MA #3

Dear So-and-so,

My name is Blah Blahh and I have been taking some bass lessons from Mr. Nameless, who I am told is a good friend of yours. He has been teaching me about François Rabbath’s teaching methods and positioning system for bass. I am majoring in performance on bass, and am greatly interested on this subject so I am going to be doing a research paper on it.

Mr. Nameless has told me that you wrote your thesis on Rabbath and did a lot of research yourself. I am writing to request a copy of your thesis, if you would be so willing to share it with me, in hopes that it can help me to write my own paper on these methods and tell me more than a textbook could.

Thank your for your time.
Sincerely,
Blah Blahh

My Career Choice...

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/media/columns/medialife/6099/
This was an article from New York magazine, by Michael Wolff.

I am majoring in performance music on classical upright bass, and may add an emphasis in jazz in the future. I am also studying bass guitar, and for my profession I would like to play in a big orchestra, or I would really like to play electric in a rock band. I found this article, that unfortunately doesn't make that profession seem like a very good one. It basically says that the internet has destroyed the music industry for the musicians because of file sharing and free downloading. They say that because fans can get all the music they want for free they won't buy albums and hence the performers won't make any money.

I honestly don't see this as a problem. Maybe pop stars are having troubles with selling albums now a days, but I don't think it's because of the internet and file sharing. From what I've seen and heard, the pop music industry is going down the drain on it's own. Everything is just copys of origional hits, (many artists even use rhythms and melodies from previous songs that had been successful because they can't come up with anything new. Such as Gwen Steffani doing "If I Were a Rich Girl," which is a knockoff of "If I Were A Rich Man," from Fiddler on the Roof, and some new song [I'm not sure who does it, it sounds like Rianna, but I've seen it written as the Pussycat Dolls] that is a knockoff of "Tainted Love," by The Clash.) or else is just crappy music. So it doesn't surprize me that people aren't buying their albums.

Rock, on the other hand, is a different story. There are many new bands coming out that each have their own distinct sound, and are building up great fan basses. Rock fans are loyal, and most will put out the $12-15 to buy the actual CD rather than just copying it or downloading, because they want to support their band. Also, rock bands tour quite a bit more than other artists. That's pretty much the whole point for rock artists, and fans still have to pay to go see them play. So even if they don't make as much as they could by selling their albums because of the internet, as long as these bands keep touring, they'll keep making money. I'm on the concerts committee here, and I know what bands charge to play a venue, and even the lesser known bands charge enough that if they keep touring they'll make plentey to survive on.

So I'm not worried at all about having a career as a musician. I'm sure there will be hard times for me, but I'm willing to go through with that as long as I get to do what I love. Obviously, that's playing bass.

drudgereport.com

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/16/D8GCLEN02.html

Good gracious, what will they come up with next. I found this article on drudgereport where a man backed into his own car, and is sueing himself!

The man works as a garbage man, and drive a dump truck, but he backed into his own car in that truck. Because of that he is sueing the city since it was a city vehicle that hit his car, and was sueing for $3,600. However the city denied the claim seeing as since it was his own fault, he is sueing himself.

So, to try and still get some money out of it, he switched the claim to his wife's name. However this won't work for them either, because a wife isn't alowed to sue her husband in that state (CA) unless it's for a divorce. Even crazier, she was sueing more than he was going to. She was going to sue for $4,800. She just said, "I'm not as nice as my husband is."

This is just insane. It's his own fault that he hit the car, so why on earth should the city have to pay for it? That doesn't make any sense at all. That's what insurance is for. The crazy part is that the City Hall is actually considering his wife's claim, because it was a city vechile that hit her car. That's messed up.

Movie!

Foreign Correspondents
In the first part, "Dear Jenny," I thought it was inappropriate for Melody to write to the French guy pretending to be Jenny. If she insisted on writing to him she should have just done so to inform him what had happened and maybe introduce herself to him. Maybe then she could have kept writing to him, but as herself. Although, I can understand why she wrote to him. She was lonely, and wanted to be a part of something. She saw his love for Jenny and wanted someone to love her like that, so she decided to put herself in Jenny's place. That's why when they show the pictures she is the one with the French guy.

Jonas was really weird. He obviously had a huge crush on her right from the start. He seems like a do-gooder, so I think he may not have been genuinely concerned for her in what she was doing, but more so felt like it was wrong in general and hence she shouldn't do it. So he probably would've felt the same about anyone doing that and not just Melody.

The second story, "Love, Trevor," was the one I liked the most. I think Trevor really did care about Mira, but like his friend said, it's not enough to live off guilt and lust to survive a marriage. So that's why he didn't marry Mira even though he does like her. He just didn't like her in the way he would need to in order to marry her.

Mira obviously doesn't want to go back to her country. She's terrified of what will happen to her if she does. It's still a dangerous place. That's why she flew Trevor out to see her, in hopes that he would marry her and make it so she wouldn't have to go back there until it's safe. Of course, she souldn't have tricked Trevor into coming without telling him why. I think she just didn't want to have him say no right off the bat and have all hope be lost. She was hoping to make him love her and decide to marry her on his own while he was there. Sadly he didn't, and he just left. So eventually she had to go back to her own country.

The only thing that really confused me in this was the ending. How on earth did Melody wind up talking to Trevor? My only guess is that maybe Trevor's friend moved into the place where Jenny and Melody lived and maybe he wrote his letter to Mira but never sent it, and instead threw it away. Then when Melody went back for the letters she found that one too and wrote to him. Heck, maybe it was Trevor who had the light on her that night. Crazy crazy... but maybe that's how it went.

I know this movie wasn't supposed to be about entertaining us, but I really liked it! I thought it was really interesting and liked how there was so much thought in it. It's not something you just watch for fun, I agree on that, but since it made us analize the characters so much it held my attention. I like movies that make you think. Thanks for showing it!