Well it feels good to say it: I am done (with the rough draft) of Dobson’s marching band show! Yes, I still have to clean up the score, put in dynamics, revisit movement 1 and make it better, write a short percussion feature with Joe, completely write and expand on my mallet percussion parts, have Joe write all the battery, and come up with a decent name for the show and movements, but at least the hard part’s over. Once all that’s done, I’ll consider posting a MIDI for you guys to check out. In fact, I probably will post a MIDI (once I make a decent one) by the end of the semester since I have to make one for the drill writer and the rest of the staff. So check back for that probably sometime in May.

For the next two weeks, I’ve still got to rewrite Sun Song for Confetti and write a grade 1 piece for my alma mater, Crismon Elementary, not to mention lots and lots and lots of math I need to study. God, I hate math. My schedule for the fall semester should be pretty sweet though. I’ll probably end up taking 15 credits and only have the majority of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have Friday’s completely off! This means more time to concentrate on music AND other time to focus on school (something that hasn’t been easy this year for a number of reasons).

I’ll also be flying down to Florida for my friends down at University High School April 9 - 11. It’s only a week away! They’re putting Shadow Rituals together in about two weeks!!! Phil laughed when his band read through the piece for the first time. I think he said something to the effect of, “GRADE 3!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” I never said it was!

Here’s something odd. Linh and I went and saw Ice Age 2 today. Ice Age 1 was hilarious but the sequel was “eh.” The teaser trailer for that one Penguin movie that comes out November 2006 had me crying I was laughing so hard. I don’t care what anybody says. Robin Williams is hilarious as a penguin singing in a foreign language! Here’s the weird thing though. All through Ice Age, I couldn’t stop thinking that Sid was somehow related to Dr. Rockmaker, a composition professor at ASU. Striking resemblance, I know… Probably not for the better.