Greetings from Hot (and a Little Less Sticky) Reston.
This has been a Topsy-turvey week. As SR noted yesterday, co-workers are scurrying about the building moving belongings here and there. I feel for them. In October I will have been here four years and I have moved but once, about a year and a half ago. It did give me a chance to throw out a bunch of stuff, which is kind of cleansing. I am staying put this time, though . I am now in an office at the back of the building that looks out on woods, which I really like. See below. As you can see, it is a bit hazy today.
In a few weeks I will show you what the fall foliage looks like. Reston is beautiful in the fall.I am located in the production department because my job is bit of a hybrid. I write and edit but also lay out the news pages, so it has been helpful being located near the designer/Web gurus.
Home this week has been a bit out of synch, too. My son Matt is away at the beach this week with a friend and his family, so my husband and I are kind of wandering around the house, lost, not knowing what to do with ourselves in the evening. (I am just writing that in case Matt happens to read this. Miss you, darlin').
When he comes home on Saturday, the back to school stuff will start in earnest. He starts high school and is going out for the freshman football team. He has been doing conditioning since June and I am grateful that he has been so dedicated to it. He has been running and lifting weights all summer, rather than vegging out with video games. He has been reading at the beach, so hopefully he is finished or nearly so, with his summer reading assignment.
Matt starting football soon reminds me that many of you have probably started fall band drills. I believe I mentioned previously that I played clarinet in marching band and orchestra in high school (not well, mind you, but I was usually around second chair) and I loved marching band. More on that as we get into fall (right, I know you can't wait.)
With marching band season upon us, I wanted to share a couple of things I discovered this week. One story my husband Steve found in the satirical weekly newspaper The Onion.
The lead story in the August 1 issue is "Activision Reports Sluggish Sales for Sousaphone Hero"
The opening of the story states Despite a catchy 1890s soundtrack and realistic-feeling game play, Sousaphone Hero, the third installment of Activision's massively popular Guitar Hero video game franchise, sold a mere 52 copies in the United States in its opening week, the company reported Monday.
Matt owns the real Activision game Guitar Hero, which uses a guitar-shaped game controller to play rock songs like "Smoke on the Water." The Onion story features a mock game controller that wraps completely around the body the way a sousaphone really does.
With all respect to sousaphone players, I thought the satirical story was pretty funny. Let me know what you think.
The other marching band story I found this week was on one of my favorite Web sites, www.npr.org/music. The story about the Elkhark, Indiana, marching band centers on a new book American Band: Music, Dreams, and Coming of Age in the Heartland, which was written Kristen Laine. The book follows the state champion band through an entire year of rehearsals and performances, and makes that point that band members not only learn music and marching skills, but numerous life skills as well.
On Monday August 6 Laine appeared on the NPR show Talk of the Nation and during the broadcast several callers called the show to share their own positive band experiences. If you click on the Talk of the Nation link you can listen to the program. The program also has a blog where marching band supporter weighed in on their own programs. Visit the blog to read comments or comment yourself.
And with school staring up again, don't forget MENC's message boards, which allow you to share information with fellow music education. Find the band board here.
Well, I need to get back to October Teaching Music news. The issue will include a date book of music education events for the whole year, among other exciting things. You will see that issue in mid-September.
Hope August is treating you well.Til next Thursday
RF
