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Thursday, May 26, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

These are just really funny.
   

Posted by Eric at 11:20 PM

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

One of my favorites this week.

Posted by Eric at 11:54 PM

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Graduation

In the morning was the president's breakfast for all the graduates. I was one of the few faculty/staff to be invited to the breakfast and we sat at the president's table. I felt pretty special. In the evening was the Galveston College graduation ceremony so I got to wear my masters robe and hood. Since I had to play and conduct music during it, I did not wear that stupid square hat. I know, I have to be different. My choir performed and did great. I had to play that stupid march that everyone plays. Of course after playing it 2 times march style I got bored. People should learn to never let a musician get bored. So I started playing it like Liberace, very dramatic style, Mozart style, I was waiting for someone to come behind me and slap the back of my head and say, "What the hell are you doing." Even had the choir started sing the melody on 'Oh'. I got complements after the ceremony how great I played.

Posted by Eric at 11:22 PM

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

My New Car

Today I bought my new car. I still miss my old Saturn so if I was going to get a new car I wanted a really cool car with all kind of new stuff in it. So I got an Eternal Blue Pearl Honda Accord EX 4 door with leather seats and a V6 engine. It has leather-trimmed seats, steering wheel and door-panel inserts, a power sunroof with tilt feature, premium interior trim, AM/FM/6-disc in-dash CD changer with 6 speakers, a dual-zone automatic climate control system, a 8-way power adjustable driver's seat, a front passenger's seat with 4-way power adjustment, heated front seats, ambient console lighting, an exterior temperature indicator and 16-inch alloy wheels.

The sunroof is the coolest part of the car. I am always looking up at the sky through it. Here are some pictures of the car I bought. I will take some pictures of my car and post them here soon.
   

Posted by Eric at 10:46 PM

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Galveston Historic Homes Tour

Today I went on the 31st Annual Galveston Historic Homes Tour with my friend Ron and friend of his. We saw almost all of the 12 the island's architecturally and historically significant private homes on the tour this year. They ranged from the wildly extravagant and romantic 1887 Landes Castle to a recent elaboration built around a vernacular 1928 rental cottage, with a range of age and opulence represented in between.

The homes on the 2005 Tour were:

1602 Postoffice: 1887 Henry A. Landes House (Landes Castle), D. A. Helmich, architect
Victorians loved the exotic and the extravagant. This East End landmark is the superlative of both. Festooned with terracotta, stained and etched glass, ornate carved wood, patterned slate and one of the most spectacular cast-iron double galleries in the city, this house is truly one of a kind. Cotton created immense fortunes on the Island, and enabled a privileged class to build their wildest dreams with brick and mortar.

1503 Church: 1928 Paul Chuschoff Tenant Cottage
This high-raised cottage is emblematic of the simple, vernacular rental housing that was built throughout Galveston's 19th century neighborhoods. The ubiquitous porch and shuttered windows were standard components of houses here. Shaded by two large oaks, the pergola and side yard create a verdant outdoor living space.

1409 Avenue M: 1898 Josephine Drouet House
Saved from demolition by Galveston Historical Foundation, this large L-front Queen Anne style house was moved to Avenue M in 2004 and awaits a discerning buyer to complete its rehabilitation. The facade features walk-through windows onto a three-bay inset porch that retains its original detailing. The dormer window punching through the high-pitched roof signals that a second floor is tucked into the giant attic. Restoration in progress.

1801 Avenue M: 1888 Julia L. Spalding Cottage
The gabled entry porch, with its fanciful x-patterned fretwork and unusual balustrade, of this quintessentially Galveston three-bay cottage beckons visitors to come in. Shuttered two-over-two windows frame the symmetrical facade. Around the side is a shuttered porch, once common on the island though few remain today.

1828 Avenue M: 1891 Sallie L. Shearer House
Like many of its neighbors in the Lost Bayou Historic District, this fine home has a full-width double gallery embellished with turned wood posts, fretwork and a patterned stick balustrade. Even the side entry porch is replete with detailing. The two-story house sits high on brick piers, immediately connoting its Island location.

2024 Avenue M: ca.1907 Herman H. Gold House
Set behind a prim wood picket fence, this is a classic example of the L-front Queen Anne style, the asymmetrical facade includes a projecting faceted bay with a windowed gable above and an inset three-bay porch with delicate balustrade spindles and fretwork. The horizontal proportions and one-over-one windows in the front bay, give clues to its late construction date.

1322 Rosenberg: 1903 Jacob Predecki House (see above)

3017 Avenue O: 1897 R. Waverly Smith Investment Property
This big Queen Anne style house was built as a rental property by one of Galveston's prominent figures of the late 19th century. Set high on a brick basement the grand Victorian house has multiple projecting bays and a corner turret accentuated with a steeply pitched roof. The loping arcuated lintels of the wrap-around porch imbue the house with a lively rhythmic quality.

3121 Avenue O: 1872 B. F. Hutches House
The austere yet elegant facade of this house, and the six-over-six windows, give a clue to its age. Before the Victorian era, the side-halled three-bay wide southern town house form reigned supreme in Galveston. The entry door, with sidelights, transom, and shouldered Greek architrave above are hallmark details of early Island architecture.

Posted by Eric at 10:28 PM

Friday, May 13, 2005

An End of a Musical Semester

The evening my Galveston College Choir presented a musical evening of a large variety of music pieces. This concert program was:
* 3 Renaissance madrigals - Ave Maria by Victoria, Fair Phyllis by Farmer and Proba Me Deus by di Lasso
* 2 hard core contemporary pieces - Saul by Hovland and Of Crows and Clusters by Dello Joio
* A large work - Magnificat by J. C. Bach
* 2 popular choral pieces - Sure on This Shinning Night by Barber and There Shall a Star from Jacob by Mendelsohn
* A piece of mine - In Simple
and ended the concert with a medley of Irving Berlin songs.

It was a really good concert and the choir performed well with a lot of energy musicality and I had a lot of fun conducting the concert.

Posted by Eric at 10:08 PM

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Eating Japanese

This evening I went to my friend Melanie's graduation. It is in the same place that my college will have their graduation ceremony next week. After the graduation, a bunch of us when to Yamato, a Japanese restaurant. It is a real Japanese restaurant complete with cooking right in front of you. I had a Japanese Sprite which was really good. The food there was also very good. There was 10 of us including me sitting at one table/grill. It was really cool hanging out with that many people. I have not had a chance to have that happen here as much but it happen many times when I lived in SoCal. Maybe this a sign of things to come. Well it was a fun evening.

Posted by Eric at 11:44 PM

The Effect of Caring

I gave my last final of the semester and the year. This ends a successful year of being a college professor. It took many years to get to this point. I knew I wanted to be a college professor when I was going tp school at Long Beach City College years ago. I would sit in the classes and want to some day be that professor teaching the class. To be someone that the students looked up to and to be the professor who the students thought knew everything about the music.

One never does know everything, but to a young student, you do. Now I am that professor that students look up to, who they think knows everything about music and who they respect and will really listen to. This past year there have been students who have or are having very difficult lives and because of me, were really touched and saw the kind of person they can and would like to be. That has a profound effect on me. To have the power to make one person begin the path to make their life better. It made me realize that for now this is were I am suppose to be.

Posted by Eric at 4:16 PM

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

These are just really funny.
   

Posted by Eric at 6:12 PM

Saturday, May 7, 2005

BJ's Pizza

Hey while I was looking for a new car with George near Baybrook Mall (just outside of Houston) I found a BJ's Pizza. I have missed that place since I moved away from the LA area. The BJ's here opened a couple years ago. It still has the 2 things I like about the place, great pizza and cute waitresses.

Posted by Eric at 11:28 PM

Friday, May 6, 2005

Sparce Web Log

Well the end of April became sparce after the car accident on April 22. I crossed an intercession and got hit on the drivers side door by an SUV going 50 mph. My car slid and hit the curb. I was able to get out of the car on the passenger side. The cops were getting my info, the wife of the guy who was driving was yelling and being hysterical. As soon as I was done talking to the cops I noticed the wife was gone and so was the ambulance. Not a single medical person made sure I was ok. I was taken by one of the cops (who is a student at the college) to the dance (which was were I was going to before I got hit) to meet a friend. I was forced to go to the hospital by my friend Carissa. (Hey I was still in shock. I thought, "Hey I only hurt on my side.") We grabbed my friend George on the way. I was checked out. Nothing major was wrong, only a sore side. So I was prescribed some happy pills which I took for a few days.

My car is totaled. I miss my car but that car sacrificed itself for me to be able to walk away from that accident. It was with me through all my adventures in Marin. Well I guess it is time for a new life and a new direction with a new car.

Posted by Eric at 11:16 PM

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Headlines

Here are this week's Tonight Show Headlines.
Headlines

These are just really funny.
   

Posted by Eric at 10:42 PM