{"id":3143,"date":"2013-01-31T22:44:14","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T06:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/?p=3143"},"modified":"2013-03-20T17:59:36","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T01:59:36","slug":"tight-squeeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/?p=3143","title":{"rendered":"Tight Squeeze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts1.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"309\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><\/p>\n<p><font color=#4F4E81>&#8230;click to listen:<\/font><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/RealAudio\/Tight_Squeeze-2-13-live-mix.mp3\" style=\"text-decoration:none\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/Tight_Squeezepg1.html\" style=\"text-decoration:none\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/moregn.jpg\"\/><font color=#4F4E81>&#8230;about the music<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i><font color=#346513>Tight, indeed.<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-via=\"alex_shapiro\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A young gull landed on a rock in front of my desk window as I was finishing a new wind band work (it has since been premiered at Brevard College, and if you click the MP3 link above, you can hear the performance). A sizable flounder was, uh, floundering in his clamped beak. The rather goofy-looking bird was having a challenging time figuring out how to swallow his windfall. I said to the bird, &#8220;wow, tight squeeze!&#8221;, and immediately realized that all the notes that were cramming the score page in front of me, would soon be squeezing through the musicians\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 instruments, as snugly as a fat flounder in a gull&#8217;s mouth. <\/p>\n<p>I also realized that talking to birds is pointless; they make lousy conversationalists&#8211; especially when their mouth is full.<\/p>\n<p>And so, just as I was wracking my feeble, note-drained skull as to what the title of this upbeat, electroacoustic twelve-tone techno Latin bebop piece should be (if you&#8217;re a bit musical, you&#8217;ll enjoy the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/Tight_Squeezepg1.html\" target=\"_blank\"><b>program note <\/b><\/a> and see why this is a little different than the average band number), the gull and his lunch saved the day. The dynamic duo also gave me a great way to procrastinate on finishing the conductor score for the next 25 minutes, because that&#8217;s exactly how long it took for the gull to accomplish the delicate fine dining procedure that I have carefully documented below. <\/p>\n<p>The piece is now aptly titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/Tight_Squeezepg1.html\" target=\"_blank\"><b>TIGHT SQUEEZE. <\/b><\/a> And I hereby present the following educational photo essay: &#8220;How to Swallow Something Larger Than Your Mouth.&#8221; I can only hope that my audiences will have an easier time digesting my music.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts2.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"351\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em>I&#8217;m not sure how this is going to work, but I&#8217;m determined.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts3.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"272\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Okay. I got this.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts4.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"325\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Uh oh&#8230; Crap.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts6.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"293\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em>I know, I know, don&#8217;t talk with your mouth full.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts5.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"373\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Ok, here we go!<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts7.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"374\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em>A stylish flip of the tail fin, and down the hatch!<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts8.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"354\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Um, sort of.<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/blogpix\/ts9.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"459\" alt=\"[IMAGE] gull vs. flounder\" \/><br \/>\n<em><gulp>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Alka Seltzer, anyone??<\/em><br \/>\n<span style=\"clear: both;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;click to listen: &#8230;about the music Tight, indeed. Tweet A young gull landed on a rock in front of my desk window as I was finishing a new wind band work (it has since been premiered at Brevard College, and if you click the MP3 link above, you can hear the performance). A sizable flounder [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3176,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions\/3176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alexshapiro.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}