Our chaplain is still indisposed, and I was asked to deliver the chapel devotional at school again this Thursday, 9 November 2023. I put together a short devotional on humility.
Here is the devotional I wrote, with a huge debt of gratitude to The Daily Encouraging Word, which I substantially adapted and modified for this lesson:
Ah, yes, November. The fun of Halloween is over; the fun of Christmas is just beginning. But there’s more to this humble month than being the turkey sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas.
November is when the air turns crisp and cool (here in South Carolina, anyway), when cozy sweaters and hot cups of coffee become the order of the short days at Portly Manor.
It’s also the time of year when my musical tastes skew more Baroque. After all, some of the best Christmas carols have Baroque or Classical origins, and boast some incredible composing talents behind them.
One of those is Handel, a composer for whom my respect deepened greatly when I taught about his music in my Pre-AP Music Appreciation class many moons ago.
With that, here is “TBT^4: Hand it to Handel“:
I head back to the orthopedist today for an update on my broken ankle. If all goes well, I should be looking at another five weeks in a boot—no surgery, no cast. Praise the Lord!
The ankle is already starting to do better. I can get around reasonably well in the boot, and my speed is up. I’m getting better at walking on crutches, and can even go around my house without the boot.
Still, it hurts. It’s not excruciating, but it’s constant. It’s rare that I get my foot and ankle comfortable, to where I don’t feel anything. Certain movements or positions still send a sting of pain, but it’s nothing like last week, when one morning I couldn’t put on a pair of socks by myself, and had to concentrate on my breathing while my longsuffering neighbor put the sock gingerly over my foot.
But overall, I am very thankful. It could have been way worse.
Also, Murphy seems to be enjoying the time I spend with my leg up on the couch:
Here’s to hobblin’ for just a bit longer!
—TPP
In the wake of Anklegate 2023, I’ve been leaning on the Lord (and other people) more than ever. So it seemed appropriate to look back a piano performance of the hymn “I Need Thee Every Hour” from before the Sunday, 22 October 2023 morning service at my church.
I had the opportunity to see Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) a Sunday or two back on the big screen. I love how these classic flicks get rereleased on their anniversaries, as there’s something different about seeing them in theaters as opposed to television.
In this case, the main difference is settling in with a massive tub of popcorn and a liter of Diet Pepsi. The Birds works on the small screen just as well, I think, but it was still super cool seeing this oddball in such a setting.
One thing I did not realize about The Birds is that it lacks a traditional soundtrack. The “soundtrack” such as it is, consists of electronic recordings of various birdcalls, layered together in a form of early musical synthesizer. The early 1960s was an incredible period of experimentation with blended electronic musical samples, as the seminal Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys would demonstrate just three years later. That album didn’t sample birdcalls (as far as I can remember), but it did see Brian Wilson tinkering with blends of unusual instruments and chord voicings that were examples of synthesizing analog sounds electronically.
The Birds was cutting-edge in this regard. There’s no sweeping string orchestrations, or even stabbing ones, like in Psycho (1960). It adds to the naturalistic terror of the film, as the only “music” is the squawking and chattering of the lethal, titular birds.
Yours portly’s schedule is a tad out of alignment due in part to my broken ankle, which I suppose itself is out of alignment. I’ve also had company in town, and have let the blog fall on the backburner a bit.
No worries—I’ll be updating Lazy Sunday and Sunday Doodles today. I’m just playing catch-up a bit.
On the plus side, I got an extra hour of sleep last night—huzzah!
—TPP
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On Monday, 30 October 2023, I suffered a very bad fall in my laundry/mudroom. I had an infestation of these little tiny beetles that are, fortunately, harmless; however, I wanted to get rid of them. To that end, I sprayed a lemongrass indoor insecticide liberally throughout the laundry room.
Well, it worked: it killed the bugs—and it nearly killed me! I missed a spot when stepping into the room to take out Murphy, and fell hard onto the concrete floor.
At the time, I just thought it was a bad sprain, as I was able to hobble around well enough. I iced my ankle and elevated it on some pillows on my bed, and struggled throughout a night of pain.
Well, after spending Halloween walking around on my hobbled foot—and borrowing first some crutches and then a cane from colleagues—my foot seemed to get worse. By Wednesday morning, it was clear I needed to see an orthopedist.
Well, it turns out I had a broken ankle.
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Here we are again—another Bandcamp Friday. There’s never been a better time to buy my music.
I have a new release coming out on Black Friday (24 October 2023), Leftovers. It’s a short EP of four tracks leftover from my recent composing projects, as well as an epic-length, eight-minute-plus track from the never-completed Electrock III called “Futura (Magnum Opus III).” Here’s the album cover to tide you over:
Delicious! Mark your calendars now!
Last Bandcamp Friday I had a brand new release: Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids! It’s ten tracks and nearly fifteen minutes of music, so it’s 3.5 times longer than Spooky Season.
Like Spooky Season, Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids features full scores for every part, as well as around 130 MBs of bonus content—videos, pictures, and even some live performance footage. It’s my most feature-packed release ever, and it’s only $5!
Also, look at this sweet album cover:
It’s the finest quality MS Paint can provide!
Speaking of my last release, Spooky Season, a collection of seven new compositions with a spooky, autumnal vibe, hit streaming platforms on Sunday, 1 October, but is also available for purchase via Bandcamp!
Spooky Season is just $5, and includes full scores and individual parts for every track—a $28 value!—plus a bonus track. It’s also crammed with videos, handwritten manuscripts, and other goodies.
The first Friday of a bunch of months in 2023—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 eleven releases is $20.89, a savings of 50%, which is not bad for eleven releases. That’s $1.74 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.
You can also listen to a ton of my tunes on YouTube (and it’s free to subscribe!).
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.
Then there’s Society6, a website that lets artists upload their designs, which can they be printed onto all manner of products (like this throw pillow, or this duvet cover). Why not get a bookbag with a mouthy droid on it?
I only get 10% of the sales made there, but some of the stuff looks really good—I really want these notebooks with my “Desert View” painting on it (now SOLD!). Some of them are straight-up goofy, like this church doodle I made celebrating the presidential pardon of Roger Stone (the description for the piece is “Anger your friends with this doodle commemorating the presidential pardon of America’s most dapper political operative“).
I have a few new paintings in the works, and hope to be attending the South Carolina Bigfoot Festival to try to hawk some of my works. We’ll see how that goes!
My first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot, is $10 in paperback, and just $5 on Kindle.
My second and newest book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures, is $20 in paperback and $10 on Kindle.
Finally, after I finish Offensive Poems: With Pictures, my planned third book, I’ll be uploading those doodles to Society6 as well. I have high hopes (perhaps naïvely) for this book, but we shall see. The doodles are some of my best work—and in glorious color—and without notebook paper lines!
Thanks again for your support!
Happy Friday!
—TPP
Well, I’m letting the Halloween good times roll, even though we’re now two days into November. Last year, I posted “Memorable Monday: Happy Halloween“; Halloween fell on Monday, and I broke the chain of “TBT” posts. I was planning on doing the same this year and doing a rare “Retro Tuesday” post, but I took a nasty spill and missed the window. D’oh!
Well, what else can be said that hasn’t already been written? Halloween is awesome. Maybe creeping it a few days into November is a good way to combat “Christmas Creep.” Indeed, I’m playing a gig tomorrow, and will likely play some Halloween tunes.
With that, here is 28 October 2021’s “TBT^2: Happy Halloween“:
After my great Halloween fall, I decided I needed to do a proper Halloween post, even if it’s now All Saints’ Days.
Well, I’m sure the saints won’t mind. Maybe Saint Servatius will do me a solid.
The Portly Politico 