counter-point

ALIVE AND WELL

goodbye, motherfuckers!

JnK is dead.

Follow me on Twitter instead.
Or just hit me up on Facebook.

School

Senior year. Crazy, huh? 

So far, I adore it. I'm only taking classes I like- gov/econ, eng, jazz band- and my teachers are all really pretty chill. It’s great, I don't feel like I'm getting dumber in school, and I’m very pleased.

My English teacher in particular, who is notorious for his obsession with the Beatles, is absolutely off his rockers. He actually looks and dresses like a Beatles member- long, curly hair, blazer, leather shoes, and a flamboyant gait. There are no rules or tests in class and he lectures all period (with colorful language) about the oddities and ironies of human nature and American culture. He’s the type of teacher that doesn’t take crap from students and some of his goals are to share 60’s music with his students and free us from the credit-grubbing, politically-correct mentality that previous teachers have instilled into us. Sometimes I’m scared that an administrator will peek in and hear what he’s saying and he’ll get fired and not be able to impart his wisdom unto us anymore… It’s all very fascinating- let me know if you guys want me to share some of his rants on here, and I’ll be happy to take notes. Also, he has an upright piano and plays it during class at random intervals. I love him. :D

My favorite class though, is jazz band. What are you doing in jazz band?!, you might ask. Well dear reader, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone, and was inspired by some of Leland’s past jazz concerts, so boom. I can now play jazz violin?

Well, sort of. Jazz improvisation is a whole, new musical language/world to me and it was extremely tough to release myself from the conservatory-correctness of classical music, but it is so rewarding once you start learning and absorbing everything. There are so many new rules, and so many ones that are broken. This seemingly lawless music is all about creativity, imagination, good vibes, and everything else music should be about. There’s also a LOT of theory involved, but at the end of the day you play what sounds good. It’s so different from what I’ve been playing before, and I’m infatuated. I’m so in love with it that I’m considering taking it seriously in college, alongside my classical studies.

Speaking of classical music, I think I’m pretty good for my college prescreenings coming up. I got my Sibelius, Bach, and Paganini down for the most part. The technical bits in the Paganini caprice are tripping me up still, but it’s so fun to play so I don't mind. And I’ll be performing for Midori towards the end of Sept… nerve-racking but exciting! Will let you guys know how that turns out.

By the way, I miss you Arcadia folks a bunch. I’m still a loner here, but I’m working on it. You guys will always occupy a special place in my heart, though. Let me know how you are doing with life and school! 

What's happening to our live shows?

Why do we attend live concerts, when iPods and Spotify are readily available? Why drive to music festivals in the middle of nowhere or brave rush hour traffic to get to a concert hall, when a few clicks or taps can deliver the same music in pretty decent quality?
Seeing artists play live is a whole, 'nother experience. It allows us to experience the music more intimately and watch as the musician's godly skills unravel right before us. However, a shift in the music scene to EDM has also produced a change in the quality of popular live acts touring today. I recall watching Ratatat performing on the Coachella livestream a few years ago, as well as some other EDM artists. Now, Ratatat is one of my favorite groups of all time, and they're not even considered as edm, I think. Their live show was disappointing though, due to the limitations of the music. There are very little vocals (if any), and apart from some guitar solos- you don't have anyone on the bass or drums like a conventional rock band. You can't really have back-up singers or dancers because you don't really need them for this kind of music! (The dancing is done by the audience anyway, in the case of EDM. Besides banging on some drums to the predominantly prerecorded music, the duo didn't really do much onstage. What is there to do? All you really needed to do was to just press play... but that doesn't make an engaging show! I suppose that in the case of the dubstep and electronic music trend, you don't really go to shows to watch the artist fiddle around on a computer or mixer- you attend them to dance and jump repeatedly in place with a fist in the air. Of course, those artists are still great musicians, but their talent is mostly in the studio, not onstage. It doesn't take a lot of skill to operate a laptop or effect pedals.
When I first came to this realization, I thought that this was a really pretentious view to possess until I came across this post by Deadmau5. But maybe Deadmau5 was a little too harsh. After all, most of these really brilliant musicians- whether they play house, classical, or pop- all deserve to be recognized for their ability to produce tunes that people love and enjoy. Musicians that rely more on technology, like a computer, might just have it easier when performing. After all, they don't really need to worry about hitting the right notes onstage or staying in sync with the backup dancers or hoping that their voice won't crack on that high falsetto solo. Aside from the occasional technical issue here or there, there isn't really any improvisation or spontaneity involved.
I hope that this genre of music will undertake some innovation to make their performances more interesting. Not that the crowd will care anyway, while they're dancing and possibly getting plastered, but at least I'll feel that I'm getting my money's worth, and that the experience can't be replicated with a giant boombox and some blacklights at home.

And the secret ingredient is...

"SOYLENT GREENU"

HAPPY MURRICA

The Cost of Growing Up

After receiving my first couple of paychecks, my dad decided it was time for me to open up a bank account. After checking out BoA, Wells Fargo, and Chase, we settled on the latter because they didn't charge a monthly fee as long as you remain a student with at least $500 in the bank. So it was free banking basically, and it felt pretty good when the brand-spanking-new debit card arrived in the mail. This was my money, and the realm of online shopping was finally at my disposal! No longer would gift purchasing for family members be a pain- a quick order online and all previous, stealthy ways of acquiring presents would be abandoned. Going out with friends will also be less embarrassing, as it has always been a terrible habit of mine to carry insufficient cash on hand (speaking of which, I'm pretty sure I still owe Tanya a dollar... or something). Best of all, I didn't need to rely on Eric's generosity and shady trades any more for buying PC games (that is, un-illegally-feasible multiplayer games. shhh).

My first purchase was a mini orchid for my former vln teacher's birthday. The next one was a slightly heftier purchase for Eric's birthday as well. Each succeeding order after that became increasingly painful though, as frequent monitoring of my balance and transfer histories caused my stinginess levels to rise, and rise. What was once the attitude of "just shut up and take my money, DICE" became "oh man, I could really use that $50 in the future for like, food, when I'm homeless." Maybe it's not practical to look so far into the future, but considering my dad isn't going to pay jack shit for my collegiate life (okay, insurance and phone bills will be covered) it's probably best to buckle down now rather than later.

Having a bank account has certainly taught me to not only be more frugal, but to value money. Forget what I've said about money earlier, because it does matter much more than any optimist would like to admit. It is shaping my next big decision- college- because attending some elite conservatory in NYC will probably result in a very debt-ridden kat with no job, while playing it safe and graduating with no job but- no debt! may ease matters from a long-term prospective. Getting a summer job is an option for me to start saving up now, but much to my disappointment, there's no time to do so. The best alternative at the moment is to work on presenting myself as a a totally viable candidate for scholarships by getting my repertoire together, and entering as many competitions as possible. My parents always remind me that the purpose of competing is to expand one's performance experience and to gain exposure, not win. It hurts to confess this, but I'm only in it to win- for the money.

Free Music: SASKATCHEWAN

Stumbled on this little band on tt.fm.

You can download their music for free here. (Just enter 0.00 when it asks you to pay.)

Dream pop makes great summer music. :)

found new stuff to listen to while studying

Minimalists! Especially Glass and Cage

I never really got why they call themselves minimalists (from a theory standpoint yes, but from the perspective of their music and its sound...)

Just thought I'd break the long silence here

Some updates

- Made my SF debut, I guess. It wasn't perfect, but there's just something about playing Bach in a church that's so... out of this world.
- Internet karma wasn't as easy to get as I thought. My fail reddit thread
- Should've told you guys a long time ago, but I inherited my sister's myTouch 4G so I can now text from home.
- New author crush: John Steinbeck.
- Not really anything new, just wanted to show you guys my coin(/currency) collection. Because I'm that cool.
- Licensed.
- Visiting LA for spring break!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46943248/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/#.T3u39atul5B

ah balls, looks like no more blogging from school for me. looks like the number of posts here is going to decrease drastically.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

purrgatory

thank you reddit

The Problem With Kony 2012...

...is that this is the war in the Middle East all over again.

It's demands fueled by ignorance to occupy an unstable region to catch a terrorist. Except this time, the goal isn't even as noble.

Backtrack to 2004-05. The Lord's Resistance Army were pretty much lame ducks at this point, Joseph Kony was hiding in the jungle being anything but a significant threat to the stability of the region, and Uganda was finally all but done with the omnipresent issue of the LRA raping kids and machete-ing arms off. The formal regime of Uganda has lots of room for improvement, but at least at that point, there was one less terrorist organization to be scared of. The US and pretty much every country AND several international criminal courts had already declared the LRA a terrorist organization and classified Kony as a terrorist to be captured.

And then, a year later, Invisible Children makes a documentary about how important it is to stop Kony.

A year late.

Since then, Kony has all but disappeared from any political radars. The last time the LRA as a whole did anything warranting a real threat to the stability of the region was in 2010, the same year Obama sent armed US soldiers into the area to dismantle the LRA as a terrorist organization.

Two years later, also known as 6 years after Invisible Children was late to the party the first time around, ALSO known as two years since the LRA did anything truly horrifying, IC publishes another fucking documentary about how much of a threat Kony is to the region surrounding Uganda. Also, at some point they interview a three-year white boy who had nothing to do with Uganda for some reason. And now there's an explosive Kony 2012 movement all over the Internet about it.

Don't get me wrong, the fact that the LRA is still an extant organization and the fact that Kony is still out there being a destructive force in Uganda and surrounding countries is horrible, and the world should be making an effort to catch him and they should be condemning him as an evil, evil man.

Which they are, and which it is. Countries around the world have classified him as a terrorist, and there are several international organizations, INCLUDING the US and INCLUDING the Ugandan* government are making conscious efforts to arrest Kony and force him to stand trials for his crimes against humanity.

*whom, I want to stress, had historically been more devil than saint, a fact which gets hidden in all this fiery "protest" over Kony- another downside to this movement rooted in emotions without logic

Which brings this rant to a full circle: Kony 2012 is a useless movement, and it is 6 years late. It has again shown the effects viral media can have on protest and awareness, and it has also shown us the immense danger of being caught up in sensationalism without fact. To organize my complaints coherently:

-Kony 2012 is the exact same movement that was started by Invisible Children 6 years ago. The new documentary they've released seems more like a publicity ploy with the war crimes of the LRA as a pretense rather than a main point. There's pathos everywhere but no logos anywhere. Their ethos is a three-year-old white boy who lives in America.

-There is nothing to protest; Kony and the LRA haven't been anywhere near being in power since 2004. Kony is currently sitting in the jungle waiting to die (or not even in the region at all, whichever)

-The movement is very shallow in its roots; I scrolled through my friendly neighborhood Anti-Kony Facebook group admin'd by 7th graders and run by AHS seniors, and what I saw was, chronologically,

1) Everyone in outrage, spouting facts taken facsimile from Invisible Children's documentary, 2) People getting their comments deleted by 7th grade admins, 3) Rabid support for Invisible Children, 4) Everyone in the group unable to defend against people challenging the premise of the group, especially those challenges that were backed by facts, 5) Sudden outrage against Invisible Children when they realized that IC released this exact movie six years ago.

Also, this got posted, which I found hilarious.

-Awareness has absolutely no bearing on whether or not Kony will be arrested. There is already a gigantic effort to stop him (there is, as of 2010, an armed contingent of US military specialists trying to dismantle the LRA and arrest Kony), and plastering a school with pictures of Joseph Kony's monstrous face will in no way facilitate his arrest. People are already trying to arrest Kony, he's just evading capture.

-The protest has no goals, or if so, a very, very dangerous one. The only way the US could get any more involved in the arrest of Kony is if it sent even more US troops into the area and declared war on the LRA. And the last time the US military occupied an unstable region to capture a terrorist ended so damn well. The success in the Middle East is all over the news, George W. Bush is the most popular president in history, oil prices are the lowest they've ever been, and democracy is absolutely flourishing over there. Iran is and will always be our best friends forever. [citation needed]


Awareness is a great thing to have, and I wouldn't begrudge this newfound knowledge of the sorry state of affairs in Africa to anyone swept up by this Kony craze, but at the same time, our passions and protests- and this sudden interest in world affairs- might be put to better use on an issue that isn't moot, and an issue that isn't 7 years out of being an issue.

Maybe click on another country that has just as pressing of a need for awareness, or maybe click on something that hasn't been learned of through 30 minutes of sensationalist documentary. Protip: pretty much anywhere you click on that map would be acceptable.

olleH

I've just realized recently that it's only been a year since my relocation, but wow- it feels like I've been here for at least 5 years. Time has a funny way of slowing down. 
But as a reflection, it's been a pretty incredible learning experience, adapting to new environments, teachers, musics, etc. Whenever I think about whether this was all worth it, I remember a friend's farewell text to me before I left LA last spring, which encouraged me to make the most out of this. And yes Jason, I am doing just that.

A year ago, I would've cowered at the prospect of playing something like... the Sibelius concerto and Bach's Chaconne. Somehow, that's exactly what happened and although I've just scratched the surface of understanding the music and actually mastering it, the fact that I can sort of grasp it and run through the 1st mvmt of the Sibelius and not collapse during Chaconne (non-stop 15 mins of torture) is pretty awesome. I think I've matured a lot through these two pieces as well- especially the Chaconne. I think it's because my teacher has this tendency of giving me these really abstract ideas that I've never faced before. He'd say something like "play it as if you were praying to God" and I'll be like "wut." But after you figure out the gist of what he meant, it's pretty profound and enlightening. Bach is really profound, and Chaconne is like his epic tale of life and love and tragedy and death.

I think the most important lesson I've learned musically, is that as a musician, conveying the emotions and story of the music is sometimes more important than technique. A good example would be last week's competition, where I completely butchered Sibelius but tried my hardest to make faces and "act" out the music. The judges fell for my trap, even though my competitors played much cleaner. Granted, technique is extremely important too, but excellent technique without music amounts to nothing.

Another musically life-changing experience was playing in a string quartet. Even as a second violinist, playing chamber music well is really, really tough. I have to lead and follow and match articulations and rhythm and know everyone's part, all simultaneously. My ensemble did a few masterclasses, and upon meeting the Cavani Quartet and Cypress String Quartet- you just gain a ton of respect and reverence for them because they do their job so well. So far, we've covered the first mvmts of Borodin's Second Quartet, Mozart's 17th ("La Chasse"), Schubert's No. 13 ("Rosamunde"), as well as the 3rd mvmt of Shosty's 3rd Quartet. 

Despite all these amazing experiences I've been so blessed to have, I can't really say that I'm happy here. I should be, but I'm not. I'd like to put the blame on the inherent "solitary life" that accompanies most musical pursuits, but it's really my fault for neglecting to make friends and socialize at school. I can't blame the people here either, because NorCal people are actually a lot nicer and less judgmental than SoCal inhabitants (no offense). I guess I've yet to find my own niche (and stop being so aloof :P).


However, I did find a new niche/hobby from being cooped up in my room all the time and have spent most of my downtime gaming. It's sort of an escape and a distraction from stress and unhappy things. Although I'm still new to the scene, I'm pretty sure multiplayer fps's are the best thing to ever exist. There's just something about outwitting and killing virtual people that is so satisfying. Weirdly enough, it has been a pretty educational experience too, as I've banished my previous convictions that video games should be frowned upon, because the work that game developers do and the skill pro gamers exhibit are pretty admirable. And because it is a largely male-dominated culture, I've started to understand men a lot more. Plus, video games are really fun.


Have I changed since I've moved? From my perspective that's pretty difficult to answer, but I probably have changed a lot in terms of the quality of my humor and regularity of expletive language after being influenced by the gaming culture. But I guess one thing that has dramatically changed is that I'm a lot more chill (is that the right word?). I used to really buckle under pressure and stress and take criticism a lot more seriously. But I've realized that there's no use to panicking or pulling out my hair when I'm unprepared for a violin lesson or concert; it only makes the situation worse. Bach Festival event tomorrow? Play BF3 the day before and break legs at the audition.


Take it easy, guys.

"The Mad Ones"

now, i COULD write a bit about how much i love this video and this quote and jack kerouac, or i could decide not to break the tradition of half-assed microblogging

i choose the latter

AMERICA

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/waiting-for-godot-voted-best-modern-play-in-english-1178953.html

F_ YEAH

fuckshitfuckshitfuck

http://www.regretsy.com/2012/01/03/from-the-mailbag-27/

found on reddit