SCHOOL!

So...my first couple of days of school have gone well...one more to go.

On Tuesday, I had my first Accounting class - good times. It's pretty easy thus far, but there's a lot of homework. I've been chiseling away at it a little bit every day.

Yesterday was my long day. Class from 3:30-9:30. My first one is call "The Music Industry Think Tank" and is taught by the Music Bus. concentration director. His name is Kimo Williams - very strong personality, but a lot of AMAZING experiences to back it up. He's even so highly thought of in the music industry that he gets to vote on the GRAMMY AWARDS! WOW! So, this class is going to beat me down...very difficult. There's not a lot of homework, but a lot of thinking. The purpose of the class is to state what we believe is wrong with the music industry, and be innovative and forward thinking enough to figure out how to fix it. Everyone must give 1 10 min. presentation to the class on an innovative aspect of the music ind. Kimo's Asst. (who is team-teaching with him - he already owns his own online music distribution co.) brought up an amazing website called lablogoteque that shows spontaneous music making by amazing bands. Since I'm fairly familiar with the site, I chimed in on the discussion about the "realness" that you feel when you watch, as opposed to modern music videos and their "fake-ness." SO, Kimo was like "OK...next week give your presentation on that website. I wanna hear all about it." HA! There were two other people already assigned for next week, so I offered to go on the 19th. Phew... We have to have a fancy presentation all set with handouts and everything. I'd rather have more than a week to work on it!

Anywho...in this class we are also writing (in small groups...of course my group has some dude who wore a shirt that said "Drink Responsibly - Jason's 21st Birthday" - classy) a treatise. His goal for this large group paper (30-ish pages) is for us to tell the music industry "Here's what you are doing wrong, and here's how we can fix it." He wants to get these published in all of the Music Industry magazines and journals. Then, he wants to take them to conventions and present them to RIAA people and all of the higher ups of the recording ind. Whoa... He's got some crazy connections, so I can imagine how awesome this is all going to be...not to mention an insane amount of work.

Moving on, and speaking of connections...My next class was the Music Industry Workshop, taught by Maurice White. Not the Earth Wind and Fire Maurice, but close.

This dude is AMAZING! He is friends with Clive Davis (big time record producer), his dad "broke" Earth Wind and Fire into the business, Aretha Franklin lived with their family while she was in her early stages, he's worked for MCA and a bunch of other labels, he's on the "in" with the CEO of Capitol Records, and so much more. The stories he had were jaw dropping. I can't wait to work more with him! He even gave us his personal cell phone number "If you need anything...even after we're done in this class." Very cool.

I tell ya what...6 hours of being a sponge...that's tough. By the time 8 rolled around, my brain was hurting. Thank goodness Maurice let us out at 9:00...I dunno if I could have taken any more.

So after class, Jeanette (A girl from all of my classes that lives literally a block away...crazy) and I rode the El home. Good to have a late night train buddy, just to stay safe.

So...going backwards a little bit. During the "Think Tank" class, as we introduced ourselves, I mentioned that I was a teacher, but still enjoy arranging music for bands/ensembles. Kimo was quite interested and asked if I used Finale of Sibelius. I mentioned that I used Finale, but had a demo of Sibelius that I've played around with and really liked. So, he then asked if I would transcribe some music for him if he gave me Sibelius for free (I've always wanted Sibelius - a fancy music notation software - but never saved up the money...it's $500+). I said sure! I assumed he was just joking around, but after class he came up to me and discussed it with me again. SO COOL! I emailed him at his request and he replied. Crazy - he said that he wanted to meet in October, but that in the meantime, I should try to find out how much Sibelius costs so he could get it to me in time to play around with it. CRAZY! He's buying me Sibelius so I can transcribe for him! That's a pretty good trade-off!

Funny thing...he has a Grad Asst. every semester...it's a pretty prestigious position because if he likes you he "will get you a job." Here I am, not his GA, but transcribing his musical arrangements! SO COOL!

So...one more class tomorrow (It's a 4 hour seminar) then my week is done. Next week I'll have all of the classes I mentioned, plus a Monday Night Marketing class...fun times!