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SimultaneousLee
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Name: Lee
Birthday: 12/11/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: Composing, playing piano, playing the saxophone, going to the movies, hanging out with friends
Expertise: Music, Music History, Theory, and Composition
Occupation: Student
Industry: Art
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
6/25/2002
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| These are my random favorite memories from working at the Pops over their Fourth of July TV event:
..1.) Getting escorted by the Police while travelling in a motorcade on two separate occasions
..2.) Having a chauffeur personally bring me to Target to buy towels and a stopwatch for the Pops
..3.) Hearing all the gossip about how evil and high-maintenance Dr. Phil and his wife are (I'll refrain from mentioning any stories here)
..4.) Having Dr. Phil, his wife, and his PR people inflict their evil upon us and force us to do much more work for them than any of the performers (again, I have some great stories, but I'll refrain from mentioning them here)
..5.) Having Dr. Phil stop in front of me for five minutes while I was guarding the Men's restroom inside the hatch shell during intermission while he was waiting for his crew to catch up with him (I thought that was amusing)
..6.) Being Rockapella's personal assistant and runner throughout the rehearsals and shows on the 3rd and 4th - they are the absolute nicest, most professional group of musicians I've worked with all season, and if you don't know their music, check it out: Rockapella's Official Website
..7.) Working from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on July 3rd to help set up the dressing rooms and help take care of everything else inside the Hatch Shell
..8.) Dining on gourmet catered food on the 3rd and 4th
..9.) Being able to watch the fireworks on the Hatch Shell stage alongside all the guest celebrities after the concert was finished
..10.) The post-concert reception at the Fairmont Copley plaza where I was able to socialize with CBS people, the guest artists who came, and my co-horts at the Pops
And lastly...
..11.) Knowing my name scrolled by on the end credits of a nationally broadcasted show
That's all for now! Peace and love to all.  | | |
| Random update:
Back in January I secured an internship position with the Boston Pops. During the concert seasons which the Boston Pops host their concerts locally, my internship becomes a paid position and my official title becomes Artist Assistant/Production Assistant. To describe it briefly, as an Artist Assistant or Production Assistant I'm essentially the Pops' errand boy. I get to be the runner for the guest soloists they bring in for their concerts, set up the soloists' dressing rooms, and basically take care of all other needs of the soloists, as well as negotiating with the soloists' managers the travel arrangements, riders, and any other final details that need to be wrapped up before the soloist confirms performance arrangments and performs with the Pops. Of course, I end up doing many other miscellaneous tasks, such as making Maestro Keith Lockhart's coffee before every show and rehearsal, binding together scores for special programs, acting as a security guard when the guest artists do CD signings after the show (seriously), shopping for the Pops and guest artists when needed, and virtually anything else anybody in the Pops Management Office or Maestro Lockhart asks me to do. It might not sound overtly glamorous in all aspects, but I actually do enjoy it immensely. I get to meet and interact with very interesting people on a daily basis, and I've absorbed a lot of information about the music industry and the business of music from just simply being there. Some of the people or groups I've been able to meet include: Rockapella, Aimee Mann, My Morning Jacket (of whom I received a personalized autographed poster from), Bernadette Peters, Marin Mazzie, Jason Danieley, Elvis Costello, John Williams (one of my biggest idols), and quite a few others. It's been quite an experience so far.
Through the Pops I have now reached a pretty major milestone, too: July 4th will mark the first time my name will be in the end credits of a national-broadcast show. The 4th of July Concert & Fireworks extravaganza is broadcast in collaboration with CBS every year. On July 3rd and 4th, I will be spending 16-hour straight days on the Esplanade by the Hatch Shell setting up and helping coordinate the final parts of the rehearsals and the broadcast before and after it happens; I've already spent countless hours doing other errands and tasks to help prepare for those two days coming up. The list of artists include: Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw (they're the hosts), Aylah Brown, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Rockapella, Renese King, and one other name which escapes me... anyways, my biggest rewards for doing this will be knowing I played a major part in putting this on, having the above-mentioned milestone reached, and going to an apparently-exclusive party afterwards which will include all the bigwigs of Symphony Hall, the President of CBS, and potentially the guest artists.
That's all for the update! Peace and love to all. | | |
| Goobye to gay rights, abortions, and any other social or political advances made within the past 35 years! With Samuel Alito's confirmation to a seat in the United States Supreme Court ultimately assured, we now enter into a dark age of conservatism, damned to be plagued by inherently larger roadblocks in making any advancements or changes for the better good of almost any minority. Granted, overturning a large decision such as Roe vs. Wade or Lawrence vs. Texas would take a great deal of time and encounter ferocious opposition, but now, with a slightly conservative board of Supreme Court Justices serving the country, it's a likely reality the nation will almost surely face later down the line.
There's a style of politics Otto von Bismark, the Chancellor who unified Germany into the territory it is today, believed in called "Realpolitik," or "The Politics of Reason." It holds that emotion and sentiment should have no role in politics whatsoever, only objectivity should be employed. While not subjecting one's personal beliefs and emotions into almost anything is impossible, nevertheless, it is a concept the politicians in this country ought to employ. Perhaps if Realpolitik was paired with Utilitarianism, while still as free from the grips of emotion and sentiment as possible, this country would be significantly closer to the Utopian society all hippies used to dream about. Perhaps.
Comments and EProps are disabled because, while I always welcome opposing viewpoints and generating a dialogue about topics such as these, this weblog is simply for the purpose of me venting and nothing else. Peace and love to all. | | |
| Remember John Stevens from season 3 of American Idol?
Yeah, not a lot of people do. Or if you do and you're reading this, chances are you thought he was annoying.
I want to clarify before I begin that I dislike the show and always have; the only times I've ever watched it are when my boyfriend has begged me to, or when there were parties in the lounge of the dormitories and free food was being offered.
I was much surprised when I found out a few days ago a friend of mine checked him into the dorms on Commonwealth Avenue - the Comm. Ave dorms at Berklee are considered to be the "ghetto" dorms which I lived in my freshman year, and they definitely live up to that reputation. Many people wonder why he even goes to Berklee - he already has his solo debut album out, and certainly he doesn't need Berklee for connections or to polish off his talent as he could do that on his own. Almost surprisingly so, he doesn't come across as the most sociable individual - he always walks wherever he goes as though he's in a perpetual rush, and anybody who attempts to ask him, "Are you the John Stevens from American Idol?" always gets answered in timid monosyllabic responses. It's as though he wants to shed off his celebrity status and just be another kid who goes here.
Oddly enough, I must confess I feel an urge coming from within to try and befriend him; I don't care about his celebrity status, and it's not a sympathetic reaction against the diva vocalists here who make fun of him - it's simply because I want to understand him. I want to know what goes into his thought processes that makes him tick, and I want to know why. I want to know exactly why he's here, why he doesn't handle his celebrity status more confidently, and more about his tastes and influences in music. Obviously, I won't single him out and instantly give him the inquisition, as that would be tactless and rude, but all would be in due time if it's to happen.
Does this sound strange? I have a similar curiosity with a cute, nervous, assumably closeted religious vocalist who just entered into Berklee as well. I think I have a renewed fascination lately with all things unfamiliar to me.
Peace, love, and prosperity to all. | | |
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