Todd and Co. Can't Dodge a Bullet Right Now

I didn't get to hear all of today's UNT/Army game on the radio, as I had a lunchtime engagement (one at which it would have been rude to constantly check the scores on my phone). But it wasn't looking good when I got out of the car at noon, and when I came back, the game had just ended, and it was bad news once again: The Mean Green lost to Army, 24-0, falling to 0-3 on the year.

And once again, the game wasn't a blowout in the beginning, and that's been the story all season so far. They played Clemson tough for the first half; they very well could have beaten Rice last week. And in the first half of today's game, they held the ball for far longer than Army and kept things close, only trailing 7-0 when I got out of the car. It's been close--oh, so close--but since this isn't horseshoes, hand grenades or atom bombs, close doesn't count. And I'm afraid that if this ship doesn't right itself pretty soon, Todd Dodge won't get to reap the benefits of the new stadium that I'm sure has been a key part of recruiting for the past several years.

The worst thing is this: If the team does have a losing season, it can be blamed on something largely out of Coach Dodge's control: Injuries. This paragraph pretty much tells the whole story:

Injury woes have taken their toll on the Mean Green this year, and hit home again at West Point. After losing center Nick Leppo in the game's second series, quarterback Derek Thompson left the game with a leg injury. Starting receiver Christopher Bynes also left the game with injury, making nine starters lost to injury this year.

Thompson was filling in for Nathan Tune, who left last week's game against Rice with a hip injury, and Riley Dodge was once again called into action.

And remember, Riley Dodge used to be the starting QB himself, until he was switched to receiver because of...wait for it...injuries. And Leppo was filling in at center for J.J. Johnson, who was lost for the season to a foot injury in the opener against Clemson. So that means that, by the second quarter yesterday, the third-string center was snapping to the third-string emergency quarterback...in the third game of the season. It makes one wonder if the team will eventually run out of players at this rate.

Granted, there are still a lot of games left to go, including the entire conference schedule. One could find hope in the fact that the Green have hung in there well against their non-conference foes. But considering what happened earlier tonight, when Texas A&M barely beat Florida International, a Sun Belt team, earlier tonight, it reminds us that the conference won't exactly be a cakewalk either.

I haven't given up hope yet, but these injuries are killing North Texas. I still believe in Coach Dodge, and I'd love to see him still in charge when the new stadium opens next season, but things have to get back on track very soon.

Where Were You...

...nine years ago, when you heard the news? I've posted this in some form every year since I started blogging, and I pause to remember again:

I was on a break from teaching, like every Tuesday, and actually spent the time of the attacks in blissful ignorance at a nearby Starbucks. I had CD's on in my car instead of the radio, so I totally missed the news on both the way over and the way back. I did hear someone listening to a radio on the Starbucks patio and they were talking about "the second plane," but it didn't register with me at all. (It amazed me later that nobody walked inside and told us about it.)

When I got back to the school, the flute teacher stopped me in the hallway and asked me if all my students were being pulled out of school (evidently hers were). I said, "No, why?" and she told me what had happened. I spent the rest of the day like everyone else, in shocked, depressed amazement, catching the news when I could. There I was, not even two weeks into being a homeowner, and the world suddenly felt so different. It added to the pall cast over everything when I found out that the sister of a girl I graduated from high school with was on Flight 93, the one that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. (I know that there have been quite a few lists of names read aloud today, so let me share hers: Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas. May she rest in peace...)

The whole thing felt so surreal; how could anyone hate us that much? The concept of the suicide hijacking was unprecedented as well (before that, hijackers just usually wanted to go to Cuba, and that's why airline personnel were taught to cooperate with them rather than try to subdue them).

I know there are still terrorist plots being hatched, and people capable of carrying them out...but I hope nothing like this ever happens on U.S. soil again. Or anywhere, for that matter.

For those who may be new to reading this blog since then, I'll invite you to share your recollections in the comments to this post.

As I've said for several years now, I hope nobody tires of talking about this every once in a while, because if we stop talking, we might forget, and this is a day that need not be forgotten anytime soon.

I'm sure that the blogosphere will be full of great tributes today, and I'll add links to those later, after I get back from judging a competition this morning.

LATER: A few more items...

• Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas had a memorial garden in Houston dedicated to her this morning.


• Gerard Vanderleun has some first-person recollections from Brooklyn; here's another one with extensive quotes from a Cantor Fitzgerald broker whose life was spared by what can only be called divine providence.


• A couple of other "reruns' are work your time: this 2003 piece from James Lileks, and a collection of same-day postings from the early days of Instapundit.

If I run across anything else noteworthy today, I'll come back and post it here.

No Ark Needed Today, But It Was Interesting

Living as far inland as Dallas/Ft. Worth, it's not too often that we're directly affected by hurricanes. And while Tropical Storm Hermine never quite made it to hurricane status, she certainly wreaked havoc with our weather all day today.

It's not as if we don't need the rain up here; we certainly do. But getting it all at once as we did (some areas of the Metroplex have gotten ten inches since yesterday) causes all kinds of problems--flooding, treacherous commutes into work, and so on. And the event that seemed to get the most news coverage was the early evening tornado that sheared part of a wall off a paint warehouse on Mockingbird Lane near Irving Boulevard just west of I-35. (I myself was teaching right through a tornado warning, blissfully ignorant of same until someone texted me about the status of an evening event.)

I can count myself among the thankful, because the only effect that today's weather had on me personally was a couple of really rainy trips between schools. I use a few back roads on my Wednesday commute, and they were almost flooded, but not quite; the afternoon activities at my last school of the day (which would have included five of my lessons) were almost canceled (actually, they were for a second, but they were subsequently un-canceled by the time school let out), and the bridge that would have taken me home was almost closed due to high water, but the levels dropped by the time I used it.

I hope that everyone else was as lucky as I was, and may tomorrow be a much less eventful (and drier) day.

It's Sonny on a Rainy Day

As I noted on Facebook a bit earlier, I can't let another minute of today go by without wishing a happy 80th birthday to Sonny Rollins. Not only is he one of the few remaining national treasures of his generation of jazz, but he's still tearing it up on the tenor and has a rather active touring schedule for a guy his age.

I've had the privilege of seeing Sonny three times: At the late, lamented Caravan of Dreams while in college; in New Orleans at the House of Blues in '99; and at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival in '03. That most recent time was highlighted by the 30-chorus blues solo that he took on one tune--yep, he played for 15 solid minutes and it never got old. That was at the age of 72, and from everything I hear, he hasn't lost a step. I hope I get a chance to see him at least one more time.

Happy birthday, Sonny, and thanks for all you've done for our music.

I Have No Idea What This Means...

..but I'm sure there's a good story behind it:


Since it was so unusual (and since my mom's name is Barbara) I had to stop and take a picture of it (and email it to her, saying "Wish you'd been in Dallas today"). I'm guessing it has something to do with one of the owners or a close friend or family member of theirs, but who knows.

Update on me: My guess is that the toe isn't broken, just deeply bruised. I've got it splinted up (as much as a little toe can be) with that special tape that sticks to itself but not to skin, and it hasn't been too bad getting around today. I'm not necessarily looking forward to having to wear shoes tomorrow while teaching, but I'll deal with it as best I can.

Not too laborious over here: Did you get to enjoy the Labor Day holiday, or did you have to, well, labor? I taught two people and ran an improv session for a couple of the high-schoolers trying out for Region Jazz this weekend, but other than that, it was pretty chill over here.

This Pain Was Toe-tally Unexpected

I wonder how many stories about mishaps start with the phrase "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Except in this case, it really was a good idea--just one, I suppose, that needed slightly better execution.

I had a gig this afternoon, in a part of Dallas that's not too far away from my church, just a few hours after church let out. Since I didn't want to make the trip from home to almost-downtown twice, and since the intervening time would allow me to have lunch at Zuzu along the way, it made sense to me to turn it into one big excursion.

But the thing is, I'm not used to taking a lot of things with me to church, and certainly not the four things (bari sax, bari stand, music stand, and flute) that I'd need to bring to this gig. And since I tend to be a little slow on Sunday mornings, I could totally see myself running out the door without any of the gig stuff, which would require the double round-trip. So I decided it was best to leave everything near the door, just in case.

Looking back, I probably could have just done what I did last night--leave the music stand near the door--and I would have remembered everything else. But when I got up this morning, I decided to be efficient and move the rest of the stuff to the front.

And when I did that...well, I thought I had left myself plenty of room to walk back and forth to the kitchen, but I guess not. Because right before I was about to leave, I managed to walk right into the bari stand (which was sitting on the floor parallel to the bari case), whacking the living daylights out of my right little toe in the process. (In a fit of clumsiness that's not altogether foreign to me, I also managed to get somewhat snagged in the stand after running into it, which gave my left ankle a much gentler smacking as well.)

It hurt like crazy, of course, and I said a few choice unSundaylike words right afterwards, but I could find no immediate evidence of damage. Still, I decided on shoes rather than sandals for the immediate future; it might hurt more, but at least I'd be protected from any further damage. (And while at church, I found the most remote part of the balcony so that I could have a row to myself--this made it much easier to slip out of my shoe and sock, to let it "breathe" and check for any signs of swelling or bruising, though none was found.) And I was most happy to get a very close-in parking space at my gig; it was all street parking, so that was very much in doubt until I got there.

But when I got home from my gig about six hours later, there was in fact a fairly substantial bruise. There was not, however, a ridiculous amount of swelling, so after a bit of research, I've decided to play things by ear and see how things are going in the morning, hoping all the while that the bruise is just that, and not a sign of a fracture. I've done some ice and elevation, and being out of shoes for the past six hours has helped a lot (and with tomorrow's holiday, I don't technically have to put a shoe on again until Tuesday morning).

So wish me luck; with the schedule I have for the next several months, this is something that needs to be able to heal quickly and on its own. And while I'm walking carefully (and watching my step, of course), I haven't really had to limp for the past several hours like I did when I was in shoes; needless to say, I had more than a few unpleasant flashbacks to last year's knee injury when I was hobbling around.

More as things develop...

Lots to Blog About, No Time to Blog It

There is so much that I want to talk about this week, but thus far, the clock hasn't been my friend.

Most of my waking hours at home lately have been devoted to a fairly large arranging project for one of my combos at school; it involves not only making parts to all our music for some new players, but also entering them all into notation software, so that I have a permanent copy of everything (and so that the players don't have to read my handwritten parts anymore). It's finally done, but not with enough time to blog tonight (if nothing else, I "curfew" myself at midnight on days when I have to wake up at 6 a.m. the next morning, though I'd prefer to hit the sack at 11 most of the time).

So thanks as always for your patience, and the discussions from the last two days (as well as the conclusion of last week's three-part series on teaching and technology) will be up before too long.

Advertising As Art (or, The Greatest Song You Can't Download...Yet?)

As a jazz musician, the bulk of my listening over the past several years has been in that genre. Still, that's not to say that I don't have a soft spot for a really well-crafted pop song every now and then, and my CD collection supports that idea.

I should also mention that, during their visits over the years, Mom and Dad have gotten me hooked on HGTV, which they watch religiously during Clock Tower. During the summer, I've been known to flip over there after the Rangers game, and I watched a bit last night to take my mind off how badly both the Rangers and Cowboys did at the same time. (If you're wondering, my favorite HGTV show is "House Hunters"; I always like to try and guess which of the three houses the prospective buyers will choose, and I'm right more often than not.)

Needless to say, most of the commercials on HGTV are of the home-improvement variety, and one that's been airing for a while really jumps out at me. It's an ad for Olympic paint, and not only is the concept cool--the person doing the painting sees future enjoyment of the room being painted (Mom holding up baby, Dad or Son reading the paper while drinking coffee at the table, kids jumping on the bed, etc.) in shadows on the wall--but the tune being sung behind it is thirty seconds of pure pop perfection. And thankfully, it's on YouTube so I can share it here:



After seeing the spot a number of times, I decided to find out if that was in fact a real song (as opposed to something created specifically for the commercial) and who the artist was. But a bit of Googling led me to some advertising music forums (yes, you truly can find a page for nearly anything on the Internet!), and discovered that it was in fact written for the commercial.

But one of the posters at the first linked forum provided a bit of hope with the response he got from writing the company directly:

Campbell-Ewald created the music specifically for the commercial. There is currently no name to the song or a particular group that it belongs to. Because of the positive feedback that the commercial has obtained, further development may occur and the song may be extended.

So maybe it will become a full-blown song someday. And kudos to the Campbell-Ewald folks for putting a bit more artistry than usual into their advertising.

Forward March!

If you have no connection to the world of academia, you might still consider it "summer," but those of us in education have already switched over to fall mode. And even though it's not yet September, the beloved annual ritual known as high school football is already underway here in Texas. (Not everyone has started, mind you; this is "Zero Week," which means that the teams who played last night or Thursday will have a bye week later in the season.) And with the launch of football means the launch of another annual ritual that's much closer to me: Marching band.

As I've mentioned before, I have all kinds of appreciation for marching band--as long as I'm not the one having to direct it (or march in it, for that matter; I did my eight years in high school and college). I'll go to the big UIL contest (which has several parts this year, being a "state year" for my 5A schools) and at least one game per season. (I missed out last year because of my injury; I was having a bit of trouble with stairs during my recovery, and what is a stadium if not a giant set of stairs?) I also have a bit more connection with one of my two schools' shows, as I did seven days of sectionals over their music for them during summer band.

So I was happy to open up my newspaper this morning to see a positive piece about band on the op-ed page. The writer, Mike Shepherd, is from Duncanville, whose band has won all kinds of honors over the years, but a few things he says can be applied to band as a whole:

I still believe that the marching band is one of the best things about fall in Texas.

[...]Much of the success of the band is attributable to the band directors, who push the kids to improve and drill them many hours during the school year and in summer camps.

[...] My community is a better place to live because I know that – rain or shine, win or lose – the band plays on.

Indeed. And participation in school music programs helps build better students and citizens. (But you knew that already if you've been reading this blog for a while.)

Anyway, with all the bad press that school-age kids seem to get these days, it's nice to see something so positive so early in the school year. Let's hope for a lot more of this type of coverage.

Teaching and Technology, Part I

With the beginning of school upon us, a lot of the big feature stories in the news right now are about education. And while more than a few of those are very local in nature--the opening of a new school, just to name one popular theme--there have been quite a few stories lately about teaching and technology, with one big theme being this: In a classroom full of younger students who have fully embraced the latest gadgets and social networking sites, but led by a teacher or professor who may still be warming up to email, what's the best way to communicate? Is any one way better than the rest, and should anything in particular be avoided?

Let me start by explaining a little bit about where I stand with this, and I'll cover the rest of that later: As far as new technology goes, I'm about as plugged-in as the vast majority of my students, and most of their favorite ways to communicate are mine as well. (In case you're new to the blog, here's some further background: I teach both at the college and secondary [middle and high school] levels, though in the latter case, it's all private lessons, which--mostly due to the fact that I don't give grades for what I teach--serves to differentiate me a bit from the students' regular classroom teachers and places me more in the category of a mentor or personal coach. At the college, I direct music ensembles and also teach privately, so while I do award grades, my situations are not of the typical "I lecture, you listen" variety.)

The large-scale discussion started last week with an article at the Inside Higher Ed. blog about a college in Georgia that is outfitting its 300 faculty members with high-end smart phones in an effort to improve communication between the profs and their students. The idea is that the profs are supposed to respond to text messages or calls from their students within 24 hours. (The cost is estimated at $1000 per phone, which obviously means that the school is kicking in for most, if not all, of the calling/texting plan as well.) And so far, the college says that the idea appears to be working:

[Georgia Gwinnett College vice president for instructional technology Lonnie D. Harvell] says the college has observed a bump in faculty productivity as a result of the phones equivalent to “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in labor. For example, Georgia Gwinnett faculty are not required to hold office hours — the idea being that a big bulk of outside-of-class communication with students can be handled via the mobile devices, allowing faculty to deploy their energies on other things. Also, the desktop phone bills are down and inter-faculty communication is up, Harvel says. “A cost analysis demonstrates that the program saves more money than it costs,” Harvel says (though he adds that the benefits are “only valid if the institution is intent on expending resources on student engagement”).

And the professors contacted by Inside Higher Ed. don't seem to consider the added connectivity to be a burden, and they tend to set appropriate boundaries right away, some of them even playfully rebuking excessive texters to check the syllabus or other readily available sources for answers to questions that don't really require professorial help. (The comments to that post are, as you can imagine, all over the map, and several Georgia Gwinnett faculty chime in as well.)

This story was picked up by one of my favorite blogs, Althouse, where the bloghostess--a noted law professor--falls into the naysayers' camp:

You want students dashing off little notes full of typos and abbreviations and professors struggling with teensy keyboards and adapting to the ultra-concise writing form? And what happens when there are misunderstandings? These are inevitable in texting.

Leave texting to friends and family and to coworkers who interact casually. Professors — however friendly they may seem in person — must relate to students in a professional way.

Count me as one who doesn't believe that those two things--using texting and relating to students professionally--are always mutually exclusive.

Althouse's commenters are as divided as those at the original post, but this time, as a semi-regular at Althouse, I chime in:

There are situations where texting could come in handy; mine is one of them.

I teach music ensembles and applied music (a.k.a. private lessons), so I'm rarely able to answer the phone during the business day, and emails get checked only every few hours. In addition, since I'm not yet a full prof, my "office" is shared with 100 other profs, and no way do I want to burden the administrative assistant with taking phone message for me, as I wouldn't likely get them in a timely manner in the first place.

Since most of my ensembles (jazz combos) are one person on a part, you'd better believe that I want to know ASAP if the drummer is sick and can't make rehearsal today, as that gives me a lot more time to find a sub. So I'd much rather find out this news right away (via text) rather than, say, a few minutes before rehearsal starts (which could happen if the student emailed me instead). We also have a lot of non-traditional students (who may work as far as 20 miles away from school) in one of my groups, so a quick "I'm running late" text is appreciated, as taking a quick peek at the screen is much less disruptive than listening to a voicemail once class has started.

I've had texting capability for six years now, and for me, it's been overwhelmingly positive, and I have yet to have a student abuse the privilege.

So texting is a plus for me (as it appears to be for many of the Georgia Gwinnett faculty), while others seem to think it would be a really big minus. Is it a generational thing? (And let's assume "generation" might be a "where you are inside your head" idea, as opposed to strictly chronological age; I know that I skew a generation younger than the one into which I was born.) Is it truly the wave of the future, and will those who don't embrace it inevitably get left behind?

It's been a while since I've had a vigorous discussion in the comments, so I'd love to hear from lots of different people on this one. Let me know if you're a teacher, student or interested observer, as well as where you fall in this debate. And there will be another angle on this subject tomorrow, as it has many different angles.

Sound Advice for Day One

It's the first day of school for both my college and the public schools, even though I personally get one extra day of summer (I don't teach in the public schools on the first day--too much chaos!--and my first college class isn't until tomorrow). Earlier in the day, I met up with a former student who still has a week before college starts (he's headed northeast, where they start a little later), and he asked me for a few general pieces of advice. A few hours later, I noticed this post from blogger Ross Wardrup that's chock-full of good advice for people starting college. And while he gears his post toward students at UNT (which, ironically, doesn't start classes until Thursday), the information he offers could be used at pretty much any school across the nation. A few of my favorites:

• Figure out which buildings your classes are in before the first day of class.


• If you’re going to be more than 15 minutes late to class, just don’t show up.


• Know the exam dates, and don’t ask me if you can look at my review sheet 5 minutes before the exam begins. I’m studying the sheet that I went through the effort to create.


• If you ride a bicycle to class, don’t try to be a ninja and run me over from behind without warning.


• our freshman year is the year in which you set your GPA. If you slack off this year, you’ll have to work extremely hard to try and bring it back up.


• Always go to review sessions. Even if you “must” work. Get someone to trade shifts with you, etc…


• Read ahead in your textbook! You’ll understand the lecture ten times better.


• Befriend your professors.


• Don’t worry about looking stupid if you need to ask your professor a question. I guarantee you that there is at least one other person with the same question. If it’s really that bad, ask them after class.

Read the whole thing. And let me add one: Show up to class. That sounds basic, but once you skip more than, say, two times, it's really hard to get caught up again. And with the "six-drop rule" here in Texas, dropping the class after the "census date" ls often not an option. I always say that the dumbest way to fail a class* is to stop showing up and not drop, but sometimes, there's little choice. The best way to avoid this is to never get yourself in that situation in the first place.

*One time, when I made that statement in class, a smart-alecky older student (as in a guy in his 50s) asked me, "So what's the smartest way to fail a class?" Wise guy...

'Twas the Night Before Fall Semester...

...and all through the house, only a keyboard was stirring--and sometimes, a mouse.

(Don't worry; I'm not going to write a parody of the entire poem or anything.)

So am I ready for the semester to start? Not completely, no. For one thing, I don't teach on the first day of school (too much chaos!), so I don't have to be totally ready yet. Also, the Dread Sked--or at least some major component of it--gets worse and worse every year. I'm at the point now where I pretty much just need to hear back from people who didn't take lessons over the summer, so I can figure out which of the multiple scenarios for certain parts of my week will need to be invoked. (Those unknown people drive the hard-to-schedule high school, which drives the college, which drives...me, all over the place.)

It's been a good summer--much better than last year, what with the knee surgery and filling in for an ailing colleague and all. And once everyone gets scheduled, it should be fairly fruitful as well; that's certainly my aim (OK, it always is, but prospects for this year are looking good).

Now I just have to convince myself that I'm tired, so as to start a school-year sleeping schedule again. And I think it might be working.

Quote of the Day

"Make your hobbies your jobs, and you’re happy. Making your job your hobby might make you happy in the short run but eventually someone notices."--James Lileks, from today's installment of The Bleat.

One of our national treasures among writers, he is. Visit him daily, you should. (Talking like Yoda, I am; stop now, I will.)

We Still Live in Trying (-Out) Times

It may be a few days before I get caught up on old posts. There's really no shortage of things to talk about, but they'll have to wait, because today, I'm spent.

It was audition day at the college, and things went pretty quickly for the first five hours (no, seriously). The last hour was a bit draggy--not in any way because of the people who were auditioning, but I think I just hit my limit of staying in the same room doing the same thing. Or maybe it was the lack of food talking; after a fairly small lunch (that was generously provided by the music department), I probably should have gotten a small snack during the midday break.

But really, I can't complain too much; I love what I do, and when we only have two days of auditions and two days of juries every year, that's not an excessive amount of mass evaluation in the grand scheme of things. But it does make me tired, so any big topics are off the menu for today.

Tomorrow's a teaching day at home with plenty of breaks. More blogging then, no doubt.

It's Dread Sked Time Again

Wow--it's been a while since I've posted. I do have a few things "in the pipe" as always, and I will catch up eventually.

But not today, as it's the day I start the Dread Sked--that's Kevspeak for the dreaded compilation of my fall teaching schedule in the public schools. It should theoretically be easier this year, since I'm down to five schools and both of the high schools among them are on trimesters (getting trimester and semester schools to mesh was never easy because of the difference in bell schedules), but there's still the issue of marching season, especially when some students are in different classes for the first "tri" than they will be for the rest of the year (and the fact that those two high schools only have jazz band during second and third tri's limits my flexibility even more).

There's bound to be a way for it to work; it just takes some work, and I'm dealing with a few other things this week as well. And while this may end up being easier than in any previous year, it's still one of my two least favorite business-type things to do every year (the other one, of course, being income tax). So if I'm a bit of a hermit, blog-wise, for a few more days, that will be the reason. As always, thanks for your patience.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to Micah, my youngest nephew, who's 4 today. (Obligatory cute baby picture from his actual birthday here.)

Remembering a Lion of Jazz Education

The world of music education, and jazz education in particular, lost one of its giants today with the passing of Leon Breeden after a long illness.

Breeden was the chair of Jazz Studies at my alma mater, the University of North Texas, from 1959 until 1981, and he brought national and international acclaim to the flagship ensemble, the One O'Clock Lab Band, during his time at UNT. Among other things, he started the tradition of recording an annual album (and two of those, Lab '75 and Lab '76, were the first collegiate big band recordings to garner Grammy nominations), and his relationship with the legendary bandleader Stan Kenton led to Kenton bequeathing his entire library to UNT upon his passing in 1979; the university would later bestow the name Stan Kenton Hall upon the larger of the two lab band rehearsal halls in the Music Building.

In retirement, Breeden spent a number of years on campus cataloguing the Kenton library (it was during those days that I had the privilege of working with him to deliver a talk for a series called Sinfonian Forum, as he was a brother in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, having been initiated into the Delta Mu Chapter at TCU in 1948). In latter years, he would make an occasional appearance as clarinet soloist with Jim Riggs' Original Texas Jazz Orchestra, and I had the privilege of being in the audience for many of those performances (one of which was chronicled here). He also capped off his long list of accolades with an honorary doctorate a year ago this week.

Having received some emails recently from Riggs (though, oddly enough, I have yet to get the one from today that announced his passing), I knew that the end was probably near; he was described as being "gravely ill" after a long emergency surgery back in July. (He had also lost his second wife back in April.) Still, a lot of us were cheering him on to a hopeful recovery; how great it would have been to hear a few more golden notes from that clarinet again.

It was said during Breeden's time at UNT that when he walked down the hall, the waters parted. He was truly a giant even among all the noted professors at the school, and his contribution to jazz education was immeasurable. Aa watched the Facebook tributes from UNT alums pour in, I wondered how many of us--even those who didn't major in jazz studies, including my own undergrad self--might never have attended the school if not for Breeden's work; his work to put the One O'Clock and the jazz area on the map also raised the profile of the entire school in those pre-Internet days; who's to say that UNT would have been anything more than a small regional school were it not for his accomplishments?

The name Leon means "lion" in Latin and several of its derivative languages. Leon Breeden was aptly named, for he was surely one of the lions of our discipline. R.I.P., Leon, and thank you for all that you gave us.

Too Hot For You?

Maybe a nice cold "smothie" will do the trick:


I've passed by this sign for over a week now, and I had to stop and take a picture of it. (And yes, I'll catch up on the past few days' unfinished posts in a little bit.)

UPDATE: I drove by the same restaurant the next day and the spelling was corrected. Is McDonald's reading my blog?

The Good Guys Won--On and Off the Field

A few random thoughts regarding the Rangers auction, which ended around 12:45 this morning with the Crane-Cuban group pulling out, thus awarding the team to the Greenberg-Ryan group:

• As I've noted all along, Greenberg-Ryan were the good guys in this whole thing. The list of bad guys could be many: Greedy creditors, greedy ex-players (c'mon, A-Rod, are you really having trouble feeding your family on your current salary?), a judge who might have been a bit of a publicity-seeker, and of course, Tom Hicks, for getting the team in this mess in the first place.


• Mark Cuban noted that if his group had won, he would have invited Greenberg and Ryan to be part of the process. But there's no saying whether they would have accepted such an arrangement or how long they would have stayed if they did. And as I've said all along, any scenario that didn't have Ryan as the long-term team president would be unacceptable; just look at how much he's turned the team around in a few short years.


• And if Cuban-Crane had won, there was no guarantee that they would have been approved by Major League Baseball owners in the first place. After all, a major player in that group was Jim Crane, who left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths a few years ago when he made an agreement to buy the Astros and then pulled out at the last minute. Crane had also hinted last year, when he was among the original, pre-bankruptcy bidders for the team, that he would let Ryan go, serving as his own team president. Again, unacceptable.


• I've long been a defender of Cuban as Mavericks owner, but I was skeptical of how he might turn out as a baseball owner. I don't see the same passion for baseball in Cuban that he has for basketball, and his overly-hands-on style wouldn't work as well as it does with the latter.


• And finally, I've said this before, but it bears repeating: This bankruptcy process shows that there's a real need for some serious reform in the financial sector in this nation. The company that was squawking the loudest about Greenberg-Ryan's original bid being "too low" was Monarch Alternative Capital, which bought a lot of Hicks' debt at pennies on the dollar, yet they seemed to demand to recoup the original price of the debts in this auction.
  
  This brings up two questions: 1) Should a debt buyer in this situation be able to demand full compensation for the original price like this (which would be an amount exponentially larger than they originally paid), or should they be satisfied with "only" making a handsome profit? (And believe me, I'm as big of a capitalist as anyone here, but this demand just struck me as excessive.)
  
  2) Should firms like this--which buy debt from other lenders--even be allowed to exist in the first place? It seems like lenders would be much more responsible in their lending if they knew they would have to follow through with their loans to the end, rather than being able to sell them at bargain-basement prices and then write off the loss.

But at any rate, I'm happy. Now let's look forward to the rest of a great season on the field, without all these distractions.

And the Winner Is...?

Well, we don't know yet. But the NBC 5 guys are liveblogging the Rangers auction, so follow it there and I'll talk about things when it's done, even if that's tomorrow.

UPDATE (1:00 a.m., Thursday): Greenberg-Ryan group wins! I'll have more tomorrow, but now I can go to bed happy.

Booker T's Jazz Icon Doesn't Have to Blow His Own Horn This Time

I'm always happy to see positive articles in the media about education, music or jazz, and today, the DMN hits the complete trifecta with its feature article on Bart Marantz, the longtime jazz director at Dallas' Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (its abbreviation, BTWHSPVA, is still a mouthful, so we'll call it Booker T. like most people do around here). Marantz can claim the likes of Roy Hargrove, Norah Jones and Erykah Badu as alumni of his program, and he says he's learned as much from them as they have from him.

What's great is that the article seems to have been written without being connected to any special occasion--Marantz isn't retiring, he's not celebrating a "big number on the left" anniversary at the school (his 30th will come in 2013), and there's no new alum who's recently made a big splash on the scene. It appears that this article was published just because someone figured out that this iconic educator deserved some recognition. (By the way, among the many talented Booker T. grads are Marantz's own two sons; saxophonist Matt recently released what I believe to be his first CD, and younger brother Luke excels at both piano and vocals.)

As always, read the whole thing.

Hoping to Soon Return to Pod-acity

So it appears that my car's iPod adapter has bitten the dust; one of the two contacts at the bottom has recessed into the opening to the point where I don't think I can get it to come out. The current one is made by Monster, and it's OK, if a bit static-y. If I choose to replace it, can anyone out there recommend a good quality brand that's not break-the-bank expensive?

Needless to say, if you know how to fix the problem I described above, I'd be interested in hearing from you as well. Until then, I guess I'm kicking it old-school and listening to CDs.

Want to Bring History to LIfe? Add a Little Color...

I've had a pretty long teaching day today, so I'll keep my own comments brief and link to the most interesting thing I read today: John Hinderaker at the Power Line blog responds to an age-old question with what I believe is the proper answer:

Why does the past seem so far away? In part, because we so often see it in black and white.

I think that lots of us have seen so many old pictures--taken during a time when black-and-white photography was the norm--that it's easy to forget that the world itself really was in color back then.

If you have a lot of time, go visit this collection of color photos of various places in America from 1939-1943; the pictures bring that era to life in ways that black-and-white simply can't do, so you're seeing that point in time through new eyes--through the eyes of those who were there, for that matter. (And if you have just a little time, go to the Power Line post linked above, where he's included a few of the pictures as well. But really, the big collection is worth your time if you're into such things.)

And of course, if you do like the old black-and-whites, there's no better place to go than Shorpy, perhaps the best vintage photo blog ever.

If Hazing Is Bad for Students, Then It's Probably Bad for Adults, Too

One of the big headlines in the Metroplex over the past week was the flap over Cowboys rookie Dez Bryant refusing to carry fellow receiver Roy Williams' shoulder pads after practice--an act which is evidently part of the "initiation" that rookies receive during NFL training camps. According to the Dallas Morning News' Todd Archer,

It is a rite of training camp to see rookies from any position carry the pads of veteran players after practice.

It is a minor bit of hazing that goes on everywhere but Bryant wants nothing to do with it. Seems as if Roy Williams asked Bryant to do it Sunday without success.

”I just feel like I'm here to play football," Bryant said. "I'm here to try to help win a championship, not carry someone's pads. I'm saying that out of no disrespect."

Some of you might remember Bill Parcells making the first rounder delivering a glass of water or Gatorade to him during water breaks. I wonder if Bryant wouldn't do that for the coach?

It seems to me like the player would likely do anything the coach asked him to do, because--huge salaries notwithstanding--the player is always in a subservient role to his coach. But is that true with his teammates, rookie vs. veteran status or not? Or is such behavior more than a "minor" bit of hazing, as Archer refers to it?

Well, some of the people across the country who are trying to wipe out hazing are more than happy with Bryant's decision. In a later DMN report a few days ago, we hear this:

"Hurray for Dez!" said Susan Lipkins, a psychologist whose expertise in hazing-related behaviors is nationally recognized.

She and others who battle hazing in schools and clubs hope that the focus on Bryant will help make their case. The message, they say, is particularly timely with back-to-school, the start of football practice, and fraternity and sorority rush right around the corner.

Hank Nuwer is another expert and author about hazing. He hopes Bryant set an example that younger players will be willing to follow.

"High school players imitate baseball hero stances, celebratory dances in end zones, creative high- and low-fives, and yeah, hazing," he said.

This is true. In my fraternity, I'm a regional officer whose duties include educating the collegiate chapters on ways to develop programs for probationary membership (yes, we've even done away with the term "pledgeship"), and I have to wonder what the major difference is between what veterans do to rookies in pro sports and what we're trying to eradicate on college campuses.

So is all hazing bad? And when is it hazing, as opposed to a harmless prank? Unfortunately (as I've heard at more seminars than I can count), it's not up to either the hazer or the hazee, at least once the legal system gets involved; at that point, it's totally up to a jury. (And I'm fully aware that a lot of hazing has its origins in the military, and its widespread occurrence on college campuses multiplied after World War II vets--who'd been hazed in the service--returned to college in droves at the end of the war. And I'll even go as far as to excuse its existence in that setting, and that setting alone; there aren't too many other situations where people are supposed to be transformed into lean, mean killing machines, so they get a pass from me for the moment.)

But does it have a place in professional sports? (And again, I'm not talking about the harmless pie-in-the-face pranks that seem to befall the hero of every Rangers game during the postgame TV interviews.) Or is this one more place that, like college and high school campuses, could stand to see hazing go away?

Here's one more morsel for thought, from the second linked story:

he hazing opponents say that there really is a slippery slope – what seems minor today can and does lead to escalation down the line. And what seems harmless to some people may hit a real nerve for others.

Travis Apgar was a pledge at a fraternity whose final initiation tradition included a new member pointing an unloaded pistol at his head. His frat did not know that Apgar's father had killed himself with a pistol. The ritual resurrected terrible psychological pain for the 18-year-old.

Today, he's the associate dean of students over fraternity and sorority affairs at Cornell University, and a well-known anti-hazing speaker. A former high school and college athlete, he applauded Bryant's refusal.

"I was proud of him," he said. "It wasn't an easy stand to take."

As always, click the comment button below if you'd like to chime in.

So If The Charges Are True, Will They Have to Rename the Theatre?

The headlines came bursting out of the paper yesterday morning: Dallas billionaire tycoons and brothers, Sam and Charles Wyly, have been accused of secret deals and insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission:

Dallas tycoons Sam and Charles Wyly reaped more than a half-billion dollars while breaking federal securities laws over a 13-year period, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a lawsuit Thursday.

The agency's 78-page suit, filed in New York's Southern District, seeks millions in fines from the famous brothers and the return of $31.7 million in profits that it said came from insider trading related to the sale of Sterling Software.

The Wylys' attorney said the government's claims are a "misapplication of the law."

Of course, here in America, people are innocent until proven guilty, and besides, there's no guarantee that any of these charges will stick. (You may recall that the SEC went after another Dallas billionaire, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a few years ago, but Cuban came out on top when the charges were later dropped.)

But still, I have to say that yesterday's headline didn't surprise me. After all, the brothers have been under a microscope for the past five years regarding questionable tax shelters. (And while I had correctly remembered the Wylys as acquiring the Michaels Stores chain from founder Michael J. Dupey--who then started his own similar company, MJDesigns--I erroneously thought that the brothers were still on board when Michaels swallowed up its smaller competitor and ousted Dupey from his namesake company a second time. But Dupey's LinkedIn page--which is still up, even though he passed away a few months ago--reveals that Dupey originally had Michaels sold out from under him by his own father, and he reports that the Wylys treated him kindly.)

In the meantime, with the SEC shadow over the brothers, one of them--Charles, along with his wife, Dee--donated a lot of money to the new AT&T Performing Arts Center in downtown Dallas that opened this past year, and they were rewarded by having the Wyly Theater named after them. So what will happen if the charges stick? Will the theater have to be renamed, in the manner of the former Enron Field (now Minute Maid Park) in Houston? Thus is the danger of naming things after living people, but we'll have to wait and see on this one.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my sister Kristen! She and her family are vacationing in Colorado at the moment, but hopefully I can catch her on the phone for a bit.

Floored

Whatever it was that I had planned on posting about today was immediately shelved a few hours ago when I heard the news that one of my former students had passed away today--of a heart attack--on his 19th birthday.

RIP, Rene. I'm sure I'll have more later in the week, but for now I'm just speechless.

Straight from the Funny Pages

It's always been interesting when two comic strips by completely different people cover the same subject matter (or even make the same joke) on the exact same day. (And while I realize that many cartoonists are friends, I doubt they sit around swapping ideas every day, posting things on some big Facebook group, or anything like that.) It's even more interesting if the two strips happen to be right next to each other.

But today's comics section struck a chord (heh) with me: Two different strips revealed today that a major character in the strip has a love for jazz music. In Zits, teen protagonist Jeremy Duncan accidentally leaves his Facebook page open, and his parents discover it; besides the usual hair-raising details (literally, in his mom's case; this is the funnies, after all), they find out that he likes jazz. In Judge Parker, attorney Sam Driver (who has virtually replaced the namesake judge as the strip's protagonist) tells his wife, Abbey Spencer, that before he went into law school, he played the trumpet and wanted to be a music major in college until his parents forbade him from doing so. He also noted that while his friends liked rock music, he had his sights set on being a jazz musician.

It's funny--you spend a few minutes each day with these characters, but you never really know them; there's always something new to be discovered. Three cheers for two of these artists putting someone from their world into my world.

Much Ado About Nothing?

Well, I thought I was done talking about this year's Tour de France, but that was before I read a version of this story in my local paper:

ance Armstrong’s RadioShack team is facing disciplinary proceedings because its riders wore unapproved jerseys to the Tour de France’s final stage, causing a 20-minute delay at the start.

The cyclists tried to wear black jerseys Sunday with “28″ on the back. The number honors the 28 million people fighting cancer, a theme of Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation.

Cycling’s governing body said Monday that RadioShack will be investigated for “breaching the regulations governing riders’ clothing.”

I've always found this sort of thing to be a little ridiculous. It seems as though some athlete or another is always getting fined for something like wearing socks too high or having too much undershirt showing or what-not, and this really ought to stop. Sure, people wear uniforms to look, well, uniform, but this whole thing can be taken too far. What's next--requiring people with hairy arms to shave them so as to more closely match their less-hairy teammates? Wearing wigs so they'll all have the same hair length and color? (Even high school drill teams stopped doing this a long time ago.) Besides, a rule like this was obviously made by a petty little bureaucrat and is being enforced by his latter-day counterparts, and people like that really, really need to be out of a job.

You'd think that for as good of a cause as good as cancer awareness, they'd let up a little bit, but maybe this is the root cause of the whole thing:

The International Cycling Union adds that it “regrets that an initiative for a cause as worthy as the fight against cancer” was not coordinated beforehand with officials.

Aww--so the officials got their little feelings hurt? Get over it, folks! You "officials" are being paid to make big decisions, and there's no reason not to be flexible in support of a good cause. If you're going to just blindly adhere to rules for rules' sake, there's no need for "officials"--everything could just be enforced by a giant computer.

Some would say that Team Radio Shack caused a disruption of the final stage by donning the "controversial" jerseys; I say that the officials themselves caused the disruption by not leaving well enough alone.

Twenty-Ten Tour Thoughts

I just finished watching the final stage of this year's Tour de France, and, while it was an exciting finish along the Champs-Élysées, it wasn't as completely satisfying of an experience for me as it has been in the past. Here are my random thoughts on this year's Tour:

• As always, the racing is exciting, the European towns and countryside are beautiful, and the days are action-packed. The Tour itself is a must-watch for me every year.


• Also as always, a full week of the Tour runs concurrently with my jazz camp, so I have to rely on Twitter updates and quick video clips to stay caught up during that week. One of these years, I'll have TiVo and will actually be able to tape more than a single stage during that busy week.


• The first couple of days of this Tour were just nuts in terms of all the crashes; the rainy day (Stage 2?) and the following day on the cobblestones were so messed up that it was almost surreal to see rider after rider go down. I can see why some of them weren't very happy early on.


• My main reason for not being 100% satisfied with this year's Tour? Because Alberto Contador won again. I became a non-fan of the Spaniard last year when he attacked his own teammate (Lance Armstrong), completely disregarding his team's plan in the process. I have little tolerance for "me-first" types, and Contador joined that list at that point.
  
  And whether or not it was proper for him to attack this year when then-leader Andy Schleck popped his chain can be debated (even the great Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen found themselves on opposite sides of this argument), but the fact that the amount of time gained by Contador after Schleck's misfortune was the exact time that separated them going into the final time trial just made it seem wrong.


• But as Lance Armstrong rides into the sunset, I've found a new rider to follow in Schleck, who gained even more points in my book with his classy handling of the Contador affair. And my other new rider to follow is a Ryder--the Canadian Ryder Hesjedahl, who also impressed me with his work this year.


• Speaking of Phil and Paul, I was happy that the morning and afternoon showings of the Tour stages featured them almost exclusively. I think I've said it before, but I just can't stomach one of the American prime-time announcers, Bob Roll. Sure, he's really knowledgeable, but his untrained voice and clumsy delivery just get in the way of my enjoyment. His cohort, Craig Hummer, isn't bad, but someone please teach him simple grammar! (If I hear him talk about how Phil and Paul will join "Bob and I" in the studio one more time, I'm going to scream.)
  
  Besides, the exciting delivery of Liggett and Sherwen (and, yes their cool British accents) have been a part of every cycling event I've watched since I first embraced the sport in '93, and to me, these two are cycling to me.


• So who will be the next great American cyclist? You may have noticed that my two new favorites are from other places. Lance is retiring (surely for good this time, as he turns 39 in the fall), and Hincapie and Leipheimer aren't much younger (both will be 37 by year's end). My bet for the next American great is Taylor Phinney, who has the sport in his blood (both his parents have been pro cyclists); I hope to see him in the Tour before long.

These three weeks are always a highlight of my summer. Last year, watching the Tour kept me sane while I was stuck in the house recovering from knee surgery, and this year, it's returned to something I make time for even when I could be somewhere else. (It also reminds me of my one trip to Europe in '99 and how much I'd love to go back; maybe I'll end up being one of those spectators along the roadside, or even the person who flew the Texas flag along the Champs-Élysées this afternoon.)

Only 49 weeks till next year's Tour!

Tomato Time in '12?

I didn't have a whole lot of time online during camp this past week, but I did catch a few big news stories that I consider to be blogworthy, and this one (especially since it's fairly short, and I'm fairly tired) will be the first story out of the pipe, rather than the one I teased the other day.

Back in December, I noted that there had been a new development in the long-running saga of what was to be built in the Fry Street area of Denton that formerly housed student-friendly businesses. After United Equities plan (with a generic pharmacy as a gateway) failed (and thankfully so), another developer announced plans to build a 200-unit student apartment complex. My request at the end of that post was that perhaps the developers should consider a compromise: Make the project a little New Urbanist by putting street-level businesses below the apartments.

Well, back in March, the developer decided to do just that. There were still some hurdles that the project needed to jump--among other things, they'd need a variance to build anything above the maximum three-story limit set for the area, and the proposed project is to be one story taller--but all in all, it seemed like a good compromise.

Emboldened by the fact that the developers seemed to embrace my idea (though I'm sure that they're not reading this blog, and that others also had the same thoughts), I decided to make one more request at the end of the March post: Invite the Tomato back to the retail portion of your project.

And now, wouldn't you know, they "listened to me" again: It was reported on Sunday that The Tomato's owners are in negotiations with the developer:

Mike “Ski” Slusarski and his wife, Becky, the former owners of the Tomato, recently signed a letter of intent with Houston-based developer The Dinerstein Cos. to lease about 900 square feet of restaurant space in the mixed-use development proposed for the lot.

While the couple has been disappointed by broken promises from developers before, Becky Slusarski said things seem to be looking up for the restaurant.

“It looks like this new company has high hopes for the area and they want to stay local,” she said. “Now it’s a matter of if the mom and pop places can afford it [the retail space].”

[...]Josh Vasbinder, a partner with The Dinerstein Cos., said the firm is committed to bringing local business owners back to the Fry Street area. But those commitments are contingent on the outcome of Tuesday’s City Council meeting, he said.

“If the plans are approved Tuesday, it gives us the ability to fulfill the obligation and move forward with a local business, like the Tomato,” Vasbinder said. “The Tomato was the most iconic local business on Fry Street, and we’re excited to hopefully bring it back to the Fry Street area.”

That's great to hear. And in a follow-up story, we learned later this week that the City Council did approve the request for a zoning overlay district to accommodate the project.

Now, we can't exactly do the "happy dance" quite yet; the project isn't scheduled to open for nearly two more years, in the summer of 2012. And there could be one possible wrench thrown into the proceedings:

The project still faces a potential threat from a petition seeking to turn the land into a park.

Former mayoral candidate Bob Clifton, who helped organize the petition drive, said during the meeting that he’d gathered enough signatures to force a council vote on his proposal.

If the council won’t approve the park, an election would be held on the issue, Clifton said.

Seriously? Is this really the best place for a park, surrounded by busy streets on all sides? And shouldn't that piece of property go back to making money for the city and providing services to residents and students (like it did from the 1920's until three years ago)? Hopefully, this doesn't stall the beginning of construction or anything.

So there may finally be a light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the Fry Street situation (and it doesn't appear that it's attached to an oncoming train). Nothing new can ever undo the damage that United Equities did to the area, but this will at least give it the chance for a bright future again.

If you're a UNT and Tomato fan, just fast-forward to an autumn Saturday in 2012, where a Mean Green football game in the new stadium might be followed by a trip to the new Tomato. Ahh, I can almost taste it...

One of the First Stories I'll Blog About After Camp

Screaming from the headlines of this morning's paper (which I'm just now getting around to reading): According to a survey by researchers at Sam Houston State University, 4 in 10 Texas teachers have to work a second job to make ends meet. And they're probably not even talking about teachers like myself whose job has a natural down cycle during the summer. I'll be all over this story once the weekend comes around.

Camp is going well. Tomorrow night is our concert with guest artist Jeff Clayton; feel free to come listen if you're in the area.

So...20 MPH Was Just Too Fast For Them?

(I saw this sign across from my friend's office last week and just had to stop and take the picture; I'd never seen a speed limit that wasn't a multiple of 5 before.)

I Should Be a Happier Camper This Year

Jazz Camp starts this afternoon at my college, and, as always, the camp will probably "own" me for the vast majority of every day, so blogging may be somewhat sporadic during the week (though I'm likely to pop in with a funny camp-kid quote every now and then).

And why a happier camper this year? Well, considering that a year ago I was 1) not quite a month out of knee surgery and 2) awake at 2:30 a.m. on the first morning of camp to catch a flight back from a convention in Orlando to get to camp on time...yeah, this year should be more fun.

More info about the camp (as in concert days and times, etc.) is on my website.

Will a Maverick Ride In to Save the Day?

This isn't a baseball blog, I swear. (No, really.) But my beloved Texas Rangers, with their dueling stories of excellence on the field and complete turmoil in court regarding the sale of the team, are sometimes making headlines on both fronts on the same day, and it's hard not to keep talking about them.

So what's the latest? Well, this: The Chuck Greenberg/Nolan Ryan ownership group (who--if not for some questionable tactics by the outgoing owner's creditors, and perhaps some grandstanding by a bankruptcy judge who likes to see his name in the paper too often--should have taken control of the team months ago), may have found some help in the person of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who announced today that he's interested in joining the Greenberg/Ryan group:

"I want to see the Rangers run," Cuban said to KTCK-AM in Dallas. "I think Chuck and Ryan deserve a lot of credit, and what they're doing is a good thing, but with the way the deal has been structured, there is some risk there. And so I offered to help on a bunch of different levels, so let's see what happens."

A few years ago Cuban tried to buy the Cubs, but lost out to the current ownership group. The Greenberg-Ryan group reached an agreement on Jan. 23 to purchase the Rangers and land around the Ballpark in Arlington for $575 million, but the sale is currently bogged down in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

At first glance, it seems like this could only help; Cuban has money to spend, and his involvement could help Greenberg/Ryan offer a higher bid when the team goes up for auction next month. And if this keeps the team from being sold to an unfriendly group (and I won't mince words here: The groups led by Dennis Gilbert--who's said he would run the team himself and toss out Ryån as team president--and Jim Crane--who backed out of a deal to buy the Astros at the last minute a few years ago--should be considered unfriendly groups by all true Rangers fans), then I'd say welcome aboard, Mark. Besides, I don't think he'd be quite so involved in the day-to-day affairs of the team as he is with the Mavs, and, as someone pointed out on a talk show this evening, the Ballpark could use a minor facelift, and Cuban's money could help out in that area.

As I've said before, I am so ready for this sad tale to be over, since it takes away from all the great things happening on the field this season. And the only proper end to the saga is for Greenberg/Ryan to be allowed to complete the purchase that was started in the offseason. I know that Cuban is a polarizing figure in local sports, but it sounds like his involvement here could be nothing but good.

UPDATE: And the good news continues on the field: Bengie Molina hit for the cycle tonight in the Rangers' 8-4 over Boston at Fenway Park. And the home run in said cycle was a grand slam.

I'd Sure Like to Shave Some of the Cost From This Item

I put it off for as long as possible, but yesterday evening, I had to cave in: It was time to buy new razor blades.

I came somewhat late to shaving (at least in my own estimation), but by my sophomore year in high school, it was an everyday thing. I wasn't exactly part of the Blade World for a while, as I used an electric shaver up until the final month of undergrad school. (Even then, it was only out of necessity; my car broke down while I was student teaching, and I had to stay with friends unexpectedly one night. Since I had no change of clothes and no way to get home, I walked over to the nearby Kmart to grab the necessities. Since I certainly wasn't going to buy a new electric razor, I purchased disposables for the first time, and--until I got used to them--I looked like a Dracula victim for a day or two.)

But eventually, I became a regular with the blade. (I should mention that, during my electric shaver days, I shaved off two entire beards with one. My running joke at the time was "Now I know what the lawn feels like when it's being mowed.") For a while, I would go with whatever new model my company churned out, proceeding from Sensor to Sensor Excel and then on to Mach 3 and Mach 3 Turbo, with which I've remained for many years now. And in the beginning, the blades for same were priced fairly reasonably, but it the past few years, they've suddenly gone through the roof; while I can remember paying $7.00 for a 3-pack for the longest time, but now they've gone to 5-packs as the smallest quantity, and the price has shot up to nearly $15.

So I griped about this on Facebook last night, and the responses from friends pretty much ran the gamut: "No-shave July!" (umm, no, I have camp next week and can't scare the young'uns); "Go Thelonious Monk style; toss the razors and let it grow" (see above; I can't really pull that look off); someone suggesting a straight razor (I'd likely decapitate myself); and the usual snark about how the government should regulate razor prices (I'd slap the guy who wrote that if I didn't know that he was being sarcastic).

But someone did post an article that at least shows that I'm not alone in having this problem:

This spring, the titans of shaving, Procter & Gamble Co.'s Gillette (NYSE: PG - News) and Energizer Holdings Inc.'s Schick (NYSE: ENR - News) launched another round of their endless duel, with systems touting improved blades, more ergonomic handles and, inevitably, higher prices.

Shaving is big business. Gillette brings in more than $4 billion in annual sales; Schick sees sales of around $1 billion a year, according to analysts' estimates. Though the recession hurt sales of blades and boosted sales of cheaper disposable razors, the two companies still have a lock on the U.S. market. Gillette commands 70% of the razors-and-blades category, and Schick holds about 10%, according to market-data firm Euromonitor International Inc.

A hardy subset of men, however, isn't interested in playing the game and takes extraordinary measures to opt out.

"I'm a full-on capitalist, but there's a little bit of 'sticking it to the man' here that I enjoy," says Mr. Hagan of his stockpile of Mach3 blades, which Gillette launched 12 years ago.

The guy in question has amassed 100 of the blades, and he's also found oil that extends the life of them even longer.

Speaking of extended blade life--as they've gotten more expensive, I've also delayed replacing them for a little longer. (Yes, I follow the little color strip above the blade, but when it completely loses its color is open to debate.) While I used to replace them every two weeks, it's more like three nowadays; the blade I'm about to change out is going on Week #4. (And it must be noted that I'm both goateed and mustachioed, so I'm not covering as big of a surface area as someone who needs to shave his entire face.)

I realize that, even at the ridiculous price, I am getting a lot of time for my dollar; five blades @ three weeks per blade @ $3 apiece still gets me nearly four months' worth of shaving for my $15. But why did they stop selling them in 3-packs? Paying nine bucks at the current price would be one thing, but $15--as another Facebook poster said--wrecks my grocery budget when it's time to buy thees things.

So I'll toss this one out to the blog world: 1) What do you normally pay for razor blades? 2) How long can you get a single blade to last? 3) Any suggestions on getting even more out of my blades (like the oil referenced, but not identified, in the linked article)? Any comments would be appreciated.

The Crazy Rangers Bankruptcy Isn't Taking an All-Star Break

For some sports teams--just like for some of the people who follow them--things are never really easy. While the Texas Rangers have had a remarkable season so far, there's always been that unsettling undercurrent brought on by the team's efforts--frustrated so far by a variety of entities, including a legion of creditors (some undeserving in my estimation, but more on that in a minute) and a bankruptcy judge who might be allowing his ego to get in the way--to be sold to a group led by businessman Chuck Greenberg and team president/local icon Nolan Ryan.

Now, in one of the craziest occurrences in this entire odd sags, we have the following: The Greenberg-Ryan group is suing to force the team to be sold to them, which means that, yes, Ryan is suing his own team:

In Monday's suit, the Greenberg-Ryan group accused the club of breaching the purchase agreement the group struck with owner Tom Hicks on May 23, which it claims still gives it exclusive rights to negotiate the team's purchase.

If a new round of bidding is ordered, the action demands that the Greenberg-Ryan group be given the difference between their offer and whatever price emerges from an auction. It valued its package at more than $500 million, including a $304 million cash portion. It did not mention a $70 million side deal for property that's also part of the proposed purchase.

That purchase became part of the team's "pre-packaged" voluntary bankruptcy plan filed May 24. It has been challenged by lenders, who are owed $525 million. Their opposition prompted Snyder's appointment as chief restructuring officer to determine the best deal.

The lawsuit, drawn up by Greenberg's new attorney, Thomas E. Lauria of Miami, apparently was timed to beat his group's imminent loss of exclusive rights to negotiate the purchase.

It urges Lynn to prevent the team, under Snyder's direction, from discussing a sale with rival bidders and asked the judge to order that the May 23 deal be consummated. And the lawsuit wants a preliminary injunction stopping Snyder by 4 p.m. Monday. The team is scheduled to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy July 22 under new ownership.

This whole situation brings up several questions to me:

• Some of the creditors involved in blocking the sale aren't the original creditors of the club at all; rather, they are firms who bought the existing debt for pennies on the dollar. But they're trying to assure that they are paid the entire amount of the debt, which is exponentially more than what they paid themselves. I'm certainly all for capitalism, but I'm also wary of the whole seemingly sleazy industry of debt-purchasers. Do they really have a right to be assured of recouping the entire amount of what was owed to the people from whom they bought the debt (who have since written off that amount, of course), or is it only important that they be assured of making some profit?


• It still seems like Tom Hicks is getting off a little too scot-free in all this. I'm not saying that they should seize his personal assets or anything, but it's not like the guy is out of business; in fact, he just announced some new ventures a few months ago. Can't they force him to pay some of the team's debt out of his other business assets?


• And finally, Major League Baseball needs to be able to approve anyone buying one of its teams. What happens if the team really is sold at auction, but to someone whom the owners reject? Doesn't the whole mess start all over again?

I certainly hope that this mess comes to an end soon, and it needs to conclude with Ryan retaining his team presidency, since the team's turnaround this year can almost certainly be credited to his work. I'm interested to see how this latest move fits into the grand scheme of things.

The End of the Road for Lance?

I didn't get to see several stages of the Tour de France this weekend because of my trip to Indiana, but I kept somewhat caught up via tweets and quick glances at the news. One thing that caught my attention pretty quickly was when Lance Armstrong tweeted the following:

When it rains it pours I guess.. Today was not my day needless to say. Quite banged but gonna hang in here and enjoy my last 2 weeks.

So it sounds like, after dropping a number of places after yesterday's stage, he doesn't think he can win the Tour anymore. And this article tends to confirm it:

Armstrong,’s hopes for yet another title were dashed Sunday after he got caught in three crashes — one of which brought him down — and struggled to keep up during two tough climbs in Stage 8, the race’s first foray into the Alps. He and his team said his hip got banged up, keeping him from pedaling hard.

[...]“My Tour is finished,” said Armstrong, 38, who fell to 39th overall.

If it's true that there's no way he can win, it'll be unfortunate, although there are plenty of emerging young riders to keep everyone's interest for years to come. And I'm glad to see that Lance isn't considering dropping out, choosing instead to enjoy the next two weeks and support his teammates. But with everything that Lance has done in the past, can we really count him out?

Today's a rest day, but I plan on tuning in tomorrow to see what the Alps have in store for everyone.

Travel Advisory

I'm off to Indiana for the usual fraternity conference. It's a short trip, and mostly business, but so far, it counts as my only "vacation" of the summer. But hey,sometimes it's like that, so you take what you can get.

Blogging will resume when I return on Sunday.

Some Lawyer Types Don't See Glory in the Green

The proposed UNT at Dallas College of Law has gotten a bit of press since the bill approving its creation was signed into law by Gov. Perry a little over a year ago. Most of the reaction that I've seen has been pretty positive...until today, when I read this post by one Elie Mystal at the "tabloid law blog" Above the Law. Mystal slams the idea of one more law school for what could be considered a good reason: A lot of law school graduates are un- or underemployed and facing massive amounts of debt. But that still doesn't seem like a reason for him (yes, "Elie" is a guy) to pick apart the law school's raison d'etre point-by-point, referring to all of them as "extremely stupid reasons."

It's certainly vaild to ask if the Dallas/Ft. Worth area could use a public law school, since the only one in Dallas is located at SMU, where the tuition isn't exactly affordable for lots of people. And commenter "George B." makes what I consider to be one of the best points in the thread:

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has grown to about 6.5 million people mostly due to strong job growth during good economic times. Shouldn't universities expand where the people and jobs are, Northern suburbs of Dallas in this case, instead of insisting that students give up their current life and move to a college town?

A lot of people live and work in the DFW area; why not let them get this part of their education here as well?

And again, it's also valid to ask if there are too many law schools already (and, by extension, too many lawyers?). But there's no reason for all the cheap shots here. Sure, there's a chance that the school may not turn out to be a rousing success, but it seems like it's worth a try.

Extra bonus: I get into it a bit with another commenter--a lawyer who had a bad UNT undergrad experience and considers it to be little more than a "trade school." Of course, I call him/her out on such snobbery.

This Is Not Surprising, But Will Washington LIsten?

As regular visitors to this site may know, I'm not a big fan of polls. But sometimes, they do state the obvious, and since so many people in politics and government seem to thrive on them, we can only hope they'll pay attention to this one:

Most Americans would not pay higher taxes for specific public services in their states, but they are more supportive of paying for education and staffing law enforcement than supporting state employees and entitlement programs.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Adults shows that only 19% would be willing to pay higher taxes to avoid layoffs of state employees. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say they would not be willing to pay more in taxes for this reason. Another 11% are undecided.

Adults feel similarly when it comes to funding entitlement programs. Twenty-two percent (22%) would pay higher taxes to prevent cuts in entitlement programs for low-income Americans. Sixty-three percent (63%) say they would not pay more to keep these programs afloat. Another 15% are undecided.

Americans are slightly less opposed to paying higher taxes for education. Thirty-four percent (34%) say they are willing to pay higher taxes to provide funding for public education, but 54% say they are not. Another 12% aren’t sure.

Thirty-seven percent (37%) say they are willing to pay higher taxes to increase the number of police and firemen in their communities. Still, 52% say they would not be willing to do so. Another 10% are not sure.

As always, we have no idea how the questions were framed in this survey. But the part where only 19% would be willing to pay higher taxes to avoid layoffs of state employees is telling, and it's unfortunate that only police and firefighters are cited. I'd be willing to bet that many people, when confronted with the phrase "layoffs of state employees," aren't thinking of police and firefighters--they're thinking of bureaucrats, many of whom absolutely should be laid off, and those who remain should have their salaries cut by 15% as an additional cost-cutting measure. (And let's not limit this to state employees, either; those at the federal level should be the first to go.) Many people in the private sector are feeling the pain of the recession right now, but it appears that many public employees are still getting fat and happy on our dime, and enough is enough; they need to feel the pinch as well. Why is this option never brought up when cost-cutting measures are proposed?

Many of us don't want the amount of government we have right now; even fewer of us truly need it, and none of us can afford it. It's time for someone to muster the political courage to let the budget axe swing freely in this area.

Sometimes, It's Only a Game...

..and this is one of those times.

By all other accounts, tonight's Rangers game was a great one; the team bounced back from its first two-game skid in a while to beat Cleveland, 12-1, and six of those runs were driven in by two little-used players, Joaquin Arias and Andres Blanco.

But the game was overshadowed by what took place in the bottom of the fifth inning:

The Rangers-Indians game was delayed 16 minutes in the bottom of the fifth inning when an unidentified male fan fell from the second-deck club level and into the lower bowl at the Ballpark in Arlington on Tuesday night.

The fan flipped over the railing before landing on his back in section 35, which is roughly a 30-foot drop.

He was conscious and able to move all of his extremities. After being stabilized, he was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.

"He's over at the emergency room having tests done," Rangers president Nolan Ryan said. "The preliminary indications are that it could have been a lot worse. We really don't know at this point in time. I think that obviously he'll remain in the hospital for observation. We're hopeful that what injuries he has are minimal."

Evidently, the fan was reaching for a foul ball when he looked back, lost sight of the position of the railing and fell. A few other people had minor injuries from being landed on (and thank goodness they were there to break his fall!), but nobody else had to be taken to the hospital.

As of the end of the game, there were no further updates; my thoughts and prayers are definitely with the guy, and it's good to know that so far, he's OK.

This Summer, It's Time for Some "Young Love"

No, not the kind that has spawned so many cheesy teenage movies, but the kind that has to do with sending another Ranger to the All-Star Game. A year ago at this time, I was soliciting votes for Ian Kinsler, who had just missed making the team but was one of the finalists in the "Last Man" competition. This year, it's Michael Young, who has been to the game many times and even ended up as the MVP of the game back in '06.

There are a few more days of voting left, and the online ballot may be found here. And congrats to the Rangers who have already made the team: Josh Hamilton and Vladimir Guerrero (starters), as well as Neftali Feliz, Elvis Andrus and Kinsler.

Happy Fourth!

Once again, some random thoughts on a quiet holiday:

• On this day, I'm decked out in one of those Old Navy flag T-shirts, as I have been every year on this day since 1999, when I celebrated in Switzerland atop Rochers-de-Naye, the tallest mountain in the Montreux area. (I still get a kick out of thinking about all the schoolkids back in '99 who, when they found out I was spending my first Fourth out of the country that summer, asked me if "they have the Fourth of July in Switzerland." Their calendars, I'm happy to report, don't exactly skip from 3 to 5 or anything...)


• By the way, this year's shirt feels softer and fits better than any of the ones from previous years. My hat is off to whomever made that decision.


• Can't make it to a fireworks display tonight? As always, you can make your own right there on your computer screen.


• One thing that's weird about having the Fourth on a Sunday is that nobody's quite sure when to do the celebration. A lot of area cities (including Richardson and Plano around here) went ahead and scheduled their displays tonight, figuring that a lot of people will have tomorrow off, but many others (including Firewheel down the street from me, as well as Addison's well-known "Kaboom Town") were last night. And Dallas itself is doing one tomorrow.


• I didn't get to see the local 'works last night, as I had a gig--a wedding reception held at a very cool venue, the repurposed Filter Building on the shores of White Rock Lake. Though the weather moved everything inside last night, the area still looked gorgeous; check out the photo album at the link for an amazing sunset picture.


• A year ago, I noted that there are a lot of people out there today who love their country but are extremely frustrated with their government. As we celebrate 234 years as a nation, we must never forget the principles of freedom and limited government on which this nation was founded. There are plenty of people in power at the moment who would prefer to use that power to their own ends, rather than what is best for the nation as a whole, and it is up to us as citizens to speak out against such things and show the most grievous offenders the door via the ballot box in November.

Despite her faults, America is still the greatest nation the world has ever known. May you celebrate this day in whatever way you see fit.

UPDATE: I usually add some inspiring words from others on this day; here are some from my city councilman, Douglas Athas.

Another Way to Turn Congress Into Progress

Sometimes when I'm a bit slow to post, it's because I've been visiting other blogs and offering up my opinions over there. But if I post something elsewhere more than once in a given week, and it's never been covered here, then, well...there's my newest blog post!

I can't even remember the exact post that caused this idea to spring forth from my keyboard, but the second one was an Althouse post about the Al Gore kerfuffle involving a massage therapist who alleges that Gore wanted more than a massage. In the comments, a reader who was a constituent of Gore's (as both congressman and senator) noted that, in younger days, Gore was a pretty good guy, but Washington obviously changed him, and not for the better.

As someone who has never been a big Gore fan, mostly because of the hypocrisy (trying to get everyone else to reduce their "carbon footprints" while ignoring the Sasquatch-size prints of his own--huge mansion, hundreds of trips to climate-change conferences in private planes, etc.), it didn't even occur to me that he could have ever been a good guy. But if this is true (and I respect the Althouse commenter in question enough to take him at his word), then perhaps we should be doing something to keep people from falling victim to the cesspool that Washington has evidently become, because it's not as if Gore is the only one changed for the worse by being there. Mr. Smith may try to change Washington, but it's usually the other way around.

So how would we change Washington? My idea is to keep people away from there as much as possible. As I posted at Althouse,

Washington changes a lot of people, and often not for the better. So let's pause for a moment here and think about a solution to this problem.

Here's mine. It's a little unorthodox, but bear with me for a second: We should require members of Congress to spend a lot less time in Washington, instead requiring them to be in their home districts for about 75-80% of the year.

How would that work? By using today's technology--teleconferencing and the like. Most of the "work" of Congress gets done in their offices anyway, and there's no reason that office can't be at home, where they can stay close to their constituents and actually, oh, listen to their opinions on the things that are about to come up for a vote. Committee meetings, caucusing--even minor votes like naming a building after someone--can all be done by tele- or video conferencing, and everyone would only have to show up in Washington for really important votes such as spending bills.

Just think of all the advantages of this:

1) Congresscritters wouldn't have to maintain two households like they do now; they'd live in their own houses most of the year, and then stay in small apartments or hotels for their brief time in Washington. (The "carbon footprint" of flying back and forth would also be significantly lessened.)

2) It would be very difficult for lobbyists to get to all of them on a regular basis if they're spread out around the country. (And it would waste lobbyists' time and money to try, which I consider to be a feature, not a bug.)

3) The best part would be that they would likely be kept much more grounded by having to live in the regular world, among the people they are supposedly serving, rather than in the toxic bubble of Washington.

Sorry for the slight threadjack, but this is definitely an idea worth considering the next time someone wants to do a major overhaul of our federal government. (Term limits for both Congress and bureaucrats wouldn't hurt, either.)

And what made me think of it was Trey's post quoted above. I've been so disgusted by Gore over the years that it almost never occurred to me that he might have been a good guy at one time. And if Washington really is what does that to people, then it's time to keep them away from there as much as possible.

This is, as I said, a really unorthodox idea, but it could really work. The Founders never meant for public service (and I mean true public service, not the self-service that often goes on in Congress today) to be a full-time career, and the best way to prevent that might be by keeping people in the real America they're supposed to represent, not the artificial world that our nation's capital has become.

I realize this would take extraordinary means to implement, but it might reap some great benefits. Your thoughts? Let your voice be heard in the comments.

UPDATE: I posted my Althouse comment rather late in the thread, so it only received one reply, but it's a funny one. Obviously thinking of his/her representatives staying home more often, commenter "jgm" said, "There goes the neighborhood." Heh.

Welcome to Dallasseattle, Part 2

Last fall, I noted that we'd been having a ridiculous amount of rain for the entire semester thus far, and this week's weather has been downright Seattlesque once again. In fact, it might be more correct to call it Houston weather, because it's doing exactly what I remember as a kid: Hot early afternoons, rain breaking out sometime in the mid-late afternoon, and then pretty muggy in the evening after it clears up. (People from Florida will be able to relate to this as well.)

I'm not complaining, mind you; my lawn is nice and green again, and after a decent amount of rain early in the year, we'd gotten behind again, so it's nice to catch up, even if it's chosen a single week to do so. But if it continues to do this for the next several days, it might (literally) put a damper on people's picnic plans and some of the local fireworks displays.

The weather app on my iPhone shows rain for the foreseeable future, but hopefully, we'll get at least a brief respite from the wet stuff for part of the long weekend.