AEJ and I made steaks on the grill tonight. Always fun and delicious. Gotta have the charcoal chimney…

Hot coals now.

And then the steaks. New York Strips with an “ale house” marinade: beer (we used a bottle of Sam Adams that Newman bought when he was here earlier in the spring), Spicy V8, Worchestershire, fresh thyme and oregano, garlic, and Tobasco. Awe. Some.

Oh, and I sent my 10-22mm lens to Canon for a second repair attempt a few weeks ago, and I got it back today. I think the second time was the charm. This is a fun, freaky lens. And look! It’s a cloud in the SoCal sky! I’m told it rained yesterday morning. The largest total  nearby was in Pasadena: 0.02″. And that’s the first rain in literally months. I have to say that I kind of miss a good ol’ summer thunderstorm.

Great — big! — news! The United States Navy Band in Washington (that’s the big one!) has joined the consortium for the Soprano Sax concerto. Timothy Roberts, the soloist with the ensemble, will lead their premiere in January at the 2008 International Saxophone Symposium just outside of DC. This is all insane. It means that the piece will receive a premiere not just with the Navy Band, but with their guy as the soloist, and in front of an audience including 1200 saxophonists from all over the world. No pressure on this piece at all.

In the mother of all conflicts, I’ll be missing the performance because I’m getting married that weekend. Sorry, Tim! Maybe I should send my dad, a former member of one of the Navy bands, in my place. (Come to think of it, maybe my dad should come to the wedding instead.)

Speaking of the Navy Band… they performed “Strange Humors” on the Capitol House Steps a few months ago. The group is performing at Midwest in December, and they requested permission to perform “Strange Humors” there as well — and Midwest denied the request, because another school performed the same piece at Midwest last year. I hate you, Midwest.

I’ve been orchestrating movement 2, “Felt,” for a few days. It’s going fine, but this kind of detail work takes a long time. I’m on page 22 of the short score, with 20 pages to go. I think I just finished the most dense part, so hopefully things will move along a little more quickly now.

I took a little break a few minutes ago to take a picture at my desk. Our neighbors brought us two oranges from the Hollywood Farmers’ Market yesterday, and rather than eat them, AEJ made them into a sort of orange snowman (an orangeman?) in my pencil holder. Isn’t it… cute?

I think I’m done working for today. 12 hours is plenty, and my shoulder hurts. I need a cookie.

Every morning, I wake up with music in my head. It’s never original music — it’s pretty much always just a random pop song. Now, it would be useful if I woke up with new music — by me! — in my head, but no. I do occasionally dream new music, but I never remember it. There was the time in high school when I woke up in the morning with a melody in my head, convinced I had written something brilliant in my sleep. It turned out to be the Saint-Saens Second Piano Concerto, so in fact it was neither original nor brilliant.

I’ve often thought I should keep a pad and pencil next to the bed, just to write down the pop songs that are in my head each morning. I thought it would be interesting to see, even though I’m sure there’s no relevance to any particular song. At least I hope not. This morning, I woke up with Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen” in my head.