..........just stuff.

I'm really getting tired of hearing about politics, and this is only the tip of the iceberg for us all. If you watch any TV at all, you're going to be bombarded with political hate ads until November. Man, that's a long time! I think I'll watch a lot of DVD's during this time. As I was watching American Idol the other night, the major presidential candidates each did a spot on the Idol Gives Back show. It was pretty sickening, to say the least; especially the Hillary Clinton spot - she is so plastic with here stupid opinions. John McCain didn't help himself with some of his comments. This wasn't really the show to make stab-type comments. Well, they're all idiots! Who, in their right mind, would want to inherit the mess this country is currently in? I just read an article in our local paper concerning yet another plant being closed, and another 200 jobs lost to our local citizens because of the slow new homes market. These banking-types who caused this mess, and any politician, or economist that didn't stop the snowball should be tried and jailed on treason to this country! They knew what was coming and did nothing but save their own pathetic butts!

Well, on to other matters. I'm currently working on a great piece of music in my band class - the Gustov Holst, Second Suite in F for Military Band. The arrangement we're playing is a recent adaptation for younger bands, but holds all of the excitement and movements of the original. The Holst suites (there are two - Eb and F) are two of the greatest and most celebrated pieces for wind and percussion band. In fact, any serious band musician should play these tunes at some point in their musical career. The Second Suite in F was written in 1911, and uses some outstanding folk tunes from Great Brittan. The students are challenged and are very well engaged in the learning. I've always wanted to have a group of mine play this - exciting!

The steel drum band is coming along quite well. Each year we add several new selections to our repertoire. We've got several tunes arranged by my good friend, Josh; who does an outstanding job with steel band arrangements. I'm really looking forward to starting our work on his arrangement of the Beach Boys, Kokomo early next week. Next Saturday, we are headed to Washington, D.C. to perform at Walter Reed Army Medical for some wounded war veterans and their families. We've really gained a lot of support here locally for the trip. It's going to take between five and six thousand dollars to fund the trip, and I currently have about $1,050 that I've collected in the form of donations. I think some more will be coming in over the weekend. I've been moved by the number of local citizens this has touched. Quite a few of our locals have sent me donations who stated that they were either in Walter Reed as a patient, volunteer, or staff member at some time during their life. This will be a real education for my students, and hopefully, something uplifting for the people we perform for. As part of the trip, I thought it would be fun to perform out on the National Mall lawn on Sunday afternoon. That should be an east task, right? I called the National Park Service yesterday, and it is a possibility for us; but, I had to fill-out the four page Application for a Demonstration/Special Event and send it next-day mail to NPS. We'll see how that goes. The NPS people will love all those big cases going from the trailer to our performance location!

My student teacher isn't here today, and I'm looking forward to directing the band later this morning. He's out observing a general music class today. He told me that later this weekend he plans to go home and propose to his girlfriend. I gave him a bit of advice yesterday when, of course, he asked me for it. He was in the process of buying the ring; which is one of the most important purchases he will make in his life. He found a $2,000+ ring that was exactly what he was looking for; but, found another ring for 75% off. With the 75% off ring, the carat weight was the same; the gold was just a different color. She likes white gold and the 75% off ring was yellow gold. He asks me; "what would you do?" My immediate answer was to go with the discount. She's going to love it anyway, right? Man, I hope this doesn't go south for him. Is it written in law that the ring has to be expensive?