GCTT 2009!

One of my favorite things about my visit to Arizona was my week long stay with my dear old roommate and best buddy Jill.
Jill and I first became roommates when we both moved to Arizona 6 years ago. We didn't meet until the day we moved into our shared bedroom in the Smoke House on Alma School Road (named thus because of the smoke that came in through the vents from our smoking neighbors). We quickly bonded over our shared depression upon leaving Provo and soon became hilarious pals. Jill and I were room roommates for 4 years and not a day passed that didn't involve some sort of hilarious antic. There is something about Jill that inspires true spazziness in me and our week long reunion was full of spaz in epic proportions...

One of my favorite moments occurred the last night that I was there. Jill's roommate Amanda has within her possession the largest candy collection of all time. She has an entire shelf dedicated to treats, yes we too became fast friends or candy soul mates if you will. She has bins full of candy, fruit snacks, soda, salty treats and much more, it was a candy addict's (i.e. me) dream come true. On the final eve of Jill/Angela Fabfest we were sitting around eating haribo gummi bears and I innocently asked Jill which of the gummi bear flavors was her favorite. Fifteen minutes later, with the help of Amanda and her boyfriend Dave, we had assembled the Great Candy Taste Test 2009. The concept was simple: carefully taste each flavor of candy and then list the order of preference. We tested at least five different candy flavors and the results were astonishing! Flavors that I loved, the others hated and vice versa. I would never have thought that taste buds could vary so much. It really made me rethink the abolishment of yellow starbursts, and the wisdom of eating so much candy. Despite cleansing our palate's with milk between each flavor, we all became very ill and I had to abstain from candy for the next few days...
ok...hours...

Here is the documentation for posterity:)

My score sheet


Dave, Amanda, and Jill displaying the GCTT '09 set up


Thanks Jill and Amanda for a truly fun week!

Essay: On My Summer Vacation I...

Welcome back to me! I haven't blogged lately because I have been dabbling in the land of Java, otherwise known as taking a 3 week summer course in Southeast Asian Music. I had to finish my last music history class for my doctorate so I took a month off of teaching and ran off to Phoenix. Although I missed Adam dreadfully, I had so much fun in Arizona!
My class was hilarious! The only 3 week course that was offered was Southeast Asian Music. At first I was kind of disappointed because I didn't think I would learn anything of worth, but it turned out to be totally awesome. My class was mostly about the music of Central Java, an island in Indonesia, and specifically the gamelan. Ah the gamelan...
If you are anything like me you have no idea what a gamelan is, well it is ensemble that is made up of gongs, sarons, kepuls, ketuks, bonangs, pekings, genders, and many more crazy named instruments. Basically its kettle drums, various-sized gongs, and xylophones that you hit with beaters.
My typical class day consisted of one hour of lecture and another hour of me banging around on funny instruments and laughing my head off. It was a blast!
I've included some pictures to give you an idea of the fun!

This is after class was over one day, my teacher is in the middle. He has just finished yelling at me because I was playing the gong standing up. Apparently you are not allowed to play the gong standing in Java, even if your knees are bleeding from kneeling on the carpet...


Here is the illustrious gong, and my new haircut!