on abstract submissions

I submitted an abstract for a conference this week. The conference is in NYC in April; it is being sponsored by CUNY’s Graduate Center. It is called “Music and Space.” I am trying to find things to do that will get me working on my still-in-the-works dissertation, and this conference seemed like a good fit. i actually don’t follow the music-conference circuit all that closely. I only found out about this one because the organizers sent an email to the folks at CGU, and they sent it out to all of the music students.

Anyway, here is the abstract:

Composing Those Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson at Gold Star, Sunset, and Western

The recording studio is an integral part of modern musical experience. In the mid-1960s, Brian Wilson proved to be one of its most virtuosic operators. Wilson utilized the studio space as a forum for composition and experimentation, not simply as a space for capturing pre-existent music. Through the use of the recording studio, Brian Wilson developed a “modular” approach to songwriting, wherein he would record disparate musical events, which where later edited and compiled into coherent compositions. In 1966, Wilson expanded this modular approach to songwriting by including the recording space as part of the composition. While recording what would later become the ill-fated SMiLE album, Brain Wilson frequently moved between studios, harnessing each studio’s unique spatial environment in order to achieve specific sonic effects. Wilson was considering not only what notes should be played by what instruments, but which acoustical space he would use for each section of his composition—the physical space became part of the composition, part of its orchestration. This paper examines Brian Wilson’s use of physical space as a musical-compositional component through an analysis of the song “Good Vibrations,” which was recorded and composed at three different Los Angeles studios: Gold Star Studios, Western Recorders, and Sunset Sound. Special attention is given to the sonic and compositional differences between the song’s sections and how these relate to their respective recording studios.

Now I just wait around for their committee to make their decisions. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

One of the reasons that my posts are so few and far between as of late is because I have been writing in my journal a lot more. I made a decision at the beginning of the year that I wanted to write more, spend more time thinking about myself, and what I am thinking about. I suppose you could say that I made it a New Year’s Resolution to write in my journal more often. More specifically, I wanted to spend some time every day getting my thoughts out of my head where I can see them.

I am proud to say that, this far, I have only missed one day (and that was because I simply fell asleep before I meant to, and didn’t wake up until the next morning)! That diligence, however, has come at a cost, which is that I rarely post anything to this blog anymore. I know that there are really only a handful of people who read this thing, and that most of you don’t care if I post or not, but I am feeling like I need to “come clean” as to why it is so silent around here nowadays.

Here is a view of my journal’s calendar: 

I recently tried to register for yet another semester of Doctoral Study and was greeted with a message that said I had run out of time for finishing my degree! When I first started at CGU, I started as an MA (Musicology) student. By my second semester I had switched to the PhD (Musicology) program, hoping to earn an MA “on the way.” Once I had completed the requirements for the MA, I had to change my program again, back to the MA (Historical Performance Practices) program in order to receive the degree. I continued on in my coursework, changing my program back to the PhD (Musicology, again). The university has a policy that doctoral degrees must be finished within seven years of beginning the program. Apparently, that time limit has run out. It is a little inaccurate, though, since I bounced around between programs for a few semesters.

Still, I now have to apply for a time-extension for my PhD program. This is a pain, and is going to cost me some extra money and effort. I also have the option of dropping out of my program and applying for reinstatement at a later date. That carries a pretty hefty fee with it, and the possibility that my application for reinstatement won’t be accepted.

More than anything, this situation has forced me evaluate where I am going with all of this. Am I really going to finish my PhD? Will I ever have the motivation to sit down and finish that nagging dissertation? How important to me is this accolade?

I can’t say that I have any answers, yet, to any of those questions. I can argue all sides of this issue pretty fluently, and they all seem to make sense when viewed in the right light.

Looking at the date of my last post, I can see that it has been over a month since I’ve had anything to say ‘round here. You’re welcome.

So much has happened in the last month that I feel obligated to “catch up” on everything, to talk about what’s been occupying my time and energy for the last month. I think that is part of the reason why I haven’t written in a while: a reluctance to write for fear that I’ll leave some things out of the narrative of what I’ve been doing, and why I haven’t been showing up. But, I think it is best for me to simply ignore that fact that I’ve been gone for a long time, and simply move forward. I am pretty sure no one wants a “Here’s-what-I-did-for-my-Christmas-break” report anyway.

I am back at work as of this week. Classes start on Monday; I am in “Professional Development” this week. Basically, this means that I have to attend various classes and workshops that are supposed to help me do my job better. Mostly it’s pretty boring, pointless stuff. I went to a presentation yesterday on time management. The presenter couldn’t make it through her whole PowerPoint presentation because she ran out of time. Inevitably these workshops often lead to whine-about-kids-these-days sessions; that is always kind of funny to me, especially because I am probably closer in age to the students than most of the other professors.

I am excited to get back to work. It’ll be nice to add some structure and regularity to my schedule. A month ago I had all sorts of ideas about what I was going to do with that month off, but I didn’t do hardly any of it.

The end of the semester is here, which means things will slow down quite a lot. At this point, all of my grades are calculated and submitted, save one class, which has its final exam in a few hours. I always try to get all of my grades done and submitted early, as it feels nice to just be “done” sooner rather than later. I suppose this extends my Christmas vacation a few extra days…

I haven’t been surfing in over a month, so that is going first on my list. I am thinking about doing some more running as well (we’ll see about that, though). I need to get on my bike as it has been two weeks now since I have ridden anywhere. Maybe I should ride my bike to the beach!

It is kind of sad to admit, but I one of those people that takes their computer with them on vacation.  I take my laptop with me when we go out of town for a few days, usually under the excuse that I need it to get some work done that must be done right away.  In all actuality, I rarely actually get said work done, and my computer ends up being used for not much more than aimless internet browsing and email checking.  And, being that said work doesn’t get done before I get home, yet everything ends up okay, it seems that the “need” to get it done was either not so strong, or was possible to accomplish after I returned home.  So, bringing my computer with me on “vacation” is really just a security blanket.  I bring it so I won’t be stuck in that awful, nothing-to-do place unarmed.  I definitely don’t think of myself as one of those people who needs to be constantly entertained, constantly connected to something…but perhaps I am.

I am at my mom’s house right now, and I will be here until Sunday.  I didn’t bring my computer with me.  I have my iPhone, some papers that need grading, a small Moleskine notebook, and my thoughts.  I was really tempted to bring it, as I always do, but I decided that I should do something different this time, to ween myself off of my addiction to connectivity.  Granted, I still have my phone, which can connect me to pretty much anything I’d like, but it a lot harder to just browse around aimlessly that way.  Besides the papers that need grading, I can’t really work on anything from work, I can’t work on music stuff…I have to figure out how to make do without all of the things that I supposedly need my laptop to do.  What it really comes down to is that those things don’t really need doing right now.  They can wait a few days; their deadlines aren’t so dire and soon that I must be working on them at all hours.  The work will still be there waiting for me when I get home.

(You might be wondering how I am writing this.  I am typing this on my mom’s computer.  I hope to not use it again after this post.  I can post from my phone, which I may do should the inspiration arise…)

Mostly, I just wanted to “challenge” myself, to see if I could go computer-less for half a week, and still come out sane on the other side.  I’ll let you know how it goes.