Um, Never Mind

First of all I'd like to allay the anxieties of all those blog-readers out there. I'm really very silly and my grades are (currently) fine. Long story short. Let's move one.

Busy weekendness with lots of opportunities for ranting! Friday I made a sincere effort to attend a distant friend's birthday party. She lived in my dorm last year and although I've never spent much time with her I've always felt we were kindred spirits in a sense. So now that she's living off campus and not so connected to college/social life I thought it would be good to get to know her a little better. Unfortunately the event kicked off late, so I basically got to stand around and make small talk for half an hour and then had to leave. But I hope we catch up with each other someday. She seems like a neat girl and I'm sure we'd have a lot to talk about.

The reason I had to leave early was because of an unfortunate event. Another friend of mine who was in my hall freshman year is transferring schools to a far away place. She's been having back problems and needs to be closer to home for treatment and so on. I haven't had the chance to see her much since that first year of school, but she is one of the funniest people I know and I will really miss seeing her on campus. It's just another reminder of how short our time at college really is and how most of these great relationships we form while here are destined to a premature close. She decided to have a farewell dinner at Red Robin and since that was the last chance I would have to see her again, I opted out of my other friend's birthday to attend. Although I didn't get to talk with her as much as I'd hoped, I did get to catch up with some other Jenkins girls and that was really good. I hope she does well at her new school and makes lots of new friends, even though we will miss her a lot.

I spent most of Saturday at the WSMTNA piano competitions. I was required to observe performances for 2.5 hours because of my lesson scholarship. Unfortunately I didn't time my arrivals very well and ended up waiting a lot. Luckily I had Jane Austen with me so I read a good chunk of Pride and Prejudice. I was also given a chance to rant about how much I hate competitions. It seems to me that someone sits and thinks "How can we make music not fun?" and from that we get competitions. Okay, so they have their place. I do admire the excellence that the contestants strive for, competitions do foster a higher standard of playing and that's important. But I think, and I almost always have, that there's too much emphasis on trophies and medals and getting first prize in the music world. I quit competing when I was in junior high for 2 simple reasons. One, it was about as fun as sticking a shard of glass into your eye. Two, because I wasn't any good at it. Gosh I hate John Coltrane. More on that later. Anyhow, piano competitions. They attract some first-rate artists, which is great. And yet, I think that someone can play a piece flawlessly with all the expression and phrasing and whatever and still fail to make MUSIC. Because music should be more than the right motions at the right times. Now, some people manage to rise above the competition atmosphere, but they are few. Think about it. The performer is beyond nervous and unless they are a very strong sort of person they are not enjoying themselves at all. They're either focused on winning or just focused on not screwing up in front of the judges. And they're paranoid about everyone in the room watching them. The judges are the antagonists. Either terrifying or menacing depending on the confidence of the performer. Meanwhile everyone in the room/competition is busy hating/fearing everybody else. We're not sitting down to enjoy an evening of music, we're in a war man! Parents are the worst. Full of anxiety about their kid and wo befall any other child who threatens their kid's chance at the top spot! As for the judges, they sit and listen to pianist after pianist, growing fatigued in this charged atmosphere whilst trying to listen for the minutest details. Tell me, does this sound like an environment in which music, and I don't mean technically good music but joyful, life-filled music, would flourish? Like I said, they have their place, but they can get ugly.

I didn't really enjoy my 2 hour stint. I listened to four pianists. The first was a beautiful thin Asian girl who played some very, very challenging pieces and was almost equal to them. Unfortunately her program was just a trifle too demanding in my opinion which left her open to some minor mistakes and less than adequate expression. But all in all her playing was very impressive and far better than mine to be sure. Next was a sort of awkward, pale young man with glasses who played at a less-challenging level than the girl but also made some mistakes and was not as expressive. The third pianist I heard was the best of the four in my opinion. He was very tall and looked kind of like Ringo from his early days with the Beatles. Once again his pieces were not as challenging as the girl's, but he played them with almost perfect poise and accuracy and in a way that allowed me to actually enjoy what he was playing. Unfortunately he overran his time limit but I still hope he did well. The last performer was truly interesting. She had dark skin and a beautiful face, wore ridiculously tall high heels and had her hair up in a precarious bun. The high heels were unfortunate because there was no way for her to gracefully pedal with them. Her pieces were very difficult but she had some memory lapses and mistakes that made me think "why do these kids try to play such showy pieces when they could play so much better with something less flashy?" Also, on her last piece, which was very rhythmic, her bun started falling out so that by the time she stood up to bow it was everywhere! This in addition to her rather unique way of breathing/vocalizing/sometimes counting out loud made it difficult for me and my friends to keep a straight face, which really isn't fair since she did play very well and above and beyond what I'm capable of. She just needs to work on her presentation a little bit. :-)

So with all this competition nonsense there were NO practice rooms. I was really unhappy because I'm performing with my combo and Jazz II at the Eastern Jazz Festival on Thursday. Oh well. I guess whatever happens, happens. Speaking of jazz, Jazz I had it's concert with guest artist Terence Blanchard yesterday and it was amazing. It wasn't quite as good as the one last year with Robin Eubanks in my opinion but that's nitpicky. Whenever you get the chance to see grammy-winning jazz artists, you pretty much can't complain. This guy started out with the likes of Lionel Hampton and Art Blakey! But for all that he seemed really down to earth and was really supportive of Whitworth's musicians. It was neat.

Today, after listening to the Men's Chorus at Colbert, I celebrated my father's 58th birthday at the Downriver Grill. My parents and Eric and Jenny were there. We know one of the chefs, which is fun, the food's very good and it was nice to see my family since I don't very often anymore. I got my Dad a Whitworth Dad sweatshirt (I hope this one fits!) It was also my parents' 33rd wedding anniversary! Wow. S0 a very full weekend altogether and a very full week ahead. I just have to make it through the 20th and then it will be Thanksgiving break!

Oh, and John Coltrane. He's revered in the jazz world. He's one of the biggest names there is. It's pretty much blasphemy not to like him. And yet I don't. He gives me a headache. I understand that his ideas are all revolutionary and stuff, but his tone is just icky. Sorry, but even if I am a small fish two-bit sophomoric jazz-pianist wannabe I'm entitled to my opinion. Coltrane is not fun to listen to, although the piano section of Softly isn't too bad. :-0)


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Now playing: John Coltrane - Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
via FoxyTunes