I think the secret is out now; if any of you happened to get a copy of the latest issue (#2) of the MBM Times we were handing out at the Manhattan Beach Music booth at Midwest, you may have flipped to the back cover to see a cool promo for my latest work, Turkey in the Straw. It’s been in the works for some time now, but I keep coming back to it and deleting and deleting and rewriting and rewriting. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much trouble with what otherwise might be just a fun and jovial piece. I’m sure we all know the melody (I know it too well) so how do I go about making this short, 4 or 5 minute dance be even the least bit original? How do I write it and not be cliche? Predictable? How do I write it and not go overboard and make it too hard for 8th and 9th graders to play? How do I do all of this and still make it fun? These are only some of the questions that have been pecking my brain the past several weeks. But maybe I’m trying too hard–trying too hard to make this “mine”–perhaps in worrying so much over whether or not this will be my next “great” work I’ve forgotton how to just make it a “fun” work. I don’t know. These turkeys are getting to my head. I’m hearing voices and those voices are saying, “Gobble, gobble.” Oh God, I’m losing it.

Wow. What a trip! Where do I begin? There’s easily over 40 photos here from the trip so I guess I’ll start at the top. As some of you know, before I headed off to the Midwest Clinic, I flew to New York to hang out a few days with my composer friend from George Mason University, Vincent Oppido. Unfortunately, God had a different plan. After a good 6 hours of flying beginning at 7:00 AM Arizona time and a layover in Chicago, we were just about to land in Long Island. It was about 4:30 PM on the East Coast and heavy fog had begun to settle over the airport. As we decended to land and could practically (barely) see the runway, our captain decided to pull up and divert us to Providence, RI. We were so close to landing!! So, two hours later, I–along with the rest of the passengers–were standing at a gate in Providence while Southwest waited for the weather report in Islip and figured out what to do. By that time, I had been traveling a good 12 hours and I just wanted to eat something and go to bed. So, I called my dad and found out that my aunt and uncle live only about 30 minutes from the airport! I gave them a call and they were extremely nice to take me in for the night. Not only were they nice to give me a place to stay, my aunt also made a fantastically delicious homemade southwestern chicken soup! Just what I was craving after having airpot McDonalds on my layover in Chicago…Their home in South Attleboro, MA is gorgeous. Their backyard is literally a government preserve. So, instead of eating and running back to try and find my way to Vinny’s house, they invited me to stay one more day since I don’t see them all that often. I was more than happy.
That Friday, we went on a short hike in their back yard. Yes, the preserve is their backyard. It was only too bad there wasn’t any snow or else it would have been just wonderful.
Other than that, it was nice to just relax for a day after being awake traveling for nearly 20 hours. Besides, I still had to figure out how to get from Massachusettes all the way back to Long Island!
Early the next morning, my aunt and uncle drove me to the bus station where I would take the bus into Manhattan and then jump on the Long Island Railroad to Hicksville where I would meet Vinny. I was just lucky enough to grab the last availble seat on the bus (otherwise I would have had to sit in the terminal for 2 hours for the next one… something I’m very glad I didn’t have to do after the whole flying thing). Eventually, after dropping my bags back at Vinny’s, we hopped back on the train yet again to head into Manhattan for the evening. We walked the avenues and saw the usual sights and ended up resting our feet in central park for a very unusual sight: Santa Con.That’s right. Hundreds upon hundreds of people dressed as Santa. We’re talking the full suit, boots, and everything. According to their website, anything less would be frowned upon:

That was fun to see… especially the female Santas. *growl* But sexy Santas wasn’t what we came to the city to see.I had bought tickets to see Avenue Q!!!! That’s right! Finally, I saw the show live. I’ve just about memorized the soundtrack and watched everything about it I could find online so I was afraid that I would be bored by it. Not in the least bit. I’ve never seen a show or anything that kept the laughs rolling literally as frequently as Rodney Dangerfield. It was a great production and the book is just so down-to-earth and funny. There’s something about puppets saying “fuck” that just makes you want to giggle. But don’t think the funny just came from the dirty words. You must also consider the puppet nudity and sex scene. Actually, in all honesty, the only reason Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx put in swearing (something very risque especially for a Broadway musical) is because people swear in real life and this musical is very much about real people in real life. Because of this, the swearing works without being a cheap laugh.
Of course we had to see the Christmas Spirit in the town! I know I’m ignorant about a lot of things but I never really realized that the Rockefeller Christmas Tree is… real. I know. I’m dumb.It seemed that Christmas was in the air… along with this gigantic snowflake that hung over the street.We also passed by a taping of Good Morning America. Turns out the Trans-Siberian Orchestra was performing on the show that morning so we stopped and checked it out for a few minutes.
Times Square was packed more than Disneyland. Vinny and I were lucky to even find a place to have dinner without having to wait for two hours. Thank you Applebees. There was probably a reason it wasn’t more than a 10 minute wait when we got there…Needless to say, we had more than enough of the city that night so the next day we just hung at home. Vinny was practicing Rhapsody in Blue. God damn that guy is an excellent pianist! Makes me wish I was doing something more than playing Mario Cart on his N64 with his brother and sister the whole time. Remember that thing? The N64?
Tuesday we finally flew into Chicago for the clinic. I had bought a “Dunder Mifflin” snow globe at the NBC store in Manhattan a few days before and had it with me as a carry-on. Needless to say, again, I was accused of terrorism (I see a pattern here…). Actually, I didn’t even realize that my innocent snow globe was in violation of the new 3-1-1 rule for gels and liquids regarding carry-on luggage. No bother, I just ended up checking one of my bags with it. All that for my snow globe…
By the time Vinny and I got to our hotel, we were starving! We didn’t really want to spend time looking for a place around town to eat so we just ordered room service. I know room service is usually extremely expensive but damn, this was the best sandwich I think I’ve ever eaten. Well worth the money!
The Hilton where the convention is hosted was just beautiful. This is the lobby:
The first night, I attended a rehearsal of Shadow Rituals by the Vandercook College of Music Symphonic Band under the direction of Dr. Charles Menghini. The group was huge sporting about 17 trumpets, 21 clarinets, 8 horns, 9 trombones, 5 euphoniums, 6 tubas, and a slew of percussion!The students were really nice, too, especially Kenton, Fabian, Rebecca, Brandon, and the girl who shouted out if I was single (I am, by the way). It’s always really humbling to be greeted so politely and enthusiastically by my peers. I mean, half of these guys are younger than me and half of them are older than me. It was very nice of them and I was really flattered that they enjoyed playing my music. Thank you Vandercook for making my first Midwest awesome!
When I wasn’t listening to any other groups performing or catching Vandercook’s rehearsals, I was hanging out in the Manhattan Beach Music booth (828 - 832). Bob Margolis had asked two guys, John Darling and Kevin Jedele, to manage the booth. The guys were a lot of fun and really nice. John has written several articles for MBM’s latest publication, the MBM Times. Kevin was a hoot, too–hilarious all around! In fact, I had tickets to go see a Second City show Friday night and asked him to join me. We had a great time. I’m really thankful to these guys for letting me do more than just stand around at the booth meeting and greeting people. I felt akward and useless if I wasn’t handing out issues of MBM Times to various people or helping people decide which Frank Ticheli work they haven’t played yet or handing people an iPod to peruse a score with. I didn’t know I actually knew so much about Manhattan’s catalogue but now I know even more. I lost my voice and ended up getting sick over it but I would do it again in a heartbeat.Of course, Frank Ticheli showed up to meet and greet as well. He was very busy signing his autograph to loyal fans and speaking with people from Japan and Germany and just about everywhere but I did manage to get in a few words with him.
We were also able to get a photo with him: three prize winners! It was actually just announced that day that Frank had received the National Band Association William D. Revelli Memorial Award for his work Symphony No. 2! We were all very excited for him. Jodie Blackshaw (left) was the other Frank Ticheli composition contest winner for her grade 1 work Whirlwind. I spent a lot of time with Jodie and she, very much like Kevin, was hysterical and so much fun to be around. She is from Australia, after all.
We waited so patiently for our scores to come in. Yes, the very first print editions were rushed from the printers. So fresh they were practically still wet!
But maybe that’s just because it was raining and foggy out most of the week…The artwork for Jodie’s work was particularly beautiful. Many people complain that Manhattan’s music is on the expensive side of things but you really get a high quality product. These guys really put a lot of effort into making even the scores look like a work of art. The next night, I went to another Vandercook rehearsal. They sounded even better that night! It’s hard to believe that, because Vandercook is the hosting college for the Midwest Clinic, that a majority of these kids were volunteering their time with other events all day on top of rehearsing with the group from 9 PM until midnight (and I thought I had a long day).
Here’s video of the performance!All in all, it was a great concert and a great experience. I can only hope to go again next year!By that afternoon, the rain and fog had cleared up and revealed a beautiful day but the clinic wasn’t over just yet.
I ended up running into my former band directors, Jon Gomez (right) and Rob Lubbers (left), on their way to the Deer Valley Jazz Band performance (go Arizona!). Most of the kids in the band were 9th and 10th graders and damn they could swing! It was really amazing how mature this group was. I could never play jazz the way they could. But then again, I could never really play jazz :-).
What a great nine days of my life… except for those few travel days. I’m very happy to be home and inspired more than ever.

Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit quite like eating a bag of red and green peanut M&Ms at 2:30 in the morning after playing basketball in the cold weather with a couple of close friends, and then just standing outside talking and occasionally catching glimpses of multiple falling stars. That was my night. I also had lunch with my grandparents and Linh earlier in the morning. Hearing grandma’s stories of growing up in New York always puts me in a cheery mood. Speaking of New York….

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to keep up with my classes and finish the semester on a good note. Whether my grades reflect this or not, I certainly had a great semester. With finals finally over, it’s time for fun! I will be leaving on Thursday for New York again. Yes, I’ll be staying with my composer friend and my pal, Vincent. We hooked up in late October for a fantastic orchestration seminar with Steven Scott Smalley and his family was gracious enough to take me in. And would you believe it, they invited me back! Since we were in the seminar for 90% of the time I was in town in October, we decided it would be fun to get together and really just enjoy Manhattan (I will find any reason to leave Arizona for a trip there). So, for the next few days, I will be hittin’ the town and just kickin’ back at Vinny’s place in Long Island. We’re set to see Avenue Q on Saturday night (I’m wicked excited) and hopefully (weather permitting), I’d love to see Central Park (snow?) and the Rockefellar Center Christmas tree. Maybe even Conan will be out and about…

It’ll be a fantastic few days in New York but the fun won’t stop there. On Tuesday, both Vinny and I are flying to Chicago for the annual Midwest Clinic. Both of us have recently had our first pieces for concert band published and we both have them on a concert at Midwest! How awesome is that? The Vandercook College of Music will be performing Shadow Rituals and the Lakota West High School Symphonic Winds will be performing Vincent’s piece, Skysplitter! It’s going to be a blast. Gomez says he loves going with first-timers because the experience for band geeks is like going to Disneyland for the first time. I’m very excited to meet a lot of people including a meet and greet with Frank Ticheli. If all works out, I’m planning on going to see a “Second City” show on Friday night, too. My close friend Ryan has dreams of one day making it to the mainstage so I’m anxious to see what his dreams are all about. I might have to miss a dinner with Vinny and his mentor Mark Camphouse that night but maybe I’ll meet somebody new who would like to go with me.

I’ll come back home Saturday night, the 23rd, just in time for Christmas–hopefully with a few stories to tell. You can bet that Christmas Eve I’ll have one helluva blog to post!

The poinsettas are in and that means that it’s time for Dobson’s holiday concert. I haven’t blogged in over a week (shocking, I know), but I’ve been keeping busy trying to get all these finals done and over with. I’ve got one or two more assignments I’ve got to finish but after that, it’s goodbye ASU for an entire month! Today was one of my first days off so, of course, Dan, Linh, and I recorded and filmed Dobson’s concert. It’s a Dobson tradition that the symphonic band performs Sleigh Ride every winter. This year, Gomez did something a little different. He decided to invite the entire Dobson faculty who play or have ever played an instrument to sit in with the students. It was a fantastic idea and really made Gomez the topic of conversation in the teacher’s lounges. He even encouraged Dobson’s new principal to conduct. It really brought an air of nostalgia back to the holiday season for many of us.