cabin fever

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:27:39 GMT

I went to a party at one of the bars back home for New Year's (since it's not like my parents had anything interesting planned - I think they've been going to bed at 9 p.m. since I was in kindergarten) and they had all these random-ass bands playing, like... polka and bluegrass, stuff like that. This one group did a polka version of "Auld Lang Syne." I got to play an accordion. It was hilarious.

I don't like being away from school for so long. I'm glad classes start soon - I'm going stir-crazy writing with no one to get feedback from. Definitely looking forward to the new composition class. Maybe I'll be able to put together some of the fragmented stuff I have laying around. It's always easier to come back to something when you've left it alone for a while, at any rate.

profile: (franz) joseph haydn

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 07:08:51 GMT

out of character.
hello my name is liz
i am 20 in years
am i experienced? you bet, bb. ;)
you can contact me at elizabeth.agresta@gmail.com or x le brandybuck on aim.

in character.
hello my name is joey hayden
my major is composition and piano performance
my age/year is junior (20)
i come from manchester, nh

ten true facts and a secret.
#one. i haven't lived with my parents since i was about six. they sent me to a special boarding school/conservatory because they thought i was a prodigy or something and there wasn't anywhere really good to study music where i grew up. i mean, i saw them a lot - they came to visit me - but yeah, haven't lived with them full-time since kindergarten. it's... kind of weird, actually.
#two. i play a bunch of different instruments - piano, violin, organ - and i sing, but i decided to focus in piano since it's so competitive and i never shy away from a challenge. still sing in the choirs, though, and i'm the senior assistant organist for the chapel here at allegro.
#three. i studied in london last year (decided to do that sophomore year rather than junior) at a conservatory and i just couldn't stop writing. it's like... i got off the plane at heathrow and the music was practically coming out of my nose. i filled up at least five books of sheet music. there's just something about london that makes me want to hole up and compose for days and days and days.
#four. i know it's kind of weird in this day and age to be really religious, but i think i'd classify myself as a pretty devout catholic. i guess... when you don't have family around, the next best thing is god, right? or maybe that's the other way around, i don't know. but yeah... i'm a pretty staunch believer in the man upstairs. if you could see how much sacred music i have on my hard drive, this wouldn't come as a surprise to you.
#five. i love jokes. if you tell me a good joke, i will return the favor and will also probably want to be your friend. laughter is the best medicine and all that.
#six. i like the kind of music that makes you laugh. you know how something weird just happens in the middle of a song and it makes you giggle? yeah. i'm the guy who goes to the symphony and giggles during the second movement of beethoven's fifth and you probably want to kill me if you're sitting in front of me. i'm sorry. it's funny. also, i find banjos to be hilarious.
#seven. it's weird, but going to a music conservatory makes me more curious about what other people are writing rather than more possessive of what i'm writing and playing. i mean, yeah, i'm competitive, but i also want to make friends and get to know other people's musical styles. i love hearing new music and learning new techniques. i mean... we're all here to learn, why not learn from one another, too?
#eight. i'm a little cautious when it comes to my reputation. like... i really want to be a serious published composer and performer when i get out of allegro, so i'm really ridiculously meticulous when it comes to writing and publishing. sometimes i worry that i sacrifice creativity for proper technicality, but it's important to use what you've learned when you're first starting out. you have to follow the rules for at least a little while before you break them.
#nine. i often have dreams where i'm walking around without a head. i'm not sure if it's some metaphorical thing, like i don't have a direction in my life (which is untrue) or i'm stupid (also untrue, as far as i'm concerned) or something like that, but i have the same dream at least once a month. i always wake up with my hands over my face, like i'm making sure everything's still there. it's really, really discomfiting.
#ten. god damn the chicken pox. i have at least five scars on my face from them. i swear, they make them that way so you HAVE to pick them and then your face gets mutilated. (... okay, that was verging on a little girly. but seriously, my face has dents in it.)
#shh. i don't know why i do it, but i think subconsciously i don't WANT to be happy, because every time i get a decent girlfriend i cheat on her with someone stupid and then life gets shitty and i play everything in the minor key for a month and i hate my life. sometimes i think i really need a therapist.

pb & picture
mathias lauridsen