The last two weeks of my life have truly been amazing...

UH

MA

ZING

I'll tell you about it...promise...but right now I've got to pay attention to my family for a few minutes...

I am not a materialistic person--well, at least not compared to a lot of Americans. I'm sure if you put me up next to someone living in the slums of India then YES, I'm materialistic, but I try to keep my desire for things in check (although sometimes I fail) and not to get hung up on any one thing. Because really? Things are JUST things.

Additionally, I'm not a very stylish person. I didn't really wear anything half-way stylish until college because I didn't really know how to shop for clothes until my friend Andy Balch showed me THE GAP...but I digress...and anyways--I already blogged that story.
(God bless Andy Balch.)

SO...that said...

Cue the jacket story:

I like jackets.
I've especially noticed that lately a lot of guys with good fashion sensibilities are wearing cool jackets (the sport-coat kind, not rain-coat) over t-shirts and/or button-down shirts. I like this style and I think it fairs well with me. I bought a couple of jackets that I wear sometimes on Sunday mornings when leading worship, and I've been flirting with the idea of getting a new jacket for Easter Sunday--you know--the biggest day of the year for churches...

Then there was Danny Gokey.

Tuesday night Danny wore this AWESOME black jacket. I saw it and IMMEDIATELY thought, "That is it! That's the jacket I need to wear for Easter!".

And I fell in love with the jacket.

I went on a 48-hour man-hunt for this jacket. I joined every chat-board/forum I could find about Danny Gokey, posting to see if anyone knew anything about the jacket.
They didn't.

I recruited certain resourceful friends to find it.
They failed.

I looked day and night for this thing...until FINALLY I got smart. On the American Idol website it talked about the stylist, so I googled his name and found his website and clicked on the "contact me" button. JACKPOT. I emailed him...and he got back to me in the morning. EUREKA! The jacket was made by Dutch company G-Star...and there was a location here in L.A.!!!

You can imagine my excitement.

So I went to the location...and I was ready to spend a little bit of money on this thing, since it was totally glorious...
I giddily SKIPPED across the street from my parking place and into the store on Melrose Ave in Hollywood.

I found the jacket.

I saw the price tag.

I looked at it again...just to make sure...

...and a saleswoman caught me. "Would you like to try this on?"

Yes.
Yes.
YES.

"You'll probably be the XXL size..."

uuuhhhhhhthankyou. Way to make me feel good inside.

And it fit like a dream.

A DREAM.

And I spent the next 30 minutes pacing around the outside of the store wrestling with myself to see if I could somehow beg, borrow, or steal enough money to buy this jacket.
But I couldn't.

So I sadly walked away. Empty handed...

 

I am pretty young, but I must have just missed some things when I was growing up.
Not that this is a bad thing--I can't complain about my childhood--I just think I missed some popular things...and I've only recently become aware that there are some gaping holes in my life as a musician and artist.

For instance, I've only heard less than 5 songs by The Beatles, and if you asked me to name two of them, I couldn't (I only know "Hey Jude").
I've heard quite a bit about these Beatles people, and I know about the significance and fame of their band, but I don't know the music AT ALL.  I think I need to discover The Beatles.

What other bands or artists should I know about?

I read an article a couple weeks back about this new Dreamworks movie, Monsters Vs. Aliens in 3-D.

This in and of itself is not that interesting; I read a lot of articles about movies. But this particular article was talking about how Jeffrey Katzenberg (one of the big cheeses at Dreamworks) is trying to bring the movie-going experience to life by pushing for more and more cartoons/movies to be made in 3-D. And not your mama's 3-D....not the 3-D that you saw in the 60's...or even the incredibly produced, premichaeljacksonisasicko Disneyland attraction "Captain Eo"--which I saw, btw, in 1988. But 21st Century top-O-the-line-state-of-the-art 3-D.

I was skeptical.

3-D? Really? The only other thing that has been in 3-D lately has been the Jonas Brothers Concert Experience...and c'mon...I'm not a 13 year old girl.

But I was blown away.

BLOWN

AWAY

It was incredible. I can barely describe the experience to you.

The movie was good enough to stand on its own without any 3-D magnifance, but the fact that the 3-D thing was happening was just spectacular. It took a really great thing, and added a layer of icing on the top that made it taste over-the-top awesome. And not just ANY icing...the BEST icing...OOOO OOOO---FONDANT. YUM.

If Jeffrey Katzenberg was trying to revolutionize the movie going experience, he succeeded with this movie.

Monsters Vs. Aliens is a great flick, and the 3-D version is OUTTA THIS WORLD.

Go check it out. It's totally worth it.*

*there is an extra 3 dollar charge because its 3-D and they give you disposable glasses...

I still haven't decided on a name for my business, or even if I'm going to make up a business name...geez.

Some composers/orchestrators I know don't have a business name that I know of...they just operate under their own name...I think. I have to do some more research on this.

That said, if I were picking a name for my business, my two favorites so far are "Semsen Scores" and "Semsen Music Services".

WHAT DO YOU THINK!?

This week was hectic.

I know...nobody cares...we're ALL busy...but it was hectic in a GOOD way.  I'm still recovering from getting barely any sleep (and apparently putting two spaces after every period now). 

The biggest thing that happened this week was the completion of my work composing for one episode of a TV show, Travel Scope, on PBS.  It was a good challenge.  I'll tell you up front that my strengths are in the field of orchestration more than composition, but I am not a complete novice at the art of scoring for film, so I had a good place to start.  Thank you to all that offered advice....mostly Scott. 

As a person that doesn't like to let someone else down (even if it's a complete stranger--case in point: the street sweeper had to STOP at our house this morning and the dude got out of the car to move my trash cans off the street because I forgot to do it yesterday...and I felt like an idiot...), it was quite an experience to have the producer over at my studio this week to listen to my stuff, cold.  Basically, he had never really heard anything I had done on the show or anywhere else--and we had not met before hand to talk about his vision for the music or anything...so it was ALL up to my interpretation of where to put the music, for how long, and for what purpose.  So without much small talk, he came in, sat down, and I pushed PLAY on my computer...

And we sat in silence for 25 minutes as we both watched the show and heard my music for the first time.

It was nerve-wracking, to say the least.

I don't know if you've ever experienced the process of creating something completely from scratch, and then inviting a stranger to come in and judge your achievement--but it is scary.   I pretty much felt like I was naked for a half an hour...and a tad vulnerable. 

But it all ended up being fine.

I'm not sure when the episode will air, but I think it will be sometime in the summer.

Here are a couple of little excerpts of the music I wrote.  Remember...we're in Italy. 

I've always been a fan of technology.
Love the stuff.

I even used to be the geek that played in the computer lab during my lunch break instead of playing basketball with the cool kids (I know, big surprise).

I rely on technology to write music. If someone came to me and asked me to write music without a computer, it would take me 20x as long. It's sad, but true.

So last week I did a wonderful thing and invested in a new technological vehicle for my studio: a MacPro.

I was SO excited.
But after having a different work station for 5 years, it took some time to get situated. SO much time.

In fact, after thinking about it, I'm fairly certain that last week I spend more time working with technology (and trying to get it right) than I did actually writing any music.
And that bummed me out...because the technology should support the art, not detract from it. The good news is that hopefully things should be fine from here on out...HOPEFULLY.

BUT
I'm meeting with the producers of the TV show on Wednesday to hear my music. I'm excited and nervous.

And I still haven't decided on a company name. I'm still entertaining suggestions.

(Don't worry--no spoilers ahead--I PROMISE)

So say we all.

I just finished watching one of the coolest series finales that I've ever seen:

Battlestar Galactica

The finale was pretty much perfect...and that's about all I'll say, and all I CAN say at this point (I'm still in that post-movie hangover land). I loved it. I think I loved it almost as much as I loved Star Wars, Episode III Revenge of the Sith. It was similar in the level of completion and finality that it gave to the watcher.

I was satisfied and fulfilled.

SO SAY WE ALL.

Many years ago, after moving to San Diego, we stopped by Vons to buy
some groceries, and they hit us up with the membership card. Not like
Costco., where you have to actually PAY to be a member, it's just a
membership card that gives you a discount on some "on sale" items.

So
we signed up for a Vons card (I'm sure you have one of these, or
something like it, right?) and we punched in our phone # in case we
"forgot the card" (or never bring it on purpose).

Well, I guess the guy who registered the same San Diego number before we did was named Harold Taylor.

So
now, EVERY time I go to the grocery store and put in my phone # to get
the discount, the name "Harold Taylor" pops up on the receipt--and the
employee always looks at the receipt and says, "Thank you, Mr. Taylor!"

And I, of course, not wanting to correct every single employee that crosses my path, says, "You're welcome!" and I leave.

And for about 10 seconds, I leave my life of Daniel, and I BECOME Harold Taylor...my ALTER EGO.

Yesterday we asked Nathaniel to draw a special Get Well picture for a Sunday School teacher of his that has been in and out of the hospital quite a bit lately.

He took a great deal of time, and drew a pretty snazzy picture:

When I asked Nathaniel about his picture, he told me all about the things going on in the letters--it is raining over the "R", the "L" is getting it's blood drawn, and the "F" is using a stethoscope...there were others, but I can't remember...

Well, Noah thought the picture was just BEEEEAUUUUTIFUL, so he sat down and copied it:

IS THAT AWESOME? Or WHAT?!?!!

He's also talking like a maniac.
Really.

Noah is going nuts with his talking. It's phenomenal.
Oh...yeah...and...he's at the top of his class, academically. He reads, writes, and understands concepts better than any of his classmates.
Yeah.

That's my boy.