Hi. I made a movie about 10 years ago called Meet The Band. I profiled four very different community bands from around the country and mixed in a historical narrative as well. I wasn’t able to actually market the film because I ran into a lot of royalties problems. So it’s been sitting around and I decided I may as well share it with people who might enjoy it. I figure this might just be the place. Here is a link to the film: http://vimeo.com/30810706.
I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did making it. It was truly a labor of love even though I don’t belong to a band, play an instrument or have any musical talent whatsoever. But I’ve become a big fan of community bands! Feel free to ask me questions about putting this together. It was quite an adventure. ~ Bill Parker
Heads up, there is a funny discussion of trumpeters at the end of this video. All in all, it’s nice to see a film of this quality that touches upon what the American Community Band is, where it came from, and why we are “in the band”.
My sister is in town again, airfare courtesy of my brother Andy. As my son Aaron and his family are here but leaving to go back to Utah this afternoon, I thought we’d run over and take Debby out to lunch. Debby is one of those ladies that everyone loves. For that matter, so is my wife Suzy and Aaron’s wife Wendy.
McDonald’s currently has a nationwide McRib campaign going on for the first time in years. Usually it pops up on their menu in stealth mode and only in select locations. Alas, our outlet in Bothell quickly ran out of their allotment of this pork patty, barbecue sauce, onions, and pickles served on a 5½ inch roll. Despite its name, it is primarily composed of pork shoulder meat, according to McDonalds. We found today’s fare available in Redmond.
Twitter posts range from “Lucky me, the McRib is back” to “If you eat McRibs, you need to re-evaluate what it is you actually want in life.”
According to Chicago Magazine, the patty is also composed of restructured meat products such as tripe, heart, and stomach and blended with salt and water to extract salt-soluble proteins, which act as a “glue” that helps bind the reshaped meat together. The McRib has 70 ingredients. Yum!
The physical attributes of the sandwich only add to the visceral revulsion some have to the product—the same product that others will drive hundreds of miles to savor. But many people, myself included, believe that all these things—the actual presumably entirely organic matter that goes into making the McRib—are somewhat secondary to the McRib’s existence.
This is where we enter the land of conjectures, conspiracy theories and dark, ribby murmurings. The McRib’s unique aspects and impermanence, many of us believe, make it seem a likely candidate for being a sort of arbitrage strategy on McDonald’s part. Calling a fast food sandwich an arbitrage strategy is perhaps a bit of a reach—but consider how massive the chain’s market influence is, and it becomes a bit more reasonable. ~ A Conspiracy of Hogs: The McRib as Arbitrage
Good conversation, happy diners, and three generations of family created a lovely impromptu event hosted my McDonalds and the mystery meat sandwich, which half of this group loved, and the other, no so much.
“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” ~ Gloria Steinem
While researching military bicycles, I discovered the OldBike.eu site and an article called Bicycle Erotica. The collection is quite graphic and beautiful, but alas, it is NSFW. Here you will see pictures like this:
And read a history of bicycle that you rarely find in a school book:
A major impediment, in the Victorian era, to the adoption of cycling by women was men’s pre-occupation with the idea that women only wanted to ride bicycles because of the stimulation they might receive from the saddle. Horses were ridden side-saddle and, such was male paranoia, it was considered abhorrent for girls to sit astride any object, even a see-saw or hobby-horse.
This obsession with the female virginal condition contributed to a boom in erotica in the Victorian age. Cameras and the printing process were becoming cheaper and easier to use. Bicycles captured the public imagination like nothing before, and erotic imagery, as with every other media form of the time, reflected this new-found interest.
“When I was a kid in Indiana, we thought it would be fun to get a turkey a year ahead of time and feed it and so on for the following Thanksgiving. But by the time Thanksgiving came around, we sort of thought of the turkey as a pet, so we ate the dog. Only kidding. It was the cat!” ~David Letterman
I know most pet owners have heard a thousand times about how the holidays can be stressful for your luv’d pets. The Seattle local KOMO News provides this pictorial of some of the temptations that await our muttlies. I’ve borrowed just this one for this post.
Here are some tips from SPCA to keep pets out of harms way around the holiday season:
Turkey Threat – It’s hard to resist those puppy dog eyes looking up at you as you sit-down to Thanksgiving dinner. This is a moment when the entire family is together and because you are happy, you want your pet to be happy as well. One piece of turkey won’t hurt as you toss it down to Rover only to see it gobbled up faster than you can say Happy Thanksgiving. Beware! Any turkey that is raw or even slightly undercooked may contain salmonella bacteria.
A King’s Feast – A little bit of properly cooked turkey here, some vegetables there along with a taste of pumpkin pie won’t hurt your pet but feed them in moderation. The old cliché ‘Too Much of a Good Thing’ applies here. Pets are often perpetually hungry and over feeding them can lead to problems such as an upset stomach, diarrhea and even more harmful health problems. Over indulging your pet can cause the more serious pancreatitis which is an inflamed pancreas.
Sage Advice – Sage can be the one ingredient that can make or break your stuffing but it’s also the spice that can cause a very unpleasant holiday for your pet should they eat some of it in a holiday side dish. Sage along with other herbs contains essential oils and resins that can lead to gastrointestinal problems as well as attack your dogs’ central nervous system causing depression should they eat enough of it. Cats are also very sensitive to some of these same oils found in various herbs such as sage.
Bread Dough Danger – Homemade bread is tasty and its aroma mixed with the smell of the turkey can make the Thanksgiving holiday even more memorable. Be careful because if your pet gets a hold and eats raw bread dough it can have serious repercussions. According to ASPCA, your pets’ body heat will cause the raw dough to rise in his/her stomach. The expansion of the dough will cause vomiting, abdominal pain and bloating which will require an immediate trip to the 24 hour pet emergency hospital.
Working Hard – Veterinarians recommend that owners keep their pets on a regular diet around the holidays. One way of keeping close to this advice is distracting your animal with a toy. Try lining the inside of a new or their favorite toy with gravy or a piece of turkey. This trick will keep your pet entertained for a long time as they attempt to maneuver their little treat from the toy.
They Can’t Have Their Cake And Eat It Too – If you’re whipping up something tasty for dessert be careful because most batter contains raw eggs which again could contain salmonella bacteria.
Here’s hoping your Thanksgiving is filled with those you luv, be it family, friends, or pets.
We are frantically, okay maybe not so much of the frantic, getting ready for our Thanksgiving guests. Aaron and Wendy and the two grandkids are coming up from Utah. My parents will be here as will Josie and her family. So we needed to get the two guest rooms set up for the out of towners. Here is the result:
Those of you who have stayed with us in the Redmond house will recognize the Cat room and the Fairy room. Suzy made the quilts, curtains, pillow shams, and needle point pictures.
For those who are not sleeping over, and you know who you are <smile>, here is some of what you will see:
The purple plum door is gone. (Suzy picked this front door color and really selected an excellent color.) All the curtains are not up yet and there is a garage filled with boxes, but the house will be full of people we love, laughter, and great food.
“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
After my recent move from a big to a small house, I got to thinking about all the stuff that I have, love, but rarely if ever use. Every shelf, nook, and cranny becomes a “Where’s Waldo” portmanteau of curios, books, and pictures.
In my defense, okay a weak one at that, we have mashed stuff from many rooms into one. This picture shows what happens when you jam cool stuff from the music studio, massive den, and library into a modest den. And I’m hard pressed to move more of this *cool* stuff to the thrift shop.
So I thought I’d share some Christmas gift ideas that I have actually developed over the years. I have found some solace in being a little more clever about giving something meaningful rather than a trinket destined to live on the regifting shelf.
1. Everyone doesn’t want or deserve a gift. You can’t buy most people’s love. No, really! If you rarely see the recipient, never communicate, why are you buying them a gift? It can create a sense of obligation for them to buy you a gift. We don’t want that.
2. Buy activities, not things. I have taken my parents to breakfast every Saturday that we are available for over ten years. We have agreed to do this in lieu of buying Christmas presents. It really works well for us. I think the gift of time is highly underrated.
3. Kids want money. $20 in a gift certificate and even a crisp bill is many children’s favorite thing to receive. You could spend more on something that they wouldn’t appreciate at all.
4. Regift! I still get the urge to splurge. When my grandson helped us move, spending hours with me moving heavy things, in addition to cash I gave him one of my eight guitars. I had never played it, so it was in pristine condition. He was bowled over and I didn’t have to find a place to put the instrument in the new house.
Sometimes I still get the urge to buy something. Klockwerks comes to mind. There are so many lovely things in the world. In this world of consumer excess, I am trying to retrain myself to enjoy viewing them vice satisfying the urge to own them.
Feel free to share some of your best gift giving ideas.
The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be. ~ Isaac Asimov
As most of my faithful readers know, we moved out of a big house into a smaller house. During the move we were without Internet for a week. I do have to qualify that, I did have a smart phone and a 3G enabled iPad II which allowed us to carry on with business. But that was not a great experience. The smart fone is slow (compared to FiOS in our house) and the iPad *hates* my (free) email service, Hotmail.
I learned a few new things during this move:
1. Label all power transformers/cords. Trust me on this. I have a box of so many that I will have to figure out if I need any more. Remotes are also in this category. With six (down from eight in the old house) entertainment locations (family room, den, sewing, and two guest rooms), there are so many remotes, I’m beginning to think they procreate like rabbits!
2. Wireless adapters exist for desk tops! No, really. My new house didn’t have LAN run through it like my old house. WTH? So I did some research and discovered they now have wireless adapters in a thumb drive format. Netgear has two models, one for computers within 150 feet of the router and the NETGEAR Wireless-N 300 USB Adapter which is good for up to 300 feet.
I *was* going to run a net cable through my Dad’s and my new house. Now we are both hooked up and running LANs through walls, or in the case of my dad, via a cord running down the staircase, is a thing of the past.
3. After 11 years in our old house, we had over twice the number of cords and power cables behind Suzy and my computers. Moving got us back to just using what we needed. I even found gear behind my desk that were duplicates of what I have been using like video camera for Skype.
More info about the free Skype service. Video phone for the masses!
So although I was able to work through selling and buying a home, two home closings, coordinating with movers, security services, insurance, and cable ISP on my phone and iPad II, I really prefer being at my desktop for big projects like writing this blog.
Update: My sax-playing, Microsoft PM friend Scott Dart adds: You might also try Powerline Internet for those hard to reach spots. Our condo isn’t that big, but we have a hard time getting wireless coverage everywhere. Netgear’s powerline adaptors are our current solution and so far working pretty reliably. C/net rates this solution very high.
I recently discovered the BandMusic PDF Library. It contains musical gems from the time of Gilmore, Sousa, Pryor, Liberati, Goldman, Reeves and other professional bands that were wildly popular in their day.
In addition to touring the country, performing in cities and towns across America, the bands attained stardom status at fairs, centennials and exhibitions. They were some of the first to have their music widely distributed on recordings—in on the ground floor of the recording industry.
Current number of pieces in library: 669 (728 entries) Number of “Print & Play” pieces: 113 (144 entries)
Enjoy, especially those new bands, who have a very small library!
It is the season for many of watching sports from inside. The cold weather can do that to us. Some might find the picture I’ve associated with this piece “too spicy”. If that is true, you probably won’t wanna be reading this blog.
When I see an athlete with chiseled abs, I first marvel at the rarity of the sight. Then my mind wanders to the work it takes to create and maintain those muscles. For guys the term six-pack abs comes to mind. For women it is more of an extreme definition, but rarely to the point of a six-pack.
The sports that come to mind where you might see this kind of display are:
Gymnastics
Ice Skating
Ballroom Dancing
So enjoy the sight of a beautiful woman who has both the genetic bits and work ethic to develop and then display the beauty that is the human body. Drooling, however, is very uncool. <smile>
The Community Music group on Yahoo just received this post: 
The Bis Key Chronicles 