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digression squared

5-25-'^o1: 3:02pm

standing on the corner of carmichael/garfield and 4th with my backpack and violin case, listening to some music on my cd player. i hear what sounds like someone talking to me off to my left, and i turn around to see a man on a motorcycle. he talks again, pointing to my violin case:

"you play that well?"

"yeah....i guess so."

he says something else that i don't quite catch. "huh?"

"i said good." he pauses. "don't ever give it up."

"oh, i won't. i'm going to be a music teacher."

and he drives off. definitely better than the rest of the times people have said things to me as i waited for the crosswalk to give me the go-ahead.

so the concert last night was...emotional vertigo of sorts. lots of great music, laughs, and tears. sam wore his coat-tail tux...which was good, because there are no pockets wher ehe can stick his keys so that he forgets them and the jingle while he conducts...hee hee. the freshman band...man...i remember my freshman year how much i thought the freshman band sucked...but i was very impressed last night. and lane didn't even suck on the tuba or anything...although in one tune he had a solo, and we couldn't help but laugh even though it was a serious piece, and he didn't make it any better by doing a thumbs-up sign. i did think it was funny, though, to see sam up there all decked out in his fancy tux and then the freshman band in their cacaphony of outfits up there. he looked sharp with the wind ensemble, though.

anyway...middle band was fantastic, i don't know if i ever remember them sounding that good. john conducted their whole set...which made sense since it's "his band". i loved how they set up...like, they didn't go out to the edge of the stage....they set up all in the middle. i affectionately call it "the wedge". it was like a giant triangle, with the percussion as it's base and john as it's point. it kind of reminded me of one of ron's drill formations. it made sense, though...middle band is pretty small, it kept them close and kept the sound richer than if they'd been apart. i mean, they only have one trombone...sheesh.

and then...wind ensemble. maaan. well, there were gifts given out before we played...that was pretty emotional. one was actually given out before middle band did their last tune...a really cool collage of pictures for john, with a little picture of each kid in the band and then some random candid shots. it was a really awesome idea...it made him pretty choked up. then we gave out about a zillion other gifts to the other directors...the framed and signed music from indiana for the directors [ larsen wasn't there to get his, but he got it this morning. "what a great way to start the day....crying," he said at the beginning of choir ], flowers for kelly and seibert, other random gifts. karen started crying when she gave out stuff...a lot of people followed suit. we played really well...especially for the month's practice we've had on the pieces. abram's pursuit was loud and fast...which cracks me up because when we first read it down back in like, december or january or something, lane told me specifically that we would never play it again because we were too loud. still, it sounded good. ave maria made me all nostalgic and sad..."that's a tear jerker" sums it up quite nicely. inspiration point was very inspirational indeed and...the illiad just kicked ass. this concert seemed to be all about holsinger and smith...their pieces showed up the most. i'd really like to find out who wrote the program notes for abram's pursuit...if they came out of the score or if one of our resident director/comedians wrote it because...it's hilarious. here, i'll post it:

"In the fourteenth chapter of Genesis there is a story of a rebellion led by Chedorlaomer, the King of Elam. Chedorlaomer and three other Kings joined together to ravage and conquer every thing that lay in their path. They were met in battle at the Valley of Siddim (the Salt Sea) by and army mustered from the forces of the King of Sodom, the King of Gomorrah (pre-destruction days, of course.....), the King of Admah, the King of Kebolim, and the King of Bela. Unfortunatey this opposition army was not a match for Chedorlaomer and each of these city-kingdoms, including Sodom and Gomorrah, were overrun. Chedorlaomer's forces, as was the custom, pillage and cled with all the goods and provisions of the cities. Unfortunately for Chedorlaomer, his men also kidnapped Lot, Abram's brother's son. This, of course, is the same Abram who later became Abraham, father of the Jewish Nation, and a very close friend of GOD. (In retrospect, this was probably Chedorlaomer's "not-so-bright-decision-of-the-campaign"!) When Abram heard that Lot was taken captive, he armed three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born of his house and went in pursuit of the invaders. With this small contingent, he divided his forces against the kings, attacked, and routed Chedorlaomer's entire army, recovering Lot and his goods, as well as all the women and people who had been kidnapped during the conquest!!"

yeah, i'm a dork...but i think that's really funny. my Bible lesson for the day.

today was pretty good, too. clemmens' genius idea for our final was...get this...to have us take some lines from shakespere and write a composition. a musical composition. heck yeah! and our project for dron's class is to make our own political party and promote it. we're doing "tip"...the "testosterone intolerance party." our platform is that women should have complete control to save men from themselves. we're going the completely dry sarcasm route...if you add any element of slapstick in, dron will cut points. we have to completely deadpan...act completely sincere. that's what we did for our sell communism video, and we got the highest grade in the class.

then again, we also had subliminal messages implanted in ours. real ones, unlike the mike's whispering in their video.

also got our yearbooks today...collins let us out of class ten minuts early and i had mine and was down in the band room within five after that. i'm in there like, 5000 times...and i look terrible in all except about two of the pictures. i totally can't believe i have only 8 days of class left. it's freakish.

and i talked to larsen yesterday morning about elegy. how i really wanted to perform it at the concert...and now i kinda feel bad. because it was his plan to put it on the program as a surprise to me...which would have been that amazing kind of out-of-this-world only-happens-in-movies kinda thing i was talking about. but noooo, i ruined it. he's still going to let me do it, though. i'm VERY excited. i've been waiting for this ever since i was born, i swear...and it's only the beginning!

how....touching. :-b

well.....i certianly digress and digress and digress. actually, i think everything i've written has been a digression. a novel full of digressions...that's what this is. hahahaha.

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