Music set to Motion Picture

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with http://www.newagepiano.net/ , it's a website dedicated to exposing pianists of new age and contemporary genres in conjunction with providing music available to the students involved with the Swan Lake Moving Image and Music Awards.

Three of my songs were selected by film students this year to make short films for the SLMIM awards: "Release", "Fly Away", and "The Tempest".

You can watch the videos by clicking here

Winners will be announced in late October. I think the film students did a really great job timing their work to the beats and accents in the music. "Release" filmed by Alexander Lorenz (in the Digital Film Category) and "The Tempest" (in the Animation Category) filmed by Tobias Kolodziey both made it as finalists in the competition.

P.S. You have to watch these films keeping in mind that these students were trying to acheive a couple of things - 1) putting into practice techniques learned in their classes for their categories (digital, animation, etc.), 2) the use of light (being hard to capture accurately on film), and 3) sincing to music.

FYI on who's who

Sometimes our blog is a little confusing because both Will and I post, and sometimes people are confused who is writing them. Just FYI - we changed our settings so that when Will posts, at the end it will say "Posted by Will Thomas", or when I blog it will say "Posted by Jenni Thomas".

However most previous blogs will say "Posted by Jenni Thomas" just because these new settings only effect recent and future postings. Sorry for not being better at saying who is who!

Anyway - just FYI!
Jenni

Getting ready for my 1st ultramarathon. mood - nervous, but anxious

At the beginning of summer I made a goal to make more time for trail running; a favorite past time of mine. I realized that last summer was the first summer that I hadn't competed in a race and it had almost been two years since my last official race and 3 years since my last marathon.

So I started training by jogging a local trail during my lunch break. After about two months of this I started to get excited and found my race - The North Face Endurance Accelerade 50km (31+ miles) trail race here in the foothills of the Cascades. This race would be the longest solo (non-relay) race I have attempted. It would be my first attempt at an ultramarathon (anything longer than a 26.2 mile marathon).

This race takes place on hiking trails and I will be climbing almost 10,000 feet in elevation during the race as I run up and down 3 different mountains. Unlike a marathon with no elevation change and 10,000 runners all being cheered by crowds along the way, this race will be me and about 25-50 other runners with a water cooler placed every 5-10 miles to stop and get a drink and no crowds to cheer you on.

These two hills are the northern tip of the course

So, the day I found this race and decided this would be my big race of the year, it wasn't more than 4 hours later that I was playing church basketball and sprained my ankle really bad. After a week or two I tried to play basketball again and ending up spraining my other ankle. Once they both started to heal I strapped on my ankle braces and went for a jog only to injure the arch of my foot (running with ankle braces really did a number on my arches) and worst of all I tore a muscle/tendon in my lower leg.

This is a picture of my feet with all my injuries

I tried to keep running but was just getting worse off, so I promised Jenni that I wouldn't run again until my race to let everything heal. So, I've had the past month and half off, now I feel fat and and out of shape but at least I'm pretty sure all my injuries have healed up. LOL

So on Saturday I hope to be able to say I'm an official ultramarathoner. Wish me luck!

Back again so soon?

Well, apparently I spoke too soon on that last blog. I have a wonderful husband, who promised me internet connection today (we finally got our wireless router in the mail yesterday). And due to the fact that we both fell asleep at 8pm last night, Will decided to get up at 5am this morning to get our computer out of the box, get it all set up, and hook up the internet for me so I wouldn't have to drive 30 minutes into town to find the library to check my email. NOT that I minded! But...well, all I have to say is that it is nice to have internet at home again. And Will is going to get lots of hugs and kisses tonight when he gets home for doing that for me.

So, contrary to what I said in our last blog, it won't be as late as next week before you hear from us again. lol.

The past week has been quite interesting. I went from working a full time 40+ hours a week job, to being a stay-at-home housewife/fulltime musician. I have to say...I'm still grasping it.

My first day at home alone was Monday. I got up and finished organizing our bedroom, put some boxes away (because we do have a housefull of them lying around right now). And then I stood there and thought, "Now what?". I was hungry, so I went to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. Not a microwavable Lean Cuisine or a quick bagel, but an actual sandwich - which took me about a whole 5 minutes to make I might add. Usually with my recently x'd-job, if I was hungry I would have to run home and grab something that I could take back with me, hurry and stuff it in my face and grab some gum to cover up my lunch breath before meeting with more people.

So after my sandwich, I thought "I'll go into town and do some errands."

I showered and left. Then I realized I didn't have a clue where I was going. Our new home is out in the sticks practically, and there are two towns nearby. Obviously I miscalculated which was the one I thought was the closest. Good thing I had some good CDs to listen to in the car, and particularly enjoyed looking at all of the fall leaves falling from the trees, the tractors and trucks passing me by.

Tractors and trucks? Farms? Trees? Yeah, well then I got all inspired to turn the radio over to the country station. For those of you that know me well, I'm not exactly a country music conoisseure. It's not that I don't like country, I just never listen to it. But after going to a country music concert a few weekends ago (thanks Chris and Jennifer) at the fair, and then listening to it on the radio as I was driving into town, I totally felt like a true country girl. LOL.

I went to the craft store, which I hadn't been to since....um.....probably last October of 2006. Then I went to the grocery store, thinking I should probably pick up some groceries - but have you ever gone to the store not knowing what to get so you come home with a bunch of nothing? That was my experience. Oh and then I had to go to the post office to mail a few CD orders, and didn't know where that was. But I could have sworn I saw a small independently owned mail-it center on the way into town, so I thought I would just stop there on the way back home. But then someone called me, I got totally distracted, even missed my turn to go home and ended way out in another town on the OTHER side the opposite direction of where I was supposed to be going.

Man I was a total mess~!

Will came home that evening and said "You're acting like someone who just quit their fulltime job and you have no idea what to do now." LOL

I've been so excited to be at home now and to have the time to work on my music projects, and to finally be a better housewife. Okay I am not old-fashioned at all and neither is Will, but I think there is something special about coming home to dinner cooking in the oven and a clean welcoming house. So as part of my newfound way of life, it is one of my goals to be able to do that for Will. Today is Thursday and so far I'm 3 for 4. That is pretty good...so far, right? Hehe.

My problem now though is that my piano desperately needs tuning. Like BAD! I can't even stand to play any of the notes on the lower register because any sort of octives make it sound like a honky-tonk bar piano. (pianos go out of tune when you move them). But I have to wait 3 weeks before having it tuned, as the piano continues to adjust to its new environment and the strings settle.

So, so far, my fulltime musican plan has kind of not started yet. LOL AND so instead I would think "Yay! I have plenty of time to work out!" And yeah...that hasn't happened either. I actually cancelled my gym membership once we decided to move out to the sticks because I thought "Yessss! I will have plenty of roads to walk on and I won't have to worry about getting jumped by any gangsta punks!" LOL (Seriously, I was afraid of that where we moved from).

But as of today, it's now our 5th day that we've lived at our new place. Monday I attempted to use our staircase and climb stairs for 30 minutes. That lasted about 5 minutes and it started to rain. And it's been raining every single day since. Today I got so excited because the sun started to peek out, but as I opened the front door - I realized it was one of those NW tricks: the sun is shining and it's raining at the SAME TIME. So my walking shoes are still sitting next to the front door, waiting for their debut on outdoor pavement. lol.

So in a nutshell: It's been kind of weird not working, but in a good way. We love our new home, but it's still a mess. We will invite you local friends over when it's finally organized and I'll make a big pot of simmering wassail (thanks to Dalynn for making me crave it now, after she asked for the recipe). Living out in the country is fun, but it's a good idea to make sure and fill up your gas tank BEFORE it gets to E.

I am SOOO rambling!

Will says hi, by the way.

We'll be nonexistent for another few days

Hey Everyone,

We just wanted to let you know that our move was successful last weekend - but we still don't have our computer set up or internet access at our new place. (I'm at the library right now). So thanks for your patience with us - sorry to anyone who has emailed and I haven't responded - I only have a limited time on these library computers, and I'm only checking once a day. Next week I'll blog and fill you all in on how our move was, how life is, etc.

Will is running an ultra-marathon this weekend, which is 30 miles. Wish him luck! He's been babying a calf injury for the last month, and it's finally healed anough where he can run this race. I think he is crazy for running 30 miles, but he loves these races. =)

Jenni