I'm not REALLY wicked, I just sound that way

Don't run away!
That sound you heard earlier today is NOT a flatulent water buffalo in heat.

These past couple days I've been working on learning my music for the next concert.
Tuesday was our first rehearsal of the new season, and I discovered that we're doing a whole bunch of stuff I've never heard.

One of the pieces is a collection of music from the musical Wicked.
I hear it's really good, but I have to admit I've never seen it, nor had I ever heard any of the songs before.
So when we sightread it on Tuesday, I was clueless.

And I discovered that I have a horn solo in the song called "Defying Gravity". After hearing what it's supposed to sound like, I agree it's absolutely beautiful. (If you end up clicking on that, fast forward to about 1:22, where she sings "Something has changed within me...." That's the part I have to learn. It continues all the way up to the part where she says "close my eyes and leap".)

So far the tough part is counting out all the syncopation. It sounds easy on the video, but there are a lot of tied notes and odd rests and weird rhythms.

This is what I've been doing my best to learn for the past three days.

As you may have noticed from my Twitter update, I've practiced so much that it feels like I french-kissed a motorcycle.

(That's a good thing, right....?)
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Full of music.... and fish

I'm back from the concert!
Things actually went ok.
I haven't heard the recording yet, but it sounded like my composition went all right.

There was no cash thrown onstage, and Johnny Depp was nowhere in sight, but I did get some nice compliments from friends as well as total strangers who liked the music.

I'm completely exhausted and will be going to bed soon, but wanted to make sure I blogged first. :)

After the concert, we went to The Hunt Club in Hillsdale for dinner.
I ended up getting the "all you can eat" Alaskan Whitefish.
Wow.

It was pretty good, but I probably shouldn't have eaten five huge pieces of it.
I seem to be growing gills and fins and a tail.

[insert musical joke about "scales"]
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At least I get to be famous either way

Tonight is our concert!
Among other things, we'll be playing a composition I wrote.

I foresee two possible outcomes:

1. All the right notes, always in tune, always on time. Standing ovation. Cash being thrown at the stage. Movie deals and phone calls from Hollywood. Dinner invitations from Johnny Depp. CD recording deals from whoever does that sort of thing. Fame ensues.

2. After the oboes miss their cues for the 145,368th time and come in late (and flat), with the cello missing its pizzicato note at the very end of the 2nd movement again, and the tubas missing their high notes in the 3rd movement, and the bass drum again failing to properly play something as simple as a series of dry quarter notes and rests, Janna's brain explodes and she stumbles off the stage into the front row of seats, falling into the arms of some unfortunate guy named Reginald, who is not all that crazy about being covered in exploding brains. Pictures show up in the newspaper on Saturday, and fame ensues (posthumously).
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I'll do my best to keep you posted.
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The verdict is in....

So, did any of you wonder how the composing contest turned out?
Tuesday night, after band, the group listened to my music and Kyle's music.

I'm humbled and honored to report that they voted me as the winner. (!!)
Wow! :)
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So, um, whaddya think....?

Hey, guess what!
Remember the post I did last February, about the composition challenge between Kyle#2 and me?
The deadline is April 15th, so last night I took my finished work over to him.
We listened to each other's stuff, and the judging will happen this Tuesday (the 14th) after band.

Kyle #2 was kind enough to put a recording of my composition on his server, so you can all hear it. (Yay! Thank you!)

Here it is... go listen. If you're on dial-up (like me), it may take a moment to load. If you're on one of those new-fangled speedy high-falutin' connections, you probably heard this before I even started typing the post. I'll try not to be jealous or bitter.

As per the rules, my composition is between 32 and 60 measures long (58, to be exact), it's in the meter of 2/4, in the key of b-minor, in a 60 bpm tempo, has no triplets, and is scored for full orchestra.

Sorry the last measure seems to have gotten chopped off before the last note is done. The original file wasn't like that, so I dunno what happened there.

Anyway, listen and let me know what you think.

I've titled it "A Moment's Requiem".
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Why it's fun being a music nerd

Tuesday night after band I accepted a challenge.
98% of you will probably think it's boring, especially if you never studied music. Or if you have a short attention span. Or if you're distracted because something really itches.

(Don't worry, though.... you can always go read other stuff I've written, like maybe this or this... or this).

Kyle#2 and I both like composing music.
I happened to mention to him that I had recently tried writing for strings (violin, viola, cello, bass) and wasn't happy with the result. I also mentioned being concerned that perhaps I use triplet figures too often in my compositions.

So he challenged me to write something, giving me very distinct musical rules.

And I reciprocated by challenging him to compose a different piece using MY rules.

Here are the rules he gave me:
Must use the string section (violin, viola, cello, bass)
Optional: Can also be scored for full orchestra (which includes the strings)
NO triplets allowed
Must be in the key of b-minor
Must be in 2/4 time
Must have a tempo of 60 bpm

And, here are the rules I gave him for the thing HE has to write:
Tempo: 140 bpm
Meter: 5/8
Key: A-flat major
Instrumentation: Trumpet, woodblock, cello, bari sax, cowbell
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The deadline is April 15th, 2009.
The piece has to have at least 32 measures, but no more than 60.
We haven't exactly decided who the judges are going to be, and the winner probably won't get anything other than a slightly larger ego.

I'll keep you all posted.
Either I'll emerge victorious or will be agonizingly defeated.
And, of course, there's always the possibility that Kyle will end up chickening out on me, in which case I'll win by default. :)

As for me, well, I finished the first draft of mine a few hours ago....
But don't tell him that. :)
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My Tuesday Night

Our rehearsal went all right on Tuesday.
We sightread the new piece I wrote. Although it came out sounding a bit rough, I have hope.
High hopes.
Just like that stupid ant in that annoyingly optimistic song that always makes me want to smash things.

Anyway, we had Taco Bell for ABC group afterwards. Kyle #1 and Steve went to pick it up for us and we ate it at Kyle #2's house.

Which reminds me....

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The shredded carrots are shaped like little music notes

I apologize to all of you who stopped by expecting to see a Manic Monday post last night. Mine wasn't ready in time because I was working on my newest music composition.
I finally finished it!
Yes!
It's 173 measures long, three movements, and takes six minutes to play.
The conductor's score is 28 pages long.

We may be able to rehearse it on Tuesday, if Bob (the director) likes it.

I just finished printing everything out, and I put a copy of the audio file onto a CD.
It is now almost three in the morning, and I have to get up for work in about five hours.
Thus my brain feels like shredded carrots.
Or maybe crushed pretzels.

I'm going to bed for a few hours so I can resemble something human tomorrow.

The Manic Monday theme is "cloud," so maybe my brain feels like a big cloudlike lump of cotton.
It's hard to see in there.
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How to win a zillion billion quintupillion dollars

Tonight (1-13-09) is the first band rehearsal of the new season!
I'm looking forward to it.
I've been working on a new composition, but don't have it quite ready yet.
I've got 105 measures written so far.

I will pay a zillion billion quintupillion dollars* to anyone who can correctly solve the following problem for me:

Regarding the composition software known as Finale Printmusic....
HOW do you get the score to make a space between movements?
I want a break in the score, a blank space with nothing at all, zilch, nada, zip. No blank measures, just empty white space in between each movement. That way, when I extract the individual parts, each movement will be separate from the others. Know what I mean?

There is nothing in any of the manuals or tutorials or search thingies that will explain this to me. I have grown weary.

And I just realized that if you know nothing about music, this post probably sounded both boring and painful, what with extracting parts and breaking scores and separating movements.

No musicians were harmed in the making of this post.
Yet.
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*Note: the zillion billion quintupillion dollars will be paid in Jannaverse currency, which looks amazingly similar to dryer lint. However, if you hold it really close to your ear, you can hear it whispering "thank you.... thank you.... thank you....."
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ok... sort of

I've written and re-written and erased and re-written this post about 5 times so far, so here's hoping this time is the last one.

Our Friday concert went ok.
And, by "ok," I mean there was no spontaneous combustion or natural disaster or outbreak of deadly contagious disease. Vampire bats did not descend upon the concert hall, nor was there an attack of zombie kangaroos from hell. There were no schizophrenic supermodels threatening to kill us all if we stole their imaginary salad, nor did anyone fire up a chainsaw during the Bach fugue.

I survived.

There was more I wanted to say about what happened at ABC group afterward, but I just don't have the heart. I give up.

Right now I think I just want to curl up in a warm bed with some warm cats and hopefully dream of a world where things are better than just "ok".

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(P.S. Imaginary salad is free and has no calories; of COURSE people are going to try and steal it.)
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Wish me luck, or something remarkably similar

Tonight, (Friday December 12th) is our band concert.
Think of me from 7:00 til about 9:00 or so.
(Eastern Time).
One of the things we'll be playing is a quintet I wrote.

If anything awful happens, I have an escape plan.
I've been practicing spontaneous combustion all week.
Here's hoping I don't get any pieces of me on the audience.
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The other dimensions must hate music

This week I wrote a brass quintet (3 Trumpets, 2 F-horns). I'm hoping we get to try it next Tuesday at band. In the process, I discovered that for some reason my music notation software crashes every time I try to insert text onto the page.

How strange. It's never done this before in all the years I've had it. What happened?

I don't know what the problem is, other than the usual suspicions of interdimensional beings throwing invisible pieces of silverware into the hard drive. They do that whenever they get bored. Whenever I visit their home dimension I do the same thing to them.
They're convinced I started it-- But really, with time travel these days, who can be sure of who started what anymore?

Where was I?
Oh, yes. My music software crashes whenever I try adding text. Because of this odd glitch, I'm unable to add a title to the music. I'm also unable to add the name of the instrumental parts (e.g. Trumpet 1, Trumpet 2, etc). So it just looks like nine pages of music notes.
I know there are better notation programs out there (Finale and Sibelius, for example), but I have no idea how to use them, and I certainly can't even come close to affording them.

So unless I can figure out why the software suddenly decided to start crashing after all these years, I'm going to have to write all the words by hand.
Hopefully people will see it as some version of being charmingly eccentric ("How quaint! She probably believes in interdimensional beings too! Look, is that a spork in her hard drive?")
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The Bunnyhug Mystery

Monday night I was chatting with Gwen on Facebook.
Gwen is from Canada. Saskatchewan, to be precise. I happened to mention that one of our ABC group people (Kyle #2, also known as "Fred" or "McKitty") is also Canadian, originally from Saskatchewan.

She said I should mention the word "bunnyhug" to him, and completely freak him out. Apparently that's a special word over in Saskatchewan which refers to those hooded sweatshirts with pockets in front.

Gwen assured me that Kyle would be so surprised to hear a non-Canadian using this word.

So, when I saw Kyle Tuesday night, I said "It's chilly enough for a bunnyhug!"

He appeared totally clueless, with no idea what I'd just said.
"Okay....." was his response, after an awkward pause.

I then had to awkwardly explain the whole thing.
He swore he had never heard of the word bunnyhug. Ever.

So, this leaves a few possibilities to consider...
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Possibility #1. Kyle did not really grow up in Saskatchewan after all; he could be in the witness protection program after testifying in court against a Colombian druglord who is trying to hunt him down and drown him in a vat of Tim Horton's coffee.
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Possibility #2. Kyle is really an evil alien from Neptune who will have to hunt ME down and kill me, now that I have figured out his secret.
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Possibility #3. Kyle knew all along what the word meant, and he is merely screwing with me because he secretly gets giddily excited by the sight of me squirming awkwardly in public.
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Possibility #4. I dreamed the entire thing, and will wake up in a few hours in a puddle of my own drool.
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Possibility #5. I would think maybe Gwen is screwing with me, but there are all these websites which confirm that yes indeed, the term "bunnyhug" is a Saskatchewanian word for a hooded sweatshirt.
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Here's an entire Facebook group devoted to the use of the word "bunnyhug".
Here's an online Canadian-terminology glossary which includes the word.
Here's an article in the Star Phoenix which discusses the topic.
Here's where you can buy a bunnyhug from the University Of Saskatchewan's online store.
And, of course, here it is in the Urban Dictionary.

If you're reading this and you're from Saskatchewan, PLEASE tell me you've heard of this word!

Hurry, before I wake up in a puddle of my own drool.
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Bon Voyage

Today is the day Jason leaves for a 4-month trip to Ethiopia. He'll be staying with Chris, hopefully getting some valuable moments of music teaching experience at the International school where Chris works. He hopes to return home shortly before Christmas.

Also, one week from today, Morgen begins his beach-babe vacation over on the East Coast. He'll be gone from 9/11 to 9/22.

Bon voyage, guys. I hope you both have a wonderful time.
I will do my very best not to be insanely jealous. :)
Please come home safely.
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Where do you keep YOUR spork?

Things I Did On Labor Day:

1) Watched TWC satellite images of Hurricane Gustav

2) Answered Jannaverse blog comments and sent happy loving vibes out to all of you who commented. Each vibe is worth approximately 1/30th of a cent, so you may want to start commenting more often. (That could add up to a penny per month if you comment every day! That's twelve bucks a century! Think of the possibilities!)

3) Listened to NPR and the BBC, sat patiently while they stuffed news into all available bodily cavities.

4) Hummed the theme to Iron Chef, over and over again.

5) Put a spork in my bra

6) Sat in the cemetery and had tea and cookies at sunset. (Very relaxing!)

7) Reflected on the fact that Tuesday (9-2-08) will be our first band rehearsal of the fall season. We've been on break for about a month now, and I've really missed playing music with this group. Hopefully they're excited about seeing me as well. (I'd better take the spork out of my bra before they hug me.)

.(cartoon source: ilikechicken.org)

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Here, try some!

Guess what!
Morgian gave me a jar of homemade salsa.
She didn't make it; one of her friends or relatives did. I forget exactly who.
She gave it to me because its heat level was reputed to be "hot enough to take the chrome off a bumper."

Since I LOVE super-hot spicy things, this sounded ideal.

I will now be trying this salsa for the very first time.
I'll blog about my reaction immediately afterward.

For dipping, I'll be using some tortilla chips and some taquitos.

Everybody ready?
Here we go!

(*dipping taquito*....)
(*eating taquito...)

Mmmmm!
It is yummy, and it IS pleasantly hot!

(*takes more bites*)

OMG. This is really, really good.
My eyes are watering and my nose is running.

I definitely taste habanero pepper, or some close relative thereof.
All the flavors are perfectly balanced with just a tiny hint of sweetness.

This is absolutely delicious.
(**multiple taquitos and several tortilla chips later...**)

Um, I seem to have finished half the jar already.
I'd better save the rest.

Seriously, I'm not lying when I say this is probably one of the most DELICIOUS salsas I've ever eaten in my entire life. And I think it might be the third hottest. I've had bottled hot SAUCES that are much hotter than this, but I'm pretty sure this ranks as the third hottest jar of salsa.*

In a perfect world, I would have a jar of this every single week for the rest of my life.
I LOVE the fact that it doesn't seem to have any onions in it. As far as I can tell, it's mostly just crushed habanero peppers with a few minor ingredients added. I'm not even sure I see any tomatoes.
You know how much I HATE onions, so I greatly treasure any onion-free salsa I can find.

Morgian! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
This has cleared my sinuses and brought tears of joy to my day.
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*In case you're curious, the hottest salsa I ever had was called "Salsa Habanero". I got it from a catalog called "The Salsa Express" about 12 years ago. The catalog no longer offers this product, which is kind of sad. Still, even though that salsa was hotter, Morgian's has a better flavor.
The second hottest salsa I ever had was THIS ONE Jason made for me in October 2006. It was really good on chicken sandwiches.
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Where has Janna been?

Tuesday night there was no band rehearsal, but ABC group got together anyway so we could say goodbye to Chris.
As you may remember from previous posts, Chris is originally from Michigan but currently has a teaching gig in Ethiopia. He was home for a visit but is returning to Africa soon (tomorrow, I think).
So we got together Tuesday night and had a goodbye party.
It was held in Lansing at Kyle/Morgian/Steven's new house. Yes, they're all chipping in on a house together! They haven't totally moved in yet; there is still no hot water, and some rooms were completely void of furniture, but still we managed to have a good time.
I spent the night and didn't get back home until 4:30 Wednesday afternoon. I've been awake for the past 28 hours. No sleep! None! I am exhausted!

Additional note: Those of you who know me well know that I am very uneasy about driving in large cities. Keep in mind that I was raised in a small village, and I now live in an even tinier village, so pretty much anything qualifies as a "large city" to me.
Lansing certainly qualifies.
Even though I lived in East Lansing for two years when I went to MSU, this particular drive involved parts of town I was unfamiliar with. Kyle/Morgian/Steve's new house is in the northern part of Lansing, (about a 90 minute drive, maybe more) so I had to drive through a lot of city-ness to get there. Tons of traffic, zipping along in multiple lanes. Some of these streets were one-way, and you know how I feel about not being able to turn around. Nervewracking and harrowing and frustrating, made worse by the fact that some streets were closed due to road construction. I had to take a detour on the way home, which caused me to say some unpleasant words I probably shouldn't have said.
Still, all in all, I'm glad I went. It was good to see my friends, and I made it home safely. So all's well that ends well, right?
Now, if you'll pardon me, I really need to take a nap.
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I love Canada! No, really!

Tons of cool people are from Canada. Just look at this list.

Plus, I have a few readers from Canada too, like Bluepaintred and Gwenhwyfar. They're both in Saskatchewan. (If you're from Canada, let me know in the comments! I promise to love you! Unless that would make you feel creepy).

And, last Tuesday at ABC group, I found out that Kyle#2 Fred is from Canada also. Saskatchewan, no less! I mean, he lives here in Michigan now, but he started out in Canada, so he still radiates some residual coolness vibes.

And let's not forget about this guy in Ontario, who got arrested for drunk-driving his lawnmower down the sidewalk.

I embrace all of you.
Let's go eat maple leaf salads or something.
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Exceedingly long boring post no one could possibly want to read

I'm here, I'm here.
Today's post is a little late because I was having Internet connection problems AGAIN last night. I won't go into that, except to say I hate my ISP.
Anyway, last night was band and ABC group.

Semi-quick history of ABC group:
Every Tuesday night there is a rehearsal for the Hillsdale Community Wind Symphony. Some of us with similar bizarre personalities have bonded together and gotten into the habit of socializing after the rehearsal.
Here are all the posts where I've mentioned band and people from ABC group.

First ABC group was held at an Italian restaurant called Cavoni's, but after a new waitress started being really rude to us, we switched to another place called The Hunt Club. But that was a bit too expensive for some of us (including me), so we then switched to just meeting every week at Jason's house. Well, then Jason moved (it wasn't because of us, I swear). So we had to find a new place.

Those of you familiar with the city of Hillsdale know that there is almost no place open after 10:00 pm.

Except McDonalds.
So, sometimes we went to McDonalds, and once in a great while we went back to The Hunt Club. Either way, we'd stay in the parking lot afterward, chatting away until well after midnight, as usual. Good quality time, talking and interacting and being our funny silly selves. I cherish this time every week.

Then a new person joined the band: Kyle #2. (Sometimes we call him "Fred" for no reason, just so we don't have to confuse ourselves with two Kyles). For the past two weeks, he has graciously allowed us to meet at his house after band. Kyle #2 Fred is cool, he's an excellent musician, and he fits right in with our group. Kyle #2 Fred is loved by all.

So, it appears that ABC group will now be held at Kyle #2's Fred's house.

Have I bored all of you yet?
Are your eyes glazed over, with drool dribbling down your chin?
Please say yes.
I'm hoping no one is reading now, because I have some confessions to make.

First, I find "Guitar Hero" really annoying. It's hard to explain why. You'd think that since I have two degrees in music performance and music therapy, I'd welcome anything that makes music more accessible to the general public. Yet, um.... I guess it's not the concept of the game, so much as having to be around other people who are playing it. I find it boring, boring, boring to be in a room where people are focused only on Guitar Hero. It almost seems rude somehow; like everyone else in the room is being ignored for hours on end. (If you're all by yourself, playing it in a closet somewhere, then hey, that's fine with me. No problem. Have a blast. Stay hydrated.)

Or, perhaps I'm a bit of a snob, believing that the real thing (with real instruments and real music) is better than a cheap facsimile thereof. Sigh. Please don't hate me.

Well, even worse than Guitar Hero, is Rock Band.
Instead of just one fake guitar, it involves a whole group with a fake guitar, fake bass, drums, and microphone.
Much to my horror, some of our group has gotten into that.
It started a couple months ago, back when we were meeting at Jason's house. In fact, it was at the last party he ever threw before he moved. Someone (Curtis?) went out and bought Rock Band. The entire party was (in my opinion) ruined because people focused on that instead of spending quality time talking and interacting with one another. I actually sat at the dining room table and read a book while this was going on. (For hours and hours and hours on end).

Even though I was sad Jason moved, part of me was glad that this meant we wouldn't have to be subjected to any more Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

Irony is such a bitch.

Kyle #2 Fred has "Rock Band" set up in his living room.

And the group has been playing it for the past two weeks.
It honestly makes me wonder if I still fit into this group any more.

Last night some of them talked me into taking the microphone and singing for a couple of the songs.
So I can honestly say I have tried it.
The singing part was "okay." I confess.
I feel dirty admitting it, but yes. The singing gig was "okay."

Still, I don't really relish the idea of this happening every week.
It wouldn't be so bad if there was anyplace else to sit, but Kyle#2 Fred's house only has seating in the living room. I think that, if I'm going to stay in this group, maybe I'll just bring a chair of my own and sit out on the porch with a book and a bottle of pop.

Scary thought I just had: It might actually be cool if there was a classical music version of this game, which had instruments like violin, viola, cello, trumpet, flute, tuba, oboe, french horn, bassoon, tympani, string bass, trombone, harp, clarinet, and euphonium. And a glockenspiel.
Yes.... THAT might be cool.

**sob** I can't believe I just said that.

Please tell me you weren't listening.
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Too tired to make better analogies

I'm looking forward to going to band tonight, even though I'm so tired I could rip the ninth leg off a mutant spider.
That's what people do when they're tired, right?
I never know anymore.
Anyway, band should be fun.
I always end up feeling slightly more sane afterward, in much the same way that a lantern battery is slightly quieter than a sleeping chicken.
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