Straight to the water cooler this morning -- I loved the finale of "The Sopranos"! I thought it was perfect. Actually, I know of only one other person on the staff who watched it (that would be fellow blogger RF, a great person with whom to be stuck in Beltway rush hour traffic on the way to a From the Top taping), so that has limited my time at the water cooler -- which is actually good, as there are a million things to do this week. Anyway, I thought the whole series was fantastic, including the use of different genres of music throughout. Almost every week, I found a new favorite song during the closing credits. I'm sad it's over, but it was a great run.
Back to the real world. Last week, MENC's friend Chely Wright held her annual fundraiser for her music education foundation. $185,000 was raised and will go to help struggling school music programs. Congratulations and thank you, Chely!
I received some photos from the Keokuk II - Centennial Symposium for MENC (which took place May 31-June 2) courtesy of National Executive Board member Joyce Patch. Here's a look at the new marker that was dedicated on the site of the original meeting of music supervisors that led to the creation of MENC. Thanks for sharing this, Joyce! A report on the symposium will appear in August Teaching Music with an expanded version online later this summer. Look there for lots more photos.
I'm off to a meeting of staff attending the National Anthem Project Grand Finale day after tomorrow. Have already had the weekly Web meeting this morning, and later on today is the monthly journal design/content meeting. We're also in the final preparation stage for the MENC Centennial Celebration. If you're not joining us in Orlando, please make sure to participate virtually! You can log on to a live Webcast to see keynote speaker Mike Huckabee and a panel of experts on June 26. This opportunity is free to the first 200 members who sign up!
I'll close with a little joke that came to me in an e-mail last week. Onward -- EWL
A managed health care company president was given a ticket for a performance of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." Since he was unable to go, he passed the invitation to one of his managed care reviewers. The next morning, the president asked the reviewer how he had enjoyed it, and he was handed a memorandum, which read as follows:
MEMORANDUM
1. For a considerable period, the oboe players had nothing to do. Their number should be reduced, and their work spread over the whole orchestra, thus avoiding peaks of inactivity.
2. All twelve violins were playing identical notes. This seems unnecessary duplication, and the staff in this section should be drastically cut. If a large volume of sound is required, this could be obtained through use of an amplifier.
3. Much effort was involved in playing the 16th notes. This seems an excessive refinement, and it is recommended that all notes should be rounded up to the nearest 8th note. If this were done, it would be possible to use paraprofessionals instead of experienced musicians.
4. No useful purpose is served by repeating with horns the passage that has already been handled by the strings. If all such redundant passages were eliminated, the concert could be reduced from two hours to twenty minutes.
5. This symphony has two movements. If Schubert did not achieve his musical goals by the end of the first movement, then he should have stopped there. The second movement is unnecessary and should be cut.
In light of the above, one can only conclude that had Schubert given attention to these matters, his symphony would probably have been finished by now.
