The beginning of my Cynicism

I used to go toe to toe with any foe that would talk politics with me during college. I look back on those days and ask myself "what did I actually know?". Did I actually have a stance on any important issue that I really believed in or was I just touting the same regurgitated crap that was on television all the time. I began to morph into my college years into quite the antagonist, I started to mildly dislike politicians First and foremost, I hate fake people (see John Edwards and hairspray), sometime it really is between picking the lesser of two evils (see douche and turd sandwich).

My voting record is simple, I have only voted for conservative candidates, however I do wish I would have voted for John Hickenlooper (D) in the last election for governor here in Colorado. Most likely I will not have much reservation in doing that if he runs for re-election, he's a good guy. The big problem these days is that political party defines politicians and not their actual stance. I really do feel that John Hickenlooper actually was able to campaign as himself. Now granted the Republican candidate was marred in scandal that year and the Constitution candidate Tom Tancredo had one of the most ridiculous stances on immigration that i've ever seen. He hated ALL immigration. Being married to an immigrant, a legal one I might add made me throw up when I voted for him. That feeling made me take a step back and think, what are principles when are choices are designed to be the most appealing to the establishment of political parties. If I think of myself as an independent thinker, why did I sell out and vote establishment, bad move on my part.

Understanding the outcome logically and not on ideology

Let's take the last three presidental elections, why did the winner win? The Al Gore v George W. Bush election was an enigma, who won that election? I would say it's a lot easier to go with the person who had the higher number of votes after the election. Re-Counts after re-counts to me doesn't prove anything but just create an absolute giant shit show. The real question was to why the election was so close? If Clinton, marred by scandal was really such a bad president (which I think that's absolutely crazy to think, he most likely would have beat both Gore and Bush that year), Al Gore should have had a bump as an incumbant. Al Gore had a history of being a very "green" politician. The movie he made later was an indicator to his enviormentalist views. I know that many people belive in protecting the enviroment, i'm not going to preach to you or ever say that I think that global warming is a farce (I do not believe it's a farce, i'm just saying to most people the enviroment really isn't their biggest issue), enviromentalist politicians are not ready for mainstream (See Ralph Nader). With Ralph Nader being very similar to Al Gore's view and Al Gore shifting towards the base of the democrats for electibility, the outcome was pretty obvious. Many moderate to conservative independents I would blindly guess would think that enviroment controls are bad for business, i'm just saying it, it's the reality. It may be right but at the end of the day I just think that contributed more to the loss than anything. One thing i'm kinda pissed about though, were going on 12 years since that election, the topics are exactlyt he same as they were in 2000. The talk about Social Security, did anything get solved, it's sure great that we had to choose between idiot 1 and idiot 2 that year.

The 2004 election should have been more competetive than it was. John Kerry, he was just not full of substance. In many ways he reminds me of the democrats version of Mitt Romney. What the future will hold with Romney, it's way too early to tell. A betting man would say that the Obama v. Romney ticket looks alot like the Bush v Kerry showdown. No matter how many of my friends would tell me that Bush was overmatched in the debates versus Kerry, the persona of Bush ended up closing the deal (Hey independents wanted to drink beer and smoke pot with the man, even though he swore that off years before ;-) ). . That same persona is also what makes some on the left dislike him so very much (They thought he was f'ing crazy and a warmonger). The next four years were destined to be absolutely horrendous with both of those choices, it's really unfortunate that we were give that choice. Let us not forget the Douche and Turd Sandwich episode of south park was shown during the 2004 election. That year it really was Douche v Turd.

The 2008 election showed what the american populus does when a lame duck president walks around with their head cut off. Bush was out of his Bush league towards the end of his presidency. The administration was running around blind, who do we bail out, what's best for the country? Congress was too busy teaching each other how stupid the other party was while we all payed the price. I'm sorry to say this, but the mortgage happened because of greed plain and simple, and NO ONE was whistleblowing, they all think the are but. The Dems thought housing was great for everyone, the Republicans thought more mortgages meant more money. What a perfect storm, everyones happy. Rich get rich and everyone gets a house to boot. I remember getting peddled an interest only loan by a mortgage agent. Seriously, who thinks thats a good business practice. Good luck blaming anyone, everyone in the district of Columbia was to blame. It's not like anyone actually cried loud enough to stop it.

Like I said before, I see a repeat of the 2004 election with Romney and Obama. Maybe Romney will surprise and suddenly figure out how to win a debate on merit alone instead of going after an easy target in Gingrich. The truth is, when it came down to issues in South Carolina, Romney was flat. When it came down to getting desperate and going after Newt because of his personal misgivings, it became easy. As long as we continue to debate moon bases, romney care while not giving concrete answers about unemployment, under valued housing prices and jobs, this is going to be a non starter. The question is, at the end of the day, just how pissed off are the american people. Who know's, they may be so unbelieavably pissed off that Romney wins.

I'll tell you what i'm not going to do. 1) I'm not going to post graphs or political cartoons, frankly I don't care how awesome some think tank says a presidental candidate is. You've got to be kidding me, does it actually put money in my bank account, hell no. 2) I have my own opinions about my world, if something I say sounds liberal, then maybe to you it is, to me it sounds like I'm not full of bullshit. 3) I prefer anyone over Obama, so we can debate, you're just not gonna change my opinion on that, it doesn't mean I dont respect your decision. 4) I will do something that makes me laugh i'm sure, it's the only way to keep one sane.

Good luck folks, this is how I see it, I wanted to write about it but not really in the mood to debate it.

J

In the spring of 1998, I played my first paid professional orchestra job with the Northern Kentucky Symphony just outside of Cincinnati. It was not the first time I played in symphonic orchestra but it was definatly the first time I was contracted to play specifically. Sure, I did the occasional wedding gig, but I was 19 years old and was very excited. I was playing the fourth trumpet part on Mahler's 1st symphony, I had a very enjoyable time. It's 2012 now, and i've played that piece 4 more times since then, under a whole lot more stress. What's fascinating about that first performance was that I got excited to play it. I recall a few other memorable performance that I was really excited for.

1999 - Copland's Third Symphony with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Philharmonia Orchestra - I was playing principal and it was fun.

1999 - Bartok Concerto for Orchestra with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Philharmonia Orchestra - I was playing the most awesome 2nd trumpet part ever written for this show.

2000 - Tchaikovsky 4 and Symphonic Metamorphesis with the University Orchestra at Indiana University - First performance at IU, enough said, bit of a crazy program, I had a horrid head cold too.

2001 - Heldenleben with the IU Philharmonic Orchestra - Ok, so this one was really loud but it was totally killer. Tom Brown (US Coast Guard band) sound pretty awesome on the E flat part that night. Probably not the most tasteful playing of my career, but thats what college is for right?

2001 - Mahler 2 with the IU Philharmonic Orchestra - Mahler 2, enough said.

2003 - Sibelius 5 with the New World Symphony - first time playing first trumpet at New World

2004 - Mahler 5 on tour with the New World Symphony - Playing Mahler 5 in Rome at the Saint Cecilia Academy was incredibly, a fantastic hall, we went to Carnegie later that year, but seriously this one took the cake.

2006 - Firebird on 2nd Trumpet with LA Philharmonic - So I didn't win the job, but the orchestra sounded amazing, Disney hall is a very neat place.

2006 - Shostakovich 7 with New World - The audience probably hated it, lets jam 700 people into a small theatre, oops.

2008 - Tchaikovsky 5 recording Project with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra - Let's just call this the one bright spot in the dark period of my life, professionally that is.

2008 - Alumni reunion show with the New World Symphony and Rite of Spring - It went well, I did miss one of the 13 high d's though, still stewing over that one.

2009 - Copland 3 with the Colorado Symphony - This time it was a lot more  pressure, but it was killer fun at Breckenridge with a side by side NRO performance.

2009 - Mahler 1 - First large masterworks performance with the Colorado Symphony

2010 - Prokofiev 5 with the Saint Louis Symphony

2011 - Mahler 9 with the Colorado Symphony

2012 - Bartok Concerto for Orchestra with the Colorado Symphony

Now, what's the point of this all. I've been playing trumpet for a long time, I never know when the time I'll get really excited and up for a performance. Don't get me wrong, i'm always in the zone, ready to go but just every so often the planets align for some absolutely fun and exciting. It's like the playoffs for an athlete. 17 performances over the past 14 years sure isn't alot since the average over the past 5 seasons has been well over 100+ shows, but seriously every once in a while, it gets really exciting. I also found that under each of these performances, the entire orchestra played rather well. A couple of them were probably just my own personal feelings since it was my new experience, most though it was a pretty uniform experience.

So, now my point - Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture, Bill Hill's Third Symphony and Bartok Concerto for Orchestra last night. I really got excited for this one. First of all, our new principal trombone was in town and that really made the difference. I love our trombone section anyways so it's pretty cool to have a new person add to the destruction :-). I also really like playing for Larry Rachleff, he's at Rice where my teacher Marie Speziale, that puts a little more pressure on, however it makes it fun and exciting. My friend Guy Piddington was in town playing the 2nd trumpet part and covering Bill HIll's piece, he did a fantastic job, puts the pressure on for sure, but I love every second of it.

Next week we're playing Pictures at an Exhibition, always a challenge but not quite the same as Bartok. Reminds me to an important line about trumpet auditions, Pictures is in the Prelims, Bartok's in the finals. The thing is, just cause it's an excerpt doesn't mean it's hard, it's expected of the job, so let's get going. Thanks for all that attended last weeks performance. I listened to Bill HIll's Symphony, it really was pretty a pretty awesome piece, wish I could have played it, Guy did a fantastic job. With Berlioz and Bartok on the program, it was already over the top, don't need to "sprain my tongue". Seriously, contrary to jokes that Mike Rosen may make on the radio about Trumpet players, they can get injured, this summer I had a pretty severe cut on my lip, recovered pretty well, but I got a bit scared since I had so much work to do. People that don't know the business can act as if they do, write their newspaper articles and bring down us for our supposed 20 hour work week, but anyone that knows me, I put in a lot more than 20 hours on Bartok this week, and i'll put in just as much if not even more next week. Classical music is not dead, as long as people at the Denver Performing Arts Center keep hitting the level 1 button in the elevator when they wanted to go to level 3, that tells me were still getting new audience members and as funny as it to see peoples faces, it shows that in a metro area of 2+ million people, theres always someone out there that cares and enjoys the music.

Have a great week and Roll Tide Roll Monday night!

Justin