No, don’t take that title too seriously. My Give-A-Damn is, in fact, not busted, but I recently heard a song with that title, and I thought it was funny. Yes, it was a country song. Only country music can have titles like that, and “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” and “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems.” Such is the current state of country radio, which, I am not ashamed to admit, I listen to whenever I travel.

When I visit schools, the students often ask me what I listen to. When I say Tool, they can relate to that (or at least the guitarists can), but when I add that I also enjoy the occasional country group, I often receive blank stares. I don’t listen to much classical music, as it often feels like work. If I’m writing a piece in a particular style, though, like a cowboy-themed piece like “Sasparilla,” or a bluegrass-inspired piece like “Wrong-Mountain Stomp,” I’ll often listen to a whole lot of music in that style just to get it in my ear. It doesn’t mean that I’ll keep listening to nonstop Gene Autry after I finish the “research,” but in some cases — like the bluegrass I discovered when writing “Wrong Mountain Stomp” — I develop a real appreciation for a new kind of music, and it finds a permanent home on my iPod.

So, here I am in Seattle, for the third time in roughly 6 months. This is my last visit through my “Music Alive” residency. So far, so good. I arrived late on Friday night, checked into my nice bed & breakfast, and headed straight to bed, as I had to be up bright & early on Saturday morning for a rehearsal with the Youth Symphony. Rehearsal was great. The players are awesome, and they’re making “Antiphonal Dances” sound about as good as it can.

Hearing the piece sound so good, I again felt the need to rewrite the work for wind ensemble. I think it would work great — big brass chorales, antiphonal brass choir, chattering wind parts. It’s a big piece — 15 minutes — and nobody has expressed interest in such a thing yet, but hopefully I can convince somebody. I’ve been considering “windestrating” a movement at a time for various band commissions, but I kind of want to keep the whole piece together, like a symphony. It’s another project for the long-term, like re-writing and expanding my Percussion Concerto.

But back to Seattle. One of the highlights of rehearsal was during the break, when I got a chance to hang with the bass section. These guys rule. One of them told me before rehearsal that Antiphonal Dances was “the coolest piece I’ve ever played.” Well, that’s pretty cool. When I talked to them during break, they offered to pool their money (they had about $26 total, plus one guy offered his sandwich and his shoes) to commission a double bass concerto.

Then they told me their story line for “Antiphonal Dances.” Apparently, it’s about a scientist whose son becomes ill with a rare disease. In the first movement, terrorists infect the son with a virus. (Very timely, I thought.) In the second movement, the father is distraught, as he mourns the expected death of his son. In the final movement, though, he finds the cure. In their scenario, the “movie” ends with a freeze-frame of the father and cured son, laughing together. Brilliant.

Well, the G5 is going back to the Apple Store tomorrow morning. I got it back last night, after a week being “repaired,” and guess what — they didn’t fix anything. They told me I had a bad video card. So, I swapped the video card again (this is now my third video card), brought the new card home this morning, installed it, started up, and BAM — was smacked with the same problem I’ve had all along. After spending 45 minutes on the phone with AppleCare, they directed me to bring the machine back to Apple again, and this time, I’m bringing the 30″ monitor, too.

It’s going to be a bitch.

Fortunately, AEJ is going to help me (I couldn’t possibly do it alone), and my buddy at the store has pulled some strings to get it prompt attention this time around. It’s also good that I’m leaving for Seattle on Friday, so I won’t be around my home machine anyway, so I won’t miss it. I just hope that when I get back to town, they’ll have figured out what the hell has been wrong. I also hope the machine is ready when I return, because I have to spend the second half of May generating new parts for the revised orchestra version of Redline Tango.

So, with no computer tomorrow or Friday, then a flight all afternoon and evening on Friday, and a busy schedule in Seattle on Saturday, I may not get a chance to blog again until Sunday. Until then, I hope you’ll amuse yourself with this.

I attended the American Music Center‘s annual award ceremony last night with Newman & Steve Bryant. It was a good schmoozy time, as always. It was great seeing Graham Parker — who was responsible for the original Redline Tango commission — and Richard Kessler — the former Executive Director of the AMC. I hadn’t seen either of them in ages. There’s a small handful of people to whom I feel completely indebted for any success I’ve had, and Graham and Richard are two of them. (Others, in no particular order, are David Parsons, Frank Wickes, and Scott Weiss & Scott Stewart. I’d also like to thank The Academy©.)

Another highlight last night was meeting Paul Moravec, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Music. I saw him speak at last year’s ASCAP Awards, and I liked him immediately, but this was my first chance to speak to him. The crazy thing was that he approached me and introduced himself! It turns out that we have mutual friends in Antares, the ensemble for whom I wrote “Breakdown Tango.” (Their CD of the piece, by the way, is now available!) After talking about the greatness of Antares, the four of us started talking shop. Paul had advice for the three of us: Write more joyous music. Paul feels that modernism is dead, and that nobody wants to hear it anymore, and that us “young” composers should embrace joy in our writing. Hear hear, I say. Paul was preaching to the choir, but to drive his point home, he added — in jest — “and you should listen to me; I have a f*cking Pulitzer Prize.” We loved this guy. It’s great to meet a composer who is a major deal (a Pulitzer will do that, although Paul said he “couldn’t get arrested” a year ago), but is so down to earth and friendly and self-deprecating.

No word yet on my computer. Day after day, I pass by my desk with that ginormous monitor sitting on it, taunting me with its blank display. I’ll probably get the computer back just in time for my trip to Seattle on Friday. Grumble, grumble. But really, if that’s the biggest problem in my life at the moment, things are alright.