You may have noticed that I (Ren) have not been posting comics recently. That is for two reasons.
One: I spent the last week-or-so in California. (The next time I go I am *totally* arranging for a lesson with Patty.)
Two: Moy is going to take the summer to try to catch up to my 100-comic lead on her. This appeals to me because I get the summer off to work (my wonderful work-ation), and I will hopefully have lots of sparkling ideas come September! This is a Good Thing, guys. It means you will not have comics like this one going on.

I hope you approve. This is also a Good Thing because it means Moy will have uninterrupted time to tie up some of her previous storylines. And create new ones!
The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s new season is up on their website, and I am pretty psyched for the Signature Series although odds are I will go to most of the concerts–I have to take advantage of my $50 season pass! (FIFTY DOLLARS for almost ALL the concerts. Dude. It’s insane. I love it. LOVE.)

Anyway. The next big and exciting thing on the agenda is the Alex Klein masterclass/fest/con deal! I am going to make Moy bring her camera and take many, many pictures of the goings on!
Hopefully I won’t screw up too badly when I play for him. And hey, maybe I won’t play on a super-sharp reed. Yes. Plan.

Ren out.

The Site is back up now! The Box story will resume Monday.

I give you Bob! The rest will show in the morning. Enjoy!

Today is jury day. Today is not the day for happiness and birdsong. Today is not the day for garbage bags and serenity.
Today is the day for complete and utter panic.
Eep.

EEP.

Guys! Here is our recreation of the Oboe Band poster, after the concert last week.

And here, because they are our good friends and allies (and also kind of badass) is the bassoon studio.

Next year: double reed ensembles! Woo! We shall be unstoppable.

Also: as of yesterday I am officially a Composition student. Success!

The WLU Oboe Studio is putting on a concert of double reed trios and quartets–including the Beethoven Trio, which is incredibly gorgeous, and a bunch of Baroque dances which are just fun. And idiot-proof (or so we hope).
There is very little more cool than the sound of double reeds playing together; with no other instruments, our tuning capabilities increase exponentially. And it’s such a pretty timbre!

My composition portfolio is being handed in on Monday. Eep. I hope I get in.

I Google things relating to oboes and oboe humour periodically, and recently stumbled across The Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra.

The oboe is the sensualist of the woodwind section, and if there is one wind Lutherans should avoid, it’s probably this one. In movie soundtracks, you tend to hear the oboe when the woman is taking her clothes off. Also a little later when she asks the man for a cigarette. You start playing the oboe, you’re going to have babies, take my word for it. The English horn sounds Christian, maybe because we think of it as the Anglican horn, but it’s so mournful, so plaintive. And so are English horn players. They all have deep complicated problems. They’re all down in the dumps, especially at night, which is when most concerts are. Maybe because they want what oboists have, I don’t know.

We all knew oboes are the sexiest instrument ever. And the English Horn is plaintive! Whoa! Who knew?
But what do they have to say about the bassoon?

Should a Lutheran play the bassoon? Not if you want to be taken seriously, I don’t think so. The name kind of says it all: bassoon. It’s an instrument that isn’t playing with a full deck of marbles. Maybe it’s something you’d do for a hobby (”Hey honey, let’s go bassooning this weekend!”), but not as your life’s work. Some bassoonists filling out applications for home loans just say “orthodontist.”

For about an hour on Saturday, the site will be taken off line for maintenance. What maintenance you ask? well, my neighbors annually delight in erecting a massive ice rink right beside my parent’s house (Canadian eh?). Since this house is rather old, (late 30’s, early 40’s) the basement has a tendency to leak. as the current server is sitting on the ground, this poses a slight water problem. Recently at a local technical flea market, I picked up a rack mount case for an ancient 486 server. My father has been converting this case for the purpose of relocating the server among his racks of test gear (which the server currently sits under.) and we plan to move the PC on the weekend. I plan on hosting my own interblag shortly, and I will provide pictures of this epic event. my only regret is that I’ll have to reboot the server, which to date has had an impressive uptime of 177 days 20 hours 11 minutes

-Peter Melse

Found here.

ALSO How to Make a Bassoon for the pleasure of my friendly bassoony readers.

So the little button at the top of the comics was starting to anger me–oh, and the fact that it showed up at the top of *every* page–be it blog, comic, or archive. Maaaaaan.

So I took it away! Mwaha!

If you still feel like lovely people, and are, say, bored in class, there is a list of comics that need transcriptions here. I’ll put that link somewhere in the sidebar, too, I think. Eventually. When I get around to it.

ALSO, Bunny is awesomepants.

EDIT EDIT EDIT!
I figured it out. Now the ‘transcribe a comic’ button is at the *bottom* of each comic, does not interfere with the text at the top, and will take you wherever you need to go.
Neat.

Yeah, I can’t update today. School is kinda getting to me, plus snow. So, I’ll update on Sunday to makeup for today.