30 albums in 30 days

Hey hey!
I'm going to try something new! Despite the fact that I'm a music student and literally spend my days immersed in music, I'm finding that I just don't know as many artists/albums as I should/could. I just wish I was familiar with more.

SO. For the next 30 days (today-October 5), I'm going to be listening to a new album every day and then posting my thoughts on it. YES, it's going to be challenging, as it means ≈ 1 hour of solid listening everyday, but keep me accountable. It'll be all styles, just trying to get as much diversity as possible. Some may be stuff that I've listened to before, but mostly will be brand new. Also, I don't consider what I'll be writing "reviews" per se, as I'll only be listening to them once or perhaps twice. If you know me, you know that I'm very adamant about not making a judgement on music until I've listened to it at least ten times, so this will be a bit of a departure from that. But c'est la vie. Want to join me?

Tonight I'll be writing about Passion Pit's Gossamer. :) Any suggestions for what else to listen to? I'll definitely be doing Daft Punk's new album (cause I've been dying to listen to it), some Bill Evans, some Bjork, Phantogram's Eyelid Movies, and I expect some blind-cd-shelf-grabs from my University's library. But seriously, if you suggest something, and I haven't listened to it too much (and I can get a copy- I will certainly buy some, but I also don't have the $$$ right now to buy 30 albums atm, so I will also be relying on the library, and Youtube), I will be almost guaranteed to listen to it! Suggestions please!

Steve, Jobs, but not Steve Jobs.

You didn't believe me when I said I was going to post once a week, did you?

Ha.

The past week has been good. My biggest news is that I have got a new job! In the past, I have been working for Safeway at a licensed Starbucks kiosk. It was a good job, I enjoyed it, and it was close enough to my house that I could walk to it (which was very important to me). However, given the choice, I would rather work in a corporate "stand-alone" Starbucks. But there wasn't one near my house. Until recently. A new store just opened! And conveniently, it is literally across the street from where I was working. So I applied, and got hired! I haven't started there yet, (just gave my 2-weeks at Safeway) but I'm excited! The manager seems great, I basically already know the job, and the perks are waaaay better. (WAAAAAY BETTER).

How's the reading going, you may ask? Well, I unfortunately had to return the Sondheim book to the library before I finished it, but I'm just to going to check it out again. In the meantime, I've been reading everything that I can get my hands on about Steve Reich. He's one of the world's greatest living composers, and there's like, a 95% chance that I'll be able to meet him in a few weeks. At any rate, I'll be in the same room with him. I can't even deal.

"Resolutions"

Hey friends!

I was sitting in class this morning and thought, "I should write a blog post today," so here we are. January 8th, folks. How're the New Year's resolutions coming? Still going to the gym? My resolution last year was to drastically increase my intake of sushi (I'm not kidding, that was actually my 2012 resolution) and I succeeded! I don't really have one specific resolution this year, but I have a couple things that I'd like to work on.

The first thing is that I would like to get in that habit of composing every day. I've been feeling a bit musically uninspired in the past month, and it's easy to just say "oh, I've got writer's block blah blah blah," but writer's block is nothing more than a really bad excuse. 99% of the time, writing, composing etc does not come in flash of creative inspiration, but rather comes from just starting somewhere and practicing everyday, and working diligently on it. So I want to get in the habit of working on my music every single day, even if it's just getting one measure further on a piece, or just quickly jotting down a melody. Just something. 

My second "resolution" is to read more. I didn't read much last year. So I'm going to try to read 40 books/plays this year. Seems like a steep goal, cause it's almost one book/play a week, but I'll see how it goes. I'd also like to write more, so maybe I'll try to write a response here once I'm done each book?

The first book I'm reading is a book of interviews with one of my favourite composers, Stephen Sondheim. It's called Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions.

The next few books I'd like to read are:

1. Life of Pi (I read this a few years ago, but I'm reading it this term for a literature class, so I'm looking forward to rereading it.)
2. Pride and Prejudice (I've been enjoying the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on Youtube, which is a great vlog-style modern adaptation of the novel (excellently done), and I've seen a stage production of P&P but I've never actually finished the book. I've tried multiple times, but never really gotten into it, but I'm determined to finish it. Then maybe I'll read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? ;P)
3. Cloud Atlas (I just watched the film, and thought it was fascinating, and thought-provoking, so I'd love to read the original.) 

Any other book suggestions?

Oh! And I'm going to try to write a blog post once a week! I'm not naive enough to believe that I will be consistent, especially once the term workload gets heavy, but I'm really going to try.

Hope all is well with y'all! 

Dan

Summer! And stuff! More exclamations points!

Hello friends! It's summer!

Believe it or not.

I have tons to write about! But I'm actually not sure how to begin. How about I just sum up my whole year? 

No? No? Okay.

So, the main thing is that I'm done school. Have been for a few weeks, actually. I survived a whole year in school! The main thing is that I wrote my final two diplomas, and now I just have to wait to get my marks. Assuming I passed those, I'm all set to study music at post-secondary this fall. I wrote Biology and Math, and though I'm not at all worried about my Biology mark, I'm slightly concerned about my Math one. Not that I don't think I'll pass it, but I found it quite difficult, and am not at all convinced that the exam went well. We'll see though! 

Overall though, I must admit that my school experience was pretty great. I met some nice fellow students, and my teachers we're absolutely wonderful. I actually really enjoyed it. I was really looking for something new this year, a change of scene, a change of pace. I'm not sure that I would want to do it for more than a year. But this year (for me) it was perfect. I also think it gave me a good preparation for university next year. I also love that I can homeschool for most of my school years, spending tons of time practicing my music, and then scamper into school for 10 months and get all the necessary courses to get into university. :)

Also, I'm almost done composing my piece for the symphony! I've composed it the point where I think it's done, then my mentor will study it, I'll edit the final final score, and then I just have to format the individual instrument parts and it'll be completely done! It's very different from anything I've written before, but I'm proud of it and happy with the outcome. And I've learned an enormous amount from the experience. The final cherry on top will be hearing a professional orchestra play it in front of 2000 people in September! Ahh! Excited/nervous.

Lastly, I have a job! Part-time at Starbucks! It's fun so far, though tons and tons to learn at first. My head feels like it'll explode from all the drinks and combinations to learn. But good, and my co-workers have been really nice and helpful. It's nice getting money deposited in my bank account every week too!

Anyway, that's all for now! Hope your summers are wonderful! 

Daniel

Bonjour! Updates!

My life, you guys. My life. My life is crazy, and so busy. Anyway, lots new with me, but I'm going to try and keep this fairly short, mainly because I should be doing French homework, and I'm (obviously) not. Blogging is more enjoyable than homework. 

I just finished up with a concert production of Titanic: the musical, which was a really neat show to be a part of. This year marks 100 years since the sinking of the Titanic and I felt really fortunate and priviledged to be in the show. I played Robert Hitchens (the quartermaster). Great cast, great crew, 100 piece choir, 40 piece orchestra, and a huge concert hall. It was just huge in every aspect, and I think the show is a beautiful tribute to the Titanic. 

But now that the show is over, I have to really grit my teeth and ply myself to my school work. I think I only have about 50 school days left till I write my last diploma exam! And I have lots to do, and catch up on in that time! Sigh.

Anyway, that's all for now, cause as I said, I need to go do some French schoolwork! 

Salut!

Daniel

P.S. I just realized that I used an inordinate amount of exclamation points in that post.

#SorryI'mNotSorry

A Few Thoughts on (Mostly My) Education

I’ve been thinking a lot about my experience in school recently and about what I’ve learned, aside from the coursework. Mainly, I’ve thought about the education system, compared with the many years that I homeschooled, (which were the fundamental years of my education, and the years that really shaped how I think). Up until this past September, I’d been homeschooled for my whole life. Technically, I suppose this is my 4^th year of high school and combined with the fact that my parents actually started “officially” educating me a year later than normal, the result is that I’m taking a year of “normal” school at an age where I’m older than any of the other students I’ve met. Since I’m spending a school year in “the system,” I feel that I’m finally allowed to comment on what I’ve seen and experienced, and the problems I have with the school system. I could go into the question of whether standardized testing is an accurate way of evaluating a student’s learning (my view: it isn’t), and I could go into a discussion of the school system’s poor attempts to take different learning styles into account, but I want to write about something completely different.

I had a pretty great childhood, and I certainly don’t take it for granted. Ever since I can remember, I had a lot of freedom to spend time doing things that I really wanted to do. I could learn about what I wanted to learn, and explore things that interested me. As far as my parents were concerned, so long as I was learning and exploring, it wasn’t a waste of time. I was about 14 when I started to seriously focus on music and theatre. I disciplined myself to diligent piano practice, started taking lessons for flute and voice, began composing music, and co-founded a youth theatre company with two driven friends of mine. As you can imagine, this didn’t exactly leave a lot of time for studying the provincially-prepared course load of Math, English, Social Studies, and Science.  It’s not like I was completely ignoring those subjects though. I plodded along through a math textbook, read and discussed great Classic literature, discussed current events with my family, and learned a great amount about the environment around me, (the perks of having a botanist for a father!). But I invested so much time in my arts studies that there simply wasn’t time to fill the government’s requirements for what constituted an education.

Fast forward to where I am now. I’ve cultivated skills in the areas I plan to pursue after high school, but I don’t have the courses required to get into post-secondary. No problem, that’s why I’m doing a year in normal school, simply to crash my way through some 30-level courses. Sure, I may be older than my fellow students, but I don’t regret a single minute of my education prior to this year. The school system is very heavily oriented to getting students their high school diploma and pushing them into a good university so that they can get a good career and make good money. Teachers often talk about how you should get a good career in something you love doing, but how can you possibly know what you’re passionate about if you haven’t been given the freedom to thoroughly explore your interests? I see lots of students and friends finish high school, and then either a) come to a stop and realise that they have absolutely no clue what they want to do, and/or b) go straight into University, not in a program that they’re really excited about, but rather just settling for one that seems okay. Bearable. Something that sounds relatively interesting, and would appease the parents. There are exceptions of course, students that have managed to find something they truly love doing, despite spending the majority of their childhood in school, but they do seem to be the exceptions.

            I wish that wasn’t the case. During the K-12 years, at an age when one doesn’t have to worry about paying the rent, affording food, or affording your electricity, I wish that every student could have the opportunity (as I did) to spend their childhood discovering what they loved, not to pass a test, but to cultivate a genuine love of learning and to figure out what they really, truly want to spend time in their life doing. For me, an extra year of high school is a small price to pay for spending my K-12 years figuring out what I’m excited about and what I’m interested in pursuing. If the school system spent more time allowing students to figure out their interests, and spent less time on exam marks, I believe that we’d have many more happier people spending their time on pursuits that fill them with joy, rather than drifting aimlessly through years of their lives spending money and time on post-secondary degrees only to realise that they weren’t all that interested in them in the first place.

I don't like titling posts.

In this day and age, it still boggles me that people think you need money and a high paying job to be happy. You don't. You need to absolutely love what you do, and the happiness will come. The living will too.

Characters

Okay, sorry for another Oz-themed post.

Okay, I lied, I'm not sorry. :P

I've been thinking a lot lately about my character and who he is, what makes him "tick", per se etc. I think the characters in The Wizard of Oz are so wonderful, and so human. In my opinion, the reason that The Wizard of Oz has been around for so long and become a classic is because there's a bit of Dorothy in all of us, a bit of Scarecrow, and Tin Man and Lion, and we can all relate and resonate. I love the story, and I love the characters. Sure, they're larger than life, and somewhat caricatures, but there's beautiful, human elements in each one, and that's what I'm really excited and interested in exploring, finding and expressing.

Rehearsals etc.

Hi everyone!

Life is crazy. Seriously, I always seem to be busy, but right now, I think I'm busier then I've ever been. I'm sitting in rehearsal for The Wizard of Oz with a rare spare moment as they rehearse Munchkinland, one of the few scenes that I'm not needed for! Rehearsals are going very well, and it's very exciting! There's always multiple things going on in the theatre building where we rehearse, so we're rehearsing in the space in front of the stage as they paint enormous drops for the show on the actual stage (it's the only place big enough to be able to lay them out and paint them!). Right now, they're painting one for the Emerald City and it looks wonderful! I'm off-book for the stuff we're doing today and so it feels really nice and productive to work on character stuff without script in hand. It feels like it's slowly starting to have some shape. We have about a month and a half! Anyway, that's all for now, I think I'm called soon. I may post these periodically if I get some downtime during rehearsals...

Take care everyone!
Dan

Note: Although I'll type them when I'm at rehearsal, I won't be able to post them till I get to wi-fi, hence the possibly strange posting times.

School etc.

Good evening! How are you? 

I've really missed blogging. I'm happy to be back.

Things have happened. I go to school now. Which is, you know, different. My sister just came back from India, and just like she was a Canadian visiting India, I very much feel like I'm visiting a different country. I'm a Homeschooler visiting Public School.
So far, I've just had three days of orientation, so I can't really tell officially, but I think it'll be good, and I think I'll enjoy the experience. Certainly good preparation for university. It's sure a different sub-culture then I'm used to though. From what I've seen so far, junior high and high school students are... exactly how I expected them to be, from what I'd heard. Now, I know this makes me sound incredibly arrogant and "high-and-mighty", but I'd hoped they'd be a bit more, I dunno, mature or something. Of course, that's a generalization and it only takes a couple to stand out and act for the masses. Ah well, though. We'll see.

Other things. I have a new piano teacher. I haven't had a lesson with him yet (I will have by this time tomorrow), but I'm really looking forward to it! At the end of last year, my old piano teacher (who I studied with for about ten years) told me that she had taken me as far as she could and that if I hoped to continue studying piano, I should move on to a different teacher. So I did, and plan to study for my ARCT with him. I think I'll really be challenged, and learn tons.

Also, I went for a lovely walk with my family on the weekend to the nearby National Park, and saw this adorably tiny little Boreal Toad. It was so cute! Blogger isn't letting my post photos, but when it does, I'll add photos.

Take care!
Dan

went from "in a relationship" to "single" to "in a relationship"...

Hey folks,

You know what bugs me? When people on facebook post a live feed of all the current developments in their new relationship. It shouldn't bug me of course. It doesn't concern me really, or shouldn't concern me at least. And I swear that it's not that I'm bitter about being single. :) (I'm honestly not!) The issue I have with it is that relationships are personal. They're supposed to be about you and that other person. It's not that you don't have to share it with world, and it's not that none of us are interested. I just think it's good for you and your bf/gf to have some sense of privacy.

When you change your relationship status to "in a relationship" ten minutes after your first date, change it to "single" two days later, and then soon back "in a relationship" with the same person, I can't help but wonder what would happen if you put more energy into cultivating your relationship, and not as much into making sure the world knew about every advance and recession. Facebook relationship statuses make things look final. Seriously, you are not obligated to let us know everything about your relationship. It's okay! We won't mind. I would much rather you were happily focused on your relationship, and not spending your effort making sure that we are focused on your relationship.

Peace.
Dan

News

Hi. How are you? Life is really good with me. Like, really good. I'm just really, extraordinarily happy right now. Not because of anything in particular, but rather because of a combination of smaller things that have happened or are happening in the future.

Things that have happened since I last blogged:

The Wizard of Oz. I auditioned for a large community theatre production of The Wizard of Oz. The audition went really well, I thought, and weeks later, I found out that I had a callback. Went to the callbacks, and then the waiting began. The day that my dad and I (and two good friends of ours) left on a backpacking trip, I got a text from my mom saying "call me!". I called home, and found out that the director had called, and I was cast as the Tin Man! You guys, you have NO idea how excited I am! It's 16 shows in December in the largest theatre I've ever performed in (it's got a balcony!). I guess this show is kind of this years "huge annual Christmas family show" so it's usually sold out and really popular and stuff. It'll be great. Tragically, the man who was supposed to direct it suddenly passed away, but the assistant director has stepped in to direct and the show is going ahead. This may sound silly, but I'm also pretty excited to do WoO because when I was younger, The Wizard of Oz was actually a really big part of my life. I was kind of obsessed with it for a number of years, and when I was probably about 9, I had this big elaborate plan to mount my own production of The Wizard of Oz. I had the script ready, I'd contacted many of my friends to be in the production, and had double-cast myself as both the Wicked Witch of the West and the Tin Man. To this day, I still don't know how I thought I could manage that. :D But it's kind of cool, years later, to be indeed be playing the Tin Man in a much bigger productions (we're going to have flying monkeys that fly, people!).

Backpacking. As I mentioned, I went backpacking with a friend of mine from Scouts, his dad, and my dad. Great trip. We didn't have the best weather for the hike we wanted to do, and consequently had to change our plans a bit, but it was still a great trip. Backpacking is amazing and I look forward to many more trips.

The Fringe. I had the pleasure of being part of the Fringe festival this year in a show that I wrote the music in. (I think I've mentioned it before. One of my friends "concieved it" and wrote the book, then another friend of ours wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music). We got good reviews (my first ever reviews!!) and our last shows were sold out. We even made some money! Hurray!

I got my learner's license. Finally.

I also have applied for 5 jobs and haven't heard back from any of them. That's an achievement, right?

My most recent big news is that I'm going to school this year. Which is a big change for me, since I've been homeschooled my entire life. The school I'm going to allows lots of flexibility, and is self-directed. I can work at my own pace, and I don't have to "sit in a classroom", but I likely will have to be there (I haven't got my time-table yet) for regular school hours. It's crazy, but strangely, I'm really, really excited. It'll be a change, which will be nice. Not that I was unhappy homeschooling by ANY stretch, quite the contrary, but I was just looking for a change of pace, change of scene and a good way to get these courses done. And I'm taking French, and possibly Italian and Spanish, so I'm very excited about that! It just feels really right for me at this point in my life.

Lots more has happened, but this is long enough for today. :)

This summer has been fabulous, but I'm looking forward to jumping into new adventures. And I'm looking forward to blogging again!

I don't know if anybody reads this blog anymore, but if you do-thanks! If you read that entire post, survived, and are still planning on reading my blog, you rock and I love you.

Take care,
Dan

Yes.

There's Rebecca Black, and then there's Savannah Robinson...



I think that's facepaint on Savannah. She's too good to be white.

You know, it's amazing to me just how much energy we as humans spend complaining about the weather. It seems to me that out of the entire world, it's the only thing that we have absolutely no control over. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if that's not exactly why we do it. The weather is one thing that we can complain about and not have somebody say "Well, if you don't like it, then do something about it!"

questions part 2

It seems that whenever I feel inspired to blog, I don't have time, and when I have time to blog, I just...don't. Eh eh, eh eh, there's nothing else I can say.

...

Questions! (Or rather) Answers!

(Anon.) "If you were sent to a deserted island and could only bring 3 items (none of which can be a boat or other means of getting off the island) what would you bring?" 
Hmm. This is really hard. I suppose I could go with practical things such as a knife, flint/steel and a tarp, but I am also inclined to go with a package of pencils, a giant stack of manuscript paper and great reading book to ensure that I spend my time productively. I am torn. Creativity or survival? Hmm...


(Anon.) "If you had to pick one, and only one, person who was your ultimate role model..who would that be?"
I honestly don't know enough about anybody yet to say...

(Anon.)"If you could pick any career and money/time wasn't an issue...what would you do?"
What about talent/skill? Would that be an issue? If I just suddenly jump to any job, I would have to say that of a Broadway actor. I can't think of anything funner than getting to sing and actor in front of an audience every time and get paid for it. People do that, you know! Crazy. But no, seriously, if I could just jump to my dream career it would be (and the moment), to live in NYC alternating between an actor in shows and composer (writing classical music and new musicals, which of course would be running on Broadway), with a side career as a vocalist/keyboardist in a great little indie folk/pop/rock band.

(Anon.) "If Lady Gaga, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith all asked you to sing on stage with them at the same time..which one would you choose and why?"
Oh gosh, these are HARD questions. I'm kindof inclined to say that Gaga and Patti are both people I would just love to spend a day with, but I think that I would love to sing onstage with Bernadette Peters. So I think, I think my pick is Bernadette. I would just love to met Idina and Kristin.

(Logan) "What's your view on prostitutes? Such in Paris it is a legal job, I know I think it is revolting and should be illegal. However to some it is entertainment and good money. So you wanted questions so I am asking a question!"
Hmm. Good question. My first instinct is that of course I disagree with prostitution absolutely, and think it should be illegal. But the problem is that that really won't do anything.  Same with abortion. You can make it illegal all you like, but if people really think it's the answer, they'll seek it out illegally and dangerously.  I absolutely don't have an answer. I don't believe that either are morally right, but don't think that simply making either illegal will change anything. I have no answer.

Part II will come.

How are you?