Lists 2

Movies I enjoyed the most in 2009
Silence of the Lambs - I think it deserved all the awards it received.
The Empire Strikes Back - I don't think I understood how cool this movie is when I was a kid. Re-watching it was a blast!
Ip Man - Sort of obscure, but worth the search. Very good action and cinematography.
Up - I like Kevin the bird a lot.
Zombieland - Entertaining, ridiculous and--most importantly--doesn't take itself seriously.

Musicians I discovered (or re-discovered) in 2009 that I really like
Robert Glasper (Canvas and In My Element)
Bill Evans (Sunday at the Village Vanguard)
Hiromi Uehara (Beyond Standard)
m-flo ("Summer Time Love," "Miss You," "Come Again" and "Love Bug.")
Auto-Tune the News (My rankings from best to worse: 5, 6, 2, 3, 9, 8, 1, 7, 4)
SNSD ("Gee")

Lessons I learned this past year
Play the game - I learned this from a class about combinatorial game theory. When in doubt, just follow through and things may work out.
Expected Value - I learned this from a probability class. Any given situation or condition has an expected value (if you assign values to all possible outcomes haha).
Discipline - is a boredom killer.
You are who you hate - Which is why it is not good to hate.
The burdens of certainty - If you claim something is fact, be prepared to defend your claims.
Flexibility - is, in many respects, more important than intelligence.
Cooking in bulk - What becomes monotonous happens to cost-effective.
Speed - is the result of slow drills
Convincing people of your beliefs - is a matter of asking questions and clearing up misunderstandings. This may also change your own beliefs as well.

Notable Events in 2009
A Funeral - The memorial service for my great grandmother's passing was a celebration of a life filled with hard work and penniless prosperity. Her death also prompted me to consider my current and future priorities. I am pleased to have had such a wonderful ancestor who still had/has a few posthumous lessons for me to learn.
Picking up Piano - I stopped playing piano in high school. I'm pleased to say I'm trying to play it again.
Beer - 5am after my first pleasant experience with beer, my apartment evacuated because of a fire in the garage. The loud noises and grumpy demeanor of the stranded inhabitants of the building shook me up.
Bernstein's Mass - A fascinating piece and a wonderful epilogue to my days in youth symphony.
First Legal Shots - I took my first legal shots almost two months after I turned 21. They were generally consequence-less, though I did turn as red as a bull.
ECYS Reunion - A very recent, very successful get together.
Fishing - I'm the fishing ace!
A Birth - My grandma was really scared because my new cousin was in gestation under superstitiously poor circumstances. Everyone was pleased to find that he had a complication free birth! He just enjoyed his first Christmas.

Things I did a lot this past year
Practice - I really like Conrad Prebys: A man who loves both music and polar bears.
Music lessons - These were pretty brutal.
Listen to music - Especially after being reprimanded by my teacher for not "feeling the dance of music."
Smash - The year began with brawl, but I mostly play melee now. I had a wonderful sample of brawl minus a few days ago and that was phenomenal.
Go to Punjabi Tandoor, Dave's Cafe, Carl's Jr and Souplantation - Darrell and I started calling Punjabi Tandoor "Puntan" (POOHN-tan).
Not go to class - I always felt guilty after piano lessons, so I ended up practicing for the next couple hours.
Sleep in class - And it was REALLY bad sleep most of the time. I miss the high school days where I could just put my head on the table and have sweet dreams.

Things that blew my mind this year
Alexander Technique - Every lesson is incredible because of what I learn as well as the competence of the specialist. Look it up!
Finding out what jazz is about... sort of - This happened after I couldn't seem to satisfy a fussy substitute teacher with my bass playing.
Music - Though this generally happens multiple times every year. Particularly notable was Anthony Davis's jazz composition class and its students and learning 7/8 time via Robert Glasper.

New Years Resolutions
Instant email response - I should respond to emails automatically because it is considerate. However, I should not expect this from others because I would be disappointed.
Exercise - Hah! How stereotypical. I really should start though.
Cook more - for myself, and other people.
Practice more efficiently - I need to set goals and deadlines.
Read a book - I have a few that I have been meaning to read.
Curtail internet use - There are a lot of things that should take priority.
Be a better person - As always.

Happy New Year,
-Matthew

The Real Book

The required book for my music history class, Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition, was astoundingly difficult to find.

My professor explained that the textbook has two editions. The first edition, found in many college music history curricula, was snagged by McGraw Hill, a printing company specializing in textbooks. As soon as it secured the copyrights, the publishing giant re-sized a few pictures, changed the cover art and printed an affluence of copies (as big name textbook companies do).

While it seemed like it would be profitable to reprint a textbook that several music departments use, McGraw Hill found that their tradition of producing a gazillion copies was vastly in excess of the universities' demand for it. The now out-of-print book provides students with a headache when searching for it in addition to its extremely boring content.

This past break, I bought The Real Book, which is basically a compendium of jazz standards, in its sixth edition. Being familiar with the fifth edition, I was surprised to find that the reissue omitted several important pieces ("On Green Dolphin St.", "I Got Rhythm"). Those publishers... They never realize that some things work well as they are.

Have a Nice Day,
Matthew