"I see you use a Mac. Now try a Big Mac."

"My laptop is a full 17 inches."

"I'm sorry, my hard drive has never crashed before." (Geek apologies?)

The Coldness

It is really cold in here. D thinks it's merely "cool," but I'm telling you, it's like those scenes in The Sixth Sense when a dead person makes an appearance. I can't see my breath, though. Yet.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A Stimulus Package That Works

THIS is the kind of stimulus package I want. I seriously think it could work, too.

Monday, February 9, 2009

7 Reasons

This article really struck a chord with me, although I must say I do feel I've made some valuable friendships online.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

A Little Somethin' Somethin' Redux

This is the promised mixed audio of the final concert last Fall. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. Of course, I've noticed now there are a couple of places the dialogue drops out a bit (for me, anyway), and then there are places where the microphone pops (but those were a matter of my not having figured out yet how to fix them).

And when I say I'm interested in hearing your thoughts, I want to know: Could you understand the dialogue? Did it seem to drop out anywhere? Were there places where the music drowned it out? How does the balance between the two work for you? How was the overall sound? Too bright? (There's very little reverb.) Critiques needed!

EDIT: We've had so much snow this winter that our ceiling is cracking right outside the laundry room. Now that it's warming up, the snow is melting and leaking. I can hear the *drip drip drip* into the bucket from my bedroom.

Also, for those of you not familiar with reverb, that's the echo-y sound you hear in music when a character is coming out of a dream sequence. It's the audio equivalent to where the screen gets all shimmery right as the character is coming out of the dream. One of its uses is to recreate the sound of a large hall.

Also forgot to mention that there's ten seconds of dead space before the dialogue. Sorry about that, but I'm not changing it now. : )

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

25—no, 16 Random Things

1. I'm partially deaf, which makes for humiliating and yet comic moments. I only wish so many of them weren't at my expense. Sigh.

2. I play both piano and double bass. But not at the same time, obviously.

3. I can teach six instruments of the orchestra effectively. Some less so than others, but every lesson adds to my skillz.

4. In two years I'm moving to L.A., most likely permanently. The most exciting thing about this is that I will (hopefully) be able to see a live performance of Gustavo Dudamel conducting. Yay!

5. My current celebrity crush (though I guess he's not a celebrity) is Rahm Emanuel. But you probably knew that.

6. Recently I decided to stop censoring myself so much. I used to be terrified of offending people. I'm not so much anymore. Paradoxically, at the same time I feel I'm getting better at conducting myself with some diplomacy. I think it's just a matter of becoming happier, with the non-censoring part coming out as humor. Offensive humor sometimes, perhaps. But I don't mean any harm. Better than hissy fits any day.

7. I currently have 340 e-mails yet to open in my gmail account.

8. I currently live in Chicago. I don't really want to move, because I really, really love this city. But I'm not tough enough for the winters.

9. When I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in Music Composition, I had something like 234 credit hours. I took every class I could get my hands on. I'd do it differently now. I'd take fewer classes and focus on the things I want to do, rather than trying so many different things. I don't regret that, exactly, except that i often ignored the feeling that certain things weren't working.

10. I've been watching 60 MInutes almost every week since I was 10 years old. I was the only kid I knew who had a crush on Ed Bradley. Perhaps I've always been a geek.

11. At 36, I feel both young and old. I've had a hell of an adulthood so far, with plenty of mistakes. But I've gotten to the point where I feel I've "paid" for them and then some. Time to be happy.

12. I still lament not getting to know Marcus better, the guy in my undergraduate English class who was the only guy who ever had the guts to tell me flat out that he was attracted to me. Almost all the others (the ones I didn't chase, that is) got to know me under the guise of "friendship," when they were really interested in sex or a relationship. Naturally, I knew none of this until later, when they were pissed I never picked up on the signals. (What can I say? I'm dense.) For some reason, this whole business of not bothering to say you like someone when you do kind of offends me. I mean, sometimes there are practical reasons for not saying so, but if you're single, and the person you like is single, why wouldn't you ask? Sure, rejection stings, but if you don't ask you'll never know.

13. I often fantasize about living in the country in a huge Victorian house with a husband and some pets and possibly a kid or two, a la Neil Gaiman. (But of course the husband would be someone else.) I want trees, purple mountains, those amber waves of grain. But I don't know if that's realistic, as I often get cravings for good thai food. I wonder how much of the city amenities I'd miss. Not that I need to worry about that, as my current financial situation does not exactly spell O-W-N-E-R-S-H-I-P.

14. I'm online waaaaaaay too much. I really should get off this computer.

15. Since I've started working out, I don't feel sick. I keep it up now because I feel soooo much better on days I exercise. I sleep better, too.

16. I want both to compose and write. It's silly that I have this dichotomous voice in my head telling me I'll never have time for both. Excuse me, but if I get off this freaking computer, I will.

I'm not sure how to tag people, so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. You're It.

U.S. Government

So my refund was finally credited to my school account this morning. (The "refund" Is actually what's left over from paying the HUGE chunk of tuition to Columbia - not an actual refund, as in "This piece of crap equipment doesn't work. Give me my money back!") Hopefully the school will take pity and release the money to my checking account immediately, although my hanging up on a customer service representative in frustration yesterday will probably count against me.

All this makes me convinced this money was somehow tied to Daschle's failure to pay his taxes. Damn you, Daschle! Okay, not really. But still.

I'm proud to have broken the spell of 140 Characters and Under. But I've decided I still like twitter better than Facebook since it doesn't force me to talk about myself in the third person. And I like blogger better than either twitter or Facebook.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Sunday, February 1, 2009

GAHHHHH!!!!

Well, the semester's off to a bang-up start. Seems I've either deleted or lost my audio file from the final concert last semester. The concert was recorded in two halves, and no one seems to have the first half. But I haven't heard back from everyone yet. Will report back.

I seem to remember deleting a bunch of files in an effort to "organize" my computer. Could have been one of them. And the mix is due Tuesday.

Damn damn damn.

EDIT: One of my outstanding, wonderful classmates has the file and is willing to share. I love these people!