Dream

I just woke up to my clock radio playing a song by a group called Big Star, though at the time I was convinced it was John Lennon (maybe the haze of not being fully conscious, though it did sound a bit like something Lennon would write). The radio had been going quite some time though and I think it gave me the visions of my waking dream.

The dream was like a fully realized music video. Interspersed with images of singer just generally being happy (I now realize the person in the dream was definitely not John, but I don't know who he is), the overall theme was the main character (respresented by the singer) attempting to learn how to ride a bike. He just keeps bumbling along, most of the time scooting with two feet and running into things along the side. There is someone behid him helping him along, the way a parent would help their child the first time they ride a bike. This is all happening on a scene that is like a board walk along the coast in a massive pine forest. It is very sunny and generally pleasant and cheerful. The character keeps bumbling along until he reaches the end of the dock where there are several whales in the water, and I hear the line "I can't get back home this way" (I think it was in the song), thinking it is referring to the way he is just bumbling, as he wasn't making very fast progress like that. Then I hear something to the effect of "This is only one-way anyway" (I don't remember the line exactly, it was almost subliminal. I don't think it was in the song) and with that, the character gets off the bike, climbs up the railing of the dock, and dives into the water. When he hits the water, he turns into a penguin - not a realistic penguin, but sort of a rounded cartoonish penguin (though this did not strike me in the dream) - turns around to issue some cheerful farewell, and then swims off. Then I wake up.

Back in Good Old Morris, But Different

I went back to Morris yesterday to catch a concert put on by the UMM Jazz Ensembles. It's been almost a year since I last visited my old school, the last time being when I went back for the annual Jazz Fest last April, so it was really nice to see the town again. It was strange that I had been away so long considering there once was a time not so long ago I spent just about all my time there. At the same time it seems like a lifetime ago.

Let me give some perspective on this. I joined the band my first semester of college and stayed in it for the full five years I went to Morris (except for the one semester where I went to Australia). It was through the band that I managed to make 3 trips to New Orleans and 2 trips to Europe during my college years. I also even spent a couple years on the student-run guiding council. I spent more time doing stuff in the band than anything else I did in college and it is probably the most fun I had those 5 years. It was certainly the most rewarding. It was an honor to play in the Morris Jazz Ensemble.

As for the band itself, there are actually 4 big bands at Morris because of the number of people in it. Three of them directed by Jim "Doc" Carlson (everyone just calls him "Doc"), and the fourth by a student director. The concerts also feature a number of smaller student-directed combos which round out the show each concert. It is by far the largest student organization on campus and the best attended. Not even the football team attracts the audience the Jazz program does. The annual Jazz Fest, which was started by Doc 28 years ago, is the single largest event on campus all year. This is all because of Doc.

So it was with some despair that I read down the list of students in the band at on the back of the program and the number of names I no longer recognized. After all, I used to know almost all of them. Things change in two years. But I was surprised by the number of people I did still know in the band. I noted, however, that almost all of them wore the rose corsage that night, the traditional symbol for the graduating seniors in the band. They will be moving on themselves this May.

So I guess the strangest thing about going back was just looking around. The campus and the town have hardly changed at all. But the people are all different. All the people I entered school with have long since graduated. All the people I considered to be the "young'uns" in my final years are all seniors themselves now, almost ready to enter the dreaded "real world". I thought back on all the days I spent on that campus - going back and forth from class and my dorm, worrying about those papers that are due, wondering how I am going to fit everything into my schedule, stressing about the next homework assignment, hanging out with friends at Turtle Mountain Cafe. That was only 2 years ago, but it seems so much farther away. And yet, not so far. It was worrysome and exciting at the same time. It was an amazing time in my life. But this time is gone now.

But despite everything different there was one thing that did not change. The music was still amazing. It was fun. Doc is still his same old self, always excited about the band's performance even though he has been doing this for 28 years. It was at this concert that several members of the Jazz Council came forward to announce that Doc had been inducted into the MMEA (Minnesota Music Educators Association) Hall of Fame and presented him with a framed copy of the newspaper story. Anyone who has worked with Doc knows that this distinction is well-deserved and long overdue. He received a standing ovation and Doc, who rarely shows anything but an undying enthusiasm for what he does, was visibly moved.

It was a good night.

GH: Small Victory

I also wanted to take this opportunity note that after several days of battling with it, I finally beat No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age on Hard level (it was the event that actually spurred the the last post. I figured I better explain what I was talking about before making this post). I don't know why it took me so long, just the note combinations are really hard to pull off on that song, and it was the only one holding me back from advancing. It wasn't pretty, but I made it through the song. So now I am in the final 5-song section of Hard mode. I actually managed to make it through the first 4 songs on the first try (including Cowboys From Hell which is a real bitch), even if they aren't pretty. My new nemesis is Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne. Don't know how I'm going to get through it, but it is the last song I have to conquer before moving on to Expert level (except for the bonus songs. But they're a whole different story).

Corporate Shill

Man, did that last post make me sound like I was paid off, or what? I wish I had been. But the game really is that good.

Of Guitar Heroes

So I've mentioned this game I've been playing in passing before, but I promised to make a post specifically about it. The game I am referring to is Guitar Hero for the Playstation 2. Let me just say that this game is fun.

Here's the set-up: It comes with a guitar-shaped controller specially made for the game (you can see a picture if you check out the above link) with 5 "fret" buttons on the neck and a "strum bar" down on the body, along with a whammy bar to liven up the long notes. Then you pick a song and watch the notes come at you on the screen; you have to "play" them when they reach the bottom. It is kind of like the infamous Dance Dance Revolution, only you don't have to jump around like an idiot (though I often do just because I get into the music).

That's the other thing. When you nail the song, it feels like you are actually playing it. Miss a note and the lead guitar (that's you) part dies off in the music as well. It makes it feel really rewarding when you can actually get through a hard song (and there are a lot of them) and play it well. I don't remember the last time I actually worked up a sweat playing a video game. This one does it routinely (as well as make my left hand hurt).

The songs included in the game are chosen well. You've got everything from More Than a Feeling by Boston to Cowboys From Hell by Pantera. Some other of my favorites are Iron Man by Black Sabbath, Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie, Killer Queen by Queen, Spanish Castle Magic by Jimi Hendrix, I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones...There's like 30 songs from well-known artsists. But then there are an additional 20 from small-time local bands (most seem to be from Boston, must be where the development studio is located), some of which are really good. I actually ordered the CD from Shaimus after hearing their track on this game. Just came in the mail today. I am quite pleased with it.

I can't stop playing this game. You have to try it.

...And on the Lighter Side (of the Force)

Yeah, so that last post was a little heavy (it's like a misery sandwich!). Here's something a little more enjoyable.

Tragedy as a Marketing Device?

So as I was driving back from St. Cloud tonight, I passed by a used car dealership kind of on the outskirts of St. Cloud. I was struck by the rather large sign positioned in front with bright day-glow lettering on black background, though I had but a split second to digest it as I zoomed by on the highway. It read, simply, "Remember 9/11". So I started thinking back on that horrible incident 4 years ago, waking up in my college dorm room to learn that something terrible, something unthinkable, had happened. I remembered the news feeds that day forever replaying the images of the hijacked airplanes crashing into the Twin Towers, and then watching those towers come crumbling to the ground with over 3000 people still trapped inside. I thought about the loss of our national sense of invincibility, being replaced by an ever-present sense of fear and paranoia. A fear that has taken an icy grip on nearly all aspects of our lives since then. I thought about our response to the attacks, about the homes in Afganistan and Iraq that have been reduced to rubble and the other countless, nameless, lives lost in the names justice and safety amid cries of "never again!" I remember the events of September 11, 2001, or "9/11" as it has come to be called, all too well. Having contemplated this and the tumultous times the past 4 years have been, there was but one logical conclusion to be reached...

...I should buy a used car!

An Evening With Kevin Smith

A friend of mine managed to score some tickets to a talk by movie-maker Kevin Smith (click the link if you don't know who he is) tonight up at the St. Cloud State University campus. They were only $5! If you have never heard him speak before, I highly recommend the DVD set, An Evening with Kevin Smith. He basically tours around college campuses and holds long question and answer sessions with his fans (his fanbase consists mostly of the college-age 20-somehting crowd). What is most entertaining with him is his ability to take relatively mundane details from everyday life and make them magically interesting. Like the time he had to serve jury duty while suffering from a nasty case on anal fissures (I am not making this up, he talks about this tuff). He also tends to answer questions with other long, drawn out stories, but they are always fascinating and somehow connect. The whole event went for 5 hours, which was actually about 2 hours longer than it was supposed to, but he is known to go much longer and no one was going to tell him to stop (he was allowed one final story at the end at which point he launched into the "anal fissure" story which lasted almost an hour, but was hilarious the whole way through). That's some good entertainment for five bucks.

Difficulties

Well, as you can see below, that didn't come out right. You know, Blogger is a really good program. It makes it easy to set up your blog how you want and say what you want without having to mess around too much with the HTML and stuff.

But it absolutely SUCKS when you want to post pictures. I really have no idea why it came out that way. What I had intended was to have a short paragraph followed by a series of pictures, then another paragraph, and so on. Instead it seems to have given me just a mish-mash of all my stuff in no particular order.

Part of the problem I think is that my content window is too small. I'd enlarge it, but I can't figure out how to do it without encroaching on the space used by my sidebar on the left, which forces it to the bottom. I can't find the part in the template that dictates the size for all that blue space on the right. I'd gladly give that up, it's useless.

So if anybody out there has any pointers on how I can fix this, I'd love to hear from you.

*UPDATE* - Alright, I tinkered with it a bit more. I expanded the content pane a little bit more so I can fit more stuff on a line. My apologies to those out there who have low resolution monitors. Then I went and found that inserting more line breaks makes the code line up closer to what I originally intended. The source text for the post isn't pretty, but I don't really have much intention of editing it more, so I guess it isn't such a big deal. Wish there were an easier way to do it though. I think I bumped my hit counter about 20 more spots playing with thing. Wish there were a way to filter out my own hits.

More Pictures...from Wollongong (and surrounding area)

Here are some more pictures from my time in Wollongong. There are a whole lot more, but I don't want to bore you too much with my entire trip. Here's some of the highlights. This post does not include my pictures from Melbourne or Tassie, but posting these is pretty time intensive (it take s a long time for the upload), so they will have to wait for a later post. I'll try to do it soon rather tha waiting a month like I did for this one. Consider this a companion to my previous picture post. Enjoy!

Chris and I went for a walk in the Minnamurra rainforest which isn't too far outside Wollongong. I had no idea there was a rainforest so close.























On Friday night Jeffy came over and we went out to Toss at the North Gong, the closest hotel (read: bar) to I-House. At Toss you order two drinks and then they toss two coins. 2 heads, you pay full price, head and tail, you pay half price, 2 tails your drinks are free. I had the nasty luck of paying full price for both my rounds.





















And then having had a sufficient amount of beer and a sober Clare with a car, we went down to Kiama for dinner, which is a little ways south of Wollongong. It is also a very pretty town.





















Christmas lights in the middle of summer...













We went golfing down in Callalah (did I spell that right?) where Luke lives. The flies were pretty merciless, but it was a pretty course. Being the tourist that I am, I was quite delighted to find kangaroos on the course. I was wondering what would happen if we hit one with a ball, but thankfully that never happened, even when I had to hit one right over a roo's head (I have a tendency to ground them, but it flew straight that time). The roos are safe for now.





















Some pictures from along the Wollongong coastline...




















Here are a couple pictures of me on the Wollongong campus, including the Duck Pond, so named because it is inhabited by ducks! It is a popular place to study under the sun or sit and have lunch. The ducks usually wander around and help students with their homework in exchange for food. On the left, you can see a picture of me with one of the ducks. This might have been the one that bit me 2 years ago. Have you ever been bitten by a duck?




















This is International House where I stayed during my study abroad session 2 years ago. Chris' apartment where I stayed is right near there (in fact, I-House holds several of the aprtments including the one Chris stays in) so I spent some time there this time too. There's a picture of me in front of my old door. I wish I could have gone in, but I didn't know if anyone was staying there now.





























Here is Wollongong from the air. As I was flying out of Sydney toward Melbourne we went along the coast. I was lucky enough to be sitting on the right side of the plane with a realtive unobstructed view of the ground (for once) and it was clear enough. I just looked down and recognized the landscape, so I snapped a few pictures. The picture on the right is of the university.

I'm mentioned!

So I've been playing this game called Guitar Hero for the Playstation 2 after strong recommendation by this guy, who I have a lot of respect for. His gaming news and insights tend to be right on. So imagine my delight when after writing an Email to him he passes it on to the rest of his readers.

Yeah, it's geeky. I don't care. This made my day.

The Music Shall Play Again

A few month ago you may remember me writing about the CDs I had stolen from my car. Well, through a bit of work and some amazing connections (erm...Internet connection), I have managed to replace most of them. There are still a couple I need to get and a couple more that I doubt I will ever be able to replace (from small-time bands that used to be in Morris), but for the most part my collection is mostly complete again.

I had amassed quite a few over the past couple months and just tonight decided it was time to remove the shrink wrap and those annoying littlr stickers they stick across the top so you can't open the case. It was kind of fun and satisfying in a way. Now I can listen to the discs, though I no longer feel safe taking them down to my car anymore which is where I listen to most of my music. A bit of a dilemma. I did purchase a bunch of writable CDs though and if I get another constructive urge again maybe I will try burning them. So long as I have the master copy safe at home I don't care if I lose a copy...

Here are pictures of the results (in the picture of the shelf, the 3 compartments on the left are the "new" CDs).