Ponies to Nowhere :: The Continuous Concert
How many of you find the silence between movements and pieces in a concert or a recital unnerving, uncomfortable and just plain annoying? Well, I do. The piece begins, it moves along stirring emotions (whatever they may be) and it doesn’t matter if you loved or loathed the piece, the awkward silence between movements, segments or pieces is just that- awkward! And I believe it is unnecessarily so. My friend and office mate Kurt, of Kurticus.com, both agree that before we leave ASU we need to present a concert of new music with no absurd breaks or silences/breaks. I am not downplaying silence in music, the rests are equally important as the notes/graphics. But there is no reason why staging changes can’t be interesting. Why shouldn’t switching around chairs be choreographed or be an integral part of a percussion piece. Or why can’t we just play over the noise. Our generation is so accustomed to being distracted, I don’t think it would cause any major problems. The reason for the title comes from the fact that I insisted the concert end with my final draft of Ponies to Nowhere.

I open the floor to any suggestions on how to make a successful “continuous concert.” I also open the floor to new names- because “A Continuous Concert” as a subtitle sucks.

Songs from the Suburbs
I have not really advertised this as an ongoing project, but I hope that it is.
I started Songs from the Suburbs as a response to a startling confession from a friend back at Baylor. It then also fed from the popular TV show Desperate Housewives (one season was more than enough). Thinking about my friend from my undergrad led me to write The Princess Song and Desperate Housewives led me to write Give Me Words and The Plastic Wife. The song I’m Goin’ Green or just Goin’ Green was a tune and hook line that popped into my head while driving from Waco to Lake Jackson my final year at Baylor. That one is my personal favorite, and I plan to write a big band or jazz combo version in the future.

I hope to have several more versions, variations and additions to Songs from the Suburbs in the years to come. Look for songsfromthesuburbs.com which will be up soon!

Short Stories for Two Cellos
Short Stories must be written in the span of 1-3 hours and must be at least 1 minute in length. There are around 8 short stories in existence today and the numbers are expected to rise soon with the addition of Tiny Paid Ninjas and duets using 2 bows.