Thankful Thursday

If you have any interest at all in instrumental classical music, this album needs to be in your rotation. Photo from Amazon

Warren Zevon recorded The Wind while in the process of dying. The music is understandably contemplative and melancholy, and still uplifting. Photo from Amazon

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing

Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty

What would life be?

— Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus

I was really busy earlier this week, so instead of Grateful Monday, here is Thankful Thursday.

I was listening to a Hidden Brain podcast on how we change our beliefs Tuesday. In it a woman was on her way to an appointment where she would be diagnosed with ALS. She was listening to Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” which is from an album he recorded while dying. It got me thinking about how we build soundtracks for our lives.

Music is a universal language. Many of us like songs in languages we don’t speak. Sarah Chang’s performance of Chopin’s “Nocturne #20” proved (to me, anyway) that a performance doesn’t have to have words to bring us to tears. Then there’s the whole genre of rock, where you’re hard pressed to understand the words, even with a libretto.

Unfortunately, most of us are not open to new forms of musical expression after our mid-twenties.

Even so, I’m grateful for music.

• For the opportunities it gave me to travel and grow and get over stage fright
• For the learning opportunities of life on the road
• For the ways it brings people together
• For its ability to communicate complex ideas and build empathy or movements

Music This Weekend

I don’t have a picture of Rebecca’s recital, but here she is conducting our choir a couple of weeks ago. We are so blessed to have her.Photo by John Phelps

There was a lot of music this weekend, starting with a rehearsal on Saturday morning at the church. Jan, Jo, and I ran through a rather drab piece called “Bittersweet.” J&J are big fans of playing what is written, and swing doesn’t really swing that way. Well, I wouldn’t really call “Bittersweet” swing. It’t more like someone who has never had the blues trying to transcribe a blues piece.

We performed this piece Sunday morning. Nobody died, but it was not my proudest moment as a musician. Luckily, we have a very kind congregation, and many of them were congratulatory. Jan was honest when she said that it had a few “rough spots.”

That afternoon the choir director gave a piano recital. She opened with “French Suite #2” by JS Bach, then moved on to Beethoven. She concluded with a Chopin piano concerto. (I lost the program, so these are mostly guesses based on a failing memory.) Rebbecca played really well and raised a little money for the Bill Sauber Memorial Fund, which supports music infrastructure at the church.

Finally, I went to jam with the new rock band I’m kinda playing with. It was our first practice with a new guitarist after the guy who asked me to join left. The singer was out of town, so the new guitarist and I faked our way through the songs we do. And I have to say we rocked. It was a great time, and I think will shape my mood for the week. I love playing loud and strong music with a deep pocket.

Although I wasn’t that into it at the time, I have come to think of Jailbreak as one of the best rock albums ever. Just driving, good-time music that’s as fun to play as it is to listen to.Photo source: Rock God Cred

If you can play rock music and stand still, you ain’t doing it right. If you do it right, it’s a fun way to get a decent cardiovascular workout.

So that’s what I’m grateful for this week: music, especially rock music. Give me a deep, throbbing bass line and a wall of sound. Give me a good drummer and a strong beat. That makes me too happy to stand still! Like the song says:

Roll me over and turn me around.

Let me keep spinnin’ ’till I hit the ground.

—Phil Lynott & Brian Downey

Food for Thought #12: 100 Days

Barack Obama:
Not on His 100^th Day in Office

Photo source: Macrobuddies

Sorry I haven’t posted for awhile and fallen down on my weekly Food for Thought obligations. I’ve been on deadline at work. Something about writing for 10-12 hours a day greatly reduces the inclination to blog.

So in my absences, I missed commenting on the great press hoopla over Barack Obama’s 100^th day in office. Not being one to pay that much attention to time except when someone makes me, today’s FFT celebrates that occassion a little late. It derives from a question Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times now famously asked the President.

Appetizer: During the last 100 days, what most surprised you?

How well the church choir pulled of Franz Schubert’s Mass in G. Even the morning of the performance, we sounded flat (dynamics, not pitch). But when we sang for real, there was some kind of magic transformation. We sounded bigger and better than we actually are.

Soup: What most befuddled you?

I don’t know for sure, but I sure seem to have been fuddled. My brain seemed clouded most of the time, as if it were operating at 75% efficiency or something. Lack of sleep contributed, but I’m sure that wasn’t the whole problem.

Salad: What most uplifted you?

Seeing how happy TrackGrease and his beloved looked in pictures of their wedding.

Entré: What most troubled you?

The crisis mentality that sprung up around my project as the deadline neared. Really, the project made things easier. Was the crisis just so that we could solve it?

Dessert: What most enchanted you?

All the pictures of puppies that Suna keeps showing me.

Bruuuuuuuuce!

We went to see Rambo last night!

Photo source: Online Tickets USA

We went to see the Springsteen show last night courtesy of good friends. The show distracted the geek in me. There were around 11 people on stage, most of them with an instrument and all of them with at least one mic—and not a cord to be seen.

When I look at wireless mics, they have an A/B switch—two channels to choose from. Springsteen can obviously afford better equipment, but I didn’t even know that you could have 22+ wireless devices on the same stage. That lead us to joke at work that they were using 802.11BRUCE technology.

Another thing that distracted me during the show was the sheer number of support staff: dozens of roadies, a hand full of guitar technicians, engineers, camera techs, and so on. Then there were literally tons of speakers, hundreds of amps, stage-mounted TV cameras, handy cams, floor cams, at least three boards…. Based on the ticket price and the number of people, the gate had to run between $300-600 thousand. And I couldn’t help but wonder if the boss broke even on the show.

So this week I am grateful for good friends who are willing to share the music.

Oh! And I like Duffy, too.

Still More Music

I didn't get any pictures of the kids at church, so I'm recycling a picture from the Triskelion gig last month

Sunday was the annual youth service at church. It was all positive, focusing on service at all levels but starting with random acts of kindness. There were fewer partially thought-through ideas than last year, but the best part was the music. A cover of imagine made Suna get all weepy. There were a few other really good songs, too.

So this week am again grateful for music and for the passing of the torch. I find that music is in good hands with this next generation. I just wish I knew how to mentor them better. But to do that, I would have had to have accomplished something with my music. Maybe it’s not too late for that. Probably, but maybe not.

JT and the Quartertones

Suna dances and says, “Let’s go listen to some music!” in her new nearly-completed sweater.

Tonight is the midpoint between Suna’s birthday and mine. To celebrate, we went to see Jeff’s new band play at cafe segovia. I guess they spell it in all lower case in a misguided attempt to be trendy.

To me there is nothing trendy about good food, and the food there is superlative. It is Spanish rather than Mexican or TexMex. Suna and Parker had a beef stew seasoned with a hint of cinnamon. I had a suckling pig that was cooked to succulent moistness if a little under seasoned. I guess the chef wanted to let the natural flavor of the little piggy carry the day, and it was almost up to the task. Beccano had a rib eye, which he consumed in it’s entirety.

But the culinary star of the evening was the vegetables. They were fresh and crisp. They were also seasoned to perfection. I have never eaten veggies before that I preferred to a tasty entré. Mmmmmmmmm.

I said culinary star because Suna chose the restaurant because of the entertainment. Jeff’s new band had their debut performance. I’ve heard Jeff play around the house, so I knew he is a hot picker. I’ve heard him at a couple of singer songwriter gigs, including our wedding, so I knew he could fulfill both halves of that category. But this was the first time I’ve heard him rock.

The band did a mix of classic covers and originals. My favorite of the first set was a long medley based on “Pretty Woman.&rquo; Parker on Beccano both enjoyed “Sultans of Swing.” And I liked the originals, too.

We didn’t get to stay for the second set because we had to get the kids home. That was disappointing, but it was also a good excuse to drag this tired old butt to bed.

Go see JT and the Quartertones play at a venue near you if you get the chance.

Sunset and Concert

Beccano enjoys an awesome sunset.

Tonight, Beccano pointed out the most awesome sunset, but I didn’t get the camera out in time to get the best pictures. The three of us walked around outside appreciating nature at her prettiest. Beccano danced in the street—literally.

Then we went to Junior’s in downtown Round Rock to hear a band that features Parker’s dad’s guitar teacher. They did a short set outdoors in the cold. I wish I had found out their name. Sigh.

I really enjoyed the R&B stuff they did, once they turned down the vocalist’s mic enough that he hardly clipped at all. He had a good voice when the PA wasn’t cutting out.

The guitar player was very good at his style, but the cold interfered with his playing a bit. He was really good at making his mistakes look and sound intentional.

The bass player was rock solid and had a good sound. He played a Schecter 5-string that played really nice. The neck was not humongous as the Fender’s I’ve played. And the body was very light.

But my favorite was the keyboard player. She was awesome—clean, fast, and funky. I wish I knew enough about playing keys to describe it better.

Weekend Update—Not SNL

Buddy and Rose often have head-on collisions at the doggy door.

I got to work in the garden a bit this weekend. I also had some time to myself. I tremendously enjoyed both.

Then yesterday, I played in the Dixieland-ish band at church, and the people seemed to genuinely enjoy it. We stayed late for a Music Committee meeting, which I think went really well.

Last night, I put together a cheap stand so the bird can move up to the media room and rejoin the family. I’ve missed that bird since we started using our portables in the media room so I could transform the old office into a music room. (That hasn't even really got started yet, but it will.)

As I was walking around campus today, I saw a fat pigeon go after a bug only to get picked off by a hawk. I wondered if the insect were aware of the pigeon’s fate, would it see the incident as divine intervention or a lucky coincidence.

So that is what I am grateful for this week: life in all its permutations, varieties, and plot twists.

Life is what we make it. Let’s choose to make it good.

25 Most Influential Albums

My friend Austin tagged me in this Facebook meme. (For those of you reading in Facebook, click View Original Post to see the blog entry.)

The rules for the meme are:

• Think of 25 albums—which breaks my 10-item limit—that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it.

They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.

• When you finish, tag 25 others, including me.

So here’s my list in alphabetical order by artist:

• Bach, Six Brandenburg Concertos

This was my introduction to classical music. It was laying around the band hall, and we played it sometimes in the mornings. My favorite was #5, but I like them all. If not for this album, I would never have bought both of Wendy Carlos’s Switched on Bach releases.

• Beatles, Hey, Jude

Hey, Jude was the next Beatles album I bought. I thought it was a real album at the time. Only later did I learn that it was pieced together out of “leftover” tracks from the British release. There were usually 12 or more songs on the British LPs but only 10 on the US releases of the same albums. Bean counters!

• Beatles, Abbey Road

What can I say? Anyone who wasn’t inspired by Abbey Road didn’t listen to music.

• George Benson, Breezin’

I loved the way GB sang his guitar solos. I later played in a band with a guy who played just as well as Benson and claimed to have arranged the Bobby Womac title track when he was Etta James’s music director.

• Guy Clark, Old No. 1


Guy Clark’s first album was completely different than anything I had ever heard, which is strange considering the appropriateness of its name. Many of the songs had already been taken to the top of the country charts by other artists. Clark is an excellent guitarist, but he is a superlative poet first. And Emmylou Harris, a good friend of Guy and his wife Suzanna, sings harmony.

• Dire Straits, Communiqué

While ’Sultans of Swing’ caught my ear, I didn’t buy the first album until much later. Instead, I started with the second one—the one that was so successful I’ve had to pull out my copy to prove it even exists—and fell in love with the band. Every track is good, but the most memorable is ‘Les Boys,”a cute little ditty about an S&M caberet.

• Dire Straits, Love over Gold

“Two men say they’re Jesus; one of them must be wrong…How come Jesus gets Industrial Disease?” And let’s not forget “Telegraph Road.” Brothers in Arms was something of a let down after this, great as it was.

• Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

This was actually the second ELP album I bought, starting my tradition of buying the first album second. My most vivid memory of this album is listening to it while watching Halloween on HBO with the sound off. ELP was a better match to the timing and mood of the movie than the original soundtrack. But then, I never did like John Carpenter’s music. I always thought he was just to cheap to hire a real composer.


• Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery

Complete with a cover by H.R. Giger, this was the most awe-inspiring music I had ever heard. My first ELP album and my first concert. I remember cupping my hands over my friend’s left ear and screaming at the top of my lungs, ’This really doesn’t sound that loud!”—only to have him turn to me and move his lips in a pattern that looked like, “Wha?” There was a little tempo instability in the live performance, but the album was perfect.

• Fanny, Fanny Hill

Fanny was the most underrated band in rock. I have two of their albums, but this is my favorite. To my knowledge, they were the first all-female hard rock band.

• Merl Haggard, Greatest Hits

I was making a living playing country music, and I realized most of the songs I really liked were written by Merl. So I picked up this album and played it to death. Like the song says, “I’ll fix your flat tire, Merl.”

• Emmylou Harris, Pieces of the Sky

“And I would walk all the way from Bolder to Birmingham if I thought I could see, I could see your face.” Emmylou has always downplayed her own songwriting, but the songs that moved me the most were her own. Anyone can cover a Beatles tune. I remember playing this album over and over.


• Emmylou Harris, Evangeline

Evangeline is one of my favorite Emmylou albums. I thought it was the most startlingly original work she had done since Pieces of the Sky. It even had hints of the future Trio albums with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt singing harmony on “Mr. Sandman.” Her cover of James Taylor’s “Millwork” made me cry the first time I heard it. Imagine how shocked I was to learn that it was pieced together from the outtakes of several other albums.

• Kris Kristofferson, Jesus Was a Capricorn

Kristofferson is my favorite American songwriter—slightly ahead of Jimmy Webb—and he’s on Colbert tonight. This was the first of his albums I bought, and soon bought everything else he had released. I loved the gravel of his voice, which seemed to mirror the acidity of his lyrics. He lost something when he took voice lessons and tried to sing. He should have left pitch to Rita Coolidge.

• Kris Kristofferson, Border Lord

It was really hard to choose between Border Lord and Spooky Lady’s Sideshow. And while I dearly love both, I listed the earlier work here because of a gaff I made. Without presceening, I played “Rescue Mission” on the radio the day I bought the album. I’ll never forget hearing, “‘And here’s to my old friend,’ he said and kiss his ass goodbye.” Then came, “The captain’s wife was aging, and the first mate heard her scream when Tommy slipped tobasco in the captain’s Vaseline.”

• Lobo, Introducing Lobo

My introduction to soft rock. I learned to play every song on it, but I doubt I could remember a single one today. Well, maybe “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo.” Let’s not find out.

• Linda Ronstadt, Heart Like a Wheel

I fell in love with Linda Ronsadt when I heard her sing “Long, Long Time” on The Tonight Show in her bare feet. Hear Like a Wheel was the first time I knew who she was. What a wonderful album.

• Linda Ronstadt, Prisoner in Disguise

With two songs by John David Souther, this is one of the best albums of all time.

• Steeleye Span, Below the Salt

I bought this album because a good review by Bob Claypool. It became one of my favorites. Who else could have a top10 hit (in Brittain, not here) with “Gaudete.”


• Steeleye Span, Parcel of Rogues

This one ranks up there with Prisoner in Disguise. The title track is done very darkly, seven voices and a bass drum, until the instruments kick in to end it. Not a bad song on it, but my favorite has to be “Cam Ye O’re Frae Fance.”

• Al Stewart, Past, Present, and Future

I heard this album on one of those radio shows where they played the whole album, but missed the artist and title. It blew me away. Two years later, I walked in on one of my friends listening to it. I bought it the next day. It has never “left me here with the Post World War II Blues.”

• Al Stewart, Year of the Cat

Not his best album, but definitely his most successful. My favorites from this one: “If It Doesn’t Come Naturally,” “On the Border,” and “Flying Sorcery.”

• Rick Wakeman, Journey to the Center of the Earth

This tremendous album set the stage for Wakeman’s career writing the music for soft porn movies like China Blue. Davi almost ruined this on for me, tho. To this day, I can’t hear that large choir sing, “Praise God,” without hearing “Frisbee!”


• Who, Odds and Sodds

“’Cause I’m a farmer…”

• Triumvirat, Spartacus

Triumvirat is a German ELP knock-0ff, but Spartacus was an awesome album nonetheless.

And More Music

Triskelion. More pictures on Facebook.

Suna and I went to see Beccano’s band play in public for the first time tonight. Triskelion played an open mic at Nuno’s Bar and Grill (north).

We arrived with the band a little before 19:00. The kids had told us they would play a sometime between 19:00 and 20:00, but the guy who ran the show said his band played the first set, which started at 21:00. He promised to get Triskelion on next so we could get the kids home for school.

We settled down to wait with the other parents and Jeff. While we waited, we nibbled on bar food—jalepeño poppers (be careful how you type that), Buffalo wings, and so on. We talked about nothing and told old jokes. You know, the stuff you do when you’re bored and can’t do anything about it.

Finally, starting time rolled around. The first band took the stage. They we really good—two guitars, bass, three-part harmonies, tight, tight, tight. They kept looking over at the kids and cracking jokes like “This is what it’s like to be our age and still trying to do this for a living.” They even played two covers of ELP songs: “From the Beginning” and “Lucky Man.”

The it was the kid’s turn. They learned how to adjust to the room on a medley of “Johnny B. Goode” and “Revolution”—or as Parker described it, “two songs we kinda smooshed together.” Beccano did a great job on the bass solo for “My Generation,” and they finished strong with a Hendrix-like cover of “Hey Joe.”

The crowd, mostly older musicians there to jam, was really supportive of the kids. The guy running the show talked them off the stage by saying, “You really need to give it up for these guys again. This is the next generation of doing what we do.” Suna said he invited them back anytime they want to play.

Combined with yesterday, my life seems filled with music. So that is what I am grateful for this week: an abundance of music and nice people.

A Day for Music…

What I really wanted to do at this point was stop singing and listen to Bowman play, but I soldiered on with a smile. Photo by Jon Montgomery

Here we are at the Artz benefit enjoying some music we could hardly hear. Photo by Jon Montgomery (He was here, too.)

… and music of all kinds. We started this Sunday morning in church singing “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine” to balance a rash of more traditional hymns. The choir director’s ubermusical son joined us on stage.

It was strange having someone else play bass, especially since he played so much better than I do. (But then I think he is majoring in performance—maybe composition—and will probably go on to grad school.) There were times I just wanted to listen to him play rather than concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing.

He played a Peavy bass that came with the frets filed down so that it occasionally gives that fretless moan but has the pitch stability of a fretted bass. I’d like to look into that for some of my own tunes.

The choir director played a really nice piece by Sate, which apparently sounds a lot like sauté, for the postlude. The piece was very lovely in its misleading simplicity. That is, it sounded simple but wasn’t.

Afterward we practiced with a Dixieland-ish—I can’t call it a Dixieland band because we have sheet music and we all mostly play what is written—band. We will perform in church and at a religious education dinner over the next couple of weeks—but I’m not sure in which order.

Later we went to a benefit to save Artz Rib House, a South Austin landmark that has fallen on hard times recently. We took Beccano’s band, Triskelion. We arrived in time to stand in a really long line and listen to Art’s band while we waited.

After Art, we listened to a local jazz duet featuring trumpet and piano. Suna got to hear her heartthrob Slaid Cleaves do a set that ended with a yodel. We left during a set by a really hot, young local fiddler. I had had about as much fun as I could handle in a day, and the kids were looking bored.

Food for Thought #3

This chicken and broccoli casserole is called Chicken Divine. It looks divine, and I think I’ll try it some time.

Photo source: recipetips.com

Appetizer:What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Honestly, I haven’t had a song get stuck in my head that I didn’t consciously put there in a while, so I’m having trouble answering my own stupid question. (Why did I pick this one when I wrote these a couple of weeks ago?) I’m going to go with Kris Kristofferson’s “ Who’s to Bless and Who’s to Blame?” It’s the last one I picked up a guitar and started singing for no apparent reason.

Soup:What does that song make you think of?

I think it’s about a man wrestling with belief versus disbelief, something I do constantly. If there is a God, why does the world suck? Or how much worse would it be without one? I want to play this song together with Greg Lake’s “ Closer to Believing.” If I can find or write a couple more, I’ll have a spiritual journey in music.

Salad:What is your favorite song in a language other than your native tongue?

That would be “ Lo Siento Mi Vida” by Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Edwards, and Gilbert Ronstadt. It was the first song I ever heard Linda sing in Spanish, and I keep it close to my heart after all these years.

Entré:If video killed the radio star, will the Internet kill Literature?

I believe it will certainly change the predominate forms of literature. Shorter forms will previal: poetry and short shorts. Short stories and novels may become rarities.

Another thing is that the predomince of video on the Internet seems to be part of a change in brain wiring. We seem to be shifting back to a more visual, less linear form of thought. For more on this, see The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The conflict between word and image.

Dessert:What was the last thing you read for the pleasure of reading?

I’m currently reading a compilation called Vampires, Wine, and Roses: Chilling tales of immortal pleasure, among other things. I thought it would be cheesy, but it’s turning out to have some really thoughtful selections. Who realized that Shakespeareused the language of vampirism to make the separation of Romeo and Juliet more poignant? I certainly didn’t recognize it until JR Stephenspointed it out.

Songs of the Heart

I think this was a high C note. I love hearing Suna sing.

Photo by Beccano

I went back to church yesterday after having missed a couple of weeks with the creeping crud.

My voice still isn’t under control, so I didn’t sing along with the hymns as I usually would. My throat wakes up in a different place emery day. That makes finding the initial pitch very difficult. And since I have relative—some would say questionable—pitch, I have to find that first pitch to make sense of the melody or whichever part I sing.

But yesterday, my voice was almost back to normal—just a little wobbly. In Microsoft terms, trying to hit a note could yield unpredictable results.

I found myself standing between two really good singers, namely Suna and Saranda. Suna sings alto and Saranda, soprano. When we got to the third hymn, they each knew their respective parts perfectly. Add to that a decent arrangement of this tune, and I was transfixed.

I stood between them and listened to the interplay of their voices rendering the parts. It was so pretty that I forgot to try to sing until the last verse rolled around. While I didn’t do the tenor partjustice, I really enjoyed the parts that worked.

Suna wants to get a studio set up in the old office. I’m looking forward to doing so. One of the first projects I want to try is recording some of these simple hymns, with Suna and Saranda doing the leads.

That’s I’m what I am most grateful for this week: being surrounded bysuch lovely voices.

Super Bowl XLIII

Harrison is the latest football player to discredit the team for which he plays. Totally lacking in honor or sportsmanship, he is a disgrace to the game. Photo source: PSAMP

Suna and I just got back from a Super Bowl XLIII party at our friend Austin’s house. This was an exciting game—well, at least for the last quarter.

Arizona did a wonderful job of almost winning the game. They lost by only one point after both teams staged remarkable drives to take the lead. I’m surprised at how close the game was considering that the refs all appeared to be wearing Terrible Towels, and they had no problem throwing them if Arizona could be implied as a rule violation.

At the same time, James Harrison (#92) was penalized a half foot for assault and battery. He had one of the Arizona players down on all fours and proceeded to punch him in the back. When the Arizona player tried to extricate himself from this position, Harrison picked him up, threw him over backwards, and proceeded to punch him in the face. This assault had more than one person at the party calling for Harrison’s ejection from the game.

One Steelers fan even commented that Harrison shouldn’t be ejected; he should be arrested. Indeed, it wouldn’t have been Harrison’s first arrest for assault.

Seriously, this one should earn Harrison the Michael Vic Sportsmanship Award.

But, according to Suna, the high point of the game was Bruce Springsteen’s halftime performance. I thought the best part was Springsteen executing his trademarked knee slide into a stage-mounted camera. The look on his face as he extracted the camera from his crotch was hilarious.

Friday’s Feast Remembered and Honored

There used to be a blog called Friday’s Feast. Each Friday, it asked five questions and asked its readers to answer them. The questions were presented as a menu, and five questions was just about right—enough to be interesting, not enough to tire the reader.

Many chose to answer in the comments section of the blog, but I always posted my responses in my own blog. Friday’s Feast was so successful that it left Blogger and went out on its own. After awhile, it stopped appearing. Finally, the new URL stopped working. Friday’s Feast was no more.

Well, I always enjoyed answering the questions and reading the answers my friends posted in their blogs. So I’m going to try on the mantle of Inquisitor, breaking out the dreaded Comfy Chair and Soft Cushion.

I’m calling this new initiative, “Food for Thought.” Each post will contain five questions presented as a menu, as did Friday’s Feast. Just below the questions, I will answer as honestly as I can. I don’t think it’s fair to ask questions you wouldn’t yourself. The first comment will contain the code for the questions so that you can post them in your blog.

If you want to answer in the comments, feel free. If you want to answer in your own blog, please post a link to it in the comments.

Food for Thought

Without further ado, here is the first menu:

Appetizer: Who is the person physically nearest you right now? What is that person doing?

Suna is sitting on the other side of the bed and knitting as I type. She is waiting for a phone call. (I am typing this blog ahead of time.)

Soup: Hit Shuffle on your mp3 player. What do you like most about the song came up? (If you don’t have an mp3 player, use the song currently on your favorite radio station.)

The song that came up is “Body Is a Car” by Four Bitchin’ Babes. They are one of the most innovative groups of the last decade. Four singer-songwriters who sing well together, their music is both musically interesting and lyrically funny. Although at times, as in this song, they show a deeper nature. “My body is a car driving my soul around.” The song then pushes the metaphor to in several directions. That said, it is not my favorite Bitchin’ song.

Salad: What is your favorite restaurant?

I guess it wouldn’t surprise any of my faithful reader if I said, ”Mesa Rosa.” But I think eating there is helping me put back on some of the weight I fought so hard to get rid of.

Entré: What are you most looking forward to in the Obama administration? What do you most fear? (Even Republicans has something to hope for, and even Democrats have something that they fear.)

I am most looking forward to have a leader with moral integrity instead of situational ethics. I am so tired of the “torture is wrong when they do it to us but OK when we do it to them” mentality.

What I am most fearful of is that some bigot with a telescopic sight will bring this presidency to an early end. I’m not sure the country could survive that.

Dessert: What made you laugh hardest in the last 24 hours?

My head has been too stopped up to do much laughing over the last few days. I do remember laughing really hard at something on the Daily Show last night. Unfortunately, I the Nyquil keeps me from remembering what it was.

Regional Band Concert

The pictures I took all came out a bit dark, but you can see them on Facebook.

I knew a month or more ago that TubaBoy had made Regional Band. That’s quite an accomplishment, and he deserves it. He is quite a talented tuber…er, tuba-er…tuba-ist? He is very talented even though he never practices at home.

I found out yesterday that the Regional Band concert was today in Georgetown. Suna, Beccano, and I piled into the truck to trek to the town of Georges.

It turns out that TubaBoy made Regional Symphonic Band. The Regional Concert Band opened the show and had a much more accessible program, including one piece that caused us to buy the CD they were recording.

The Symphonic Band played some very modern music, one piece of which included dodecaphony—a musical technique that uses all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. I didn’t know they were supposed to play all 12 notes at the same time. It was rather painful. On the up side, they closed with several pieces by Leonard Bernstein. As the musical heir to one of my favorite composers, Aaron Copeland, this part of the show was most enjoyable.

Winter Concert

Last night, the holiday season began with the McNeil High School Band’s winter concert. Suna went a little early with TubaBoy so that she could catch the last bit of the orchestra’s concert. I took the extra half hour after I got home from work to unwind so that I could enjoy the band.

McNeil Varsity Band

The Varsity Band played two numbers. They sounded really good this year—much better than last year. I’m not sure if that is because the music selection was better suited or because of the number of ringers playing with them. (The guy on mallets for the first number will soon turn 50. That’s younger than Suna and I but a tad oldish for a high school band.) Or maybe they just worked harder this year.

Concert Band

Next came the Concert Band. They also sounded really good, even if the music selection did annoy Beccano. He only got to play two notes on the first selection. Then they played “Ave Maria,” which had no percussion at all. He did get to play quite nicely on the final selection.

Wind Ensemble

The third and last band was the Wind Ensemble, featuring TubaBoy. OK. It didn’t feature him, but he was in it. They play a choir song that the composer had arranged for band. It was awesome. Then the director read a Cajun version of “The Night Before Christmas.” That has been something of a tradition, but he punished the audience last year by being too angry at the antics of a the drum line to read it.

Wind Ensemble wrapped up with “Sleigh Ride,” which we will also be doing in the choir’s Christmas program. Sigh. The band played it really well.

But the strangest part of the night was that all three band directors seemed to have gotten a fresh hair cut for the performance. Being fans of the military style, all three were shorn high and tight. They looked really professional when facing the audience. But when they turned to conduct, the stage lights shown through their hair giving the impression of haloed skulls. It would have been a really cool effect for a Halloween concert. For Yule, it was just a little creepy.

Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately—none of the photos show the skull effect, but you can see more at Facebook.

Saturday Night Live Music

Chanticleer: Thanks for the tickets, Edgar. I’ll pay for them someday.

Photo source: Chanticleer

So after Suna came back from her day of dress fitting and yarn festivalling, we went to see Chanticleer, an all-male acapella group, at First Presbyterian Church.

First, I want to say something about the church. It is absolutely beautiful. Outside is a wonderful water feature that makes a pacifying water dance. Inside, the architecture is all native limestone and timber frame. OK, they did reinforce the timber frame with some ugly painted metal, but…

Chanticleer is an amazing group. These guys even sing the soprano parts! There are at least two countertenors, who sing in the mezzo-soprano range. One is even listed as a soprano. (Suna and I wondered if they sang that high the old-fashioned way.)

More impressive: I picked four singers at random and read their bios. Three listed at least a Master’s degree in vocal performance. The other taught vocal pedagogy at Notre Dame.

No wonder these guys can hit a very fat chord (7/9 or denser, once with at least two, maybe three, stacked seconds) from a single seemingly unrelated note generated by a guy banging a tuning fork against his head. (I wonder if he had a headache by the end of the night.)

The program covered a diverse collection that spanned more than 300 years. It included three by Stephen Foster and a pair by P.D.Q. Bach.

I totally enjoyed it. I enjoyed Suna’s smile while she listened.

If you get a change to see this amazing ensemble, go.

Marching Bands Galore

McNeil 2008 Marching Season T-shirt

So this weekend was jammed packed full of all the music in the world.

Friday night was the high school football game. We were the visitors. So I didn’t get to hear or see the band very well. We met the grandfather of one of the other Tubas. He went to the home side to watch and listen to the half-time show while the other chaperons and I cleaned up after the kids. I’m glad he had a chance to see his grandson play.

Saturday was the UIL Regional competition. Thirty-one 5A bands competed for six slots to go to State. McNeil placed dead in the middle and went home before the finals. Once again, I took too many pictures to do anything with. But because it was daylight, I think most of them will be pretty good quality (I haven’t looked at them yet). Anyway, the bands were good.

I didn’t add any pictures of this band to the Facebook album for the competition.

The most amusing was one that based their show on cars and traffic. It included a traffic jam where the drill team and other parts of the band kept getting in the way of marchers with cars. It also had a gas pump with prices that kept going up and up until one of the members fell over. An ambulance came rushing up. They performed CPR. Then they carefully laid their instruments in a stretcher and carried it off to the sidelines, leaving the “unconscious” band member laying by the pump. At some point he got up and started marching again, but my attention was fixed on the instrument stretcher.

Sunday, the choir sang “Sweet Day,” a really nice Baroque (?) piece at a service on preparing to die. Most of the rest of the music used in the service consisted of the songs from Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? that I really dislike. The guest lecturer was a retired professor who talked over the heads of most of the congregation and droned on for way too long.

Ms. T enjoyed watching the Festival of the Bands despite being cold. More photos are in the Facebook album for the festival.

And tonight is the ninth annual Festival of the Bands, a showcase of all the marching bands in RRISD. Even the middle school bands participate, so we get a preview of the talent in the pipeline. This year, that pipeline looks pretty good. Of course, the high school bands are at a near-professional level by this time of year—even if those that are not going to State are starting to unwind. The only drawback was the cold front that blew in today. It was cold in the stands.

So today I am grateful for a life filled with music. If I can remember where, I think I’ll even buy the DVD of Saturday’s performance.

Trey Bone

This is just a quick update on last night’s Trey Bone performance at B.B. Rover’s. It went well. We performed our set in an acoustically unstable environment, and nobody died. Even better, several people actually enjoyed it. Unfortunately, nobody thought to bring a camera.