On My Mind

The students work harder than I thought possible. We're about halfway through the show. We'll probably be able to play through 80% of the show by the time school starts. For a first year teaching gig, I'm loving it. Everything about it, truly.

But the realization that contest is less than two months away already is pretty sobering. Having it one week early makes a big, big difference...

Decorating the Classroom

Ok, I'll be fair. I don't really have a classroom. And I really won't do much decorating. Still, I feel like I needed to put something up. My office needs to be more than just a room I occupy a few hours a day between classes and making copies.

But at the same time, I didn't want a carbon copy stereotypical motivational poster that others may have in their respective classrooms. I don't want to fall victim to the posters that launched a meme. Further, I wanted something to reflect my philosophy. Something that would let the students understand me a bit better.

Where to turn? Why, the Art of Manliness of course! Gender connotations aside, I knew they had a store, and I knew that store had at least one poster.

Turns out they have two posters. And one was absolutely perfect for me.

The Man in The Arena:

A beautiful poster, and a masterful quote that completely and totally fits my philosophy. The poster's quote is from Teddy Roosevelt's "Citizenship in a Republic Speech," a paragraph so often quoted it has its own title, "The Man in the Arena." It states:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Looking for lamination in Pampa now. Only disappointment is the "Art of Manliness" logo in the top left corner. I understand their desire to advertise, though I feel like I may need to cover it up within the context of public school because of gender connotation. Still haven't made a decision on that point, since the words apply to anyone of any gender or belief system equally. I'm not sure the source of the poster should matter. But for some people, it might anyway.

Lawmakers push bill to ban bosses from asking for Facebook passwords

From The Hill:

Two Democrats introduced a bill on Friday that would ban employers from asking for their workers' Facebook passwords. 

The Social Networking Online Protection Act, introduced by Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel (N.Y.) and Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), would prohibit current or potential employers from demanding a username or password to a social networking account. 

The restriction would also apply to colleges, universities and schools. 

[snip]  

"We must draw the line somewhere and define what is private," Engel said in a statement. "No one would feel comfortable going to a public place and giving out their username and passwords to total strangers. They should not be required to do so at work, at school, or while trying to obtain work or an education. This is a matter of personal privacy and makes sense in our digital world.”  

This, I think, is a good thing. I've heard rumors of certain employers demanding Facebook account access information from potential candidates, and the whole thing struck me as particularly Orwellian, if on a small scale. (I hadn't necessarily heard about public schools doing this, but one can see the writing on the wall.)

Granted, if an employer asked me for the right to rummage through my social media or email accounts, the interview would be over - that's not the kind of employer I'd want to work for. Still, though, its nice to see Congress doing something in the people's interest for a change. Better to nip something this egregious in the butt before it becomes a widespread practice.

The Importance of a Professional Email Address

So, as the Graduate Assistant of Recruiting at WT, I would say that maybe as much as 85% of my communications with faculty, students, etc, take place via email. Why? A couple of reason. One, I have a searchable database of previous interactions with said individuals. It's good to know that, when confusion arises, its not my word against someone else's. I can simply do a quick search and figure out if I'm at fault or not. I, personally like that.

Two, convenience. Phone calls can be missed. Faculty member teaching a class, student in a class, parent at work, none of them can answer my calls. But my email will reach them and wait until they can check it at their convenience, and theirs mine.

Further, whenever we collect students information, it gets entered into our excel file database by your truly. I've read and typed, and retyped, many, many email addresses. And frankly, though it doesn't have any meaningful impact in this particular situation, I've come to learn the importance of a professional email address.

A Professional Email Address SHOULD NOT:

• Be Childish (Ladies): It may sound like a joke, but truly, nothing about My Little Pony, Care Bears, or even Unicorns, is appropriate. It doesn't matter how much you may still love your childhood cartoons (and hey, that's ok, to an extent), I want to feel like I'm communicating with an adult. Not a child. And this doesn't apply to just the high school students coming into WT who I communicate with. There are plenty of other people my age who need to rethink their primary email address.
• Attempt Witticism (This one is for the Gentlemen): I know, I know. You really, truly, at the bottom of your heart, know that you're the first person to come up with johnbond007@email.com, but there's a problem. Your last name isn't Bond, its Doe, and that's confusing to others who have to email you. Further, you aren't 007, you don't have a license to kill, and I promise you, I *promise* you, I have a dozen other '007' email addresses in my database at any given time. No joke. Not only was it not clever, it was downright cliched. And it sure doesn't help your machismo. Think about it before you create that gmail account...
• Be and Obscure Combination of Letters and Numbers: Seriously, do you have *any* idea how difficult it is to retype ax7n973.bu832@email.com accurately? Now do it dozens of times, because you're in secretarial work and maintaining an email list of some sort. This is simply unnecessarily difficult.
• Be Excessively Long for Any Reason: A bad email address: I_luv_my_little_pony_becuz_its_so_cute_and_it_makes_me_smiles!@email.com. I think it's pretty self-explanatory. Cutesy only gets you so far in life.

A Professional Email Address SHOULD:

• Tell Me Who You Are: I personally find it refreshing when the email address includes a person's name in some form or fashion, even abbreviated. It's much easier to remember John Doe's email address, jdoe@email.com than, say, 
• Be Short and Concise if Possible: I don't need your life story in your email address. Your birth date, graduation date, anniversary, and favorite holiday, are all best left in your planner.
• Avoid Anything Unnecessary: When you look at most school or professionally provided email addresses, they tend to have certain elements in common. Names, initials. Maybe some sort of number. And that's it. It's clear, concise, and easy to remember. Ex) jdoe1@school.email.edu. No, you may not work for an organization that provides such an email address, but you can model yours after a similar format. jdoe@gmail.com, for example. Add in a middle initial or quick two digit number if the basic format is taken.

Do I really care about your email address or the email address of any of the prospective students who email me? No, not really. But be aware it does leave a significant first impression. There are a couple I've run across that will be forever etched in my memory. I don't even remember who they belong to. I just know that if, upon retyping your email address, I can't help but laugh out loud, you probably need to reconsider. 

It won't affect you too much when applying for colleges, because people expect such things of those fresh out of high school. But when you're 23, applying for jobs, and 'boi' is still a part of your email address... you may need a professional intervention.

(Note: All given email addresses were completely made up on a whim. If you're John Doe and I just plastered your email address all over the internet, I'm deeply sorry you have such a generic name.)

Whitney Houston Songs: Sony Raises Prices 30 Minutes after Singer's Death

Ok, it's not exactly music education. But its an interesting point to raise nonetheless. From the article:

Whitney Houston, the celebrated pop music icon, died on Saturday at the age of 48. While many around the world mourned, Sony Music immediately raised the price of Houston's greatest hits album, "Ultimate Collection," on iTunes and Amazon.

Sony Music raised the price of Houston's songs just 30 minutes after her death, reports The Guardian. The retail price was raised from about $8 (£4.99) to about $13 (£7.99), which automatically raised the price of digital sales on platforms such as iTunes.

Source Article

I can't say I blame them. We all saw how quickly the world forgave Michael Jackson for, well, being completely crazy, after he died. What are a few tormented artist drug habits compared to that? Expecting a big surge in sales posthumously is probably smart, and most consumers won't notice the hike, unless they've been waiting for 'that album' to go on sale.

I think whats interesting in all this is seeing how the music industry works. Whitney obviously isn't going to see that extra cash. It's going somewhere, and probably not so much to friends and family.

Music certainly seems less democratized that many other industries. Sure, the development of the web, iTunes, and its various competitor stores have contributed towards the start up group that avoids the major publishers and labels, but how many groups have truly made it big this way? It seems that the coverage/support network you get from a large corporation still outshines actually talent and artistry in many cases. I wonder how long it'll take that to change.

Nevertheless, it seems that there is a certain stranglehold on the popular music industry right now that is almost impossible to break through by non traditional means. Though, is that really much different than the patronage system? Discuss.


EDIT:

From the NYT:

“Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the U.K. iTunes store on Sunday,” the company said in a statement. “When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologize for any offense caused.”

According to two executives at Sony Music, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, the price increase was the result of an error by a Sony employee in Britain, and that the company gave no orders for prices to be raised on Ms. Houston’s music.

Sales of her albums and tracks soared over the weekend, and executives say that downloads were especially strong. Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales in the United States, will release figures on Wednesday covering the week that ended with the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

Yeah. I'm sure. Convenient error. Translation, "Someone is being fired as we speak." But really, that 30 minute timing was pretty amazing. I wonder how many such pricing errors they have a year, and what the odds are of them happening so close to a (literally) once in a lifetime event...

The Otamatone

Courtesy of Sharon, for your viewing pleasure:

.

Actually seen these in a Brookestone before. I'm betting money a concerto for one or more of these already exists, and further, someone has already mastered it as an instrument. May or may not have an endorsed artist yet.

If not, you composers are missing out on a golden opportunity. Who cares about quality when there's novelty to be had? I mean, if typewriters even have a piece...

Foolish Hazing

A former Kappa Kappa Psi president recently shared this article in her news feed, which I found both interesting and highly accurate.

Hazing is an initiation practice, most common among young people, in which members of a group--such as a fraternity, military unit or sports teams--force newcomers to do unpleasant, humiliating or dangerous activities as a prerequisite to becoming a full-fledged member of the group. Although hazing is generally applied equally to every initiate, it can merge into bullying, in which special abuse is directed at certain individuals. At one time hazing was seen as harmless fun and was at least tacitly tolerated by adults--such as college presidents, military officers or team coaches--who possessed the power to end, or severely limit, the practice. Tolerance of hazing has declined, however, as a result of publicity and lawsuits (civil and criminal) resulting from incidents in which individuals were killed or maimed, such as through beating or coerced alcohol consumption. In spite of the fact that hazing is now banned in many institutions, and violent hazing is now a felony in many jurisdictions, notorious instances of abusive hazing still occur. 

Two tragic cases both became public towards the end of 2011: (a) the beating death of a marching band member, Robert Champion, at Florida A&M University, apparently as the result of a hazing ritual, and (b) the suicide in a U.S. army base in Afghanistan of Private Danny Chen, apparently just after he had been severely humiliated by hazing from members of his unit. In both of these cases, as in most other severe hazing episodes, the action can be seen as foolish, in that the perpetrators seemed unaware of the dangers their activity posed, both to the victims (who were grievously harmed) and to themselves (some of whom are facing serious jail time). As a little more is known today about the Robert Champion case, and also because Danny Chen's case appears to be more a matter of group punishment (he was allegedly targeted for some performance lapses and also for personal characteristics, including his ethnicity) rather than a rite of passage ritual, my analytic comments will be reserved mainly for the college marching band case.

The author, Stephen Greenspan, goes on to identify four explanatory factors that make such behavior acceptable in so large a group. Interesting read, might offer some insight. I think was so amazing about the recent situation with Champion is how tacit universities have been about bands that have a history of this behavior. Dr. Greenspan points it out in his article, that many go into these situations knowing what to expect, that hazing will occur, yet still participate. And if the students know whats going on - in this case on 'Bus C' - how can none of the faculty be aware? Even if the organization is predominantly student led, there must be some level of university oversight, and someone that should have been responsible for their behavior of the band. It just boggles my mind that there was someone employed at that university knowing that beatings were going on when a student joined a particular bus (of all the stupid things to initiate for), and nothing was said, allowing physical violence to continue unabated.

Source Article (full text) is found here.

Arsenal Technical H.S. Band

Job Searching

So, the time to start the job searching process has begun. Or rather, began some time ago. It's not urgent yet, as I know many people aren't hired for teaching positions (particularly in public schools) until the month before classes start. All that said, I'm typically not a last minute type of person, particularly when it comes to things of gravity, and meaningful employment is one of those things.

So, for over a month now I've been checking various sources for jobs. Public school teaching, adjunct college faculty, band, orchestra, pretty much anything I'm qualified for. And the field has been sparse. The majority of the jobs I'm not qualified for (head director positions requiring a number of years of experience, or professorial positions required doctorates), and the few that I do fit the bill for are not my ideal position.

One, for example, was an assistant band director position, looking for a percussionist specifically, in a small town (just over 5,000 population). The kicker was that the position admitted it was paid for by a federal stimulus package and may or may not exist after one year. Not exactly job security. So while I would consider taking it (it's a real job with real experience), odds are after one year, it would just be a bullet point on my resume as I search for a job with some continuity.

So, I'm searching. Primarily hitting up TMEA, as they seem to keep the most up to date about job postings, although I check the TBA website as well. Anyone else have suggestions for job listing sites that would fit my music/academic criteria?

Hang versus HAPI Drum

When I first heard the Hang Drum (pronounced Hong), I decided I desperately wanted one. Unfortunately, I found out they cost, on average, over $2,000.00 US, and they are notoriously hard to obtain, as the producers only accept individual requests by mail, typically require pickup of product (in Switzerland...), and are rather picky about who they make an instrument for.

But how can you not like this sound?:



Anyway, I recently stumbled upon the HAPI drum. It's much more reasonably priced, less pretentious, and freely available. And also not anywhere near the same tonal experience. Demonstration below:



Not necessarily disliking the HAPI. But I definitely like the Hang better.

So, definitely tempted by the HAPI. But man. I want a Hang.

Unpaid student loans top $1 trillion

If you thought the housing debt bubble bursting was bad, this one will be worse. Unless a housing mortgage, there isn't any collateral if someone defaults on a student loan. You can repossess an education. The government will have to foot the bill, all of it, particularly since the Federal Government now guarantees those loans. This won't end well.

Giving validation to Occupy Wall Street protests over the increasing burdens of student debt, a new report indicates that the total amount of outstanding student loans this year will exceed $1 trillion for the first time. 

In addition, the amount of student loans taken out last year was greater than $100 billion, another new record, according to USA Today, citing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

The $1 trillion of outstanding loans means that Americans now owe more on student loans than on their credit cards. While students have been racking up educational loans, American consumers have been paying down credit cards and home loans.

Source Article

The Most Relaxing Song in the World

Source Article

It slows your breathing and reduces brain activity to such an extent that Weightless, written by Manchester band Marconi Union, is said to be the 'most relaxing song ever'.

The eight-minute track is so effective at inducing sleep, motorists have now been warned they should not listen to it whilst driving.

The band worked with sound therapists to get advice on how to make the most effective use of harmonies, rhythms and bass lines. The result on listeners is a slowing of the heart rate, reduced blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Scientists played the song to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay.

The study - commissioned by bubble bath and shower gel firm Radox Spa - found the song was even more relaxing than a massage, walk or cup of tea.

For the astute reader, yes, the project was sponsored by a corporation, so there are ad plugs aplenty at the various links, and including in the video below. And I think the methodology is undoubtedly flawed. And overall, it's more advertising gimmick then anything.

All that aside, I find the whole thing very interesting, though I can't for sure say why. It's very much ambient music, but interesting nonetheless.

The entire track can be listened to here.

Video below gives a little synopsis of the project.