The Freedom Trombone

Christmas Back Home

2011-12-24T23:14:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back in the US and I haven't come close to writing anything on this blog since setting foot on American soil back in October. I promise, one day soon I'll finish up the deployment blogging. But right now I'm back home in Nashville, sitting in my parents' living room, sort-of watching college football while the Christmas tree lights glow by the television. Last year at this time I was at FOB Lagman in Afghanistan to play music for the troops there, which was a nice break from being at Kandahar Air Field. While I am honored to have spent nearly a year over there and our holiday jaunt to Lagman was actually a pretty enjoyable trip, it is good to be back home. Very, very good. I still have friends back in Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas and I hope they can all experience the holidays with their families soon enough. This year I've thought less about gifts and more about how being back in my home nation is a gift, and that just having the freedoms and luxuries that we do is a gift. So to all of you reading this, I ask you to take a minute and reflect on the blessings we have and the sacrifices that make them possible. I hope you all have an extraordinary Christmas. And to the extremist terrorists whose actions necessitate our overseas actions, I leave you with a quote from John Lennon: war is over, if you want it.

The New Guys

2011-09-27T12:29:00.003-04:00

Though we have been preparing to depart, that hasn't been the only activity recently for the 10th Mountain Division Band. We've also been preparing things for the band that is replacing us, the 82nd Airborne Division Band from Ft. Bragg, NC. They began arriving in late August, with most of their personnel coming in September. The transition is interesting partly because they are bringing a larger group, over thirty people, while we had just over twenty.

Part of the transition is turning over vehicles, ammuntion, and other equipment for them to use. We also have to find our "job counterparts" for the various additional duties that we perform and train up those people on how the system works here at Kandahar Air Field. During this time we've gotten to know the members of the 82nd, and so far the transition seems to be going smoothly. They are already taking over our partnership missions with the Afghan National Army's 205th Corps Band and have been rehearsing daily in their various small ensembles to prepare for performances. Their intent was to hit the ground running, so to speak, and they seem to have accomplished that goal.

I've been glad that they arrived when they did, since I mentioned in a previous post that all of 10th Mountain's instruments were sealed up after our September 11 performance. The members of the 82nd have been gracious to let me borrow a trombone and get some face time on the instrument! This has been a wonderful opportunity to not lose whatever improvements I've made as a musician recently, and I'd like to publicly thank them for their generosity. Sure, I can "buzz" on my mouthpiece, but nothing compares to actually playing the horn.

The members of the 82nd seem to be excited to take over the mission here, and I have no doubt they will do great things. Having been able to listen to some of their rehearsals, I can say that they have some great performers and they will represent the proud heritage of the 82nd Airborne Division quite well during their time here. Our commander talks about how the whole Army Band field is like a large family, and he's right--already after a few days, I've gotten to know many members of this group and I hope I have a chance to serve with them down the road. I've also gotten to talk with a few people I've served with previously, and also of note is that my instructor at the Armed Forces School of Music and the band liason who held my entrance audition are in the 82nd, so it is fascinating to get to spend some of my last deployment time with two people who played a large part in my entry into the active Army. Airborne all the way!

The Power to Move You, Part 4

2011-09-26T12:42:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday, September 18, we moved again. Moving is always annoying in this type of situation, but this time the reason for moving was different. We moved out of the modular housing, or "mods," into the transient tent in preparation for leaving Afghanistan. By "we," I mean "virtually everyone in the 10th Mountain Division Headquarters regardless of departure date." They wanted to clear out the mods so that the members of the incoming 82nd Airborne Division could move in. (Note: as of this writing, they still have not moved the members of the 82nd Airborne Division into the mods.)

We were originally told that we would move approximately five days before leaving, but they decided to shelve that idea and just move everyone out at the same time, so we now have considerably more time in the tent. The tent is not like what you would take camping; it is very large and spacious, with lights, air conditioning, and a concrete floor. And bunk beds. Lots and lots of bunk beds, virtually all of which are occupied by either people or luggage.

I actually claimed my bed, an upper bunk near a power outlet, on Saturday when I was told that people were already moving in. I got a couple of my bags that were packed and placed them on the best bed I could find to reserve my spot, though I didn't move the rest of my stuff and turn in my room key until Sunday afternoon. I also spent a good chunk of Sunday afternoon mailing some of my things, including my guitar and a lot of care package items, extra bedsheets, etc. in a large box I constructed out of three smaller cardboard boxes. I sent them off to New York, where I hope they will be waiting for me when I arrive, or at least show up a few days afterward. This not only saves space, but means I had a lot less stuff to either carry or throw away.

Meanwhile, I spent much of this afternoon reorganizing my things, and I think I may actually have plenty of room for the remaining things I need to carry with me. Waiting for the order to get on the airplane...that's the hard part!

Patriot's Day

2011-09-25T10:25:00.002-04:00

I'm down to my last few days in Afghanistan, and I have limited computer time, which is going to make writing a blog even more difficult than normal. But I'm going to try to keep some daily updates here the next few days as we prepare to ramp out of here. Let's see if I can actually do it!

A couple of weeks ago was September 11, the tenth anniversary of the attacks that resulted in our invasion of Afghanistan and the conflict we're currently fighting over here. There was a commemorative ceremony here at Kandahar Air Field, with speeches by various people giving their thoughts on the occasion. One of the officers in our battalion spoke about his memories of that day--at the time, he was assigned to the Pentagon and was inside the building when it was hit. Naturally, we all thought about where we were and how the news of that day has impacted our lives. (Perhaps I'll write about that in a future entry.)

The band was part of the ceremony as well, and our small group of remaining instruments (2 trombones, trumpet, clarinet, tuba, saxophone, and drums) made for an electic but effective ensemble. This also marked the final performance of the 10th Mountain Division Band for this deployment, as we had to pack up our instruments the next day to prepare them for shipping back to the United States. It brought a sense of closure to play our final performance in Afghanistan on the anniversary of the attacks that had led us all to be here. Now we could start getting ready to go home!

Beginning of the End

2011-09-17T07:43:00.004-04:00

As the last weeks of this deployment roll by, I find it increasingly difficult to focus on writing a blog. The psychological toll of being in a deployed environment, and the physical toll of changing work hours, lack of quality sleep, and an increasingly dusty atmosphere that is treating my respiratory system like Rocky pounding sides of meat have dampened my desire to write about what's going on. Combined with the cooler-but-still-draining heat of the day and my down time is increasingly consumed with an urge to be as inactive as possible, not counting time spent working out in the gym or practicing.

The focus of this all-too-delayed entry is the final job of my primary group, the "Bunker Brass" Quintet. Our quintet was the first functioning ensemble to arrive at Kandahar Air Field back in October, with only our commander and two "unit movement officers" arriving before us. (The UMO's are responsible for coordinating the shipping and placement of the containers holding our equipment, and as such had to be among the first people on the ground. Had they not been effective, our quintet would have arrived with no instruments to play!) We performed our first mission just a few days after our arrival, and performed numerous morale and ceremonial jobs afterwards, sometimes traveling to other Forward Operating Bases and even once into Kandahar City. The Bunker Brass performed its final mission in Afghanistan on August 25, 2011 for the Role 3 Medical Clinic (the hospital on KAF), which was holding a "transfer of authority" ceremony to mark the transition from one commanding officer to another. Because the hospital is located next to the actual airport runway to facilitate quick movement of incoming casualties to the hospital, the ceremony was interrupted several times by the roar of incoming or outgoing aircraft. In fact, the ceremony was delayed slightly by a medical team rushing from the airfield to the ER with patients in tow, a sobering reminder that a lot of people over here have much tougher jobs than I do.

In terms of the performance, it was a by-the-book mission like many others we have done: some light "fun" pre-music, the National Anthem, the service songs of the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Army. But as the final performance of our "original" music group, it felt a bit different. Since then, three members of the quintet have already returned home to their families while a couple of us have remained with a skeleton crew of bandsmen to pack up everything else and assist with the transition for the 82nd Airborne Division Band that will be taking on our job here. But it is a good feeling to know that the next time we all perform together again, we'll be back home in the US!

De-tent

2011-09-01T12:08:00.004-04:00

Above: Preparing to clean the central section of the former rehearsal tent.
It's a new month, and with the turning of the calendar I am now measuring my remaining time in Afghanistan in weeks rather than months. Much has happened in the past several days since my last post so I'll try and catch up quickly, but today I'll focus on a milestone event in the 10th Mountain Division Band's deployment--the deconstruction of the tent. Not long after we arrived here, we set up a tent to use as our rehearsal facility. It also became our meeting area and instrument storage space. It wasn't perfect--the air conditioner frequently broke down in the stifling heat of the Afghan summer, the acoustics were nothing special and did nothing to keep the sound of loud rehearsals from "bleeding"into the outside world, and keeping it dust-free was a fantasy--but it was our space, and we were happy to have something that kept us out of the bunkers for practice time.
We began the process of disassembling the tent in early August by packing up nonessential equipment or moving it to our office in the Headquarters compound. We then had to take down the storage locker for the instruments that had been built out of some spare wood. Then came the process of taking down the lights, disconnecting the power generator, and removing all the interior support struts before actually taking the various sections of the tent apart. Spreading this out over several days allowed us to not only do our other jobs, but also avoid overexposure to the triple-degree heat.
I actually missed the day that the tent was finally finished because I was elsewhere on the base inspecting some equipment before it was packed up to ship back to Ft. Drum. I'm not complaining about that, though; I don't envy the people who had to figure out how to get that thing back on the trailer. (The trailer also contains the power generator; when disassembled the whole thing-except for the wooden floor-fits into a single unit that can be towed anywhere by truck.)
Of course, that isn't the end of the process. Once disassembled, the tent must be cleaned. Anything, indoors or out, that spends any length of time at Kandahar Air Field gets dirty. There are copious amounts of dust in this region, and the tent's various components were saturated by it despite our best efforts to keep them clean. This was especially true for the outside of the tent, which received less attention over the past year than the inside. So we spent the next Saturday at the motor pool using a pressure washer to clean the tent. Every single piece of it. We started about 6 am, and were not done until after 5 pm. Long, long, day. And also hot. But the tent was cleaned, and the parts actually dried off very quickly in the sun. I was glad to have my sunscreen with me. I don't burst into flames anymore when I walk outside like I did when I was younger, but I still burn easily and I'm sure the Coppertone SPF 30+ saved me some very sore moments later on. It is a bit odd to think of our place of work being folded up on a trailer now, and we are again having to improvise places to practice and rehearse (yes, we still have a few performing jobs left to do!). I'm glad I have a Best Brass practice mute for my trombone; it allows me to practice in my room occasionally without disturbing the roommates, or neighbors, too much. Of course, we still have the wooden floor just sitting there all by itself. Not sure what we're going to do with that....

Turn Around

2011-08-17T13:26:00.003-04:00

Photo: an unusual display of the flags of Bulgaria and the state of Tennessee on top of the living quarters at Kandahar Air Field.

Things are changing at Kandahar Air Field. We are moving closer to our "redeployment," which is our return to the United States. (Yes, "redeployment" sounds like it means "deploying again," but it actually means "leaving the deployment theater to return to home station." Don't ask me why.) This has made for a different way of operating in the past couple of weeks. We are spending much of our time packing away the equipment we no longer need, turning in equipment that needs to stay here or be trashed, mailing home items that we don't want to carry back to the States with us. There has been less time for rehearsals, very few scheduled performances, and more emphasis on individual practice time.

Another change is that most of August is the annual observance of Ramadan, or as it's pronounced here, Ramazan. During this period, Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours. As a sign of respect for the local Muslim population, we've had to change a few things. We are now required to wear our full uniform at all times when out and about; unless we are actually engaged in exercise we are not to wear the Physical Fitness Uniform. We are also expected to refrain from eating and drinking out in public, though meals in the dining facilities are unaffected. (After sundown, the eating and drinking restrictions are lifted since the fasting period is only during the daytime.) These are simple changes, of course, though with August being one of the hottest months of the year they do test one's patience at times.

Temperatures have been very, very hot. Triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures, up to or past 120 degrees, are not unusual this time of year. Folks are getting frustrated about having to move, clean, and pack equipment in the afternoons and fatigue, both from the environment and nearly a year of being here, is wearing all of us down.
I'm spending time doing customs inspections; this involves inspecting gear and luggage that is about to go back and making sure that it is clean and contains no contraband items before it is sent to the US. Each company has a few members trained to do this, and I'm one of two that the band has. The caveat being, of course, that I can't inspect any of the band's luggage or equipment since I might be tempted to show "favorable action."

I did have an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago. I found out-almost literally at the last minute-that I needed to go to a briefing room to meet a "state official." So I went there and waited for a while with several other Soldiers from 10th Mountain. The officials in question were state governors, from Kentucky (Steve Beshear), Utah (Gary Herbert), and my home state of Tennessee (Bill Haslam). Gov. Haslam was easy to identify, with his baseball cap bearing the familiar "tri-star" emblem of the state flag. A resident of Knoxville, his face lit up when I mentioned attending the University of Tennessee and playing in the Pride of the Southland Marching Band before joining the Army as a bandsman. It was a totally unexpected experience, and I appreciated him being willing to travel to a combat zone to visit some of the troops here.

In my next installment, I'll tell more about the final days of our rehearsal tent!

Venting

2011-08-01T11:03:00.004-04:00

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, it's easy to keep up with the news here. We have televisions to watch in the dining facilities, and with internet access in our rooms we can follow new developments almost in real time, though the time zone difference doesn't always make that desirable. Right now is one of those times I almost wish I didn't have such easy access to what's going on back in the US. Frankly, it's disturbing, and almost heartbreaking.
On Facebook, I get updates from a lot of friends voicing their opinions on the budget issues, and I'm dismayed at the harsh things they say. "What would they say to my face if they knew I disagreed with them?" I think. I have a standing policy not to post on political/controversial topics or comment on such threads, though there have been a couple of times I couldn't resist the urge to weigh in because I felt someone needed to say something contrary to the often ignorant things that people post. And then I wait in anticipation for my "friends," or friends-of-friends, to slam me for disagreeing with them. Why has it come to this?
Part of it is the fact that US culture has developed (primarily) two modes of thought that are completely diametrically opposed. They don't just disagree; they hold fundamentally different views of how the world should work and how people should act. They will not agree on much of anything in terms of policy because what one believes is certainly right the other believes is certainly wrong, and the true believers are not going to compromise on that.
Then there's the part where they become unable to have a civil discussion. You may remember back in the winter when the President called for a shift in the tone of political rhetoric in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Giffords. You may also recall that about the same time, a whole lot of people were blaming former Gov. Sarah Palin for influencing the shooter, despite a complete lack of evidence that such was the case. (This is a textbook example of "irony.") If you think that the President's words for a new tone have been taken to heart, read this. No doubt some people will look at that link and say, "But that isn't hateful rhetoric! It's just true!" If that's what you think, congratulations, you are part of the problem. Yes, I said it. If you think people refusing to raise taxes because they promised not to vote for a raise in taxes, or people insisting on raising taxes because they think it's the right thing to do are the moral equivalent of people who are determined to kill as many innocent people as possible to make others fear them, than you seriously need to reevaluate how you define terrorism. I'm in Afghanistan right now; I think I know a little something about terrorism and a Congressional debate ain't it. I don't expect the different sides in Congress to agree on much of anything (I'm becoming more cynical by the hour), but I don't think they're the moral equal of the people we're fighting over here.
This weekend, ADM Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (in other words, the top military officer in the country), came to Kandahar Air Field to talk to the troops and answer some questions. Numerous people asked if the current debate would have an effect on military pay, benefits, or retirement, and mostly he had to give the honest answer that he didn't know, but that he would do his best to see that our interests are protected. And he was right: General and Fleet officers don't get to make the budget, Congress does. I do find it interesting though that so many in Washington are willing to make cuts to the military budget, which is something approved in the Constitution, without cutting other things not mentioned in the Constitution. I'm not saying that there isn't wasteful spending that can't be curbed-I'm sure there's plenty-but it always seems like we're among the first on the chopping block.
Sometimes, I procrastinate. I freely admit it. (That's why my blog postings haven't been more frequent!) But this problem could have been easily solved before January, when all of Congress was controlled by one party. After all, that's what they did with the health care bill. But over 800 days of one-party control produced...nothing. The President's budget proposal received zero votes in the Senate. So when people complain about the minority party holding up progress, it's very, very hard for me to take them seriously.
Our system of government is designed to produce gridlock. The fact that the President can't make laws, the Congress can't sign bills, and things have to get through two different groups of people to get passed...it's all designed to slow things down and force people to work together to come up with something better. Or, more palatable. Or, less hated. It used to be a no-brainer that if we were running out of money, we'd just raise the debt-ceiling and presto! Problem solved (well, problem kicked down the road to rear its ugly head again, but let's not worry about that now). The fact that there's debate on this issue is good--a debt ceiling is useless if you can just change it when it becomes inconvenient. President Obama himself opposed raising the debt limit in 2006. (I think he was right back then--it was a bad idea in 2006, and it's a bad idea now.) I remember struggling for years to get out of debt that was a result of my immature and foolish spending choices, and for a few years now I've been able to live without spending money I don't have. I think it's very wise for my tax dollars to be used the same way. I understand it is hard to get out from under a deficit. Been there, done that. (Thank you Dave Ramsey!) But if individuals should do it, if states should do it (most states have laws requiring a balanced budget), then the Federal government should do it to. How to get there...that's the real trick.
I remember reading a lot of heated comments from friends and associates who are teachers and were livid about state governments trying to change the collective bargaining agreements with teachers unions and re-writing pension and insurance plans. I understand why they were mad-no one likes to find out that a system they like is going to change-but I kept asking myself, what if the money isn't there? Isn't that a reasonable question to ask? (And frankly-getting cynical again here-if they want Republicans to be more forgiving to unions, maybe unions should stop exclusively supporting Democrats. I fully believe many Republicans will gladly cave to the unions if they just get a bit more campaign cash.) Until now, I have remained silent, since I used to be a teacher, and I am a musician, and it's professionally unwise to let a huge block of potential future co-workers know that I wasn't ready to join the picket lines with them because I could see the other side of the argument. But did anyone really deserve death threats over the issue? Keep in mind, my parents were both teachers (they're retired now) and I was a public school teacher before I went to the Army. (For what it's worth, I found an article about how some of the controversial changes are bearing some fruit.)
One thing that's apparent is that one must be careful about the promises one makes. Some Representatives and Senators pledged not to vote for tax increases. That could cost them depending on what compromise is eventually reached. The government itself has pledged to pay certain benefits and incur certain debts. The obligation to pay those while dealing with a shortage is going to cause problems, somewhere, somehow.
In my experience, debt is rarely the result of an income shortage so much as it is the result of too much spending. Giving more money to someone with a spending problem doesn't solve the issue; the only way to do that is to replace bad habits with good ones.
But don't get too upset about all this...I'm just venting.

Independence Day

2011-07-16T09:55:00.003-04:00

Monday, July 4th, 2011 was a slightly unusual day for the 10th Mountain Division Band. Even though Kandahar Air Field is home to personnel from many different countries, the Americans are going to celebrate. Many people in the unit were spending the morning involved in a big re-enlistment ceremony: a big event in which General Petraeus, the top military officer of the coalition forces, did the swearing-in duties for a large number of US personnel who were renewing their commitments to the Armed Forces. Some members of the band were providing music, others were re-enlisting. I was not involved in the ceremony, so I was with a small group of people who were helping to set up equipment on the Boardwalk for the afternoon festivities. I also took some time to try fixing my tenor trombone--the "spit valve" had come off the slide and I needed to make repairs before the show, since the trombone is unplayable without a functional valve. (I should like to know that this was a brand new trombone that had only been in use for a few weeks, and this was the second time the valve was causing trouble. Not to insinuate that all Bach 42T trombones have quality control problems, but...really.)
With the band split into separate groups, our transportation was stretched a bit thin, so we ended up hauling the sound gear and several instruments in a pickup truck and a minivan. Fortunately, we managed to get just about all of it in two trips. After taking shifts for lunch/equipment guard, we waited for the rest of the band to arrive at the Boardwalk for the sound check. While most of the performances that I do depend on the natural acoustic power of the instruments, that wouldn't be sufficient for this one. So all the instruments in the band had individual microphones clipped on, which meant that every single instrument had to have its volume individually adjusted. It required some patience, but we managed to finish the sound check with time to spare. I was able to join another member of the band to walk around the various games and activities that were set up in the center of the Boardwalk. (I managed to win a set of Skipbo cards, as a matter of fact.) Then it was time for the show to start.
Task Force Dixie, a Dixieland jazz group, opened the show. Since I'm not in that group, I was able to sit in the shade and listen. The next group was our W00T! Brass Band, which played a mix of funk and soul music. (pictured above) Following that, the 10th Mountain rock band Avalanche did a set of mostly classic rock tunes. By this time, it was starting to get dark and we were ready for the big finish, sans fireworks of course. The horns from W00T! joined Avalanche to play some patriotic numbers--"Warrior Ethos" (a song based on the Army's "Soldier's Creed"), Toby Keith's "American Soldier," and Phil Driscoll's arrangement of "America the Beautiful," with SSG Jason Bemis doing a pretty good reproduction of Driscoll's chop-busting trumpet solos.
Afterward, we had to pack up. This time we had the band's large tactical truck to haul gear, so the real trick was getting it backed up close to the Boardwalk so we could load equipment into it. By the time we were finished putting all the instruments and equipment back into our tent, it was after 2100 (9 pm) and the heat and activity had completely drained everyone. We were surprised to be given a complete day off on Tuesday to rest and recover, and I think everyone took advantage of the opportunity to sleep in.
It was not a spectacular day, but it was busy and full of music, and I think we helped remind a lot of the Soldiers over here what they're fighting to protect. Not a bad day's work!

End of an Era

2011-07-08T11:52:00.004-04:00

In my next post, I'll write about the 4th of July festivities that we had on Kandahar Air Field. Today, though, I'll write about something I watched on television. Just minutes before I wrote this, the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched into orbit, beginning the final flight of NASA's Shuttle program. I have written in previous blogs about my attempts to watch a launch in person, which finally happened on April 5, 2010 as chronicled in my "Liftoff!" entry. As I have mentioned, I've been a fan of the space program all my life and especially fascinated with the Shuttle since April 12, 1981 when Columbia made its first flight. I still remember being in kindergarten and my dad waking me up early before school to watch the launch on television. Ever since then, I've watched launches whenever I could.
Though I often dreamed of being an astronaut, my interests were too mercurial and my dislike of advanced math and physics ensured that if I ever do go into space, it will have to be as a civilian in some sort of commercial capacity. (My naturally poor distance vision also convinced me early on that I would not be a pilot.) But every time I watched one of those Shuttles take off, I felt like my fantasies of spaceflight were somehow being fulfilled.
So this evening, just before 8 pm Afghan time, I sat in a dining facility with an unobstructed view of the television showing the British Sky News channel, waiting for them to switch coverage from the newspaper hacking scandal to the Shuttle. Sure enough, they switched over just before the countdown resumed from its T-9:00 minute hold. I watched as they defied the reports of bad weather, waited as they held the countdown at T-31 seconds, unable to hear what the problem was over the noise of the chow hall, and then did a double-take when I saw the clock had started again. And then, the familiar shots of the noise suppression system shooting into action under the main engines, the main engines coming alive in a bright orange burst, and the rocket boosters shooting Atlantis into the (unusually cloudy) sky.
As I walked away from dinner, I thought about how for the final time, somewhere in the sky above KAF, a US Space Shuttle orbiter was flying. While it was inevitable that the flights would end sometime, a combination of slow development, cost overruns, and bad planning has left the US without a manned launch vehicle and nothing past the drawing board stage. Our astronauts now have to travel to Kazakhstan to fly on Russian Soyuz rockets. While we will eventually develop some new method of space travel, the scuttling of NASA's planned Orion program and the lack of progress from private developers leaves us empty-handed, and that's a shame for the only nation to put humans on the Moon and build a reusable spacecraft. The people who built such a legacy for our space program, and the future generations they will inspire, deserve better.
So Godspeed Atlantis, and many thanks to the astronauts and ground crews of Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Endeavour. You have carried my dreams, and the dreams of the world.
Photo courtesy NASA: Atlantis STS-27 liftoff.

R&R

2011-07-01T11:48:00.002-04:00

It's been over a month since my last post, but I have a good excuse this time--vacation! Policy dictates that those of us who are deployed in an overseas combat zone be given fifteen days, plus travel time, to get out of the theater and enjoy some rest and recuperation. While a few people take the opportunity for international travel--our tuba player went to Ireland with his wife--I decided to go home.
The 10th Mountain Division Band is broken into smaller groups, and the different groups each took R&R together, meaning that no performing ensemble was incomplete for the better part of a month and the remaining groups could cover any missions that came up. The Brass Quintet was the last group to go on R&R, and while waiting so long was difficult it does mean that we had far less than half the deployment remaining upon our return. I can't reveal much about the process of traveling back to the US for security reasons, but I did get to spend an entire day in a place I'll refer to as "Sandblastistan." I thought that the triple digit temperatures at KAF were bad, but Sandblastistan was even hotter. Imagine walking around on a hot day with a hair dryer blowing at full power three inches from the surface of your skin--that's what it felt like. I was glad to be away from there. The flight over was not comfortable for me because I was sitting in the middle of the plane--I'm about 6'2", and having such limited arm and leg room while flying halfway around the world did not make for a pleasant experience.
But it was worth it to arrive in Atlanta and be met by Julia, a lovely girl who I met through some mutual friends a while back. We made sure to stop at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and thought about attending the evening's Atlanta Braves game, but I decided I needed to stay in and rest up from the trip. We drove up to my hometown of Nashville the following day to stay with my family. That night we attended the Nashville Symphony's performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection." It was astounding--the orchestra has never sounded better, the Chorus was magnificent, and hearing it the exceptional acoustics of Schermerhorn Symphony Center made it easy to understand why many think that "Resurrection" is the best of Mahler's symphonies.
We spent the next day at my sister's house, where I got to spend plenty of time with my niece, who is about 18 months old, and we ended the day with a delicious family meal at Steak'N'Shake. The following day after I took my parents to the airport (they had made plans to vacation in Hawaii several months before my R&R schedule was finalized) Julia and I had breakfast with my sister's family at the Pfunky Griddle, a pancake restaurant that lets you make your own pancakes on a griddle in the center of the table--fun and tasty! After that, the two of us headed to McMinnville and Cumberland Caverns to enjoy Bluegrass Underground, a monthly event in which a bluegrass concert is held inside a large chamber in the cavern system. The opening act was a modern bluegrass group called Newfound Road, and the headline group was Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, a more traditional group that highlighted Cleveland's dazzling virtuosity on the fiddle. It was a fun performance, full of typical bluegrass subjects like trains, heartache, and murder, though after a while the constant 56-degree F temperature did begin to feel a bit chilly.
The next day, we headed back to Atlanta so Julia could squeeze in some time at work and I could visit some of my many friends from when I lived there. One of the hobbies I developed during my time in Atlanta was ballroom dancing, and so I made sure to get some lesson time with my teacher Natalie. We also joined a couple of Julia's friends for Mellow Mushroom trivia, where we placed a very close second. (Oddly enough, I'd gotten a photograph of these particular friends of hers--dressed as Indiana Jones and "the Bride" from Kill Bill--at DragonCon the previous September, completely unaware that they knew each other!) We met other friends at places as diverse as California Pizza Kitchen and Cafe Intermezzo--good food and good company.
The last few days were spent back in Nashville when my parents returned from the islands. Some quality family time was mixed in with a trip to Cheekwood to see the gardens and model trains, Ruby Falls (an underground waterfall located inside Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga), seeing old friends from college and high school, swimming at the neighborhood pool, catching up on the Harry Potter movies, visiting the famous Jack Daniel Distillery, and finding out that my Connect Four skills need some polishing. Then it was back to Atlanta, where I spent some of my last evening in the US enjoying the delectable tiramisu at Capozzi's in Decatur and enjoying the view from the Sundial revolving restaurant in the Westin Tower with my friend Jeff, an old Army buddy from my days at Ft. Benning and Ft. McPherson.
It was not easy going back to the airport to fly back to Afghanistan, but knowing that we're very close to being done with this deployment did help. I had a great time, made some great memories, and there's a lot of people I didn't get to see that I hope to meet up with next time. Meanwhile, there's more work to be done at Kandahar Air Field, so stay tuned!

It's All About....Timing

2011-05-27T02:40:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the crazy things that happen in life, and that holds true even in a combat zone. I recently experienced a couple of moments at Kandahar Air Field that I thought I'd share here. Incidentally, I include this photo because I thought that the warning label graphic was amusing.

Every so often, stuff blows up here. Most of the time, these are "controlled explosions," meaning that bomb technicians are blowing things up on purpose. We are typically not informed *what* it is that's going ka-boom, but we are often told when it's going to happen. Normally, an announcement is made over the loudspeakers that there will be an explosion in x minutes, and x minutes later we hear it. Sometimes we don't hear anything. But one night a few days ago, a painfully slow announcement came on. Perhaps if the guy had been speaking more quickly it would have worked out better: "There...will...be...a...controlled...explosion...to...the...west...of...KAF...in...five...
BOOM!!!!!...minutes. End...of...message."

Yesterday, the Brass Quintet was playing music during lunchtime at one of the dining facilities. We were doing our usual eclectic selection of non-standard quintet music, which has expanded in recent weeks to include tunes like the "Pennsylvania Polka" and "Come On Eileen." We had spent some time working on an arrangement of John Williams' "Imperial March" from The Empire Strikes Back, easily one of his best pieces from one of his finest film scores. It is a very good arrangement, but tricky for all the players in the group. We had a good run-through in our last rehearsal, but hadn't yet performed it for an audience. A couple of us in the group were lobbying for a performance, but the others weren't sure we were ready. As we prepared to start up our Metallica medley, someone walked up and asked, "Do you guys take requests?" We responded that we would take requests, though we might not necessarily play them. "Can you play the Imperial March from Star Wars?" We took that as a sign of Divine Intervention, and flipped over a few pages to play the march. It actually came off really well, though our requester was nowhere to be seen, probably departing the building after the first few notes. At least we could vent our frustration by playing Metallica.

The Eyes Have It

2011-05-15T11:02:00.011-04:00

I will now take some time to talk about eyewear. As I have mentioned before, I normally wear contact lenses because I'm very nearsighted. However, US military policy prohibits wearing contact lenses in combat zones, so ever since I got on the airplane in October I've been wearing glasses during pretty much all of my waking hours. This can be a bit cumbersome sometimes, especially during the many bright cloudless days when I need to wear sunglasses outdoors. If I'm going to eat at one of the dining facilities, I must put on the sunglasses--which are actually dark protective ballastic lenses with attached prescription inserts--and upon entering the building, remove them and put on my regular glasses so I can see inside the comparatively dim entryway.

But the main thing I wanted to write about was the ridiculous effort it took me to get some new lenses. When I came here, I was wearing glasses that were provided, free of charge, by the government. They were fine, except that the frames weren't quite balanced right. I managed to get them adjusted, but they were just a bit crooked. I was fine with them when we left. After a few weeks in Afghanistan, with the constant moving around, changing of one set with another, the dust, the heat, the cold, what have you, I began to realize the wear and tear was beginning to bug me. The things just weren't comfortable anymore. They were starting to get more scratches. One of the nosepiece pads snapped in half (!) one day, making things that much more uncomfortable. I needed new glasses. Also, I lost a set of my prescription ballistic inserts, so I needed another one of those.

Back in November, I went to the optometry section at the hospital. I didn't need a new prescription, I informed them, just new glasses. After examining the glasses I had on, I was told it would take a while..."six to eight weeks." Why? Because apparently my prescription is so thick that they couldn't carve the lenses properly here, so they'd have to order new ones from the closest US supply base--in Germany. I was puzzled, given that I could order new lenses from the US and have them shipped within a week, but no problem, I could deal for a couple of more months. Which came, and went. Then another month. When my "six to eight weeks" had long expired and I had no new eyewear, I went back.

"I ordered new glasses and lens inserts back in November, and they're not here yet. I need to get some new ones." "Well, sometimes it takes a really long time." "Well, some other people I work with got theirs in two weeks." "But your prescription is really bad, so it just takes longer." Not completely convinced, I walked away.

After waiting a few more weeks, I realized I needed to be more proactive. I decided that I'd go to optometry and actually get the numbers on my prescription. While I was there, they managed to put in another order for me, and this time the Specialist who normally handles things got a Major involved as well to make sure they got it right. I requested a paper copy of the prescription, and they printed one from my file.

When I got back to my room, I got on my computer and looked up 39dollarglasses.com. I placed an order for some frames that I like, very similar to my previous set, and put in my prescription. Perhaps this would give me a solution. I can't be sure exactly how long it took my new glasses to arrive, because I was off the base with the Brass Quintet for a few days. But less than two weeks after I placed my $39 order, my new glasses came and were waiting for me when I got back. They fit well, and were properly balanced. They even got my prescription right! So for those of you who are not in the military, I can vouch for 39dollarglasses.com. I took my previous glasses and cut off the nosepieces and earpieces, and with a careful application of duct tape I improvised new inserts for my sunglasses. They worked about as well as "real" inserts. At last, I was content with my eyewear.

About two days later, my ballistic inserts arrived. And a day or two after that, my regular glasses. I still am not sure if those are from my first order, or the recent one. But it is nice to know I have a set of backups if I need one.

A Wolverine Easter

2011-05-06T02:42:00.003-04:00

No, this post is not about celebrating the Resurrection at the University of Michigan.

My Brass Quintet took a trip over Easter weekend to Forward Operation Base Wolverine, located in a nearby province of Afghanistan. We left on the evening of Good Friday. In fact we left quite late and arrived sometime around midnight, which was disorienting given that the FOB is very, very dark after the sun goes down. Fortunately, there wasn't much on the schedule Saturday so we had most of the day to recover from the very late evening. We were there by request of the Chaplain for the base, and he and his assistant were very gracious to arrange our lodging and allow us to use the Chapel for rehearsal and instrument storage.

After a quick rehearsal Saturday, we played in the chow hall during dinner time. The chow hall at Wolverine actually has pretty good acoustics, and we felt very comfortable playing in there. I wish we had gotten a recording of it! Dinner music can be an odd experience for the performer; in a matter of minutes we'll go from playing Duke Ellington to Queen to Star Wars music. Some pieces that we're very proud of will go by without any reaction from the diners, and then others will receive raucous applause. And of course, the obligatory shouts of "Free Bird!!!!" from some clever guy who thinks he's the first one to think of that. It was a bit surprising to discover that our arrangements of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and a medley of Metallica songs ("Unforgiven," "Nothing Else Matters," and "Sad But True") were probably our most popular offerings. (Yes...a Brass Quintet playing Metallica. We do what most quintets won't dare.)

We were up before dawn Sunday morning to provide some music for the Easter sunrise service. We found ourselves situated in front of a helicopter hangar, looking towards the mountains as the sun began to creep above the jagged horizon. We had planned three "pre-music" selections, but ended up playing a few more while everyone waited for a couple of noisy Apache helicopters to come in and refuel. (The Chaplain remarked that this was his first Easter service to be delayed by attack choppers.) Once they departed, the service went ahead smoothly, though I had to don my sunglasses to combat the glare once the sun was over the mountains.

We had the rest of the morning off, and then played more music at the dining facility during lunch. Of the many places I've been thus far on this deployment, I should say that Wolverine has had the best food. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the mint chocolate chip ice cream. They also had sweet iced tea, which I very much enjoyed.

That evening we played some more music for the evening "contemporary" service, and a couple of us joined in to play some horn parts with the band. Monday morning, one of the units was changing commanders, and we provided our more traditional ceremonial music for the occasion. Except that after the ceremony, one of the officers requested the Metallica music, so we finished it out with some headbanging. (They say part of the job is knowing what your audience wants....)

Later in the afternoon, we were called into the headquarters building for a presentation with the base's commanding officer. He wanted to present the group with Certificates of Achievement for the morale boost we had provided over the past three days. To his surprise, and ours, what was supposed to be a quick acknowledgement had turned into a presentation in front of most of the base's command staff. It certainly made us feel appreciated, and the commander gave us a nice speech about appreciating the training and education that bandsmen have, and the importance of our role in maintaining the morale and tradition of the military.

That night, we waited for our flight back to Kandahar. Our "fifteen-minute" wait turned into over ninety minutes, but it did give us a chance to appreciate the spectacular starry sky that we don't get to enjoy much at the much more brightly-lit Kandahar Air Field. It was a good trip and I hope I get to return to Wolverine soon...the ice cream is calling me.

After Osama

2011-05-02T09:24:00.002-04:00

Before I get around to those two blogs I mentioned last time, circumstances dictate that I write something about the big news today: last night, US Navy SEALS were given clearance by the CIA and President Obama to conduct an assault on a fortified compound in Pakistan, in the process killing Al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden. It's been almost ten years since the 9/11/01 attacks that he inspired and celebrated, and one of the largest manhunts in history is over. Naturally, Facebook and Twitter lit up with commentary, most of it celebratory, with a small minority of muted reaction to the celebration of the death of another human.

While I'm not the type of person who celebrates the killings of others, I do celebrate justice. And this, I believe, is the closest we could have come to carrying out justice for this man and his thousands of victims. Had he been captured and sent to trial, he would have been given a platform to proclaim his warped and twisted views about war and Western culture. Had he been captured and given a military tribunal, his acolytes would carp about the secrecy of the trial and pronounce it a miscarriage of American justice. And if the pursuit for him ended with no success, he would be viewed as victorious over all the resources of military might and intelligence gathering that were used to hunt him down. A government has not only the right but the responsibility to protect its citizens and remove the clear threats of those who would kill them, and a man who has used his own fortune to raise armies, train them, and convince them that hijacking airplanes and blowing up office buildings is noble--that man must never be allowed to continue to be a threat, and his followers must never be allowed to think that he can get away with it. To do otherwise shows weakness that invites more misguided leaders to strike the innocent.

The current war has been an unusual one--we do not fight a government, but an idea. Our Civil War and World War II--combined--took less time for us to fight. As former President Bush noted early on, many of our successes have been kept secret, for to proclaim them would alert the enemy to our tactics. In such a conflict, those who have endured losses often have little assurance that we are winning, that their sacrifices were worth it. This event, hopefully, gives them that assurance.

As far as what it means to the current situation in Afghanistan, today has been a very normal day. The nature of the Al-Qaida terror network is such that there is very little centralized leadership, and bin Laden himself probably had little to do with the plans and activities of the insurgents here. His loss to them is symbolic more than strategic, though as a symbol his defeat is--we hope--a very powerful one. Just as we continue fighting to prevent dangerous men from filling the power vacuum left by the Soviets, then the Taliban, so we must continue fighting to prevent another, possibly more dangerous, idealogue from taking his place. My job here continues to be playing music to support and encourage our troops, and to train personnel in the Afghan National Army. And I expect that will continue to be my mission until my twelve-month tour is up. But I do hope that these events are a reminder to our allies and our enemies...we always get our man, and we don't stop until the job is done.

On Logic and Leadership

2011-04-27T15:12:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy week--the Brass Quintet made another trip to another base to play for some Easter activities, and I'll see about writing more about that soon. Also, I got some new glasses, which is a subject for another blog post (you'll understand why when you read about it). There! I already have 2 more subjects to write about! But I'm not going to do those at this time. Instead, I'll do something that I haven't done in a while, which is to write something just to "get it out" of my head.

We are fortunate over here that we have relatively easy access to internet, and multiple television channels available in the chow halls and USO, etc. It is easy to keep up with the news, so I can check the baseball standings, follow my Nashville Predators as they (finally!) advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs, track the progress of the next Space Shuttle launch, and find out all there is to know about disasters such as the Japan earthquake or spring flooding in Tennessee. And of course, we now have the President's full birth certificate. (Disclaimer: technically, he is my boss.) (Also, I have known for a long time that the Honolulu papers printed his birth announcement in 1961, so this whole "birther" issue is nonsense. His opponents who have pursued this issue have only made themselves look foolish, being distracted from real, pressing issues by a red herring.)

But anyway, reading a lot about the political climate back home in the US has me thinking about something I saw on an episode of Star Trek. Many people have this misconception that the smartest people make the best leaders. Sure enough, all of our Presidents since 1989 have come from Ivy League backgrounds. (Take that as you will.) We like to place a premium on education. Have a graduate degree? A lot of jobs will pay you more for it. (I know from experience; I hold a Master's Degree. Just saying...) We typically like to be thought of as "smart," if only to not be thought of as dumb. And education is, by and large, a good thing. (More disclosure: I used to be a teacher, as were both of my parents [they're retired].) But does getting degrees and getting Jeopardy! answers make one a better leader? Does it matter if you're smarter than a fifth-grader?

Here's where the Trek comes in. In an early episode of the original series, "The Galileo Seven," seven members of the USS Enterprise crew are stranded on a barren planet when their shuttlecraft crashes. Mr. Spock is in charge, and because he's a Vulcan, dedicated to living his life by strictly logical principles, he decides to make the most logical decisions to keep his crew alive to be rescued. (I don't think that commentators who favorably compared President Obama to Spock were thinking of this episode, and you're about to find out why.) Spock is a smart guy--great memory, ship's science officer and first officer, by all accounts brilliant. He's also logical--he takes being compared to a computer as a compliment. He never lets emotion cloud his judgment. And in his first real test at command...he's a miserable failure. Not only does he not gain the trust of his crew, who find his cold manner off-putting, but his logical approach results in the deaths of two crew members. Naturally, he can only save the day when he makes an intuitive, near-emotional decision that defies what logic would dictate.

The sad truth is that leadership is not based strictly on knowledge, nor creativity, nor innovation. It is not enough to learn facts; one must be able to learn and adapt from experience. Logic is not enough to lead others, because people are not logical. While humans are capable of rational thought, rational thought is hardly the norm. Making a "smart" decision is not necessarily making the "best" decision. And having a degree doesn't mean you can't be wrong. To be a good leader, one must understand that there is often a wide gulf between intelligence and wisdom.

Turnaround

2011-04-22T01:53:00.003-04:00

People don't try to jerk you around a lot in Afghanistan. It just seems that way some of the time. This past Sunday, the Bunker Brass Quintet got a nice dose of it. The problem stems from the fact that anytime personnel from the band are tasked to go to another base and perform, there are many, many logistical hoops that must be jumped. And at any given point in the process, we have to understand that there may be very good reasons why we can be scheduled to fly out, only to be bumped for other people that need that flight more. Or the flight itself may be canceled, delayed, moved forward, etc. All of which are issues that (thankfully) I don't personally deal with. Also, coordinating a trip requires good communication with a point of contact at a distant location, often a point of contact who has many more pressing things to deal with than whether or not the band folks have a place to sleep or chairs to sit in. Add to that the fact that getting good communication with anyone anywhere in Afghanistan can sometimes be a very challenging...um...challenge.

But we were scheduled to fly out Sunday afternoon to another base where we would be playing at a couple of Transfer of Authority ceremonies as well as doing a morale performance at a dining facility. We were packed and ready to go, loading our instruments and other gear onto the truck at our tent, when we received word that our trip was no-go. Slightly disappointed, but not very surprised, we trucked our personal gear back to our rooms and met up at the tent afterward to do some rehearsal. After finishing our first number, the phone call came--we needed to be at the departure ramp in twenty minutes. Fortunately, none of us had taken the time to unpack anything. A couple of people loaded our instruments, stands, and music onto the truck along with the "kicker," a large container that we build around the gear so it can all be forklifted at once onto the helicopter. The rest of us hopped into the van and went back to the rooms to grab all the personal gear. We met up at the loading ramp area, just in time to build the kicker and get on the aircraft.

We experienced something similar Thursday morning while waiting for our flight back to KAF when the chopper arrived about half an hour early. Gave everyone who was scheduled for that flight a bit of a surprise, but that's why you get there well before you're supposed to fly out. We had to take the kicker apart for that particular flight, as we were on a different helicopter with different space requirements, but we still managed to load and move everything by hand. (Including the disassembled kicker box.) One thing about traveling around Afghanistan--it is rarely, if ever, dull.

The Power To Move You, Part 3

2011-04-14T13:45:00.004-04:00

This week has been a little crazy! Primarily, of course, due to what I'm about to describe in this blog. We had been told not long after we moved into our housing that we might have to move yet again. They want to have all the US personnel grouped according to the units they are in, i.e. the 10th Mountain Division Soldiers should all be in a particular area. Having been in the same room since November, I was beginning to think that nothing would happen. Monday, April 11 proved me wrong.

We had spent the morning doing some more training with the Afghan National Army's 205th Corps band, and after returning the Brass Quintet had rehearsal. During rehearsal, I and another member of the group were informed that we would be moving, along with another of our roommates, that afternoon. The new building is just across the street from where we were, so the distance was not much of an issue. The condition of the room was, however, a bit of a problem. The new room apparently had not been lived in for a while, and there were copious amounts of dust. Also, some of the bed frames were rickety and the mattresses left much to be desired in terms of comfort and support. Also also, there was no refrigerator. We decided to take matters into our own hands and give the room a thorough scrubbing and sweeping, and to swap out a few of the beds with the ones from our old room. We also got clearance to move the refrigerator.

Every time I have to move, I'm amazed at the amount of stuff I accumulate and how long it takes me to get it organized and packed. Even in a war zone, this is the case. Partly this is a result of me receiving lots of packages and not being able to use or consume it all very quickly. Partly it's just human nature--we collect and store things, no matter where we are. (I direct you to George Carlin's famous monologue on "Stuff.") So it took me longer than I expected to get all my things together. At least moving gives one an opportunity to reorganize. I think my new living arrangement is superior to my previous one.

For instance, they have "extenders" that can be used to raise the bed, allowing for more storage space underneath. I picked up some extenders a while back, but the "feet" were still in the bedposts, so I was never able to use the extenders. Since I had to disassemble the bed to move it anyway, I figured this would be a good chance to fix the problem. I got my Gerber multi-tool out, and managed to pry the feet out of the bed. Now that I have the extenders attached, I have more of my things stored under the bed, and thus more floorspace for everyone.

I was concerned about not being able to connect to the internet, but one of the roommates managed to get our router connected and solved that problem. So now we're settled in, waiting for a couple more roommates to arrive back after their R&R leave period. I just hope the next time I have to move all my stuff, it's because I'm leaving Afghanistan!

Joyride

2011-03-18T10:33:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I have to go for a drive. Not a recreational, change-of-scenery drive, but from time to time my job over here requires that I get in a vehicle and pilot it to some other destination. (A few of the people in our unit are trained, qualified, and licensed to operate tactical vehicles, but I am not one of those. So unfortunately, I will not be writing a blog about driving an up-armored tactical vehicle anytime soon.) Our band typically has one or two "civilian" vehicles available, so I can drive those. The minivan we typically use is in the shop, though. (That's the vehicle in the picture above.) We recently got a small box truck, so yesterday when I had to run some errands with another supply sergeant that was our ride.

A few things about this truck: the doors in the back storage area (the "box") do not latch closed. They are supposed to, but they don't. It is a British-style truck, by which I mean the steering wheel is on what we consider the passenger's side in the US. (As is the minivan, by the way, again pictured above.) Also, the truck has manual transmission, so the driver has to be able to operate a stick-shift. I'm fine with that--my very first car was a stick-shift--but it is a bit different when you have to shift with the left hand when you're used to shifting with the right. (I felt like I adjusted pretty easily, maybe because I'm left-handed.) Also, the gear shift doesn't "slot" very well, so hitting the wrong gear is a lot easier than it should be.

So anyway, we started out. Most of the roads on KAF are not paved. Thanks to the rains last month, there are a lot of potholes in the dirt roads. As we approached our first destination, I saw something in the passenger's side mirror (remember, that's the left side of the vehicle). "Is that the back door?!" I asked. Turns out it was. The constant jarring had caused one of the doors to fling itself open. Fortunately we were about to stop anyway, so once we parked I tried to get the back doors locked. Unable to make any progress, I tried to think of something to secure the doors shut. I didn't have a roll of 550 cord handy, which is what I'd normally use. (550 cord is parachute cord; it consists of an outer tube with several inner strands that give it a great amount of strength. Supposedly one cord can hold up to 550 pounds, hence the name.) The only thing I had was the retaining strap on my sunglasses. So, I removed the strap from the earpieces and strung it through the door latch and double-knotted it. Problem solved.

On the way to our next destination, we got stuck behind a convoy of tractor trailers. They were moving very slowly over the pitted road, and eventually came to a halt. Apparently there were items being moved through a security checkpoint off to the side, so someone was directing all the traffic movement. After waiting for several minutes we finally got moving again. It's fascinating how much better it feels to move slowly when you haven't been moving at all. Still, I was glad when the trucks all turned right where we needed to turn left.

When we pulled up to our next stop, it was closed. That is, the entrance gate was blocked off. Some people waved us to keep moving, so I continued to follow the road, though both of us were a bit puzzled as to why the entrance wasn't open. The road had a nice couple of big dips in it, but fortunately I was going slow and my sunglasses retaining strap was holding the doors quite nicely. As I turned the corner, the road was totally covered in water for a ways; I was glad that it wasn't deep enough to keep the truck from moving through. Eventually we entered the yard through what was normally the exit; I don't know why but I guess that's how they're doing things now. We had to make a couple of stops inside this area, so I'm glad I had someone with me to serve as a ground guide. (The box effectively blocks the rear view, so backing up can be tricky without someone out there to direct the driver.)

After we were done there, it was time to take the truck back to the band tent. We hadn't even driven six miles, but the whole trip took about 90 minutes. Just another of the unusual things we do here at KAF.

Tools For the Job

2011-03-15T13:11:00.005-04:00

It's been nearly a month since my last post, so clearly my attempt to post more regularly has failed thus far. The last part of February and first part of March have been busy and stressful, and I haven't been in a good frame of mind to write much. Our physical training program has been changed, resulting in some much longer days, and I'll cover more about that in a future entry. I hope to start writing some reviews and commentary about some of the music, movies, books, and TV shows I watch to pass the time, much like the entries I often wrote before the deployment.

For today, I'll write a little about something that happened this afternoon, because it is a very important part of our mission here. As I have mentioned before, we spend a few a days every week working with the Afghan National Army's 205th Corps Band, a much smaller and relatively (musically) inexperienced band located near our base. One thing we realized early on is that the band is not particularly well-equipped: most of their instruments are old, poorly-made, and in disrepair. It is unfortunate that top-quality instruments simply are not easily available in this part of the world, and I'm not sure where any of these came from. Even though the Afghan soldiers have had little formal education in music, it became clear that their substandard instruments were impeding their progress. Instruments that cannot be easily tuned, cleaned, or maintained, that can't be held correctly lest they fall apart, and have frequent mechanical breakdowns are not conducive to making music to inspire Soldiers. Because funds are allocated to help the International Security Assistance Force equip and train the ANA, it was decided that we would request funds to secure new instruments and equipment for the 205th Band. (I just now realized the irony that I'm writing this after having written a post about getting myself some new mouthpieces. I guess I'm all about band equipment these days...)

As our band's Resource Management Noncommissioned Officer, it fell to me to do the legwork in getting the process started. I'll spare you the complex details, but ordering anything through official channels is a complicated process over here, largely to insure that the system isn't abused through frivolous spending. Our commanding officer played a large part in making sure that as many people as possible understood the importance of a successful military band, and how important it is for a band to have the right equipment. After determining what type of instruments, maintenance supplies, and equipment such as music stands were needed, I had to contact vendors in the US and get price quotes. I also had to write up the proposal stating how badly these items were needed. It took several weeks for our proposal to get all the way up the chain to reviewing personnel in Kabul.

Last week, we recieved official confirmation that a contract had been approved and the order was being filled. We expected it might take up to another two months for everything to arrive. But to our great surprise, we got that anticipated phone call that our order had arrived today, and could we please get our sizeable amount of boxes out of the contracting office. So most of my afternoon was spent securing a pickup truck and hauling all the new gear to our storage area. Next on the agenda, probably tomorrow afternoon, is checking all the boxes against the shipping manifest to make sure that everything is accounted for, and then inspecting the items to see that they survived the shipping process.

It may seem strange that a shipment of band instruments could be important in a war zone, but we hope that by helping this band to become stronger and seeing that they have the right tools for the job, we will have done our part to strengthen the bonds between the US and Afghan forces.

Feel the Burn

2011-03-04T00:26:00.003-05:00

It's a little surprising to me that I haven't talked at all about fitness on this blog, since that is a major part of life in the Armed Forces. We spend time nearly everyday doing "physical training," or as we typically call it, PT. There are two reasons for doing this: 1) to stay in the best physical condition possible so that we can accomplish the missions we are given, and 2) to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) so that we don't get penalized for not passing it. (It is required that we take an APFT every year, usually two diagnostic tests, each followed by a "record" test about a month later that actually counts.) Deployment offers--in theory--a great time to work on PT, since many of the time-consuming aspects of normal life aren't over here. (In other words, you can't take a trip, you can't visit your family and friends, you can't go hang out at the mall, so you might as well go to the gym and exercise.) There are multiple gyms at KAF, two of which I've used thus far. One is the NATO Gym, which is operated under guidelines established for use by NATO forces. They require that all users change into a clean pair of shoes upon entering the building, so as to keep the facility clean from the dust (or mud this time of year) that permeates KAF. Because this is a European facility, all the weights, machines, treadmills, etc. are designed with metric measurements. Thankfully for the Americans, there is a metric conversion chart on one of the walls, but woe unto the unsuspecting US citizen who forgets that 20 kg is a LOT heavier than 20 pounds. The NATO Gym is my perferred destination for weight work because of the cleanliness and the variety of different types of equipment they offer. (I've been to a few Gold's Gym locations in the US, and the NATO facility is comparable in terms of the quality of the workout environment.) The equipment is kept in good working order, and I've been able to get a feel for what types of metric weight I can handle in various exercises. There is also a gym operated by the US military's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation department. The MWR Gym is located in a large tent, but it is considerably smaller than the NATO Gym, which is a solid building. There are no rules about the footwear, so the gym is not nearly as clean. The equipment is older and tends to break down more frequently as well. The MWR Gym is also a lot more crowded, though this is partly because people to have to buy new shoes (or clean their old ones) to go there and partly because MWR is closer to the US living area. (Because of the crowding and dirtier conditions, I sometimes walk into MWR and think, wow, this is what I will smell like in 20 minutes.) I generally only go to MWR for cardio/treadmill running, as I know how my pace feels using miles instead of kilometers and there is less waiting for treadmills at MWR than there is at NATO. One of the guys in the band also has the Beachbody "Insanity!" program, so from time to time I do that with him. Since being here, I've actually lost 6 pounds--first time that's ever happened!--and cut a good thirty seconds off my running time. We had a "record" PT test a couple of weeks ago, and the whole unit passed, so we're all happy about that, as we can spend the next few months focusing on achieving fitness goals beyond just being able to pass the test. For the record, my test results were: 71 pushups, 63 situps, and the 2-mile run in 14:28. (Total score was 276/300)

New Mouthpieces!

2011-02-18T00:15:00.003-05:00

This post is about my new trombone mouthpieces, so I understand that non-trombonists my not find this as interesting as some of my other posts. But this is something that has a huge impact on the job I do here, so I felt that it was worth writing about.

The mouthpiece is the part of a trombone (or any brass instrument) that is most tailored to an individual player. The size and shape of the rim, cup, and shank of a mouthpiece greatly affect the way it fits on the different sizes and shapes of a human face. This is especially critical to someone like me who frequently alternates between tenor trombone and bass trombone, which require noticeably different mouthpiece sizes. Many trombonists are always looking for the next development in mouthpiece design that will give them an "edge" on transforming the music-making process into something easier. (All too often, the most important factor is still the player, not the instrument.)

I've spent several years now playing the same two mouthpieces: a Greg Black/Joseph Alessi 2M for tenor, and a Yamaha Douglas Yeo for bass. (Both designed for established professionals: Alessi is the principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, and Yeo is the bass trombonist of the Boston Symphony.) I'd been doing well on both, but was starting to feel that I needed something a little different, especially with the Yeo, which is a very deep mouthpiece. I decided to get serious back in December when we played for the Slovakian President in very cold, windy weather. Playing on a metal mouthpiece in those conditions is quite uncomfortable so I decided to contact Doug Elliott, a freelance musician in the Washington, D.C. area who also makes his own line of low brass mouthpieces. Doug's designs include separate rims, cups, and shanks which can be screwed together, allowing for a huge variety in combinations and the ability to tailor a setup to one's preferences beyond what most other designs allow. One of the options he offers is the material that the rim is made of: silver-plated, which is the most common type, gold-plated, or Lexan (a type of clear plastic). I wanted to see about ordering tenor and bass mouthpieces similar to what I was using, but with Lexan rims to allow for more comfort playing in the sometimes extreme conditions in Afghanistan.

I contacted Doug through email, and over the course of a few messages we ironed out the combinations that would work best for what I was requesting. I finally placed my order shortly after I returned from FOB Lagman over Christmas. (For those who want to know, the parts I ordered were: TENOR: XTL105 rim, XTH cup, H8 shank; BASS: LBL113 rim, LBJ cup, J9 shank.) The rims for each match the size and feel of the mouthpieces I was used to, but both have slightly shallower cups. This makes it a bit easier to play in the upper register, but without compromising my flexibility in the lower register. And I can confirm, having had to play a few morning performances in ~40 degree F weather, that the Lexan rims make playing in the cold much, much easier. (I expect they will also prove advantageous when the summer heat comes along in a few months.) They arrived in the mail January 2. It took a few days to really get a good feel with the tenor mouthpiece; I liked the way it played immediately but there were a few things that took a while to "fit" with the way I was accustomed to playing. I'm happy to say that with some time to get acclimated with the new setup I feel very comfortable with just about all the material that I play regularly. The bass, however, didn't require the same adjustment--I loved the feel of it from the first note, and I have no reservations in saying it's the best bass mouthpiece I've ever used. (Note: this is in no way a criticism of the Alessi or Yeo mouthpieces; they are well-crafted and stood the test of time for several years; they just aren't as good a fit for me as the Elliott customized ones.) For those familiar with the bass trombone repertoire, I feel like I can easily switch between Das Rheingold's "spear motive" and Hary Janos's "Napoleon" section. (For those who don't know, one is REALLY low, and the other is REALLY high.) In fact, it's the first bass mouthpiece with which I feel I could play the tenor Bolero solo if I had to!

Some of you may be wondering, "doesn't the Army pay for your instruments?" Well, yes, and the trombones I use over here all belong to Uncle Sam; I didn't bring any of my own horns. And it's not uncommon for the unit to purchase new mouthpieces. However, purchasing anything through government channels in a combat deployment is not an easy process. (I know this because that's my office job with this unit.) I didn't want to order mouthpieces for winter playing and face the prospect that they might not arrive until July. So I felt no regret at purchasing them myself and having them in my possession within a week. I expect I'll be using them for years to come.

Funky Weather

2011-02-13T10:19:00.003-05:00

Kandahar Air Field is located, for all intents and purposes, in a desert. The main city, a few miles away, is close to a river so there is water near the population center, but it's pretty dry at the Air Field most of the year. Not so much in February, though. We have entered what is called the monsoon season, and things have gotten a bit unpredictable. The cold temperatures have let up a little bit, but the shifting currents and fronts in the past several days have created some wild temperature swings at times. And there's the rain. For the past few weeks, we've had some sporadic rain, which changes the ground from being very dusty to very muddy. A couple of nights ago, we had steady rain all through the night but sun the next afternoon. KAF is covered in standing water, and we've all been notified that, due to the mud and water, vehicle use has been restricted to essential use only.

Last night (Saturday, 12 February) there was constant rain. This morning, I was surprised to discover that it was bright and sunny when I went to breakfast, and I had high hopes that some of the mud would dry up today. Right before I left for work, the floodgates opened and we had a downpour. With HAIL. And swirling winds. I was being pelted by small ice fragments all the way to our rehearsal tent. It did cross my mind that maybe I should have worn my helmet! I would have missed it all if I'd left ten minutes earlier, so that's another mark in the "reasons to not procrastinate" column. And about eight minutes after it started, the storm stopped. The sun came out. The Dixieland group ("Task Force Dixie") decided to go ahead with preparations for their afternoon concert at the boardwalk.

But the weather wasn't done yet. A little before 1500 (3:00 pm), another dark cloud opened up and more rain and wind came down. I reconsidered going to the boardwalk to see TFD and decided to stay in the tent and continue practicing my trombone. The Dixie group eventually returned early, having only played two numbers in their set before the inclement weather forced them back to the tent with their gear. Sure enough, by the time I left to go check my email at the office, the sun was back out.

One thing about monsoon season at KAF: it does keep you guessing.

Special Deliveries

2011-02-11T00:39:00.003-05:00

Earlier this week, the 10th Mountain Division Band received some items we had been eagerly anticipating. The first happened on Tuesday, when the furniture arrived. A while back, we had placed an order for some office furniture--office chairs, folding chairs, shelves, desks. We had been relying on leftover or unclaimed chairs and derelict office furniture for a while. In fact, the carpentry shop had actually built some quick makeshift shelves and desks for us to tide us over for a while. The chair shortage was especially problematic, as people found themselves sitting on plastic crates and metal containers in lieu of functional chairs. (On occasion, I would use a substitute instead of an available chair because the chair would be more uncomfortable.) So we were happy to receive notice last week that our shipment was on its way.

It was my job to wait for the call that our furniture truck was at the gate so I could escort the driver into our office area, and that call came Tuesday afternoon. I was a bit dismayed to see that the boxes in the back of the truck looked a little beaten up, but that wasn't too surprising given that the bed of the truck had no top. (I am really glad that the delivery was made before the heavy rains we've had the last couple of days.) Some of the boxes had started to fall apart and we had to have people fish furniture parts out of the truck bed. In the end, though, we got all the boxes out and started assembling our furniture. In a matter of moments, our office went from looking like an office to looking like some kind of miniature mutant central-Asian IKEA store. The desks and shelves turned out to be a bit flimsy, mostly particle board, but functional. The office chairs, however, are surprisingly comfortable, a big improvement over what we had. The folding chairs are in good condition also, so we're happy that the seating issue has been resolved.

The other big delivery showed up at almost the same time. Last summer, we shipped most of our instruments and equipment to Afghanistan in large metal containers, which arrived before we did. We sent one additional container of stuff right before we left Ft. Drum. This container had a few more unit items, such as some additional guitars we had ordered for the rock band, a crate of toilet paper, a few folding chairs, and so on. It also had some personal items--clothing bags, personal guitars, video game consoles...you get the idea. We anticipated it arriving in December, but it never showed up. We sent requests numerous times trying to locate where our container had vanished. But Tuesday, we got the word that it had been located and was on its way to KAF. Wednesday morning, it was delivered and place right next to our rehearsal tent. I was glad to see it there, as it contained one of my guitars, as well as my DVDs of season one of Bones seasons one and two of Chuck, plus a copy of Stephen King's The Gunslinger, the first book in his "Dark Tower" series which I've wanted to start reading for a while. It's so nice to have a few more comforts from home, especially now that I can unwind from a long day by pulling out my guitar and strumming for a bit. Whether or not my roommates find that relaxing is another matter....

Proud To Be(come) An American

2011-02-01T12:34:00.003-05:00

It's February now, and I realize that my posting frequency dropped a bit last month. Partly that's because things here are "routine" now and it's a bit difficult to come up with topics sometimes, and partly it's because there have been days when I just didn't feel like writing anything even though I could have. But I'll try to be a bit more consistent this month.

This past Saturday, January 29th, was a momentous day. It's a momentous day for me because it's my Dad's birthday, but it was also momentous for a whole lot of other people. Our brass quintet was assigned to provide music for a naturalization ceremony--numerous servicemembers serving in Afghanistan officially became citizens of the United States. On the surface that might seem a bit strange, but yes, one does not have to be a full citizen of the US to participate in the Armed Forces. (Though they must still pass the criminal background checks and other paperwork gymnastics that are required of US citizens, in addition to meeting physical requirements and passing the ASVAB test. They generally must also have a functional grasp of English, typically to include the words "yes Drill Sergeant!!!") I don't know the exact number who were there Saturday, but there were quite a lot, and from numerous backgrounds. I think I remember hearing that about thirty different countries could claim the origins of our new Americans. That didn't surprise me too much; during my time in the Army I've personally served with (or at least met) people born in China, Turkey, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Italy, and Egypt. (I can't be certain they were all US citizens, and some may have gained citizenship prior to joining the Army. I know of two for certain who did gain citizenship during their service, however.)

I do have an admiration for those people--they have spent a good deal of time and effort to gain something I've had since the moment I was born. What I, and most of the people I know, have by accident, they have by choice. The magnitude of the event was marked by the presence of the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry (himself a military veteran), and several Congressional Representatives, particularly Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) who was a guest speaker along with the Ambassador. Mr. Issa commented on how unusual it was to have such a ceremony someplace other than the US, but that having it in Afghanistan was an example of the level of commitment that these people have made to the country. We were also treated to a pre-recorded address by President Obama, followed by a video presentation of Lee Greenwood's iconic "God Bless the USA." It's a good feeling to know that so many other people want to call your home their home. After all, even though the land is vast and magnificent, it's the people who make it America the Beautiful.

Madmen Across The Water

2011-01-21T01:33:00.003-05:00

Last week, we had some visitors to Kandahar Airfield. Well, having visitors is not an unusual thing, but having another military band is. The Band of the Parachute Regiment, located in Colchester, England, United Kingdom, has been in Afghanistan for a few weeks making a tour of the country and they spent a good deal of time at KAF. Those of us in the 10th Mountain Division Band were able to spend plenty of time getting to know them and play some music together. Some of them also joined a few of our members on a couple of trips to work with the Afgan National Army Band located near here. We had initially planned to do a big afternoon concert together, but for whatever reason those plans got scrapped. We still managed to spend two mornings doing some concert band rehearsals together. Given that 10th MTN hasn't had to do any full concert band material since before we left the US, it was a bit strange to sit down in the Fest Tent amongst a combined group that totaled over forty members. We started off with a band transcription of Michael Giacchino's music from the recent J.J. Abrams Star Trek film, which was a lot of fun. We played through some other tunes that were written for concert bands (one of which, "Invictus" by British composer Philip Sparke, was commissioned by my previous band, The Army Ground Forces Band at Ft. McPherson, GA), and all I'll say about that is that the formula for concert band music is getting a bit stale--everything is an overture, start fast, have a slow lyrical middle section, then a big rousing finish and a loud BANG at the end. It's as if composers are afraid that they might be remembered for only one piece, so they should throw in everything they can to make sure it's all covered. But I digress.

Wednesday night, the Regiment's rock band "Ripchord" performed a scaled-down show at the Dutch Corner, a sort-of lounge area operated by the Netherlands. I didn't see the whole thing, but I loved their closing number, a song called "Fire" by the British indie band Kasabian. They promised that to get the full effect, we really needed to see the whole group--more guitars, background singers, and a horn section (pictured above). Fortunately, we only had to wait for Friday night as a joint performance was being planned with our rock band, Avalanche. It was a bigger--and louder--show, with Ripchord rolling through their set with enthusiasm, followed by Avalanche's heavy metal smackdown. The two bands joined for a big finale, and a good time was had by all despite some occasional problems with the sound system. (And Avalanche's NCOIC who got so into the performance that he hurt his back.) I was just glad I remembered to wear earplugs.

Saturday morning a few of us joined the BOTPR for a ceremonial performance...kind of. We headed to the bazaar area, which opens to numerous vendors every Saturday. The bazaar includes a school, and we were going to play some music for the students. Since their 2nd trombonist was gone with our staff to work with the ANA band, I filled in for him. It was a bit of a challenge sight-reading their selections, most of which I hadn't seen before, but I think I managed to pull it off without too many problems. We played through selections as diverse as the opening of the "Light Cavalry Overture," the "Post-horn Gallop" (featuring two trumpeters on post-horns, which are basically small straight bugles--no valves), "Wizard Weezes" from the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Quincy Jones's "Soul Bossa Nova," famously used as the theme for the Austin Powers films. In a surprising move, we had a bunch of kids from a predominantly Muslim culture clapping along to the Yiddish tune "Hava Nagila." (!) We ended the performance by marching around the school building playing the march "Punchinello." This was not an easy thing to do, as the ground was covered with lots of small and medium-sized rocks, in addition to the fact that we Americans were not familiar with the British marching commmands. Afterwards, the British gave out some football (soccer!) jerseys and played a football (soccer!) game with the students. Many of those not in the game ended up playing on the merry-go-round, which is where I wound up as well. Who would've expected to be pushing a bunch of kids on a merry-go-round on a Saturday morning in Afghanistan? I later decided that that was my exercise for the day.

In all, it was a fun week and we enjoyed the chance to work with a different group of musicians and get to make new friends. Their French horn/keyboardist celebrated his birthday one night, and a few of us had a celebratory dinner at TGI Friday's, where I appreciated watching him dance on the chair like I had to for my birthday. We will hate to see them leave so soon, but we all enjoyed getting a chance to foster some international cooperation through music. Cheers!

Blame Game

2011-01-09T01:26:00.004-05:00

One of the reasons I've been writing this blog the way I have, as much as I have, is to give readers back home in the US a glimpse into what life is like as an Army bandsman deployed overseas. It not only serves as a record for me to look at later on, but it makes it easy for me to quickly tell as many people as will read what is happening in this corner of the world. (And now they can claim I'm scientifically illiterate for figuratively claiming that our planet has corners!) But today I'm going to comment on what I see happening in the US, based on the information that I get in theater. Again, these are my views and opinions, and I will do my best to see that they don't reflect negatively on the unit or the Army in which I serve.
After I woke up this morning, I headed to the dining facility to enjoy a quiet breakfast, expecting to glance at football highlights on the TV (Seahawks over the Saints?! Who saw that coming???) and enjoy my pancakes and oatmeal while trying to make a little progress on the e-reader version of the novel I've been reading for over a year. Instead, I saw CNN's breaking news bulletin about a shooting in Arizona that left several people, including federal judge John Roll, dead and many others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), severely injured. They had a suspect in custody, were looking for others, and the talking heads were already pontificating on the social and political fallout.
They had commentators--I didn't know any of them, and can't place their political biases--trying to make as clear as possible that the suspect wasn't talking, and all they knew was what he posted on YouTube and MySpace: nonsensical ramblings about dreaming, currency, and his failed attempt to enlist in the Army. (News reports claim that the Army rejected him, and privacy laws prevent them from saying why. I take comfort in the fact that I'm not serving next to someone who thinks that shooting up a grocery store is an acceptable way to get things done.) The anchors--not the commentators, but the people who speak for the network--mentioned controversial politicians and political movements, and how their desire to unseat this Congresswoman may have inspired this lunatic. The commentators continued to stress: "We don't know that there's any connection here!" But the network continued to repost graphics on the screen linking that political movement with the shooter for several minutes. We're not saying that they're connected...just implying that they are.
People--including the local sheriff--complained about the poisonous political rhetoric, both in Arizona and the nation at large. In the same breath, they essentially say "It's the fault of those people that things are so bad!" The actions of a madman inevitably invite demonization of one's political opponents, no matter how ridiculous the comparison is.
People are so eager to place blame that they forget to lay blame where it belongs--squarely at the feet of the person who committed the crime. Millions of people watch network and cable news. They see violent movies and television shows. They listen to political radio shows. They read the paper. They read spy novels. They read blogs. (That's right...if you're reading this, you're one of them.) The knee-jerk reaction of the experts is to find what is wrong with society that causes a person to shoot up a classroom, or a grocery store, or blow up a federal building, or hijack an airplane. The truth is, society doesn't make people do those things, because millions upon millions of people are in our society, and they don't commit acts like that. The people who do these types of things are unhinged, disturbed people. If one thing doesn't trigger them, something else will.
Mark David Chapman claimed that he shot John Lennon because Lennon was an anti-religious hypocrite. (I suppose a lot of people probably thought that about Lennon; that's beside the point. After all, I'm a huge Beatle fan and love the vast majority of Lennon's songwriting.) But everyone else who didn't care for Lennon didn't think that shooting him was a good solution. Did John Wilkes Boothe really think that killing President Lincoln and his cabinet members would help the South? No...he didn't think at all, except about his own rage. If the Civil War had turned out differently, we'd likely be reading in history books about how some controversial decision led to Boothe's murder of Jefferson Davis. I have no sympathy for the "Trenchcoat Mafia" that shot up Columbine; I was something of a social outsider in my teenage years, but never did I think that killing my classmates would solve that problem. (For the record, I ended up being less socially awkward and still keep in touch with many of my high school friends.)
Yes, our political climate is angry and contentious. It is easy to dehumanize those with whom we disagree, because if we make them seem less human it is easier to ignore the faults they share with us. By claiming that all opponents of President Obama are racist, we can ignore the serious concerns they may have about his policies. By claiming that the President is arrogant, we can ignore that he must make numerous difficult decisions everyday and that he will be criticized no matter what he does. But to assume that the vast majority of people on either side of the aisle are so dangerous that they encourage nutcases to shoot political leaders is to reveal more about the critic than the opposition: "I devalue my opponents so much that I don't think they are capable of rational thought or responsible action." Assassins have been around much longer than handguns, terrorists have been around much longer than the internet. People do inhumane things because they've lost touch with their own humanity. Let's not let that be an exuse to lower the bar by attributing the cause to people who are innocent of the crime.

2010--What A Year

2011-01-01T02:08:00.003-05:00

2010 is over and as usual there are all sorts of "year in review" things going on. So, I figure I might as well do a blog about the year that I had.

*January started with me in Atlanta, enjoying a New Year's Eve party with a bunch of friends from there. I was staying with a couple of my best friends from the Army, and got to meet some new folks as well. It was later in the month that we got our first notice from HQ that the band might be deploying in the fall. At the end of the month, I became an uncle as my sister and her husband welcomed their healty, happy little girl Kaitlin into the family.

*February was when I finally got to meet Kaitlin for the first time, though my flight out of Syracuse was delayed a day by snow. That delay, however, resulted in me being called at the last minute to conduct the band for a ceremony a Ft. Drum. Funny how things work out some times!

*I don't remember much of note happening in the spring months, other than training up for deployment and continuing normal band missions with the 10th Mountain Division Band. However, April, right after Easter, saw me fulfill my lifelong dream of watching a Space Shuttle launch, as Discovery made a flawless pre-dawn flight.

*Also, my hometown of Nashville, TN was covered in a flood of historic proportions, the biggest on record for the area. Three states were directly affected, and numerous people were killed. The national news media largely ignored the story in favor of the BP/Gulf of Mexico oil spill that happened about the same time. Fortunately my family all managed to make it through safely.

*In the summer, I traveled a lot. I made a few trips to Atlanta to visit friends and Nashville to visit family. I managed to work in some quick side trips to Columbus, GA and Knoxville, TN as well.

*I haven't been able to see as many concerts as I would like, but I did manage to squeeze in trips to New York City to see the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall a couple of times (my college friend Jeremy Wilson plays in their trombone section) and at almost the last minute I managed to snare a ticket to see Chicago on Broadway, with Ashlee Simpson-Wentz in the lead role of Roxie. I also saw Canadian progressive rock band Rush on Long Island, a great show that included a complete performance of their landmark album Moving Pictures. Musical satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic made a somewhat last-minute stop in Watertown, and I was surprised to be able to meet him after the show.

*One of my Atlanta trips was timed to coincide with the annual Fan Appreciation Show by the Lost Boys, one of my favorite bands in the Atlanta area. They are tremendously entertaining and have produced four excellent CDs. Originating with the Georgia Renaissance Festival, they present themselves as "the original rock band from 1599" and play a mix of original songs with traditional Renaissance tunes and parodies of popular songs with new Shakespearean lyrics.

*I was also able to see excellent productions of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, and a comical Hamlet: the Musical at Atlanta's New American Shakespeare Tavern, a great place to see a play (and have a shepherd's pie).

*One of my Nashville trips included a performance by students from the music camp held by electric bass virtuoso Victor Wooten, best known for his work with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. His brother Roy "Future Man" Wooten and saxophonist Jeff Coffin, now with the Dave Matthews Band, also joined in. Never pass up a chance to hear any of these guys play!

*On Labor Day weekend, I made it back to the ATL for DragonCon, one of the nation's largest science fiction/fantasy conventions. I was able to meet several cast members of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, in addition to folks from Stargate SG-1 and Firefly, and several other similarly-themed shows. Also, lots and lots of Stormtroopers.

*In October, I moved out of my house in preparation for deployment. I'm indebted to the folks who let me stay at their houses over the next couple of weeks!

*October 16, the Brass Quintet departed for Afghanistan.

*Since then, we've played all over Kandahar Air Field, taken a Christmas trip to FOB Lagman, and began doing some work with the local Afghan Army Band.

*2010 will always be etched in my mind as the year I went to Afhganistan. I look forward to remembering 2011 as the year I left Afghanistan.

Happy New Year!

Spreading the Cheer

2010-12-31T01:53:00.003-05:00

Early on the morning of Friday, December 24, AKA Christmas Eve, the Brass Quintet loaded up our instruments and gear for a weekend trip. Not really a vacation, but it was our first time to travel outside the Kandahar area since arriving in Afghanistan. We caught a helicopter flight to Forward Operating Base Lagman, a very small post north of here. (I can't be too specific about the details for security reasons, of course!)

It is easy to get a bit spoiled after being at KAF for a while, given that we have a boardwalk, multiple gyms, multiple dining facilities, internet access in our rooms, and bath facilities just down the hallway. The smaller FOB's don't necessarily have all those luxuries. Upon arrival, we had "VIP" accomodations, which were a couple of dusty rooms in a solid building, as opposed to a tent. There was a short walk to the latrine and shower, which were not as roomy as what we've gotten used to, and in the cooler weather having to walk over there in the dark was not a pleasant prospect. We arrived just after lunch, but the Chaplain's Assistant who was our "tour guide" was able to let us invade his "stash" so we were able to get a meal anyway. There is one chapel at Lagman, and it seems to have been built by the base's other primary tenants, the Romanians. The sanctuary room is full of Romanian-style icons and paintings. (I'm familiar with these types of images, having visited Romania twice a few years ago. I know one sentence in Romanian, which translates to "I don't speak Romanian." If you're only going to know one, that's not a bad choice.)

We had some time to scout out the facilities--one dining hall, where we would do most of our performing, plus a gym, barber shop, movie room, computer/phone center, and a Greens Beans coffee shop. Lagman is surrounded by mountains, so we appreciated the scenery, and with much less vehicle traffic it is far less dusty than KAF. The dining hall has a different contractor, and I must say that the food quality was quite an improvement from what we've been eating.

We hastily arranged to provide some pre-music for a Christmas Eve service, and that gave us a chance to give some of the Soldiers present a preview of coming attractions, so to speak. It also gave us a chance to listen to some Romanian songs (I don't know if they were hymns or carols) from the Romanian personnel before the service.

Christmas morning, we slept in for a bit to recover from the previous day's hectic travel schedule. Our first performance was for an appreciative lunch crowd, with us crammed into a corner of the festively-decorated dining room. We ran through a large selection of holiday tunes before finishing our set list and joining the chow line to try the turkey, beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, eggnog, pumpkin pie, and other delicacies.

After lunch, we headed to a Christmas party being hosted by the Combat Stress office. It was warm enough by this time that we didn't mind being outdoors, and having people dressed as Santa Clause, Mrs. Clause, and a couple of elves added to the festive feeling. (Photo above, though I wish I had a happier expression on my face!) With the relaxed atmosphere, we ended up sight-reading some of the tunes in our book just to have some variety. (Most of them turned out pretty good too.) After the party, we had some time to relax a bit.

We met up later to play our dinner set, and then we played some carols for a Christmas night gospel service, followed by some music for a midnight mass. I was glad that I had some time in between to get on Skype and talk to some friends and family, during which my parents pointed the webcam to the fresh Nashville snowfall out the window. Normally I would be irritated at missing a rare white Tennessee Christmas, but after all the snow I shoveled last year at Ft. Drum I was fine with the sunny Afghan weather. I'm also glad that modern technology, in the form of a laptop and a portable hard drive, allowed me do spend some of my down time enjoying things like ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's Christmas special, the cartoon classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and one of my all-time favorite films, It's a Wonderful Life.

Sunday was our "day off," and I was grateful for the rest, though we did get together in the evening for more dinner music. This time, however, we put away the caroling music and played some of our regular tunes. Monday afternoon we headed back to KAF, sorry to be leaving the great food and close camaraderie shared by the people on the small base. I was glad to get back to my comfortable bed and indoor plumbing, however. I can't say enough about the people at Lagman, though--they went out of their way to make us feel welcome and they seemed to really appreciate having their own music group for a few days. Hopefully we can make it back before too long!

Christmastime at KAF

2010-12-30T12:11:00.003-05:00

Last week was the busiest week we've had at Kandahar Air Field in terms of our performance schedule. Various groups from the band, including my brass quintet, spent time every day performing for the troops. As a musician, that's one of the things I enjoy about Christmas: there is so much music associated with the holiday, and the opens up lots of opportunities to perform. On Saturday, 18 December, we had a busy schedule, playing at a party for an Army Engineering company. As soon as we arrived, the "chorus" that they had assembled was ready to sing along to our accompaniment of "Jingle Bells" and "Winter Wonderland." We performed music throughout the party before partaking of lunch ourselves.

Afterwards, we headed to the boardwalk to set up for the 10th Mountain Division Band's Christmas Concert. This would be an afternoon performance of several of our groups all in one place: the Brass Quintet, the Dixieland Band, the Tuba/Euphonium Quartet, and the Rock Band. We had a surprisingly large crowd, and most of them stayed for the whole show. After the BQ's opening segment, I had to hurry to the seating area to help take care of the video recording of the concert. I ended up getting interviewed by the camera crew from Armed Forces Network that was covering the event. Video of the concert can be found here and here, though in one of the videos they incorrectly identify me as playing in the "brass quartet."

Sunday, we began our caroling mission. Our small ensembles headed to various locations to play Christmas music for anyone who cared to listen. We did this all through the week. Because there are numerous nations represented here, there was an aspect of international goodwill to the performances. In addition to playing at the boardwalk, the PX, the RC-South compound, and the main dining facilities, we also played for a group of Canadian aircraft mechanics by the flightline and inside the Canadian military compound. Another performance found us entertaining the line that stretched outside the local Tim Horton's, one of Canada's most popular coffee shop chains. Before we left we had been provided with free chocolate chip muffins and coffee/hot chocolate from the staff. (Needless to say, I have now become a fan of Tim Horton's.) We also had a friendly reception from the Australian troops inside their office area. They handed out small koala-doll clips clutching candy canes to us. We were informed that they know many of the holiday tunes that we do, although they have to "Australianize" the lyrics to adjust for the unusual animals that are found there, and to adjust the wintry stuff for their summer December climate. One of our audience members was a Chaplain who had arrived the night before, and we had to caution him that brass quintet performances were an exception rather than the rule at KAF! One positive side to these types of performances is that we hope to open up doors for later performance opportunities throughout the deployment.

Speaking of which, in the next blog I'll write about the trip we took for the Christmas weekend!

The USO Tour Comes To Town

2010-12-21T22:53:00.004-05:00

Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams entertains the troops at KAF.

The day after we were visited by the Slovakian President, we had some more visitors--this time entertainers who were part of a USO tour. I'm a big fan of the USO--my first experience with them was on my way to basic training when I had a layover at the St. Louis airport and found the USO station there. They provided military personnel with a comfortable place to rest, watch television, and have free food and beverages. Last year when I was stranded for nearly two days in Philadelphia due to heavy snow, the USO made hanging out at the airport much easier, especially with the easy access to e-mail so I could notify family and friends what was happening.
But, back to the main story. This tour had a group of celebrities and entertainers who were traveling around various bases in Iraq and Afghanistan performing for the troops and showing their appreciation. The opening remarks of the show were provided by Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (the highest-ranking military officer and senior military advisor to the President), and his wife. They introduced the MC for the evening, cycling superstar Lance Armstrong. He is one of the most inspiring figures in sports in recent years, having overcome cancer to win seven Tours de France, the only cyclist to have done so, and his Livestrong foundation has done much to promote cancer treatments and research. He gave some short introductory comments, talking about running along the fenceline and ignoring various warning signs about restricted areas along the gravel road. He then introduced the first performer, comedian Kathleen Madigan. She was very funny, and like pretty much everyone else (except ADM and Mrs. Mullen) too blue for network television. She gave a shout out to the Canadians in the audience, observing that most Americans think of Canada the way they think of the attic--"you forget it's up there, but then you look and realize there's some pretty cool (stuff)." She also wondered, after hearing about the schools and roads and utilities that are being built by the military, what it would take for us to invade and rebuild the city of Detroit.
She was followed by Lewis Black, introduced by Armstrong as the "most negative man in America." He corrected the intro, saying that he isn't negative, just angry. The famously jittery comedian opined on how an iPhone is a "great computer and a lousy phone," and a Droid is "a great phone and a lousy computer," and told of his first USO tour, where someone made the extremely poor decision to put him on the program following Vince Gill and Amy Grant. (As a Nashville resident, I found that story very amusing.)
Speaking of Nashville, my hometown was represented by Kix Brooks, formerly half of mega-country duo Brooks & Dunn, and songwriter Bob DiPiero, who though not famous as a performer, has written about fifteen number one songs, including songs for Martina McBride, B & D, Faith Hill, and Montgomery Gentry. He's actually a pretty good performer, too, and sang his songs "Church on Cumberland Road" and "Gone." Brooks added two of his biggest hits, "Red Dirt Road" and "Only In America." Then it was time for the main event.
The final performer of the evening was one of the world's funniest men, Oscar-winning actor and stand-up comedian Robin Williams. Despite recently having a heart valve replacement, he was as energetic as ever, bouncing around the stage in a sweatsuit and a full beard. (He'd make a funny Santa Claus, Hollywood.) I made the mistake of not waiting around after the show, but a couple of the guys in the band did stay and said he made sure to sign anything and shake every hand he could. He's been described as our "number one fan," and I certainly gained a new level of respect for his dedication. His show was, of course, hysterically funny, and I won't say much more about it other than to mention that he did an impression of his character "Mrs. Doubtfire" as if she were a porn star.
All in all, it was a fun evening and definitely a nice change of pace for us. Even in the cold air, it seemed everyone had a good time. Just don't tell Lewis Black that I have an iPhone.

Executive Visit

2010-12-18T10:20:00.002-05:00

I was recently asked if the band had played for any VIP's since arriving at Kandahar Air Field, and until this past Wednesday, December 15, the answer was "no." But that changed this week when we were told that Wednesday, Ivan Gasparovic, the President of the Slovak Republic (more commonly called Slovakia) would be visiting the base. I don't know the specific purpose of his visit, but there is a sizable contingent of Slovakian Soldiers at KAF.

The band members met early Wednesday morning to prepare for the arrival. We hauled our chairs, music stands, and instruments over to the reception area by the runway. I made sure to wear several layers under the uniform to protect against the biting cold air. Once we had our things set up, it was a matter of waiting for the arrival. A group of Slovakian troops were situated next to us holding their flag. We were given updates every so often: "Twenty minutes," "ten minutes," and so on. Our set list alternated between typical Sousa marches and Fillmore marches and Christmas songs. I have no idea if any of our popular Christmas music is known in Slovakia, but playing music helped us ignore the cold so we didn't worry about that too much. Our commander made sure to include Sousa's "Hands Across the Sea" march, which was written to commemorate international friendship. What didn't help was that about the time we started playing, the wind began to blow. On one of the Christmas tunes, my stand nearly blew over and the other trombonist held my stand while I played!

Finally, the large white airplane with the Slovakian flag and the words SLOVAK REPUBLIC painted on the side pulled up behind where we were sitting. We continued waiting while...nothing happened. After an uncomfortably long wait we found out that they were still waiting for someone to roll out the steps to the airplane door! When the mobile walkway finally emerged, it seemed like they took two or three tries at the plane's front door before moving to the middle exit. I'm sure there was a good reason for it, but it made the event a little more amusing for us.

When the official party finally began walking toward the reception area, we began to play the Slovakian anthem "Lightning Over the Tatras." Members of the Slovakian press (I presume) made sure to get footage of the band while we played, but the President and much of his entourage quickly moved inside, and I can't blame them given the cold weather. When they returned to get into the fleet of cars that would transport them around the post, President Gasparovic made sure to give the band a salute. It's always nice to have the man of the hour acknowledge the band! Once the cars pulled away, we began to pack up and get ready for the rest of the otherwise normal workday. Later, though, we found out about some more visitors who would be coming Thursday, and those visitors will be the subject of the next blog!

Building the Perfect...Tent?!

2010-12-14T11:09:00.004-05:00

Wow, time is flying--I didn't realize it's been ten days since my last post. Recent days have been busy, between rehearsals, a Saturday lunch performance with the Brass Quintet, and the band's latest project: a building. Or, rather, tent.

One of the biggest obstacles we've had to overcome since our arrival is that Kandahar Air Field has not yet had a band stationed here. Because of that, there is no facility set aside for the band to use. The various ensembles in the band have used classrooms, dining halls, the Fest Tent, the Morale-Welfare-Recreation center, the USO reading room, unoccupied sleeping quarters, bomb shelters, and open parking lots to rehearse, practice, and prepare. Doing so has meant that we have had to lug our instruments and equipment everywhere we go and that our work schedule is often at the mercy of what room is available and when. And with the recent dropping of temperatures, coupled with a few days of very dusty air, practicing outdoors is not as feasible as it used to be. Almost since we got here we've been negotiating and maneuvering to get a location just for us.

That began to become a reality this past Saturday, December 11 when the workers from the KAF carpentry shop arrived to start laying down the wooden floor in an open spot we were able to reserve. We had picked up the lumber from the freight yard a few weeks ago, and in that time they had cut boards and supports to build a floor.

Sunday, the tent arrived. The entire complex and all the necessary gear to set it up fit on a medium-size trailer. First, a tarp was laid out on the wooden floor, and a large deflated black ballon (or bladder, if you will) was placed on the tarp. We wheeled the main tent structure, which was "collapsed" into a tall column, into the center of the floor. Several of us pulled the edges of the tent to the edge of the floor, stretching the outer skin and making visible the support trusses that would give it stability. An air pump was connected to the bladder, and in a matter of minutes the tent began to take shape as the balloon stretched the structure to its full size. The full procedure took about thirty minutes. We actually had to deflate the tent the first time to get the front and rear entrance points attached and aligned properly, so it took two tries before we could begin deflating the balloon. Once deflated, it was simple to pull the balloon out, leaving the tent standing on its own support structure.

The rest of Sunday afternoon was spent hammering in stakes around the perimeter of the tent to hold it firmly in place and attaching the interior metal supports to keep the roof from collapsing. By the end of the day, the civilian experts who were assisting us with the tent decided that the floor was a little too small for the tent and we'd need more lumber.

Monday morning, we started inside to finish the interior supports and began setting up the environmental controls. The tent has its own generator for power, with large tubes connected to an air conditioner/heater. We installed the porous flexible tube that substitutes for air ducts, and hung the flourescent lights from the ceiling. By that point, the carpenters were back, cutting more wood to extend the floor around the tent. This meant that all the hammering we had done Sunday had to be pulled up and redone, but by the end of the day we were finished and the tent was solidly in place.

I haven't even mentioned the Velcro. The front and side entrances are attached with Velcro. This is not Velcro like you see at craft shops, or even the Velcro that is used on our uniforms. This is heavy-duty, massively strong Velcro. I think I could attach the Velcro on my uniform sleeves to the Velcro on this tent and hang from it. (Note: I did not actually try do this.) We spent much of our two days unsticking and resticking Velcro, and I think we are all pretty much tired of dealing with that substance for a while.

But we have a "home," for the time being. While it is not the best permanent solution, it gives us our own place to do much of the work we are here to do. Stay tuned, as we hope to install some practice rooms before too long....

Your 2010 Military Care Package Guide

2010-12-04T11:15:00.004-05:00

A few people have asked me about what types of things are good to mail to Soldiers overseas. I can attest to the fact that it is a great feeling to get mail here, even if it's from people you don't know that well. Not only is it nice to get letters, newspaper clippings, and snack food, but the knowledge that someone took the time to send something to you always makes the day a little better. Mail is delivered here seven days a week, even on holidays, so when I got packages on Thanksgiving Day it made the holiday that much more memorable. They recommend sending Christmas items by December 7. Not that there's anything wrong with getting stuff after Christmas also. There are handy tips about the mailing process at the US Postal Service website and if you do a Google search on "care packages" you'll find several websites with ideas and information. Here are some other guidelines:

*One of the guidelines for sending items to Afghanistan is that a Soldier's last name goes first. This helps the mail clerks with keeping things organized.

*Don't put a recipient's rank on the package.

*Don't send things with batteries in them.

*Don't send pornographic materials. (I partly wonder if this is because there are...um...adult periodicals...available at the PX and they don't want you cutting into their market. I don't buy any of them, but they're there.)

*Don't send flammable or explosive items, i.e. lighter fluid, gunpowder, bleach.

*Microwaves are not available here so items that require cooking, like Ramen noodles, are not good things to send unless you know someone who likes to eat them cold and/or raw.

*Don't send fresh fruit. It may not be fresh when it arrives.

*Prepackaged foods are good because they are less likely to spoil. Beef jerky is popular here.

*Homemade foods (cookies, brownies, etc.) are good because...well, they're good.

*If they are soft or crumbly, like Pop Tarts or Little Debbie snacks, put them in some kind of solid container to protect them.

*The cereal selection isn't good here, so I asked my parents to send some Honey Nut Cheerios, which they sent in the plastic bag from inside the box. Made breakfast a lot better!

*Some things, like raisins, gummy stuff, or big puffy marshmallows, are fine for sending, though they aren't good things to send to me because I just don't care for them. If I get them, I share them with others who do like them.

*Someone sent me a foot-tall Christmas tree and some decorating items, so decorations aren't in demand in my room.

*DVDs and CDs are good because they are relatively small, durable, and provide entertainment. Paperback books are also a very good option. Most people here have laptop computers with disc drives. Even though I stored a lot of movies, music, and television shows on my computer, portable hard drive, and iPhone, it's always nice to have another option to throw in there and enjoy during my down time.

*Foot powder, hand lotion, Band Aids, and Kleenex are always good options.

*Paper and envelopes are hard to come by here, so if you want a response by mail stationery is a fine thing to send as well.

If you have other ideas or questions, leave a comment or email me!

Q&A, part FIVE

2010-12-01T12:08:00.003-05:00

They're adding some new shops to KAF's boardwalk area, and I thought this sign was amusing.

It's holiday season now, and we're all spending more time on preparing Christmas carols and other seasonal songs to play for the troops. We've also spent some time doing some training with members of the nearby Afghan National Army Band, and I expect I'll write more about that as it develops. I will say that even though we have a translator, it does test everyone's skill at non-verbal communication since they don't speak English and none of us speak Dari. Now, it's time for a couple more questions!

What's with the odd time difference between Afghanistan and the United States?

I don't know how the time zones in this part of the world were established-it may have something to do with railroad schedules way back when, and possibly be influenced by the time when nearby Pakistan and India were British colonies. But currently, since Afghanistan does not observe Daylight Savings Time, the whole country is nine and a half hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone in the United States. According to this time zone map, it seems we are sandwiched in an odd area and being offset by 30 minutes was someone's attempt to compensate for this. India is one hour ahead of us, so they also are "in the cracks" with respect to the US time zones. Pakistan, sandwiched between India and Afghanistan, is ten hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, 30 minutes ahead of Afghanistan and 30 behind India. Iran, immediately to our west, is one hour behind us, and 30 minutes behind them is Saudi Arabia. Since most of my family is in the Central Time Zone in Tennessee (one of the few states to be split between two time zones), they are ten and a half hours behind me, which makes planning phone calls on Skype a bit tricky sometimes. Interestingly, the island of Newfoundland in Canada has its own time zone, which is also 30 minutes ahead of Labrador to the west.

Do you have normal working hours, or are you "on call" all of the time?

We have somewhat stable hours most of the time, though the nature of the job can make it unpredictable. Like performing musicians in the US, our schedule is often dictated by when we have to perform regardless of whether or not it's personally convenient. On weekdays we typically all meet up in the morning to go over the day's schedule, and then again after lunch to update everyone on any changes and get briefed for the next day. After each meeting, we usually have time to do individual practice, group rehearsal, or take care of any office work that might need to be done, which in my case is usually something related to supply, i.e. filling out paperwork for the battalion requesting new ink for the printer or valve oil for the trumpets. On weekends we have the mornings off but still meet up in the afternoon. Since our performances have ranged from dinner music for a General's reception to morning ceremonies to lunch entertainment, we will often have to adjust the schedule accordingly. And sometimes they'll find ways to surprise us by springing a change at the last minute. That can make things frustrating, though such changes generally come from outside the band, and may be impacted by events and decisions that are out of our field of view. Most days, though, things have been much more stable the past few weeks than they were when we first arrived and everyone was figuring out how to best make things work. Famous last words....

Giving Thanks in Kandahar

2010-11-25T07:36:00.004-05:00

L-R: SSG Erik Winters, horn; SPC Jesse Holmes, tuba; SPC James Leggett and SPC Joshua Rux, trumpets; SSG David Proctor, trombone

Today the United States observes its Thanksgiving holiday, and for the American Soldiers at Kandahar Air Field the holiday was a welcome change from the normal workday. For those of us in the 10th Mountain Division Band, it was a great opportunity to use our skills to boost the morale of the troops. My brass quintet (informally dubbed "The Bunker Brass") started the day by playing at an ecumenical Thanksgiving service at one of the chapels. Though not a formal "church service," this event involved several American chaplains (and, surprisingly, a couple of British chaplains too!) speaking, reading scriptures, and leading songs about being thankful.

As soon as the service was over, we threw our instruments, music, and stands into a truck and headed over to the nearby Niagara Dining Facility, which typically serves "American" food and displays American programming on the TV screens (usually sports, which to my interest included a Pre-Season NIT basketball game between Virginia Commonwealth University and my alma mater, the 24th-ranked University of Tennessee). The building was set aside for Thanksgiving lunch, and already a very, very long line was waiting to get in. We walked in through an exit--the easiest way to get in--and set up along the back wall so we could play some music to entertain the lunch crowd. Our set this time consisted of a wide variety of selections, with an emphasis on fun, upbeat music: "Ain't Misbehavin," "The Pink Panther," "Satin Doll," "The Colonel Bogey March," "The Beer-Barrel Polka," and "Cartoon Symphony," a collection of themes from shows like "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," "Animaniacs," "The Flintstones," and "The Jetsons." Even though we like to classify these types of performances as "music to be ignored by," or perhaps "innocuous enough to not be annoying," many in the crowd seemed to appreciate having some live music to make the day a little more festive. Many also stopped by to get pictures of the group. We made sure to have our pictures taken by the ice sculptures that were placed in the center of the hall as decoration.

Between sets, we were able to get lunch. The food line today was not manned by the typical facility employees, but by members of the US Navy, and rather than the normal menu, they had traditional Thanksgiving food: turkey, dressing, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, etc. And it was delicious! I decided that oversleeping a little and thus having only a couple of strawberry Pop-Tarts (courtesy of a care package!) for breakfast was a good thing, as I had plenty of room to eat a lot for lunch. It wasn't like being home with family, but it was certainly more enjoyable than a typical lunch here. Afterward, as we were loading the truck, a somewhat elderly civilian in a red plaid shirt and with a grey-ish beard walked out and thanked us for playing, prompting SPC Holmes to comment, "Hey, that's nice, we play for Thanksgiving and get thanked by Santa Claus!"

As one of our other band members who joined us for lunch mentioned, the band is our family right now, and even when we get on each other's nerves we can still sit back and enjoy a meal and be thankful that we have each other and that we have a mission of bringing music to other members of the Armed Forces. And I am thankful that I have so many friends and family members back home who have been so supportive during these first weeks of our deployment here.

Q and A, Part 4

2010-11-17T09:41:00.002-05:00

I've received a few more questions, so here goes....

What do you think about the new uniforms?

We were issued new uniforms a few weeks before we left. The new pattern, Multi-Cam, was designed to blend better in the rugged environment of Afghanistan than the current standard issue, the digital-patterned Army Combat Uniform. The new pattern is similar to the old Battle Dress Uniform they had when I joined, but is not as dark and has more brown and no black. The cut of the uniform is similar, but they've redesigned the collar to lay flat a bit better, the "hook and loop" fasteners (a non-copyrighted way of referring to Velcro) down the front are a bit smaller, and they've replaced the fasteners on the pants cargo pockets with buttons. The material is also coated with materials to make them flame-retardant and insect-repellant. So far, I like them--they look better, they're stitched a bit better, and the material feels a bit more comfortable. They're sized a bit differently, but I was able to get the right size so they fit well. I'd prefer for them to make this the standard issue uniform. They also have new "mountain boots" that are supposed to go with these, but due to a supply shortage they weren't able to issue them to non-combat troops, so we're still using the tan desert boots. That's also fine by me; I have not heard good things about the wear or durability of the new boots.

Do you always have to wear your glasses?

Yes, I do. If you know me well, you know that I'm quite near-sighted. (I didn't inherit my paternal grandfather's military-pilot-perfect vision...and neither did any of his other grandchildren!) Most of the time I prefer to wear contact lenses, unless I'm sleeping. However, military policy prohibits the wear of contact lenses in combat zones and with the amount of dust here, that's most likely for the best. Most of the time I wear normal eyeglasses, but during the day when I'm outdoors I wear polarized, dark ballistic protective lenses that have prescription inserts attached. They're large enough that they completely cover my eyes from the very bright sunlight. (Low humidity=very few cloudy days)

What provisions are made for worship services?

There are services and classes all through the week at the two main chapels on the post. Catholic services are held just about everyday, and Sundays are booked solid with services such as Traditional Protestant, Contemporary Protestant, Latter-Day Saints, church of Christ, as well as services for other faiths like Judaism and Islam. Many of the services are run by chaplains, but there are Soldiers and civilians who are involved as well. There's a Wednesday night class that I want to check out as well sometime. Also, from time to time we can hear the Muslim prayers over the loudspeakers from the Afghan section of the base. (I presume they're in Arabic, not Dari or Pashto, which are the main languages in Afghanistan.)

Do you have access to beverages like sweet tea and Coca-Cola?

I have not yet found sweet iced tea, though there is a military-focused coffee company called Green Beans that has a couple of shops here. (LOVE the chocolate smoothies!) They have iced tea that I have yet to try but I hear it's the best thing on the menu. I'll take the plunge soon. We do have soft drinks at the dining facilities, usually Coke, Sprite, Fanta orange, and "Coke light," which is the equivalent of diet. They come from a distributor in Kabul, and because they aren't subject to the dietary squeamishness of the US, they still use sugar rather than corn syrup in the recipe. The facility closest to where I now live is the most "American" dining hall, and up until a few days ago they also had regular A&W root beer, shipped straight from Texas. I guess their supply ran out and they have yet to get more. A real shame, as root beer is my favorite soft drink.

That's all for this installment. Thanks for reading, and please continue to send any questions you have!

The Power To Move You, Part 2

2010-11-15T12:41:00.002-05:00

Maybe I'll get to stay here for a little while longer. I, and four other people in the band, moved out of the temporary tents we had been staying in and moved into the "mods," modular housing that is more permanent and has a few more creature comforts. The walls are sturdier, there is air conditioning and heating, the bathrooms are in the same building and contain a 50-gallon water heater (consistently warm showers!), and instead of a large open room with who knows how many other people, these rooms can comfortably hold four. Of course, there are six of us in here (one of whom is not in the band but was placed here with us) but we're learning how to make it work. There are two single beds, one of which is mine, and two sets of bunk beds, and some limited closet space. There is also a small refrigerator which just so happens to be next to my bed. I can use it as a bed-side table too.
There is also internet available here; it isn't great but I'm typing this from my room instead of the USO or an internet cafe. I hope to be able to post photos now as well.
I didn't sleep all that well last night, but I think that was more just getting used to the new environment than anything about the room. It was nice not waking up to the "alarm clock symphony" that resulted from having about 80 different people trying to wake up at about the same time in the tents. (Or worse, waking up a couple of hours earlier than I had to!) We are closer to the Morale area, the Boardwalk, the main laundry facility, and the gyms, so even though we might not get quite as much exercise, getting things done should be a bit easier. Now we just have to hope they don't decide to move us all from one mod to another....

Q and A, part 3

2010-11-13T11:14:00.002-05:00

How do your instruments react to all the dust?
So far, it hasn't been too hard on them. It remains to be seen, of course, how they will do over the coming months, but so far I haven't had to do much beyond normal maintenance on the trombone. The outside of the case, however, is absolutely filthy.

Do you drink tap water or bottled water?
All of the drinking water here is bottled. They ship in truckloads of the stuff everyday. Sometimes it might be bottled by a subsidiary of Coca-Cola in Kabul, or it might be from Dibba, a company in Fujaira, UAE. In fact, all of the water we use here is brought in by truck, including the water we use for showers and sinks. It's considered "non-potable:" clean enough to shower or brush your teeth, but not for drinking. The bottled water is available all over the post at no charge--just find a stash and grab one.

Do you have time to practice?
Most days we do. Almost everyday I've been here we've had a quintet rehearsal, a larger group rehearsal (like the ceremonial band or brass ensemble), or individual practice time. While we do have to take time to do the various office jobs that help the band run, we've been fortunate that once things got established, we've had a few hours nearly everyday to focus on the musical mission. The biggest drawback is that Kandahar has no dedicated "band facility," so we have been using classroom tents, the Fest Tent, protective bunkers, and an abandoned meat locker as practice facilities, and we have to keep our instruments locked in a big protective container to keep them secure when they aren't in use.

Are the facilities for military only, or do civilians use them too?
Almost everything here is open to military and civilians, though there are restricted areas. Even so, those may be open to certain contractors who have the proper clearance. Also, there are very few areas that aren't open to people from the various nations that are represented here.

That's all for today, so keep asking and I'll write another Q and A installment soon!

The Patch

2010-11-11T10:17:00.003-05:00

Today is Veteran's Day, and we celebrated in an unusual way at Kandahar Air Field. We had a ceremony during which the members of the 10th Mountain Division were officially awarded their wartime service patch, or as it's commonly called, the "combat patch." Normally, a Soldier wears the patch representing the unit to which he/she is assigned on the left shoulder. After serving with that unit in a combat zone, the Soldier is authorized to wear that unit's patch on the right shoulder for the remainder of th Soldier's career. Thus, wearing a patch on the right shoulder is the sign that a Soldier is a combat veteran. The Army is the only US military service that observes this tradition.
The official patch of the 10th Mountain Division is displayed to the right. The red, white, and blue colors reflect the national colors of the USA. The shape of a patch is meant to evoke a powder keg, which symbolizes the explosiveness of the division's soldiers. The crossed bayonets symbolize the Infantry, the core fighting element of the division, and the shape of the bayonets forms an X, also representing the Roman numeral for 10. And the main patch is paired with a "MOUNTAIN" tab, denoting it as the only such division in the Army.
My brass quintet was providing music for the ceremony, and we played a couple of marches as introductory music. (This also served as an attempt to prevent the Division Command Sergeant Major from another rendition of "Friends In Low Places." Don't ask me what prompted that!) After playing the NATO Hymn, we waited while the Division Commander, MG Terry, gave a speech about the significance of the occasion. We then began playing "America the Beautiful" while combat patches were placed on the youngest officer, warrant officer, NCO, and enlisted soldier, and a Canadian soldier who represented the international force. Then leaders of various units began moving to give patches to the other Soldiers in their units. To our surprise, the Division and HQ Battalion command staff moved to give patches to the members of the quintet--while we were playing! (We weren't expecting that to happen!) I had my spare patch in my right sleeve pocket, so as my presenter (I think it was Battalion Commander LTC Bennett, but I can't be sure) approached, I waited until there was a spot in the music where I wasn't playing anything critical, quickly pulled the patch out of my pocket, handed it to him, and continued playing, trying hard not to move my upper right arm while manipulating the slide as he placed the patch on my shoulder. At least now I'll always remember getting my "combat patch" while playing "America the Beautiful."
And to any Veterans who happen to be reading this, many thanks for the sacrifices you made, and I am proud to be among your ranks!

The Power To Move You

2010-11-11T09:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a great snapshot of what life can be like when you're deployed in a combat zone. Our brass quintet had a rehearsal in the morning, and after lunch and a quick unit meeting to iron out the rest of the day's schedule, I had a little bit of free time. I went back to our tent to change clothes and go do a quick workout at the gym. (By the way, this was my first time trying out the NATO-operated gym, which is a very nice facility with fairly new weights and equipment. The trick is that all the weight measurements are in kilos rather than pounds, which takes a bit of an adjustment.) My plan was to shower and then go to a briefing we had at 1600 (4 pm) about emergency medical procedures, but it was not to be.
Upon returning to the tent, I was informed that we had to move. Not to our eventual permanent residence...next door into another tent. Apparently they are planning to close down the place we had been staying, and we had until that night to move out. So those of us who were there quickly packed our things together and hauled them next door, hoping to quickly claim a good bunk. I managed to succeed, getting one with a firm mattress and close access to a plug that I can use for my computer and 1 TB hard drive. Oddly enough, the day before I had moved to another bunk in the old tent because another person had moved out and I wanted to have the plugs he'd been using. I figured that moving bunks would almost certainly ensure that we'd be leaving the tent soon. I just hadn't counted on making such a short move or doing so with such little notice. With the help of some of the other guys, I managed to make it to the briefing more or less on time.
If you like living where even your sleeping location can change suddenly, Kandahar Air Field is the place for you!

Q and A, part 2

2010-11-09T11:28:00.002-05:00

Some more questions from my Facebook page:
How's the weather?
Kandahar is in the southern part of Afghanistan, sandwiched between Pakistan and Iran. The conditions here are mostly desert: very dry, and very, very dusty. When we first arrived, a front was actually bringing in a lot of dust, and the air was thick with the stuff. Week before last we had a little rain and that helped clean things up a bit, and the air is much clearer now. During the summer the temperatures can get into the low 100's F, but right now we're hitting high 70's-low 80's during the day. Also, because of the dry air, nighttime cools off quickly, and temperatures can get down to the 40's. I think some nights we've actually made it to the 30's! Needless to say, the conditions can be a bit harsh on the sinuses. But if you like sunshine, this is a place you should check out!

Are facilities staffed by Americans, or locals?
It depends. While there are American civilians here, most of them are contractors who are doing other work. Most of the people in the shops and restaurants are not American, though I'm not always certain that they are Afghans. It can be difficult to tell as Afghanistan has several ethnic groups which may speak different languages, though most of the people who work around here know at least basic English. I think some of the workers may be immigrants from Pakistan or India.

What other allied countries are represented at Kandahar?
There are several, and I'll almost certainly leave some out, but the ones I have seen include: Bulgaria, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Romania, Australia, Slovakia, Turkey, New Zealand, and of course Afghanistan. I haven't had much interaction with those from non-English-speaking countries, though I'm sure I'll have a chance to practice my rudimentary French, or to inform the Romanians that the only sentence I know in Romanian is "I don't speak Romanian."

Do the locals ever request "Free Bird"?
Not to my knowledge, but I'll try and learn the Dari and Pashto (both forms of Persian that are spoken here) for "Free Bird" just to be sure!

Keep asking, and there's more to come!

Q and A, part 1

2010-11-08T11:03:00.002-05:00

I recently posted a notice on Facebook inviting people to ask any questions they had about my experience in Afghanistan, so here's the first installment of my answers! Keep the questions coming!

What's the culture like in Afghanistan?
Unfortunately I've spent almost all my time on Kandahar Air Field, so I haven't yet personally experienced much of the Afghan culture. I do expect that to change the longer I'm here, so I'll try and write more about it when it happens. At our first performance a couple of weeks ago, we did have an opportunity to interact with some of the Afghan soldiers, and they seemed very warm, friendly, and interested in learning more about how we do things.

What's it like living on the base?
It's usually pretty relaxed. We are required to carry our weapons (in my case, an M-16 rifle) with us unless we are doing "physical training" (i.e. exercise) but we don't have to wear helmets unless riding in "tactical vehicles" and we don't wear body armor unless we leave the base. There are several dining facilities, as well as a USO lounge, internet cafe, multiple gyms, and restaurants like TGI Friday's, KFC, and a European place called Echoes. There is a game room, college education center, and classes like Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and salsa dancing are offered. All of this, of course, is for when we have free time and are not doing office work, rehearsal, or performing/otherwise involved in a "mission."

Can you travel off the base?
Generally not, unless we are on official business.

That's all I have time for now, but more to come later! Again, feel free to ask anything!

Playing For the Brass

2010-11-02T10:47:00.002-04:00

"Brass," in this sense, being "very high-ranking people." Today was the big Transfer of Authority ceremony, in which Major General Terry, commander of the 10th Mountain Division, took command of military operations in the southern region of Afghanistan. This is the first time this part of the country has been overseen by the US Military. My brass quintet was there to participate in the festivities, mainly to provide music prior to the start of the ceremony and to play the Afghan national anthem (which sounds very much like a remnant of the days of Soviet occupation, very heavy and imposing), the NATO hymn (representing the nations of the International Security Assistance Force), and the 10th Mountain Division song, "Climb To Glory."
Interestingly, one Air Force person (don't remember his rank!) asked if we took requests and wondered if we could do "the Monty Python theme." We were able to oblige, as "Monty Python's Flying Circus" used John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March" as its theme music, and that march was a couple of slots away in our rotation.
The ceremony was held in the "Fest Tent," which is basically a large concrete slab with a "skin" stretched over a metal frame, with a big wooden stage and lots of folding chairs. Surprisingly, this environment provided very good acoustics for our quintet, helping us to sound "big" without overpowering the rest of the room. It was easy for us to get comfortable and we had one of our better performances. When several Generals, including the man in charge of Afghan military operations (GEN Petraeus), regional governors, and other dignitaries are present, it's good to play well! After we played honors for the General, prayers were offered by a local Muslim cleric and a (Christian) US Army Chaplain, and there were speeches, including the outgoing British General Carter and MG Terry. Then the 10th MTN DIV flag was unfurled, symbolically displaying the Division's "arrival." The only big letdown was that after the ceremony, we found out our transportation had technical problems and we had to walk back to our storage area, hauling our instruments with us. That's life in a deployed environment--always unpredictable!

Garden Party

2010-10-30T03:32:00.002-04:00

This past Wednesday night we had our first official performance since arriving in Kandahar--a garden party. It was off the main base, but not too far down the road. The event was to honor the British General who is departing when the US takes over the operational control of the region we are in. Our commander was helping out with the barbeque, and one of our trumpet players (SPC James Leggett) joined him so they both left early. This gave Leggett a chance to talk with some of the Afghan military personnel and develop quite a rapport with them. When we arrived, we set up our chairs, music stands, and instruments to provide the dinner music. We were able to take a few breaks to eat, and the flat bread and chicken were quite good. There was also rice and what appeared to be a kind of potato salad. I didn't have time to try out any of the other food. The chilly air didn't make for optimal playing conditions, although the compound we were in was far less dusty than Kandahar Air Field. (My sinuses reacted to something over there and clogged up, so I was uncomfortable almost the whole time. Not so much that I was unable to play, but I was definitely not at my best.) All things considered, we left a good impression and the British Colonel who was coordinating the event seemed pleased with how it went. He suggested we get together with the Afghan military band and do some work with them, so perhaps that will allow us some more international interaction.

Also, a few days ago I got my first haircut here. The woman who cut my hair was named "Nazgul," so now I can tell people that I've had my haircut by a Ring Wraith. (Don't get me wrong though--she did a great job cutting my hair!)

Down With The Sickness

2010-10-27T03:05:00.003-04:00

I figured it would happen sooner or later: I got sick. Actually, it was probably more of an allergy, but whatever it is knocked me down for a bit. I'm sure there were a number of contributing factors: jetlag, very hot days, very cold nights, frequent nighttime flyovers by combat aircraft (we are at a military air field, after all) making for difficult sleep, thick amounts of dust, and frequently cold showers. Did I mention the daily dose of doxycycline that we have to take to ward off malaria? Anyway, I was congested yesterday and felt awful, but we still managed to get in a couple of rehearsals which were a bit better than the past couple of days. During a break in the afternoon, before taking a much-needed nap, I thought I'd swing around the corner from our tent to the Dutch PX to see if they had any medication I could use. Closed Tuesday for Inventory. We apologize for any inconvenience. Figures.
I had someone drive me to the American PX after our last rehearsal and managed to stock up on NyQuil, DayQuil, allergy medication, and a bottle of saline nasal spray. I managed to sleep much better last night (I think they stopped the flyovers too!). I did learn one thing from the experience: packing Kleenex's was a very good idea.

FUNNY PATCH that I saw in the German PX the other day: a circle with a red maple leaf in the center that said "Legalize Canada"

Finding the Funny Side of the Combat Zone

2010-10-25T04:13:00.002-04:00

The trick with being in a place that has a lot of dust, ridiculous temperature swings, everyone carrying assault rifles with them, and a 50/50 chance of ice cold water in your shower is that you have to find ways to be optimistic. It helps to be able to check email, catch a tape-delayed football game at the USO tent (especially if you can check the score on the internet and see that your team won the game!), read, or watch movies on the laptop. I understand that they do salsa dance lessons three times a week, so I have to check that out! One major purpose of the band, in fact, is to improve morale of the troops, and we hope to be up and running soon so we can do that. In the meantime, it's interesting how one can have a little fun here.
There are many latrines on the base here. I'm sure that contributes to the particular smell that permeates many sections of the post. Naturally, there is a fair amount of graffiti in the latrines, most of it unprintable in a blog intended for family reading. But I did come across a couple of things that I found surprisingly deep:
Artificial intelligence is neither good nor evil. It cannot love or hate you. But you are made of molecules it can use for something else. Nice to see that geeks are everywhere.

Chuck Norris stepped on an IED and blew up the trigger man.

Yesterday, we had a five-hour long briefing. A British Major General told us that many orders that are put out are written in Dari, a variant of Persian (Farsi) that is the most commonly spoken language in Afghanistan, and then back-translated into English. This leads to some amusingly archaic wording, such as: Coalition forces should avoid vexing the locals.

Given that this is just the first week, I expect to have more where that came from!

Live From Kandahar!

2010-10-23T13:02:00.002-04:00

This is my first post from my current duty station: Kandahar Air Field in Afghanistan. I left the US about a week ago, and arrived here last Tuesday with the 10th Mountain Division Band Brass Quintet. We are already rehearsing in makeshift venues (a dining hall between meals, a classroom right next to the Canadian sleeping quarters, etc.) for the 2 or 3 performances for which we've already been scheduled. For security purposes, most of my posts about this deployment will cover what has already happened, not what we are planning to do. I intend to post things in something of a diary format, though my internet access is a bit sporadic at the moment so it may be a while before these become regular. As much as possible, I hope I can give you a glimpse into the life of an Army bandsman who is in a "combat environment" and trying to do what we do best: lift the morale of our troops and reach out to others using music. I'll put up some pictures when I can, although it may be a little while before I'm able to get some downloaded.
The situation so far: it's dusty here. Very, very, dusty. I imagine the dust-to-oxygen ratio is something like 1:1. We are living in a large tent (no, not like M*A*S*H; it has a concrete floor, a little climate control, a metal frame, and is very large, and we do have indoor plumbing in the bath house) which is our temporary home while we wait to take over operation from the British and Canadian armed forces. We *hope* that when they move out in a few weeks there will be more room for us to move in to some more permanent housing. Until the rest of our unit arrives, though, it's just the quintet. We're working hard so that our first impression will be very good and possibly lead to more performances. We want to stay busy making music! More to follow next time, so stay tuned!

Random Thoughts on Popular Music

2010-10-06T15:53:00.004-04:00

*Even though the official name of the band was always listed as "The Four Seasons," people often refer to the four-member group as "Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons." Shouldn't that be "Frankie Vallie and the Other Three Seasons"?

*Incidentally, my favorite song of theirs is probably "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" in which Frankie only sings lead on the bridge.

*Paul McCartney had a number of Beatles songs in which he's the only Beatle on the recording: "Yesterday," "Blackbird," "Mother Nature's Son," and "I Will" being examples. Oddly enough, John Lennon only had one "solo Beatles" song: "Julia." I'm pretty sure George was the only Beatle on some of his Indian-flavored songs like "Love You To" and "The Inner Light," which did not use standard rock band instrumentation.

*I find it ironic that Bob Dylan wrote "The Times They Are A-Changing" early in his career, and then late in his career wrote a weary, somewhat apathetic song called "Things Have Changed." The latter was written for the film Wonder Boys, and won the Oscar for Best Song. One presumes that such an achievement might cure a case of apathy.

*Some of the biggest names in music have written and sung songs for the James Bond films. One can forgive the producers for hiring one-hit wonders like A-Ha ("The Living Daylights") and Lulu ("The Man With the Golden Gun") to sing those theme songs, which haven't aged well.

*Then again, the titles of some James Bond films have led to some pretty outlandish song lyrics. Only someone who can sing anything with deep conviction, like Tom Jones, could pull off "Thunderball" without it sounding completely ridiculous. ("He looks at this world, and wants it all/So he STRIKES!-----Like THUNNN-DER-BAAAAALLLL!!!") Tasked with the theme from Goldeneye, Bono and The Edge (from U2) just wrote a catchy song with no relation at all to the plot of the movie other than the title. On some films, they just threw in the towel and came up with unrelated song titles: Rita Coolidge's "All Time High" for Octopussy, Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" for Casino Royale, and Jack White/Alicia Keys' "Another Way To Die" for Quantum of Solace. For The Spy Who Loved Me they had Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better," which references the movie title in the lyrics. Dr. No and On Her Majesty's Secret Service had instrumentals for the opening credits. (So did From Russia With Love, which played the title song over the closing credits.)

*Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht may have been somewhat obscure German theater composers who fled Europe after Hitler came to power and banned their music, but they managed to write songs that attracted performers as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bobby Darin ("Mack the Knife") and The Doors and David Bowie ("Alabama Song"). Also, Weill's widow Lotte Lenya is mentioned in some English-language recordings of "Mack," and she portrayed one of the villains in From Russia With Love.

*I've long thought it ironic that Buddy Holly's recording of "Not Fade Away" fades out at the end.

*Since I started taking ballroom dance lessons last year, I have learned that it is legitimate to like a song because it has a good beat and you can dance to it. Then you see the video and realize to your horror that that's what the song is about...! (I call this the Lady Gaga effect.)

*Also, it wasn't until I was a freshman in high school that I understood the meaning of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." ("She's just a girl that claims that I am the one/But the kid is not my sonwoooooah!!!!!)

*Isn't it weird that some songs become big hits, even though they only have one verse? "There She Goes" by Sixpence None the Richer, "The One I Love" by R.E.M., and "Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison are notable examples. Not quite the same, but Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" is one of the only big hits I can think of whose form is 1st verse, 2nd verse, chorus, 1st verse, chorus.

*Isn't it interesting that people love an artist's greatest hits album, but hate it when a TV series airs a clip show?

*Conversely, I've long enjoyed songs that are unusually complex for pop music, and have multiple "sections" in them. Examples: "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys, "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles, "True" by Spandau Ballet, "L.A. Woman" by the Doors, "The Camera Eye" by Rush, "Funeral For a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)" by Elton John, "Roundabout" by Yes.

*Disturbing trend: in the 70's there was a group of men called Queen, in the 80's there was a group of men called Twisted Sister, and now there's a group of men called Barenaked Ladies. I shudder to think what comes next.

On eBooks

2010-10-04T19:18:00.003-04:00

Moving puts things in perspective. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm about to ship off to Afghanistan for a little while. Because of this, I decided that I could save some cash by not renting half a duplex while I'm out of the country. So even though I absolutely hate packing and relocating all my stuff, I have done just that. Fortunately the Army pays for movers to come and pack the house and ship everything to a storage facility somewhere in Syracuse, so much of the expense and manual labor were not mine.
It is a bit unnerving, though, to see nearly all one's possessions packed up and loaded on a truck. I found myself thinking, I have too much stuff. I'm quite certain that if they took half of those boxes (not those! The other half!!!) and chucked them in a trash compactor I'd never miss them. Sure, I'd lose some copies of the college newspaper with that hasty and ill-considered editorial that I wrote, some drawings I did during study hall in high school, and some items in my collection of graduate school recital programs, but those are things I pretty much never look at and am doing just fine without right now. I could save so much time and space by just eliminating the junk. (To say nothing of how I have many things I'd like to keep but could still survive without.) The point is, some of my many excessive items include books.
I enjoy reading; I have since I was old enough to read. I have a lot of books, many of which I've read once, many several times, and some not at all yet. I like the feel of a book in my hands--the weight of it, the texture of the dust cover, the smell of the pages. (Yes, they have a scent.) I like hardcovers, paperbacks, novels, graphic novels, fact, fiction, science fiction, science fact, history, historical fiction...you get the idea. I'm proud to have the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy (with Alan Lee illustrations), the complete Harry Potter series, and The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. I expect I'll probably have a fair amount of down time while I'm overseas, and during that time I expect to read a lot. Unfortunately, books take up a lot of space and can get pretty heavy when you have a lot. So I got an eReader.
This one's a "Kobo," an imprint from Borders. It's cheaper than several others, but has a good-size screen and is compatible with many online libraries. It can hold hundreds of volumes, and even came with 100 titles already stored on its 1 GB drive. (These are classic public domain titles like Sherlock Holmes stories, Jane Austen novels, Homer's Odyssey, etc.) It's designed to be comfortable to hold, and it is. The battery charge is supposed to last for up to two weeks. I'm still in awe that now I can hold the complete Lord of the Rings in this little tablet that weighs just a few ounces, and with just a few clicks be reading Tolstoy's War and Peace. (Not that I plan to start that novel anytime soon.) So for the sake of taking a sizable library with me to a secure military base for several months, I'm glad that technology has reached this point. I expect I'll start on Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series soon, and it's nice that I won't have to lug a bunch of paperbacks with me to do so. Once/if I finish one, I can just connect to the internet and purchase the next one. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the complete works of Shakespeare for my Kobo. Good thing I have those stored on my iPhone.

Thoughts On Film: Once

2010-09-25T10:50:00.003-04:00

So, it's been over two months since my last post. The delay has been a result of travelling to Atlanta and Nashville, preparing to deploy to Afghanistan with my band in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, and some general laziness. During my time in Central Asia I plan to use this blog as something of a public "deployment diary," keeping in mind that there are certain things I won't be able to reveal for security reasons. Hopefully my internet access will be reliable enough that I'll be able to post at least once a week. But for now, I'll talk about a movie I finally got around to seeing earlier this week: Once, a very good film about working-class musicians in Dublin.
The story involves a singer-songwriter who plays on the street, fending off lowlifes trying to steal his guitar case and the meager coin collection inside, played by Glen Hanspard. He meets a Czech immigrant (the radiant Marketa Irglova) who strolls up and down the street selling flowers and finds his music irresistable. She discovers that he fixes vacuum cleaners in his father's shop when he isn't performing, and he discovers that she plays piano in a music store when she isn't selling flowers. In return for some work on her broken-down Hoover, he asks to hear her play, and when they try playing together they instantly realize that their musical chemistry is something special. He finds himself torn between his new musical partner and the woman who left him to move to London, and she finds herself pulled between him and her estranged husband, still in the Czech Republic while she takes care of her daughter and mother. They eventually begin recording a demo for him to take to London to boost his career.
The film was shot much like a documentary--many shots of the two are from a distance, which allows the musicians-who-are-not-actors to feel relaxed and this lends a fresh, natural feel to their interactions. The characters aren't even named; in the credits they are simply "Guy" and "Girl" respectively. The music, mostly composed by the two main actors, is excellent and in most scenes is performed live for the camera. The opening credit sequence is a single, unbroken shot of Hanspard playing in the street, wailing his plaintive lyrics, with Irglova appearing in the frame just as he finishes. She gets a solo moment in a darkened studio piano room singing "The Hill," a song so heartbreaking that she is unable to finish it without breaking down. The most "magical" moment of the film is their first duet, "Falling Slowly," a song that won both songwriters/actors an Academy Award for Best Song. (In one of the Oscar telecast's most memorable moments, host Jon Stewart called Irglova back to the stage to give her acceptance speech after the orchestra cut her off.)
The film is somewhat reminiscent of Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation in that both films deal with a largely-platonic relationship between two attached-but-lonely people who mostly just need someone to listen, but I found this film much more emotionally engaging because of the way the songs help advance the story. (Also, this R-rated film could easily be PG were it not for the stereotypical Irish penchant for F-bombs.) If you like music that is raw and powerful and a story that relies on strong, realistic performances rather than flash, Once is a movie you should definitely check out.

Weird!

2010-07-21T19:37:00.002-04:00

I really meant to write about this earlier, but as so often happens "life" gets in the way--work, travel, fatigue, laundry...you know the drill. But with all the trouble and tempestuous distraction that circumstances throw at us, sometimes the best way to deal with it is to laugh. And few people in the past two decades have made me laugh as much as "Weird Al" Yankovic. He is the most successful parody artist ever, having sold millions of records, won multiple Grammy awards, appeared on celebrity game shows, and been a pop-culture reference in numerous venues, from the Naked Gun movies to "The Simpsons." Grunge rock pioneer group publicly stated that they knew they'd really hit it big when WAY parodied their monumental hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with "Smells Like Nirvana." He is probably (indirectly) one of the biggest-selling polka artists of all time, since most of his albums include a medley of popular tunes done in a hyperactive-yet-clearly-articulated polka style. (His Alapalooza disc eliminates the medley in favor of "Bohemian Polka," a complete polka-styled rendition of Queen's ubiquitous "Bohemian Rhapsody.") I have been a WAY fan nearly from the beginning, having seen his earliest videos ("Ricky," "I Love Rocky Road," and his "breakthrough" hit "Eat It") when they first started playing on MTV during my first grade year. During the roughly two-decade span between his first top-40 entry with "Eat It" and the top-40 appearance of his Chamillionaire knock-off "White and Nerdy" (when I saw the video, it was like looking in a mirror) WAY has matured from a goofy guy with clever rewrites of pop tunes and a few interesting originals thrown in to a bona fide creative artist whose parodies match the production quality of their predecessors and whose original material is complex and sophisticated enough that I don't think the term "genius" would be out of place.

So I was quite excited to hear that Yankovic would be making an appearance just a few miles from my residence near Watertown, NY on July 5, 2010. I'd seen him a few years before in Knoxville, TN on a last-minute invite from some college friends, but we arrived late and I wasn't going to pass up the chance to see a complete show. The "Live Al" experience is quite a production, even in Watertown's little hockey arena which has the acoustical quality of a standard high school bathroom. Al has been touring with the same band his entire career (guitarist Jim West, bass player Steve Jay, drummer Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, keyboardist Ruben Valtierra, and Al on keyboards and accordian, and some harmonica) and in between numbers, videos are shown that are compilations of Al's MTV and "Weird Al" show productions, tribute videos from other artists, pop culture clips that reference Al, and Al inserting himself into "interviews" with folks such as Celine Dion, Eminem, Robert Plant, and Jessica Simpson with hysterically funny results. (Sample dialogue: Al "So, Celine, I understand that years ago you went on a safari with your family and you were attacked by cannibals. Wanna talk about that?" Celine Dion "I remember the cooking of my mother." Al "That must have been traumatic!" Celine "It was great! I have fond memories of that time!" Al "Let's talk about something else, ok...?") During these breaks in the show Al and the band change costumes and props for the next number. They must put a tremendous amount of effort into planning their shows, because they must perform in a variety of genres, styles, and costumes and yet the whole thing seems smooth, polished, and the band doesn't miss a note. Al's voice sounds better than ever, far better than the nasal nerd-next-door delivery that marked his earliest efforts. He pulls off quite an impressive Jim Morrison impersonation on his Doors-style "Craigslist" yet manages to evoke Don McLean in his Phantom Menace-inspired "American Pie" parody "The Saga Begins." ("My, my, this here Anakin guy, may be Vader someday later now he's just a small fry...")

The concert started off with an as-yet-unreleased polka medley that my sources suggest is named "Polka Face," a conglomeration of recent hits like Lady GaGa's "Poker Face," "I Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum, Jaime Foxx's "Blame It On the Alcohol," Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl," and others. A more obscure Alapalooza track followed, the R.E.M.-ish "Frank's 2000 inch TV," and his recent "internet leak," the actor sob story/theme park ride tribute "Skipper Dan." Other recent tunes included his White Stripes-esque Charles Nelson Reilly homage "CNR" (though the sight of Bermuda dressed like Meg White was a bit disturbing), his parody of T.I.'s "Whatever You Like," called...um..."Whatever You Like," and of course "Smells Like Nirvana." A touching rendition of the unplugged "You Don't Love Me Anymore" ended with the smashing of a perfectly good (and unplayed) guitar. A couple of songs seemed tailor-made for the culture of northern New York: "Amish Paradise," which I'm sure was enjoyed by a very Menonite-looking man in the audience, and his hat tip to Green Day, "Canadian Idiot," a humorous swipe at common stereotypes of those polite people who live just 30 miles away across the border. (A nice touch was that this tune concluded with an explosion of red and white confetti.) He wandered out into the audience, prompting a lot of cellphone picture-taking, for his Al-imitating-Beck-imitating-Prince song "Wanna B Ur Luvr," a funky string of increasingly bad pick-up lines. (You're absolutely perfect, don't speak--you might spoil it; your eyes are even bluer than the water in my toilet.) A lengthy medley covered a lot of his well-known tunes, notably his first tune to catch public notice, the Queen parody "Another One Rides the Bus." His final encore, the "Lola"-inspired "Yoda," included the ever-popular "Yoda Chant," an unreleased but mind-bogglingly complex a capella mismash of arcane babbling that seemed to be as natural to the band as...well, everything else.

The big shock was when the audience was informed that we should wait out back by the bus if we wanted to meet Al. I hadn't planned on this, but I figured that I might as well wait it out and see what happened. I ended up in line next to a woman who had actually danced with Al during "Luvr," and what I think were her son and his girlfriend. Since many Al fans are nerd-ish and have common interests, we had a constant and random conversation about all things Al and the various tangents that will come up in such a dialogue. The younger girl was excited to have actually caught a fragment of the busted guitar. (I guess these people got their money's worth for the front-row tickets.) Around 11 pm fireworks came from the nearby baseball diamond. I can only assume that they were leftover from July 4th, but hey...free fireworks. At least they helped pass the time, as we waited for around an hour and a half before the line got close to the bus. One picture, one autograph, no questions, we were instructed. I was glad that in addition to a t-shirt (which was printed with tour dates before Watertown was added; it was a "Craigslist" shirt with a picture of "Al Morrison") I had purchased a $3 pack of trading cards, for now I actually had something for him to autograph. In the end, I got the autograph, a picture at the front of the tour bus, and a handshake/"great show; I've been a fan for a long time" before I headed back to the car. Between seeing the Space Shuttle and meeting "Weird Al" I can be glad that I've managed to fulfill two childhood dreams this year. It is gratifying to see one of the most well-known names in the business take time for his fans, especially since he has managed to craft a scandal-free, family-friendly product that keeps folks laughing long after the show is over. Not bad for someone who is so white and nerdy.

Freedom!

2010-07-04T17:36:00.003-04:00

I suppose it seems natural that a blog with the name "Freedom Trombone" should have an entry on July 4. So here it is.

While there will always be the cynical voices who complain about how Independence Day didn't apply to the slaves, or how the actual vote to separate from England was taken on July 2 (the final draft of the Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, though), the truth is that the date itself doesn't matter as much as remembering the purpose of it. For the first time in modern history, a nation was established that was based on a concept rather than racial identity, religious isolationism, or ancestral territory. That concept was that a people should govern themselves, rather than be governed by a distant monarch whose only claim over them was that he was born to a particular family. They recognized that unchecked power inevitably leads to despotism, so they instituted a government that places a check on every facet of power: the Executive cannot write laws, the Legislature cannot enact the laws that it writes, and the Judiciary can only interpret laws that have been written and signed. Even the people themselves are not given absolute authority, for they must choose representatives, and their popular representatives are balanced by the even representation in the Senate.

More than that, when the Constitution was written the writers knew that mistakes would be made in this "grand experiment." They knew that certain events could not be foreseen. They knew that eventually something would have to be done about slavery, which most of the founders realized was antithetical to the concept of freedom upon which the nation was founded. So they wrote a document that allowed for the possibility of change, to give specificity to the broad ideas it contained. How little we appreciate that we can read our federal law in its original form, and know that the changes that have been made have been open and decided by the will of the people, rather than hashed out in secret.

Thursday night, my band (the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division Band) played a concert at Ft. Drum, NY. Our closing piece (not counting the encore of Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever") was Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture." Yet again, the cynic will complain that this piece was written to commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleon and has nothing to do with the United States. (In fact, the closing section of the overture contains the Russian hymn "God Save the Czar," a sentiment that is certainly at odds with the non-kingly nature of American government.) What the cynic forgets is that we play the music for other reasons: it's exciting! It's popular! And we get to fire cannons! (Believe me, the performance is much more exciting with real artillery. You don't hear the difference so much as feel it.) American audiences love it because it is great music, and they connect with the emotional triumph that the piece represents. (In the same way, our national anthem is "The Star-Spangled Banner" because of its association with Francis Scott Key's poem, not because we remember the Anacreontic society that inspired the tune's composition.)

Sometime within the past week or two, I saw a headline somewhere about how poor Americans are more likely to suffer from obesity. I think this says something about how blessed we are as a nation: we are probably the only place in the world where the poor are too fat rather than too thin.

How did I wind up here? -or- At least I Didn't Get Dumped on National TV

2010-06-15T21:25:00.004-04:00

We all have our guilty pleasures, those things we like to indulge in but are not proud of. For some, it may be a type of ice cream, or a series of comic books, or an oft-ridiculed music group like Air Supply. (I'm just using them as an example of course, though thanks to my parents Air Supply is the first concert I ever went to. Don't judge me.) One girl I dated considered "Sex and the City" her guilty pleasure, but I was willing to watch it with her largely because of Kristin Davis. Well, I have many guilty pleasures, most of which I will keep to myself, but just a few weeks ago I stumbled upon another one which I feel I must admit to the blogosphere: ABC's "The Bachelorette."

One reason why I've been watching is because the Bachelorette of the title, Ali, is ridiculously cute. She appeared on the show's alternate incarnation, "The Bachelor," in a previous season and, in a major surprise, was eventually turned down for another girl. The network decided to bring her back, this time with the opportunity for her to choose rather than be chosen. She has been provided with a stable of different men who each try through various one-on-one and group activities to prove that they are the right guy for her. Every week, she must choose who gets to hang around for the next week and who must go home having been rejected in front of a nationwide television audience.

I find it fascinating for several reasons. Throughout human history, there have been numerous ways that people choose a spouse, and frankly, most of them are very weird. There have been marriages arranged by the parents, and sometimes these involve the bride and groom not even meeting until the actual wedding. There have been weddings that were strictly political. There's the famous Li'l Abner story of Sadie Hawkins, who wasn't much of a looker but was very fast on her feet and got to marry the first guy who couldn't outrun her. But only recently have people had the opportunity to go on national television and have their dates planned by a producer, followed by a video crew, and edited for mass consumption. Then again, this affords those involved to benefit from a major television network budget, and they take helicopter trips, participate in "The Lion King" on Broadway, travel to Europe, and help the (all-male) rock band Barenaked Ladies make a music video. We should all be so lucky to experience courtship like that.

I am also fascinated to watch how these guys behave. Just as Ali is one of those girls that you look at and wonder why she's still single, most of the men are better-than-average looking, well-chiseled, and have jobs like lawyer, pro wrestler, weatherman, etc. Most of them dress well, and it seems like standard procedure now for at least two per week to try to pick up a guitar and serenade the beautiful blonde. And yet, the majority of these dudes are really insecure. There are quite a few that, whenever they have their cut-away "interview" to talk directly to the audience, mention how jealous they are becoming, how hard it is to see Ali spending time with the other guys, how much they are certain that if she only knew how much I CARE about Ali she'd definitely pick me. I find myself thinking about how lame it is that these guys with so much potential are just losing all their dignity in front of millions of people, and then I remember that they are hanging out with her in a swanky New York hotel while I'm curled up in the fetal position on my couch watching TV like I do almost every night in this little town 70 miles from the nearest big city.

It does make me wonder how I'd do on a show like that. I'm not sure if I'd rather be the chooser or a potential choosee. (Is that a word? For the purposes of this blog, I will assume yes.)

Would I be one of the cool, laid back, confident guys that manage to have successful interactions? Or would I be one of the increasingly paranoid headcases who constantly resorts to cliched and trite "romantic talk" and gets a tattoo to "prove" how serious he is. (Congratulations, now you get to hope there's a girl somewhere on this continent who doesn't think you're going to become a stalker!!!) I wonder if Ali gets to watch the behind-the-scenes video that we do, and does that affect her decisions?

And part of the reason I watch is for the vicarious thrill--I have no luck with women these days. Even in Atlanta, which has a much larger dating pool than Watertown, I had a knack for developing a good rapport with women who wanted to be "just friends" or were already seeing someone else. The type of women that tend to interest me (some college education, physically fit and active, intelligent, of good character, variety of interests, basic good hygiene) simply don't stay in Watertown. I'm beginning to doubt if they even stay in Syracuse. There's a huge singles crowd in New York City, but that's still several hours away by car or train. It simply isn't easy to meet people anymore. It's far more convenient to watch other people date on television than to try to do it myself. But if you're reading this, and you're a single girl with many nice qualities, let me know what you think of Air Supply.

Imperfect

2010-06-03T20:29:00.004-04:00

Chuck Norris would have called the baserunner out. --from my Facebook page

If you're a baseball fan, as I am, then you already know the situation from last night's game between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians: Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out away from throwing the unprecedented third perfect game of the season when first base umpire Jim Joyce called the 27th batter safe even though replays showed he was clearly out. Galarraga retired the final batter to complete a one-hit shutout rather than MLB's 21st perfect game. Several fans and commentators have offered various opinions on the matter:

*Change the call to an error, thus preserving the no-hitter without actually altering anything else that happened.

*Retroactively correct the call and remove the final at-bat from the record books, thus officially preserving the perfect game.

*Do nothing. Mistakes happen and that's what happened here. The outcome will be more memorable because of the controversy, and will be remembered with Harvey Haddix's monumental non-perfect game in 1959.

MLB Commissioner Bud Selig seems to have chosen the final option, though he now claims to be exploring instituting a replay option beyond correcting disputed home runs.

Some of the arguments I've heard for preserving the original call, and some of them are truly ludicrous, have something to do with baseball being a "metaphor for life" and "learning to deal with disappointment," and that such things "build character." Baloney. Baseball, like just about any sport, is about the rules. It is not a metaphor, it is not a character-building exercise, it is a game in which certain actions dictate certain outcomes. We may impose loftier ideals onto the game, but the game itself is about recording 27 outs before the other team scores more runs than you do. If you record 27 of those outs consecutively, you have a perfect game, as long as your offense can circle the bases. (Haddix's Pirates didn't, resulting in the most incredible single-game offensive failure of all time.)

Perfect games are among the rarest of feats in sports. They are an alignment of great pitching, great defense, and usually luck mixed with poor hitting. It is disappointing when they are lost on a bad pitch, a dropped ball, a hesitation. It is even worse when they are lost because of an officiating mistake. What MLB is telling us, essentially, is that the actions of the players on the field do not matter as much as a split-second decision from the umpire. A team can do everything right and still be denied their place in the statistical history book because of a non-player's human error.

We all know of those notorious game-changing errors that have been caused by an officiating goof in the past: the very similar mistake that probably cost the St. Louis Cardinals the 1985 World Series, the fifth down play that allowed Colorado to win a football game, Nebraska's "kicked" ball in the end zone that allowed them to keep an undefeated season alive, Testaverde's yard-short touchdown. Mistakes happen, and they will continue. Such is the nature of being human. But is this not an opportunity for us to learn a different lesson? That sometimes those with the power to correct a mistake should correct that mistake? That allowing an injustice to stand because we can't fix every mistake is to admit that no rule is worth upholding? "We can't catch every speeding car, so why bother about enforcing the speed limit at all?"

To their credit, both Galarrage and Joyce have handled the matter with the highest degree of dignity and class. Joyce has apologized profusely, and Galarraga has been gracious and forgiving. They have truly been a credit to the image of MLB. So good in fact, that I think they each deserve a mulligan. Let the umpire's mistake get corrected so he won't spend the rest of his career as "that guy." Let the pitcher take his place in the Hall of Fame's register of perfect games. Let the fans in the park have their attendance at a historic moment recognized by the League that only survives because of their support.

I propose (not that the League cares about my opinions) a simple rule change, retroactive to June 2, 2010. "Any play that has the potential to end the game that is disputed by a manager or a member of the umpiring crew may be reviewed by the home plate umpire or another umpire of his choosing if he himself made the disputed call. Upon review, if the initial call is judged to be incorrect it shall be changed appropriately and no action taken after such change shall be entered into the record of the game, and no such statistics will be applied to any players in the game. This rule will not apply to a dispute of the strike zone."

Well, that's what I would do.

Stream of Consciousness Blogging

2010-05-25T18:28:00.003-04:00

*Upstate New York is weird. Temperatures this week are in the 80's. Because it was cold enough to snow just a month ago, it feels like it's over 100 here.

*People who write love songs enjoy referencing Romeo and Juliet. Did these people ever, you know...watch the play??? Romeo and Juliet don't work out too well as couple. Sure, they spout lots of magnificent poetic oratory, but they end up unnecessarily and prematurely dead. Interesting thing, to me anyway, is that the play isn't about the outcome of their relationship. The prologue tells us they're going to die. The point of the story is that it takes the deaths of four teenagers (Mercutio, Tybalt, Romeo, and Juliet, in that order) to convince their families to get over whatever it is they're fighting about. Unlike many of Shakespeare's other tragedies, this one largely plays like one of the romantic comedies, up to the point that people start dying.

*I think one reason Lady Gaga is so popular is that her existence answers the age-old question, what would it be like if Madonna had a child with Elton John?

*Many of President Obama's far-right critics get angry about his religious statements for the same reason his far-left critics ignore them: neither group believes he's telling the truth. Their reactions to President Bush's religious statements were the opposite: each believed he was absolutely truthful in his views about faith.

*President Obama is starting to suffer the same problem with this oil spill that President Bush had with Hurricane Katrina: perceived lack of action. This is something that politicians must deal with, regardless of whether or not they are in a position to actually do anything.

*I actually had dreams about the final episode of LOST the other night. I think my brain was still trying to figure out a way to make sense of that ending. At least the ending was consistent with the overall style of the show. Too many shows, like Quantum Leap, Enterprise, Seinfeld, or even Dollhouse try to do a "big event" ending that ends up being a totally different type of episode that doesn't have the key elements that made us love the show in the first place. The next-to-the-last episode ends up being a better conclusion than the series ending event. I still think every copy of the final Enterprise episode needs to be gathered together and destroyed.

*Shows in the 1960's were shot on film, often 35mm. They were edited on film, with special effects processed on film. Thus, they maintain the high resolution that film provides and when they're cleaned up and released on DVD or Blu-Ray, they look outstanding. (The recent Blu-Ray releases of the original Star Trek are an excellent example.) By comparison, shows from the 80's or 90's like Star Trek: The Next Generation were shot on film, then transferred to video for editing and visual effects work. As a result, the supposedly more advanced TNG looks far less impressive on modern high-definition sets. The image is fuzzier, colors are less vibrant, and the effects just look artificial and over-processed. On the other hand, hi-def makes it much easier to see the make-up lines on Spock's ears.

*Way back when, "superstation" TBS showed nearly every Atlanta Braves game, and a Braves fan like me could watch from virtually anywhere in the country. Now TBS focuses on reruns and cheesy original shows, and baseball coverage is heavily regionalized. I can only watch the Braves if they are on ESPN or playing one of the New York teams. This is all the more disappointing when I think about how last year I could hop on a MARTA train in Atlanta and get seats behind home plate in the upper deck for $8 just about anytime I felt the urge. I'm not suggesting that whoever runs TBS should be whacked in the face with a sock full of marbles. Not at all.

*I just did a spell-check on this blog. The spell-checker highlights "Obama" as a potentially misspelled word. Really??? I think they need to update the blogger software....

Thoughts On Film: Tarantino Ends the War His Way

2010-05-17T10:57:00.002-04:00

"I have a message for Germany: that you are all going to die. And I want you to look deep into the face of the Jew who is going to do it!" --Shosanna Dreyfus

Quentin Tarantino makes films that are at once distinctly his yet also derivative of the films he loves. Throughout any given Tarantino film there will be character names, camera moves, music cues, and plot lines that can be found in various spaghetti western, samurai, crime, or action movies. His talent lies in taking these different elements and combining them into something that is uniquely his. His most recent feature, 2009's Inglourious Basterds derives its title (but not its plot) from a correctly-spelled 1978 film and like his previous opus Kill Bill the plot revolves around a woman seeking revenge for the murder of her family.

Unlike previous Tarantino efforts, the plot unfolds in fairly linear fashion: the film is divided into five "chapters," the first of which is titled "Once upon a time...in Nazi-occupied France." This is the first clue that this film is no ordinary World War II story. Like anything that begins "once upon a time," it is mere fantasy, a story that takes place during WWII but is not about WWII. While some have criticized the film for being openly historically inaccurate, it makes no claim to be anything beyond a fictional yarn. Indeed, it is probably no less historically accurate than films that offer a veneer of authenticity such as The Da Vinci Code or Braveheart. (In case you're wondering, the Scots did not wear kilts during the time that Braveheart takes place, and William Wallace's father was an aristocrat, not a peasant. It is still a gripping film, but let's not pretend that it is a truthful one.)

***Minor plot spoilers ahead***

The opening scene introduces us to Nazi Col. Hans Landa (magnificently portrayed by Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz, in a role that requires him to switch between speaking German, French, English, and Italian), also known as "the Jew Hunter," as he visits a French dairy farm looking for Jews in hiding. Landa is skilled at linguistic manipulation and, despite his charm, manages during the film to convince nearly anyone in the film to confess to anything he wants to hear. Talking the hapless farmer into an "offer he can't refuse," Landa extracts the location of the hiding Dreyfus family and has his soldiers shoot up the room. Only the daughter Shosanna (the lovely Melanie Laurent, pictured above) manages to escape.

Meanwhile, US Army Lt. Aldo Raine (the hysterically funny Brad Pitt), a straight-shooter from Maynardville, TN, has put together a team of Jewish American soldiers (to include torture-porn director Eli Roth and The Office's B.J. Novak) and one very disgruntled ex-Nazi to carry out a guerrilla mission: kill and scalp as many Nazis as possible and spread terror throughout the Third Reich. They institute a policy of letting one Nazi "escape" every time in order to relay to his superiors the horrors visited upon his compatriots.

Years after the massacre of her family, Shosanna, hair dyed blonde, is running a movie theatre in Paris under the assumed name of Emmanuelle Mimieux. She catches the eye of Pvt. Frederick Zoller, a Nazi soldier who is something of a combined Alvin York and Audie Murphy for the Nazis: a war hero whose fame has led to his portrayal of himself in an upcoming propaganda film, A Nation's Pride. Hoping to ingratiate himself with the pretty cinema owner, he convinces the Nazi propaganda master Joseph Goebbels to hold the premiere screening of ANP at Shosanna's theatre. She decides that her opportunity for revenge is here; she will lock the Nazis in the theater and burn it down. Unknown to her, A British officer (Michael Fassbender) and Raine's troops are planning to infiltrate the cinema and do the same thing, with the aid of glamorous German actress-turned-spy Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger).

As with his previous works, Tarantino uses "found" music rather than original score. Particularly notable is his use of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western cues, something that would seem to be out of place in WWII France yet somehow it works. Then again, what other director would include David Bowie's "Cat People," with its eerily appropriate refrain "putting out the fire with gasoline," in a WWII movie?

Two important concepts are repeated throughout the film: the importance of language and the power of film. Fully half of the dialogue in this movie is not English: most of the main characters speak a mixture of German or French, with some Italian thrown in. (Or in Pitt's case, hilariously mangled Italian.) One scene in a restaurant is played straight through with characters speaking German or French, and waiting for a translator to go between them while the viewer reads the subtitles. While one might expect this to get dull or cumbersome, Tarantino uses this technique to build tension. These characters must rely on language to keep from blowing their covers, and we are shown that even a cultural misstep such as an odd hand gesture can ruin the illusion. At one point, Hammersmark wonders aloud if the Americans can speak anything other than English without "an atrocious accent." Unlike Kill Bill, which had extended complex action sequences, this film instead follows Hitchcock's definition of suspense: action is a bomb exploding; suspense is when a bomb is going to explode.

The cinema functions almost as a character in the story. Shosanna owns a cinema, Zoller is an actor and film lover, an Allied spy is a famous actress, the British officer was a film critic before the war, and Goebbels fancies himself the father of a new age of German cinema. Naturally, all these characters come together at a film premiere, and while the story involves bringing down the Nazis by blowing up a theatre full of extra-flammable silver nitrate film, the point is that this film itself is a sort of victory over the Nazis. Through the power of movies, Tarantino can end WWII the way he wants to end it. Hitler may have died cowering in a bunker, but it seems more poetic to have him meet his end watching a propaganda flick. And Tarantino gets to control who pulls the strings: in his world, the victims of the Third Reich's "final solution" are no longer victims, but active participants who get to play a vital role in bringing the Nazis to their knees.

While this film also contains Tarantino's trademark profanity and violence, it probably contains less of them than his other movies. His dark and bizarre humor is always evident, as is his rumored foot fetish. More than anything, Tarantino loves to have fun at the movies, and this is about as much fun in an alternate-reality WWII as you're likely to have.

A Plethora of Ignorance

2010-05-07T07:55:00.004-04:00

Ok, I really will try to reduce the one-month gap between posts on here. Literary irregularity is a loathsome thing.
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One thing that is great about the internet and the massive amount of television, radio, film, and print media is that so much information can spread so quickly. One unfortunate thing about it all is that a lot of people can spread misinformation just as quickly, and this misinformation becomes fact. You may remember just a few years ago that reporters were telling shocking stories about the behavior of folks in New Orleans after the hurricane, and it turned out that many of those reports were ridiculously exaggerated. (Unfortunately, not all of them were.) (Also, this makes me wonder why the massive flood in Tennessee that has left much of Nashville underwater does not get more coverage. Thirty people are dead because of this flood. I have yet to see the President flying over in a chopper, showing solidarity with his fellow citizens. There hasn't been a major nationwide telethon to raise funds. If slow response to a disaster gives Kanye West the opportunity to claim that President Bush (the guy who had Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice in his cabinet) hates black people, then can we infer that President Obama hates country music?)
But I digress. Lots of people are up in arms over Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law. Celebrities such as Shakira and Bishop Tutu (are they even citizens here???) have spoken out against it. The Phoenix Suns showed solidarity with Arizona's Mexican nationals by printing "Los Suns" on their jerseys, providing a rare opportunity to seem dumb in both English and Spanish. (Make up your minds...either stay "The Suns" or go all the way to "Los Sols." Lousy bilingualism doesn't do anyone any good.) (Also, more than one commentator has noted that the Suns play in an arena with secure points of entry and they require entrants to present tickets to get inside. Those found inside without proper credentials will be promptly escorted out by security. I should not need to point out the irony of this.)
Anyway, if you have questions about the new law, I recommend that you read this article by one of the people who crafted the law. Every legitimate objection I've heard is addressed, because the writers of the law expected people to challenge it, though I doubt they expected the backlash to be as bad as it has. Thousands were out in the street protesting, vandalizing, throwing things at police, getting arrested. (Contrast this to the controversial Tea Party rallies, where even allegations of rude comments towards Congresspersons have not been substantiated by video or audio evidence.) But the point I want to make is that when even the President criticized the law by claiming that a family going to get ice cream could be harassed, he was wrong. Only someone who is committing another legal violation, i.e. speeding, drug trafficking, kidnapping, and who cannot provide evidence of legal residence in the US can be given a background check for illegal entry, and only then by federal officials. All these people are protesting because a state law reinforces a pre-existing federal law. Also, a whole lot of the people criticizing the statute do not live in Arizona, where the law has broad support in such numbers that many legal immigrants and minorities support it. (I should disclose that though I've never lived in Arizona, I used to live in New Mexico and constantly heard stories about the illegal mind-altering substances that crossed the border. I guess that's why it's called the "Land of Enchantment.")
What really ticks me off is the amount of willful ignorance that is coming into play. I know, many people who oppose the law are concerned about the civil rights of those who are here legally and might be discriminated against because of their appearance or accent. (Check the link above--the law is written to account for such bias!) But it is possible to oppose allowing illegal immigrants to stream across the border without opposing legal immigration. I have known, worshipped with, and worked with people who came here from Thailand, China, Turkey, Mexico, Australia, Kenya, and Canada, among other places. Several of my friends from those nations are now US citizens. (I appreciate them because they chose to have something that I was granted at birth--US citizenship.) One of my best friends during some of my Army training was my roommate, who was originally from Mexico, and I can't imagine having a better friend to get me through some of the tough times. I do not hate immigrants. In fact, I respect immigrants so much that I think that others who want to move here shouldn't disrespect their fellow immigrants by breaking the law.
Sometime later this summer I plan to drive thirty miles up the road to the Canadian border. You think they'll let me across without my passport?

Liftoff!

2010-04-07T20:54:00.002-04:00

Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
--"Countdown" by Rush (lyrics by Neil Peart, music by Geddy Lee/Alex Lifeson)

I have written on multiple occasions on this blog about my quest to see a launch of the Space Shuttle before the program is canned later this year. I've wanted to see the event in person since I was in kindergarten, when my dad woke me up early to watch the first launch of Columbia, nearing its 29th anniversary on April 12. I had made trips to Florida on several occasions last summer, but was hindered by technical problems or inclement weather. I was concerned that my relocation to Ft. Drum, NY would end my chances since the distance would make a quick trip impractical. When I realized that Discovery was scheduled to launch the day after Easter, a four-day weekend for the Army, I knew that this might be the last opportunity I would have. I'm fortunate that my grandmother lives across the state in St. Petersburg and she was willing to let me borrow her car, thus saving me from paying for a hotel and rental car.
I flew out of Syracuse early Saturday morning, April 3. A quick layover in Charlotte, NC and soon I was in the aptly-named Sunshine State. Unlike my previous trips, there were no predictions of thunderstorms. I made sure to have lunch at Chick-Fil-A, a chain that doesn't have any locations in New York. The rest of the day was split between sleep and Final Four basketball.
After the Easter service on Sunday morning, I began preparation for the drive to the coast. It turned out that Katherine, a friend of mine since college, was driving down from Tennessee to see the launch also. (I have long envied her for attending Space Camp.) We made arrangements to meet in Orlando.

This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams

At about 3:30 am, we headed for Cape Canaveral. The NASA technical crew had managed to avoid any major technical glitches and the only weather issue was the possibility of a light fog. I found my viewing site of choice, near Port Canaveral just outside the gates of the Air Force base. We managed to squeeze in between some of the numerous cars that were already there and get an unobstructed view of the launch pad a few miles to the north, the white orbiter and its burnt orange fuel tank visible in the spotlights. After much hunting for a radio station with launch news (1300 AM) we listened closely for updates. The announcer mentioned that the Shuttle's destination, the International Space Station, would be passing overhead west to east in a few minutes, so we got out of the car and watched for movement. After a short while, I saw it passing close to the last-quarter moon--a bright spot of light moving steadily through the sky. (This was my second time seeing the ISS pass over; the first was at an open house at GSU's Hard Labor Creek Observatory outside Atlanta.) This made for a nice prelude to the main event.

Excitement so thick you could cut it with a knife
Technology high on the leading edge of life

We waited through a couple of tense moments as a particular indicator failed to light up, but the backup was working and the man at the switch said "We're 'go' with just one." As the countdown resumed from the T-minus-9 minute hold, the long list of various supervisors at the different monitoring stations each announced that their status was "go," meaning that there were no problems visible that would stop the launch. After the long wait, it seemed like almost no time passed between the four-minute and two-minute mark. I readied my camera, and checked with Katherine's binoculars as they announced that the cap on the fuel tank had been removed. Thirty seconds. This is actually going to happen, I thought. Seemingly without warning, a bright flash of light from the pad indicated that the main engines had ignited, and seemingly much faster than it looks on television an even brighter flash followed with a great plume of smoke surrounding the pad.

Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the awesome sound

There it was: a great tower of fire and smoke rising against the morning darkness. (This wasn't considered a night launch, but for all intents and purposes it was since the sun was not yet up.) Thanks to my digital camera, I managed to snap some shots without having to squint through a viewfinder. The tower of fire curved towards the southeast as the Shuttle performed its roll maneuver, and moments later we were treated to the delayed roar of the engines and the double-boom of the sound barrier being shattered. The Shuttle climbed higher, and I thought I saw the glow of the twin booster rockets being ejected, but I couldn't be sure as my sense of time was totally out of whack. We watched as the fireball became a smoky vapor, with the smoke from the rockets leaving a variety of twisted cloud shapes and the bright glow of the main engines becoming dimmer as it moved down toward the horizon against the glow of the sunrise. We got back in the car and crept out of the area through the long line of traffic, thrilled at the sight we had just seen and happy to hear the radio announcement that with the separation from the fuel tank Discovery had reached orbit. Mission accomplished!

Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination, with the eyes of the world we stare...

This Might Be A Reason To Get Mad

2010-03-24T16:46:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week, the Health Care Reform bill was signed into law. I expressed my misgivings with the bill in my last post. I also expressed in my earlier post about M&M's that I think it is generally a bad idea for Congress to pass laws that are so huge that no one has read them in their entirety. I'd like to convey the fact that even if I supported everything in the bill, I would not happy with the way that it was passed. Backroom political deals, complete disinterest in the opinions of those who a representative represents, and faith in Presidential executive orders that are completely non-binding in legal terms are not the way business is supposed to be done in Washington. We should demand better from our elected officials. After all, they work for us, not vice versa.
Still, the real sticking point for me is the whole issue of mandating health insurance. The bill has a section in which all adults are required to purchase health insurance or pay a fine. (Partly this is problematic because since the fine will be lower than what many private companies charge for insurance, and the bill also is supposed to remove any restrictions on companies turning people down for pre-existing conditions, a lot of penny-pinchers will simply wait until they are ill or injured to buy an insurance plan, which somewhat defeats the purpose of buying insurance in the first place.) Think about that: the federal government is going to require you to buy something. If you don't, you are breaking the law.
Now, some of you may not think that's such a bad idea. Everyone has to contribute to the pot for everyone to receive the benefits, right? When you choose to buy insurance, after all, that's what happens. You pay in a small part, and people who need it benefit from your payment. When you need the money, you benefit from what other people have paid in. If you never use it, you have no benefit except the peace of mind that comes from having a safety net. Maybe you noticed that I emphasized the word "choose" up there. That's right, before this bill passed there was a choice. That choice is effectively gone. Sure, you can choose which one to buy, but the buying itself is no longer in question. You will buy health insurance, or you will pay a penalty. They're getting your money one way or the other.
Besides, you have to buy car insurance, right? Well, not if you don't drive. Not if you don't own/rent a car. Also, car insurance mandates come from the states, not the federal government, and each state has different requirements for its policies. If you really get burned on your state's auto insurance laws, you do have the choice to go to a different state where the requirements suit you. Whereas when the government tells you to do something, there is nowhere else to go as long as you're a citizen of the US. This is almost like the government telling you to buy a car. (Maybe they can just ban imports; this will improve market conditions for US auto manufacturers.)
Now, if you still don't see the problem that I have, let's take this a bit further. (After all, I'm sure you can think of one or two programs from Washington that have been abused and expanded a lot since they were first enacted.) This bill sets a precedent that the federal government can require you to buy something from the private sector, and they will track which purchase you make. Now imagine that someone ginned up enough support to pass a bill that mandates that you buy one gallon of chocolate ice cream once a month to support the dairy industry. Don't get me wrong--I love chocolate ice cream. But some of the joy of eating it might vanish when I have seven gallons sitting in my freezer because I can't eat that much in a month and still maintain my physical condition for being in the Army. Not to mention, I might have preferred to buy cookies and cream, but I only have so much money for ice cream and I must fill my chocolate quota first. Maybe I'll skip the next couple of months, but then they'll fine me, and not only might that cause consequences with my federal military employment, but that's money that I wanted to save for a plane ticket to visit my family back home, despite the fact that they're getting sick of chocolate ice cream too.
Let's step on a few more toes, shall we? The Bill of Rights says that I have a right to keep and bear arms. Suppose the NRA lobbies successfully to mandate that everyone reinforce that right by purchasing a firearm. Now you have to buy a gun or rifle, register it, and keep it on your property. And let's not forget that a firearm is just an expensive club unless you have ammunition, so you must have a full box of appropriate ammo for your weapon of choice. And if you have kids, you have to buy safety locks to keep it out of their curious hands. All of the sudden, something that was supposed to secure freedom has become an obstacle to freedom instead. At least if your neighbor accidentally shoots you with his government-mandated Colt .45, they've thought ahead by making you get insured.

Random Typing

2010-03-18T17:24:00.002-04:00

Sometimes there are things I just have to get out of me. Fortunately, blogging is a convenient way to do just that! So here goes....

-Sometimes people with political, social, or religious views different from yours act like jerks. That does not mean that all the people who agree with their views are jerks also. It also does not excuse you if you act like a jerk in response.

-Grammar Nazi moment: Could have: a way of stating a possible result, I could have bought a new car if I had saved my money. Could of does not mean ANYTHING AT ALL. Please stop using it, all you people who do.

-Most of the problems I have encountered as a teacher, student, soldier, boyfriend, son, brother, citizen, etc. result from people not communicating. We spend most of our lives around other people, talking, writing, reading, interacting, and yet so often we are absolutely miserable at communicating and frustration, suspicion, distrust, and unhappiness are the result.

-If you support the "Tea Party" movement, don't have a knee-jerk response that anyone who questions you is a socialist or communist. Respond to detractors with logic and sound arguments, not names. If you don't support the "Tea Party" movement, don't call people who do "teabaggers." "Socalist" and "communist" are not insults; "teabagger" is. It is crude, inappropriate, and will not do anything to change anyone's mind. Grow up. Grow up.

-I'm sad to notice that all the commercials on the radio or TV talking about the importance of the 2010 Census do not mention at all the ONE reason why a census is mandated in the Constitution: to determine the population so that states may be properly represented in Congress (Article 1, section 2). To me it seems like that is a far more important reason than any of the other things they bring up, all of which can be addressed locally most of the time.

-Grammar Nazi Moment: Lose means the act of misplacing an item or being defeated in a contest, loose means not securely fastened or of low moral standing. I wish I had ten dollars for every time I've seen the first word spelled like the second. By professionals. Adults with college degrees. English is your language. Learn to use it properly!!!

-Most things are cheaper a few weeks or months after they become available. Often, patience results in saved money.

-I've seen some commentators deride certain public figures for not attending a prestigious, private or Ivy League university. These same people are staunch advocates of public school unions and harshly criticize independent grade schools, charter schools, and home schools. I am waiting for some of these people to notice the contradiction.

-No one likes a know-it-all. Fortunately, we have blogs that you can choose to ignore.

-During a break at work today, I caught some of an ESPN show where several people were discussing the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It hit me, these people are passionately arguing who is right or wrong about what they think will happen in a basketball game. And they get really worked up about it. The more I contemplate this, the more bizarre it seems. We don't take the Psychic Friends Network seriously, but people will wager hundreds of dollars based on what these folks say. And for all their experience and knowledge of basketball, their odds of being right are about the same as what the Psychic Friends will give you.

-For the record, I think nationalized health care is a bad idea. Here's why: I know people in wheelchairs, with cancer, with multiple sclerosis, all sorts of unfortunate conditions. I like the idea that if a particular provider or insurance company doesn't provide good service, they have the option to look elsewhere. Most people agree that, well-intentioned as it was, No Child Left Behind created more problems than it solved in the educational system. Odds are that massive health care legislation will do the same thing. After all, how many other government programs run more efficiently and cost less than the experts predict? Zero. Every single time.

-Along the same line, the President was a lawyer, and is married to a lawyer. A lot of lawyers are way, way overpaid. In fact, the outrageous fees in malpractice lawsuits are one reason why medical costs are so high, because doctors must pay high costs for malpractice insurance. The President has demonized bankers for being overpaid. He has demonized doctors for being overpaid. He has demonized insurance companies for being overpaid. But he hasn't said a word about the overpaid malpractice lawyers. Coincidence? You decide. I won't say anymore on this subject since the President is, legally, my boss. (Also, not trying to pick on lawyers; just stating facts.)

-Some folks criticize religious people for their prohibitions or limitations on drinking, or premarital sex, or foul language, or kosher diets, or why certain holidays are observed. Yet we are bombarded with news flashes on why certain foods cause cancer, certain drinks make you fat, why smoking will kill you, cell phones will kill you, television will kill you, driving will kill you, flying will kill you, why you aren't exercising enough, and why you shouldn't exercise too much. I guess no matter what you believe or how you live, some people just can't resist trying to tell you how you should.

-The above statement does not express a belief in a relativistic world view, far from it. I'm actually just making an observation about common trends in our culture from different ideological viewpoints.

-Tennessee is a football school. Kentucky is a basketball school. The difference between the two is that Tennessee still occasionally defeats Kentucky in basketball.

When Oscar's Wrong

2010-03-06T17:49:00.002-05:00

Well, yet again I've taken quite a while to write another blog entry. I've been busy--traveling to New York City to see the Vienna Philharmonic again, traveling to Nashville after the birth of my niece Kaitlin, staying busy at work, watching the Olympics, bargain-shopping for new additions to my Blu-Ray collection...the first couple of months of 2010 have been a bit crazy.

But it's March, and to a film buff like me, that means Oscar time! This period of the year always drives me nuts, and there are numerous reasons why. As usual, there are a whole lot of nominated films that I haven't yet seen, though several are on my to-do list. Then there's my irritation at the pomposity of Hollywood: they get all dressed up to award golden statuettes to...themselves, they wear ribbons to show the world that "they care" about causes (but not enough to give up any large percentage of their wealth in contributing to solutions), they decide that excellence as entertainers means that a show about awarding movies is also a political commentary, a social commentary, an emotional triumph, a grand spectacle, and a comedy routine. (And that's just the opening number.) So concerned are they with the glamor that they give themselves a red carpet to walk down, as if pretending to be something you're not makes you some kind of royalty. And yet for so many film fans, including me, Oscar night still is worth paying attention to; we love the idea that somehow recognizing excellence in film elevates the art form, and also elevates those of us who love watching movies. So here are some of my thoughts about this year's awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

They have expanded the Best Picture category to ten films this year, largely in reaction to the displeasure that many critics have had that popular films are often ignored by the Academy. Of the Top 25 grossing movies of all time, only six have received Best Picture nominations (*winners): Avatar (nominated this year), Titanic*, The Return of the King*, The Two Towers, The Fellowship of the Ring, and Star Wars. In the next ten top-grossing films, only this year's Up and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial got nods. The turning point seems to have been the exclusion of last year's biggest hit The Dark Knight, and so the Academy has doubled the field, and sure enough this year's list includes films like District 9 and Up that probably wouldn't have made the cut otherwise. (I was proud that some critics thought that Star Trek merited inclusion, but alas, it probably placed eleventh in the balloting.) Still, the upshot is that while more films can brag of being Best Picture nominees, only three films are considered as likely contenders: Avatar (the reigning box office champion), The Hurt Locker (a favorite of the critics that performed poorly at the box office but has won most of the important "predictive" awards, including the Producer's Guild and Director's Guild), and Inglourious Basterds (winner of the SAG award).

Interestingly, James Cameron was (deservedly) ignored in the original screenplay category for Avatar. His Best Picture-winning Titanic also was left out of this category, a rare film to win top honors while the script couldn't make the top five. You can check out my review of Avatar for a more thorough analysis, but suffice to say that while he is a visionary filmmaker who pushes the limits of technology and makes greatly entertaining movies, Cameron is lousy at writing dialogue. (He shares this trait with George Lucas, but at least Star Wars got a screenplay nomination. Woody Allen's Annie Hall deserved to beat Lucas in that category, but Star Wars should have won Best Director and Best Picture.)

I'm sorry to say I haven't seen any of the Best Actress nominees this year. Most are predicting Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, but I'm still pulling for Carey Mulligan in An Education. This is largely because she was great as Sally Sparrow in the Hugo-winning Doctor Who episode "Blink." (For my money, that's the best time travel story EVER.) Also, I would like to have seen a Supporting Actress nomination for Diane Kruger or Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds. Still, at least we can be certain that Supporting Actor nominee Christoph Waltz will walk away victorious; since the film came out critics have proclaimed the nomination a mere formality--he is responsible for one of the few convincingly evil yet charming psychopaths in film history.

Michael Giacchino should have received nominations for his musical scores for The Incredibles and Star Trek, so I hope he takes one home for Up.

Speaking of which, Up is the second animated film to get a Best Picture nomination, after Beauty and the Beast in 1991. It is the first computer-generated film to be so honored. It won't win, but it has the Best Animated Feature category, something Beauty did not have. I like to think Beauty placed a close second to Silence of the Lambs, but there's no way to prove it.

Star Trek's best hope is in the Best Makeup category, the only one where it isn't competing with Avatar. (Star Trek VI should have won this over the oft-Oscared Terminator 2 in my opinion.) I think it has the edge not only for its complex aliens, tattooed Romulans, and making Zachary Quinto look like young Leonard Nimoy, but because Rachel Nichols is hot even when she's green.

And now for some thoughts on Oscar stuff from years past:
Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs despite having less screen time than Supporting Actor winner Tommy Lee Jones of The Fugitive or Supporting nominee Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, who I think deserved to win.

Though it's often said to be the best of the series, The Empire Strikes Back did not receive a Best Picture nomination like Star Wars did. Revenge of the Sith is the only film in the series that did not get a Special Visual Effects nomination, though it certainly deserved one. It was nominated for Best Makeup. It didn't win. (In fact, none of the prequel films won an Oscar; all of the original trilogy picked up at least one.)

The Godfather Part II and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are the only sequels to win Best Picture. (One could argue that Avatar is a futuristic sequel to Dances With Wolves.)

Cimarron, Dances With Wolves, and Unforgiven are the only Westerns to win the top award. Most critics believe Cimarron benefited from a weak year (1931); it is not considered one of the better Best Pictures. Perhaps more impressive is that Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth managed to grab the top prize in 1952 over films that are generally acknowledged as superior: The Quiet Man, High Noon, and Singin' in the Rain.

Only one James Bond film won an Oscar: Thunderball for its visual effects in 1965. Though the series is famous for its opening theme songs, only three had Best Song nominations: Live and Let Die (performed by Paul McCartney and Wings), The Spy Who Loved Me ("Nobody Does It Better," sung by Carly Simon), and For Your Eyes Only (sung by Sheena Easton, the only singer to appear on-screen during the credits). It's a shame that Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (with Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time In the World"), Goldeneye, and Casino Royale (Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name") weren't considered, especially given the ridiculously weak quality of the Best Song category in recent years.

On the same topic, it is hard to imagine that none of the Beatles' original songs for A Hard Day's Night or Help! were nominated, though George Martin was nominated for his orchestral arrangements for the first film. A Best Song Score Oscar was awarded to The Beatles in 1970 for Let It Be, though unfortunately this was not a big enough incentive for the group to get back together.

And of course this blog wouldn't be complete without recognizing great films that didn't win Best Picture (even if they lost to another worthy film): Citizen Kane, The Wizard of Oz, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Saving Private Ryan, Empire of the Sun, A Few Good Men, North By Northwest, Rear Window, It's A Wonderful Life, The Passion of the Christ, The Sixth Sense, The Ten Commandments, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Any additions you'd like to make to this list? Leave comments below!

I'm Committed...Except That I'm Not

2010-01-15T12:18:00.002-05:00

I graduated with a degree in Music Education from the University of Tennessee in 2001. It took me six years to accumulate the classes I needed, especially given that I was undeclared my freshman year. I spent five of those years in the Pride of the Southland Marching Band, played in the pep band for numerous basketball games, and attended lots of other sporting events on campus. I enjoy college sports and love it when my teams do well. I think they're a great way to provide some solidarity among the student body, they give a lot of athletes the financial aid to attend college that they wouldn't otherwise have, and they showcase the university to others around the nation. (Many of my fellow music students were/are dismissive of the fanaticism of some fans, but I say those people have no reason to complain that football fans don't show up to band concerts.)
With that in mind, I have a few things that I would like to say to some prominent people at my alma mater:
Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl: I love the enthusiasm you have brought to our men's basketball team. I'm glad you're in the Top 10 right now, and I was excited to watch you beat then-No. 1 Kansas on Sunday. I appreciate that you pulled it off even with three guys bench because of a drug-related arrest. It says a lot about what you're teaching your players that you booted a star senior with such an important game coming up. I hope your players learn from this example and don't create any more embarrassing situations. Those of us who lived in Knoxville for several years and never once had a run-in with the police are getting tired of it. Knoxville is actually a nice town, but you'd never know it from the arrest reports that keep showing up on ESPN.

Athletic Director Mike Hamilton: Good job with the Pearl hire. I thought you had another slam-dunk with Kiffin, but why oh why didn't you require a bigger buyout than $800,000 for someone making as much as you paid him? He managed to embarrass himself, the football team, and the school and depart right before signing day, thus ruining several commitments of a then-top-10 recruiting class and giving his successor virtually no time to recover. That is worth a whole lot more than the six-figures you're getting for losing him. Bad form.

Former Football Coach Lane Kiffin: I was shocked when I realized that as much as I despise the antics of Steve Spurrier, you basically did the same things. You insulted other schools, their coaches, their fans, their players, their recruits, you ticked off the NCAA, acted like a real punk. In return, you got great recruits and energized the fans and the team. I wanted to buy into it. Not many coaches can lose to Florida and walk out with a moral victory. Hey, get a better kicker and Alabama doesn't get to play Texas for the championship. I was willing to overlook the complete meltdowns against Ole Miss and Virginia Tech. (I had a South Carolina fan complain to me about your gas station comment. My first thought was, "and how many Pro-Bowl players does South Carolina have in the NFL? Hmmm?" But I digress.) For all that great recruiting, all that energy, all that attention, you bolted from an enthusiastic fan base, a top-10 incoming class, a real shot at the SEC Championship game next year, the biggest stadium in the best conference in the country, a great coaching staff, and headed off to a school that is probably about to get sacked with probation the next two or three years? (Why else would Pete Carroll head off to one of the worst teams in the NFL this close to signing day?) You haven't dissed Tennessee. You dissed the entire Southeastern Conference. For all that talk about enthusiasm and commitment, you bolted at the last minute and left your entire team in the lurch. "Sorry guys, greener pastures! No hard feelingsmmmmkaythanksbye." I hate to admit it, but all those mean things people said about you turned out to be true.

Tennessee Fans: I know you're angry. I am too. But please...setting mattresses on fire ain't making the guy come back. Show some dignity and respect for our school by showing a little class. Ask yourself, what would Peyton do? By the way, since my Titans are out of the playoffs despite a stellar season by RB Chris Johnson....go Colts.

Movie Review: "It Might Get Loud"

2010-01-11T19:31:00.002-05:00

Jack White hammers together a contraption on the porch of an old farmhouse in Franklin, Tennessee. It's a wooden board to which he has attached a couple of nails, an empty Coke bottle, and a string that is tied to the nails. He inserts an electric guitar pickup coil under the string, turns on the attached amplifier, plucks the string, which sounds a loud TWANG and White slides a shotglass up and down the string, playing a blues riff. "Who says you need a guitar?"
So begins It Might Get Loud, a 2008 documentary by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth). This project assembles three of the most innovative guitarists in rock history: White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs), The Edge (U2), and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin). Each guitarist talks about how he got his first guitar, how his band(s) started, and his philosophical approach to writing and playing music. All three gather together on a soundstage to talk about the guitar and jam for a bit.
One reason why this project is interesting, besides the collective amount of talent on display, is that all three men come from different backgrounds and have radically different approaches to playing the guitar. Page grew up in London, played in a skiffle band (an early TV clip shows him as a teenager, introducing himself as "James Page"), got involved in the London studio scene where he recorded on tracks such as the Bond theme "Goldfinger," and eventually joined the Yardbirds before starting Led Zeppelin, where his use of distorted, overdriven guitars and bluesy riffs revolutionized hard rock music. The Edge grew up in Dublin, joined his U2 bandmates while they were in school together, and was influenced by the constant prospect of IRA violence. He uses a virtual army of different pedals, switches, speakers, and various other equipment to create his signature ringing, echo-reverb sound. White hails from south Detroit, where it was extremely "uncool" to play an instrument in the early 80's , lives to hear and play the blues, and shuns technology as much as possible, opting for cheap, old instruments and forcing himself to self-imposed limitations which he believes allows his creativity to flourish.
Despite White's early prediction that the meeting might devolve into a fistfight, the three get along well and probe each other for information and insight. A genuine chemistry has developed by the time they sit down and play through an impromptu version of The Band's "The Weight." Intercut with the meeting are scenes of White experimenting with instruments and equipment at his house, teaching a young protege, Edge giving a tour of the Dublin school where he, Bono, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen first began rehearsing, and Page visiting Headley Grange, the huge old house where Led Zeppelin recorded classics tracks such as the monumental "When the Levee Breaks."
If you are a fan of classic or modern rock, or you love to play/listen to the guitar, I highly recommend this film. Now that it is available on home video, I also highly recommend that you watch the deleted scenes, which offer additional entertaining moments like Page showing the guys how he came up with the riff for "Kashmir," White showing the others how to play "Seven Nation Army," and Edge checking his equipment by playing "Pride." However, if you own a guitar, keep it close by. You'll want to start practicing after you're done watching.

Movie Review: "Avatar"

2009-12-29T13:48:00.003-05:00

James Cameron has directed some of the biggest films in history. He is responsible for The Terminator and its first (and best) sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and he personally won 3 of the 11 Oscars awarded to Titanic. He also produced an excellent IMAX 3-D documentary Ghosts of the Abyss about exploration of the Titanic wreckage that I thought was superior to his big-budget fictionalization about the doomed ocean liner. Cameron has been absent from the screen for several years now while mounting his biggest spectacle yet, Avatar. Cameron is credited as writer and director, and as with his other productions he is deeply involved with virtually every aspect of production. This is his third feature film in a row that has supposedly set a record for its budget (reportedly between $200 and $300 million dollars) and as with most of his other films, there is a lot of tech up there on the screen. I read many reviews (probably too many) of the film before seeing it, with opinions ranging from "this is the most amazing film EVER" to the derisive description "Dancing With Smurfs." As a result, I expected to be both wowed and underwhelmed. And sure enough, that's what happened.
The story takes place on a distant moon, Pandora, which contains a valuable mineral called "unobtanium." (Subtlety is not one of Cameron's strengths as a storyteller.) A mining company is desperate to get to the biggest underground deposit, located under a massive tree that is the home of a tribe of Na'vi, Pandora's 10-foot tall blue-skinned humanoids. Jake Sully, the story's hero, is a former US Marine whose battle injuries have left him in a wheelchair. Despite having no training for the program, he is selected to operate his late twin brother's avatar, a genetically-modified Na'vi drone which acts as a sort of virtual-reality body in which the operator can interact with the natives in the poisonous-to-humans atmosphere. The avatars are part of a program, headed by chain-smoking scientist Sigourney Weaver, to study and understand the Na'vi though the corporation's militaristic security operations chief sees them as a way to get intel that can be used to overthrow the primitives. Through his avatar, Jake falls in love with his new-found mobility, the spectacular environment, the chief's daughter...you get the idea. Rather than gather information, he decides he wants to join the tribe.
The environment of Pandora is quite impressive: the CGI-rendered world is magnificent in its detail and execution. The bright, phosphorescent colors are a bit overwhelming after a while and the effect is what I would describe as "convincing" rather than "realistic." Pandora's lower gravity presumably is what allows for its incredibly large plants, creatures, and floating mountains, all of which do provide a suitably alien setting, especially when seen in an IMAX 3-D theater. The 3-D photography still suffers at times from the motion blur common to 3-D films, but the effect of true depth is the best I have ever seen. The glasses do become a bit annoying during the over 2 hour 40 minute running time. Some of the aerial sequences are genuinely breathtaking, and as a whole this film is the only one that rivals this summer's Star Trek for realism.
Part of the realism involves the Na'vi themselves, created through the most detailed and painstaking motion-capture yet used in a movie. The details of the characters' mouths, noses, and eyes make for very convincing characters and it is easy to believe that you are seeing a close representation of the actors who play the Na'vi. As a technical achievement, I'm not sure there is much that would improve it.
As a story, there are problems. If you have seen Dances With Wolves, you won't be surprised by a single element of the plot. For all the time, effort, and money that went into this film it is disappointing that Cameron didn't take another couple of weeks or bring in other writers to flesh out what is essentially a bad cowboys-good Indians action flick. As I wrote earlier, Cameron is not good at being subtle. We are told how vitally important it is to the "company" that unobtanium be acquired, but my reaction throughout the entire film was "so what?" It was difficult to believe that anyone would invest so many resources and risk so much destruction for this stuff. Maybe that's the point of the story, but if I'd been told the stuff could cure cancer or cause the growth of giant, delicious radishes I would have found the motivation of the villains more believable.
The villains. If a story doesn't have good villains, its success as a story is likely to be compromised. The bad guys in this movie, a gung-ho former Colonel and the corporate manager, are so one-dimensional that I was waiting for a "soon Metropolis will feel the sting of my death ray" monologue. From the moment they appear on screen, there is no doubt: these guys exist only to make bad decisions and be hated by the viewer. They want to destroy the Na'vi, because bad guys like explosions and hate kittens. When the battle tactic of "fight terror with terror" is mentioned, it is a jolt not just because it is an obvious "James Cameron commenting on modern warfare" moment but because there is no aspect of the plot up to that moment that in any way resembles terrorism. It falls into the narrative trap of "every war is Vietnam" and "modern armies bad, primitive armies good" (unless the good guys are using modern weapons they swiped from the bad guys) because the narrative is now making an important statement rather than letting the story unfold in an organic manner.
That's a shame, because despite my misgivings after seeing the film's overly-long trailer several weeks ago, I wanted to get wrapped up in the story. The effect was similar to experiencing a great roller coaster ride, only to be told at the end-by the person operating the ride-that cutting down trees to make room for roller coasters is bad. I appreciate the message, but do you have to be that heavy-handed?
The romance story is actually well-done, and the explanation for why the Na'vi are so dependant upon their environment made the almost literal "tree hugging" aspect of the story consistent and plausible within the realm of the film. In some ways that aspect of the film works better than the rather simplistic teen romance of Titanic, which also was visually spectacular but suffered from having a cartoony bad guy. It seems to me that Cameron is at his best when the antagonist is an amoral killing machine or an impersonal group of flesh-eating aliens, but at his worst when he tries to write conflict between humans (or Na'vi). While we can accept that robots from the future have no motivation other than the orders given by the programmer, humans don't work that way. It's a shame that a movie with such convincing 3-D effects should have unconvincing 1-D characters.
But don't get the wrong idea if it seems I'm being a bit harsh--Avatar is an adrenaline-packed experience with some truly exciting action sequences and amazing visuals. If you are even considering seeing it, GO. Despite its shortcomings, it is a landmark film, a testament to what a whole lot of time, money, and technology can do to create a world that previously only existed in the imagination. Watching this on even a good television in your living room would be like watching a video of the aforementioned roller coaster: it may technically look the same, but it won't match the experience of being there.

Holiday Thoughts

2009-12-26T12:09:00.003-05:00

*This has been something of a frustrating period for me. I'm glad to have a couple of weeks to get away from work (paid vacation!) and visit family and friends, but I also spent nearly two whole days of my hard-earned leave sitting in the Philadelphia airport waiting for the snow to stop. This caused me to miss lunch with some friends in Atlanta, as well as attending an NFL game with my family. Weather is one of those things you can't control, but as Calvin said, "I'm still going to gripe about it."

*I don't really buy the whole "war on Christmas" that a lot of people complain about. I don't think that there is really a major cultural movement to stop people from celebrating Christmas. The holiday is too popular, too ingrained in the culture, and too much money is involved for it to be swept under the rug. However, there is a war on many of the things that Christmas represents: goodwill to those with whom we disagree, the recognition of our common failings in the light of better ideals, the importance of people over things. These have been under assault for a long time.

*Every year, there is an effort by someone to get some sort of holiday symbol removed from public property. They like to invoke the First Amendment, claiming that a nativity scene in front of a building is "government endorsement of a religion." Well, government should be a reflection of its people and if the majority think that it isn't an imposition, that should settle it. The "establishment clause" means that the government can't officially sponsor, or be sponsored by, a church. It does not mean that members of the government can't express their solidarity with others of similar beliefs. When people want trees and mangers taken away, it says more about their selfishness and insecurity than it does about the people celebrating a time-honored tradition.

*Yes, most Christians know Jesus wasn't born in December. We know that Yule was a pagan celebration of the winter solstice. Stop trying to take our joy from us by pointing it out in a snarky, holier-than-thou manner. It just makes you look like a jerk. People who believe Christmas is important are the same type of people who founded the nation that allows you to live your life of non-belief quite comfortably, so stop complaining about how the culture of freedom that you enjoy inconveniences you because you're tired of looking at manger scenes.

*Some people oppose massive legislative bills because they are rushed through without time to be properly evaluated, and then they vote for the bill anyway because they got a deal too good to pass up. Some others plan to vote for it, but will hold out until they manage to extort as much as possible from the taxpayers. Neither speaks well for a person's character. So why do we keep electing them?

*The trick with taking vacation in the hopes of seeing people is that everyone is on vacation, so they all have plans and commitments. Thus, it is difficult to actually get together with the people you wanted to see. Like I said...frustrating.

*I did discover that there is a Chick-Fil-A in the Philadelphia airport. Yep....closed on Sunday.

*My deepest gratitude to the USO, which provides an area in many airports for traveling members of the armed services to relax, have free food and beverages, check email, sleep, etc. during layovers, especially when flights are delayed. It makes a difficult trip much easier. Thanks.

Thanksgiving Across the Border

2009-12-08T18:38:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving weekend is the single biggest travel weekend of the year in the United States. Because of this, air travel is more expensive and good seats are harder to find. Because of this, I did not travel back home to Tennessee for Thanksgiving this year, nor did I visit friends and family in Georgia. (For the first time in four years, I also did not play in the pit orchestra for Columbus (GA) Ballet's production of The Nutcracker.) So instead, I took a road trip.
Jeff, a friend of mine who served with me in the bands at Ft. Benning and Ft. McPherson, told me a while back that he had the urge to go visit Montreal, the largest city in the Canadian Francophone province of Quebec. So once I decided that flying was out of the question and that it's less than a four-hour drive from Watertown, NY to Montreal, we decided to use the four-day weekend to hang out in Canada.
Thursday afternoon I crossed the border about twenty-six miles from where I live and work. I arrived at the airport just in time to pick up Jeff after he retrieved his baggage, and we headed for the Best Western Europa in downtown Montreal. After checking in and unloading, we bundled up for a walk around the area. The hotel had an ideal location, near several shops and restaurants and close to the city's Metro subway system. (We were also just down the street from Centre Bell, the arena that is home to the fabled Montreal Canadiens hockey team, but attending a game was not on the agenda this weekend. Which is fine, because we probably couldn't have gotten tickets.) We ate at a food court in an underground mall, and I was surprised by the way that many people there casually and randomly switch between speaking English and French. Montreal is what I'd call "comfortably bilingual," and many people there seem comfortable using either language. That was fine for me, as I haven't attempted to speak French regularly since I took 200-level French my freshman year in college. Jeff's French is better than mine, probably because he used to be stationed in Europe. No doubt I'd have a harder time in other Quebec cities where the population is more adamant about speaking only French. Several locals also seemed to think Jeff was from France because of his accent, which was noticeably different from the rather bizarre accent that the Quebecois have. (Actually Jeff's family is from Thailand.) We wrapped up the evening at a local pub, Les 3 Brasseurs, where Jeff bought one of their custom glasses to add to his collection.
Friday was mostly spent shopping (Jeff says it's easier to find things in his diminutive size in Canada than in the US), browsing bookstores, and trying to avoid the constant rain. I suggested going to Le Tour Montreal, the world's tallest inclined tower. It is located next to Stade Olympique (Olympic Stadium), built for the 1976 Summer Olympics and former home to the Montreal Expos baseball team (now the Washington Nationals). This made for our first trip on Montreal's excellent Metro system, the smoothest subway I've ever ridden. Upon exiting the train, we saw a partitioned area that looked like a ticket line for the tower. Instead, it was a ticket line for people getting the H1N1 Flu Vaccine, and once we realized that we were about to get shots, it took quite a bit of us repeating "pas de vaccine!" to convince the workers that we were there as tourists, not patients. We finally made our way out of the station, which is actually located under the stadium, and walked all the way around to the tower. We decided to go back the next day, as we were told the weather was causing near zero visibility. We took the train to Vieux Montreal, the old part of the city with brick streets and old stone buildings. After exploring a fascinating shop with lots of Renaissance-themed items, we ate at a very upscale restaurant with excellent salmon and hot fresh bread. To sample the city's nightlife, we chose a club within reasonable walking distance from the hotel and stood in line (in the rain, with umbrellas) for quite a while before we got in. It reminded me of why I don't go clubbing much--too loud, too crowded, and I have more skill with ballroom dancing than club dancing--but it did give me a chance to confirm that there are a lot of good-looking women in Montreal.
Saturday began with a trip to Chinatown and a meal at one of the local Chinese restaurants, which was excellent, though I found myself amused by the prospect of ordering in French at a Chinese establishment. From there we walked to the pier area and got a lot of pictures--the sun was out and much more pleasant than Friday's unending rain! We returned to the tower, finally getting to ride the inclined elevator to the top and enjoy the spectacular near-360-degree view of the city and of mountains and hills in the distance. (One can also get a dizzying view of the formerly-sort-of-retractable-roof of the stadium, suspended by cables connected to the tower.) After this, we used our comprehensive-package tickets to the adjacent Biodome, an indoor nature museum built in the fomer Olympic Velodrome. The Biodome contains a fascinating array of monkeys, fish, trees, and birds (one of whom used me as a "target," if you will, to Jeff's great amusement) and is worth a trip if you're in the area. Just don't wear any expensive clothing. Trust me.
Saturday night, we went to a production at the city's most notable church, the Basilique Notre- Dame de Montreal. It was an audio-visual presentation of the history of the founding of Montreal and the building of the church. (Notre Dame carries the honorific of Basilica because it is not a cathedral; it does not have the correct shape for one.) After the presentation, we took some time to admire the architectural magnificence of the Basilica and the detail that can be found all over the building. Dinner was at St. Hubert, a chicken-oriented restaurant that had outstanding chicken pot pie and HD screens showing the hockey game taking place a block from the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Montreal Jazz Festival building, home to the Festival and a relaxing place to sit at the bar and relax after a long day.
Sunday, I drove Jeff back to the airport for his flight to Georgia, and I drove back after stopping at McDonald's to order some breakfast (in French, of course). This was my first extended trip to Canada, and with the relatively short travel distance I'll have to go back to Montreal soon and enjoy more of what the North American continent's most Continental city has to offer.

It's All About the M&M's

2009-11-21T13:04:00.003-05:00

We have all heard stories of the ridiculous excesses enjoyed by wealthy celebrities. (In fact, my sister works in the entertainment industry and has some amusing ones, but you'll have to ask her about them; I won't repeat them here.) One of the most famous "stupid famous tricks" is probably the legendary bowl of M&M's that were required by the Dutch masters of stadium rock, Van Halen. The group didn't just want M&M's; they actually had a contract that mandated that there be no brown M&M's in the bowl. Given that the brown ones were for years the most prevalent color in a bag of M&M's, that's a pretty hefty demand and a whole lot of candy-sifting for some backstage flunky. However, the requirement actually did have a reason. I'll link to the factually-verified article available at Snopes.com. [Incidentally, that's a good website for most any rumor you hear or read about. Verify before you forward that amazing email!]

Essentially, the band had very specific technical requirements for their stage and sound equipment, particularly with very heavy speakers and lighting rigs. It was a matter of safety for the band and the audience that those requirements be met by the host venue. The M&M clause was inserted into the contract in a very innocuous manner in a very inconspicuous place, meaning that a careful reading of the contract was necessary to see it. If the band showed up and saw brown M&M's, they immediately knew their technical requirements had not been read and that there was likely something wrong with the venue. What initially seems like a typical case of immature-because-we-can prima donna star behavior actually served a very real and serious purpose.

I mention this because when we have lawmakers who want to pass legislation that is over 2,000 pages long with only a matter of days to review the specifics, and as such bills affect your health care, it might be worth knowing whether or not someone wants brown M&M's.

Image taken from the M&M webpage.

Album Review: The Lost Boys, "Rogues In A Nation"--Renaissance Rock!

2009-11-20T18:45:00.003-05:00

Way back in 2006 when I was stationed at Ft. Benning, I went with some friends to the Georgia Renaissance Festival and it was there that I discovered one of the most entertaining and creative bands I've ever heard: The Lost Boys. They present themselves as "the original rock band from 1599," and typically wear their characteristic performing outfits of teal kilts. (At least once per show they mock the men in the audience as a bunch of "lads in pants.") Their music is a mixture of original material, Shakespeare texts set to original tunes, renditions of Renaissance-era songs, modernized versions of Renaissance songs, and parodies of popular music with Renaissance-type lyrics. The group has undergone a few personnel changes over the years but consistently relies on the leadership of guitarist/fiddler/vocalist Matthew Trautwein.

In one of my earlier posts I reviewed another Trautwein project, the Karma Lingo release "Breath of God." Four members of Karma Lingo made up the original Lost Boys lineup that in 2001 produced their first CD, "Rogues In A Nation." Naturally, in keeping with the fanciful nature of the band, the members all play characters in addition to playing music. Trautwein plays String, so called because of his predilection for playing multiple stringed instruments. Kelley Yearout is Clarence the Destroyer, guitarist and tenor vocalist. Charles Holmes portrays Johnny Ozbourne, who sings and plays bass. The group's drummer and fourth vocalist is Michael Starr, played by Michael Guss. Along for the ride is Merlin (Perry Rintye), whose magic allows for the use of modern drums and electric guitars on certain tracks.

The opening title track is derived from a Robert Burns poem about the percieved treachery that led to the union of Scotland and England in 1707. The LB's perform it with harmonized singing against the pounding and thumping of frame drums. "The Diamond" showcases Clarence as well as the energy that can be produced with all-acoustic instrumentation. After Merlin makes an appearance, the group performs a String original, "Little Gypsy," that sound like something the Beatles would have done were they a Renaissance-fair band. String's "Maidens Sing! (with Johnny on lead)," "Wake Up Sleepy Town" and Michael's "True Love of Mine" (with outstanding vocals from Michael and Clarence) are other fine originals on this recording. Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona provides the lyric for String's "Who Is Sylvia?" This track, entirely a capella, is one of my favorites on the recording, both beautiful and mysterious. String also has a vocal and guitar setting of Shakespeare's poem "As It Fell Upon a Day." The Boys share vocal turns on an original rocker, "Lazy Susan," that takes a particular joy in the art of the near-double-entendre: "Sally is a chambermaid, we love to watch her strip....the dirty linens off the bed..." The group's vocal prowess is again showcased on "serious" tunes like the traditional "Burning of Auchindown" and the playful "I Love You." The album closes with two parodies: "Ode to an Unfetter'd Fowl" opens with a four-part harmony setting of Lynyrd Skynyrd's ubiquitous "Free Bird," and the Knack's "My Sharona" is altered to tell the events of Shakespeare's Othello in "Desdemona." (Be sure to listen for the quiet, sneaky verse at the end.)

Word has it that the group is in the process of modifying the original disc, replacing the parodies with new material to end some legal hassles. Copies of the original can still be found at CDBaby or a live performance, so get one while you can! I highly recommend this disc as an introduction to the group. Not only is the performance and production excellent, but it is a whole lot of fun. Check out the band's website for the latest news on their performances and recordings. More to follow in future blogs....

Hotlanta!

2009-11-17T19:49:00.005-05:00

Last month, I took a break from work and returned to my recent home of Atlanta to visit friends and participate in one of my newest hobbies: ballroom dancing. I had virtually no skill at dancing prior to February of 2009, and the argument could be made that I had virtually no skill at dancing for several months afterward.
It all started in January of 2009 when I joined a singles' activity group called Events and Adventures. The first event that I did with this group was a tango lesson at a local ballroom dance studio. My prior dancing attempts had mostly involved swing, and for some reason I had a mental block about how to do the steps because the pattern didn't (in my mind) fit the music. Tango, however, was more like the marching band-type of regimented movement that I was used to and I picked it up much more quickly. I suppose I should note that I got into ballroom for the same reason that many men do: it is a very good way to meet women.
Another E&A event a few weeks later was at another studio near Roswell, the Daza Dance Studio. It is much nicer than the other studio, and they hold dance parties every Friday and Saturday night. Also...lots of attractive women teach and study there. After a couple of visits to Daza, I decided that it was time to take some lessons and actually learn how to lead. Like many things in life, dancing is more fun if you actually know something about what you are doing. I was fortunate to have a teacher named Natalie; she has several wonderful traits, namely she is sweet, beautiful, and demanding. Also, she used to live in Nashville like I did, so we had that in common. Over the course of the next few months, my regular lessons and party attendance began to pay off and I made a lot of progress. Natalie encouraged me to enter a competition, and after a couple of false starts I managed to commit to the Hotlanta competition in October. The big obstacle, of course, was my untimely relocation to upstate New York in early September, but I managed to take some personal leave and return to Atlanta for a couple of days of intense "re-learning" and rehearsal before the competition started.
I competed in the Pro/Am Bronze phase on the mornings of Thursday and Friday, October 15 and 16. Natalie convinced me to enter 18 different events: bronze-level is divided into beginner, intermediate, and full categories and we would dance six styles in each of those. Thursday was "rhythm day" and involved cha-cha, rumba, and east-coast swing. (Yes...swing.) Friday was "smooth day" and the steps were waltz, tango, and foxtrot. It was a bit odd being judged on the dance floor and having to move around with a giant number pinned to the back of my shirt, but I suppose my training as a performing musician helped not only with my sense of pulse but learning to deal with performance anxiety. The results were better than I expected: I placed 2nd in six categories (all at the intermediate level) and 1st in the remaining 12 categories, beginner/intermediate/full. (I should remind you that this was the lowest level of the competition..no big trophies or recognition. The awards were discount vouchers for next year's competition!) Still, I did well in my first ballroom dance competition, something I could not have even imagined happening eight months ago. Of course, it wasn't just about doing the steps and getting certificates. It was also about spending time with some great friends that I've made over the past few months and having fun on the dance floor. A big thanks to the people at the Daza studio for providing such a welcoming environment, and especially to Natalie for convincing me that I could do it. It was fun!

Note: more pictures can be found on my Facebook page.

Film Review: Michael Jackson's This Is It

2009-11-01T15:46:00.003-05:00

I didn't realize until today that I've gone over a month without posting. That's what moving to a new town and taking a two-week vacation will do to you. I'll talk about my vacation in my next post (most likely).

When I was growing up, Michael Jackson was the biggest celebrity in the world. He had the biggest-selling album, the most-watched videos (I still remember how my sister and I were scared half to death by the sight of MJ turning into a werewolf, then a zombie, in his landmark Thriller video), and everyone wanted to learn how to do the moonwalk. (But no one made it look as effortless and cool as Jackson did.) Then over the years, Jackson became progressively more strange. His face was changing due to obvious (and poorly-done) plastic surgery, there were reports of bizarre behavior with young children, and each new release seemed more like a desperate attempt to get the world's attention and recreate the success of his "Thriller" album.

But the world remembered its love for Jackson after his sudden death on June 25 of this year. He had been preparing for a series of shows in London, a spectacle titled "This Is It" which would cap his live performing career. Footage of the rehearsals has been combined with pre-produced "stage screen video" to give us Michael Jackson's This Is It, a documentary glimpse of what could have been. The film is directed by Kenny Ortega, best known for his work on Dirty Dancing and Newsies, who was the stage director for the show. I went partly out of curiosity, partly because the film is supposed to have a limited theatrical run, and partly out of a sense of cultural obligation, the "need to know" what seeing this film in a theater was like.

It opens with interviews of the dancers during tryouts, all of whom idolize Jackson and are happy just to have the chance to be considered. In fact, throughout the film we are treated to interviews with the dancers, singers, musicians, effects producers, costume designers, all of whom speak glowingly of the experience of working with and for the Michael Jackson. Multiple times we are shown how much of a perfectionist Jackson was, as he lovingly criticizes the band for not quite getting the groove right, or the technicians for having his in-ear monitor turned up too loud. It is also clear from the rehearsal footage that Jackson's sense of timing was incredible, and he had an amazing ability to focus on the most minute of details, be they musical or visual. During the musical numbers, often compiled from several different days of rehearsal and sometimes shown split-screen to allow us to see different dance maneuvers and costume ideas, Jackson and his troupe execute some impressive dance moves and stage effects. Occasionally the ensemble looks a bit rough, but no doubt that would have been fixed by opening night.

Michael Jackson was a showman, and he's at his best when he's putting on a great show. "Smooth Criminal" cleverly has MJ inserted into shots from numerous black-and-white noir films before he leaps onto the stage in an explosion of machine gun fire. "Thriller" utilizes impressive make-up and costumes in a re-imagination of the famous video. In fact, the popular line dances from "Thriller" and "Beat It" are recreated step by step for this production. "Wanna Be Starting Something," the opening number, uses in-stage hydraulic lifts to give the effect of dancers leaping out of the floor. Jackson's musicians and singers are quite impressive, especially lead guitarist Orianthi Panagaris (showcased in "Beat It" doing a more-than-admirable job of mimicking Eddie van Halen's finger-tapping guitar solo) and Judith Hill (I think?) who shares the stage in the duet "I Just Can't Stop Loving You." The only number that didn't quite do it for me was "Earth Song;" the production is impressive but the environmental message just seemed a bit heavy-handed for me. Still, it's clear that Jackson is passionate about the issue and that it was a cornerstone of the show for him.

The film is largely rehearsal footage, so odd stopping points, repetition of sequences, and constant adjustments by Jackson and his creative team are part of the deal. Numerous times he drops lyrics to the songs, ostensibly to concentrate on the choreography. Even so, Jackson's voice was still in very fine form and at times dancers half his age struggle to keep up with his energy and precision. At no point does Jackson look like someone close to death, and many times it is easy to see that he is enjoying himself when everything "clicks."

This is a documentary in the truest sense: it is a record of "something that happened," and much of what we are allowed to see was never intended for the public eye. (I say this as a contrast to recent "documentaries" that are full of staged moments, propaganda, and manipulated footage.) If you are a fan of Michael Jackson, or you enjoy some of his music, or you want to see what surely would have been a great stage spectacle, I recommend you go to the theater and see This Is It on the big screen while you still have a chance.

Anything Is Excusable...If You're Really Good at Something Else

2009-09-29T17:22:00.002-04:00

We are all familiar with the stories of professional athletes, musicians, actors, and other celebrities who get caught driving while intoxicated, or using illegal drugs, or abusing another person, but a few weeks or months later there they are, back on the stage, screen, stadium, or wherever they make a living. It is commonly believed that these people manage to get cases dropped and sentences suspended because they are famous and can afford the best lawyers. Frequently these people set up charities or fund-raisers somehow related to their offense in order to make it clear that "that isn't the real me that did that." In recent weeks, the most high-profile example of this was Michael Vick, formerly quarterback of Virginia Tech and the Atlanta Falcons, who spent the better part of two years in prison for his involvement in a dogfighting ring that abused and killed a number of dogs. Despite having served his prison time and been out of the professional game for two whole seasons, many fans of the NFL were outraged when the Philadelphia Eagles signed Vick to a new contract. Despite having done the legally mandated sentence for the crime he committed, his reputation has been forever stained, and he will always be remembered for what he did off the field as he will for his athletic prowess.

In the past couple of days, another much older crime has been back in the news. Film director Roman Polanski, famous as the director of the crime classic Chinatown and his more recent historical Holocaust drama The Pianist (for which he won a Best Director Oscar) has not set foot in the United States since 1978 because in 1977 he drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl. He met her at a party, and took her to another room where he gave her champagne and Quaaludes, a depressive drug known for its capacity to cause extreme muscle relaxation. He then forced himself upon her despite her protests to go home. After being arrested and agreeing to a plea-bargain deal for the single crime of unlawful sex with a minor, he fled the country, reportedly fearing that the judge would not honor the plea bargain and would instead charge him with several crimes to incur a much stronger sentence than the few weeks that he had agreed to spend in prison.

Since that time, Polanski has lived in Europe. He is regarded as a cultural hero in France and Poland, and critics worldwide acclaim his skill as a director. His victim, now in her forties, reached a civil agreement with him for an undisclosed amount and to her credit has been willing to forgive him. But things changed when Polanski landed in Switzerland, which has a treaty with the United States for extradition of criminals. The Swiss authorities arrested Polanski and now many in France, Poland, and Hollywood are clamoring for his release. They have said the incident shows a "dark side" of American international relations. Many probably think that a crime that happened so long ago should be forgotten. No doubt many film buffs are inspired by a director whose success now comes without reliance on the traditional Hollywood system.

For those who know the story, Polanski had endured incredible hardships before his brush with the law. He is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, and he saw family members die under the Nazi regime. Years later, his wife and unborn child were brutally slain by members of Charles Manson's "family" in the notorious "Helter Skelter" murders. I certainly am not unsympathetic to someone who has experienced such grotesque examples of what humans can do to each other. But being a victim of violence does not excuse a man for perpetrating violence on others.

He raped a little girl. He drugged her so it would be easier. He ran from what he knew were the just consequences of his actions. And he still thinks he should be allowed to keep running. What would it say about our criminal justice system if we just let him go? What kind of nation doggedly pursues those who sell drugs, engage in insider trading on the stock market, and people who steal music online, but decides that child rapists should get a pass because they're trendy and living in Europe? Our justice system recognizes that there is a place for leniency--after the perpetrator has demonstrated remorse and reformation by serving at least part of his sentence. Roman Polanski has spent 30 years refusing to face justice for what he did, and using his artistry as a filmmaker as an excuse that the normal rules don't apply to him. According to a lot of the cultural elite, that's just fine.

Maybe it's time to consider paroling Charles Manson. After all, I understand he was quite the poet.

A Point of Departure

2009-09-13T13:53:00.002-04:00

"We cannot allow ourselves to be the victims of the decisions that we make."

I read that quote in an article by a professional musician about the importance of choosing to practice and develop one's skills or to goof off and face the prospect of not having a job. I do have a job, but choosing my job has had some unintended consequences.

As most of you probably know, I'm an Army bandsman. I am enlisted in the Army, hold a rank (Staff Sergeant, if you must know), receive regular benefits, and go through normal training that is required of anyone in the US Army. My specific job is to play in one of the numerous bands located at US Army posts around the world, and I play (of course) trombone.

Since January of 2008, I had a job that I loved. I was playing in the Army Ground Forces Band at Ft. McPherson, which is located in Atlanta, Georgia. I liked being in Atlanta and getting to experience the things that such a large city has to offer. I was making a lot of friends, going to Major League Baseball games, taking ballroom dancing lessons (go ahead and laugh, guys; a lot of very attractive women appreciate a man who can dance), playing in my unit's Brass Quintet and traveling with them on recruiting tours to places like Nashville, New Orleans, Lexington, Knoxville, Baton Rouge, Ft. Campbell, and Ft. Bragg, and generally having a good time.

But in April, I got notice that I had been designated for reassignment--less than two years after arriving in Atlanta--to Ft. Drum, New York. (Ft. Drum is located on the other side of the state from New York City, and is forty miles closer to Canada than it is to the nearest big city, Syracuse.) Ft. Drum is the home of the 10th Mountain Division, and is well-known for getting a lot of snow. I'll be playing in the 10th Mountain Division Band, of course.

Needless to say, I'm not too happy about this turn of events. I've avoided talking about, writing about it, and many of my friends didn't even know until just days before I moved away. I had no intention to keep people in the dark; my reasons for concealing my upcoming move were totally selfish. I hate long, drawn-out goodbyes and the last thing I wanted was to be constantly reminded that I was going away. By telling very few people outside of my work environment, I could "escape" reality by being around people who would treat me the same as always, blissfully ignorant that I'd be leaving. So if anyone is angry at me about that...I'm sorry. I was wrong, and I hope I never do it again.

So I've been at Ft. Drum about half a week now, doing all the inprocessing and logistical wrangling that comes with moving over a thousand miles away and trying to find a new place to live. I've met a few nice people, and nearby Watertown, NY does have a Best Buy, Home Depot, Cracker Barrel, Applebee's, Borders, and a couple of music shops. Unfortunately, it does not have all the great friends that I've come to know in Atlanta, Columbus (Georgia), and Nashville, all of which were close-by last week and now are over a day's drive away.

I don't know how long I'll be here, but rest assured if I can think up a good way to move closer to home, I will. Until then, I'm sure I'll find some productive things to do up here, and I'm sure there is a "reason" why I had to make this move. I chose this form of employment, and while I'm not happy about it I know that moves like this are part of the territory when you work for the Department of Defense.

See you soon....

The Car Control Movement!

2009-08-03T14:49:00.003-04:00

Most people I know own a car. Many own several cars. It's pretty much expected that to get around any area of the United States, you need to have a car, especially if you don't live in a major metropolitan area (such as New York) that has extensive public transit.

However, a whole lot of people have cars but don't know how to use them. I base this on my experiences living in diverse places like Nashville, Albuquerque, and Atlanta, and my visits to parts of Florida, New York, and Virginia. There are far too many people on the road who don't know when or how to use a turn signal, don't check the blindspot before changing lanes, and don't understand why the "passing lane" or "fast lane" was given those titles. I witness numerous occasions each week where a clueless motorist could be prosecuted for what I call FTMP--Failure to Merge Properly. I haven't yet mentioned the Creepers, those poor souls who drive around any turn as slowly as they possibly can. Or the Cloggers, the aformentioned folks who drive at or below the speed limit in the far left lane. (In Germany, you get ticketed and fined for that on the Autobahn!)

I mention this because driving is dangerous. More people are killed every year in car accidents than in plane crashes or skydiving accidents. Those deaths include motorcyclists and pedestrians. Before the development of the modern automobile, the term "roadkill" had no meaning. By most statistical measurements that I could find, even the number of accidental gunshot wounds is eclipsed by the number of auto deaths. I believe this is worth mentioning because while the Constitution guarantees a right to "keep and bear arms," the Constitution gives no such protection to a particular form of transportation. Driving is a privilege, not a right. It's because of this that I propose a new socio-political movement, the Car Control Movement!

I would love to see protestors outside the Capitol campaigning for justice for all those injured or killed in avoidable traffic accidents. I believe that those applying for drivers licenses be subjected to a thorough background check to make sure they've never experienced road rage. The drivers test that you had when you got your first permit? Child's play. The whole system should be revamped so that all new drivers have GRE-level nightmares before they take it. Cops should be allowed to issue one warning for FTMP, after which it is a criminal offense.

The thing is, people respect a gun. It's designed to destroy stuff. That is its purpose. Cars, on the other hand, are not designed to destroy things, but they are capable of it anyway. A friend of mine once referred to cars as "big bullets," and I think that's an appropriate description. Our society needs to learn to respect cars the way it respects weapons, probably more because more people own cars than guns. But instead, too many people treat a car like a big, fast toy. Statistically, your odds are better of dying in a car crash than being killed parachuting from an airplane. Most of the people who are on the road right now won't jump, but they will drive. And the strongest advocate of federal gun control probably drives to an office somewhere everyday on a highway filled with inattentive, poorly-trained, drowsy, cell-phone-using maniacs with keys.

The Car Control Movement--because it shouldn't come down to seatbelts and airbags.

What's On My Mind Today...

2009-07-29T16:02:00.003-04:00

*I came across a headline that said "Fans Shocked By Kevin Federline's Weight Gain." The most shocking part of this headline? K-Fed has fans.

*Google Maps is often like Google: it gives you a whole lot of information, but not necessarily anything useful for what you need to do. (Especially if navigating Atlanta's labyrinth of streets with their often ridiculously thick traffic and unpredictable construction schedules.)

*Most Americans pronounce "Boston" as if it rhymes with "Austin," yet the two words don't share any vowels. One of the wonderful peculiarities of English.

*Speaking of which, many vowel sounds in English are represented in pronunciation guides with a character known as the "schwa." (represented by the upside down "e") I've often wondered why they didn't just make the schwa a letter.

*Also, you may be surprised to learn that Austin, TX is the southernmost state capital in the continental United States. I suppose that it is a result of pre-telephone days, when it could make a great difference to shorten communication by even a day or two, that Florida's capital of Tallahassee is in the far northern part of the state and Alaska's capital of Juneau is in the far southern part of the state--closer to surrounding territories (and to Washington, D.C.) but not convenient to the majority of residents in those states.

*It is a testament to the mindset of conspiracy theorists that a lack of evidence for their beliefs does not dissuade them, and a preponderance of evidence against their beliefs does not convince them.

*Why is it that people who don't like baseball have to make a big deal of how much they hate baseball whenever it is introduced as a subject of conversation? As if not liking anything is a reason to behave like a jerk.

Album Review: Karma Lingo, "Breath of God"--A FANTASTIC Debut

2009-07-23T18:53:00.006-04:00

"All of us, a feather flying on wings of grace...This spirit wind, the Breath of God..."

I came across this CD as the result of attending performances of another local Atlanta band, The Lost Boys. (More on them in another blog!) As it turns out, The Lost Boys were formed from another band called Karma Lingo. The lineup has changed through the years, but this CD is the first one released by the group and contains six members: Matthew Trautwein (multi-instruments, notably guitar and violin), Kelley Yearout (guitar), Michael Guss (drums/percussion), Charles Holmes (bass), Sarah Onsager (keyboards), and Nancy Myers (keyboards). All of the members sing as well. (The men in the group formed the original Lost Boys troupe...again, more about them some other time.)

On the whole, this recording would best be described as "progressive rock," and I'd say it's one of the most inventive progressive rock albums I've ever heard. Though Trautwein wrote or co-wrote most of the material, there are fine contributions both in composition and performance from the other members of the group. Holmes gives a suitably anguished vocal performance on the relatively simple "Run Down," Onsager is seductive in "Power Over You" and endearing in "Bad Sky," Yearout is uplifting on "Open Door" and "She Is Afraid" (hearing the current KL lineup perform this song is what convinced me to buy the CD). "Hand to the Flame" sounds like a cross between 70's-era Styx or Kansas and Hungarian gypsy music. A prog rock opus like this one would be the last place you'd expect to hear the driving blues of "Ain't Nothin' But A Thing," but surprisingly it fits right in. Trautwein opens and closes the album with his songs "A Point of Departure" and the epic, 11-minute meditation on existential angst "Feathers On the Breath of God," the latter of which he has claimed as the finest thing he's ever written. He possesses an incredibly wide vocal range and these songs showcase his skills as a powerful singer.

Despite the relatively simple packaging, the production quality of the recording is excellent. It certainly shows no sign of being recorded in someone's basement like many independent productions. The instrumental skill of the performers is also evident throughout, with many long interludes that propel the music forward rather then seeming self-indulgent. Originally released in 1999, this music has aged far better than most of the popular music of ten years ago. I highly recommend it, especially if you favor the music of Kansas, Rush, Styx, Yes, or Emerson Lake & Palmer. The CD is available online at CDBaby.com and the band's website is here.

The Jumble

2009-07-23T18:07:00.005-04:00

It's been a while since my last post, so I'll take a stab at writing things that are somewhat random and unrelated to each other.

*I did finally see the Space Shuttle launch last Wednesday...on television. I'm contemplating plans to go to the scheduled August 18 launch of Discovery.

*Earlier this week we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin's historic first extravehicular activity on the moon. As a lifelong fan of the space program, I've seen numerous videos and documentaries of the event and done much reading on the subject. Unfortunately, there are still misinformed malcontents who believe that the moon landings were faked. (Whoopi Goldberg, you should be ashamed of yourself! I expect someone who appears on Star Trek: The Next Generation to be more open-minded about the capabilities of our astronauts and rocket engineers.) If you suspect that the Apollo missions were an elaborately-staged Hollywood production (or you know someone who does), I'd direct you to an excellent, entertaining, and informative website: http://www.clavius.org/. It contains a thorough rebuttal of popular conspiracy arguments, as well as a lot of information about the planning of the missions, the equipment used, and the people who made it happen. (OK, I'm a nerd, so I think that it's fun reading.)

*Most people who have watched the moon landings have heard them narrated by Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchor who passed away just a couple of days before the Apollo 11 anniversary. (One reason why the CBS version is so popular is not just because of Cronkite's professional demeanor, but also because ABC and NBC seem to have lost the tapes of their coverage.) It is difficult to imagine a voice other than his describing the moment that forever altered humanity's path of exploration. A fitting comment on his legacy can be found in Ron Howard's Apollo 13, which opens with narration by Cronkite recorded especially for the film.

*It is possible to oppose health care legislation without opposing the idea of fixing the health care industry. (Really, calling it health care reform is a bit of a misnomer, since the bulk of the discussion is about health insurance.) Too many big players in this discussion take a ridiculous all-or-nothing approach: "If you don't support this bill, then you want to maintain the status quo! You clearly don't care about the needs of the poor and uninsured!!!" Well, those who truly care about the poor and uninsured understand that hastily-written, quickly-passed bad law will be more destructive to everyone in the long run. Those who criticized the previous administration for "rushing to war with Iraq" should display a more patient attitude towards the political process, rather than screaming for a massive overhaul to be passed NOW NOW NOW!!! The whole purpose of having three branches of government is to slow things down to reduce the passing of bills that will do more harm than good, regardless of the initial intent of the policy.

*When you leave your home late for work, you place yourself at the mercy of all the other foolish drivers on the road.

*If you love energetic, hard-driving, bluesy, guitar-driven rock music, go see ZZ Top. I'm not a huge longtime fan, but they put on a great show. And yes, the beards are real. Also, they did appear to be wearing Cheap Sunglasses.

*In keeping with the topic of the moon and space exploration, a legendary film dealing with the subject is Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The bulk of the film deals with a mission to Jupitar by a fictitious Discovery spacecraft. The onboard computer, HAL 9000, is often mistakenly thought to be named "one letter ahead" of electronics giant IBM. 2001 co-screenwriter (and book author) Arthur C. Clarke has maintained that the term is actually short for "heuristic algorithm," a fancy term that means the computer is programmed to act human. The similarity to IBM is simply a coincidence. (Source: The Lost Worlds of 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke, published by Signet)

Photo courtesy NASA.gov

Once Again

2009-07-14T14:43:00.005-04:00

Latest Shuttle Launch Update

Second verse, same as the first. I won't be able to make it to Wednesday's attempt, which probably means the weather will cooperate. I can't stand the thought of that much driving again this week; also, I have tickets to tomorrow night's Aerosmith/ZZ Top concert in Atlanta. In fact, I have two tickets and can't find anyone to use the second. This just isn't my week.

(Image from NASA.gov)

More Scrubbing

2009-07-13T12:18:00.003-04:00

(Image courtesy NASA.gov)

My second and third attempts to view a launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

I headed down to St. Petersburg on Friday, July 10 to stay the night at my grandmother's. We enjoyed the evening's baseball game at Tropicana Field, with the Tampa Bay Rays defeating the Oakland A's 6-0. Saturday afternoon I left the Gulf Coast for the Space Coast to see the 7:39 pm launch.

I arrived early enough to grab lunch at Subway before turning toward Jetty Park, the location in Port Canaveral that I had chosen for my viewing spot. As I neared the park entrance, I saw the recently posted sign: Launch postponed. After some deliberation, I decided my best option was to stay the night and see the launch Sunday evening. I drove inland a few miles to Cocoa (NOTE: there is a reason why Cocoa Beach is a more popular travel destination than Cocoa) and got a cheap motel room. Fortunately they had cable and I was able to pass the hours watching Discovery's Mythbusters marathon. I also had to stop at a CVS Pharmacy and Dollar General to get some clothes and toiletries, as I had foolishly left most of my luggage on the other side of the state.

Sunday, I got breakfast from the next-door Burger King and attended services at a nearby church. I refilled the car, checked the tires, and drove up and down Cocoa Beach before getting lunch (again) at Subway and spending some time in a Radisson lobby reading one of my books. When I got back to the Jetty Park entrance, I discovered that the park was closed due to full capacity. I turned around and took the north Port Canaveral exit to see what I could find. I found what may have been the best viewing area outside Kennedy Space Center--the road outside Cape Canaveral AFB is right across the lake from the launch site, with a head-on view of the Shuttle several miles away. I spent the next 3.5 hours reading, walking up and down the road, taking some pictures, double-checking the view with my binoculars, and talking with other spectators. As the deadline approached, so did an ominous, dark series of clouds from the west. Sure enough, about 20 minutes before the launch time the announcement was made on the radio that the stormy weather was inside the 20-mile radius and the launch had to be postponed. I spent much of the next four hours sitting through horribly backed-up traffic past Orlando.

So, I'm about to leave St. Petersburg with plans to see tonight's 6:51 pm launch attempt and then drive back to Atlanta. They say the weather should be much better today. Never before have I spent such time, money, and effort to experience....nothing.

We Hardly Knew You

2009-07-05T16:10:00.002-04:00

In recent days the entertainment community has been shocked by the deaths of several celebrities. The passing of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Karl Malden, and Steve McNair has reminded us all that no one, no matter how popular or seemingly invincible (that was the title of a Jackson album, by the way) can undo their own mortality. Some of these deaths, while sad, are not totally unexpected. McMahon and Malden were well-advanced in age, and Fawcett had been battling cancer for months. And in the case of Mays, it is not unheard of for seemingly healthy people to have heart problems. What shocks us about the deaths of Jackson and McNair are the way that hidden problems have been revealed by the stars' untimely passing.

In a way, Michael Jackson was lost years ago. I suspect that the majority of his mourners remember not the frail, facially disfigured, out-of-touch tabloid creature of recent years but rather the magnetic showman with sharp dance moves, soaring vocal ability, and a gift for catchy, feel-good dance pop. I still remember how nearly everyone at my school spent hours trying to master his signature "moonwalk" maneuver, and it was normal to desire a red leather jacket with decorative but functionally useless zippers, and the way my sister and I were scared witless by the Thriller video revelation that Jackson was both a werewolf and a zombie. With his demand for perfection in the studio and his search for innovative ways to market himself (his video for "Billie Jean" was the first by a black artist on MTV, the Thriller short film revolutionized music videos with its 14-minute length and feature-film quality sets and make-up) he spent years between the release of projects, and every release was treated as an event. Feature film directors John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers, Thriller, Black or White) and Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, The Departed, Bad) were hired to shoot his videos. Think of the influence he's had: Alfonso Ribeiro ("Silver Spoons," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air") got his start as a moonwalking kid in a Pepsi commercial which featured Jackson. Siblings Jermaine and Janet no doubt owe name recognition to his success. The CGI "morph" that is common for special effects these days was pioneered in the Black or White video. He proved that in the video age a black artist could be successful with all audiences. Ferris Bueller's Day Off lampooned the Thriller line dance (in fact, it could be argued that the modern line dance was inspired by the sequences in that and the "Beat It" video). "Weird Al" Yankovic's major breakthrough came with his inspired shot-for-shot parody "Eat It," and he later copied "Bad" with "Fat." (He even went so far as to mimic the Bad album cover with Even Worse.) Paul McCartney shared the charts with Jackson on "Say Say Say" and "The Girl is Mine," and Eddie Van Halen's most famous guitar solo may be the one he played on "Beat It." Most casual listeners associate industry producing legend Quincy Jones with the albums he produce for Jackson. It makes one want to forget how multiple surgeries and a bizarre skin condition altered his appearance, and how his charitable work with children was marred by his sleepover invitations and resulting molestation lawsuits. Even though his showbiz friends spoke highly of his character, drive, and motivation, interviews and his increasingly strange behavior made it clear that however talented he was, he clearly was out of touch with reality. It now seems that his need to fulfill the demands of being Michael Jackson and his inability to deal with the stress and attention have led to his tragic early demise.

Steve McNair seems to have succumbed to an all-too-common condition of celebrities: they won't catch me. While his time as a quarterback for the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens was largely marked by amazing improvisation on the field, clutch plays, and a willingness to play through nearly any injury, McNair cultivated an off-the-field image of a family man and devoted public servant who cared for his wife and four children and ran youth football camps. In the hours following his shocking and violent death, it now seems that he was pursuing some type of relationship with a waitress sixteen years his junior. He frequently visited an apartment where she lived, and she drove a Cadillac registered in both their names. While police are still assembling the puzzle, it is clear that McNair was not living the type of life that his fans expected. I can understand that the adjustment to post-competition life is difficult for many pro athletes, and that an attractive, friendly young woman is a strong temptation for most men, even when they are devoted to their families. But it is a shame that someone who was so much a part of Nashville's rise as a major football city and who inspired so many young (and old!) fans has left us under such mystifying circumstances.

Even heroes are human.

Meddle

2009-06-28T14:41:00.005-04:00

I didn't mean to go so long without posting, but I've been busy recently and it's taken a while to sort out what I wanted to write about next. Firstly, today is my parents' anniversary--40 years! I'm thankful to have had both of them setting such a great example for me to follow.

Now to the main topic of the post.

Some people just love to meddle. There are those who take charge because someone needs to, and then there are those who taken charge because they need to. The boss is the one in charge; someone who is bossy acts like he's in charge. A lot of meddlesome people go into politics, because it's a venue for them to act like they are in control.

Sometimes people meddle with the best of intentions; this does not mean that their meddling is good. I'd use the No Child Left Behind act as a good example. The purpose was a laudable one: a federally-funded system to improve academic achievement across the board. More money would be pumped into public school systems than ever before, incentives would be given for better performance, regular testing would be mandatory. I was a teacher once upon a time, and I witnessed some of the resulting problems. Part of the problem was that many teachers are not well-trained at the college level, and NCLB did not do much to change that. Another part of the problem was that schools dropped some programs, especially those in the arts, to focus on the math and science areas that were emphasized by NCLB. Given that many students flourish in the arts, and that developing skills in the visual, dramatic, and musical arts enhances performance in the more rigid "academic" disciplines, the greater focus in a few areas did not necessarily result in better comprehension in those areas. Perhaps the biggest problem was the greater importance of testing--students had to pass major exams to move on to the next level, and schools needed to have large percentages making certain test scores. Thus, schools began teaching to the test rather than teaching in the manner that best allowed the teachers and students to progress properly through the material.

Again, I'm not faulting the intent of NCLB; I'm faulting the fact that it resulted in a forced system of education that eventually prohibited the improvement that it was supposed to foster. Lots of people who work in education complain about the extra burdens that NCLB has placed on school systems. Many who lean toward the Democratic Party blame former President George W. Bush because he was a strong advocate of the NCLB bill, though they conveniently forget that the bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA). In my mind, both parties deserve the blame because both parties were responsible for drafting and then passing a bill that, in hindsight, wasn't very good.

Now, let's look at what's been going on in recent weeks.

This past Friday (June 26, 2009) the House of Representatives passed HR 2454, aka the Waxman-Markey bill, aka the Cap-and-Trade bill. The bill passed by seven votes, with eight of those votes coming from Republicans and the rest from Democrats. The purpose of the bill is to encourage businesses to reduce emissions from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses by taxing those who produce those gasses beyond a certain amount. Businesses that produce less than the cap amount will be allowed to sell credits to other companies that exceed them, so there is an incentive to reduce as much as possible. Of course, some businesses do not have the technology or budget to reduce their emissions. In many cases the technology may not exist now, or ever. Remember, every time you exhale you produce carbon dioxide, so there is the potential that at some point in time you individually will contribute more than your fair share, and the government will have the power to tax you for it. The point being, the cost of doing business will go up. After all, even if a company can reduce emissions for making a product, they still have to package, ship, and market it. The cost of producing gasoline will almost certainly go up, so the cost of shipping will also go up. Anything you buy that is shipped from point A to point B will thus be increased in price. (NOTE: almost everything you buy has to be shipped, and if it involves components that come from overseas, that will mean far more expensive costs for transporting it, whether by sea or air.) The increased price of doing business (without providing any increase in business profits) means business will have to lay off workers. This will create a drain on unemployment benefits, as well as reducing profits even further since the unemployed generally do not buy as many luxury items. Many companies will move their operations overseas to other nations that are not required to comply with the restrictions imposed by the US Congress. Regardless of how well-intentioned this bill is, the eventual result could be disastrous for our economy. Remember, the members of Congress are largely not business owners, nor are they scientists who understand the nuances of engineering more environmentally-friendly systems, nor are they climatologists who understand the extremely complex machine that is our planetary ecosystem. An environment with so many interconnected variables does not fall in line simply because lawmakers say it is supposed to.

Surely the House members know all the details of this bill, right?

Ummm.....no. At around 3 am Friday morning, a 300-page amendment was added to the bill. The bill was already around 1,000 pages before the amendment. You no doubt are aware how long it takes to read a 1,000-page novel. (NOTE: most novels are written so as to be somewhat easy and interesting to read; Congressional resolutions tend to be much more detailed and and dryly descriptive. One does not breeze through them in a couple of days like many do for a Harry Potter novel.) How many Representatives, who have to deal with their personal lives, sleep, eating, listening to messages from their constituents (after all, that is why they're representatives, right???), and the particulars of doing Congressional business have time to read a 300-page amendment the same day that they vote on a 1,000-page bill?

That's right...they just passed a massive resolution that is intended to fundamentally alter forever the way business operates in this country, and it is a statistical certainty that NONE of them knows all the details of that resolution. Notice how I haven't even tried to address the numerous studies that show that this bill won't actually make much of a measurable difference in the environment, which is supposed to be the whole point of passing it in the first place.

Are you scared yet? Because your health care is next on the agenda. Remember how well NCLB worked? Sen. Kennedy is the major sponsor for health care reform. (Just so you know.)

Why should we worry? People who meddle always have the best intentions...right?

P.S. The Cap-and-Trade bill is not law, because it must now pass the Senate before it can be signed by the President. If you have issues with this legislation, now is the time to contact your Senators (remember, there are always two!) about it.

Scrubbed

2009-06-13T04:21:00.006-04:00

It's four:twenty-something in the morning, so why am I up, half-conscious, writing a new blog entry? I am at my grandmother's condo in St. Petersburg, FL. I got here yesterday after a long drive from Atlanta. While it's always nice to come to sunny Florida for some downtime and visit my grandmother, I had an ulterior motive for this trip.

Nearly as long as I've been alive, I've wanted to watch a Space Shuttle launch. I still remember getting up early when I was in kindergarten to see the very first launch of Columbia way back when. Whenever I've been able to get to a television to see a launch or landing, I make sure to watch. I love the space program and the innovation, determination, and courage that it represents. But I've never actually made it to Florida to see a launch in person. Since they are ending the Shuttle program after next year, I'm determined to see a launch of the vehicle that introduced me to America's space program. I was sure that the June 13, 2009 launch of Endeavor would be my chance.

But no. Some sort of fuel system venting leak has resulted in NASA scrubbing the launch for at least 96 hours. I have to be back at work on Monday, so my best hope for this one is that they hold it off until the next launch window in July when I'm on a longer vacation break. However, if that doesn't work then the next launch is scheduled for August....

http://www.nasa.gov/

(Image from NASA TV)

The Wisdom of the White Male

2009-06-08T10:05:00.001-04:00

As a follow-up to my earlier post "Blind," I give you this article by Leigh Scott from BigHollywood.
The Wisdom of the White Male

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Just Yesterday Morning They Let Me Know You Were Gone

2009-06-03T23:51:00.005-04:00

There were two murders that caught my attention this week.

George Tiller, a doctor in Kansas who was known nationally for his performance of late-term abortions, was murdered in his church by a deranged gunman. While I am appalled at the number of abortions (babies terminated) that this man performed (estimates put the number around 60,000) I am even more angered at the fact that this man was killed in a place of worship, a sanctuary for all sinners (anyone reading or writing this blog) to find the grace of God. I am shocked that his family and friends were there to watch it happen. And I'm dismayed that so many in the pro-choice (pro-abortion) crowd think that this type of action is a reflection on the feelings of the pro-life (anti-abortion) movement. All the same, this man's murderer likely has done tremendous harm to the cause he would claim to support. This story has been in the news, gets thousands of hits on Google, and the President has issued a statement about it.

Pvt. William Long, 23, was killed at an Army recruiting station in Little Rock, Arkansas on Monday. Another soldier was injured in the drive-by shooting; a suspect has been arrested. Pvt. Long had just finished basic combat training and was home helping with his local recruiting office before continuing his training and service. He took an oath to defend the Constitution, to obey the orders of the President and the officers appointed over him. He no doubt had a lot to look forward to. I used to play in the band for weekly graduation ceremonies at Ft. Benning, performing for thousands of soldiers and their friends and families. I could have played at this man's graduation were I still doing that job. Yet some nutjob gunned him down, here, at home, on our soil. It is tragic when we lose a soldier overseas in combat. How tragic is it when another American targets a soldier who isn't even serving in a combat zone? Who has no weapon, no body armor, no expectation that anyone nearby is dangerous?

This story has recieved much less media attention, though I can't imagine why. I'm still waiting for Pvt. Long's Commander-in-Chief to issue a statement.

UPDATE--JUNE 4, 2009: The President's statement on George Tiller, issued Sunday:

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.
Now here is his statement about William Long, issued Wednesday (that's two days after the incident):
I am deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence against two brave young soldiers who were doing their part to strengthen our armed forces and keep our country safe. I would like to wish Quinton Ezeagwula a speedy recovery, and to offer my condolences and prayers to William Long's family as the mourn the loss of their son.

Blind

2009-06-03T16:37:00.003-04:00

We generally don't think of blindness as an inherently good quality to have. Sure, we recognize that blindness may very well have led to the acute auditory discernment that helped make Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles the phenomenal musicians that they were, but given the choice none of us would take blindness over our eyesight. We have the choice of "optional blindness," i.e. closing our eyes, and we can end that whenever it becomes inconvenient.

We frequently use "blind" as an epithet. Those who don't agree with our point of view are considered "blind." "You're just blind to the truth!" we say. "Hey ref, are you BLIND?!" we scream at the official who missed a call that would benefit our team. Or we use it as hyperbole: "This problem is so obvious a blind man could see it."

Yet we uphold blindness as a virtue in one area: justice. Justice must be blind. Justice must be based on principle, on truth, on an unyielding standard equally applied to all regardless of external characteristics which have no moral value. Blind justice. This is why courthouses across America have statues of Justice as a blindfolded woman holding the scales to weigh evidence.

We are aware that our history is full of examples where justice has not been applied blindly: discrimination for economic, sexual, and racial reasons is easy to find with a little research. Our laws, both local and federal, have undergone amendments and revisions to adjust for a growing understanding that people must be judged on their actions, the "content of their character," as Dr. King would say, and not on their skin color, property holdings, fame, political affiliation, or gender.

Now, I've met people who think I'm a racist. I know that they think that way because they've told me. "But I'm not a racist!" I protest. "Well, you just don't realize it because you've grown up that way," they retort. What else is there to add? I'm a southern white male. Of course I'm racist. (One of these people grew up in the north, and apparently this opinion of southerners is quite common in her neck of the woods. They know it's true, so evidence to the contrary is pointless.) Now, I've served in the Army under a lieutenant of Korean descent, a black commander, a black sergeant major, two black first sergeants, plus a commander and a first sergeant who were female, in addition to having had roommates who were from Japan and Mexico, respectively. I managed to get along just fine with all these people and treated them as I would anyone of my own background. At no point did I ever suspect that ethnic heritage or economic upbringing or gender were responsible for any bad, or good, decisions that were made by any of those people. Most of those people are folks that I hope to serve with or work with again someday. They are people of good character. (Alright....one really got on my nerves, but that's because he had no people skills. He managed to irritate everyone. But again, by irritating everyone he showed no favoritism, and that is a commendable trait. Sort of.) And I was brought up to judge people based on the content of their character, not their looks.

Apparently, though, there are too many people who stand to benefit from racial division to let it die away like it should have decades ago. Some think that the experiences of a Latina result in better judgment than the experiences of a white male. Some think that criticism of the people who make such statements is racist. Some think that judges of certain ethnic backgrounds should not be subjected to any scrutiny. Many of these same people had no problems publically assaulting the character of a black man with an excellent judicial record and sterling reputation because he didn't share their political views. They couldn't even find two people who could consistently defame this man, contrary to every other character witness produced, but all these years later it is virtually impossible to seperate Clarence Thomas's public image from that of Anita Hill. They slammed Miguel Estrada repeatedly as an extremist despite his distinguished record in the legal profession, and then held up his nomination with a filibuster, preventing him from even defending himself in a confirmation hearing. And these same people have the gall to warn off those who criticize a justice who claims, with no hint of irony, that the appellate court is where policy is made? (Go check the second and third articles of the U.S. Constitution; it is quite clear on the role of the courts, and in fact gives the courts the most limited powers in the government, partly because justices are appointed and not elected, thus they are only tangentially related to the representative government outlined in the document.) Perhaps she can explain her views and opinions better. Perhaps she can assuage concerns that she will rule based on her feelings and biases, rather than the clear statutes of the Constitution. She deserves a chance to make it clear that white males need have no worries that she will rule against them because of a prejudicial attitude. But her supporters should not expect her to get a free ride. The Democratic Party has shown no desire to coddle minorities nominated by Republicans. For the Republican opposition to lie down and roll over in this situation would show that they are governed by fear, not principle. They must be fair, but they must also be firm. They must be tough. They must not shirk their responsibility as "loyal opposition" to hold their opponents to rigorous standards for political appointments. To do otherwise would be...well....blind.