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Saturday, February 26, 2005

Birthday Party

Carissa came by my apartment at about 3p and asked for my help to get her place ready for her birthday party. She had never planned and set up a party herself let alone a birthday party. I have planned my big birthday parties in the park when I was still in California. They were definitely fun and kid like parties, especially my big 30th birthday party. So I helped her set up. She had a good crowd.

Posted by Eric at 11:55 PM

Friday, February 25, 2005

A Perfect Evening

I took my friend Carissa out this evening for her birthday. I took her to the Original Mexican Restaurant for dinner. During dinner, the movie Amelie came up in conversation and she had not seen it. So we came back to my place and watched it. She really enjoyed the movie. I then took her home and helped her plan for her birthday party tomorrow.

Posted by Eric at 11:02 PM

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

These are just really funny.


Duh!


Duuuuuude!

Posted by Eric at 11:38 PM

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

African Drumming to Funk

Yesterday I was asked to give a talk during the Black History Celebration that included speakers and soul food. I was one of the speakers. I talked about the African influence on American Music. Instead of the speaking about the blues which is a typical one that everyone knows, I talked about funk. I first talked about South African Drumming and the polyrhythms between the drums. I then explained how James Brown used the polyrhythmic drum patters of South African Drumming to create funk. I had a lot of fun talking about music in front of a crowd. After the celebration was over, I received many complements and some came up to me to say they really learned something. It was nice to have that influence.

Posted by Eric at 11:55 PM

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Happy Birthday Web Log

Today is the 1st birthday of my web log. A year ago today I put my 1st entry into this web log. The web log originally began as a way to force myself to see something new when I lived in Marin County. It was a very lonely time for me since all of my friends and family were in So Cal. So to motivate myself to see new things, I created a web log. This way I was forced to write something new at least once a week. So in order to write something new I had to see something new. It worked and I saw a lot of San Francisco and the bay area by the time I moved here to Galveston.

A year later I have a good gig doing what I love, music. I have friends to have lunch with, see places with and go to concerts with. It definitely has been an eventful year.

party.gif

Here is my 1st web log entry.

Posted by Eric at 11:50 PM

Saturday, February 19, 2005

A Drum Circle, a Band and Really Cute Girls

This evening I went to Java's to play in a drum circle. There were good players who really know how to play West African Djembe drumming. After the drum circle I noticed Kristy, the tutor director at the college, was having coffee there and went to talk to her for a bit. At about 10p, I went to my car and heard a band playing at Yaga's. So I dropped off my drum and when to check it out. It was Russell's band (he was my student worker last semester at the college which I called him my slave). So I went in. There were a bunch of really cute girls there. The band was really good. I was going to leave after a few songs when I got there but during the break Russell asked me to stay and hear some of the songs in the next set. So I ended up staying until they finished. Then there was DJ dance music. I had to stay to dance with the cute girls. The DJ music stopped at a little after 2a and ended up talking to the members of Russell's band. I got home at about 3a. (Ya I know how can I write about today if I did not get home until tomorrow? I like to set my entries to be on the day the event happened instead of when I write it if it happens to be the next day.) I just seem to be hanging out in downtown this weekend.

Posted by Eric at 11:16 PM

Friday, February 18, 2005

A First Date

I went on my 1st date here in Galveston. It takes a few months to get settled into a place especially if your job is very busy like mine. The girl I went out with is very pretty. So for our 1st date I took her to Yaga's and had a great conversation with her during dinner. We then went to a place called Gravity for Salsa dancing. This place is usually crowded but for some reason this time is was not. No big. We danced Salsa and Merengue. It was a lot of fun. The evening ended with a couple of little kisses. What a great 1st date.

Posted by Eric at 11:32 PM

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

These are just really funny.

This is just right for how late I sleep.

Posted by Eric at 11:58 PM

Galveston Island Children's Chorus

A few weeks ago I was asked to help conduct the Galveston Island Children's Chorus. It is an auditioned group with an age range from 4th to 8th grade. They are a fun and good group of kids. Another conductor and I are sharing the conducting duties. The rehearsals are every Thursday. It is nice to be out rehearsing kids again.

Posted by Eric at 11:48 PM

Monday, February 14, 2005

Happy Heart Day

Today is probably my least favorite holiday. It has been since elementary. So just to make the day fun I found some fun stuff thanks to my friend Jeff's Web Log.

just-heart.jpg   for-heart.jpg   fun-heart.jpg


Click on this to make some hearts
.

Posted by Eric at 2:38 AM

Friday, February 11, 2005

Voice and Piano

This evening I went to a free concert at UTMB. It was a Mezzo Soprano and piano. It was a good concert. I am not a big fan of solo voice. I like hearing a choir than a solo voice. She does have a great voice and performed well. The 1st half of the concert was both voice and piano. The 2nd half of the concert was the just the pianist performing.

The program:
Pres des ramparts de Seville (from Carman) - Bizet
Mon Pauvre Coeur - Debe
Le Serment de L'Arabe - Debe
Sous Sa Fenetre - Snaer
Ave Maria - Schubert
Must the Winter Come So Soon (from Vanessa) - Barber
Moritat Vom Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife from The Tree Penny Opera - Weill
Give Me Jesus (American Spiritual) - arr. Hogan

Intermission

A piece by Liszt (I do not remember the title since there was a program change)
Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20 - Chopin
Sonata in Eb Minor, Op. 26 - Barber

The last movement of the Barber sonata is the well known among musicians. It is in a form of a Fugue.

It was a good concert. Nothing spectacular but it did force me to hear some music performed by very good musicians.

Posted by Eric at 10:24 PM

Free Lunch

The 2nd Friday of every month is the faculty lunch. There is free food followed by a presentation by a faculty member. Since we were not sure if we would have more accreditation meetings, nothing was planned. Since we did not have any more accreditation meetings (Yay!) it was just free catered lunch. Today was breaded fish and some rice casserole stuff. They were both very good.

Posted by Eric at 4:34 PM

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

Posted by Eric at 8:34 PM

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Karl Haas

Karl Haas, who brought classical music to millions of daily listeners through his syndicated radio program, "Adventures in Good Music," died Sunday. I use to listen to him many times when I was in school. The reruns of his program is still being broadcast on public radio stations.

Here is an article about him:

Karl Haas

Posted by Eric at 3:08 PM

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Fat Tuesday

George and I went to the Fat Tuesday parade in the historic downtown Galveston. I was told that this parade has the best beads. Also most of the tourists have left by now and mostly the locals [BOI's (Born on the Island) and LOI's (Live on the Island which is me)] are left to enjoy the parade. We saw the parade on Postoffice Street (yes that is how it is spelled). It was fun. Cool floats and marching bands. We ended up with a lot of beads. Since the parade starts on Postoffice then curves around and goes down the Strand, after we finished seeing the parade on Postoffice we walked to the Strand and saw the parade again and collected more beads. They threw out so many that we did not realize how many we had until the end of the parade. We looked like Mr. T. We caught some cool and unusual beads. Some I had not seen the past 2 weekends. A cool bead was small dice which I got in blue and green. Another was an orange bead. Very unique. We then went to Pancake House and compared beads like kids comparing what candy they got during Halloween. A fun evening.

George and I with our bead collection.

Posted by Eric at 11:55 PM

Saturday, February 5, 2005

The 2nd Weekend of Mardi Gras!

It is the 2nd week of Mardi Gras and downtown is packed.

I went to 25th and Seawall to see the Knights of Momus Grand Night Parade. It was fun. Cool looking floats, marching bands and lots of bead throwing. Now being an islander, this being my 3rd parade and having a nice collection of beads, I would watch other people (tourist) go nuts trying to catch the beads during the parade. I tried getting the unusual ones but did not make a big effort to get them. They throw out so many of them that you have to catch them before they hit you.
("Ya over there, get the unusual one" from Earth to the Moon.)
I did get a few different ones. I also watched people trying to catch beads that were being thrown off the balcony. It was quite amusing to watch.

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Posted by Eric at 10:04 PM

Friday, February 4, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

These are just really funny.
   

Posted by Eric at 9:52 PM