The Amazing Dave Matthews Band

Last night I went to see Dave Matthews Band with my brother Dan and my friend Becky. So fun! I already wrote about how their saxophone player died yesterday. To be honest, I can't believe it. It is still shocking to me. But I said I would write about the concert, so here I go.

Becky and I drove to the Staples Center. We were rather anti for a while, because Dave is someone that should be seen outdoors. I have never seen him indoors - ever. Twice at Verizon Wireless, twice at Home Depot Center, and once at the Gorge in Washington State - ROAD TRIP! AMAZING!! :)

But it actually turned out really well. Since LeRoi had died that day, the entire concert was dedicated to him. They played a lot of his favorite songs to honor his memory. Now, if you haven't seen Dave before, you must know that they don't just play their "hits" at their performances. They don't really have "hits" - at least not with their fans. Everything is good. (I like to say that bad DMB songs are better than many groups' "good" songs!) So everything is fair game - they will play everything and anything. Sometimes you'll get a good set list, and sometimes not. It all depends. Last year at the Gorge it was very mellow, very chill. Fine, but not amazing.

Last night, they played all this stuff that they don't usually play - at least not together. For those of you who know their stuff, they played: Ants Marching, Two Step, The Dreaming Tree, Crash Into Me, Everyday, Grey Street, Bartender, Proudest Monkey, and my personal favorite DMB song ever, Dancing Nancies. (Dan and Becky said I totally flipped when they started playing it. True. I did.)

They also played "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel and "Burning Down the House" by the Talking Heads. Random! That was really fun. The concert was really enhanced by Tim Reynolds, an amazing guitarist who used to play with DMB during the earlier years. (He stopped at Everyday, which is a big turning point album for the band.) So much fun! They of course played some stuff we didn't recognize as well - new songs, stuff from Dave's solo album, etc.

It was a very touching and moving performance. I think it was honestly the best Dave concert I have ever seen - and I have seen him 5 times! Amazing. We will definitely miss LeRoi. No idea whether they will continue to tour, or what. We Dave fans pray that is not the case.

(BTW, that's me and Becky in our "oversmile" pose.) :)

R.I.P. LeRoi Moore

Dave Matthews Band's saxophone player, LeRoi Moore, died today. The band still played a concert (which I will write about in a later post). This is a (pretty bad quality) video from the concert I saw last year at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington. You can hear LeRoi on it. I thought it was a fitting (if bad quality picture-wise) tribute. You will be missed, LeRoi.

Girlfriends

Okay, so I know that girlfriends are the new thing - or the old thing - or the current thing - or something. I mean that everyone has already commented on how great they are, and how we all love them. Thanks Carrie Bradshaw. Way to take our thunder. :) People have all weighed in on what they think of having girlfriends. But what's the point of a blog if not posting your own thoughts on topics - fresh and worn out?

In college, I dated a guy for quite a while (3.5 years). When we broke up, all of a sudden, I rediscovered what it meant to have girlfriends again. (I had done the lame thing of ignoring my friends for the guy I was dating - something I hope to not repeat, at least to that extent!). I was in this amazing Bible study where we bonded, watched goofy movies, ate (A LOT), laughed, cried, and did all sorts of stuff. 4 of these girls got married right after college - it was a crazy year! :) But we stay in touch, and it is so amazing.

Tonight, I got to go out with 10 girls to dinner and a movie. (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - not as good as the first, but cute, nonetheless.) It was so much fun! Lots of laughter and conversation ranging from how cute we thought the actors were, to synchronized swimming, to shootings apparently happening outside of a girl's house, to (of course) wedding talk, as one of the girls is getting hitched Friday. To top it off, I met up with one the girls. We went into Old Navy, and found this pair of shoes for $8.50. No joke! Such cute shoes - and they were slightly damaged, so I got them for $6! But I wouldnt' have bought them if not for the awesome encouragement from my friend. Thanks Dani - I love the new shoes!

Guys don't have the same relationships we do. Gotta be honest- I think they're missing out. I mean, I'm sure hanging out and watching sports all the time is great. But I would rather hang with my girlfriends and discuss real life anyday.

Girls rule. :)

Back in Southern California!

Hello hello!

I can't believe I am back in Southern California for 10 months. I keep feeling like tomorrow I will go back to that freezing classroom at 8am and sit and listen to research methods, or watch a bizarre skit about teaching music that we all come with (that are all hilarious, btw), or perhaps listen to a Mozart concerto and try to identify where the Second Tonal Area begins. But alas! I am not! I am back in the real world, where not everyone is obsessed with music and not everyone understands what I do, exactly.

Not that that's a bad thing. This week I have gotten to catch up with old and new friends, and have a great time at an Angels game, at Fuel, and even at a party at my house. I've gotten lots of great hugs (which I was deprived of in Michigan - not on purpose, mind you - it's just people may not have been comfortable hugging me yet.) :) I love hugs! :)

Of course, it's beautiful weather here. The same everyday - standard sunny, kind of hot, but not too bad. I went to the beach yesterday and worked on my non-existant tan, while my perpetually tan friend Becky worked on maintaining hers. It is GLORIOUS to sleep in my own bed. And have my own bathroom. And eat normal(ish) food. And see my trainer again. And (gasp! yikes!) go back to playing the violin, which I really haven't practiced since June.

I do miss Michigan though. Maybe I'll have to visit in the dead of winter, so I can see just what I'm NOT missing by living in CA. I miss my friends! You should all come visit me! :)

Nothing much else going on in the life of Liz - at least nothing that's fit to print. ;) I will continue to write on this. No guarantees that it will be interesting. :)

Gladness and Sadness

So! Today I had my last class of my first summer of grad school. It was fine - nothing too exciting, just listened to presentions. Not like yesterday, when my philosophy class went to Starbucks to talk about how our views about teaching have changed! :)(Becky said, "I should be a teacher!" Or maybe a grad student...)

So I'm done! Woohoo! So exciting! The other day I talked to a professor that I had at the beginning of the summer. She asked me, "So have you enjoyed your summer here?" I thought for a split second, and then said, "I LOVED IT."

It's true - I have loved my time here. It's beautiful, the people are nice, and I have learned so much. True, there were some hard times. The workload was rather intense, and there were several times (especially at the beginning, on the weekends) when I was really lonely and homesick. But I grew, and made some great friends, and feel great about the experience! I am really looking forward to coming back next summer!

About those great friends...I have to leave them! :( That really bums me out. I've met some incredible people while I've been here. I don't want to say goodbye to them! Thankfully, the ones I really love will be back with me next summer. And we're going to stay in touch with Facebook, not to mention blogging and that old antique, the phone. :) But it's a bummer - I want to bring them back to CA with me! Maybe I'll move...haha, j/k...

I come home on Sunday! So excited! I arrive at 2 or so, so your prayers for a safe flight are very much appreciated. :) Looking forward to seeing all of you again!
Love you!

Some thoughts about teaching

Okay, this is partly for me, and partly for you all out there in cyberspace. If you are not a teacher, or a musician, it may not make sense. But I want to write it down, and this seems as good a place as any.

Improvisation - teach it in my classroom! Allowing students to make up their own melodies and experiment with their instrument is rather scary to think about. But at the same time, it is so freeing to realize that I don't have to teach in the traditional way. I don't have to go to festival all the time, and worry about having a huge ensemble. What a freeing idea!!!

What if we ask the students what they want to learn? GASP! In music, we are free to do that - we are not getting tested like all the other subjects. (yet - cross your fingers, America, that that doesn't happen.) What if instead of preparing for festival the middle three months of the year, I ask them what they want to learn about, and then teach it to them? What if I teach a composition unit? Do I know how to compose? Not really, no. But I could research it, and figure out some strategies, and see what happens. What would the students think about that?

Is it really that important that my band is big? No, I don't think so. I think it's more important that I show them music - in as many ways as possible. I mean, I adore music - shouldn't I be helping them to do that, in whatever way it takes?

Big thoughts for a big subject. This school year should be interesting. :)

People are nice!

I gotta say, I have been very impressed with the people here in Michigan. (Go Michiganders!) I thought I'd write out some of the stuff people have done for me while I'm here.

-taken me on a tour of Lansing and its suburbs
-taken me to UPS
-taken me to class
-taken me to the grocery store
-offered to take me to the airport (saving me $150 on a cab)
(notice the "taken me" theme? yeah. that's what happens when you don't have a car.)
-bought me food (multiple times, multiple people)
-let me stay at their house
-given me a tour of the dorm
-introduced me to the finer things in life...haha
-let me use their air conditioning
-let me rant and rave when things are crazy (either actually crazy, or just in my head crazy - thanks Angela!)

God has been using so many people to bless me while I'm here! It is awesome!

Thanks Michiganders - I love you all!

Liz

I love books!

I love books and reading! I stole this from Wrangler Dani, and I think it's amazing. Currently I'm reading Walking on Water by Madeleine L'Engle - it's about being a Christian artist. So great!

Key
1) Bold the books you have already read
2) Italicize the books you intend to read
3) Yeah, I agree with Dani - I should read all of these.
***********************

1) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2) The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4) Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
5) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6) The Bible
7) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
8 ) Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
9) His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
10) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
11) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12) Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13) Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
14) Complete Works of Shakespeare (some of them - so, I guess not?)
15) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
16) The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
17) Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
18 ) Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
19) The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
20) Middlemarch by George Eliot
21) Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
23) Bleak House by Charles Dickens
24) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
25) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
26) Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
27) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 ) Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
29) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
30) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
31) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
32) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
33) Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
34) Emma by Jane Austen
35) Persuasion by Jane Austen
36) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
37) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
38 ) Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
39) Memories of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
40) Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
41) Animal Farm by George Orwell
42) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
43) One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44) A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving
45) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
46) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
47) Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
48 ) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
49) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
50) Atonement by Ian McEwan
51) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
52) Dune by Frank Herbert
53) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
54) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
55) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
56) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57) A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
58 ) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
59) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
60) Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
62) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
63) The Secret History by Donna Tartt
64) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
65) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
66) On The Road by Jack Kerouac
67) Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
68 ) Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
69) Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
70) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
71) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
72) Dracula by Bram Stoker
73) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
74) Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson
75) Ulysses by James Joyce
76) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
78 ) Germinal by Emile Zola
79) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
80) Possession by AS Byatt
81) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
82) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
83) The Color Purple by Alice Walker
84) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
85) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
86) A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
87) Charlotte’s Web by EB White
88 ) The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
89) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90) The Faraway Tree Collection by Enid Blyton
91) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
92) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93) The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
94) Watership Down by Richard Adams
95) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
96) A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
97) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 ) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
99) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
100) Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Total: 40

Yeah, Mitch Albom? Not so much. What about Da Vinci code? Surely that's on there only because it is/was controversial. We'll see if people are still reading that in 100 years.

Okay, I should work on my paper now.