Drumline Performs at PASIC

This post is WAY over due, but given how quickly the second half of either semester goes and how hectic the holidays can get, I am just now getting to this.

So, the Randall Drumline performed at PASIC in November. This was an incredible experience and I hope these students will not soon forget it. And, I hope that, one day, they'll appreciate the magnitude of what they accomplished by doing this.

I'm pretty sure there was some other video of our performance taken, but the video I have (taken on my camera -- so not all that great) is posted on YouTube. Here's the link.

Also, junior Josh Dolezal performed a tenor solo and I have a video of that.

It was an awesome weekend and, more importantly, an awesome semester of preparation for such a big performance. I'm so proud of the students for their attitudes and work ethic. Definitely a highlight of my career!

Computer Crash (bitter sweet)

Here's another timed post entry -- it's the only way I'm going to guarantee to not put way too much time into these things... Five minutes; ready, go!

So, about three weeks ago (maybe four by now), I got up to do some email, drink some coffee and waste time on Facebook. After trying to access Internet Explorer, I got the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death!"

This is the one that looks as if Microsoft's technology has suddenly jumped backwards fifteen years into MS-DOS. And the message? That basically, you are screwed.

So, knowing people personally who work on computers has turned out to be a really good thing. My friend Brandon took a look at my computer and called me about three hours later:

Me: What's the damage?

Brandon: The good news or the bad news?

Me: The bad...

Brandon: Your computer can't be brought back to life, you are going to need to buy a new one.

Me: Geez... What's the good news???

Brandon: I didn't lose any of your files off of your computer. I had 100% recovery on your hard drive.

Now, that is good news, because every picture of our children is on that hard drive and all of my music is there and all of my compositions and Sibelius Scores... It could have been messy if it was all missing. But alas, Brandon did a miracle on my hard drive. So, the remains of my computer is the external hard drive case he sold me that holds the "brain in a glass jar" of what was once my old computer.

Why is this bitter sweet? Because, tomorrow I am ordering my first Mac. I am officially done with Microsoft and with Dell. I am very excited about getting my first over-sized screen with my new iMac!

And... ding. That's time.

Warning: full-on political post!

I am giving myself five minutes to write this blog.

Ready to time me? (yep, I know it doesn't work that way)

Here.

I.

Go:

We are hosting a drumline contest at the school on Saturday. We have some really fine drumlines participating, but there are not as many drumlines participating as I would like. I'm still trying to figure this one out. It's a good contest that is hopefully not a "scary" environment for an inexperienced drumline... I just don't know.

The election is really ramping up. The debate last night was a real snooze-fest. Geez, I thought I would fall asleep when either guy would talk. And let's be honest, I've got my guy picked out already, the sign is literally in the yard and I thought he was just as boring as the other guy.

Which really just opens another wound: Sarah Palin. Here: I'm going to say it.

I like her.

I think the Saturday Night Live spoofs are hilarious (and pretty much dead on), but that doesn't bother me.

Here's the problem we have as a nation with someone like Sarah Palin (and why it causes such a problem when you are trying to pick two people to run for president): she's really down to earth. The problem with that, is the appeal of her being so down to earth, is the reason half the country hates her.

I like her because I could imagine that what she lacks in experience she would make up in good ol' determination. I truly think her heart is in the right place.

But this is why the other half of the country can't stand her. They want someone slick and polished and someone not like them. But the fact of the matter is that normal people don't end up running for president, only career politicians do.

Barack Obama? Career politician. Seriously, this guy has been in a national office for something like 143 days before he started his presidential campaign... The only other person with that kind of experience to ambition ratio is... well, Hillary Clinton.

John McCain? He's been in the Senate since I was in diapers. And not disposable diapers, mind you: straight-up late 70's, early 80's cloth diapers. This guys has been waiting for his chance at the presidency for a long time. When it didn't happen in 2000, couldn't you just imagine the GOP backroom pulling him aside and saying, "hey John, it's your turn next time."

The more I follow politics, the more I'm convinced this sort of "inside machine" thing is taking place, turning all of the wheels, telling the public what to think and basically how to vote.

DING! There's the timer. No time to proofread. But who are we kidding, no one reads this blog anyways. It's just a catharsis. A catharsis about the guy who's sign is in my yard who still bores me and appears only slightly less ingenuous than the other guy.

Grant Eats Cereal!

This is my first attempt at editing a video and posting it to Youtube. I know it's not much (thanks, Windows Movie Maker), but it is a chance for you to see how Grant is doing!

Here's a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feR-cvmYOR8

I hope you like it!

Jump 'N' Jive

So, one of Regan's little friends, Sadie, had a birthday party at this place called Jump 'N' Jive. This is a place where "inflatables" apparently go to die a slow death. If you are unsure as to what an inflatable is, take a look here. And here's another picture for you to look at.

You get what I'm describing, right? We live across the street from a park and when the weather gets moderately decent, all the rich kids rent these things then invite their friends to eat hot dogs, bounce around for a few hours and inevitably vomit inside the inflatable.

Sounds fun, no?

Anyhow, we got really excited about getting to go to J 'N' J because it gave us something to do on a Saturday, and we would never have thought about doing something like this on our own unless Rachel, Sadie's mother, hadn't won this birthday party.

Disclaimer: I'm already over my quota on run-on sentences, so you are just going to have to forget that I got an english minor in college, and forgive the endless streams of thoughts that reside in on sentence. (Geez. I just read that. And well, I ought to be shot.)

What I did not know about this place is that parents are encouraged to get right in there with their kids and play along. As a matter of fact, I don't know what I was expecting my two year old daughter to do without a little coaxing from her father! So, we kicked off our shoes, and went to the first slide we saw -- which was, no lie -- two stories tall.

There was no way either one of us was going to make it all the up this thing.

The incline alone was enough to render me useless, but Regan with a smaller frame might have had a chance if there had been adequate footing and hand-holds. There weren't. And that's why I said this is the place where inflatables go to die. These have to be the ones that have been retired by some self-respecting inflatable-for-rent company.

Well, Regan and I got most of the way up before we found that getting the rest of the way would be impossible. But, lo and behold, another dad and three kids were making the climb behind us. What to do, what to do? The other dad was very encouraging (I must have had a look of trepidation or retreat on my face), because he instructed me to hand down Regan. So, as I did, I lost my footing and took myself and Regan down the long line of kids and their poor, unsuspecting father.

What happened next, I sware, happened in slow motion: Regan and I slipped. I'm pretty sure that my sock foot ended up in the jaw of the dad behind me and Regan and I took out every single person on the slide. It happened in slow motion, with the sound of bowling pins being knocked over and Adagio for Strings being piped over the sound system.

But we landed safely. Granted, I was about two or three breaths away from actually needing medical attention, but we landed safely and soundly.

Then Regan ran to the next inflatable. Then another. Then another. She was unphased by the experience and realized that she might really enjoy these after all!

We thought that she would have a good nap that afternoon because she had spent so much energy -- and she did -- but I was the one who really needed a nap. No kidding, for several days afterwards, parts of my body ached that I wasn't aware could ache...

Really and truly, after that first, ill-fated event, the rest of the day was a lot of fun. Regan and I played as if I were a two year old right there with her. Kayla and I took turns playing with Regan and watching Grant. And, just like it was when I was going to birthday partys at Regan's age, those two hours went by as fast as any two hours I've ever lived.

We had a great day. Embarassing moments and all!

School Starts

School started a couple of weeks ago. This is always a time of adjustment and that adjustment usually takes me three or four weeks to complete. I don't really quit working over the summer. Granted, the work is for myself in the form of freelance writing, but it's still 8 or 10 hour days. And those days are here in my home office.

So, the biggest adjustment I face is that I have to wear professional clothing and I have to take that 8, 10 or 12 hours a day to a different location: the school(s).

Okay, that's not true. The biggest adjustment I face is that, during the summer, I get to be home pretty much all day with my family. Yes, a lot of that time I am locked away in the office hacking out someone's flam tap/flam accent, turns into a flam drag, finishes with a double stroke roll based over triplets phrase for the snare feature in their show, but when it's lunch time, I get to be 'daddy.' When the kids wake up from the naps I put them down for, I'm there. I'm there at 3:50 in the afternoon when we decide we can load the whole family up in the minivan and still make it to Sonic by the end of Happy Hour.

Bottom line: when school starts, I stop seeing my family. And I hate it.

So, when I have a rough day, or have a stressful encounter with a parent, can't have a reasonable conversation with a coach or can't seem to get some chunk of music to sound just right, it opens up that wound that I'm not there in the safety net that my family creates.

I like teaching band. I'm passionate about writing music. But, I love my family. And band directing is hard because of the sheer lack of family time I get, especially during marching season.

An anecdote:

This summer, my now almost six-month old son, Grant, learned how to roll over from his back to his stomach. This is pretty big stuff in the world of baby development. The first time he did it, I was there! It was way cool and I can't believe that music and fireworks didn't immediately start right afterward! Heck, Kayla wasn't in the room, so this is one of those really rare opportunities that I would see something like this before she would (major bragging rights, by the way...).

Well, the next bit of development is that Grant started to get up on his knees and start to rock back and forth a little. That has been cool to watch him do, too. Couple that with the fact that he can now sit-up on his own, and this has been a pretty cool thing to witness.

What's so hard to cope with is, now that school has started, I am very much less likely to see Grant start to really crawl. I have pretty much seen everything up to this point, from the moment it started, but with this, I am anticipating (but somewhat also dreading) the inevitable phone call I will get from Kayla. "Grant just started crawling for real, on his own!"

Now, I'm not stupid, and I know that I'm not the first person who has had to tackle this difficult balance between work and home, but it's just all so real now, and no longer so hypothetical. I know that you have to learn to strike symmetry between the time you spend at your job and the time you spend with your family. But, from previous experience, finding that symmetry is a never-ending pursuit.

So, here's to another year of having lunch with my family in the teacher's lounge and seeing them for a few minutes in the third quarter of a football game. And here's another year of telling a student I'll get something ready/together/done for them, then blowing it off because I am taking Regan to the store. And, not being as prepared for rehearsal or the week because the kids are dressed in Dallas Cowboys outfits and time must stand still for the game!

If there's a solution; I haven't found it. But, I'll keep looking.

Heroes of Old... Get's another performance!

This one time at band camp...

Sorry, I can't help myself!

So, this one time at West Texas A&M University Band Camp, July 2008, "Heroes of Old, Men of Renown" got another performance. The group was the HS Concert Band (smack-dab in the middle: the third band of five) and it was conducted by Brian Collins (HBD at Midland HS) and David Wright (HBD at Randall HS, and my boss, colleague, friend, bridge partner and fishing buddy). David chose "Heroes" to be one of his two pieces to conduct.

Of course, this is as much a friend doing another friend a favor, but it was still cool to hear another group tackle this piece. And since I also teach at that camp, I got to be literally down the hall to hear snippets of rehearsal.

On a side note, I may have mentioned this in my AXIOM blog, but I cannot tell you how cool it is to be casually walking down the hall and hear something you wrote being played from a distance. One of the times that happened, I had this thought: "That's pretty cool, whatever that is. Oh wait! I wrote that!" My disclaimer on that is that I was hearing the trombones working on something on their own in their Brass/Percussion rehearsal so I didn't register right away. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

At the end of two of the full ensemble rehearsals, I got to stick my head in and listen to the rehearsal. The first day, I took some pictures and spoke to the band about the piece and what the title means and how the title has nothing to do with the piece (at least in concept), yada, yada. (Hey, I know it's not impressive. I don't have this whole "composer addressing the ensemble" thing working for me!)

Like I said, I took some pictures, and while they aren't as cool as John Mackey's blog pictures -- there are no high quality pictures here nor has any exotic food been photographed in extreme zoom! -- they are pictures nonetheless. And every picture needs a caption...


Two of the three trumpets are Randall HS kids. How's that third trumpet part, Kayla and Patrick? Lots of kickslide -- I hope you have that working properly!


Summer from Randall counts rests diligently. Have I mentioned how this is a piece for horn players!? I can't believe she even had any rests to count in the first place? By the way, nice job of not making eye contact here...
This is David conducting. I'm not sure what's happening in this photo, but I think it's a Rule #2 from Dr. Garner's four big conducting rules. David appears to be conducting the Rule #2 in both hands. Hey, whatever works for ya'.

Brian Collins is clearly not sure why I took his picture. Neither am I. But he's a handsome man, don't you think?


Thanks to three hours in a FedEx Kinkos, here's the score. Remind me to find a real print shop. Kinkos - great for b&w and color photos. 11 x 17" scores? Nope.

Over the shoulder of an unexpecting band member...

The marimba part gets some serious stick height!
This part is written for sandpaper blocks, but they are seldom loud enough to hear. Here's the cabasa making a good substitution.
Yea for euphoniums!
Hey, Sebastian? How are those high 'c's comin'?
The performance was a good one and the opportunity to hang out with the students was a lot of fun as well. This was definitely the highlight of my band camp.

Now back to writing drumline stuff!

Summer

Well, if I thought I might have more time and motivation for blog entries in the summer, I would have written more by now. But as it stands, my time behind the computer (which has been extensive to say the least) has been spent in Sibelius working on drumbooks for various bands across the state. It is a time consuming line of work, but I truly enjoy it and look forward to the month of June when I do all of this writing.

When July hits, I start putting my 'band director' hat back on a little. West Texas A&M University Band Camp will start in a week, then I'll have to start communicating with the outside world and remember what it's like to be addressed as "Mr. Rath." (If I'm addressed as "Mr. Rath" in the month of June it's usually because I ran into a student at Chili's...)

So, on June 9th, "Heroes of Old, Men of Renown" was premiered by the Town and Gown Band. The performance was solid with only some things here and there that could have gone better. My parents drove down for the weekend and for the performance and fortunately, my dad made a recording from the balcony. I expected that the concert hall would have made an archival recording, but that was not correct.

I'm pleased with how the recording turned out. So pleased, in fact, that I am submitting "Heroes" in two different Composition Contests. Who knows how it will do, but we'll see...

If you want, you can hear it at my website. The link is on the right.

Now back to the grind!

Quick News then...

...off to bed!

May is the busiest month of the year. This may only be my opinion, but I have lots of good evidence to back it up.

The thing about May is that you are really trying to exist in two different school years simultaneously. You are trying to wrap up the year you are in (State Solo and Ensemble and all of the time spent preparing for that, the Band Banquet, the Spring Concert, instrument check-ins, music check-ins, final auditions, etc.), and you are trying to get a head start on the next school year (drumline/colorguard/drum major auditions, drumline clinics & camp, 8th grade marching camp, arranging/writing the music for next year's marching show, etc.). So, it gets VERY busy!

Right now, I am between a rock and a hard place: I have a lot of clients set up for the summer, so I will be doing a lot of writing. But, I also have three or four projects that are staring me right in the face and are demanding to be done, basically, yesterday. (Don't worry. If I'm supposed to be writing something for you, I promise it's getting done. Slow and steady wins the race -- or so I keep telling myself.) But fortunately, in this last week of school, there's not much keeping me after school, so I can come home and start procrast... ergh... writing.

I honestly think if I can get through next week, life will even out. Then the week after that, we are going to the mountains for Kayla's family reunion. I've been looking forward to this for a while now. No cell phones, no internet connections, no TV, nothing technological of any sort. I think I'm going to read a book. Wow. Reading a book sounds really great! I can't tell you the last time I read a book for pure entertainment (I tend to read for educational/motivational purposes; but this holiday is going to call for some John Grisham law-thriller or some book depicting espionage or explosions or BOTH!).

Quickly before I go: State Solo and Ensemble was awesome this year! We had ten percussion solos qualify (all four mallet marimba or vibe solos) and generally all of them competed well. Cameron Collins made a First Division on his -- which is no small feat. Then there were five Second Divisions (Wesley, Austin, Katie, Josh and Joel) and four Third Divisions (Alexa, Maryum, Amanda and Sera). A Second Division is quite an accomplishment too, when you consider that the true rating average at State is a Third Division rating. Also, very, very few students obtain a First Division rating, so Cameron has something to be VERY proud about. (Quick, use the word 'very' one more time in this blog post!)

Well, I am very tired and I very much need to go to my very comfortable bed.

Thank you very much for reading this post!

Crazy April!

Just when I thought I was doing a good job of keeping my blog updated, April happened... April is a traditionally busy month around here and this year was no different. I'll hit a few of the highlights:

First things first, we had band contest in April. My band made a 1 1 2 on stage and a 1 1 1 in sight-reading. I was very pleased with both of their performances and was also kind of glad to have that monkey off my back! Then, the junior high bands had two days of contests just a week ago and while I didn't take a band per se, I did spend a lot of time trying to get these bands ready to go. They did very well, making mostly ones with a couple of twos sprinkled in there.

Then we had what amounted to two weeks of Symphony. Normally we rehearse over the course of one week, but with this go around, we had a couple of rehearsals the week before, too. We played Beethoven 9 (finale only), Sibelius 7th Symphony and some other smaller tunes. I only played on the Beethoven. Which was kind of nice, but it also meant a lot of sitting around and hurrying up and waiting.

Daniel Hege was our guest conductor for this series and I was thoroughly impressed by him.
He was upbeat and funny, but never at the expense of losing time to improvement. Additionally, he really kept the orchestra's feet to the fire as far as playing the music exactly the way he wanted it played. I don't know if everyone shares my opinion on this, but I would much rather have a conductor run us through our paces and help us to really sound good, versus someone who would rather be diplomatic and uninspired.

Then the very next day we started rehearsals for the opera: Cold Sassy Tree. This is a modern opera (I think it's less than ten years old, too), so I was unsure what to think. The music is very rhythmic and punctuated and has some Bernstein-esque moments. By the middle of the week, I started to let the music grow on me and by the end of the week, I pretty well enjoyed it.

Because this is a modern opera, there was much more for us to do in the percussion section. Here's a partial list of all the instruments we had crammed in the pit: snare drum, tenor drum, triangle, suspended cymbals (2), tambourines (3), glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, chimes, gong, bass drum and four crotales (F#, A, B and E). Then, of course, there were four timpani, too.
It was a pretty athletic even at times getting to all of the instruments with the right mallets in just enough time! (I should mention that this is about as athletic as I get...)

The conductor for this opera was Andy Anderson. Having played the opera for several years now (I think since 2000), I can fully attest to the conductor setting the mood for the week. If you have a conductor who is a drag, is no fun to be around and is generally not easy to work with, you can guarantee that that is going to be a LONG week. Heck, it's going to be a long week no matter how you slice it.

But, if you get a conductor who is vibrant and enthusiastic, you can really enjoy the process more. This was the case for this opera. Andy has a very dry since of humor that is also a bit self-effacing, and he is quick to slip a joke in among directions or instructions. He kept us rolling all week and every time we thought we had the last laugh, he countered with another comment that was usually quite brilliant.

So you might expect someone who is joking around all of the time to not keep the orchestra on our toes, either, but this was not the case. He, like Daniel Hege, kept us on the front edge of our collective chairs, making sure we were playing everything as good as possible.

It was a refreshing week of opera and one that I even looked forward to going to. (Keep in mind, that I really only saw my family for about an hour each day between getting home from school and going to the next rehearsal. In fact, during opera week, we would pack our dinners and go have a picnic at the GNC. Then Regan and I would play with bubbles in the foyer. That was a lot of fun, but was not a lot of family time...)

A ton more things happened in April, but I'll have to let them drift into memory. The only other thing worth mentioning is my new band piece, Heroes of Old, Men of Renown got it's first rehearsal. But, there will undoubtedly be another post about that for another day.

Latest Composition News

It might not seem like I have much news that doesn't have to new with our new son, Grant, but I do. Actually, I have a lot of news I just haven't mentioned and now have a free moment to share it.





First things first, AXIOM officially has a publisher - C. Alan Publications. This is a great honor to me because of the highly professional company C. Alan is and the high quality of the works they publish. C. Alan is also home to one of my favorite composers, David Gillingham. Being able to mention something about myself in the same breath with David Gillingham (and not have the words "is not near as good at writing music as" present) is pretty cool.





C. Alan was the first (and only) publisher I sent AXIOM to and I actually got a contract from them way back in September, but I have been pretty worried that if I publicized their publishing AXIOM, that I would somehow jinx the whole thing.





Well, now I have proof that they are going to publish AXIOM:

This is two full sets of the piece (including score and parts) they sent for me to proofread. So far, I have already located a few things in need of fixing, but they are minor. (They still need to be fixed, though!)

Also, over the Christmas Break, I did a transcription of the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. We performed it on our Percussion Ensemble Concert and it went very well. It, too, is going to be published. This time, Tapspace Publications is going to publish it. The contracts have come, been signed and sent back, so everything is official. I'm very much looking forward to seeing this come to fruition!

And then, maybe the best thing yet is that I had a week of inspiration and have churned out a new band piece (in six days!). Dr. Gary Garner suggested that I write something for the newly formed Town & Gown Community Band (that he conducts) and six days ago I started with a simple theme and this evening I completed it!

It is written for a rather mature group, which the Town and Gown Band, for the most part, is. The piece is about 6 and a half minutes long and spans a number of different tempi, keys and moods.

While the piece is pretty well fully orchestrated (except for some major work needed in the piccolo and percussion), there is a lot of work remaining. Generally speaking, I don't write too many dynamics or articulations when I am just trying to get ideas down on "paper." So, I have a lot of nuts and bolts-type work to do, but the creative process is pretty well finished.

This is really exciting for me because I tend to really labor over the creative process, but having had this come together so easily has been somewhat reassuring that I am, indeed, supposed to be writing music as part of my life's purpose. (Of course, it might have just come together so easily because it's such a big piece of crap... But I don't think it is...)

I will admit that I'm a little worried that it will not be well received, but that's probably a fear I will always live with...

Grant Thomas is Here!

Go to therathfamily.blogspot.com for info on our newest addition!

Still Waiting... & Carmina Burana

So, we are almost one week overdue for the appearance of Baby #2. We have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and if Kayla makes it that long, we'll schedule to induce on Wednesday or Thursday... This is all very reminiscent of Regan's birth. Kayla was late with Regan as well, so we scheduled another doctor's appointment for the following week. Only, Regan came before then.

I don't know what will happen with this one!

Last night, I got the immeasurable pleasure of attending WTAMU's performance of Carmina Burana. Earlier this semester, I had caught word that there was going to be a full performance of this work including orchestra, double chorus (w/ boys choir), vocal soloists (S/T/Baritone) and dance, as well as lighting and staging. Not knowing when this production was set, I emailed the conductor and asked. That was on Tuesday! I'm glad I didn't wait another minute, or I might have missed the whole thing entirely.

If you aren't sure what Carmina Burana is, you should look here for some very good background info.

I wasn't sure what to expect as far as the dance and choreography was concerned. Afterall, I've performed this piece as a band transcription and I have a pretty shoddy "bargain bin" recording of the full instrumentation, but I had never seen a production. Apparently, the production I saw last night (with dance) is pretty much the way Carl Orff had intended for Carmina to be performed.

Given all of that, I took my seat, read through the program a few times, then watched as the curtain went up and the music began. Immediately, with those fateful opening notes of full chorus at fortissimo I could tell that the dance would be intriguing and memorable. The choreography (set for 8 female dancers) opened with two dancers being held by two others as if bound in their pose. (Remember, much of Carmina deals with the uncontrollable aspect of fate.) As the bound dancers were being brought onto stage, they held red ribbon that was extended offstage to the hands of the remaining dancers.

My first thought: this is going to be really weird. Some art is weird and that's cool. Some weird art is cool and some is just uncomfortable to watch. This was undoubtedly cool! The ribbon (which was more like rope) was well utilized in that it, to me, furthered the representation of binding. At times the dancers were bound by it and at other times they freed themselves from it.

While dance was not featured on all of the 25 movements of the work, it was still prominent in at least half.

Since Carmina Burana deals with some aspects of love and sensuality, the dance was properly representative of that (without being over-the-top or provocative). And there are even discussions of heavy drinking that occurs in the local tavern. It was really humorous to see the dancers become increasingly "intoxicated," then pass out at the end of the movement!

Having now seen this for real, I cannot believe that a production of this without dance would ever quite do the work a full justice. Needless to say, the orchestra was in rare form and the chorus was spectacular, but for me, the choreography and dance completed the production in my mind.

Bravissimo!

All-Region Jazz Band & Saturday Night Live Returns

This weekend was our Region's All-Region Jazz Band weekend, and I was very fortunate to have been asked to conduct the second high school Jazz Band (although, in jazz you don't really conduct very much, so I guess I directed it).

I was getting increasingly nervous about teaching for such long stretches of time (three hours on Friday and basically six hours on Saturday), but with the energy of the good band and their solid work ethic, we made quick work of those nine hours and gave (what was in my estimation) pretty dang good concert. (Come to think of it, nine hours sounds like a long time, not a short time, so I shouldn't have ever thought that I didn't have enough time, but you would be surprised how quickly those sessions go by!)

Anyhow, the concert was last night and it featured my little group first, then the top high school group (kudos, too!), then the Amarillo Jazz Orchestra, which is comprised of area music educators and other jazz enthusiasts. What a band! They sounded great and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The guest clinician and artist for the evening was Mr. Glenn Kostur (glennkostur.com) who is the head of the jazz department at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He, for a number of years, was in the sax section for Maynard Ferguson's band and was also the music director. It's pretty safe to say that he has chops and street cred that puts all of us to shame!

What a nice guy too, a pleasure to sit down to dinner with (as we were able to do twice). It was funny watching all of the sax guys who teach in our Region ask him endless pedagogical questions and, "do you have an alternate fingering for this," or "what is your tongue really doing in the altissimo register?" Those are the sorts of conversations that I like to listen to, but I can assure that a very low amount of comprehension is actually taking place in my brain. There was a lot of "trophy wife" look on my face: sit there and look pretty and try to pretend that you know what we're talking about. (I think I can fake comprehension. Pretty? Maybe not...)

When Glenn was featured with the AJO, he pulled out his tenor and finished one of his solos playing so high that it was reminiscent of Lenny Picket's playing on every opening of every Saturday Night Live. (You know the playing... It's so high, it doesn't seem humanly possible.)

Well, what a great segue way to my next topic: Now that the writer's strike has come to a close, my guilty pleasure has returned with all new episodes: Saturday Night Live.

Now, let's be honest, I don't love every sketch from every show, but I find that SNL's humor is really closely in line with my own.

Where was Maya Rudolph? I'll be mad if she has left the show. Kayla and I actually re-watched the introduction of the show to make sure she wasn't mentioned, and, she wasn't mentioned in the opening credits! This is disastrous! She's one of the funniest ones! Thanks goodness that Kristen Wiig is still on. She's my new favorite.

Anyhow, the first half of the show was pretty funny (including a pretty good Weekend Update), but I couldn't help but to think that the first SNL back from the strike would be overwhelmingly funny. Well, it was pretty good, but it wasn't near the caliber that I thought it would be. For real, what were those writers doing for all of that time? I know they weren't writing, but you're telling me that they weren't thinking about ideas to use when the strike was over...???

The highlight of the episode was an appearance by Mike Huckabee. Without giving away his segment on Weekend Update, I'll just say to scoot over to NBC.com and watch it -- if it's posted...

Now off to grill chicken on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Then, tomorrow night is our first Percussion Ensemble Concert of the spring. After that, I am remarkably open schedule-wise, as we await baby number #2!

TMEA, Baby #2 nears...

I'm writing this from San Antonio in the great state of Texas! I've been here for the Texas Music Education Association's annual convention, known by it's abbreviation, TMEA.

There is so much to mention, I don't know where to start. A good place might be the high quality of concerts you can attend here. On Thursday, I heard the WTAMU Symphonic Band play and it was tremendous. There's not a very good way to describe how well they did without using words that are overused like 'great,' 'awesome,' 'amazing.' See? That didn't really do it for you, did it? So, I'll put it this way, if I had been on that stage, that might have been the best performance I had ever given. As a listener, it ranks right up there with the two or three other truly memorable concerts I've attended at TMEA. (Two others that stand out in my mind are the University of Houston and Langham Creek HS, both from last year.)

Then, there's my dad's booth that he runs in the exhibit hall to support his double reed making business. I do what I can to help out -- but mainly it gives me a place to stow my stuff and a chance to catch up with my dad. (I'm finding out that people only really ask three questions, and I find out the answers to those up front, so I can field 90% of the questions I'm asked...)

Additionally, there are a bunch of very valuable clinics to attend for me to learn new teaching techniques, etc.

And last, but not least, this week gives me a chance to promote my writing through word of mouth and to meet contacts who might want me to do some freelance arranging for them.

Sorry. No pictures for this blog entry. I even thought to pack my camera, but haven't remembered to take any pictures...

We'll head back to Amarillo tomorrow -- yes, we drove -- and will be back to school on Monday where it's time to prepare for Band Contest, and finish preparations on the Percussion Ensemble Concert.

After that, you'll see blog entries about the new addition to our family debuting on our around March 3rd!

Busy Days and String Theory for Dummies

Given that I haven't made a blog entry for a month and a half, it should go without saying that it has been a busy January and February has proved no different.

One should also deduce that if I'm writing a blog entry, I'm procrastinating on/about/for/in-as-much-as/from a project that really needs my immediate attention. That person would be correct. I'm totally 'worked' out for the day, but can't bring myself to go to bed yet.

Kayla is still pregnant and Regan is as cute as ever. If you really want to see the family side of things, you should go read the Rath Family blog that Kayla maintains. She does a bang-up job of keeping it current and she is always snapping pictures to include.

Her expertise in blogging all things 'family' frees me up to really get lots of quality procrastinating done. Which explains how I came upon this gem. 'String Ducky' is a short film that was selected from many entries in a contest to see who could most succinctly sum up String Theory in two minutes or less.

I don't know quite how I landed on this (probably by 'googling' something about String Cheese...), but it's interesting. And by interesting, I mean that I hardly ever use the word as a psynonym to 'curious.' You see, to me, "interesting" usually means "bad," or "unexplainable," or in this case "so completely beyond my ability to understand, that saying 'interesting' will maybe make me look not as ignorant."

Enjoy it. If you have the same reaction as I did, you'll want to take a nap at the end of those two minutes: