What I'm Up To...

Hey guys, I'm keeping myself extremely busy this year, you'd all be proud. I'm writing as much as I can, drawing, dipping back into photography, and now, working on recording some songs myself. I'm starting the recording off with some covers to give me a place to start and then I'm hoping to have about 3 originals. I'll be doing all the work on the cd with recording and mixing. What makes this recording process different from my other ones is that I'm strictly recording in my house and I'm currently recording in a million different spots to see where I can get the best sound, I'll keep everyone posted!

Homesick, Depression, and All Sorts of Variations.

People are going away. It's almost like some fatal illness that people brush off when hearing about it. "It'll never happen to me", etc. but what the hell do you do when it finally happens? Accept it? It's weird. One of my closest friends shipped out this morning, and I had nothing to say other than "I love you, don't go...ok go, I love you." Almost as painful as pulling sores from your ass.

Luke and I have talked about friendships, mainly the coming and goings, but he defined friendship to me as "being able to give someone space". At first, it's a completely outlandish idea to me, but after a week or two, it settled in and I've never forgotten it. Essentially, this is for all of you who are going to be seniors. You'll all do better than me.

Hello.

Essentially, I'm back. This summer (so far) has been the biggest wake up call to me. I changed a lot towards the end of the year, and not for the better. This week I realized just how long it has been since I've written anything on my blog that I almost completely forgot about and I immediately ran to the computer. I've been working 7 days a week, lost 2 of my best friends, made a few new friends, had an intervention about my not owning a drum set with my band, been recording and writing with the boys in the band, rekindled past relationships, and like always, continuing to learn as I go on. I realized just how damn lucky I was to have STAC in my life, and I regret not fully understanding just how big it is until now.

To Luke, I owe you quite an apology. This year was just a bad year and I acted on my emotions more than I have ever in my life. I apoologize for upsetting you in anyway. You were always more than a teacher to me. You were always a friend I could go to about anything and not feel any sort of pressure. I know you always just wanted to push me in a positive way to things that would help me, and I always seemed to have gotten too afraid to give it my all. I'll have you know, that has changed and it's because of everything you taught me. Thank you.

To everyone else in STAC (both past and present), I'm sorry I haven't been there for all of you. I've been using the summer as a hibernation and it's not fair. I was afraid of growing up and it took me this summer to realize whether I wanted it to happen or not, it was. I actually believed I had a choice, which was EXTREMELY childish of me. I want ANY OF YOU to contact me if you EVER need help with anything! Whether it be artistically or just need someone to listen about whatever, I'm here for ALL of you. I'm willing to take this head on. I'm doing this for all of you. My family.

I love all of you. I'm back.

Rob's Workshop

Last Friday I went to Rob's workshop and it couldn't have happened at a better time! I actually have started to rekindle my interest in photography, but that's besides the point. Rob's workshop was really relaxed and fun. We looked at some photographs and talked about the lighting and how it effects the photograph itself and the message it gets across, he showed us this through 2 different photographs by 2 different photographers, I forget their names, but they were awesome! Then he told us about the Secret book and how people write down their secrets on a postcard that has some sort of art on it and they send it in to be published in the book. Rob told us to each get a bit of paper and write out our secrets on it and then our partners had to photograph us thinking about the secret or photograph the secret coming "alive" through us and then we had to get a picture of ourselves as the person we present to other people (this reminded me of Jim and the idea of the mask everyone wears). After we got a few shots of our partners, we had to go outside and take a picture of ourselves and things which spoke about who we were as a person. I really got into the whole natures-leaving-us aspect of outside and got a pretty cool shot of some sort of writing in the pavement. Overall, I really dug Rob's workshop, I just wish we had more time to actually do the photo-shoot with our partners but I suppose with more limited time and limitations, the more likely it is you won't mess around and you can actually get a good shot.

Dave's Workshop #2

So this time around, things got more difficult. It's known that I'm not the best bassist, and I'm not saying it out of low self-esteem, but because I never got that far with lessons and I've never really played bass seriously. Dave was talking about techniques that are really simple for a lot of people, but for me, it's incrediabley difficult. I don't think I was really meant to be in his workshop to be quite honest, and it's not your fault. I don't think you knew my level of capabilities on the bass, but I'm no where near good enough (even with practice) to be good for another workshop with Dave. This is for more advanced musicians who know all their scales, capabilities, playing techniques, etc. I am not one of those people. I can play any standard rock song, those aren't hard, but Jazz is a whole other world that I'm not at all ready for. I need more practice on my own with bass before I can consider it. I don't want to hold the group back, so despite our talk yesterday, I think it's best I leave Dave's workshop. If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to work with Robin, he's helping me with mixing songs, which is something I've wanted to pursue since I started running sound and I've been doing a lot of it this year. I'm sorry again and to Jack, Jesse, and Leah, you guys are great players, it was fun when I wasn't messing up!

Dave's Workshop #1

Thursday was the first day of the jazz workshop with Dave. During the workshop we talked about a very popular jazz standard called Giant Steps by John Coltrane. Leah, Jack, and Jesse played scales played up and down in half-step intervals. I couldn't join in on the scales because the furthest I've gotten in my lessons was the C scale and I believe the G, I'm not entirely sure. I was really nervous for the workshop because I heard that Dave doesn't put up with people that don't know their stuff, and I'm not the greatest bass player, but Dave was pretty easy on me and that really made me feel more comfortable. He assigned Jesse and I to practice some scales for the next workshop so I've been practicing my scales. Next workshop I believe we'll be playing Scrapple From The Apple by Charlie Parker and I'm looking forward to it quite a bit. I want to actually be able to play songs and not just take the root notes and just hold those out, my goal is to become a more disciplined bass player after this workshop and a more comfortable one too, I'm already on my way!

STAC Book Presentation

Today I talked about the book, Wittgenstein's Poker by David Edmonds and John Eidinow. I think my presentation went well, but it was pretty short. I feel I spoke too much about how the book effected me than the actual book itself. I gave a really broad interpretation of the book and didn't touch on anything specific. I think for my next report, I'll avoid comparing it to my life and how its helped me and find an equilibrium between me and the content in the book.