NKD the last

the last official meeting of Nu Kappa Delta was this eve. we watched Wet Hot American Summer. Teresa enjoyed it.

i looked at moufpieces today and the guy who was showing them to us gave me his card and a mouthpiece and said to "send him the check later." i just want to try it out. i'm not sure if i'll want to buy it, but it's a nice moufpiece. we'll just see what happens with that.

Aural Skills II final tomorrow, meh.

weekend, come to me.

that was apostrophe.

penultimate wednesday

i had three big test-like things today and i nailed them all.

jazz records was a breeze due to a ninja/ben assisted cram session last night as well as typing the whole list out and uploading it. it is here if anyone wants to view it.

my polychords test in fundamentals II was good.

i spent most of my early afternoon reading a book called Seven Hill City by B. Thompson Stroud. B writes for Progressive Boink. i was about halfway through when i decided that it was too good to put down. it's a little hard to describe the story, so read the little blurb on amazon. i'll be bringing my copy home to MN for anyone who'd like to read it.

after i finished that, i suited up for my jury. pothead was late but only because he was accompanying someone else whose juries were running late. except for royally messing up your own solo there's basically nothing more embarassing than having a truant accompanist. i'm just glad that Johnson and Holt are understanding.

i ninja'd up a little after quasi-dinner. i didnt eat a lot because Kev was coming up for a trip to The Tomato. we ate and had a grand old time.

now i'm chillaxing in my room listening to Van Morrison.

i have nothing i'm required to be at tomorrow, but i think i'll go to Theory for the review section. gotta keep that B!

smoldernating

i wish homestarrunner.com was still funny :(

jury eve

tomorrow is no fun. i have a test in jazz records, a test in jazz fundamentals II, and my jury. i'm worried more about the tests than the jury though. i just need a good solid warm up and i should be fine.

i had the re-do for the improv playing test. i quoted the hell out of every chorus. i hope i did ok.

no more lab band for me. my nights are FREEEEEEE.

playing through ninja gaiden on HARD difficulty. ben's playing right now, but soon i will play and he will quiz me on the jazz musician's list.

nothing really that interesting going on. i'm home in 8 days (i think)!

new links

i've added little switchy links on the left sidebar. the links are filled with the basics of people whose websites i visit pretty much every day. if you feel left out or want to be linked, just let me know. i can make that happen.

i've checked my links out and i think i have all of them right. if something needs to be changed let me know.

new music 04-25-2004

• Jack Sheldon and Ross Tompkins - On My Own
• Wes Montgomery and Wynton Kelly Trio - Smokin' at the Half Note
• Medeski Martin and Wood - The Dropper
• The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra - Heart and Soul
• Pat Metheny Group - The Road to You

full concert 7% of a concert

last night, while at the Jazz Fest, Arturo Sandoval came on. we were right up front. Arturo played the first half of "Rhythm of Our World," hitting a big, fat, cuban triple G. i have some respect contempt for Arturo because he hires actual trumpet players to be his backup musicians oh wait, never mind that, he plays crappy synth horns by himself instead of hiring live musicians.

then came the torrential downpour. everyone got wet. after a short time in the hallway wasting time taking cover, and a little dry-off time in my room watching Stones play Ninja Gaiden, Shannon and i braved the rain and went to maple hall, where fun awaited us. i hung out with shannon, julia, teresa and lorinda and may or may not have worn a skirt and may or may not have had pictures and/or video evidence taken of me.

we watched zoolander and chicago then went to sleep. i got to sleep in christina's bed since she wasn't there. it beats the floor any day.

this post DOES NOT use too much strikethrough oh wait.

penultimate friday

first off, the winner of the 420 contest is Shannon. her comic was the funniest of the ones i got. Hedren was a close second each of the others are special in their own "unique" way.

Morin and Phil. yours were more weird than funny. it just had to be a modification of the marijuana comic. you didn't have to be on the stuff when making it (lol).

all i have left today is piano III (aka useless class).

tonight is the first night of the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival. with the One O'clock Lab Band playing at 7:00 PM and Arturo Sandoval playing at 9:00 PM. it's all free. no cash-money down!

last night jeremy passed my time amount for playing Ninja Gaiden. it seems he's about at addicted to it as i am. i'm still 4 levels ahead of him though. i'm at 16 hours, jeremy is at 17.

T-Minus twelve days until i'm back in MN.
geez not too long and i'll have to pack all my crap away.

9 o'clock tearin' it up

the 9 o'clock just played in the Syndicate. i had such a good time. i played some good solos and danced some good dance.

more importantly. the iTunes music store now has every disney soundtrack, including (but not limited to) A GOOFY MOVIE, aka the best disney movie ever. Tevin Campbell singing " I 2 I" and "Stand Out" causes nostalgia to well up inside me so much that i may have to get my stomach pumped.

No, Tevin. I'M READY...I'm READY!!!

downside

my accompanist is supposed to be accompany me at Noon.

i call him seven times and leave two messages.

phone conversation at 1:55 PM:

Howard:Hey, John.
Me: Where were you today.
Howard: Passed out on my bed. Sorry man.
Me: (grudgingly) I still need you for juries next week.
Howard:I know.
Me: Next time, don't pass out.
Howard: I know man, fuckin' 4-20.

...

...

...

"fuckin' 4-20?"

North Texas musicians: Do not hire Howard as your accompanist.

a 420 well spent

aside from getting totally baked today, this is what i did:

• i went to theory II for 5 minutes and left to warm up for...
  
• the 9 o'clock lab band's gig in the One O'Clock Lounge at the student union. we played pretty well and was a good runthrough for tomorrow night.
  
• had my LAST M.F.-ing MASTERCLASS today. whew.
  
• had my 2nd to last playing test for Jazz Fundamentals II (T.A. Jamie informs me that i scored something like 48/50. rockin').
  
• returned some CDs to the Library and got some out (more about that later).
  
• received like 50 phone calls at 4:20, but was unable to answer a lot of them because i was in the library. shhh!
  
• had a pretty good lab band rehearsal. i've finally figured out how to solo on "Mean What You Say."
  
• turned in my annex key from steel band (did not turn in music like i was supposed to).
  
• went to the Inferno to see the 2 O'clock lab band play. talked with ross and officially met sara jacovino and ellen marple.
  
• ate a fine Jimmy John's Slim 5 sandwich (salami, capicola, cheese).
  

the CDs i got from the library are:

• Count Basie Swings - Joe Williams Sings
  
• Stan Kenton - Sketches on Standards
  
• Ray Brown Trio - Bassface - Live at Kuumbwa
  
• Ella Fitzgerald - The Complete Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife
  

tomorrow i've got a departmental performance and a lab band performance. game on!

OHHHH 420

OHHH somebody call Muldowney, because we gon' be smokin' the GANJ!

in celebration of this 4-20, we're gonna have a COMPETITION. the purpose of this competition is to make me laugh by modifying this comic:

Do whatever you like to it, it just has to be funny. for an example i shall post my own.

NOTE: i'm working on trying to get HTML to be allowed on my comments pages. as a precaution, try posting your picture using HTML, but also just type out the URL underneath it, just in case.

DISCLAIMER: I do not actually use pot. I never have, and I don't see any real reason to start, just so you know.

the rest of the weekend

yesterday was pretty lazy. i slept until noon, ate, took a shower and played some ninja gaiden. at 6:30 ben, franklin, chris, rhonda and i ate at chipotle. i filed my Burrito Tax Return (with receipt), so my dinner was on the house. ben, franklin, chris and i then went to the Rave (movie theater) to see Kill Bill Vol. 2. that movie was pretty crazy messed up. it's gory, but not in the same way Vol. 1 was gory. the story is pretty weird, but not as weird as Uma Thurman's face from straight on. i felt like i was staring at some sort of Picasso painting. she's just got a weird face.

I came back to my room at about 10:30. i decided i was bored around 11:15 and called Teresa. she and Julia were in Julia's room. i walked over to Maple hall for a night of festivity and the watching of infomercials. also viewed were the OutKast video for "Roses" and The Player's Club with none other than CHARLIE MURPHY!!

then i slept in teresa's roommate's bed from 6:30 to 12:00. then we talked about LIFE UNREAL, which makes absolutely no sense.

i have things to do and a bit of time in which not to do them.

P.S. two days, OHHHHHH!!

Hooters and NKD Night

after a pretty lazy day, Franklin, Rhonda, Jeremy, Dylan, Shannon, Teresa and I went to Hooters for dinner. Amazingly, we got the same waitress as last time (Sophorn (pronounced Suh-porn)). here's a little convo:

Sophorn: Hi my name is Sophorn I'll be your waitress this evening.
Franklin: What's your name?
Sophorn: Suh-porn, Porn, Porn-Star, etc. (turns to tend to the table next to ours)
Me: Wow, I never would've made that connection.
Sophorn: I HEARD THAT.

I decided to try to match Teresa in the eating of wings. We forgot to order them "naked." we also lost count, but we both ended up eating around 20 each. we resolved to come back sometime and get the naked wings. the wings we ordered were "hot," but the only thing they really succeeded in doing was to make my nose runny (slight sinus clearing, anyone).

after the Hooters excursion, Shannon, Teresa, Franklin and I returned to my room for a Nu Kappa Delta movie viewing. The movie was The Usual Suspects. I was the only one who had seen it. It's one of those movies where you notice everything you missed the first time around like it's clear as day. the movie ended and franklin left. the NKDness persisted and shannon and teresa had a little powwow on my bed until i kicked them out. now it is bedtime. i get to sleep in tomorrow.

NKΔ!!

quality control for eric

http://www.johnguari.com/qualitycontrol.mp3
captivates your party patrol, your mind, body and soul

EDIT: i did have an mp3 up for eric to DL, but all you he-whores and she-whores missed the boat. RECOGNIZE!

tax day 2004

today has been a lot better than sucky yesterday. i had theory II, which was a breeze, then i played a little more ping pong against franklin (won both 21 point games and lost an 11 point game) and ted (lost two 11 point games, but not by a lot).

then i went to Saunders's Trumpet Masterclass, which i enjoy. we've been working on how to play different trumpet parts in a Basie-swing style. as far as section parts go, i do really well. that's mostly because i've been playing 3rd part on all the different basie/nestico charts we've played in the 9 o'clock. i have a little trouble on lead, but it was chiefly because lead players need to have a harder attack. that's how they cut through the rest of the band without being too loud. the range is a different factor. most charts at UNT go a 3rd or 4th higher than i can play. if i just work on getting one half step at a time at the top of my range, i should be golden.

after masterclass i went to the library for about an hour to listen to some stuff by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band. i needed to hear "Mean What You Say" a couple times to get an idea of what it's really supposed to sound like. the arrangement on the recording was different than the one we're playing, but they shared lots of stuff.

rhonda, ben, shannon and i went to Chipotle to eat and pick up our "BurritoEZ" tax forms, which will be valid for a free burrito this weekend. i shall use that on saturday when i believe i'll be seeing Kill Bill Vol. 2.

tonight is special guest Jay Saunders directing our lab band rehearsal, OH MY. after that, i'm performing in one of the steel drum bands (educate yourself, stop the violence) in the Global Rhythms concert.

tomorrow is friday, huzzah!

pinging and ponging

i've been playing a lot of table tennis lately. last week i switched from the Shakehand Grip to the Penhold Grip.

today i had an off day. franklin beat me each time we played and i lost to Ted Talbot 13-21. the thing about this is Ted is really good. last time he beat me it was 6-21, and a few of those were just errors on Ted's part. i'm getting better, which is fun.

next week is the 1 o'clock lounge and Syndicate performances of the 9 o'clock lab band. next wednesday i'm performing the first movement of the Flor Peeters trumpet sonata at departmental. any north texas readers would like to come and hear me, go right on ahead.

new music 04-12-2004

today was a jazz intensive day at the Whatchoo' Talkin' 'Bout Willis Library. as it turns out, it's quite a Blue Note Records day.

From Blue Note Records
Art Blakey Quintet - A Night at Birdland Vol. 1
Art Blakey Quintet - A Night at Birdland Vol. 2
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
Hank Mobley - Soul Station

From Verve Records
Hank Jones - Upon Reflection - the Music of Thad Jones
Oscar Peterson Trio - Night Train

ninjas and easter

last night rhonda took me to the mall to buy Ninja Gaiden. then we went to Braum's, an ice cream restaurant place. i then went to my room to become a ninja.

ninja gaiden is hard. and by hard, i mean it's actually really difficult. enemies damage you quickly and don't leave a lot of health powerups behind. you're forced to either learn how to kill people quickly or use powerups you find/buy. to give you an idea of how hard the game is, i present you with this comic strip from Penny-Arcade.

today i woke up at 6:05, reset my alarm to go off at 6:30 then went back to sleep until 6:30. i went out to Fort Worth to play two easter services at some church. i got a free "meal" out of it as well. it was mostly pastries, but it was still good.

now i'm back. i have some solo memorization to do as well as some jazz fundamentals homework and tax stuff.

i leave you with this, the Subservient Chicken.

night with team demon/dingus

at 3:00 Kev picked me up outside of bruce. after avoiding some huge backup on 35, we got some limeade at Sonic and went to casa de kev. i perused part of his CD collection until kev's friends started showing up.

the first guy to show up was Mark, a big fat guy who's known to use the introduction, "hi, i'm fat." he was fappy though, not fangry. the next person to come was steven (aka dingus) who made several good fat jokes (including one with actual Huttese spoken, i believe). next was a guy named scott (aka coop (almost everyone has a nickname)) followed by matt (halfling).

after deciding which people went in which cars, the group headed towards Chipotle. already there was a guy named Miles, who i'd met before at a wednesday night at the Syndicate. we all gathered around and listened to Miles talk quite articulately about various international issues. around my friends at home, i'm used to listening to the liberal standpoint (ad nauseum usually), but i'm in TX now, and things are different.

after Chipotle, we headed to Bowl-a-Rama for air hockey and (obviously) bowling. a guy named lee (fizban) joined us there. i bowled pretty horribly. i got off to a bad start and slightly improved over the course of three games. Mark (who the previous night had bowled a 300) had all his gear there and was pretty much dominating the lanes. it was cool to watch.

bowling ended and jamming back at kev's house ensued. that lasted until about 2:00 when i hit the proverbial hay. during this said hitting, i had a dream that involved ben decker.

i dreamt i was at lawrence university, but it didn't look like it actually looks at all. ben was there with all his friends that i met when i visited. for some reason we were fighting. i'd try to hang around and he'd try to ditch me or something like that. for some reason there was a teleportation pad, which was supposed to send ben and his friends to a pool for swimming. ben set it so that it would send me somewhere else. i was mad/sad. i woke up and was confused. there was more. there was something involving some 20-something actress in the vein of Thora Birch or Christina Ricci. i can't quite recall what exactly it had to do with anything, but such is the nature of dreams.

after some breakfast, kev drove me back to UNT. at 1:00 i had a rehearsal for my easter gig tomorrow (gotta be up, dressed and in the bruce hall lobby at 6:45 AM boooo). now i'm doing laundry and will meet with my accompanist Howard sometime around 5:00 PM.

now it is time to practice.

no. way.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/film/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000480930

care package on wednesday

i got a care package from home. what better day to receive a care package than wednesday, the most dreaded day of the week? no better day, says i.

the package contained the following:

• one box of Peanut Butter Crunch
  
• two mouthpiece moufpiece brushes.
  
• three boxes of peanut butter sandwich girl scout cookies
  
• tax info
  

the moufpiece brushes were particularly appreciated. my old one was too large for my moufpieces anyway, and these new ones are smaller and clean the whole inside of the moufpiece.

now that lab band madness is over, we have 3 remaining rehearsals before our 1 o'clock lounge performance and one more after before our syndicate gig. we're playing some difficult charts, namely "What's New," "Mean What You Say," and to a lesser extent "Hoe-Down." "Hoe-Down" is really only difficult in two bars. "Hoe-Down" and "Mean What You Say" have some chord changes that i need to sit down and go over. lots of b5 and #9 chords, oh goody. i'll be putting my blasted Jazz Fundamentals II skills into practice.

it's time to take a shower, because i stink.

EDIT: i no longer stink, but i dont know if our syndicate gig is next week or the following week. i'm so confused.

the madness

lab band madness was this evening. the 9 o'clock performed well. the other bands performed well also. jazz gets me excited. the program actually read that i had a flugelhorn solo on a tune called "Pegasus," but it was erroneous. tonight it was a guitar solo on that song.

after madness, ben, jeremy, shannon and i went to the Tomato with kevin mcnerney and his friends matt and steven (stephen?) aka dingus. friday i'll be bowling with a number of kevin's buds. i anticipate good times to be had by all parties involved.

it's so tuesday and it needs to be friday.

EDIT: it's so tuesday wednesday and it needs to be friday.

new music 04-06-2004

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
Brian Eno - Desert Island Selection
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Blonde Redhead - In an Expression of the Inexpressible

the Spoon and Blonde Redhead are things i've heard about, but not heard yet. it will be an audio experiment to see if i enjoy their music.

EDIT: Spoon sounds pretty good, and pretty indie. Blonde Redhead is REALLY indie. they also don't use bass guitar, which makes me a little sad. not sure if i actually like either of them yet.

twins home opener

drew and i as;kfjha;sdfah-ed and GAARHASDFHASDLFH-ed at each other over instant messenger until MN beat cleveland 7-4 in the 11th inning. i'm gonna try to pay more attention to baseball.

lab band madness is tomorrow. in celebration, i'm listening to "House of Fun" by 80s second-wave ska revival band, Madness.

ow ow ow ow

i have an irritated taste bud on my tongue that hurts more than most mortals can withstand (i.e. Rayden could handle it; Shang Tsung could not).

my solution? eat a cinnamon bun and some BIG wheat thins. that'll get the healing process started.

weird dream

i had a dream that was almost Chrono Trigger-ish in nature. the premise was that Ben Affleck and I were out searching for Morgan Freeman for some reason. the way we looked for him was by going through whirling vortices on an inflatable raft.

we were at some sort of pier area and we were disguised as tour guides, using our raft to ferry people around. we had to do this until we got a clean break to the next vortex. for some reason our arch nemesis was Bill Clinton. he was looking for us, but for some reason was really stupid and didn't realize it was us giving the "tours." Ben Affleck kept on saying "I hate that guy!"

once we got our break, we headed for the vortex. we ended up in this little way station sort of place, not unlike the End of Time (for those of you who played CT). in the way station, we met Freddie Prinze Jr. for some reason we were awestruck. he must've been the sort of Gaspar/Old Man figure in my dream. i have no idea why, but both Ben Affleck and i were like "whoa...Freddie Prinze Junior!"

then i woke up.

i hate pikeys

well, actually i've never met a pikey, so i can't say. i just watched Snatch in ben kelly's room. when i was visiting ben decker, we watched probably the first 45 minutes of Snatch. I came in about 1/2 hour after it had started today, so i got to see a little overlap, and then the rest of the movie.

today i transcribed Miles Davis's solo on a tune called "Doxy." all in all, the amount of time i had to transcribe was a little over 2:00 minutes. my intention was to sit down and do part of it. i ended up doing the whole thing in probably an hour and 15 minutes or maybe 1.5 hours. it was probably the most efficient transcribing i've done this semester.

so this post is only quasi-interesting, but i had to post it, because seriously, The Bishop Don "Magic" Juan's suit seriously made my eyes hurt. especially when my link colors are yellow and light peach.

"He looks like Malcom X, before he converted to Islam." - Dave Chappelle as Silky Johnson, Hater of the Year, 2003

bishop don "magic" juan

hooters

i went to hooters tonight with jeremy and some other people. two very important things happened.

first, when i asked if they had refills on pop (i said soda to avoid funny looks) the waitress, whose name was Sophorn (urge to make soft porn jokes rising), winked at me

second, some other random hooters waitress i swear totally grabbed my ass

i'm such a stone fox.

i had the steak sandwich, which was excellent as well as about 6 or 7 chicken wings. i'm stuffed now, and i have the hiccups.

frisbee: waht!?

i just played some frisbee with a bunch of dudes that i'd never met before. it was hardly an ultimate frisbee game, more of a pick up, but it sufficed. i'm so pumped to be a Muscly-Armed Paperboy this summer.

they hardly played by the rules of ultimate. they didn't do stall counts, and lots of them threw the first pass that looked available to them. it was a bit frustrating, but i didn't want to bust on the scene and try to change every aspect of how they played the game. i just suggested to my teammates to have a little patience. when they did, they played better. strategy: waht?!

these dudes play every friday. luckily, friday afternoons are usually quite free for me.

"You've done this before, haven't you?" - Some Guy, to me.

new music 04-02-2004

Miles Davis & Gil Evans - Sketches of Spain
Milt Jackson & Coleman Hawkins - Bean Bags
Frank Mantooth - Suite Tooth
Bill Holman - Bill Holman Band
Count Basie - Count Basie Orchestra Meets Lester Young the Golden Years 1936-40

mattress

shannon took my mattress, but it's back now