Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, 

I haven't written a general what's up blog in a while, so here we go. I'll describe in detail what life has been like on the job, more personal lifestyle details and fun, and the harrowing social current events of our time. 

First, work is getting a lot better. We're getting better pay with the better contract [there was a fight between the union and the company over wages], we seem to have the personnel to run the shifts, and generally, the employees seem to be happier and to be doing better, bit of a caveat there, but for the most part retail grocery is calm this spring season. Not to mention sales are up even though prices have skyrocketed due to inflation. There's actually a noticeable difference in the amount of groceries we're ringing up daily as there's a lot less visibly and physically. People just don't have as much cash right now. Also, only one recorded covid case this month. The guy was horribly sick. He came in one day to tell the bosses he was taking some time off, and his face looked like death. Scary. The threat of covid within the job is still lurking at the corner. 

Second, more personally, I've just been having a blast, living life to the fullest, and loving every minute of it. This goes more to the heart, the capacity of happiness that lies within yourself is more important than actually being happy all the time or often. Remember, it's not happiness that's the main focus, it's your capacity for happiness, meaning, what can you do daily that can ensure that you can increase and/or regulate your capacity for happiness daily? 

For everyone this question is mostly existential. For me I do it by reading books and playing the guitar. For others it might be art, or wrestling, cooking, or football, or cars. You have to really learn to love your life and what you do on a daily basis. The problem is that, especially right now, at this current juncture and state of worldly affairs, its seems that spring can really hang you up the most. Meaning, almost everything out there in the real world [not on a computer or phone screen, not this], has the potential to really bring you down and bum you out. The only real answer to this lies within the last paragraph-the capacity for happiness. 

Lastly, right now things in America are horrible. The recent school shooting has left all of us virtually bruised, beaten, and battered both mentally and physically. We don't need to see the pictures or the livestream to feel the harrowing effects of school children being gunned down by a crazed eighteen year old, the impact of the deaths has hit the virtual reality systems just as much as it has hurt us in the real world. Which brings up the question, when will American politicians stand up to the gun lobby, the NRA? Can we really consider ourselves the good guys of the world, the best country to live in, the most sophisticated, the most everything, if we can't even protect our schoolchildren from being gunned down during class? There's a glaring dilemma here that goes beyond myself, you, the NRA, and the politicians themselves. This goes to the heart of what makes a society of human beings civilized, sophisticated, and safe from harm. Meaning if we can't get this done, maybe we don't deserve to be in charge of what happens to Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. Take care of your home and hearth before going out to police the world. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd5VVELfWC8&ab_channel=whoisthisguythen

And for those pointy-headed intellectuals, catch up to what I've been reading on my Goodreads account, https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/56122996-orlando-furioso

In addition, for those interested on reading about what it was like to work retail grocery at the beginning of the pandemic, look no further, check out my covid plague journal here, http://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html, a compilation of posts about covid, dealing with covid within retail grocery, and within America itself as a young person. 

Classical Music at DePaul

I've been in Chicago the last couple days and I've been checking out as much music as I can. Last night on the 25th I attended a free classical music concert at DePaul University, a Catholic institution in Lincoln Park. Amazingly it was free and all I had to do was rsvp online and pick up my "ticket" at their box office. Not bad! 

The actual performance was quite elegant. Here's the setlist:

Mozart 

String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 (1785) 

Beethoven 

Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3 (1795)

Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 "Ghost" (1809)

String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (1801)

Debussy 

String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10 (1893)

Jean Cras (1879-1932)

Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello (1926)

Schubert 

String Quintet in C Major, Op. 163, D. 956 (1828) 

As you can see it was quite a standard string quartet 'showcase I' as they called it on their program. The Mozart piece opened things up nicely with that characteristic 'classical' sound. The Beethoven pieces were the main showpieces. The Debussy piece was unusual, mainly because I think its the only string quartet piece that he wrote. 

I've never heard of Jean Cras, and when I asked my music mentor, a new music composer named Frank Abbinanti (find his work on YouTube), he said he had never heard of the guy either. However, his composition was quite good. There was definitely a middle eastern sound here. It was refreshing because it was the only modern piece, written in 1926. 

The Beethoven piano pieces were grand. The most virtuosity and musicianship was displayed when the pianists got onstage and woo'd the crowd with their dazzling gymnastic pyrotechnics. I tend to think that most pianists are virtuosos, due to the fact that its a solo instrument. Most guitarists aren't virutosos because its mostly an instrument of accompaniment. Anyways, these piano trio tunes were the real highlight for me. 

The other high light for me was watching the cellists bow and play emotive low notes. Cello is quite an expressive instrument and I've been interested in playing it, but I've been unable to because the instrument is too damn expensive. Maybe one day when I get a better job. Cello would be a great instrument for me to get into, and become a new music musician, one of my goals as a musician; to move from rock and jazz into the new music, modern music scene. 

Lastly, they ended the program with Schubert, classic quartet stuff. I've actually heard a lot of Franz Schubert's quartet music, thanks to YouTube, my main source for music of all kinds. It was a good note to end it on. 

Chicago is known as a blues town but I spent my first night here going to a classical concert. Its good to know that Universities put on free shows for the public, not just for those affiliated with Uni. In the words of Ice Cube, "Yeah today was a good day." 

My (Hero) Musical Academia

So I've been doing a lot of reading, studying, and practicing of different kinds of music and even instruments. I recently started playing the electronic keyboard. I've mainly been reading about music, particularly jazz history. I finished Paul Steinbeck's book on the Art Ensemble of Chicago and I also finished Stanley Crouch's biography on Charlie "Bird" Parker. Both were excellent entries to learn about the history of jazz, which I love with a passion. I also started reading George Lewis' book on the AACM, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a 1960's experimental music collective formed on the south side of Chicago. A black organization that has stood the test of time and produced a lot of talent, many of whom would go on to have great careers and prestigious positions in musical academia. The book is over 700 pages and is incredibly dense but I'm up for the challenge.

In addition to that I'm also studying music from scores, playing the same jazz standards I play on guitar on electronic keyboard (sometimes with just the right hand), and I've even begun experimenting with classical guitar. I went to University of Wisconsin Parkside for a year and they didn't have a jazz guitar teacher there so I had to learn classical stuff. Unfortunately I didn't stay long enough to gain anything from that-until now. I still have all my classical guitar sheet music in my folder from all those years ago, so I took it out, looked at things, and started working on some of the easier pieces. The classical guitar stuff gives me more of a disciplined outlook on the music and my practice routine. I like the sound of the classical guitar but I don't know if I will ever truly have "correct" technique. But that's not what I'm going for anyways. I'm playing it for the challenge, discipline, and beautiful sound of the classical guitar repertoire. A good a reason(s) as any. Also, I found that if I comp jazz chords with the pick and fingers the way a classical guitarist would play without a pick, the comping style becomes more pianistic-a revelation that occurred to me through practicing simple classical tunes (and also dropping my pick into the acoustic!)

With the keyboard my sound will take months to develop. I'm starting to get the hang of some dense Monk comping and chords but my single note improvisations with the right hand don't really go anywhere yet. I have to experiment more with my improvising abilities and come up with more musical stuff rather than just comping chromatic chord clusters. It will take time and I know I can't expect to become a piano virtuoso overnight.

Also, I've been reading about Zen Buddhism. Zen teaches you to let go. I particularly enjoy the history of Zen in China and Japan, especially how the samurai created Rinzai zen and used it to overcome their fear of death in battle. I was initially reading about it because some of my favorite jazz musicians (Herbie, Shorter, Trane, Pat Martino, countless others) are into it and I thought that if I understood Zen it would help me understand the music and also myself, because as young person I'm still searching spiritually. I think that a lot of the important parts of Zen are ideas that we are initially born with and don't think about, but I would have to research the subject more to confirm this.

I've been occasionally reading some heavy science fiction on the side too. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a dense hard to read book with heavy detail and big words in nearly every sentence. Yet its also entertaining and fun in a cosmic cyberpunk way. I've owned the book for years but I've got this far in the book before. 

Lastly, there's my band. The band is going really well. We know about 6 songs together, most of which are classic rock covers. We're doing a trio of guitar, bass, and drums with myself and the bass player on vocals. The drummer is becoming a good friend of mine and he's asking me for advice on how to get better (after I showed him some jazz stuff) and he's actually listening. I turned him onto Elvin Jones from the Coltrane Quartet and sent him a how to read drum music page, and the drum music score for Smoke on the Water, a cover song we're working on. My singing is getting better, the songs are getting tighter, and the sound is evolving into great real rock and roll, as well as a harmonious trio.

If I didn't stop playing so much video games none of this stuff would be possible. Now that I'm learning a lot more about my favorite subjects gaming just doesn't seem as engaging.

Thanks for reading
Peace and Love,
Orlando Figueroa