Two brief TV things…

First, “24” is BACK, baby! Wow, this week was awesome. Jack hijacking a plane was bad-ass to begin with, but add the priceless moments of Chloe tasering the drunk guy in the bar, and then Jack pulling on the control cables from inside the baggage claim to nearly crash the plane — wow. It’s tough to forgive them taking 18 episodes to make the show good, but this week, it absolutely returned to top form. 5-out-of-5 stars.

At the other end of the spectrum was last week’s performance of Imogen Heap on The Tonight Show. Eric Whitacre and Daniel Montoya have been raving about her for ages, so a few weeks ago, I bought her album on iTunes, and you know, it’s really good. Great production, good tunes, and she has a cool voice. But seeing her live on The Tonight Show nearly turned me off of her for good. I actually had to stop watching for fear that she would forever ruin my enjoyment of her album. This is an artist who apparently has a real talent for writing and producing, but manages to have a black hole of talent — complete negative space that sucks the life of everything around it — when it comes to performing live. Her persona on the show was completely off-putting as she writhed around awkwardly in front of that mixing board and laptop. And I understand that on the album, she performs to electronics, but can’t she throw us a single instrumental bone when she sings live? Backup vocals, maybe? Hell, a drummer? Even other people just standing in front of keyboards? I remember seeing Moby on SNL a few years ago, expecting to dislike him as much live as I did on recordings, but he (and his band, particularly his percussionists) kicked ass, leaving me actually admiring Moby a little — and that’s music that is also inherently electronic.

But the solo singer in front of a mixing board and laptop wasn’t what really irked me; it was her self-conscious styling with “aren’t I interesting looking?!” hair and her irritating mannerisms and tics that were impossible to ignore. Here is somebody who doesn’t simply lack charisma on stage, but manages to be completely off-putting personally. Plus, she just didn’t sound good. Without post-production, her voice is thin and nasal and her poor intonation takes me back to some of the early auditions on American Idol. She took a song that I truly like — Goodnight and Go (that’s the iTunes link) — and made it almost unrecognizable.

I know Montoya is going to see her live soon and I’ll be curious what he thinks after the concert. As for me, even though I changed the channel after about 90 seconds, I still get a little peanut-butter-back when I hear that song on my iPod now, and it’s tough not to throw up in my mouth just a little as I think about it while I type this. Imogen Heap on CD: 4-out-of-5 stars. Imogen Heap live: zero stars.

I’m back from my trip to Texas A+M Commerce. Arrived there on Sunday around noon, so Jeff Gershman took me to lunch in Dallas. Great Tex-Mex place (what else?) that started with fresh and spicy salsa.

Although there was nothing to indicate the place might be otherwise germ-contaminated, there was this incredibly reassuring wrapper holding the silverware. Sanitized! Whew!

On the flip-side of the silverware wrapper was printed the following helpful prayer guide. Otherwise, how would I know what to do? And who printed the Jewish prayer upside down? Hmm…

Once the prayer decision was out of the way (I’ll never tell what I chose), our food arrived. I had this very tasty chimichanga. A bit heavy for lunch (and I had just come from the west coast, so it felt like 10:30am to me), but no complaints here.

After lunch, Jeff drove me the 75-ish minutes to Commerce. After a quick tour of campus, he dropped me off at my hotel. Here’s the view from my window. North Texas is flat. The view to the other side was of the WalMart.

See, I told you.

Jeff picked me up after 45 minutes of downtime and took me to campus for a sort of meet-and-greet q+a with the music students. It was a Sunday afternoon at 4pm, so I expected all of zero people to show up, but there were actually quite a few students there, and they had great questions. Next up: a two-hour rehearsal with the percussion ensemble on “Mass.”

The now obligatory picture of a page of the score, with one of the players in the background.

Rehearsal went really well. I hadn’t heard “Mass” since the premiere performances at Juilliard back in 2004, and it was exciting to hear it again, especially played so well. The group plays the piece the way I originally conceived it, with “antiphonal” marimbas — one on the far left, one on the right. Hearing it live this way for the first time (Juilliard cheated it and put the marimbas side-by-side for ensemble reasons) was very cool.

After rehearsal, we all headed to dinner at a Chinese place called Panda. The appetizer at the table was these little shiny fried things. (I never know what they’re called, but always think they’re fun.)

My entree was the kung pao chicken, often one of my favorite Chinese dishes. I mean, who doesn’t love spicy peanut chicken?! (Well, besides people with deadly peanut allergies. Yes, I’m looking at you, Damien Bassman.)

Somebody else at the table had beef with broccoli, which was very pretty.

Here’s the entire gang — the percussion ensemble, me, Brian Zator (their conductor), and at the head of the table, composer Christopher Tucker and his wife, Kim. The picture is in black-and-white because everybody had some crazy-ass red eye, and I couldn’t get it to go away. Just pretend we’re oldie-time.

The next day, first up, we headed to lunch. I had a meatball sub which was far too large for lunch.

After lunch, another q+a with different music students, and then it was off to rehearsal with the wind ensemble for “Sasparilla.”

Wow, what a nice group — and they play just great. Here’s Jeff Gershman going through the piece with Jessica Faltot who graciously agreed to play the solo accordion part with the group.

Rehearsal was a blast. They sounded really, really good, and they couldn’t have been a more pleasant group to work with. After rehearsal, we drove to Dallas for dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Fusion. I hadn’t had sushi for ages, so I was awfully excited about this. I started with the miso soup, of course.

Next up, sushi. Pretty standard choices here — eel, salmon, and tuna.

The eel was good and the tuna so-so, but the salmon was spectacular. Brian Zator had this crazy roll — was it a dragon roll? — that was eel-based, but had this spicy red sauce on top. It was really, really good.

It also looked really cool up close.

My own crazy roll was this thing. I forget what they called it — yellowtail poppers, I think? — and it had spicy yellowtail, chopped jalapeno, and cream cheese (!), and the whole thing was deep-fried. It also had that same spicy red sauce that Brian had on his roll. WOW it was delicious. Wow, wow, wow.

For dessert, I had the tempura bananas. Yes, in keeping with the theme, deep fried bananas served with vanilla ice cream. Again, delicious.

The next day, I hung out a bit with Christopher Tucker. We took his dog, Dottie, for a walk before lunch. Awesome dog. Oh, and if you’re and band director, and you’re looking for a Grade 1 piece, check out Christopher Tucker’s piece, Journey Down Niagara. I dug it.

For lunch, Chris took me to Culver’s. I ate at one of these in Kansas, and remembered loving it. They make those super-tasty thin burgers that get crispy around the edges. Mmm…

On the way to the concert hall, somebody pulled up beside us and told Chris that one of his tires was low. Sure enough, it was. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad, and Chris put more air in the tire at the nearest gas station, and we continued on our way. Good thing I was with Chris. Had I been alone and learned that my tire was low, I would probably just pull the car over and crawl into the back seat, assume the fetal position, and wait for somebody to come rescue me from the physical labor that putting air in a tire requires.

The dress rehearsal went swimmingly. Here’s a shot of the group working on “Mass.”

Back stage at the Eisemann, there was this description posted of How to Display the Flag. This was all so helpful. In two days, I had not only learned how to pray correctly, I learned how to display the flag. Somewhere, George Bush is smiling.

After rehearsal, we went to my favorite Dallas fast-food p
lace, Taco Cabana.

While we were eating, this crazy person — I’m told he’s either homeless, or one of the band directors at Commerce — looked in the window and watched me eat. I, of course, had him arrested.

Before the concert, there was a reception at the hall. Here are a few of the students playing a little reception music. I dig the bass player — and his white socks.

Here’s the percussion ensemble performing “Mass” at the concert. Great performance.

And here’s a (not very good) shot of some of “Sasparilla” — complete with steel drums and accordion, the way it’s meant to be heard!

After the concert, I got some photos with some really fun people. Here I am with Jessica Faltot, the accordion soloist. (If you only click one of these links today, click that one.) She’s a hoot. I really hope another group does “Sasparilla” in Texas and that I’m able to get her a gig as the soloist. She was awesome.

Here I am with Tracy. When I met Tracy at the reception, she was like, “hey, can I get a picture with you?” and I was like, “sure! Umm… Where’s your camera?” “Oh, I don’t have a camera. I was thinking you’d take a picture of us with your camera. You do want a picture with me, right?” Of course! I don’t know why I even hesitated! She’s hilarious.

Finally (and again, please disregard the awful redeye), here’s my favorite shot from the trip. From left to right, it’s Jeff Gershman, me, and Brian Zator. What I think this photo really portrays, though, is, “Your action news team. Jeff Gershman with storm-tracker weather, Brian Zator – sports! – and your anchor, John John Mackey. The news team to trust.

It was an awesome three days in Commerce. Jeff and Brian led fantastic performances, and the players were really cool to chat with. I hope I can hang out with them again sometime. Maybe next year’s TMEA?

(not to be confused with Snakes on a Plane)

I’m heading to Texas tomorrow morning. But first, let’s get a few photos out of the way.

What is it with cats and boxes? I guess it makes them feel safe, but how safe is he if he’s sticking out the top?

AEJ and I had dinner last night with Sarah, who had flown here from Houston for a conference. We had a nice time, and dinner was tasty, but the waitress was kind of bitchy. We’ve had semi-rude service at Malo before, but in the past, the rudeness has come with competence. The server may not smile, and may question your choice of tequila in your margarita, but she did it because, damn it, she cared. The server last night, though, was cold and not even very good at her job. Still, we enjoyed the ground beef and pickle tacos. (I know they sound weird, but they’re delicious.) After dinner, we came back to our place, and a neighbor cat came to the window to visit Loki.

Loki was all, “hey, let’s be friends!” and the neighbor cat was like, “screw you,” and that was the end of their chat.

Although the neighbor cat was mean, Loki and Sarah got along splendidly. I’ve never seen Loki’s eyes light up the way they did when he saw Sarah.

(That photo is completely unedited. Loki’s eyes and flash photography don’t really get along.)

On another note, AEJ made me a great Easter basket this year, and it was waiting for me when I got home from Florida a few weeks ago. She had made little cut-out figures of her in a bunny costume, and Loki in a monogramed Easter sweater and bunny ears. The Loki Easter cutout now lives on my keyboard because it rules. Doesn’t it totally look like a South Park character?!

So, I’m off to Commerce, Texas, tomorrow morning. I’ll try to remember my camera cable so I can possibly post a blog entry from the road, but there may not be a real update until I get home on Wednesday. Until I get back, Loki will keep himself safe in this box.