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Tuesday, May 06, 2008

  • Currently Reading
    3:16: The Numbers of Hope
    By Max Lucado
    see related

    ASCAP or BMI?

    I may be going to an ASCAP awards ceremony tonight, but I'm not sure...but I WILL be finishing up my last bit of work on this film score late tonight. Then tomorrow, it's off to Twain Harte to drop off the kids at my folks house and Thursday morning we fly to Nashville.

    But for now...I've got to finish cleaning out/packing up the Covina house. Boo.
    Although, in fairness, my wife has done most of the work, so I really shouldn't complain.



    So I've asked several composers about joining ASCAP or BMI--mainly WHICH one I should join, and what are the differences.
    They seem fairly similar, and in my quest for clarity on this fuzzy subject, no one can give me a straight answer about the differences between the two and/or when is a good time to join.
    Ok...I guess I'll keep asking...





    On day two of unemployment/being a full-time film orchestrator...it feels slightly weird and mostly awesome.
    I'll get back to you on all of that as time marches on.

    OH--and I started the Max Lucado book 3:16 today. I figured since we're doing the musical in June, I should really read the book to get a perspective on the big picture...

Monday, May 05, 2008

  • The Internets

    I know there are more important things to talk about going on in my life right now...but I have to just stop and let you know that I signed up for the fastest internet service I've EVER had in my life...

    It is only 2x as fast as the already-pretty-fast internet we had before, and it was only an extra $5 a month...but the speed is just KILLING me! I LOOOOVE IT!
    It's crazy...soooooo stinkin' fast. Just unbelievable...


Friday, May 02, 2008

  • What a Night!

    EDIT ADD:

    I received an email back from the composer. He said his sides hurt from laughing so hard and he was saving this email for when I got famous…

    So glad he has a sense of humor! Phew!

    Below is a rather humbling email I had to write this morning:

    As context, you should know that on Tuesday night I arrived at his studio at around 11pm, and worked until 3:30AM, after which I drove home, slept for 2.5 hours and then woke up and went to work. Then Wednesday night I worked in his studio from midnight until 5AM, after which arriving home it was already "time to get up and get ready for work"...which I did (not sleeping at all). I took a nap yesterday (against my better judgment) for about 90 minutes, and then proceeded to go back down to the studio at about 11PM last night to work some more...this is what happened...
    (for those of you that are wondering, this is his studio, where he has been working for about 14 hours a day to complete the writing of this film score. I have to work in his space, but only when he is not working, hence the weird hours.
    Thank you Lord that I am quitting my APU job...I could not do this on a regular basis...

    ---------------------------------

    Hey

    So I'm sure you're already astounded by the lack of work I  
    accomplished last night...especially the fact that I was unable to  
    write the brass parts you asked me to. Soooooo basically if your computer was a car, I  
    "fell asleep at the wheel"  not too long after I got there.
    I was bouncing some tracks for 1M39, and I must have leaned back in  
    the chair during one of the bounces and just conked out. I seriously  
    woke up some time later with most of my limbs numb and a huge spot on  
    my forehead where I guess I had put my head down on the desk at some  
    point.

    I'm horribly embarrassed by the whole thing...but I guess it's also a  
    little bit funny. I guess that's what happens when one only sleeps for  
    an hour or two each night for two days in a row...

    Just FYI, this shouldn't be a problem in the future as I have recently  
    quit my day job. Last day for that job is this Saturday. In the future  
    I should be able to pull the graveyard shift with ease since I would  
    potentially sleep during the day, but this week I've been "running on  
    empty" a little bit doing both things.

    Anyhow--all that to say I'm SORRY!!
    I'm bummed I didn't get to write the brass parts, and I only did about  
    1.5 Pro Tools sessions done before my "crash".

    Ha.

    I'll be available to work next Sunday night, Monday anytime, and  
    Tuesday anytime (including the graveyard).

    We'll talk soon.



    ----------------------

    Ouch...
    Oh well. The Lord has His ways to keep us humble.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

  • This is Why I Quit

    I just started working on the film score tonight at about 1130 or 1200 because the composer needed to be in his studio until then finishing up some things. I'm cool with that...but I might be a little less cool with it tomorrow night...

    Thank goodness for a couple of helpers to keep me awake.

    snickers



    purplevitaenergy

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

  • Real-Live Film Scoring

    So I'm quitting my job at APU to become a film composer, sort of.
    Honestly, my goal right now is not necessarily to become a film composer as much as it is to be a film score orchestrator. I have no idea what the future holds, but I DO love the orchestra more than I necessarily love coming up with "original" melodies and being the main music man on a film. The whole thing is a bit daunting. But I kick butt at taking someone else's idea and expanding it and writing beautiful things around it...that's no problem...I could do it in my sleep...(hence the love for orchestrating).

    So the current project I'm working on is not necessarily glamorous, but it is a TV movie, and I'll get my first orchestrator credit for it (a shared credit, but a credit nonetheless). There are times when I'm pretty work focused and I'm just getting the job done. There are other times when I realize that I'm doing what I always dreamed I wanted to do, I take a second to sit back and look at where I'm at, and give thanks for my blessings. I may not be orchestrating at this very second, but I AM in a studio in West L.A. working on a film score. For this, I am thankful.

    A little background:
    I got this gig because the composer sent me along with 8 bars of a melody and some chords he had written and said to me "Show me what you can do with this...". So I went home and pulled out my best tricks and whipped together a very majestic orchestration of his theme. He loved it. He used it in the film. But little did I know just how much he used it!

    I was just sitting here doing some work and I came across this cue that had bits and pieces of some string lines and woodwind parts that I had written in my orchestration...this is probably the second or third cue that I've seen the exact music I wrote appear in...but it came as a pleasant surprise. I was listening and watching the film along with this music, and all of sudden I started hearing my stuff. It sounded so awesome with the film, I wanted to just jump up and down with my arms flailing in the air yelling "I WROTE THAT!! THAT'S MINE! I WROTE THAAAAAT!!" but no one is here. And it's 2:30 in the morning...

    So I'll just jump up and down on the inside, be even MORE thankful, and keep working...



    Side Note: I'm thoroughly annoyed with Jason Castro and Brooke on American Idol. Just go home already and let our top 3 be the Davids and Seyesha.
    Sheesh.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

  • Saying Farewell

    On Tuesday I submitted my resignation to my boss in the Office of the Registrar at APU. On Friday, it was announced to my office (and it feels a little weird since I took Friday off to move...I wasn't there when it was announced). My last day is May 3rd, our Spring Commencement day.

    I am leaving because it is time in my career to pursue arranging/orchestration/film composing full time. I am getting enough opportunities to warrant me focusing my whole attention to this pursuit. It's not quite enough to live on yet, but enough so that I need to work on it non-stop and be available when people DO call with work. A HUGE thank you to my wife who will get a job for a while to make up the difference in our salary and enable us to pay the rent! She rocks for being willing to go back to work. As soon as I mentioned that I felt like it was time to quit APU, her next words were, "OK, then it's time for me to get a job!". Didn't even hesitate. She's awesome like that. 

    I am extremely fortunate to have worked in such a cool environment as APU. Not only is the institution amazing as a whole, but my office was probably the coolest one on campus. Seriously. Wonderful, hard-working, talented, fun people. I have learned a lot in the past two years, and made a lot of great memories with them. Some good, some bad...(HA). In honor of my departure, I compiled a list...

    Top Ten Most Memorable Moments as a Staff Member in the UG REG Office

    1) My promotion to Associate Registrar.  

    2) Erin Webb’s departure. She was my office mate for a year, and taught me everything I know about the office and the programs we used. She had a similar temperament and similar strengths as me, so working together was a blast. We were productive and fun. Our office was the best…in it’s day.

    3) The office “punking” me by pretending to call me to tell me I’d won free coffee for life from Starbucks. I'm pretty sure this happened in my second week working there. It really set the tone for the future...

    4) Taping a line down the middle of the office that Erin and I shared, putting up signs (i.e. “Daniel’s Awesome Office”) and requiring that people enter the door on our side of the office and not cross the line.

    5) Watching “The Office” online in our office during the 30-minute lunch break on Fridays with several people.

    6) The bonus check I received as a staff member after only being at APU for a few days. At that point we were really tight on money, and I had been praying for the Lord to help us make it through the next few weeks. I was really stressed about it. That day I went to a community meeting at APU and they announced a bonus check to all employees of $250 bucks. I cried. In my seat. In the community meeting. (Small tears…and only for a minute—I don’t think anyone saw…). It wasn’t the amount that was moving—but it was almost like a clear message from the Lord to say “Trust me, I’ll provide”. And that—that was what I needed that day…

    7) A gift that was given to my by my direct supervisor when I was the Articulation Administrator. The thing that was memorable about it was the way she gave it, and the words that she spoke while giving it. I was totally touched and moved. It was an incredible gift, although it was a small one.

    8) Winning all the time, at everything, until Scott showed up (that jerk).
    Just kidding. I love Scott…

    9) Jon Wallace (APU’s President) responding to an email I sent to someone else in jest about getting a statue of me at APU. I had just made the very first articulation agreement in APU’s history, and I was pridefully saying that I wanted my statue in this place and that high…and that in the archives of history MY name would be listed as making the first articulation agreement…someone forwarded the email to the entire president’s cabinet…he responded…I FREAKED out…(I did not reply). 

    10) Laughing a lot with Joe and Heidi. All the time. About silly things. (and laughing with all of them, really…we did a lot of laughing in that office, Praise God…)

     

     

     I am going to miss my UG REG friends!

    Thank you ALL for a great two years! 


    I won't be a stranger, though. I will be teaching a class on Wednesdays and Fridays in the fall, so I'll pop in and visit...


Thursday, April 24, 2008

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Monday, April 21, 2008

  • Preciousness

    EDIT ADD:

    Go back and re-read the last paragraph of this blog entry. It makes NO sense.  HA...I was literally falling asleep on the keyboard when I was typing this. I would have just left it and gone to sleep, but I wanted to finish SO BADLY!
    I would actually wake up with a million llllllllllllllllllllllls in a row...go back and delete them...aaaaaaand repeat....haha.
    Seriously. Sometimes you just need to go to bed.

    I have more on this post to talk about. Nathaniel actually did some awesome things yesterday and I want to brag about my little boy...

    We just got in an accident on the way home from San Diego. It wasn't that bad. A 20 year-old dude rear-ended us right around the 57/60 interchange. Frankly, with all of the driving we do, I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. Hopefully our insurance rates won't be going up...but in all reality as SOON as it happened the first thought I had was concern for my family.
    The REALLY funny thing is that we got hit really hard and the kids slept right through it. They have the uncanny ability to do that...we used to have Nertz games all hours of the night with lots of yelling and screaming...the kids slept right through it. I think it's pretty amazing, really...


    Church today was pretty cool. We had a really different setup on the stage and it felt strange but fun. We had a small group of high schoolers that put on this really powerful skit. It was a tear jerker for sure...We followed the skit with a song (Sing to the King) and I actually had a really hard time singing it second service because I was a mess. Check out a different church doing this same skit on youtube here...
    The most emotional time in the skit for me was the last 60-90 seconds of it...just watch, and you'll see why. I'm telling ya, if you're not somehow moved by this thing, then you're a robot and you have no heart.


    God works in incredible ways.

    Tonight we were driving home from San Diego and Nathaniel (in his normal state of just basically yammering on all of the time) asks Christy and I if we knew what our gift from God was...
    We didn't know exactly to what he was referring, so we started guess...salvation? Eternal life? Grace? ???
    Turns out he was talking about something much more specific to us. He goes on to inform us of what our gifts are:

    Daddy's gift: playing piano
    Nathaniel's gift: singing
    Mommy's gift: greeting people and being very nice to them.
    Noah's gift: always being cute, hugging, and showing love.


    Apparently we also have a gift of singing, but we can't all have the exactly same gift, according to Nathaniel 's 411 and you barely read other ones, just admidt it.



Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

  • Just Kidding, Just Kidding, Just Kidding

    Every once and a while, a truly remarkable and talented comedian comes along on SNL. Dan Akroyd, Phil Hartman, and Will Ferrell (among others) will be remembered for a long time as SNL greats...and I'm convinced that Kristen Wiig will soon be joining the list. This girl is hilarious--and I called it a looooong time ago, too...
    Here are a couple of her winners from recent shows. SO funny... So, who are your all-time favorite SNL cast members?

Thursday, April 10, 2008

  • Daddy Day

    Tonight Christy is going to "Prism", a big show at her old high school.
    Of course this means tonight is another Daddy night...which means we will be eating cereal for dinner, playing PS2, and watching Empire Strikes Back.

    I'm such a good dad.


dsemsen

  • Visit dsemsen's Xanga Site
    • Name: Daniel
    • Country: United States
    • State: California
    • Metro: Los Angeles
    • Birthday: 11/7/1979
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 5/26/2004

About Me

  • APU Alum, Composer/Arranger/Orchestrator & Part-time grad student at CSULA. I love SNL, The Office, LOST, and iPhones.