Summer Has Ended, the Textbooks Have Opened

Summer actually ended a few weeks ago for me when school started on August 30th, but this post is coming later than I originally expected. Anyway, to the point of it...

This past summer was probably one of the most musical one's I've had in a long time. I, myself, didn't actively take part in many musical performances. BUT, I did attend quite a few. As you know, I was able to intern at the Ojai Music Festival for a few weeks this summer. There, I met some amazing people and was able to listen to awesome performances of contemporary pieces. My summer musical experiences did not end there, however. When I went back home for the rest of summer, I was reminded that my mom had purchased a series of tickets for concerts at the Hollywood Bowl for the summer. I've already written about one [or two?] of those concerts, but I decided to stop because I felt like they were going to start to become fairly repetitive and uninteresting. Let me just say one thing: I LOVE the Hollywood Bowl. I was able to see so many amazing concerts there this summer with some of the best musicians from around the world:

Baaba Maal
Yeasayer
Tinariwen
Fool's Gold
Goldfrapp
The Swell Season
She & Him
The Bird and The Bee
Sergio Mendes
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, playing:
Bizet's Carmen
Gershwin and Bernstein

Every single one of these performances was worthy of a standing ovation - most of them had the audience up, out of their seats and dancing throughout the bowl. I love the formal-casualness of the Hollywood Bowl. It's a place where it's acceptable to dress up and dress down, whichever you decide to do; it doesn't really matter as long as you have fun and appreciate the music. One of the best things about this venue is the fact that it's outdoors. Not many cities are able to safely and confidently pull off an outdoor venue with scheduled events throughout the entire year. But, due to the lack of rainstorms and abundance of heat in Los Angeles, it's an easily accomplished task for the Hollywood Bowl. I think it has so much character. If you think about it, the most famous musicians of the century have performed right there on the same stage. I don't think I've ever appreciated it so much before; I didn't realize it's importance. But now I think about the hundreds and hundreds of talented persons who have stood on that stage and received such applauding acceptance from the audience and it amazes me. Everyone who's anyone in the music business has been booked at the Hollywood Bowl at some time or another.
I think another reason why I'm so amazed by the Hollywood Bowl is because I have had the amazing opportunity to perform there. Granted, I wasn't some soloist or anything, but I was on that stage! It was when I was probably in the 6th or 7th grade, I was with the Los Angeles Children's Choir and we were a small part in a large orchestral and choral arrangement of the music from the Lord of the Rings [yes, I did have to sing in elvish]. I don't think I understood how lucky I was, at the time, to be able to say that I've performed at the Hollywood Bowl. But I did, even though it's all just a faded memory to me now.

This summer I realized that by moving away for college, I have come to appreciate the little things about Los Angeles so much more. For example, the Hollywood Bowl and being able to go there whenever I want to see an astounding line-up of musicians. Los Angeles is such a musically-thriving city and I love it. This year I have made a promise to myself. A promise that I will try to go to as many music events in and around Tacoma/Seattle as I can. Last year I spent too much time doing things that didn't mean as much to me. So this year I need to make up for that and make sure that I go see a musician I've been wanting to see forever, no matter what. I want to find a way to do it. Going to concerts used to be such a large part of my life and I don't know why I stopped going to them within the past 2 years or so. But the prominence of attending concerts this summer has reminded me of the great feelings I get when I watch and listen to a live performance of any genre. I think it's one of the most rewarding feelings ever.

Now, going off of that, over Labor Day weekend I was able to attend one of the biggest music festivals in the Pacific Northwest: Bumbershoot. For those of you who don't know, Bumbershoot is a 3-day festival in Seattle, WA filled with line-ups of bands from all over the United States [and even the world], comedians, artists, and entrepreneurs. Tickets are offered for an extremely reasonable price of $40 for a single day, with main stage access [$22 without main stage]. At this price, I was able to see some great shows and listen to some awesome music, all while hanging out with one of my best friends, Lindsay. Here's a list of the music I saw [and some art and a comedy show]:

The Submarines - LA natives!! They were so good and were perfect introduction for the rest of the day
The Bumbershoot Piece - an eccentric structure made completely of wooden coffee stirrers and held together by nothing more than the pressure of how they are interwoven
Hey Marseilles - Pacific Northwesters! The violinist actually took violin lessons at Puget Sound and has performed in Schneebeck Hall! I feel so connected to him haha...
Ubiquitous They - a sketch comedy show that actually started at Puget Sound, these are the original members of the club who decided to continue after graduating from college!
The Decemberists - need I say more?
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - one of the most amazing and craziest performances I have been to in a really long time. It was so invigorating.
Bob Dylan - okay, so I don't really listen to him but I mean, it's freaking Bob Dylan and if you are given the opportunity to see Bob Dylan, you're gonna see Bob Dylan.
Ozomatli!!!! - I was really excited for them. This was the fourth time I've seen them and the first time I've ever paid to see them. They're also LA natives, but I actually think a few of them are from Mexico...? I'm not sure, I should look into it though. but, as always, they put on a great show and were the best way to end my night. The bassist, Will Dog, actually lives down the street from one of my friend's in Silverlake, it's crazy.

Bumbershoot. It was so good to me. I can't wait for the next concert I go to. I'm glad I started this year off with a bang that I won't forget and I hope to keep my promise to myself. Sorry this post is so ridiculously long, hopefully it has kept you at least somewhat entertained. There was just so much to fit into one post! I'll try to do more frequent posts from now on so that they don't seem to go on forever like this one has. It's getting pretty late now and I have class in the morning, so I should go. I hope you had an amazing summer and are looking forward to Fall! I know I am. Goodnight!
:]

New Music!

I'm not sure if any of you know this, but I am a HUGE fan of The Killers. Seriously. You have no idea. I've been a fan since like 8th grade, and they were the first real band I liked [after the whole boy band/teen pop stage...wow that seems like a really long time ago. Anyway]. So if you know anything about The Killers, you probably know that they went on 'hiatus' not too long ago. When I heard this, I was so sad. I've never even seen them live before! I was very disappointed...But I recently [I know I may be a little late on this] found out that Brandon Flowers is actually doing his own solo project. Brandon Flowers is the singer for The Killers and did a lot of the synthesizer for them, too. He made this announcement in April on The Killers' website. Obviously, right when I heard about it I searched for any kind of sample of the music. Only one song has been released so far - Crossfire. It's pretty good and I'm excited to hear the rest of the album. As expected, it sounds very much like The Killers. Of course it would, I mean Brandon Flowers was kind of the face of the band by being the lead singer and it's usually the singer's style that is shown the most in a band. Personally, I think Flowers is a very talented musician and I haven't ever been let down by a single Killers' album and I'm sure I'll love this one as much as I've loved those done by The Killers. 'Crossfire' is currently available on iTunes and the album is set to be released on September 14th. Keep an eye out for it! I will definitely be buying it once it's released. You can listen to the single here at Brandon Flowers' website.

Also, in other news...
One band you should keep an eye on: Red Robot. You probably won't find their music if you searched for it. But they are a band from my city of Los Angeles. They're actually friends of mine. [Yes, I am shamelessly promoting a friend's band on here.] But seriously, listen to their first single. They're working on their first real EP this summer and they've just released their single 'Stars Ignite' which you can download here. It's really good and everyone I know who has listened to it, loves it. Since there isn't really a way to hear their music anywhere, you should be a fan of them on facebook. They post videos and other random things about what they're doing, musically, on there. So check them out and enjoy! Goodnight :]

The Hollywood Bowl

Last Sunday, June 20th, was not only Father's Day but also Yeasayer's concert at the Hollywood Bowl. They weren't the headlining band, but they were the reason I wanted to go. They played with Fool's Gold, Tinariwen, and Baaba Maal. First, Fool's Gold performed. Their music is so good and different, I love it.
Then came Tinariwen. Tinariwen is a band of Taureg musicians from the Sahara Desert in northern Mali and their story is amazing. The person who started the band, Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, built his first guitar out of a tin can, a stick and a bicycle brake wire. To my understanding, he was an orphan and lived with other Taureg exiles. In 1979, the band was officially formed but not under an official name. People started calling them Kel Tinariwen which in the Tamashek language means 'The People of the Desert.' They became the voice of the Taureg rebel community. With some years spent in the military, they finally decided to devote all their time to music in 1991. Over the years, they gained more and more international recognition and have performed all over the world for the past 30 years. If you want more details about their story, look them up. It's inspiring.
So, back to The Hollywood Bowl...
After Tinariwen, was Yeasayer's set! They put on a pretty good set and played my two favorite songs :D. I really want to see them live again, when they're the headlining performer. Because I really think they would do some crazy things, visually, if they had a longer set and were the main band. But they did a really good job and it was really cool to be able to see them do everything they do live haha
Then came Baaba Maal. His music was really fun and had a lot of people up and dancing. It was a very diverse line up of musicians from all over the world and I really enjoyed it.
Here are a few pictures from the night. I recommend that you listen to some music by all of these musicians, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.









I love the colors of the bowl.

Post-Music Festival

I know it’s been several days since I’ve written anything here about the music festival, but it was a super busy weekend and I really didn’t have time to update this.
Everyday began at 9am and didn’t end until sometime around or after midnight – the earliest I went to sleep was last night around 1130. The festival was fun, I really enjoyed it and I’m glad that I got to watch a few of the performances, too. The entire program was really amazing. Some of my favorites included:
Indian Ragas with Aashish Khan and Javad Ali Butah; they were amazing in both of the performances I saw. I had never heard Indian Ragas before and I was just blown away by them.
Frank Zappa performed by Ensemble Modern, conducted by Brad Lubman; although I didn’t get to see much of the actual concert, I was able to see a lot of the rehearsals and it was all so cool to watch and listen to. I also took some videos of the rehearsals:



George Benjamin’s opera Into the Little Hill with Anu Komsi and Hilary Summers; it was [obviously] very contemporary and different from anything else I have ever heard and I know a few people weren’t huge fans of it, but I really did enjoy it. I think Hilary Summers has an amazing contralto voice and she did extremely well. And Anu Komsi, she hit that high D so easily and naturally each time. Also, it had a good message so who can’t appreciate that? Here’s some video from those rehearsals:



Needless to say, it was a busy and exhausting weekend. Sunday was probably when I was the most tired; I ended up taking a short nap in box office haha. But, I did enjoy it. Amongst all the chaos, running around, malfunctioning phones, and a sold out show, I got to listen to some great music, meet some amazing people and have fun every so often. Speaking of meeting people, this weekend I did get to meet Serni from Puget Sound and I believe he’s going to be doing a story about the Ojai Music Festival in Arches, a newspaper in Tacoma. He was taking pictures of different things and people at the festival. I also found out that he has read my blog – another unexpected reader haha. I am definitely planning on setting up a time to meet with him in August. Also, I met a woman who works at KUSC and we started talking about radio and the ups and downs and stresses that working at a station can bring about, but also how much fun and rewarding it is at the same time.
I experienced a lot this past weekend and I’m glad that I was able to be a part of this team to put on this festival. Working with Christiana, Katie, and Kayla was great; I think we all worked together really well. I hope I can come back next year to experience it all again! I only have a few more days left here in Ojai, and it’s weird. I can’t believe it’s over. Of course, we do have a few more things to wrap up and finish. But, for the most part, it’s done.
By the way, Jeff, I didn’t come up with some secret code or way of writing your name so that my blog wouldn’t pop up on your Google Alerts, I just haven’t been writing anything. I’m sure this did show up, though!

Anyway, I hope you’ve all enjoyed these posts about the festival at least a little bit. I don’t know when I’ll be writing on here again. Until then, bye and have a good rest of the summer!

Oh, p.s., I found out that I got into the Business Leadership Program at the puge! That was exciting and I’m looking forward to starting it all in the fall!! :]
Also, it is ridiculously hot in SoCal. I’m ready for some nice cool fall weather in Tacoma.

Rehearsal Video!

Here's the final product of the recordings I did of rehearsal a few days ago. I just finished and uploaded it to youtube today! The youtube account is OjaiFestivals, check out some of the other videos on there, they're pretty cool.
Enjoy :]

Festival Week

[I wrote this last night but wasn't able to post it until today]
It's the week of the festival, the few days before it begins, the days in which everything needs to be finished. Yesterday, I got trained for the box office and we set up everything there. Today was my first full day in the box office. It wasn't crazy at all, it was the perfect time to learn everything there is to know in running box office. Of course, I probably haven't learned everything, but I've learned the basics, at least. Not much has been happening besides all the setting up and printing of tickets and organizing of things. But it's pretty cool to see the transformation of the park take place. All the tents were going up today, in the park, and lighting and sound was being figured out in the bowl. Rehearsals were also going on and it was nice to be able to listen to it all from box office. I actually got to sit in on some of the rehearsal today and filmed some of Ensemble Modern and George Benjamin for Christiana. I think she's going to be posting those videos on the festival's facebook page and/or the actual website. I also filmed some of the rehearsal on my own camera, I'll add the video at the end of this post for you to watch and listen to!

It's really cool being a part of the festival. I get access to basically everything. It's actually kind of weird because I can go back stage and to the dressing rooms and watch everything and it's not even a problem. I've never been involved in a music festival in this way, so it's definitely exciting and fun. I'm looking forward to the rest of this week and the weekend and hopefully being able to watch a few of the performances myself. Anyway, it's late and I'm tired so, goodnight!

Here's the video I took today from stage left. Enjoy!

The Weekend

I've definitely caught up on my sleep this weekend. It's been nice. Tomorrow will be the beginning of another week at the Ojai Music Festival! I spent some time at the office this weekend. Kinda just hung out, but I did get some things done. I did more picture stuff for the slideshow - there are so many to go through! But I didn't get to finish that because today the server was being super slow for some reason and wasn't loading the pictures. So I couldn't see any of them, therefore I couldn't choose good pictures. Lame. Tomorrow I'm gonna have to finish that. But I did add more to all the Artist Packages today. We have 50th anniversary books for the festival and I had to add those to all the bags, so I got that done today. Tomorrow morning, Margaret and I will finish them off with the final copies of the artist schedules.

Not much else happened this weekend. I went to the farmer's market today. Everything there looked sooo good, especially the fruit! The colors were so pretty. Oh, and I bought a pretty cool mug on Friday and I got a free cup of coffee to go with it :D I'll probably donate it to Diversions when I go back, so DON'T STEAL IT. I hate when people steal our mugs, and I would REALLY hate it if someone stole mine :[ I just want to contribute some cool mugs...

Anyway, what else...? I'm pretty sure the people across the street had a party last night hahaha it was a little loud and at one point someone kept yelling 'whooo' over and over again. It was entertaining.

Oh! Also, I have discovered that my blog has become a bit popular within the OMF office. It was posted on the festival's facebook fan page earlier today and I've noticed that several other people have been reading it. It's funny haha but it's cool. I'm glad someone's reading it! And hopefully it's somewhat entertaining. Here's another link to the OMF facebook page! Become a fan, like it, whatever it's called now, do it!

Have a good night! I'll talk to you tomorrow :]