Can I Pick 'Em or What?

I found out today that the jazz Grammy nominations were announced this week. I've noted before that I occasionally have some issues with the whole process, especially in the way that Academy members can vote without having heard all the nominated songs or albums, but I was particularly happy with this year's selections, since they contain several CD's that I not only own but have blogged about and have in a few cases gone to a concert on the tour in support of said CD's:

• Best Contemporary Jazz Album
  Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up (concert review here)
  Joshua Redman Elastic Band: Momentum


• Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group
  Wayne Shorter Quartet: Beyond the Sound Barrier (concert review here)


• Best Large Jazz Ensemble
  Dave Holland Big Band: Overtime

I think it's interesting how the criterion for being selected in an Instrumental category is "51% or more playing time of instrumental tracks." That might be an interesting (or maybe totally boring) job to be the guy who actually has to measure that...

At any rate, it was cool to discover that this year, the choices of the Academy members are reasonably close to what I would have picked if I had been in their position. I'm also quite happy to see the "contemporary jazz" category populated by actual jazz musicians this time, as opposed to other years when this category has been the domain of the G-weasel and his ilk.

Speaking of jazz: There's a new place to discuss all-things jazz-related, courtesy of UNT jazz prof John Murphy (an old schoolmate of mine whose previous foray into blogdom was linked here and discussed often). It's called The Green Room; anyone can read it, and UNT jazz students, faculty and alumni can sign up for an account and post comments.

Snow half-day: I awoke at six a.m. today to discover, as I suspected last night, that I could go right back to bed, as the public schools were closed today. I stayed awake long enough to also confirm that the college would eventually open, which it did at noon. The roads were mostly clear by the time we left for rehearsal, and they were totally clear by the trip home. I'll be happy to get one more teaching day in tomorrow, especially since I won't see the Friday people next week due to finals. It was a pretty nice little half-holiday, even if we'll have to give it back in the spring.

Toy Meets Horn?

If you've walked into a Wal-Mart or Sam's Club in the past couple of years, you may have been surprised to see that they've started selling musical instruments. (I, of course, visit those two stores as seldom as possible, but I did see the same thing in a Hastings in Denton about a year ago.) Although they've been denounced as "toys" and "instrument-shaped objects" in some circles, these products, from a company called First Act, are trying to compete with the Selmers and Yamahas (or at least the Prestinis and Vespros) for the growing beginner market. I wouldn't ever recommend them to any student of mine, and most band directors I know avoid them like the plague, but basically my thought was, "whatever--let them try the market; it's a free country." But I wasn't exactly thrilled to read this story:

First Act Inc., a musical products company, has won a $20.7 million jury verdict against Dallas-based Brook Mays Music Co., which was found liable for making false advertising statements.

First Act, which sells low-priced guitars, musical toys and band instruments such as horns and saxophones to Wal-Mart, Target and other big-box retailers, hailed the decision as a victory for consumers.

"The verdict is a clear win for every potential music student and for the most fundamental principles of providing great value to consumers," Bernard Chiu, chairman of the Boston-based company, said in a prepared statement.

Brook Mays, a 104-year-old music retailer with 63 stores in eight states, including Texas, plans to ask the trial judge to review the verdict before company officials decide whether to appeal, the company said. The verdict was announced Friday in Boston.

Maybe their tactics weren't the best, but I think Brook Mays might have a point here. The question is, are they trying to squash a competitor, or are they simply standing up for at least minimum standards for what constitutes a musical instrument? (FULL DISCLOSURE: I teach a small studio at a Brook Mays-owned store, but I am compensated directly by the parents of the students and not the company itself.)

There have been low-end horns out there for years; I can even remember our sixth-grade band directors warning us not to buy our horns from the Sears catalog (yes, they used to sell them there!). Nobody's saying that a company doesn't have the right to manufacture and sell these lower-end instruments, but the rest of the world doesn't have to acknowledge them as legitimate or allow them to permeate our schools. The story continues:

First Act, which was formed a decade ago and now has 180 employees, has drawn the wrath of traditional musical instrument retailers such as Brook Mays since it started selling band instruments to mass merchants five years ago. The private company's instruments are made in China and are less expensive than those sold at traditional music stores.

First Act sued Brook Mays two years ago, alleging that the retailer engaged in "a calculated smear campaign" that sought to prevent schoolchildren, band directors and others from buying its musical instruments.

The company alleged that in 2003 Brook Mays distributed fliers and 8,000 e-mails to music educators, parents and others warning that First Act's instruments "break and parts are not available." It won a preliminary injunction against Brook Mays in March 2004 to stop additional distribution of the fliers and e-mails.

If experience has shown that the instruments do break a lot and it's difficult to get parts, then this was probably the reason that Brook Mays decided to "get the word out" like they did.

A bandmate of mine who's worked in the major instrument industry cast some light on this subject. The problem is, the major music retailers' repair shops include warranties with their work; if these instruments do break down frequently, despite multiple trips to the repair shop, then the shop's own image takes an undeserved hit, and they lose their shirts on unsuccessful warranty work. In this situation, refusing to repair these instruments seems like a reasonable practice to me. (Indeed, a trip to First Act's site lists only four authorized repair shops for their instruments within fifty miles of my ZIP code...and I live in a major metropolitan area.)

Even if this information being dispersed by a retalier may have been (at least legally) a questionable tactic, it's not like the word hasn't gotten out already. Trust me, my fellow music educators and I make horn recommendations all the time, and we're not afraid to tell a student or parent if a horn is bad, or even if an entire brand of horn is bad. Word-of-mouth, message boards...if something's not good, people will know. (I'll never forget when a student of mine got a "Borg" horn at Sam's Club [supposedly made by the same company] that he was hoping to use as a marching horn; the band director went ballistic and wouldn't allow it on the field. I played the instrument, incidentally, and it was...mediocre at best, but, as always, the durability over the long haul is the biggest factor.)

Perhaps a poster to another message board says it best:

The instruments sold at Sam's and WalMart are affectionately known to band directors as "I.S.O.'s" - Instrument Shaped Objects.

They are made with cheap wood and aluminum and the mechanisms and keys do not work for more than a few months before sticking or bending out of shape with regular use. Beginners are tough on instruments and as hard as we teach them to take good care and be responsible, accidents do happen. Then try to take ti to WalMart for a repair... or better yet... try to take it to a real instrument repair shop.

In order to help your young band student achieve success AND save your wallet a lot of replancement costs, the best choice, in my professional opinion, is an authorized music dealer. Yamaha, King, Conn, LeBlanc, Buffet, Ludwig, Pearl... all are great musical instrument manufacturers with YEARS of proven quality and reliability.
--from a Texas band director

This does beg a larger question, though, to which you can respond in the comments: If the only instrument a student can afford is a "lowest-tier" model like this, is it better than nothing? In other words, would the potential durability and quality issues counteract the joy of getting to play in the first place, or would the school be better off soliciting donations of unused instruments from former band students to meet the needs of disadvantaged kids?

If Brook Mays does decide to appeal, it would be interesting to see them bring forth legions of people who have had bad experiences with these instruments. If they really do fall apart over time, then was the advertising truly false? Stay tuned; I'll post updates on the subject as they arise.

Sittin' in a winter wonderland: All after-school activities were cancelled in my district today, so I was pretty much done teaching by 2:00 (though one brave soul--or at least his mom, since he's in middle school and doesn't drive--did trudge out here for a lesson at the house). And now, the waiting game continues until morning, when we find out the status of school for tomorrow. I'm hoping for at least a partial day, since I have performances and rehearsals at the college, and we have a concert coming up on Saturday.

Blowing out the candles, half a world away: Happy 21st to my Australian blogger buddy James. I had to send him his e-card last night before I went to bed, since it hasn't been Wednesday down there for many hours now.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: J-Guar, talking with me on AIM tonight, lamented the fact that UNT had cancelled classes for tomorrow during the time his jury was supposed to be; he had even picked a perfect mid-morning time. Upon hearing that, I said "the best-laid plans...", to which he replied "of ice and men." Laughter ensued.

Anyone Taking Bets...

...on whether or not tomorrow's wintry mix will cause any school closings?

Sure, it's easy to get cynical in this part of the country; it doesn't snow or ice all that often, so everyone gets all excited when it's predicted, and then, more often than not, it either ends up being only non-sticking flurries, or it doesn't pan out at all.

The really tricky thing about tomorrow's possible event is that it's not supposed to get really bad until afternoon, which means that any closings will take place after the school day has already started and the students and teachers (and office workers everywhere else) will have to rush-but-not-rush to get home before the bad stuff hits.

And if it happens to hit early enough to cause morning problems...well, hey, I could use the nap.

The gig is up...on the sidebar, that is. I've been confirmed for January 6 at the Broadway Bistro. Will it be Kev and Friends or Team Demon/Dingus? I'm not sure yet, but Steven is on board for this one, so it'll be two-thirds of the TD/D horn juggernaut no matter what.

Hey, wait a minute...: Why did gas suddenly go up eight cents this afternoon? I hope it didn't have anything to do with the potential storm...

Peanut butter and jam, in a way: A British company has come up with an unusual food item: The musical sandwich.

SCARY HEADLINE OF THE DAY: "Erectile dysfunction? No needles, please"--from an article in today's paper.

QUOTE OF THE DAY (1): Today's QOTD's came in rapid succession at my first two schools. The first one occurred during an announcement at a middle school during one of my before-school lessons; sometimes, the office workers really abuse their intercom privileges by coming on every two minutes or so for some sort of announcement. One of those interruptions produced this gem:
"Students and teachers, there's been a belt lost this morning in the hallway. It's...(pauses to mumble something to someone in the background)...it's brown, with holes in it."

Really? It has holes in it?
And if it didn't, wouldn't it be called a "strap?"

QUOTE OF THE DAY (2): One of my high-schoolers was talking about the new theatre that's opening in Firewheel in just eight! more! days! (No, I'm not excited about it at all. Can you tell?) The following conversation ensued:

KID: That theatre just doesn't look really big; I wonder how many screens it has.
ME: I looked it up on the Web last night, and they said it's an 18-plex.
KID: Oh, that's pretty big then.
ME: Yeah, it's not as big as the AMC 30 in Mesquite, but it's not bad.
KID: How many theatres does the 30 have?
ME: (cracks up, while giving kid the "duhhhh" look)
KID: D'oh!

I told him that I was a blogger and he had just made QotD with that remark, but I didn't give him this URL or anything, so we'll see if he actually finds it.

Kev vs. the Cold

A few years ago (on a blog that no longer exists, so I can't link it), one of my friends did a post about how he and cold mornings were not the best of friends. I agreed then, and I agree even more now.

For one thing, I'm not a morning person to begin with; I just get paid to pretend to be one (like many, many other people, no doubt). I don't tend to sleep enough, so I'm inclined to hit a snooze alarm or two (or six) anyway. But on cold mornings, the temptation to rush back underneath the covers after hitting the snooze button is almost irresisitible.

Ever since I moved into Casa de Kev in '01, I've kept the winter thermostat at 70 degrees; my parents have theirs at 68, and it always seems too cold to me (and those who know me personally are aware that it takes a lot for me to feel cold). But after reading the horror stories of natural gas prices rising and winter heating bills anticipated to be double what they were a year ago, I decided to try and acclimate myself to 68, just to save money. I haven't had enough "winter" gas bills to tell a difference yet (and the true difference may be in the fact that I've had a totally new heating/AC system installed since last winter), but those two degrees certainly add to the likelihood of hitting another snooze alarm.

Oh, and the coldness doesn't go away when I hit the shower, either. Like many of the houses in my neighborhood (during the construction of which, I'm pretty sure, the builders were in "experimental mode"), I have a room with a tall ceiling and a skylight. Unfortunately, that room is the bathroom. It was a little weird when I first moved in to look up and see the sky above me as I showered, though we fixed that with a screen. But the tall ceiling means that the bathroom will never get fogged up during a shower (good, at least in the summer). It also means the bathroom will never get warm during a shower either, so I have to step back out into the coldness once again. At least the hot water has been staying hot for the duration so far.

All of the above could pretty much serve as a preface to the fact that we're evidently getting some bitterly cold weather in a few days. They've been talking about a "wintry mix" for Wednesday, for crying out loud (no, I won't be holding my breath waiting for school to get called off). All I know is--lows in the lower 20's? Highs only in the 30's? It's beginning to look feel a lot like Christmas.

Is there anybody out there? I'm not sure when this post will be readable; Blogspot appears to be down, even if Blogger isn't. (UPDATE: Fixed now--yay.)

Blowing out three sets of candles: Happy birthday to my good friends Chris C., Wyatt, and Andrew D., who all lay claim to the same day (the latter two were even born in the same year). It's also a major birthday for each, being the Cheap Auto Insurance Birthday for Wyatt and Andrew, and the Doesn't Matter If I Get Carded Anymore Birthday for Chris. I was going to catch Chris's jazz concert (and happy hour afterwards) in Waco tonight, seeing as how they had Maria Schneider as a guest artist, but the timing was just too crazy right now. Instead, Maria's newest CD arrived in the mail today, so I'll have my own little concert in a minute, and we'll hopefully catch her next semester when she brings her whole big band to Austin.

While I Was Out

Whenever I go a few days without posting, there's always a lot of stuff to talk about afterwards:

• Response was underwhelming in last week's poll here, but I'm even more inclined to believe Michael Irvin after reading this.


• Are old-school video games way better than new ones, never mind the advanced graphics of today's releases? Or are today's games more like "interactive movies" and thus well worth the time and money? Vodkapundit and his commenters weigh in.


• Even cooler than the potato gun: the potato cannon. This book has directions for building one. (Hat tip: InstaPundit)


• This would be funny if it weren't true: Boy eats peanut-butter snack, kisses girlfriend. Unfortunately, the kiss proves to be fatal, seeing as how she's allergic to peanuts.


• Fellow local blogger Eric rants against the Machine (a favorite subject of mine) in a post that also points to this funny Onion story: RIAA Bans Telling Friends About Songs. Heh.


• For years, many shopkeepers have chased away teens hanging out in front of their property by blasting classical music from their speakers. Now comes word of another form of "teen repellent": A high-pitched tone that's usually only audible by people under the age of 30.

The lights fantastic: As you know, I'm really excited about Firewheel being in Garland. But tonight, since I was already in Grapevine for a holiday dinner, I had to drive the additional five minutes over to Firewheel's older cousin, Southlake Town Square (it's a similar concept to Firewheel, minus the anchor stores or the theatre (just ten more days!) but highlighted by an old-fashioned City Hall). As always, the lighting at this time of year is amazing, and walking around on a cold night like tonight brought on a classic holiday mood of the kind not often found in Texas.

*whew*

It's great to be back in blogging mode, and even better that the long Week O' Concerts is over. Generally speaking, everything went really well; my daytime combo, many of whose members hadn't ever performed in a small-group jazz setting before, did a fine job on Wednesday night, and the night combo did well both nights, during its solo sets and its supporting role behind the jazz choir. Each group was also well-received by its respective audiences.

It really did make for a tiring week, seeing as how I left the house at 7 a.m. or so the last three days and didn't get back till around 11:00, but that's the nature of my job sometimes. Still, it was a great time, and, to paraphrase something I once saw on a sign in the Rangers' clubhouse, the worst day of playing music is better than the best day at the office.

I'm off to see my high-schoolers at all-region tryouts, and I'll probably be back with a topical post later.

Here We Go...

Three gigs in three nights, starting tomorrow. Posting may be nonexistent until the weekend, but I promise I'll just be busy and not out getting abducted by aliens or anything. Lots to talk about, no time to talk about it right now. If you're in the area, come see us at the choir concert on Thursday or Friday if you'd like.

But first, I had to post this, because it's hilarious...especially the fact that someone "successfully" bid on the item. I guess there really is big money to be made off the stupidity of others.

Oh, and please scroll down and answer yesterday's poll if you haven't done so already. I know that Gary isn't the only Musings reader with an opinion on this...

Speaking of vocal concerts...scientists have discovered a singing iceberg in Antarctica.

A Quick "Playmaker" Poll

Since this was all over the news today...

1) Do you think that Michael Irvin is guilty of the charges against him?

2) Should he lose his job with ESPN? If so, should that be immediately, or only upon conviction of the charges?

3) Should this incident affect his possible election to the NFL Hall of Fame?

4) Are pro athletes role models, whether they like it or not?

Answer one or all of the questions in the comments section.

Like Clockwork

Anyone who's out here in my neck of the woods could testify to what a beautiful afternoon it was today. But did you go out after dark? I did, and besides the 20-degree temperature drop, the wind was howling like nobody's business. Almost blow away, I did (whoa, a little Yoda-speak there). And I have to say, the timing couldn't have been more perfect, because if tomorrow was going to be as nice as today was, I doubt that anyone would have had the least bit of desire to go back to work or school.

This break was way too short; I think I got spoiled for those couple of years where my public school district took the whole week off. I'm not sure why they discontinued that, but, in the absence of a "fall break" like some of our neighboring districts have, it was pretty nice. Sure, I had to teach college on Tuesday afternoons, but if I griped about having to be somewhere by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I'd be just plain lazy.

The week ahead will be intense; testimony to that is posted on the sidebar: Three gigs in three days, all with the school combos (and a dress rehearsal tomorrow night after teaching). I'm going to have to rediscover that "sleep" thing during the week to keep myself fresh.

Share the despair: My informed source tells me that the newest 2006 Demotivators Calendars from Despair, Inc. are about ready to ship for the holiday season (two other calendars of the "greatest hits" variety that are already available). I give a lot of them as Christmas presents, and if you have any downtrodden office slaves or "disaffected college students" in your life (or anyone else who likes a good laugh) you should too. (Full disclosure: my brother-in-law heads the company, so every calendar you buy will not only make you laugh, but it will also help put food on the table of my sweet sister and two darling nephews.)

A holiday reminder from the copier guys: The copier manufacturer and distributor Canon reminds everyone to be gentle with their equipment during the holiday season, when far too many people crack the glass by trying to copy their rear ends. (Hat tip: Dave Barry's Blog)

Turkey Day Is Over, So Here Come the Leftovers

All the random stuff that's been accumulating over the past few days, slathered with virtual gravy and served up as a casserole:

• From Thursday's paper: Teachers at a local school ask their kindergarten students to come up with instructions for cooking the Thanksgiving turkey; their answers are hilarious. (Sample: " Buy the turkey at a chicken store. Give money to the lady that gives the turkey to you. Put the turkey in the cage so that it will be safe. Then you cut the turkey in half and remove the feathers. Put some salt and pepper on it and fry for 31 years.")


• In case you missed it last night: R.I.P., Mr. Miyagi.


• Once upon a time, prison inmates used to while away their sentences by "bustin' rocks" or making license plates. But some prisoners in Alaska have an interesting job: butchering the meat of moose that have been struck by trains. (Key quote: ""We don't want to give the impression that we're celebrating moose being killed. But if it's going to happen, then let's not waste the meat.")


• From the "I never thought I'd see this" department: Today at the UNT football game, I saw a Chick-Fil-A cow mascot riding a Segway around the stadium concourse. He would later narrowly lose a race across the field on the trendy scooters to Scrappy, the UNT Eagle.


• This last football game of the season was my first one to attend this year. It was pretty much a lost season, though I would've felt guilty if we'd won today; that would've made me think that I was jinxing them by not being at the earlier games. At any rate, there'll be no trip to the Not New Orleans Bowl (it is being played, but in Lafayette) for us this year.


• Cool news of the week: Maynard Ferguson will be at our Sinfonia convention this summer, which means I'm likely to be able to meet him.

From the "someone needs to get a life" department: I also wanted to mention in passing that, in yesterday's paper, there was a letter-writer who thought that the new chancellor-designate of the UT System should be disqualified because he told a reporter that he enjoys The Simpsons. They didn't put the letter in the online edition, so I can't link or really even quote it, but my response to the guy would definitely be, "Don't have a cow, man." To drive my point home, maybe I'd even have the Chick-Fil-A cow run into him with a Segway, on general principle. ("You wanna have a cow over something so trivial? Here's your cow!")

When Black Friday comes, I'm gonna dig myself a hole...in my wallet (or not): Here's a quick poll question--Did you go shopping yesterday or avoid the malls like the plague? (Me, I was chillin' with the family in Austin and not driving back until late, so no shopping for me yet.)

Another Holiday Cornucopia

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Our family is converging (assuming that it's possible for seven people to "converge") on my sister's place in Austin, so I'm out the door in a few minutes to join the celebration. I'lll be back late tomorrow night, and until then, I'll leave you with a couple of quick stories that have been lying around waiting to be posted:

• If you live in Massachusetts, I hope you don't run out of food or accidentally burn the stuffing. The state's centuries-old "blue laws" don't allow any grocery stores to be open today, and the state has warned Whole Foods Market, which was hoping to buck the trend, that they'll face criminal charges if they do.


• I really enjoyed reading Kurt Vonnegut's novels when I was younger, but now I hear that he's praising terrorists and suicide bombers. Is it creeping senility, or has the man just lost his mind? James Lileks takes him to task in a recent Screedblog entry.


• On to the lighter side: A French woman was arrested after she tried to open an airplane door in mid-flight so she could go outside and smoke a cigarette.


• On my way to Denton last night, I was very happy to have to stop in Lewisville and pay $2.01 a gallon for regular gas...until I actually got to Denton and saw that it was $1.99. The magic number has been broken!

I have a review of the One O'Clock/Lou Marini concert in progress; it'll go up when I get back. Until then, everyone have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Tongue-twister of the day: At the social gathering I attended last night, one of the things they were serving was "spiked, spiced cider." Try saying that ten times fast...

If You Can't Beat 'Em....Ignore 'Em

As I usually do during the teaching day, I was listening to little snippets of the Ernie Brown show on my trips between schools, and today, he was in rare form, ridiculing political correctness (a favorite whipping boy here at The Musings as well) once again . The story du jour was the recent flap about Wal-Mart replacing the use of "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays":

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday said it no longer employs a worker who wrote to a shopper that Christmas is a mix of world religions, but that the company does support the generic greeting, "Happy Holidays," as being more inclusive amid year-end celebrations by numerous faiths.

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights criticized the world's largest retailer and called for a boycott over Wal-Mart's approach to Christmas.

"We want a) an apology for insulting Christians by effectively banning Christmas and b) a withdrawal of its insane statement regarding the origins of Christmas and c) a revision on its website," Catholic League President Bill Donohue said on the group's Web site.

Heh, I thought to myself, boycott Wal-Mart? That shouldn't be too hard for me, even though I did have to go in one in Stephenville the other night, strictly by default.

As Ernie pointed out, it used to be an uplifting thing to tell someone "Merry Christmas," but now it's considered an insult by some. But you know what? If someone gets offended by such an innocent, almost always well-intentioned greeting, that's their problem, not mine. And I think that Ernie was onto something good when he said that the best way to fight the PC problem is just not to let yourself get sucked in by it at all. Give people whatever holiday greetings you see fit, and if someone doesn't like it, they don't have to listen. (The funny thing is, I'm probably even a bit more accommodating, since I'll readily wish someone I know to be Jewish a Happy Hanukkah, but yet I wouldn't be offended in the least if they responded in kind. Can there ever really be too much happiness spread around?)

The callers on the show today brought up some good points, including the fact that many of the people who are offended by the use of "Merry Christmas" would squeal like a stuck pig if the perks of the holiday were taken away from them. Offended by the word Christmas? OK, then you lose your Christmas bonus. You don't get December 25th as a holiday, either. What's that, you say--that's different? But hang on--can you really have it both ways?

At some point in time, most sane, rational, mature people will have some sort of "tipping point"-type event that will make them say "enough already!" to the PC plague. Me, I got there a long time ago, but then, I was born white and male, so I guess I never had a chance with the PC crowd. But as I've said before, I've read the Constitution, and among those "inalienable rights" listed in the Preamble, "the right to not get one's feelings hurt" is nowhere to be found. So those who waste their lives (and lungs) complaining about things like that should indeed just be ignored, just like little kids throwing temper tantrums...which is really what they are, in adult bodies, most of the time.

I'm sure this subject won't go away anytime soon, so I'm likely to make fun of it again in future posts.

PREVIOUS POSTS ON THE SUBJECT:
Oh, Please... (10/22/04)
Political Correctness Run Amok (10/28/04)
P.C. as a Jazz Bassist? Good. P.C. as a Lifestyle? Ridiculous (8/6/05)
P.C. Takes It on the Chin, For Once (11/8/05)

What can Brown do for you, or the importance of being Ernest: I've mentioned the Ernie Brown show before, because it's very entertaining and covers a lot of good topics, but I haven't yet discussed this cool personal connection (which could almost qualify as a Fun Fact): I've learned in the past month that the Ernie Brown who's on the air now is the same one who was my Little League teammate in Houston when I was in fourth grade (he was in fifth). I'd listened to the show during his previous stint on KRLD and noted the name coincidence, but I didn't think much of it until he came back to Dallas a few months ago and mentioned quite a few things about growing up in Houston, which led me to believe that he was indeed the same guy. I eventually contacted him; we compared notes by email and discovered that it was true. He stopped by my Broadway Bistro gig a few weeks ago, and it was great to talk to him after all that time. Not only is he a really cool guy, but he's 100% real; the guy on the air and the guy in the flesh are totally one and the same--a refreshing thing in a business where so many people are fake. It just makes me appreciate the show even more. At any rate, that's my "full disclosure," I suppose; if I quote the show a few times, it's not just because I enjoy it as a listener.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We thought you guys were Mormon....or maybe a hockey team."--a couple of off-duty Chili's waitresses/bartenders at Bennigan's last night, after seeing our group of fifty or so fraternity brothers--mostly all dressed up in coats and ties--arrive after an induction.

They Still Don't Get It

There was another article a few weeks ago about the continued efforts of the UT System regents to try and get students to graduate "on time."

At five of the system's nine undergraduate campuses, less than 37 percent of full-time freshmen who started college in fall 1997 received a bachelor's degree from the school within six years. The statewide six-year graduation rate is 52 percent, while the national rate is about 55 percent.

The UT System's four-year graduation rates are even worse.

Just 4.5 percent of UT-El Paso students who entered as freshmen in fall 1999 graduated on time. UT-San Antonio's four-year graduation rate was 6.1 percent for that period, while UT-Pan American's was 8.4 percent.

The problem is, using the old four-year idea as their standard of timeliness is horribly outdated; the real world just doesn't work like that anymore.

I've posted on this subject before, because it really irritates me that the old-school thinking of the regents (and state legislators, who have tried to pass "professional student" bills in the past--bills that would actually penalize students for not finishing "on time") is so far removed from new-school reality. I see it at the community college level all the time; I haven't taken a scientific survey or anything, but experience has shown that many of my traditional students are either working multiple jobs to eke out a living on their own while going to school or working to try and get out of their parents' houses and/or transfer to a four-year school. Certain specialized degrees, like my music education undergrad (currently set at a minimum of 139 credit hours), have only been four-year degrees on paper for years now, and, because of the rising cost of tuition and the necessity of working through school for many more students, most other degrees are headed that way.

I'm not the only one who realizes this; another local college professor takes the regents to task for their antiquated views in a letter today:

It's clear that these University of Texas regents – rich, old political appointees – have never met a modern college student.

I teach at a state university and can tell you that my students often work full time, take care of a family or deal with medical crises. As tuition and fees rise, fewer students can afford full-time college. Few have parents who support them.
--Susan P. Chizeck, UT-Dallas

Prof. Chizeck goes on to say that it's not likely that graduation rates will speed up until financial aid is increased, and today's reality is often that it has in fact decreased. Plus, many students would rather work their way through school than be faced with a mountain of student-loan debt after graduation.

As I said before, sure, there are some slackers in there, but the majority of long-term students are just trying to balance their studies with paying for those studies as best they can. Besides, these students aren't really "taking up space" at their colleges; if the school is getting "full" and doesn't want to turn away new students, there are several ways to serve everyone, including adding more night classes, and yes, maybe even adding more classroom space. After all, in the logical world, more students = more tuition money, and there shouldn't be a reason that such extra money couldn't go to making the school's physical plant bigger.

At any rate, I'm glad someone called these people out on their misguided views. Perhaps all regents should be required to spend a week on their respective campuses (apart from their regular meetings), talking with students and seeing what college life is really like in this day and age. Hmm--this sounds suspiciously like the same reason that administrators should also teach. I sense a pattern here...

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to Jim--my friend, fraternity brother, teaching colleague and occasional Musings commenter.

Notes from the Road (Stephenville Edition #2)

As promised, here are some unusual observations from this weekend's roadtrip:

• I saw several unique mailboxes along the way, the best two being the one shaped like a horse (which had its back to the road, so one would have to open the box by pulling on the tail) and the one that had tractor wheels on it.


• Something that's not likely to be seen in Dallas: A sign on a store in the small town of Bluff Dale said WELCOME DEER HUNTERS. Indeed, I would see several people decked out in camouflage in the Hard Eight; I would at first mistake them for military personnel, until I realized that it was hunters' camo (the haircuts gave them away).


• Another "we're not in Dallas anymore, Toto" moment came when I read a sign that pointed to hay being sold on Campbell Road. Such a thing would never happen anymore on "our" Campbell Road in Garland/Richardson/north Dallas. Thirty years ago, maybe, but not now, when a shopping center or telecom building would be much more common.


• A sign outside a flea market advertised some of its wares: MAGIC SCARFS (sic), SEQUIN PURSES and PUPPIES. Wait--puppies? That doesn't exactly go with the other stuff being sold, but I guess that's where this particular flea market gets its fleas...


• And finally, in the "Huh?" department, a sign in the town of Cresson read "OUTSIDE YARD SALE INSIDE."

I've done a post about a trip along this route before; here's the first set of Notes from the Road (Stephenville Edition) from last time.

I think somebody forgot to pay the barking meter: For the first time in a long time, I had trouble sleeping in my hotel, because a dog in the next room barked incessantly for the entire first hour after I went to bed. I saw a guy walking a dog (the little yappy kind) out by the pool area when I got there, and I thought at first that they were still in the courtyard area. I poked my head outside to see where it was, and at that point, the desk clerk walked by with another guest. I asked her where the dog was, and of course, at that point, the barking stopped. We all stood there in uncomfortable silence for a moment (especially me, since I didn't want anyone to think I was crazy) until the barking resumed and we realized it was coming from next door. The desk clerk looked surprised and assured me she'd get on it after she finished helping the guest she was with at the moment. The barking would keep going for a while, which made me guess that perhaps the owners just left the dog in the room while they were out.

So here's my little rantlet: If you're going to take the dog on vacation, either a) don't leave it alone for prolonged periods, or b) ask for a room far, far away from any other guests. And if you're the hotel owner, the question of the day is whether or not it's possible to be pet-friendly without stopping being people-friendly in the process.

Travel Advisory

I'm headed out to Stephenville tomorrow to visit one of my fraternity chapters. I'm taking advantage of my main Friday middle school being out of town on a band trip in order to make this visit; sometimes things just work out like that. It's only a little over an hour southwest of Ft. Worth, and if you take 377 like I do, it's really a pretty nice drive. I'll hopefully get the chance to eat barbecue at the Hard Eight, and it should go without saying that I'll be picking up cases upon cases of Dublin Dr Pepper while I'm down there (Stephenville is close enough to Dublin that the magic, sugary elixir is even available as a fountain drink at most local restaurants).

I'd love to do some more hard-hitting, issue-based posts like the one I did a few days ago, but I'm pretty swamped right now. The daytime combo is getting ready to do a gig at a food-tasting at one of our other campuses, the night combo is accompanying the jazz choir on their concerts the week after Thanksgiving, and I'm trying to book the next gig for TD/D and/or Kev and Friends. Oh, and all my high-schoolers have All-Region tryouts in a few weeks. I am a perpetual motion machine.

I'll be back on Saturday late morning/early afternoon with a new post and hopefully some "notes from the road." I do tend to see the most unusual things on roadtrips...

Another Milestone

This morning, Kevmobile 1.2 hit the magic mark of 150,000 miles. With the amount of money I've put into her in the past month alone, I hope she's around for a while. I'm not sure if this car is meant to top the 338,000 miles I put on the original Kevmobile (and I really doubt I'll catch my friend Kris and his 400,000-mile 4Runner), but you never know. The cool thing is that it took me nearly two years to get there from the 100K mark (which happened two Thanksgivings ago in Austin), which means I'm driving a lot less than I was a few years ago, when my yearly average was 33,000. Less driving = less gas = mo' money. Yay.

Tomorrow will bring a regular-sized post, I hope.

A Quick Funny

The possibility of a bird flu outbreak among humans is not funny...but this email forward is:

The Center for Disease Control has released a list of symptoms of bird flu.
If you experience any of the following, please seek medical treatment immediately:

1. High fever
2. Congestion
3. Nausea
4. Fatigue
5. Aching in the joints
6. An irresistible urge to crap on someone's windshield.

Going Too Far?

I read an interesting article last week about a recent Pew Internet survey, which notes that 57 percent of all teenagers onilne create sort of digital content--be it photo sharing, digital remixing or blogs. It's a good article on its own merit, as it examines how these so-called "screenagers" are transforming the traditional relationship between producers and consumers of media.

But, needless to say, many adults aren't warming to this new digital world. This paragraph in particular caught my eye:

Last week, Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, N.J., announced that students who posted on MySpace.com or similar sites faced possible suspension from school, citing concerns that students were unwittingly revealing too much information about themselves to potential cyberpredators.

Wait a minute---they're going to get suspended for blogging? On their own time? I can understand if the school wants to limit or prohibit things like that during school hours, but can they really reach that far into a student's home life? Sure, the scholastic arm can extend past school grounds when it comes to illegal behavior (like benching students from extracurricular activities if they're caught drinking, even off-campus), but the last time I checked, blogging was legal. They've overstepped their bounds on this one.

(It should go without saying that I don't necessarily agree with even an on-campus blogging ban; heck, I used to update The Musings whenever I was stuck at a school during a down period, until my district blocked access to Blogger last school year. If the student is finished with his or her work, there are plenty of idle-time activities that are worse than blogging; ask Dingus about his high-school classmate who used to download cartoon porn.)

Am I all wet here? Does anyone think this school is being reasonable? Rather than fear the new technology (which plenty of older folks don't understand themselves), use this situation as a teachable moment: Tell the kids that they can blog all they want to, but use common sense--don't put your address or phone number on the Web, and maybe not even your last name. And remind them that anything they write does in fact go out over the World Wide Web, so one might want to use discretion when, say, writing bad things about people by name.

Besides, the online revolution is here to stay; it's not like the genie can be put back in the bottle. As the article notes,

[T]he Pew survey seems to suggest that the concern over the dangers of adolescent activity online - while perhaps well placed - is a mere cul-de-sac in a larger landscape where a new generation, armed to the teeth with digital sophistication, is redefining media on its own terms.

They sure are, and count me in as one adult who's very enthusiastic about all this stuff...not to mention a little jealous that it wasn't around when I was a kid.

(Hat tip: Althouse, who received some good comments to her own post on the subject.)

The ministry of silly animal names: Monty Python's John Cleese was the recipient of an unusual honor, as a new species of lemur was recently named after him.

...And We're Back

I have successfully completed one combo arrangement, one adaptation of an old arrangement for new instrumentation, and finished/sent out two letters of recommendation for current students headed to four-year schools...all of which had been "pending" for quite some time. So now I can lift my self-imposed moratorium on blogging and resume regular posts.

It's hard for me to get "office stuff" done sometimes, because 1) the only physical office I have is shared with around 100 other professors (thankfully, all of us are never in there at the same time!); 2) my breaks between lessons usually involve driving to another school for more lessons, or to the college; 3) home is not usually conducive to getting work done; I'm often wiped out from a teaching day that's already gone 12+ hours, and there are plenty of distractions here (TV, internet, the occasional nap). I've always said that if I had one hour during the school day for "office hours" and the actual office in which to spend that hour, I'd never be behind on paperwork/arranging again. Until then, I have to resort to cram sessions like today.

If I get home early enough tonight, I'll do one a post of substance; if not, it'll go up tomorrow.

Bloggin' with Mr. Cooper: I'm happy to see that my buddy Coop is returning to regular weekday blogging, thanks to a college English assignment. He's allowed to write about whatever he wants, but I bet some of his posts will discuss being a music major in the "bubble" that is SMU.

Sparseness Alert

Posting may be light over the next several days as I get caught up on some arrangements that really must be done for the school combo this weekend, so they can be used for the fall concert and other stuff around that time. I have a lot I'd like to post about, but, as anyone in my combos knows, I arrange at a glacial pace (or at least it takes me a long time to get started; it's sort of like how the hardest part of practicing is opening up the case), so it's getting down to the wire. I'll catch up eventually, and quoteworthy stuff will of course go up as it happens, even if it's a short little post like yesterday's. I think I'll feel a lot less pressure when all this is done.

Kids Say the Darnedest Things, Vol. XXVII

This will be a short post, as I'm out for the evening in just a few moments. It came during one of the first lessons of the day, from yet another in a series of really funny middle-school kids. It happened after I came back from throwing away some trash from my practice room while he was putting together his horn, and he said...

"You took out the trash, but you forgot the biggest piece....me!!!!!"

As always, maybe you had to be there, but it cracked me up. And yeah, I'm pretty sure he was just being funny and didn't have repressed self-esteem issues or anything.

P.C. Takes It on the Chin, For Once

Longtime Musings readers may recall how I've railed against political correctness in all its forms in several previous posts. Actually, except for the bassist Paul Chambers, the great tune ("Mr. P.C.") that John Coltrane named after him, and my late pet rabbit that I named after the tune, I'm not a big fan of anything with the initials P.C. (including computers, since I'm a die-hard Mac man). But political correctness has been running amok in our society for a long time, so it's nice to see it get turned back at the gate every now and then.

I meant to post on this topic quite some time ago, when I first heard the story: The Fort Worth suburb of White Settlement was contemplating changing its name to "West Settlement" because the current name is...well, un-P.C.:

The "White'' part is just not right for today's business world, Mayor James Ouzts said.

"When people see the name, the question of race comes to mind. They ask `What is that all about? Why is that name there?' '' Ouzts said.

"If you start out in a negative spot, it's hard to overcome that.''
(source)

Granted, many locals were not in agreement with the name-change idea; one city official noted that if this change were to take place, they might as well change the name of the White House too. Where does it stop?

OK, if the town had a history as a Klan stronghold or something, it might have been a different story. But that's not the case at all: The town got its name back in the 1840's when a small enclave of Anglos settled near a number of Indian camps. (And I'm not paying any mind to those who might even say that I'm un-P.C. for using the word "Indian" to describe someone not from the vicinity of New Delhi. Sheesh.) And if the voters were to approve the measure, a city that's already strapped for cash would have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to change everything from stationery to city vehicles to the water tower...all because someone might get their feelings hurt. As the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's history columnist pointed out, "[i]t just means that there was a group of whites who were daring enough to come west and settle in the midst of the Indians. We are going to lose the record of what the city meant historically.''

My definitive thoughts on this matter were posted a few months ago:

I remember when I was a little kid, and I would (as kids always do) get teased by other kids who called me bad names. I'd run home and complain to Mom about it, and she'd usually offer that timeless motherly pearl of wisdom: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But since the whole political-correctness movement took hold in the early '90s, that old "momily" has been turned on its side...so that now, it's more like "If you hurt me with words, I'll break your bones with sticks and stones." Bleh. And people wonder how we've cultivated such a culture of victims and whiners who sue each other at the drop of a hat.

As Joe Bob Briggs might say, I don't want to have to tell you this again.

But the best news came just a few minutes ago, when I was watching the 10:00 news: The voters rejected the name change by a huge margin (2388 against, 219 for). The good guys win one this time.

How low can you go? A bass-trombonist friend sent me a link to a page for a very unusual horn called the tubax. It has the same range as a contrabass saxophone (an octave below the bari!), but it's smaller (relatively speaking, of course) and much cheaper than having an actual "contra" custom-made for you. Be sure and listen to this clip of a guy playing "Stardust" on the tubax.

Musician, Heal Thyself

I think I'm over the hump as far as the allergy misery goes. I may have hit my lowest point this morning; it could have been the practice room (located in a school where there's never been any air circulation in that wing since the building opened) or the fact that some of the students were making the same goofy mistakes over and over again, but nonetheless, I soldiered on, and by the time I had lunch (which perked me up considerably, as it always does), I knew that the worst was behind me. Indeed, for a while, the coughing and congestion were totally gone, and all that lingered was the worn-out feeling. That's cool. I can handle worn-out. It's a part of many of my teaching days...

So last night, when I was lamenting the fact that this whole thing hadn't passed yet, a friend of mine asked me if I was going to go to the doctor. "No way," was my reply. It would have to be way worse than this before I would consider that option. After all, in my line of work, if I go to the doctor (thanks to their totally annoying habit of not being open during hours when I'm not working [he says with tongue partially planted in cheek]), I end up paying twice--once, to pay him, and the second time, by losing lesson income.

If anything, I'd been an idiot for not doing something about the fact that I'd run out of both cough drops and Nyquil when the malaise hit last week. But now, I was armed with both, and I fully expected them to do their job. So far, so good. There's a little bit of a lingering cough tonight, and my throat was a bit scratchy at the end of teaching...but then, how can I really teach without speaking (notwithstanding my strategy from Friday)? One more good night of sleep--aided by the cup of cherry-flavored elixir--and one more subdued day of teaching, and I should be OK.

But going back to my friend's question made me revisit a subject I've thought about many times before: Do people go to the doctor too much? I just can't imagine running to the medical building every time I had some minor ailment. I think about my late grandparents, who seemed to have every pill under the sun on their bathroom counter, and I think it might be overkill. Sure, there'll probably be a time later in life when I'll have some things wrong with me that can't be treated over the counter, but I hope that I won't be tempted to go in for every little thing. If anything, I'd be more afraid of catching something worse from other people there.

This all goes back to when I was a freshman at UNT and I got sick from the Denton water the first two weeks I was there (that was the best that anyone could offer up as a reason, and indeed, I would use melted ice for drinking water the entire time I lived in the dorm--this being pre-Dasani days, after all). After a few weeks of excessive hurling at inopportune times (OK, is there ever really an opportune time to hurl?) and even having a messed-up blood count, I just decided I needed to get well, right then and there, or I would never get this new phase in my life underway. I grabbed life by the cojones and yanked hard, and I did end up thinking myself well, more or less.

On the flip side of the coin, I had the use of the UNT Student Health Center (lovingly dubbed the "Quack Shack" in those days) for the next several years. Doctor visits were free and prescriptions were cheap, and I pretty much did go in for every little thing for a while, and I recall feeling less healthy during this time; maybe I was catching stuff from the actual sick people who were there? (This would also seem to be a good argument against socialized medicine; when the service was free, people used it more than they probably needed to, which gummed up the system. Eventually, the lines got so long that I think they now charge a small fee for an appointment.)

So who knows why this works. Maybe I've just been really lucky so far. Certainly, I've built up quite an immune system over the years. (This likely stems both from spending my days in the aforementioned stuffy practice rooms--sometimes teaching kids who are technically too sick to be there--and from the fact that I'm not married yet, so I've lived under a guy's system of cleanliness for a long time, which is bound to build up immunity to something. Indeed, I fully expect to get sick more often once I'm married...but it'll be totally worth it.) But hey, I'm not complaining.

So what do you think about this whole thing? Do you agree that people tend to go to the doctor too often, weakening their own immune system in the process? Can one really think oneself well? And is there any substance to my theory that I'm hardier than many folks because I only live under "guy cleanliness?"

Also, feel free to include any helpful hints for staying well during the cold and flu season. Personally, I wash my hands frequently, don't shake hands with anyone who's coughing or sneezing, etc. All I can say is, it works for me.

And now, it's time to chug the red stuff and go to bed.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: " It’s fine if your day doesn’t start with dog, but it ought to end with dog."--James Lileks, in today's Bleat. My day starts with cat (or sometimes, cleaning up the unpleasant expulsions from cat, if she's in her "What litter box?" phase), but hopefully there'll be a dog in the mix somewhere down the road.

With Friends Like These...

...I can put on a good gig on the fly.

That's a roundabout way of saying that things went well last night. What I didn't tell anyone when I was announcing tunes (granted, the announcements were pretty brief because of the raspy-voice thing) was that the band we assembled didn't even have a chance to rehearse a single measure before we started the gig.

But that's the beauty of jazz. Since so much of it is improvised, all you really need is a group of players who are well-versed in soloing and style and listen with "big ears." That way, no matter what tunes you put in front of them (OK, within reason--maybe not "Giant Steps" at half note equals 200), it will sound pretty good. Indeed, we pulled it off, and it seemed to go over well with the audience, which was a mixture of the venue's regulars and the people that we invited. We've been asked back for both another public gig as well as a private holiday party, and I also gave a card out to a guy looking for a band for a wedding. Not bad for a group that didn't exist except on paper (or would that be in cyberspace?) before last night.

At any rate, it looks like the start of a long relationship, and hopefully it will lead to other stuff, not only for this band, but TD/D (and I can certainly envision plenty of cross-pollination, as it were, between the two groups).

I have other tales to tell, and I've read plenty of things in the news I'd like to talk about...but tonight, I just need to get well. I cancelled my speaking engagement with my fraternity chapter in Denton to save what's left of my voice (announcing the gig was not kind to me last night) and hope to get some extra sleep tonight to kick-start the process of getting well. I was out of cough drops and Nyquil all weekend, but that has also been rectified, so hopefully, the road to recovery starts tonight.

Oh, and I did want to mention how relieved I was to find out that nobody I knew was directly affected by the tornado that hit Evansville, Indiana early this morning. My fraternity has its headquarters there, but the path of destruction was well to the east, and even the staffers who lived near the damaged areas were spared.

Speak Softly and Carry a Small Saxophone

What started out yesterday as a medical condition ended up turning into an interesting sociological experiment. The condition: Having been wracked by allergies the past few days, I ended up nearly losing my voice by the end of my last combo class on Thursday night. The dilemma: I was asked to go down and assist one of my fraternity chapters with a ceremony last night, which required me to make a speech. This is, of course, very hard to do without a voice. The remedy (with its own dilemma): Rest my voice as much as possible yesterday, which is hard to do during a day of one-on-one music lessons. The solution: What I did was pretty close to the "grunting and hand gestures" that Dingus jokingly suggested on Thursday night; I actually made it through the whole teaching day speaking as little, and as softly, as possible.

My Friday consists only of middle-school students save for one (whom I didn't catch until after school anyway due to trimester exams). Middle-schoolers are often known for their "exuberance" (i.e. most of them are really, really hyper), so it was interesting how they responded to sparse and quiet verbal instructions. I was especially amused by the couple of sixth-graders who replied to near-whispered instructions by whispering themselves. It was also funny to see the looks on their faces when they first heard me speaking so softly; while I may not be as animated as most of them are, I am by nature a fairly loud and talkative person, so hearing "quiet me" must have had them feeling like they were in Bizarro World.

Since yesterday consisted of run-throughs and mock auditions for the older kids, who have their all-city tryouts on Monday, it was a fortunate coincidence that I really didn't have to do too much explaining of things, though I certainly didn't hold back just to "save my voice" if someone needed a lot of verbal instructions. Overall, everyone was less hyper during these subdued lessons, though that could have been attributed to their nerves at being put into an (admittedly simulated) audition situation. So will I be that quiet in the future on general principle, just to make the students calmer? Nahh--that's not me. But it is a good tactic to use work if someone is just bouncing off the walls.

Oh, and if you're wondering, my voice made it just fine through my presentation, even if it lacked its usual resonance. Now I just need to rest it some more for my MC-ing duties at tonight's gig and a history presentation tomorrow for another one of my chapters. Great timing, one might say, but allergy season is something which is a given for me at this time of the year.

With a little help from my friends: Don't forget that the "Kev and Friends" gig is tonight at the Broadway Bistro from 7:30 until 10:30. If you're in the area, please drop by.

Could I be this fortune-ate? At Panda for lunch today, I got a fortune cookie with two fortunes inside: FAME AND FORTUNE LIE AHEAD and YOUR HARD WORK IS ABOUT TO PAY OFF. They go surprisingly well together, and it would be nice if they actually came true.

My Next Gig

OK, I can officially talk about it now; my next gig is in two days. It's on Saturday night, 7:30 to 10:30, at the Broadway Bistro in old downtown Carrollton (the place I played with Gordon's band back in September). It's not a Team Demon/Dingus gig, because the rest of the band couldn't make it this weekend, but I wanted to take this date when it was offered to me, so that it might pave the way for other TD/D gigs down the road. (Also, we'll be playing a lot of things from the TD/D book.)

Joining me for this gig will be my good friend Colin Hinton on drums, along with four buddies of mine from UNT: John Guari on trumpet (known as J-Guar on this blog), Collin Hauser (recently in the college big band) on alto, Bryan Aduddell (formerly of 15th Street Jazz) on guitar, and Andy Rogers (my fraternity brother from Tennessee) on bass. I know it's short notice, but if you're in the area, come out and see us!

(cross-posted in slightly different form at Team Demon/DIngus)

I Don't Believe in Astrology, But...

...my horoscope really nailed it today:

GEMINI (May 21-June 21): Again, you're overloaded. The end should be almost in sight. (source)

That pretty much described my day today. I've been feeling burned out with my nonstop teaching schedule as well as fighting the beast of seasonal allergies, and I really wasn't sure I'd make it through afternoon lessons today. (I even tried to get a long-empty prescription refilled today, only to find out that my allergy doctor's office is closed on Wednesday. Wow...they still do that? I thought the whole closed-on-Wednesday thing had gone the way of house calls. Next, they'll be telling me that the doctor still uses that day off to play golf...)

In the end, it was one forgotten lesson that perked me up; it was the first week of no Wednesday marching band at this particular school, and one kid didn't remember to stay. The little break that ensued, between that school and the two lessons at my house, was enough to carry me through the rest of the teaching day, and taking the evening off--to eat dinner at home, watch TV, even nap a little--seems to be just what the doctor ordered. Musician, heal thyself.

And, like the horoscope said, the end is in sight, in a way; with the start of the second trimester next week, for those schools who observe that format, I have the chance to shuffle some things around so that Wednesday afternoons aren't such a beating for the rest of the year. A solid night of sleep tonight should help the short-term concerns, and maybe I can get caught up on all my "office stuff" in the next few days.

I have a gig this weekend...I think. The venue owner hasn't returned my email asking for a confirmation of the time, but I'll clear that up tomorrow no matter what. Once it's confirmed, the sidebar will be updated and festive flyers will go up; if something causes it to fall through, I'll be looking for another date (or even another venue for the same date--that'd be wild). Should be fun, at any rate.

A Good Discussion

I don't have anything really exciting to post today, but I invite you to (re-?)visit the post from Saturday regarding my ideas to improve public education. It seems that quite a good discussion has broken out in the comments to that post, thanks to a private-school educator who blogs under the name of Green Goblin. I'll have more to talk about tomorrow when I'm not so dog-tired.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: From two different students today, who both have all-city band tryouts next Monday...

ME: Best of luck on Monday!
KID: You too!

We've gotten so used to responding to any positive statement with "you too!" that sometimes it shows up in odd places like that. I think I even got a "you too!" out of someone to whom I was wishing a happy birthday...

SPAM EMAIL SUBJECT OF THE DAY: "He teach my bumpkin taxi," courtesy of "Marylou Hensley." (The email was an ad for online pharmaceuticals, as you might imagine.)

Hallo-wet

I read in the paper today that the D/FW area was around eleven inches behind in rainfall this year. I think all eleven inches tried to come down around 11:00 this morning. On me. D'oh!

OK, it wasn't really that bad, and I do have a reasonably worn-out umbrella that does as much of the job as can be done. Still, it was weird to walk out of my first school to a deluge of that quantity. It calmed down a bit before I had to go to my next school, a park-in-the-front, walk-to-the-back affair. And looking at the big picture, at least large portions of our local vegetation are no longer in as much danger of catching on fire now. Still, I wonder if the would-be ghosts and goblins will be deterred.

Not that I'll be home to greet them, since I teach until 7:30, and then my friend Colin and I are set to partake in Chipotle's "Boo-Rito" promotion (dress up like a burrito--i.e. swath yourself in foil--and get a free one). I do have a bag of candy by the door in case of extreme latecomers, but nobody took advantage of that last year, so I gave most of it to my friends and ate the rest.

There's a gig in the works for this weekend; I'll post it on the sidebar and discuss it tomorrow. For now, I'm off to teach a few at the store (the first two having cancelled, which is the only reason I'm at a computer quite this early on a Monday).

Oh, and if you're new to the blog, here's my ghost story from a few years back. Happy Halloween to all!

UPDATE: In case you're wondering, Colin and I did in fact do the costumes. I had two cartons of aluminum foil, but I forgot the duct tape, so we were pretty much falling apart, costume-wise, by the time we got up to the counter. We added an extra touch by writing the abbreviation for our favorite burritos across our chests in Sharpie; his was an "S" for steak, mine a "C" for chicken, just like they write on the burritos themselves. We were able to go up to the counter and tell them we were wearing our orders!

We were the only costumed ones when we got there, though others would arrive later...but in all honestly, our costumes were better. One guy only had what looked like a Little Red Riding Hood bonnet made of foil on his head. Great fun. We then did what lots of people in school were talking about today and saw Saw II. Now, when someone asks me "Did you see Saw?", I can answer in the affirmative without having been at a playground.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: An exchange with a kid during lessons...
ME: Wow, you made that same mistake for the third time.
KID: I know; I almost never do that. I think it's because I just got back from lunch; I can't concentrate.
ME: Why--because the cafeteria food was so bad?
KID: (laughs and shakes his head)
ME: What is it, then?
KID: Sugarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
ME: Aha...

I wonder how many kids will be too pumped up on sugarrrrrrrrrrrrrr to even get to sleep tonight.

A Simple Solution for Education

In yesterday's post, I cited several instances of short-sighted or self-serving decisions made by school administrators, and I noted that the problem was not just with the individual administrators themselves, but also how the whole system is set up. I'll elaborate for a moment and then suggest a simple solution that I think would work very well.

The problem with the setup of most public school districts is that they've become top-heavy with administrators. Texas Governor Rick Perry made a move in the right direction a few months ago when he issued an executive order mandating that 65% of all school expenditures must go toward classroom instruction. It's by no means perfect, since it doesn't count things like libraries, transportation, food service, or even heating and cooling the schools under the instructional portion, but it's a good start. Perhaps what Governor Perry was getting at--and definitely what I am getting at--is that the top-heaviness must be reduced. Why? Here are two good reasons:

1) The school district has become an inefficient bureaucracy. I've already stated my disdain for bureaucracies; it's mostly because the jobs created by such bureaucracies are often unnecessary, which leads to equally unnecessary actions. A person in such a position will often come up with ridiculous, poorly-thought-out policies just to give the appearance of "doing something." (In my own opinion, zero-tolerance policies, uniform dress codes and standardized exit testing such as TAKS can all be attributed to such thinking.) Bureaucrats often become so entrenched in such a mindset that they lose touch with the real world. As I said in a previous post, it's important for administrators to get out into the world and interact with people who are not other administrators; otherwise, the disasters for which they make plans daily become the bulk of their reality, which has a detrimental effect on their way of thinking. Also, bureaucrats tend to be difficult to terminate, even when they're doing a bad job, and they will often fight vigorously to keep their comfortable, do-little position.

2) Adminstrators are no longer teachers. This, in my opinion, is the root of the problem. Often, the only way to make really good money in the field of education is to go into administration, but doing so may bring one of two negative outcomes: Many good teachers are removed from the classroom, and many bad teachers are placed in a position where they can make rules (often bad ones) that affect multiple schools. I know of several educators who left administration because they couldn't stand to be away from teaching. Meanwhile, the ones who stay get caught up in their "ivory tower" and forget what it's like to be a teacher.

I remember well one of the presidents of UNT when I attended school there. His entry in the directory of faculty in the university catalog did not begin with "President and Chancellor"; instead, he was called "Professor of History" first, and then his presidency was listed. To me, that indicates a man who had his priorities in order, and it was a good starting point for explaining the success he had during his tenure.

So here is my simple solution to this problem. Every school district should formulate a policy that goes something like this:

Every administrator must teach one regular class per academic term.

This would actually have several positive outcomes: It would allow outstanding teachers to have additional administrative responsibilities without completely removing them from the classroom; it would increase the possibility that administrators with no talent for teaching would be removed from academia completely after a semester or two; and it would prevent administrators from totally succumbing to the bureaucratic mindset, because they would never completely stop being teachers.

This solution is so simple, I'm surprised nobody has proposed this before. It's sort of a relative of the idea of the "citizen-legislator" that was discussed extensively during the term-limits debates in Washington of a decade ago (which is still at least a good idea, for some of the same reasons we're discussing here). I originally thought of the idea of term limits for administrators (in the same way that many colleges have rotating department chairs), but the concept of the teacher-administrator would probably be much easier to implement and would likely yield even better results. I'm sure many administrators won't like it, but parents and students should be highly in favor of it...and, after all, education is supposed to be for the benefit of the student, isn't it?

Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.

A Problem in Need of a Solution

I've been meaning to write this post for several months now, but something else has always gotten in the way. However, I've written many times before about about short-sided, self-serving, unrealistic, even idiotic decisions made by school administrators: Zero-tolerance policies that also involve zero-thought; kids suspended for being in possession of "deadly" rubber bands; a senior honor student expelled because he borrowed his dad's truck to drive to school without noticing the shotgun in the back seat. But it was this story that encouraged me to finally write this post:

Before Hurricane Katrina, honor student Kevin Henry, 17, passed Louisiana's high school exit exams and planned to spend his senior year completing class assignments, selecting a college, volunteering and enjoying senior activities.

Now a student at Lawrence E. Elkins High School in Fort Bend Independent School District, Henry can consider his Louisiana exit-exam scores water under the bridge. If he wants to graduate and receive a Texas diploma, he has to pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

"I think it's unfair that any student from Katrina has to take the test," Henry said. Two weeks before TAKS, Henry said he hadn't seen a copy of the practice test. He thought he would do well, but still felt stressed about it.
(Hat tip: Mom and Dad, who brought the article to me in their Houston paper)

Does anyone else think this is just ridiculous? To me, this is one of the big problems with "admini-think": the one-size-fits-all mentality that rarely, if ever works. If a large number of students are displaced because of a national disaster like this, the state (and the individual school districts) should work with them to make sure they get to graduate, and they should do more than usual to honor the affected students' test scores from their home states. So much for that "warm Texas welcome" that many evacuees have been experiencing...

There's also the matter of the state test itself; should a single test really outweigh a student's entire academic career's worth of grades? If so, why do we have grades to begin with, if this standardized test is supposed to be the be-all and end-all of education?

And what of this whole zero-tolerance mess? The problem is, one-size-fits-all thinking just doesn't...fit all. Never has, never will. It's just easier (lazier?) to hide behind a set of rules and not take the time to consider each case on its own merits. It's also a quick and easy way to avoid having to make difficult decisions, or (heaven forbid!) stirring up controversy. Why do any work when you can sit back and let the rules do the work for you?

I place the blame for this type of thinking squarely on the shoulders of school administrators--not just the administrators themselves, but the way the whole system is set up. I think there's a quick and easy fix to the whole thing (which might even save school districts money to boot). I'll outline that solution in tomorrow's post.

RELATED POST: A Simple Solution for Education.

Happy Birthday (You Money Pit You)

I didn't realize until late in the day that all of this was taking place on her third "birthday" (i.e. anniversary under my ownership), but Kevmobile 1.2 seems to be conspiring to drain me of all my excess money these days. You might recall that, at the beginning of this month, I was without the car for several days due to what turned out to be both clutch and transmission problems. Then last night, on my way home from Denton, I noticed that the power steering was much less...powerful. I took it in after teaching at my first school today and found out that the rack and pinion had gone out. (That had been one of those things on my to-do-in-the-near-future list since August, but its replacement was preempted by the clutch and transmission stuff.) Great--more missed lessons, more money leaving my wallet...and how will I get to the college? Missing that teaching is not an option, so I pondered bumming rides off friends, finding a bus schedule, wondering if my parents (who were on their way for a visit anyway) would arrive soon enough (but nahh, didn't want to make them do that). Finally, they came up with a solution: I'd use the mechanic's spare car as a loaner for the afternoon. He relished the idea of having the car, which he was trying to sell, on a college campus for a few hours with the FOR SALE sign readily visible.

Driving that car proved to be the most interesting part of the day. It was a Prelude, so it was even lower to the ground than my Civic. There was no AC (not needed today, really) or radio (I did miss that, and I realized that time moves very slooooooooowly at red lights when there's nothing to listen to), and the speedometer didn't work. Not wanting to get a ticket in a borrowed car, that meant I had to drive by feel, which I think actually worked. Having driven a stick since I was sixteen, I figured that I know at least what 30, 35 and 40 MPH feel like, but still, that was an odd sensation, not unlike a Jedi closing his eyes and using the Force (no, I didn't actually do that). At any rate, it was a nice gesture on the mechanic's part to loan it to me; I added a few gallons of gas to his tank on my trip.

When I went back between combos to pick it up, the other proverbial shoe dropped: It needed a full set of tires, not just the front two as they'd suggested before. Oh, and the brakes are about to go out. Bleh. (And before anyone suggests hastening the arrival of Kevmobile 2.0, you should know that I still have a year to go before this one is paid off...and I was hoping to go a year after that before starting payments again.) After those two things are done, I hope to not set foot in the mechanic's again anytime soon, save for oil changes.

Have a money-pit car story? Feel free to drop it in the comments (perhaps along with your favorite lottery numbers; I need some extra luck this week).

Something's in the Works

It looks like there definitely will be a public gig of some sort for me next weekend. It won't be TD/D per se, because too many of the regular members are unavailable, but we will be using a lot of the TD/D book, because I think that the bulk of those tunes are both accessible to the casual listener and yet open enough for creative improvisation. I'll have more details once the personnel is set, but for now, suffice it to say, I'm definitely excited about this one.

(cross-posted at Team Demon/Dingus)

Taken Out by a Ballgame

OK, it looks like there won't be a regular post tonight, as I've been glued to the TV ever since I got home. I'm watching the World Series, of course, seeing if the team of my childhood, the Astros, can pull one off. (As we speak, it's tied at five, going into the eleventh.) Original thoughts resume during tomorrow afternoon's break.

UPDATE: D'oh! It was definitely not enjoyable to stay up till 1:15 in the morning for a game that ended the way this one did. But I'm a fan...what can I say?

Fall Has Fell, and Kev Has (Been) Sprung

The uneasiness of today ended relatively quickly when I didn't get selected for a jury. Whew! Sure, I had to get up before the crack of dawn (indeed, the entire train ride down was in the dark) and endure a lot of sitting around, but in the end, I wasn't one of the "lucky" six (it was a misdemeanor case, thus the smaller panel), so I was released from service a shade before one o'clock. I treated myself to Chipotle in the West End (since it's located right in front of where the train would pick me up) and was back teaching by three. I lost some money, but not a ridiculous amount, and I can even make up a few of today's middle-school lessons on Wednesday, when the high-schoolers are at marching contest.

I think there will always be some anxiety about being called down for service, for the reasons I discussed yesterday, but this time, it was a minor inconvenience at the most. Here's hoping I don't get called again for another couple years this time.

Blue Red train: I took the Red Line from the Bush Turnpike Station to get downtown, and once again, the trip was pleasant. The trains were clean, efficient, and free of any really shady-looking characters. It only took forty minutes to get to the West End, and a little longer to catch the bus over to the courthouse (finding the right bus did prove confusing at first, as the transfer station was, to the novice, loosely-organized chaos). The train doesn't often go where I'm going (yet?), but it's a great way to get around, and it sure beats sitting in rush hour on Central Expressway to get downtown.

I wonder if it was a Norwegian blue: Admit it--if you read the story about England's first case of bird flu being found in a dead parrot, the first thing you thought of was the famous Monty Python sketch. (Even weirder, when I was in Potbelly at dinnertime tonight, reading the issue of Quick in which that story was found, I looked up and saw a picture of Michael Palin on the wall in full Ministry of Silly Walks pose. Heh.)

I can see drive for miles and miles: Congratulations to my friend and colleague Kris, whose '89 4Runner hit the magic 400,000 mile marker this morning ("at about 8:05 a.m.," as his email noted), thus putting the deeds of the original Kevmobile to shame. You wanna go for half a million now, Kris?

Beyond the Call of (Jury) Duty?

For the second time in almost exactly a year, I have been called to jury duty, which will happen tomorrow morning. As I noted last year on the eve of my service, jury duty is probably about as much fun as a root canal no matter who you are or what you do for a living, but it's especially distasteful--and potentially finanically harmful--to those who own their own businesses, and it's even worse for anyone who is the sole proprietor of said business. It's worse still for those with no other source of family income, i.e. the single. Wow, I'm up to about four strikes now, right? Please indulge me in a little rant here...

Unfortunately, business hardship is not an allowable exemption in my county (which, as I said before, is almost understandable, since some people would undoubtedly take improper advantage of such a loophole). It is possible to postpone one's service, but, in my case, there's no guarantee that the rescheduled date would be any better (I suppose I could ask to be assigned during a school holiday, but, knowing my luck, I'd be given the week right after Christmas or something). At least I have a little money socked away right now and none of my students have individual competitions for the next couple of weeks. Still, it's extremely distasteful to know that I'll be paid six dollars a day for my service; I earn that in twelve minutes when I'm teaching. Mondays are also busier this year than they were last year, so even if I only miss the one day, I'm out over 300 bucks.

I'm also concerned because, for the first time, I've been called to the criminal courts instead of the civil ones. This is distasteful for me for several reasons: 1) The thought of possibly helping to send someone to jail; 2) It seems as though a criminal trial would last longer than a civil one (am I wrong here?); 3) The criminal courts building is not on the main rail line, so using my free DART pass will require me to catch a bus after a forty-minute train ride; 4) My reporting time is thirty minutes earlier than it was for civil court, and now they require us to be there 45 minutes earlier than that because of possible long lines for security checkpoints...all of this will make me have to wake up--on the coldest day of fall so far--at five in the morning (for the first time since my college radio days), thus almost guaranteeing the Monday-est of all possible Mondays.

But my big question today is this: Is it fair to require someone to abandon his business, practically for free, in the name of civic duty? And, for that matter, is it in anyone's best interest to remove teachers from teaching for this purpose? I had the latter discussion with several other teachers at a social event last night, and we were pretty much of one mind that disrupting the educational process was rarely a good thing; in cases where a substitute is possible, very little productive work will take place unless the substitute is highly qualified (all the people I was talking to were band directors). In my own case, the lessons will just be completely missed, as the possibilities for make-ups are scant, thanks to the schedules of both the students and myself. Students (in both high school and college) are granted automatic exemptions; why not their teachers?

I do understand the desire of the legal system to have the biggest possible cross-section of the populace involved in the jury system, but the self-employed really do take it on the chin in this area. Employers are not required to pay their workers' salaries while on jury duty, but I'm sure most of them do. I, on the other hand, acting as my "employer," cannot possibly pay my "employee" (me again) his salary for any missed days, because the "company" (still me) will not have earned any money on those days. What to do?

I've been thinking for a long time about some fair way to deal with this, and I believe that I've come up with something: Allow the self-employed to deduct the amount of missed work on their income taxes. We already have a form that's entitled "profit or loss from business," and the amount of income sacrificed to jury service could be put in the loss column. The self-employed would thus get to participate in the jury process without taking quite so much of a financial hit. Anybody see any problems with this? Am I missing something? Or is it such a good idea that the government will never go for it? Leave your responses in the comments.

Also, if you're from another state (or country?), feel free to tell me how the process works in your area. In Dallas County, it's a "one day/one trial" policy, which means that if you're not picked the first day, your term of service is considered complete (I'm crossing my fingers here, bigtime). In Minnesota, as James Lileks noted recently, you only get called every two years, but you're on call for two weeks! (I'm not sure if that's better, but at least you could plan for it; I had two weeks' notice on this summons.) There are undoubtedly many other ways of doing things of which I'm not aware.

Anyway, my rant is over for now. Wish me luck tomorrow, and feel free to make your predictions in the comments as to how long I'll be stuck there this time. If I'm picked, updates will be sporadic; if I'm sent home, my gleeful post will go up tomorrow night.

UPDATE: I didn't get picked. Yay!

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Give me the making of the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its laws."--Andrew Fletcher (1704), Scottish political writer, as quoted in the sermon this morning at church.

Farewell to a Classy Lady of Jazz

I heard on the radio last night that jazz singer/pianist Shirley Horn died on Thursday from complications of diabetes at the age of 71. She made some small-time recordings in the fifties, one of which caught the attention of Miles Davis, who brought her to New York to open for him at the famed Village Vanguard and became a lifelong friend. Though she took some time off in the 70's to raise her daughter, she reemerged in the 80's with a series of acclaimed recordings on the Verve label, many of which received Grammy nominations. As a vocalist who was equally proficient on piano, she paved the way for many of today's younger stars like Diana Krall and Norah Jones. By all indications, she was a very classy lady and will definitely be missed.

The days are just packed: He doesn't do interviews anymore, and even his current place of residence is unknown, but there's a great feature on Bill Watterson, the Calvin and Hobbes creator, that I read today. In honor of the new collection of all ten years' worth of C&H strips, many local papers are re-running some of the strips for a few months; I'm happy that they're doing so here.