GOINGS ONS

I sadly and reluctantly boarded a plane at SFO for my flight back to Chicago on July 23rd. Though I didn't want to leave the Bay, I had many things to look forward to upon returning to the midwest:

• A chorus role in Georges Bizet's forgotten One Act Opera, Djamileh
• Chicago Humidity
• Midwest Thunderstorms
  
• A quest to find one practical (and by practical I mean not placed on the INSIDE of a court) tennis wall/backboard in this huge city
• Hanging/hosting visitors from back home

One thing I did miss, which I regret a lot, is the 1st Annual SF Filipino American Jazz Festival, which took place this last weekend, August 8-9, at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Some pics from the festival, courtesy of 37degrees.

I am looking forward to spending as much time as possible oustide exploring Chicago. Feel free to join me if you are so inclined.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

CA your son is returning....

So my first year of grad school is done and now that I'm sans job I'm trying my darndest to spend the least amount of money. This means that unless I'm riding around on my new bike (which is not actually new and in reality the bike of a certain Louisiana gal) I'm staying inside the house watching flicks or playing Guitar Hero.

This will be my first time 'going home for summer' that I've ever had in my 18 years of life (plus 14 more. It feels kinda weird. This also marks the first time in 5 years that I haven't gone touring with one group or another, and I'm a little sad. But this also means that hopefully I'll get a temp job or two and make a little money this summer.

Highlights of the year:
- a new Chicago 'family'
- seeing Ozomatli live and free at Millenium Park
- meeting some of the Pin@ys here
- living in the snow
- yelling "I'm walkin' here!" to a car
- doing the moonwalk in an opera
- doing the Hulk Hogan pose, the worm, crushing a beer can and giving the shaka sign in another opera
- exploring Chicago on bike

I'll be HOME soon y'all. See you there

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

Crunch

As we near the end of the semester I thank whoever it is that made it so choir ends in five days. Not that I hate it, in fact, it's just the opposite. We're doing Beethoven (although it becomes a bit of a scream fest, especially when everyone gets excited.)

So, I'm slowly catching up on my school work (a couple of presentations, 2 papers, 3 performances) so I should be good by the beginning of May. I'm looking forward to the summertime, which I'll be spending here in the Midwest. Yes, lots of humidity and sun, but I hear the bike ride north on Sheridan from downtown to Evanston is supposed to be bad@ss.

In the meantime, I found this clip of someone jumping off the top of 'Spitting Cave' in Portluck, near Hawaii Kai, Oahu. It's at least 30+ feet and actually pretty scary, as the video shows. My friend's ex-BF brought us there, filling our heads with stories about how he used to get drunk in HS and jump off. It seemed like forever before I hit the water and then, the second time I jumped it, it seemed even longer trying to get back to the surface because the water at that point is especially deep.




Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

Eat it BOSTON! or 18-1*

As I ponder what just went down Sunday night, I thought to myself, "Dang, I've witnessed three of the greatest super bowls ever (XXIII, XXV and XLII)." And I'll be damned if the Giants didn't pull off another upset in their typical style (smash-mouth, ball-control, virtually mistake free). And I'll be double damned if Eli Manning didn't just 'bring it' with that drive -- that's gonna make for some great tag-team ribbing with Peyton at dinner on Turkey day (Archie never won one).

And now that the Patriots 'bid for immortality' is ended, hopefully those full of it Boston fans will shut the hell up for once and take that whipping with some backbone. Because, face it, your 'team of destiny' had their train derailed from the opening drive, when Eli drove the Giants down the field and ate up almost 10 minutes off that clock.

Now, I'm not a NY Giants fan, oh no, in fact I am not a NY sports fan at all (nor Boston, for that matter). However I do take offense to the fact that I can think of at least one or two teams who could have beaten this Patriots team, and yet if the Patriots won that game, they would have the 'right' to be considered the greatest team of all time (no, I'm not a Dolphins fan either -- yeah they went undefeated, but they played only 14 regular season games, and I can think of a whole bunch of teams that could have beaten them too).

Man, it must feel like crap, eh, to be only the third team to ever go 18-1, yet not win the super bowl? But let's face it, for all the stuff you talk, remember that your 'magic' 2002 season was made because of that god-awful TUCK RULE. I mean, c'mon! I'm not a huge Raider fan, but I hate to see a team screwed like that (yes, NY, I do recall that playoff game with the 49ers -- Okeafor tackled that dude and should have been called for pass interference)

Still, as the game ended, and I sat there watching the scene unfold, I could not believe that I, a lifelong 49er fan (Niner Empire) rooted against:
a) local boy Tom Brady
b) fellow PINOY Tedy Bruschi
c) one of my favorite LBs Junior Seau

Actually, I do know why. I'm a little bitter because that team was going to be ranked higher than any of the Niner super bowl teams (I'll give 'em '81 and '88, but them's fightin' words when it comes to the '84, '89 and '94 teams!)

Now the bitterness can go away. I feel better now. The Patriots can go ahead and win another, and another, and another, shoot, Brady's only 30, and that offense is still bad @ss. Just lose one game, alright, and you won't have the pressure to be perfect. 18-1 isn't all that bad. And you get the Vince Lombardi trophy too!!!

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

p.s. And in case you're wondering who the best team of all time is...click here --> USA TODAY Greatest Team Ever

I almost forgot...perhaps this happened in an alternate reality?

Back to School...

The second semester of my graduate studies quest started Monday with a snafu in the class schedule. It seems that my "American Art Song since 1950" class was originally scheduled in November on MW 1100-1215 (the correct time), changed to TTh 1230-1345 (wrong), changed back to MW (right) and then, about 3 weeks ago, it was again listed on TTh (still wrong). So a lot of us didn't show up at 11, only to get an email later in the day saying that the class schedule was wrong in saying TTh.

Rehearsals for Haydn's "Il mondo della luna" have picked up again and we've already begun staging. One of my goals this winter break was to be off-book (a difficult motivation since I'm only covering) for the whole opera. The bad news was that I wasn't able to be off book. The good news is that because I set the goal for myself, I did get work done and was able to be off-book for about half. I also set a goal to memorize my solo in Purcell's "Fairy Queen" -- which I did.

So work's begun and the weather here's been crazy. Yesterday it went from about 40F and pouring rain to 4F and blowing snow! Today is a nice and sunny 6F (with wind chill a breezy
-15F)

And I promised a friend I would go get my physical and blood work, etc., done when I turned 30. But I basically put it off for two years. However I finally went in yesterday, and so far all's good (EKG normal). I'll get the results of my bloodwork by Friday. I'm anticipating good news.

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

Finals Week

Everything is coming to a head out here. I just finished a paper (late!) and have my vocal jury tomorrow (4:50pm CST) with a final in my "Opera as Drama" class on Wednesday morning (9:30am). Then I'm done, I'm free, I'm.......................................very busy during the break.

But first things first. Tomorrow I plan on going to school and absolutely knocking out my jury pieces before doing some final studying for my Wednesday final. Then I'll wake up, ace my final, and then head to my weekly church gig rehearsal to prepare songs for Xmas Eve (yep, I'm flying home to CA on 12/25) before heading back to town for some fermented sugar fun at a friend's party. Then I'll head back to school for one final coaching and a last shot at the music library before washing my hands of my first semester as a graduate student. Then I have five days, count 'em five days, to romp around my apartment and do what most people do when their roommate is out of town -- cavort and prance around in whatever clothes you wish (or lack thereof.)

I'll probably clean the house, straighten my room and do some last minute gift shopping before flying home on Tuesday. But I have no rest for the next three weeks. I have molto musica to learn: Haydn and Purcell off book; Faure melodie; Mozart lied; all of Schumann's Dichterliebe; et al. Not to mention a lot of catching up to do with my Yay Area buddies.

Overall, there were a few setbacks, but I've been able to roll with the punches, and in the meantime make new friends both in and out of school. But damn, it's starting to get HELLA cold over here (21F at the moment)

And now for some pics





my street




my house



fall in Chicago



the window I find myself staring out of during class (not taken during class -- though that would have been ballsy)



first snowfall




a happy snowy tree


Enjoy!

Makin' Mine Music

~No Tations~

CFAFF

So I was fiending for some silog stuff and was surfing the web trying to figure out if Chi-Town has Filipino stores over here and I came across the website for the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival. Since I basically only know one Filipino guy here from school, I thought that this would be a great way to meet the community over here. So I emailed the contact and offered to volunteer, which is where I'm headed to tonight. And so I went to a volunteer meeting last night and broke out of the shyness shell so I could introduce myself to some folks. It turns out that one of the girls I met last night is originally from Illinois and moved to SF for her undergrad, at SFSU. And she lived in my neighborhood, the Richmond District.

Woohoo! Can we say 'get invited to Filipino parties and eat some home cooking?' But I've been trying my hand at cooking out here and made pork and peas (pork guisado for you guys keeping score). I was so yearning for longanisa and tocino that I'm almost considering making it for myself, if not for the fact that I did end up finding a grocery store out here that I hope will sell it. Since they're really big on sausage out here I figured I would find some Deli that would stuff the meat into the casings for me!

Makin' Mine Music in Chi-Town

~No Tations~