jazz

I love jazz. I love the way the instruments interact with each other, the cool, laid back vibe they give off.

This weekend I heard NexLevel, a local 'smooth jazz' band.

I finally picked up a Medeski, Martin and Wood album this weekend, too, so I don't have to rely on downloads at the computer.

There's a distinct difference between jazz and any other type of music: rock, country, classical....

Other types of music are about telling a story. Rock and pop, blues and country, they wrap it into a 3-5 minute tale, the instruments and lyrics working collectively to tell the story in the most condensed version possible. Classical, opera, musicals, they have grander tales, bigger morals, stories for the ages. They take turns telling their part of the story, in the same way your friends relate their latest adventure by playing off of each others' words and embellishing their favorite parts. You hear if from the brass fanfares to the soaring soprano solos, to the quiet hum of the strings.

Jazz doesn't tell a story. Jazz is a conversation. It's a few friends sitting around in their favorite haunt, maybe a pub or lounge, debating philosophy equally with talking about nothing. Everyone gets their turn and sometimes your friends' ideas surprise you. Personalities are revealed; the shuffle of the snare and hihat, the consistent walking bass, the sporatic yet melodic melodies of the guitar or sax or trumpet. I love jazz. I love the way the instruments interact with each other, the cool, laid back vibe they give off.

the job search continues...

I've been sort-of job searching on and off for a few months now. I found another decent prospect today - surprisingly from my alma mater's job listing. They typically have unpaid internships and daycare postings for students and about 1 in every 85 jobs is really a job.

Today's find was a state job - yay for every random holiday off! It does require some travel and the odd weekend/evening. The only contact info listed was a guy's name and email, and I know that state jobs require some weird application stuff. But it should be worth the hassle. Especially for more money and less stress.

CSRZ part II

So the CSRZ are up to it again. My friend told me about the SpongeBob story the other day. These people can't find anything better to do with their time? Go to a homeless shelter or help out sick little kids - something useful and Christian?

Now these people have the right idea.

nvu

This was posted to one of my listservs earlier last week:

Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") is an open-source Web
Authoring System that combines web file management and easy-to-use
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editing.

Offering Dreamweaver and GoLive features, Nvu is easy to use, making
it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an
attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML
or web coding.

Though the focus of the project is to bring an easy-to-use, quality
web authoring system to Desktop Linux, Nvu is also available for
Windows and Mac OS X.

The release of Version 1.0 is scheduled for 1st quarter of 2005. A
beta version of 1.0 is available now. You may review its features,
see screenshots, and download a copy by going here:

http://www.nvu.com/features.html

I don't know if it's worth downloading, but thought it was interesting.

unbelievable...

I was reading Superblog!! and they've posted about this:

Crazy Scary Religious Zealots (CSRZ)

Go ahead.. click the link. Take a few minutes to read through their manifesto, er, I mean Features.
The FAQ is also enlightening.

I'm still a little too shocked to get angry, but I'm sure it will come to me.

gig results

church gig
Sunday morning's gig went well on my part - I got to groove a little bit and had a blast. The music director was on vacation and one of the choir members was handling music for the morning. (I think he's a deacon or elder there and has assisted with music in the past as well). We were playing along, and he and the vocalists were singing, and the congregation was singing. La la la.

And then... something happened and the singing wasn't even close to what the band was playing. The guy had to stop dead during the song to regain the footing. He handled it well - cracked a joke and got everyone back on track. Afterwards he said he thought he might have crossed out the wrong verse or something that was being flashed on the screen for the congregation. The stopping was awkward because 1) most of the congregation didn't have a clue what a director's cut off was and 2) the band was looking at each other like "does he really want us to stop?!" - in any band I've played in it's sort of unwritten that you just keep going and recover later.

So the #1 lesson learned on this gig is "be ready for anything". The #2 lesson is "trust your ears" - one of the songs that I received that morning to learn for praise band had some weird chord inversions that sounded horrible when I played them as indicated. When I played what my ears told me it sounded way better. At least for a happy church sound.

---

audition
Last night was my first audition for a band. The band is currently 2 guitarists and the rhytm guitarist sings and occassionally adds keys. Right before my arrival the lead guitarist had to cancel, but the main guy decided to go ahead anyway. (They've got a few other people to audition and an upcoming gig to get ready for). Their music is a little different and I like it. I can't say I adore it, but I definately "get it". They're also a few years younger which makes a bit of a difference. I didn't click very much with the guy I auditioned with, although playing together went pretty well. I didn't come out with any great lines or anything, but was able to follow along with minimal difficulty.

They may or may not decide to have me back to play with both of them after they hear the other bassists. I'm not sure I want to follow up with it even if they do call me back. I may find that I click really well with the other guitarist, but I'm not expecting that. I'm trying to balance staying open-minded about music opportunities and pursuing something that will allow me to grow musically and stay happy with it.

The #1 lesson I learned from this audition was that I should get a list of songs to learn beforehand, even if it's not a cover band, to help get a feel for how we play together.

the string quartet tribute to...

The soundtrack to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou features a guy named Seu Jorge playing acoustic guitar and singing David Bowie songs in Portugese. My friend has been dying to pick it up, so we went to Best Buy looking for it. [They didn't have it, and neither did Target.]

Apparently, any band/musician worth their salt has a String Quartet Tribute to their music. Or sometimes a Bluegrass Tribute To... and in one case a Guitar Tribute To...

Do you enjoy the funky rock of Red Hot Chili Peppers? Now you can listen to their songs reinterpretted by a string quartet! How fun!

Oh, but you're into the indy rock kind of stuff? Not to worry, of course the Pixies have a String Quartet Tribute!

More of a middle-of-the-road, acoustic rock fan? Boy are you lucky, because this rockin' string quartet has completed two volumes of Dave Matthews Band tributes!

I think it's time my friend and I start doing the Brass Duo Tribute To.... series. We could start with 80's hair bands... maybe Guns 'N Roses...

music, music, music

This morning I had practice with a church orchestra & singers for tomorrow's service. I'm subbing for their regular bass player. It went very well, challenging but not too difficult, and I had a lot of fun. Of course, music is always a lot of fun. The guitar player retrieved a really nice Hartke combo amp from somewhere for me to use that sounded great. I love the sound of Hartke amps. And now I don't have to haul my very wonderful(but very heavy) amp with me tomorrow morning.

This church has an orchestra and a choir and a praise team. The praise team appears to be made up of membes of the orchestra and choir. So it seems like sort of the same thing to me. I think the praise team sings contemporary christian music and is a little more rockin'. I will find out for sure tomorrow since I was recruited after today's rehersal to sub for the bass player (same person) in that, too. It only requires an extra 30 or 40 minutes of my time. It also means I get to learn a new song tomorrow morning in that 30 minutes. Nothing like jumping in with both feet and having a blast doing it.

The good/bad thing about this morning's rehersal is that:
BAD: There's something wrong with the wiring in my bass so it needs to visit the doctor. It will take a couple days, so that humming will be there tomorrow - although it's only noticeable when I'm not playing, which is pretty much only between songs.
GOOD: I've eliminated the amp as the problem (since I've played it through a few different ones with the same result). And I've narrowed it down to either the bridge pickup or the wiring of the bridge pickup.

I've got plans to meet up with a couple guys Monday night to jam. They are trying to form a band. Right now they have guitar, keys, and voice covered. So they need a bass player and drummer. From the demos I've heard their sound is really different... imagine some postmodern punk, the Cure, some '60's psychadelic sounds, and folk music... and that's sort of their sound.

Working Girl said it best in her post: "Why do I do anything other than play music, and sing, and jam? Why would you ever do anything else? "

work blahs & happy life stuff

work blahs
I've been feeling very cabin fever-y at my job lately. Must. Get. Out.

I finished the draft of my portfolio and had an artist friend review it. I told her to be mean, and she wasn't, but she did give me some good advice.

The design job I applied for online said a portfolio was required (of course) but it also says not to contact them unless you hear from them after submitting your resume. I think I may forward them my portfolio anyways, with a brief cover letter that says something about feeling it's useless to apply for a design position without giving them any design work.

I also just applied for a job as a communication director for a large banking company. The job description was lengthy and yet pretty vague. It mostly translated to "make pretty graphs for the executives and catchy adverstisments for the customers".

happy life stuff
I have a gig Sunday morning - bass. Practice Saturday, and last weeks practice went very well. I surprised myself.

I found a guy that's trying to start a band locally and got some mp3s from him this morning. I might go to their practice Monday night and see how I fit in. They sound a bit like the Cure, Radiohead, etc. but not exactly.

three random things

We went and saw Blade Trinity last night. The good thing about expecting the absolute worst is you're usually pleasantly surprised. Still not as good as the original, but waaaaaaaaaay better than Blade II. These movies are always more enjoyable if you sort of ignore any attempts at a real plot, too.

I had to have a "coaching moment" with the bitchiest of my coworkers. It's hard to say, "It's not up to you to decide whether or not someone's allowed to get time off to take their kid to the doctor, it's up to management. Especially since management gives you every single request off."

Just applied for a job as a graphic production specialist. Design and find places to print corporate communication. If I'm gonna work for The Man, it should at least be doing something fun. With better hours. I knew there was a reason I started putting my portfolio together last weekend. Just a few things to add and tweak and it's ready to give them.

cities at night

Columbus Skyline
Originally uploaded by SilverTurtle.

I can tell you the exact moment I knew I was a city girl, in love with the lights and bustle and culture and excitement for life. I was about 12 or 13 and my family had driven to Chicago to visit my aunt and her family. They lived not far from the city.

The first night we drove in, I saw the Chicago skyline against the dark sky and Lake Michigan. My mind could have exploded with curiosity; what happened in each building, what were all those people doing right now, what great things were being created in those several miles alone? And that was it, I was in love. With cities of all kinds. I can visit the country, and I really do enjoy nature, but I need to be in a city about 360 days a year to be content.

Friday night when I got off work I felt like taking a litle stroll around downtown, just to enjoy being in the city. Columbus is best described as a "big city with a small town feel", although it's more of a medium size. Even for a Friday it was pretty calm - very relaxing.

I decided to shoot some photos of landmarks and lights and the general beauty of a city. The most activity was around the Ohio Theatre, where people were heading in to see the supremely popular show The Producers. Outside the theatre I ran into Steve Streets, a guy that sings and plays tuba around town. Otherwise it was quiet. Check out all the pretty photos here.

peace in the sudan

I'm the first to admit that I know very little about the troubles in the Sudan, and even less about the politics behind those troubles. But it appears a peace treaty has been signed.

The article notes that it will be difficult to implement and follow through on. I think it's at leat a big step in the right direction.

If only the big, bad U.S. leaders would choose to help other countries seek peace...

And while I'm on the topic of African countries needing help: Elias Fund (it has sound if you're at work or somewhere you need to mute speakers first)

the kidnapping

MISSION OBJECTIVE: Liberate friend who never leaves house due to 1 year old child
CODENAME: Operation Rescue Mommy

The plan was simple enough... Charlotte & I show up at friends' house, kidnap mommy, and leave son with daddy. Wild-n-Crazy Girls Night Out ensues.

Approximately .25 miles from target's house we receive a text message... from the target. It tells us that daddy is out with a friend and mommy is at home alone with son.

So we showed up and announced our plans, noting that we discussed getting ski masks but changed our minds. After about 20 minutes mommy decides to bundle up baby and go out anyway.

So the plan was semi-successful. At least mommy got out of the house for a couple hours. The Wild-n-Crazy part will have to happen next time.

things that kick ass

There are a few things that have been rockin' my world lately. The following things kick ass in no particular order:

Gmail - 3+ months and still spam-free

Flickr

My Kodak EasyShare CX7430 camera - (merry xmas to you, too, dad!)

Fried Mushrooms - The other night I was out for drinks w/ a friend. We split a sampler appetizer that had yummy fried mushrooms on it. Then she ordered a sandwich and I ordered a whole plate of fried mushroom. I swear I wasn't high. They just went so well with the pints of Bass.

CSS

Firefox

Silver Turtle's Boyfriend (STBF)

prison movies

I just posted a comment over at MooCow's blog in regards to The Shawshank Redemption. And then I continued to rant about prison movies. So for everyone's reading pleasure, here's my take on prison movies, because they are all the same. They're like a subdivision of 'male quest movies', which I may or may not elaborate on later if I'm bored. (College Gender & Film class was so useful!)


There are so many prison movies they could be their own genre. Want to write one of your own? Here's the recipe:

Basic Plot:
Guy on the inside is either innocent or being treated much worse than is acceptable for his crime.

Characters: (all male, I have yet to see a prison movie starring women)
Bad prison guy our hero must defeat.
The lifer- the loner old guy that knows everything and has everything rigged.
The evil warden.
The evil guards.
The one sympathetic guard.
Optional - the newbie young guy that our hero befriends and teaches how to survive on "the inside".

Resolution: The Grand Escape of our hero (escape can be a break out or can be his defeat of evil wardens, or a transfer, or a reduced sentence, or any combination).

So, what are you waiting for? Everyone get crackin' on their prison movie scripts. Don't forget to mix some action in with your touching drama!

one person, one name

I was watching The Matrix Reloaded tonight. There are so many characters, and they all have just one name. There is only 1 Neo, only 1 Morpheous, only 1 Link, etc. Not Neo Smith and Neo Johnson.

The internet communities we build and participate in are very much that way, too. I use Silver Turtle at a lot of places on the web (stop trying to stalk me...) and I know a lot of other people that have 1 general name they use for their online shenanagins. What if that's just how it was. When someone said, "Oh I saw Silver Turtle rockin' out on bass last week", they would be talking about me, because there would be no other Silver Turtle out there.

I actually like me real name just fine, but it is fairly common. And there are about 10 accepted ways to spell it, plus a few other made-up ways to spell it. So being the only Silver Turtle would have its benefits. Then again, when I came on here and bitched about my coworkers, they'd know exactly who I was. So I guess I'd still need an online alter ego. Like Bruce Wayne/Batman.

memo to mother nature

To: Mother Nature
From: Silver Turtle
RE: Weather
CC: Mother Earth, God, Any Other Supreme Beings

Dear Mother Nature,

If I wanted gloomy grey skies and drizzly rain for a week and a half straight, without even a glimpse of the sunshine I so need & love, I would move to Seattle. As I haven't moved to Seattle, and in fact reside in the midwestern United States, I expect weather to change at least every couple of days. Including seeing some damn sun.

I do thank you for melting all of the snow away and would be quite happy if it didn't get much colder all winter.

Sincerely,
Silver Turtle

P.S. A tsunami?! We know you have some awesome powers, but was that really necessary?

work, work, work

I'm one of those people that has to set their alarm like an hour ahead because I'll hit snooze for an hour and fifteen minutes before dragging myself out of bed. The first couple of times I hit snooze I won't even really be awake to remember doing it.

This morning as my alarm was going off for the 6th time there was something weird going on. It took a few minutes for my brain to process that it was the CD playing from my alarm clock coupled with the obnoxious ringtone from my cell phone - the obnoxious ringtone that means work is calling. By the time I got up and walked the approximately 2 feet to my phone, they had hung up.

My boss' message was: "I have a slight emergency. If you get this message, go ahead and get dressed and come in." 2 hours before I'm supposed to be there. So I drug myself into the shower, got dressed, skipped what little breakfast I normally eat, and headed to work. Turns out 2 key people called off, and my boss had a meeting she couldn't get out of, so it was pretty crazy. I didn't even take a 5 minute break all day, much less lunch. (Lucky for me Tuesday is the office candy day, so I ate at least 13 mini-chocolate bars). One of the people who called off, however, is pretty pissy & annoying to work with. So the day actually went better than usual, because I didn't have to deal with that coworker. It's messed up when you're happy people aren't at work, even though it triples your workload.

When I got home I cooked dinner, went to the grocery store (I think I'll save bitching about the grocery store for its very own post), and did laundry. About 13.5 hours after being startled awake, I got to sit down and relax. I've felt sort of off-kilter all day.

I also agreed to play a church gig - just a Sunday morning deal - in a week and a half. I'm not even sure which instrument they need me to play yet.

dinner & a movie

I saw Meet the Fockers tonight. Funny stuff. Predictable, but funny. I forgot how funny Dustin Hoffman can be - that guy really is a great actor.

After the movie we stopped for coffee & ran into one of Carlos' friends. We never run into people we know when we're out & about. I lived in Ann Arbor for one summer and ran into people I had met just about every day. This is surprising since there were maybe 10 people in the whole city that I knew. Here the only time and place I run into people is at festivals. I know way more people in this city. But then again, most of my friends are lame and sit at home most nights.

education

Education - Don't get too much

Sigh. It would be so much better to teach your children the religious beliefs of your choice, why you believe them, and that it's okay that not everything coincides with them, and then leave it at that. A big part of any religion is faith; the concept that you believe without any concrete evidence of why you believe, in spite of things you encounter in life.

When kids encounter issues like feminism (which for some reason is considered liberal) they should question why their religion is so afraid of treating women equally. If people decide to follow their parents religion - great. If not, that's their choice. Either way, I'm pretty sure that learning about evolution, the age of reason, or the civil rights movement have nothing to do with each individual's faith. I'm a pretty left liberal, and I have the same faith as when I was in high school. It seems I have the uncommon ability to not feal threatened by people different than me and I also think that they should have the same rights as me.

Things like this remind me of learning about medievil times in high school, and how the only people able to read the bible were the priests who spoke/read Latin. The priests who were abundantly dishonest brainwashed their charges for their own benefit, not because they were doing "the Lord's work". Wake up, conservative Christian America!

gooooogling

The other afternoon I was Googling local & regional music. I clicked on a link for a band unknown to me.

A photograph popped up & there was a shock of blonde hair among the dark, gothy-emo looking band members. A shock of blonde hair that I recognized at once. Sure enough, it was a guy that I waited tables with a few years back, during my last semester of college. I wasn't able to listen to any of their music, so I don't know if it's any good, and I don't remember him ever mentioning that he played bass or was in any bands or anything.

He will always be locked in my memory with a few other guys that waited tables with me at that same place. Most of them were stoners in varying degrees, but
there was

the try-everything-anytime stoner

the too-nice-to-hang-out-with-these-guys guy next door

the mysterious-in-a-dark-way-you-don't-want-to-know guy

the "good" drug dealer

the not-very-bright guy

and the punk-skater-boy(mentioned above).

Sometimes I drive by that restaurant (where none of us work anymore) and
wonder what the heck happened to all of them. Since none of them were really ambitious, career-driven individuals.
Now I know what happened to one of them.

bands & such

I just responded to a musician-wanted ad and posted a musician-looking-for-band ad online. At the least I should get to jam with a few different people and at best may find a band finally.

I also heard from the orchestra director at the church who will be sending me their January schedule. I'll probably play tuba almost exclusively there - which is good because I don't have much outlet for that instrument right now. Maybe I'll have a few opportunities to play bass with them, but if not, that's okay, too. It would be ideal if I can play at least once every couple of months with them on either instrument. In addition to the playing experience and fun, it will help solidify my network with some of those musicians.

(Experience + Networking = More Playing) = one happy silver turtle

welcome to 2005

The first day of 2005 turned out to be much busier than I expected. My original plan was:
Wake up late
Mess around online-maybe even get a new blog template
Pick up Carlos
Play bass
Maybe go see a movie

What actually happened was:
At about 10:30 this morning I was awoken by the Beastie Boys Brass Monkey - my friend Charlotte calling me.

I takled to Charlotte for about 10 minutes before Carlos called to tell me he was off work early & ask me to pick him up. I took a quick shower and picked up Carlos, came home & did not much of anything until Charlotte showed up an hour or so later. Well, I did make lunch - my Kickass Chili Dogs[TM].

Carlos wanted to nap, so we said we'd call in an hour or two and get him to go see a movie. Charlotte & I drove around aimlessly. I saw something really sweet that I'm going to take a picture of and post eventually - there is a minicooper mounted to the side of a building downtown. The actual car. We couldn't figure out how it's mounted, but it looks rad. And it sort of looks like it might fall on someone's head at any second.

We called Carlos, who didn't answer his phone. So we went and saw Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, knowing that Carlos didn't have any interest in it. [It was pretty good. The movie is pretty, thanks to all those folks who have worked with Tim Burton. And there's lot's of symbolism that made me think I might start reading the books. Since Harry Potter books and movies don't take up enough of my time now.]

Then we went to Barnes & Noble to look around. We also got coffee, and I was annoyed because of course it's Starbucks. I don't like Starbucks, and their coffee is not fabulous. We didn't see anything we wanted to buy there, so we decided to drive back across town to Half Price Books. I tried to call Carlos, because that's one of his favorite stores. Still no anwer. So we went and looked around and I still didn't buy anything, although Charlotte did.

Then, about 8:30 I arrived home. I had some dinner - peanut butter on wheat bread sandwiches. Then I played bass for awhile. Which went well and made me happy. And now I'm here.