Hepta Meme

I was recently tagged by my friend, composer Paul Bailey, in his blog. I've spent several years performing new music with Paul - mostly his and a little of mine. Recently we've done more talking than playing, but all things come around. I'm always at my best when I'm involved in new music so another concert can't be too far off. Anyhow, the rules for the meme are:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. If you don’t have 7 blog friends, or if someone else already took dibs, then tag some unsuspecting strangers.

Here we go...

1) I have nine rabbits and three dogs. They are the joy of my life. I owned a potbelly pig who died last year at 16. I miss him.

2) I absolutely love “recreational mathematics.” Martin Gardner is pretty much my favorite author. My night stand is packed with books – science, literature, religion, music – but it's the math books I read and reread and re-reread. Prime number theory, tessellations, fractals, irrational numbers...I can't get enough. One of my most dog-eared books is the Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, which is hard to get now that it's online. This hobby doesn't really overlap much with my music or professional life. I'm not typically interested in the composers who have approached music in a highly mathematical way; it's the emotional and aesthetic aspect of music that make it interesting to me in the first place. I would love to find a full color poster of “squaring the square.”

3) I met my wife accompanying High School show choir. Yes, show choir. Her first words to me, when I walked into the choir room, were “Who the hell are you?”

4) My dad is a Christian pastor. When I was a teen, we planted a church in Diamond Bar, where I was eventually in charge of music. Most of the people in our church had not attended anywhere else and thus had no preconceptions of what church music should look like. This gave me several years to try out new ideas and find my own voice.

5) Early in our marriage, my wife and I tried to adopt a seven-year-old girl. Falling in love with her and then losing her to another family had a profound effect on me, and I wrote several songs and pieces of art music to deal with the loss. We found her a couple of years ago on myspace. She has no idea that she is such an important part of my life. I still pray for her. I now have two great kids of my own.

6) I make awesome snowflakes. If you don't believe me, go get me a piece of paper and some scissors.

7) I have simple, rather juvenile tastes in food. Carl's Jr. is just fine for dinner, and nothing could make me happier than stopping by 7-11 for Chocodiles and milk for dessert.

And now my victims. Pass it on if you're so inclined.
1) Carrie
2) Kara
3) Laurie
4) Jim
5) Jill (I'm finally blogging and you've stopped!)
6) Steffan
7) Bud or Beca – at least one of them should have a blog! (If not both)

Unusual to do something like this. I never forward emails or even add facebook apps. Guess this one seemed fun.