TBT^2: The TJC Challenge

23 April 202622 April 2026 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

Two years ago I issued to my readers The TJC Challenge, a challenge to listen to all of my music on either Apple Music or YouTube/YouTube Music (you can do it on Spotify now, too). At the time, The TJC Challenge took about three hours to complete. Last year it took around seven-and-a-half hours.

Now it takes (approximately) eight hours and fifty-five minutes—let’s call it nine (9) hours to listen to my full discography. Note that only includes the stuff on the streaming platforms (twenty-three releases, although Electrock Music and Electrock II: Space Rock are combined as a double-album on streaming platforms, so technically it’s twenty-four releases); my Bandcamp page has thirty releases (use promo code challenge to get 90% off any purchase there through 11:59 PM UTC on 30 April 2026).

So, need some unusual instrumental jams (plus my singer-songwriter comedy EP, Contest Winner) to get you through the workday? Then take The TJC Challenge!

Instructions for how to do so are below, but here’s the YouTube instructions, as they’re probably the most accessible for most readers/listeners:

YouTube Method

Don’t use Apple Music? No problem. The cheapest method (no monthly subscription to a streaming service) is via YouTube. The only downside is that there’s no way to play through all albums without having to select individual releases.

Still, here’s the YouTube method:

Follow this link to my “Releases” on my YouTube channel
Hover over one the album you’d like to listen to first and click “Play All”
Rinse and repeat for each album

Whatever you listen to, I hope you enjoy! If you do listen to my tunes, please let me know what you think.

With that, here is 24 April 2025’s “TBT: The TJC Challenge“:

TBT^4,294,967,296: End the Income Tax

9 April 20268 April 2026 The Portly Politico3 Comments

Once again it’s tax season in the United States. I won’t bore you—again—with the details of our bizarre, nightmarish tax situation, but to suffice it to say that, at the time of writing, yours portly and his dear Dr. Wife are about $5500 poorer and Uncle Sam is probably paying for a federal inmates gender reassignment surgery. Next year will be much easier, but it’s always a pain.

I think what I resent most is that the federal government is now party to every economic exchange I make outside of purchasing a brownie from a sidewalk bake sale. Any money I earn gets reported. Indeed, I probably report more than I really need to, because I do take seriously Jesus’ instruction to “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” I just wish Caesar was spending my money in the national interest, not in the niche interests of some special interest group or immigrant group that got here fifteen seconds ago.

But it is—for another year, at least—done. Now I’m free to enjoy Spring Break and to wait, watchful and eel-like, for next year.

With that, here is 10 April 2025’s “TBT^65,536: End the Income Tax“:

TBT: Held Hostage by a Trans Autist at McDonald’s

2 April 20261 April 2026 The Portly Politico10 Comments

In looking for a piece to reblog for this installment of TBT, I stumbled upon this piece involving some late-night McDonald’s shenanigans. I really should compile a short collection of essays about my various misadventures at McDonald’s—and other fast food joints. Slapping together fifty pages musing about fast food in the 2020s would be much like the food itself—cheap, reprocessed garbage that costs too much and is unfit for human consumption.

And yet, the cheap flavor and saltiness of such a volume would entice just as a nocturnal cheeseburger might. What say you, dear readers? Should I put together such a lofty tome? Leave a comment and let me know.

With that, here is 2 April 2025’s “Held Hostage by a Trans Autist at McDonald’s“:

TBT^256: The Joy of Spring

26 March 202622 March 2026 The Portly Politico2 Comments

Spring has sprung, and we had a gloriously toasty weekend in South Carolina. Then temperatures plummeted again, so who knows what’s going on.

Of course, spring is a time of renewal and rebirth. It’s a fitting season for Easter, which is coming up quite soon. Dr. Wife has been wearing beautiful floral dresses to church and for the various family get-togethers we’ve been and will be attending, and I’m making the slow transition from long-sleeve button-ups to breathable polos.

The koi are also far more lively now that temperatures are rising. We’ve had great fun catching glimpses of them, and I think we have at least nine or ten. I’ve seen a few of the rosy red minnows, too.

Let’s hope the weather stays warm but not humid for awhile longer. Spring in South Carolina really only lasts for about two weeks in April (even in March we get snatches of winter again) before it gets hot and sticky, and it stays that way until at least November. I’ll be dreaming of autumn soon enough.

With that, here is 20 March 2025’s “TBT^16: The Joy of Spring“:

TBT^2: Support Culture, Not Political Machines

19 March 202617 March 2026 The Portly Politico4 Comments

This week I’ve really been banging the drum (really, really banging it) about folks on the Right supporting their fellow conservatives who create art—books, music, long-form essays, fiction, etc. We are phenomenally bad about supporting anything that isn’t bog-standard conservative commentary (which is kind of what I used to do here on a more regular basis).

It was serendipitous, then, that when looking back for today’s TBT, I found this piece, which I’d reblogged from a prior piece. In the original, I argued that donating to the RNC is a waste of money, and that dollars are better allocated to conservative creators.

I stand by that assessment. Indeed, the intervening years have only deepened that conviction—the conviction for you to send your money to me (and other awesome conservatives), not Mitch McConnell.

With that, here is 27 March 2025’s “TBT: Support Culture, Not Political Machines“:

TBT: Short Sax Starter Pack Recommendation

12 March 20268 March 2026 The Portly Politico5 Comments

Note: this post contains several Amazon Affiliate links. I receive a portion of any purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you.

My students and I are back at the SCISA Music Festival this morning, and yours portly has a saxophone gig tonight. As such, it seemed like a good time to look back at my “Short Sax Starter Pack Recommendation” post from 12 March 2025—one year ago today!

The thrust of last year’s post was that, for under $400, you can purchase a decent—not great, but serviceable—alto saxophone. Indeed, I’m playing at this very same saxophone tonight:

Here are the updated prices for the items I listed last year; remarkably, the price is lower than a year ago; however, Slade seems to be phasing out the horn, as there is only one sax available at the time of writing:

Slade alto saxophone – $216.69 (down $43.21 from a typical price of $259.90 in 2025); only gold is still available
Yamaha 4C mouthpiece – $39.99 (up $1.04 since 2025)
10-pack of Strength 2 Rico Royals – $33.99 (up $8.99 since 2025)

Grand Total: $290.67 (down $33.18 from the typical price in 2025) before taxes

With that, here is 12 March 2025’s “Short Sax Starter Pack Recommendation“:

TBT: Midweek Mongol Madness

26 February 202625 February 2026 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s my second consecutive year teaching World History (I taught it last school year for the first time since the 2011-2012 school year—whoa!), and I’m pleased to see that I’m two weeks ahead of schedule compared to where I was last year. That’s likely due to having a bunch of my lessons done this year, so I’m not trying to pad out lectures with a bunch of riffing.

So it is that, as of the time of writing, I’ve just covered the Mongols in detail (minus a couple of slides before we talk about medieval Japan).

The Mongols are wildly fascinating, in part because they were wild—nomadic horsemen who would drink the blood of their horses when they were low on supplies; wore silk underwear that served as protection against arrows; and would switch horses mid-ride, spending as much as ten days in their saddles. Under Genghis Khan, they spilled an immense amount of blood, slaughtering an estimated 40,000,000 (that’s forty million) people, equivalent to low-end estimates of those who perished in the Second World War. Again, these are estimates—numbers from the thirteenth century aren’t necessarily reliable—but that comes to roughly 13% of the global population at the time. Indeed, while writing these numbers, they seemed fantastically large; I had to go back and consult my World History textbook (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you).

Genghis Khan’s conquests, as well as those of his successors, brought an odd peace, the Pax Mongolica (also an Amazon Affiliate link), to Eurasia for about 100 years. It was the peace of the graveyard, as so many people were killed in the course of these invasions, there was no one troublesome enough left to cause a ruckus. It also marked one of the few times in human history that a single political unit (sort of) controlled the great Eurasian steppes, allowing for the (alleged) journeys of Marco Polo and doubtlessly thousands of other unsung but intrepid merchants, missionaries, and explorers.

Naturally, the largest land-based empire ever to exist in the world could not long survive. The Mongol Empire was probably never anything as such—a single, unified political unit—but more of an amalgamation of tribes, peoples, and regions swearing allegiance to the Great Khan. After Genghis Khan’s death, the empire was divided into four khanates, with an ostensible Great Kahn ruling over the four, but with the regions going their own ways in practice.

Nevertheless, there is something captivating about the sheer scale of these conquests, and the way a nation of clannish, nomadic horsemen swept across the world, spreading their terrible fury and bloodlust as they went (and, it seems likely, the Black Death that would depopulate 25% of Europe).

Will another horde arise from the Eurasian steppes? If so, let’s pray they fall far short of ambitious conquests of the Mongols.

With that, here is 5 March 2025’s “Midweek Mongol Madness“:

TBT^16: Getting Medieval… with LEGO

12 February 202610 February 2026 The Portly Politico8 Comments

Yours portly has worked to ween himself from his “crippling LEGO habit,” as I called it last year, in large part because it’s just too expensive, and because it’s rare I have huge chunks of quiet alone time during which I’m not trying to get something more productive done. That said, I have a backlog of awesome sets to build, and I hope to get to those soon.

The set that I think of as the beginning of my “modern” LEGO era is the one detailed in the posts below. I also think this set represented something of a shift for LEGO itself as a brand with mostly kid sets with a few specialized sets for adults to LEGO truly embracing its adult fans.

It’s pretty clever on their part, and they’re cashing in on the same kind of nostalgia as Nintendo does when it re-releases classic titles on their latest consoles. There are lots of Millennials who want to build LEGO sets with their kids—and lots of Millennials with no real responsibilities and a modicum of disposable income.

The latter describes yours portly; God Willing, the former will in a few years. Regardless, I’ll never give up LEGOs, and I’m looking forward to building more sets soon.

With that, here is 13 February 2025’s “TBT^4: Getting Medieval… with LEGO“:

TBT: Civilization VII is Coming

5 February 20262 February 2026 The Portly Politico12 Comments

It’s hard to believe that Civilization VII has already been out (almost) a year. Tomorrow will mark the fateful day that big spenders (like yours portly) began their early access to the game, which was clearly incomplete at the time of release.

That said, the game—for all of its flaws—was still fun. Indeed, I still find it super fun. If anything, the game has gotten better—much, much better!—over the last year.

Perhaps the best improvement to the game has been the big naval update a couple of months back. That added lots of new water resources and improved naval combat. It also added Edward Teach (Blackbeard the Pirate) and, in the Exploration Age, The Republic of Pirates. I currently have a game going as Blackbeard and it is really fun.

Will the game ever reach the heights of Civ VI, it’s much-beloved predecessor? It seems doubtful at the time of writing. Have I played Civ VI since VII‘s release? Nope! That’s a testament to how much I enjoy this game.

With that, here is 5 February 2025’s “Civilization is Coming“:

TBT^65,536: Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony

29 January 202628 January 2026 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

I’ve been on a programmatic composing kick, which seems to happen every January. I’m currently working on a collection of instrumental music inspired by my koi pond, which I’m tentatively calling Koi Dance.

Writing music inspired by God’s Creation is nothing new, but descriptive program music reached its height during the Romantic Era. The great composer bridging the gap between the classical and Romantic periods was Beethoven.

Beethoven is known for many works, but I am partial to one of his less-appreciated symphonies, the Sixth. It depicts a day in the countryside, and fits with the emerging Romanticism’s fascinating with the natural world and the countryside.

With that, here is 30 January 2025’s “TBT^256: Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony“:

The Portly Politico

One Southerner's unique, erudite, conservative perspective in a hectic world

Tag: TBT