Category: SubscribeStar Saturday

SubscribeStar Saturday: Pulp Magazine?

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One morning while driving into work I started thinking about short stories.  The Based Book Sale is running a sale on short stories and short story collections this week.  My book The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot is one of the collections in the sale, and I’ve purchased a couple of works from other authors (and will likely buy more).  $0.99 for a Kindle eBook is excellent.

Here’s the problem:  I don’t like reading anything over about 2000 words on a screen.  I will, but if I have the option to purchase a $10 paperback over an eBook, I almost always will, unless the work is fairly short and I can read it on the toilet (lol).  I don’t have a Kindle device, which might make the reading experience more pleasant, but I suspect I am a physical media man when it comes to long-form writing (a bit of an irony, considering I write almost exclusively for an online audience).

That got me thinking:  what if I created a fifty-page monthly fiction magazine in the spirit of the old pulps?  Something about 4″x6″ that could be carried in a bag or a large pocket, packed with short stories of various genres from up-and-coming authors?

Further, what if I paid those authors decent money, not just “exposure”—$50 at least per story, and preferably $100.  I could always toss in some stories of my own to keep my costs down, and it would be printed very cheaply on pulp-grade paper, probably entirely in black and white.  I’d commission artists to design the covers, which would be eye-catching (and possibly in color).  Then I’d mail copies to paid subscribers and distribute others through independent bookstores, comic bookstores, etc., on a consignment basis.

I asked Microsoft’s AI, CoPilot, how feasible it would be, and its answer surprised me.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: SCISA Music Festival 2026

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Another SCISA Music Festival is in the books, and it’s a bittersweet occasion for yours portly, as it’s the last one as a music teacher at my current school.  I’ve been taking kids to Columbia, South Carolina for the SCISA Music Festival every year since 2012 (except for one year when I had to stay on campus for our reaccreditation visit, and during the COVID year, when we hired a judge to adjudicate our pianists on campus).  My Instrumental Ensembles, whether in the “Small” or “Large” categories, and either High School or Middle School, have earned Gold medals every year since 2013 (the High School Small Instrumental Ensemble in 2012 earned a Silver for an instrumental rendition of “The Circle of Life”).

Because we are not a traditional concert band, there’s a good bit of “tech” that goes with the group.  Essentially, my Music Ensembles are large rock bands, often with multiple guitars, basses, pianos/keys, and whatever other instruments happen to be enrolled in the class.  One year, I took an ensemble that consisted of the following mélange of instrumentation:  piano, electric piano, viola, alto sax, euphonium, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass guitar, and ukulele.  It was one of the oddest mixtures, but it worked.
This year, my High School Ensemble featured the typical guitar (all electric), keys, basses (three of them!), and drums, but also alto sax, violin, clarinet, and guzheng.  The last of those is a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.  We incorporated all of that into a cool arrangement of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “My Favorite Things.”
That selection itself came about as a result of organic creativity.  I was stumped as to what piece to pick for the High School this year, until one of the students came for an after-school lesson and asked to sightread some jazz piano pieces.  We found a Jamie Aebersold book with a number of pieces, including “My Favorite Things.”  He had immense fun playing it.
Just a day before, my older brother had texted me a lengthy live recording of John Coltrane playing the piece.  It seemed serendipitous that my student was also drawn to the piece, so I decided we’d try it as a group.
It began to morph from there.  Our alto saxophonist is phenomenal, and I worked out an odd little “Middle Eastern” scale for him.  Essentially, it’s an E Phrygian scale, but instead of a G natural as the third interval, it’s a G#; to wit:  E F G# A B C D E.  That raised third creates a really interesting interval.
My guzheng player and I also collaborated.  He is a delightful international student from China, and he will often practice during my afternoon planning.  The guzheng typically uses a kind of “open” pentatonic tuning, so he contrived a unique blended tuning in order to get the pitches he needed to play the melody.  I told him that I wanted the piece to sound like “East meets West.”

It all fell into place from there.  One thing I will miss about teaching music in a group is that very process of collaborative creation.  The molding of our arrangement felt like a musical conversation that unfolded gradually, each element falling into place at its appointed time.  The process was truly magical.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: God’s Judgment, Timing, and Provision

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On Wednesday, 4 March 2026 I led the men’s devotional, Master’s Men, at my church. Master’s Men meets the first Wednesday of each month, and men in the congregation take turns leading.

I wasn’t sure what to discuss, so I turned to a devotional my late paternal grandmother gave me many years ago. I flipped to the verses for 4 March, and it prominently featured James 5:10. The other verses emphasized how Christ Will Bear our burdens. Given that my wife and I are in the midst of moving while she’s finishing her residency and I’m entering the busiest part of the school year, that seemed like the natural direction to take.

However, as I dove deeper into James 5 itself, I realized there was so much more to discuss. I came away with a very different message (although it does, of course, touch upon how Christ Bears our burdens). The result is included below. —TPP

James 5 (NKJV)

Rich Oppressors Will Be Judged

1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

Be Patient and Persevering

7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.

Meeting Specific Needs

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Bring Back the Erring One

19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Lesson: God’s Judgment, Timing, and Provision

Let us pray.

The Book of James is, perhaps, one of the most challenging books of the New Testament. James does not pull any punches, but exhorts believers to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers of it in James 1:22—and to take joy in our strife and suffering in James 1:2.

Indeed, each chapter of this short book offers up warnings for the reader. James 2:20 tells us that “faith without works is dead.” James 3:1-8 always convicts me; I have set far too much ablaze with an unruly tongue in my life. James 4 cautions against pride and encourages humility, reminding us that we cannot boast about tomorrow because God Controls and Numbers our days.

I think part of the appeal of James, particularly for men, is that it calls us to action—that our faith, if it is true faith at all, will show itself through our actions. If the faith we claim we have is true, then our deeds will reflect our faith. We are not saved by works, but works are evidence of our faith. As Christ Says in Matthew 7:16a: “You will know them by their fruits.”

So it is that we come to James 5, the final chapter in this useful little book. This chapter strikes me as a culmination of everything before it. So much of James is a reminder of our own limitations as fallen, sinful humans, and how dependent we are upon Christ’s Grace. James 5 demonstrates this dependence upon Christ by emphasizing God’s Judgment, God’s Timing, and God’s Provision.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Epic Universe: Super Mario World

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My family and I took our annual-ish trip to Universal Studios earlier this week (Dr. Wife, sadly, is still in the depths of residency, so she was unable to join us).  This year’s trip was a bit different from those of yesteryear, however:  we visited Universal’s new park, Epic Universe, on our last day in Orlando.

Epic Universe has been in the works for years, and suffered (I believe) some delays due to The Age of The Virus.  The wait and the delays were worth it—it was truly, as my younger brother put it, the “theme park of the twenty-first century.”

The premise behind Epic Universe is that a central hub of celestial-themed rides and attractions leads to various “universes” or worlds.  Each one is accessed through a portal, and once you’re in one of the worlds, you are in it.  You can’t see the other worlds or the main hub until you leave that specific world.  Instead of areas blending together gradually, they’re distinct little pocket universes.

That separation greatly enhances the immersion.  When we were in Super Mario World—the subject of today’s post—it felt like we were inhabiting the world of Super Mario Brothers.  When we were in Dark Universe, the monster world, it was like being in an old Universal or Hammer horror flick.  The Harry Potter Ministry of Magic was akin to walking the streets of Paris—and so on.

Epic Universe consists of four separate worlds:  Super Mario World; Dark Universe; the Ministry of Magic (Paris); and the Island of Berk, from the How to Train Your Dragon film franchise.  There is also the Celestial Park hub area, which features the park’s signature coaster, Starlight Racers, and a celestial carousel at the center.

Today, I want to dive into the first of these worlds, the world of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Bowser, and the rest—Super Mario World.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Moving, Minnesota, and Music

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After a couple of weekends of failing to post, yours portly is back with three subscriber-only posts only after SubscribeStar.  That makes up for the two missed weekends and offers something fresh for readers.

This week, I have posts on moving, Minnesota, and music:

  • “Moving Pains” – the story of my doomed foray into hiring a professional moving service (and the complaint to the Better Business Bureau that followed).
  • “Mayhem in Minneapolis” – my analysis of the situation in Minneapolis and the needless deaths there (spoiler alert:  if you interfere with law enforcement and attempt to hurt them, it probably won’t end well); it was so incendiary my own brother cancelled his subscription (so you know it’s good).
  • “Rosy Reds” – a preview of a piece for my work-in-progress album Koi Dance, “Rosy Reds” depicts the flitting about of rosy red minnows in our koi pond.

Subscribe for one buck a month and you can read all of these posts—and hundreds more!  It’s so cheap, I think I’m actually turning people away; they must think the low price means the quality stinks.  Or maybe it’s my recent unreliability that keeps potential subscribers at bay.

Of course, you could risk a single dollar to find out!

Happy Saturday!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: American Imperialism

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Apologies for the evening post, dear readers; Dr. Wife and I played a key role in balloon arch construction for a friend’s baby shower, and yours portly took an extended nap after overindulging on chicken wings and fried pickles.  Now that all of that succulence has gone straight to fat, I’m slowly rubbing my neurons together to hammer out this post.  —TPP

The excellent website Free Speech Backlash ran a lengthy essay of mine this past Thursday, 15 January 2026.  “Trump: Nationalist or Imperialist?” is an attempt to place the Nicolás Maduro arrest in the broader context of American diplomatic history, specifically as it pertains to our hemispheric policy.  That policy dates back to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which received an overhaul in the first years of the twentieth century during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.  The so-called Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine argued that, in order to prevent European intervention in Latin America, the United States would intervene instead.

President Trump is clearly aware of this history—thus his invocation of the “Donroe Doctrine,” his own revival of the Roosevelt Corollary.  Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Hemisphere is increasing, and The Donald has to take action.  The action in Venezuela was not strictly about securing oil—we have plenty of it—but to prevent China from controlling major oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere.  The United States also sought to prevent China and Russia paying for that oil with their own currencies, as the purchasing of oil in US dollars ensures the dominance of our increasingly devalued currency.

China has also sought to make inroads into Panama, where the Panamanians currently run the canal that Roosevelt took drastic steps to ensure could be built—under American auspices.  One reason Trump wants to reclaim the Panama Canal is precisely because if we don’t, the Panamanians will likely fold to the Chinese.

Even Greenland, the most memeable of Trump’s neo-Monrovian ambitions, is an application of the Monroe/Donroe Doctrines.  The Arctic is emerging as a major trade route for global goods—the fabled Northwest Passage now a reality—and China has already made attempts to bring the Danish colony under its thumb.  The Danes lack the will and the capacity to improve and defend Greenland—or even to exploit its vast natural resources effectively—and The Donald sees this island as the key to securing dominance in the Arctic in the Western Hemisphere.

Indeed, it was Greenland that generated the most commentary (and heart-bleeding) in the comments section.  The most common refrain from the opposition was that the Greenlanders have the right to self-determination.  It’s an argument I’m sympathetic with in principle, but in Reality, Greenland has a population of fewer than 60,000 people—only barely double that of the municipal population of my hometown growing up in South Carolina.  If the world were a peaceful place, an independent Republic of Greenland could probably be viable as an extremely small (demographically) nation.  In the world of cutthroat geopolitics, with China and Russia on the rise and the Arctic opening up new strategic challenges and opportunities, an independent Greenland is a costly fantasy.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Gig Defeat

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The past couple of weeks have been quite busy as Dr. Wife and I began the arduous process of moving furniture, personal belongings, and various bits of bric-a-brac and knick-knackery to our new home.  As such, I’m playing a bit of catch-up with these subscriber-only posts.  Apologies for the frequent delays over the last few months, and thanks for sticking with me.  —TPP

Back on 20 December 2025 I wrote “Christmas Gigging,” an optimistic post about how fun, easy, and profitable Christmastime bookings are for musicians.  Christmas music abundantly available and instantly recognizable; it’s also fairly easy to learn a lot of it quickly.

I was booked to play saxophone at a Christmas party that night, way down in Summerville, South Carolina.  I’d booked the gig through GigSalad, one of several booking services available to musicians, birthday clowns, jugglers, comedians, and all the rest of us carny folk.  Over the years I’ve used the service, I’ve only closed 5.4% of all gigs I’ve quoted to clients (or 5 out of 93).  To be fair, I’ve received a whopping 776 leads over the years, which means I’m only sending quotes to just under 12% of the leads I actually received.

Many of those unquoted leads are due either to scheduling conflicts (lots of nursing homes booking during the day on weekdays, for example, or gigs too far away to make after work).  Some are instances of potential clients never responding to basic questions about their needs (I don’t like to send a quote for events like weddings, for example, without at least touching base with the client about what they want).  Still others—more than I’d like to admit—are simply me not responding until it’s too late.

Regardless, even with gigs that are quoted, the vast majority—well, 94.6%, as you can see—go unbooked.  Only a handful of those are because the client has booked another professional; they’re mostly due to people never responding to quotes at all—and most of those never even look at the quote (GigSalad indicates when a potential client has seen a quote and/or message).

But I digress.  I had a bout of good luck with GigSalad in December, managing to land two gigs within a week of each other.  The first client was very pleased—I played for his proposal to his girlfriend—and the client for the Christmas party seemed pretty eager for me to play.

I had a bit of a bad feeling about this gig.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Gigging

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Christmas is a goldmine for musicians, one I have not cashed in on in any meaningful way in years.  Christmas parties mean Christmas music, and a subset of those parties opt for live music.

Yours portly has been a longtime user of GigSalad as a free member, which means there are some limitations on my account.  From my experience with the service, it’s not worth the considerable price to upgrade to any of their paid versions.  However, lately I’ve been doing a bit better with bookings, landing two gigs within a week of each other.

Last Sunday afternoon, for example, I played for a young man’s proposal to his girlfriend (she said yes).  That saw me driving up to Wilmington, North Carolina after church.  It was an extremely cold and windy afternoon, and I played outside for about thirty minutes.  In spite of the weather, it was an honor to be part of such an important moment (and the client seemed pleased!).

Tonight, I’ll be heading down to Summerville, South Carolina, to play a couple of hours for a Christmas party (indoors, thank God!).  I loaded up a binder with copies of alto saxophone Christmas music from 8notes.com, an incredible online resource for music education and free sheet music.  It’s a two-hour solo engagement, which can be a bit daunting on sax, but it’s totally doable.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Concert 2025 Postmortem

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Good afternoon, my loyal subscribers!  Apologies for a late post today; yours portly crashed out after a long but productive day at work yesterday, which included my students’ annual Christmas Concert.

I’ll allow GEOTUS to articulate this sentiment in the way only he can:

Regardless, in the grand tradition of The Portly Politico, it’s time the annual Christmas Concert Postmortem, where I break down the program and how everything went.

For non-paying subscribers, don’t worry—the kids did a fabulous job, as they always do.  My Middle School Music Ensemble (MSME) played three pieces:

  • “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
  • “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”
  • “Last Christmas”

And my High School Music Ensemble (HSME) played four pieces:

  • “What Child is This?”
  • “Mary Did You Know?”
  • “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
  • “O Holy Night”

For whatever reason, the HSME played a lot of songs whose titles are questions.  Don’t ask me why!

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Play Week!

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This past week involved the intensive preparations for the big Christmas Play, which was last night at my little school.  It’s a pretty big night from a technical perspective, as the Drama Teacher also conducts the Choir and our Dance classes.  As such, all of her students—actors, singers, dancers—all perform as part of a performing arts extravaganza.

It makes for a unique and fun, albeit hectic, experience, and requires yours portly to pull out all of his amateur audio tracks to make it happen.

All of our productions are, out of necessity, staged in the gym, which I call the “Gymnatorium” (at one point, students ate lunch there, too, so it was the “Gymnacafetorium”).  Getting good sound quality, especially for plays, has always been a struggle.

Fortunately, our Athletics Department invested in a new sound system, which offers much more complete coverage than the 15″ speakers I’d been using for years (although those speakers are great).  The problem is that the system came with a new digital mixer (a good thing) that only has six functional channels (that’s the bad part).

Because our productions often require at least a dozen inputs (and frequently more), I had to get creative with the sound system setup, and came up with this bad boy:

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