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SubscribeStar Saturday: “PRISM” Preview

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I’m working on a new album, PRISM, which will release (God Willing) on Friday, 7 February 2025.  The title track from the album is the lengthiest piece I’ve ever composed, clocking in at around 20:23.  There is, admittedly, a great deal of repetition within that runtime, as the themes repeat frequently—almost hypnotically, which is part of the point.

“PRISM” is a lengthy exploration of musical themes that double back on one another in a hypnotic folding of sound. New ideas are gradually introduced and woven into this colorful tapestry of sound.

“PRISM” contains flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, double bass, and two-hand organ parts.

Sheet music for “PRISM” is available here: https://www.noteflight.com/music/titles/489d8239-5b8f-441a-b9f8-928c6978be63/prism

The piece will post on YouTube on Friday, 7 February 2025 at 6 PM; you can view click on the video below and ask YouTube to send you a notification when the premiere begins:

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SubscribeStar Saturday: 2025 Goals

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A new year has sprung.  Yours portly is freshly forty.  GEOTUS Donaldus Magnus is just sixteen days away from resuming the throne.  What better time, then, to lay out some goals for 2025?

It might be helpful to look back first at my goals from 2024, found in “2024 Goals” at my SubscribeStar page.

I did not accomplish a number of items I laid out in that post.  Here are a few goals I did not achieve in 2024:

  • Starting The Portly Podcast
  • Finishing Offensive Poems: With Pictures
  • Playing more gigs (well, I did have a few good ones, so I suppose I technically achieved this goal, but I was hoping for substantially more paying gigs, not just a couple of more coffee shop shows)
  • Writing short stories
  • Losing weight (I think I gained weight overall)

I did, however, accomplish some of my goals:

The “Did Not Accomplish” is bigger than the “Did Accomplish” column, but it’s important to consider the quality of my accomplishments.  As noted, I released ten albums/EPs of material in 2024, consisting ninety (90) new pieces.  Granted, some of those were under a minute, some even under ten seconds.  As the year wore on, however, I wrote longer-form material.

Also, my YouTube channel at the start of 2024 was sitting at around fifty (50) subscribers; it’s now (at the time of writing) at 191 subs.  I have 268 videos at the time of writing (and probably closer to 276 by the time this post publishes).  I still have a long way to go to reach monetization, but I’m slowly groping my way towards developing another tiny income stream.

So, what are my goals for 2025?  And which ones will I accomplish—and where will I fail?

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SubscribeStar Saturday: 2024 in Review

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2024 was one helluva year.  In some ways, it felt like three years in one, at least for me.

The first half of the year was a joyless grind.  The next quarter was a blend of summertime boredom and renewed purpose as the school year dawned.  The final quarter has been incredibly exciting and uplifting.

What a difference a few months make!  October and especially November felt like major turning points for the world, the United States, and even yours portly individually.

I’ve been thanking God for His many Blessings.  I though it would be appropriate, then, to glance back at the year that is nearly expired, and to celebrate what He Has Done.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: The 2024 Yulestravaganza Review!

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My buddy John and I played our annual Yulestravaganza the evening of Saturday, 14 December 2024.  We played a couple of one-hour-ish sets, full of classic Christmas carols, standards, and hits.

The only attendees were the barista and Dr. Girlfriend.  One shifty-looking nerd sauntered in halfway through and set at the extreme far end of the coffee shop, apparently putting as much distance between us and our Christmas cheer as possible.

We had a really good time.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Concert 2024

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Yesterday my students performed their annual Christmas Concert.  It was a really fabulous concert, and I am super proud of my students.  Other than some very small glitches—for example, the first soloist on “O Holy Night” came in late (no big deal—we just kept vamping a C major chord until he started) and his wireless mic got a little crackly on the first few words—it went very smoothly.

There are essentially two parts to the Christmas Concert.  The first part involves the Foreign Language classes, which perform 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).  That part is fun, but it’s kind of like checking a box to me:  the Foreign Language students get a grade for singing in the concert, and it means a lot to a longtime Latin teacher for the students of the various Foreign Language classes to sing.

The second part is the real concert, when my Middle School and High School Music Ensembles get to play.  Here is the program for that portion of the concert:

Middle School Music Ensemble

  1. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
  2. “Jingle Bell Rock”
  3. “The First Noël” – an instrumental version I arranged that featured our violinist, cellist, and pianists most prominently.
  4. “Silent Night” – first in 3/4 time, then a rocked-up version in 4/4 time.

High School Music Ensemble

  1. “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
  2. “Hallelujah” – the Leonard Cohen one, not the Handel one!
  3. “O Little Town of Bethlehem” – first in the style of “your grandmother’s overly-long, excessively hot Christmas Eve candlelight service,” then in a swingin’ style a la the Frank Sinatra version.
  4. “Carol of the Bells” – super cool!

Combined Ensembles

  1. “O Holy Night” – with two vocal soloists and a sick guitar solo; there were about thirty-one kids on our tiny stage for this one, and it was awesome.

I didn’t get too crazy with our programming this year, and a few repeats from last year (“Jingle Bell Rock,” “Silent Night,” and “O Holy Night” are always perennial picks).

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Christmas Craziness

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‘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

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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: America is Back, Baby!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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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