Madden Franchise Part 3

I came out with a perfect season with a Super Bowl win against the Falcons under my belt. I am excited for next year.

Beggar chronicles Pt. 1

After 5 years of begging for the WSC Madrigal Dinners, there are stories to be shared. I remember one night my first year I told Mr. Headley (our make-up master) to play up the scar on my face. Let's just say that people were not happy to see this coming in to eat a good meal. Oh well, live and learn. I believe I made around $60 that year.

More to come....

Madden Franchise Part 2

I already ended preseason perfectly and now 7 weeks into the year. I am now 6-0 and my lowest score is 182-0 win in the regular season. When I started, I was $11.4 mill. in the red. With 3 home games, I am now $3.65 mill. in the black and $17.5 mill. cap room. I think I will sign on a free agent or something in the offseason. I'll see how I feel at the time.

Madden Franchise

So I started a franchise on Madden 06 with the Steelers. Why? Why not? I am now 2-0 in preseason and very excited to see regular season games. I first beat the Eagles 217-0 with over 1000 total yards. I just beat the Dolphins 210-0 with 975 total yards. I may be unstoppable, but let's not jinx anything yet. More to come as it happens.

Madrigal Dinners

I had the opportunity to go back up to Wayne for the Madrigal Dinners this weekend. I had so much fun being the beggar yet again. As I went up, I made a goal to make at least 80 dollars through begging. I am happy to announce that mission accomplished. I raked in $84.44 this year. I must be crazy if I can pull that much in.

Watchmen

I started reading Watchmen for the third time last week. It is amazing how much detailed and layered this book is. I am catching things that I missed the first two readings. Find it, read it, love it. That is all.

Fall

I love fall. The leaves falling, people burning wood and other incriminating things in their fireplaces, the temperature dropping to the inevitable chill, then I realize something is missing....Marching Band! I'll get over it because this is the first time in about a decade that I haven't been on the field playing "balls to the wall" with all the other brass players while the woodwinds complain about their pads getting ruined. I miss all those at Wayne working their butts off in their classes and practice room. If nothing else, I will be up at Wayne in December for the Mads Dinners. Yay! That's all I have to say about that.

News

Alas my friends, for I have news. I have my own apartment. That is definately a sign I am not going anywhere for at least a year, at least for permanent residence. I plan on visiting at some point in the semester.

So if I don't write againg before school starts, good luck and have some fun.

Update

Here is an update for those that are following and/or wondering. I got a job. I am in week four of working for Midwest Manufacturing. This is a company that makes and ships bricks. I am in the tumbler room (please don't make me explain) sorting bricks and making palettes. It can be tough, but I got a paycheck for 415.06. Not too shabby, eh?

Real Life

I knew it, real life sucks! I miss you guys so much, but I feel calmer, a little more focused, and want to play as much as possible. More to come as it happens.

Life outside college

For those who don't know, I left Wayne State. It doesn't seem right finishing a degree when I can barely get excited for it. If I stayed through May, I wouldn't have accomplished too much outside lessons. I would like to apologize to those I didn't say goodbye to and then say goodbye. I will be up to visit when I can.

Good luck to everyone with upcoming concerts and juries.
I love you all (no homo).
Mark

My mind

Now my mind feels like it is going a million miles a second and accelerating while floating in space at the same time. There is so much I want to yell and scream through this blog and off the rooftop. I refrain from the blog because I want to keep it clean. If I write, I don't want it to come out as emo poetry or some bull ploppy that sounds stupid.

My thoughts on life

I have something to get off my chest. I do not care about graduating from this college or, more importantly, life anymore. No, that DOES NOT mean that I want to commit suicide. I have just become indifferent to what is out there. I just feel like a ghost floating from place to place. I know I seem very happy when you guys see me, but I don't want you guys to be concerned. Inside, there is the perverbial fox gnawing at me from the inside. You would think that music would help me more with this feeling, but I just can't get excited about it like I used to. I used to look forward to going to any ensemble I am a part of and make music with my friends. Now I feel that I have to go to band or choir because someone forced me to. Music still does move me and I still love to play and sing, to make things clear. I am grateful to my freedom to be in music and make a career out if it, but I am just not happy with it anymore. I guess that I want to be a part of a group. But that group has to work hard with an occasional day of ADD, not the other way around. I want to see a group that shows constant respect to the director and that director to have equal respect for every section. That statement DOES NOT reflect any teacher at WSC. That may not ever happen, but wouldn't be nice?

There might be more to come....

An interesting idea

I wonder if it would work for jazz combo to play some Blood, Sweat and Tears or Chicago songs in the future. Just a thought.

New ensemble?

Does anybody want to try to pull off a low brass quartet with me? It will be two trombones, one euphonium and a tuba. I know it's already past midterms, but I was thinking we won't perform until next semester if everyone involved is still here. Just a thought, it won't kill me if it doesn't happen.

That log

Recently, I have been forgetting to write in that log for practicing. I feel bad for not doing it, but it doesn't mean I haven't been practicing. Oh well, it shows more in playing than it does on paper.

Playing open

The more I practice, the more I play without the wine cork. Last week I realized that all I have to do is think of the ah vowel, like in father, whenever I play.

Playing

I think I play better on my schilke 59 than I do the 58. I talked with Josh during my lesson on Tuesday and he thinks a bigger mouthpiece may be better for me. With a bigger mouthpiece, I will lose some of my high range. Then again, I don't have that great of a high range anyway and I need to work to improve it. Yay for working fundies next week and every week after that for the rest of my playing days!

Practice

This week has been really hard to practice. It's not because of time restrictions or anything, but just being mentally focused and willing to practice. Last week was similar in that regard. Next week will hopefully be an awesome week to practice because spring break is coming up.

Arranging

Tonight, I have been trying to arrange 3 Beatles songs for our brass ensemble this semester. It is harder arranging for 9 people instead of 4 or maybe 5. It hurts the brain.

Tour

This week, we tour area high schools for two days, Tuesday and Friday. It has screwed with my practice schedule for some reason. I couldn't have my lesson yesterday either, so that doesn't help.

Day off

Today is a good day. All I did was eat and watch tv. This is something everyone needs to do once in a while.

Good rehearsal

Today in wind ensemble, we treated as a silent rehearsal. This way, everyone shuts up, pays attention and actually plays. We sounded a lot better than the last couple of weeks. Thank you Dave for doing that.

Music Education Awareness?

As you all know, I decided to change my major from music education to music industry. I am happy and feel no remorse from it. The question is if I still want to be a part of MENC, the group that raises music education awareness. I still support music education because that is where quite a bit of my customers lie. I don't know if I have the energy to still be a part of this group for at least another year and a half.

9 days after

So it has been nine days after my sound revalation. Boy has it been hard. I have worked and worked and worked, and so far I felt I have made no progress. I go into my lesson yesterday with Josh and says what I needed to hear. He told me that I am on the right track and I just need to keep plugging away. So I go into band today and tell myself that I will play on my Schilke 59 today. I sound amazing without the cork! Good day for me.

Revalation

I realized in my lesson yesterday that I don't open up my mouth when I play. There is simply too much tension and not enough space for the air to pass between my lungs and the end of the trombone. And to think that most, if not all, of this can be solved with a wine cork.
Thank you Josh for that revalation of thought and technique.

Fun challenge

Here's a fun "challenge" for my followers:

Comment on this blog with the completion of a joke. I will start it.

"A guy walks into a bar...."

Finish it (but keep it clean).

Sectionals

I have had the best sectionals for wind ensemble this semester than the 4 and a half years before this.Everybody knows their parts better, we listen to each other, and we adjust when need be. We also click a lot better than this section ever has. Yay for the trombone section this year!

Blarg

I got done with practicing tonight, and I feel I got quite a bit done. Then I looked at how much time I spent vs. past sessions. I spent less time practicing but felt I got just as much done as I did when I practiced for 20 or 30 minutes longer. What's going on?

One more to the list

Check out this video of System of a Down playing Toxicity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iywaBOMvYLI

Some days are bad.

Today made me mad in wind ensemble and jazz band today. Absolutely no one was focused in wind ensemble. Everyone seemed to see band as "let's talk over Dave because we haven't seen each other in 20 minutes" time. Also, my sound just wasn't where I wanted it to be, but those days happen. All I have to say about jazz band: too much talking, too much noodling while Josh was talking, not enough actual playing of the music. Isn't that we are here, to play some music? At least I got done a little early from jazz band today. Now I can go practice at my speed, at my noise level, and most importantly, at my own sanity.

They keep coming..... but not always musical

Jim Gaffigan.......bacon........'nuff said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nT9P8MMpsE

another video

I've been listening to R. E. M. a lot recently and one of my favorite songs is Losing My Religion. Here is a video of a live performance of that song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmkTl8wpAYc

More practicing

Last week, I worked on the first movement on my two movement solo. I would first buzz a short section until I was able to accurately blow the center of pitch and then play it on the trombone. I could feel an improvement leaps and bounds further than anything before this semester. Note to self: do that every time I pick up the trombone.

Blackbird

One group that has inspired me since I first found out about them was the King's Singers. They inspired me to be a better musician and arrange pieces for different small ensembles. Here is their arrangement of Blackbird by the Beatles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywkarAwB0W8

Amazing

This video blew me away when I first saw it. It is of a guitar player named Andy Mckee playing his own work Drifting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4

Practicing

After focusing on fundamentals for the last week and a half, practicing any music has gotten so much easier for me. My practice schedule always includes breathing, mouthpiece work, and longtones in that order right off the bat. I do need to focus on my high range studies a lot more and scales. What I have done so far with breathing and going through an embouchure change has really stepped up my playing and opened up my tone quite a bit.