Yep, Portly readers:  it’s one of those blog posts:  a general update on the latest with yours portly because I’m out of both ideas and energy.  Sure, I should be writing about the war in the Ukraine or something important like that (instead of silly paintings and piano pieces), but, again—I’m more low-energy than JEB! at the moment.  Or, at the very least, my pantheric intensity has to be focused towards more pressing matters than this humble blog.

Early March is always a time when everything comes to a head at once.  Last week was the final week of third quarter, and was chock-a-block with various school events.  That saw me scrambling around all over campus during my precious planning periods performing various feats of technical wizardry (but all of the standard hedge-mage variety; the really powerful audio/visual spells won’t be cast for another month).  Incredibly, I managed to record all of Péchés d’âge moyen last week (give it a listen if you haven’t already—it’s less then seven minutes to listen to the entire album!).

Naturally, that meant a backlog of grading and comment-writing for report cards, which had to be completed over the weekend.  I’m grateful to Pontiac Dream 39/Always a Kid for Today for his movie review Monday, because that saved me some valuable time Sunday (it’s also an excellent review—you should go read it!).

Tomorrow I’m taking a group of students to our private school association’s annual Music Festival.  It’s a very fun, very hectic event.  The students prepare solo pieces to perform for a judge, and receive feedback and a score (either Bronze/Good/III, Silver/Excellent/II, or Gold/Superior/I).  We’ve got seven singers, five pianists, two guitarists, and a drummer attending, and one of my tech kids is coming along to assist with moving amplifiers and such around.

I am accompanying most of our singers on piano, so in addition to my usual load of private lessons, I’ve been squeezing in extra sessions with singers to make sure I have their songs down (and I’ve rescheduled or cancelled several off-campus lessons this week in order to prioritize those students who need to prepare for the festival).  I’m feeling pretty good about it at the time of writing, but I have quite a bit of paperwork and music to organize this afternoon before we head to the event.

Fortunately, today is a half-day for students, as we’re holding parent-teacher conferences after lunch.  As of the time of this writing, I improbably only have one ten-minute conference (though I look for that to change), so I should have plenty of time to get everything sorted.  That will be a welcome time to get prepared for the festival, and to get a jumpstart on fourth quarter grades (I got a bit behind on some grades in third quarter, and don’t want to dig myself out of another hole).

After the festival Thursday, the rest of the week should be a bit more calm.  Friday morning I’m taking a large group of United States History students to an American Civil War battlefield along with some other teachers, which should be a welcome change from a long morning of droning on about Gilded Age presidents.

Finally, I’ve foolishly agreed to proctor the SAT this Saturday.  It’s not hard to proctor, it just gets a tad tedious.  That said, it’s good, easy money for sitting around watching kids take a test.

I’m toying with the idea of composing Péchés d’âge moyen, Volume II.  I had such fun putting together Péchés d’âge moyen, and I love jotting down short little musical pieces.  I’m not expecting major sales; it’s just enjoyable writing music.

That’s it for this early March midweek update.  Thanks for your support, and God Bless!

—TPP