Summer Nears

The last few weeks have went by very quickly. I have helped move my brother into his new house, had my very last jazz concert (sadly), written two papers and have organized (with the help of my teacher) a group to assist me in performing the Artie Shaw Clarinet Concerto, which I will perform for my jury, and to close the Clarinet Studio Recital. So, as you see, the end of the semester has been hectic, and I still have a listening exam this week, and Concert Band Concert followed by Finals Week.

Luckily however, I will have an adequate amount of time to study, and no back-to-back exams like I had last Spring semester (those are definitely not fun).

I hope to update my blog more regularly in the future. Unfortunately it always seems to be one of the first things I cut, when other things arise.

Oh, by the way, I would recommend Opera Mini (just recently released) to anyone who owns an iPhone/iPod Touch, as it is very fast and effecient. I would not however recommend it as a complete replacement, but only as a compliment to the Safari browser.

formspring.me

Ask me anything http://formspring.me/zartonis

3D

Lately 3D movies have regained popularity. Greatly propelled by the massive popularity of Avatar, the movie industry has a slew of movies set to be released in the format, and will even be re-releasing older movies in 3D. Though I enjoy 3D, I have yet to find a movie that does not cause great nausea and a throbbing headache. This may be because I wear glasses and must wear the 3D glasses over them, but because of my problems watching 3D, I am wary about watching movies in 3D. To be fair, I have yet to see Avatar in either 2D or 3D, and Cameron may have found a way of using 3D that does not cause me nausea.
Another reason, according to many, that 3D movies cause nausea etc. is that the movies force the audience to focus on a particular portion of the screen. Objects other than the focus of the shot often seem blurry. It seems as if everything in a shot cannot be in focus at once, as is possible in 2D. Although these two issues may have been corrected in newer 3D movies such as Avatar, I am not sure, and am hesitant to waste money to attend a movie and find out. I would not possibly be able to stay through more than forty-five minutes of a 3D movie if I experienced the same problems I experienced in prior short IMAX 3D movies.

I know the movie industry needs 3D in order to insure that people continue to attend movies, as without some element that people with cannot experience at home, movie theatre attendance will falter, as people continue to have better and better home theatre systems. Soon, however even 3D will be available in high quality in the home with the release of 3D televisions. I believe that 3D could be to the first half of the 21^st century, what color TV was to the mid 20^th century. This could happen if the 3D is unobtrusive and allows users to do other things while watching 3D TV, and of course, if the technology is improved to be less painful on the eyes.

I would love to be able to experience 3D without pain, and in high quality in movie theatres, but I am not sure if even then I would want to watch it each day on TV. The future is hard to predict, and I am sure some detractors bashed sound and color when they were introduced. The 3D format's future will ultimately be in the hands of the consumer.

Snow Day

Today is yet another snow day as earlier this morning the snow began piling up on the ground. The local weathermen predicted that the snow would quickly turn to rain, but that did not happen, as the temperature stayed at around 30 degrees Fahrenheit. As usual, however, UTC was late to predict that the snow would prove troublesome to many until most students were already in their classes. I ended up going to one class, and even patiently stayed to finish the class after school had officially closed for the day, as I was already there, and the professor was adamant about delivering all the information he had prepared for the day. The snow has mostly vanished, leaving only a few remnants behind, but I will gladly take the snow day!

Spring Semester Begins

Since my last post pertaining to the jazz concert at Rock City Gardens many things have occurred among them: Christmas, New Years, and the beginning of Spring semester in college. During Christmas break I obtained a Wii and an iPhone 3G, so future posts will most likely include these two great devices which by now I have explored thoroughly.
Though the Wii does not have the same graphical power of the XBox 360 or Playstation 3, it makes up for this in its intuitive control of games via its motion sensing controller: the wii remote. The ease of using the controller also has an added benifit, people who would usually avoid video games, such as older people or those who lament the many buttons on most system controllers, find the wii great fun. I have seen this first-hand as my grandmother loves to bowl, and even play Mario Kart, though she would never play most XBox 360 games.
The iPhone 3G has been a great phone so far. I have never had a phone that provided such eas of navigation. The app store has hundreds of thousands of apps, many free, that enhance the phone ten fold in my opinion.
With both the iPhone and Wii I have been tempted to use homebrew and jailbreak each respectively, but have not. Though the added functionality would greatly expand the value of both devices to me, the risk is something I am unwilling to take.
In the field of music, I have now begun working on Artie Shaw's Clarinet Concerto. This piece is a great work, and I have wanteed to perform it since I was in High School. I have now reached a point where I am confident, that with enough practice I will be able to give this piece justice.
This semester I have continued my study of Japan, by taking a class dealing with Premodern Japan. I will be finishing up the duo of History of Music classes this semester, thankfully, but not before delving into many, many scores. To attempt to partially fill my gap in knowledge of the Latin American world, I am taking a class pertaining to the post-colonial era of these states. Another interesting class I am taking this semester is Musics of the World. In this class we learn of many different music cultures, and even get to play their instruments at times, in workshops.
The semester is getting off to a decent start.