Jeff’s Blog

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.

I just came across the article, “Saudi king pardons rape victim“. It’s about how a 19-year-old Saudi girl was pardoned from the charges incurred for being alone with a man whom she’s not related to. She was originally sentenced to “several months in prison and 90 lashes” because she was alone in a car with a man. She was getting a picture of herself back because she recently married someone else. After she appealed to the court, her sentence was raised to 200 lashes and six months in prison.

While she was in the car, seven men attacked them and she was raped. They are now facing charges of 2-9 years in prison. Here’s what really bothers me, aside from the obvious: the US did nothing about it. With all the political and military power we have, we do nothing about it. I feel that we have some responsibility to right the wrong in the world when we have the ability.

U.S. President George W. Bush expressed anger at the sentence earlier this month, saying he wondered how he would react if it had been one of his daughters. But he said he had not made his views known directly to the Saudi king, a U.S. ally.

Our president spoke out against it. That’s all well and good, it’s just that he said nothing directly to the people who matter; he made no change. It makes me mad how irresponsible this country is, with the current war situation and how we could be helping people like this, but we just choose not to.

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.

MIAMI - The honeymoons are over for a 26-year-old woman who authorities say was married at least 10 times.
Eunice Lopez has been charged with bigamy, accused of marrying 10 men between 2002 and 2006 without divorcing any of them, federal immigration authorities say.
read more | digg story

What has this world come to? Yes, people have been having multiple wives for a long time. But in this day and age in the United States? And to be arrested for it? Now that’s just sad.

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.