Thanksgiving and the Final Week

We are back in Champaign after a great Thanksgiving break. This year we celebrated three feasts in Wisconsin over three different days. It was fantastic to get out of Illinois for a while and visit the hills, trees, lakes, and rivers of Wisconsin. My advice: don't take these things for granted!

Our first feast came on Wednesday night with Kaia's dad and his wife Gail in Eau Claire:

Then we celebrated on Thanksgiving day at Kaia's grandparents' home in Stanley with thirty or so members of her family:

This is the table in the only place in the house large enough to fit everyone: the basement.

Me and my favorite part of the meal: the polish sausages

Then on Friday we hosted our seventh Thanksgiving in Eau Claire at Kaia's mom's house (we figured not everyone would want to drive to Champaign). 20 pounds of turkey, 12 pounds of mashed potatoes, a triple batch of stuffing, cranberries, ham, corn, carrots, and gravy were followed by an epic game of Jenga and Just Dance 2 for the Wii. It was a great time.

We came back to Champaign on Sunday afternoon and now it's back to work. Before the end of the semester, which is just one week away, I have another concert in Chicago, a final project and test for one of my classes, three student teacher observations and final evaluations, and a recital to organize. 

Thanksgiving: Chicago and La Crosse

For the first part of our Thanksgiving break Kaia and I spent the weekend in the Chicago suburbs. I had a set of rehearsals and a concert on Sunday with my youth orchestra. We also spent some time with Kaia's Dad and his wife Gail at an Italian Restaurant in Naperville called Maggiano's. It was Gail's birthday so we were part of a party of twelve that included members of her family from the Chicago area. There also happened to be another group in the same room celebrating a birthday and somehow or other we ended up with noisemakers from their table. The following series ensued:

My mother is very proud of me.

After the concert on Sunday, which went very well, Kaia and I piled in the car and drove four and a half hours to La Crosse to spend a day and a half with my parents. We spent two nights and got to be a part of their latest home construction projects which included reglazing the tub in the bathroom and the final demolition of the concrete from their old garage. The glazer showed up at 7:50 AM and the concrete guys arrived fifteen minutes later so our second day was an early start for us.

Can you tell we're related? I didn't even pose this one - I just happened to sit down next to my Dad and Kaia took the picture.

Do I Have Everything?

Later this morning I will board a greyhound bus for Chicago. From downtown I will catch a Metra train to the suburbs. Tonight it's rehearsal in Crystal Lake followed by an early morning rehearsal tomorrow and a concert on Sunday. At the same time, Kaia will drive up tomorrow afternoon with the majority of my clothing for the next week, meet me in downtown, and from there we will proceed to Naperville for dinner with her father and his wife. Sunday we drive back up to Crystal Lake for a rehearsal and a concert, then we head on to La Crosse to begin our Thanksgiving vacation.

I think that's everything.

I've made lists for each bag I'm packing so I don't forget my tux, clean underwear, baton, score(s), video camera, or reading material. Incidentally these are all things that I've forgotten on past trips. My most memorable fail was forgetting to bring clean underwear to my grad school audition right here in Illinois. Every trip that I take seems to involve me forgetting something but I believe I've got it all this time.

It's a stressful start to an otherwise relaxing week. I'm sure the concert will be great - the orchestra is sounding very good these days - and I'm looking forward to a change of scenery. Hills and trees and lakes... here we come!

A Murder of Crows

Do you know what a large flock of crows is called? It's called a "murder."

Throughout the course of the past week I've been awakened each morning by the "caw-cawing" of crows from the trees around our house. The crows make a lot of noise from 5:30 AM to 6:45 AM when the sun finally comes up enough for them to fly away. Apparently this is a great roost so tonight when I heard them coming in for landing I took a video of them. It's was quite stunning.

Conducting and Crafting

Everything I needed to know about conducting applications I learned in 3rd grade art class. Sort of.

This week I spent time on Tuesday putting together some applications for summer conducting workshops and festivals. Much of the time spent was watching footage of my conducting experiences over the past several months and trying to find the best 3-4 minute clips to include in my video. Another portion of the time was spent packaging the video to make it look pleasing, informative, and professional. My tools for this were computer paper, a printer, and scissors. I felt like I was creating an art project, especially when I was trimming the paper to fit the DVD case and align the margins. I just needed a gluestick and some glitter to make it even more eye-catching - I'll have to add this next time.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this entire process is the fact that, among festivals, there is very little uniformity of materials. This is most likely due to the fact that each festival has a slightly different focus and conductors are utilized and given experiences in a different manner at each one. Every application called for roughly fifteen to twentyish minutes of conducting footage but there was also an interview segment for one and fifteen minutes of clarinet performance for another. This was particularly challenging, especially since the last time I prepared any type of "recital" was 1999-2000. Luckily I was able to put my chops back in order enough to work up a Brahms Sonata and a movement of the Mozart Concerto in time for the application deadline.

What I have learned from all of this, is that I need to be super prepared for the application side of this career that I have chosen. Now that I'm finishing up my master's degree it's time to start thinking about the next step. Not just the doctorate, but beyond. The next, next step is marketing and knowing the ins and outs of the application process. Workshops and festivals are a great way to work on many aspects of conducting if I get accepted, but the application process itself is a great way to practice the art (and crafts) of applying for jobs too.

My makeshift "TV Studio" for recording the interview portion of a conducting application. Note the cat in the lower right corner. There were several discarded takes due to feline interference. I even resorted to shutting one of the cats in the bathroom so she would stop walking in frame.

Back to the Blog

I've apparently taken a hiatus from blogging for the past three months. In that span I actually sat down to write many quite a bit but each time became immediately distracted by something else. As a result, I've let things slip just a bit.

Part of my blog reticence (blogicence) in the past three months is due to the fact that life has been fairly (some might even say blissfully) uneventful here in Champaign and I don't feel as though there is anything truly "exciting" to report. We were not struck by debris from the satellite that careened toward earth in September and there have been no large scale protests or riots to speak of (only a small group of Occupy Champaign protesters). So there it is.

So let's consider this my attempt to get back onto the blog horse (blorse).

The above photo is from a recent trip to Homer Lake, a county forest preserve 20 miles east of Champaign-Urbana. Kaia and I spent a lovely afternoon there a couple of weekends ago when I had a rare Saturday off from conducting the MCYO. We spent our day hiking through the woods, enjoying the lovely fall weather, and making fun of the signs in the park. On our way back home we stopped at Curtis Orchard in town to pick up some apples so we could make sauce, pies, and otherwise enjoy locally grown, fresh picked fruit.

Unfortunately, since this is the only apple game in town, it's always tremendously crowded with angry parents yelling at crying children, and choked with fumes from the tour buses (yes tour buses) that pull up to let the masses out to enjoy their afternoon in the "countryside." It's a far cry from the idyllically crisp, quiet fall afternoons that we used to spend visiting apple orchards in Wisconsin. At Curtis Orchard there is no lingering - just get the apples and get the hell outta there and hopefully avoid being hip checked by a guy pulling a radio flier loaded with screaming children buried under piles of apples and merch while yelling at his spouse. The applesauce worth it though. It is the Shiz.

In other news, since moving into our new apartment I have brewed two batches of beer. Kaia and I are both trying to remember, despite the fact that we are in grad school and not supposed to do anything else but work on school things, that we actually are human beings with interests outside of our subject areas. My latest beer is a Wheaten Porter which is, as I type this, currently fermenting in our hall closet.

Hobbies like this remind me that there is something outside of studying scores every single minute of the day. And there is the added benefit of being able to drink the finished product.

That's all for now. It's back to studying for me!