Rehab...

No I am not at some clinic drying out....although after this Holiday weekend it may be a reasonable idea. The subject of Rehab for current discussion is duck decoys.
Our Duck Hunting Club has a fairly extensive set of duck decoys for use by the members. We have Mallard Drakes and Hens, Woodies, Teal, Black Ducks etc.
Some of our better decoys are vintage Herters. Herters makes a fine sturdy decoy that is very realistic and seem to attract the birds. Sadly, many of our Club's Herters are pretty beat up, banging around in a boat, getting hit by ice flows in the marsh, floating in brackish water, exposed to mud and temperature. Herters are top quality cork decoys so it is worth salvaging and maintaining the inventory. Pictured above are 2 decoys that have been rehabbed by one of my friends who is very talented at both fixing and building decoys. I hope that with these examples I can convince the Club Members to agree to spending the money for rehab of all the corks.
As of Friday it is 60 days until Dove Season so our thoughts begin to turn once again to shooting pursuits.

Summer of '89

Bridge avenue and the Beach, Bay Head, New Jersey. A Summer evening at "The Bridge Avenue House" or "The Castle" as some locals called this clapboard and turreted monstrosity. This Beach House was rented by a group of late 20's Manhattan money guys and some girls. This joint had countless bedrooms and always bunked a plethora of North-East maniacs.Several were from my cadre of Lehigh beer swilling pals and so I was often invited for a weekend to sit on the beach all day and pound cocktails all night. We drank at the Bluffs...(now sadly ripped down and replaced by ostentatious beach Mc-Mansions.) We ate at Spike's Sea Food, we fished from boat and beach and we slummed at Martell's Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant.
This photo dates to July 1989 and one of the huge evening post beach parties we threw. Single guys scoured the beach all day to invite affable vixens and more Lehigh ne'er-do-wells and sports showed up from all over. The Supremes and Smokey, Stones and Dead mixed with the crash of waves and the banter of Frat boy flirting and liquor fueled good natured insults and invective.
I am pictured wearing a vintage madras sport coat and standing alongside my particular friend Wighty. He is sporting a subdued striped number harkening back to Henley coats. The kegs had just been tapped and the crowd was trickling in...one of the girlfriends of one of the guys grabbed us for this photo.
Wight and I met at a Lehigh Pi Lam party when he was a Sophmore and I was a lowly Freshman....been buddies ever since that moment. He was a groomsmen at my wedding and my kids call him "Uncle Wighty." He is the guy who turned me on to white bucks...Dexters..."Touch, the girls love 'em...screw what guys say." We have bet pitch by pitch at a Phillies Pennant game,discussed Hemingway,skiied Aspen,shot birds and cheered at the Indy 500. He is one of the best.
Note the ubiquitous 9 oz. plastic cups grasped in our greedy hands....Mount Gay & Tonic if memory serves...and memory was tattered with a fusilade of drink and other diversions that night.
Bay Head town ordinance closed these gigs down by 10 p.m. But damn, around 7 to 8:30 we had at least 300 party guests comprised of tanned lovelies and sport-coated guys and 3 kegs of beer, and open bar with cheap A-Treat mixers and maybe one bag of pretzels. The buzz was delicious and the girls had no last names.

Back To Boxing

Attention Fight fans....Ardrick Butler, the Welterweight I manage,is slated to return to the ring July 29th,2011 at the Arena in South Philly. We had hoped to have him busy this past weekend but the matchmaker was not cooperative regarding opponents...so we declined. Ardrick has been training diligently and is poised for an explosive outing. If any of the cadre out there in Blogo-land wants to attend...e-mail me for details and tickets. If you need incentive, just check out Brohamas blog post about the enjoyable night he shared with the boys and I.
There really is nothing like attending the fights... a true Sportsman's evening!

One Season Ends and Another Begins

Last weekend signaled the end of my son's Ashbee Lacrosse team season. This photo of our team(minus several players who did not make the tourney or bugged out already) is after our last game at the Annapolis Father's day Invitational. Our team went 2 for 2 on the weekend and my son scored 4 goals. I was damn proud. As you know from my prior posts, I played the game for many years....as a defenseman. To watch my boy play attack and smoke a shot passed a goalie for a score is a particular thrill for me that just makes me practically levitate with pride and happiness.
The bittersweet aspect of this tournament was that it likely was my last stint as a coach. I was an Assitant Coach this year and enjoyed not having to deal with the time and effort associated with the Head Coach job. Now that my son is going to 9th grade, he cannot play Ashbee Lacrosse and hence I will not coach. It has been great to coach this sport that I love. I was privileged to know some great and talented kids, some great coaches and parents ( and some not so great parents) and see some excellent games from up close and from the inside.
Even though Ashbee is over, my son is now playing for the Summer on a Tournament team called "Philly Fever" Lacrosse. This team is a select group and has a ton of talent. The head coach is one of the Haverford School Lacrosse Assistant Coaches. As I posted before, Haverford is the number one High School Lacrosse team in the Nation...so it is a real treat for my kid to be on this team and learn and be coached by talented guys. We attended the Summer Slam tournament this weekend and our kids did great. They made it to the Semi-Finals and only lost by one goal to miss going to the final. They went 4-1 and I got to see some really good lacrosse both Saturday and Sunday and my kid had a blast being part of it....which is really the whole point.

More Junior Sportswomen

As I swelter on the streets of Philadelphia walking from my garage to the office, an e-mail is forwarded by my wife. Yesterday was middle daughter's 16th Birthday and her Counselor sent this photo from Camp. My daughter is in Virginia at riding camp for 5 weeks. It is one of her favorite places on the Planet next to the Adirondacks...30 girls...35 horses...800 acre farm, pool and pond, horse shows and drive ins, roller rink and flirting with the townie boys at the lake. She left while I was in Annapolis at the Lacrosse tournament and we were both sad about that. But she sure looks happy in this photo. Her cabin was giving her a huge choclate cake after dinner and then all 30 campers plus staff will sing.She is has become a knowledable, skilled and dedicated equestrian...and now advises she wants to be a large animal Vet and is fashioning her potential college choices accordingly...at least for now. That is a hard path but if anyone can do it she can...
I miss her but I am certainly glad she is enjoying her Summer and not suffering like me....sweating thru my Poplin suit walking back from the Courthouse or from the Garage.

etta james I'd Rather Go Blind

A couple that are dear friends of my wife and I are splitting up. Whenever I hear of divorce and infidelity in our circle of friends I invariably think of the pain experienced by the individuals. When I think of this angst and heartbreak, Etta's soulful and haunting song comes to mind. Seperation and Divorce is a tribulation for all involved and visits terrible emotional trauma on the children in most cases.
My ardent hope is that this struggling family can perservere and find the strength to cope with the legion of problems on the horizon.

Processionals: Repetitions, Situational Minimalism, and Elgar’s ‘Pomp and Circumstance’

T   he kind of learning that will define the 21st Century is not taking place in a classroom. Rather, it is happening all around us, everywhere. We call this the new culture of learning... a fluid infrastructure where everything is constantly creating and responding to change... This new type of learning process is a cultural phenomenon that underlies a large number of people’s experiences and affects them in myriad ways. It takes place without teachers, without classrooms, and it requires [virtual, networked] environments that are bounded yet provide complete freedom of action within those boundaries.”
  — Douglas Thomas & John Seely Brown.

F   arewell, the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th’ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality—
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!”
  —  Shakespeare, Othello, Act III, Scene III.

T here is a big challenge in shaping the performance, vamping as it must for an indeterminate length of time while the procession continues.

T he CCM Brass Quintet did an admirable job sustaining audience interest throughout, projecting every note with the necessary dignity and authority. They varied the dynamics, softer to convey an intimate feeling while still staying audible in the large arena, louder to convey more pomp and aggrandizement. They varied the instrumentation, the round timbre of lower brass to convey a magisterial attitude, the bright timbre of high brass to convey heraldic progress.

T he physical stamina required for what can be a very long performance is considerable, a gauntlet made all the more risky to run insofar as there are only five of you (or 4 at a time, if trumpets are alternating). The thing then amounts to a 20-min quartet or, in some passages, amounts to a trio or duet ordeal, depending on the arrangement.

W hen you are repeating and repeating the same short passage for 20+ minutes, there is a natural temptation to embark on small improvisations or decorate some figures a little. Somewhat like turning a word over and over in your mind until it looks nonsensical or silly, or until finally you wonder how the word was ever coined or came to be associated with the thing it names ... tangelo, tan-gelo, tan-ge-lo, tange-lo... t’angel-o.

T he CCM Brass Quintet played nice little fanfares throughout, for all of the graduates. But when graduates of the conservatory (CCM) approached the lectern, the Quintet’s fanfares mutated into ones that were longer by several ostentatious bars, with dilatory flourishes and a grand unpredictability… droll extra service, musicians proclaiming the specialness of other musicians, heh!

E stablishing a strong relationship with a faculty mentor is one of the most important factors in determining the success one achieves as a graduate student. Faculty members “know the ropes,” so to speak, and their guidance on research, and on professional and personal conduct, can be invaluable. Typically, a faculty mentor is someone whose research interests are similar to those of the student. As such, the mentor can be an excellent source for ideas and can serve as an informed reviewer of and advocate for the student’s work.

F or those who have succeeded in establishing a strong relationship with a faculty mentor, the prospect of that relationship changing—or becoming more distant—contributes to the tumult of emotions that well-up during the graduation ceremony. Well, not to worry, usually moving away and the resulting absence make the hearts grow stronger. They will remember you fondly, more fondly than when you were slaving away, nearly for free, in their face everyday.

F or those whose mentors’ neuroses aligned in perfectly perverse way with the mentees’ neuroses, graduation may feel like a long, badly-written fugue has concluded. Begin your next Prelude, ASAP, with Pomp and Circumstance marches played by brass quintet:

• March No. 1 in D (1901)
  
• March No. 2 in A minor (1901)
  
• March No. 3 in C minor (1904)
  
• March No. 4 in G (1907)
  
• March No. 5 in C (1930)
  
• March No. 6 in G minor

• Paul K. Elgar Op. 39 No. 1 Trio, arr. for brass quintet. Score at Sibelius.
  
• Gale J. Elgar Op. 39 No. 1 Trio, arr. for brass quintet. Score at SheetMusicPlus.
  
• Frederick P. Elgar Op. 39 No. 1 Trio, arr. for brass quintet. Score at SheetMusicPlus.
  
• Marlatt D. Elgar Op. 39 No. 1 Trio, arr. for brass quintet. Score at SheetMusicPlus.
  
• Elgar E. Pomp & Circumstance Marches (score). Dover, 1992.
  
• InstituteofPlay.org
  
• Wind/Brass/Perc Ensembles at UC
  
• Pomp and Circumstance page at Wikipedia
  
• Abrams B, ed. Edward Elgar and His World (Bard Music Festival). Princeton Univ, 2007.
  
• Arum R, Roksa J. Academically Adrift. Univ Chicago, 2011.
  
• Astin A, Astin H, Lindholm J. Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives. Jossey-Bass, 2010.
  
• Bain K. What the Best College Teachers Do. Harvard Univ, 2004.
  
• Barkley E. Student Engagement Techniques. Jossey-Bass, 2009.
  
• Elgar E. Letters and Other Writings. Hyperion, 1980.
  
• Filene P. The Joy of Teaching: A Practical Guide for New College Instructors. Univ North Carolina, 2005.
  
• Kennedy M. Portrait of Elgar. 3e. Oxford Univ, 1993.
  
• Kenyon N. Elgar: An Anniversary Portrait. Continuum, 2008.
  
• McVeagh D. Elgar the Music Maker. Boydell, 2007.
  
• Moore J, ed. Edward Elgar, The Windflower Letters: Correspondence with Alice Caroline Stuart Wortley and her Family. Oxford Univ, 1989.
  
• Moore J, ed. Edward Elgar: Letters of a Lifetime. Oxford Univ, 1991.
  
• Palmer P, et al. The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal. Jossey-Bass, 2010.
  
• Professor X. In the Basement of the Ivory Tower. Viking, 2011.
  
• Thomas D, Brown J. A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. CreateSpace, 2011.
  
• Wildavsky B, Kelly A, Carey K, eds. Reinventing Higher Education: The Promise of Innovation. Harvard Univ, 2011.
  

Elgar Chamber Music:

• Romance for violin and piano, Op. 1 (1878)
  
• Salut d’Amour for violin and piano, Op. 12 (1888)
  
• Chanson de Nuit and Chanson de Matin for violin and piano, Op. 15 Nos. 1 and 2 (1897/1899).
  
• Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82 (1918)
  
• String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83 (1918)
  
• Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84 (1918–1919)
  
• Concert Allegro, piano, Op. 46 (1901)
  
• Organ Sonata in G, Op. 28 ()