Exercises in Vanity, Part 1

The week after my last post, the Borders over on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica announced by email that it, too, would be closing its doors soon. I went in one night, hoping to take advantage of their presumably desperate push to get rid of whatever merchandise remained. Apparently Borders had no trouble attracting like-minded vultures, because the shelves were mostly barren.

At least the store went out with a bang. I waited on the longest line in recent memory to pay for my selections. As I handed the clerk my Borders card I asked him whether he was sad Borders was closing. "Yes," he responded. "Of course. But we're just happy we could serve our customers."

I stopped at another Borders just this morning to pick up--of all things--a book on modeling. I decided yesterday that I may as well give it a try. I'm a reasonably good looking guy--not terribly tall, not tremendously angular, but I've been known to hold a girl's (or a certain type of fellow's) attention from time to time.

That's the theme of the new year: to starting DOING all that I wish I were able to do. That way I won't regret not going for it ten years from now when I finally decide that, all these years, I should've been a model, or an actor, or a nuclear physicist.*

Anyway, the point of this little segment wasn't to inform you of this latest brilliant experiment in vanity I'm embarking on; I simply wanted to note that the Borders on Westwood Blvd. is still open, and I wonder how long before it, too, is forced to close its doors.

Speaking of exercises in vanity, though, have a look at my Vocal Arranging Demo:


Hi! I'm Michael's youtube video! I have no idea why I don't display correctly on his blog, but it may have something to do with Throckmorton's Reflex...

This reel is the first of its kind. I put together a demo CD to hand out at a dreadful choral event I got Shanghaied into presenting at last weekend. The event was a bust (to the tune of over seven hours and about fifty bucks in packets of sheet music, to say nothing of the all-nighter I pulled putting these materials together) but all was not lost: I now have a demo I can be reasonably proud of. I hope it will get me some work, someday, somehow.

Still riding the wave of excitement, I dumped the reel montage into iMovie two nights later and made a little video so I could showcase my stuff on youtube. It may--or, should I say, may it--be the first of many self-marketing ploys. I need all the work I can get.

If you read my blog and are interested in my arranging services--or would simply like to hear my work in higher-res quality--drop me a line.

*Book purchase on nuclear physics still pending...