I wanted to give a heartfelt post about myself for the reason that I feel like I do not get to often speak with anybody who actually has the true account of personal history and "accomplishments" (if you will), and my track record anywhere. It's really sad, but it probably is the case that we are in a cultural climate where people do not really seek to understand anything all that well with each other, and many may judge by mere appearances. From others not really understanding who I was and what I did before, I find that no one ever really actually talks to me in a way that's understanding of that. In this case, people seem afraid (for no reason) of what is actually both true and good, and all of it does no one any good.
Take for example, this picture of some of my friends and some family from my high school graduation party in 1996. This should give my readers a genuine feel for how people were with each other back then. It has the feeling of being very free-spirited and nice.
I will perhaps put their names in the caption later if people want that done.
Take for example, this picture of some of my friends and some family from my high school graduation party in 1996. This should give my readers a genuine feel for how people were with each other back then. It has the feeling of being very free-spirited and nice.
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Now going backwards in time from that, let me begin again.
I was always pursuing learning music when I was growing up. At a young age (third grade perhaps) my parents obtained an upright piano for our house, and I also purchased an electronic keyboard to practice with from money that I won from a radio station contest. At that juncture I was largely self-taught on piano and used to even compose my own pieces to play from memory. I worked slowly through my parents' piano lesson books without any teachers but my own parents. I was finding that I could play by ear easily usually.
I remember that when riding on the school bus to kindergarten, my fellow students would often sing "Frere Jacques" in the French language and in canon with each other. That is the kind of culture and intelligence that I grew up around. When they sang it sometimes it would bring a tear to my eyes.
As a young boy I also had aspirations to become a novelist. I was a voracious reader for most of my childhood and adolescent years, and actually had a good taste for adult literary fiction early on. I read so many books that it would be impossible to name all of them. For a long time I only desired to become an author. My best early writing efforts were in middle school when a number of my short stories earned some attention and praise from my teachers.
During middle school I took lessons on guitar and saxophone (at school). My dad had also started to teach me guitar early on when I convinced him to pull his old electric and classical out of the attic where they had been stowed. My father had himself performed in a rock band during his high school or college years. As I began to learn on my instruments, it was not hard to learn to read music notation and play because my fellow students and I were given regular music classes all through elementary school from grade one onward.
In high school I was involved in sports and marching band. I became one of the band's drum majors my junior year and was planning to major in music. I was involved in many different groups in the community such as the school's jazz band and combos, as well as a community youth orchestra. At the end of my freshman year I had successfully pulled together with a few other guys a rock band, Sullivan's Dog, and we had the intention of performing original musical numbers in the style of the day, along with a variety of thought-provoking obscure cover songs. The group was a way for several of us to practice and exercise our song-writing skills which had already been honed for several years by that time.
I remember that when riding on the school bus to kindergarten, my fellow students would often sing "Frere Jacques" in the French language and in canon with each other. That is the kind of culture and intelligence that I grew up around. When they sang it sometimes it would bring a tear to my eyes.
As a young boy I also had aspirations to become a novelist. I was a voracious reader for most of my childhood and adolescent years, and actually had a good taste for adult literary fiction early on. I read so many books that it would be impossible to name all of them. For a long time I only desired to become an author. My best early writing efforts were in middle school when a number of my short stories earned some attention and praise from my teachers.
During middle school I took lessons on guitar and saxophone (at school). My dad had also started to teach me guitar early on when I convinced him to pull his old electric and classical out of the attic where they had been stowed. My father had himself performed in a rock band during his high school or college years. As I began to learn on my instruments, it was not hard to learn to read music notation and play because my fellow students and I were given regular music classes all through elementary school from grade one onward.
In high school I was involved in sports and marching band. I became one of the band's drum majors my junior year and was planning to major in music. I was involved in many different groups in the community such as the school's jazz band and combos, as well as a community youth orchestra. At the end of my freshman year I had successfully pulled together with a few other guys a rock band, Sullivan's Dog, and we had the intention of performing original musical numbers in the style of the day, along with a variety of thought-provoking obscure cover songs. The group was a way for several of us to practice and exercise our song-writing skills which had already been honed for several years by that time.
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| Sullivan's Dog performing at the 1993 Battle of the Bands in La Crosse, WI |
I was award-winning in my music endeavors while still a student in high school. I started studying formal music composition during my junior and senior years, and did take second place in the Wisconsin State Composition Contest (for students) when I was a senior with a piece I entitled "Lively Music for Saxophone Quartet." I loved to study composition by studying the full scores of works by great composers. I wrote my first orchestral work and had it played as a senior. I typically did also participate in solo/ensemble competitions every year on my instrument, and usually did get to travel and compete at the state level. When Sullivan's Dog performed at the 1994 Battle of the Bands in La Crosse, we managed to take the first place award and get our picture in the paper. Among the many accomplishments of that group, besides recording two full albums (Drown and Pinewood Derby) and an EP (Sticky Bear), was the fact that we were once invited to open for Mudhoney in Eau Claire. All of that happened, mind you, before I ever even left high school. To give you an idea just how much went on during my high school years, the band Sullivan's Dog eventually did a complete overhaul and changed our name to Frith's Sake (borrowing the name Frith from the novel Watership Down by Richard Adams). Splinter groups (bands) from Sullivan's Dog/Frith's Sake included Summer Velvet, The Sparklers, Lucky 4-Star Demo Team (?), and The Buddyrevelles (not really a splinter, but the new effort of Sullivan's Dog's drummer Scott Hoch with Aaron Grant of Bomb Pop. My efforts with Sullivan's Dog and Frith's Sake were always fruitful. We eventually basically disbanded when I started to get very serious about studying music composition and declared that I was more or less quitting. Whether or not that was wise, the group had a full blossom and fade that was not soon forgotten. From one original song alone ("Cacti" for example) I would have had something notable to remark on later, and yet we ended up with a full repertoire of original songs by the end of our time together.
When applying for colleges I was offered scholarships to several different schools to study in their music programs. I did actually also receive scholarships for being near the top of my class in high school. I was generally a very good student due to my diligence and good memory, so let us leave it at that. As a high school student I had taken several advanced classes in different subjects. I was not only good at music, but also chemistry, math, and foreign language. I wanted to leave town, but remain still in driving distance to home, so I chose to study at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. It was there that I had the opportunity to study with David Hastings on saxophone and Charles Young for composition lessons. The music education program at UWSP is actually very good, so I was very blessed to have been able to participate in that program. I completed my student teaching semester helping the band teachers at SPASH (Stevens Point Area Senior High School) and P.J. Jacobs Middle School.
I did get to attend USC for my graduate work where I not only continued to study composition for a time, but finished a masters in performance studying with saxophonist James Rotter and getting also to perform with the USC Wind Ensemble under the direction of H. Robert Reynolds. Among my fellow students there were saxophonist Michael Young and composer Bear McCreary. It was during my USC years that I recorded and promoted my first solo album as a singer-songwriter Songs of Loss and Redemption. I made good efforts to promote the album by performing at various venues around the L.A. area. The CD can still be found on Amazon.com along with my more recent effort Songs of Hope and Deliverance. Studying at USC I did also have the opportunity to make the acquaintance of David Fick who was a composer and lecturer on staff at the time. I also studied composition with James Hopkins at USC for a short time.
My USC years did give me a long time to think and realize that becoming a teacher would actually be a very good idea. I really actually saw it as a calling and a way to be helpful to the young and to society. I managed to acquire a California teaching credential with my previous education classwork and degree, and got hired for the 2003-2004 school year as the band director at Rosemead High School. I served ten years as a teacher there.
As I teacher I found out that it is not possible to be "everything to everyone" (to borrow the line from the song by the same name by Everclear). One cannot be a great teacher and be best friends socially with all those who are the students. One cannot be a great leader and please everyone at the same time. One cannot be so primarily interested in objective classroom successes and then be so swayed by subjective classroom personal opinions. One cannot invest all their time and effort to their work life and also have invested much time and effort into their family life. One cannot be the greatest rock star ever and then turn around and be the most successful teacher ever in the public opinion. Something has to "give" where priorities are established and the things worth fighting for are pursued while acceptable losses could be sustained. All that said, my groups had their successes. Before the end of my time at Rosemead, my band finally received a letter of invitation to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, and we were also invited to play at professional soccer games as a well as a Lifetime network television show.
It was later in my professional career that I followed through on my childhood dream to be a novelist. I started to write my novel The January Stop in 2012. By that point, I had studied and internalized the craft of fiction writing for years, going to the extent of even reading others' works more analytically in terms of art and craft. I had come to the point of realizing I had things to express that were too specific and important to be communicated only via musical expression. It was at that point that I slowly started working on finishing writing the book, slowly, one day at a time. Since that time I've written several other works, including The Poetry: a novella, and A Dragon Comes As Well: a memoir, and produced a revision of Playing Saint Ditch.
I had been interested in theology and apologetics also, only later on in my professional life. While I had been through confirmation while in eighth grade and had taken confirmation classes at that time, my more profitable bible studies were later in life. It was during those times that got more involved in ministries and church.
At this time in my life things are nothing like they were when I lived in my hometown as a young man. I don't have the same types of wholesome people around, and I don't have very many around that understand the culture and community I lived in before. Nothing was ever perfect, but the difference now from before is strange and drastic. People underestimate the value of an entire community holding to faith, good values, and morals. Nowadays, extremes of overemphasis placed on rugged individualism mixed with social mores that have a socialist taint, provides for a very bad time for many people. It would be impossibly probably to ever even bring back about the prevalent societal thinking of the past. I do feel that growing up I was surrounded with many more fairly straightforward, good-seeming, and well-intending classmates/contemporaries that understood me (though many had their "moments" too. It's hard make over-arching generalizations, but it suffices to say that high school comprised better times. It was "the glory days" as some like to put it. Praise the Lord that many of my years went by me without any real heavy problems). I have friends and acquaintances now too, obviously, but that is within now a different culture, social dynamic, context, geographical region, and everything. I can still be in touch with people from my hometown, but those are long-distance relationships and many have spouses and families now that they invest time and love into. The level of the distance between and what would have to be said now boggles the mind. The "why" and "how" of all that would take the length of a whole new post and would be, in essence, a legal theory. Let me just say that I am not expressing pleasure at the way things have gone. Things were better before, but it's too complicated to say all the contributing factors.
I did and still do love very many people from my years spent living in Wisconsin as a young person. If some people cannot reconnect yet, then no one should take it personally.
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