Papa Malick Faye, Walter Thompson....more

Grad school is turning out to be everything and more that I hoped for. Seminars this week were the best yet, building on an already excellent track record. In addition, Papa Malick Faye was visiting lecturer at the class I TA. Amazing, 900 years of continuous family history as musicians. Truly a wonderful class. I danced in front of the whole class of around 200 people, at the encouragement of the Professor, my friend Jason Robinson. Needless to say: I should not dance. Fellow CSEP PhD student Ben Power said of my participation, That is the closest thing to dancing that I've seen without actually being dancing. Thanks.



Also: On Tuesday, the founder of Soundpainting, Walter Thompson, came and gave a demo to the undergrad conducting class here at UCSD. I volunteered to play in the group (with Mark Dresser, Phil Skaller, and others) and had a blast. An incredibly intricate system that allows for loose or precise control over an improvising ensemble. (Thanks, Phil, for the photo!)


Walter Thompson, Jeff Kaiser

Dinner with Philip Glass

Roger Reynolds of UCSD's music department, was gracious and generous enough to invite some grad students over to his house to have dinner with Philip Glass. Composer/Conductor and chair of the music department Rand Steiger was also present, as was new faculty member, composer Lei Liang. I took a few blurry photos of myself and some friends. Just quick, blurry pics with a cell, but fun. Glass was delightful, entertaining, and as intelligent and interesting as you would expect.


Glass, fellow students Alec Hall, Bryan Christian, unknown, Anna Thorvaldsdottir

Four new reviews in Cadence for pfMENTUM

Cadence magazine, by the way, has a lovely new quarterly version. Highly recommended reading.

Sorry about the scans, don't have time to re-type them right now.

Click here to see them full page.


Gove review by Robert Iannapollo





And,even when reviewers are not overtly fond of our discs, tehy still write interesting and entertaining stuff. Stuart Kremsky is a WONDERFUL writer/reviewer. Enjoy the way he dialogues about the Transhumans: