SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Craziness

7 December 20247 December 2024 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

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.

‘Tis the season, dear readers, for yuletide merriment—and all the related craziness that accompanies this jingle-belled time of year. Yours portly is exactly halfway through the middle of two weeks of arts-based insanity, and all is well.

Last night my school’s Middle School Drama students, as well as students from our Dance and Vocal Ensemble classes, gave their annual Christmas production. They performed a cute little play called And a Groundhog in a Pear Tree, in which some of the less popular holidays—February 29th, April Fool’s Day, and Groundhog Day—attempt to write a new version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” in order to save the big annual Christmas ball (the titular Twelve Days of Christmas have gone on strike).

This coming Friday, 13 December 2024, my Middle School and High School Music Ensemble students will give their annual Christmas Concert. We have a great program planned. The Foreign Language classes also get in on the fun, with renditions of various Christmas songs in their respective languages. I always say that it’s not really Christmas until the Latin students sing “Rudolphus” (“Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in Latin).

So, here’s a glimpse into the life of a Technical Director for Performing Arts during Christmas, which is crunch time in the performing arts world.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: “Hanging Gardens” Preview

23 November 202422 November 2024 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It took some rapid, almost-last-minute composing, but yours portly has completed his tenth release for 2024, the EP Leftovers III. It’ll hit Bandcamp and all streaming platforms this coming Friday, 29 November 2024—Black Friday.

While I have many older, unreleased pieces locked between the FAT32 file system and within the confines of Cakewalk 3.0 (which ran on DOS-based Windows 3.1!), I don’t have access to any super old material for this third Leftovers installment. As such, I actually composed some pieces specifically for it, which runs somewhat contrary to the ethos of the Leftovers releases. Leftovers and Leftovers II consisted largely of pieces I’d written (or started to write), but which I abandoned for one reason or another. Some of them I finished for the releases, slapping on endings or tying up incomplete phrases. Others were super old pieces that I’d never distributed digitally, so the only way to hear them was by being one of the few dozen people who received homemade burnt CDs with my tunes on them back in the late Aughts.

For LIII, I composed new works. Some of them are just short snippets that I’d jotted down in my music journal. But I also wanted to write something long and epic.

The result is “Hanging Gardens” a musical fantasy suite for piccolo, flute, trombone, and tuba.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: In Search of Power Plugs at Universal Studios

16 November 202415 November 2024 The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly recently returned from one of his many trips to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was a fun-filled trip with my family. We rode all the classic rides, ate all the classic foods, and bought all the classic souvenirs. It was a testament to middle-class frivolity and excess, which is what vacation is supposed to be here in the United States.

Readers will know all about my prior excursions to Universal Studios; indeed, there’s an essay or two about my trips there in my poor-selling second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of the proceeds from any purchase made through that link, at no additional cost to you; I also get royalties if you buy the book!). There’s not much that I haven’t already said about the vaunted theme park and its many fun attractions.

So I thought I’d focus a bit on a side quest, of sorts, that I embarked upon during our visit. I have an aging iPhone SE. The phone possesses a battery that is well past its prime and in need of service. As yours portly does quite a bit of business (and pleasure) via phone, I haven’t taken the plunge to send it off to get replaced. The idea of being phone-less for a week is rather daunting, my past anti-cellular rants notwithstanding. Yes, I’m a hypocrite, dear reader, and a proud one.

At this point, I am essentially going to use the phone until I can easily obtain a replacement, and seamlessly port my service to a new phone—no need for that painfully long period of disconnected existence. Of course, the downside is that I wandering in this world with a phone battery with less charge than a hand-turned jack-in-a-box. Couple that with a niece and nephews hungry to the fast-paced world of mobile gaming, and you can see the kind of low-battery predicament yours portly found himself in this past weekend.

So, the side quest: I was on a constant, vigilant hunt for power outlets during our trip. It may surprise you, but Universal Studios does not exactly have easily accessible power outlets thrown out into the world on full display, eagerly awaiting the powerful connection of a pronged interloper thrusting into its sockets. As such, I quickly learned the subtle art of eagle-eyed socket detection.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: America is Back, Baby!

9 November 20248 November 2024 The Portly Politico2 Comments

Can you feel it, dear reader, the paradoxical sense of relief and excitement cutting through the air? The spirit of optimism and vigor percolating in the coffee pot of our body politic? The determination to get it right—and Right—this time?

America is back, baby—and this time, it’s personal.

That’s always been my favorite tagline for cheesy action sequels, but with President Trump’s approaching second term, it’s particularly apt. Trump II: The MAGAnificent Seven already broke ballot box records. Trump is back—and, again, this time, it’s personal.

I know, I know—“we should temper our optimism,” I hear the wags—“scala-” and otherwise—clucking. “Politicians have let us down before.” In some ways, even Trump let us down before.

But we’re dealing with a man who has transformed, I would argue, fundamentally. This Trump isn’t the Trump of 2016, surrounding himself with a coterie of sycophants and Washington insiders. This Trump has survived an assassin’s bullet. He’s survived political persecution and “criminal” prosecution, often at the hands of the very sycophants who claimed to love him. Trump is a scorned groom who is about to set his duplicitous lover’s house on fire.

Instead of Washington insiders and Boomer Con darlings (I’m looking at your, John Bolton), Trump’s next administration is going to be the cool table in the cafeteria: Elon Musk, J.D. Vance, RFK Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Joe Rogan, RFK’s cute running mate (Shanahan?), and a whole lot of other hyper-intelligent super geniuses and bros. We’re about to witness the most masculine presidency since at least Theodore Roosevelt’s.

Buckle up, buttercup—it’s gonna be one wild and fun ride.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Spooktacular 2024 Review!

2 November 202427 October 2024 The Portly Politico2 Comments

The 2024 Spooktacular is in the books! Last Saturday, 26 October 2024, approximately thirty-six-ish students, parents, friends, and family showed up to my humble little house for—I just realized—the fifth annual Spooktacular! It was a wonderful night of music and camaraderie, with lots of hot dogs!

I’m notoriously bad about taking pictures, but I managed to get a few videos of the event. Beforehand, I did get several photographs of the setup:

The Stage!

The Stage before Setup

The Stage at an Angle

Skeleton Bassist!

Hanging Out

Tree Spirit

Drum Kit Setup

The Ice Bag Cometh!

Yours Portly in a Spooktacular T-Shirt

Murphy Inspecting the Work

I didn’t go totally all-out with decorations this year, but I had fun with my classics. I particularly love the Jack O’Lantern skeleton guy; he was a great purchase, and I love how he haunts the front yard with a toothy grin.

Of course, the real fun came when everyone showed up around 6 PM. My parents and my younger brother and his wife and kids arrived about thirty minutes before that and busily helped me with the hot dogs and chili and such. Mom made her famous Rotel dip, which is a hit among the kids; I think by the time I got to eat, there was just a thin, cheesy rind left, and even that was delicious.

I had about ten performers show up—my niece and nephew, my friend Sarah, a former student (now in college!), and six current students. John, of course, was also there, so between him and me, we had twelve musicians out there jamming. I think the most we squeezed onto the stage at one point was six, during our performance of “Monster Mash.”

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Spooktacular 2024 is Tonight!

26 October 202424 October 2024 The Portly Politico2 Comments

Pickup my newest release: Spooky Season III! Use promo code spooky to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp! Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Thursday, 31 October 2024.

Tonight’s the night—the 2024 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 was booking 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 (one of whom, Sarah, I did a gig with back in August for her birthday).

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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SubscribeStar Saturday: The Defenestration of Walz

19 October 202415 October 2024 The Portly Politico4 Comments

Pickup my newest release: Spooky Season III! Use promo code spooky to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp! Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Thursday, 31 October 2024.

Yours portly is late to the party with this one, but, hey, is it ever truly too late to celebrate a full-scale immolation?

Or, as the title indicates, a defenestration, which is just a fancy way of saying, “throwing someone out of a window.” That is very much how the vice presidential debate between Senator J.D. Vance and Governor Tim Walz felt a few weeks ago. On the one side stood a mighty hillbilly culture warrior, ready to stand astride the debate stage like a Colossus. On the other was a mealy-mouthed Elmer Fudd, who looked Elmer BeFuddled the entire time.

I am a high school history (and music!) teacher; while we do know a lot of stuff, that doesn’t mean we know how to apply it. There is knowing a thing, and there is knowing it. One of the biggest wakeup calls is going from the theoretical and abstract realm of the classroom and entering the real world; it becomes apparent pretty quickly that all that theory and knowledge amount to precious little if they can’t be equipped or adapted to handle Reality.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Our Digital Future: SATurday II

5 October 20245 October 2024 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Pickup my newest release: Spooky Season III! Use promo code spooky to take an additional 20% off all purchases on Bandcamp! Code expires at 11:59 PM UTC on Thursday, 31 October 2024.

Yours portly is ready to deliver the content his readers, paid and otherwise, crave: commentary on the new digital SAT administration.

That’s right, friends, yours portly is spending this beautiful Saturday morning in a room with kids taking the SAT. I’m specifically in the extended testing room, which is a long administration but means more money. The idea of being paid to sit here and write self-indulgent blog posts while three kids gawk on standardized test questions fills me with the kind of glee that only union workers and government bureaucrats feel: the glee of getting one over on the rest of society by suckling at the bloated teat of an inefficient system.

But as I wipe the corrosive milkfat from my chubby cheeks, I must take a moment to do the unthinkable: I must extol the virtues of this new digital administration.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Spooky Season III Preview, Part II

28 September 202427 September 2024 The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly has been composing like a madman, and finished up Spooky Season III this past Wednesday, 25 September 2024. It’ll be hitting Bandcamp and all streaming services (including Spotify for the first time in a year!) this Friday, 4 October 2024, which is also Bandcamp Friday.

It is a massive release: eleven tracks in total, clocking in at around forty-one (41) minutes of music. My goal was to move away from the super short compositions, and specifically to avoid any tracks under one minute. Only two tracks are under two minutes in length, and those are just one and four seconds under.

Last week I previewed four tracks for subscribers (and one for my freeloading—uh, I mean, loyal—readers): “Dancing in the Graveyard,” “Rain on Halloween,” “Curious Little Ghosties,” and “Boneyard Blues.”

This week, I’ll feature four more. Here’s one for all of my readers to enjoy, the opening track: “Heavy Metal Mummy”:

What other succulent tunes await?

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Spooky Season III Preview

21 September 202420 September 2024 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Yours portly is knee-deep in composing my next album, Spooky Season III. As of right now, I’ve completed seven of around ten or eleven planned tracks, and it’s shaping up to be much longer than my other releases. In fact, I’ve already run out of space on Bandcamp for “extras” for the album. Those “extras” are things like artwork, PDF scores, and videos, and it’s that last category that is taking up a great deal of space.

So I thought I’d give subscribers a bit of a preview of some of the material I’ve been writing.

Don’t worry, my freebie readers: I’m going to share a piece with you, too, and note that all of these videos will be up on YouTube in October (so subscribe—it’s free!—to my YouTube channel and ring the bell if you want to get notified when those pop in a few weeks).

Here is the first piece I composed for the album, “Dancing in the Graveyard”; I composed it between 3-4 September 2024, according to my notes and information on Noteflight:

“Dancing in the Graveyard” is a playful oboe and bassoon with option tambora accompaniment. It’s a lively waltz in concert D minor.

I’m really loving composing this album, and I enjoy all of the tracks—and I hope you will, too!—but I’m keen to share some of my personal favorites.

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