BYU Football Rivalry Game

So tonight is the BYU vs. University of Utah football game.  To say emotions are intense would be an understatement!  My older brother, Keith, is such a big fan that he flew in for the game!  Erik, of course, is working the on the crew for BYUtv!

I will be cheering for my Cougars!  So today's song is the Cougar Fight Song.  On the plane this morning, Keith, was wearing his BYU "Loyal, Strong, and True" t-shirt so another passenger asked him if he was going be singing the Cougar Fight Song!

I Can't Believe That...I'm Going to Law School!

So I have some news for you that began unfolding in early April.  I start law school in the fall!  You are probably as shocked as I was with my recent decision.  One of my tutors might be wrong but he thinks I hold the record for the shortest prep time for deciding to go to law school and being accepted to law school. 

With only five weeks to study, on January 7th I signed up to take the February 9th LSAT.  Besides studying for the LSAT, I had personal statements to write for very different law school applications, and I needed to line up letters of recommendation and evaluations from professors and an employer.  Plus, I had to finish the classes I needed to graduate.  I even added a pre-law class that I absolutely loved!

As grateful as I was to be admitted to Southwestern’s two-year SCALE program and as much as I highly prize being admitted to the University of Iowa, I choose to attend BYU for overwhelming reasons.

Never fear, I am still performing and releasing albums during law school.  Plus, my blog will include law school updates as well as jazz and recipes! 

I love this line from the beginning of While You Were Sleeping, “[My dad] would get these far-off looks in his eye and he would say, ‘Life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan.’"  Then Lucy (Sandra Bullock's character) says, "I just wish I’d realized at the time he was talking about my life.”  Well, that pretty much sums it up!

Since I still can't believe how this all came together so swiftly, here's "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me" sung by Frank Sinatra.

Rugby and Volleyball: Champions!

Photo at last week's semifinal game

Today BYU's Rugby team beat California-Berkeley to win the Varsity Cup National Championship!

It was a great game that ended with a BYU kick through the uprights to give BYU the 27-24 win!

Tonight, BYU is playing in the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship game against UC Irvine at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.  Watch it on ESPNU.  Erik mixed the live sound for last week's semifinal games in Provo that BYU won to get there!  As always, great sound for great volleyball!

Perhaps a little cliche, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to highlight Queen's "We Are the Champions."  As tribute to the BYU Rugby team and with high hopes for BYU's Men's Volleyball team, here it is!

Commercial Music!

Today BYU's Media Music department made a fantastic announcement!  My major, Jazz Studies, Sound Recording Technology, and Media Music are all being combined into the Commercial Music major in Fall 2013!

The Commercial Music degree will make it easier for Jazz Studies, Sound Recording, and Media Music majors to take classes that are tailored for their chosen music careers.  Ironically, the courses I took included all of my Jazz Studies classes and as many Media Music and Sound Recording classes as I possibly could.

FYI: Commercial Music is any kind of music that is "commercially" viable.  It includes film scoring, songwriting, Broadway, orchestration, arranging, recording (engineering), mixing and mastering, library music, producing, etc.  Basically any music that generates revenue in a non-gigging or teaching way qualifies as commercial music.

Since I'm graduating before the change takes effect, my degree will still be in Jazz Studies.  But I'm very excited that other students will have their programs designed to broaden and increase their marketable music skills.  Current students can opt out of the new program by finishing their degrees in their original major.

I would not have a co-writer if I had not intently looked for classes that music students outside my jazz studies major were taking for their majors.  Hurray for cross-disciplinary learning and merging of three programs into one!  Here's a song, "The Moment," I co-wrote with Justin Jensen, a Sound Recording Technology graduate, who I met in a Media Music class!