I just stumled on two interesting articles from the Instrumentalist in 1990. One is an article about the Symphony Band vs. the Wind Ensemble. The writer is advocating for the old Reveli style 90 piece bands. No thanks. I find it humorous that the writer takes time for the following comment in the article:

"The marching band is for entertainment of crowds, parents, and the band; place as much emphasis as it takes to entertain your audience."

To steal an idea from that movie about the little black girl who gets murdered in Mississippi- "now imagine that that was about concert band". Would anyone in our current environment say "concerts are to entertain your crowd and your parents, that's all you need to worry abour". I guess some would. They work in places like Commerce HS and Snellville MS and Loganville MS.

I just think it's troubling that we can have this double standard for things that are both equally valuable music education tools. I also hate "we can't work on the same 3 pieces for the whole of football season." Please replace with "we can't work on the same 3 pieces from January to March..." Double standard.

Here's the other tidbit. They surveyed directors in 1990 about their marching band attitudes and then surveyed their students. Here's the gist of the results.

Directors who said they "enjoyed marching band" had 96% of their students say they enjoyed marching, or sort of enjoyed marching. Directors who said they "generally enjoy marching band" had 88% of their students enjoy or sort of enjoy. Directors who said they "make the best of marching band" only had 65% of their students in the enjoy or sort of enjoy categories.

I found that interesting. Corresponding surveys on director who "enjoy, generally enjoy, or make the best" of concert band were not available... :-)

For me- I love both.

E

Things I learned this weekend:

1. I do not want to have 17 kids.
2. Mike Vick is for real. Defense is still shaky, but Mike is the real deal.
3. BOA is the best judged marching band circuit in the world.
4. BOA is also a good old boys network just like all the rest. If you're one of the top 12, people are willing to ... overlook... some things. Or maybe they just know that your stuff must be great because it was last year. Or your concept and voiceovers must make since because they always do. I don;t know.
5. OOOOOuvre has a stretchy lizard. He also loses it frequently.
6. Blue pants + white shoes = bad idea

Love,

E

You know what the GMEA website needs? More fucking pop-ups, that's what.

Love,
E

OK, we don't live in a trailer park, I swear. Check this out-

I come home from work yesterday to find 2 sherriff's cars at my neighbor's house and all of his stuff out on the lawn. They evicted this guy from an almost $300,000 house! They had to call animal control to get his dog and cat before they could empty the place. Just damn.

Last night this guy was getting his stuff out of the yard. Just damn. Pay your mortgage people, pay your mortgage.

Take luck,
E

On a persomal note...

The MCHS band got their first ever superior rating on Saturday. they also got 1st in class for the very first time. I have never seen kids react like this. They would say "in 1st place MCHS..." the kids would all kind of look at each other all confused, wait a couple of secnonds, and then go Ape Shit. Hilarious.

Sad to see the look of happiness and sadness on my assistant's face. He was so happy for the kids, but on the inside you could see he was a little hurt that he couldn't make it happen.

We took the kids to NC ofr the contest and then to Carowinds. Great trip. You should all do it. NC has the best judge's system I know of outside of the B word. I hope GMEA will see that and help us make it happen here...

E

New Thoughts Political

I finished the FairTax Book today. I think all in all I support the idea. Here are the questions that I am going to e-mail to them. Maybe some of you can see something that I've missed.

1. The 23% figure we all quote is terribly misleading. If something costs $100 before the FT is added, what should it cost after tax? $123 right? Wrong. It will cost $130. This is technically correct- $30 is 23% of $130, but in reality we're telling a lie. A tax of 30% will be added to the sale price of everything that you buy. They are acting like prices on shelves will include the tax in the cost, but I doubt that will happen. If Walmart can list something as $5 or $6.75 (or whatever) they will always choose the smaller number.
2. We are going to shelter the amount of money from taxes that companies currently have in inventory. In other words, if you have $1 million worth of cars currently in inventory then your first $1 million in earnings doesn't get FairTaxed. Cool right? Makes sense? Except that our authors admit that this will create a $350 billion shortfall in tax collection the first year. Also, who gets to decide what their inventory is worth? The Pentagon has $80,000,000,000 worth of toilet seats, right...
3. The book talks about a projected 10% growth in GDP in the first year which will drive down interest rates because people will start saving more. Cool, right? Again, flawed. The Federal Reserve sets prime rate, and they generally do so to contain inflation. In the eyes of the Fed, 10% growth is a bad thing. They say anything over like 4% causes inflation. This would cause them to raise (by a lot) the prime rate, not lower it. This would make large capital investment hard- i.e. buying a home with a 18% rate or a car won't happen. People will put off these purchases thus slowing the economy. they left that stuff out.
4. Education expenses (college, private school, etc.) are the only untaxed expenses. why? It makes no sense. I value education more than most, but I don;t see how this is fair. The heart medication you have to take to live is taxed 30%, but college is tax free.
5. People who are already well invested take a hit. I pay tax on my 403(b) contributions and I will have to pay 30% more when I spend that money. No biggie for me, but what about Kaphy's dad who is able to retire? He is getting hit twice on this money.
6. Who decides what gets taxed. They say they only tax goods and services at the retail level. Does this mean that if Intel needs a plumber they don;t pay tax, but if I need one, I do? Or is the fact that this is the end of the 'plumbing line' make it taxable? Confusing to me.
7. We are putting faith in the businesses of America. Poof- on January 1st everything at Walmart will cost %23 percent less (we will pay 7% more for items, don't believe the hype). I can't imagine American businesses trusting that their cost will go down 23%- I just can't. You say "but E, over time they will see that as truth and lower prices." True, but in the mean time, we are all paying 30% more for everything, EVERYTHING. This could cripple us and we might never recover.
8. On the plus side, I can see this as a fix to a lot of things. Social Security and Medicare especially. this will encourage growth and the return of some business. I think the authors over-reach a little in this regard. OK, so you can now get American labor for 30% cheaper. Is that less than in India or China? I doubt it.

Food for thought,

E

I know no one even checks my blog anymore, but I'm bored so here goes.

1. Starbucks is officially the anti-Christ. They are now forcing you to pay for their hotspot. devil, devil, devil...
2. Tijuana Flats is now the king. they do not make you pay, or I wouldn't be writing this...
3. I had a great time judging with the wolf last weekend. We were amazingly close all day. I think it was a big success for the new criterion sheets.
4. I could never work outside the metro area. Some of those bands made me want to jump out of the press box. I feel for those kids who are set up to fail or at best never given a real chance at success. I saw the worst band I've ever seen. Just sad.
5. I miss my children and I love my job. Kaphy has started bringing the girls and her dad to our practices. Now at least I can see them from atop the tower for a bit. Better than nothing. Kaphy is really working hard to help me be the best father and band director I can. She really is the best.
6. Taking the band to NC for the weekend. Should be fun.

Take luck,

E