Lights in Salt Lake

I was up in Salt Lake the other day to check out the lights on Temple Square. On the drive up there, the sky decided to start raining and it never ceased for the entire evening until it was time to head back home. Despite the chilly, wet evening, it was a wonderful place to be to start off the holiday season.

The lights were absolutely beautiful and exceptionally radiant because of the dark, damp weather. Still, one light shined far brighter than the rest. The Salt Lake Temple. It is the focal point of Temple Square. It's spires reach towards the heavens. It causes the human eye to reject it's natural vision of a downward gaze, to look up and contemplate the larger, more eternal scale of things. It brings immediate peace where anxiety, stress and fear abound.

After all, this is a season of peace and joy. A time when we can forget about ourselves, our problems and our troubles and focus on serving those around us. It's a time of hope, knowing that no matter how bad things get, there is still a Greater Being that watches over us and loves us more than we can comprehend. It is a time to remember the ultimate sign of hope that we have been given by a loving Heavenly Father, that of His Son, Jesus Christ.

May this Christmas bring you the peace for which you are searching.

Book on Tape Worm

A few months back, I had the opportunity to record some horn parts for a local band called Book on Tape Worm. It was a fun experience and I love doing that kind of stuff. Just recently, they put out a video on the website to promote their new album. The video features many moments in their journey to create an album. It's a really nice video and it shows me for 2 seconds of the 3 minutes and 29 seconds recording! How awesome is that?

Here it is! Watch it!

I am spotted playing my horn at 2 minutes and 9 seconds.

I feel so cool being in a music video.

Back to School: Take Two

The second first day of school was a lot like the first first day of school. Only this time, I leaned a little more into it.

I think it's going to be a great semester.

Back to School

Check off the first-day-of-school box.

Check off the first-day-of-teaching box.

Oh wait... They're the same box.

Sight Singing hasn't seen anything like this before.

Brace yourself Music Dictation.

I'll see you tomorrow.

The Bachelorette

I watched the Bachelorette this season, just like I watched it last season. I'm happy to report that I didn't get into it myself. All it took was the gentle coaxing of pretty ladies and all the sudden I'm a fan. I'll admit that this season was pretty good. Last season wasn't that great and left me wondering whether I would ever watch it again. 

This show is my dose of drama in my life. I don't know how some people manage to have so much drama in their lives, but I just don't have any. Well, not any that I really care about.

* * * * * * * *

"But Zach, how could you ever live life without any drama?"

"I don't know. I just seems easier this way."

"Wow. That just sounds so boring.

You need to get a real life."

"Actually, it's quite wonderful.

Liberating.

Refreshing.

Stress-free.

It's just plain awesome!"

"Well, whatever.

I need to go talk/complain/cry/exaggerate about something/someone.

You aren't giving me anything."

"I think I gave you plenty."

* * * * * * * *

Anyway, this season was quite enjoyable. There was plenty of stupid guys and a couple of rock-solid guys that I wanted to win. I liked Arie up until the end. He became a little creepy by the end. Sean was awesome and I wouldn't have minded had he won. Jef was my underdog hero. Local Utah boy. Isn't hiding behind tons of muscles. Just a simple, cool kid. 

My friends got together for the finale (friends meaning all my girl friends). We were all rooting for Jef. We had "J" cupcakes and other treats and snacks. We all even made t-shirts. I missed the little party some of them had to make t-shirts so I took it upon myself to make my own stellar t-shirt. It needed to be good. I needed to impress. I needed to have the best one. Why did I need to have all this? I don't know. I guess because my ego said so. 

Here's what I came up with.

I found a picture of Jef and vectorized his face. This was going on the front of my shirt. But wasn't just going to stop there. I needed something to fill the back. So, I made up some twitter hashtags.

I printed them on some simple iron-on sheets and I had my final product.

I thought it turned out great when I first did it. After its first wash, the clear parts of the face and the background of the hashtags turned kind of white, but that's ok. And the gray turned green. Whatever. I wore it with pride and cheered on the Utah-grown Jef Holm. I'm glad he won. That would have been a little embarrassing.

Running

I took these out for their first spin tonight.

They're like wearing a pair of dreams...

Snowbird

For the first half of this week, I spent my time up at Snowbird for the Barlow Competition for Music Composition. I was an intern in charge of making sure the judging process ran smoothly, quickly and efficiently. I had done this internship once before. This year, the commissioned piece was for A Cappella Chorus. My experience this year was pretty much like the one I experienced two years ago (I covered it in detail in three installments here, here and here) but never really addressed the venue where the competition judging takes place.

Snowbird Resort is absolutely beautiful. Everyone is set up in their own private rooms, including the interns and all meals and snacks were taken care of by the Barlow. This is the view from my room on the top floor.

Our stay up at Snowbird isn't entirely about judging the entries that came in, but there is also quite a bit of leisure time to hike, swim, chat or whatever one would like to do. Meals are particularly great times for interns to rub shoulders with the judges. They offer helpful information about composing, how to market your music, places to apply for school, etc. They are also people just like anyone else and they have other interests outside of music. They like to have fun, joke around and laugh.

They have planned for us, on one of the days, to take a hike to Cecret Lake, which is a water shed up in the mountains. Depending on how the judging is progression determines whether there will be time for that or not. This year, there was plenty of time for the hike and for a tram ride to one of the mountain peaks near Snowbird.

 This is Cecret Lake. So clear and beautiful.

I know the sign said no swimming, but one of the judges couldn't resist taking a dip. 

There were some great skipping rocks.

This really was a great time to be in Snowbird. The weather was mild, thanks to afternoon showers and the wildflowers were going crazy. They were so pretty and they were everywhere.

Since the judging was moving along quickly and we finished ahead of schedule, we were able to take the tram ride to the mountain peak.