October 26, 2005

aria satisfied yet?!

i played the Aria today. i had some screwups, but everyone said i had a good sound and that made up for them. this is a good thing. if i can improve to where i can play without the screwups, i think my upper divisional exam could go well.

time for quick lunch, then i'm off to a recording session!

Posted by john guari at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

performances week

so i've decided to perform a billion times this week. let's see what's up:

Monday: I played at Jazz Forum with my combo group

Tuesday: I played in the Bruce Lobby with my combo group.

Wednesday (today): I'm playing Aria Con Variazioni at Departmental, recording with my combo group in the afternoon and playing at the Syndicate with the Five o'Clock. WAHT/.

Thursday: nothing!

Friday: playing at Giuseppe's on Locust at 6:00 PM with my combo group.

Posted by john guari at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2005

αδελφός!!!!

ben called me from Athens yesterday. it was noon here, but it was 8:00 PM there and he was about to go to Istanbul (not Constantinople), Turkey for his fall break. it was very good to hear from him.

a bunch of my friends from MN are in different countries. if i recall all of them correctly, i have friends in England, Italy, Greece and Argentina.

here i am in good ol' texas. WHEEEEEEEWWWWWW!!!

Posted by john guari at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

show was fun!

thanks everyone who came out to see my band play. it was an exhilirating experience, and i had so much fun.

Posted by john guari at 01:55 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

nap room

i want UNT to build nap rooms to check out. you'd be able to get them for a couple hours and just have a safe place for your things and a comfortable bed or couch. i am a genius for this idea.

also, comment spammers: deleting your comments may be a pain in the ass, but it doesn't mean i won't keep doing it as soon as i see you've posted them.

Posted by john guari at 11:35 AM | Comments (6)

October 13, 2005

Elliott Smith Tribute Show

ok folks, here's the scoop. I'm in a band. the instrumentation is me on keyboard/vocals, chris on guitar/vocals, dan on bass and nate on drums. we had to pick a name a few weeks ago because the poster-making people needed a band name. we hastily decided on Sequitur as a band name, but have since decided we don't want to be Sequitur for much longer than this show.

this show, however is next thursday, october 20th at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton. doors are at 9:00 PM i think. cover is somewhere in the five dollar range, and it goes to charity apparently. i'm just psyched to play a show.

Posted by john guari at 06:58 PM | Comments (1)

not as busy, wait yes, still busy

there's not much of which to speak right now. i'm juggling everything all the time. is it christmas break yet?

Posted by john guari at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2005

my week is decrescendo

so things are finally winding down. i've been so stressed since monday. today was tame by comparison, i just had music history, playing with the five o'clock at the student union and running sound for the remainder of jazz singers that i missed due to the aforementioned gig.

a trombone player in my lab band went to University of Minnesota and apparently played in a bunch of salsa groups, including the weekly ones at the Quest. maybe i'll be able to sit in on some gigs over christmas break.

plans for this weekend. guys night out/in tomorrow after a recital me, ben and franklin have to attend, then possibly a trip to the Texas State Fair on saturday! is it thanksgiving yet?

EDIT: it is 52 degrees fahrenheit in denton right now!

Posted by john guari at 10:43 PM | Comments (283)

October 05, 2005

monday part two

tuesday was mostly the same as monday. lots of things went wrong, and i'm going to bed right after this is posted because i'm so tired.

one good thing is that i got my arrangement of "Pure Imagination" recorded by the two o'clock today. that's the same "Pure Imagination" that is from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

also, i don't care what anyone says, i think that Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was dissapointing. also, it's cool that Tim Burton wants to use the same actors over and over again, but i thought that his decision to use Deep Roy as EVERY OOMPA LOOMPA EVER robbed the community of little people actors from what should have been a great opportunity for work. it's akin to the studio album where one artist plays ever instrument, there's an element lost because it's one person interacting with themselves.

that said, i've been listening to Conversations with Myself by Bill Evans, and i can say i would've rather had it either be a group album with his trio or a solo piano album. as it is, it's him overdubbing himself twice and it's just not working for me.

Posted by john guari at 12:45 AM | Comments (2)

October 04, 2005

my day today: a rundown

  • 7:40 AM. Wake up and get ready to go to class
  • 9:00 AM. Advanced Arranging
  • 10:00 AM. College Algebra
  • 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM. worked on Arranging score at home
  • 1:00 PM. quick lunch
  • 1:30 PM. went back over to campus and finished up my score at the computer lab
  • 2:00 PM. Arranging lab
  • 3:00 PM. worked on Arrangement of an original tune for combo
  • 4:00 PM. jazz forum
  • 5:00 PM. lab band, where we spent the entire time reading two student charts that make me look like Bob Brookmeyer in comparison
  • 6:00 PM. dinner with elizabeth, who i didn't get to see all day until dinner :-(
  • 7:00 PM. at home really quick to pick up a few things, shower and watch Arrested Development
  • 7:30 PM. back to campus AGAIN, to hastily finish my original arrangement in the computer lab
  • 8:06 PM. am late to combo because of the previous bullet.
  • 9:15 PM. we end combo early and i head back to the computer labs for (you guessed it) more arranging. i'm getting my revised chart played tomorrow by the 2 o'clock. this recording will undoubtedly shed light on more things i need to improve upon.
  • 11:30 PM. i finish said arranging and head over to hang out with elizabeth
  • 12:45 AM. i arrive back at my house to sip Sprite, blog about my monday, and collapse in bed.
Posted by john guari at 01:03 AM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2005

decline

wow, i used to post stuff every day, if not multiple times a day, but i have not been doing that lately. i've been busy. i'll do a quick runthrough of things to be expounded on later.

  • advanced arranging devours my time
  • i'm in a band that's playing a show this month
  • i'm going to virginia for thanksgiving, most likely
  • we have a washer and drier
  • i have seen a few movies that are new to me

hurrah for unordered lists!

Posted by john guari at 08:28 AM | Comments (2)