PhD Observations:

1) School is more work then before. A lot more work.

2) Assignments are no longer fill in the blanks but instead are make the blanks and fill them yourself.

3) I have no free time but somehow create free time in order to avoid insanity.

4) Office by yourself = producivity

5) Office with another officemate = procrastination.

6) School is a lot of work.

7) Being responsible for the education of others is kinda fun.

What kind of Music is this?

What kind of music is this? Whoever wrote it must have left himself behind at one point to dig the piano notes out of the earth and gather the artificial harmonics of the violins fom heaven. The tonality of this music has no mechanical purpose. It is there to transport us towards something that has never been heard before.
- Wolfgang Sander

12:59 lullaby

I've been listening to the new Bedouin Soundclash album a lot lately and highly recomend it to anybody looking for an upbeat album with some quirky and interesting features. So the first week of my Phd program has passed and it looks like it's going to be a lot of work and a lot more responsibility. The amount of work I've already done in my head surpasses anything I've done in a while. I think summer was bad for my brain and work ethic.

In other news I got a cat to keep me comany in my new sweet ass apartment. Her name is Twiggy. I got her from the vet at the age of 4 months. It's kind of nice to have a companion though being a kitten she is quite troublesome. Just when I'm ready to go to bed is when she's ready to attack and play and do whatever it is kittens do when they attack nothing... still quite fun.

Next week it all really begins.... Monday @9:30am it's back to the grindstone...

From the West Coast....

With only two days left until a PhD begins and my life returns to the status quo I present pictures from my trip from Vancouver to San Diego. Needless to say, the trip was amazing and I will never forget it... and with my giant credit card debt it will be years before THEY let me forget it.... in other cool news... I was in a wedding and it was tres fun. Sorry I've forgotten all about this blog... I will try to be better...

"Mount Baker, Washington"

"Seattle's Sapce Needle, Washington"

"Mount St. Helen's, Washington"

"Haystack Rock, Oregon"

"Redwood National Forest, California"

"Pacific Coast Highway, California"

"San Fran's Golden Gate Bridge, California"

"Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite National Park, California"

"Pebble Beach Golf Course Resort, California"

"Sunset on the Coast, California"

"Hollywood and Vine, LA, California"

"Laguna Beach, California"

"San Diego Zoo, California"

Flight Path

Despite my previous blogging I have not been very good at updating this place... but I digress... here is an update. On Tuesday I fly to Vancouver with Joe, a friend from high school and we rent a car and drive down the west coast all the way to San Diego. During that I will be primarily without internet (unless we stop in a internet cafe or something). Here is an itinerary of my upcoming journey:

Tuesday August 7th
• Flight: Toronto to Vancouver
Wednesday August 8th
• Vancouver to Seattle
Thursday August 9th
• Day in Seattle
Friday August 10th
• Seattle to Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon
Saturday August 11th
• Fort Stevens State Park to Jesse M Honeyman National Park
Sunday August 12th
• Jesse M Honeyman National Park to Del Norte Coast Redwood State Park, California
Monday August 13th
• Del Norte Coast Redwood State Park to San Francisco
Tuesday August 14th
• Day in San Francisco
Wednesday August 15th
• San Francisco to Yosemite National Park
Thursday August 16th
• Yosemite National Park to Sam Simeon State Park
Friday August 17th
• San Simeon State Park to LA
Saturday August 18th
• Day in LA
Sunday August 19th
• LA to San Diego
Monday August 20th
• Day in San Diego:
Tuesday August 21st
• Flight: San Diego to Toronto

Of course along the way we'll be able to see all the famous sights and pictures will follow. Road trips rock (I hope)!

Hello Blog

Hello Blog,
how I have missed thee. .... No not really.... I haven't missed thee at all. Facebook seems to be consuming most of my wasted internet communication applications so thie blog has fallen by the wayside. This is not to say I will not update it any more, in fact this is an update now:

So I finished and received my Masters of Music in Music on June 14th, and so that is that. I moved to a new apartment on June 15th, attended a wedding on June 16th and as of yesterday, I'm in Ottawa attending the National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute Young Composers Program, (or in it's short form: NAC SMI YCP). It's a week of concerts, workshops, readings and masterclasses for Composers, but it runs simoltaneously with the Conducting and Performance NAC programs, so there's lots of cross disciplinary events going on. Today is the first meeting and I have no idea what to expect. However I look forward to the Pinkas Zukerman Master class this evening. As well on Monday I get a reading of one of my works with the SMI Orchestra which is an amazing opportunity to hear a work played by an orchestra of semi-proffesional caliber.

So In conclusion, I'm very busy, but Ecotone is not dead. I will make my best efforts to update more often. More about this exciting (I hope) week in Ottawa.

Some Frost...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.