Wow, there has been way too much stuff going on in my life the past couple of weeks. I apologize for the lack of posting, but I think you can understand.
Let’s see:
1. Katie is offically settled in to her new apartment just off campus, so I find myself wandering over there on many and occasion.
2. Things are going great in Phi Mu Alpha. This is my first semester as Secretary and Webmaster. It’s been great to get more involed in such an amazing organization. I also have a new little brother named Zack. You can’t really miss him in the picture. He’s the only one wearing a cowboy hat (keepin’ the G spirit alive).
3. Comp is taking up a ton of my time. Once again I find myself doing double the composition by doing acoustic and electro-acoustic pieces at the same time during the semester. On the upside, I’ll be putting some nice pictures up of one of the CEMI studios soon.
4. I have to pass my pass my Piano profficiancy this semester. That will be my biggest challange by far, but if I can, I won’t ever have to look back.
All in all it looks to be a crazy semester.
Me, John, and some of the boys
Fact:
The sea wasp is half an inch long at best and more poisonous than any other jellyfish known to man.
This subject aparently keeps on comming up. I usually receive a call every couple of months from a friend who has gotten themselves into an argument about drummers with one of their friends. Granted, the drummer usually presented is quite excellent, but it’s simply a losing battle. Most people don’t have the patience to go through all the listenings, so I’ll just give you some current hard proof.
Mike Portnoy’s long list of Awards include 19 Modern Drummer Magazine Reader’s Poll Awards including:
-Best Progressive Rock Drummer (9 years in a row!)
-Best Clinician (twice)
-Best Educational Video/DVD for Liquid Drum Theater
-Best Recorded Performance of the Year (5 times) for Dream Theater’s Awake, A Change of Seasons, Falling Into Infinity, Scenes From A Memory, and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.
Sample from last year’s Modern Drummer Magazine results:
*Clinician Winner Mike Portnoy, with other nominees Dom Famularo, Akira Jimbo, Virgil Donati
* Educational Video/DVD Winner Mike Portnoy “Liquid Drum Theater DVD” , with other nominees included Dave Weckl: A Natural Evolution, Vol. 3: Getting Your Own Sound
* Recorded Performance Winner Mike Portnoy “Dream Theater: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence” with Runner up Mike Portnoy “Dream Theater: Live Scenes From New York”, and Mike Portnoy for “Transatlantic: Bridge Across Forever”
I don’t usually see too many drummers get runner up twice behind themselves!
Fact:
A tenth of the 7 million tons of rice grown in the U.S. each year goes into the making of beer.
