Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Happy Day of Birth Emily!
my blogging neighbor just celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday, hooray!
Big Bin Studios
in a previous post I mentioned meeting charles driscoll of big bin studios. a few days ago, my friend ryan and I drove over to tour his studio in Hamilton, Michigan. it’s one of michigan newer studios, and it has been getting some press because of its unique location. the studio is housed in a converted grain silo way out in the countryside by holland (a city in Michigan, not the country). like most music studios, there’s no huge neon sign, which can be great for artists trying to get some work done without fans walking in every 5 minutes for autographs. besides hanging out with Charles, we got to meet the other engineer, Jordan stonehouse, who happened to recognize me from young life. apparently, he was the video intern at the young life camp I went to last summer. I’m always surprised by how we’re all connected somehow.
Dance Guild
everyone involved with dance guild
I never knew that one of calvin’s student organizations had around 300 members. Dance guild is an organization for students interested in dance, whether ballet, tap, lyrical, or hip hop. each style also has a beginner, intermediate, and advanced group so people can dive right in and begin performing. each semester, they put on a showcase at the FAC featuring their various dance groups, and this semester I managed to make time and see the show. Some of my friends were performing, so I wanted to cheer them on. Besides, one of them had been nagging me to buy tickets since last semester. How can I reject such dedication?
Jazz Vespers
the crowd included visitors for the festival of faith & writing
it all started with an email. my friend and neighbor across the street, matt gruppen, shot me an email earlier in the day inviting me to see his jazz group perform at jazz vespers later in the evening, so i scheduled it into my calendar and made sure i’d have time to stop by. i’d heard of jazz vespers before, but i’d never attended one. every so often, student news would announce poetry readings and live jazz down at the cave cafe in the evenings, but because i had little interest in poetry, the event didn’t seem that appealing. what made me go this time was the live jazz. i’ve been trying to familiarize myself in jazz for the past month, especially jazz drumming, and this seemed like a great opportunity to see how a jazz group interacts live. i’m just trying to figure out the drummer’s role in the whole group, because i’ll probably be doing some jazz drumming in the near future.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Switchfoot and Emery at Calvinsi
jon foreman in the crowd next to my friend min woo
“It had to have been Switchfoot with partners-in-rock Emery and Athlete that turned it up a notch on Saturday night in Calvin’s Fine Arts Center. I thought it was just a “Spinal Tap” joke that amplifiers could be set to 11. It was the loudest, craziest set to visit Calvin in years.” -Ryan Alons writing for Chimes, Calvin’s student newspaper.
this is my second time seeing both switchfoot and emery. i really haven’t been to that many concerts, and many can beat me in a name-how-many-concerts-you’ve-been-to contest: “oh yeah, i’ve seen dave matthews band 57 times.” of course, i have a big disadvantage because i lived in hong kong for 8 years. the only major concert i saw in hong kong was alicia keys, and that was pretty incredible. i should’ve seen westlife when they came by. bummer… irish boy bands don’t come by the US very often. anyway, back to grand rapids. the fact that this was my third time seeing switchfoot probably means something. yeah, they have a fantastic live show, and i think they’re much better live than on CD. in my opinion, that’s quite an accomplishment, because you can always refine your work in the studio. made a mistake? no problem, we can rerecord until your budget for studio time runs out. oh wait, you’re self-produced? never mind then, you can fine-tune to your heart’s content.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
The Definition of Faith
i don’t see snow anymore!
my pastor, rob bell said this once in a sermon (i don’t remember it exactly, but i’ll try to paraphrase) with great conviction and celebration: “we in grand rapids know what faith is. faith is believing that one day, the sun will shine, the snow will melt, and spring will come.” an inside joke us grand rapiders share is that the winter lasts forever. BUT, spring might be just around the corner. we’re above freezing now during the day, and we’re also seeing more and more sun. you don’t understand how excited i am about the sun (well, you might if you’re reading this from grand rapids). just the other day, aaron and i hauled up our patio table from under the deck and had our first dinner party. grand rapids is so beautiful when the sun’s out and it’s not freezing.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Battle of the Bands
hanging out backstage
young life and red bull sponsored a battle of the bands at the intersection, and bands from all over the city competed over studio time (courtesy of big bin studios) and press kits. i was drumming for one of the bands, AM Bandits, a three-piece punk outfit created just in time for the show, and my band was amongst 7 or 8 other talented groups. during down times after my set, i managed to snap a few photos and write a bit for this blog. read on to come backstage with me!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Double Duty with fifty6
the setting for fifty6’s epic musical
it’s been a while since i played for a church service; the last one was probably for madison church freshman year with nalini, then the coordinator for the mosaic program and now the head of calvin’s barnabas program. there were definitely some rough spots in my playing, but for the most part it all went pretty smoothly. there’s still a lot of work to do before i’m confident enough in my drumming ability to play impromptu sets at local jazz clubs. but heck, it’s a start right? so i was blogging away during breaks in the morning on my phone, and i’ll include excerpts from my “journal” below…
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Spring Break 08: Music Chicago
i’m not even a guitarist, but this place was heckuvalotta fun!
My friend travis and I took a two day vacation to Chicago during spring break. We were both sticking around Grand Rapids, but we didn’t want to stay here all break. I wanted to stay to get some stuff done with drums, and travis was staying so he could get flown out to NYC for final round interviews at Goldman Sachs. The while trip was kind of spontaneous and it resulted from a conversation I had with my friend laura. She lives out in Chicago and was going home for the break, and she said we were welcome to visit her and stay with her family. So we took her up on the offer. Besides visiting her and hanging out with her family, we also had some pressing music agendas. First, we were getting a tour of a studio in downtown Chicago called comma music, along with its sister production facility particle audio. Second, we needed to try out some guitar amps, and Chicago guitar shops have a much better selection than guitar center in grand rapids. With our itinerary loosely planned out, we headed off 2 hours behind schedule on Monday morning. But we weren’t really late, because we don’t have any deadlines on vacation.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
A Calvin Art Show
a very full house
i’ve never been to an art show before, let alone a calvin art show where many of my friends were displaying their work. when i first walked in the door, i didn’t get very far. i kept bumping into people i knew, and it was fun catching up with various friends. half an hour later, i got to the artwork, and i loved what i saw. being someone who works in the creative industry creating digital art, being at an art gallery was like being in a whirlwind of inspiration. there was so much to see: clothing, pottery, photography, paintings, illustrations, and more! i won’t bore you with my interpretations of the artwork; who wants to hear them anyway, especially when they aren’t even close to the artist’s original intention? instead, i’ll dedicate this post to photos from the show. click read more to see the photos, and for you facebook viewers, click view original post first, then click read more. enjoy!
My Blackberry Turned Into an iPhone
I just bought an iPhone yesterday, which is sweet, but the sweetest part is that it only cost me around $20 after lots of ebaying and negotiating with at&t. I did nothing illegal; I just utilized some of the bargaining skills I acquired on the streets of hong kong. The fact that wireless providers really want new customers, and the fact that sales clerks at cell phone stores work on commission also helped my cause. Anyway, I’m looking forward to using this nifty gadget to fulfill my blogging needs. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been blogging more than usual, and that was because I could blog from anywhere with my blackberry. I won’t be blogging any less now that I have an iPhone. Check back often, and I hope my life can be of interest to you!
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Chatting with an Alumni
I got a call from steve visser, calvin graduate from years back and now owner of New2You Shoppe, an upscale thrift store by calvin dedicated to reducing tuition at Grand Rapids Christian schools through their profits, and he wanted me to help fix a mac computer he was trying to sell. I’d met him before shopping at his store, and he’d given me some incredible deals (it might’ve helped that I’d known his daughter, who lived on my sister floor), so I gladly agreed, figuring that I could finish up some reading as I reinstalled an operating system. Anyway, he picked me up from my house, and on the drive there we chatted about how calvin people seemed to get married very quickly. Apparently, the situation today is very similar to what life was like during his career at calvin. We joked about how calvin sends out advertisements to upperclasspersons for its premarital programs, which seems to be calvin’s way of nudging us in the side, whispering “are you engaged yet?” into our ears. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad calvin offers these programs. We were just joking around.
Auditioning for 5th and 6th Graders
My friend jill and I got an email from mars hill saying that they were looking for a rhythm section for their 5th and 6th grade band to finish out the school year. With Jill being a bassist, and with me being a drummer, we thought we’d audition for the spot. After rainchecking due to terrible weather conditions, we finally made it over there to meet with jim keat. After fielding some questions and talking about our musical journeys thus far, we headed over to the shed (that’s the name for the sanctuary) for a quick jam session. I found it a little strange to sit behind the same drumkit that I stare at every sunday. Maybe it’s just me, but I think musicians like to watch the person who plays their instrument during music worship.
We did the audition thing, going through a few songs. The sound system wasn’t setup, so I couldn’t really hear jim on the acoustic, nor jill on the bass. I just kinda watched and guessed at what was going on, which is never a good feeling, but it still happens every so often. I think every performing band has had monitoring issues at some time, and you just have to deal with it. That is, unless you purchase thousands of dollars’ worth of sound equipment and get personal monitoring systems for everyone. An unlikely scenario, but I can still dream.
So now we’re both waiting to hear back from Jim. If we get gig, we’ll be playing biweekly with biweekly practices. Not a huge time commitment, but fun nonetheless.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
I’m In A Commercial!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Romeo and Juliet with the GR Symphony
my chinese professor is playing violin in there somewhere
The grand rapids symphony has a special deal for college students: on certain evenings, college students can get in for only $5. My housemate ian went a lot last year, so when my friends invited me to go, I took the opportunity to check it out. For once, I actually have some time for this stuff because I’m not in any religion classes. Because they’re so challenging, I always put double the amount of effort into religion classes. Even then, it’s not a guaranteed A.
The ironic part about the evening was that ian couldn’t make it because he had to do homework. For once I could go because of lack of homework, and ian couldn’t go because of homework. A little bit of a role reversal there. I felt bad for him, but I also felt proud of him for putting so much effort into studying for his optics test. I hope his grade on the test reflects the amount of effort he put into studying for it!
About Me
My life at Calvin College
Name:
Nehemiah Chu
Class of 2009
Hometown:
Hong Kong
Major: Rhetoric
Communications & Religion
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Most recent entries
- Happy Day of Birth Emily!
- Big Bin Studios
- Dance Guild
- Jazz Vespers
- Switchfoot and Emery at Calvinsi
- The Definition of Faith
- Battle of the Bands
- Double Duty with fifty6
- Spring Break 08: Music Chicago
- A Calvin Art Show
- My Blackberry Turned Into an iPhone
- Chatting with an Alumni
- Auditioning for 5th and 6th Graders
- I’m In A Commercial!
- Romeo and Juliet with the GR Symphony