quick update on random things

Life is busy, but good.

Things I'm working on:
- searching for instances of metrical dissonance in electronica music, and working on a presentation/paper on this topic for my hypermeter seminar (if you have any ideas/examples, let me know)
- "Tribeca Sunflower," a marimba solo (which is currently kicking my butt) that I'm supposed to perform in three months
- arranging Lauridsen's setting of "O Magnuum Mysterium" for two marimbas - also to be performed in three months
- some other duet, also to be performed in three months

On top of all that percussion stuff, I also have a lot of post-tonal theory stuff. I'm taking three classes right now that deal with post-tonal theory. Oh, Schoenberg...

Classes are going well, though. I'm taking 14 credits this quarter, which is ridiculous (since 10 credits = full-time), but so far it's fine. I think my hypermeter seminar is my favorite class - it's totsweet*. This week, we spent most of the time sight-singing isorhythmic motets (which made me appreciate Dr. Peters even more, since I think I was the only one in the class who'd ever learned anything about isorhythmic motets in music history classes). Then we looked through an article that my prof wrote, which was published in Italian. This was bad news for me, since I don't know any Italian, but luckily one of the other first-years is fluent, so he helped the class with it. Anyway, it's an interesting seminar - I never know what to expect.

In other news, today I spent about three hours standing (split into two sessions of 1.5 hours) while doing percussion stuff. Then I spent 45 minutes on an elliptical machine. After that, I walked all around the U-District. None of these ideas were good. My ankle and knee hate me right now.

Other than my knee/ankle/leg stuff, physically I've been feeling pretty good lately. I've been pushing myself harder during my workouts, and it's starting to pay off - I feel like I have more energy. So I end up doing more things, and wear myself out, and by the end of the day I'm always exhausted. C'est la vie...

The weather has been a little chilly here, but definitely not "cold." It's funny to hear everyone complain about it. Thanks to the "cold," the skies have been really clear lately, and the mountain views from the city are amazing. I need to get out soon and take some photos. Here are some that I took at Magnuson Park a couple weeks ago (and haven't had a chance to post):








*"totsweet" was used in this post so I could join the trend of everyone saying it.