to publish or not to publish

that is the question.

frustration is blogger

what a revoltin' development...

all I need is a miracle

(Mike and the Mechanics, anyone?)

ho hum...

I think it's still broken...

c'mon BLOGGER!

get it together, folks!

in the old days...

I had a blog...

a blog! a blog!

My kingdom for a blog!

blah blah blah

blah blah blah

is this thing working yet?!?

hmmm

oh where oh where has my little blog gone...

pa-tooey

is it working now?!?

is this thing on?

testing 1 2 3

*Happier Feet*

If you hearken back a few days, you'll remember that I was writing music for a toy based off the movie, HAPPY FEET. Here was the assignment:

"Write and produce 3 versions of a music loop that can play endlessly and is less than 3 seconds long, in the style of the movie's theme music." Well, I did that, and you can hear it if you search back a few days in this here blog and take a listen (or you can CLICK HERE)...

Unfortunately, they decided they want something else. "How about a mambo?" they cried. So without batting an ear, I responded with these (you'll hear the loop by itself, then the loop 4 times in a row):

HAPPYFEET_4.0.mp3
HAPPYFEET_5.0.mp3
HAPPYFEET_6.0.mp3

(again, listen and enjoy, but please don't download these... you don't want jack-booted corporate lawyers kicking down your front door and hauling you off to the pokey, do you?!?)

We'll see what they think of these...

Scenes from Mountain View

[A HUGE thank you to Jerod Tate and Johnny C. for taking these snaps -- if anyone else has pictures, please send them my way!]

A few scenes from the concert at Mountain View HS last week:

Over my shoulder, before TranZendental Danse of Joi...

Shilo Stroman bashing out STICKS & STONES...

Wide angle shot of Chaos Theory...

Me and Shilo ready to rock...

Close up during Chaos Theory...

Me and the percussive front line...

Tom Leslie and I...

Me, Shilo Stroman, Peter Toews, and Tom Leslie...

And just to prove that I have NO PRIDE WHATSOEVER:

... me getting booed offstage while playing GUITAR HERO for the PS2...

Denver to Chicago

[The Mountain View gig was AWESOME -- I will tell you all about it and post it retroactively this weekend... but in the meantime...]

3:45 AM - World's loudest hotel alarm clock goes off. I slam off the alarm, shower, get dressed, and pack without ever opening my eyes.

4:01 AM - Pete Toews and Tom Leslie are waiting downstairs to go to the airport. Start to drive to Denver. Tom and Pete discuss important matters and share world views. I occasionally say things like "mmm..." or "uh-huh" or "DUDE" whether it is appropriate or not. I'm just trying to stay in the conversation, while still totally asleep.

5:15 AM - arrive at Denver airport. Say goodbyes. Check bag. Get ticket. Wander to gate B-36.

6:08 AM - Get on plane. Sit next to very large cowboy dude.

6:38 AM - Plane takes off. LOTS of turbulence. Can't sleep. Cowboy dude can. I pray he doesn't put his 10 gallon head on my shoulder...

10:04 AM (CST) - Plane lands. Wait for bag. Get cab. Go to Midway.

10:58 AM - Back in studio at Midway. Business as usual. MORTAL KOMBAT!

11:52 AM - receive email from team leader -- jpg's of the upcoming Game Informer article are online! HOO HOO!!!

http://www.mkoutworld.net/news/data/upimages/mka1.jpg
http://www.mkoutworld.net/news/data/upimages/mka2.jpg
http://www.mkoutworld.net/news/data/upimages/mka3.jpg
http://www.mkoutworld.net/news/data/upimages/mka4.jpg

Return to Loveland (pt.3)

Today started with an earlier-to-rise, faster-to-eat, and into school for the first class -- theory and composition. It was the last day of finals, and the students in the class were playing us their projects. Many of them had scored films, and most of the films were shot by the students, or by friends of the students... and they were pretty dang FUNNY. There was some really impressive writing, and a lot of variety and individuality being expressed, and both Tom and I were very impressed. There's NO WAY I could've written anything like what these students were coming up with when I was in high school.

Tom had rehearsals the rest of the day, so I mostly practiced, listened to tunes, and discussed some more interpretive ideas with Shilo regarding his solo part in Sticks & Stones. I was amazed at his patience -- every time I'd come barging into his practice room with a new idea or suggestion, he was open and intent on trying to work out my musical intentions.

After a quick trip back to the hotel, it was time for the concert. On the drive back to school, it came out that my good friend and BCM brother, Eric Whitacre, was in town. I immediately whipped out my cell phone and gave him a call, and after a few exchanges, he worked it out so he could come to the concert!

As soon as I arrive, I'm told that they've got the Playstation 2 game, GUITAR HERO, fired up in the next room. I head back there and strap on this plastic-mini-guitar controller, and attempt Jimi Hendrix' "Spanish Castle Magic" on the Normal difficulty level.

I'm not gonna candy-coat it here, folks. It was very fun to play, but I sucked. HARD.

After 2 or 3 tries, and enough photographs taken so the internet could SEE how bad I sucked at this game, I decided it might be best to stop getting boo-ed off the a video game stage, and maybe practice a real guitar so I didn't get boo-ed of the real one!

So then I'm warming up in the band room, and all of a sudden, Nicki and my friend Barry Kardon shows up! Barry is a guitarist as well, and moved from Chicago to Boulder about 2 years ago. It was extremely cool of him to make such an effort to come to this concert. We talked for a few minutes, and then he headed back to the cafegymateria to find a place to sit.

It's getting close to the last ensemble, and we're getting our things together to head backstage. Suddenly, my friend Jerod Tate and his wife Ursula pop their heads in the door! They came in from Longmont to be here. Jerod is an excellent composer and pianist, and he has been in my creative corner from the very beginning when we were roommates. He has always been encouraging of my composition endeavors, and I was very honored that they were going to be present this evening.

If it wasn't enough to have all these people there for me... if it wasn't enough to have an entire concert of my music being performed... if it wasn't enough to have conductors and musicians who respected and appreciated my work... if it wasn't enough to be able to perform as a guitar and bass guitar soloist in front of a standing-room-only audience... there was no way this evening couldn't be a peak musical experience.

And it was.

My sincerest thanks to all the musicians who made this concert come off so beautifully -- you put forth a great deal of time and effort to making my music sound great, and when it was over, I hope that you felt it was time and effort well spent. You played wonderfully, and I am very, very grateful for all your hard work and dedication.

My thanks to Eric, Barry, Jerod and Ursula for making the effort to come and be with me this evening -- I really appreciate your friendship and support.

A big thanks to Tom Leslie, for all that he's done, and for all that he will undoubtedly do -- not only for me, but for a great number of other musicians out there.

A huge thanks to Shilo, for rockin' the drums AND bass guitar AND for doing it all with grace, professionalism, and a TON of musicality.

And the biggest thanks goes to Mr. Peter Toews, who had the vision to ask for a drumset and wind ensemble piece, and the nerve to program FIVE pieces by one young, up-and-coming composer, all in one concert. Thanks so much, bud -- it was even better working with you the second time, and I'll look forward to the next time we can make music together.

Return to Loveland (pt.2)

After the mad hub-bub of travelling on Tuesday, Wednesday started out at a leisurely pace. Director Peter Toews (rhymes with “waves”) came to the hotel to pick up me and Tom Leslie, the guest conductor from UNLV, and take us to a fantastic breakfast place called “The Egg & I”. Then we headed to Mountain View high school, where I ran into a bunch of students from my last trip here a year and a half ago, as well as a few of the students who I’d met at the Midwest Convention a few weeks ago, and even a few that I’d met on myspace.com.

Soon enough, it was time to start rehearsal. Pete started out with Courage & Compassion, a piece I’d dedicated to my grandmother. This is a deceptively difficult piece -- the notes are pretty simple, but it requires a great deal of expression and commitment from the musicians. I was blown away by the rehearsal -- clearly they had been working very hard on this piece, and Pete had obviously devoted himself to the score and led the ensemble with really moving expression and nuance. This piece is always difficult for me to hear -- I started writing it when I found out my grandmother was dying, and I was unable to find anyone to play it before she passed away -- she only ever heard the piano sketch. The process of writing this piece (which took 10 months) was like a battle against time; and a great deal of my heart and mind is caught up in that piece. I made a few small suggestions to help them with their interpretation, and then it was time to move on.

Tom Leslie took the podium next, to conduct another one of my pieces, Reflections in a Tidal Pool. Tom and I go way back -- he commissioned and premiered Chaos Theory, and in doing so, he was the first person to give me a stab at writing serious wind ensemble music. He also commissioned and premiered my arrangement of Hopak, and he also premiered Reflections in a Tidal Pool. To top it off, he took all of BCM under his wing when he and his wind orchestra at UNLV recorded our first album, “BCM... Saves The World”. Tom has been unceasingly supportive of me and my work, as well as the rest of the BCM composers -- we call him our Impressario, and we are very grateful everything he’s done for us. With all that in mind, it was a huge deal for me to be sharing this concert with him. But I had no idea what it’d be like to see him clinic a new ensemble. He was truly AMAZING -- quite frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it. He was educating, engaging, and most importantly, his work was effective. He introduced concepts that took the sound of this ensemble to a whole new level -- not just on Reflections, but for every piece they’d play on this concert. We all learned from what he had to offer, and were all switched on by his enthusiasm and drive to make great music.

For me, the afternoon was filled with hanging with the students, a little practice time, and a maddening game of phone tag between me and Nicki -- we just wanted to check in and see how each other was doing that day, but fate was not making that a simple endeavor!

Tom and I had a nice, relaxing dinner at P.F. Chang’s with Shilo Stroman, the other director at MVHS, and a MONSTROUS musician (much more on that later). Then we headed back for the evening rehearsal in the legendary Mountain View Audigymateria (think about it).

This place takes a tremendous bashing, but to be honest, it sounds better than a LOT of other spaces I’ve performed in. We started with the other piece Tom would be conducting, TranZendental Danse of Joi. This would also turn out to be my first live performance on bass guitar -- I’d recorded the occasional bass track in the past, but that’s an entirely different thing than playing it in front of an audience. Tom had only had about a day to prepare for this challenging, odd-mixed-meter piece -- but once again, he dug into the music and the ensemble and by the time the rehearsal was finished, he had us sounding like a whole new band.

Next came Sticks & Stones, the piece commissioned for this concert. This is a drumset feature, and it really puts all the pressure on the drummer to put in a killer performance. Shilo had put a lot of woodshedding into this piece, and it showed -- he was ripping the piece up (in a really good way!) and quite obviously having a great time doing it. The band also sounded really great, and gave him the support and extra firepower he needed to really shine on this piece. I asked for some minor adjustments to interpretation, and Shilo and the band were very responsive to whatever I had to offer. It was a huge relief to finally really hear thiis piece -- it was in good hands, and I could finally let it go, and let this piece stand on it’s own.

The last thing to rehearse was the third movement of Chaos Theory. Since Pete, Shilo (now playing bass guitar!), and some of the students had done this before, we really only had to run down a few spots and kick ‘em back into place. I kicked on my distortion pedal and SQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!!! Instant feedback loop. Evidently, somebody cranked the gain and distortion up to the max. It only took a few seconds to get my setup back to some semblance of sanity, but it is unfortunate that people find it amusing to mess around with my instrument. Otherwise the rehearsal went smoothly and there was only a minimal amount of changes that had to be made.

It was a long day, and all the musicians put a tremendous amount of focus and energy into our time together. I couldn’t be more grateful for their dedication to the music, and I couldn't wait to hear their performance the next day.

The Return to Loveland (pt.1)

Today I'm heading back to Loveland, Colorado, for an all-Bonney concert with Peter Toews at Mountain View High School. They're going to premiere my newest piece for drumset and concert band, STICKS & STONES, with Shilo Stroman as the featured drumset soloist. They'll also be performing Courage & Compassion, TranZendental Danse of Joi (with me playing bass guitar), and finishing off with the third movement from Chaos Theory (with me playing electric guitar). The last time I was out there was an amazing trip -- you can read about it by clicking these links:
Chaos in Colorado pt.1
Chaos in Colorado pt.2
Chaos in Colorado pt.3
I'll have my laptop with me, so hopefully I'll be able to blog as I go... I'll keep you posted!

*Happy Feet*

So it turns out, I did get the gig to create music for the toy for the Movie HAPPY FEET. Here was the assignment:

Write and produce 3 versions of a music loop that can play endlessly and is less than 3 seconds long, in the style of the movie's theme music. Here are my three examples (you'll hear the loop by itself, then the loop 4 times in a row):

HAPPYFEET_1.0.mp3
HAPPYFEET_2.0.mp3
HAPPYFEET_3.0.mp3

NOTE: These are demos, but I don't own the rights to the final music, and neither do you -- so I encourage you to NOT download or distribute these. Once you've heard them once or twice here, I'm not sure why you'd want to download them anyway...

For the tech-heads, I created these mostly with Stylus RMX, Trilogy, and bits from a sample CD called "Funky-Ass Loops". There's also a few stock Roland JV-5080 sounds, and a touch of live guitar and bass... it was impossible to create anything longer than one bar without either going over 3 seconds, or creating a tempo that was just TOO FAST.

High art? Not a chance.

Glamorous? Umm, not so much.

But hey, this is also what musicians get paid to do! So far, the client likes these, so we'll see what they go with... I'll keep you posted.

Fittest vs. Fattest

According to this recent survey in Men's Health magazine, Baltimore is the healthiest city in the United States.

I've decided that their data is off -- my sister Anne lives in Baltimore and I believe that she is severely skewing their results.

Witness exhibit A:

This was taken after my sister finished the Iron Man Triathlon -- 15 hours and 42 minutes of swimming, cycling, and running. When she's trying to relax, she just runs marathons (like the NYC marathon she did two weeks after this picture was taken). Let's face it, the girl is seriously in shape. I'm guessing she can spread her fitness out over the better part of the buffet line at an All-You-Can-Eat-Crab-and-Hush-Puppy-Fest, and make those poor slobs seem healthy...

The most unfit city? Chicago.

Witness exhibit B:

Deep-dish pizza. Italian beef sandwiches. Chicken wings. Chicago-style hot dogs. And a bitterly cold winter that lasts 11.5 months.

Let's leave it at that.

Flash vs. Taste

CLICK HERE

You be the judge...

(Loveland, Colorado -- don't be expecting ANYTHING like this!)

WATERCOLORS (pt.1)

I've been working hammer-and-tongs on my next concert band commission -- the five sketches called WATERCOLORS. Every movement will be based on water themes, and the ensemble can program as many or as few of them as they like. I don't have titles for them all yet, but one of them has already been written: REFLECTIONS IN A TIDAL POOL.

The one I'm working on now is very melancholy, and very much like a folk song. I'm also mulling over the title, and I wouldn't mind a few opinions from the peanut gallery, so if you have an opinion on one of these, or another idea, let me know! Here are the variations on the title that I'm considering...

WIND OVER A LONELY LAKE
WIND OVER TWILIGHT LAKE
TWILIGHT OVER A LONELY LAKE
A LONELY WIND OVER TWILIGHT LAKE
(are you beginning to see a pattern here?)
MOON OVER A LONELY LAKE
MOON OVER TWILIGHT LAKE
(etc. etc. etc.)

Again, suggestions and opinions are more than welcome!

The people in your neighborhood

I got a call from a buddy of mine, asking me if I wanted to write the music that would go into a toy that's being developed for the movie HAPPY FEET. To paraphrase a popular colloquialism, I don't count my gigs until they hatch -- but I thought it was interesting enough to throw into the blog...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and welcome back! I had a great break, and am very excited about 2006. If anyone wonders what I was doing on New Year's Eve, I was partying. And jamming. Here's a picture of the New Year's jam:

me, John Taber on bass, Lennox Armstrong on Djembe and percussion (photo by Nic)

Hmmm... what other news? Not a whole lot... although I did see a lot of movies. In no particular order, here are 7 words or less on each:

SHAUN OF THE DEAD: Bloody hilarious.

THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS: Not my kinda movie, but not bad!

XXX-STATE OF THE UNION: My kinda movie, but not good!

KING KONG: State of the art storytelling.

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA: A new, all-time favorite. Brilliant and gorgeous.

SECONDHAND LIONS: blah...

FUN WITH DICK AND JANE: EXTREMELY blah...

MICROCOSMOS: Them bugs do the darnedest things!

ROGER AND ME: Watch out for the bunny-lady... need I say Moore?

(OK... so maybe around 7 words... sue me!)