Really??
I’m not in my studio for 4 days, and look at all of this junk mail!
Not one of those pieces of mail will be of any use to me. And I get stuff like this all the time!
Where does it come from?
How do “they” know to send it to me?
How do I stop it from coming?
What a pain!!
This past week I was at a Sibelius clinic Wed-Fri in Riverside from 8AM-6PM everyday…meaning that I was gone from my house from 6am to 8pm those three days…which basically means that they flew by so fast that I feel like I’m in a weird warp zone…I’ve not done that much driving in a long time. But the clinic was good and I have a great understanding of the software and was able to get to know some new folks in the process.
…and just for the record, Sibelius kicks Finale’s butt…WAAAAAY out of the park. I know, I can use both now. And Finale is mostly retarded. Boo.
Speaking of Finale…I have a huge project due next Friday, and I’m freaking out about it a little. It’s a transcribing project, and I’m about half-way done. I’ll be able to jam on it this week…but my BRAIN HURTS from transcribing. It’s so taxing on my poor little mind…
NO, I didn’t watch the opening ceremonies last night, (but I did DVR it) because I was driving to CARLSBAD TO GET A PRIUS.
Wahoo!!!!
The buying process was relatively painless this time since we had “pri-”ordered it…and after driving it just a little bit, it is a dream. Wow.
Here are some pics:
The standard stock photo:
Not our car OR our house, but it’s very pretty and HOW WOULD YOU KNOW anyway?
And, of course, the standard “photo of your new car with a random man standing in front of it”:
Correct…this is still not our real car. Just a picture of a blue one…
So…the car is pretty much magical.
I mean, what car unlocks automatically when you walk up to it without ever touching anything or putting in a key?
THE PRIUS
What car has a POWER button instead of an ignition?
THE PRIUS
What car gets 45-55 miles per gallon?
THE PRIUS!
What car can do flips on the freeway at the touch of a button, and can also transform into an F-16 and fly away?
YES. YOU GUESSED IT.
THE PRIUS.
I know! It’s an amazing car!
I’m just saying…
I’m fried…so tired…
I might be a little bit out of commission this week in order to make my deadline…
The proof is here! Look at me! I’m rooooooooofing!
BUT the big news is that Nathaniel auditioned for an agent today AND GOT SIGNED.
So we’ll start the process of getting him all set up to audition for commercials and such.
We are super excited!
I wasn’t AT the audition, but evidently the agent said Nathaniel looked like, “A young Brad Pitt”.
Yeah baby. So basically, that makes me Brad Pitt…
HAHAHAHAHA
Yeah right. I’m not THAT delusional.
ok, that could be argued…
Anywho, we’re very excited!
Pretty soon you should see Nathaniel in some commercials airing near you…
Lots of stuff going on…
First off, I helped Chris H put on his ROOF today. Yes, I did carpentry-type things. Manly things with grunting and lifting heavy things and nailing stuff. I was scared of falling off at first, but got into it and BLASTED those plywood boards with his staple-gun (a.k.a. nail gun with staples in it). I rocked the roof, basically. And the end result isn’t half bad…so yeah for wood and nails (or staples, whatever) and helping out a great friend.
I’m participating in a Sibelius workshop over the next few days, so you may hear a little bit less from me.
Learning Sibelius is something I have on my “2-Year Plan” and I’m very glad to be doing this class. It’s going to be amazing and fun to hang out with the people (some of whom I’ve yet to meet) that are signed up. Yipee!
Choir and Orchestra practice starts up on this coming Sunday, and we said goodbye to Shantelle and the Rosner’s…so sad to have them gone.
Well, I’ve got to get some rest!!
More riveting blog entries later…
…strange things happen…
A present Nathaniel picked out for himself with a gift card he got for his birthday
He wore it ALL day…Friday…and all day Saturday…
EVERYWHERE.
Just take a minute to appreciate it…
Christy had class all night on Friday night and all day Saturday, so I got to galavant around town with this mini-clone.
We got some seriously funny looks from people…
A long time ago, in a land far, far away…I arranged this big ole mama of a project called “The Gala of Stars 2007″. Oh wow…was that only a year ago? I guess so…feels like FOREVER.
I also was the Musical Director for the show, contractor, and conductor. I got to stand up there and direct some amazing musicians that played music that I had written (or stolen…you know…and modified…shhhh)
Anywho–it was a blast. And a ton of work. About 200 hours worth, I estimate…if you include the writing AND directing stuff, (meaning, a zillion rehearsals). The kids performing it did a great job…they were super fun to work with…it was great. Good times.
Along with myself as the musical-type guy, there was a director who worked closely with me in choosing the music and putting the show together (Dan Monroe), and a producer that took care of the technical side of the show (Chris Tornow). Dan & Chris did pretty much everything, I just wrote the music and made sure everyone SOUNDED good…they were really responsible for the show. It was a nice arrangement because I wasn’t pulling my hair out about details I really knew nothing about, I was doing what I am gifted to do. I was able to use my strengths and gifts to do what I love to do–write. Much fun was had over those several months…along with lots of hard work.
So Chris called me sometime right after the show was over and asked me to write some music for a student film he was directing (and I think…also wrote) for his master’s thesis project. RIGHT ON!, I said…and we got to it.
I wrote a main theme for him, but it ended up being a little TOOOOOO much exactly a rip-off of the Beetlejuice music. Which is odd…cause I haven’t heard that music a whole lot or anything…seriously. So we tried for #2.
Theme #2 was a winner, but I still had a ton of music to write…and I tried…but I was super busy with school, APU job, Midway, etc….and many months passed. So many that I almost gave up on the whole thing, because it seemed like an unreachable goal. I just kept thinking to myself, “I’ll NEVER be able to do this…I just don’t have the time.”
Then, I took this class back in January at CSULA called “Seminar: Commercial Music” that was a practical, real-life look at what it is going to take to get started in the industry. It was a smaller sized class, very personalized, and frankly, life-changing for me. Networking was a huge focus of the class, and one of the instructions was to write down everyone you know that you have ever worked for…these people would be the start of your contact list…or something.
I wrote down several things…but one thing that kept popping into my mind was Chris T. I actually wrote on my notes (a.k.a. to-do list) “finish movie score for Chris”.
I was really hesitant to call him, just because it had been so long and I felt like a complete doofus for dropping the ball on the project.
But I did.
I had to.
I called and was overly apologetic…asking if it were possible to finish the film score. Thankfully, no one else had done it yet…
So I sat down and started writing…we moved to Burbank, I quit my APU job…had lots more time…kept writing.
Had meetings with Chris to listen to the score…made tweaks…listened some more…
…and I actually have my own studio to do this in! YES!
…I suckered in some friends to record some live instruments to replace the MIDI stuff I had done…fooling the ear into making it sound mostly real. (Thank you, friends!)
…and today we had our final meeting with EVERYTHING for approval…AND???
I’M DONE!
WAHOO!!
I just have to send off the files to his sound guy and the movie will go to some festivals and stuff. Yippee!
Here is a little audio for your listening enjoyment. This is the end credits which contains the main theme and a snippet from a fight scene…
