I was sitting in my living room on Friday evening, going about my business and getting ready for dinner when I got a call from my agent. An opera company on the other side of the country needed a tenor, and they needed one fast. Their original tenor had died suddenly with no warning, and […]
Category Archives: Music
Our Favorite Pirate Songs
Ahoy me hearties! ‘Tis that time of year once again when ’tis a good and noble thing to celebrate all things piratical! Ye heard me right, ye scurvy bilge rats, ’tis Talk Like A Pirate Day! And teh celebrate this most joyous o’ days, fer aboard this ship we loves pirates most fiercely, I have […]
A Difference Made
When I was growing up, I often felt out of place amongst my extended family. Whether it was real, or all in my own mind, the reason was very clear to me. My uncles and cousins (like many uncles and cousins I suppose) were very into sports. It seemed to me that the value one […]
Random Thoughts From an ADDled Mind
1) You can tell how much I have listened to a song by how well I can sing the instrumental break. 2) People who are clamoring for a “dislike” button on Facebook are greatly overestimating how much people enjoy everything they themselves are posting. 3) Causing the ten cars behind you to slam on their […]
Concert in a Giant Egg
Last night my spectacular wife took me to see a concert as a preamble to our tenth anniversary. The concert was held in a giant concrete egg. But more on than in a moment. You see, we have been married for almost ten years now, and we really wanted to do something big to mark […]
Musical Instruments Ranked in Order of How Cool They Make You
Kids, you may be thinking about learning a musical instrument. This is a good idea for many reasons. It will give you an enjoyable life-long hobby. It will improve your brain and motor functions, causing you to do better in school. And it will also affect your social standing. The hard fact of the matter […]
Making Mistakes is Better Than Not Doing it Right
Let me give you some musical advice. Make mistakes. Not on purpose of course, but don’t spend your time worrying about them. I used to, and that itself was the biggest mistake I could have made. Because listen, as long as you are good and you know your stuff, mistakes don’t matter. (Caveat: mistakes matter […]
The Amazing Gracenotes
So Sunday was my birthday, and yesterday I posted some apparently depressing ruminations on getting older, that I had hoped would maybe be funnier than I guess they were. So I feel like I need to clarify something. It’s true that I am not as thrilled with getting older as I once was, but I […]
How To Learn Music So You Never Make a Mistake
Live performances are crazy events. So many things can go wrong. Distractions, mistakes, wrong notes from your fellow musicians, there is no limit to the number of things that can possibly conspire to throw you off your game. But what to do? How can you possibly be prepared for absolutely anything that might be thrown […]
The 30-Hour Fast (Give or Take 26 Hours)
This past weekend the youth at my church participated in a 30-hour fast, in which they drank only juice and broth from Friday afternoon until dinner on Saturday. During this time of hunger and crankiness they held a food drive, listened to guest speakers, and planned and ran a service that would cap off the […]