Inside the Lake Braddock Symphony Orchestra

LBO 07' - "That's a Wrap!"

2007-09-16T23:38:00.000-04:00

Here is the video that I made for the orchestra banquet, last year. I kind of forgot to link towards it, making it kind of hidden.

Update on Slideshow, and a Video!

2007-05-08T21:54:00.001-04:00

I know I have not been updating this for quite a while, though I have recently gotten some photos for the slideshow. If I get around to it, I will make some type of sign mentioning about the slideshow. I will probibly add more to this later, but for now here is a video of our performance on the spring trip, from the perspective of the Cellos/Violas, enjoy:

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Domain Change - Issues

2007-01-25T21:14:00.000-05:00

As many might notice, the site has changed from the previous domain of lborchestra.blogspot.com to www.lborchestra.us.eu.org, mainly for the fact that it looks more professional. Though currently, the site does redirect from lborchestra.blogspot.com correctly, for some reason (my other blog does not currently). The domain though without the www infront of it does not work (a limitation of googles custom domain system :(. Even though the old redirection does work, I recommend that people change there links from the old address, to the new one, just in case.

Edit: I've found a temporary fix, though it kind of messes up the load manage system that google has with ghs.google.com. The domain is tied to an ip that is apart of ghs.google.com, so the domain without the www connects to the blog, its not a perfect fix, but its better than only having it work one way.

Edit again: the site now does redirect using the lborchestra.us.eu.org, in a kind of a hacked up way....

"Its dead, Jim" - WGMS

2007-01-22T22:55:00.000-05:00

As of today, WGMS, what was originally the last and longest running classical station in the Washington Area, is no longer classical:

Washington radio station WGMS dropped the music of Mozart and Tchaikovsky yesterday after nearly six decades and replaced its classical format with tunes by Cheap Trick, Elton John and the Bee Gees in a two-part shake-up.

Last night, WETA dropped its news and talk programming and became a classical station again in a coordinated move with Bonneville International Corp., which owns WGMS (103.9 and 104.1 FM). WETA (90.9 FM) was a classical station for 35 years until dropping the format in February 2005.

Radio Stations Harmonize On Classical Music- Washington Post

This overall, is a big move, with WETA coming back as a classical radio station. On the positive side, there will still be a classical station in the area, though on the other hand, WETA will not be airing the large amount of NPR/BBC shows it used to air (though they never had on From the Top). Luckily there is another NPR station (88.5 FM) that does have NPR/BBC shows on its schedule, though its signal strength, I don't know.

Band Winter Concert- Symphony #1

2006-12-07T20:46:00.000-05:00

As I sit here, guarding a lone "panic button", the symphonic band plays a piece of, very unique proportions, expressing the event. Drums beat around me, at one point, in the back of the stage, representing the bombs bursting, and the whistles as napalm is dropped, a chill goes down my spine, as it seems all to real. The silence is there, but what is left from it. This is the emotional/musical representation of the Bombing of Dresden (1945), in a piece called Symphony #1 by Daniel Bukvich. This piece will leave with anyone a diferent view of music, that truly shows the link between emotional symbols (bombing, aftermath), through musical instruments. It almost paints a picture, through the use of sound, but from my vantage point, it seemed almost real, hearing the bombs fall from the B-29's, as well as the silence of the aftermath of the wreckage.

The LBB Symphonic Band has done it again, rasing the bar of what we think is music. A previous piece, "Tales From the Center of the Earth", which was preformed last spring by the LBB Symphonic band, which throughly impressed me a lot, through the fact it had a percussion solo. There were also other pieces which were also terriffic, but I wanted to specifically mention about Sympony #1, for its uniqueness in its how it paints a picture of the event. This, overall, was a terrific concert, especially with the Symphonic Band, and I personally give congrats overall to the bands!

Flashback: Videos of LBO and of the Band....

2006-09-06T22:42:00.000-04:00

Recently, I came upon a RealMedia clip from the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage that I ripped from the site in 2005, of the Middle School Chamber Orchestra. The quality of the video is mediocre, because it being RealMedia, Enjoy!

Also while searching Lake Braddock...I found this...

This is a clip of Micael Roberts compositon, 7511, during what I think was the Music Theory Compostion concert thing. Anyway it was a neat piece when I heard it during the Spring Band Concert last year, and this is a decent quality (its amuerature shaky cam, though), anyway enjoy that also...I will also be searching and uploading other clips that are music related whenever they seem relevent.

Im going out of town....

2006-08-19T00:07:00.000-04:00

For the next week, I'm going to be on vacation...so its going to sadly get really quiet again, like it did for most of the summer, but I'll be back the week after next.

Homes: The Mac Mini

2006-08-18T10:28:00.000-04:00

Now your probibly thinking, "what does Miss. Holmes have anything to do with a Mac Mini, didn't she get a Lenovo Thinkpad...", but this is actually about the Mac Mini I was using with during work...which is named Holmes, for that reason. It also has a nice backdrop of what was once the orchestra room.

It was a half decent mac..G4 1.42 gHz, 1 gig ram 80 gig hard drive, but a tad slow...anyway, after using that for around 2 weeks, I'm very much interested in getting my hands on a G4 PowerMac or mabe an old G5 PowerMac, for my composting/Audio Editing, my current computer is just so bloody loud...

iCompositions- More songs, new profile...

2006-08-18T10:18:00.000-04:00

Yes I have put together another compositon: Crusin' Along, on a Mac Mini. It was actually my first time using GarageBand to compose, and it has a good interface. Another thing is that I realized you could put photos in your iCompositions profile, so I threw one in, showing the lower strings...anyway if you want to see some more about Crusin' Along, go to /home/Compuguy1088, where I posed about that, as well as an OSX Plugin for iTunes....

End of Year Slideshow- 2006

2006-08-16T11:29:00.000-04:00

I know it has been a while, since I have posted here, but I've been busy at my internship at Schafer Corporation, and was doing other things. Now I finally got a chance to put together a video of photos of the last few days of the year. Here it is in flash for your viewing pleasure:

Though, if you think flash video is cruddy, you can download the high quality H.264 (QuickTime) video of this on archive.org. This was compiled with iMovie 5.02, on a Mac Mini. Some of these photos do need to be uploaded onto Flickr, but with the worry of having some other orchestra photos disappear if I add more, I'm considering getting a Flickr Pro account, to allow all of my photos to be viewable. Hope you enjoy the video, as well as the last few weeks of summer.

....It seems that Bethany has come back recently from Tangelwood and has posted photos from her time there, it is worth a look (there is another album as well). Just to repeat one thing, I'm sorry this blog has gone dead, but, hopefully I will be posting more on this for now on....

Too Much Fun with Flickr API

2006-06-17T21:22:00.000-04:00

I've been playing around with a site that uses flickr images, and I put together this motavational poster, with a intersting point, with muffins involved, I just am a little to crazy with them...anyway, it was not really serious, but I still get a chuckle from it, enjoy.

Moving the Orchestra Room...

2006-06-15T16:42:00.000-04:00

Today I had the wonderful operaturnity to help with the lableling, moving, and other parts of getting the orchestra room together. After that was all done, the room was pretty empty, with all those boxes, basses, and other stuff....a very intersting sight. Other ironic thing is that interesting is that we are moving to the Gymastics room for the beginning of the year. Threre will, naturally be 2 trailers for the storage of stuff. One will also be fore uniforms/changing/etc as well, the other isn't in use, because its a tad dirty. Anyway, It'll be interseting to see how large the gymastics room is and if it can fit all of us.

technorati tags:Orchestra, Music, Strings, Symphony, Moving, School

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And now for something completely different.....

2006-06-12T19:13:00.000-04:00

The Exploding Blue Danube! Enjoy!

More Pictures Uploaded to Flickr!

2006-06-11T12:09:00.000-04:00

Alot of photos have been uploaded this week, so many that I reached my cap for a free Flickr Account :( (Though I wish someone would donate me a pro account...). I've not uploaded all the Award Banquet photos, but I'll eventually get them all up. There are also some class photos, and some Spring Concert Photos as well, so check them out at my Flickr account.

The Spring Concert, Awards Banquet, and other things

2006-06-07T19:44:00.000-04:00

I Know it's been awhile, but I've been busy with other things. Anyway, last Thursday was the Spring Concert, which went off well..Until some person that was leaning on the back wall of the Little Theater accidental set off one of the "Panic Buttons" turning off the lights. During this time, String Ensemble was playing, and luckily they were able to at least able to get the house lights on. Amazingly through all the chaos for that short time, they didn't really mess up, which Miss. Holmes mentioned to the audience after it happens. Anyway, the Senior Solos went overall well, though recently when I got the recording for the concert, I actually heard some mistakes and other things that I didn't hear or notice during the pieces. Those mics that were used, I guess, are just very sensitive. Or, possibly its just that its hard to really tell it all the way back in the Viola section.

Also, last Sunday was the Awards Banquet; It went well, except while I was taking pictures, the camera died, so I really don't have much in the sense of pictures from it. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more. I personally got a bar, as well as won on of the (I think) ten door prizes, which was nice. The slides from this year was excellent, and several of the pictures that I submitted were put in it. They even, at the end, where acknowledged certain people (naturally Miss. Holmes, and Miss. Reed are included), I was acknowledged in that because of "having such good pictures". Though I do pride myself in my photography skills, I don't really brag about them that much. It was a nice jester to get some credit for the pictures I've taken...Anyway, the collages from this year were nice, and as well included a bunch of pictures that I took. One picture in one of the collages actually was of me taking a picture at the same time as someone else was in the general direction....I got a good chuckle from that.

I'm hoping to get some photos up from the Award Banquet, as well as one or two shots from the concert. Soon, additional pictures will be up from the Award Banquet, and maybe some other photos, we will see....

Finally uploaded some trip pictures!!!

2006-06-01T16:04:00.000-04:00

It may of been around 2 or so months since the Spring Trip, but I finally got around to picking the best of the best, around 42 pictures, and finally uploaded them onto flickr! The rest of the photos can be found via the flickr link here.

Some old pictures...

2006-06-01T15:56:00.000-04:00

Old picture of Chamber Orchestra in 2003
Originally uploaded by compuguy1088.

I found this on my parents computer recently. Sadly the EXIF data that the picture used to have some how got wiped, so there is no record of when it was taken. All I can asertain from the photo is its from around 2003, and its Chamber Orchestra. If anyone by chance has a wonderful memory and can remember what concert this came from (slim chance thought) send me an email.

These pictures are some that were taken and were on the tables during the 2004 Awards Ceremony. I've had them for a couple of years, but until recently, get around to scanning them. These are from String Ensemble, and are probibly taken in 2004.

There's an Orchestra in your Wii, Really!

2006-05-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

As shown by Shigeru Miyamoto when he first appeared at Nintendo's E3 press conference, ther will be a game on the Wii that allows you to conduct music with the controller. Here are some screens:

Now this is NEAT, now we can all become conductors and conduct our game consoles to play pieces, and it from the pictures can be considered a practicing tool, possibly?

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Festival 2006 Video Released

2006-04-21T17:30:00.001-04:00

Well, I've finally gotten around to uploading the video slideshow of Festival 2006 up finally on Archive.org, up here is a flash version that can be viewed here, but if you want to download the higher quality version, you can get it at this link

Wikipedia Aricle and Orlando Trip Pictures

2006-04-21T09:25:00.000-04:00

I've been distraced for the past wieek during spring break, with playing oblivion. It's just very addicting, and the graphics are soo high resolution. Anyway, I created an article for the our group on wikipedia, which can be found at this location. Another thing is that the video that I made of pictures of festival has been ready for upload for a long time, I just forgot about it, and I'll get it ready this weekend. Now because I was distracted playing oblivion, I forgot to work on the Orando Pictures, which I am definately going to do, if I don't, i'm going to get angry with myself, and very much play more oblivion, and in this case, is bad. So in a nutshell, the video is going to be uploaded, pictures will be edited, and I'll actually put more work on this blog, putting less on my other ones, they seem to work by themselves.

A great announcement and DONUTS!!!

2006-04-05T10:40:00.000-04:00

Well, this is good news, for Beatany at least. It seems that she has gotten into a presidduious summer camp, tanglrewood, in new york. This is a greaqt announcement, and alo with this presiduous thging is Donununts, krispy cream to be exact :). Everyone here at the Blog (thats me and me only..) congradulate her on getting into this camp and hope that it s a great experience, (and mabe some pictures, etc from the event).

Anyway, on another note, I'm still working on those Orlando trip photos, and there is alot of them, about a thousand or so. So I have to go through the tedious task of picking photos, and fixing several that have red eye, and color leveling them. I'll leave you with a teaser of one photo from the trip..

The judges tapes...

2006-04-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

My initial thoughts of the judges is that one, one of them can't hum (I cant really either), and that the made sever errors on one part. At one part Miss. Holmes even was agitated from the fact that one of the judges commented that we played "mechanical" at one part. Now the playing, in my opinion felt like that because I was exhausted from the day before. But the playing style was not like that.

Another note from the other day, I got to see the trophies; they are very shiny and large, and I like that we got grand champion (there was a person on my flight that was from the band, who was talking to someone on one of the buses, so I was able to hear what he orchestra got). After that, I got home, and collapsed on the bed and slept, and I still today feel slightly better, but worse. Anyway, back to the judges tapes, the other judge from Arkansas was, initially he said that the Dvorak was fro the "New World Symphony", and I swear it wasn’t from that, and the judge mentions that ist isn't from it. Odd comment with Hungarian, yea, I didn't get that. Another weird comment. Yet another weird comment. This judge is really picky, or has different tastes. Picks on the lifts and other things during the middle of Hungarian. We got some low scores around the 93, 92, and 91, and I personally thing we should of gotten more, because the band got cores that were more higher than what we got (around 98 or so). I thought the judge said "take the grass", and I’m confused by that saying....never mind. We must all be delirious (including me) because we seem to laugh at random times. Initially some good comments. I can hear the flute very well, thank you very much. Anyway, she was running out of breath, and she did a good enough job to have us all hear it. Comments on a few minor details that I really didn’t catch. What is he saying by "5th balcony"....its confusing me, if he wasn’t us to sound more powerful, he should say something more understandable than that reference. Randomly someone opens a bag full of snacks, not good for me, because around this time, I'm hungry....Too much food in the room........ Remi is fast asleep, he just seems to be able to sleep anywhere, which I commend, because I can't seem to do that. I don’t know what he’s saying anymore, because I just can’t seem to listen, I’m fixated on food and every other single thing.

Two different opinions on our piece, one said mechanical, the opposite was said by another judge. What is ironic is that spring break is next week, and we have Friday off. But these next couple of days are going to be chaotic for all of us, and did I mention I'm just rambling about all this, because I'm exhausted...

Final Outcomes with the Orlando Trip

2006-04-01T21:20:00.000-05:00

I know there has been a substantial time gap since I wrote last, but a lot of exciting things have happened over the past two days. One, at Planet Hollywood, we had the entire place for breakfast for just all the Lake Braddock. As you know, "An army runs on its stomach". This specific Planet Hollywood was also the corporate headquarters. The place was filled with movie memorabilia from many movies, from Dr. No, to Speed. The walls and ceilings were filled with the stuff. The breakfast was also very satisfying. During that part, I also took several pictures of many people. There was also a sort of a "quiz show" were each of the directors, minus Mr. Holder (Apparently he was off with one of the band groups that was performing) were quizzed each with a question. If they got it right, they won some merchandise from the Planet Hollywood store. After that happened, we left for the Disney Animal Kingdom, where we were at for most of the day, until 5. I was in a group with Mr. Wong and Remi, a friend t hat I've had for several years,. We went on several rides, including Everest and Dinosaur. We actually ran into Miss Holmes on the Dinosaur ride, she was in a car behind us. The funny thing about the picture from that ride was that Miss. Holmes had her hand on her head screaming out of the living daylights from the end of the ride; it just looked hilarious! The one thing that was disappointing, was that the camera I was using, died on me during our time at Animal Kingdom. One thing that I forgot to mention was that one of the busses that morning was broken, so we doubled up on a bus. It was extremely crowded, on the first ride to Planet Hollywood, I did get a seat. But on the trip to the Animal Kingdom, I was forced to stand, which for me is a "personal hell'. One I only had a 2 inch clearing to the ceiling, and second the inertia from the starting and stopping caught me off balance. Luckily, Bus 3 was fixed so we could use it to get to Epcot. We didn’t do very much at Epcot, mainly we went on one ride, that I think was called "Test Track" or something like that, and had dinner at the Japan section of Epcot. Basically after walking back from that area and seeing the seas except, it was about time for the fireworks. They were neat, but unfortunately it was fairly short at 15 minutes. After all that on Friday, I was exhausted and my legs also hurt. They still were throbbing when I went to bead.

On Saturday, we had to get up early to be ready to perform. Again, I had big breakfast, including coffee. I need my caffeinated coffee when I play my viola early in the morning or I would of played as well as I did. Because of 3 of the band members having to be on our bus, I was forced to ride in the car with them to the performance site. We got there slightly after the buses got there, so I ran in and bolted and plopped into my chair and we warmed up. Overall I thought concert went ok, but I was also exhausted, so that was one more burden on us. The one interesting thing that occurred was that one of the judges walked up and actually interacted with us and explained some short coming and points about our pieces, as well as playing some spots. Luckily I was able to ride the bus instead of going to the park with my parents. Finally, after all that, we went to MGM/Disney Studios. We went on several rides including the Star Wars one, the Rock and Roll Roller coaster, and watches several stunt shows. Overall the shows and rides were good. On one of these rides, "the back lot tour", one of the things they had on display was the Heart of gold pod, from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie. It was really neat seeing that in person, because it was one of the more pivotal items in the movie. By the time 6:15 rolled around, they were getting on the busses, and I was getting on the tram to get to our car to go to the airport. Presently, I have no clue about what we got from Orlando, but I'm hoping in the next few hours, that I possibly will find out.

Overall on this trip, I took more photos than I did on the trip to New York Last year. From an offhand count, I took about 600 photos. Most of these photos were very high resolution, at around 1-2 megabytes per image. Also in addition to that, I took several videos during the trip. With this massive amount of photos collected, there is no way that I’m going to edit each one. But I will try to pick selected ones to be used in the slide show, which I'm hoping to coordinate with Paula Kim, who is one of the people working on the slide show. I will be posting more about the trip, as well as string to upload photos onto flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/compuguy1088/. I will also continue to post updates on other news with Symphony, including the new concert music. I think I've written enough, even though I can’t sleep on the airplane, nor on a bus, my hands are getting tiered from typing on t his airplane, and its slightly cramped in doing this also, but it’s not too bad. For everyone in the orchestra, this was compuguy1088, and I hope you will continue to read this blog, and keep up to date on all happenings in the Lake Braddock Symphony Orchestra.

Its been a long day...

2006-03-30T22:53:00.000-05:00

Well its been a long, long, and did I mention it was long for both me and everyone else in the orchestra, though I don't know exactly know what happened to them, except for the long trip they had to get here. We did have many hurdles and slowdowns though and also. One point that I wanted to bring up, is that the people that were sitting next to me on the plane, were from Robinson. They were a part of the Women's chorus, and it seems they were all on that flight. Anyway, we did get to the Magic Kingdom, hours after the rest of the group did, though they didn't get much sleep. I guess the additional park time that they got, was an advantage of driving in instead of flying. Anyway, after we got into the park, (well there was the transit time where we had to get to the actual entrance to the magic kingdom entrance) from orchestra, and band. One of them I think was my stand partner, Hillary. The one thing that differs from this trip from other past ones I've been on is mainly that my entire family was with me and that for the first day I was basically separated from the rest of the group. It seemed more like a family outing to a theme park, than a orchestra trip, and the orchestra was just people I just "ran into". We did several rides, and did also go to Epcot; unfortunately Sorin had no fast passes, and the line was extremely long. Eventually we left, early, to try and beat the buses. On my way out, I noticed that a group of people, that looked familiar. Actually one of the people that was in the group was Bethany, I also quickly took a photo (I wonder if she noticed who was taking the picture :)). Anyway, we did get back to the hotel, after getting lost trying to find the hotel. We did get there, but then my dad went off with my mom to find the other hotel where they were staying. During that amount of time, I went off to find the buses (which came in at that time) and came in. This was probably the first time that I saw them since they left for the trip one Wednesday, which is I guess a sight for "sore eyes", from being with my family all day (I'm not saying I don't hate them.). Well they were just getting of the buss, getting there instruments that were nicely stored in a room. Mine was in a car in the hot sun all day, but I know for a cat that is fine. Anyway, they were exhausted (doesn't mean I wasn't), and they put their instruments in their rooms, and got their luggage and turned in, as I am doing. Tomorrow starts off with a breakfast at Planet Hollywood, and will be truly the first day that I'm really with the orchestra, so things (hopefully) will go a little more smoothly, though I don't know how my mom's day will start out, but I'm hoping it will go well.

On the airplane to Orlando....

2006-03-30T10:08:00.000-05:00

Well I have been on the plane for the past hour or so, the rest of the group is already in Orlando, most likely at the park already, for about an half an hour or so. The flight was overall good, but t he people that were near me for the beginning of the flight were, well kind of annoying...some girls that are from another school, I know for a fact they were not from Lake Braddock, but they did pick up the words of Lake Braddock in Robinson in one of their conversations. At least they didn’t' continue to act like they did in the beginning of the flight, or I would of gone crazy from it (it might be from me also not taking my medication...or both). Anyway, as I write this, we are starting to descend into Orlando, and in a sense the trip really begins for me here. The only issue that I didn't really solve before today was who I was going to group up with at the park. Because they are going to be there way before I do in the park, It’s going to be difficult to find anyone I know in my group to "group up" with, but I'll figure something out, I guess. I also on the flight got a really good thought while reading a book...well it seems the captain wants electronics off. So I'll finish off this thread in another date.