Hi all,
Spooky Season IV is out now. Get it for 30% off with promo code ghost.
That’s all I’ve got today.
Happy Listening!
—TPP
Category: music
Spooktacular 2025 is Tonight!
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Tonight’s the night—the 2025 Spooktacular! My students have been working hard on their solos, and it should be a fun night.
I have done a concert around Halloween for years, and started calling it the “TJC Spooktacular” in 2019. At that point, it was pretty much a solo show, with my buddy John hopping on to accompany me on a few tunes (or for me to accompany him).
During The Age of The Virus, I couldn’t find a venue that would book live music, largely due to concerns about big groups of people in a confined space. So I conceived of turning my front lawn into a seating area and my porch into a stage. Thus, the Spooktacular in its modern iteration was born.
That first front porch Spooktacular in 2020 was not a recital for my private music students, but was instead a more self-indulgent concert: John and I missed playing live music. I also paid a couple of groups to perform as openers: one of my students and his punk band—their first live gig—and two of my open mic music friends.
Then I began to transition towards the Spooktacular being a recital for my students. That helped to attract more people to the event, but also shifted the tone away from “raucous-but-mild-Halloween party” to “family-friendly Halloween party.” The original Spooktacular was never bacchanalian, but the current recital version is much more focused on family fun. The costume contest also seems to be a big hit among the little ones, too.
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Open Mic Adventures CLIII: “Lime Ghost”
I’m still waiting to hear from CD Baby that they’ve approved my latest release, Spooky Season IV. They have gotten super slow with approving albums now that they’re charging extra for fast-tracked approval. Boooooooooooooo!
Regardless, here’s another track from the upcoming-at-some-point album:
Open Mic Adventures CLII: “Pink Ghost”
Spooky Season IV is coming at some point this month (hopefully the Monday of Halloween week). Here’s another tasty tune for your spooky satisfaction.
SubscribeStar Saturday: Makeup Posts!
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.
Yours portly has been woefully behind the past two weeks with posting SubscribeStar Saturday pieces, so I’ve got three for you today:
- A preview of Spooky Season IV, which releases later this month
- An overview of last week’s grueling Homecoming Week 2025
- Some reflections on education in 2025
Enjoy—and apologies again for the delays!
—TPP
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Open Mic Adventures CLI: “Blue Ghost”
Spooky Season IV is coming out later this month, and I finally finished it last week. The first track I wrote for the album, “Blue Ghost,” is the feature of today’s Open Mic Adventures.
This piece is the companion piece to “Red Ghost,” which I featured last week. I like the contrasts between them.
October 2025 Bandcamp Friday!
Pickup my newest releases, Säx and Electrock III: Euroclydon, and Triple Deluxe! Spooky Season IV is coming soon, too!
Want to play the sax? Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.
Wanna be utterly perplexed while laughing uproariously? Grab a copy of my first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link, so I’ll receive a portion of any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you—plus I’ll get the book royalties).
Today is Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp doesn’t take it’s usual 15% cut of proceeds from sales. It’s a great time to purchase tunes from yours portly.
My latest EP, Säx, released last month, as did two full-length albums, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Triple Deluxe.
My full discography typically goes for $87.64. Considering it’s twenty-nine (29) releases, some of which are not available on streaming platforms, that’s pretty good—and just $3.02 per release!
Thanks for your support! And if you haven’t already, check out my YouTube series 31 Days of Halloween.
Happy Friday!
—TPP
TBT^16: Mahler’s Composing Shack
I’m slamming out Spooky Season IV, and it’s nowhere near as ingenious as the works of Gustav Mahler. But what I find so fascinating is how composers and other creative types work, especially when they’re trying to churn out major projects.
“Workflow” get tossed around a lot, but it really is remarkable to see how the most dedicated craftsmen and artists create a consistent and detailed schedule of daily habits and rituals. I especially love to learn about what they ate for breakfast—probably my favorite ritual of the day.
With that, here is 3 October 2024’s “TBT^4: Mahler’s Composing Shack“:
Open Mic Adventures CL: “Red Ghost”
Yours portly is hard at work on Spooky Season IV and it’s nearly done. I don’t have an official release date yet, but I hope to have it out by Halloween (preferably about a week before).
That said, here’s one of the pieces from the release, which features a number of colorful ghosts.
Phone it in Friday CV: YouTube Roundup CLXV: Hymns
For the first time in awhile, I have a proper, full-sized Phone it in Friday with three videos. It helps that I’ve been recording myself playing hymns a lot more.
Here are three recent videos of yours portly playing hymns; each is played on my maternal grandmother’s Kimball piano, which I had moved to the house this summer:
The Portly Politico 