You And I Arjuna, Have Lived Many Lives

I'm the Assistant Director for a community non-profit that promotes nonprofit arts education and performance. So we went to Atlanta for a competition and won a Gold Medal, then they interviewed me about our program. I'm honored to have the chance to discuss the hard work these young people are doing and how we're using our program to help those who need it a chance to learn from quality instructors.

DCI.ORG Article

I haven't journaled in a long time because I sometimes feel my life isn't as interesting as it was ten years ago. Traveling the world. Playing music in big stadiums. Deploying to Iraq. Traveling to Africa and just meeting so many different people and having new experiences.

Life is somewhat sedentary now, which isn't a bad thing. I just sometimes feel as if I'm existing and doing work in my community and with my family but it's on a smaller scale than what I was used too. The other side of that is, I never really had any plans for my life after I joined the Army. I just figured I'd join, and do 20 or 30 years and retire but when I decided to leave, I never really put thoughts into what was next.

My mind goes back to Iraq daily. I remember it like it was yesterday and I can play back moments in my mind. My body reacts and feels them as if they were real again. I remember how I felt at times being content with the experience. Sometimes I replay moments like the first time I pointed my weapon at someone on a convoy and it hurts me. It makes me wonder how I did it, and why they made us do it. How they conditioned us to accept that as normalcy... that pointing your machine gun at a bus full of kids to deter them from potentially detonating an IED ... why is that normal? I can rationalize it now but it still hurts sometimes.

  Its that time of year again... marching band season! I am entering my 5th year as percussion instructor and percussion arranger at Kent Roosevelt High School and its going to be the best yet. We kick off tomorrow with an Audition Clinic that I am teaching at Kent State and next week we have full auditions.
   The year I started we had 15 students and this year we are expecting between 25 to 28 with a retention rate of 100%. Im really proud of the work Ive done and how hard my students work to be world class musicians.
     So this year we are doing an "American Ole West" show. We are starting the show with a Front Ensemble chorale of Battle Hymn of the Republic thats going to end with a full band power chord. We are doing Magnificent Seven, Hoe Down, Trooper Salute and a few other tunes.
    I write custom parts for each of the students in the pit and this year I will be writing park of the Drumline book. Lots of work but really rewarding when the kids perform and you can feel their intensity. The best is when the crowd responds and the kids and our program recieve special praise.  I can't wait!

Yesterday at Epcot we got some ice cream and were served by a young college student doing an exchange from Tae Gu University in Korea. i started speaking to her in Korean and her jaw just dropped. She was so suprised and seemed so excited. I talked to her for a minute and she told me how there are very few Koreans at Disney so it is nice to speak her native language. She said she has never met any Americans at Disney who speak Korean. I told her i was in the military and have many Korean friends so I can speak some. It was a nice chat and by the end i could tell I had made the girls day. Its cool because I rarely speak Korean anymore and was worried I would butcher it!

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Been a while...

I am in orlando on a bus heading home. I am here on a band trip with my students from the high school where I teach. Its been a long few days including a bus breakdown in west virginia, a bunch of kids passing out from not eating nor drinking (like we told them) before marching in a mid day Disney parade, and a lot of fun with rides and my friends/army buddies/fellow teachers.

Any ways it was a long but enjoyable trip. The kids were so we'll behaved though they whine a little too much for my taste. I think its because they are used to getting things their way and not used to group actions. My drumline is good except for the cymbal line who suffers from lack of strong leadership. I think I will work harder to train up strong leaders and musicians so I don't have to babysit them.

Basically, I taught the line very simple visuals that were to do every few minutes. The section leader told me they didn't have time to practice them and that they were tired and wouldn't do them. I was so pissed I just walked off. I have had problems with this student being a problem child and not learning music while really holding their section back. The regular section leader has potential from a leadership side but sucks ass musically. He's really really bad but thinks he is good so he won't listen to anyone.

Next season I think I am going to sack the entire drumline except section leaders. I will re-audition all of them based off more rudiments, marching ability and timing. I will through some sight reading into it to make things more realistic. My boss already approved this so I will publish audition requirements in a few weeks. I love teaching these kids and I am really excited about the progress and development of the program.

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Hi there,

I am working on a Film Noir style advertisement based off the movie poster for "Dressed to Kill". I am asking for input and tips as I am not to familiar with InDesign these days and this is one of a few Photoshop/Indesign projects I have worked on. I think I am going to change the title to "Dress to Thrill".

Thank You.

What is life like for someone who has done so much so fast? I ask myself this question and ponder over it's answer often. I am only 28 but I have done a lot of things some people wait their entire lives to do. This creates a problem because it often times leads to being disinterested in things others have a desire to do.

So what can a person do to stay excited about redoing or revisiting past experiences in life? How does a person who has done and seen so much keep from getting bored? Escapism in the form of media, games, literature are some of the first things that come to mind. Secondly, we can seek out the extremes in areas we have already experienced life. Something as simple as base jumping since you have already been skydiving and more.

I find it difficult sometimes to get excited about doing things I have done so many times before. The crime I have committed is moving through part of my life so fast that now I feel like there is not much to do. There isn't anywhere I want to travel right now save visiting friends. Most popular music and media doesn't interest me for a variety of reasons (lack of quality or depth, etc) and I find school to be fun sometimes and other times boring. So boring I decided to do a double major just to make things more interesting.

I seek to reignite that fire and drive to seek out new and exciting experiences. I have become somewhat settled and haven't moved in three years. This is contrast with nearly ten years ago where I lived in three different countries over the course of a year. That coupled with the baggage and perception of life after war makes it difficult to see a path. One thing I have found that excites me and makes my life exhilarating is actually having a long-term relationship.

It's so different and foreign to a person who moved every year. It's very difficult while also being very rewarding. The challenge is to learn how to be in a relationship as an adult when you life has been focused on the next place, the next girl, the next battle, the next experience. I head off into the great unknown of this life facing the daily wonderment of experiencing love without the threat of death, injury or distance.

In keeping with my odd-numbered attendance of Convergence I am making plans to attend C15 on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Is anyone planning on attending this event in July or just skipping this one? So far I have been to C7, C11, C13 (I would have attended C9 but we were on call for the invasion of Iraq in 03'). The locations looks exciting and I can visit some of my Cali friendlies as well.

I got in a discussion on Monday with a lady who sings blues. She complimented me on my playing and was really excited about my playing. I told her that I am "temporarily retired" and don't play much anymore. She got annoyed at me and wanted to know why I didn't want to play much anymore.

I explained to her than my main focus is school right now and that the bands I am in now are all original, progressive, avant-garde and challenging. She got mad at me and started telling me that not all singers are divas and that I just haven't played with the right musicians yet, etc. I told her that I had 8 years to play with amazing, world-class, monster musicians who I learned so much from and helped me grow as a musician. I told her that I got burned out with playing 4 or 5 times a day and that at the end it got boring.

It got really funny from there and she told me that can't be true because I play like I love music. I told her that I do love music but it doesn't mean I want to play all the time. I wasn't able to get my point across though because she kind of overwhelmed me with her fervor. She could sing really well and I enjoyed the conversation. My choice to be picky with my gigs is something I have earned. After so many years of playing music I didn't want to play I have the power to say yes or no now and I will use it.

Well I had some time today and was feeling very creative so I went back to a project I have been working on for a while. I started getting into space art lately in between my Art Deco work (more on that later). So I have been working on a planet for like two weeks now and I just started the process of merging it into the stars and painting a nebula beneath it. Right now the native resolution is 2800x900 ; widescreen resolution over two monitors AKA made specifically for my monitor :P. Go check it out on Deviantart:

http://vasaforever.deviantart.com/…

Just a little taste of things to come. It's a new year!