2006 is HERE! Happy New Year!

We're going to join Isaac and become adults in the eyes of the law!

Even better, I'm going to get the chance to meet up with you guys sometime in the fall!

I simply must refrain from excessively using exclamation marks!

And now I must sleep.

So run along and revel.

Jason

It's 9 PM, and jetlag is coming on . . .

Hey y'all,

Just checking in from Fremont, CA. Boy, you California TASPers sure get spoiled weatherwise. I studied for my math exam out on the front lawn yesterday (the mailman walked by - Mailman: "Is that calculus you're doing?" Me: "No, complex numbers." Mailman: "Oh . . ."). This is December, mind you. And the mere existence of a front lawn to sit on seems exotic, coming from the land where everyone lives in squinched-up-townhouses lining narrow streets.

I just came from watching Harry Potter (finally!); now I'll have to go back and read the 2-months-old discussion of its merits.

Visited Stanford yesterday - it's definitely number 1 on my list these days. I don't know why none of you East Coast TASPers are applying. Pictures will go up on the Photobucket soon.

I received In Pharaoh's Army as a Christmas gift and am currently relishing it (good call, Dylan!). Very easy to read, non-cliched, honest. Also, a bunch of the CDs I instructed my parents to buy during TASP were given to me officially as Christmas gifts, so I have been wallowing in a fresh little splash of aural TASP nostalgia, as may be clear from my top 5.

1. Cissy Strut - the Meters
2. Tippi-Toes - the Meters
3. Trick Bag - the Meters
4. Unchain my Heart - Ray Charles
5. Gimme Three Steps - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Groetjes,
Sam

So is it a day left for this agony to end?
Yes!

I can't wait to never open commonapp.org again.

*****Public service announcement*****
...if anyone wants to share college essays email me!!! (karmicdancer13@gmail.com) basically im just really interested in what people had to say and ..ill show you mine if you show me yours!...

~Sanjukta

things

hey everyone, I'm trying to update the website a little, so if you check it out and notice that things are different, that's why. I'm not the best with html code, so things might be a bit shifty, feel free to correct/change/delete anything at all. One thing I got rid of was the "at tasp" section, since we aren't at tasp anymore, but if anyone thinks that should stay for whatever reason, I just moved the stuff down below the html body code thing that I can't actually write or this post won't publish but whatever what a run-on sentence thing this is, so it's still there, it just doesn't show up on the actual page. That's about all.

Alas, I'm in a bit of a funk. Post-holiday blues perhaps. My siblings have gone home and I'm all alone *waits for echo*. I think I'll go steal my sister's gilmore girls season 5 dvd and have myself a merry little marathon.

-Emma

the red fist returns!

I got some cheese in my stocking, and magically, its wax casing transformed itself into a red fist of doom and my entire house has become an enchanted wasteland with the red fist ruling from on high. This brings back memories.

The cheese was really tasty, though.

Ten full minutes!

And I haven't started seeing double.

One of the nasty side effects of my medication is that I spend basically the whole day with a headache, unable to remain upright for long periods of time, read, watch TV, or indeed use the internet. It's been boooooooooring. I managed to burn some of my music collection from the computer onto a bunch of CDs, and have been spending days vegetating and listening to music... which doesn't actually sound too bad but it gets old.

Anyway, I've been improving, and a bunch of family members is about to arrive in an hour, on a visit all the way from Malaysia, so at least there's going to be some entertainment.

Just thought I'd catch up with the blog, and wish you all Happy Holidays.

Jason

Update

The Harvard interview went smoothly. Thanks to all the fashion experts! Ironically, I had this MIT pen in my pocket throughout the duration of the interview. Good thing it didn't fall out at a dramatic moment, exposing my mixed allegiance . . . :)

New Pirate Pick-up Line:

You supernate my coracle.

Groetjes,

Sam

buzz buzz

I have got a new cellphone!! But it's not that cool, so whatever. The thing is, my sister had no phone whatsover, so we got her one too, and in the process had to move to cingular as AT&T was outdated. Well, my sister got a CAMERAPHONE, while my phone's text-messaging doesn't even work!! How fair is that??
Well life goes on. I stuck cool glitter stickers and a random lost-looking chicken all over it to cope with my unjust treatment.

Also, I have learnt to make trifle pudding, which is the most delicious dessert in the universe. I made it for my dad's birthday, and I ate the most. Yea, don't start reminding me of the diet, ok? It's friggin' winter, and if I don't have a regular sugar intake, I will soon check in for seasonal depressive disorder or something.

There's a bout of mono that's been going around the school. I feel so bad for, and at the same time, amused at all the people who got infected. Because, while it's hard to deal with mono, espcially for college-applying seniors, it's also tremendously funny for the healthy kids to watch people's reactions when they go, "Come on Alex. Whaaat've you been doing behind the band room??"
hehe

Ok, I cut my thumb the other day for some god-forsaken reason, and I can't type anymore. But check out the recommendations page!

~Sanjukta

Whatever supernates your coracle

TASPers of the most excellent cyber thalassocracy (YAR, matey!):

I've noticed that the recommendations page is being woefully neglected. Seriously, Social Services is about to come in and take it away. As a promotion, I have interspersed into the beginning of this post several pretty excellent words that are now on the recommendations page.
If you don't feel like dealing with the code, just email me with the info, and I can take care of it, no problemo. You're interesting people, and I know you're reading/listening to/saying interesting and noteworthy stuff, so don't you want to commemorate it on the website? I thought so.

That is all. I am done beseeching you to love the website for today.
And now I will begin my Christmas shopping (of course I didn't leave it until the week before Christmas!).

Hello all,

Sorry that I haven't been blogging, life has been hectic as always. It's so convenient to be able to keep in touch with all your lives even if I need to withdraw from all social actovities for 3 weeks. As Dylan mentioned, however, I visited him in his cozy apartment in Cambridge. It made me wonder about the often spoke of but never carried through TASP reunion. I think this should happen sometime during Spring break, understanding how overwhelming everything can be for anyone of us at anytime. But it's just a mere suggestion, any better ideas should be thrown to the table.

Things in Midd have been clumping together, like a snowball rolling down a hill. I got so much to do these days, let alone "prep-school apps". I finally got a band going though, and man is it good to just jam. We're progressing really well as well; we're also fortunate enough to be playing with one of the best pianists in the state of his age group. But he ain't no Matt Slayton.

I just discovered this new band called Koop, an electronic jazz band from Sweden. It is just two guys who mix these ingenious jazz songs, one of the most excellent contemporary song writing I have heard in a while. Check out their songs "Baby" and "Waltz for Koop" (this one has a tricksy 6/8 rhythm and the singer's voice is phenomenal). Sam or Jason may have heard of these guys.

I finally finished that Be-Bop composition, and man it took a long time. I think I over did it, but the gratification is...gratifying. The scale used was one I found on the internet (sounds so, how shall I say it, authentic.........................psshh), which follows this: (I, IIb, IIIb, IV, Vb, VIb, VII). Interesting, huh? They call it the Be-Bop diminished, and the turnout is really abstract. I dig.

Anyways, gimme some feedback on that band, hope all goes well with everyone. Jason! Don't kill yourself, you had me worried for the first few sentences of your Blog. (Congrats by the way).

Henrik

5 Songs in addition to those of Koop

1. Alucard by Gentle Giant
2. Roulette by Umphrey's McGhee
3. Bloomdido by Charlie Parker
4. Trouble by Ray Lamontagne
4. My Doorbell by the White Stripes

Last-minute thoughts before leaving for school

Congratulations to all you EA people for getting your act together by November 5th and applying in the first place, quite aside from your acceptance/deferral as the case may be! Some people wait until almost the last minute to send in their applications and end up scrambling around frantically, sending up to six emails filled with anxious queries to their college counselors in a single evening. If the stars are right, though, I should be (more or less) finished by Friday.

I have a Harvard interview on Wednesday in Amsterdam. Feeling slightly nervous. Those of you with experience: am I supposed to wear a tie, or will nice-casual-type dress be sufficient?

On Saturday I took a break from wrangling with the McGill website and made Christmas cookies. I think bells are the best shape, with Christmas trees in second.

Groetjes,

Sam

albums and communications

Top five albums of the week:
5. She's Been Waiting, Christie Hanson
4. Protest CD, Music Com!
3. Let it Be...Naked, the Beatles
2. Winter Solstice, John McCutcheon
1. Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill

I was reading WashU's blog, and it made me think that we don't keep in touch as well as we could. So if you suddenly get a flood of emails, letters, or (although I never normally do this) telephone calls from me, don't be surprised. Does anyone know Sophie's address in France? Miss you all!

Emma

PS Dylan, where'd you get in?!

Los Tres Sombreros

Check it out! A musicking kinder toy!

HELL YES!!!

Well, I just clicked on that most sinister enter button, heart in my throat. I covered my eyes because I couldn't bear to look, but brought them down in time for the "Welcome to Yale Class of 2010!" with a bulldog. I had promised myself that I wouldn't vomit, cry or shriek, but I ended up screaming anyway. I shrieked, and then my mom heard me and shrieked in reply, because she knew it had to be good. And then we hugged and jumped around, and then my dog started howling. I finished it off by calling all my friends at home and at school and holding the phone away from my ear as they shrieked.

In short:
Meredith = Yale, class of 2010

I love everything right now.

BOOYA!

Yale EA

Deferred. Yeah, I know.

Whatever, I didn't really want to go there anyway.

I'm hoping for Robertson Scholars at Duke (full scholarship) or Brown.

Best of luck to everyone else.

I'll make this quick...

because I'm typing from a hospital that charges a heinously expensive 1 Euro per FIFTEEN MINUTES for internet access, and I've got a LOT of online stuff to wade through in my woefully inadequate thirty minutes of prepurchased time.

I had quite the scare two days ago, because after finding out about Princeton, I soon got persistent, localized headaches, nausea, and facial paralysis (on the right side). So I guess this is what it's like to be botoxed. Anyway, after many many tests, scans, various fluids being taken out of me and whisked off to labs around the city, it turns out that this is just a case of a facial nerve inflammation, cause by a rather benign virus. Cause? Probably stress. Couldn't have happened at a better time really, since I haven't been this stress free since summer. Anybody's school out for Christmas already? Mine is, too bad I'll probably be here for a few more days though.

But enough blabbering... I can't wait to find out about all you Yalies! It's... hmm... in approximately four hours, right? Gaaaaaaah... much much luck (not that any of you need it)!

And seriously, what is WRONG with MIT?

Congrats Mark, and yay for a renewed UMich TASP '05 online presence!

I'll read more closely sometime soon, but for now I have to go.

Till later,

Jason

THIS POST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH COLLEGE

Most callipygian TASPers:

I had indeed planned to post next with the news of crushing rejection, disappointing deferral, or mind-blowing acceptance. But alas, I shall not know until tomorrow night. I am going to go see King Kong at the Uptown, either as celebration or comfort, depending on how it goes. I am writing to show you a link that I find to be very true:

http://www.indietits.com/archive/2005_11_01_archive.html

Check out Wednesday, November 9. As some of you may remember, I have a passionate hate for one site on the internet, Wikipedia. You will notice that the comic is about this evil and sinister website. I feel that it perfectly sums up my attempts to make people understand why it is so evil. Also, it reminded me of Charles' koala jokes, which have had remarkable success in every telling.

I take back the title of the post, there is a little about college...
Oh, and in case you haven't heard, there was a Cornell scandal:
One of the undergrads at Cornell hacked the admissions office website and discovered that the decisions were already made, but the link was not activated yet. So, he posted the link to the decisions webiste on collegeconfidential.com (which is almost as evil as Wikipedia) and a bunch of kids found out about their status several days early. It was closed down quickly, but Cornell admitted that there really was a leak, and the news that the kids has gotten was true. I thought this was really amusing, though I can't quite pin down why. Maybe it's because of the slight, "STICK IT TO THE MAN!" flavor, and waiting on notice of EA has made me a little bitter/anxious.

Good night, and good luck.

MIT Decision...TA DA!

Deferred... Disappointing, to say the least. Well, it's time for me to finish up and send out the rest of my apps, so here we go again...

Good luck Yalies! Post already!

go tale it on the mowntehn

I just got back from our choir winter concert. it was only mildly hilarious.
Wait, let me try to describe this a little better. Imagine 60 kids and a director (all in formalwear) none of whom have any experience in jazz or gospel at all attempting to sing a swing version of "go tell it on the mountain". Between the accents on the wrong beats (which is a capitol offense in jazz), the vibrato (another capitol offense) and the gyrations (our director told us to "move to the music") I could barely sing I was trying so hard not to laugh. Oh and we were snapping along with it.

I just realized that the preceding paragraph does a pretty pathetic job of describing the situation. Ah, well. Guess you had to be there.

speaking of gyrating to the music--I was wasting some time the other day on the internet and I was amazed to find out how many websites there were dedicated to our wonderful inspiration Daler Mendhi. Not just mentions of him on music sites, but entire creations produced entirely for the promotion of the dancing genius himself. Check it out. just google "daler mendhi" and see what I mean. (and for the record, he is by far the most photogenic person on the face of the planet [sorry Lisa ;) ]

So I realized yesterday just how much of a target I have painted on my back as drum major. The band is doing secret santas right? so I slave away making cookies for my person and I get to school and find my present with a note on it saying "dear bern- this was a group effort" I open it and what do I find? a box of fricken tampons. dumb band kids.

On a completely different note, I got my grades from EOU today and I found out that I got an unexpected A in Geology. Big news because, with straight a's this term, my gpa is pulled up to a 3.85 which is the cutoff for like 90 percent of the scholarships in my area. ah, the joys of having a teacher who curves.

anyway I'm going to bed soon. still no answer from deep springs.

miss you all

-bern

Distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder...

I think I win the award for the worst UM TASP 2005 blogger ever! It has been far too long since I've been on the blog, and I miss you guys so much. It's very exciting to read about what's going on in all your lives and consoling to know that I'm not the only one completely overwhelmed by the college application process.
Jason! I'm so frickin excited for you! You've finally crossed over to the dark side with the rest of us Red Bull fiends! Oh yea, and I guess Princeton's kind of big news, too. :) In all seriousness, I'm unbelievably happy for you. You truly deserve it. I hope that you'll audition for Katzenjammers; they're the most fabulous a cappella choir at P-ton, in my very humble opinion, and you'd be a great addition to the group!
Last night was the night of my school choral chompany's annual holiday performance. My show choir performed "Eye of the Tiger," "We're Not Gonna Take It" (yes, the obnoxious song by '80s hair-metal band, Twisted Sister), "I Feel the Earth Move," and a medley of Ray Charles songs that I absolutely adore. The show was fantastic, yet extremely sentimental. I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that this is my last year of show choir (I know I'm a big nerd.). I'm honestly going to miss all of the overly-expressive facials, glitter, stage makeup and hair tweezing. I'm sure Lisa would agree with me.
I've decided to audition in February for my school's first musical in ten years, "Once On This Island." It's a twist on the "Little Mermaid" story set in the French Antilles, and if I get a part, it will be my first musical EVER, so Bern, I might need some pointers.
Winter break in Auburn officially begins next Wednesday, but because I'm a senior ('06!!) with all A's (by sheer luck), I'm exempt from taking any midterms and don't have to go
to school Monday or Tuesday. That means look out for more posts!

Good luck to all who are hearing from colleges tomorrow! I'll be thinking of all of you!

Hasta Luego,
Emily J.

*freaking OUT*

Princeton accepted me!

I've been laughing maniacally for the past few minutes.

Well, at least I hope the admissions office staff didn't make a mistake. See, international applicants get their decision e-mailed to them if thus requested, so I have this nagging feeling that perhaps they inadvertently switched names. I'll know for sure when the package arrives in the mail. But whatever, this is not the time for my pessimistic streak to surface.

Because it's basically settled. I applied Early Decision, which is binding, and so I'll be joining you guys in the States next year!

Best of luck to all of you! I know that Charles is waiting for MIT, and that Yale comes out tomorrow.

Till later,

Jason

TASPer historic moments

I heard from Georgetown about EA, and I didn't get in. This will probably be the only rejection letter any of us gets, so write it down on the TASPer historic moments calendar. I guess rejection isn't exactly the right word, I'll be considered for regular decision, but my holiday spirits are slightly dampened.

Ah well, life moves on. The title on the Economist that also came in the mail today was "Don't Despair!" I can't wait to hear about your fabulous acceptances! My school just did a blanket drive with a group called Children of Abraham, and I'm the person who had to organize things, so I'm glad to finally be finished with it. We just sent the blanketes off to be shipped to Pakistan to help victims of the October earthquake there, and today after school we finally drove them to the collection place. Phew!

My Christmas tree fell over yesterday! I can't believe it! We came down stairs this morning and it was all over the living room floor. Thankfully only one ornament broke though, and I think it won't happen again. Missing you all!
Emma

Message Board?

Um, what's the deal with the interTASP message board? Are we allowed to join? Has anybody done so yet?

Anyway . . . I was browsing the IgNobel Prizes again the other day (Thanks again, jsn!). My definite favorite:
http://www.improb.com/ig/1994/1994-math.html

Groetjes,
Sam

pilgrimage to Ann Arbor

Theology finals are coming up so a few people from the class got together to study tonight, and we got talking about how we don't really know what our professor thinks about anything we discuss. So somehow, it came up that we should hear him preach at his church in Ann Arbor where he lives, and someone said, "I would if only I knew where it was or when it started." And since i went there this summer I was like "Campus Chapel, Washtenaw Court, 11.30 am." And we're totally all going to drive over there during J-term to hear him preach! So sometime in January, I will return to our beloved stomping grounds and vist A2. I'm thinking I'll take some pictures of 1322 Hill St. in all of its snowy glory, and maybe I can stop by to see you Adam? I'm so happy!

Hey, look!

I spent a few minutes updating our blog's links section. It's over on the right. The links there represent all the online TASP presences from 2003 onwards that I am aware of. The UT Austin one in 2003 was what initially got me thinking that perhaps TASP would be an interesting program to apply to after all (this was when I first got the brochure). Anyway, the links are definitely worth a distracting moment or two.

Note that some blogs have sort of died out (this is NOT what we want happen to us), while others are still going pretty strong. As far as I can tell, UT Austin 2003, 2004, and Cornell 2004 post pretty regularly.

Of particular interest is UMich TASP 2004. They started off with a message board, then began clamouring for a blog... moved to the blog, and basically stopped posting. Whatever. They don't seem like a very communicative bunch anyway. The point is that their board did work; you can go check it out. So we'll see how it goes with St. Louis TASP 2005 and their board.

Hope all's well,

Till later,

Jason

snow day!

Wooooo! ha! My guess is, Nestor, Samyukta, Chris, Henrik, and probably Meredith and Dylan if you didn't go to boarding schools all had snow days too. So guess how I spent it? Spending seven incredibly long hours at school staring at a computer screen doing newspaper layout. Ick. But we finished it! and it will probably be the best newspaper we've made so far. If you can't tell from this massively incoherent, inarticulate, and ingrammatical post, I really don't care if what I write sounds like a seventh grader and I'm not even thinking about editing. Problem with having a tiny fifteen person newspaper staff: I have to write multiple articles, take all my own pictures , do layout, copy edit, and go get lunch for everyone because very few people on staff can drive. All this on a day when the school declared it unsafe for me to leave my house. I am so thankful that we didn't have school. If we did, I would still be twenty minutes away from leaving the layout room. *big sigh* So how did the rest of you spend your snow day?

"A-NI-ta . . ."

OK, I don't want to drag out the "5 worst christmas songs" discussion again, but I recently came across the worst Christmas recording ever. It's an Anita O'Day and Jack Sheldon live rendition of "The Christmas Waltz" (which is actually a really nice Christmas song when you hear a version other than this one). The song itself is pretty weak, with syrupy, overdone vocals and a fairly staid backup line, but it is the corny and rather offensive banter that occupies the last QUARTER of the track that distinguishes it. A selection, transcribed by me:

"A-NI-ta, can I have this dance?"

"I don't know. Only if you're a good boy, Jack."

"Remember last Christmas?"

"Heh heh. (yes, people "heh heh"!). I sure do."

"We danced together till the wee hours."

"And I told you to be a good boy then, too."

"I was, I was! Don't you remember the next day (comment deleted to preserve innocent minds and spare you a really bad joke)?"

. . .

"Anita, you are my sugar."


*retches in disgust*

Just imagine, somebody recorded this and actually put it onto a compilation of great Christmas jazz . . . I've almost come to agree with John Sinclair about the state of the music industry.


I sang with the school choir in a multi-choir Christmas concert this evening. Contrary to frantic, last-minute expectations, we performed respectably, although we were rather overshadowed by the massive choir of largely British adults that our school music director runs on the side. In conjunction with the decidedly British cast of the evening, they served mulled wine and mince pies during intermission. Mince pie (which I hadn't tasted before this evening) could be renamed fruitcake pie with some accuracy, I have decided.

Top 5 Christmas stories:

5. A Bum's Christmas - H.L. Mencken
4. Mr. K*A*P*L*A*N and the Magi - Leo Rosten
3. The Kid Hangs up his Stocking - Jacob Riis
2. A Christmas Memory - Truman Capote
1. A Child's Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas


Merrily yours,

Sam

In a dreamy mood

So I am currently listening to the most beutiful song ever recorded in a live session
not only is "on the other hand" a latin jazz groove by michel camilo--seriously the greatest pianist ever to walk the face of the earth, but he puts these gospel chords right in the middle and they are indescribably wonderful.

Just got out of the most boring day of my life. we had a 8 hour jazz workshop with the kids from our rival school. call me a pigheaded nonintermixing jerkwad, but I fail to see the musical value in 7 trumpets all trying to prove that they can play better and higher than the others. on the plus side, because we had no regular schedule, we had like an hour and a half lunch, so we all piled into my car and went out together with grateful dead blaring in the speakers. it was a nice change

So I'm really sorry to bring this up again, but...



PIRATE PICK-UP LINES!!!

how about we get together and haul some keel?

you can walk my plank

mind scraping the barnacles off my rudder?

want to board the ship and navigate some exotic waters?



Yeah I apologize to all those innocent minds I just corrupted. those are pretty bad.


top 5 christmas songs that get REALLY old REALLY fast. (and therefore should never be played before the 20th)

5-up on the house top
4-santa clause is coming to town
3-have yourself a merry little christmas
2-trepak (from nutcracker)

and a clear winner

1-carol of the bells

miss you all

-Bern

Impressions of Cambridge

Hey everybody!

I got back yesterday from my interviews for Cambridge University. I hope the pictures don't make someone's computer throw a tantrum (you see, they weren't particularly interesting so I decided not to clutter up the photobucket). Stuff that happened along with random observations from in the two-ish days I was there. :

Drank Red Bull for the first time. Four cans of it... urgh. I needed something to counteract my immense lack of sleep on Monday, keep me alert for interviews and TSA (essentially a meaner version of the SAT Reasoning Test) on Tuesday, and make sure I didn't miss my 4:30AM airport shuttle on Wednesday.

It looks like one of the St. Louis TASPers was also in Cambridge in the past few days! *waves*... which college and subject did you apply to/for? I'm hoping to get in for engineering at Emmanuel College... but feeling a little uneasy about my chances of acceptance. Didn't quite manage to answer a question in one of the interviews that was, in retrospect, astoundingly simple.

Most Cambridge colleges seem to hide behind deceptively small and grotty main entrances that look like little holes in the wall but actually open out onto beautiful courtyards and chapels. Emmanuel is a good example of that. This (I think) is the college chapel:
















Exceptions include King's and Trinity Colleges, which have some really beautiful, but in-your-face, facades. This one is the King's College main entrance:





















A rather accurate analogy, old-school SAT style:

squirrels :: University of Michigan
ducks :: Emmanuel College















They're startlingly FAT, run around everywhere in the gardens, and probably have more rights than students. Actually, a fourth-year student there said there was an official rule forbidding people from eating them. I think the need for it is a little ridiculous (and downright creepy, actually). Oh, and they get their own page on the college's website.

I met up with two friends from my school who were also in town for interviews, and we somehow ended up in one of our rooms with a fourth-year Emmanuel student, randomly arguing and snacking on Pringles.
















I guess the guy was lonely (term ended last week, most students were gone). Anyway, the whole discussion reminded me of TASP, except that the points raised weren't nearly as interesting, persuasive, or eloquently expressed as those we enjoyed on so many occasions in the six summer weeks of TASP... brief bout of nostalgia there.

Here's me in the room I was assigned.


















And a view of North Court from the window.

















Anyway, I'm happy with the whole trip. It was tiring and stressful, but also immensely fun.

It seems as though there's been some inter-TASP communication going on. Has anyone considered talking to the UT Austin people? Hmmm unfortunately... their livejournal is updated woefully infrequently. And I guess Cornell just sort of fragmented into groups and went their own ways. Unless there's a Cornell blog that we just haven't found.

It looks like most of you guys are having a good time waiting for the holidays. Early application decisions are coming out terrifyingly soon. I'm tired. So thankfully, today's a holiday.

Take care everyone!

Till later,

Jason

PS. Emily, Red Bull is fiendishly effective. I don't know whether it's all in my mind or due to the overload of sugar and caffeine, but whatever it is, it's scarily good at keeping me alert. Hope I won't have to resort to using Red Bull again. Ever.

bass is best

So pretty much yesterday was the best Monday of my week so far. After dropping my bassoon (that part wasn't so great...), I skipped Youth Symphony rehearsal and went to a Victor Wooten concert. Basically, he's the best bassist alive. (On a side note, one of the benefits of taking a couple college classes is that I get tickets for about a third the price I normally would.) I honestly don't know how many hands he has. Probably something like this:

Plus all of his brothers were there. Just a few highlights: Reggie picking his guitar with his tongue, Rudy playing two saxophones at once and circular breathing, Victor playing the most amazing funk rendition of Amazing Grace. Occasionally their stage tricks got a bit too crazy, but mostly it was sweet. Oh, and after the foUrty-five minute encore, they threw drumsticks out into the audience and I caught one. I have never seen a more beat up piece of wood in my life.

P.S. has anyone heard of Sigur Ros? They're coming to town soon, and I'm wondering if I should go.

The reason for m y flooded inbox:

(after I cleverly fooled all of you)

On 12/6/05, Jimmy Jin wrote:
Greetings from St. Louis TASP.

:)

I hope your inbox is large!
-Jimmy

Ho ho ho.

Checking in

So the play is officially over, *breaths sigh of exhaustion*

It was actually way more fun than I thought it would be. Its amazing how much easier it is to do something with an audience. First night was so much better than any of our rehearsals it was scary. Second went even better than the first—we had the audience rolling in the aisles. I kinda sucked it up last night cause the girl I alluded to a few posts back was there and I was nervous as hell. Ah well, I suppose everybody has their middle school moments. The rest of the cast did fine. After last night we all trooped down to the bowling alley for a cast party. Halfway through the night I rolled a series that went X-X-9-X-X-X. No shit. Double, nine, turkey. I was like “dear god, what is with bern suddenly looking like he knows how to bowl?” It was a fun night.

Sam, in answer to your question, I was laughing at the fact that the commonapp people give “extracurricular activities” categories like “musician” and then expect you to explain that activity in a STATIC box that is an inch and a half long. Uh, lets see—four instruments that I play in 3 orchestras, one wind band and two jazz bands not to mention two years teaching lessons and six playing freelance gigs. I’m not even sure you could fit that with IM shorthand “3rkstrs,1bnd, 2jzb….”

Anyway my life has suddenly gone from being insanely busy to being empty [my college classes just got out too] so I will probably be posting more often.

Should be expecting an answer on whether I made first cut for Deep Springs any day now. Wish me luck.

miss you all

bern

Utah, Blockhead, and Jamrock

On the Christmas Song tip...

(To the tune of Jingle Bells)

Walking down the aisle, with an empty pocketbook,
I can't afford to buy, so I'll just have to look,
Bells on registers ring, making me uptight,
I guess I'll have to go and rob a liquor store tonight!

Chorus;
Stick 'em up, stick 'em up, Christmas should be free,
I can't beat inflation, but inflation won't beat me!

Last night saw Utah Phillips do his thing...an old time hobo rambler and IWW union man, anarchist folk singer, song-writer, and story-teller, he's a piece of living American history. Heard that gem along with plenty of jokes and genially dirty stories interspersed throughout his sing-along concert. Guy's a true classic.

Downtown Science, an instrumental hip hop album by Blockhead (phenomenal producer and beatcrafter extraordinaire) has been in fairly consant rotation recently. Much recommended for some chill tunes.

Just heard Damian Marley's new album Welcome to Jamrock. Impressive. If any of ya'll are into Reggae, this is where it's at. Real powerful, hard-hitting old school reggae rhythms and some remarkable passion and intensity in the lyrical section.

Hmmm... so that's some music, among a great deal. Tuneskies are too plentiful, as always.

Hope all is well for all of you.

Peace.

Isaac

haircut!

I got my hair cut for the first time since the big shave. Of course it was just about half a milimeter off the back to prevent it from turning into a mullet/rat tail. I would've taken a picture, but my camera seems to be lost at the moment. One of these days I'll do a bunch of different styles and put them on the photobucket. Until then, be cool and don't trust Samyukta!

Shalom.

Chek dis out chiquitas, (and chiquitos)

http://www.crushcalculator.com/content/love/461895793

Mucho fun.



Ain't me espanol simply incredibilo?

Speaking of Christmas lights

http://media.putfile.com/WizardsofWinter-SM

Taking musicking to a whole new level . . .


Sam

More Christmas-ing

Today for me has been chock full of Christmas preparations, namely hanging lights all over our house. We went out to replace some old lights and we found the most amazing decoration ever: LED light rope! Think this: http://lights4fun.co.uk/rope-lights/1782.html in bright red. Soooo cool. No more bulb breakage or replacement, and it just looks much better. Unfortunately, it was extremely cold outside and halfway through our session, it started raining. Suffice to say, climbing a wet ladder is not my idea of a good time. However, the lights look quite good this year, if I do say so myself. In fitting with the Christmas theme, I'm listening to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker the whole way through right now. It's perfect for getting oneself into the Christmas mood. And then I found ten dollars

Dreaming of sugar plum fairies,
-Charles

PS: Just to make Matt Slayton jealous, I'm going to see Gil Shaham playing with the St. Louis Symphony in January, and I'm so excited! For everyone else, that's the violinist playing the solo part on my song in the favorites CD. He's pretty durn good.
PPS: http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/xmaslights.asp

home alone and feeling nostalgic

Do you remember in fifth grade when your parents started leaving you home alone and how much you hated it? Okay, maybe this is a phenomenon unique to youngest children or maybe even just me, but that sentiment has long since croaked. I love being home alone. Today I slept in until 9.30 (delicious--oh! that reminds me of Meri's shake bag) and proceeded to read for an hour, go for a long walk, spend an hour and a half wasting a can of tomato paste and preparing a terribly disappointing meal, eat chocolates and peppermints and oranges--winter's three wonderful flavors, read some more, write a letter, go for another long walk to post the letter, come home, make tea, and read the blog. In the process of finding my friend's address to write on the letter, I dug up the old Callipygian and ended up reading it all the way through. Rid and Dylan, that history still gives me chills it's so beautiful and funny. Even now that everyone's back home I feel so happy. What a frabjous day! hoping you all feel the same (and it sounds like Sam at least does!),

Emma

God Rest ye Merry TASPers

1. Silent Night - Pat Donohue and Jim Beal (as played on Prairie Home Companion)
2. Skating - Vince Guaraldi
3. Christmastime is Here (instrumental) - Vince Guaraldi
4. Riu, Riu, Chiu; E la Don, Don, Verges Maria - Waverly Consort
5. Carol of the Bells - Mannheim Steamroller

We got our (real) Christmas tree this morning (yay!). And I've been enjoying our killer collection of Christmas music - I think a sixth to an eighth of my dad's record collection is Christmas stuff. Hence the top 5. I have decided jazz is especially accessible when Christmas-themed; as a relatively untrained listener, I have a tough time distinguishing the basic melody of many jazz tunes, especially because most recordings are 90% solos. Christmas music, on the other hand, is completely recognizable, and I can really appreciate the artists' embellishments.

I performed "Big Chief" with the jazz band last night. It was pretty sweet.

The Duke Supplement has this optional section where you put in "a short description of any significant research activity you have participated in outside of school," so I dug up my TASP paper and recapped the main points. This got me going on a nostalgia trip, so I went back to the good ol' Living Music website and read Nestor and Isaac's interview with John Sinclair. Man, I'd forgotten just how crazy he was - and yet at the same time, so funny. One of these days, somebody's bound to do a little TV or magazine spot on him or something, and we'll all be like "I met that guy!"

Strangely, I don't feel very loquacious (can that apply to blog posts?) tonight. Maybe sleep deprivation is finally setting in. Maybe I've just eaten too many neon-green and -blue gummy dolphins.

Contemplatively yours,

Sam

PS: Bern, what was it those witty Common App folks slipped into their application to make you laugh?

Busy Schedule

I just had a meeting with my guidance counselor to pick out my class list for next semester...all I can say is whoa, I'm gonna have to manage my time wisely.

1st: Downtown Science
2nd: Corporate Fraud
3rd: Trash Talking
4th: Jazz Welding
5th: Kung-Fu Poetry
6th: Careers in Awesome

I'm still undecided about a possible 0 per. I'm stuck between Controlling the Economy and an independent study in Coups D'etats and You. Any Advice? Let me know. Hope all is well with all of you.

Peace.

Isaac

UMich wants me!

My first US acceptance.

I'm so psyched!

*happy dance*

:D

Jason

Scrubs Mania

How many of you watch Scrubs? One of my friends has started lending me the dvds (whizzed through the second season in the last two days, eagerly awaiting season one), and basically, I'm hooked. So funny, bizarre, immature, and yet poignant in places.

Anyway, one of the first (and best) episodes of season two has this a cappella group singing the theme song for "Charles in Charge" (apparently a sitcom I've never heard of). And so I just had to post.

Hope all's well.

Jason

MORTAL COMBAT!!!

Dearest TASPers:

I have concluded, after some contemplation, that we are not gracing more of the brochure because our radiant pulchritudinousness was too overwhelming for its pages. So that resolves all of that.

Also, I posted new photos on the photobucket. I'm particularly fond of the one of me rolling down a hill. There's a pretty classic video of about eight other girls running down and starting to roll down with me, starting about 10 seconds after the photo was taken.

Also, I am currently engaged in an epic battle with the College Counseling Office and College Board. They think my college list is too top heavy, and I need to drop off a couple of the more selective schools on my list. Last time I went in and he said that, I said, "No, college counselor! Fear my kung fu moves! MORTAL COMBAT!" And we both flipped a shit and started slow-mo mortal combatting each other, just right there in his office. You know how these things go.

Also, much to my chagrin, I was forced to shop at the Corporate Machine that is...Walmart. As I sat in the McDonald's in the very front of the store, I thought, "This, right here, is America: a McDonald's in a Super Walmart." Anyway, I was forced to be there because I needed to pick up supplies for dorm angeling, and Walmart is the only place readily available. We do this thing called "angeling" during exam week, where each person is a assigned, secretly, a mortal to do nice things for in the three days of exam week. We wanted it to be low cost, so we bought a bunch of candy and decorating supplies. Other gifts include dates to EP(the social center on Tuesday night) with the entire soccer team, being serenaded by the male a capella group, the Exeteras, and breakfast in bed. Stuff like that. It's really neat, and the thought of the joy it would bring people almost assauged my guilt of supporting a chain with such abysmal labor policies and a tendency to destroy small businesses.
Apropos, we're discussing ethical and moral conflict in Philosophy class. Perhaps I'll post the case study we were doing later.

Top Five Songs that Remind Me of College:
1. Mortal Combat
2. We Didn't Go to Harvard - Cayuga's Waiters
3. Let's Get Retarded - Black Eyed Peas
4. Genius - Kings of Leon
5. What Do You Do With a B.A. in English? - Avenue Q