Day 103

Boo, can you see the snow? It's been so warm lately. Then last night it dropped, like, 30 degrees and this morning it was snowing. I do not approve.

These updates have been thin and boring lately. Last week I was in rehearsals for perc and dance from 5-10 every night. Prepare for a backdated lengthy update about the experience. These next few weeks are going to be challenging. Next week is a percussion ensemble concert with just xylophone rags and steel drums. I'm playing a rag which is pretty damn cool and I'm excited but still pretty nervous. Then the week after that is excerpts. Two weeks after that is the orchestra tour, and the day after that is me and mallrat's recital. Plus Johnstown three times a week on top of that. Regardless, I'm pretty excited. 

PS - Congrats to Ben for winning DO tonight, and JG for having her recital tonight, and Sara Benson for getting into West Chester tonight. AND, fuck my allergies. Tonight.

Day 102

Seriously, Kingan has the weirdest shit. This is an instrument we used on perc and dance but damn if I know what it's called. It appears to be a bow with a piano string. Once I find learn the name, I'll google it. At the time though, all I found was this musical piece of hunting equipment.

Day 101

One of the random ass framed pictures in the Italian place we ate. I forget the name and I'm falling asleep but I promise to edit with more details later. This picture was in the ladies bathroom.

Day One Hundred

Day 100! Woot!

Creepy bathroom mirror. They were circle mirrors with a circle florescent light going around the outside. Made my eyeballs do this. This is downstairs in the bathrooms at the Kimmel Center.

Day Ninety Nine

Holy shit it's the academy of the arts! Not a bad view considering I was on the top level of a parking garage.

Day Ninety Eight

Last night was Egon's birthday. I woke up this morning and found this happy little mormon trading card on our bathroom sink. I'm curious to know its story...

And, as per usual, I was all hyped to go out for St. Patrick's day last night but something happened that made me stay in at the last minute. This year it was Johnstown rehearsal, which was had to have Tuesday instead of Wednesday because surprise! Orchestra rehearsal! Thank god.

Day Ninety Seven

IUP hosted the jr. high honors band festival. I was there for the free hour I had that day "hovering", which is a music education term that means "young percussion sections need a ton of guidance that takes up time that a conductor doesn't have, so please go help." Did that sound arrogant? It's not supposed to. It's just something to help rehearsals go smoothly. There's a ton of stuff to play in the percussion section and a ton of ways to play it wrong. having someone back there to help out gives the conductor time to focus on other things that need their attention. Like tuning. Like oh my god tuning. Haha. They were actually pretty good. There was one little kid who looked like a slightly more grown up Aaron Kingan. There was one socially awkward girl who kept reassuring me she didn't suck, she just had really lame parts. In her defense, it was true. Poor girl played suspended cymbal like, all day. 

I think the first day is what keeps teachers coming back. The kids are so eager to get started and you feel like you've got a million things to do, in an exciting way that isn't overwhelming. I wish I could have hung out with them longer but I had Johnstown rehearsal to get to. The show on Saturday was ok. We finally put everything out on the floor, which was a bigger relief than I was expecting. We had a lot of down time so me and piffle got to just sit around in the auditorium and talk. I haven't just hung out and caught up with him in a long time, even though I see him three times a week. It was nice. This weekend we're recording at IUP and watching Teeth. Google it. It's as horrible as it sounds.