Lately, I’ve been reading Tim Flannery’s Life on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet and it’s been blowing my mind. As you may know from speaking with me or looking at the Music page, I am quite the biophiliac – I am infatuated with life on this planet. Flannery’s book opens with Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism, exploring the separation between selfishness and altruism that social dogmatists … Continue reading Music Ed Monday – The Medea Hypothesis
While I had a whole other idea for a post this week, the “Gov. Rick Perry forgetting which three agencies he wants to scrap” has really been occupying my mind – but not for the forgetting; but rather, what it is that he wants to scrap: Commerce, Education and, uh… Wait a sec… EDUCATION?! What does that say about the state of the social state … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – Placing the Focus
Nobody wants you here but everybody looks you in the eye and says they don’t mind that you’re here. It’s nothing personal, it’s just they guess they can’t get hurt by someone they don’t really know. They don’t really know. I’m only as good as I think you think I am and you’re only as good as you think I think you are. They’re not … Continue reading Greg MacThursdays – November 17th, 2011
“The Light” from Bit Blot’s Aquaria, released in 2007. It is very rare in one’s life that they meet someone as creative and passionate about their art as Alec Holowka, one of the co-creators of Aquaria and head of the indie games studio, Infinite Ammo. To meet someone who devotes every spare minute to art is really inspiring and he’s one of the two people that I … Continue reading VGM Wednesdays – “The Light”
Isn’t that just a wonderful picture? He’s smiling away, having a great time 🙂 As humans, we are so good at routine, I would even go so far as to say that we excel at routine. We wake with the sun, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, eat some more, read our book or follow our shows, then sleep with the moon in the sky, … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – The Gorilla Story
“there’s something dead out in the field behind our house the wind’s changing direction I seen the local man dressing up in the latest style he says, “It’s only natural selection…” good times coming back again.” – “Good Times” from ‘Good Times Coming Back Again’ I read this as the old turning into the new, but the song is SO dark and gritty that it’s … Continue reading Greg MacThursdays – November 10, 2011
“Colour of the Summer Sky” from Square’s Secret of Mana, released in 1993. We first hear it in Potos Village, but it never leaves us through the rest of the game. Hiroki Kikuta‘s score to Squaresoft’s 1993 RPG, Secret of Mana is one of those scores that transcends other musical works of its generation and that really isn’t a superlative generalization – it’s just one … Continue reading VGM Wednesdays – “Colour of the Summer Sky”
“Whatever gets repeated, gets remembered.” – Michael Brandon This simple sentence blew my mind during my second year of teaching, which was the year that Michael Brandon came to our school. He and I teach the Instrumental and Academic areas of our Music Program – yes, it can be more than just Band, Choir and Drama, but more on that in another post. While we … Continue reading Music Ed Mondays – “Whatever Gets Repeated…”
“Our anger built and tightly wound We walked the coal road through the town “The store,” I yelled, “We’ll burn it down, Burn it to a cynder!” As I spoke these words before my eyes Their doors and windows opened wide And 10 more miners joined my side Beaten, starved and angered We were beaten, starved and angered” – “Company Store” from ‘Maintenance’ One of … Continue reading Greg MacThursdays – November 3, 2011
In our Band Room, we have a whole whiteboard dedicated to quotes, musical ideas, leadership or generally inspirational thoughts and a student wrote this on the board today 🙂 Now, imagine a high school kid seeing that – it gets better, right? Enjoy the day, Kenley Continue reading On the Band Room Quote Board Today…
