Yes, it was spontaneous but that’s how I like it. I got home this evening after doing some final mixes of Conan with Dan and got to chatting with a composer and good friend of mine, Ryan Springler. About a year ago, we used to go out to Coco’s late in the evening every now and again for some good old fashioned pie. Only last year, we were introduced to the glory that is Harvest Pie. It’s not quite pumpkin pie; it’s much, much more. As the website says, their signature Harvest Pie is a “perfectly spiced pumpkin pie topped with a layer of velvety pumpkin chiffon and finished with fresh whipped cream.” So, we got to talking and I made the bold suggestion of meeting down at the local Coco’s and having a slice. Ryan was all for it! I could barely finish mine it was so good. Let me tell you: if you pick one pie this holiday season, make it a Harvest Pie.

This past weekend, I took a trip to New York to see a composer and friend of mine, Vincent Oppido. Vincent also has had his first work, Skysplitter! published recently by TRN and is also having a performance of it at Midwest! We have been planning the trip since, geez, probably around April to attend an orchestration seminar there in Manhattan. The seminar was headed by Steven Scott Smalley and, well, I’ll get to that in a second.The flight was good and long so I went through the old Ipod (yes, mine is from the black and white Ipod era–no color display, album art, or movies) and came across John Mackey’s piece Turbine. Since I was at about 35,000 feet in the air I figured it only appropriate to listen to it. Mackey’s piece is all about his fear of flying and, well, I gotta say that I found driving in Manhattan (or with Linh for that matter) much more frightening than the plane ride.Manhattan was wonderful! I keep on saying how it’s such a different world over there than here in Arizona. I love Arizona and all but there’s something about the city that makes me feel alive.I stayed with Vinny and his family for the weekend in Long Island and had a blast! His family reminds me so much of my grandma on my dad’s side since my dad is originally from Queens. Their neighborhood was beautiful and the trees are starting to turn gold and red. Needless to say, it was very difficult to leave and come home Monday.Here’s Vin is front of his house holding the stack of scores/orchestrations we got at the seminar. Over 370 pages of genuine scores and sketches from Men in Black to Batman to Cherry 2000 most of which Smalley orchestrated. The seminar was orchestrating for TV and film and this guy’s done a lot: Elfman, Silvestri, and the like. Smalley (shown above in black and long hair… yes, that’s him) is such an amazing orchestrator with a California surfer boy accent. Both Vinny and I learned a ton. The seminar was split over two days and in those short 14 hours, we went through a majority of the scores and talked about various orchestration techniques within the strings and brass and woodwinds. The scores alone were worth the price of the course!

I have to admit that he changed the way I think about music and my ambitions in life. One of the more profound things I took away from him were his feelings towards the film industry. He said that it’s easy to get upset and disappointed when a studio or director cuts a scene with your music or lowers the volume of it so much that what you’ve worked on for days or weeks means practically nothing. What is his saving grace through all the politics and drama is the fact that these studios are paying to have the best orchestras in the world to play and record his music–that whatever happens after that scoring session, he could care less about. His high is being there, in the recording studio, in front of these performers making music for the few thousand fans that actually will buy the soundtrack to listen to just the music. I’m not exactly sure what about the weekend changed me. I’m sure it was several things. All I know is I’ve got another set of a hundred million things to figure out about my life and, for some reason, Smalley and New York and Vinny and the cannolis and everything else inspired that change.Oh yeah, Ray’s Pizza TOTALLY inspired me too!The last (and first) time I visited New York when Dobson performed at Carnegie Hall, all I ate was calzones and pizzas from Ray’s Pizza. I remember one night we went on a cruise of the harbor and had a catered meal. I hate 99% of catered meals so by the time we got back to our hotel room, I was starving! It was about 2 A.M. and good old Ray’s Pizza delivered about 4 calzones and 4 bottles of Pepsi (not just for me–there were three other guys in the room…). I gained about 20 pounds that week but I wasn’t about to sell that week short. I went all out. How could you not?After the seminar, we went to Angelo’s in Little Italy to celebrate with authentic Italian cuisine. I hate to pull a John Mackey and post pictures of food but it was just too damn good not to. I had the Manicotti and yes, I have never had real, homemade pasta until now. It was delicious and worth every penny (all 2,000 of them).After dinner, we headed to Ferrara’s for some good, old fashioned cannolis! I brought a few home for the family. It’s always nice to be home. I still haven’t had enough of Manhattan yet. I absolutely love the town and the people and the sights and the sounds. Like I said, it’s worlds apart from Arizona. Maybe it’s time to leave. Soon enough, I suppose.