Memorial Love

I find it troubling to concoct a suitable title for this post when so many notable things have occured in the past 24 hours. However, I find it most necessary to make known a warm "thanks" to my home community that is Memorial Presbyterian Church. By way of unsuspected emails, letters, cards, and a care-package, your encouragement and love has meant alot.

Now, onto what seriously comes close to the most incredibly amazing three hours of my life:

Jamie Cullum (w/ special guest Josh Ritter) live in Concert!!!

My story is consistent, but I just have no words to describe how stellar this guy is. I can't even categorize his music, he's so creative, talented, and ecclectic. I love the fact that he isn't a mainstream radio artist, yet so many people support and follow him; he appeals to many people, the most of whom I'd say are Urban, postmodern, single twentysomethings. I almost as if I were walking into a MPC church service, but once they security-searched me, started ID'ing for drink bracelets, and the loud rock background tracks played, I got over that feeling. While the Wynton Marsalis show was filled with musical genius beyond anybody's imagination, I still feel this show captured my appreciation more for how creative, various, imprompt, and hilarious the guy is (especially when he comes onstage grasping a Heineken and is tipsy for his first couple songs). I would definately go see him again, anytime, and feel this was a worthwhile purchase for $45.

However, the musical genius bombardment goes on. North Park University was privelaged to host Christian Lindberg for a trombone masterclass. Now, I'm no trombonist, but why would I ever pass up the opportunity to see one of the best trombone players in the world for free? Yes, this was an amazing show; he both played and instructed trombone students.

In other news, I hate cold sores.

Homecoming, Home-crummy-ng

Some Fine Gentlemen. They aren't my best buds, but we get along well.

Homecoming was, in essence, pretty lame. It just was. I'd have loved very much to be in St. Louis helping my friend Jason celebrate his marriage and see beloved people. But, I decided that I ought to invest my time and energy into my community here and that was good; I met some new people and got to know others much better by way of certain events.

The dance was lame until I started a swing dance to rap music in the corner. That was good and some of my friends and I actually started to have fun. The football game was drenched at about 5 minutes into it. It rained most of the first half and stopped after that. We got owned 25-0 [how embarassing]. I got soaked, and left at halftime to go dry off. Of course, on my way back to the dorm, some friends stopped me to play football with them in the greenspace, in the rain. Of course I couldn't resist so we played. Inevitably, it turned into a mud fight, but it was a blast.

Above all, however, I believe having my first college performances ever was the highlight. I played three peices with the Jazz Band [which many believe is the best its ever been] at the Friday Night alumni jazz concert and sang with the Gospel Choir in the Sunday Morning service, which was a totally rocking experience.

I wish Skype worked more consistently and I am certainly excited to see Jamie Cullum in a few days!!

Strike up the Band

Joel________and_______Robert
and I are forming a band.

The story goes... Robert has written several songs, Joel has written several songs, I have kinda-sorta written several songs. Right now our repetoire is including only Robert's stuff because its the most developed and he's ready to go gigging/performing and wanted a backup band. Drums, Bass, and Violin are still up in the air. It's exciting though, and we've got some neat support so far, too. It's also kind of neat that, as Robert is also from St. Louis, I've known him for quite sometime, and we didn't plan this at all, it just...happened. Pretty sweet.

Excluding the said choice musical endeavor, I'm currently involved with six music ensembles: Concert Band, Orchestra, Jazz Band, Gospel Choir, Viking Men's Chorus, and Pep Band. Today, I was asked to consider being part of the NPU Brass Ensemble. The goal is a quartet or maybe a quintet. As there is a shortage of availabe/willing trumpet players, the obligatory pressure increases a bit. I still feel I'll have to say 'no' to this one, this year; I'm getting plenty of playing opportunity as it is.

Yesterday a particular neighbor of mine tore his ACL in football practice. At 11:00 he stopped by the room to tell me the situation and that he was going to the ER soon. We were talking for a while, and at the conclusion of it all, he said the statement, "Well, maybe this is what I get for being mean to people all the time..." That was intriguing as, for the first 2 weeks, he was blatantly mean to and mocking of me. Others complained of it too. Since then, he's toned down and I've grown accustomed to it, and we're almost even friends now, in a strange way. So, I have a feeling God is working in this situation.

"Welcome to College"

Music in College is hard. Coming to North Park, I originally expected an under-challening program. Sure, its college music, but its not Eastman or UIC-U. Its a small school with a small program with a number of musically- passionate students (like me) who probably never aspired to Julliard heights, but enjoy what they do, and may or may not go pro with it. Well, I was wrong. My peers here are quite talented. Yesterday at Jazz Band, Mr. Lill cited the trombone section as the best its ever been in 19 years and the trumpet section as equally great as some spectacular ones in earlier years. The music is intense and, to a limited-experienced jazz musician like myself, quite difficult. I'm learning the importance of focus. In high school, little mistakes, misses, and modified articulations were always forgivable or overlooked. That's not the case in college - focusing on every. darn. correct. thing. IS hard.

I think that a lot of people from WCA/St. Louis had high expectations for me in college because of how "stand-out" I was in the environments in which I performed. But here, all the music students were like me, or better, in high school. Aside from All-State/All-District, this playing environment is my first challenge in about 3 years. I need it. It's humbling. And its hard. I'm starting to discover if my passion for music is such that I can dedicate my life to it, or if it's such that I can enjoy it for the rest of my life, in my off hours. The verdict is to come. The faculty here are very encouraging and very fun, so that's not a deterrent.

I signed up for Fantasy Football. We'll see if this attempt outlasts my attempt of last year; I don't think I even looked at my team. There were only three in the league, so it was a bust to begin with. By the way, PANDORA is pretty darn awesome, and I've known that for a while, but felt compelled to share it with you, the world, now.

Over-reacting, perhaps?

The North Park University Men's Soccer Team really is something to watch. This weekend, I watched as we brutally outplayed Hope College and Calvin College [teams that are both ranked quite highly in the national ratings of NCAA D-III]. The games were immensely intense. Seriously, you would not have known you were watching 2 christian colleges competing; at the end of the Hope game there was a little brawl after both teams knocked the referee down and started kicking the [choice word] out of him. I didn't have to pay for a seat, but if I did, I would've only needed the edge; it was *that* cool.

Anyway, this week several peers suggested that I may have over-reacted about the events of Wednesday [after which I felt extremely humbled, recognizing God's sense of humor]. Here's the story:

I was quite displeased with the first diagnostic essay I turned in to my dialogue professor. But, because of time restrictions, I had to turn it in and accept the fact that the professor would not find a favorable first impression of my writing. Oh well. So, for a week this sat on my mental backburner, as it bothered me. On Wednesday, the professor returned our essays. Mine had some good suggestions, constructive and encouraging; I was somewhat settled by this. After he handed everyone their own essays, the professor proceeded to hand out another paper to everybody --- MY essay [anonymously labeled]! I was disconcerted beyond belief. I hated this thing, and I knew it was bad, and not truly following the assignment. Well, for the 15 minutes, the class divided into two groups and discussed this paper, pointing out the bad parts and the [few] good parts. It was literally depressing, and I felt it hit hard. I knew it was bad, I knew that it didn't really stay true to the assignment - but I really didn't need everybody else reminding me of that and disagreeing with some of my choice words, structures, etc... One of the worst parts of it was that he re-typed the paper, and made some grammatical errors that were not in my original version.

So, I made my frustrations known to many people within the next few days, and they all wanted to assure me that the professor picked my paper because it was probably one of his top papers, and other cliches' of the sort...

Later on Wednesday, I got my jazz knowledge/experience handed to me on a big, shiney, silvery platter by my band director as he singled me out in front of the entire band about 5 times for mistakes and mishaps and basically made me look really stupid - the music is hard! Top-level stuff.

Aside from the thorn in the side that was Wednesday, life has been pretty acceptable.

I've met some great people. Katie, Kassie, Laura, Sharon, and Emily are probably my best girl friends, but there are many wonderful ones here. I've gotten to know Scott, Joel, Robert, Jason, Andrew, Nyenemo, Timothy, Darrin, and Brent quite well, as well.

People have been most impressed with my ability to remember names. So have I. Writing them down in my moleskine helped alot - I have 2 pages filled with names of people I met...I really need to update it, but I've surely met more people than I remember.

God is good.

I prayed that God would humble me...

...now I'll be more mindful of what I ask for...

Oh Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me...

After a dark, spirit-dampening, and demotivating first 3 class days of rain, God finally brought the sun out, and what a joy it was. On friday, my friends and I bolted out of the Hanson Hall practice rooms as fast as we could (after an amount of practice deemed appropriate) and made haste to the beloved "greenspace" for relaxation, frisbee, and socializing. It was tremendous.

Hanson Hall/Anderson Chapel

Lovely Landscaping

Walking Paths

I've met so many people, that it makes me a little bit sad to not be able to hang out or be with all of them at the same time. I'm still finding out where my best fit is in terms of friendship group. Thankfully, I'm quite happy with the people I have met and spent time with thus far.

My friends Kassie, Scott, and Katie. The girls are twins. We have a blast together.

Speaking of blasts, today I spent 8 hours downtown at the Chicago Jazz Festival; it was a wonderfully beautiful day in Chicago. The music was great, the fellowship was great, the frisbee was great. The food was....acceptable. I stayed until the very end to hear Joe Lovano play, and it was so worth it. I can't easily get over how beautiful a day it was; truly a blessing. I probably spent a cumulative time period of 3 hours just laying down in a field, resting - it was so wonderful. I'm learning my way around Chicago much better, too.

I told you it was a beautiful day in Chicago

Also, celebrating my 19th with friends, popcorn, and "Office Space" was fun as well. Tommorow, I check out Grace Chicago, for which I'm stoked. Also, Dave Brubeck is playing in the evening, so I might be returning to the Jazz Festival. I'll be sure to bring warm clothes this time.