Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band

After making a resolution about a week ago to try to hang out with my girlfriends more often, Meg, Abby and I went to the House of Blues last night to see Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band. Meg had suggested it, she had seen them down in Santa Fe this summer and was super excited about it. I love bluegrass and certainly can't say no to Meg's enthusiasm, so it was on!

I was not prepared for the level of awesome that I was about to experience. Everything was about as I expected as we came in. The House of Blues is a pretty neat place, it somehow has more than one venue in the same building, which does make for some aural confusion, but not enough to make the experience any less that it should have been. The opening act was fairly typical to what you'd expect, perhaps not the most inspired, but a fun bluegrass band. Then after what I would call a pregnant pause between acts Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band came on stage.

The band itself comprises of the Rev. Peyton playing guitar, his wife playing the washboard and his brother on the drums. I would not be able to conceive of the washboard being played with such vigor and be such an amazing instrument or the guitar played so fast and emphatically that you could have in fact sworn that there was an other melodic instrument on stage.

But enough analysis, it was so fun! The music was great, the crowd was fun, it was loud and you wanted it to be. The only concern of the night was when the loud dance party upstairs got out of hand a few times; we could not only hear the floor above us creaking, but see it move up and down, significantly. But we're not on the news so all is well!

interesting...

analysis of teh intarwebs as we know it.

a little frustrated

I'm sort of a ball of anxiety these past few days. Not in the productive way, no, no! The complete opposite. I've found it utterly impossible to get things done (though I did mail some claims to my insurance, and I'm basically memorized for the show, and I've started my list of places to apply this summer) but otherwise I've been knocking around, completely unproductively, and worrying about it.

For instance; I've spent quite a great deal of time fretting about the fact that I have not practiced in over a week, though I certainly could have used that time to practice. I am the queen of procrastination, that is for sure. I did make some delicious raw sauce this week, and last week I made hot and sour soup, hunan beef and a variety of vegetables; but that is the entire summation of the cooking I've done in the last few weeks. Don't ask me what I've been eating the other nights, I'm sure I don't know.

Today I couldn't find my camera before going to work, which is concerning as there are only a few places I put it, and the last time I saw it was last Friday at work, but it's not at work, I know because I'm here. But I'm not overly concerned because my living space is an utter disaster, so it's likely that it is there.

So there blawgity blawg blawg. I've been meaning to post about the way that I conceptualize music when I listen to it verses when I sing it with music, verses when I sing it memorized. So maybe I'll get around to that.

Ah! a bit of Vacation!

I was off for a little over a week with my family and friends in the eastern upper peninsula of MI. We had fabulous weather, we all had a great time, and ate great food. So. I took some pictures, and they turned out pretty nicely. I will share some with you now:

rocks the glaciers left

fire and the lake at dusk

sailboat on a blustery afternoon

"just like the Caribbean except 30 degrees colder and the coral reef is several million years older" -Dad

I can't believe how well this shot came out

over the bounty main!

yes this is in front of our house!

so yeah. jealous? I'm pretty pleased to have had such a fabulous week. I'm also pleased to be starting Pirate's rehearsals, the folks seem like they're going to be great!

Year Twenty-three

It is my intention to be productive, goal driven, and not distracted by romantic relationships this year.

Goals:
1. Be at least one production. I'm off to a good start, I'm Singing Mabel in the Pirates of Penzance in October....so get another Embly.
2. Apply and get into a summer program for 2009. Applications due late Sept. --> Oct.
3. Win a competition. Hefty goal.
4. Apply to Grad school. Get in. Then decide if I want to go.
5. Blog at least once weekly to be accountable for these goals.,
6. Give a recital, other than the one of Michael Thorn's music in October.
7. Stay in touch with all my friends who are far away on an individual level. Write letters?
8. Learn how to knit or crochet, I need busy hands.
9. Run three times a week ALL YEAR LONG.
10. Mail Christmas cards BEFORE Christmas.
11. Make myself as useful and productive as possible at work - Tricia is a great boss and deserves my A-game.
12. Collaborate with someone in a musical capacity.

How to Achieve these goals:
1. Audition for productions. work on being still, giving polished auditions and expressive presentations.
2. Firstly, apply, many of the above apply here. Chose "my five" for auditions, coach them, know them
3. Practice. Confidence. Practice.
4. see 1,2 &3, get brilliant recommendations.
5. I don't know how I'll accomplish this. Will withhold treats from self? No. We all know I can't withhold treats from myself.
6. Research music, pick venue, ask Roger to play. Set a date so I have to do it.
7. These people are important to me, hopefully this will be easy.
8. Buy yarn and needles, then if I don't learn I'll feel guilty.
9. I might need to get new sneakers, other than that I don't do a terrible job of this now, just keep on with personal accountability.
10. be prepared.
11. Set small goals for each week.
12. I have some things in the works for this.

stupid...

So I'm being a complete baby, and I've been whining about this all morning, but I dropped a pile of really heavy books on my finger. My dictionary, my Music Theory text book, a book on Beethoven by Lewis Lockwood and a few others. They were all very big, heavy, hard back books.
Anyhow
my finger really hurts, and is misshapen, and could possibly be broken.
There now I've whined to the intarwebs.
It really hurts.
luckily for most people I've been whimpering mostly quietly to myself, pouts aren't something you should wear outside.

Intergovernmental Panel on Human Nature?

So I just got through reading an article which at one point poses the question "Should there be an Intergovernmental Panel on Human Nature?" The aspect of human nature that they happen to be discussing is the tendency to procrastinate until the breaking point of a problem before we fix it. But that's not what I want to discuss; I want to discuss what an Intergovernmental Panel on Human Nature would be, because...what?

Now human nature is one of those nebulous concepts that can be called upon on whim to "bolster" an argument. This is one of my least favorite writing tricks, since human nature can be called in for almost any argument. "It is Human Nature that one might assume that ramifications of an action are only the concern of Others and never of the Self." (capitals added for necessary pretension) So fine, that particular sentence was designed to illustrate my point, and is therefore meaningless, but my argument still stands.

What is human nature anyway? It has this ability to be whatever the author conveniently needs it to be. An intergovernmental panel therefore would study ways in which to create a human nature that a government desires? or would it work to try to create tricks to get around human nature?

In connection with the article it would somehow try to find ways to motivate people to be concerned immediately and locally about slow moving global issues, specifically, for this article, climate change.

What do you all think about the concept of an Intergovernmental Panel on Human Nature?