Tag: blogging

SubscribeStar Saturday: Boring Politics

The Portly Politico4 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.

Has anyone else noticed how boring politics has become?  I don’t mean to imply that nothing is happening—I mean, we had a Speaker of the House fired for the first time in American history a couple of months ago—but it all seems so… dull.

If everything was hunky-dory, it would be fine for politics to be boring.  Indeed, it would be great—we want to live in a world where the issues that face us are so miniscule, we can elect boring people to administer boring, predictable law and order.

But the opposite is the case.  Everything sucks.  Our government is wildly oppressive.  Our institutions can’t pave the roads adequately, much less govern the country.  People aren’t allowed to say anything reasonable in public without losing their jobs.  Inflation is through the roof.  Wages are stagnant.  China owns everything.  Our leaders want to drag us into wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East that involve ancient clans battling over ancient grievances.  Peaceful protestors—actual ones, not progressives robbing their local Wendy’s—are in federal prison without trial because they were invited to walk through the Capitol Building.

In spite of all of that, politics is boring.  I think I know why.

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Phone it in Friday XLIV: Christmas Concert 2023

The Portly Politico8 Comments

Today is the day of our big Christmas Concert at school.  It’s incredibly fun and incredibly stressful, but if everything has gone according to plan, it should go smoothly.  It’s worth it to see the kids singing and playing and having a good time.

As I’ve grown older and, arguably, more professional (and almost certainly more ornery and ill-tempered), I’ve scaled back a bit of the theatricality and bombast of the Christmas Concert to something a bit more manageable.  Gone are the days of singing while standing on a piano (I did that once, years ago).  I also strive to make the concert focused on the kids and Jesus.

One big change this year is that our Dance and Choral students won’t be performing, because they had their performances as part of the Middle School Play last Friday.  The Foreign Language Students will still get up there and belt out Christmas tunes in various languages.

I’ll be doing a full write-up one Saturday (possibly tomorrow) covering it, but for today, just pray for yours portly.  I’m confident it will be a good concert, I just gotsta get through it!

As a preview, here’s what my students are performing:

  • Middle School Music Ensemble
  • High School Music Ensemble
    • “I Wish You Love” by Icelandic jazz songstress Laufey
    • “On Christmas Day”—a piece that one of my students wrote and arranged himself!
    • “O Holy Night“—the best Christmas song ever written

Merry Christmas!

—TPP

TBT^16: O Little Town of Bethlehem and the Pressures of Songwriting

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My students have their big Christmas concert tomorrow, and while we’re not performing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” on this year’s program, there’s quite a bit of pressure to get everything sounding and looking good!  Like most folks, I don’t like stress, but it’s amazing how it forces us to get stuff done—and to make it even better!

The story of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is relatable to songwriters, but I think speaks to all of us who have had to create or complete something with a ticking clock and high expectations.  “It takes pressure to create diamonds,” they say, and the frantic, last-minute composition of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is a testament to that principle.

With that, here is 15 December 2022’s “TBT^4: O Little Town of Bethlehem and the Pressures of Songwriting“:

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Open Mic Adventures LVIII: “Kartofelsalat”

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Amid last week’s chaos I managed to squeeze in a little composing one night.  I was messing around with yet another waltz in my music journal, which I then edited quite a bit once I got into Noteflight and started putting in the notes.

I did not start out with German potato salad (the meaning of “Kartofelsalat”) as what I hoped to portray musically.  I was just scribbling around, and when it came time to assign my little piece a title, “Kartofelsalat” popped into my head.  It perhaps makes sense:  it sounds funny, it’s vaguely German (this waltz has a bit of a German flare to it), and it’s a mix of various musical ingredients, much like the delicious side dish.

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Napoleon (2023)

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Hollywood is in a weird place right now.  All of the major franchises and studios are bombing at the theaters.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe used to be a money-printing machine; now, it’s dropping like Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame (2019).  Disney is sinking faster than The Little Mermaid‘s hometown.  Star Wars is exploding as if a couple of proton torpedoes hit its reactor core.

At the same time, there have been some major prestige films that have done well with critics and audiences alike.  Oppenheimer (2023) became a cultural phenomenon due to its release alongside Barbie (2023).  Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) is earning accolades.

Now there’s another nearly-three-hour-long flick charging cinemas, and it’s quite good:  Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (2023).

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Lazy Sunday CXXIX: Civilization Series

The Portly Politico14 Comments

Yours portly is in the midst of his busy Christmas performance season, and wistfully dreams of blowing hours of his life conquering the world as various historical leaders.  I haven’t had much time for world conquering, but I’ve certainly written about the legendary Civilization games for years now.  Here are my posts about this beloved franchise:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Showtime!

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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.

It’s the busy Christmas season for yours portly, and last night I made it over the first of two major humps before Christmas break:  the Middle School Christmas Play.  The next hump is the Christmas Concert for my own students, which is this Friday, 8 December 2023, in the morning.

There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into the play, as our school particularly loves to stage light-hearted musical comedies.  You wouldn’t think that a musical would involve substantially more tech setup than a typical play, but it makes the work exponentially more challenging.

The Drama teacher this year did a fabulous job, and created one of the most tech-heavy productions I’ve been involved with so far.  It was a multimedia extravaganza:  songs, choreography, videos, backing tracks, lights, around twenty-five microphones (stationary/hanging mics, floor mics, individual headset mics, wireless handhelds, etc.), and more.

Here is a panoramic view of my sound booth about ninety minutes before the play:

MS Christmas Play 2023 Panorama

The astute observer will note two sound boards/mixing consoles, plus a lighting controller, as well as my $80 refurbished laptop, which does fine if I’m just cuing backing tracks, but otherwise runs like a potato powering a lightbulb.  There’s also the spotlight, two lighting trees with around ten lights each, and a projector screen.  During the production my student assistant and I had to move a projector into place, along with a auxiliary cord running to a DI box, which fed via XLR (microphone) cable to a “snake” onstage, which ran all the way back to us at our booth.  We also had to move a baby grand piano (don’t worry—it was on wheels)!

Setting all of this stuff up is stressful, because it’s usually done in fifty-minute snippets of planning periods.  But the finished product is worth it.

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December 2023 Bandcamp Friday

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Here we are again—another Bandcamp Friday.  There’s never been a better time to buy my music.

I released a new EP on Black Friday (24 November 2023), Leftovers.  It’s a short EP of four tracks leftover from my recent composing projects, including an epic-length, eight-minute-plus track from the never-completed Electrock III called “Futura (Magnum Opus III).”  Here’s the delicious album cover:

Leftovers

Tangy!

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 thirteen releases is $23.39, a savings of 50%, which is not bad for thirteen releases.  That’s $1.80 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!).

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

TBT^2: Game Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution

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Thanksgiving Break is long gone and Christmas Break is still a good ways off, so yours portly doesn’t quite have the time to game that I did just recently.  I’ve had a blast playing my Nintendo Switch Lite lately, especially diving into F-Zero 99.  I’ve been hitting Civilization VI on my PC pretty hard, too, which has fed my highly cyclical video gaming buzz.

So, in the spirit of video game nostalgia, I thought I’d look back to a review of a game that’s not nearly as good as the ones I just mentioned, but which still devoured a ton of my time in late 2021.

With that, here is 10 November 2022’s “TBT: Game Review: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution“:

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Chapel Lesson: Being Thankful in the Storm

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Right before Thanksgiving Break I prepared a chapel devotional for school.  It went undelivered, as our regular chaplain returned after weeks in the hospital.

It turns out that he had a large tumor along a major artery, and nearly bled out and died on at least two occasions.  He has been diagnosed with stage four cancer, and has already begun the usual regimen of chemotherapy and radiation.  Please lift up Father Jason Hamshaw in your prayers.

While I did not deliver this message, it seemed apropos to Father Hamshaw’s diagnosis, and something we all need to remember from time to time.  Here is my message on “Being Thankful in the Storm”:

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