7/25/04 9:47pm

I've added a review of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance SP - Classic NES Limited Edition, under the Reviews section.

7/25/04 8:22am

So, the YO horn section was featured on the offical tour website (see links):

7/23/04 2:54pm

Best. Gig. Ever.

Here's the long awaited and oft requested pic of the Mahler 2 section (with a link to Bob's page):

7/23/04 2:28pm

New WiFi Hotspot

Cybelle's Pizza on 9th ave. between Judah and Irving now has its own WiFi hotspot. The signal is great next door at Donut World (9th and Judah) where I'm currently enjoying a cup of (coffee-flavored) coffee.

Now, if I was a real geek (and not just playing one on TV), I'd create a list of my most commonly used hotspots and stick them up under the non-existant reviews section...

7/21/04 6:25pm

Here's an audio clip from right before the YO Tchaikovsky 4th performance in Berlin....

Jeff Strong's Commentary

7/21/04 3:33pm

Well, I'm back. I've also gotten over the jetlag, but going wine tasting in Sonoma on Saturday may have had something to do with that.

All in all, the 2004 SFSYO European Tour was a great success. I'm not going to use this space to describe the adventure in detail, but here are some of the highlights, in no particular order:

• Performed Tchaikovsky 4 in the Musikverein in Vienna, Paris' Theatre de Champs Elysees, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, among other venues.
• We lost two trumpet players due to various... circumstances. One was sent home for (ahem) "personal reasons", and Jeff managed to injure himself. Two French players covered the three concerts in France, and Mark Inouye from the SFS led the section i n our concerts in Berlin, the Rheingau, and Amsterdam.
• Saw the gravesites of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert (and some Johann Strauss guy, too..)
• Went to some kind of festival with fireworks and beer on the banks of the Rhein in Cologne.
• Shopped at H&M in Berlin
• Got wasted at the Hoffbrauhaus in Munich
• Got stuffed for lunch at the Schneider-Weisse beerhall in Munich
• Lost a couple pounds over a 3 week period (don't ask me how, eating foot-long brats in Germany...)
• Fell in love with Vienna and decided that I may just have to learn to speak German and go to school there.

Maybe, when I manage to get everything sorted out in my head, I'll come back and write up a detailed account of the adventure. For now, I'll say this much: YO tours change everyone involved with them, from the lowliest violist, straight up to the conductor and the administration. The experience is nearly always wonderful and moving, and it changes even those of us who least expect to be changed or affected by it. It was a great experience, but I just haven't had time to really figure out what it's done to me, not yet...

6/29/04 10:46pm

Herzlich Wilkommen! I'm in Vienna at the moment. You can view my SFSYO 2004 European Tour Multimedia Journal here. Also, the previously mentioned Mahler 2 shows went quite well, and the recording should be excellent.

6/13/04 6:38am

Way back on wednesday, I was complaining about not having enough playing to do before the YO goes on tour. Shortly after uttering such complaints to a friend, I managed to snag a pretty excellent gig: I get to play offstage (10th horn) on Mahler's 2nd Symphony with a certain local orchestra. Some of my friends have responded with such remarks as "You bastard!", "You're a bastard!" "You're a F&*k3r", "Damn you", and other similar comments, usually followed by various grins, slaps on the back, or other positive reinforcement. (I know nobody actually reads this thing, but... Thanks Bob. Not just for the gig itself, but for helping me to come this far and to be deemed qualified to do it.)

6/17/04, 2pm	Mahler Symphony No. 2
6/18/04, 8pm	Mahler Symphony No. 2
6/19/04, 2pm	Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
6/19/04, 8pm	Mahler Symphony No. 2
6/23/04, 8pm	Mahler Symphony No. 2
6/24/04, 8pm	Mahler Symphony No. 2
6/25/04, 8pm	Mahler Symphony No. 2
6/26/04, 8pm	Mahler Symphony No. 2

5/19/04 10:56pm

Wow... and I mean, wow. The past 2 and a half weeks were a blur. Somewhere in there I played a musical twice, a band concert, multiple orchestra concerts, a jury.. and there were finals in there somewhere too. Anyway, school's out, so I have time to breathe and think, and I'm finishing up with the last of my SOTA and CMC commitments for the academic year. I've decided to use the Vienna horn on Schumann 4 with CMCO. More updates to come in the near future, but for now I'm just sleeping way too much, now that I have the time.

5/1/04 - 12:26pm

So... I haven't updated in a while. Things have been busy. There's the musical at Mercy High School (one left out of six: 5/2, 3pm), the SFCM Orchestra Concert (5/1, 8pm @SFCM), the YO Concert (5/16, 2pm @ Davies), the CMC Concert (6/5, 8pm, @ 23rd & Capp), SFSU Orchestra (5/15 and 5/16), SFSU Wind Ensemble (5/14), not to mention finals and juries... and all of the outside commitments. Things have been pretty hellish, and most of my free time has been spent relaxing or otherwise escaping from my day to day hell.

I've been disgusted with Mercy of late. The guy conducting the musical this year is a self-admitted non-conductor. He can't always tell whether he's in 4 or in 2, doesn't have a clear or consistent beat pattern, and doesn't give good cues. He's not even a good musician (where a good musician is someone who has a good sense of time and pitch... he has neither). I've also heard that he's despicably mean to the kids, which is just bad pedagogical technique. I hope, beyond all hope, that they don't use him next year, or at least that they figure out that they need a conductor. Of course, they could also use a pianist who's got some experience playing with other musicians and following a conductor... but that's another discussion.

And... to top things off for this weekend, I'm sick, again. I've felt it coming on for a while, but the bad pizza (somewhere on Irving near 19th ave... not to name names or anything) and bad chinese food (in some food court at a sunset district mall) yesterday really helped to get this thing kicked off. Did i mention that my finals are happening this coming week? Great, just great...

3/26/04 - 8:40pm

Ok, so I've finally gotten the new page up, and my spring break is almost over. The rest has done me good, and I'm getting ready for the hellishness of April and May. Things are going to be pretty hectic: SFCM Opera next weekend, SFSYO and CMCO Rehearsals through June, Easter Gigs, the Mercy show, and recital season all crammed into one package, with finals and a jury to top everything off.