Watch the Feet!

For my regular readers, my auntie has just a couple days left from the cancer. For new readers, well my auntie has cancer. I wanted to post some dancing videos from my culture. We have old school fancy dancing and then we have fancy SHAWL dancing. It just makes me feel better to watch these videos. I hope all is well and thanks for sharing, thanks for reading. ;-) peace

For my Aunt D.

Old School


The new Fancy.

Sarasota Opera Studio

About 15 years ago, I left my apartment in Sarasota and I distinctly remember walking to the opera house, feeling the wind, smelling the ocean, weather was quite cool.. my spirits were high and I was feeling excited to begin rehearsals on Bizet's Jolie Fille de Perth.

I did not have children, I hadn't seem my wife(of only a year at the time) in more than a month... I was focused and did everything the rules said, but I left Sarasota opera that year with more questions than answers. I was unfulfilled. Funny how I remember now how much Greg Trupiano cared about the artists and our experience. He made a difference for me that season.

As I walked into Capital One this morning, I was overwhelmed with a sense of deja vu, but the conditions were nowhere near the same. The winds were there, no ocean, but a bright sky and I am expecting a good day with challenges and issues. My singing performances these days are quite good, but certainly not every day. My rehearsals are even more interspersed and my sense of community with my fellow musicians is strained at best. I enjoy relationships with friends at work, my colleagues, but I share little in common with them musically.(at least as far as I know). My stage is at work.. at church... and sometimes "on stage" in the traditional manner.

Funny, that doesn't seem to matter.. in the long run. My work with the Da Capo Institute is all encompassing. I believe that there are more musicians like me out in the world. They go to work every day to take care of their families and lives.. and have little opportunity to engage with the "musical world" because they no longer play by the rules.

Perhaps, we can simply write a new "sheet of music" that will allow us all to come together.

Friends with God

More Jon Lajoie, seriously he could put out a CD, I love his voice...hmm...he could do voice over work. He's just frickin hot! He's on the right road though, 'cause he is funny! ;-) enjoy!

Everyday Normal Guy 2

Just a regular Everyday Normal Mother Fucker... :) LOL here is part 2 of Jon Lajoie's Everyday guy.

Everyday Normal Guy

Hilarious! Jon Lajoie is a comedian who put this on youtube, I like it and he's cute...so here he is. :)

Got ego?

I have it. I recognize that it can keep me from partnering with others if I don't keep it in check.
Part of the reason I am so passionate about communities is because of a natural tendancy to separate and compete... ego is part of who we are, but if we can actually use our skills and ego to promote those around us in a collaborative manner.. we can literally change the world. One instance at a time.

There is a great poem/reflection written about this here...competition or collaboration
Below is an excerpt from that poem by Rev. Charles Hulin III.
" So we learn that the key to success is cooperation. We have to cooperate to win anything from ball games to wars. We have to cooperate to keep the peace. We have to cooperate to elect public officials that we hope will be honest. We have to cooperate to operate a business . . . To move a church forward . . . To keep a home together . . . To build great institutions."

I have been fixated lately on my inability to get churches to work together. I call it "politics", many other names... but in the end, I am not so different than them even personally. Are you?

Do I pursue my agenda or one set by God. Do I embrace a sense of lowliness in the midst of talent and ego, or I seek to prove that I am better than those around me.. tough questions.. without good answers...

Romans 4 ( The Message)
Trusting God

^{1 -3} So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."

^{4 -5}If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

^{6 -9}David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off,
whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against
whom the Lord does not keep score. Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?

age for Classical musicians

PBS special on Monday night featured this quote from famed conductor, James Conlon.

"There is no age for performers in classical music" (paraphrased as I don't remember it exactly)

The idea that classical musicians bring music to life based on ability.not age is quite compelling to me. This really is different from experience and explains why young artists can provide such compelling performances without experience. The experience plays into other factors. Maybe the parallel is closely aligned to sports.

Music has a complexity to it, requiring ability, but the age of the performer is not really relevant..or is it...

In Memory of Heath Ledger

Such a loss, so talented and so young.
1979-2008

AFC Championship Symphony

Did anyone else see the very, very cool orchestral lead in to the AFC championship yesterday. It was an excellent blending of classical music and football and it was done blending a wonderful collage of videos, photos and pure energy to set up the game..

Kudos to CBS for a spectacular piece of musical and video artistry which generates a desire for excellence, showing how classical music can even make a difference in the NFL... I loved it.. I rewound and watched it twice.. wish I could find it online so I could keep it..

Inclusionary Excellence as an imperative

Can I adopt an inclusionary approach to music and people which jointly embraces a passion for excellence without excluding those with less ability? I think that if we adopt the imperative to seek excellence, while embracing our individual spirits and talents then this is possible. Growth and teaching are done by the community with all of its abilities. The Da Capo assessment model provides an opportunity/framework for the students and "studio" to leverage its combined talents to improve the whole. A student at any level has something they can share and teach, and in the Da Capo Way this ability becomes an obligation. As a musician, they are obligated to share their talents with the world around them.

We can't ignore our base drive for competition, but we learn to deal with it and put our ego aside. I am most excited when I can build other musicians up..at all levels. If we all returned the favor more aggressively and explicitly, I wonder what a difference it might make..

If we view each artists' abilities as a unique and precious offering, then we have much to learn from one another. Today's world of competition seems much more focused on judging against and objective standard to define excellence. I don't reject the fact that there must be a standard, I simply think we need to find ways to include so that all can benefit from the best.. a sort of "trickle down economics applied to music"

This thinking puts me into a dilemma. Does inclusionary excellence eventually doom the excellence itself to mediocrity? Guess that doesn't matter in the end because we are all commanded to grow and develop, not be complacent with our place. The end game is likely bigger than me.

We are commanded to make a difference in the world and continually better ourselves.. not be better than others. The motivation makes all the difference.

Proverbs 22:29 (NIV)
Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.

Hebrews 5:11-6:3 (The Message) ^{11 -14}I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.
^{1 -3}So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we'll stay true to all that. But there's so much more. Let's get on with it!

Just because....

...I needed something pretty here! :) Hope everyone is well. Not much new going on here, just tired and tired of working. I have family from S. Dakota coming next month so I'll take a day or two off for that, they want to go to S.F. :) I think I can be a tour guide for them, last year we did S.F. this year my relatives want to go to Alcatraz, that should be fun.
;-) peace

Rank?

My approach to the world.. is really this simple..Get good people…Tell them what you want the end state to be… Support them.. They will succeed in the end… Most important thing is to focus on the people…

My essence, my soul, is unique. I am special.. but I am not better than others. I am here to love and be loved. I thank God for that tremendous gift. My desire and ambition sends me down the road to excluding others, and showing that I am better than other.. by the world’s standards of course… What a waste of energy. This hierarchy that we create for ourselves is at the root of our inability to embrace one another.

Christ redeems me, and allows me to be. My music, my skill is all a gift that I am bound to use to help towards the ultimate salvation of the entire world. As we rank one another against his model, we all fall short.. but that doesn't absolve us of our obligation to use our talents.. Sometimes we succeed.. often we fail.. all the time we are blessed.

Success and failure are only relevant in our limited perspective.. in our time, in our place. Striving to better ourselves is really quite different from striving to be better than those around us...

What is your rank?

Ok, I'm back...

...kinda. :-)
Ok, so...last year was difficult...I had bad panic attacks, anxiety etc. I'm better now, oh so way better that the past year seems like a bad memory. In the course of six months I had to let go of two friends that I have known for so long. One was my friend of 16 years, but we just grew apart and the relationship was toxic and I just couldn't handle it anymore. Yeah she will say it's because she wants to be a dude but it really wasn't the transgen thing, I just felt that every time we talked it was conflict, it was tedious and it was exhausting. So I let her go. Then (if you read earlier in my blog) my best friend of 24 years, lied. He lied about him having cancer and he lied to his mom who bought him a trip to Hawaii, he has always been "about him" and trying to get attention but this was the last straw. I mean I just moved in with my aunt and cousin, my aunt has terminal cancer we are talking a few months. My ex best friend knew this and yet he continued his facade, he continued to lie and he continued to play my emotions as well as his family. I'm not sure about anyone else, but um, this sucks...two people I have depended on for so many years are no longer there. Yes it was my decision to let them go, but I had to, for my own peace of mind. Now when I pick up the phone to talk to someone, it's hard to realize, they are not them anymore. On top of that, living with my aunt who has cancer is kinda tough, she is fading faster than we thought she would. The job is going well, busy...first of the year so new deadlines and projects. It keeps me sane actually :)
My sister the drug addict has been evicted blah blah blah, I could go on. The one thing that I really want to post in this blog..is I'm ok. I really am, yeah I hurt and it sucks about my two ex best friends and watching my aunt fade before me, but ya know what? I have come to terms with all that, I really have. I think now I just feel the sting. Ya know, someone you knew your whole life and now is intent on destroying you but yet he was unprovoked. The sting that someone you thought would always be there for you, yet you can't even relate to them anymore. That was 2007 though, I let it go and I look forward to 2008 and all that it will contain, I know it will be a be a good year! I hope everyone has a great 2008, I know I will.
Oh, and um I got some hot guys to post, it will be soon. :) peace!

Best McDonalds around...

Upward basketball began today and we had an 8am game for Joshua. Afterwards we went to the McDonalds at Stony Point in Bon Air...(intersection of Forest Hill and Huguenot) I have been thinking a lot lately about how a sense of community contributes to my happiness, my goals, my family etc. 20/20 ran a cool segment last night on "finding happiness" and sense of community was the single biggest contributor...

We spent the morning making new friends at Upward, cheering for basketball, enjoying a McMuffin with neighbors and friends at what is the coolest Mickey D's I have ever seen.. It feels like an upscale cafe, almost coffee shop environment, staff is friendly and courteous.. pretty amazing. That place definitely makes a difference in people's days.. builds communities and makes people happy.

HMMM.. maybe McDonalds is the driving force for our culture and future?.... they certainly seem to do a better job of getting their message across than most churches...

Stress of performing... on opera singers

This is definitely the world I left back in mid 90s.. but I don't think that this is any different from any other performing artists life. Travel, and stress are part of what we sign up for when we choose this path. I agree that the trick is to balance work and life. That is pretty hard, when you work is your life... as this article dictates so clearly.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/opera/article3127330.ece

Kids make some amazing music...!

For a short ride through some beautiful musical moments, check out this video of the students of the Da Capo Institute in their finale concert for Fall 2007. 

I heard them on day one back in September.. and wow what a difference...