I was going to write earlier, but I wanted to read my Jazz History book so I could go see my Grandma tomorrow, but I don't think I will now. I'm really tired and I didn't get to sleep until midnight last night. Of course, because of school there is something in my mind that tells me when it's eight am and tells me I can't wake up past this time and so I can't get back to sleep once I wake up. Of course, I get tired in the afternoon, but I can't take a nap by then because I'm usually way busy.
Anyway, this book told me to go through the demo cd that came with it, which explains a bunch of jazz terms that are easy to hear but hard to play. Like swing feel, where you play one note a little longer than the other. That's probably not the best explaination of it, but if you hear a jazz or swing song, you'll hear what I mean, not that you have to. Anyways, the guy on the cd sounds like he is bored out of his mind and he just reads the little intros to everything like he's reading right off a sheet. That really gets on my nerves, like he can't sound like he is at least talking to someone and is somewhat interested in this. They even do a chord progression and solo over the Flintstones theme, which was weird. Am I the only person who never really liked that show? I thought it was good, but I always liked the Simpsons better, I guess because the jokes are fresher, but I still think that some of the jokes on there will be funny years from now, even the oldest episodes are funny.
I drove all over Rhode Island yesterday, though I know that doesn't sound like anything big, but it kind of is. It's about three hours through RI if you go from the bottom of the state to the top, maybe more if you run into construction, which seems damn likely. I went to school and had three classes in a row. I like Theory and it's a pretty funny class, but I think it's all "you have to have been there to get it" stuff, so I won't bore you with it. We're learning about the most boring stuff, it's mostly review like chord inversions and how to write them. I hope it gets interesting because they are a ton of things I want to learn. I had Piano after that and she still has us doing the five finger pattern, which is boring after thirty minutes of doing that and only that. Then I had Jazz History, but we're not really talking about jazz yet, just basic music stuff that anyone who plays an instrument (or several, like me) would be bored out of their mind listening to. Mr. Lambchops was right about that, I hope he was right about it getting interesting later, too.
I then went right to Wakefield and did my usual thing of getting there thirty minutes early. I get everywhere early but it kind of sucks after a while, because I always end up sitting somewhere for a while doing nothing. I sat in my car in the parking lot of the Wakefield Mall and ate my lunch, but there was this lady in her car reading a book and I was afraid she was going to call the cops on me. So, I bent over the whole time and tried to listen to "So What" by Miles Davis, but the song is ten minutes long, and being raised on short pop songs means my attention span runs out after a while, especially when the trumpets go in and out of different ears throughout the solo. Do you know what I mean? When you only hear it in one ear and not the other? It keeps going back and forth between ears and it irritates me. I don't like it when songs do that because it always makes me think something is wrong with my speakers or my earphones.
My guitar teacher talked to me about playing my songs and he's kind of boring, so it's not like anything interesting happened. There was a piano player playing songs for a Bar Mitzah, which was kind of weird and it's hard to play jazz when you hear that kind of music. Then I came home around four and went to clarinet lessons at five thirty. I tried to play jazz, this time while there was a guitar player a room over playing Radiohead songs, he kept playing "Creep" over and over. It's even harder to try and play over that, especially if you're like me and you like that song, because I wanted to hear him more than I wanted to hear myself playing.
I do like the clarinet though and it's getting more fun to play each day. I even look forward to it sometimes, kind of like with playing the piano. I like playing music, but I just feel like I really need a day to recharge my batteries, because right now I feel like I'm dying and the radio playing POD is not helping me! I'm not going out tomorrow because I really want to have one day where I don't drive at all and I feel like I need to save up on gas because of all the driving I do for school. I really feel like I can't get a part time job with my schedule and keep my grades up, but I'm afraid to tell my Dad because I feel like he'll get mad at me. Does anyone else think that is normal? I'm taking six classes, and guitar and clarinet lessons (the Wakefield lessons count as a class). I also go to the therapist on Thursdays, but I'm trying to make it every other week. If I did get into Jazz Ensemble, I'll have to practially sign my soul away to the teacher for a semester because he expects you to come in even if you are violently ill (though he doesn't have to!), so I'm going to have to come in no matter what even to rehearsals and I'm not sure when all of those will be. I just want to do well in my classes so I don't have to repeat them, but sometimes my Dad seems like he is mad at me for not being able to fully support myself, though I want to work full time over the summer.
I went to guitar lessons (in West Greenwich, where I take clarinet lessons) today and saw Carbon's parents on the way there. I also saw them Friday night. I almost wonder if anyone would recognize my car if it didn't have the Vento written on the back where Jetta should be. Other than that, it looks normal, but I swear it's like having a bulls eye on my car, because everyone who knows me knows that about my car. Anyway, I then came home not long after, though I did get gas and it seems like the gas stations around here are always busy. Is there some gas crisis that I don't know about, because I haven't heard anything on the news. People in New England are huge freaks before and after snowstorms, so I'm sure everyone is freaked out about gettting so much snow and they want to be prepared if it happens again, because they all think it's going to happen again. It's so dumb because I don't think the world is going to end if it happens again.
I'm going to add to squareone if I can and then I'm going to go to bed. I'll try and write more later. Bye!
*Racecar*
<< Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005@11:16 p.m.>>