Listen and learn. It is time for prancing.

Now we are here for Caramell Dancing.

I just finished eating my dinner (Froot Loops) and now I feel like writing a blog to make up for yesterday. I got home at about 11:00 PM last night, and I didn't even feel like taking a shower. I think I smelled like a crazy white person by that time. So, I just read for two hours, until I finally finished Redwall. Gosh, that's like my favorite book; I think I want to reread the entire series this summer.

Anyway, yesterday was pretty uneventful for me. I just went to lessons, went to Daniel's house, and went to a benefit concert. You know, same old, same old. I went to Daniel's house to plan out our service learning project, but we pretty much accomplished nothing. Ah...reminds me of the good ol' days. Though, he and I had some nice manly conversations on the way to Fernandez Park; talking about our feelings and such.

The concert was pretty cool, though. I got to hear Tony's band perform live, but the best band there was A Class Act, obviously. I hope I can play bari as well as Zach someday, and at least look half as cool doing it, too. The craziest part of the concert was mosh pit in the middle. People were just pushing and punching everyone that touched them. Tony made me go in, and in the midst of the frenzy, I found myself on his back. I guess I overestimated his strength because within seconds, I ended up on the ground, with him on top of me. Parts of my body still ache. I touched so many big sweaty men last night; I feel so unclean right now.

There was also this big Asian bodyguard that kept checking me out from the second I got there. I was just minding my own business when suddenly I feel an arm around my shoulder. It felt rather large, so I was about to say, "Tony, I already gave you a hug. What else do you want?" But it turned out to be that big Asian guy! I was kind of alone, so no one would have heard my screams of terror. He asked me if I had a sister that went to UC Davis; I said yeah. And then he said, "So that must mean you're Bryan." I agreed again, and he asked me about my band life. After the interrogation was over, he left, and I was kind of scared for the rest of the night. I guess my sister and I really do look exactly alike.

All in all, the night was fun. The music was cool and left my ears ringing until the morning. It was hilarious watching people get dragged into the mosh pit against their will. It was even funner getting carried military-style by Mohid and Will through the middle. Tony even picked me up in his arms and used me as a battering ram through the crowd. Reminds me of freshmen year when we used that technique to get to 4th period Mr. Laird's class on time.

Today was pretty boring, like most Sundays have been lately. I was just stuck home alone like usual, and I took the liberty of uploading my blooper reel onto YouTube. Um, here's the video, for all of you curious cats out there:

Into the Air.

Like the new banner? I think it's better than the last one.

Anyway, I think I should take the time to explain the meaning behind the url of my Flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/intotheair/
(Not a shameless plug.)

First and foremost: "Into the Air," by Timothy Mahr, was the song I was listening to when I was making my account. Second of all, one of the things that I love doing the most is taking walks by myself and listening to music (even though I don't get to do it that often). Listening to uplifting songs with chords that just shout triumph, victory, and feelings of ascension. For me, there's nothing quite like a powerful song to bring me Up when I'm feeling down. The feeling I get when I listen to music and look up into the air, watching trees rustle in the breeze, is just unmatched by anything else. So, if I happen to be listening to music and I start staring at the sky, don't be alarmed! I'm not asleep! I haven't turned into a zombie! I'm just probably lost in my own far-off world; mostly likely reminiscing of ages long since washed away in the river of time and pondering the mysteries hidden deep within the dark shadows of future's uncertainties.

I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

Gosh, I love John Cage's way of thinking.

I was originally thinking of not writing anything tonight, but seeing as how I found myself twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do and nobody to talk to, I figured I might as well write something.

Uhh...hmm...

Well, today my cat was able to sneak into my clothes drawer. I was about to take a shower and I opened the drawer to get a shirt. My cat, who was on my bed at the time, decided to see what was going on. It put its paw on the edge of the drawer door. I thought to myself, "Oh, this would make a nice picture. I should get my camera." But, it looked like my cat was about to fall off, so, being the intelligent young man I am, I opened the drawer a bit more. As soon as I got my camera, my cat had already begun to tunnel its way through my clothes to the back of the drawer. It somehow made its way to the drawer below it, so I had to take out the drawer I had originally opened. After taking a few pictures, I tried to get it out, but it just pimp smacked my hand with its paw. And I was like, "Oh snap! This cat don't take no for an answer." So I just took my shower and when I came out, it was gone.

There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time.

There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

I spent the entire night listening to all sorts of music. From Dvorak's Romantic classic the "New World Symphony" to John Philip Sousa's "King Cotton" to Shostakovich's "Festive Overture" to John Cage's 4'33". Ah, King Cotton and Festive Overture give me good and bad memories from last year. I can still picture myself marching down Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland last year when I listen to King Cotton. That has to be one of the coolest things I've ever done in my whole life. The entire thing was just plain epic: from the announcer personally announcing our school right down to the very last drum cadence.

However, Festive Overture makes my fingers twitch in pain in the terrible memories of having to play it over and over. When I close my eyes, I can still see all of the accidentals flying across the page as I struggled to keep up with the musicians from CAL that joined to play it with us. I'm very surprised that the oboes trusted me with the solo (even though it's a tiny one). One girl even let me play her English Horn! It's so much fun! She had a lot of piercings on her face, and Joe says that I probably got AIDS from her...

4'33" has to be one of the most interesting songs I've ever heard. I had heard about it before, but today was the first time I ever listened to it. For those of you unfamiliar with the song, it's a song with three movements and always consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of performance time. The first movement is Tacet, the second movement is Tacet, and the third movement is Tacet. This means that no one in the orchestra plays at all. That's right, it's four minutes and thirty-three seconds of "silence" or however close the audience can get to it. The song has an interesting effect on people. During performances that involved the orchestra playing, the audience feels free to cough and whisper to their neighbors. However, 4'33" creates an tremendous tension among everyone. Everyone tries to be as silent as possible, and yet, everyone is listening for others to make a sound...anything to shatter the tension.

I feel like marching down Main Street.

and walking into a saloon.

Today held a couple of realizations for me: things that I've always known, but I kept at the back of my head. I realized that jerking is basically backwards skipping, which I can do. But, doing it in place is so much harder for some reason. Ah well, I bet by the time I learned how to do it properly, everyone will have moved on to something else.

I also can't seem to stop listening to Maple Leaf Rag. I've always loved the melody in the song, ever since I first heard it at Disneyland. I've always liked ragtime as a whole, and I think it began when I played Animal Crossing. It had a song called "K.K. Ragtime" which I usually had playing in my virtual house. Funnily enough, I also had "K.K. March" playing on a different floor in the house. Two different styles by two kings of their genres, Scott Joplin "The King of Ragtime" and John Philip Sousa "The March King". They were also from the same time period...these coincidences are Just Plain Scary.

Also, I did it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/intotheair/

Strangely enough, I already have a Photobucket account, but I don't really use it. I just use it to upload wallpapers for MySpace...

I think I'm ready for school.

Oh my goodness. I've been so bored at home this weekend. Words cannot describe it. I actually want to go to school right now. I'm just sitting here, waiting for school to some. I barely accomplished anything worthwhile this weekend. The only really noteworthy thing I did was make the blooper reel and remastered "Lights Out". Although, I highly doubt anyone except me will actually notice any differences at all. I've actually gotten a little sick of watching it so many times. That's biggest downside, I think, to being an editor: you have to watch the video so many times that you start to hate it...almost.

I really don't like being alone in my house at night. It's dark and the smudges on my glasses make me see things that aren't really there (Or is there something there?). That's why I pump some nice music through house to scare the evil spirits away. And, in my mind, I recite the incantation that Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures used to say: Yu moh hok gwyh fyh di jow. It keeps all of the dark forces away (Interestingly, "Into the Light" just came up on shuffle).

If one good thing has come out of my recent boredom, it's the fact that I've started to use my camera more. I'm thinking of making an account on a photo storage website, since uploading all of these random pictures on Facebook feels...dumb. I'm just...not sure if I should or not. Though, I've had this camera for almost two months, and I already have almost two gigabytes worth of pictures. It's ridiculous.

I've got the best of both worlds.

Well, it seems that I actually DID get both of what I wanted. I get to be marching band section leader of the saxophones, which I think will be pretty fun, I hope. AND, I get to stay on oboe! Yay! I have an entire year to get to a level of proficiency of which I am satisfied with. Plus, I get to play bari sax in Jazz Band. Next year sounds like so much fun already. Sorry if my sentences are all jumbled up, my brain feels like mush right now, which is funny, since I barely did anything mentally taxing today. I just slept, practiced, and...ate food.

I absolutely love how a good song can make me forget about all the problems that may be on my mind. I can just close my eyes, and I lose myself in the music. I can be where ever I want to be: in a forest, out a sea, on a grassy hill, a big city, or even on the moon! Good music reminds me that life is too short to fret over small things and that I should enjoy the song in its entirety, rather than nitpick at every note and rhythm.

There was something else I wanted to talk about...but I forgot...maybe it was about the gigantic banner I put up. It kind of seems a bit over the top, but, I think the colors match with the layout more. Oh yeah! I think I wanted to talk about the blooper reel I made today out of the horror movie my group and I made. It's almost nine minutes long, but I'm debating whether I should redo it, since some clips ended up repeated. I'm also wondering if I should upload it on the internet...Heck, I'll just redo, and I guess I'll upload it, too.

Note to myself: Take more pictures!!!

Aha! You thought I was dead, huh?

Oh my goodness, I haven't written an entry in over a week! That's unexcuseable, to be honest. Well, for me, anyway. I've just been really tired this past week, and I wanted to get some rest for once, now that AP tests are done. But today, I've decided to dust off my ol' blog and finally write something interesting!

Let's see...last Thursday was the Spring Area Festival. It seemed to me like Pinole Middle School and Stewart are having a drum set war. Ah, I remember the times in middle school when we were jealous of Stewart and the drum set they had while we had nothing. Now, Pinole Middle has a set and guitar, apparently. Oh yeah! The new Jazz Band line-up for next year came out today! From what I see, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing the bari sax next year. I moved all the way to the top of the awesomeness pyramid of saxophones! Alto being the lowest on the coolness scale and the bari is at the top. I also jumped all the way to the opposite end of the saxophone row as well. So much jumping! Salto mucho! I feel really hyper, and I'm typing really fast and I'm not really thinking about what I write, so forgive me for any grammatical or commom sense errors.

Sigh, I still have to wait until tomorrow to find out section leader positions. I kind of want to be saxophone section leader, but I kind of don't. Well, I've always thought about being section leader ever since I was a freshman, and I've always thought I would have the position for sure when I became a senior. But, now I'm not so sure. My position on oboe is pretty important in Symphonic Band, and I'm not sure if I can or should be replaced. Even if I can be replaced, I'm reluctant to give up my seat because of all the time and money I've invested in learning how to play the oboe. It makes a little sad thinking about what I'd be giving up; all of the years of practicing, lessons, and learning how to play; playing Cathedral, the first song I learned on the oboe. Then, I'd be giving up the lessons I've been taking with my private teacher for almost two years. I've come so far, yet, there's still so much to do. My teacher's already making plans for me over the summer, and I already know what I want to do for my senior recital piece. It'd just seem like a waste to throw everything away.

Though, I've always wondered what it'd be like to play saxophone in Symphonic Band. I know that my style of playing is clearly centered around classical and concert band-type music. I think I could do well if I played saxophone in Symphonic Band, and it actually seems like a lot fun. Even more fun than Jazz Band. Sigh, I don't even know what I really want anymore. Maybe there's a way I can have both, but then, that'd just be selfish of me. Maybe I could just flip a coin to decide. Though, if Nez offers the position to someone else, I guess that would solve my problem. Actually, I'm kind of hoping for something like that to happen. That's one of the reasons I gave up my alto position in Jazz Band. That, and I know I'm terrible at soloing. And, bari is just that awesome.
Now that all of that boring stuff is done, on to something kind of interesting! I downloaded Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, which I used to play with my cousins when I was little. Klonoa's the most adorable cat, rabbit-thing in the world! He even has Pac Man on his hat! I noticed that the closer I get to graduation, the closer I cling on to my childhood. I'm just afraid that when I graduate, I'll lose all of it. I guess that's why, in the past few months I've been: playing Pokémon, watching Digimon, playing other old games, reading the Redwall series, and maybe even wanting to play bari. Those are all things I did when I was younger. Ah, I love the Redwall series. Who doesn't love a good story about mice and heroism? I read about fifteen of those books when I was in middle school, and now, I'm reading the first book in the series again.
Wow, I wrote this all pretty quickly, even though I know there's probably tons of words missing from it, like usual. I guess that's what happens when I take a week off. It feels nice to put all these thoughts onto virtual paper, and I'll be sure to write more frequently...I hope.

A terrible darkness has fallen upon us,

but we must not surrender to it. We shall lift lamps of courage and find our way through to the morning.

Sorry about the sporadic posting schedule that I seemed to have acquired lately. It seems that even though my AP tests are done for this year, I still have a boatload of homework to do. Lots of Pre-Cal to make up and English to progress through. And, I have over fifteen chapters worth of notes to do in Bio...makes me a little sad.

But now for something makes me happy! I asked Tony to order a shirt for me today, and no, it's not the Fire Emblem one. He got a green Mr. Game & Watch one, and it looks so cool! I think me, him, and the five other dudes should get shirts with emblems that match us, or the Brawl character we main.

I found the song "We Shall Lift Lamps of Courage" with much difficulty today. It's a song that Symphonic Band might play next year, and I hope we do. It sounds awesome, and the title comes from a quote from a soldier in the French resistance in World War II, in 1942. You can just see the soldiers marching off to battle, spreading light, justice, and hope, and extinguishing darkness, evil, and Nazi's!

It's so adorable!

Hooray! I remembered it was Mother's Day this year! I spent most of it with my grandpas, ironically. Apparently, my mom wants me to go with my grandpa to China this summer. If I do, I have no idea how I'd survive with my limited Chinese. But, I really do want to go, since I haven't gone in almost nine years. That's almost a decade!

I sometimes hate wearing glasses. The reflections off the lenses makes me see things that aren't really there. I start seeing things flying around out of the corner of my eye, but it's really nothing. It's also kind of sad how I'll never know what it's like to wake up and see things clearly, nor what it's like to see in the shower. Although, I guess I could try taking a shower with my glasses...that kind of sounds like fun.

Sigh, this school year is almost over, and I'm so behind in my classes! Argh, Disneyland and AP testing made me fall behind even more than I already was! I'm expecting low grades on my progress report, since I haven't shown my teachers missing work and/or I just haven't done the work at all. The AP Bio test is tomorrow, too, which should be...interesting, to say the least.

I also found my mini pink Mahjong set! It's so adorable!

And in those weaker glories spy, some shadows of eternity.

And when this dust falls to the urn, in that state I came, return.

I finally have enough time write a substantial blog! I took my APUSH test today, and I actually might have done okay. Hopefully I'll do just as well on my AP Bio test. Maybe I should study for it...

A lot of other things happened this week, like ACCAL. Though, there's not much to talk about it, since I lost in the very first round...against very big, loud white guys. They kept yelling "HADOUKEN" during the game, which was funny and distracting at the same time. Cramming four guys into the back of Daniel's car was pretty exciting and hot, too.

Another highlight of this week was the Spring Concert yesterday. Jazz band was absolutely terrible, and I think everyone else agrees, as well. What's weird is that Nez didn't seem to care at all. Probably because we did so well in Disneyland. I swear, we sounded pretty professional in the recording. Even though the quality is low, you can find a recording of us on YouTube! Symphonic Band sounded alright, even though we rushed Jupiter and my solos were really out of tune. I'm glad I didn't mess up my important solo in Into the Light, though. That solo is the bridge that connects the slow beginning to the race-to-the-end finish. Once it's crossed, the song never slows down.

I think it's neat how Shadows of Eternity fits into the theme of ends and new beginnings that the Spring Concert has. The concert is in the spring, which is the season in which life begins and the seasons begin anew. The plants are reborn, and what was dead and bleak in the winter becomes filled with life in the springtime. The Spring Concert is also known among us as the Senior Farewell Concert, the time where we say goodbye to our senior band members. We reminesce about how their journey through band began and think about how close they are to that journey's end. However, with the end of their high school journey, the adventure of college and the rest of their lives begins. So it's a cycle, you see. Journeys end, journeys begin. Doors open in front of you, and doors shut behind you. People may leave, but their footprints will also remain for those who wish to see. For me, I witnessed a life ending at the beginning of this school year; just hours before our first concert, no less. I kind of wished the Earth would stop spinning for a moment, but it didn't. Six months later, at the twilight of this school year, I see a group of kids who have entire lifetimes ahead of them. So in summary, I experienced an end in the beginning, and new beginnings in the end (I hope this all made some sort of sense).

Random picture because I feel like it.

Oh my goodness! Two in a row!

I'm glad that this week is almost over. I just hope my mom won't mind the bad grades on my progress report, since I'm a tad behind in everything. I have to make up an essay in the morning for Bio (emphasis on the "make up" part), and I have to go to ACCAL in the afternoon. THEN, I have to leave early to make it back to the school for the concert. Sigh, it's just one of those days. APUSH test is on Friday, which means i have to sleep really early tomorrow night. Hopefully I'm allowed to take a breather on the weekend.

Oh yeah. I downloaded Pokémon Stadium 2 onto my computer. It's still as cool as it was all those years ago.

Sigh, if only...

So much that still needs to be done.

Just to keep you guys in the loop: I probably won't be writing anything substantially interesting, or tangible, until after AP tests. I really haven't had any time to breath let alone get sleep or do homework. Actually, I get sleep during class now, which is fine I guess. But I also sleep at home, too, which leaves no time to do homework. Sigh, just looking at my cat sleeping on the floor makes me wish I could do the same. I'm kind of hoping for a miracle to happen after May 11 that will make all my stress go away.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Lalala. I'm finally back from Disneyland, and I'm way too tired to do anything. I'll upload pictures and videos on Facebook some other time. I predict that this week will involve me playing catch-up in every one of my classes. I'm also thinking of writing a detailed story of the weekend, but only if I have time.