We've been in some intensive meetings the last few weeks about how we're going to improve our Web site to meet the increasing needs of our members. Later today I have a conference call to hash out some of the final details before we can begin this gigantic project. I am very excited about the developments that we're going to be able to share with you over the next several months.
The meetings have made clear to me (even more clear than it already was) how fast Web technology changes and how hard it is to keep up! Technology in music education is no different. Here are two blogs published by MENC members from which I've learned a lot recently:
The Digital Music Educator -- Owen Bradley, North Port High School, FL
MUSicTECHnology.net -- Joe Pisano, Grove City College, PA
Do you have a blog you'd like other MENC members to know about? E-mail me at elizabethl@menc.org.
Nothing clears the mind for me like great live music. Last week's Marty Stuart show at the Birchmere was A+++++ spectacular. What a musician -- and what an entertainer! Really knows how to work the crowd! He and his three piece band, the Fabulous Superlatives, alternated between telecaster-heavy country (songs like "The Whiskey Ain't Working" and "Hillbilly Rock") and bluegrass with fantastic gospel harmonies ("Working on a Building"). And Marty has a wonderful regard for country music history that he shared with the audience through numerous stories. For instance, Marty was Johnny Cash's longtime next door neighbor and at the Birchmere he performed a song they'd written together just a few days before Cash's death. (It was about being a hangman, which they'd decided what the worst job anyone could have.) Later on, Barry Gibb bought the Johnny Cash house (which subsequently burned down, but he's going to rebuild) and Marty and his band thought they'd better learn a Bee Gees song for the housewarming. So we were treated to a full bluegrass treatment of "Stayin' Alive." Fabulously superlative indeed.
A show I'm looking forward to later this week is Peter Case at a small club called Jammin' Java. Peter is a great songwriter whose new album features a guest spot by one of my all time faves, Richard Thompson.
Well, better get back to Web stuff. Also, collegiate promotions, review of our forthcoming catalog of MENC specialty items, etc. etc. etc.
Onward!!! (with plenty of twang, if at all possible!)
