So I Guess I Listen to Music Like 12 Hours a Day

So I'm here in a half sitting, half lying position on my deflated air mattress which is covered with several layers of sheets to add some element of softness. Why not just inflate the thing? Well, by the time I fall asleep and am well into my first REM cycle, my extremely dense derriere is taking all of my bodyweight upon itself. Right now I'm chilling in my auntie's place. It's what I end up doing most of the time nowadays. Kind of thought that summer would be tighter than this, but it seems that a lot of my friends are gone for the summer doing summer school at their respective universities, or away on missions, or whatever it is that they have planned. As for me, the days consist of practicing Yoko, my beloved trumpet, listening to hours upon hours of music online, and constantly checking my favorite websites. I somehow manage to eat somewhere in between.

My auntie has now asked me somewhere around 5 or 6 times since I've arrived here about two weeks ago if I get bored because I stay in my room all day. I tell her the same thing, "Well, I listen to a lot of music. And I practice too. Sometimes I read." When I think about how long I've practiced, I realize that it's probably taken up something like 2-3 hours. I then realize that I've been listening to music for almost the all of the rest of the time. How do I do that!? I find myself listening to a lot of classical, a lot of jazz, a lot of trumpet music. I was gonna continue describing my magical musical adventures, but I was just thinking that if you're anything like me, I don't like reading blogs that are super long. So I'll spare you the incovenience.

Grocery List or Things to Pick up on the way to Death

We need...

imagination
community
sacrifice
revolutions
creativity
discipline
peace
hope
faith
interdependence
wisdom
radicals
humility
self-control
courage
discernment
accountability
patience
grace
weakness
perseverance
honesty
teachability
simplicity
sustainability
justice
compassion
truth
eyes
ears
mouths
hearts
love
Jesus.

Hm. Is there anything I forgot?



Another World Is Possible!

Indescribable States of Being: Jazz

So as I'm typing this, I'm listening to Chet Baker's performance of "But Not For Me." I don't know why I've never heard him before, but he is amazing! His voice sounds so young and so smooth, the only thing better is his trumpet playing. Wow.

Jazz really makes me melt. I always get this picture in my head of a big city with skyscrapers late at night, all lit up with the city lights, and I watch it all from a nice penthouse several dozens of stories up in the night sky. And then sometimes it's kind of like a really good time in your life. Everything is just sailing smoothly, and every now and then there are those jazz notes, those pleasant surprises that just make you breath, and time slooooows down. But you want a little more than that, you want to be stuck in those moments, for time to stop so you can really get to know this feeling that you're in.

Maybe it would be easier for me to have you experience what I mean rather than try to express the indescribable.

Close your eyes and see for yourself.



Here's another one to help get the point across.

Coldplay Concert Long Post

Early into the show, "Violet Hill" Though it looks blue, the lights are actually violet. Get it?

"Yellow" Get it?

"Lovers in Japan"

Chris Martin on the ridiculously large screen.

Viva la Vida

Paper Butterflies in assorted colors, some of which glowed in the dark!

Sick lasers.

"Strawberry Swing" I think?

I used the wrong setting when I took this picture, :\

"Viva" in some cool black light sensitive paint, near the end of the show.

Littered everywhere. People would grab these little guys to take home as souvenirs.

So that was the show in a nutshell. It was the same show that I went to last summer when they started out the Viva la Vida tour. Nevertheless, it was awesome. They like to visit the fans in the back so that they can get a closer look, which is mighty nice of them. Also, there were giant balloons that were tossed around for fun, and spheres which turned out to be 360 degree projectors that came down from the stage. One of the neatest parts was Chris Martin initiating what he called a "Mexican Cell Phone Wave" where the house lights were turned off and everyone took out their cell phones and did the wave. Cool stuff. Oh yeah, and they gave away free cds to everyone, which I already had downloaded from their website, but it's cool to have a physical copy. Some of the workers at the amphitheater were selling tickets for The Fray for 10 bucks! Super cheap. But I don't care much for The Fray, so I passed. Little did I know that Vedera would be playing at that show. So now I am sad that I missed that financial and musical opportunity. If you have a chance, I would recommend checking Vedera out.

www.myspace.com/vedera

Coldplay Concert Quick Post

Fun times at the Coldplay concert tonight. Ran into my good friend Kyle Anderson with whom I went to last summer's Coldplay concert. When tickets went on sale for tonight's concert, I couldn't wait to see if he wanted to go, so I just went ahead and bought a ticket for myself. I wanted some good effing seats (well, singular, just one seat since I stood by myself). Haha, it's so funny that we both ended up going anyways. I'll have some stories from that concert later on, along with some pictures. My legs are tired, though, and I should get to bed. Good night!

Okay okay, here's one picture from the concert. Just one for now, though! Sorry, it's kind of blurry. Forgive my photographic ineptness. But I assure you that I saved the better ones for next time!

Summer Bookfest '09

Hey, so I am one of those guys who actually enjoys reading books. But I'm batting about .300 for actually finishing books. Let's not think about it that way, though. I like to say that I'm currently reading several books. Just because I haven't finished Harry Potter #5 since I started reading it freshman year of college doesn't mean I won't come back and finish it sometime in the future. Right?

It doesn't mean that you'll finish the book either.

Well, it just makes it sound like I'm a real book worm and I like to read 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 books at a time. You know, it's like my life is simultaneously made up several adventures of various genres. The morning consists of wizardry, with Honey Bunches of Oats, and orange juice. I then walk to class with my good friend C.S. Lewis. Afterward, I take a break between my classes to eat a nice helping of nonfiction. And when the day is almost over, and I'm feeling kind of stressed because I didn't get the right amount of change back at the Coffee House even though I came back and showed them the receipt plus the change that they gave me back, but it was a different girl at the register, so she didn't know what the hell I was talking about and I yelled at her because I just failed a quiz in my last class, but I knew it wasn't her fault, I'm just going through some thangs, you gotta understand, I unwind before bed with Shane Claiborne.

Do you always have a facade when you talk to people? You really make it seem like you want people to think that you have an interesting life.

I was just using that bit as a funny part of this blog, alright? Chill. And my life is wonderfully interesting, thank you very much...

What did you just say?

Nothing. I said that in actuality I usually will start reading a book and, most of the time, enjoy it. But somewhere along the road I stop reading and it's hard to go back. This summer is different though! I am over 200 pages into This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin, and almost 100 pages into Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, which I just bought 2 days ago.

But that's not really that much. I mean, I read Harry Potter the night it came out. It was a breeze, you know. It was just like, so good. And you read faster if you're interested in the book.

Well, thanks for making me feel like I'm the slowest reader in the world. It's actually a big deal for me to read that much. Douche. But really, I'm effing slow at reading. I think it takes me like an hour to read twenty pages. I'm gonna finish these books this time, though! I'm almost done with Mr. Levitin's book, and I cannot put down Mr. Claiborne's fabulous piece of writing as well. They are both great books that I highly recommend. Also, the font is a little larger than normal in Irresistible Revolution and the pages are smaller, so I'm burning through those pages. I feel like a speed reader, hehe. Also also! The words are printed in BROWN! Sassy.

Hm. That is pretty sassy, I have to admit. I'll have to check that book out, actually.

Yeah.

What book or books are you reading right now?

I don't read books. Books read me.

What the hell is that supposed to- wait that's from Tropic Thunder. That's a really good movie.

Blogging and the Trumpet

As I'm typing this, I'm practicing my beloved trumpet, Yoko. She's a Yamaha, made in effing Japan, son. Actually, I'm just typing right now. But this blogging action is happening in the middle of my trumpet session. I'm kind of typing a bit whenever I take like a 5 minute break or whatever. Like just then, between this current sentence and the last one, I just played #22 on p. 196 of the Arban's Conservatory Method for Cornet. That's long for the Trumpeter's Bible. It's just as thick as a Bible, but filled with wisdom exclusively for trumpet playing. Also, it's a little more physically demanding when I 'read' it.

And again, between the subsequent paragraph and this one. Now I'm breathing a bit more heavily and my embouchure is a little fatigued. Oh no, I've come to realize how boring I'm sounding. There I go thinking everyone out there secretly fantasizes about trumpets and mouthpieces and Sergei Nakariakov, and lip flexibilities and all that. That's a great idea, Gerald! Blog about something you're interested in, but give it too much detail! Holy eff! That's brilliant!

Emptied my spit valve just then. Alright, that's quite enough.

Finding Forrester, Some Hip Indie Writer, and Independence Day

So I watched Finding Forrester for the first time a couple of days ago. Yeah, it was pretty good. I think on a scale from 1-10, I'd give it a 7ish. Above average, but not totally amazing. For those of you that haven't seen it, it's about a black kid from the Bronx, and he's a pretty smart chap, but he hides his book-smarts from his street-smart friends. Anyways, he meets Sean Connery who turns out to be a famous writer and the black kid loves writing too and yada, yada, yada. Sheesh, I really hate writing about crap like this. Like I'm a real film critic or something. I'm kind of just an average guy who likes movies.

But on the realsies. Writing. A lot of the time, when I try to write something, I attempt to make it sound like something that has some... I dunno. I try to sound all... Well, I can't really think of the exact word so much as the exact picture that's in my head. Sometimes when I think of writing something, I kind of try to feel like I'm a classy guy with prescription wayfarers from NYC trying to make money from his cramped studio apartment littered with books and some indie furniture that he spent too much money on. I don't know why he does it. Why he buys expensive furniture. He doesn't really have people over. I mean, he'll have a friend or two every now and then, but since there's not much to do, no t.v. or whatever, they'll usually go out anyways. Because, you know, NYC is a big place, lots to do. Go to the park or something. Window shop at things they can't buy. But yeah, he's kind of got a fan base, but it doesn't really leave much money after he's used his earnings to pay his bills and for his thrice-a-day lattes. The guy dresses like indie hipsters do. Eff, he should really watch where he spends his money. Gets his inspiration from that little artiste in his head who's going through all the same crap he's going through. Like a microcosm of his own life, all up in there in his noodle. Yeah, and he's got a MacBook, which he doesn't really need, it's just kind of the 'thing' to have or to do or to whatever. Like, he's only writing, right? So all he needs is a word processor and the internet to look up fancy synonyms for simple words like 'however,' or 'amateur.' Yeah, he's got iTunes on it with all of his underground, electronic music. But really, he could just as easily have iTunes on a PC that doesn't cost nearly as much, you know? But hey, it's still an artsy kind of computer, I guess. Hm, artsy, artsy guy. *sigh* Yeah, that's kind of the picture I get.

...mmhm.

Oh! That's right. What was that crap about that movie you were talking about? Well, there was this scene where Sean Connery says that the only way to write is to write. When you first start writing, that's all you do. You don't think. Just write. Then, you look through what you've just spilled out and fix the puddle of word vomit that it is. So that's what I'm trying out. It's a lot more fun this way, I think. Just food for thought. Okay, now you try.

Oh, and merry 4th of July. I don't really care about it, honestly. Not that I don't love America or whatever.

England, and me talking with myself.

So I have this uncommon ubsession with the UK.

Wait, did you just misspell 'obsession' so you could make an alliteration?

Precisely. Art shouldn't be subject to rules. So I should just stopfollowingtheserulesrightnowhowaboutthat?

Just get on with whatever you were talking about. Hold on a tick, you even said 'UK' to further emphasize the alliteration. But the 'u' in UK is a long vowel, not a short vowel like the first two instances.

Well, why don't you just shut the hell up and let me do this crap? Is that okay with you? Can I continue without your constant cutoffs?

You did it right that time.

Yeah, well... I've always had this weird attraction to England. I find that a lot of the things that I really like come from there. Okay, so here are some examples... Music! Music is a big one. Check it out. Coldplay, The Kooks, Arctic Monkeys, Pink Floyd, Just Jack, The Rifles, Damien Rice is pretty good. Oh, and that one song, 'American Boy' is pretty damn catchy if I do say so myself. Movies and television are some other examples. 'Shaun of the Dead,' 'Hot Fuzz,' 'Brassed Off,' '28 Days Later,' Last of the Summer Wine, Top Gear just to name a few things. There is just something about their humor, their art, their culture in general that I just really love. Yeah, and the accents are dead sexy. Brilliant!

Hm. Are you taking me anywhere with this?

Not really. I mean, a lot of blogs don't really serve a purpose like that. You know? There aren't necessarily themes or lessons to be learned or whatever. Sometimes people just have something to say. Some have things they want to share. And then there are others who want people to rave about how cool they are and how hip and effin' eloquent they can be. Definitely not me, though. Come on. I just have something to share.

Yeah.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

It's supposed to mean that I'm being sarcastic. I think you're conceited as ****.

Right. Well, I just really want to go to England some day. Live there? Maybe. But at least stay a while. It's kind of just something that I've dreamed of for a while.