A set of questions I sent to and answers I received from Dax Beaton for the purpose of an article for one of my internships. I sent out the questions to several musicians but found Dax's particularly amusing.
1. Are you majoring or minoring in music? If so, what.
I’m currently minoring in music. Or…I’ve acquire my minor, anyway. I mean not like officially or anything…do you have to graduate before you can actually say you’ve minored? Whatever. I play piano.
2. What are your music goals ? Do you want to pursue music as a possible career, or do you just want to pursue it on the side?
I certainly want to pursue music as a career, though not in the sense that someone majoring in music probably would. After I graduate in the spring, I’m moving in with my four other band mates into a house somewhere in Chapel Hill or Carrboro since all of us but Nasir will be graduated. We’re going to stay together until as long as…well, we feel like it. All the money we make from playing shows is immediately put back into a band fund that we use to improve our sound or our practice space, so we’re all starting to think of it as our primary job.
3. Within the academic musical environment, what music or music-related activities are you participating in?
We’re on a student-run record label called Vinyl Records. They received a matching grant from the university to help them fund their label and are currently doing a lot of awesome work to match…the grant.
4. Outside of the academic musical environment, what music or music-related activities are you participating in?
I’m in a band called Lake Inferior, and no I’m not sure what kind of music we play. Right now I’m devoting pretty much all my musical endeavors toward the band aside from learning some video game music in my spare time. That’s right, I said it. The Final Fantasy series has some incredible scores composed by Nobuo Uematso, mostly all for piano!
2. Do you feel that UNC-CH is fostering your growth as a musician? If yes, how so. If no, why?
Not really. We were asked this question in an interview the other day, and it keeps going back to the fact that we never really felt like part of the whole UNC Band…thing. We were never invited to all those UNC events featuring a lot of local music, and we don’t really hang out with other UNC bands much…in fact, we’ve never played a show with the same band twice aside from The Rosebuds. Though if you count all the awesome help Vinyl Records has been giving, I guess that’s UNCish. Also, being a band in a university helps immensely with getting people to hear your music. We’re surrounded by people our age who are young and very interested in new music, so we’re lucky that we can always depend on a decent crowd. Always a handful of new faces at every show…word of mouth spreads quickly on a campus. So to answer the question…in certain ways being at UNC as really helped us out, but at the same time we’d like to believe our music speaks a lot for itself as well.
3.Do you feel the the academic community alone would be sufficient to help you achieve your musical goals?
No ma’am, no way. After (if) we get a full LP recorded, I think we’d all love to move somewhere new for awhile. I don’t think I would like to stay in one place for too long...my surroundings have such an impact on my writing, and there’s only so much I could say about my life at the university. I mean, I’m not literally writing songs about college, but I’m writing about the feelings and experiences that have come from living here, whether they were influenced by the university or not.
4. Before choosing to attend UNC-CH, were you aware of the musical scenes/communities in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area? What did you know about it?
I really knew nothing about it, honestly. Hell, I only applied to UNC-CH because my mother made me. I got deferred from NC State, but I think UNC-CH really loved my essay or something because they let me in no problem. I wrote about the time I was in a hand-farting five piece in high school called The Groach.
5. Do you feel that the there is a music scene in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area that caters to your specific musical endeavors? In what ways does it help you?
Most definitely. The music scene in Chapel Hill/Carrboro is just lovely. There are always new bands to play with, new artists coming through from out of state, and this small area alone has so many different venues to play music in that it’s not even so bad not being able to tour because of school at the moment.
7. What specific musical communities, if any, are you participating in within the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area.
The Lake Inferior community. I think we get so wrapped up in working with each other that sometimes we forget that it’s important (and fun!) to go out and socialize with other artists who are doing the same thing.
8. Is there anything major in regards to your musical goals that the area has helped you with?
Fans, venues, and a label. We’re trying to handle the rest of it.
http://www.myspace.com/lakeinferiormusic
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Hotel Cafe Tour Concert Review
Concert Review written for one of my internships.
On Tuesday night, it was the coldest it had been since fall started. I had unfortunately skipped out on coffee earlier due to my lack of money, but as soon as I arrived at Cat’s Cradle for the Hotel Café Tour, I realized I didn’t really need it anyway.
The Hotel Café Tour is probably one of the most appropriately named tours that I have ever attended, but not because of the prevalence of the lineup in coffee shop speakers. A tour with a constantly changing set, the show in Carrboro featured Ingrid Michaelson, Erin McCarley, Thao Nguyen, Meiko and Samantha Crain. The all-women lineup possessed low, husky voices that comparable to rich coffees or lattes. And as the show went on, I realized that even their song choices paralleled the effects of a café drink: the show started off relaxing and finished off with a lively energy.
That night, the performers and the audience, which was composed mostly of women and their significant others, seemed to be a pair of friends visiting their local coffee shop to have a nice chat filled with heart-to-hearts and laughter. Starting conversation off slowly at first, but then building up to amiable chatter. Each performer gave little personal stories that enabled the audience to relate to them on a personal level. By the time Ingrid Michaelson arrived onstage, both the crowd and performers seemed equally comfortable with each other, sharing jokes and jibes. Never having seen Michaelson, I was struck by how humorous she was, as she kept the crowd in a constant state of laughter.
“Her name is Dolores,” Michaelson said that night, introducing her cracked Ukelele. “I named her that because it rhymes with…” she said trailing off, leaving the crowd to complete her sexual innuendo.
Although all the women had deliciously sultry voices, Thao Nguyen and Samanth Crain’s performances were particularly note worthy. Nguyen possessed an incredible amount of stage presence despite her petite frame and the fact that the show was her first performance on tour. She moved to her music and shook around on stage in a way that can only be described as endearing.
Crain, a relatively new addition to the music scene, impressed the crowd through her mesmerizingly soulful voice. Crain’s ability to express emotions and make songs her own was fully demonstrated through her cover of Radiohead’s Creep. Crain sang the song with so much powerful and full-bodied emotion that the crowd, which had previously been a little antsy for Michaelson to take the stage, quieted and fell into the spell of Crain’s voice.
I would take another show off this tour instead of coffee anyday.
On Tuesday night, it was the coldest it had been since fall started. I had unfortunately skipped out on coffee earlier due to my lack of money, but as soon as I arrived at Cat’s Cradle for the Hotel Café Tour, I realized I didn’t really need it anyway.
The Hotel Café Tour is probably one of the most appropriately named tours that I have ever attended, but not because of the prevalence of the lineup in coffee shop speakers. A tour with a constantly changing set, the show in Carrboro featured Ingrid Michaelson, Erin McCarley, Thao Nguyen, Meiko and Samantha Crain. The all-women lineup possessed low, husky voices that comparable to rich coffees or lattes. And as the show went on, I realized that even their song choices paralleled the effects of a café drink: the show started off relaxing and finished off with a lively energy.
That night, the performers and the audience, which was composed mostly of women and their significant others, seemed to be a pair of friends visiting their local coffee shop to have a nice chat filled with heart-to-hearts and laughter. Starting conversation off slowly at first, but then building up to amiable chatter. Each performer gave little personal stories that enabled the audience to relate to them on a personal level. By the time Ingrid Michaelson arrived onstage, both the crowd and performers seemed equally comfortable with each other, sharing jokes and jibes. Never having seen Michaelson, I was struck by how humorous she was, as she kept the crowd in a constant state of laughter.
“Her name is Dolores,” Michaelson said that night, introducing her cracked Ukelele. “I named her that because it rhymes with…” she said trailing off, leaving the crowd to complete her sexual innuendo.
Although all the women had deliciously sultry voices, Thao Nguyen and Samanth Crain’s performances were particularly note worthy. Nguyen possessed an incredible amount of stage presence despite her petite frame and the fact that the show was her first performance on tour. She moved to her music and shook around on stage in a way that can only be described as endearing.
Crain, a relatively new addition to the music scene, impressed the crowd through her mesmerizingly soulful voice. Crain’s ability to express emotions and make songs her own was fully demonstrated through her cover of Radiohead’s Creep. Crain sang the song with so much powerful and full-bodied emotion that the crowd, which had previously been a little antsy for Michaelson to take the stage, quieted and fell into the spell of Crain’s voice.
I would take another show off this tour instead of coffee anyday.
Chaos
Essay written for class.
I thrive on chaos.
Well, maybe not thrive, because I know of no one that actually enjoys seeing and feeling their hands shake uncontrollably with adrenaline or the acidic, churning feeling that blossoms in their guts when something goes horribly wrong. But I do find that these moments bring about growth in a person’s resourcefulness and ability to stay calm in dire situations. Some might be hasty to write such a belief off as a defense for slackers and for the perpetually disorganized, but I like to see it in a different light.
I’ve always been a disorganized and somewhat chaotic person. Even through the efforts of my parents (the threats, the bribes and everything in between), I’ve remained decidedly in what I suppose is my natural state. There have been times when I’ve been fed up with my constant inability to stay orderly, but those occasions usually only last a matter of days until I quickly fall back into my old ways. But enough with the negatives, and on to the positives. Through the stressful situations that I’ve put myself through (missing the online deadline to apply for Carolina, nearly getting kicked out of Carolina for forgetting to turn in important papers, locking myself out of my house in a blizzard, freezing up during a major class presentation), I’ve become adept at making up Plan B.
I can’t begin to explain how many times friends have about situations they seemingly had no control over, when, in my view, they had several options to choose from that could lessen, if not alleviate, their problems. My friend recently told me a horror story involving her accidentally urinating on her shorts in her haste to keep her bladder from bursting. After listening to her embarrassing story, I offered her several pieces of advice as to what she could have done to make her situation less obviously related to peeing oneself.
1. Check for a hand dryer, obviously.
2. No hand dryers? Take a 180 and douse your shorts in water to mask conspicuous pee marks.
3. Better yet, splash your shirt a bit too, just for consistency.
4. Still stink of urine? Get a cup of coffee, or white tea if you don’t want it to stain, and sprinkle liberally. Or if you are really paranoid about stains, just hold it without a lid and let the aromas waft out.
Ridiculous as the above plans may seem now, my friend found them to be of great genius and
promptly added the words “damage control” to my name in her phone.
Things seldom work out the way you want them to, and your capacity to change plans and to find ways to make things right can be the only thing that prevents a bad situation from spiraling. It takes a lot to calm your frazzled mind after you realize you’ve just made a mistake that just might result in you living out your future in a box under a bridge, but it is in this ability to clear your mind and take charge that you can find the best opportunities to grow and to make it through other stressful situation. So go ahead, mingle with chaos. Although it will never be your friend, it will become your best teacher.
I thrive on chaos.
Well, maybe not thrive, because I know of no one that actually enjoys seeing and feeling their hands shake uncontrollably with adrenaline or the acidic, churning feeling that blossoms in their guts when something goes horribly wrong. But I do find that these moments bring about growth in a person’s resourcefulness and ability to stay calm in dire situations. Some might be hasty to write such a belief off as a defense for slackers and for the perpetually disorganized, but I like to see it in a different light.
I’ve always been a disorganized and somewhat chaotic person. Even through the efforts of my parents (the threats, the bribes and everything in between), I’ve remained decidedly in what I suppose is my natural state. There have been times when I’ve been fed up with my constant inability to stay orderly, but those occasions usually only last a matter of days until I quickly fall back into my old ways. But enough with the negatives, and on to the positives. Through the stressful situations that I’ve put myself through (missing the online deadline to apply for Carolina, nearly getting kicked out of Carolina for forgetting to turn in important papers, locking myself out of my house in a blizzard, freezing up during a major class presentation), I’ve become adept at making up Plan B.
I can’t begin to explain how many times friends have about situations they seemingly had no control over, when, in my view, they had several options to choose from that could lessen, if not alleviate, their problems. My friend recently told me a horror story involving her accidentally urinating on her shorts in her haste to keep her bladder from bursting. After listening to her embarrassing story, I offered her several pieces of advice as to what she could have done to make her situation less obviously related to peeing oneself.
1. Check for a hand dryer, obviously.
2. No hand dryers? Take a 180 and douse your shorts in water to mask conspicuous pee marks.
3. Better yet, splash your shirt a bit too, just for consistency.
4. Still stink of urine? Get a cup of coffee, or white tea if you don’t want it to stain, and sprinkle liberally. Or if you are really paranoid about stains, just hold it without a lid and let the aromas waft out.
Ridiculous as the above plans may seem now, my friend found them to be of great genius and
promptly added the words “damage control” to my name in her phone.
Things seldom work out the way you want them to, and your capacity to change plans and to find ways to make things right can be the only thing that prevents a bad situation from spiraling. It takes a lot to calm your frazzled mind after you realize you’ve just made a mistake that just might result in you living out your future in a box under a bridge, but it is in this ability to clear your mind and take charge that you can find the best opportunities to grow and to make it through other stressful situation. So go ahead, mingle with chaos. Although it will never be your friend, it will become your best teacher.
Halloween
An article I wrote for the newspaper where I intern.
Ah, Halloween. The candy, the costumes, the decorations, the costumes, the frights…. And did I mention the costumes?
I’ve found that as the years have gone by, less importance is placed on who gets the most candies (at least a full pillow case) and the best candies (Twix, I say, Twix!) and more attention is paid to whoever wears the most interesting and original disguises. This proportional turnover between candies and costumes begins midway through middle school and gains the most momentum during the last years of high school and throughout the majority of college. Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately, I am at that costume interest peak and studying at a University that lays claim to one of the most notorious Halloween-ing hotspots, Franklin St.
For those of you that requiring clarification, when I say original and interesting disguises, I usually mean revealing (and at times funny; sometimes those two qualities go hand in hand, at least in the minds of the college student demographic). Come on, did you honestly think that I would keep mum about this very obvious trend for the ladies (and sometimes the men) to don less clothing than usual around this time of the year? As the oh-so-dependable source Wikipedia so accurately states, Halloween is basically an “excuse to wear particularly revealing costumes, showing off more skin than would be socially acceptable otherwise.”
It’s rather hard to argue that point, especially for college students. How many Bo Peeps had I seen last year neglect their sheep while flirting with shepherd boys? How many bunnies looking for their Hefners? How many Catholic school girls skipping mass? Too many, I say! Of course, the guys can’t be let off too easily either. I saw a couple of Adams clad in leaves and Borats in frighteningly skimpy one-piece bathing suits last year, and those weren’t even the most strange/funny/offensive costumes out there.
Wandering through Franklin St. during last year’s Halloween (I myself was an 80’s aerobics instructor), I realized that for many college students, names and numbers have replaced tricks and treats. For myself, taking photographs of outrageously clad friends and acquaintances has become the purpose of the night. Ever lasting memories, laughs and blackmail with one quick shutter click? I’m up for it.
Sometimes, I miss the old days when the race wasn’t for the sexiest or the most outrageously offensive getup. The days where the costume parties lasted from 6 to the 10 in the evening and not 10 in the evening to 6 in the morning. The days when your friends feel like they might vomit from candy and not alcohol. But then I see some frat guy in a diaper and a bib sucking on a pacifier and I realize, as I snap away with my trusty camera, that I’m quite content with the present.
Ah, Halloween. The candy, the costumes, the decorations, the costumes, the frights…. And did I mention the costumes?
I’ve found that as the years have gone by, less importance is placed on who gets the most candies (at least a full pillow case) and the best candies (Twix, I say, Twix!) and more attention is paid to whoever wears the most interesting and original disguises. This proportional turnover between candies and costumes begins midway through middle school and gains the most momentum during the last years of high school and throughout the majority of college. Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately, I am at that costume interest peak and studying at a University that lays claim to one of the most notorious Halloween-ing hotspots, Franklin St.
For those of you that requiring clarification, when I say original and interesting disguises, I usually mean revealing (and at times funny; sometimes those two qualities go hand in hand, at least in the minds of the college student demographic). Come on, did you honestly think that I would keep mum about this very obvious trend for the ladies (and sometimes the men) to don less clothing than usual around this time of the year? As the oh-so-dependable source Wikipedia so accurately states, Halloween is basically an “excuse to wear particularly revealing costumes, showing off more skin than would be socially acceptable otherwise.”
It’s rather hard to argue that point, especially for college students. How many Bo Peeps had I seen last year neglect their sheep while flirting with shepherd boys? How many bunnies looking for their Hefners? How many Catholic school girls skipping mass? Too many, I say! Of course, the guys can’t be let off too easily either. I saw a couple of Adams clad in leaves and Borats in frighteningly skimpy one-piece bathing suits last year, and those weren’t even the most strange/funny/offensive costumes out there.
Wandering through Franklin St. during last year’s Halloween (I myself was an 80’s aerobics instructor), I realized that for many college students, names and numbers have replaced tricks and treats. For myself, taking photographs of outrageously clad friends and acquaintances has become the purpose of the night. Ever lasting memories, laughs and blackmail with one quick shutter click? I’m up for it.
Sometimes, I miss the old days when the race wasn’t for the sexiest or the most outrageously offensive getup. The days where the costume parties lasted from 6 to the 10 in the evening and not 10 in the evening to 6 in the morning. The days when your friends feel like they might vomit from candy and not alcohol. But then I see some frat guy in a diaper and a bib sucking on a pacifier and I realize, as I snap away with my trusty camera, that I’m quite content with the present.
Purpose
In the event of a major catastrophe involving my most precious and invaluable laptop, a precautionary action such as creating this blog is in order.
A portfolio of sorts.
A practice in writing.
A practice in writing well.
A receptacle for my random musings.
A conduit for my ideas and those that are interested enough to inspect them.
That is the purpose.
A portfolio of sorts.
A practice in writing.
A practice in writing well.
A receptacle for my random musings.
A conduit for my ideas and those that are interested enough to inspect them.
That is the purpose.
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