I’m back from the post office, where I just mailed all of my materials for consideration on the next Texas UIL “Prescribed Music List.” For those who don’t know, the state of Texas has a big list of music — band music, orchestra music, solo and ensemble music — and schools can choose any of the music on The List to perform at Solo & Ensemble contest each year. My understanding is that schools can play what they want during the year within their own school, but performing it at “Contest” requires that it either be on this list, or that special permission be granted on a piece-by-piece basis. Schools are simply more likely to play something in the first place if they have the option of also playing it at the contest.

Last year, Grapevine High School — consortium member for “Turning” — applied for special permission to perform “Redline Tango” at their area contest. That request went before the UIL board, they voted, and it was determined that Grapevine was allowed to perform it — but only Grapevine. See, the UIL board has several options when a school makes a special request like that. They can say no, they can say yes — but just for you and just once, or they can say yes and add the piece to the Supplemental List, meaning that it’s basically added officially to The List. “Redline Tango” was only approved as a one-off, meaning that anybody who wanted to play it this year at contest had to again apply for special permission.

The good news is that every four years, The List is redone, and right now is when the committee is going through materials to decide what will go on the next list. I sent in four pieces — “Redline Tango,” “Strange Humors,” and “Turbine,” all for wind ensemble, and “Mass” for percussion ensemble. The whole process ended up being pretty expensive. All members of the committee are to receive a package with each score and a recording, which meant making eight copies of each of the three band pieces (but fortunately only one copy of the percussion ensemble piece). I put everything on nice, heavy paper, which added a considerable surcharge. (My thinking on that is that even though I’m self-published, the materials need to look good — and “legit” — not like I’m selling them out of my garage.) With binding, the copying bill was $150, plus $80 for postage.

Nearly $250 is a chunk of change for photocopying and postage, but if even one piece ends up on The List, it opens up a lot of performance (that is, rental/sale) opportunities. That’s a big “if,” for sure, but it’s like the lottery. You can’t win if you don’t play.

In other news… It looks like Jerry Junkin is doing “Redline Tango” at the University of Texas on, of all days, October 1 — my birthday. I’d sure love to attend that concert. A few days later, Sarah McKoin is doing “Turbine” at Texas Tech, and there is a chance I’ll be at that one. That’d be fun. Well, except for the travel. Who would have guessed that flying was going to be even less-pleasant this fall than it has been?

I’m at, I guess, the mid-way point in changing my hair. My new hair guy (I never call him “my stylist” — what straight guy says “my hair stylist?”) thinks I would look good with longer hair. Not, like, “making a statement” long hair, but longer than I’ve had it since, like, high school, when I was the dorkiest person you’ve ever seen.

The problem with this change is that the current length is driving me crazy. I used to get my hair cut every 4 weeks, and after 3 weeks, it was already bothering me. It’s now been about 3 months since I had a major cut, and my hair is in that in-between stage where I don’t know what to do with it. It looks… like I work in an office.

So, I keep trying to make it look “cool,” and I just can’t. I’m hoping by mid-September, when I start traveling heavily, that it’ll be where it’s supposed to be, and my Hair Guy can shape it the way he’s envisioning. I trust him — he does hair for the Go-Go’s, after all (I kid you not) — but I wish my hair would hurry up and grow already. Because I’m just about to buy khakis, some bad dress shoes, a stain-resistant short-sleeved dress shirt, and a tie from Mervyn’s, just to complete my current look.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written an entry, and a lot has happened, so now there’s much to choose from for the main gist. I could write about the awful traveling itself — including a return flight that took 15 hours — or I could write about the two concerts, or Newman’s birthday, or the yummy meals, or the fun antiquing and our purchases, or the gawd-awful weather in NYC when we were there… Let’s just start at the beginning.

The flight from LAX to JFK was delayed by two hours. That, at the time, seemed annoying, but would pale in comparison to the 15 hour return trip. (Did I mention it was 15 hours?) Due to the delay out of LAX, a lot of people were going standby on other flights, opening up a lot of seats on our American flight. We asked to be upgraded to standby for business class, but Elizabeth Amador, the evil cow American Airlines employee (I believe she has won “Evil Cow Employee of the Month” at American every month for the past 47 years), told us that we weren’t allowed to be upgraded because we’d purchased our tickets with frequent-flyer miles. It didn’t matter that three business class seats remained completely empty on the entire flight. That’s fine, I guess, but Elizabeth Amador was really nasty and bitchy to me and AEJ. Like, unnecessarily so. You, Elizabeth Amador, employee of American Airlines, are a nasty, evil cow. But I digress.

The flight was fine, albeit two hours delayed. Oh, except that the flight attendants knocked a tray of nearly-empty cocktail glasses from first class onto the floor in front of us, splashing cocktail backwash, melted ice, squeezed limes, and shards of broken glass all over us. They, admittedly, were extremely apologetic, giving us a voucher for dry cleaning, a $25 gift certificate for SkyMall (hooray — now we can finally get a break on one of those American Airlines-branded travel pillows), and a free bottle of wine, which we re-gifted to Newman for his birthday. They also gave AEJ a can of her favorite beverage.

Upon our late arrival at JFK, we were greeted by, I kid you not, a comedically large and unfathomably stinky pile of human vomit next to baggage claim. It was as if NYC was saying, “welcome back.” I wanted to take a picture, but AEJ pointed out that I’d have to get close to the vomit, and it reeked quite strongly from 25 feet away, so I left it alone. Your loss.

Newman was gracious enough to pick us up at the airport and bring us back to his place for the night. The next morning, we got up and headed out for breakfast. I had huevos rancheros at a local diner — the diner, reportedly, that inspired the musical “Rent.” Being a huge fan of “Rent” * , I found this incredibly inspiring, and broke into song right there, belting out a heartfelt ditty about my unrequited love for cheese, eggs, salsa, and chips. Sadly, the Pulitzer committee was nowhere to be seen.

* By “huge fan” I mean “I hate that stupid overrated show.”

On the way back to Newman’s, we saw some art.

That afternoon, we drove the three+ hours from NYC up to the Newman Family Compound® in Williamstown. I love going there. It’s this lovely house up on a hill, overlooking a valley full of cows. There’s also great biking. Oh, and nearby, a funny restaurant called the Dakota Steakhouse. We had dinner there that night. In a bizarre turn, a bear tried to attack Newman while we waited to be seated.

AEJ came to the rescue.

Dinner was tasty, but it was dark, so none of those photos of steak, potatoes, and beet salad turned out. (It sounds better than it looked anyway.) The next day, I had a performance at Mass MoCA, as part of the Bang on a Can summer festival. Cristhian Rodriguez, a clarinetist from the University of Miami who had played in the wind ensemble when Gary Green conducted “Redline Tango” this spring, performed two of my pieces at the Mass MoCA festival: “Damn” and “Breakdown Tango.” By chance, I was there for his performance last Thursday of “Breakdown Tango.” Here’s the group rehearsing in the gallery before the concert. I want all of my performances under spacecraft. That would rule.

And here they are in performance. The concert was a lot of fun. Thanks a lot, Cristhian, for playing it! You guys were great.

After the concert, we went to lunch at this diner.

I ordered a hot dog, but what I got was perhaps the most risque-looking lunch I’ve ever consumed. I think it’s the angle.

That night, on my way to rehearsal at Tanglewood, we all went to Friendly’s for dinner. I grew up loving this place, primarily for their ice cream. (Their trademark sandwich, the Fishamajig ®, is pretty special, too: tender fried cod, topped with melted American cheese and tartar sauce, served between two slices of buttered, grilled bread.) This Friendly’s mounted their Muzak satellite dish outside, like a beacon of musical good taste. How do you spell delicious? M-U-Z-A-K.

While we waited a seeming eternity for our buffalo chicken wraps, AEJ made this for me on her place mat. I think the flag is an excellent touch. I salute you, Friendly’s.

What’s cuter than a sundae that looks like a little monster? Well, not much. How Melissa ate this, I can’t imagine, but I’m thinking perhaps she has no soul.

Rehearsal that night was great. Bob Reynolds was doing “Redline Tango” in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood with the BUTI (Boston University Tanglewood Institute) wind ensemble. Holy crap, they were the best high school-age group I’ve ever heard anywhere.

The next morning: breakfast!

And that night, before the big Tanglewood concert, we had a great dinner in Lenox, MA. We started with tasty (and pretty) cocktails. Cheers.

The appetizer : this fantastic sashimi-style tuna.

I had better pictures of my entree, the cornish hen, but this picture made me laugh, and felt somehow related to my previous hot dog photo.

It was, we can’t forget, Jonathan Newman’s birthday. Happy b-day, Newm.

The concert that night was one of the best performances I’ve ever heard of Redline Tango — and these were high school players. Yes, they’re among the best high school musicians in the country, and when you put Bob Reynolds in front of them, it shouldn’t be too surprising that they would sound this good. But I was still blown away. I’ve heard dozens of performances of the piece, but this one was the first that I can remember that actually got me a little misty-eyed. But if you tell anybody that, I will find you, and I will
kick your ass.

That night, back at Newman’s, there was a birthday cake — complete with two cards, one from me and AEJ, and, miraculously, one from Loki, our cat. He’s so thoughtful.

Mmm… CAKE!

On Sunday, we went antiquing. AEJ and I got some good stuff — that’s an entry of its own — and we also just had fun looking at things. Like this creepy little stroller for the dead baby you keep in your attic.

It wasn’t all shopping and eating and concerts. No, sir, we also played games — like Clue! Things got a little out of hand, though, as Mrs. Peacock and Mrs. White… well… It’s legal in Massachusetts.

Here, the Clue gang, and Newman in the background, seem to be judging you — maybe because you keep a dead baby in your attic. Freak.

So, that was basically the trip. We did spend about 24 hours in NYC — where it was 100 humid degrees (it was NYC’s way of saying, “thanks for comin’ – now get the hell out”) — and then spent 7 hours at the airport as American Airlines repeatedly delayed our flight. The moral here : American Airlines sucks. Oh, and Friendly’s is fun but makes you feel barfy; Bob Reynolds is awesome; NYC in late July is hot and kind of awful; and close-up pictures of Clue figurines are funny.