A Doozie Of An Update

I suggest getting something to eat or drink as you read this. You may be here for a while.

I don't even know where to begin... Actually, I should begin by doing my Arranging homework or my College Writing homework, but if I don't do this now, I never will. Or I'll screw up the facts because after a while things get jumbled in my brain.

I'll start with Monday.

I don't know what it is about dictation in Ear Training that I can't grasp. If you ask me to play a rhythm or a melody back on guitar, I'll get it after one try. When it comes to writing things down, I get lost. I'm find with intervals and chords, and even rhythm, but melody...Melody kills me every time. I know I didn't get an A on my dictation midterm. I did pretty good on the singing part. Just a few slip ups. I'm determined to get an A on the next quiz/test/final. My teacher, Paul Stiller (easily one of the best teachers at Berklee), said I've made a lot of progress from my last quiz. I'm getting there, in more than one area.

My Guitar Lab midterm went well. I played "Forever Man" by my man Eric Clapton. I made a few mistakes, but it was fine. Got an A on that one.

Let's move on to Tuesday.

Tuesday's my easiest day. I have Harmony 3 with Eric Byers in the morning, and my lesson at 6. I played a song I wrote called Doubt (there's a very rough recording somewhere on the blog) in my lesson this week. So that was cool. I'm often asked who influences me as a player, and the truth is, oddly enough, I wouldn't say I have any really strong guitar influences. Or they're not who you think they would be--other than Eric Clapton. I love Hendrix, I went through a pretty big Hendrix phase last year. Stevie's great, too. But the people that have influenced me the most are Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Pete Townshend. One of the reasons I have a Telecaster is because of Keith. I used to (and still do to a degree) want to be Keith, minus the drugs. When I saw the Stones a few years back, I went nuts when he came out playing "Jumpin' Jack Flash." I'm more influenced by songs and songwriters than I am by guitarists. I tried to get heavy into playing, but then I said to myself, 'You're always going to love Billy Joel more than Buddy Guy so just get over it.' I do love Buddy, but not the way I love Billy.

So after my lesson I went to see Ann Coulter and Bill Maher give speeches and debate each other. They decided to participate in Boston's 2009 Speaker Series. After a while, I had to stop listening to Ann Coulter. I just couldn't take it. Bill Maher was hilarious, as usual. I must have been in the Ann Coulter fan section because no one around me was even laughing at Bill. Some hecklers got thrown out, and some guy in the balcony started yelling at Bill Maher and Bill let him have it. It was great. It was a cool thing to see.

Moving on: Wednesday.

Wednesday was a very special day in Boston. U2 came to town to play a "secret show" at the Somerville Theater. The tickets were given away through radio contests, and U2 had their own guest list for the show. I did get into the theater, but not the show. I bought a ticket to the movies. You all know how much I was dying to see "He's Just Not Into You" right? I mean, I could not stop talking about it haha!

I missed the band at the Ritz that afternoon. There was no way I could have made it there in time, so I went straight to Davis Square to try and catch them before they went inside. I missed that, too, but I heard soundcheck! So that was cool. My movie was at 7, so I went in around 6.45. I have never seen so much security for such a tiny place! There were about 10 security guys in the lobby (which is about the size of my room)! There were about 12 of us at the movie, all with the same idea: sneak into U2's show. Well, none of us got in, but I did get to hear the first song ("Get On Your Boots") and the last song ("Vertigo"). I caught a few glimpses of the band at the Q&A thanks to a security guard that Tom (known as @BostonTweet for Twitter users) knows.

I decided to head back into Boston, and hang out at the Ritz Carlton, hoping that U2 would come back before I had to go back. Their entire crew did, but they were in Davis Square for a good portion of the night. The T sadly stops at 12.30ish so I had to get back to the Berk before then. On the bright side, I found a new cool hang place: the Ritz lobby. It's intimately spacious. The staff is great. There's a fire place, and it's quiet. I also finished up some work before heading back to my neck of the woods around 11.45 or so.

So today was also an eventful day. After my Harmony midterm, I went back to the Ritz to see if U2 was still around. If they were, I didn't see them. I was only there for 45 minutes because I had to go get in line for the Paul Simon clinic! I ran into my friend Tom (his blog is here) outside of Berklee, and we waited in line, chit-chatted, and ate scones outside the Berklee Performance Center for 45 minutes or so in the cold waiting to go inside for the clinic. Paul Simon's a character. It was a really relaxed atmosphere. We were able to ask questions, and he played us a few songs. It was a lot of fun.

After the clinic, I had my Legal Aspects class. We got our midterms back. I got a 97! I was pretty excited. That was only the first half. He said the second half is much harder than the first. I'm determined to keep that 97, though. I will be one of the few that manages to do so by the way he made it sound.

My class ended at 6. I bolted back to my dorm, grabbed my digital recorder and my iPod and headed over to Tom's (blog, website)show at the All Asia bar in Cambridge. The show was great, and I met some cool new people, too. I didn't get to stay for the next act. My friend Jordan and I had to finish a case study for MEISA, and I had an essay to finish. I actually just finished it up, yay!

So now I'm watching Seinfeld and relaxing. I did a lot of running around these past few days. I'm looking forward to a lot more relaxing in the next few days coming up.