Yours portly has an out-of-town gig tomorrow night for a private party in Wilmington, North Carolina. I’ll be playing a mix of French and modern pieces on my alto saxophone.
Naturally, I have spent some spare time this week after school and lessons and practicing. One of my recent favorite Romantic Era pieces is Alexander Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dance No. 1,” from his opera Prince Igor.
I made a small recording and uploaded it to YouTube:
When I was casting about for a good piece for this week’s TBT, it occurred to me that today—Thursday, 20 March 2025—is the first day of Spring! It’s already been pretty spring-y around here, but now it’s official in an meteorological sense.
Spring is a wonderful holiday, and while I will miss the bracing cold, I love seeing all of God’s Creation come into bloom. This Spring promises to be, like all others, a busy one, but with the hope that the budding of new life brings.
With that, here is “TBT^4: The Joy of Spring“:
Dr. Girlfriend’s dad took me to a hockey game this past weekend. He’s a Detroit Red Wings fan, and the Wings were playing the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, so he invited me to come along. It was my first hockey game, and I loved it.
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With the release of The Galactic Menagerie, I’m really digging into the pieces from the album. Today’s piece started life as a short string trio I wrote for some of my Middle School Music Ensemble students.
It’s Saint Patrick’s Day, and yours portly is a bit busy at the moment, so I’m doing a quick reblog today.
With that, here is 17 March 2021’s “Saint Patrick’s Day“:
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Want to play the sax? Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.
Yours portly has just finished a grueling two weeks of work. My students attended the SCISA Music Festival this past Thursday, and the preparation for that event dominated my time. The week prior, I was editing four chapters of a book my pastor needed to finish to get to his publisher. His original editor fell through, so I knocked out one chapter a night over the course of four nights. I probably spent around 12-15 hours in total editing, and one night nearly fell asleep while doing so!
But now there is a bit of a lull. Middle School students will be in testing most of this week, and the Spring Concert is about three weeks away. There is much to do in preparation for the Concert, but I’ll have a chance to catch my breath.
It’s raining hard at Dr. Girlfriend’s place, and Murphy and I will be hitting the road in a bit to head home. Hopefully it’s not storming the entire way, but we’ll take our time.
How’s everyone doing out there in the blogosphere? Any fun Saint Patrick’s Day plans?
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Pickup my newest release: The Galactic Menagerie! Use promo code obesekangaroos to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp! Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Friday, 4 April 2025.
Want to play the sax? Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.
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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. My Middle School Music Ensemble competed in the Large Instrumental Ensemble category, and played an arrangement I put together of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music. The High School Music Ensembled competed in the Small Instrumental Ensemble category, performing the 1930s jazz standard “All of Me.”
In total, we took home twenty (20) Gold medals, five (5) Silver medals, and three (3) Bronze medals.
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At the end of the 2023-2024 school year, teachers were given three tickets to put towards different items in an end-of-the-school-year raffle. The items varied in quality and value, ranging from random coffee stuff to an Amazon gift card. Naturally, the big(ger)-ticket items attracted the most tickets, so yours portly played the odds: I put all three of my tickets in the random assortment of coffee stuff.
I was not surprised, but was still excited, when I won the item. The coffee was pretty good, and I still have the basket and the mug that came with it. But the best part of the collection was the box of Stroopwafels (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—and you should definitely get some Stroopwafels).
If you’ve never had them before, the concept is simple: you pour your steaming hot cup of coffee, then place a Stroopwafel on top of the mug for a few minutes. The result is that the delicious caramel filling heats up to an oozy, flavorful consistency, and you have the perfect companion snack to accompany your cup of joe.
Naturally, a man of my generous proportions enjoyed this toothsome Dutch treat. What I enjoyed almost as much as the Stroopwafels, though, was making a truly absurd, three-part YouTube Shorts series based on the flavorful concoction.
Last March I wrote a lengthy post about different experiences at three different McDonald’s, two in different parts of South Carolina, one somewhere in the wilderness that blurs between Georgia and Florida. According to my budgeting software, the last time I purchased anything from McDonald’s was 17 March 2024, which is shortly before I wrote this post on 20 March 2024.
I like McDonald’s. I do not like what it has become—overpriced, low-quality fast food. The classical trade-off of fast food generally, and McDonald’s particularly, is that, in exchange for low-quality food, you get high consistency and low cost. Now the experience is expensive, inconsistent, and inconvenient.
In other words, it’s not worth it. I’ve always seen McDonald’s as “travel food”—the kind of cheap crap you shovel into your face on a long road trip because it’s quick, hot, and fairly delicious—not as everyday fare, but there are so many superior options. Taco Bell is a vastly more affordable fast food experience, and the food is better—and, I’ll risk claiming it, marginally better for you. I’m not saying Taco Bell is healthy, but a bean burrito is filling and cheap, and way less life-ruining than a Big Mac.
That said, I’m hankering for a Shamrock Shake. ‘Tis the season. If I head back to a McDonald’s anytime soon, I’ll be sure to give a full report on the weird, alien world I encounter.
With that, here is 20 March 2024’s “McDonald’s: A Vision of Our Dystopian Future“:
My students and I will head to the annual SCISA Music Festival tomorrow, and I’ve been trying lately to book more gigs playing the saxophone, and it’s gotten me thinking about the Slade alto saxophone I purchased last year (that link—and most of the others in this post—is an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that and other links, at no additional cost to you). It’s been a very good saxophone, and I’m prepared to recommend it to potential budget sax shoppers, with one major caveat.
This post is intended as a guide for parents looking to buy an affordable alto saxophone for their child, or for a later-in-life beginner who wants to get into the instrument without too much cost. If you follow my advice, you should be able to kit yourself or your child out with a decent, budget load-out for under $350.
For those of you stumbling upon this post, I’ll briefly introduce myself: I’ve been playing saxophone for nearly thirty years, and have been teaching music nearly full-time for fifteen years. I also teach a ton of private music lessons, and have helped a number of families find affordable, quality instruments over the years. I’m not a pro saxophonist, but I know a lot about them, and I love the instrument.
A quick note: many school music programs will have a rental program set up with a local music shop. These rental programs are not worth it. You’ll end up spending way more money over time, even if you’re doing a rent-to-own situation. If money is an issue, set aside $50 a month for six months, and you’ll be able to afford everything I’m recommending here. Save another $25, and you’ll be able to afford the reeds I’m recommending (the Slade comes with reeds; more on that below). If you child is starting band in the fall, start saving now, and you’ll be fine by September.
I detail the pros and cons of the sax and various accessories. For my list of recommended items to purchase (the sax and accessories), scroll to the bottom of the post.
The Portly Politico 