For the first time in many weekends, I actually had two days off! I think you could officially call this the weekend of cleaning in our house. Friday, Susan cleaned the entire main floor of Hakelstien Manor. When I came home from work I thought that I walked into the wrong home. It's not that we are messy people, we just have not been around to clean in awhile. The place looked amazing!
Friday night we went to an Oktoberfest celebration in Nordeast. Every year Gasthof's has a GIGANTIC tent set up in their parking lot for most of September and into October. It is a great place to go and drink German beer, play a game called Hammerschlogen and watch people. You will see everything from 21 year olds with fresh livers to old men and their wives who just may have helped invent kegged beer.
Saturday, I finally finished the touch up work on the front room that I have been working on. It looks good, Red is a tricky color to get just right. From there I moved on to the upstairs. We are painting this room a gun metal color. When I started to put the color down I was a little unsure if I liked the color, but after one wall was done I loved it. The color somehow manages to both brighten and warm the room. I did not expect this from a darker tone.
Today has been very productive as well. We got up this morning, put on a coat of paint and then proceeded to scrub the floor in the basement. I realized today that I need to do a little bit of landscaping this fall. Somehow we have water creeping in from somewhere outside. I took a look around and I am pretty sure I know where it is getting in, now it will be a matter of changing the lay of the land.
One special announcement and then we are done for this afternoon. This coming Saturday (the 29th) I will be playing with the Jack Brass Band at the Times Bar and Cafe in Minneapolis. This promises to be a special show and I would urge all of you who have supported the band over the past five years to come out one more time.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Time for a Changeup
Well, it has been almost four months here at the ol' blogspot. I thought it was time to change things up a bit. I was getting bored of the brown/orange/blue thing so I thought I would go with the sheik gray thing.
There is a new movie coming out this week that I am really excited to see. It is called "Into the Wild" and is written and directed by Sean Penn. The movie tells the story of Chris McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) who came from a privliged family, gave up all of his money and ultimately dies in the the Alaskan wilderness. Some of you may have read the book by John Krakauer. At first I was skeptical about this film, but now that I have read a bit more it sounds like a very well produced project. Some are saying it is a window into a part of Sean Penn.
In other news...We have both been busy lately. Our week has been consumed with going to and from work, putzing on the house and making sure that our Wook (the cat) is receiving enough pets. I have also been playing quite a bit of trumpet.
August was somewhat of an off month on that front. I did not have a lot of shows booked so I decided to take some time off the horn. Now, "time off" for me does not mean I don't play at all. It means that I practice about 3 days a week for 30-45 minutes rather than 6 days a week for 90 plus minutes. This is probably the biggest vacation I have taken from my horn since I was in High School in 1997!
It feels pretty good to be back. One thing that I have noticed is that I have kicked a couple of bad habits. For the past two weeks my practice has been a lot more purpose driven. I am really paying attention to what is happening physically and mentally when I do certain things. I think this helps make these actions repeatable. I have always struggled with consistency, this seems to be getting much better.
Not much else is new...it is a beautiful weekend in the city. Get out and enjoy the day!
There is a new movie coming out this week that I am really excited to see. It is called "Into the Wild" and is written and directed by Sean Penn. The movie tells the story of Chris McCandless (aka Alexander Supertramp) who came from a privliged family, gave up all of his money and ultimately dies in the the Alaskan wilderness. Some of you may have read the book by John Krakauer. At first I was skeptical about this film, but now that I have read a bit more it sounds like a very well produced project. Some are saying it is a window into a part of Sean Penn.
In other news...We have both been busy lately. Our week has been consumed with going to and from work, putzing on the house and making sure that our Wook (the cat) is receiving enough pets. I have also been playing quite a bit of trumpet.
August was somewhat of an off month on that front. I did not have a lot of shows booked so I decided to take some time off the horn. Now, "time off" for me does not mean I don't play at all. It means that I practice about 3 days a week for 30-45 minutes rather than 6 days a week for 90 plus minutes. This is probably the biggest vacation I have taken from my horn since I was in High School in 1997!
It feels pretty good to be back. One thing that I have noticed is that I have kicked a couple of bad habits. For the past two weeks my practice has been a lot more purpose driven. I am really paying attention to what is happening physically and mentally when I do certain things. I think this helps make these actions repeatable. I have always struggled with consistency, this seems to be getting much better.
Not much else is new...it is a beautiful weekend in the city. Get out and enjoy the day!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Patriots are winners....really
I generally choose not to write about sports in this blog. I try and direct the subject matter towards things that are a little more personal and thoughtful. However, the subject of the New England Patriots and cheating has been interesting to me.
Let me start by stating that the Patriots did indeed break the rules. There is very little to debate here. The part that gets me going is when I hear people debating the fact that the all of the Patriots victories are invalid are invalid. I am sure that the explosive Minnesota Vikings of 2006 would have ran right through the Pats had they not been cheating. The teams are not upset with the Pats for cheating, they are upset because they got caught and now nobody can do this again.
If the Raiders were caught doing this they would be the laughing stock of the league. I am pretty sure you could give the Raiders your play book and they would still loose because they fail to execute. That is what nobody is giving the Pats credit for...they gather information, process it and execute. You will notice that they don't always hire flashy talent, but they are always good executers.
Consistent execution is not something that ESPN can talk about for hours on end. A team that wins when they are supposed to and doesn't bask in the limelight is not an interesting news story. In our current times though, the general populous has so much access to information that media sources have to sensationalize stories to make them interesting. I believe this is one of those cases. If it were a team that was not a consistent winner we would be hearing about how someone famous checked into rehab. It is a fad to make winners into losers these days.
For this reason I hope that the Patriots and their tainted record go undefeated and win the Superbowl. They consistently out execute their opponents and I am anxious to watch them prove that even with a "leveled playing field" they still can dominate.
Let me start by stating that the Patriots did indeed break the rules. There is very little to debate here. The part that gets me going is when I hear people debating the fact that the all of the Patriots victories are invalid are invalid. I am sure that the explosive Minnesota Vikings of 2006 would have ran right through the Pats had they not been cheating. The teams are not upset with the Pats for cheating, they are upset because they got caught and now nobody can do this again.
If the Raiders were caught doing this they would be the laughing stock of the league. I am pretty sure you could give the Raiders your play book and they would still loose because they fail to execute. That is what nobody is giving the Pats credit for...they gather information, process it and execute. You will notice that they don't always hire flashy talent, but they are always good executers.
Consistent execution is not something that ESPN can talk about for hours on end. A team that wins when they are supposed to and doesn't bask in the limelight is not an interesting news story. In our current times though, the general populous has so much access to information that media sources have to sensationalize stories to make them interesting. I believe this is one of those cases. If it were a team that was not a consistent winner we would be hearing about how someone famous checked into rehab. It is a fad to make winners into losers these days.
For this reason I hope that the Patriots and their tainted record go undefeated and win the Superbowl. They consistently out execute their opponents and I am anxious to watch them prove that even with a "leveled playing field" they still can dominate.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Southside Aces this week!
If you are the type who is struggling for Friday night plans, then do I have something for you! One of my bands, The Southside Aces will be playing at Cafe Zander this Friday night. The restaurant is located on the corner of Selby and Dale in St. Paul. Music will be starting at 8:30pm. This is a great chance to eat some outstanding food and hear some traditional jazz.
On Sunday we hosted our monthly jazz jam session at the Nomad World Pub in Minneapolis. We had our usual turnout of familiar faces as well as a few new ones as well. It was our last outdoor show of the year, but we will continue to host the jam session on the second Sunday of every month.
In case you can't make this show, check our webpage for more information. We now have three different monthly shows that will be ongoing until at least the new year! We also will be making stops at The Times Cafe and Patrick's Cabaret before years end.
Hope to see you all at a show sometime soon!
Monday, September 3, 2007
Pathways...
note to the reader: This a rather long and rambling post. I typed for quite awhile hoping to arrive at a conclusion. I never arrived but since I spent so much time I decided to publish this in an unfinished format. If you have time to burn, please read on and leave a comment. If not, please skip to the pretty pictures at the end and enjoy.
For some reason I have been thinking about how I got from point "A" to point "B" recently. Don't ask me why, I just happen to do this from time to time. Some of this reflection might have to do with being at the "10 years out of high school" part of my life. Some might have to do with a wandering mind.
10 years ago (almost to the date) I arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus. I was going to be a band director. Yup, no questions about it, that is what I was going to be doing. Sure, there was going to be fun stuff to do but I was going to be too busy working on important stuff to be sidetracked. Somehow I ended up in a Philosophy class (I really don't remember signing up for it) that would open my mind to a different way of thinking.
Ask questions? What? Am I qualified to discuss (and dismiss) ideas and beliefs that people have put on pedestals for centuries? According to Andrew Coen, "Yes". It was a really great class, it was also the first time that I realized I could have ideas that were different and that was "OK".
What maybe wasn't "OK" (at least for my music ed degree) was that in the spirit of the great philosophers I began to question many things. "Why should I do this?" "Who says it has to be that way?" "Is that a fact, or just a perspective?" I quickly discovered that life was not going to be a series of yes and no questions for me. (Is it for anyone?) So, my freshmen year ends in me going home for the summer with little academic direction.
Before I move on, one important thing needs to be mentioned here. I discovered a really good group of friends that year. So good in fact that we are still in close contact with each other. We just spent a weekend together earlier this month. At the time though, I had no idea...we just drank beer together!
Back to the story....when I arrived home I realized why I was going back to college in the fall. I simply did not fit into the Chippewa Valley mold anymore. I still had great friends at home, but things just weren't clicking anymore. (Those of you from Chippewa reading this, no slight intended. I think you would agree) I spent that summer working two jobs and swimming whenever I had the chance. I don't know why I went swimming so much...
I got back to college (finally) and that fall I had my first music ed class. About two weeks in I knew that this was not for me. So...what am I going to do now? It turns out that I am doing the exact opposite of what most people do at the end of their sophomore year. Rather than declare a major, I am walking over to Records and Registration to have "Music Education" replaced with "Undeclared". This wasn't all bad, I was still in good standing as a music major and this allowed me to catch up on some general classes I would need anyway.
This is also the year that I decided to make Stevens Point my new home. I got an apartment with my friends and became a "townie". Interestingly enough, this is the summer where I really grew up. I got a job, paid some bills, got a library card and even had my first telemarketer call for me. This was a really good time...I will always sit back and smile about this.
Junior year starts and ends about the same way. I still am not quite sure what I am doing or why I am here but at this point I am over half way done with whatever it is that I am trying to do and it seems silly to turn back. I am discovering that I like working on things, I like the people I am around and I like the city I live in. If that isn't general enough, I have decided to declare my major to be a Bachelor of Arts in Music. What that means is that I have taken the necessary amount of credits to get a degree and since most of them were in music that means my degree is in that field. (I realize that this sounds a bit cynical, but this is how I felt at the time.)
For the sake of time, lets fast forward to 2006 where the morale of the story happens...I am now living in Minneapolis and looking for a "real" job. I had been working for a photography company and teaching private trumpet lessons for the past 4 years. I thought things were going well, but I had no idea what was to come.
I saw this job posted...tech support at an elementary school. "I can do that." I had never done it before, but I was confidant that I could learn whatever I needed to know. It turns out that I am OK at this computer stuff. After six months at the elementary school I found myself in the position of "technology specialist" at the high school.
I accredit this success to my years as an undeclared student. It enabled me to remove the blinders and see that it is more important to be successful at life than specialize in one area. I have been paid money to photograph, swing a hammer, sort sheet music, push a broom, run a photo lab, play trumpet and currently to help shape the direction of technology in a local high school.
So, what's the point? Well...I dunno. I hoped to have one by now, but I don't. I thought for sure that putting these thoughts down would sort them out and give some direction but maybe not. Maybe later this week I will have some more thoughts on this. Here are some pretty pictures in the meantime...
Both of these images were taken while at my friend Craig's cabin a few weekends ago.
For some reason I have been thinking about how I got from point "A" to point "B" recently. Don't ask me why, I just happen to do this from time to time. Some of this reflection might have to do with being at the "10 years out of high school" part of my life. Some might have to do with a wandering mind.
10 years ago (almost to the date) I arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus. I was going to be a band director. Yup, no questions about it, that is what I was going to be doing. Sure, there was going to be fun stuff to do but I was going to be too busy working on important stuff to be sidetracked. Somehow I ended up in a Philosophy class (I really don't remember signing up for it) that would open my mind to a different way of thinking.
Ask questions? What? Am I qualified to discuss (and dismiss) ideas and beliefs that people have put on pedestals for centuries? According to Andrew Coen, "Yes". It was a really great class, it was also the first time that I realized I could have ideas that were different and that was "OK".
What maybe wasn't "OK" (at least for my music ed degree) was that in the spirit of the great philosophers I began to question many things. "Why should I do this?" "Who says it has to be that way?" "Is that a fact, or just a perspective?" I quickly discovered that life was not going to be a series of yes and no questions for me. (Is it for anyone?) So, my freshmen year ends in me going home for the summer with little academic direction.
Before I move on, one important thing needs to be mentioned here. I discovered a really good group of friends that year. So good in fact that we are still in close contact with each other. We just spent a weekend together earlier this month. At the time though, I had no idea...we just drank beer together!
Back to the story....when I arrived home I realized why I was going back to college in the fall. I simply did not fit into the Chippewa Valley mold anymore. I still had great friends at home, but things just weren't clicking anymore. (Those of you from Chippewa reading this, no slight intended. I think you would agree) I spent that summer working two jobs and swimming whenever I had the chance. I don't know why I went swimming so much...
I got back to college (finally) and that fall I had my first music ed class. About two weeks in I knew that this was not for me. So...what am I going to do now? It turns out that I am doing the exact opposite of what most people do at the end of their sophomore year. Rather than declare a major, I am walking over to Records and Registration to have "Music Education" replaced with "Undeclared". This wasn't all bad, I was still in good standing as a music major and this allowed me to catch up on some general classes I would need anyway.
This is also the year that I decided to make Stevens Point my new home. I got an apartment with my friends and became a "townie". Interestingly enough, this is the summer where I really grew up. I got a job, paid some bills, got a library card and even had my first telemarketer call for me. This was a really good time...I will always sit back and smile about this.
Junior year starts and ends about the same way. I still am not quite sure what I am doing or why I am here but at this point I am over half way done with whatever it is that I am trying to do and it seems silly to turn back. I am discovering that I like working on things, I like the people I am around and I like the city I live in. If that isn't general enough, I have decided to declare my major to be a Bachelor of Arts in Music. What that means is that I have taken the necessary amount of credits to get a degree and since most of them were in music that means my degree is in that field. (I realize that this sounds a bit cynical, but this is how I felt at the time.)
For the sake of time, lets fast forward to 2006 where the morale of the story happens...I am now living in Minneapolis and looking for a "real" job. I had been working for a photography company and teaching private trumpet lessons for the past 4 years. I thought things were going well, but I had no idea what was to come.
I saw this job posted...tech support at an elementary school. "I can do that." I had never done it before, but I was confidant that I could learn whatever I needed to know. It turns out that I am OK at this computer stuff. After six months at the elementary school I found myself in the position of "technology specialist" at the high school.
I accredit this success to my years as an undeclared student. It enabled me to remove the blinders and see that it is more important to be successful at life than specialize in one area. I have been paid money to photograph, swing a hammer, sort sheet music, push a broom, run a photo lab, play trumpet and currently to help shape the direction of technology in a local high school.
So, what's the point? Well...I dunno. I hoped to have one by now, but I don't. I thought for sure that putting these thoughts down would sort them out and give some direction but maybe not. Maybe later this week I will have some more thoughts on this. Here are some pretty pictures in the meantime...
Both of these images were taken while at my friend Craig's cabin a few weekends ago.
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