For a majority of the afternoon spilling into the evening, me and my parents put up our ginormous synthetic christmas tree and dressed her in about seven different colors (white, amber, red, green, blue, teal, and purple). That adds up to about 2,000 lights which means it’s a merry little firehazard. Sadly, we’ve had more lights on years past but this year, I think my dad finally realized that going over board is not always spiriting. I hope I grow up like him!

house for a little vocal coaching on the song we wrote for Malediction. She sounds great and I can’t wait to record later in the week. Once that track is done, it’s off to the printers for the soundtracks! I still haven’t decided if I want to get them nicely printed or not… sure wish I had a job!

So it’s about 1:30 (I know–it’s not that late) but I’m tired and can’t sleep. Maybe because of the rootbeer I just finished.
Either way, I though I’d share a little update on the movie musical. With Malediction finally finished (my part anyway) and with winter break approaching in about two weeks, I finally have time to start thinking about it again. I finished an up-to-date “step outline” last night around this time. Both Mike and I agree (he’s modeling now!…) that this is a better plot to frame our movie around.
It’s similar to what we’ve had but it’s a little simpler and seems to flow better. “Profound simplicity” is hard to write (I read it in a book). Since we began thinking about the project back in May, we’ve accumulated an entire binder full of content.
Much of the libretto is written–it’s just a matter of filling it out, changing some ideas, adding, scratching, and just seeing what works better. Hopefully, we’ll have a working script by Christmas so I can get to writing the music! Filming by February? You never know… Maybe production of the soundtrack at least…

I can’t eat any more…My brothers, Theron and Kaleob, came over. Theron brought his dogs, Willy and Charlie. They always play in our pool even if it is a cool 70 degrees out in November.

It’s been an anxious month and a half but I finally got the recording of the University High School Wind Ensemble! Linh was so excited that she opened the package before I could. But that’s okay because she colored a picture of Stitch for me (she likes those movies… and cries when I take her to see Saw II… I’m a bad boyfriend :-P).Anyway, after we got the mail, we went into my room, turned on the computer and popped it in (the cd). The group did an amazing job (especially for the hell I put them through in the key of D… and the tempo)! I especially dig the brass sound–you can tell this band kicks ass on the marching band field. The brass is bright and sharp — exactly how I envisioned it should be–cutting through the thick textures, interrupting each new idea. On the other end, for the few moments that are sweet and fluid, they instantly adapted a more mellow, buttery tone. So props to the brass (and I’m a sax guy)! Props to the whole group for taking on a hard-ass piece by such an amatuer composer :-). Hope you guys enjoyed performing it! The rest of the CD sounds great too, especially the Ticheli (always a fan of Ticheli).Speaking of band performances, I just found out yesterday via an email that I am the winner of ASU’s “concerto competition” for concert band! How cool is that?! I received an email from Martin Province that went something like this:

“Michael,

Congratulations on winning the “Concerto Competition” in composition. I remember hearing “Joyride” last year when I visited Dobson High School. We are working to program one of the 2 works this spring, and I need some information. I have scores, but do you have recordings (live or midi) for either or both the pieces. If not what is the length of each? Do you have parts readily available?

We are trying to include this on a concert on Feb. 14, so if you could get back to me quickly that would be ideal. I look forward to hearing from you.

Martin Province
Assoc. Dir. of Bands”
I submitted both joyRiDE and Shadow Rituals though I would think joyRiDE has more to offer a college group than Shadow does. Unfortunately, Joyride is only between 2 and a half to three minutes and Shadow is around 4. Maybe he’ll decide to program joyride as an opener (it works well that way). I’m not too sure on the details of the performance; this email is the first I’ve heard about it. Either way, I’m wicked excited about it!

Sorry I haven’t posted anything of value the past week or so. There hasn’t been much new info to post. However, I can finally announce that I am DONE with the movie score to Malediction! Wooo! *bells and whistles* Well, I still have to record Rene Schlimm’s song this weekend.
But all in all, there’s a good 68 minutes of music that’s going on the soundtrack though there’s only about 60 minutes of that music in the movie. The tracks that aren’t in the movie that I’ve decided to include on the soundtrack is a MIDI version of the Suite From Malediction that the Phoenix Symphony premiered back in January, the theatrical trailer music, and a track or two of music that wasn’t put in the film. I’m not sure if I want to fork out a couple hundred bucks to professionally produce 50 - 100 copies to give to the cast/crew and whoever else wants one. I’m not really sold that the score is worth the $200 - 400 bucks (especially if I’m giving them away). Anywho, I’ve also been helping the director, Kevin R. Phipps, host his personal graphic design website (www.kevinrphipps.com). We will also be meeting the next week or two to finally update the malediction website (www.maledictionthemovie.com). And, with this project done, I can finally start working on Kill For You (www.killforyouthemovie.com)! I can’t wait! The only other projects I have besides that is that string quartet for the St. Lawrence String Quartet. I’ll probably finish that sometime over Winter Break. So far, my teachers and peers dig the sketches for it. On a side note, too, Dan Malone (www.mouserecording.com) and I will be recording a series of concerts with the Phoenix Symphony. They will be performing Handel’s Messiah. It’ll be cool to finally hang out with Bob Moody again. I haven’t seen him since the Malediction symphony premiere. Speaking of premieres, I’ll let you know when the actual movie will premiere and if it’ll be in a big enough venue to invite friends. Well, I think that’s it for now. I have a big math test tomorrow. Oh, did I mention I’m a math major now? What? A minor in music? Ha!