TBT: The Post-Boomer Collapse

The Portly Politico1 Comment

Lately I’ve been reading more pieces about the approaching succession crisis that will be the long-delayed hand-off of power from the seemingly eternal Boomers to the rapidly aging Gen Xers and Millennials.  That will release a massive bottleneck of jobs and wealth that should—if AI doesn’t put us all out of work—lift those generations to higher levels in the corporate and academic worlds, while also allowing the unfortunates of Gen Z a chance to get a job.

Writer Aaron Renn has covered the topic:  https://www.aaronrenn.com/p/the-boomer-paradox-jeff-giesea

He also helpfully linked to a trilogy of essays by Jeff Giesea detailing the ramifications of what I call the “Post-Boomer Collapse“:

Each of these essays gives a sense of what will come as the Boomers continue to grow older and, ultimately, die off.

For all the vitriol poured on this generation (and I’m guilty of it as well), their passing will bring with it major shockwaves.

It’s why I advocated a year ago that the Boomers still lingering in leadership positions should go ahead and step down.  If they do so thoughtfully over the course of the next few years, they could groom successors and assure a smoother transition.  If they stubbornly cling to their roles (“I just love to work!”), I fear that we’ll experience a competency vacuum on an unprecedented scale.

We all know stories of post-colonial African nations in which, having ousted the colonizers, the local people don’t know how to maintain the advanced infrastructure left to them.  Maybe a few folks know how to keep existing systems running, but as they retire or die off, no one is proficient enough to keep things running.  The power plant coasts for a few weeks with whatever coal was shoveled in last (I don’t know in detail how power plants work, so don’t crucify me over this illustration), then people wonder why their lamps don’t work anymore.

Heck, if all the nuclear engineers disappeared today, I wouldn’t know how to run a nuclear power plant (see the prior paragraph, which used a coal-burning plant, but you get the idea).

Similarly, if we lose huge amounts of institutional knowledge over the span of ten years without trained successors, we’re doomed.  Thankfully, many organizations have engaged in succession management, but I suspect we’re in for a world of pain—or, at the very least, some unpleasant ruptures.

All the more reason for the Boomers to loosen their grip and let the next generations have a turn at the wheel.

With that, here is 26 April 2025’s “The Post-Boomer Collapse?” (original on SubscribeStar):

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Midweek Recuperation

The Portly Politico1 Comment

My students had their big Spring Concert last night and it was incredible.  It was the longest concert I’ve ever conducted, with over two hours of music.  As it was my “swan song” of sorts, I wanted to go out with a bang.

I’ll have a full rundown of the concert—a “postmortem,” as I call it—this Saturday for paid subscribers.  Suffice it to say that the evening went quite well and I am utterly exhausted.  I did indulge in some late-night, post-concert Taco Bell, the greatest of budget fast food joints in the modern era (somehow, Taco Bell has avoided the “enshittification” of other establishments, even if the results of consuming it result in a different from of enshittification) before the long drive home.

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Monday Morning Musical Theatre Review: Disney’s Descendants

The Portly Politico1 Comment

My school is giving its annual Spring Musical tonight.  They’re doing a stage musical adaptation of Disney’s Descendants, which follows the lives of the children of the various Disney villains and heroes.  It’s a cute little musical and it’s always cool seeing what our Drama teacher manages to put together.

The plot of the play itself, however, is classic modern Disney propaganda.  It essentially presents a naïve view that evil is not a real threat; instead, it just needs to be neutralized with tolerance and a proper environment.

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Lazy Sunday CCCLXXXV: Production Week

The Portly Politico2 Comments

This past week was slammed with preparation for the Spring Fine Arts Festival, which commences tomorrow and culminates in my students’ Spring Concert on Tuesday.  As such, I thought I’d look back at this past week:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: Spring Concert 2026 Preview

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

The last Spring Concert of yours portly career (at least in its current iteration) is coming up this Tuesday, 28 April 2026.  It’s my swan song as the music teacher at my little school, so I’m going out big.

This concert will be the biggest, most stacked concert I’ve ever programmed.  It will feature a total of twenty-six (26) pieces (appropriate, since it’s 2026, but I did not plan it that way; I just realized the connection while typing this post)—ten selections from the Middle School Music Ensemble; three solo pieces; one small group performance; and twelve tunes from the High School Music Ensemble.

The Middle School Music Ensemble’s set takes about forty minutes from top to bottom, and they’ve played it all the way through every day this past week.  The High School Set is a bit longer, and we have not been able to play the entire program in a single class period.  A class period at my school is about fifty-six minutes; by the time we get through attendance and tuning, we have maybe fifty minutes remaining.  Our best run yet was getting through ten of the twelve pieces.

As such, I’m estimating that the total performance time of the concert will be about two hours—100 minutes between the two Ensembles, and about twenty minutes for the solo and small group pieces.  That’s about the upper limit of where I (and, I imagine, my administration) would like to go. Factor in some shuffling between pieces and what not, as well as transitioning students on and off the stage, and we’re probably looking at around two hours and fifteen minutes.

There’s always this weird pressure to rush on through these concerts.  My point (and the one I’ll make to my admin if they object to the length) is that we routinely have sporting events that last three or more hours.  Baseball frequently has double-headers on school nights, which can easily run until 9 or even 10 PM.  Us wrapping up around 8:15 or 8:30 PM is not going to ruin anyone’s ability to come to school the next day.  Frankly, if the admin doesn’t want to stick around (understandable—they have to make an appearance at a lot of events), I don’t mind.  I can lock up the building myself (as I have done many times before)!

Ahem—but I digress.  No need to get defensive on the front end.  That said, it’s going to be a pretty awesome concert.  It’s not just two hours of lame filler.  We’re going to rock—and pop, and soft rock, and so on—and it’s going to be a fitting display of my students’ talents.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

Production Week

The Portly Politico3 Comments

This week the Drama kids have been rehearsing for the school play, which is this coming Monday (my students have their big Spring Concert this coming Tuesday, 28 April 2026).  That means yours portly has been rehearsing with the kids this week.

I run the sound and lighting for these plays.  It’s not too difficult, but it’s quite an undertaking nonetheless.  I essentially do what would typically be done by three or four  people, in that I mix the sound; play the sound cues; run the lights; and troubleshoot any sound and/or equipment issues that arise during the play.

Issues always seem to arise.

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TBT^2: The TJC Challenge

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Two years ago I issued to my readers The TJC Challenge, a challenge to listen to all of my music on either Apple Music or YouTube/YouTube Music (you can do it on Spotify now, too).  At the time, The TJC Challenge took about three hours to complete.  Last year it took around seven-and-a-half hours.

Now it takes (approximately) eight hours and fifty-five minutes—let’s call it nine (9) hours to listen to my full discography.  Note that only includes the stuff on the streaming platforms (twenty-three releases, although Electrock Music and Electrock II: Space Rock are combined as a double-album on streaming platforms, so technically it’s twenty-four releases); my Bandcamp page has thirty releases (use promo code challenge to get 90% off any purchase there through 11:59 PM UTC on 30 April 2026).

So, need some unusual instrumental jams (plus my singer-songwriter comedy EP, Contest Winner) to get you through the workday?  Then take The TJC Challenge!

Instructions for how to do so are below, but here’s the YouTube instructions, as they’re probably the most accessible for most readers/listeners:

YouTube Method

Don’t use Apple Music?  No problem.  The cheapest method (no monthly subscription to a streaming service) is via YouTube.  The only downside is that there’s no way to play through all albums without having to select individual releases.

Still, here’s the YouTube method:

  1. Follow this link to my “Releases” on my YouTube channel

  2. Hover over one the album you’d like to listen to first and click “Play All”

  3. Rinse and repeat for each album

Whatever you listen to, I hope you enjoy!  If you do listen to my tunes, please let me know what you think.

With that, here is 24 April 2025’s “TBT: The TJC Challenge“:

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Midweek Koi Pond Update IV: Purple Leopard Ramshorn Snails

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Maintaining a koi pond is a hobby that can take on a life of its own.  In learning about keeping koi and maintaining a pond, I’ve learned that a common phenomenon is people getting hooked on buying more fish.  Given that a full-grown koi can go for $50 or even hundreds of dollars, the hobby can get very expensive very quickly.  I’m thankful, then, that the previous owners stocked the pond so well.

What I find myself looking for are not more koi (not necessarily), but more species that I can introduce to the pond to increase its biodiversity.  At least, that’s the rationale—I really just want an excuse to buy more snails and minnows and what not.

So far, I’ve added rosy red minnows, two small butterfly koi, ramshorn snails, and Japanese Trapdoor Snails.  My next planned addition is three dojo/weather loaches, which are a peaceful, eel-like fish that feeds along the bottom of the pond.  In searching for those loaches, I came upon an eBay listing for seven purple leopard ramshorn snails.

These are just a color morph of ramshorn snails.  Instead of the typical dark brown, they have a slightly purplish, speckled appearance.  I would not have bothered purchasing them except that they were eight bucks (with free shipping), so I figured, “why not”?  They should add to the genetic mix of the existing ramshorn population.

One thing I’m learning when purchasing live animals on the Internet (read that out loud and it will sound questionable) is that, like most things in life, you often get what you pay for.

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New Music Tuesday XIIa: WIP: “Japanese Trapdoor Snails”

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It’s a quick installment of New Music Tuesday today, friends.  I’m working on a piece called “Japanese Trapdoor Snails”; I’m attempting to capture a quintessentially “Japanese” sound, although I’m not sure if I’m succeeding just yet.

It’s for flute, oboe, classical guitar, and drums (so far).  I’ll likely continue to add instrumentation as needed.

Here’s a thirty-second bit of what I have so far:

Still a bit static, but what do you think of this odd little piece in its current form?  Does it have legs—or one big, fat, muscular belly-foot?

Happy Listening!

—TPP