A gym, a pop star, and a show.

Time for a new one. How's everyone? Is everybody doing ok? I hope so. Here's some goodwill:



All you have to do is hover your mouse arrow over that space, and you will receive goodwill.

A really eventful Friday to tell you about.

But before I get into any of that, let me tell you about The Todd and Kenny Show.

Todd Schaefer is among my closest friends. We met at Webster, and he now works as a graphics designer at a TV station here in St. Louis.

Like a lot of good friends, it's pretty routine for us to have interesting, lively, and insightful conversatons. At some point, I mentioned in a phone conversation that it would be great if we recorded the conversations.

Well, around three weeks ago, Todd was trying to help me clear some space off of my minidiscs by moving data onto his hardrive, and in the process of figuring it out, we found a free audio program called Audacity (which you can find if you hop over to google).

Using the microphone I borrowed from Steve a long time ago (thanks, Steve) and the Audacity program, we've started a 'talk show' with no structure. Just two friends talking about whatever comes up.

Of course, this isn't something that we're doing on a radio station. It's basically for us, but seeing as how the topics are most often spirituality and psychology, we may, at any point, touch on something that could be helpful for someone we know, or someone who knows someone we know, and etc. So, it's good to have for a number of reasons, and it's a lot of fun.

So, we've done 6 programs so far. We render the soundfiles into mp3s and burn them onto CDs. We did a program on Monday night which was quite interesting. Maybe before long I'll figure out how to post segments on the blog!

But, anyway, Friday:

Ben Folds was here on Friday at St. Louis University for a private concert. For some of the same reasons at the whole Slatkin thing, I'd like for Folds to see what I'm up to. The difference is that Folds' work has been a key influence and inspiration, particulartly around the ages of 18-22 or so.

So, I decided a long time ago to get into the soundcheck somehow and speak with him briefly about how the music is a good example of 'classically-oriented piano with Folds' influence'.

So, I got up on Friday morning and braved the rain, even though I would've been well-advised to sleep in to fight off the cold I had.

I got to the SLU campus at around 11:30. The concert was in the gym, the same gym I used to go to with my dad and my brothers some years ago. It seemed they were pretty serious about checking IDs upon entry and stuff like that. I asked if I could purchase a day pass, but they said I had to be a SLU student or faculty member.

So, I circled the building outside several times, trying to figure out how to sneak in, or something. At one point, the underground garage was open, so I walked in and looked around for an entrance in there. It looked like there was a door leading up to it, but it didn't open from the inside of the garage. So, I acted like I was getting ready to get something out of the soda machine, and waited.

After a few minutes of this, the garage door opened. From the outside came a cart with a public safety officer on it. He came directly towards me.

He slowed to a stop once he was in my general vicinity.

He got out and said hi and moved on.

Whew!

Well, it didn't take much longer for me to figure out that you couldn't get into the gym from the garage. So, I walked back outside and started circling the building again.

I noticed some crew members coming out through a small backdoor that wasn't being watched. So, I decided to try it.

I walked in, and some SLU students said hi, but didn't stop me. I acted like I belonged there, and actually tried to continually and consciously radiate that energy.

I got in there at around 12:15 and even helped a couple kids set up some tables at one point. No one asked me who I was or anything.

At one something, Ben Folds shows up, taking pictures and stuff. He gets up to the stage and they start in with the soundcheck.

I figured he would be up there for maybe 20 minutes or so anfd then he would come off, giving me an opportunity to speak with him briefly, give him the videotape (with a Slatkin quote on the front of it), and leave.

But, it got to be 3:15, and they were still doing the soundcheck. At around that time, a couple of people started asking questions. I told them I was just watching the soundcheck, and I was eventually kicked out because they were shutting down the gym. I couldn't leave under my own power, though, they had to walk me out, as if I was a threat to national security or something. (they didn't handle me or anything)

I did ask if they could pass along a videotape to the artist, and they said "No, sorry."

So, I felt pretty let down at that point. I spent hours trying to just get an opportunity to take a few seconds of the man's time and pass along something that I know (yes, KNOW) he'd enjoy, with that meaning whatever it may or may not mean for me. I just wanted to have the opportunity, and it was slipping away. In addition, the vibe I got back at the end was that I was some pathetic, crazed fan, when the truth is that I'd have left 5 minutes in if I could've passed the tape along before then.

I eventually left, after wearing out all of my options.

I went to the concert, and his opener, Ben Lee, said he'd be in the back of the house if anyone wanted to meet him. I went back there, bought a record of his, had him sign it, and said "Here's some of my stuff" and gave him the videotape. He said "What is it?" I told him it was solo piano, which is what it says on the front, and Folds called Lee his 'good friend' during his set, so, I do think there's a good chance that the tape has been passed on.

But, man, it was hard work just getting to that point. All told, I invested more than 12 hours and $20 into the endeavor, and I did end up getting somewhere at the end.

No escape.

Ever get the feeling that some of the negativity in your life is just chasing you around sometimes?

Nothing major, just a kind of rough start to the day here.

Registered today to make sure I could vote for John Kerry. You know, John Kerry...the one who would actually serve the interests of the average American???

hahaha...don't worry, not going to get into it.

Been a kind of hectic last week or so, but I'd like to get more done.

I've been having these half-nights of sleep generally over that period of time. Not quite sure what that's all about.

I checked out a bunch of movies from the school library over the weekend. Fellini's 8 1/2, American Dream, an AMAZING documentary about a labor dispute involving meat-packers and Hormel in the mid-80s (it won the Oscar), Vanya on 42nd Street, and The Art of Piano, which covers most of the most famous concert pianists from the 20th century.

The piano thing was really interesting. I generally try to stay away from recordings from people like Glenn Gould or Vladimir Horowitz b/c I'm not trying to be a stereo-typical concert pianist (I don't even think of myself as a 'concert pianist', or even a 'pianist', even though, by both literal definitions, I am), and I don't want to be like them, per se.

But it's a great look at these artists and what made each one unique. I could even identify with some of them.

For example, Ignace Jan Paderewski was a concert pianist in the 20s and 30s who:

-did not have any formal training on piano until he was 24
(I am 26 and STILL haven't had any formal training on piano)

-had musical tastes that were quite different in some ways from most classical musicians
(definitely true for me)

-had a look that was part of his appeal as a performer
(I've been told that may be true for me)

-was accused of being 'violent' at times at the piano
(me, too)

He was Polish, too, as you might have guessed, and I'm one-quarter Polish myself.

In fact, these two photographs even have some startling similarities:
http://www.kennyjaworski.com http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/composer/paderewski.html

hahaha...THAT'S pretty weird. Gotta admit it, don't you?

Vladimir Horowitz was amazing...I'm starting to feel REAL self-centered right about now, but Barbara Liberman, the prinicipal pianist for the St. Louis Symphony, told me that I remind her of Horowitz in some ways. On the DVD, they have a performance of he did of variations on a theme from Carmen. AWESOME.

Glenn Gould you may have heard of as well. There actually wasn't TOO much performance footage on the disc, but they showed part of a performance of him playing a Ravel trascription of his own which, too: AWESOME.

I really appreciate what his views were on music. He actually didn't claim himself to be a 'pianist' (a feeling I've had all along), but as either a musician or composer who expressed himself through the piano.

He felt that when composers 'stopped being performers' in the 18th century, it was a great disservice to music in general.

I can really appreciate this sentiment, b/c I only perform what I write...which is apparently something that was never the case with any of these musicians. Even with Rachmaninoff (AWESOME), who wrote a lot and played a lot of his own music, he, too, played others works as well.

Anyway, very interesting. Not feeling too great today, to tell the truth. Feel like I'm coming down with something. Drinking orange juice.

Be good!

(be yourself)