Life.

Hey everyone!

I'm alive! I've just been really really busy and doing a poor job of keeping people updated on things.

Let's walk through a typical day in the life of Caitlin Gilmore, so you can see how it is just NOT my fault that I haven't been posting anything at all lately...

My days/classes:

8:40am- Wake up, take a shower

9:30am- Class starts (either practicum on MWF or Keyboard Skills T/R)

11:30- Music Theory or Aural Skills

12:30- Flute/Clarinet skills or Digital Audio Recording

1:30- University Singers or Big Band

3:30(TR)- Studio until 4:30 every other week, lesson with Dr. Lee on the off week. Thursdays, Convocation at 3:30.

4:30 (MW)- Jazz Choir

5:30 (Every other Tuesday)- My lesson on the weeks I have studio.

I get done with class sometime between 6-6:30, either grab dinner (or don't) and either watch a faculty concert for convocation credit around 7:30pm, or practice flute/piano/saxophone for an hour or two.

And no, I do not have a single class outside of Westbrook Music Building this semester, and probably won't at all this year.

Get home sometime between 8pm-10pm. Eat dinner (since I usually don't have time to get dinner, and only have room in my lunchbox to pack lunch since I obviously don't have a lunch break there...)

Do homework/compose until 2am on a good night, but usually until 3am or later.

Do it all again.




Also, I'm helping start up a Co-Ed a capella group with a few of my buddies, so hopefully that gets off the ground and running. Rehearsals for that will probably be around 9pm.

Plus, I'm holding down a job. I actually enjoy it, especially the 4-8am shifts since it's just paid, uninterrupted homework time. Nobody ever comes down around then, so usually, I just get paid to sit at the desk and maybe say hello to 1 or 2 people. I work Monday mornings and every other Friday and Saturday. Sometimes I pick up extra shifts, but not usually because I'm already on the edge of overloading myself about 99% of the time.

As far as composing, I don't get to spend as much time doing that as I'd like to, but, I'm hoping I'll have time to just get ahead on everything and actually be productive during fall break... Even though that's always very difficult when I'm at home.

For those of you who keep asking, "Where are you finding all the motivation?" I keep telling myself "Get certified in all the things you can, because UNL is paying for most of it and it makes you more attractive for jobs and Grad school!" When that doesn't work, I use the standard "You can sleep when you're dead." Those have been my mantras to get me through everything the past few weeks.

So yeah. It's safe to say that I've been keeping pretty busy. I don't sleep much, and I'm usually fairly stressed out, but if I wasn't, I'd be doing something wrong as a music major. As awful as my schedule looks, I'm still extremely happy that I get to be doing what I love, and not paying UNL extravagant amounts of money to do so. I'm either in the right place or need to be institutionalized for being super overworked and still somehow enjoying myself, so I'm really hoping it's the former.

Also, for a person who never really liked coffee all that much, sophomore year of college has changed me. I'm slowly but steadily getting more addicted... I used to drink coffee maybe once a month, now it's closer to once a week. I know it still isn't that much by a lot of people's standards, but for someone with a low caffeine tolerance, it's making me sad that I actually think of coffee a lot, and would have it every day if I had time to get it.

Well, those are all the interesting things going on right now, I believe!

Song of the day:
Take a Walk by Passion Pit. It pumps me up when I need a nice little energy boost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZX6Q-Bj_xg

With love,
Gilmore

Deux.

Bonjour mes amis!

It's been a really really long time since I last posted. I apologize. But, I would like to catch you all up on what's been going on since Middle School Band Camp!

So, I finished my summer classes with all A's, which was exciting. Gotta love having a high GPA to keep that Regents scholarship!

Sometime right before finals, I also had work training for my new job at the Harper/Schramm/Smith/Village night desk. I work 3-5 nights a week alternating weeks, but I'm hoping to cut that down to 1-3 when my boss hires more people. The job is great, I mostly work 4-8am and no one comes in, so I get to just sit there and catch up on homework/composing.

As for my classes now, they're going well so far in this first week. I had auditions all week and made it into every ensemble I tried out for which made me very happy!! I'm now an Alto I in Usingers, the lead vocalist for the UNL big band, and voice part undetermined for Jazz Choir as of now. I sang Soprano I last year, but that could change. I don't really care what voice part I sing for anything at this point, which is only helping to continue my vocal identity crisis that I've had since Junior year of high school.

Also, I'm learning how to play the flute. Learning that I'm not very good at it yet, but I guess we've only had 2 classes so that's ok. I found out that I really hate the fingerings from D to C on the flute, because they're the exact opposite of each other so I'm really going to have to practice later today after my work meeting at 7.

I've also figured out that life is a million times busier as a Music Ed major/Tech minor than just a performance major. Holy crap. I start at 9:30 every day and don't get to leave the building until 4-5 most days, and no lunch break. I went to the store this weekend and bought bread, peanut butter, and nutella for my locker so I can squeeze in lunch in the 10 minutes I have between classes. But, I would much rather be busy because I got into everything I wanted to be in than bored because I didn't, so at least I'm in a good place for that stuff.

As for what I'm working on compositionally, I'm arranging a chart to sing with for the UNL Big Band (It's my first jazz chart so I'm excited) at a later date. I also was hired to arrange an entire show for Minden High School's show choir, so this will mark my first show choir experience and first legitimate commission! As for semester projects, I'm writing an original flute and piano piece, and an original piano trio.

So that's the last few weeks in a nutshell. Sorry for taking so long to post!

Song of the day:
Free by Graffiti6. They're a really feel-good band out of the UK, and I love them like crazy. The music video cuts 45 seconds out of the song, but it's still wonderful regardless. Spotify the whole thing if you like it. (: Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FObmcZnoKM

Cheers,
Gilmore

"This one time at band camp..." and other adventures.

Hello everyone!

Sorry for taking so long between this post and my last one! 

This last week, I was camp counseling for the UNL Middle School band camp. It was a ton of fun, and it makes me happy to see how so many kids are excited about music. My duties included teaching a saxophone masterclass (with my good friend Michael), and teaching an elements class, which was basically a composition class. Also, I herded campers to where they needed to be, and stayed at the dorms to supervise them overnight. It was great seeing how vastly the kids improved playing their instruments in the short time we had, and how creative my elements class was, since they wrote 3 lines of music that were put on the final concert!

Plus, we had a ton of fun doing other stuff too... We threw a dance for the middle schoolers, and Michael and I got to play match-maker, and I attended my first middle-school dance (which, by the way, thanks to my fellow counselors, I had more fun at than almost all of my high school dances put together). We also played late-night sand volleyball against the counselors of the high school marching camp that was going on at the same time, and beat them for the first time in at least 4 years. It was also hilarious that the kids thought our fake lives were more interesting than our real ones, and by fake lives, they kept pairing the counselors off as boyfriend/girlfriend, or saying we were married to each other. I was either married to Michael by the end of the week or was his "Other woman" because he was married to one of the other counselors first. More embarrassingly, Michael and I somehow got coerced into playing some pop songs for the kids, and there are quite a few middle schoolers walking around with our voices as their ringtones. But, it was a really really great time, and I hope I get to do it again next year!

After all this madness, my cousin Jasmine came and visited me for a few days from Texas. It was super amazing, since I hadn't seen her in over a year in a half. We played music, hung out, and had fun until she left this afternoon. It was so good to see her and my Aunt Jean again this week, and it was a fantastic end to an amazing (and tiring) week. 

As for how I'm doing in general, I'm fine. I finished my last 2 summer classes with A's, and started a new one when camp started, which is Philosophy 106. And, by the way, my teacher is absolutely HILARIOUS. She's very intelligent and interesting, and oh my gosh, her one-liners and examples and stories during class don't make those 4 hour lectures seem bad at all. 

Musically, I'm in a jazz-indie band called Wind Armada that my counselor buddy from UNL high school jazz camp (Andrew Janak) invited me to be in, and, I gotta say, I'm really excited about how awesome of a group we have. The other guys (Drew, Kevin, Mike, and Michael) are just beyond talented, and I'm super lucky to get the chance to work with them. I mean, we're even doing a chart called "Great Lol of China." Just saying, we're awesome and funny and cool. No big deal. 

Also, I'm working on writing music. So many projects going on right now that I think I might explode, and I really hope I can get them done by the school year because once again, I way overloaded myself on how much stuff I need to write. But, hopefully hopefully hopefully I'll have more time to be composing because I'm only taking one class now instead of two.

ONE MORE THING: I'm tutoring people for ACT English and Reading. Also, giving composition lessons, vocal jazz lessons, beginning piano lessons, tutoring elementary school kids... Actually, a better question would be what I'm NOT certified to tutor in right now. Sorry for the shameless plugs, but I just dropped a hefty amount of money on a microphone and other music-related things, and my bank account is definitely feeling it!

Anyway, the song of the day is called Star Scat by Caravan Palace. They're a gypsy electronic jazz group out of Paris, and their charts are SICK. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eyGw2Ts4qY

Thanks for reading this very long post! Cheers, everyone!
Love,

Gilmore

Jayuzzzzz.

Well hey there, everyone!

As some of you know, I just got done camp counseling for the UNL High School Jazz Band Camp on Thursday.

Camp started Sunday, the 17th, on Father's day. I was able to make it home for the weekend to see my parents and some of my friends to celebrate father's day and my birthday, and was at Harper residence hall at 8am sharp, ready to move in and work with the campers. The first day was a lot of auditions for combo placement, followed by a jazz movie called Jazz on a Summer's Day later that night. If you're a jazzer and haven't seen it, I suggest you do. It has a lot of outstanding performances from a lot of the greats, and I'm sure all you cats would appreciate it. (:

Monday-Wednesday was a lot more of the same, shepherding students from place to place, making sure everyone was where they needed to be. There was jazz listening, jazz theory/arranging, combo practice, improvisation class, and a lot more for the kids to do. We got great seats at Jazz in June on Tuesday of camp, and my birthday passed on Wednesday with a lot of the campers singing me happy birthday and whatnot. My job was pretty easy, out of the 29 students, only 3 were female, and since I stayed on the same floor as the girls, all I had to do was knock on doors at 10:30 to make sure they were in bed, which was a much easier time than the men had. My friends took me out on Thursday night to celebrate my birthday a little late, so the celebration of me turning 19 wasn't a wash or anything. All in all, last week was a great week, full of great music, and a lot of great strengthening and starting of new friendships among my colleagues and fellow musicians in Westbrook Music Building. The greatest part about this camp was definitely the privilege of working with some amazing faculty and my 3 awesome fellow counselors. (:

BY THE WAY, look out for this new group I'm going to be in around the Omaha and Lincoln area, folks! We're called Wind Armada, and were formed by my fellow counselor Andrew Janak, who is a killer saxophonist. It's going to be great, we're doing jazz/indie-ish music, and it'll be really freaking sweet.

As for how classes and things have been going, it's all fine, I just can't wait for July and a lighter workload, and Middle School Band Camp! I know that camp is exhausting and a lot of work, but it's really great seeing young kids so excited about music, and watching talent develop. (:

Song of the day: Tea for Two, the Anita O'day version. This is from that Jazz Video I was watching, and I want to do a transcription of it. Her version is seriously SICK. You don't have to like jazz to love this. Promise. It's also on Spotify!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTk0pk6cFhE

Cheers,
Gilmore

C'est la vie.

Hey there, friend;

Well, a good starting point would probably be the fact that I am no longer in Columbus for the summer. That's right folks, I'm back in Lincoln-land. My time at home was very refreshing and was a much-needed break, and I'm raring to put my nose back to the grindstone. Or at least, I keep telling myself that. 

Some answers to a few FAQs I've been getting lately:

Q: Where are you living?

A: Well, I'm not going to disclose the EXACT details on the internet, thank you very much, but, I'm in an apartment for just the summer. I'm living with a friend and her two roommates, and I'm taking someone's lease for June-July so I can have a place to live during summer school. I'm moving back to campus with a good friend of mine from high school come fall. 

Q: When did you move back to Lincoln?

A: Friday, June 1st. 

Q: What classes are you taking?

A: Comm 109 and Food Science (online) during the merry month of June, and Philosophy 106 during July. This is to fill my ACE requirements that aren't being covered by my majors.

For all the people not familiar with UNL lingo:

Comm 109- A speech class. I apparently need to this to fill some sort of requirement, despite my 4 years of speech team experience in high school. Well, technically, it's "communications," not speech, but whatever. 

Food Science- A science class. It's pretty easy since I've been pretty good about doing all the work when I can. My first test for this 'un is on Wednesday. 

Philosophy 106- Current issues Philosophy. It only meets 2 nights per week in July, but that means only 8 classes until the final. I'm excited for it regardless, I'm taking it with my roommate. 

ACE requirement- Known everywhere else in the whole entire world except UNL as "Gen-eds." 

Q: Are you working/Do you have a job this summer?

A: Yes and no. I unfortunately do not have a steady part-time job for the summer (which is looking like it's a good thing since my workload is surprisingly copious), BUT, I was hired to work for the UNL High School Jazz Camp (position and actual work I'll be doing unknown) as the only female counselor, and the UNL Middle School Band Camp (on saxophone). They're both about a week in duration and they both agreed to work around my classes, so I'm super excited for them! As Music Education/Composition, I'm hoping grad schools, etc., will eat this resumé booster right up... Plus, I'm super excited to work with these kids, AND I get paid. It'll be glorious, I hope.

ALSO, I am tutoring people over the summer. I have a job tutoring a girl in Norfolk in ACT English and Reading, and I'm doing things like giving music lessons, tutoring, etc., throughout the summer for those who want them. Especially ACT stuff and lessons. Sorry for the shameless plug. 

As for how I'm enjoying the new apartment, it's fine. It's kind of an adjustment not having my mom make me delicious food and having to fend for myself as far as cooking goes. Don't worry, it isn't like I'm sitting here starving or anything. No child of Joy Gilmore has an inability to cook for themselves, rest assured. I have a huge bathroom all to myself, and a lot of closet space. If I could change anything about my bedroom, I'd have a larger desk. It's only 2 months though, so I'll be ok. HOWEVER, it seems that some boys upstairs have (hopefully HAD after today) bedbugs, so they kicked us out for 2 hours (luckily the 2 hours that I happen to be in class so it was no big deal), but it was still very annoying that they were knocking at our front door whilst I was in the shower. 

As for classes, those are fine too. It's a lot of busy work but nothing super mentally taxing. I'm slowly getting into a composing schedule again. I'm also trying to work in a work out schedule (see what I did there?), and hope that motivation will come once I'm truly settled in here. There's still some unpacking that needs to be done. 

ALSO, I plan on going home not this weekend, but the next. I probably would have gone back to Columbus this weekend, but I was hired to play piano for a wedding in Omaha on Saturday, so I can't really justify the trip. 

I guess I kind of miss being at home, I mean, it IS summer and all, but for some reason, I am very unproductive at my house. Or in Columbus. I mean, it isn't like there's a whole bunch to do there, but I just get lazy when I go home. Hopefully these classes will give me a routine so I can kick things like composing and working out and being a productive member of society in the butt. That is, if I can get un-addicted to this new TV show my roommate got me addicted to within 3 days of moving in.

I have decided that I don't mind cooking for myself, but... I HATE WASHING MY POTS AND PANS AND DISHES. Cleaning up after myself, after all these years, still remains my least favorite activity. Oh well. 

Song of the day in honor of the brand new blog layout/title:

Hallelujah. Originally written by Leonard Cohen, but this is the Jeff Buckley version. A very powerful song, with some of my most favorite lyrics of all-time ever. Which is exhibited by some of them making the new title of this here blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4

Cheers,

Gilmore

Mile High City.

Ahoy, mateys!

I just got back from Denver, CO. Here was my extended Memorial Day weekend in review.

Thursday:

We left Nebraska at 10am, Central Time. We made one stop in Ogallala for some food at the Denny's there... And it just so happened that the only two people I know from Ogallala were working there! It was a magical happenstance, since I haven't seen them since I met them at All-State Jazz Choir last summer, so it was really cool to catch up. There's a picture on Facebook.

We arrived in beautiful Denver at 5:30, Mountain Time, to 68 degrees and sunny weather. We made reservations at Maggiano's (which I'm now finding out Omaha has, too) in Englewood, and had a lovely dinner around 7:30. And by lovely, I mean gorging on fantastic Italian food. It was delicious. We came back to our hotel and enjoyed our fantastic lodgings.

A word about said lodgings, my mom managed to get us a hotel room with a living room, 2 bedrooms, 2 bath, a full size fridge, and a kitchen. For 50 dollars. Total. For four days. Needless to say, it was nice to stay in such luxury for so stinkin' cheap.

After that, we were all pretty tired from driving and full bellies, so we went to bed.

Friday:

We woke up around 9 and went to a golf store with my brother and dad, where we also bought dad's birthday gifts. Then, we went back to the hotel, and tried to decide what to do... Then came up with Six Flags and shopping! I got to fall from about 200 feet in a harness which was pretty cool. Then we went downtown and did some shopping, so now I'm even more broke after a trip to H&M, my favorite clothing store. Oh well, it was very worth it. After a long day, we went back to the hotel, watched TV, and spent a relaxing night bumming around. It was fantastic.

Saturday:

This was May 26th, my Dad's 54th birthday. So another belated happy birthday, Dad! We went whitewater rafting, and my mom almost sunk the boat after we hit this huge rock in the river... Whoops. It was pretty funny though. After that, my dad, brother, and I went ziplining. Seriously one of the most awesome experiences of my life, and, to have a dad who goes ziplining when he turns 54 is pretty awesome. He was the oldest guy in our group, but that's ok.

After that, we went to a sushi place (his, my mom's, and my favorite food) called Sushi Den. We pigged out on some of the best sushi any of us have ever eaten, with great service from a waiter named Joe who looked like my uncle Joe, which was pretty funny.

We dropped the boys off at the hotel and my mom and I made a quick hour-long trip to the HUGE Ikea next to our hotel, where I got a coffee table for my dorm, a floor lamp, etc etc...

That night, we played a competitive but friendly game of pitch, our favorite card game. We played 7 and 10 point until past midnight, then went to bed. This was probably my favorite day of the whole trip.

Sunday:
Our last day in the Mile High City. We slept in and saw Dark Shadows around 2, which I really enjoyed (mostly because I love Tim Burton), then dropped my dad off at the hotel since he wanted a nap. My brother, mom, and I returned to Ikea (making it my second time ever being there), and I got more room/college stuff, which was awesome. We had Bdubs for dinner, and watched a Criminal Minds marathon until we fell asleep.

Monday:
Got up at 10am Mountain time, had an uneventful drive home, and arrived in Columbus around 6pm Central time. We were all family-ed out, so I spent the night out with some of my best friends. We were all pretty tired though, and threw in the towel around 1am instead of staying out at all hours like we usually do when we're together.

So there you have it! The chronicles of our family vacation to Denver. I'd go again in a heartbeat, it was a great time.

Song of the day:
And it Spread by The Avett Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj54C_CWx5w

Thanks for reading!
With love,
Gilmore

"And the living is easy."

Hey there, readers!

Summertime is here for UNL students. I've been out of school for awhile now, and it feels pretty fantastic. I already miss a lot of my school friends, but it's been really nice to be home in Columbus and catch up with all the people here. I'm pretty sure I've slept more in the past few weeks than I did for the entire month of November, and it feels really good. It's been refreshing being at home, and I'm not quite ready for that time to end yet.

As far as how school ended this past semester, it ended really really well. I got all A's (and an A- in my class worth the most credit, Music Theory -_-), so I had a semester GPA of a 3.9. This means my overall GPA is a 3.78 right now, which feels pretty good. Yay for keeping my Regents Scholarship!

I've been taking a short break from composing, which will actually probably end right after this blog post is sent to the world wide web, so I wouldn't get burned out and so I could give myself time to miss it. And I have been missing it, so, mission accomplished.

I've still been keeping busy doing music stuff, I'm starting a band for gigging and for fun with my buddies Michael Nguyen and Mitch Benson, and we've got a sample CD in the works. We're also working on a band name, and I'll let you all know as soon as that happens.

For those of you who haven't heard, I managed to get hired for two counseling positions this summer, one for the UNL high school jazz camp, and also for the UNL middle school band camp. This is a super huge blessing, especially since I'm Music Education now, and I'm really excited to work with these kids!

Oh, AND I got hired to work the night desk at The Village next year, and my future roommate, Sarah Ebner, got hired at the day desk, so it'll be a really fun time. I figure since I'm always awake, I might as well get paid to stay up and do homework. Plus, I actually live in The Village next year so I can just walk downstairs to my job, which is super convenient.

For those of you who don't know, I move back to Lincoln on June 1st because I'm taking summer classes (I actually want to try and be done in less than 5 years). Unfortunately, I've been having problems finding a part-time summer job, but this might be a blessing in disguise since my summer keeps looking busier and busier. Plus, the counseling jobs will get me a bit of money and be great for resumé boosting and whatnot, and my job during the school year will also aid in making me less broke. In other words, Columbus people, if you'd like to hang out with me, now is the time. We don't have all summer, unfortunately. Lincoln people, be excited! A lot of my summer will be spent with you.

I'm not gonna lie, these last few weeks have been really really lazy for me in comparison to the normal flurry of activity that seems to surround me, and I think it's just the thing I needed after this crazy school year. Summer has been really fantastic so far, I'm not ready for it to end at all. :)

Thanks for reading, I love you all!

Today's song of the day is a great one by a folk-duo called The Civil Wars. The song is entitled "Barton Hollow," and it's a good listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrOUwbsy12E

Cheers,
Gilmore