Summer!

So here is to the first post of summer (I think...). So far it has been rather dreary and rainy ere whatnot. It has also been a relief. I finally get to feel like people are human again, and that all the pointless drama of the year has finally ebbed out.

I love the summer because I finally have time to set my mind into an inspired mode. No class or performance ensembles to get in my way, I only have to work full time.

So far the things I have been inspired to do this summer:

1)Learn to program in C++(+)*

2)Compose more*

3)Start a studio of my own

4)Do small fun crafts and projects. (need to get different creative outlets to grow the bigger one!)

5) Go geochacheing! The weather hasn't been too permitable yet...

6)Practice, Practice, Practice- I actually want to keep my chops now that I feel like I'm good enough to actually call myself a musician, can't screw that up!

7)Grow my relationships more. Cmon, it's hard to be always present during the school year, so I need to make summer count!

8)Cook new and exciting things (nom)

9)Work up my Senior Rectial music. I want it done. NOW

10)READ (i have around 20+books laying around at home I've been waiting to read...)

11)Take my GRE. My last year has come, I need to actually test, and ya know, get into grad school.

12) Get grad school applications. It has finally come to this.

13)Fix my damn car.

14)Make it to Boise for friends and family. (a few set dates in mind)

15)Work with digital sound programs.*

Probably a lot more to add to this, just not on the top of my head atm.

There are a few of these goals that have a (*) next to them. These are so I can say this in one fell swoop-that these goals pertain to a larger, long term goal I have in mind. That I really want to work on becoming a video game/movie composer. It is kind of backwards to be getting my masters in Information Technologies and want to become a composer, but the way I look at it is that I need a day job for this sort of trick to work. Information Technologies offers a great day job I will love, as well advanced techniques into programming. Coupling that experience with my musical background and want to compose, I believe I would make a damn fine composer for any company that would have me. And if one day that could be my day job, so be it.

It was a crazy school year, lots of drama, lots of learning, lots of growing. I feel though, that now as the end is approaching for my undergraduate career, that I have a second wind for this whole education thing, that I feel like I can tackle another degree and be more than ready to face the adult world. I don't intend to slack in my work ethic by any means, I desire to take my life and make something out of it. I could be a great librarian, I could also be a great composer, I will be a great parent and husband someday, and overall, I intend to do ALL these things simultaneously. You only get one shot at this life thing, might as well make it count dammit.

Wanted so Bad...

I can taste it! Well, after you practice and play on your horn for hours everyday, it IS rather difficult to get the taste of reed, plastic, metal, and the city's water out of your mouth. I am going to be doing a half recital this semester, and under normal circumstances you spend a full year preparing for any sort of recital, mostly because you are required to do a masterpiece of great difficulty and establish a program that will last 30min for a half recital, or 60min for a full one. I am doing one of the cornerstone masterpieces in the professional saxophone repetoire this semester, and I'm bringing it all together in a month. That is 1/9th the normal time that this piece usually demands, but dammit, I want to put on a junior (half) recital!

I am not going to lie, this semester has seen the fewest amount of credited hours I have ever taken at this university with 14. Yet due to my own damnable determination, I have convinced myself that I should and need to put on a recital. I suppose this feeling has been building up since this is my fifth year in the music department (second as a major) there are some "underclassmen" that have already given their senior recitals over me. This is not to say they are any better of musicians then me, but it does make me feel inferior, which I am not too much a fan of. Not to mention, I have seen some great talent pass through this school on the sax, and it is those individuals I am trying to catch up to, and if at all possible in this life, pass. So, the fact that I have the drive and the chuzpha to try for a recital only months before it needs to be finalized, means that I want to be one of those "legacy" musicians.
What I mean is, I want freshmen to remember me as being good and someone they want to play up to.
Not to mention, there are pieces that I have seen my fellow sax players perform, that year after year I am amazed that they were able to do it. Even the ones that I would place as being more mediocre, they were able to play their pieces and do it well. There is no piece that is more notable to me, and any more of an earmark of an undergraduates admission to the quasi-professional status than Alexander Glazunov's Concerto for Saxophone.
Every saxophone that I have seen come before me has played this piece, and to me, it is a monumental overtaking, one in which I want to tackle. Does this make me as good as those other horn players? Sadly, not even close. But it does meet one of my goals I was bound and determined to meet once I came to college.

That's one major part of my excitement for this half recital. Another- that means I am nearing the end of my tenure at my undergrad. That has so much lifting power, it's sickening. Just thinking that at the end of next May, provided everything goes according to plan, I'm going to have a college diploma and be working on my masters degree. It scares me to think that the safety net of college is so quickly coming to a close, but, I am excited for the new adventure.

And really, I think I am more excited to get the hell out of Pocatello and into a real town. I have my sights set on a goal, and come hell or high water, I am going to reach them.