Brian's quite remarkable blog of wonder.

Well, I had a great time in Minnesota. Even though I was only there for about three and a half hours, I felt bizarrely welcome. As I foresaw, it was incredibly weird listening to my piece played by real-live musicians... and also weird receiving tons of compliments about said piece (for some reason, I don't do well with compliments, especially sincere ones). It was utterly shocking to see John Jensen sightread the piano part almost perfectly, sometimes turning to me while playing to make funny comments... he's a delightfully crazy guy. Afterwards I watched from afar a rehearsal of the St. Olaf band, which was good. Then a trip to Chris's place to listen to some of his recent compositions, and finally the two of us went out for sandwiches and discussed things musical. It was very fun and very like old times.

Then I drove home in a thunderstorm and got lost in Mason City, then got lost again in Waterloo, where my car started freaking out and I had to overdraw my account to buy some motor oil. Despite this, I think I re-realized on this trip that there is absolutely nothing I like more than traveling.

So what of D60's song at No Shame? That went well enough, yes, but was too ill-rehearsed to be truly fantastic. We didn't record it, because A) we weren't able to get a mic for my vocal after all, and B) I realized when we got there that I didn't even bring a tape so we couldn't have even recorded a crappy version if we'd tried. I don't think I'm going to do any more songs at NS.

I am now done with my damn Kirkwood class! It's summer! Too bad the weather has been strangely crappy and cold. Much celebration is in order.