June 4, 2007

I attended three days of the Star Wars Celebration IV held last weekend at the LA Convention Center.


I was privileged (I paid the $) to meet and have my photo taken with Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia). I also received a signed picture of each.





The Mayor of Los Angeles was there.



As was Nacho Libre, cleverly disguised as a stormtrooper.



And some other important figures, such as Foamtrooper:



Tim went with me one day and purchased some art from Tsuneo Sanda.


Boba Fett was there with his prize.



As well as Jabba the Hutt and his "prize."



We saw a real landspeeder and an X-wing.





And a real Honda "A-Wing" (notice the R2-D2 on the back)



My friend Cynthia went with me one day.



As did my friend Han Solo.



McQuarrie concept Boba Fett. Cool costume.

May 5, 2007

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Tim and I went up to Santa Barbara today for the 2007 Bimmerfest. It was beautiful up there and we had a good time checking out all the souped up Bimmers.











My messy room. I've since cleaned it.



Santa Claus Lane in Santa Barbara.



Old-fashioned bicycle we saw in Santa Barbara.



Here's a pig named "Neil" next door to some students of mine in Sierra Madre.



Sarah and Marci.



More Bimmerfest:









Not 76 Gas Station, but 77! (Look closely)




Here's my car, '95 840ci: 282 hp 32-valve dohc 4.0 aluminum V8





And Tim's cruise ship, the Carnival Pride

April 20, 2007

Darth Vader does have a sense of humor:



Finally, I was able to capture some pretty good parrot footage.




This one is even better:



Here's my dad up Kinneloa Canyon taking a picture of a peacock.




Jenna playing at the Santa Anita Mall. (Leslie's youngest daughter)



Another songbird outside my classroom at USC.

March 19, 2007

34 years ago today, my mother was 30......and I was born. Lucky parents. Today I took some video to kind of document the day.

Here is an R2D2 mailbox across from USC at the Shrine Auditorium.


On the drive home:




"Orange lights"



Some parrots from my roof:

March 12, 2007

It will reach 90 degrees today. Our "winter" was very short this year. However, there is relief in sight:



Here are some vids of birds outside my classroom at SC. Don't know what kind yet, but it sounds like a jungle.

February 20, 2007

I know, I know. And I even saw parrots out Eric's window yesterday, but my camera wasn't charged up. I will get footage, though; they've been around here in the mornings quite a bit lately.

Anyway, I have a new piano student. Here is some footage:



I played at an interesting funeral the other week. I got a call from Inglewood Cemetery needing a pianist the next morning for the funeral of the mother of Warren Christopher, Secretary of State before Colin Powell. So I drove out there the next morning and went inside this giant mausoleum with high, cold marble walls and a ceiling composed completely of stained glass. At the end of the main entrance was a little area with the casket and maybe 30 chairs. On the side was a little keyboard hooked up to a standing speaker; no pedal, music stand or bench. So I scrounged up a chair and put the music in my lap and began to play prelude. The USC fight song had been requested because the Christophers are big Trojan fans but I was unwilling to play it unless Mr. Christopher actually came over and requested it in person. Anyway, it was a very short service and I was out of there in 40 minutes.

For any Zelda fans:

January 11, 2007

Dell is the way to go. I purchased an external hard drive in early December and it burnt my motherboard. I contacted Dell and they replaced it without any questions. They even shipped it for me and my computer isn't even under warranty anymore. Now everything is up and running again.

We had a great time at Disneyland.



















My friends, including Ugly Betty, and I at the Rose Parade.





Star Wars at the Rose Parade!



Go Trojans!

December 3, 2006

This morning I went to the Pasadena Ward for Church and then drove to USC and played my piano jury (probably my last one) and then accompanied Giorgi on his jury and then went back to Pasadena and observed Deanne rehearsing her choir (for my conducting class) and then sang in the choir in their performance before the First Presidency Christmas Devotional Broadcast and then recorded 8 vocal works for Caralee to help her prepare for her jury coming up and finally went home at 8:30 and ate chuck roast and spuds with steamed broccoli and Rhodes Texas Rolls and a couple Oreo cookies with red filling!

I am truly in awe of the leadership of the Church. We are so blessed to have righteous, inspired and up-to-date men as oracles of Christ with the power to lead us in the right direction. We can put our trust in them and be assured that they will never lead us astray. We should focus on the Brethren. I should focus on the Brethren, for their words are the words of the Lord, the words of peace and salvation.
"For unto you, the Twelve, and those, the First Presidency, who are appointed with you to be your counselors and your leaders, is the power of this priesthood given, for the last days and for the last time, in the which is the dispensation of the fulness of times." D&C 112:30

December 2, 2006

USC vs UCLA today at the Rose Bowl. Tommy Trojan is wrapped up to keep him safe from would-be pranksters.


A beautiful California sunset over the San Gabriels taken from the backyard of a student in Kinneloa Canyon.


My recharging station. My home away from home. A safe haven in a wilderness of Democrats.


I came home the other day to a family of deer: a buck, a doe and a fawn.

November 24, 2006

Things I'm thankful for (in no particular order)

1) Star Wars, (only Episodes IV-VI)


2) Thanksgiving food and because I'm fat.


3) Seeing a camel on my street. (Look down the driveway very carefully)


4) My family: Mom, Dad, Leslie, Troy, Hailey, Hannah, Jenna, Grandpa, Karen, Lora, Theresa, Judy and their families and everyone else.

5) My friends. Let's see there's....hmm....well....just all of my friends.
(jk)

6) USA and the GOP

7) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and our incredible prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, who has been a great blessing to this Church and to the world for 96 years now.

8) Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, without which life would truthfully be pointless.

9) Speed talkers.


10) MUSIC. This year I would like to give thanks to Rachmaninoff.

November 15, 2006

I've been too busy lately to be able to post anything, but today I attended a masterclass given by the legendary Earl Wild at USC. He was born in 1915 and has had an extraordinary career. It was an interesting masterclass; he told everyone that played to use much more pedal. I was asked to play for the masterclass a month ago, but, as it turns out, he wasn't familiar with the pieces I had to offer and, since his eyesight is failing, I was denied the opportunity. That's ok. I usually play every time there is a masterclass and I didn't mind just observing this time.

Wild playing Rachmaninoff, a transcription of "The Little Island."


Here he is playing Liszt.


Here he is in an interview discussing his career and the playing of Rachmaninoff and others.


It has been as hot as.... in November! I'm sick of it. Here are a few clips from heaven:

November 1, 2006

When I was a wee lad I watched the Electric Company on TV. My favorite part was Spider Man. Here is a short clip (including narration by Morgan Freeman!)



Here's another nostalgic moment: THE NUMBER SONG!


And, of course, I need to add a trailer from one of the best movies of all time:
THE BLACK HOLE


Youtube is...incredible.

October 29, 2006

Life is on fast forward. Days become hours and hours only minutes. A year went by in a month and last week seems like yesterday. I think our planet must have changed its orbital track. Last night I helped Eric set up a station (called "The Death Star") in someones garage in Glendora and we used a projector to play the movie and dressed up. It was a Halloween Young Singles "Live Clue" party and a lot of fun.

Here's Eric as Obi-wan Kenobi:


And me as Boba Fett:


I held a Halloween recital for my students at the Norman's on Saturday, but forgot to take pictures. Here is one of my students, though, that did play. Her name is Katherine Lund.



Kind of a long video of a bunch of us playing Settlers, but you gotta listen to Allison do her Chewbacca and Chimp (Orangutan?) impressions. Posted in honor of Allison and Ted's recent engagement!

October 25, 2006

My grandfather, Henry C. Teeples, will turn 94 this Friday. I contacted the White House sixth months ago (email) and they will be sending him a birthday card. They will do it for anyone over 80. Check out http://www.whitehouse.gov/greeting/

Dan said I could only post 30 seconds of the movie (USC rules). So, I will, as soon as I get the DVD. I had to sign a release form today.

Here is a photo of me (the fat one on the right) with Dr. Stewart Gordon, my piano teacher, after his recital a few weeks ago in which he performed, among other things, Crumb's Makrokosmos, with all of the chains, whistles, and eerie ghost sounds.

October 20, 2006

I'll tell the story of my first film scoring session. One day in September, I was on the SC campus and thought, "I need to find Dan Johnson and see if would like me to score a film." Dan Johnson is a student director at SC and used to be my piano student. I hadn't seen him in a year, but no sooner had I thought of him than I ran into him and he said, "Kelly! I was looking for you hoping to find you. Would you consider scoring a short film I'm working on for class?" So, he later sent me a script and then I received an almost finished copy of the movie (without sound) on Tuesday night of last week. I wrote the music and hired (limited budget) one violinist, one cellist, and one oboist (with hopes to overdub and get a more "orchestral" sound). We were scheduled to record the music in the Spielberg sound stage at 7am Sunday. At 9pm Saturday night, my cellist called me and said that he had been in an accident on the freeway coming home from San Diego and his car was totalled and he was stuck in San Juan Capistrano and AAA was coming to get him and his car. I quickly emailed all of the USC cellists and fortunately was able to get someone willing to come. (There's another story there...)

The recording went well and we'll attend the screening this coming Sunday evening. Pretty fun experience and I hope to do more.

I'll add photos later on. And maybe the movie itself if Dan lets me...

Friday the 13th of October, 2006

No time for posts right now, but I had to include this awesome new bird discovered in Colombia, named the Yariguíes brush finch after an Indian tribe from the mountaineous area where the bird was caught (and released after taking blood samples).


I see a big mural at the train station every morning and afternoon. This guy sure has a familiar face.

October 4, 2006

This is my niece, Jenna.



This is her father.



And Lovely Hannah.



With Hailey.

October 1, 2006

A good entry is on its way. I have 50 private students plus MPKS 350a which I teach at SC three days a week plus two courses I'm taking plus practicing and private lessons and I'm a studio ta.

In the meantime, starwarz.com has some very interesting deleted Star Wars footage.
Here are some interesting samples:













And one from "Empire"

September 20, 2006

The Goodyear blimp was flying over Pasadena this afternoon. I went to Target and asked a sales associate where I might find the shoe polish and she got this puzzled look on her face and, you won't believe it but I knew it was coming, she said, and I quote, "Shoe polich, what is that?"

Now, I didn't say shoe polich, but that was how she pronounced polish. The fact that she had no idea what shoe polish is (or polich) is disturbing me more and more the longer I reflect on it. However, that wasn't the end of my search for shoe polish at Tarjay. I found another sales associate and asked her where I might find the shoe polish. "Shoe polish? I don't think we carry that."

Needless to say, I was in a hurry but found the shoe polish on my own and, after picking up a couple Star Wars action figures and some way overpriced hair pomade, was on my way.

I've been to busy to do my homework on the new calendar, but I've done some research and found some highly interesting studies. More to come soon.

September 17, 2006

Yesterday I played the piano at an award ceremony in Alhambra. It was at the LDS chapel (built in the 30's; first one built in San Gabriel Valley) and President Lowry and President Harrick from the Stake were there to present the 2006 Family Award to Paul Talbot, former mayor and city councilman. They gave him a nice statuette of a family, several certificates/awards from the Church, the city, the county, etc and a family history packet with information on his and his wife's family lines.

The weather finally cooled down a little bit and people are wearing jackets and sweaters already. It dropped all the way to 78 degrees the other day!

I've decided it is time we instituted a new day between Sunday and Monday. I worked way too hard this week and, although I love what I do, am convinced that we need one more non-work day. So, I am proposing that we institute "Funday" as the eighth day. Granted, the establishment of such a day will require substantial reworking of infrustructure, but I've thought about that, too. Here's how it might work: 8 days a week is 52 too many days for a year of 365, which we should obviously adhere to considering seasons, etc. Therefore, we implement a sort of "equal tempering" to the system, just as we have for the Gregorian calendar. (Observe the different number of days in each month and leap year). I will work out a model and submit it as a viable yet necessary improvement over the current system.

By the way, my good piano friend, Angela, noticed the other day that my phone number has four 2s, three 6s, two 0s, and one 1.