Good News/Bad News

First the bad news. It's a long story but it turns out that my MA is going to be on hold for awhile longer [if I ever get around to it again!] Needless to say, I wasn't able to qualify for either the History or Asian American Studies Graduate studies programs. But this leads to the good news...

I'm gonna get a second BA in music! Majoring in music was something I avoided for almost 10 years. First of all, it started because I thought there was something else out there for me. Then it got to be that I didn't want to do it unless it was playing the sax. Then finally I convinced myself that if I wanted to learn theory [i.e. counterpoint, nerdy music stuff like that] then I'll learn it on my own time and at my own pace, without a professor dictating the rate of learning. Armed with these mighty excuses I fought off any and all attempts of family, friends and even myself to convince me to do it.

Then I got rejected from the grad programs. And I was bummed. And then last Thursday it hit me. I've taken enough classes to get a minor, which means I'm more than 1/3 of the way to the major. I know a lot of theory, most of which was self taught. I tell people, it's sorta like me and Filipino foods. Growing up as a 3rd generation, I ate a lot of the food without knowing the names of them. It's only recently, when I started hanging out with a lot of pin@ys that I've learned a lot of words, and especially what the foods are. For example, the dish I've known as "Pork and Peas" is known as "Guisado" [sic]. Although I still call it pork and peas, if someone says guisado I now know what they're talking about. Music theory is the same. I know a bit of theory, but it's all sort of random and unorganized in my brain. I just need someone to define and organize it.

What to major in? Well, I'm beginning to love choral music, and at the same time also really getting into the traditional Philippine ensemble. It also turns out that the University of the Philippines at Diliman happens to have two of the top collegiate choirs in the WORLD. Get that, world, not Philippines, or Asia, but the WORLD. Shiyeet, I'm not surprised. I'm already smelling a semester away, maybe even a year, in the Philippines. I'll learn myself Tagalog yet!

We had a good show yesterday. The Bach ensemble was awesome. I think us singers were so overwhelmed by the sound of the orchestra that we half sang and half listened. I definitely screwed up singing with the Chamber Singers on Bach's Magnificat. Lakeside Presbyterian is a small church and I knew that with anywhere near a full crowd, plus the orchestra, plus all the singers, that I'd be sweating like crazy. This makes wearing glasses sorta difficult, what with them slipping down the non-existent bridge of my nose. So I took off my glasses. The first movement of Magnificat was sung with grace, power and harmony. I was getting by on the strength that I had most of the runs and phrases memorized. I just needed the starting note. I'm nearsighted and have pretty horrific vision, so I had to hold my folder at just the right distance, or else everything starts getting fuzzy. Then comes time for the big choral ending. And I sing "...anima mea dominus" putting the proper 'sss' ending on the word. The only problem is the actual line is "...anima mea dominuM". And so while the rest of the choir is singing 'mmm' I'm going 'sss'. Since I couldn't barely read the print I chose to sing the wrong word.
I know that somewhere Bach was starting to fidget.

Then came the University Chorus. I was actually in between the second and third rows, squished so bad that reading music from my binder was impossible. This meant that I had to steal looks off the music of the people in front of me, who just happened to be women. Imagine that one woman is at 10 o'clock and the other at 2 o'clock. They're holding their folders about halfway between head and waist which puts the music right below the bustline! I'm sorry I couldn't help it. I had to look through some very nice *ahem* in order to see the music.
Sweating. Looking at women's chests. In church.
Bach turned over in his grave for sure.

But, in my defense, I did sing real good.

Make Mine Music

~No Tations~

Finished watching "The Crimson Kimono" starring Japanese American actor James Shigeta. In it, according to my Asian Americans in the Mass Media Professor Ben Tong, the Asian guy actually kisses the white girl....AND LIVES! No kidding. After finding out the killer, Detective Kojaka [Shigeta] and Chris [some pretty cute white girl] have a pretty good kiss, at least by 50s standards. This movie was pretty rebellious, given that it came out only about 15 years after World War II and on the heels of the Korean Conflict.

Speaking of movies, I am genuinely interested in seeing "Better Luck Tomorrow" which opens nationwide Friday, but is actually out here [SF was one of the 'select cities']. For one, it was picked up by MTv, which is probably one of the best indicators of what is cool and hot with the majority of American youth. For MTv to put its money behind a movie whose principal characters are Asian is a first for me. There was even a half hour special on it. These movie specials are usually reserved for big time players like Tom Cruise, Mike Myers, et al. It seems to me as if they could have put people of any color in the roles, but chose a storyline whose main focus is the characters and not what their racial makeup, ethnicity or nationality is. That's why I want to see this movie. Well, that plus the main girl is a cutey.
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Here's the information for the Bachfest on Sunday

What: 1st Annual SFSU BachFest
Where: Lakeside Presbyterian Church, corner of 19th Ave and Eucalyptus
When: 730 pm
Admission: FREE!!!

SFSU: Orchestra, University Singers, Chamber Singers performing Brandenburg Concerto, Cantata 98, Magnificat, et al.

America is such a Mark for Christianity. Where else are shopping malls closed on Easter [NOT a national holiday] but open on New Years Day and July 4th [official national holidays?]

Anyway, since I work sundays I wasn't complaning. I got to kick back for a day. We took Grandma out to eat for her belated birthday present. Brunch at Pier 29, which is in Jingletown [to the non Alamedans that's the Oakland side of the Park Street Bridge.] After brunch and a short nap some of the Swoldiers came over and we hit up the local Albertsons for some food and drank for our little Easter BBQ. That was cool. I was able to get my perv on and not worry about driving.

After everyone left, I laid on the couch to watch some TV. Not surprisingly, both Discovery Channel and History Channel had Easter themes. I was watching a little of "James, brother of Jesus" but ultimately settled for "Jesus of Nazareth" which was on the History Channel. For some reason, as UN-devout as I am, the story of Jesus draws my attention. I told my mom last night that it always makes me sad to watch movies, especially the scenes leading up to the crucifixion. It's like I know what's coming and yet part of me hopes that it doesn't happen. I guess it's just one of things you can't explain.

Oh yeah, Bachfest on Sunday. It's FREE!! I'll post the information a little later on in the day

My friend, Peter, is a Marine Reserve. He was sent to Iraq and this is an email I just received from a friend of his.
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For those who don't know me, I am Kathleen Mak. Peter's lil' sister. He wrote a letter home, but it is from March 29. (mail takes a while to get here) I'm going to just type the important parts that he wants to you ppls to know. Here it is:
March 29, 2003

Life is hard. I'd never imagine myself in a combat zone. We passed by many towns and cities already. Although we're scared, we're here for a reason. We're here to free the people of Iraq. Saddam threatens to kill their families if they do not cooperate. Farmers get killed gecause the soldiers use their homes as shleters and bunkers.
I've never seen so many people killed in my life. As we drove through towns, tanks & armored vehicles fire heavy machineguns at people and buildings. Loud explosions lid off at night as artillery and planes bomb the towns.
A few days ago, we got ambushed by a group of Iraqi soldiers, it was the first time I got shot at, and I got really scared...but I kept going and going. Later, we killed them with all sorts of weapons. Many gave up and became POWS. The smell of bruning flesh makes me sick. I haven't changed clothes in 7 days. We've been in Iraq for ten days now. I heard this war is going to take a while
There are more places to go and more missions to complete. If you look at a map of Iraq here are the towns we passed: Nassirya, but we are near Al-fajr (I'm not sure that's correct, I'm trying to read it off his letter), next town up is Al-KUT, then Baghdad is the last.
I miss y'all a lot. I miss eatin all the foods at home. We are short on supplies, down to one meal a day. Weather is fair after all those severe sandstorms hit, but it gets extremely cold at night.
Oh, this sucks -> I broke my machine gun, so they're trying to fix it. This is like playing those games on the computer, but this shit's for real. People die, cars get blown up, humans are burnt to crisp, women and children die along with the rest.
Yes, I mayber scared, as any man would, but the ____(I can't read the word) that we're helping the people here makes up the sacrifices we all make. Well, don't have much time. So again Kat, Happy B-day, study hard, help mom and dad out as much as possible and tell them not to worry. I love you all.
Peter Mak
030329 0930
____________________________________________

Peter sent his sister some sand from Iraq as well. I'm hoping and praying for his safety.

Things like this make my worrying about which Graduate program to apply for seem very silly.

Make Mine Music

~No Tations~

What's with these MLM type business things? Or perhaps it's just that I'm reaching the age where these things might just start making enough sense to actually listen to?

Anyway, I'm at my store [Great Earth Vitamins @ Hillsdale/Serramonte] and I end up meeting a woman who wants to show me her business. So I say yes and finally get around to meeting her after work at Marie Callender's. She invited a business partner of hers. In the midst of the presentation her business partner asks me what I do. When I replied, "Well, right now I sing with the SFSU Chamber Singers," she replied with, "Wow! My son sings with the San Francisco Boys Chorus!" To which I replied, "So did I, way back in 1985."

Well, it turns out that the Boys Chorus has gotten back on track [I may have joined at one of the lower points of its career] and they have now four levels of singing [as opposed to three in 1985] as well as a Graduate Chorus, and, to my pleasant surprise, an Alumni Chorale! At this point the business presentation is now taking second fiddle as I now want to find out all I can about this Alumni Chorale.

So I got around to emailing the SFBC's Artistic Director, Ian Robertson, who also happens to be the conductor of the SF Opera Chorus. After a few emails it turns out that, god willing and schedule permitting, I may be joining the Alumni Chorale for the Boys Chorus' spring concert at Grace Cathedral! I've been thinking about this all day. I've just received an email from the contact for alumni activities. It turns out that there's also a Barbershop Quartet style group made up of the alumni, which also sounds fun.

I was telling my choir director...this cold/allergy thing I caught was nothing but the Choral Flu! I think I'm hooked

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

SFSU Chamber Singers Spring Tour '03 Afterthoughts

Now that the tour is over and done, it's back to the regular swing of things. After our 2 o'clock concert on Saturday [see previous blog]we sat and watched Boise State Meistersingers and the University of Oregon Chamber Singers perform at the 3 and 4 o'clock hours. Then we all went to one of the rooms to have dinner. I ended up being joined by a few of the singers from the U of O concert choir, and after dinner, Lauren, one of my new 'met and had a good time with but probably will never see again' friends agreed to give us a tour of the campus. In the freakin' pouring rain. "C'mon you wussies, it's just rain!" she said. If that's not a threat to your manhood, I don't know what is! =P

After the tour, Lauren had to get ready to sing and I went back to work on Sh-Boom with 5 of the guys from the choir. For the past three years it's been a tradition for some of the folks to get together and do a little a capella number. Our director actually let us perform a doo-wop song in Cuba last year. The mantle was sorta passed on to me when Paul, our previous resident a capella guru left for school in France.

I've been arranging four and five part harmonies since about high school [you know, we all had our little superstar aspirations]. But everytime I did it I was sitting by a piano. This is one of the first times I arranged something completely in my head, which was pretty tough. But it's working out. I'm a little spoiled by the musicianship, because the guys singing with me are such good music readers that they're used to having something to read, as opposed to learning by ear.

After the concert we went Salsa dancing. And now it's settled. I REALLY have to learn how to salsa dance good. Three drinks later [sans food] we got back to the Ramada about 230. Then we woke up at 630 to leave at 7am. Three hours later we stopped in Ashland [home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival] for lunch, then once near the Cascades so we could enjoy the snow and have a little snowball fight. Last stop was in Vacaville for dinner, and then we got back to school around 620. That was a total of almost 11 1/2 hours.

The lack of sleep the night before, plus the rain and snow really depressed my immune system and I developed a weird sort of 'lose your voice, phlegm in your chest, headaches plus hay fever' condition that really sucked and I'm just sort of shaking off.

Now it's time to go file for my tax extension.

Make Mine Music

~No Tations~

Day 5 - University of Oregon

We pulled into Eugene last night at around 1030 to the Ramada Inn. As soon as we got there another bus full of students pulled up. Turns out they're the Women's Track and Field team from the University of Minnesota. We stayed up till about 130 am playing pusoy dos and drinking a 12-pack. We've taught about 6 people how to play now, and it turns out that one of the Japanese exchange students also knows it [albeit by its Japanese name]. So we're making noise on the bus all the way from Redding till Eugene.

Can't be here too long. We're singing in less than twenty minutes and I need to get downstairs and get dressed.

See ya

Day 1 of the Chamber Singers tour

We left campus around 945 Tuesday morning for Napa. I sat next to one of the altos in the choir who I don't really know too well, and it turns out our paths did cross once albeit a long time ago at a concert for her choir at Cal in 1995. We chopped it up and it made the time pass by quickly. We arrived in Napa at 1115 and stopped off for lunch. Then it was on to Vintage High School for a little visit/exchange with the Vintage High Chamber Choir.

After the exchange, it was another quick break for dinner, which we got over at Buckhorn [they also have one at Metreon] for the Yik-Yak salad with tri-tips. The server was incredibly pretty, and my friend Seanboy, who is very sensitive in terms of auras, chakras and energies, immediately punched me in the arm because he felt that flirty vibe that I was unconsciously projecting toward her.

Then it was on to our concert, which would be a joint one with Vintage. They just got back from a tour to NY where they took first place in a competition. They were very good. Then we sang, and then joined up for a last song. We were then shuttled away by our homestay hosts, and here I am, in a PHAT house in the middle of wine country.

Tomorrow it's off to Davis and then Elk Grove. If there's a computer I'll keep you updated.

Make Mine Music

~No Tations~

Where to begin?

On Tuesday, my mom called me just as I was leaving for my University Chorus practice at 11am. My grandmother was walking along, and, being 75, doesn't pick her feet up as much when she walks. She tripped on an uneven piece of sidewalk and hit her face on the pavement. Along with some bumps and bruises, her glasses scratched up her face. So I drove my mom over to Kaiser Oakland, where there is now a metal detector at emergency waiting room, and after some waiting and waiting, we decided to go back to Alameda and get some food, then meet my grandma and uncle at their house. After lunch [it turns out that Grandma was okay, except a scratch that required stitches] I laid down on the couch and crashed out. I woke up at around 630pm to find that I'd been sleeping about 4 hours. My mom went out and got some Japanese food and I ate a little more and then plopped onto the couch for another 4 hours. I DIDN'T DO JACK SQUAT THAT DAY. And it felt so good. I need more days like that. Even on the days I don't work I still have something to do.

Friday night was a birthday party at Sonic Lounge in J-Town. It's a karaoke bar, reminiscent of the Philippines, where people are allowed to smoke inside. Pretty strange, considering that the NO SMOKING INDOORS law has been in effect for close to 6-7 years now. Anyway, I stayed long enough to hear Fatima [solo artist] and Marie [from One Voice] tear up "I Turn To You" by Christina Aguilera. Then my man Marco and I sang "My Girl" and "How Deep Is Your Love". Then it was back to my house with my younger brother and Elicio to watch Steve-O's [of Jackass fame] DVD.

I'll go into saturday's events tomorrow. I'm sleepy.

Make Mine Music

~No Tations~