My wife’s student, Christopher Waugh, drew this on her board this morning in Home Room.

{Image Found Here}

This guy should write for Co Co!

Not mentioning any names…Jonathan.

So this is definitely the most useful site that I have seen since Google. All I can see as click the picture and bask in the freedom that is:

Each dot shows all of the choice times to go. However, check the fourth dot for the new Star Trek. Oh yeah, there’s an iPhone application coming!

While, chaperoning a high school senior trip in May, I was put through the unjust, cruel and agonizing torture of having to watch Twilight in the same room with a bunch of teenage girls and GUYS. (Don’t think you’re getting away with it.) Needless to say, I was absolutely overjoyed to discover this remix video. Thank you so very, very, very much Rebellious Pixels!

It just occurred to me that I never actually posted a picture of my finished guitar once I got it. To recap, it is Boca Raton based luthier Ben Joella’s first archtop guitar and it is absolutely incredible.

It is a completely hand carved spruce top and back. The Benedetto S-6 archtop pickup is mounted to the pickguard, which is also mounted to the floated neck and fretboard. Thus the only thing that makes contract with the spruce top is the bridge so that the instrument can be allowed to vibrate to it’s full potential. Another perk of this instrument is that it doesn’t weigh a million pounds, so you won’t to see a chiropractor after every gig. All that being said, I am obviously thrilled being playing an instrument of this calliber and look forward to seeing more of these instruments for Ben!

Get a load of this!

So Bonnie and I flew into Detroit in a blizzard on Friday. Apparently, snow is not a problem for planes, only thunderstorms are. This would have a nice bit of info to know before they flew us in in one. Upon landing at 12:30 we called my parents who we thought we on their way to pick us up, only to learn that they had turned back after 30 min on the road. Luckily my brother Nick and his girlfriend were stuck about 45 min away and they were able to pick us up. Only it took them about double the time. Here are some pictures of what greeted and of the ensuing blizzard that followed. Oh and by the way, we have 3 more storms coming in the next 5 days, all of them just like this one. WOOT!!!

© Bonnie Van Voorst www.bonnievanvoorst.com

© Bonnie Van Voorst www.bonnievanvoorst.com

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today, PostClassic and found this video interesting. Could tracking some music to a Sarah Palin interview have an effect on the actual message of the film? At first hearing that question, most would say “of coarse!” We as composers and musicians seek to elicit emotional responses by portraying our experiences, thoughts, and emotions through sound. So when I first saw this video, I thought, “Oh Joy, somebody put some sappy Disney music to the Palin/Couric her interview.” Then when it got to Palin’s response it got a bit more interesting. The music at that point did not resemble the same film style emotional music that I had expected. Instead it is rhythmically derived from her diction and thus does not elicit the same type of emotional response that a more culturally predictable type of music would accomplish. So, does this effect your view of this in a positive or negative way or do we just say…”gimmick!” I took the time to post about it so…comments?

If there is one thing you can tell from just looking at me, it is that I love good food, but I really didn’t realize how much I love bad food just as equally. In another one of my eventful brainstorming meetings with my boss, and we got onto the subject of how eating really good food all the time can actually deter from the inherent greatness of the good food. For instance, if one were to get up and eat an incredible breakfast of cream poached eggs with prosciutto, fresh spinach, roma tomatoes, and griere; followed by a lunch of lobster knuckle risotto, and finish the day off with dinner including, bacon wrapped filet mignon, Garlic roasted res skin potatoes, fresh veggies, and a pint of St. Bernardus, and if we were to do it every day, the exceptional nature off this immaculate food who seemingly loose it’s effect. My Boss said that he was eating this great dinner the other evening, but remembered that each preceding meal had been equally as good and he actually thought to himself, “I bet this meal would be so much better if I had just had a PBJ for lunch.” Nothing against the PBJ! It’s just to say , think of how that filet would taste if you had a bologna sandwich and cooked spinach for lunch.

I thought about this for second and said, you know this is just like music. I hate most of the music that I hear on the radio these days, for a multitude of reasons that I would need to take a whole year to blog about, but I digress. Ultimately, I actually don’t mind the Miley Cyruses, the John Mayers, and the Yannis as much when taken into consideration how incredible they make Mozart, Duke, Bird, and Maria Schneider’s music sound. In fact, I would say that the record industry and radio rock as a whole actually magnifies and amplifies the beauty and incredible nature of the music that I do like. I never thought I would say it, but I think I’m ok with this.

Al sent me this…I’m speechless.