Month: March 2024

Monday Morning Movie Review: Ponty Praises Donnie Darko (2001)

The Portly Politico3 Comments

After much cajoling, dear old Ponty has delivered his magnum opus—the long-anticipated review of 2001’s moody, depression-inducing Donnie Darko.

I’ve gotsta hand it to old Pontifex Maximus:  he sure knows how to write a review.  Even yours portly—who, as readers know well, is never wrong in his reasoned, intelligent assessments—is regarding his position after reading Ponty’s review.  I may even give DD a second (or is it third or fourth, at this point?) chance.

I won’t spoil anything, but Ponty explains filters out the mud and the grey and brings some light to this otherwise dismal film.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 2001’s Donnie Darko:

Read More »

Lazy Sunday CXLI: Days Off

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Well, yours portly has been skipping a lot of Saturday and Sunday posts lately.  You see, dear readers, my usual schedule is to write a ton of posts for the week on Sundays, then get around to the lengthier, subscriber-only posts sometime during the week.

Lately, the problem has been two-fold:  I have not had much time on Sundays to write (or, alternatively, I have had a ton of other things to do on Sunday), and the weeks have been so slammed, I haven’t had the energy or time to write the weekend posts.  Ay yi yi!

So, what better way to resume Lazy Sunday than with a bunch of recent posts about blowing off my writing responsibilities?

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: SCISA Music Festival 2024

The Portly Politico3 Comments

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.

This past Thursday was the annual South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) Music Festival, a major event for my music students each year.  The Music Festival is an opportunity for students to perform solo and ensemble pieces for judges.  The judges are typically doctoral students at the University of South Carolina School of Music, and they often give excellent, detailed feedback to students.

Students can earn one of three scores:  a Gold/Superior/I; a Silver/Excellent/II; or a Bronze/Good/III.  Even students who earn a Gold/Superior often get invaluable comments (in other words, not just things like, “That was amazing!” without further elaboration, although that does happen occasionally).  While I stress to my students that our aim is to get a Gold on our performances, the real value lies in 1.) challenging ourselves as musicians in the first place and 2.) taking constructive feedback to heart so that we can improve as musicians.

I also make sure they know that simply playing at the Festival is a testament to their courage as performers, as it is very difficult to expose one’s self to criticism, even when that criticism is designed to help us improve.  For me, signing up and working hard to prepare a solo is the most important victory; everything else is icing on the cake.

That said, I am very pleased to announce that both my Middle School and High School Instrumental Ensembles earned Golds for their performances.  The Middle School Music Ensemble performed an instrumental arrangement of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La donna è mobile” from his opera Rigoletto (you can purchase sheet music of my now-award-winning arrangement here, here, and here).  The High School Music Ensemble played the jazz standard “Autumn Leaves.”

Our Choir Director had a great day, too:  her choir earned a Gold, and each of her vocal soloists earned Gold as well.

Here is the (rather dry) update I sent to my administration after school, which I am sure they have blasted out onto social media by this point:

On Thursday, 7 March 2024, forty-two (42) student-musicians travelled to the SCISA Music Festival at the USC School of Music in Columbia, South Carolina to perform adjudicated solo and ensemble pieces. Students competed in the categories of Small Vocal Ensemble, Small Instrumental Ensemble, Large Instrumental Ensemble, Vocal Solo, Drum Solo, Piano Solo, Guitar Solo, and Violin Solo.

The Small Vocal Ensemble, the Small Middle School Instrumental Ensemble, and the Large High School Instrumental Ensemble all earned Gold (Superior) ratings.

Vocal soloists earned five (5) Gold ratings, two (2) Silver ratings, and one (1) Bronze rating.

Instrumental soloists earned eight (8) Gold ratings, three (3) Silver ratings, and one (1) Bronze rating.

In total, students gave twenty-three (23) musical performances, earning sixteen (16) Gold/Superior ratings, five (5) Silver/Excellent ratings, and two (2) Bronze/Good ratings.

The results demonstrate the musical talents of the [school’s] student body, and speak to the cultivation of those talents in the Music program.

So, what does it take to get such results?  Let’s dive in.

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

Phone it in Friday LIV: YouTube Roundup X: Bull Terrier Edition, Part II

The Portly Politico4 Comments

My YouTube channel continues to grow; at the time of writing, I have 97 subscribers—tantalizingly close to 100.

The source of this growth is my chubby bull terrier, Murphy.  I started doing David Attenborough-style nature “documentaries” about her various exploits and foibles, and people sure seem to love my sassy, fat, adorable dog.

This week I’m showcasing some more Murphy content (Murphtent?) for your viewing delectation.

Read More »

Ponty Praises: Ghost of Tsushima (2020)

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Yours portly has been giving Ponty a bit of ribbing about writing his rebuttal to my Caldecott Award-winning review of Donnie Darko (1999).  Please know, dear readers (and dear Ponty) that it’s all a spot of fun; I know Ponty is a busy man.

Indeed, he’s been busy replaying 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, a samurai action-adventure epic.  Just reading through his review, I was blown away by two things:  how realistic the trees in the game look (you’ll see what I mean below) and the love and dedication with which Ponty approaches his reviews.  Game journalism might be rigged in the mainstream publications, but not here at The Portly Politico.  With Ponty’s in-depth analysis, you’re getting the best video game reviewing and analysis of our time.

That might sound like hyperbole, but TPP is blessed to host some great writers.  Ponty’s video game and film reviews always deliver.  In this case, I’m eager to pick up and try Ghost of Tsushima myself… but I don’t have a PS4 or PS5!  Here’s hoping for a port to the Nintendo Switch or the PC.

In the meantime, I can live vicariously through Ponty’s thirteenth-century samurai escapades—and so can you!

With that, here is Ponty’s review of 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima:

Read More »

Open Mic Adventures LXXI: “Epistemology”

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Last Friday, 1 March 2024, I released Epistemology, my latest collection of original compositions.  I personally think it’s some of the best of my newer works.

You can listen to and/or purchase Epistemology through the following services (and more!):

This week, I thought I’d feature the title track of this epic release.

Read More »

Memorable Monday III: Monday Steakhouse Blues

The Portly Politico5 Comments

Well, it seems that my resolve yesterday to get back to our regular schedule waivered, before breaking down completely.  Yours portly has been exceptionally busy lately—March and April are always difficult, but this February was also quite brutal—and what little creative energy I have has been laser-focused on composing.

I also haven’t really watched any flicks worth reviewing.  To be clear, I have reviewed plenty of bad movies.  Lately, though, nothing has leapt out at me as worth hammering out 600-1000 words.  Maybe Ponty will finally write that rebuttal to my award-winning, trenchant, insightful, powerful, persuasive review of Donnie Darko (1999).

So I thought I’d cast back to an old post about eating a steak alone on a Monday night while using my cellphone to write a blog post.  I wrote the post on the eve of the annual South Carolina Independent School Association (SCISA) Music Festival, which is one of the marquee events of our music program.  It’s a huge and chaotic undertaking, but super fun, and I love seeing my students get ready to perform.

I’m pretty on-the-ball this year, but that on-the-ballitude accounts, in part, for my poor posting—I’ve been working ahead on school and Music Festival stuff.

There probably won’t be any steak tonight, but there might be Thursday after I get back from the Festival.

Regardless, here’s 9 March 2020’s “Memorable Monday II: Monday Steakhouse Blues“:

Read More »

An Actually Lazy Sunday: Composing Update

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Last Sunday I was exceptionally busy and had to phone in my already-phoned in Lazy Sunday post.  Today I’m doing the ultimate phoning in and taking yet another day away from the blog (as it were—gotsta keep that daily post counter mollified).  I’ll actually be doing a significant amount of writing this afternoon, so have no fear—we’ll back to the more-or-less regular schedule tomorrow.

As I noted in yesterday’s lazy post, I’ve been fairly swamped at work, and ended a long week with two very long days.  I spent most of Saturday lounging like Goethe, alternating between reading, napping, and eating.

I wasn’t completely useless.  I finished composing for my next major release, Four Mages.  It’s a collection of fantasy-inspired instrumental music, with nine of its ten tracks corresponding to different fantasy archetypes (each with their own color).  The titular mages are “Red Mage,” “Blue Mage,” “Black Mage,” and “White Mage.”  The other tracks (in no particular order) are as follows:

  • “Pink Princess”
  • “Purple Prince”
  • “Green Knight”
  • “Yellow Knight”
  • “Brown Friar”
  • “The Blind Prophet”

That album will hit Bandcamp and all streaming services (sans Spotify) on Thursday, 2 May 2024—exactly halfway to Halloween!  It seemed an appropriate time to release a fantasy album.

Of course, if you haven’t picked up Epistemology, please give it a listen.  You can purchase a digital download via Bandcamp for $5.

You can also listen to the full thing on YouTube for free:

You can listen to Epistemology on YouTube Music and Apple Music, too.  It’s even on Amazon Music—cool!

Thanks for your patience—and please give my tunes a listen.  Every stream helps!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Another Saturday Off

The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Hello, dear readers.  Yours portly is exhausted after a very busy week.  I worked until 9:45 PM and 8:45 PM Thursday and Friday nights, respectively, and spent a good chunk of the week preparing for a big beauty pageant at the school (I was not a participant, to be clear; I ran the lights and sound equipment).  I also announced my first ever lacrosse games—an interesting experience.  On top of all that, I released a new album, Epistemology.

Needless to say, I’m taking yet another Saturday off.  My apologies to subscribers.  I’ll make it up to you soon with some tasty posts.  I just ran out of steam and, honestly, don’t feel like writing today.  I don’t want to get into the habit of missing posts, but I have bigger demands on my attention at the moment than slamming out blog posts.  Next week is the annual Music Festival, which itself is a daunting undertaking.  I might finally get to sleep after next week (if Murphy will let me!).

So, here’s a YouTube playlist with Epistemology.  Y’all should really listen to it; it’s some of my best work.

Cheers!

—TPP