Happy New Year

This year has been fucking weird. And it’s not just me that says that, nearly everyone I speak to has felt that 2011 to be a particularly weird year, and a particularly weird time in their lives. Weird doesn’t necessarily mean bad, I just mean… significant, perhaps emotionally, or experience-wise. Perhaps it’s the age I’m at, mid-twenties, where my friends are starting to go places, do things, leave the bubble, quit the sphere in which they were raised. 2011 has seen people I know study overseas, travel a fair amount. I know people who’ve lost significant family, or who’ve gotten engaged, or who’ve taken the next step in their relationships and moved in together, people who’ve released albums and taken the first step towards achieving their dreams. I myself have been completely thrown all over the place in 2011, particularly the second half, having returned from my travels, and it’s taken me until roughly now to sort myself out. It’s an uncharacteristically long time, and, not that it’s a competition, but I’ve heard that it’s still reasonably short compared to how long it’s taken others to feel home again after such experiences and travels. I’ve experienced some of the loneliest, happiest, most crazy, most bitter, most cherished moments of my short life in 2011. To be honest, from the way things are shaping up, it’s only going to get more hardcore, more intense. Good luck everybody!

I’ll try and post more regularly, but I’m just not DOING anything at the moment. There’s nothing to say. Blogging is an effort, make no mistake.

-J

One week

One week flies by! It’s been a week since my last post. Truth, be told, nothing much has happened, except I got sick. I was completely bed-ridden with one of the worst colds I’ve ever had! Completely debilitating, but luckily it was as short as it was acute. Weirdly, I woke up at 4am on the night where it was worst, Sunday night, and couldn’t stop thinking of all these brilliant literary ways of describing and documenting my current predicament. So, naturally, quaking and sweating, I pulled out the old laptop and wrote down all I could. Some of it’s absolutely hilarious, the ramblings of a madman, but some of it’s not half bad. Perhaps I’ll tweak it and put it up here, a little descriptive writing piece. 

On Sunday, just before I got sick, or even as I got sick, I did two very cool things. Firstly, I moved my father’s old record player, stereo and handmade cabinet (made by him) to my house. It has a bad hum, and plays a little softer than I’d like, so I’ll see if I can’t get it tweaked a little. But, over all it’s awesome and I can’t wait to obtain some sweet records! Secondly, I undertook what turned out to be an epic mission with my friend Matt to get some feature rocks for my garden. There was some advertised on Gumtree.com and I snapped them up (they were for free). It’s all part of the new “native” theme of my garden. So now, I have some nice native grasses planted, and some nice sized feature rocks, a whole lot of mulch and stuff… it looks nice. Well, it certainly looks Aussie. Hooray!

That’ll do for today.

- Jon

Teaching

Today, I taught at a primary school, the Jewish one, in a suburb of Melbourne called Elsternwick, which I’ve since realised is quite a Jewish suburb. Good on em. Anyway, the lesson was difficult. The students hard to control, easily distracted, formidable in wit, cocky, rude and altogether lacking in discipline. As I struggled to control them, I was forced to quickly justify my requests of them, something healthy and ultimately fair enough, though time consuming and labourious. These children are under the impression that age, experience and position are not necessarily something to be respected on it’s own, and put me to the test. I was forced to use manners to receive their compliance, I was forced to treat them with respect, to be honest, with much more respect than they showed me, but it started to work. I sat down amongst their music stands, I played with them, rather than conducted. I asked them to self-direct smaller group tutorials, I asked them to help each other correct their mistakes. This often yielded for slower learning than if they were to just listen to me, but slow learning is better than no learning. 

After one period of clarinet tutorial, in which we JUST got through the required amount of material, (with a lot of joking, gabbering, some pouting, even some students standing up and leaving the semi-circle temporarily), we joined the rest of the band for a full band session. Do you know what I found? I found that my ill-disciplined rabble of clarinets were not only the most prepared but the best behaved (which isn’t saying a lot). The poor old flute teacher literally had to grab one of his students by the collar to keep her from walking away. Obviously there was only so far he could do this, and she ended up just strolling away for a rest, because she didn’t want to play. When one of my troubled student’s followed suit, I simply asked him to return, and warmly reminded him that there’d be consequences if he didn’t. I very sweetly used manners and guilt, and he, after a couple of seconds hesitation, came back to stand by the stand, at which point I thanked him (heartfelt). 

Tonight, I was walking down High Street to get my dinner (take-away fish and chips!) when two things happened. Firstly, there was a market on in the Northcote Town Hall, a beautiful old building which happens to be near where I live. This market reminded me painfully of my time in NYC – it was a Williamsburg rip off; complete with type-writer-button-cuff-links, lego broaches, home-made soap, retro-book-themed-stationary and old jewellery stalls. I mean, that stuff, I suppose, is not exclusive to NYC, at least, not anymore, but it still reminded me of it, and besides I never saw a market like that in Melbourne before I left for NYC. It’s almost like the fucking place followed me home! Northcote is definitely a hipster, Williamsburg rip-off, but I’m cool with that. (Plus, it’s better, it’s filled with Australian, not fuck-head Americans, and on top of that, we welcome all nationalities… (kind of), etc. etc.) 

The second thing was there was a marching band on High Street. Now that is cool. They were all girls, wearing red, and called themselves “The Red Brigade”… Fair enough. Good on em! It’s a great night. Now, I’m going to practise Beethoven on the piano, write some music, meet a gorgeous girl for our first drink together (again on High Street) and then come home and help my sister put up her Christmas tree. So there!

- J

Ricky Gervais

I love his podcasts. Seriously. They’ve been a friend to me in dark times. I listened to them to cheer me up through every break-up, illness or ailment. When I had awful food poisoning from Morocco, when I was being operated on, on flights, in bed crying with heartbreak, the list goes on.

I’ve realised why, too. It’s not because they’re that funny, but rather, because I feel like I’m one of the gang when I listen to them. I feel like a fourth member of the group of friends (Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington). But actually, they are quite funny. Here’s some funny samples. Those of you who follow my Karl Spam on facebook will be familar with these, everyone else PLEASE WATCH THEM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hol4h0liWWY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQEeTTHOgTQ

Good Decisions

Making consistent good decisions is hard, but I seem to be pretty good at it. I’ve been geared with some sort of inner mechanism that makes me feel rather guilty when I don’t. For the last couple of months, it has been thrown completely out of whack, because I haven’t known what I wanted. That’s the battle. Knowing in which direction to move, to work towards. Now, I still don’t know which direction is better, (those of you that know me know the two choices I’m talking about) but I’ve realised a few things. 

The most important thing I’ve realised about myself is that when it comes to matters of the heart, I make decisions with my heart, not my head. I’ve noticed that, in this modern day and age, with the world seeming smaller, and the internet creating new opportunities for simulations of relationships, making brave and definite decisions with one’s heart is happening less. Maybe it’s not, maybe it is, but in my experience, it is (happening less). People are forced to consider so many different variables concerning relationships with people, because they are presented with them. It’s now no longer merely possible to meet someone from the other side of the world, it’s probable, and how we react to the options, consequences, and hypotheticals that these people create is as varied as the people that cause these choices and conflicts. I’m proud that I will always go with my heart first, and let my smart mind figure out how to make it work.I had an argument with a friend once, partly in jest, because she insisted that Forrest Gump was “ambitious” in his undying love for Jenny. My contention was that he was not ambitious for two reasons, firstly because he had no choice: he was following his nature, and secondly: that he didn’t expect anything in return, he had no specific ambition, but rather simply followed his heart. Since the argument, or perhaps “light-hearted disagreement” would be more accurate, this friend has in fact reflected her position in the discussion in some of her choices regarding her own life, which I suppose is no surprise. We all have to follow our nature to be happiest, and I’m doing no different. I believe I’m only going to live once, and I don’t want to regret anything. I’ve realised that I’ll regret not following my heart, more than I’ll regret being sad if things don’t work out. 

I’ve been really enjoying my garden, trying to foster a love for my practise and music, and loving my friends and family. Perhaps, with the help of all these things, I can support my nature through the hard times. It’s been working on and off so far. 

- Jon

Baby Steps

Slowly, I’m putting together pieces of the life I remember. I now have a job, which this week has given me four shifts. I’ve got a fair bit more teaching. I made a list of the ensembles I’m involved with and that I want to develop into gigging groups- already I have some interesting projects in my mind, forming rapidly. Soon I’ll pull out the finger and start writing for them. My practise has taken a little bit of a back step, but I expect that it’ll pick-up once I’ve motivated by said ensembles. I’m also making an effort to put thoughts of New York out of my mind, and focus on Melbourne again, for a while. Except for Banff, I’ll be going there next year, which is another thing I’m preparing for and asking for grants and all that stuff.

I’ll keep you posted when things evolve further.

-J

 

Recently

Now that the school holidays are over, the world is a little more active and people are prepared to get off their asses, give me jobs and money. I have a new job at a place called Montsalvat, which is kind of like a remote artist colony. It’s not that remote, it’s in Eltham, an outer suburb of Melbourne, but it covers 12 acres and there’s so much nature it does feel like not only another world, but another world in complete isolation from our own- within our own. It’s fantastic. I think I’ll do another blog about it soon, once I’ve worked there a little bit and have discovered some more about it.

The weather has really perked up- its spring alright. Warm, long days, the sun doesn’t set for ages (and it’s going to get longer!) My teaching has come back, so there’s a think wad of money to cover my debts. That’s a big stress off my mind.

The End (the band I’m in, run by Tim Willis), went interstate the other day, to Sydney, to play at a venue called 505. Here’s a couple of dicky airport candids. I didn’t to take photos of anything worth photographing. Suffice to say, the gig went really well. Probably, overall, it was our best gig, despite being one set.

Jon On A Plane

 

Gareth (bass) and Nick (drums)

Gareth and John (tenor sax)

Nick and Tim (guitar)

Checking our itineraries at the airport. "Band Itineraries!"

Also, yesterday, Canary did a lunchtime gig at my old uni, VCA. I went down to check them out because I feel it’s important to support one’s mates, and because it was a beautiful, sunny day. The gig was pretty good -worth seeing- and it was a great arvo, although I’m sure the band got cooked in the sun.

Canary at VCA

-=- JON -=-

Obsessions

I think I’m a man who gets obsessed. That’s kind of my thing, I’ve realised. In order to be productive as a musician, I need to create small little “obsessions”, which occur daily so I can live a balanced life. I haven’t been doing that this week. Not by a long shot.  :)

Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, I practised all day, and it was great. I had to put heat packs on my arms to keep them warm and rested, do stretches and drink plenty of water, but I sure notched up some hours. And they were fun and quality. However, on Thursday and Friday I did a complete backflip, and sat and did a transcription of a piece for flute and piano by Chick Corea. For ten hours a day. I had red, sore eyes, a headache, hand cramps from writing/typing and that annoying feeling in the back of my mind that I should be practising. But now, I have this pretty little 18 page PDF of a ten minute piece which is all but a sonata. For no real reason. Go me. Not even semi-quaver cluster chords can stand in my way.

- JC

 

 

 

Urgh….

Feeling lonely today. Wrote this years ago, still like it. Is that arrogant?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKOYBEISCGU

-J

Urgh.

What I’ve been up to, dot points:

• Knitting. This pass-time is not only fun and rewarding for it’s quiet-time value, but also, at the end of it, I’ve got a good gift to give to someone that’s nice to me.
• Practise. Despite last night having dreams about noise complaints, I have to say, I’m enjoying my practise. As I was talking about in my New York blogs, I’ve kind of been reminded of the innocent fun in making and playing music. My practise currently includes: extended techniques, articulation, tone, incorporating fourths into my playing, transcribing Wessell Anderson, learning new tunes and …I think that’s it.
• Jamming. I’m trying to have three jams a week, including one a week with someone new. The second part of the plan has proven to be difficult, because “new people” are a bit more busy, and also I keep getting attached to current line-ups and finding things that are interesting within them. In the end I’ll probably have a jam every bloody day.
• Painting: I’ve been working on another painting. It’s ok. I don’t think the idea is really that good, so this one’s a bit of a work in progress exploration.
• Singing: I’ve been sight singing every Friday morning, and I’ve got to say, I’m so excited by it that I feel as if Thursday is the new Friday in terms of anticipation. Last week was a challenge as The Lou was absent, leaving Sass, Berish and myself, but fuckit it was good for me.
• Seeing gigs. I’ve been checking out as many gigs as I can. Lately, I’ve been supporting fellow friends music, like local jazz dudes, or Canary or Lisa Salvo and stuff like that. This week I’m seeing Bernie McGann and my New York teacher, Joel Frahm! All set to be a beauty.
• Teaching. Doing my usual sporadic amounts of that. It’s hard to have any progress with all these little jobs where I pop in. It’ll make a difference when I’m actually in a school for a bit. I’ve also handed out my CV to some local schools and am about to join a CRT agency at the recommendation of a new Canadian friend of mine, Tyler.
• Gym. Working out n tha’.

Things I’d want to improve:

• More Practise: I wish that I could practise more at the extremities of the day, but am unfortunately I am limited to rather restrictive hours (when you factor in teaching, gym and other things).
• More teaching: Working on it. Also, Matt’s talking about working at Monselvat, apparently there’s a cool hospitality job he could walk into and get me into as well. That’ll cover the upcoming school holidays.