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.

Matt Tozer: Master of Music

So at 3pm today I handed in my thesis to be bound. I am DONE. I have completed my Masters. I now have 4 months of relative ease before I begin again on the quest to receive yet another degree. This time a PhD. When I am done that in 4 years time I'll be 29 years old.


Back when I started my Bachelor it all seemed so far away, yet now I'm over halfway done. I'm 60% of the way there.....and whatever 'there' is, well I'm not sure... but it's coming up faster then ever.

But for now I will spend my summer:
biking, working, traveling, drinking, reading, playing video games, and generally... well not doing school work.

Huzzah!
I have a Masters Degree!!!!

Dieppe

Presenting:
Dieppe: A Chamber Opera
Music by Matt Tozer
Libreto by Nick Milne
Performed Thursday April 12th, 8pm, in Von Kuster Hall, UWO, London Ontario
Music directed by Pratik Ghandi with members of the UWO Performance Department.

Doctor Tozer

So...

I've been accepted to the PhD program in compostion at UWO and I've decided to go.

So next September baring any unforseen problems I will be returning to the Forest City for 4 more years after which I will be: Dr. Tozer.

.... then I suppose, I'll have to start real life.

Thesis Composition Concert

T Minus Three Days till Liftoff!

THESIS GOES IN ON FRIDAY, FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM


BOO-YAH

T Minus 4 weeks until final revisions

T Minus 5 months to PhD?

This song is currently making me happy... I wish I understood the words:

Don't Come Around Much Anymore

It's not that nothing has been happening with my life. Far from it. In fact, changes in my life seem to be hurdeling by with hardly a second to catch my breath. Simoltaneously, my life has become exceedingly dull. Far be it from me, to try to explain how it feels to be moving forward at such great speeds, and at the same time, standing still. I often think, in my few spare moments, late at night, that if I close my eyes for a second something will pass me by.

Can't Sleep... thesis will eat me...

"... people would like to think that there's somebody up there who knows what he's doing. since we don't participate we don't control and we don't even think about questions of vital importance. we hope somebody is paying attention who has some competence. let's hope this ship has a captain, in other words, since we're not taking part in what's going on... it is an important feature of the ideological system to impose on people the feeling that they really are incompetent to deal with these complex and important issues: they'd better leave it to the captain. one device is to develop a star system, an array of figures who are often media creations or creations of the academic propaganda establishment, whose deep insights we are supposed to admire and to whom we must happily and confidently assign the right to control our lives and to control international affairs..."
- Noam Chomsky

Finished

I just finished the complete rough draft of my opera!
Aha!
YAH !!!!!!!
Take that thesis!

Ice

Damn, it be chilly out.

New Years 2006

This New Years was different then any previous one. In past years I've always wanted to do something fancy and formal but have always ended up due to money, friends, etc to end up doing the classic get together and drink/party thing. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's quite fun and one of my favourite things. However, I always wanted to do the fancy thing. So I did.

Janet and I did the CN Tower for New Years. The CN Tower in Toronto is the tallest free standing building in the world. I heard the Japanese were planning to build a taller one but have not yet done it. The CN Tower is also known as the world's largest free standing phallic symbol.

Dinner at the CN Tower was in the 360 restuarant: A revolving restuarant that looks out over Toronto. It completes a rotation every 72 minutes allowing you to get a pretty good view of everything.

Dinner was fantastic but expensive. Arriving at 8:30 we enjoyed some expensive cocktails while munching on bread. Around 9:30 we had our order taken off the Prix Fixe. We both had the Lavender Honey Glazed Boneless Half Chicken as our entree. To start Janet had the 360 Ceasar Salad and I had the Roasted Parsnip and Apple Soup. To finish we had the Dark Choclate Tower with Preserved Summer Fruits. The food was amazing. Some of the best food I have ever had (which you would expect from a fancy restuarant at the top of the town). We also enjoyed a bottle of wine and a glass of champagne at midnight.

We also took out a room at the Days Inn at Young and Carleton. Not the nicest hotel in town but definintely a place to sleep and relatively in-expensive for New Years Eve.

Having done the fancy meal, fancy event with fancy duds, perhaps you ask, is it worth it?

Yes.

Would I do it again?

.... Maybe.