Believe it or not, the first decade of the new millennium is coming to a close. What better way to celebrate than to make a list of my favorite things of the decade?
In no particular order:
1. Fondant. When the decade began, I didn't even know this delicious sugary substance existed. Then I started watching those cake challenge shows, and then I tasted it. OMG, it's wonderful. You can form it into different shapes and then eat it, and cover cakes with it and then eat it. YUM.
2. HBO. I remember when this station just showed the same crappy twelve movies over and over again (I'm looking at you, Just One of the Guys). Now it produces tons of amazing original programming that I love (or have loved). HBO is a force to be reckoned with in entertainment. Good on you, channel.
3. Harry Potter. What would my decade have been without these books (I read the first one in fall of 2000), these movies, and the four HP conferences I attended? HP introduced me to online friends, real life friends, and a group of characters who have inspired me. Truly a life-changer.
4. Cate Blanchett. She's been in everything from Lord of the Rings to Benjamin Button to I'm Not There. How the hell is she so good in everything? You can add Kate Winslet to this one because she too is amazing and chameleon-like and was in one of my favorite movies of the decade: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
5. George Clooney. Michael Clayton and Up in the Air are just two fantastic movies he was involved with this decade. Add Christian Bale to this list entry because he is the hardest working man in show business.
6. YouTube. It has changed the way we do a lot of stuff. You want to hear a commercial jingle or see an old commercial, you can. If you want to share your kid's dance recital with the world, you can. If you want to see Beyonce slip on stage and get right back up like the diva she is, you can. It's changed my teaching because my students can now watch--for free--different versions of the songs we are studying. They can see great performances and hopefully learn from them.
7. The Daily Show. I missed out on this for years, but now that I can enjoy it every night, it's really changed the way I look at news. It's actually encouraged me to pay attention to what's going on in the world and it's helped me figure out how I really feel about issues. I'd been ignoring my own opinions for so long, I almost forgot I had any. But I do. I really do.
8. Writing. Has saved my life. More than once.
9. USC. Where I spent the first half of the decade. No matter where I travel in the world, no matter where I end up, I'll always be a Trojan. Doheny Library will always feel like home.
10. Rock Band. I can play the pretend drums now. There are certain songs that I will associate with Rock Band forever because of how much fun I had playing them with my band, Monkey Deathcar.
11. Dave Chapelle. He did some really funny stuff this decade, and may be the funniest man of the last 10 years. Not so funny when he disappeared, but his stand up and the Chapelle show will live on as hilarious monuments.
12. Pixar. What a magical company. Everything movies should be.
13. Facebook. On any given day, I can see a status line from: current students, former students, work buddies, family, college friends, high school friends, or friends-of-friends. This kind of connectivity is amazing. Even though I don't spend an awful lot of time on Facebook, it's good to know I can communicate with people so easily.
14. Judd Apatow. His movies have made me laugh so much in the last decade. You can add all of his "peeps" to this list entry, like Seth Rogan, et al.
15. Freedom. I don't have the words to describe what freedom feels like. The last year of this decade has been an eye-opener.
16. I just know I forgot a million things, so let's just keep this one as a place-holder.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Holiday Newsletter
I know some people hate the holiday newsletter because it is impersonal, but I have a fondness for holiday newsletters, especially the ones that catch me up on the people I love. I've decided to write one this year, right here, in this blog. I think it's a good way to tell friends and family what the year was like for me, but it's also a good way for me to step back and get the big picture of 2009.
Many holiday newsletters feature lots of information on pets and babies. Since I have neither, I will tell you about other people's babies in this paragraph. My sister had a daughter in August, bringing my total of gorgeous, brilliant niece/goddaughters up to TWO. Yes! My friend Cat (who is like a sister) is expecting a baby next year. Steve and Colleen continued to raise their adorable children, April and Michael. April is about to turn one, and Michael has grown into quite a little man.
That's all I got on babies and I didn't even mention animals, so the rest is about me. Sorry about that.
Okay, job stuff: I continued to work at LACC full time. It's a great job and I am really thankful to have it--and not just because the economy sucks. It's one of the most fulfilling, amazing jobs I could imagine, and I'm thrilled to tell you that I passed my last tenure review earlier in the fall. I won't get tenure officially until March or so, but it appears to be a fait accompli. I hope it's accompli, anyway. In addition to the regular job, I also wrote program notes. I wrote for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for the third year in a row and began writing notes for Camerata Pacifica. I did a couple of little jobs for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra too. I began a tutoring job at Compass Education Group. I now tutor the verbal side of the SATs. Can you believe that? It's a terrific job and I've met some fantastic young people. I cantored at St. Brendan's until November, when I took a leave of absence, but I'm planning to start back up in January.
Other work-type stuff: I decided to try to kickstart my voice-over career by doing some radio broadcasting. For about six months, I did a half-hour weekly music show on KCLA. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. It turned out to be one-thing-too-many, so I decided to stop for a while. I have some good clips of myself, so that'll be good when I get around to making up a demo CD for voice-over work. I still hold out hopes of voicing a cartoon character someday. I've been writing as well. In addition to this blog and the LACO blog, I finished writing my second YA novel. In the new year, I hope to start looking for an agent...again. Perhaps I will be more successful this time. I proposed an academic book to a publishing house, but have not yet heard their rejection, er, response. I'm not holding my breath, though. What else? Oh yeah! I wrote and presented yet another Anthony Burgess paper, and that brings me to my next paragraph!
Travel: The big adventure this year was going to Malaysia. The Anthony Burgess people had a symposium there because Burgess used to live and work in Malaysia (we actually got to see the school where he taught and even his old apartment!). It was a terrific trip, and my paper went very well. It's going to be published in a book at some point. Which reminds me, I forgot to mention that another Burgess article I wrote made it into a very new, very expensive book called Anthony Burgess: Music in Literature and Literature in Music. You can buy it if you have sixty dollars (or forty pounds). Anyway, back to Malaysia. It was very hot, but the food was excellent, and I ate roti prata every chance I got, including at the KL airport on the way home. I could not get enough of that stuff! I didn't fly straight home from Malaysia, though, I flew into San Francisco and drove five hours up into the mountains to see my friends Kevin and Sara get married amongst the tall pines. Lovely event. A couple of weeks later, I was visiting New York and my family. I was there when my sister had the aforementioned baby. That was also a terrific trip.
An added bonus of that trip was that, while I was there, my roommate visited New York for the very first time. I showed him around and got to do New York-y things I never get to do when I'm visiting family. We even got to play chopsticks on the FAO Schwartz floor keyboard featured in the movie, Big. The trip was a lot of fun even though I visited during the hottest, most humid part of August. I forgot how much humidity sucks. I did get to hang out with my old friend Michele, which was brilliant. We've grown back together somewhat, and I'm very happy about that, same with my old friend, Lara.
Many holiday newsletters feature lots of information on pets and babies. Since I have neither, I will tell you about other people's babies in this paragraph. My sister had a daughter in August, bringing my total of gorgeous, brilliant niece/goddaughters up to TWO. Yes! My friend Cat (who is like a sister) is expecting a baby next year. Steve and Colleen continued to raise their adorable children, April and Michael. April is about to turn one, and Michael has grown into quite a little man.
That's all I got on babies and I didn't even mention animals, so the rest is about me. Sorry about that.
Okay, job stuff: I continued to work at LACC full time. It's a great job and I am really thankful to have it--and not just because the economy sucks. It's one of the most fulfilling, amazing jobs I could imagine, and I'm thrilled to tell you that I passed my last tenure review earlier in the fall. I won't get tenure officially until March or so, but it appears to be a fait accompli. I hope it's accompli, anyway. In addition to the regular job, I also wrote program notes. I wrote for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for the third year in a row and began writing notes for Camerata Pacifica. I did a couple of little jobs for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra too. I began a tutoring job at Compass Education Group. I now tutor the verbal side of the SATs. Can you believe that? It's a terrific job and I've met some fantastic young people. I cantored at St. Brendan's until November, when I took a leave of absence, but I'm planning to start back up in January.
Other work-type stuff: I decided to try to kickstart my voice-over career by doing some radio broadcasting. For about six months, I did a half-hour weekly music show on KCLA. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot. It turned out to be one-thing-too-many, so I decided to stop for a while. I have some good clips of myself, so that'll be good when I get around to making up a demo CD for voice-over work. I still hold out hopes of voicing a cartoon character someday. I've been writing as well. In addition to this blog and the LACO blog, I finished writing my second YA novel. In the new year, I hope to start looking for an agent...again. Perhaps I will be more successful this time. I proposed an academic book to a publishing house, but have not yet heard their rejection, er, response. I'm not holding my breath, though. What else? Oh yeah! I wrote and presented yet another Anthony Burgess paper, and that brings me to my next paragraph!
Travel: The big adventure this year was going to Malaysia. The Anthony Burgess people had a symposium there because Burgess used to live and work in Malaysia (we actually got to see the school where he taught and even his old apartment!). It was a terrific trip, and my paper went very well. It's going to be published in a book at some point. Which reminds me, I forgot to mention that another Burgess article I wrote made it into a very new, very expensive book called Anthony Burgess: Music in Literature and Literature in Music. You can buy it if you have sixty dollars (or forty pounds). Anyway, back to Malaysia. It was very hot, but the food was excellent, and I ate roti prata every chance I got, including at the KL airport on the way home. I could not get enough of that stuff! I didn't fly straight home from Malaysia, though, I flew into San Francisco and drove five hours up into the mountains to see my friends Kevin and Sara get married amongst the tall pines. Lovely event. A couple of weeks later, I was visiting New York and my family. I was there when my sister had the aforementioned baby. That was also a terrific trip.
An added bonus of that trip was that, while I was there, my roommate visited New York for the very first time. I showed him around and got to do New York-y things I never get to do when I'm visiting family. We even got to play chopsticks on the FAO Schwartz floor keyboard featured in the movie, Big. The trip was a lot of fun even though I visited during the hottest, most humid part of August. I forgot how much humidity sucks. I did get to hang out with my old friend Michele, which was brilliant. We've grown back together somewhat, and I'm very happy about that, same with my old friend, Lara.
I went to a conference with my work colleagues in November. It had been a while since I had been to San Francisco and it was nice to go back, although upon arrival, I caught a terrible cold and spent most of the weekend resting up. One HUGE bonus was getting to hang out with Cat, whose husband Kevin now works full time at a community college in Fresno. We did a lot of catching up. I also did a lot of sneezing.
I'm still lucky enough to live with T, who is a great roommate and an excellent cook. This year, I got back into eating beef and pork (after 18 years), and T has helped me ease back into it with pork chops and steaks and pot roast and a lot of yummy things I missed. Food aside, T continues to be a wonderful, supportive friend. Another amazing supportive friend? Cael. We meet for ice cream dates at Scoops (AMAZING ice cream place by school) as often as possible. Their vegan banana oreo is to die for.
Still staying social, but trying not to spread myself too thin. The year had plenty of parties and opportunities to meet new people, and I made some new friends. I'm not back in the dating game, per se, although I'm not entirely opposed to the idea. In other news, I sang a recital in March which went very well. I'm happy with how I sounded and I got a beautiful response from my students and colleagues. The auditorium was packed with people, and it felt wonderful to be sharing music with such a loving group.
I feel like I must be leaving out a hundred things, but I suppose that's all I can think of at the moment. That's 2009. It was a very good year. I hope yours was similarly filled with love and friends and work. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a very Happy New Year!! Let's make the next one even better.
I'm still lucky enough to live with T, who is a great roommate and an excellent cook. This year, I got back into eating beef and pork (after 18 years), and T has helped me ease back into it with pork chops and steaks and pot roast and a lot of yummy things I missed. Food aside, T continues to be a wonderful, supportive friend. Another amazing supportive friend? Cael. We meet for ice cream dates at Scoops (AMAZING ice cream place by school) as often as possible. Their vegan banana oreo is to die for.
Still staying social, but trying not to spread myself too thin. The year had plenty of parties and opportunities to meet new people, and I made some new friends. I'm not back in the dating game, per se, although I'm not entirely opposed to the idea. In other news, I sang a recital in March which went very well. I'm happy with how I sounded and I got a beautiful response from my students and colleagues. The auditorium was packed with people, and it felt wonderful to be sharing music with such a loving group.
I feel like I must be leaving out a hundred things, but I suppose that's all I can think of at the moment. That's 2009. It was a very good year. I hope yours was similarly filled with love and friends and work. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a very Happy New Year!! Let's make the next one even better.
XOXO
me
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