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music

Low Brass, High Scores

Friday 26 April 2024

E had the chance tonight to have his newly-acquired trombone skills evaluated. We drove to Dorman High School, saw hundreds of other kids who were being evaluated as well,

and made our way to room 9 (actually B117–not sure why they re-numbered the rooms).

The Boy walked in, performed his solo piece perfectly, and walked out with the scoresheet to prove it.

His band director took a picture and told us that students who earn a “Superior” rating must, simply must, go out for ice cream.

“We were ready for the rating,” I told Mr. K. “We bought some earlier today!”

Steve Hackett Live

Sunday 29 October 2023

It’s something D and I have wanted to experience since we were just a little older than the Boy: a live performance of old Genesis music, in this case, the entirety of Foxtrot, which includes their magnum opus, the 23-minute “Supper’s Ready.”

The whole show was amazing — but I obviously didn’t film the whole thing…

Extended Highlights

Canceled

Tuesday 29 August 2023

Some locals weren’t too happy about the fact that the Swedish band Ghost was going to perform locally at an amphitheater. A band whose gimmick is lyrics that openly profess love for the devil is not going to be too welcome in the Bible Belt.

So they started praying — Jeania was praying for a lightning storm and posted about it on the venue’s social media feed.

And wouldn’t you know it — a rainstorm came through and washed the concert away. Jeania will forever see this as an answer to her prayers and proof of God’s greatness. She will talk about it at church this Sunday. They might even have a hallelujah moment about it.

Meanwhile, there were many Christians posting in response: “We are Christian fans of the band.” “We recognize performance/entertainment when we see it and don’t feel threatened by it.”

Getting to Know You

Monday 28 August 2023

Relationships are what teaching is all about. Once you have a good relationship with the kiddos, almost anything is possible. The incorrigible become a little more compliant. The withdrawn start to speak out a little more. The insecure grow a little more self-confident. It’s a wonderful thing to see.

In the past, I’ve concentrated on getting to know my students without really worrying about letting them get to know me all that well. Sure, they know a lot about me: they know I love dad jokes because I try to tell them one every day; they know I like to cycle because I ride to school occasionally; they know I love Poland because they see it in the pictures I hang all around my room and the customs I share with them during the year. But beyond that? Not too much.

So I hit on an idea and a challenge for myself: make a playlist on Spotify of songs that have I’ve loved over the years. The catch: I will never repeat an artist.

I’ve got a list made out already — up to 96 songs, and I don’t feel like I’ve gotten started…

Symphony

Sunday 30 April 2023

Took the Boy to see a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony last night. He was impressed, but not overly so…

Checking Out Middle Schools

Thursday 8 December 2022

We’re looking into various middle schools for the Boy. Tonight, we went to listen to a band concert at a local middle school: the Boy is, after all, very interested in music.

His verdict: it was fun.

10

Saturday 14 May 2022

The Boy — 10 years old today. A decade of the Boy. Double digits.

In the morning, we had his breakfast of choice: bacon, eggs, and cinnamon rolls. Healthy choices. In the evening, dinner too was his choice: crab legs and shrimp.

After cheese cake and ice cream, he and I went to the local guitar store to spend all his present money in one shot:

A third guitar — a bass.

The Girl and I spent the afternoon at a tournament only half an hour away — quite a change.

She’d probably rather not talk about that, though. Let’s just say it didn’t go as well as the team was hoping.

Previous Years

Happy Mess Day

Second Time Around

Third Party

Celebration Day

Birthday

Fifth Birthday Party

Sports and Ice Cream

Seventh Birthday

Day 60: Eighth Birthday

Nine

Recital

Saturday 7 May 2022

The Boy had his first recital today. He’s been fretting about it on and off since he decided he wanted to participate in his music school’s annual recital, and he was particularly worried about it once we arrived at the venue — it was all too real then. But once he got in the warm-up room, he seemed fine.

“Do you want me to stay here with you?” I asked. He glanced up at his teacher.

“No, I’ll be fine.”

I went into the auditorium and found the girls. It wasn’t hard: there weren’t more than fifteen to twenty people in the audience.

Once he and his teacher worked out a little cord issue, he began, and though he later said his hands were shaking, you can’t really hear it in his playing.

Afterward, of course, it was time for some family pictures.

And then the Girl drove us home — on the highway.

Hydropiekłowstąpienie

Wednesday 16 March 2022

One of my favorite — if not favorite — Polish bands is Lao Che. Clever music, clever lyrics. Their masterpiece, in my opinion, is “Hydropiekłowstąpienie” from their album (titled in English) Gospel. From the title to the final line, that song is sharp.

It begins with what sounds like a squeaking door being closed as someone shrieks, “Jesteś wszechmogący więc jak mogłem / Obrazić Cię następującymi grzechami?” It’s a problem essential problem of Christianity: “You are all-powerful, so I could I offend you with the following sins?” Indeed, why would an almighty god be so upset with most of the silly things that Christianity calls sins? Upset enough to torture them for eternity as a result? It’s just silly.

The song itself begins with God addressing Noah:

Słuchaj, Noe
Chciałbym na słówko:
Wiesz, tak między nami,
To jestem człowiekiem zaniepokojonym.
By nie rzec: rozczarowanym.
Bo miałem ambicję stworzyć
Taką rezolutną rasę,
A wyście to tak po ludzku,
Po ludzku spartolili.
Jestem piekielnie sfrustrowany

“Listen, Noah,” he sings, “I’d like a word with you.” He explains that he’d had such high hopes for humanity but that humanity, in typical human fashion, screwed it all up. “I am damn frustrated,” he concludes, though the word he actually says (piekielnie) literally means “hellishly.”

Then comes what will develop later into the pre-chorus: “Płyń, płyń Noe płyń i żyj, a utop to kim byłeś. / Płyń, płyń Noe płyń i żyj, jak nawet nie śniłeś.” A simple command: “Swim, swim Noah swim and live, and drown who you used to. Swim, swim Noah swim and live, like you’ve never even dreamed.”

The second verse continues with the ironic commentary:

Wiesz sam, jak nie lubię radykałów.
Ale, na Boga, nie spałem całą noc
I podjąłem decyzję:
Zsyłam na Ziemię potop,
Mój mały Noe, mój Ptysiu Miętowy.
Zsyłam potop, potop!

“You know yourself how I don’t like radicals,” God explains just before declaring that after staying up all night, he’d made a decision to send a flood upon the earth.

Then the oh-so-clever wordplay begins: “Utopię waszą utopie,” he promises. “I’ll drown your uptopia,” punning on the fact that the first-person future of “drown” is only slightly different from the properly-declined “uptopia.” But the punning doesn’t stop there. Describing the flood, God declares “Zarządzam pełne zanurzenie” — “I’m appointing a full immersion,” a clever allusion to baptism. The masterpiece: God declares that his flood will be a “hydropiekłowstąpienie,” a smart play on the word “wniebowstąpienie“, which is the Polish term for Jesus’s assumption — The Assumption. Literally, it means “to heaven ascending.” “Hydropiekłowstąpienie” would then be translated “hydro-hell-ascension.”

Ths song continues with God promising to drown everything: roads and bridges, tax offices, households. Everything.

Clever, clever song.

A live version:

“Does it bring back memories?”

Wednesday 9 March 2022

Exploring Spotify’s “Indie Bluegrass” playlist last night, I discovered her — Sarah Jarosz, a young singer/songwriter whose music excites me more than any music I can remember from the last ten years or so. I began wandering through her catalog, continually impressed and pleased, and then I heard it. Her cover of Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate.” A voice; a pizzicato cello — nothing else. Perfection.

I played it for the Boy this evening and he was asking me about it. “Does it bring back memories?” he asked.

“None at all,” I smiled. I guess he’s used to me reveling in the memories particular songs bring to mind, but this song, this performance — no memories at all. And that’s what makes connecting to new music so magical. For me, the new music that hook me have a certain timeless sense to them. They feel like they should have memories dripping from them.

Over the course of the last twenty-four hours, I’ve managed to listen to about four of her albums, but the first one I listened to remains my favorite: World on the Ground. The whole thing is available as a playlist on YouTube.

She’s also released a video of completely-stripped-down versions of some of the album’s best songs (undoubtedly in their original composition state).

Her Discovery

Friday 4 March 2022

I was in L’s room playing a game of chess with her, E looking on, when she decided to put some music on. “Who knows what this could be,” I thought, but said nothing. Imagine my surprise when the opening lines of one of the best albums of the 1990s, one of the best albums of all time, Radiohead’s Ok Computer, began. It turns out, she’s discovered this masterpiece on her own.

“What’s your favorite song on the album?” I asked.

“Exit Music,” she said.

Good choice.

Floyd Rose

Monday 27 December 2021

The Boy has wanted it for some time — a guitar with a Floyd Rose bridge. I didn’t really know what makes a Floyd Rose bridge a Floyd Rose bridge. I knew that in practice it meant that pulling up on the whammy bar of such a bridge would raise the pitch of the strings just as pushing down on it would lower it, which meant that the bridge had to go in both directions. I didn’t think it through, though: that means the bridge has to be a floating bridge, which means that the pressure of the strings itself must be countered by something other than the guitar body. In a FR bridge, that pressure is countered with several springs under the bridge. But that means that if you change the gauge of the strings, you put more or less pressure on the bridge, making a previously well-adjusted bridge completely mal-adjusted.

Add to it the difficulty of stringing this guitar — well, it became obvious that the Boy had to learn how to do it all and learn quickly.