Month: February 2023

Myersvision: Theme Music

The Portly Politico23 Comments

This blog is a friend of the arts, especially music, so I was thrilled when Audre Myers submitted a review of various programs’ theme music.

Theme music does a great deal to set the tone and mood for a show; we all instantly recognize the difference between the theme music for, say, a cheesy Eighties family sitcom and a brooding detective serial.

Perhaps the greatest theme music composer of all time is Mike Post, who wrote music for Law and Order, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., and The A-Team, among others.  You’ve never heard of him, but you’ve certainly heard his music:

Audre has quite a few examples for your consideration, and they’re all interesting in their own way.  Even the ones she doesn’t like are, as she acknowledges, fitting to their respective shows.

With that, here is Audre’s overview of theme music:

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Open Mic Adventures XX: “Sleepy Student’s Serenade”

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Readers will know that I have been featuring pieces from my modern classical piano project, P​é​ch​é​s d​’​â​ge moyen, which I released on 4 March 2022.  I’ve finally begun a new, albeit amorphous, composing project, based on the kind of quirky premise you folks have come to expect from yours portly.

My school gives students little red tardy slips to bring to class, typically when they turn up late to the first period class.  My High School Music Ensemble meets in the morning, so it’s not unusual to have a few students—especially the ones that can drive—show up late.

I hit upon the idea of composing very short musical themes or motifs based on the tardy students’ personalities (at least loosely).

The very first such composition was all of two measures.  I’ve expanded them a bit since then, but they’re all fairly short—typically fewer than eight measures.  I love the piano miniature format (the flash fiction of music!), and it’s fun to jot these down, and then play them back to the amusement of the tardy student.

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty’s Top Ten Best Films: #3: Cube (1997)

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Ponty never ceases to surprise me with his thoughtful picks, and I was not expecting a relatively obscure sci-fi horror thriller in his top three.  After reading the review, though, it makes sense—and it really makes me want to see this flick.

Sci-fi and horror tend to be the genres that, when done well, explore stories and concepts that stick in one’s mind for weeks, months, and years after viewing.  Cramming six volatile personalities into a mysterious death cube sounds a bit hokey, but the opportunity to explore the frailty and the triumph of the human condition makes it an exquisite, albeit devilish, setup.

How would we behave and react in bizarre, lethal situations?  Would we keep our cool?  Or—more likely—would be panic, virtually guaranteeing our destruction?  Ponty’s pick dives into these uncomfortable questions.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 1997’s Cube:

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Lazy Sunday CLXXXIII: P​é​ch​é​s d​’​â​ge moyen Picks

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For the past three editions of Open Mic Adventures I’ve been featuring pieces from my modern classical piano project, P​é​ch​é​s d​’​â​ge moyen, which I released on 4 March 2022.  I’ve been unable to get out to open mic night since school and lessons have geared back up, so I figured I’d dip into the portly video archives to bring back some goodness.

I also really liked this composing project, and I think I came up with some good material  If you haven’t already, you can pick it up for a buck.  I’ve got another piano miniatures composing project in the works, but more on that another time.

Regardless, I thought I’d take a break from the movie review retrospectives and look back at those three recent editions of Open Mic Adventures, all dedicated to pianistic noodling:

Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Disney Adventures

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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.

After two Saturdays of ripping off my subscribers with a lack of substantive content, I’m back!  Rather than continue the saga of my yuletide trip to Arizona, I’ll be diverting briefly to an overview of my family’s big trip to Disney World.

The last time I went to Disney World I was around fifteen- or sixteen-years old—it’s a bit murky—so it was over twenty years ago.  I remembered some things, naturally, but I’d forgotten quite a bit (the irony of spending four figures to visit a theme park—a video game provides more entertainment-per-hour at a far lower cost, but it’s a lonelier endeavor), so it was fun being back and experiencing Disney World anew.

It was especially fun experiencing it through the eyes of my niece and nephews, who are all old enough to appreciate the experience.

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

February 2023 Bandcamp Friday

The Portly Politico4 Comments

It’s back!  It’s the first Bandcamp Friday of 2023!

The first Friday of a bunch of months this year—February, March, April, May, August, September, October, November, and December—will feature this pro-indie music observance, a day on which Bandcamp waives its usual 15% commission on sales.

In other words, when you buy my music, almost 100% of it goes to me, instead of almost 85%.

Currently, my entire discography of ten releases is $9.50, a savings of 45%, which is not bad for ten releases.  That’s $0.95 per release—not too shabby!  To purchase the full discography, click on any release, and you’ll see the option to purchase all of them.

I’m also selling all of my paintings for $10, with free shipping in the United States, regardless of how many you purchase.  They’re one of kind, so once a painting is purchased, it’s gone.

I haven’t done any new painting lately, but I do have two new doodles for just $5 each:  Robo Talk 23 No. 1 and No. 2.

Finally, my book The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot is $10 in paperback, and just $5 on Kindle.

Thanks again for your support!

Happy Friday!

—TPP

TBT: Getting Medieval… with LEGO

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Over the last year, my childhood (and childlike) passion for all things LEGO reignited with all the intensity of a nearly-middle-aged man with disposal income and no children.  It all started with the Medieval Blacksmith (#21325) set, which I purchased for myself as a self-indulgent birthday present (and probably as a way to distract myself from a recent breakup… maybe there’s a connection there somewhere).

That splurge resulted in quite a few more, both for myself, friends, girlfriends, and family.  I’ll soon be starting on a very cool build that I will detail here soon.

I haven’t documented every build over the last year, but I’ve tried to give readers a glimpse into a world in which it is increasingly socially acceptable for a grown man to play with toys.

Regardless, in casting about for a good throwback post for this week’s edition of TBT, I settled on this detailed retrospective of my build of the Medieval Blacksmith set.  It was an incredibly engrossing and fun build, and I still admire the detail and craftsmanship that went into the design of the set.  Eventually, it will be the centerpiece of a hodge-podge LEGO world I’m currently constructing and planning.

With that, here is 18 January 2022’s “Getting Medieval… with LEGO“:

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Ditch the Cable and Stream Favorite Political Shows for Less

The Portly Politico17 Comments

I cut the cord a long time ago, though I was reluctant to do so.  I was—shamefully!—paying $182 a month for cable television (with a DVR and all the other fixin’s) until I began my journey in extreme budget in 2016 (which, thanks to private music lessons and your subscriptions, I don’t have to be quite so extreme about these days).

Back then, it was much simpler—there were only a handful of streaming services, and they tended to offer a pretty broad selection of television series and films.  There were quite a few shows on Fox that I enjoyed watching regularly, so I went with Hulu, as they would stream episodes of shows that had aired the previous night.  Otherwise, the options were pretty much Netflix and YouTube and… I’m not even sure what else.  It was a brave new world for home entertainment—the wild west.

Now there’s a streaming service for every subgenre, and nearly for every intellectual property.  In order to get everything (or nearly everything), you’d end up paying more than my shameful pre-2016 cable bill.

Of course, when we had everything on cable, we didn’t watch but a small fraction of it.  So streaming still offers a far better alternative, as consumers can largely choose the basket of programming they prefer from one or two streaming services, rather than paying a hefty premium for thousands of channels and shows they’ll never watch.

With that here is “Ditch the Cable and Stream Favorite Political Shows for Less”:

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