Postcards from the Glow-in-the-Dark Road

Postcards from the Glow-in-the-Dark Road is closing. It has been a pleasure offering the acerbic wit and tongue-in-cheek humor of Bass, but it is decided that a change in scenery is the best option.

Should you still be interested in what he has to say, we freely direct you to http:\farandaway.wordpress.com. The staff at PftGitR hope to see you drop by some time. Happy trails 'till we meet again.

I wrote a short poem yesterday while not quite listening to an executive committee meeting. It was something about a tightrope walker inching along his line...but not being able to see the end of it all...but still hoping that there is an end somewhere.

I finished it quickly. It was a lame poem. But the crushing wave of depression that hit me before the ink had dried was far from lame.

Yeah, I'm like this a lot nowadays. Sometimes I get the suspicion that I'll be living in a boarding house all my life, while my peers go traipsing around the world, getting married, getting a life. In the meantime, here I am, feeling like I'm going nowhere fast.

I'm not complaining about work or school...in fact, the times I am not depressed is when I'm busy teaching/conducting, telling somebody in the orchestra that their sound sucks (just kidding). It's just that...well...I'm jealous. Here I am willing to put in some serious zest for life...and there's not a lot to be zesty about. Go figure. 

The orchestra rehearsed the first movement of my violin concerto last friday, with mixed yet impressive results.

It's funny how I am still taken aback when I hear my composition "live", played by real musicians with real strengths and flaws, instead of a deadly accurate although dismally flat-sounding computer/synthesizer. Isa literally tips the sonic balance in her favor on the double bass, easily drowning the violins with a flurry of sixteenth notes, while the concertmaster takes her powerstance and barrels through the solos like a livewire.

Sharie is impressive to watch and hear - knowing that two years ago, she was this little girl at the back of the first violins who had very little to say about rehearsals, I am astonished that now, when her solos come up, she spreads her feet further apart than normal (the way guitarists do when they want to look ridiculously cool) and she let's her new violin rip. In fact, last friday was the first time she ever asked for another repeat after I dismissed the orchestra. And that was the first time 99% of the orchestra was only too happy to oblige.

Amazing. And to think when I composed this movement, I was stabbing in the dark. 

I just occurred to me awhile ago while giving a talk to new teachers this morning: People whom we perceive as "deep" are not those people who have "deep" personalities, i.e. quiet, pensive, brooding, etc. Rather, a deep person is someone who values deep things. Now this can make a person pensive and brooding, but it is more along the lines of what you talk about, not just how you talk. Therefore, just because a person has an annoying personality is not grounds for judging that person as shallow.

Now, this begs the question: What do you mean deep?

We can mention all the vagueness and ambiguities found in the concept of language games, but if you're really honest with yourself, you know what things are deep and what things are shallow. Hiding behind the convenient excuse of differing language games is for those who look inside...and realize they value dross and straw...but are too lazy to do anything about it.

To quote Vienna Teng: Any self-respecting personal blog has to have these, right?

MUSIC: No, no ipod's here. But I'm currently listening to Vienna Teng's latest album (obviously) and the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean (HAR!). I think Wheel of Fortune is the bomb! Just turn on your bass boost and turn up the volume and prepare to get blown away. Otherwise, I'm listening to a lot of classical music (mostly Bach) to get schooled on writing concertos. By the way, if you're looking to get your blood pumping via classical music, it's hard not to get off on the first five to ten minutes of the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony Number 9. Oh, and I've got the latest Emanwel album spinning. Har-har-har.

WRITTEN WORD: I'm working on Contact by Carl Sagan, having been through The Dark Tower by Stephen King, having been through various science fiction novels by various authors, most of them rather forgettable, although I am intrigued by Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series. The last good book I've read was King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard. There sure is a lot of junk out there.

Of the non-fiction sort, I'm reading Addicted to Mediocrity by Franky Schaeffer. To be honest, I'm starting to find my college textbooks on Discrete Mathematics rather appealling.

PICTURE: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest of course.  

Yeah, yeah, so it's a poster of the first movie. I think it's way cooler than the one with Johnny Depp on it. And the tagline is more feisty. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, me hearties. Har!

My students would know that for the past three months or so, I've been working (composing) on a violin concerto (that rhymes...) with the following goals in mind:

1. It has to be aesthetically pleasing to a reasonable degree (i.e. it should have a discernable melody; none of that atonal nonsense that's all the rage these days among composers).
2. It should look difficult on paper.
3. It should sound difficult.
4. It shouldn't actually be difficult.

So far, I've managed to complete the first movement (it's a thre-movement work) and I am satisfied with it (sort of). I am actually more pleased with the soloist's view of the movement...she found it exciting to play. Yay ^_^

The remaining two movements, on the other hand, are becoming a real pain: I'm having trouble coming up with a good melody for the Adagio and some melodic and harmonic variety for the final Allegro.

I am less-worried about the Allegro..having just heard the Official Sound Track to Pirates of the Caribbean (harr!), I'm inspired to have something that's a bit action-oriented. My problem is making it still valid as a concerto. In fact, making it action-oriented will break the quasi-baroque feel established by the First Movement.

Sigh. The problems of a composer are many, and find us all at the doorestep of the Muse, begging for scraps from her table.

In other news, I've been listening to Vienna Teng's latest album, and I like the direction she's going...she has a Tori Amos vibe without the suffocating angst. Special mention goes to Whatever You Want and Nothing Without You. 

I wonder when it will be available locally...

And she still remains a master of written and spoken prose.

Oh, we are so not worthy.

Yes, it's been awhile. Yes, you have no idea what I've been up to these past few months. No, you're not really interested in finding out what exactly have I been up to these past few months. Har-har-har.

Another schoolyear has begun, and it finds me at a new boarding house (which has a real shower! AAAHHH!), with a bunch of new students, teaching a new subject (as well as some old ones).

I miss the old kids...but the new ones are an interesting lot. And as usual, I get the best kids (hehe)...they know stringed instruments are good for them ;)