« November 2005 | Main | January 2006 »
December 21, 2005
Fun with Holiday News Stories!
We have been busily researching the latest music stories for our readers and the reoccurring theme we have found is: Holiday Stuff!
So here are some fun, sometimes sarcastic, always interesting stories to share:
Do you hear what I hear? There has been no controversy this year
That’s what one New Jersey paper had to say regarding the programming of school holiday music (New Jersey being the center of the universe when it comes to school holiday concert controversy – see below)
Curtis & Kuby High School Christmas Carol/Chanukah Song Contest
If your from the New York Metropolitan area then you may have heard of WABC’s morning show host Curtis (of Guardian Angles Fame and self described conservative) and Kuby (self described liberal defense attorney.) Well they decided they would hold a contest. The reason?
Some schools are so "PC" that they won't even let their students sing Christmas Carols or Chanukah songs anymore! Here at 77WABC, we think that is just plain STUPID. So for the second straight year, we've teamed up with our friends at Electronics Expo to bring you the great Curtis & Kuby High School Christmas Carol/Chanukah Song contest!
Yep… nothing says Christmas like a good PR stunt.
The Greatest Christmas Songs of All Time
Hey, who can resist another count down list! Here we have the top 5 GREATEST CHRISTMAS SONGS OF ALL TIME!Oh, and for good measure… they through in the worst! Hear’s a hint: Simply Having…
Now it is stuck in your head and you have me to blame. A little holiday gift to you!
Most Played Holiday Songs on Radio Last Week
Since all the radio stations in the country went to an ALL HOLIDAY mix sometime around, oh, let’s say… THE FOURTH OF JULY… the good people at MediaGuide have been tracking the playlists and have released a list of the most played songs from the last week.
All I can say is… THAN GOD FOR HALLOWEEN. This is the only thing keeping the beginning of the Holiday Shopping, Music, and mass commercialism season from creeping into LABOR DAY.
Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE the holidays. I just don’t want them to go on for four months!
To all of our readers…
Merry, Merry, Merry,
Happy, Happy, Happy,
Busy, Busy, Busy,
See you next year!
Posted by musicforall at 9:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 19, 2005
Welcome to the season when public school music teachers can never win
Last year at this time Nick Santoro, Arts Supervisor for the South Orange/Maplewood School District found himself at the center of a worldwide controversy. Forced to enforce an unbelievably idiotic holiday concert policy where if an instrumental arrangement is for a song that has words with any potential religious meaning it cannot be performed... even if the words themselves are NOT performed. Poor Nick was lampooned around the world as the Grinch that stole Christmas, in editorials and television news reports, taking the blame for someone else’s policy.
This policy gave birth to my "New Rule" ... " A Musical Note is NOT a Religious Symbol (being a drummer I would usually spell this Cymbal.)
In any event, the Boston Globe yesterday highlighted the issue in local terms making the case that we have now put our music teachers in a "no win" situation. No matter what they program for the holiday concert... someone is going to be pissed!
By Dorian Block, Globe Correspondent - December 18, 2005As they choose music for concerts by student choruses, bands, and orchestras at this time of year, the teachers must deal with the perennial debate over how much Christmas is acceptable in public school where not everyone celebrates the holiday.
Traditionally, schools have had to be sensitive to Jewish students, but in recent years the issue has become more complex with the influx of Muslim and Hindu students from India, China, and other countries.
Now some schools call the December performance a holiday concert; others, a winter celebration. And some schools have moved December concerts to January to avoid the holiday dilemma.Local music teachers are criticized for including too much religion in their concerts or too little holiday cheer, or for excluding certain cultures entirely.
Nationwide, 35 percent of teachers in an online survey conducted recently by the National Association for Music Education reported conflicts with parents on this issue, 25 percent with students, and 19 percent with school administrators.
Holiday concerts in tune with striking right chord - The Boston Globe
Posted by musicforall at 7:47 AM | TrackBack
December 1, 2005
Mathematics for Musicians
One of the blogs I really and enjoy is The Artful Manager. Andrew Taylor continues to present great insights into the work of arts and culture in a very engaging way. Recently, he posted this exceerpt called Mathematics for Musicians. Always one who enjoys a good laugh... I thought it was worth sharing with you.
1. Wilma is tired of paying for clarinet reeds. If she adopts a policy of playing only on rejected reeds from her colleagues will she be able to retire on the money she has saved if she invests it in mutual bonds, yielding 8.7%, before she is fired from her job? If not, calculate the probability of her ever working in a professional symphony orchestra again.2. Jethro has been playing the double bass in a symphony orchestra for twelve years, three months and seven days. Each day, his inclination to practice decreases by the equation: (Total days in the orchestra) x .000976 Assuming he stopped practicing altogether four years, six months and three days ago, how long will it be before he is completely unable to play the double bass?
3. Wilma plays in the second violin section, but specializes in making disparaging remarks about conductors and other musicians. The probability of her making a negative comment about any given musician is 4 chances in 7, and for conductors is 16 chances in 17. If there are 103 musicians in the orchestra and the orchestra sees 26 different conductors a year, how many negative comments does Wilma make in a two-year period? How does this change if five of the musicians are also conductors? What if six of the conductors are also musicians?
4. Horace is the General Manager of an important symphony orchestra. He tries to hear at least four concerts a year. Assuming that at each concert the orchestra plays a minimum of three pieces per concert, what are the chances that Horace can avoid hearing a single work by Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms in the next ten years?
6. Betty plays in the viola section. Despite her best efforts she is unable to play with the rest of the orchestra and, on average, plays .3528 seconds behind the rest of the viola section, which is already
.16485 seconds behind the rest of the orchestra. If the orchestra is moving into a new concert hall with a reverberation time of 2.7 seconds, will she be able to continue playing this way undetected?7. Ralph loves to drink coffee. Each week he drinks three more cups of coffee than Harold, who drinks exactly one third the amount that the entire brass section consumes in beer. How much longer is Ralph going to live?
8. Rosemary is unable to play in keys with more than three sharps or flats without making an inordinate number of mistakes. Because her colleagues in the cello section are also struggling in these passages she has so far been able to escape detection. What is the total number of hours they would all have to practice to play the complete works of Richard Strauss?
Thanks Andrew!
Mathematics for Musicians
Posted by musicforall at 8:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack