Midwest pics

I don't want to steal the thunder from the BCM blog -- CLICK HERE to witness Steve's take on the festivities -- but I do want to add a few photos here, so without further ado:


Pete Toews and I go over the score to my new piece STICKS & STONES at the Giordano's Pizzeria. CLICK HERE for more on that story...


Dinner with Hal Leonard's Bruce Bush and entourage at Extra Virgin... CLICK HERE for more on that story...


My cat Sam, looking waaaaaaaaay more menacing than he actually is... CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE for more on that story!

Here we go again...

Its time again for the dreaded yearly phone call... I explained this last year, and aside from misspelling the word "imitation", I think I did a pretty good job of sizing up the situation -- so if you're new to the blog, or are only a casual reader, or you just have a lousy memory, I urge you to go back and read it. Go ahead. If you haven't already, then CLICK HERE. Or here. Just do it. Now.

Me? I have to go get in character...

Ugh, I'm so nervous I think I'm gonna throw up.

myspace

I have finally staked out a claim in the myspace.com territory -- if Eric Whitacre, Steve Bryant, and Kronos Quartet can do it, then so can I. My page is extremely underdeveloped, but I've put a few tunes up there, including one new one that didn't quite make the MK cut. Let's just say its a work in progress... anyway, CLICK HERE to go to MY myspace, and if you have any techno savvy to share on how to upload performance dates or how to link to this blog or even to change the color of the background, I'm all ears!

Mary's Soaps 'n' Such

Totally stymied for gifts? Check out Mary's Soaps 'n' Such -- they have wide assortment of all-natural products, from soaps to lotions to lip balms to bath salts... they even have hand-knit baby sweaters and afgans. And the prices are excellent. So don't give another boring stocking stuffer or Hanukkah present or housewarming gift -- give something healthy and all-natural!

(FYI: this is my mother-in-law's new online store, so PLEASE go, buy lots of stuff, and win me extra son-in-law points!)

A Day in the Life of Midwest

7:00 AM - wake up to the Thomas Newman soundtrack to "Unstrung Heroes". Shower. Feed dog. Walk dog.
8:15 AM - catch a taxi downtown. Ask the driver to pull into the drive-thru at Burger King. I buy him coffee and breakfast (a little good karma never hurt anybody), and we talk about growing up in Nigeria. He knows a lot more about it than I do, so I mostly listen and ask questions.
9:00 AM - arrive at the convention hall to get my badge. They won't let me in -- someone has to vouch for who I am (humbling experience of the day #1). I call Eric, who shows up immediately and without even showing any I.D., is able to vouch for me (humbling experience of the day #2).
9:15 AM - arrive at the booth. It looks AWESOME. Immediately the whirlwind begins: shaking hands, signing CD's and posters, talking about music. Meet with John Darling about the music festival in North Dakota this Spring... talk to Chris Teichler and Matt Schoendorff (a.k.a. Nevsky) about what's new... talk to Dennis Fisher about the UNT performance of Chaos Theory, and play him TranZendental Danse of Joi. Briefly listen to rival publisher offer us the moon and stars before walking away... talk to Eric Beltran about plans for a performance of Chaos Theory with his band in a Catholic church (complete with a nunnery next door!), and talk to Jim Kull about my new piece, STICKS & STONES. See the UNLV boys (Tom Leslie and Tony LaBounty) very briefly... see Pete Toews and a few of the Mt. View students even more briefly... see Sam Hazo, David Holsinger, Johan De Meij, and Steve Melillo, but don't get a chance to talk to any of them at all.
11:00 AM - look at my watch for the first time, then dive back into the fray...
11:45 AM - hook up with the Texas Consortium that's commissioning WATERCOLORS for lunch. Using dramatic hand gestures and a lot of awkward-and-stilted-but-hopefully-descriptive phrases, I attempt to describe my plans for the other 4 pieces that will go with Reflections in a Tidal Pool. Enjoy getting to know them all very much, and look forward to seeing them this Spring for the premiere.

(l-r) Dominic Talanca, Kathy Johnson, me, Asa Burk, Stacey Helmbrecht

1:00 PM - Catch a taxi to head back to Midway -- it's time for more MORTAL KOMBAT!

Extra Virgin

(That's the name of the restaurant we went to dinner at tonight -- its a very nice, upscale Italian restaurant. But try telling that to your wife when you come home from a night out with the guys...)

Tonight was dinner with Bruce Bush of Hal Leonard, and a few of his favorite composer/characters -- among them were the BCM4, a guy from Disney, the unsinkable David Warble (I look forward to seeing this guy every year), Johan De Meij, and the owner of Meredith Publishing (largely percussion music), a very cool guy named Gar Whaley. There's a group photo floating around somewhere, and I'll link to it when it's on the 'net...

Sticks and Stones (pt.12)

It might seem strange to go back to talking about STICKS & STONES in the middle of the Midwest Convention, but it actually makes sense -- last night, Steve, Montoya, Sara and I hung out with director Peter Toews and nine of the musicians from Mountain View High School. We walked over to Giordano's (see photo above) and over deep-dish Chicago-style pizza, I got my first chance to hear the piece!!! We passed the headphones around and everyone looked over the score. Pete and several of the musicians had some good questions about the music, and overall, they seem to like the piece a lot. They even made up lyrics to go with it, based on their dining experience the previous evening!! It was seriously funny. I've got a few small revisions to make, but overall, I'm pleased with how the orchestration has come off. It was a good time, and I'm looking forward to my return to Loveland, CO even more now!


After a looooooooong day at the Los Angeles airport, Eric finally made it to Chicago 'round midnight... so BCM is in full force once again!

First impressions

So the Midwest Experience starts to crank itself up... today I helped Newman shlep all the booth ecoutrements out to the car so he could take it all downtown, while Steve and Montoya took the "El" train from the airport to meet him at the convention hall. I was tied up in Mortal Kombatland most of the day (although I did manage to meet Newman for lunch at Hot Doug's), so I couldn't be part of the setup... but I hear everything went well and we should be ready to roll tomorrow morning. I also managed to miss the CYSO performance of Newman's Metropolitan this evening, but having heard the world premiere, I can only imagine it was another successful performance.

I did manage to meet up with Steve for buffalo wings at my favorite kingdom of wingdom, Yaksie's, and this afforded me the great-good opportunity to meet the legendary MONTOYA -- clearly, a very intelligent, easy-going, and extremely cool guy. You can see it in his eyes that he's got talent, vision, and drive. I'm looking forward to hanging out more with him later this week.

Hot dogs... wings... I'm definitely EATING like it's Midwest!

And so it begins...

Yes ladies and gents, this week is the infamous 2005 Midwest Music Educator's Convention... and BCM will once again be there. Newman has already arrived in town -- I picked him up at the El train earlier and right now he's overseeing the CYSO's rehearsal of Metropolitan, which they will be performing later this week. Steve arrives tomorrow, as well as our very special guest this year, Mr. Daniel Montoya (Montoya is going to be helping us out at the BCM booth this year, and we're very glad to have him with us!). And Eric arrives on Wednesday, just in time for the festivities. We've got a whole new setup for our booth, we've got a new banner, and we've upgraded our CD players to iPods, for everyone's listening enjoyment. I'll keep you posted on the developments as they happen...

Alternative Headlines pt.1

Try to guess what these news stories are, according to their alternate headlines:

1. Physical and Lyrical Abuse Won't Keep Her From Da Bling Bling

2. Guilty Man Misses Own Trial

3. Man Creates Tackier Lawn Display Than A Pink Flamingo Nativity

4. Illinois Governor Fails Attack on First Amendment

5. Police Officer Finds Partner Shocking

Tabbed!

Now here's an interesting experience -- I'm innocently hitchhiking the internet superhighway, thumb out, minding my own business... when I come across this:

http://www.mxtabs.net/songs.php?path=Guitar,j,25207,James+Bonney

to make it even weirder, I come across the same thing on ANOTHER website!

http://www.getsometabs.com/tabs/James+Bonney.html

I had NO IDEA this was out there!!!

(is this legal?)

I tried to post corrections, but I had to join and just couldn't be bothered... for the most part, its a pretty accurate transcription. There are a couple notes missing in the middle of the 5th line of tab, and there's an extra note at the very end. Also, if you're going to try this at home, try playing the first three lines of tab with the 5th fret/"D" string notes on the open "G" string -- it's a lot easier, and flows a lot better too. Some of these fingerings are not the ones I use, but they're pretty workable. I suggest you experiment to find something that works best for you.

Whoever did this did a nice job... I just wish they would've asked first!

Taloa Ikbi

We need to give mad props to my most excellent friend Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate for receiving a Joyce Foundation award to write a concerto for classical guitar and chamber orchestra, to feature another of my most excellent friends (and one of the most talented musicians I know), Jason Vieaux.

Congratulations dude!

Low Notes

Picked up my bass today from the repair shop -- today I start practicing in earnest for the concert at Mountain View High School in January. I'm playing with them on TranZendental Danse of Joi, and I'm not positive, but I think I might be playing the solo as well. This will be my first performance EVER on bass guitar -- I mean, I've jammed with guys before (swapping instruments, etc.) and I've recorded bass tracks before, but I've never played bass live before...

the blog eats itself

Recently, I read a blog (not linked here to protect the guilty) referring to my blog, saying that my blog "...never has a single dull or boring entry". That's quite heady praise, and evidently it went straight to my head -- because ever since then, I've written nothing but worthless tripe. The pinnacle of LAMENESS was yesterday, with true story, a tale made all the more mundane by the extraordinarily tedious-telling of said tale (what can I tell you -- I thought I could pull it off with comic panache, but I'll admit it -- it was L-A-M-E).

Just when you thought things actually couldn't get any worse around here, I offer you this: the "THINGS ACTUALLY COULD GET WORSE" list -- a list of blogs that are even more lame than mine. PLEASE NOTE: These links are offered as proof that these blogs actually do exist -- I do not recommend clicking on them, as these blogs do, in fact, SUCK. If you do decide to visit these sites, however, please be a courteous visitor and don't write "YOUR BLOG SUCKS!" or "JIM BONNEY SAYS YOUR BLOG SUCKS!!!" or anything like that. These blogs belong to real, live people -- even if it seems like no one could actually be this boring and still have a pulse. So without further ado...

THINGS ACTUALLY COULD GET WORSE LIST

TALKING TAXES: don't be fooled by the catchy title -- this blog is actually all about -- you guessed it, taxes.

MAN OH MANNY: Subtitled, "The Adventures of a First-Time Cat Owner", this one is even more boring and self-indulgent than it sounds. As you peruse it, consider Bonney's Theorem #27: NO ONE ELSE FINDS ANYONE ELSE'S CAT EVEN REMOTELY INTERESTING.

ICE-RIVER: I have no idea what this one says. And there are no pictures. Happy fun time!

GALLERIA: This one only has pictures -- a guy on his bike. That's all. I think all the pictures are different, but I'm not sure. It's hard to tell.

MCCOLLECTOR: for a little more foreign flair, visit this fellow, who collects stuff from different McDonald's around the world. And if that hobby wasn't boring enough, his presentation makes it EVEN MORE BORING!!!

O.K... that's probably enough bad internet karma for one day...



(how many of you read this to make sure that YOUR blog wasn't on the list?!?)

true story

I'm standing at the counter waiting for coffee. I hear a small child's voice:

"HEY!"

I turn, a little girl is staring at me strangely.

"Are you a man?"

A challenging question -- but I guess she's just looking for the basics.

"Yes." I reply.

She looks shocked.

"But you've got long hair!"

She looks at Nicki.

"You've both got long hair!"

Nicki decides to offer a diversion:

"You've got long hair too!"

But the girl isn't taking the bait. She's still focused on me.

"But WHY do YOU have long hair?!?!?"

Now I'm really stymied. I think fast:

"Ummm... because... it's the new millenium."

The new millenium? Now the little girl just looks bored. And I can't say that I blame her.

The new millenium? What does THAT mean?!?