Jeff’s Blog

Today my family and I went up skiing and snowboarding for the first time this season. The conditions were amazing. It was like spring skiing with deep-winter powder. After one run, I had all the skill and confidence I had at the end of last year, and I even improved today. My dad and I spent the day on blue runs.

I’m now exhausted, sore, and looking forward to next time. It’s a bit of a long drive, but it’s well, well worth it.

Tags: winter, snowboarding

Here’s what I got:

• Guitar Hero 3
• New Cell Phone (Super Slice)
• Several DS and Wii games
• Several new shirts
• Money
• Disturbia
• Forty Licks (Rolling Stones)
• Spanish phrase a day calendar

Update: Today (Saturday, December 29) from my aunt at our family Christmas celebration…

• iTunes Gift Card

And from my grandma…

• A book of pictures from our family history

Jazz great Oscar Peterson dies at 82 - Celebrities- msnbc.com
Oscar Peterson, who sat atop the world of jazz piano for decades with his driving two-handed swing, technical wizardry and rapid-fire solos, died on Dec. 23 of kidney failure, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported.

This is very upsetting to me. Oscar Peterson was actually an idol to me. His jazz piano playing is (was) incredible and it inspired me. His album, Night Train was one of the first jazz albums I ever bought, and it’s still one I practically worship. He lived a musically successful life, however. It’s just a shame he won’t be working his jazz magic anymore. Herbie Hancock, another one of my jazz idols, said this about Oscar Peterson’s passing:

Oscar Peterson redefined swing for modern jazz pianists for the latter half of the 20th century up until today. I consider him the major influence that formed my roots in jazz piano playing. He mastered the balance between technique, hard blues grooving, and tenderness. You’ll find Oscar Peterson’s influence in the generations that came after him. No one will ever be able to take his place.

This shows how deeply Oscar Peterson influenced the jazz community. He was truly something special, and he will be missed.

Finally, first semester along with final exams are over! I had to study like heck for math, LA, and AP World History, but I did pretty well on all of my tests (except AP World History, that hasn’t been graded yet…). It was a very stressful week, despite the modified schedule that allowed for a lot of help time before and after testing and a longer lunch. Neither of my band classes had a real final (Wind Ensemble consisted of watching Amadeus and Jazz Band was literally doing nothing for the whole period) but my other finals took almost the full two hours they allowed us.

Anyway, it’s really nice to have them out of the way before winter break, which was not the case last year. It’s nice to get all of the stress behind me, too, especially since I did pretty well.

I just got back from CCJA. This session, I started out in one in Boulder that focused on iim-V7-IΔ’s (a very basic chord progression in jazz) and Bb blues (a very basic concept in jazz). I completely understand where they are; I was there too when I was in seventh grade. I respect that they’re taking the opportunity to learn more jazz outside of school.

However, I’m a bit beyond those concepts, so I got the guy who runs it to switch me into a different group. I ended up in the one run by Jeff Jenkins - one of the best pianists in the area! The music is very challenging, and I’m really excited to be in the group. I think I’ll learn a lot from my time there, from Jeff and from the music itself.

This week at school is finals week… that means lots of stress, studying, and review sessions in the morning and afternoon. This is what my schedule looks like:

Tuesday: Chemistry and Language Arts
Wednesday: Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band
Thursday: AP World History and Math
Friday: Spanish

It’s split up into two easy days and two hard days, which really isn’t too pleasing. The first final is from 9:05-11:20am, and the second one is 12:10-2:25pm after a 45-minute lunch. We also get tutor times before and after the tests.

The only hard finals for me this year are Chemistry, Language Arts, AP World History, and especially Math.

Tonight, I completely cleaned and vacuumed my room (no easy feat - it took five hours) and then rearranged my furniture. I had it similar to how it now a few years back, and I like it. Although I don’t like having my back to the door, it allows more natural light in to my desk, and it feels like my room is bigger this way.

Tonight was the second of the two holiday concerts. Long story short, it was better in everything except full orchestra (the Messiah), which was so much worse. It was disappointing and embarrassing to even be on the stage. Oh well, at least it’s over now.

Tonight was the first Holiday Concert out of two; the next one is tomorrow. Tonight we had to get there at 6:30pm, at which point we waited an hour and a half to get to set up the stage to play. First up was Jazz 3. I played Sing, Sing, Sing on piano with the band, and the other pianist played The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
along with a vocalist. Then, I moved over to my bass clarinet for our concert band (”Wind Ensemble”) performance. We played A Festive Christmas and A Christmas Entrada, both of which went very well. Then I moved to my third instrument, regular clarinet, for what should have been the best performance of the night. Unfortunately, the choir and orchestra didn’t do their part, and the Hallelujah Chorus was, in fact, a disaster. It might be better tomorrow evening, but I’m not counting on it.

This was the last day of the ski season. We went up fairly early, and it was incredible. The weather was beautiful and sunny, the snow was still pretty powdery and there was hardly anyone there.

We stayed mostly on greens in the morning, which were perfectly fine, and then went on blues, which were a lot better in the afternoon. Going to a big ski resort is a lot better than a small one, obviously. There are a ton more runs, the runs are wider, and in general the snow is also better.

On the way home though, we got a flat tire. We pulled over because we thought my snowboard was flapping around on the roof, but it was actually our tire. We got out and fixed it in about a half hour, which was really good considering the way it could have turned out. It was a great way to end the ski season, though.