later than i thought

Ok, for some reason tonight has flown by. dunno why. It's 10:30, and my evening, since getting home around 7, i feel like i have done nothing. i mean, i made dinner...which, btw, was a failure. it happens. lol. but other than that, i've talked to a friend about computer monitors and having a conversation with another friend.

sometimes, i wonder about post-secondary education, especially grad schools. Ok, so i got into my "first choices" both times for grad school. I call it luck. seriously. Especially UMKC right now. there was a spot open, i met with them, did my best to impress everyone, and guess i did alright. I do not think i would have faired well at some other schools i looked at; Princeton, Cornell, Stanford...

but, i feel as though if you follow your dreams to their utmost, pushing and pushing, no matter what, you will end up where you belong doing what needs done, having conversations that must happen, and becoming whoever it is you need to be.

Ped of Composition was interesting, hearing two very different insights into teaching compositions. On one hand, there was a teacher that was very technique oriented as a short-term goal, and a long term goal of finding individual voice. on the other hand was a teacher that was all about imagination and that technique can be learned everywhere and who is s/he to tell the student that his note is "wrong" even if it's not "proper voice leading."

Very interesting. I definitely tend toward the learn technique elsewhere, i'm here to push you in other ways. Not 100% sure what ways, but the part-writing is something i learned in Theory class and by studying how others wrote outside of class. I learned to write a melody by listening to the Beatles, Ozzy Osbourn, Bullet for My Valentine, Beethoven, Bruckner, Cage, Penderecki, and, well, everyone else i've ever heard. the same with harmony. and rhythm.

but who i am as a composer, well, that took a lot of leading from those before me. Carlos with his "You sound like this person! Listen to these 25 pieces for next week! and write me more music. Be you, not Hindemith" (i found that insulting, as i did not like Hindemith at the time...in fact, i still don't particularly like him.) The Doug Cohen with his sitting there, nodding, asking me what I thought of the piece, and letting me babble for an hour. And then saying, at the end "well, it seems you know what you need to do." And Skip...oh Skip. those were some of the most enlightening times of my life. Seriously. I think he should charge more for his sessions. and it definitely feels like therapy every time.

Still...it makes me think. Also, a question was posed about a fluid "SillyBus" and a more fluid way of dealing with what may occur in a class to guide assessment. For some reason, i always thought of classes as being pretty fluid, and assignments being moved around and changed. Maybe its because i always put things in my "SillyBuses" like "Other assignments may be added as the semester progresses depending on certain outcomes of the class." like, me teaching one class 12 tone technique, having them do a matrix, then write a piece using my "theory" handout. or taking a class into a computer lab for 3 sessions and doing a mashup using a bunch of samples i gave them.

Anyway, fluidity is nice. And i'm not sure what time it is what i'm doing, other than writing this. something seems to have snapped in my brain tonight. i bet if i looked in the mirror, my ears would be bleeding. lol.

and the TriCaster doesn't seem that bad, at first glance