And so two years pass…

And here I am making excuses again.

Well, I’m not really justifying anything, as the only person I’m letting down is myself. I have been busy, and songwriting sadly fell by the wayside long ago. I’ve had the desire but no focus or discipline to continue on with it. As always, I write this with the idea that I am going to change darn it — but what am I doing now but procrastinating with writing this!

Last August I relocated from Toronto to San Francisco in order to pursue my Master of Music degree with a concentration in Chamber Music Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I feel like I’m catching up on the infamous ‘university experience’ here that I kind of missed out on in undergrad: I’m doing way more work than I thought I could handle, but also having lots of fun. I’ve met some wonderful people and played some really awesome shows (check out www.magikmagik.com) and of course have practiced my butt off. I love the city, and the weather is fabulous — this past winter was the first in many, many years that I found not to be horribly depressing.

So after getting an email explaining the new 3-year-maximum tenure in the Verbier Orchestra, I’m not returning to the Swiss alps this summer. I actually have decided that I am not interested in doing any music festival at all, but am rather going to spend some time actually regaining some semblance of sanity and balance in my life, as well as trying to rekindle some of the energy and enthusiasm I once had for rehearsing.

In the meantime, I am going to do my best to write some more bad songs and post them up here. I’ve been talking wistfully about wanting to write songs and get something going to so many people here in SF, and I have received much more enthusiastic responses than I have anywhere else. People here are willing and wanting to help out. However, nobody is going to get it started for me; no one can reach into my head and pull out the music, as awesome as that would be. I should work on inventing something that does that. As my birthday is yet again right around the corner, I’m also keenly aware of the fact that sadly, I’m not getting any younger. I can feel in me somewhere the dormant ability to create amazing music. I just need a hell of a lot of practice writing and self-ass-kicking before I am going to actually going to be able to express anything in a quasi-reasonable capacity. The monolith of perfectionism must fall.

I’m going to post some new sound clips from recitals and concerts I’ve done recently since the ones that have been up here are a million years old and I know that people occasionally still wind up checking this place out.

As always, please feel free to leave any comments, questions, love notes, erectile dysfunction ads, etc.

Cheers!