Last night's concert went well if a little too long. With fifteen works on the program, it weighed in at about two and a half hours. There were some nice points to the music though and everything went pretty well. It was also nice to see several freshmen getting their works performed, and most of the ones I heard definitely had something to work with for the coming years.

Badinage went pretty well, although there were a few spots that I could have done better. Generally, I've received positive comments about the structure of the piece and the performance, but I'll wait until I can listen to the recording before I make any judgements of my own. Apparently, Professor Kubik's words on the matter were, "That's an ambitious piece," which can be interpreted several ways.

On the MIDI side, here's an MP3 of my first jazz-band funk chart, Neckbone, from 1995. Though not musically profound, it was fun to write and play, and got plenty of airtime back in high school. The "Hip Hop" drum set adds a lot to the MIDI recording (MP3, 3.2MB).

Here's a few news stories that have caught my eye this past week:

Man's self-heating shoes cause airport scare
24-hour video game channel set to launch (from the "Network execs don't realize that most gamers are ugly and won't make good TV stars" file)
College Drinking Study is Intoxicating Scam
Schemes and Loopholes: Tales from the IRS (from the "Can I deduct my cat?" file)