Tag: Subscribe Star Saturday

SubscribeStar Saturday: Why Epstein Matters

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There’s been all sorts of swirling innuendo and hearsay circulating around the “will-they-won’t-they” of the Epstein files.  Pam Bondi has quite a bit of egg on her face and bleach in her hair after the debacle of “releasing” the files in February—which were just binders of all the information that was already out there.  Trump has indicated the whole thing is a distraction, even though one of his campaign promises was to release the full files.  We’ve been told again and again that they files are “on my desk.”

The Establishment Conservatives (Conservative, Inc.) are now saying there were never any files.  Trump is even calling it a Democrat hoax.

Come now.  Talk to anyone—conservative, progressive, socialist, anarcho-libertarian, monarchist, apatheticist, etc.—and they will all say the same thing:  “Epstein didn’t kill himself.”  The issue at stake—is there an elite cadre of perverts who have engaged in lurid acts with trafficked minors—transcends political allegiances.  We all know that these people exist; otherwise, why is Epstein dead and Ghislaine Maxwell in prison?

True, there is the possibility that it’s a “nothing burger,” and that might be the hardest Truth of all to swallow:  no one would believe it.  Heck, I wouldn’t—and don’t!—believe it.  The Epstein files are the “conspiracy theory” that everyone knows is true.  There’s a conspiracy, all right, but it’s a conspiracy fact.

We just need the documents to prove it.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Mallets!

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I’m in the process of working on three different releases right now, two of which consist of old material (some of it very old), one of which includes new works.  My tentative plan is to release all three of them on the same day, so listeners will enjoy an explosion of new-to-them pieces from yours portly.

The collection of new pieces is Ringtone Circus.  The pieces don’t all have a Nokia cellphone ringtone feel to them, but several possess that plinking, happy, upbeat quality.

Today, I’m sharing the pieces that prominently feature mallet-based instruments:  vibraphones, marimbas, etc.

The first piece is the title track, “Ringtone Circus“:

“Ringtone Circus” is a trio for marimbas. It sounds like a lively cell phone ringtone!

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Sid Meier’s Colonization (1994)

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Before I dove headlong back into Civilization VII, I spent a solid two or three weeks playing Sid Meier’s Colonization on Governor difficulty (the penultimate difficulty level).  I finally won a game as the Dutch, with a strong colonial basis in modern-day Argentina and Chile:

I first played this game in the mid-1990s when I was a kid.  I was hooked immediately, and this game is largely responsible for sparking my interesting in teaching American history.  It also ignited a lifelong interest in the American Revolution.

So, how does it hold up thirty-one years after its release?

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Reassessing Civilization VII

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Yours portly has finally dived back into Civilization VII after almost three months away from the game.  The hiatus was not due to disinterest, but rather to the overwhelming busyness of the end of the school year.  Longtime players of Civ games—or any other franchise or game in which picking up after an extended break is difficult—will understand how the thought of returning to a half-finished save file is challenging, as you’ve likely forgotten what you were doing and what your goals were.

That made it difficult to return to my last save file, but when I play Civ VII, I need hours of uninterrupted time to lose myself in the game.  I’ve never been good at playing for an hour or two and then heading to bed.  I need to know I have three or four hours to dedicate to the game, and that my plate is clear of any obligations or tasks.

Naturally, that state of limitless free time is rare for yours portly, except for two months every year:  June and July.  Yes, I’m keeping busy with writing blog posts, teaching lessons, practicing piano, filming silly YouTube shorts, planning a wedding, etc.; but after dinnertime, I’ve got hours of gaming goodness ahead of me.

That’s all to say that, after a few weeks of dipping into Colonization, I’m back to Civilization VII.  The game has had a number of updates (with version 1.2.2 coming soon, promising massive map sizes and other improvements), and they have really improved the gameplay experience.  It’s still not perfect, but the game is getting better.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Fondled!

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Yours portly has been flying more frequently, which is out of character for me.  My older brother lives in Indianapolis, and I’ve flown up there twice this year so far for various events (and will do so a third time this summer).

Between the two trips, I’ve somehow set off TSA’s full body scanner three times.  No, dear reader, yours portly is not some kind of chaos agent attempting to smuggle more than three ounces of shampoo into the airport.  For some reason, my manly area is setting off the scanner.

At first I thought it was the pants I was wearing.  I wear these Member’s Mark mason pants (just $15 a pair at Sam’s Club!) and they have a brass (or some similar metal) button above the zipper.  I figured those were setting off the scanner.

So on the way home from Indy, I wore a pair of shorts with a plastic button.  Surely, I thought, I’d be immune from setting off the scanner, but I set it off nonetheless.

Is it the zipper?  We’ve all heard of microplastics; are there micrometals?  Is my personal area full of tiny particles of metal?

Regardless of why I keep setting off these scanners, let me explain to you, dear reader, what it is like to be fondled by Uncle Sam.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Minecraft Camp 2025 Postmortem

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Ah, ’tis the season for postmortems.  I’ve gotten another Minecraft Camp in the books, and it was another good year.

For my British readers who might find the conflation of “Minecraft” and “Camp” confusing, allow me to clarify:  in America, “camp” can be a.) a woodsy outdoor adventure, consisting of “roughing it” in a cabin or tent and staying overnight in such accommodations or b.) any sort of hobby or activity in which children (or, in some cases, adults) spend part of a day (or a full day, or overnight) pursuing for fun or learning.

Minecraft Camp is the latter—it is a “day” camp, meaning children just attend for a few hours (9 AM to 12 PM) and then go home.  When the camp first began way back in 2014, we actually went from 9 AM to 3 PM for five days, but I found that was too much for students (and me).  When the school instituted summertime hours that closed campus on Fridays, I shifted to a Monday-through-Thursday morning camp.

Even with that reduced camp time, I find that students still start to get a little weary of playing Minecraft by the end of the third day, especially the younger ones.  It’s a bit like a little kid thinking that eating forty-seven scoops of ice cream would be amazing, but by the fourth scoop, he’s ready to stop; by the eighth, he’s ready to vomit.

So I always provide some alternative activities.  The big favorite is LEGOs.  I bring a huge box of them, and kids are free to tinker and build with them to their hearts’ content; some of the kids built some cool stuff this year.  My counselors also started playing Hangman with some of the kids, which was a big hit.  Additionally, we take a couple of “screen-free” breaks in the sunshine, and the kids will shoot hoops or kick a soccer ball around.  On the last day of camp, I brought King’s Hawaiian Rolls—a time-honored Minecraft Camp tradition—which the kids devoured with the pitiless fervor of the sea lion.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Spring Jam 2025 Postmortem

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On Friday, 23 May 2025 I hosted the fifth annual Spring Jam Recital on my front porch.  It is one of two front porch recitals I host each year, the other being the Spooktacular in October.

This year’s Spring Jam featured a fairly intimate crowd, with seven students in total performing, as well as my buddy John playing some pre-recital tunes.  I think it was slightly larger than last year’s, especially as one little girl brought not only her parents and brother, but a number of extended family members as well.  One of the parents, a local restauranteur, brought delicious wings from one of her establishments.

As usual, my Mom made her famous Rotel dip, this time with sausage added.  My Dad and my younger brother grilled up some all-beef hot dogs, and Dr. Fiancée helped with selling t-shirts and getting the table set with my mother.  My niece and one of my nephews played, too; it’s always fun having a family get-together mixed in with the recital.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: More Dubious Graduation Day Wisdom

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Today is another graduation, which means it’s time for yours portly to dish out some more dubious graduation day wisdom.  The older I get, the more I realize that the only certainty we can have is found in Jesus Christ.  Human frailty is such that, no matter how hard any of us try, we are going to let even people we love down—and they’ll let us down (don’t worry, no one I love has let me down lately—ha!—and I hope I haven’t done the same, I’m just noting a general Truth).  Perhaps that is the greatest wisdom I have to offer, younglings:  put your trust and faith in the Lord.

But besides the preachy stuff, what about more spicy nuggets of enlightenment?  Come, gather at my feet, and let me teach you.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Ancient Compositions II: Digital Sax

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Pickup my newest release: Leftovers IV!

Want to play the real sax?  Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.

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I’m continuing to dig up ancient MIDI compositions (now converted to glorious, lossless WAV files) from twenty years ago (give or take).  This weekend I’m sharing some digital saxophone compositions with readers.

I probably intended these pieces to be played by an actual saxophone quartet/quintet/sextet at some point.  I played in a saxophone quintet in high school (two altos, two tenors, one bari) and a saxophone sextet in college (I can’t recall the exact instrumentation, but I think it had soprano, two altos, two tenors, and one bari), so I did quite a bit of arranging and composing for those groups.  I also arranged a ton for Brass to the Future, the brass quintet (with saxophone) that my brother and I played in for a number  of years in the early 2010s.

Now they exist as ghostly digital instruments, honking and squawking through the musical musings of a plump young Portly with a head full of dreams and a belly full of Cheez-Its.

“Saxophonic Organ”

I’m not sure what the original title for this piece was meant to be, but I do remember wanting to emulate the sound and rhythms of a 1970s classic rock organ in the context of a saxophone ensemble.  “Saxophonic Organ” is the result of that experimentation, and I rather like it.

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