Diario 7

Saturday April 3rd 2004
Cuernavaca, México
6:45 Up, mostly sunny with a few fast clouds.
8:00 Sitting, sending good wishes to the GC comunity.
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the CGMx meeting. Agustín, Elena and husband, Alex and
myself. We began working of "Behind the veil", did some calisthenics and completed
showing the parts for "EoTN". After the meeting was completed I stayed with Alex
working on "Calliope" and "3rd relation".
14:30 Back home, chat a bit with mom and post yesterday's entry.
I'll be having lunch shortly, then a student comes and afterwards I'll call some friends I
haven't seen in a while to catch up with them.
Sábado 25 de Septiembre 2004
Got up late again, jet lag is hanging hard. Go to Mariana´s house for a revision of my
brass quintet. Simply put: it sucks. The lack of an aim in writing it is very evident: “It´s
well written but it sounds empty, you don´t have a relation with it and it shows”.
So I begin again, the first time I was afraid that choosing a subject that has my interest
would be wrong, or “predictable” but speaking with Mariana she encouraged me to go
for that: “If you feel that is close to your nature then maybe is a part your voice as a
composer, don’t deny it, work on it”. That’s a class, dammed.
Back home, computerizing and some guitar practice, then lunch with the parents and a
little later got a call inviting me to go out for a coffee, and so I did. After that I came
back home with my friends and we had pizza and watch a movie.
[No importa que sean lindos, no importa que los quieras mucho, están completamente
dormidos, and they like it]
Miércoles 29 de Septiembre 2004
(Lunlunta)
I arrived yesterday, very tired, not quite knowing where I was.
Today was better, settling in.

I cooked lunch with Rob, Claudia and Jorge Pereyra. Then a meeting with Martin to
review a new part of the Chaconne until teatime.
At 17:00 the L4 AAD team met and Martin showed this new part, I assisted very little.
Talking outside with Agustín until dinner.
Inaugural meeting after dinner.
Arranging the dining room.
Jueves 30 de Septiembre 2004
Rise at 6:30, into a cold shower, followed by Sitting and breakfast. I was on my way to
getting a coffee and I was asked to serve the muesli. This, I had never seen before.
Kitchen team meeting followed by inaugural meeting pt. 2 (I’m here as a part of an
ongoing commitment w/the L4 AAD. My Aim is to pay attention to my left elbow
while playing and to work well as a buddy).
Translate for Mariela in the A.T. class (Robert is there) Then a meeting with the L1, the
buddies watched. Lunch. At 15:00 meeting with the L1, the buddies watched some
more. Tea and at 16:30 the buddies got to work with the L1 until shortly before Tai Chi,
followed by Quiet Time and dinner.
[Robert habló un montón sobre el Sitting y también la gente más experimentada. “El
Sitting es la fundación sobre la que se construye el alma, y eso no es accidental]
Clear the dining room after dinner and big circle w/ Robert. 11 vs 7, switching every 4
bars (4 bars of 11/4 bars of 7).
Song destroying in the ballroom with Ignacio, Martín, Fernie, Terry, Pablo, Marcos,
Dani, John, Mika and Christian.
To bed.
Viernes 1 de Octubre 2004
Sitting, breakfast, personal practice in the ballroom, until Tai Chi, then cook lunch with
Alain, Rob and Claudia. After lunch straight into buddy activities, splitting groups and
work until teatime. Afterwards, some more until 18:00. Tai Chi and Quiet time. Dinner
then L4 meeting.
What is L4?
House of Guitars
11/8 (3+3+3+2) / 4/4 (2+3+3) / 7/8 (2+2+3) / 5/8 (2+3)

Tired, to bed.
Sábado 2 de Octubre 2004
Hoy me quiero ir. Approaching the middle.
Sitting, consistently falling down.
Breakfast, Tai Chi, AAD Chacona meeting, personal practice, Sinfonia rehearsal. My
sense is that we need to begin working in a new piece. I believe this will help us for the
Sinfonia and also to find a name, that is, recognize who we are (if we are).
Tai Chi, lunch.
Talk with Mariana in the garden.
15:00 Housework, I sweep my room, then go with Ignacio G. to his p. meeting with
Robert to assist with translation.
Tea
16:30 Translate for Mariela in the A.T. class.
Personal practice and play with Luis C.
18:30 Rehearsing Skyrider and El Péndulo and perform at dinner. I’m not sure Skyrider
was a good call for tonight [Hay alguna razón, o es like y dislike de Sr. Director? We’ll
see]
I want to run away, go home, find real respect.
Domingo 3 de Octubre 2004
Sitting. Alejandro tuvo una baja de presión y se desvaneció. Ahí me desperté,

realmente.
Breakfast and on to washing tea towels with Christian.
9:15 Buddies meeting in Martin’s room.
Shower and L1 meeting. Robert presented a 4 bar pattern in 11 and left the agglomerate
to work with it and the buddies available. We took walks around the house assisting
where needed.
12:10 Personal meeting with Robert. [“The mouth gets in the way of the hand, other
than that you’re very ok. Now you have my respect!” y me dio la mano con fuerza. A la
luz del último comentario de ayer, esto es una “coincidencia” muy significativa]
Wobbler rehearsal and perform at lunch.
Talk in the garden with Carolina.
15:00 L1 meeting.
16:00 Dinner preparation. [Chaos. Cluelessness. But the taste was good.]
KT meeting. House of Guitars and then Tango Apasionado and Sinfonia 4 rehearsal.
Diary. To bed.
Lunes 4 de Octubre 2004
Martes 5 de Octubre 2004
Breakfast prep with Ignacio G. and Christian. Shower, shave.
10:05 Buddies meeting and later we presented EoTN to the Agglomerate. Then split
into small groups and worked until 12:15.
Tai Chi (even if it’s not on the board). Lunch and at 14:30 meet again with the small
groups to work some more on EoTN. After this I worked with Ignacio F. a little on a
piece he is working on until tea.
16:30 LCG rehearsal in the backroom until 18:00 and Tai Chi.
Quiet Time
Dinner
Personal meeting with Robert. [“Very good. Very good work, you have my respect.
Keep going in this direction. I encourage you to keep working. Make your mouth your
friend”]
LCG rehearsal until 23:30
Diary. Dribbling. To bed.
Sábado 6 de Noviembre 2004

[Hoy es de esos días, regresé temprano a la casa luego ve ir a ver al pequeño grupo de
amigos de siempre, y no me gustó. ¿Me estoy volviendo un viejito amargado?
O¿ nomás no tengo energía que gastar? O ¿me dan tanta hueva ya mis amigos que
prefiero quedarme en mi casa?. Some wheels spin unnoticed, until it’s painful.]
Domingo 7 de Noviembre 2004
At 9:00 I went to do some mountain biking with Carlos and Poncho. My car begins
leaking anti-freeze liquid.
We ride for 30 min then back down to the city and get the car fixed.
Lunch with the parents followed by planning future changes in the house. Lots of ideas
flying in the air.
18:00 AT class, with guitar. I really missed the weekly meetings. My neck is happy.
After the class Carlos and I went for a coffee and the back to the house.
22:30 Very good talk with the parents about the nature of literary works.
0:05 Posting, soon to bed.
Lunes 8 de Noviembre 2004
Morning in the house arranging stuff.
11:00 Go to the post office to send a ridiculously long delayed package, then go buy
sand paper and to the electricity tax payment office to place a complaint about the
increase is the price this month. Nothing to be done, check the counter and wait.
12:30 back in the house, phone calls and doing minor wood repair job on the desk in my
room.
14:15 Composing duties until lunch.
15:30 Lunch, leftovers.
16:30 Recording tapes for my car.
17:30 Arrive at the CMA to speak with the theater teacher, the schedules are
incompatible for this end of semester so I step down from the project and will rejoin
next semester. Still, I’ll see if I can join another class.
18:30 Orchestration class, analysing choral works and then a short exercise.
The lyrics of an elegy we analysed:
“In time of all sweet things beyond

whatever mind may comprehend
remember seek (forgetting find)”
E.E. Cummings
21:30 Back home, dinner.
Interneting and computer fixing duties.
23:31 Posting.
Martes 9 de Noviembre 2004
7:15 Rise
7:30 Sitting
8:15 Depart to the CMA
8:35 Dictation class.
11:00 Go to electricity tax office to pay.
12:00 Back home, cleaning and arranging a desk/wardrobe.
13:00 AAD practice.
14:40 Lunch alone.
15:30 Computerizing.
17:00 Late departure for guitar lesson.
19:50 Back home from the lesson after having get lost in the maze of tiny and dead end
streets. Chat with the parents.
20:30 Guitar playing.
23:22 Posting.
Miércoles 10 de Noviembre 2004
A morning of stuff and computerizing.
11:30 AAD theme work followed by guitar practice.

15:30 I prepare a big salad and eat watching the Page and Plant unplugged. I used to be
a big Zeppelin fan, the first song I played on an electric guitar was Black Dog and
moved from there until I learned every tune in Led Zep I trough IV.
17:30 Arrive early to school for composition class and work on the quintet for a while,
then Christian and Mariana show up and we begin by analyzing the first movement of
my piece. Good, clarifying comments, brass is very tricky by the way.
21:00 Back home, dinner with the parents.
I get a phone call from a friend I haven’t seen in quite a while, good to hear her.
23:20 Posting
Jueves 11 de Noviembre 2004
Morning at home, stuff and bread making.
12:30 Depart to school for chamber music workshop. Officially I’m not the class, but
was invited and accepted to participate. In today’s session we focused on improvising
over tritones. First just one tritone (F#-C) and then using the Slonimsky approach of
inter, infra and ultrapolation (adding notes around the tritone) and the mixing of these.
After the class Agustín (bass), Christian (piano), Lupita (saxophone) and myself stay a
bit longer and jam a while.
15:30 Back home, lunch.
16:30 Interneting stuff.
17:30 AAD practice, break and other guitar practice.
20:30 Mom arrives from the supermarket, I help her to carry the supplies and then begin
doing mayonnaise assisted by mom.
21:00 Dinner with the parents.
Last weekend I realized that the 7 hours of difference between Europe and Mexico leave
some room for simultaneous action. Since Monday I’ve been taking 20 min at 00:30
local time to acknowledge the morning sitting in the yellow house. Since I’ve been
missing being there so much lately, I figured I might as well do some extra effort to feel
more connected and see what happens.
22:40 Posting
Viernes 12 de Noviembre 2004
Late rise, and just after the sitting stuff pops up. Morning of interneting and resting. I’m
feeling very low on energy and as soon as I sense I’m just lazing around I’d go and do
something but I feel very dispersed. Mom is sick today, so I have to cook for two.
Preparing the meal helps me to focus.
Practice guitar after lunch until 18:30 when I depart to school for the rehearsal of the
solo pieces that will be performed on Dec. 2nd.
As it turn out I’m the only player that shows up (and that’s going to play the piece for
sure) in the rehearsal. My bassist cancelled his participation on the project last night and
the other two fellow composers don’t have a player that would hold the initial very
strong interest for more that one week. So, little lonely me played Agustín’s solo
electric guitar piece (“Three experiments and a study”) and after some useful comments
by Mariana we had an early night. Of course, coffee.
In the coffee shop I came across a classmate from high school I hadn’t seen in more
than a year, catching up.
22:00 Back home dinner with the parents.
23:47 Posting
Sabado 13 de Noviembre 2004
Extended sitting.
On my way out the door for the MexGC meeting I got a phone call from my second
bassist. He has a busy schedule for the day of the performance and won’t be able to play
my piece, he kindly apologizes and gives me the phone number of another bassist.
9:00 Arirve at the CMA for the MexGC meeting, Alex arrives a while later, we set the
space and wait for Agustín.
10:00 The meeting begins, we work on callisthenics, fretboard knowledge, review

Calliope bass and begin learning the lead part. Also some Thraking in 7 and 13. Agustín
has to leave early and Alex and I work for a bit longer, until the school has to close.
14:30 Back home, lunch wit the parents. Superb burgers by mom. Then guitar practice.
20:30 Go for a beer as a farewell gesture to one of my dearest friends. She leaves on
Monday to Germany for a year to get her master’s degree.
23:15 Back home, write and send the report of the MexGC meeting. Then, interneting.
0:33 Posting.
[Siento como un paso importante dejar ir mi relación con Carlos, al menos a un nivel
muy cercano, por el momento. It’s a drawback.]
Slept in, rose to have breakfast with the parents. After this I washed my car and gentled
for the rest of the day.
A.T. lesson with guitar in the afternoon.
When I arrived at the house I saw a familiar car parked outside. Marisa had come to say
good bye to my parents before leaving tomorrow. She and Poncho were sitting together
with mom and dad in the dining room as I walked in. What an unexpected pleasure!
Two of my best friends with mom and dad, just hanging out. As a half truth joke I’ve
mentioned in the past that my friends like my parents more than they like me, this was a
perfect time for that one.
A day off from the guitar today. Morning of stuff and then a major rearrangement of my
room. I had never changed the way my room was organized, we've been living in this
house for nearly 17 years and the distribution of the room was pretty much the same
from the room I had in the previous house. It feels very refreshing. My room had been
set up for me; now the setting is intentional. After this I went to find out how much do
we have to pay for the phone bill (the receipt is lost in the mail apparently). Then back
for lunch.
Interneting affairs after lunch and a few phone calls.
18:00 Arrive at the CMA for orchestration class, I’m early so I stay talking with a friend
for a while.
I got invited to read poems in the presentation of a book.
A very juicy class, we began analyzing Stravinsky’s The bird of fire suite, and
homework is up.
22:32 Posting.
8:30 Arrive at school for dictation class then chat with classmates in the cafeteria.
12:00 Back home, interneting, I’ve been having some problems sending e-mails, more
joy with hotmail.
Lunch alone, then depart to give guitar lesson. The kid has been practicing, still no
metronome, but a good feeling.
After the lesson I go back to school for a theatre class, my first contact with a group that
has already been working for some months, a trio now a quartet. The class/rehearsal was
attended by a guest teacher who suggested that I also make the music and play it live
which led to make my character play, not me. This is an astonishing “coincidence”, last
semester I had the embryo of a project (that resonates with my larger “career” project)
that included a closer relationship between theatre and music. The idea that the teacher
came up with is pretty much the same to that (this feels like a gift in the sense that as
much as I wanted to work on that, I was stranded because I had no clue as how to do
it). So, I’m officially back in theatrical activity, this time with guitar.
21:30 Back home, dinner and call yet another bassist for my piece, this one sound
friendly and is available, he just has to check the piece and will charge me a moderate
amount of money for playing it. Fair enough for me at this point.
I’m also working as a player for that performance, and the thought keeps popping up:
should I charge my composer?
22:56 Posting.
Miercoles 17 de Noviembre 2004
At 3:30 last night a cat came up to my window and my cat took this very badly, a loud
exchange of feline threats went on for half an hour, keeping me awake.
8:45 I’m awaken by a phone call requesting me to take some stuff to school today.
The morning was filled with a hole bunch of nothing, very dispersed and low on energy,
trapped in stuff.
11:30 AAD practice, this felt really well, an anchor in the day. After this I knew were I
was.
14:30 Lunch alone.
15:00 Composing duties.
16:45 Meet with the bassist’s wife and give her the score. I hope this guy sticks to his
word and plays the piece.
17:30 Arrive at school for composition class, with a guest teacher (it was on a seminar
he gave that Tea Bag was written). We analyzed Christian’s first movement of for brass
quintet, my first movement for the same line up and Agustín’s solo electric guitar
piece.
Having this class with two composers, getting feedback, suggestions and corrections
from two different points of view it’s fantastic.
I’ve been asked to read the translation of the lyrics for a concert by a very important
baritone (one of the best in the country actually) tomorrow night. It’s a funny thing that
my reading is being so requested lately. I’m not sure I’m the man for this job,
nevertheless it’s a chance to perform.
21:20 Back home, dinner with the parents and interneting.

23:20 Posting. Tomorrow is a full day so ahead is a late shift work on some
programming for the music of the play. If the cat shows up again tonight he will find a
very unfriendly grillo going bandido total.
The cat came back last night, (this morning is more accurate) so at 5 a.m. the thundering
squeak of catfight sucked me out of bed to send the visiting feline on his way.
Morning of stuff and chaos preparing things for the day.
10:30 AAD practice
12:30 Arrive at school for chamber music workshop, then Mexican folklore lunch with
Christian and Agustín (a tacos stand, taquería, on the street. Very cheap, spicy and very
tasty. Yet another fascinating thing of this country).
15:00 Back to school for the first session of an electroacustic music course we’ll have
over the next weeks.
18:00 Arrive at the hall were tonight’s performance will be and make a run through of
the setlist, the places where I’ll read and entering and leaving the stage.
19:10 The concert begins. Outstanding. Mr. Suaste is really an amazing singer, for two
hours he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Whenever distraction and wandering
off began he would do this tiny things with his singing (a small change in dynamics,
tempo, phrasing or gesture) and I could see the faces of the audience snap back and stay
there.
It’s in his advantage that the repertoire he sings is very easy to digest and the main goal
of these songs is to thrill people. But the man adds more to it and makes a magic duo
with he pianist, who follows and responds to the hundreds of different variations the
singer makes.
And there I was, reading lines between songs. What a privilege.
23:00 Computerizing stuff.
A leaking has appeared in the bottom floor’s ceiling, this is almost funny, it hasn’t
rained here for about two months. Apparently there’s a problem with the pipes in the
second floor.
23:43 Posting.

9:00 Arrive at school for session two of the electro-acoustic music course. Wonderful
stuff. Lots of information.
15:00 Back in the house, interneting and lunch alone.
After lunch I go for a short nap that turns to heavy sleep and I wake up dizzy and with a
light headache at 18:30.
I want to practice but my head is nowhere and my energy is very low, so I get a cup of
tea and watch some T.V. I catch “Being John Malkovitch”.
21:30 Guitar practice.
23:53 Posting.
Extended sitting.
An architect couple came in the morning to give advice on possible changes to the
house, also looking at the leaking issue. This goes on until 14:30.
Shortly after they leave, Poncho arrives and we go buy things to prepare pizza for a
party tonight, Carlos’ birthday. We have lunch together in the house and then begin
cooking this takes all of the afternoon.
21:25 I meet with two more of the guests in the north entrance of the city and head into
the woods to Carlos’ house.
Evening off.
Morning off and in the afternoon lots of homework and looking forwards to guitar
practice.
Interneting and stuff in the morninig, then JoD followed by analysis homework:
“Infernal dance” from “The Bird of fire”. What an amazing use of the orchestra Mr.
Igor had! The material is rather simple and there’s very little of it (two identifiable
motifs, I reckon), it really is changes in colour and small gradual rhythmical variations.
After this I go practice guitar until lunch, after witch I play some more and head out to
school.
18:00 Arrive at school and wait for orchestration class. We take a first glance to Steve
Reich’s “In C” and do homework revision.
21:00 Back home, dinner and computerizing stuff.
22:30 Posting.
8:30 Arrive at school for dictation class.
10:00 Back home, mom is here today, the doctor advised her to stay home today. I talk a
bit with her and then go practice guitar until lunch.
14:00 Lunch preparation with mom.
14:30 Lunch and then composing duties. I finally managed to make factual an idea that
the guest composer gave to me: to have the form of the piece as a polyrhythm. Making
the translation form rhythmic theory into a practical actual shape was quite a puzzle.
When working on a new rhythmic pattern or when practicing polyrhythms I don’t stick
to the theory for very long, I go for the feel. For me, feeling the rhythm is a lot richer
than thinking about it. Somehow this leads me to believe that it is possible to feel the
form of a piece, just as you can feel 5/8. What an amazing thing, play something and not
just know where you are and what comes next but feel where you are. I find the sheer
possibility of that happening very inspiring.
17:10 Arrive at student’s house for guitar lesson. The kid was very jumpy today,
wanting to rush everything and just: playfastnomatterwhat! I let him have his way for a
while making gentle remarks on the importance of playing slow in order to establish
something and by the end of the class he was a lot more settled and giving himself more
room.
18:40 Arrive at school for the first rehearsal with the theatre group, playing when
marked by the director and taking a first look at the scene I will actually act.
At 20:30 the three actors rush hastily out the place and I stay alone with the director
checking marking spots, sequence flow and sound searching.
Funny, supposedly the actors are the ones that are interested in acting and getting a good
play going. Not enough for “extra hours” I guess.
23:00 Posting
Miércoles 24 de Noviembre 2004

Interneting stuff in the morning.
14:00 Lunch: leftovers.
15:00 AAD practice.
17:00 Arrive at school (early) for composition class, chat with classmates.
17:30 Class begins, with guest teacher again, I played Agustín’s piece. The comments
and remarks gain a lot with the two composers exchanging experiences.
21:00 To a coffee shop to say goodbye to a friend, she’s going to Canada tomorrow and
the next time we’ll meet she’ll be married. A group of high school friends is there.
23:45 Posting.
9:30 Arrive at school for solfege coaching revision.
10:15 20th century compositional languages class, with guest teacher. A first approach to
analyzing Messiaen, listen to “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” and a guided first look
trough his treatise of musical composition. His approach to rhythm is a joy.
12:30 Chamber music workshop begins, only the teacher and me for the first 15 min.
We go into a non-tonal jazz improv without saying a word.
14:30 Go for lunch with Agustín, “enchiladas” (another bit of pleasurous folklore), he
tells me how much he would like to have a GC course here and we talk about the
possibilities and things that need to come to place for that to happen.
15:15 Electroacoustic composition workshop, session 3, begins. Time slots are assigned
for using the computers, I’m on until 18:00, together with Agustín.
15:30 Composition duties in the cafeteria.
18:00 Go to the cubicles with Agustín and begin working on our first electroacoustic
piece. We begin by getting sound from a record, this takes more than an hour and then
we lay the base for the piece. There’s a slot free tomorrow morning so we’ll keep
working on it.
21:30 Back home, talking with mom.
22:00 Writing diary. Now to dinner with the parents followed by guitar practice until
bed time.
Very low energy in the morning, very hard to get out of bed.
11:20 Arrive late (down town is packed this morning, I spent 20 min. looking for a
parking space) to session four of the electroacoustic music workshop, complete the
piece with Agustín and then all the group had the listening session with comments and
the course was completed.
14:00 Pseudo-lunch in the cafeteria
14:30 Prepare my gear for the rehearsal with the theatre group, but one actress is
missing and the other actor is very late and with an attitude, most of the hour is lost in
justifying this to the teacher. No playing from me is required, actually everyone’s time
has been wasted. We make a first marking of the scene I have to act in. Later the teacher
tells me to develop the character by my self (this is a double Oedipus, together with the
other actor) because getting the times with the other actor would require too much
work. I can see that the teacher has been badly disappointed by the three actors’ work
and therefore assumes that I will deliver crap as well. I’ll be happy to not fulfil that
expectation.
17:00 Conference with Mariana and Gonzalo (my composition teacher and guest
teacher), speaking about their work. Very interesting. It was very long and for me it
went by very smoothly.
After this I go to a surprise party for mom that her work crew organized, her birthday is
on Sunday so they put it today for a greater surprise shock. Lovely dinner, and it even
included mariachis (a typical Mexican, big time celebration ensemble). Mom was very
happy.
0:30 Posting.
Extended sitting.
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting, Agustín arrives shortly after me. We
wait a bit for Alex and Agustín asks me to review EoN, so we begin. Alex joins us a bit
later and we keep working on this, then a bit of left hand callisthenics, Calliope, Tango
Apasionado and The Driving force, then play through EoN and Calliope. Progress is
made.
14:30 Back home interneting affairs.
17:00 Lunch with dad, mom had lunch already but she joins us anyway.
18:00 Playing with the Line 6 delay Alex has borrowed me, I need a looping device.
Badly.
21:00 Carlos picks me up and we go for a beer. A very strange bar, a house with tables
in the garden and no lighting whatsoever, as we were both dressed with black sweaters
the waiter took 15 min to see us and take our order.
0:30 Back home, straight to bed.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!
Day off, celebrating mother’s birthday.
Interneting affairs in the morning, long funny chat with Ignacio. I miss the house, a lot.
Then A.T. class. First time on a Monday morning, it goes very well with me, I asked to
have it permanently moved for as long as my school schedule allows.
After the class I went to buy a present for mom. In the mall I bumped into my ex-
girlfriend’s dad, Adrian, and little brother, Santiago. My ex and I used to baby sit
Santiago a lot, his parents were out most the time so many times I changed diapers and
bathe him as a little baby and as he grew up we played soccer, watch movies, build
wood block cities and played all kinds of games together. We were practically raising
the little dude.
Brief catching up with Adrian, we used to get a long pretty well and hadn’t seen each
other in about three years, good to see him. Santiago is 8 now and does not remember
me…. ce’st la viè, I guess.
On the way back home I buy a guitar stand (finally!), a badly needed item.
Back home, AAD practice until lunch time. Then lunch with dad, good conversation
then resume guitar practice.
17:00 Arrive at student’s house for guitar lesson.
18:30 Arrive at school, meet with Eduardo and talk trough the details for the reading of
his poems. One of the readers has lost her voice and on the spot I’m assigned to read
two more.
19:10 The presentation of the poetry book begins, it included a live musical interlude
(renaissance songs accompanied with guitar) then the reading resumed and then we
proceed onto cakes and coffee.
As people were leaving an old lady approached me to congratulate me for my reading,
this is the only feedback I got, no one else said anything to me.
23:15 Posting.
8:30 Arrive at school for dictation class.
10:00 Back home, pick dad up and we go buy some spares for my car.
13:30 Back home, lunch, talking with dad.
15:30 Carlos arrives and we go pick mom at the CMA and depart to Mexico city to see
the G3 show. Once there, we leave mom with a friend (girls’ night out) and we go to the
Auditorio Nacional. Park the car and go for a coffee before the show.
The concert was pretty cool. All a first for me, I had never been in a soundscapes only
performance nor had I seen Satriani or Vai. The audience was good, a little whistling
on the soundscapes, shushed with authority by a large portion of the audience.
Miércoles 1 de Diciembre 2004
Late rise, morning of stuff and interneting, post yesterday’s diary.
12:00 Wash the dishes then go practice.
13:30 Lunch
16:30 A computer technician comes to change the modem.
17:30 Arrive at school for composition class.
20:45 Go for coffee with two fourths of the fellow composers. Christian also went to
the G3 concert last night, we talked about it and narrated the events to Agustín. There
were many things to see. Christian says sound sucked badly throughout the show,
except in the soundscapes. Were I was the sound was bad but nothing terrible (too loud
at times mainly). I’ve been to many concerts of very different kinds in that venue and
this is the first time that the sound of the house was less than impeccable. Christian
agrees with my experience.
21:30 Back home listening to The Who. Man…what a band!

22:30 Dinner with the parents followed by a long juicy talk with dad.
1:00 Chat with Ignacio, good morning Kiel, good night Cuernavaca.
1:15 Posting
Jueves 2 de Diciembre 2004
A day in the house, spent practicing, studying and with composing duties.
18:00 Meet mom at Sam’s club to check prices of a laptop for her, there we come across
Cedrón (a friend the family) a little later mom goes to the doctor and I go for a coffee
with Cedrón.
20:00 Back home, practicing.
22:55 Posting
Viernes 3 de Diciembre 2004
9:30 Arrive at school for reposition of dictation class then work with the solfege
teacher. Composing duties in the cafeteria.
14:30 Theatre rehearsal, one actress is missing, another trip (with gear) for nothing in
that department. On the good note, I got to define my character a lot more, costume and
marking.
16:00 I stayed around school feeling it was the right thing, and a bit later Mariana came
by and it turned out her Friday students were gone except for one. They took me in and
so I got an extra composition class.
19:00 Back home, lunch/dinner in front of the T.V. then guitar practice.
23:10 Posting
Sábado 4 de Diciembre 2004
Extended sitting.
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting, find a room available and arrange the
space, then wait.
9:30 Elena arrives, we wait a while and then review the first arpeggio of Where is the
nurse, Alex arrives a bit later.
9:55 The meeting begins.

13:55 The meeting is completed.
14:10 My parents pick me up and take me to get my car, my exhaust pipe broke
yesterday and dad kindly took the car to be repaired.
Back home, lunch with the parents, then watch a video with dad. After this guitar
playing.
20:30 Carlos and Poncho pick me up and we go for a beer, we bump into Alejandro (a
class mate from high school) and we go get tacos for dinner.
[En la cerveza Carlos y Poncho me tirar otra vez el rollo de que estoy muy mamón, que
regresé de Mendoza muy cambiado y que qué tengo que qué me pasa etc. Me molesta
que si no entienden qué me pasa (porque no lo ven) que empiecen a hacer preguntas. No
es que no quiera estar con ellos, es que a veces se ponen muy idiotas, y eso ya no me
gusta]
0:50 Back home, write the MexGC meeting report and posting.
Domingo 5 de Diciembre 2004
Day off
Lunes 6 de Diciembre 2004
Morning of stuffering then leave for A.T. class.
12:00 Back home, do some house cleaning then eat lunch: leftovers.
15:30 AAD practice.
17:00 break
17:15 Practising and learning “Bangkok”, visualizing possible arrangements for a guitar
quartet (it would also be very good for a certain trio AAD project).
7:30 Leave for doctor’s house
20:00 Arrive for consultation. Interesting thing, she told me the same that my
homeopath says to me, with almost the same words.
21:00 Leave and go home.
21:45 Dinner, and writing diary.
Martes 7 de Diciembre 2004

8:30 Arrive at school for dictation class (a final exam, turns out. As I find out upon
entering the room). After the exam I wait for the teacher to have my solfege coaching
session, we focused on the play and sing exercises (playing a line on the piano while
singing a different one).
11:00 Back home, computerazing.
11:10 The bifi has landed!
12:00 AAD practice.
15:00 Lunch alone.
16:00 Prepare things for the guitar lesson and rehearsal of the play.
17:00 Arrive at student’s house (his mom house this time), he is not in. The mother
arrives there at the same time I do, she explains the situation with the father of the boy.
Ugly story, divorced parents, kid caught in between.
17:30 Arrive early to school and wait for the rehearsal playing guitar, unplugged. My
waiting is sweetened by the intermittent visits of a friend. She is in another play and
when she was not on stage she’d come and talk with me.
19:00 Rehearsal begins.
21:30 Back home, dinner watching a Buddy Guy concert.
22:55 Posting.
Miércoles 8 de Diciembre 2004-12-08
My composition class got moved for tomorrow witch allowed me to have a day in the
house, completing the first movement of the brass quintet and beginning the second one.
Practicing.
22:30 Study German.
23:15 Posting
Morning and afternoon at home, practising and composing mostly, also talking and
hanging around with mom (she’s sick and stayed in today).
While practicing today I got a very clear sense of the great possibility of change that can
come with a sustained practice over a significant period of time. This is nothing new, I
knew this, except this time I actually felt it, it was right there in my left hand. My
understanding of what is meant by “the promise” of an exercise is deeply touched by
this.
17:20 Take the trash to a public container, then go to school.
17:30 Arrive at school for composition class. The class we had today is of one kind I
like: end of term session with all the pieces complete or about to be. The pieces are
played and we are asked to listen attentively and give feed back (before the composer
says a word) on our impressions about them. I like that.
20:30 Back home. Dinner: atole (a typical Mexican beverage, close in texture to the
Spanish chocolate, except this one is, of course, based on corn and comes in different
flavours).
21:00 Interneting affairs.
22:20 Posting
Morning at home cleaning, interneting and stuffering.
14:00 Christian swings by to pick up a pedal board I sold him, I explain the basic
functions and give him a brief walkthrough and that’s it, my good old Zoom is gone.
14:30 Arrive at school for the rehearsal of the play, no music this time, just acting.
16:00 Talking in the cafeteria with some friends while waiting for another one to lend
her a book.
17:00 My friend finally shows up but goes straight into a rehearsal (she’s late) and I get
to wait some more. Agustín is there, we have a nice conversation.
18:30 Back home, guitar practice.
20:30 Interneting, I read the news about Dimebag, shocking.
21:40 Posting
Sabado 11 de Diciembre 2004
Extended Sitting
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting, a folkloric dance exhibit will take
place today and the school is packed and very noisy.
9:30 The meeting begins, we work on callisthenics, circulations and our little-by-little
growing repertoire. Some progress has been made. The last meeting and also today I
had the sensation that help is being available, and at times the group manages to
embrace it. A strange feeling, still, very strong.
14:00 Leave the CMA after completing the space.
14:30 Arrive home, lunch with the parents: Sushi! With a long after meal talk.
16:00 Interneting and writing the MexGC report.
18:00 Depart to Mexico city with the parents, a couple of old friends of the household
are celebrating their wedding anniversary today.
Day off
Morning at home, clearing space in my closet, re-arranging my clothes and selecting

garments I don’t use anymore to give away.
10:45 Arrive at A.T. class, we worked outside the first part, the sunlight is a pretty nice
reminder of were is up.
11:45 Car is being fixed since yesterday and is not yet ready so I walk home. Pleasing
long walk. I had never walked pass by some of this places.
13:00 Back in the house, interneting, then cook a flan then guitar practice.
15:30 Lunch alone.
16:00 Some reading and some stuff.
18:00 Arrive at school for orchestration class.
20:45 Back home, I get my car back!
22:40 Posting.

Late rise, shower, sitting and depart with mom to school, arrive there at 10:00 and go to
the meeting with the cast for analyzing the text of Waiting for Godot by Beckett, I’ve
been asked to make the music for this play too. A little bit of a challenge there.
15:00 Lunch in the cafeteria then chat with some friends there.
16:30 Composition class with guest teacher and a full house student wise.
21:30 Back home, dinner with the parents followed by interneting.
23:15 Posting
Miercoles 15 de Diciembre 2004
Morning at home, interneting and stuff. Then guitar practice until lunch followed by
some reading and more practice.
16:00 Arrive at school for the presentation of the play, set my gear, change my clothes
and sit in my place, waiting. We do some last minute checks and open the doors. I felt
that both my scene and my playing were weak, we got good reviews afterwards but the
need of working more before opening for the general public was marked, I agree.
18:30 Pick up my stuff and leave for the concert of the school orchestra. A good one.
Strong Schubert. After the concert I give Agustín a ride home.
23:50 Posting.
Rose at 6 to turn on the fire for the “pozole” (a typical Mexican dish, a very baroque
soup with corn and meat that has a very long preparation). My mom has the yearly
tradition of throwing a party-ish meal for her work crew, this year is pozole cooked at
home.
A point of seeing this morning in the sitting. The answer to a personal issue I’ve being
wondering about presented itself. Thank you.
Into a morning of stuff and interneting, then off to buy needed items for the meal. Back
home then off again to pay the phone bill, it still amazes me how much time this little
things consume.
Back home. Practice until lunch, which is, of course, pozole.

The off to student’s house for guitar lesson. The kid surprised me by actually going out
and buying a metronome and a set of picks, and having practiced. We moved forwards a
great deal today.
19:20 Back home, watch The Simpsons and into guitar playing.
20:00 Dinner with the parents
21:00 Read GC diaries.
21:50 Posting and off to more guitarring.
Morning at home finding out what’s making my Marshall burst into sonic explosions
when using the clean channel. There seems to be something wrong with the valve,
fixing this will surely imply a trip to Mexico city and quite a bit of money.
Then fixing a door that refuses to be closed, followed by practice until lunch.
Interneting affairs and recording a tape after lunch.
17:30 Depart to school for the holydays party. Lots of people, music, some food, some
drinks and dancing. Many wishes for great holydays and back home at 22:20 To
practice some more.
22:30 Posting
Sábado 18 de Diciembre 2004
Extended sitting connection exercise.
9:00 Meet Elena and Alex and we go to Agustín’s house, he kindly lends us his place to
work today due to the CMA being closed for the holidays.
Good work, at some points we have moved forwards quite a bit. We settle things to
meet in January for the MexGC project 1: a long weekend to get on and ready to go out
and perform finally.
16:00 Back home, lunch with the parents then off to the supermarket with dad, him and
mom are going to the beach tomorrow, I’m staying home saving money, preparing
exams, spending Christmas alone (thou maybe not) and wondering why I’m cold while
the parents get tanned. So I get to go the supermarket and buy stuff with dad while mom
packs.
20:00 Back home, interneting and printing scores for the MexGC.
22:30 Watch a bit of Casino on the T.V.
23:30 Posting.
Day off
[Hoy los padres se fueron a la playa, comí solo, fui a T.A. y después a las luchas con
Mariana, Claudia, Adriana, Lucía y José Carlos. Luego por un café a Las Viandas.
Resulta que todo el mundo está realmente enojado con Joel. Varias buenas charlas y se
gestó el plan para un grupo de música contemporánea. Me llama la atención, veamos
que pasa, el primer ensayo está programado para el 28 de Dic. I Wish…]
Home alone.
Cleaning and ordering stuff around the house in the morning then off to the bank to
make a deposit. Couldn’t be done. I used to be hard to withdraw money from the bank
but it seems it getting hard to even make a deposit.
Back home, practice until lunch, then interneting affairs and off to more practice and
some harmony reading. It’s funny I still feel like I know all about the particular subjects
that were asked on the exam I flunked. I hope the teacher has cooled off while I was
away (I know he’s been very aggressive to other people in the school), otherwise…
20:00 Watch Chaplin on the T.V. then more guitar practice.

23:55 Posting
Morning of stuff and preparing banking issues. Then to the bank, this time for a
successful transaction and then to buy things for today’s meal.
Back home, read the harmony exam material then AAD practice followed by other
guitar practice until lunch then depart for student’s house for guitar lesson, the last of
the year.
Back home, feeling tired, I’m catching a stonker cold, take a nap.
21:00 Parents call, then a friend. More stuff to take care of and plans for Christmas
begin to emerge.
22:40 Posting, feeling a little better still aiming at rest I plan to have a hot dinner and an
early night.
In the morning I had to go downtown to deliver a receipt of my dad, then back home on
very low energy. Resting until lunch, after which I feel a little better so go for practice.
Halfway through the energy drops down so I go for a nap.
16:30 Wake up, phone calls.
17:00 AAD practice followed by other guitar practice. After this I feel much better, not
great, but stable.
19:30 Carlos and girlfriend drop by, call Poncho and we go for coffee (tea for me
actually).
22:30 Posting. Another early night ahead. I feel a lot better so I hope this will get me
back on in full shape by tomorrow.
Day in, mostly gentling. Some harmony reading and guitar practice. Cook lunch, then
cleaning some stuff around the house, and attend several phone calls.
Tomorrow I have to leave at 3:50 a.m. to Mexico city’s airport to pick a person up.
Posting at 22:15 and to bed for a while.
Up at 3:30, get dressed prepare stuff and depart to Poncho’s house. 4 min. later I’m
knocking his door and 10 min after that we are en route to Mexico city. Once there we
go to Gabriel’s house, pick him up and head for the airport. When we arrive we find out
the flight is delayed by 4 hours. Long waiting ahead…
Finally at 8:30 am (the flight was scheduled for 3:40) Paco comes out of the arrivals
door, then we drive him to his hotel in downtown D.F. after which Poncho and I begin
the adventure of getting back home (the biggest difficulty being that street signalling is
seemingly a rough approximation).
12:00 Back home, many messages in the answering machine, and then an incessant flow
of calls come in.
13:30 Shower and leave to an appointment.

16:00 Arrive at the bakery where Poncho works, he was late today for accompanying
me to Mexico city so I give him a hand completing an order of Christmas cookies he
has to deliver.
18:00 Back home, sitting (finally), and guitar practice. This brought a great sense of
balance to the experiencing of the day.
19:00 Prepare stuff and go to Poncho’s house for Christmas dinner with his brothers
and grandmother. A most enjoyable evening.
1:40 Back home into private celebration mode: a black tobacco pipe and a scotch in the
dead of night (this is best enjoyed in the company of a peer who shares the likes but,
alas!, Dad is on the beach and the others are not available)
2:04 Posting, very soon to bed.
Sabado 25 de Diciembre 2004
Late rise. Extended sitting connection exercise.
I’ve been invited to have lunch with the parents and many relatives of one my dearest
friends, the funny things is that she’s in Germany at the moment. I assisted with some of
the entrees and dessert preparation and them there I was, sitting next to the boyfriend
(another very dear friend) surrounded by the family of a girl that’s not in town.
20:00 Back home, interneting affairs and reading “Waiting for Godot”.
21:00 Guitar practice.
23:58 Posting
Day off
Day in, some house cleaning , studying harmony and practicing guitar. Peaceful and
quiet, but also a bit lonely.
Morning at home doing some house cleaning and practicing guitar. Then off to buy
some needed items and back home for lunch. Afterwards I prepare stuff to take to a
rehearsal.
17:30 Arrive at Mariana’s house for the first meeting of the contemporary chamber
ensemble we wish to put together. Touching base, seeing where we are and setting an
aim. Also some improvising, with a lot of work this could become something really
good.
21:00 Back home, dinner and interneting.
22:52 Posting
Morning of stuff.
Cook lunch and eat, followed by clean-up of the kitchen then guitar practice.
17:30 The parents arrived from the beach, tanned and smiley. Help them unload the car
and then more guitar.
21:00 Go with Poncho for a beer and dinner. Good conversations, we both needed this.
0:30 Back home, dad shows me the pictures he took on the trip, some of them are very
good, others raise some big laughs.
1:00 Posting, the internet is not working I will post this tomorrow, now to bed.
Late rise, sitting and morning of stuff.
Lunch with the parents, then working on a compilation of song that’s been recently
requested to me. When I’m done I go for the AAD practice and other guitar practice.
A friend of the family has arrived from Argentina, he’ll be spending the new year’s eve
with us, lots of catching up with the parents and then go for dinner all together.
0:40 Back home, making the bed for the visit.
1:00 Posting.
Last day of 2004, cleaning the house and cooking dinner. We’re having guests tonight
and a big meal is ahead, this also involves moving tables and chairs…stuff.
18:30 Posting and off for a shower.

Sabado 1 de Enero 2005
Day off
Domingo 2 de Enero 2005
Day off
Lunes 3 de Enero 2005
Late rise, morning at home cleaning stuff with mom (she’s sick and ideally she would
be resting, but not mom). Then cooking followed by lunch after which I go rent some
movies for mom then back home and watch them with her.
Later a scores delivery I had to do got cancelled so it’s off into guitar for the rest of the
day.
Martes 4 de Enero 2005
Morning of stuff then take mom to the doctor, this features a very long wait, at one
point I left to go buy the meal for lunch. Came back and waited some more.
16:00 Back home, lunch with mom: cochinita (a typical dish from Yucatán).
After lunch I go AAD practice and then other guitar practice until dinner.
21:00 Dinner with the parents with a nice conversation.
22:30 Reading GC diaries and writing a bit.
23:00 To bed.
Miércoles 5 de Enero 2005
Morning at home helping mom with the laundry (lots of laundry) and taking out the
garbage.
Then off to pay the light and internet bills. I walked to the offices, I stood up waiting
quite a bit longer than I did walking.
Back home, Inteneting. Chat with Ignacio, a project is underway.
Late lunch with mom and then AAD practice followed by repertoire practice until
dinner.
22:52 Posting and reading diaries.

Jueves 6 de Enero 2005
Morning at home, practice fretboard knowledge AAD with Ignacio followed by L4

AAD practice.
12:00 Go get some photocopies made.
12:15 Back home, more practice.
14:30 Leave to Adriana’s house for a pre-rehearsal rehearsal, on the way I pick up
Agustín.
18:00 Arrive at Mariana’s house for rehearsal, we work on the quartet by Ibarra, listen
to some improvisations and the improvise a bit. By the end of the meeting we were
actually sounding good, nothing extraordinary, but honourable.
21:30 Back home, dinner with the parents followed by a good conversation.
23:40 Interneting and Posting.
Viernes 7 de Enero 2005
AAD fretboard knowledge and cleaning stuff around the house in the morning then
AAD practice, cooking lunch and eating it. After this I practice MexGC and GC
repertoire until 19:30 when I stop and watch The Simpsons.
20:00 Guitarring
21:15 Go for a beer with some friends.
0:45 Back home, Posting.
Sábado 8 de Enero 2005
Extended sitting.
9:15 Arrive at the CMA for the first session of the MexGC long weekend project, Elena
is already there and we set the space together.
9:40 Alex arrives we wait until 10:00 for Agustín and begin without him.
10:30 Agustín joins the meeting, he waited for a pause outside the room to come in.
Now all onboard we begin again.
15:00 We go for lunch together at a nearby restaurant/coffee shop.

16:30 Back at the CMA rehearsal continues. At one point I thought we needed to drop a
piece given the shape we had it in, commented my feeling with the group and we went
for another shot. We managed to rescue it.
At the end while checking the list of tunes we have Agustín mentioned Tango
Apasionado, so we stayed an extra 30 min working on that. A very good call really, I
had completely forgotten about it.
22:00 Back home, got a call from some friends to go for a beer. I’ll go hang there a
while gravitating strongly to come back to bed.
22:30 Posting
9:00 Arrive at the CMA and I realize I forgot my backpack home with my strap,
metronome and tuning fork in it. So, the sleeping automan drives home and back to
begin the rehearsal.
9:40 Rehearsal begins. We work on division of attention and callisthenics first, and then
move into reviewing the pieces and assembling the set list, once we have it we play it
through a couple of times adjusting were necessary.
15:00 We go for lunch at a near by restaurant.
16:00 Back at the CMA we all change strings, in some cases this was painfully urgent.
16:45 The whip is requested by Agustín, so I show him the bass part then Alex and
Elena join in and after submitting the piece to multiple arrangements we manage to play
it honourably (the chord circulation comes and goes of course, but as long as no one
tells Herr Yacaré about it we’ll be ok).
17:30 We go through the set list one again with a few little adjustments.
18:45 Arrange the space for tomorrow’s performance, moving stuff out of one room
into another, getting chairs and setting them in the room.
19:10 We go for a coffee break in a near by coffee shop. We’re all tired, the faces are
grim and conversation is almost none.
20:20 Back to the CMA for a dress rehearsal, by the end of which I saw and
opportunity and took it. A warm up performance for the caretaker, we played our
encores for him. Very useful.
21:20 Today’s session is completed, we agree on the clothing and head home, I drive
Agustín to his house and then straight to mine.
22:10 Arrive home, dinner with the parents.

0:10 Posting, destroyed, to bed.
9:00 Arrive at the CMA, set up the room.
9:20 We begin working, circulating B flat minor pentatonic then the preparatory
exercise for the 3rd relation. Then we have a meeting ref. last night’s spontaneous
performance.
11:40 Break.
12:00 Back to fine tune and calibrate details, the group insist on playing through some
pieces despite the leader advising them not to, they insist again so we go for it, the two
pieces we played sounded quite good. I hoped for the good one to not have been THAT
one, but they were. After this I stood firm on not playing any more material of the
performance and did some revision of Intergalactic boogie’s bass.
14:00 Break, we have some snacks.
14:30 Into the green room, we change into performance clothes and warm up. The
performance in scheduled at 15:00 but has been delayed 15 min.
15:20 We take the stage. From were I was sitting the circle: Elena, Alex, Agustín and
Leo, walked into a room with 34 people in it and played.
The Setlist:
C Maj. Circulation
Children’s Dance
Eye of the Needle
Calliope
Tango Apasionado
Thrak
Tuning
I speak to the audience and we present ourselves saying name and age. After this a big
strong applause (the very first one) breaks in the room.
B flat min pentatonic circulation

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
The Driving Force
Strong, loud applause as we stand up. As we were going out of the room some people
walked in and there were some more outside, this made me lose my focus, I was looking
for a place to play the encores outside and couldn’t find it so I headed for the green
room as the applause died down. No encores.
After completing we went for lunch. Lots of people mentioned they wanted us to play
more but us leaving the room disconcerted them and they didn’t knew if to keep the
applause up was alright. Playing outside was evidently the thing to do in that particular
place and situation. I failed with that.
17:00 Back at school, re-arrange the performance space.
17:40 Guitar work. I present the bass of the 3rd relation, the group manages to play the
whole piece an hour later, this is a notoriously unusual timing for this group.
18:50 Break.
19:10 Final meeting. Good comments are made.
A year ago today the NST weekend with Bert Lams began at 10:15 hrs. Today at 20:00
hrs the MexGC long weekend project is completed.
20:30 Arrive home and a minute later Carlos, Herandy and Marifer arrive, we have a
light diner with my parents and I get lots of feedback on the performance.
1:00 Posting.
Most of the day in, practising and gentling.
17:30 Give guitar lesson
19:00 Back home, more practising and composing until dinner with the parents.
23:57 Posting.
Practising and composing all day with a pause for lunch and German class at 18:00, it’s
been a while since my last class and only until now the benefit of being in Germany for
three months became evident (language wise).
19:30 Back home, interneting. I keep getting very good comments and e-mails on the
performance of the MexGC last Monday at the CMA. Many people have mention to
have been “shocked” by the sound of the guitars and the possibilities it showed. I see a
need for this kind of performances here, if we could manage to get the League it’d
really be quite something.
20:00 Long conversation with dad listening to “The lamb lies down on Broadway”.
21:00 Mom arrives and we have dinner together talking about the future, plans etc.
23:00 Posting
Late rise, it’s overcast and chilly today.
I practise in the morning, cook a bread pudding and back to practise and composing
until lunch time.
15:30 Inteneting affairs an preparing stuff for the rehearsal today.
Driving downtown I come across a protest march, most of the streets are closed, lots of
traffic, noise and huge amounts of negativity being released in various ways.
17:30 Arrive at school for rehearsal, Adriana is already there, I set up my gear while she
warms up.
17:45 Mariana and Claudia arrive and we begin with duo improvs. Guitar and horn can
turn into something quite cool. Both Claudia and I are going to write something
exploring this mix.
21:00 Rehearsal concludes and Agustín helps me to put my stuff away. As we are
leaving he invites me over to his house. Adriana and two other friends are getting
together for a small wine reunion, I’m on.
0:00 Back home, light dinner.
0:43 Posting.
All day in the house spent practising, cooking and assembling parts from a score (I have
to play the cello part of a Trio by Henry Cowell). Lots of rests, and turning pages
halfway through a phrase I felt was getting it the way. Now it’s an entire movement per
page. Much friendlier.
I watched Amadeus in the afternoon. I had never seen that movie before, and I liked it,
except for the story of the Requiem. I find the way it was actually commissioned and
written a lot more mysterious and profound than the way the fiction of this particular
version. But over all a nice movie.
Practising and composing later on.

Extended sitting.
8:00 Elena calls to say she will not make it to the meeting, she has an emergency with
one of her dogs and needs to be takes to the vet.
9:10 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting, Alex is already there and Agustín
arrives shortly after. We arrange the room together and begin working on right hand
callisthenics , then two finger combinations. Agustín mentions he sometimes feels a lot
tension in the fourth finger so I show them a minimal pressure exercise that I got from
Shinkuro in my L1.
After this we work on Eye of the Needle and Calliope with counts and then review the
bass of The third relation. At this point Elena arrives (lovely surprise!) and she joins the
circle work.
11:40 Break.
12:00 Back on working on Where is the Nurse? First the arpeggios and then the opening
bass line with the proper foot tapping. I would have loved to have a camera to capture
the faces while doing this.
14:00 Circle completes and re-arranges the space. We’ll meet again in February when
I’m back from the LCG tour.
14:30 Back home, lunch with the parents.
16:00 Interneting affairs, and chatting with Ignacio and Mika.
18:00 Do some phone calls and then an evening off.
Day off
Morning at home cooking and interneting. Many, many phone calls today, most of them
coming in which is very unusual. It’s the final stretch before my exams, I have one on
Wednesday morning and three (!!!) on Thursday, one of them at 9:30 and the other is
scheduled at 10:00. It’s good to see that the people in charge of scheduling the test (the
teachers that is) take into account such factors as time pressure and mental tiredness.
In the afternoon Poncho called and we went for a coffee, he’s on the final week at his
school and we exchange exams stories and paper presentation adventures.
21:00 Guitar practise.
22:45 Posting and off to more practise.
Morning in, lots of stuff.
12:00 Arrive at doctor’s office of consultation.
13:20 On the way back home I buy fresh hand made tortillas in the weekly market near
the house. Delicious.
13:40 Back home interneting and studying for the upcoming exams.
15:30 Lunch.
16:00 Claudia calls, our meeting for the guitar/horn is moved for tomorrow.
16:40 Depart for guitar lesson.
19:00 Back home, assembling a static bicycle for mom.
23:30 Posting.
Tomorrow the row of exams begins at 9:30 with dictation, we’ll see how that goes.
I woke up late after a night loaded with weird, unsettling and continuous dreams. Short
sitting and run like the devil to school.
9:31 Arrive at school just in time for my dictation exam.
11:30 The exam is over I go back home, my ears are buzzing. The funny thing is that
this is the sort of test which I cannot tell how well I did. I didn’t write anything I
thought was wrong but that’s the trick, just how sure are my ears that that V64 was
indeed so and not a V43?
So, I go back home into a treatment my homeopath sent followed by a shower,

interneting affairs, Deutch Hausafgabe, and lunch.
15:00 Back to school for rehearsing and composition session with Claudia for the
guitar/horn duo. Very good first drafts and “jams”. This is really a lots of fun
combination.
18:00 Arrive at Deutch class.
20:00 Back home, study for tomorrow’s exams.
21:00 Dinner with the parents and calculating expenses for the upcoming trip.
22:30 Reading diaries.
22:45 Posting
Rise in time, shower, sit and off to school.
9:30 Arrive at school for the solfege test. This one went fluidly, the teacher still seems
to have a very strange criteria but from a “superficial grading” I “apparently passed”.
And while the last note of the play and sing section was ringing the harmony teacher
came in the room and threw the exam on me and the students of the other groups. This
one was VERY, and I mean VERY, tough. 16 bars of a melody in C# minor
(alternatively E major. Really, very ambiguous) with frequent modulations and a 10
points list of chords and procedures “expected” to be used at least once. And of course,
lots and lots of accidentals.
13:00 The exam is over, I give my paper to the teacher with good wishes and go home.
Until recently I only suspected that my flunking this subject was due to the teacher
taking out his frustration on me. The evaluation criteria announced was 60% homework
and presentation, 40% exam. I turned in every homework and got a 9 in my
presentation, flunked the exam and that was it, I failed the course.
Recently I found that one of my class mates (a girl, and a pretty one too) didn’t turn in a
single homework, I don’t know how well she did in the final exam, but she approved
the course.
How do you rationalize that?
13:30 Back home, cook a mouse à la crème and then guitar playing until lunch after
which I attend interneting affairs.
17:00 Back in school for composition and orchestration exams. This was much
friendlier, I have been working with the teacher since I came back from Mendoza in
October and today was just turning the scores in. Also I got the grades from the teacher
right there. Life is good.
17:30 Contemporary chamber ensemble rehearsal.

20:00 Agustín and I stay longer “jamming”, just bass and guitar. Agus was doing some
truly wonderful things on the bass and this was one of those moments in which I
strongly desired I was a better guitarist to be up to what I felt was available there and
then. I find it really is upsetting to feel That slip through my fingers “like water in
sand”. None the less, I am where I am and have to take it from here; and as weird as it
sounds I find this motivating.
21:30 Go for a milkshake with Poncho and Marcela, general updates.
23:00 Back home, dinner and short talks with mom and dad.
0:00 Reading GC journals.
0:40 Posting. As I post this the L4 team is waking up to a day of travel. Sending good
wishes to them.
In the morning I went out to buy some items needed for the trip to Italy, then back home
and packing began. Stop for lunch and the more packing.
18:30 Packing is almost done, last minute items is all that’s left. I go Practise guitar.
20:00 Carlos and Poncho come to pick me up and we go for a beer. Lots of good
conversation.
Late rise.
Extended sitting.
Go out with dad to buy very last minute items then back home for lunch. After that,
we’ll be heading out for Mexico city and later I’ll catch a plane to Milano.
I’ll keep a hand written journal and will post if possible during the course.
Up at 6:00. Breakfast. Complete the space for the bed my uncle gave me and off to
catch the 6:55 train to Venezia. Then connect to Udine, call Roberto and wait for him to
pick me up.
14:30 Arrive at the house. A lot of people greet me with relief. Apparently there was
some confusion with my travel dates and for some reason I was expected to arrive on
Saturday. I left my house on Saturday and travelled to Milano for 11 hours.
I introduced myself at teatime. Settling in by bits and playing with Ignacio and John.
17:30 Tai Chi
18:10 Call my mom to say I arrived safely to the course.
18:30 Continue to arrange my space.
19:00 Los ovejeros to Paraná performed Tango Apasionado. Pretty tight, I felt confident
despite not having played with them since Mendoza.
Wash dinner dishes with Mika and another person.
20:30 Personal practice
21:50 John, Ignacio, Mika and me play 3rd Relation. Sounds good.
22:00 Big Circle led by Lucho, Martin and Mika. Circulations, right hand, THRAK.
23:15 Playing shortly with Ignacio.
23:45 To bed.
6:45 Rise
7:15 Sitting
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Playing Peter Gun with Dani
10:30 Meeting with the Intro in the dining room. A journalist came to visit, he stayed in
the room for a while. Intro team split into two groups
12:30 Tai Chi outside
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Frustrated shower attempt
15:00 Continue working with the Intro team
16:00 Teatime
17:00 Shower, success.
Nap
19:00 Dinner
20:30 Meet with Intro team
21:30 House meeting w/o guitars. Performance Challenge. Cooking Challenge
23:00 LCG rehearsal
0:15 Diary. To bed.
6:45 Rise
7:15 Sitting
8:00 Breakfast
9:00 Reviewing Intergalactic with Ignacio and Dani, then Flying/Bulldog with Mariana
9:40 Sinfonia 4 resuscitation with Mika and Dani
10:00 Intergalactic with Al, Mika and Dani
10:30 LCG rehearsal
11:30 Break
11:45 Back on
12:30 Quiet time
13:00 Lunch
13:45 Reviewing parts
14:00 Talking with Ignacio
14:30 Playing Le Moulin with Dani and Ignacio
15:30 Personal meeting with Hernan
15:45 Back to Le Moulin
16:00 Teatime. Wash cups with Jonh
17:00 Parts review. IBE leads.
18:00 Show Blockhead to Jacopo
18:30 Quiet time
19:00 Superb buffet dinner by the KT. Cheese cake was my personal favorite. Silence
visited.
20:00 Playing Le Moulin with Dani and Ignacio
21:00 Intro team performance
21:40 Playing with Dani
21:55 Hot Circle
0:00 To bed
7:15 Sitting
8:00 Breakfast
9:15 KT meeting w/ Mike
10:00 Talk w/ Ignacio
10:30 Quality exercise presentation
11:30 Give personal meetings for Intro team
12:00 Quiet time
12:30 Nap
13:00 Lunch
14:30 Shower
15:00 Personal meeting, Tai Chi

15:30 Rehearse w/ Ignacio and Mariana, then John joined and I learned some parts of
the personal creatures suite.
16:00 Tea time
16:30 Play w/ Ignacio
16:45 Revive William wobbler
17:00 Presentation of quality exercise
18:00 Playing w/Ignacio
18:30 Quiet time
19:00 Dinner
20:00 Play a new song from “Amelie” w/Dani and Ignacio
20:30 Meeting w/Senior Director and the buddies
21:00 Division of attention exercise presentation pt.1
21:10 Reviewing All or Nothing w/Martin and the buddies
21:30 Division of attention exercise presentation pt.2
22:00 Big circle
23:40 Diary. To bed
6:45 Rise
7:15 Sitting
8:00 Breakfast
9:30 Final meeting for the intro course
10:30 Departures
11:30 House work
13:00 Lunch
14:00 E-mail check

Afternoon and evening off. I go to Udine w/Ignacio
Morning off
16:00 Back on, meeting to redefine roles.
17:00 L4 AAD Themes work meeting w/ Mike
17:30 Personal meeting w/Mike
17:45 My parents call, very good to talk to them. Mom tells me the results of my exams,
they are just as I imagined.
18:30 Primaries w/Ignacio
19:00 Dinner
20:00 Playing w/Ignacio, we begin working on Tune2 (working title) and review
Tune1(also working title)
20:30 LCG rehearsal
21:40 Break
22:00 Back on
23:45 Diary
0:05 To bed
7:00 Rise
7:30 Sitting
8:15 Breakfast
9:15 House meeting ref. tour financing
9:30 Tai Chi
10:15 LCG rehearsal
12:20 Shower
13:00 Lunch
14:10 Small group work
16:00 Tea
16:30 LCG rehearsal
17:30 Dinner preparation w/Dani and Jacopo
19:00 Dinner
19:30 Completing of the kitchen
20:30 LCG rehearsal
23:15 Diary and interneting
7:00 Rise
7:30 Sitting
8:15 Breakfast
9:15 Tai Chi
10:00 Small groups meet
10:15 Personal practise
11:30 Cook lunch w/Al and Alain
13:00 Lunch, the personal creatures perform
14:30 LCG rehearsal
16:00 Tea
16:30 Small groups meet
18:00 Tai Chi
18:30 Play w/Dani and Ignacio
19:00 Dinner
19:30 Play Le Moulin w/Dani and Ignacio
20:30 LCG rehearsal
21:50 Dress rehearsal
23:30 Diary
Martes 1 de Febrero 2005
7:15 Rise
7:30 Sitting
8:15 Breakfast
9:30 Remove tables from the dining room and arrange the performance space
10:00 A group of kids between 3 and 5 years old from a local school comes to visit and
we play for them. For me it’s always a joy to play for children, connecting with them
seems easier and more immediate than with adults.
Work on Sinfonia 4 w/Dani and Mika then go perform at lunch. 3 failed attempts and
we walked out of the room rescued by the applause of a very supportive audience.
14:00 Practise Frakctured
14:50 Guitars in dining room
15:00 Depart to church for sound check. It’s very cold in the church, the floor specially.
17:30 Back to the house, nap.
18:00 Dinner, great pasta by Haru, Roberto and Atilio. Wash dishes w/John and Lucho.
19:30 Depart to church.
20:15 Tuning in the dressing room
20:40 We take the stage
After the performance we go back to the house for dessert.
23:20 Diary.
Miércoles 2 de Febrero 2005

7:15 Rise
7:30 Sitting
8:15 Breakfast
9:30 Shower
10:30 Mechanics of performance meeting w/ guitars in the ballroom
11:30 Lunch preparation w/ Al and Pablo
13:00 Lunch
14:50 Guitars and gear ready to depart
15:00 Depart to Pasian di Prato
16:45 Coffee break due to sound check delay.
17:30 Back in the auditorium. Sound check and the dinner, pizza provided by the
“promotor”
21:20 Performance begins
24:05 Back in the house
24:53 Diary, to bed.
Jueves 3 de Febrero 2005
6:30 Rise
7:00 Breakfast
7:50 Depart to Vienna
10:20 Coffee stop
Road was heavy, totally covered by a layer of ice and lots of snow on top.
16:15 We enter Vienna after 10 hrs on the road. A woman crashes into Roberto’s car,
little damage, no one hurt, but one more delay.
17:00 Arrive at Theater des Augenblicks, very cool place a little bit fancy. Delicious
dinner by Richard and Ruth then sound check.
19:10 Sound check done, change clothes and ready to roll.

20:20ish Take the stage. Full house, quiet audience, I felt it warm and welcoming.
21:30 Back in the green room, complete the performance and go socialize a bit.
22:30 Leave venue and go to the hotel. Another delay, this time caused by one of the
vans getting stuck against the roof(!) when entering a parking garage.
Once we check in some of us go for dinner, Wiener wurst of course.
0:40 To bed
Viernes 4 de Febrero 2005
6:00 Rise and shower
6:40 Go for breakfast downstairs, as I enter the room I see Martin there already. Pablo
walks in a bit later and by 7 most of the team is eating in the tables behind me. In a few
minutes we take on the road to Trieste. We’re looking at c.a. 10 hrs on the road.
Arrive at Trieste and go for coffee w/Ignacio, Dani, Lucho and Pablo while the sound
team sets the gear.
16:45 Back for sound check. I was remarkably low on energy and not alone. Because
and Intergalactic had to be dropped.
18:00 Dinner
20:00 Quiet zone. I am totally grilled. Absolute lack of confidence in my playing, I feel
like dropping out in all the pieces. I’ve again reached the point were I see how much I
suck. It still feels like shit.
The performance began for me during El Péndulo, and went well from there. By the end
of the show I felt full of energy and a big sense of relief very similar to that of
forgiveness.
After the show we had an evening off. Ignacio and I stay in Trieste and go party
celebrating El Lobo’s birthday.
[Y esa fue una de las noches más locas e impresionantes de mi vida. Hamburgesas y
cerveza para cenar en el restaurant Löwenbräu, luego a una disco con whisky en oferta a
€2 el vaso de 2 oz. Glenffidich 15 toda la noche, obvio. Fiesta de disfraces en el lugar y
dos italianas vestidas de bruja, coqueteo intenso y cachondeo más. Cerramos la pista
con The Who a tope, salimos 5 am, más bien borrachos.
Mientras yo me voy con las dos italianas “un momento”, Ignacio decide tomar una
caminata y, literalmente, perderse por ahí. Cuando vuelvo no lo veo por ningún lado.
Trieste es una ciudad puerto, y tiene la particularidad de tener vientos MUY fuertes,
mismos que arrecian de forma severa con las mareas (hay agarraderas por las calles para
que la gente no se caiga o, literalmente, se la lleve el viento). Las 5.30 am en febrero
hay cambio de marea. Grito “Ignacio!!!” con todas mis fuerzas una y otra vez y me doy
por vencido cuando reparo que ni yo mismo escucho mi voz a causa del viento. Camino
de regreso al hotel. Unas (pocas) horas más tarde me despierta el ronquido de Ignacio en
la cama de al lado. Él tampoco sabe cómo fue que llegó al hotel.
Rock and roll nights…]
Sábado 5 de Febrero 2005
Day off
[Evidentemente
Así y todo, de regreso a Cesclans nos topamos con el team que iba camino a cenar y
fuimos todos juntos. En este pueblo tienen un prosciuto ESPECTACULAR. El vino, los
cafés, y el limoncello de postre los recibimos poninedo la mejor cara de póquer tratando
de no hacer un desaseo en la mesa.]
Domingo 6 de Febrero 2005
6:30 Rise
6:45 Into the kitchen for breakfast preparation
8:15 Breakfast
8:50 Mechanics of performance rehearsal
10:30 Loading the vans
10:45 Depart to Treviso

c.a. 13:00 Arrive in Treviso and go for lunch. Then walk to the Sta. Caterina church for
soundcheck. Beautiful church.
16:45 Quiet zone
c.a. 17:30 We take the stage, to me, a cold and dry performance. My left hand was
frozen at the beginning of Driving Force and the sound of my guitar was jumping from
zero to VERY LOUD throughout the show.
After the performance we go for dinner (provided by the promotor) and walk around
Treviso for some time. Very beautiful town.
21:50 Rolling back to the house
1:02 Diary. To bed.
Lunes 7 de Febrero 2005

7:45 Rise
8:00 Sitting is moved to the dining room (the ballroom is too cold).
8:45 Breakfast with brief commentary on yesterday’s performance.
10:00 Shower and then cleaning the bathroom floor with Dani and Ignacio.
10:45 Rolling to Trieste…
13:45 Lunch
14:10 Walk around Trieste, mostly around the harbor, and go for coffee with Al,
Ignacio, Pablo, Dani and Lucho
15:30 Back in the greenroom, warm up.
16:20 Soundcheck
17:30 Quiet zone
c.a.18:25 we take the stage.
Strange performance. A different kind. Q&A with Mr. Uruguay in the first row. But
also Ms. Good Listener, asking very good questions. She struck me as a deep listener, a
Joy to have her there.
After the performance we went for dinner. Feast mode “provided by the promoter” and
then back to the house.
1:00 Diary and to bed.
8:00 Rise
8:15 Sitting
9:00 Breakfast
10:10 L4 residential team meeting. I attend to have a better sense of what the team will
be doing back in Kiel.
10:30 Housework
11:30 Brief personal practice
12:00 Lunch
13:30 Depart to Pordenone
15:30 Arrival at Teatro Don Bosco
Go for a coffee and back for soundcheck at 16:15
17:30 Back to the coffee shop to retrieve my watch
18:30 Dinner at the theater
19:00 Coffee in the bar in front of the theater
20:00 Back in the theater. Quiet zone
21:10 We take the stage
Backwards beginning by playing Asturias acoustic. IBE was a complete mess. Hernie
stopped the piece 4 times and had us begin again, and again yelling “the chords are not
in time!!”
27 people in the audience+promotor
Q&A and open rehearsal demonstration mode.
Acoustic Calliope at the end. Very good one.
22:20 Completion of the Schnappy tour
23:10 Depart to Cesclans
1:36 Diary
7:50 Rise
8:00 Begin breakfast prep with Dani
8:45 Breakfast
9:15 Final packing and cleaning personal space
11:00 Encircle and depart to Venice
Some confusion at the airport in Venezia. I took the wrong bus and lost Ignacio, Dani
and Mika, with whom I was supposed to go to Venezia. I wait for the right bus and go
to Mestre’s train station. Leave my luggage there and take a train to Venezia.
At 18:00 I take the water taxi back to the train station, a beautiful ride (sail?)
19:10 I go back to Mestre and at 20:04 I jump on the train to Milano
“I’m riding the last train…”
Day off in Milano
7:00 Rise
8:30 Take the bus to Linate airport, the journey back home is underway.
9:00 Check in at Linate, long trip ahead.
Many hours later I was picked up in Mexico city’s airport by Poncho and Carlos who
kindly drove me home. Dinner with the parents, talking a bit about the trip and to bed
at 1 a.m.
7:30 Rise
8:00 Extended sitting
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting.
I convey the news that the group is encouraged strongly to attend the L3 in the summer.
14:00 Leave the school and go back home.
14:30 Arrive home, interneting.
15:30 Lunch with the parents then unpacking.
20:30 Parents rented some movies and I watch for a while with them, but then the
sleepiness takes over. Posting and soon to bed.
Trouble with the internet connection, will post tomorrow.

Day off
Rise at 7 and open the door for the construction workers then Tai Chi followed by
shower and sitting.
Just as my mom was walking out the door on her way to work she felt dizzy and a
strong pain in her stomach, so, radical change of plans and she stays in all day. I take
care of her and also keep an eye to the construction workers. Wash dishes, cook lunch,
look for stuff.
At 17:00 I leave for school, my first class of this new semester, already I can tell it’s
going to be quite packed in the upcoming months. For starters, our composition teacher
threw us the challenge of delivering a complete piece for cello and (in my case bassoon)
by Monday next week.
21:00 Back home, interneting and revisiting some old material in the computer.
23:00 Diary
7:00 Rise
7:10 Tai Chi followed by shower and sitting
9:00 Depart to school
9:30 Harmony class
11:00 Schedule arranging with the school’s coordinator.
13:00 Back home
13:30 L4 AAD work
15:00 Lunch with mom
16:00 Guitar playing
17:00 Arrive at student’s house for guitar lesson.
18:20 Leaving my student’s house I came across a former schoolmate, went for coffee.
Catching up.
21:00 Back home, watch Barry Lyndon.

0:30 Posting
7:00 Rise
8:00 On my way to school I witnessed a car crash only a meter away from me. Big
noise and lots of car parts on the floor but no people harmed. If the hitting car would
have been moving a little bit faster I would have been a part of the crash. A strange way
to go out to the world today.
Arrive at school for a class that it turns out I cannot take due to my absence last
semester. This is another subject dictated by the teacher who deliberately flunked me,
twice. So it might as well be just fine to not take this one right now.
9:00 Back home, interneting and L4 AAD work.
11:30 Go out to buy graphed paper and chicken. Chicken ok, no luck with the paper.
14:00 Back home, guitaring.
15:00 Lunch
16:00 Chat with Bisonte
17:30 Arrive at school for Fugue class.
20:00 Back home, phone calls.
21:00 Guitar playing
0:21 Posting
7:00 Rise and Tai Chi
8:20 Sitting
9:00 Breakfast
10:00 Arrive at school for medieval music class followed by orchestration w/ new
teacher. And this is no less that a very important composer, Arturo Márquez, his
specialty is orchestration and he’s going to make us work quite a bit.
14:30 Back home, talk with mom.

15:00 Lunch
16:00 Composing duties
20:00 Guitar practise
23:00 Updating road diary
23:40 Posting
8:30 Rise
9:00 Sitting
10:00 Ear training-dictation class
11:00 Composing duties in the cafeteria
12:00 Piano class
13:00 The chamber music workshop teacher won’t come today, so back home.
14:00 Interneting
15:00 Lunch
Very low energy in the afternoon. Did some researching for harmony class and then
watch T.V.
22:30 Posting
Extended sitting
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting
11:40 Break
12:00 Back on. I find it strangely amusing that the faces that appear when circulating
with a rhythmic pattern are very close to those that arise when playing Calliope.
14:00 Session completed.

14:30 Back home, lunch with the parents and into composing duties.
20:20 Evening off.
Day off
Morning at home, composing, reading for harmony class, interneting, practising and
taking care of arising stuff through the afternoon.
A friend invited me to play with a DJ in a party in April. The strange bit is that the party
will take place in a castle…here. Somebody built a castle in the outskirts of my city, this
really is a surrealist country.
17:30 Arrive at school for composition class. Un-clarity mess with the class rooms.
20:30 Search an article on Scriabin to be approved for exposition in tomorrow’s

harmony class.
21:30 Posting and off to guitaring.
Late rise
9:30 Arrive at school for harmony class
11:00 Piano practise
12:00 Arts, Science and philosophy of the 20th century class. Very good one, this
teacher makes me feel unread, lazy and uneducated. In other words: an utterly stimulant
class.
16:00 My student calls to cancel today’s lesson so I go do some hoe work
17:00 Agustín calls to tell me the rehearsal is cancelled as well, cool! More time for
home work and piano practise.
22:30 Posting
Morning at home, cleaning and arranging my room. Lots of dust after the remodelling.
After this I go cook lunch: crêpes du champignon. And then, of course, I eat it.
After lunch I go do some homework and guitar practise until 17:00, at this point the
architect arrives and continues in the frantic search for the “mystery leak”. Each try
translates to a new hole, I hopes he succeeds soon.
18:00 Arrive at school for Fugue class.
20:10 Back home, reading for Medieval music class.
22:30 Dinner with the parents followed by opinion exchange ref. the “mystery leak”
location.
23:50 Posting
Morning of stuff triggered by the search of the mystery leak, and moving back to my
room (the last days I’ve been sleeping in the “guest’s room”).
10:00 Arrive at school for medieval music class, and once there we’re told the teacher is
sick and won’t come. So off to composing duties in the cafeteria.
12:00 Orchestration class. It’s interesting that the composer if often advised to include
the worst attitude and disposition from the players (specially in an orchestra) in the
mapping of the piece.
15:00 Back home. The search for the mystery leak has provided a rather scary hole in
the hallway to my room but this brings some hope.
After lunch I do some interneting and then guitar practise of the electric brew.
20:20 I go for coffee with a just-married couple of friends.
22:30 Back home, review material for the MexGC
23:20 Posting.
Rise, shower, sitting and stuff of the hole producing search type in the morning.
10:00 Arrive at school for ear training class.
11:00 Composing duties in the cafeteria.
12:00 Piano class.
13:00 Chamber music workshop. Again with a jazz profile, time to revisit my real book.
14:30 Back home, lunch. After which I go play guitar.
19:00 Arrive at school for a rehearsal of “Waiting for Godot”.
21:00 Go to a coffee shop to write down some ideas while they’re fresh.
22:00 Back home, dinner and interneting.
0:00 To bed.
Sabado 26 de Febrero 2005
Extended sitting
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting. As I walk in the door a young man by
the name of Jose Luis comes up to me and asks if this is the meeting of the MexGC,
how the work is and if he can join the meeting. I explain to him that we work on the
NST, we play with a pick and invite him to join the callisthenics part of the meeting and
listen to some of the rehearsing.
11:20 Break, Jose Luis asks if he can stay and listen to the second part of the meeting
and the group says yes.
12:00 Back on, the open rehearsal continues.
14:00 We complete the space and leave.
I felt very well of having Jose Luis there today, besides being a possible new addition to
the circle it provided a very good opportunity for the group, this was in a way a
performance, and a total surprise too. Later, when talking with Agustín he mentions to
have felt the progress and unity of the group in front of this challenge.
14:30 Back home, Poncho calls me and asks I go pick him up. I go get him, then we go
to buy some things to cook and have lunch together feast mode. This then extends into
an evening off.
Day off
Morning at home, doing homework, composing duties and practising.
Cool lunch, eat and watch “The seventh seal”, very good movie.
21:00 Back home, talk with dad.
22:00 Diner with the parents.
23:54 Posting
Martes 1 de Marzo 2005
Rise, shower, sit and off to school.
9:30 Harmony class
11:00 Piano practice.
12:00 20th century art, science and philosophy class
15:30 Back home, lunch with mom.
17:00 Leave to student’s house. After a big traffic mess I arrive at the house and
Diego’s mom tells me he is in his dad’s house so off I drive.
19:00 Arrive at school to rehearse with the contemporary music chamber ensemble (we
better find a name soon), Only three of us, we realize that this is going to be the stable
base of the group so we set the task of finding repertoire for this line up, this might
mean we have to write it, and this comes as a nice challenge considering the three of us
are composers.
22:00 Back home, interneting, check prices for the flights in the summer to Germany.
23:50 Posting
Miércoles 2 de Marzo 2005
Late rise, shower and sit, then breakfast and inteneting stuff.
10:00 Arrive at Cesar’s house to talk about the party he invited me to play in. Also I got
to see some pictures of the castle (it actually is a castle, made of stones and wood like
the real ones) I’m still stunned to the speechless point of knowing someone built a castle
here. I mean, a castle…..here…..!!!.
12:30 Back home, homework and guitar practise, re-learning Larks, my first finger is fat
with bad habits playing this one.
15:00 Lunch.
16:00 Homework readings.
17:30 Arrive at school for fugue class.
19:30 Rehearsal of “Waiting for Godot”
23:42 Posting.
Jueves 3 de Marzo 2005
[Hoy hace tres años escribí la primera entrada de mi diario, en esos días la manera de
hacerlo público era mandarlo por e-mail, cosa que, luego me di cuenta, era un tanto
intrusiva, ahora lo publico en el sitio de GC desde hace casi un año. Para el interés de
los interesados]
7:00 Rise, receive the construction workers, Tai Chi, shower and sit, then breakfast and
off to school.
Mom is not feeling very well so I drive her to work.
10:00 Medieval music class. The teacher mentioned that the “obsession” with pitch
comes from the monks who first develop a notation system and it was inherited by the
European tradition, very often at the expense of rhythm and timbre. In other cultures
this is different, even the opposite (the gamelan orchestra being an example of this). He
also mentioned it’s rare to find a musical tradition that concerns equally with all three.
That’s an interesting thing to hear.
12:00 Orchestration class.
14:00 Wait for Agustín and Osvaldo (Mr. Cellist) to deliver the first advance of our
cello pieces. This is part of a scholarship program that Osvaldo applied for, he will
make the first performances of pieces by young composers (that’s us) and a follow up
tour. After a while they both arrive and we check the tunes adjusting some details.
18:30 Watch a biographical movie on Hitler. I had never before seen his rise to power
depicted in film before.
21:00 Dinner
21:30 Posting
Viernes 4 de Marzo 2005
7:00 Rise, a very bad headache with dizziness is the feature this morning so I go back to
bed.
8:30 Rise again, feeling better but still a bit dizzy, I shower and sit then breakfast and
depart to school.
10:00 Dictation class
11:00 Composing duties in the cafeteria
12:00 Piano class
13:00 Chamber music workshop, we began working on Blessed relief. It’s notable, just
saying the piece is by Zappa scares people off. Somehow it seems to be more relevant
that he wrote it than the fact the tune it’s actually very simple.
16:30 Read Walter Benjamin.
17:00 Deutsch class.
18:30 Back home, guitar practise.
21:00 Dad drives me to one of mom’s co-workers bithday party, lots of my classmates
are there.
0:00 Drive mom back home.
0:51 Posting, to bed.
Sábado 5 de Marzo 2005
7:00 Rise and open the door to the workers, then shower and extended sitting.
9:05 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC. José Luis is there, so it’s official now there’s
five of us in the circle. Cool!
9:10 The meeting begins, right hand callisthenics, first primary and thirds primary, this
was a first for José Luis but the rest of the team seemed to make a very good use of this
revision of the basic principles involved.
After this we work on “Zum”, circulating the middle part. Luis picks up the bass line
almost immediately and this allows me to play the middle line. The group sounds very
good in this one.
12:15 Break, we talk about the plans for the summer and plane ticket prices.
12:50 Back on, 007 theme and hit the floor in five. Again, this was a first for Luis but
the rest of the team needed it badly.
14:00 Complete and leave.
14:30 Back home, lunch with the parents.
19:00 Composing duties, finally got the line up for the chamber ensemble project I have
to write this semester: Violin, electric Bass, electric Guitar and two Pianos. Once I have
this it’s much easier to solve the musical situations. Knowing who’s going to play it and
what they’re going to play it on are two very clear points of certainty on which to stand.
21:00 Evening off.
Domingo 6 de Marzo 2005
[Hoy hace tres años terminé con Emilia, It hasn’t hurt for some time now. Feeling
fine…]
Day off
Lunes 7 de Marzo 2005
7:00 Rise and open the door for the workers, then back to bed, I’m about to get sick,
sore throat and a little bit of pain indicate this, better to rest.
8:00 Up again, sit and shower.
9:00 Talk with mom and the architect about some details in the house.
10:00 Interneting affairs

11:00 Arrive at Cris’ house. He’s an old friend of mine, we met in music school for
children where we both had our first piano and guitar lessons, this was in 1991. We then
continued studying guitar as teenagers with almost the same teachers and carried on
through high school after which He went to Berklee and we lost track of each other a
bit. A very good conversation and lots of catching up. This is the guy with whom I had
the first band ever, a Led Zep cover trio(!!!).
14:00 Visit the high school I went to, arranging a possible date for a performance of the
MexGC in April.
15:00 Back home, lunch with mom.
16:30 The architect arrives again and more talking about details in the house takes place
over a cup of tea.
22:00 Mom offers to assist me with the booking of more dates for the MexGC, It seems
April will be hot.
23:10 Posting and to bed, my throat is not getting better but at least it’s not worst so I
guess I’m holding ok.
6:45 Open the door for the workers
8:00 Rise
8:30 Sitting
9:00 Depart to school.
9:30 Harmony class
12:00 XX century art, science and philosophy class.
14:30 Back home, lunch and some interneting.
17:30 Arrive at Diego’s house for guitar lesson.
19:00 Arrive at school for a contemporary music ensemble rehearsal which doesn’t take
place, Agustín and I decide it’s best to change the day and time. We also go into a
classical guitar concert taking place in the school.
22:00 Interneting.
22:45 Posting.
Miércoles 9 de Marzo 2005
7:00 Open the door for the workers and collapse back to bed.
8:30 Rise, feeling a little better but still very sensitive to light and with pain in my
throat.
9:00 Sitting
10:00 Interneting. Chat with Alex, he tells me some very good news ref. possible
options for the MexGC to travel to Germany. We’ll keep an eye on that.
11:00 House maintenance stuff.
11:30 L4 AAD theme work
12:30 Homework
15:00 Lunch
16:00 More homework
17:30 Arrive at school for fugue class
20:30 Back home, homework.
22:00 Mom arrives with Gabriel, dinner.
23:00 More homework
0:00 Posting.
Jueves 10 de Marzo 2005
7:00 Open the door for workers.
8:00 Rise and shower
8:30 Sitting
9:00 Breakfast with mom and Gabriel
9:30 Leave to school.
10:00 Medieval music class.
12:30 Watch “Black angels” in the library w/ Agustín, Christian and Yohuallie. A video
of a performance by the Kronos quartet. What an amazing group, absolutely fearless.
15:00 Back home, lunch with mom and Gabriel.
16:00 Interneting
17:00 Arrive at Diego’s house for guitar lesson.
18:45 Back home.
19:00 Theme work.
21:00 Elena calls.
21:45 A friend calls.
22:15 Interneting
22:40 Posting
Viernes 11 de Marzo 2005
7:00 Open the door for the workers and back to bed.
8:00 Sitting
8:30 Shower
9:00 Breakfast
10:00 Dictation class
11:00 Re arranging piano class time slots.

12:30 Book a venue for the MexGC. This guy was extremely helpful, he talked to me
for 45 minutes about what is it I should do to lead a successful and profitable life as a
professional musician. After that the actual booking took 10 min.
13:00 Chamber music workshop. Blessed relief began to sound a little less scared, but
still eyebrows rise in disbelief at the F over B section.
14:00 Work with the drummer in the duo piece we have to play, another “lots of fun”
line up, I find.
17:30 Nap.
18:00 Interneting
18:45 Theme work
23:00 Dinner.
23:30 Posting
Sábado 12 de Marzo 2005
Extended sitting.
9:00 Arrive at the CMA for the MexGC meeting.
Alex and Luis won’t come, this provides the opportunity to work on some details with
Agustín and Elena (the bass of Askesis counts as a detail here). Good session, many
things clarified. I think it’s good to play without the full group from time to time, it
makes evident what is missing and makes it easier to listen to when it’s there.
14:00 We complete and go home.
14:30 Back home and out for lunch with dad. Japanese food.
Afternoon and evening off.
Domingo 13 de Marzo 2005
Day off
Lunes 14 de Marzo 2005

7:00 Open the door for the workers.
8:00 Rise and shower.
8:30 Sitting
9:00 Home work
11:00 Arrive at the CAD to settle the gig for the MexGC. Quick, friendly and clean.
11:40 Back home, more home work.
14:30 Lunch
15:30 Coffee and work on the poster for the MexGC “big” gig promotion.
20:30 Back home, home work some more.
21:00 Complete the poster and show it to the parents asking opinions, make some
changes and then printing tests.
23:20 Posting.
Rise, shower and sit.
9:30 Arrive at school, usual Tuesday.
15:00 Piano practise attempt is frustrated by the lack of an available piano.
17:00 Arrive at Diego’s house for guitar lesson, a good one.
19:00 Back home, interneting.
21:30 L4 AAD work.
23:00 Posting

Diario 7

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Diario 7

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Saturday April 3rd 2004

6:45 Up, mostly sunny with a few fast clouds.

8:00 Sitting, sending good wishes to the GC comunity.

Sábado 25 de Septiembre 2004

Miércoles 29 de Septiembre 2004

I arrived yesterday, very tired, not quite knowing where I was.

Today was better, settling in.

Inaugural meeting after dinner.

Arranging the dining room.

Jueves 30 de Septiembre 2004

Viernes 1 de Octubre 2004

11/8 (3+3+3+2) / 4/4 (2+3+3) / 7/8 (2+2+3) / 5/8 (2+3)

Sábado 2 de Octubre 2004

Hoy me quiero ir. Approaching the middle.

Sitting, consistently falling down.

Tai Chi, lunch.

Talk with Mariana in the garden.

16:30 Translate for Mariela in the A.T. class.

Personal practice and play with Luis C.

I want to run away, go home, find real respect.

Domingo 3 de Octubre 2004

Sitting. Alejandro tuvo una baja de presión y se desvaneció. Ahí me desperté,

Breakfast and on to washing tea towels with Christian.

9:15 Buddies meeting in Martin’s room.

Talk in the garden with Carolina.

Lunes 4 de Octubre 2004

Martes 5 de Octubre 2004

Breakfast prep with Ignacio G. and Christian. Shower, shave.

LCG rehearsal until 23:30

Diary. Dribbling. To bed.

Sábado 6 de Noviembre 2004

Domingo 7 de Noviembre 2004

0:05 Posting, soon to bed.

Lunes 8 de Noviembre 2004

Morning in the house arranging stuff.

14:15 Composing duties until lunch.

15:30 Lunch, leftovers.

16:30 Recording tapes for my car.

The lyrics of an elegy we analysed:

“In time of all sweet things beyond

21:30 Back home, dinner.

Interneting and computer fixing duties.

Martes 9 de Noviembre 2004

8:15 Depart to the CMA

8:35 Dictation class.

11:00 Go to electricity tax office to pay.

12:00 Back home, cleaning and arranging a desk/wardrobe.

13:00 AAD practice.

14:40 Lunch alone.

17:00 Late departure for guitar lesson.

20:30 Guitar playing.

Miércoles 10 de Noviembre 2004

A morning of stuff and computerizing.

11:30 AAD theme work followed by guitar practice.

21:00 Back home, dinner with the parents.

Jueves 11 de Noviembre 2004

Morning at home, stuff and bread making.

15:30 Back home, lunch.

16:30 Interneting stuff.

17:30 AAD practice, break and other guitar practice.

21:00 Dinner with the parents.

Viernes 12 de Noviembre 2004

22:00 Back home dinner with the parents.