rose marshack : whyamistillawake.com

I’ll just get on with it, without the “oh, gosh, it’s been so long, etc.”

Sometime last semester, some kind folks at ISU (Illinois State University) began to email me and alert me to the fact that there was a faculty position open there, in the Music School; Music Business Teacher / New Media Instructor. I said, gosh, no thanks, I’m very entrenched in the workings of Krannert Art Museum (KAM). I was still waiting for the search for my position at KAM to come through. It took SO long.

Then someone else emailed me about the ISU position. Then another person. Then I finally thought to myself, well, I probably could use some practice interviewing, so I don’t blow the one prospect (my current position) that I have. So I applied. And did a terrible phone interview.

Then I had my interview at UIUC, which I was supposed to ace. I left it feeling not too great, either. The position is re-titled, “Art, Design, and Technology Curator.” Which I am not.

Then ISU asked me back, for the in-person interview, and asked me to prepare a presentation about my own art, and also, a second semester Music Business syllabus. I was about to thank them for their consideration but there’s no way I was going to let this get any further, when I found my feet moving underneath me and my body propelled to the Music Library here at UIUC. I couldn’t stop myself. OK: check this: on my way out of the museum, I ran into Richard Powers, who was sitting, waiting for some sort of special poetry reading by some guy that only fancy-dancy people like he were invited to, and he motioned me to come sit down next to him, and I said, “No Thanks, I am going to find a music book at the library.”

That should have told me everything, and it did. I gave up getting to sit next to Rick Powers, my all-time hero, just to run to the library to find music books.

So I began creating my presentation about my art, and about the music business, and it was a presentation about everything that I am, everything I believe in, my musical background: my 20 years of playing music and being a part of the music business - my having read music before text - it was all being wasted. All that knowledge and all the passion that I have ever had on the stage, I have had sitting in a drawer somewhere where I had to hide it because who the hell cares about my music at the museum? It’s not part of my art.

And now it is. I presented in front of a class. I showed them the Chopin Etude that stumps me. I told them about payola. I told them about my Tickets To The Sunset art piece, my thesis project about selling tickets to the sunset on Ticketmaster. (If that is not Art and The Music Business, I do not know what is.) I told them about my dad selling fakebooks in the 1940s with his dad. I told them how I’m the first generation of Marshacks who made a living playing music. I told them everything I believed and everything I loved.

And they offered me a position, in the Music School. Can you believe it? It is probably the coolest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life. And the faculty there are so nice, so sweet, so supportive of each other. I’ve never been at a place like that! My friend who is experienced in these matters said to me, “Rose, I have heard of places like that, where people are nice to each other and support each other. I think that might be one of those places.”

I was sitting in my favorite place in Sarasota, Florida, actually, when all this happened; I had interviewed for both jobs and then went away to a family vacation in Florida, sitting amidst beautiful palm trees in the sun and beach, waiting for my answers.

My current / former job at UIUC also offered me a position, first, actually, but they had also found a wonderful replacement for me. So they created two positions, one for this other guy, and one for me, which was flattering in a way, but the ISU position is a faculty position. I get to TEACH. I GET TO TEACH.

So I’m unbelievably excited about all this, and I will begin to write more now. I just didn’t know how to even start this, and it’s been weird anticipating meeting my new replacement, but he’s totally cool and we have very similar thoughts about computing and art, which is really awesome. I actually love hanging out with him; he seemed nervous the first day but I tried to make sure he was happy and not scared. I hope he loves UIUC as much as I did. It’s going to be a fun place for him, I think. He’s really a great guy. I still get sad a bit hanging out with him sometimes, but now more because I won’t get to hang out more with what I’ve been trying to build for the past year or two.

So, quickly, new developments for the band? We have a show in Millenium Park in August (12th) and a possible other show in Chicago at a really exciting location, if it happens. I’ll confirm when it is confirmed.

I have been running on a treadmill and doing other such things at a gym and they are killing my body. It’s a bit thinner, but it hurts and I cannot kick as high as I would like now. I finally went back to Tae Kwon Do and didn’t get too much yelled at, so that’s good. Working out at the gym was amazing because there was no one standing over me yelling at me that my arm was in the wrong place. That was kind of cool.

And I’m knitting with Hemp-6 now, which was slightly forced upon me, but I actually really like it now. It’s a bit rough to knit with, and I’m making a tank-top with it which is going to be a very rough tank-top, but whatever, it’s a really nice green color. We’ll see.

Wow, is that everything? And I’m getting to have a teaching from HH Dalai Lama in Bloomington IN in October. And that should be pretty fun.

That’s all for now.

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