Stevens Admissions: Mike's Blog

Here I Am

Wow, it's been a long time. I feel like school has just begun. The first month is almost over, the big fall career fair is today, and my first exam is tomorrow. Our school is facing some serious times, but I know that we will pull through.

I've been keeping myself very busy these past weeks. Having a light course-load might seem easy, but I have a lot of work to do to get on the road to grad school. Luckily, my thesis prep fits right in with my application requirements. I'm going to need at least three songs (possibly live recordings!) that are synced to film. It's going to be challenging, as I've never attempted writing to a scene. But the more I think about it, the more I've realized it's what I've wanted to do for as long as I can remember. Some of my peers may be critical of my career choice (especially with all the noise about the career fair today), but I can't help feeling some kind of "this-is-what-I'm-supposed-to-do" vibe.

Ok, enough spiritual mish-mosh. I've got work to do. But to make up for lost time, I'll post again tomorrow (or later today, more likely).

Back in Business

The first week of school is already over! Only fourteen left until finals!

My classes are just as awesome as I thought they would be. I'm already hard at work on my thesis preparation. I have been looking for ten film scenes to perform "take downs" on. I'll be listening to the music, and transcribing and orchestrating by ear. So far I've got scenes from Kung Fu Panda, The Lion King, Jurassic Park, Batman Returns, Finding Nemo, Coraline, and Wall-E. I'm going to try and find more from Airplane!, The Two Towers, and Once Upon a Time in the West. I tried to get a good mix of styles and genre. 

I'm also going to be analyzing some John Williams scores. He finally has published conductor's scores for the Star Wars suite, and several others. I've been a huge fan of the man my whole life; he got me interested in film composition in the first place. And what could be better than learning from the master himself?

Andy Brick, my thesis advisor, is running the 499 course a little differently this semester. There are three composition majors including myself who will be graduating this year. We are going to have a forum-type class; each week we will present our work to each other and critique it. I am interested in what my fellow composers will be working on and how they have developed since we began Stevens together.

A couple of plugs:

John Horgan is teaching my philosophy class, "War and Human Nature." He is also the head of Stevens' Center for Science Writings (he is also a contributing member of bloggingheads.tv). He has managed to assemble four great science writers to come in and speak about their books this semester. I'm particulary excited for the December lecture on the evolution of God. Check out the schedule here. The lectures are FREE! And the first one is September 23.

On October 21, myself and fellow Stevens Scholars will be presenting our summer research projects to the community. It is a little later than last year, which gives me more time to work on my poster! Be sure to check it out in Babbio from 2-5 on Wednesday October 21.

Peace, Summer

Since my beautiful schedule consists of two days of classes, school starts on Tuesday for me. But I can't help but feel a little sad that this is my last weekday of real summer...my last summer before I venture into the Real World (there is a strong possibility I'll be going to grad school, however).

Thankfully, this summer has been one of my most productive. I got three very solid demos ready for my future as a prospective film composer. I learned a lot about orchestration through working on my advisor's piece as well. I am very excited to continue working on more music in my pre-thesis tutorial.

As a special treat, I present here the opening to my piece, "Afircan Sonata," which is based on the painting of the same name by Vladimir Kush. The opening represents the smoldering volcano in the backgroun, as well as Krishna's flute, which is part of Kush's backstory for the painting.

Download "African Sonata" clip

Pleeeeease Be Good!

Just saw District 9 the other night. Its definitely the best movie I've seen all summer, at least besides Up. Maybe its not as original as it's touted to be, but it was certainly awesome. I was disappointed by Harry Potter, and pretty much everything else was abysmal (save The Hangover, which was great).   

I finally got to watch the trailer for Avatar, which looks pretty ridiculous. I'm hoping its good. It looks like it can go either way.

Meanwhile, I've begun work on my senior thesis (or at least what I hope will become my senior thesis), which is a little scary. But I am excited to be creating something that really shows what I've learned in the past four years.

Stream

Summer is now really really close to being over. In retrospect, it has probably been one of my most productive summers. I've really started honing my composition skills. And I had fun at the same time! I actually made it to the beach a few times this year as well. And that's what summer is all about.

Now a brand new school year is approaching (possibly my last one!). It's time to focus and retrain my brain for thinking. So, I've been reading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut. The style is fantastic, the material is my favorite: dry sci-fi comedies. It gets me in the "Stevens student" mood, gets me thinking about the Big Things in Life, and entertains me. The man has done some important work. I think some, if not all, of his books should be required reading for United States citizens. 

This will be my first year since I was in fourth grade that I won't be taking music lessons in some shape or form. Well, the shape or form they will take are self-taught lessons from the Book of Ben Folds. Yes, this summer I have reestablished my love for the Five. As I type, I am listening to Ben Folds' experimental pop masterpiece, Fear of Pop, featuring the sultry tones of William Shatner's spoken word. Check it.

Five Weeks Left...

Well, what an interesting week in Hoboken.

I've heard enough of that subject, so I'd like to move on. I'm just about done with week one of (paid!) composing, which is week seven of research. My advisor is having me complete one song a week, which includes actually writing the piece, orchestrating it, and sequencing the MIDI in ProTools. By the end of the summer, I'll have four (hopefully great) demos. I think one of my pieces will be a rescore of a film scene...I'm just not sure which one yet.

My first song is in the neo-classical vein. While it has some ties to "standard syntactical" writing, I used mostly techniques from my contemporary theory class. Chord clusters and chromaticism formed the foundation of the piece, which I will post here as soon as it is completed. I'm hoping next week to experiment a little more with more modern instruments. Before my senior year is over, I'd like to write an electric guitar concerto. It would give me a chance to write something incredibly over the top. Which is always the most fun.

Happy Birthday America!

Here we are in the second full month of summer. Although I wasn't able to attend what I'm sure was an awesome fireworks display on the Hudson River at Stevens, I did attend a backyard pyrotechnical show (of questionable legality). 

I also finally bought The Rest Is Noise, a book about Twentieth-Century music. Rather than analyzing the pieces, or writing mini-biographies, the author Alex Ross offers a look at the political and social events that shaped the music and vice-versa. The book covers a lot of ground, both classical and popular. He begins with the stories of Salome and Parsifal, and ends with a section on the Beatles and the Velvet Underground.

While reading the book, I've been trying to get some of my material up on YouTube for my friends to listen to. All I've got up so far is my final from the past semester's Contemporary Theory class. You can check it out here if you're interested.

I'm close to finishing the first phase of my research project. I'm really pumped to start writing. I'm getting a lot of inspiration from the pieces in The Rest Is Noise, and one of my favorite artists, Vladimir Kush. I think the first piece I'm going to write is going to be based on this painting:

Summer! Slow Down!

Wow. I can't believe we're at the end of June. Summer is officially here, though the weather is still confused. I'm really hoping for a nice sunny day soon. Enough is enough with this rain!

I've been working diligently on my summer research. I'm thankfully learning a lot about advanced orchestration and sequencing. I'm also gearing up to start writing my own songs. I'm taking some time to get some pre-production in. I'm listening to a lot of great composers and looking for outside inspiration. I'm a big fan of program music (pieces based on something non-musical). So I'm looking for good artwork to write to. I'm also watching movies with really creative soundtracks. My favorite so far is Wall-E. It's a great example of combining electronic samples with an orchestra.

This week I started rehearsing for the Matawan Theater Alumni Association's fundraiser-show. I'm playing piano in the pit band, something I haven't done in a looooong time. I'm a little rusty, but I'm hoping to use the opportunity to actually get myself to practice. I really wish I played more...

Other than that, I've continued reading. Read VALIS last week. Very weird. Pretty good. It has a lot of references to non-mainstream aspects of various religions, and its about a schizophrenic man, which is reflected in the writing.

It's Been a While

This summer is flying by. I remember back in mid-May, I was sitting around with my friends, trying to think of what we could possibly do on such a gorgeous day. Next thing I know, I'm sitting in my house in June, and it's FREEZING! I don't know what is going on with the weather, but I hope it gets consistently nice soon.

    I've  been keeping busy this summer. I've vowed to beat my book-reading record from last year's nine. I'm already two in. I finished Moby-Dick, which was almost a chore. Great story but I could do without the detailed and almost-overly-romantic descriptions of whaling equipment. I do think it's important to read some classics though. From there I moved on to Things Fall Apart, a much shorter novel that tells the story of an African tribal man's fall, followed by the destruction of his civilization by European missionaries. I loved the symbolism and the social and religious commentary. It is also a great introduction to African fiction, an area that I will be coming back to. Up next is Everything That Rises Must Converge, a collection of short stories by Flannery O'Connor. I was introduced to the book through Lost. Apparently after the season finale aired, sales of this book absolutely skyrocketed on Amazon. Gotta get in on the band wagon!

    Another thing I'd like to do is see all the great movies that are coming out this summer. So far, it's been a little disappointing. Terminator Salvation was cool and entertaining but fell very short of my expectations. Land of the Lost - moments of hilarity mixed with many more moments of utter stupidity. I'm a fan of the stupid-funny comedy, but this was just too much at times. I guess it just wasn't worth the $10.50 I spent. I'm never paying for another movie again! Luckily I have the Optimum Rewards Card, which gives me free movies on Tuesdays! I've used it to see Up, which was very good. Very intense for a family movie. Just a little worried about those talking dogs...they kind of remind me too much of failed Disney movies. I hope Pixar isn't moving into that direction (Toy Story 3 is next...please please please be good). Star Trek was pretty awesome too. It was the first Trek thing I've ever seen, and I don't know if it lived up to the rest of the franchise but I think it's an imaginative start. They can do anything they want next!

    Quick aside - I've given up on television. There are two good shows on: Lost and The Mis-Adventures of Flapjack. Mostly everything else is trash (and Flapjack is pretty stupid too, but just reminds me of a time when SpongeBob SquarePants was actually enjoyable).

    I've also been working hard on my Scholars Research. I'm really excited this summer to be working with people who are very involved in the composition side of the industry. I'm learning a lot about what there is to actually do...it's more than just writing songs. Right now, I'm focusing on sequencing a song for my advisor, which in turn allows me to beta test a new sound library. It's the first time I've ever done either. Sequencing, I've learned, is taking the MIDI data generated from a notation program and manipulating it into something that sounds very realistic. I've been re-recording a lot of the instrument parts and mixing the sounds so that the piece is much more human.

    So, there's lots of stuff happening this summer. Carlos Alomar read my palm and told me that something big was happening RIGHT NOW! I've never really invested much faith in black magic, but time will tell if he's right.

Into the Unknown!

I've made a decision this year to be more active and enjoy the outdoors more. This weekend I traveled 26 miles down the Delaware River in a canoe. I saw some beautiful things and some pretty gross things. Also, I saw a beaver. I never thought that I would ever catch a glimpse of this mythic beast, but there one was swimming right next to my canoe.

The best part of the trip was being the third person in a two-man canoe. I didn't have to paddle the entire time! And I got to soak up the scenery. Unfortunately, the bottom of a canoe is generally very wet. But we got to rotate so I could give the other guys a break. To make a long story short, we made it in one piece. Only one of our twelve boat fleet tipped over...and I was NOT in it.


In a completely unrelated story, I've been reading these interesting articles about the internet. If you're one of the not-so-tech-savvy Stevens students, you might find it interesting too.