passages & drano balls

Sometimes it takes someone else's opinion to make you acknowledge the weak spots in your own music and, with my new 3-movement choral suite, Passage: Songs on Octavio Paz, this process is totally evident.

It was originally commissioned by the Hopkins High School Concert Choir and premiered in May 2006 and, at the time, I was totally in love with it (and it's original title, Four Spanish Love Songs). However, when I played it for my good friend Drew Collins (who is not only a crazy-awesome composer himself but the senior choral editor at Kjos Publications) he liked it enough to point out the weak spots for what I see now are good reasons. Being the enterprising kind of guy that he is, Drew suggested a few changes and said he would premiere the revised version with the Festival Choir of Madison.

So nearly 2 years later, I've finally gotten around to it.

However, waiting this long to think about the rewrites he suggested has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as that distance from the initial emotion of writing the piece has dissipated quite a bit and my level of objectivity is much higher. That being said, Four Spanish Love Songs no longer exists and, in its place, will stand a half-man, half-machine, 3-movement version which will tower over its predecessor and from-henceforth-be-called Passage: Songs on Octavio Paz.

It's kind of like that movie, Robocop. 4SLV was a good police officer before but, ever since it had a run-in with the ruthless Drew Collins, it has a cool 80s infrared visor, an automatic weapon implanted in its leg and says stuff like, "Your move, creep." Who could disagree?

Here's a picture of a great meal I had recently at Chino Latino. It's a restaurant in uptown that serves what they call "street food from the hot zones." This meal was no joke: a sushi dish called Wasabi Drano Balls.













The description on their website reads, "ahi tuna wrapped around golf balls of rice and spiked with some sinus clearing fresh grated wasabi." Let's just say that description was pretty close to the truth. It was good, tears-in-your-eyes fun to down these little gourmet bastards.

On a side note: if you're into underground bands you should check out the Minneapolis-based quartet, The Glad Version. I was in composition classes with one of their guitar players and someone just gave me their latest CD to listen to. They are most definitely the real deal.