I’m back from Florida State, and it was an absolutely incredible trip. One of the best. The problem is that I just got back on Saturday afternoon, slept most of the day, and today, I’ve been frantically revising the “Turbine” parts to reflect the changes that I made during the FSU rehearsals. Nothing huge — a new doubling during the tune at one point to help with balance; revising an awkward color shift that never really worked; clarifying a few percussion instrument options… Together, the changes take a while, though. I also made a huge print job and sent it off to my copy shop in anticipation of TMEA next week. Shattinger Music, the only place to purchase my music if you don’t get it directly from me, will be exhibiting at TMEA for the first time this year, and they’ve ordered 10 copies of each score. Add to this the fact that I’m completely out of sets of both “Turbine” and “Redline Tango,” and orders are pending on several rentals — meaning I had to request newly printed full sets of parts, too. It’s all worked out to be a print job of 15 sets of parts and 50 scores — and many hundreds of dollars, and who-knows-how-many pounds. My wussy arms aren’t going to be able to carry those boxes.

The rush is because my mother is coming to visit tomorrow morning, and staying until Thursday — the same day that I leave again. So, today was really my only day to catch up on things before I leave for 10 days. This is all my way of trying to explain why I can’t yet write The Tale of Turbine and Strange Humors (and Newman) at Florida State. For now, I’ll just direct you to the newly-posted, 100% live recording — that’s right; not a single edit — of Rick Clary’s unbefrackinglievable performance of “Turbine” from Friday night. Seriously. If you’ve only ever heard the studio recording of “Turbine,” you need to hear this. When the ensemble made me start tearing up on stage at the end of the rehearsal on Wednesday (I swear, it must have been an allergy or something), I knew the concert was going to be good. See for yourself. I mean, just check out the French horns! Do you hear that insane rip up to the high D in the penultimate bar?!

What’s incredible is that they’re going to perform it again in a few weeks at FSU, and then, a month after that — after another month of even more preparation and tweaking — they’re going to perform it at the CBDNA convention in Ann Arbor. Holy christ, that’s going to be incredible.

So, pictures will come another day. For now, crank up the MP3, and take a look at the poster that FSU conducting student Nikk Pilato made for the concert. One of his best, I think. And yes, if you look really closely, you’ll see the numbers from “Lost” inside the actual turbine. Oh, and Rick Clary’s head.

I read today that Victoria Beckham — a new resident of LA — won’t become a Scientologist because, as she put it, “there’s no way I’d spend any money on that nonsense.” That’s right. She won’t become a Scientologist, at least partially because it’s a rip-off. She feels the same way about Kabbala: too expensive. (Kabbala bracelets are nearly $30.)

She was, however, willing to pay $44,000 to have her teeth whitened. Learning of her sense of priorities, AEJ and I have to say that we now find her a bit more appealing than we did in the past. Plus, her husband has a good haircut.

I’m off to FSU tomorrow for performances of “Turbine” and “Strange Humors.” The program also includes Jonathan Newman’s piece, “As the Scent of Spring Rain.” Full report to follow!

AEJ and I made homemade beef teriyaki for dinner last night. Holy damn, it was tasty.

On Tuesday, I fly to Florida State to work with Rick Clary on Friday’s performance of “Turbine.” I’m pretty optimistic that this’ll be a great show. Rick and his wife are putting me up while I’m there, and I’m sure that’ll be a good time.

The forecast is for rain in LA today. It seemed like it had been quite a while since any “significant” rainfall here, and this morning on the radio, it was claimed that it hasn’t rained any truly measurable amount since July 1. Yeah, July 1.

Really, I got nothin’ today. It’s a totally gray day, and I’d rather be playing Zelda.