J-Term Diaries: Caroline Burns

oh lordy. i am tired of new york city. i don't wanna be back any time soon. it was way awesome. jazz was fabulous. class was awesome. nyc was awesome. but im tired of it. nyc that is. not music. not by along shot.

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I just saw a video about it. It has nothing to do with Jazz.

Neither does SPAMALOT but I saw that anyway. And yes, it was AWESOME!!!! It was cooler than I thought it would be, because I sat in the front row, I could touch the stage, look in the pit and trip the actors if I should have felt so inclined. Hehehehe, it would have been a very Monty Python thing to do. Either that or yell out "I DON'T LIKE SPAM!" like the crazy old lady in the sketch, played by Graham Chapman.

We spent the other day in Harlem, it was pretty cool. We went to the office for the museum of jazz history in Harlem. they haven't actually built it yet but it will be really cool.

And just for Elle and Robin, if they are even reading this, (even if they aren't), we met with Stephen Schwartz today. He wrote all the music and lyrics for the play Wicked. MUAHAHAHA!

NYC is really cool, but I'm ready to come home, even if it's only Ashland. We are home on Sunday afternoon (so stop asking), and he was nice enough to give us Monday off, but Tuesday starts the actual class. I'm not excited about it because we just spent the last two weeks in NYC, very little can top that.

I don't know what the weather is doing back home but it started to lightly snow here today. I had almost forgotten what that looked like.

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Les Paul.

He invented the solid body guitar. No Les Paul= No Beatles, Rolling Stones etc.

He's 92 years old, and looks 60. He has about a bazillion and a half grammies. He knew all the great recording artists of the past 75 years.

And we saw him in concert. And it was fabulous. He may not be able to move as well as he used to. But he can still hold his own and can still lead a band. He is also funny as hell. And we saw him in concert. Oh yeah, it was that fabulous. It also cost $250 for the four of us to see him. It sounds crazy but when we left there was a line half-way down the block for his next performance at 11. We got out around 9:15. He can still draw a crowd that big. It may cost an arm, a leg, and your first born to get in to see him, but it is absolutely worth it. This is so cool.

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But that doesn't mean I have nothing to say. I don't remember a whole lot about yesterday or the day before but i just woke up, so gimme a minute. Groove Society. Awesome A Capella jazz vocalists. There was also a group of kids, ages 8-16 from Almaty, Kazakhstan. For their age they were amazing. And for all of you who saw the movie Borat you will find this funny, there was a kid named Azamat. seriously.
crap. my brain stopped. I'll come back later when I think of more. OOOOOOOOOOO THEY HAVE BASKIN ROBBINS UP HERE!!!! I got some mint chocolate chip ice cream and now I'm feeling pretty good.

Oh yeah, I have tons of pictures but the blog thinger wont let me upload them.

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I feel like I've been hit by a truck. We have been out every day and night going to performaces. It sounds like it wouldn't be so bad but it's very tiring. Last night the ADD kicked in and I was bouncing around the Hilton Grand Ballroom in a desperate attempt to stay focused. Don't get me wrong, this trip has been awesome, but we have done so much in a very short time. Yesterday was the first real day of the IAJE (International Association for Jazz Education) conference. We saw Jazz vocal groups from BYU and Howard University. Afro Blue from Howard was so good, they made everyone else, even some of the professional musicians, look like crap. I'm looking forward to today because the exhibit hall will be open and there will be booths from all kinds of companies, giving out all kinds of free stuff. I already got some cool posters and a really nice pin. We have been talking to alot of musicians about why NYC is such a center for Jazz. We have got some good reasons that I could have never thought of. For right now I can't think of anything else to write, much less think in general. I wonder why penguins can't fly?

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You wouldn't have read the entry if it had said Spring Awakening. But that was the name of the show we went to yesterday. And it was about sex, ignorance, abortion, suicide, and all that other good stuff set in 1890s Germany. Talk about weird. However it was a very good show and it had some great music, it was described to me as a rock opera, and so it was. It was also really funny. The best show I have seen on Broadway, of which there are three including this. Today we went to a publishing company to talk to people about the music biz. Prof. Reynolds said that we needed to come up with questions to ask. I totally blanked on that. I had no idea what to ask until we got there. It wasn't until they started talking that the questions emerged. The company we went to had plaques on the walls of records they produced or partially produced. Usher, Mariah Carey, Notorious B.I.G. were only a few of what they had. It was awesome. We also went to a great deli somewhere. I don't remember where. I get turned around and confused easily. If I was going to write anymore I forgot what it was.

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But I suppose that comes with going to New York City. Last night was cool, we went to a really tasty Indian vegetarian restaurant, then to the 55 Bar in the Village. I don't remember the name of the band, or if I ever heard it, but they were good. oddly enough I usually hate that kind of Jazz, it sounds too unstructured for my tastes. But I liked it. Today was a really off the wall day. We were left to our own devices, and forced to entertain ourselves. But my uncle came to NYC from Maine so I hung out with him today. We went to the Guggenheim and got vertigo looking over the sides, got really expensive chocolate, and pretty much just walked around the city, hence the utter numbness of my legs, feet, and lower back. The thing is we are going to be here for another 2 weeks. I can't imagine being here for that long. I think I'm hungry. I wonder where the closest Baskin Robbins is.

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I don't quite know why. I got the list of stuff I need, I have almost all of it, and the things I don't have I know where to get them. Maybe its because NYC has always been really fun and exciting, and slightly scary. Well, maybe not scary, but there are a lot of people in NYC I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them. Thats not very far.

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That holiday never appealed to me, thus I did not participate. Besides I know better than to incriminate myself on a blog that is going to be read by a lot of people. However, I did go to an awesome New Years/21st Birthday party last night. But to the point of this entry: posting so they know it works! Yaaaay! Fabulous. We leave on the 7th at an ungodly hour of the morning, like 8, to drive to NYC. I think this is going to be awesome.

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