"Laser"

This is my YouTube response to this previous blog post:



Then again, how could this possibly replace the THEREMIN?



(Thanks to Plewe for sharing the first video. To my readers: I think we may have hit our "bad music quota" for the week. Sorry.)

Should have kept practicing the piano

Today the American Composers Forum and the American Music Center released a study about composers entitled "Taking Note: A Study of Composers and New Music Activity in the United States." One of the points listed was that "Two-thirds of professional composers perform their own music, not relying solely on others to produce and present their work."

I guess this is true. Joan Tower said to me that the best way to get your music performed is to play it yourself (with a few friends).

I'll start practicing again when I finally get my new Boston/Steinway in my office.

Microsoft Works?

I know I'm a bit behind with the times, but I recently came across this article in the New York Times discussing the new Microsoft program Songsmith. I know it's strange that Microsoft would attempt to invent a program that taps into our creativity, but maybe it's a good thing that Macintosh has had the monopoly on our creative output.

Case in point: Here is their promotional video (and I am not making this up)



Some people have had a little fun with this program and entered vocals to see what Microsoft would do. My favorite:

Who throws a shoe? Honestly? (or an Amazon.com customer review?)

Composer Jennifer Higdon has a Wikipedia entry; you can see it here.

If you want to see the "critical reception" part of the entry, you can click here.

Okay, fine. There are criticisms from Robert Battey of The Washington Post and Mark Swed of The Los Angeles Times. (I honestly don't know what I think of Mark Swed because he did bash a USC/Green Umbrella concert in LA back in the day, but he is respectable nonetheless.)

And then the third heat of musical criticism comes from...customer reviews from Amazon.com. According to Wikipedia, "Other negative comments available about Higdon's music are usually customer reviews of her CD's on various sites where one can purchase music."

Do you know what's fun about Wikipedia? Looking up the "revision history." A couple of people cleaned out the positive critical reception that was there and replaced it with customer reviews from Amazon.com.

(!?) I'm going to have a lump there, you idiot.

I have a French exam on Monday

Talk amongst yourselves.

How your iPod can make you smarter! (Part II)

KCRW's Today's Top Tune: Oh yes, this will make me cooler. (WIN!!) KCRW picks a song from their playlist (or from the KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic Archives) and you download it for free. After 60 days, I will have a whole party playlist without even trying. Today, I tried playing "Theme from Hollywood" today for my theory kids, but unfortunately the speaker system at CCM wasn't working, and therefore they couldn't hear the lyrics. I'm going to have to try again on Monday, because someday, they won't see me as a theory teacher. (On this note, one student asked how I felt about being a composer and working for the theory department at the same time, and I told them that I was confused and needed a shrink. Moving on.)

New Yorker: Fiction: So, I think I should add more fiction to my diet. Unfortunately, I have so many musicology articles to read as of late, and I thought I could hear a writer pick a short story and read it. I'm also two podcasts behind.

NPR: All Songs Considered: I like this one, and currently the host (sorry I don't remember his name right now) said that they're going to preview COMPLETE albums on their website (unfortunately not on my iPod). Hopefully this podcast will make me seem somewhat intelligent about the indie pop world, because, again, I need to up my coolness factor.

NPR: Science Friday Podcast: Yeah, okay, so my hip-ness just plummeted. Some of these podcasts were not-so-interesting (bird calls are okay, and Messian would have paid attention) to the very interesting (a podcast about pheromones). NB: I am also 17 podcasts behind.

NPR Wait Wait Don't Tell Me: YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS. Very nice.

Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson: I need to keep up with what's going on in the arts. Previous podcasts included artist colonies (specifically MacDowell colony) and the representation of J. Robert Oppenheimer in art (or, how John Adams learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)

That's it for now. There may even be a Part III, but some of my readers may get a little TOO eager.

The Anxiety of Posting

Hello folks,

Some of you are wondering why my blog no longer has an iWeb layout. I thought I'd switch to Blogger because (1) All the cool people are doing it and (2) I like the layout a little bit more. It's not as crippling as the iWeb platform.

That being said, I hope I can keep this up. I think I should blog almost every day (like Alex Ross), especially if I want to keep my hit count up (BTW, thanks Dad for reading this).

And, yes, someday (hopefully tomorrow, if I am indeed NOT composing), you will get Part II of "How Your iPod Can Make You Smarter."

Yes I need this

As mentioned in this previous blog post, I may have injured my back because not only do I compose in bed, but I also grade, blog, and do my French lab homework (Foux da fa fa?). I need this.

Man, that guy can speak!

Yes, I stole this from Alex Ross, but due to the events that happened today, I am posting this.



Congratulations, Mr. Obama.

How your iPod can make you smarter!

It’s the beginning of the new year people! It’s time to get back to work and figure out how to jump higher, run faster, and get smarter. And, I propose to do this with my iPod.

This is the year that I’m going to give my iPod some love. Instead of reverting to my old habit of ignoring my iPod and opening iTunes on my computer, I will use my iPod for real this time. In fact, I’m currently listening to my iPod instead of plugging my earphones into my computer. (Well, I probably have to do this until I purchase an external hard drive for my computer and clean out those music files that are causing the gerbil to die from overexertion. Seriously, if I run 5 applications at the same time, I start weeping.)

At the beginning of the year, I purchased two accessories for my iPod (an FM transmitter and an armband because at the beginning of the year, I thought I’d take up running. WHATEVER.). Being the cheapskate that I am, I still haven’t received these gadgets (overnight shipping is overrated), but hopefully I’ll receive the package tomorrow.

In the meantime, I downloaded a few (NPR) free podcasts. Here they are, and here’s what I think of them.

KCRW’s Bookworm: Okay, I miss LA and may have downloaded a few KCRW podcasts. Anyway, I thought I’d subscribe to this so that I would be inspired to read more. Um, I guess I’ll give the host another try, but he speaks so SLOWLY. I might have to delete this one.

KCRW’s Design & Architecture: This totally sounded potentially cool. And yet, they were talking about felting. No offense, I think felting is awesome, especially if your a kid felting at a Waldorf school. Actually, I think it can be pretty, but this program made it sound dull. We are zero for zero so far.

KCRW’s Film Reviews: They have Joe Morgenstern, who is the critic for the Wall Street Journal, which I subscribe to. Is it bad that I enjoy listening to bad movie reviews?

KCRW’s Good Food: Excellent podcast. Last episode they talked about Three Kings Day, drinking vinegar after your meal, and using human breast milk in cuisine (EWWWW, I know, but the Evan Kleiman and guest were trying to figure out if this was real or not).

KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic: I know, stop with the KCRW podcasts already, but I need a podcast that will help me become cooler. Yes, I am not cool enough, and considering that someone the other day mistook me for a THEORIST, I have to do something to fix my image. On a different note, I’m totally bummed that Nic Harcourt is no longer the host (when did this happen?!), but Jason Bentley is pretty awesome.

That’s it for now; more next week. Until then, I will hopefully be at the gym working out to Carmen Electra’s Ultimate Workout Mix Volume 2.

Printer Problems?

Yep, this is a picture of my lowly printer above. It still works, so that’s not the topic of this blog post.

This is:

Composers, do you ever feel like doing this to your printer?