In lieu of SubscribeStar Saturday, I’m taking today to observe Veterans’ Day with the annual reposting of “Veterans’ Day 2018, Commemoration of the Great War, and Poppies.” What follows is a transcript of remarks I gave to the county Republican Party to which I belonged at the time (I have since moved to another county, and am no longer active in any county Republican Party):
Ah, yes, November. The fun of Halloween is over; the fun of Christmas is just beginning. But there’s more to this humble month than being the turkey sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas.
November is when the air turns crisp and cool (here in South Carolina, anyway), when cozy sweaters and hot cups of coffee become the order of the short days at Portly Manor.
It’s also the time of year when my musical tastes skew more Baroque. After all, some of the best Christmas carols have Baroque or Classical origins, and boast some incredible composing talents behind them.
One of those is Handel, a composer for whom my respect deepened greatly when I taught about his music in my Pre-AP Music Appreciation class many moons ago.
With that, here is “TBT^4: Hand it to Handel“:
Well, I’m letting the Halloween good times roll, even though we’re now two days into November. Last year, I posted “Memorable Monday: Happy Halloween“; Halloween fell on Monday, and I broke the chain of “TBT” posts. I was planning on doing the same this year and doing a rare “Retro Tuesday” post, but I took a nasty spill and missed the window. D’oh!
Well, what else can be said that hasn’t already been written? Halloween is awesome. Maybe creeping it a few days into November is a good way to combat “Christmas Creep.” Indeed, I’m playing a gig tomorrow, and will likely play some Halloween tunes.
With that, here is 28 October 2021’s “TBT^2: Happy Halloween“:
‘Tis the season for monsters and ghoulies! Having just returned from the South Carolina Bigfoot Festival—and with the annual Spooktacular just two days away!—yours portly is in a monstrous mood. Indeed, I wrote an entire album about them, which is available on streaming platforms for you cheapskates.
What is it that makes monsters so fascinating? In old monster movies, the monster was always the last thing the audience saw, because saving the featured creature for last guaranteed you stay hooked (and because most of those old films had shoestring budgets and bad makeup/costumes/props, so they had one or two good shots with the monster before the whole contraption broke down). Even now, when movies tell us everything that happens—even if we just saw it happen—we still want to see the monster—the more the better.
All I can figure is that we want to see how wild our own imaginations can be—and how well we can scare ourselves with monsters that are both alien and familiar.
With that, here is 27 October 2022’s “TBT^2: Monsters“:
Spooky season is in full swing, and yours portly couldn’t be happier. This time of year always draws out spooky fun, and there’s been quite a bit of it here on the blog. As such, I thought it’d be worth dedicating an edition of Lazy Sunday to some ghostly doings:
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
Yours portly has been in the Halloween spirit big time: scary movies, the SC Bigfoot Festival, releasing two albums of autumnal tunes (here and here). What I haven’t gotten to—yet!—are ghost stories.
I don’t have much additional ghost story commentary this year, but I will say that they tend to work better in books than in films. That’s a bold, unsubstantiated claim, but I find that reading about ghosts is a lot scarier than seeing them on celluloid. Ghosts might be—appropriately—a cold medium creature, best on the page or told about around the campfire. Other monsters are probably hot medium/media critters, best for television or the radio.
Whatever the case, here is “TBT^4: On Ghost Stories“:
My latest album, Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids has now hit all streaming services. That includes the following:
…and many more. That being the case, I thought I’d look back at two recent Open Mic Adventures posts:
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
Spooky Season is upon us, and everyone is getting into the festive spirit of the season. I know I sure am! I’ve already carved pumpkins and had my share of pumpkin-spiced cookies (perhaps too many!), and am heading out tomorrow to a festival dedicated to Bigfoot!
I don’t have much to add that I haven’t already commented upon in prior years, so I’m going to get on with this perennial Halloween season classic.
With that, here is 13 October2022’s “TBT^2: Things That Go Bump in the Night“:
Yours portly has been hitting the festival circuit pretty hard, and I’m heading up to the SC Bigfoot Festival this weekend as a vendor. In the spirit of autumnal fun, here are my recent festival posts:
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
Ah, yes—autumn. Music sounds sweeter, food tastes better, girls look prettier. What is it about the autumn that rings everything in a warm, golden glow? Is it the coming crispness in the air? The shorter days, the chilly nights? Or perhaps the leaves falling from the trees, the continuous cycle of death and renewal circling ever onwards?
Whatever it is, it’s a great time to compose and play music. As I noted last year, it’s “the time of year when my personal creativity seems to spark.” Indeed, the sequel to Spooky Season (now on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube), Spooky Season II: Rise of the Cryptids releases tomorrow, Friday, 6 October 2023 on Bandcamp.
I’ve been using a free trial of Noteflight to compose lately, and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s very robust, although it (surprisingly) lacks some of the depth and breadth of sounds as my ancient copy of Cakewalk 3.0. Unlike Cakewalk 3.0, however, it will run on a modern operating system, so it’s good enough for me!
I don’t have a nice, tidy composing routine like Gustav Mahler or Beethoven. I kind of jot down ideas in my music journal when I have a few spare lines of staff paper, then try to expand those motifs into full pieces (or just compose twelve-second pieces—ha!). Then I slap everything into Noteflight approximately whenever I feel like it, or when I’m on a composing tear and can’t stop!
With that, here is 6 October 2022’s “TBT: Mahler’s Composing Shack“:
The Portly Politico 