An Early Christmas Miracle

So... my mood has been swinging back and forth this Thanksgiving weekend. One minute I'm full of hope, and the next I feel my stomach turn as I imagine the inevitable evolution of my job description to read "Does whatever the athletic parents want, by order of her Imperial Majesty, Principal Palpatine"

Anyway, I had to put that aside for a few hours as I was helping execute the fall concert for the youth orchestra I work for on the weekends. Now, understand that I had another whole level of stress over the concert. I'm one of five conductors working with three different performing groups... and going into it I was really worried that my part of the program was going to be the weakest. I was conducting two difficult pieces, and I didn't feel that I had enough podium time on either of them. They were both danger of falling apart. At the last rehearsal (yesterday) they couldn't make them through either one without stopping. I just had to let it go. It was going to be what it was going to be.

So tonight, when I got to the concert hall, I looked at Robert (program director) and said "I don't know about tonight... especially the Brahms. I think it has a 75% chance of falling apart." Robert looked at me and said "It's your call." Jacob, one of the other conductors looked at me and said "Well, we could announce that we're holding off for a later concert." I shook my head, "No... the kids don't like it all that much. If we held on to it for another three months it'll be like punishment. We do it tonight or not at all." Jacob looked at me and smiled "Well, you know what Bernstein said.... 'You never know what might happen'...." I laughed and said, "Okay... let's rock n' roll then."

And wouldn't you know it... the one and only time that group held the Brahms together was on the concert.

I'm really glad I didn't pull it. I'm really glad I put my faith in them. I'm really glad I didn't "apologize" to the audience ahead of time. Yeah, I couldn't have been more proud.

Give and Take

Okay, so here's the update on the pep band situation: I weaseled my way out of this Friday's game.

I had people in place at the admin meeting on Monday who pushed for a loophole that would allow me to cancel if I had less than 10 kids show up. I went ahead and took it. The truth: I think I had less than 10 kids available. For sure, I had less than 10 kids confirm that they would go. There might have been more... but I was already resigned to cancel, so i didn't ask.

I told Principal Palpatine, and she wasn't happy... but she did agree to let me cancel. But I could tell that she was really displeased.

So... where I should have been happy that I got my Friday vacation back, I ended up feeling a) guilty for wiggling out of a commitment and b) fearful for the consequences this may have on my relationship with administration, athletics and the football parents.

But today, I may have turned things around for the better. Before I left school yesterday I put in a call to one of the "big gun" marching band directors in Southern California, a guy who's been around since I was in high school, running one of the most aggressive, competitive programs. I told him that we needed a drum line coach, and wondered if he could give me some names (and some advice.) It turns out Mr. Big Guns was off the entire week. I left the message on his voice mail, expecting him to get back to me on Monday. Maybe.

Well, it turns out Mr. Big Guns is a workaholic like me. He checked his voice mail (via remote) and gave me a call today on his cel (he was at a car dealership waiting for a repair). We talked for about an hour. He gave me the name of a drum line guy that he recommended highly. As soon as I got off the phone with Mr. Big Guns, I called Drum Line Guy straight away. He sounded VERY interested in working with us. He's going to meet with me next week.

So, about an hour ago I fired off an e-mail to Palpatine, as well as our athletics director, the ASB advisor, the football coach, and the assistant principals and told them about the progress I made towards developing the drum line.

Not ten minutes ago I got a reply from Palpatine:

Mr. Maestro, thank you for moving forward. It is obvious to all of us that you have taken the request to heart and you have spent a lot of time on making this possible. Your efforts will not go unnoticed.

That's what I needed to hear. I can now dig in to Thanksgiving dinner in peace. And I don't feel so bad about Friday's game anymore.

Whew.

Well, here we are again.....

Another sleepless night because of a damn work e-mail I just had to open on frickin Sunday night. I tell you, true-believers, this is getting really frickin old. The funny thing is that this time I'm not worried about what may happen tomorrow. I'm pissed.... and surprisingly enough, I'm not pisssed at Principal Palpatine.

See, this is the thing that I was afraid of: Principal Palpatine is evil, sure... but on this paritcular issue (bands should be servants to the athletic departments) her opinion is shared by a lot of people. Not only that, but the general masses can't bring themselves to realize one simple fact:

My band sucks.

No really.... they do. It's not their fault... nor mine. But what do you expect is going to happen when you shove 60+ mostly 7th and 8th graders, mostly beginners in a band class, and then turn around and expect them to stand horn-to-horn with bigger high school bands? They can't play anything past medium-loudish, they're out of tune, they have bad rhythm.... hell half of them don't even know their fingerings....

And the crowd can't tell the difference.

But you'd better believe the kids can. They know when they're being pounded by a much more developed real high school band. And the other band knows it, too. I don't know how much spirit we give the home team, but I'm pretty sure we provide loads of entertainment to the opposing band.

Folks, I really hate to say it, but in the band world... we're kind of an embarassment. Maybe if we had a normal feeder system in our elementary schools, and maybe if the admin had the good sense not to flood me with random kids who don't even want to be in band... thus giving me a chance to work out a decent product. But never mind that. What's important is that we keep the football parents happy. And again, as long as you can pound out a recognizable rendition of "Go Fight Win"... who could ask for anything more?

A Rock and a Hard Place

So....

Friday our football team had a home game. I didn't take the pep band. The game was off our radar, because it was the first of the playoffs... it wasn't on the master schedule, so I didn't know about it until very late. The thing you have to understand is that for a long time we had an underachieving football team. We never went to playoffs. Well, this year we have a new coach. He's been winning. We're in playoffs. I didn't go to the first game... that was bad.

Strangely enough, it wasn't Principal Palpatine who e-mailed me about the issue (although she was cc'd.) It was the assistant principal... who may be acting under Palpatine's directive, or who just shares the same "Band is the slave of the athletics department" opinion. Whatever.

This was one of those moments where I (wisely) waited at least a good hour before I wrote a reply. I'm already on Palpatine's shit list... I need to stay under her radar as much as possible.

So now, as a show of good faith, I have to take a group to the next game, which is next Friday. And for those of you not in the know (ie. not living in the USA) most of next week is a holiday. That means I'm going to be trying to get kids to show up to a school event on a day they're not even supposed to be thinking about school. I know, I know.... who in their right mind would shedule a game on a holiday? This is American football, folks. It's practically a religion. A football game trumps a holiday like a royal flush.

In hindsight, I should have taken a band to last Friday's game... I would have had way more leverage to skip the coming holiday game. Now I have to put double the effort into making this coming friday's game work.

I've already confirmed that my only two competent drummers will be out-of-town... which means I have to hire a ringer (Already arranged.) And God knows how many more will skip out (and to be honest... I don't blame them).

What Assistant Principal didn't mention was whether or not it is a home game. I replied to his e-mail with a request that if it were an away game, that we recieve accomodations for transportation. I also asked if they could help cover the cost of the ringer on drum set.

Funny thing... when I hit "send" the e-mail was immediately returned with a "Out-Of-Office" reply. It seems Assistant Principal will not be at school until December 1st. Traveling for the holidays I suppose? Lucky him.

Llama of the Week

Kindred Spirits

As per my promise to Principal Palpatine, I've been looking into developing and expanding our Drum Line. Last week I met with a representative form a uniform company... a guy who is going to try to put together an inexpensive but effective package to pitch to our financial support organizations.

So this guy comes into my office during my prep period and immediately noticed the plethora of comic book paraphernalia adorning the walls. He pointed at the posters on my door and said "Hey, I see you have a McFarlane SpiderMan poster.... as well as the Alex Ross Superman/Batman poster..." (Geeks idientify themselves to other geeks by dropping artist's names) A short comic book conversation ensued... followed by a half hour of looking at uniform samples.

When the period ended, the bell rang and my third period class shuffled in. I looked at the uniform rep and said "Hey... my next class is stsarting so I gotta go. But thanks for coming in!" The rep looked at me and said "Yeah, we'll be in touch. I'll put together a sample for you, how's that?" We shook hands, and I walked out of the office... leaving the rep to gather his stuff.

I spent the next ten minutes or so taking roll. I assumed that Uniform Rep Guy had slipped out the back... but when I took the roll sheets back into my office, he was still there. He had brought along a sketch book and was sitting at my desk finishing up this:

When he was done, he tore it out and handed it to me saying "Here... I'm leaving you with a little something extra."

I was flabbergasted. After a minute of staring at the drawing (which was pencilled AND inked) I finally said "Did you just scribble that out... while I was taking roll?"

He shrugged and said "I used to work for an animation studio. When you're under that kind of pressure on a daily basis, you learn to work fast."

Holy Jabezus Tap-Dancin Christ!

You know... I don't know if this whole drum line / uniform thing is going to pan out. But one thing is for sure... I have to hang out with this guy more often.

Llama of the Week

Saving a Family Heirloom

Okay, here's what went down this week:

On Monday, my string coach (Rhonda) accidentally broke my great-grandfather's violin. She had taken it to use with the beginning class, and in the process of carrying it, the case unlatched and fell open... spilling the violin on the ground. It developed a nasty split on the top side that is apparently called a "soundpost crack" It looked scary.

The violin was given to me by my mother who rescued it from being sold off by my aunt to pay some bills. It had been sitting in a closet for the better part of fourty years, at least. My mom decided it should a) stay in the family and b) be in the hands of a musician. So she got it from my aunt, and in exchange she called off a long-standing sum of money that my aunt owed her.

My great grandfather was a professional orchestral player in Scotland. The instrument, while not exactly a Stradivarius, was a good instrument with a rich tone, particularly in the lower register. It dates back to about the mid 1800's (not uncommon when it comes to violins. Most of my friends have instruments that are older than their grandparents.) The case had my GGF's initials printed in gold lettering. Unfortunatley, it didn't latch very well.

For the record, Rhonda coach did not take the violin without my permission. In fact, I encouraged her to use it as much as possible. String instruments deteriorate faster if they aren't played. Since I'm not a violinist, I keep it at school and frequently let my string-inclined friends to play it.

Now, obviously, Rhonda feels horrible about the whole thing and offered to pay for repairs. The only thing is, Rhonda is a recent college grad with a crap day-job that doesn't pay her much. Also add into it the fact that a) she's a good friend, and I don't want to put a lot of strain on our relaitonship and b) I really don;t blame her. So in order to let her work through her guilty feelings, I let her take the violin around to different repair places to get estimates. The feedback we got was really mixed:

Violin Shop A: "This is a horrible instrument. Not worth fixing. But if it has sentimental value, I can glue it together for aesthetic purposes for... say.... $75" Shop A has a reputation for being really "snobby" and over priced. I decided not to go with them.

Violin Shop B: "Yup, I can fix this for... oh... $250" The only problem is, I've done business with Shop B before, and was underwhelmed with the quality. Next.

Violin Shop C: "This is a very fine instrument. I'd appraise it at least $5000... maybe as high as $7000. Definitely worth fixing. Here's what I can do [insert rather long list of problems]. The whole thing will probably be something close to $1,200."

Now shop C sounded the most like a car dealership.... especially with the appraisal. My Mom once had the same violin appraised at less than $2000. So I didn't know what to think. I asked around and it turns out that Shop C is one of the most trusted shops in all of Southern California. They do good work.... fair..... honest.

I called my Mom to tell her the bad news. She took it about as calmly as I did, saying "Well, these things happen." She also offered to kick in a considerable amount for the repair.

I called Shop C back and told them to go ahead and do it.

The funny thing is... once I get it back, I'll probably still keep it at the school, and still let my friends play it (NO STUDENTS). I'll proabably get a newer case to keep it in, though.

My wife thinks I'm crazy (and actually, I think she's a little pissed that I'm spending money on it... or at least not asking Rhonda for more.) But see... I'd like to think that Great Grand-Pappy would be happy to know that it is being played, rather than sititng on a shelf or in a closet. Who knows, maybe someday my own instrument will be handed down. And to be sure... there's nothing more tragic than a Mark VI sitting gathering dust when it wants to be played... dents and dings be damned.

Llama of the Week (And The Next Four Years)

Oh come on... you knew this was coming :-)

"Yes we can"

... oh I certainly hope so...

In a way I don't envy the man: We're looking at him to be the next Kennedy at a time when we desperately need another Kennedy. I think most people agree that the challenges he faces in the next few years will make his historic campaign look like a walk in the park.

But all of that aside, I'm really happy with the election. I think it goes far beyond a victory for the African-American population. Whether or not Obama is up to the job... the polls prove that the majority of the country is finally ready to set aside petty things like race when it comes to looking for the answers to the really important questions.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to put a lot of things right. For so long, I've felt conflicted about expressing how I felt about being an American. So many noble and enlightened things in our past that I'm proud of, and yet so many things done (recently) "in my best interests" that have disgusted me. Word on the grapevine is that like a lot of us, the rest of the world is looking forward to a better America. I hope we can deliver.

Llama of the Week

A Political Rant

So, for those of you not living in California... we're currently gearing up to vote on one of the more controversial propositions to come down the chute: Proposition 8 - The elimination of the right for same sex couples to marry.

Now, right off the bat I wasn't particularly motivated to vote for Prop 8. Even though it doesn't affect me personally, I don't see any reason to stand in the way of other people entering into a legally binding committed relationship. What's really been annoying me, however, is the pro-8 commercials. They've been claiming that if 8 gets voted down, public schools WILL engage in the process of teaching gay marriage to children, and that parents will not have the right to exempt their kids from said instruction.

WTF?!?!

Last time I checked, public schools didn't teach anything about marriage. We try promote diversity and tolerance, but we do not teach that interracial marriage is okay. We try to encourage gender equity, but we do not preach gender roles in relationships. And what?...... Parent's NOT allowed to exempt their kids from controversial content? What kind of bullshit is that? We can't even speak the words "sex education" without getting signed consent forms in triplicate from the parents. We're also required by law to allow for alternate projects and assignments. I mean political and religious convictions aside.... I find the blatant and ignorant misrepresentation of the intent of the public school system to be staggering.

I know some people find it hard to live in a society that is tolerant of things they find to be wrong... sinful even. After all, we legally allow extra-marital sex, pre-marital sex and all manner of personal habits denounced by various religions and cultures. It just seems to me that a government that allows gay marriage isn't trying to define marriage for everyone. People are still allowed to teach their kids what they think is right and wrong.

In the mean time... leave the schools out of it.