merry Christmas....!

here's wishing all of you out there, friends and family, students and colleagues, magic-kind and muggles, sharks and jets.....a very, very merry Christmas. Keep your feet warm, hug your grandma's neck, and take care of that jolly old fat guy delivering Christmas cheer with some spiked egg nog. And above all friends and countrymen, be safe.....

God bless y'all....!

merry early Christmas everyone.....

being that it's getting that time of the year, that strange time when it snows in Houston but not Cincinnati, I thought I'd share with you all one of my favorite Christmas tunes to just help you all relax and get into the right kind of Christmas mood. Enjoy, and thank me later.....



Yeah. Merry Christmas, baby....!

getting thankful: my annual football rant.....

since moving out to good ole Georgia, I've been forced (partly because of academic calendars but mostly because of disgustingly-exorbitant airline fares) to stay home during the Thanksgiving holiday instead of heading back to the promised land of the Lone Star State, where virtually my entire family resides. I've dealt with this in a myriad of ways, first by house-sitting, and also by hosting other similarly-displaced graduate musicians for a makeshift Thanksgiving feast of my own. These last two years, however, have been especially sweet, seeing as my good friend cbrad was able to come down from Virginia to eat a ridiculous amount of Texas chili, pork chops, chicken breasts, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, cornbread, etc. with me while watching copious amounts of football and sharing a couple of good cigars.....

without a doubt, my favorite part of Thanksgiving weekend (the whole family and friends thing aside) is the veritable cornucopia of college and professional sports than inundate our televisions seemingly 24-7 during this blessed week. And to those of you who know me even just slightly, this should come as no surprise. The fact that Texas and Dallas are as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey and stuffing just makes it that much more special. After watching Dallas win their traditional holiday contest, cbrad and I witnessed (along with most of the rest of the sports-watching demographic of our country and their dragged-along families) one of the best Thanksgiving football games that I can ever remember. It reminded me why Texas football is the best in the country. It reminded me why I'm still so proud of having grown up in 'Friday Night Lights' country and having played football for nine years in the dust bowl that is the high school football capital of the world.....

all that nostalgia and pride aside, I was utterly shocked to see so many articles this morning, not 12 hours after the Horns locked up their first 12-win regular season in school history, hailing criticisms of Texas for giving up so many yards and points to the Aggies despite their victory. And it was then that I realized: college football has become a beauty pageant, plain and simple. But worse than that, it has become a beauty pageant in which prettiest girl doesn't necessarily win. You don't have to look very far to find these mass indictments of Texas' apparent failure to be beautiful enough despite running the table. And then something struck me: where were these indictments when Florida was struggling with Tennessee, having a terrible first half against Vandy, and needing help from the refs to beat Arkansas at home? Where were the pundits saying Alabama may not be one of the best three teams in the nation when they struggled with Carolina early, needed a big play late to beat LSU, and required not one, but two blocked field goals to beat Tennessee at home?

In none of the six games mentioned above did any Florida or Alabama player do what Colt McCoy did last night, that is, have their best game of their entire career against your oldest and most bitter rival.....on the road. Why then, is the collective punditry of college football decrying the travesty of Texas' clear path to Pasadena by winning out? Even after multiple close calls and poor showings by both Florida and Alabama, no one was declaring that TCU, Cincinnati, and Boise were better squads, or that they were even in the same league as the SEC's heavy-hitters. Yet that it exactly what it happening to Texas this morning, less than 24 hours after their win at Kyle Field. Double standard, anyone....?

now, I've never been a big proponent of playoffs in college football, but I've been tempted. I wouldn't mind seeing something that takes our current bowl system and then just allows the top 8 teams to play a simple playoff. Something, anything to assure college football fans that they aren't getting shafted. Imagine if there are FIVE undefeated teams at next weekend's end. Imagine how amazing it would be to see those five squads battle it out along with the Pac-10 champ, the loser of the SEC championship game, and the ACC champ/OSU to once-and-for-all settle this whole championship thing on the field.....

how cool would that be....?

let's see.....

1st 9 games:

• -1.78 turnover margin
• 9.4 penalties for 77.8 yards

tonight's win over Auburn:

• +2 turnover margin
• 4 penalties for 29 yards

funny how that works, no....?


in any case, here's hoping there's more where that came from. GO DAWGS!!!

sad day.....

today was the first day that the world went without Mr. Fred Mills, one of the most hilarious, wacky, funny, odd, dedicated, talented, and giving musicians the world has ever known. I had the great fortune to sit in his chamber brass ensemble at UGA for three years and learn first hand from one of the greatest chamber musicians who ever lived. I'm fighting the urge to be sad, mostly because when I reminisce about him, the only things that come to mind are the completely off-the-wall, absolutely hysterical stuff that guy would do and say. The world is certainly a less-interesting place without you, Fred. But man, I bet you've got heaven in tears and rolling already.....

Fred Mills, trumpeter, teacher, friend: 1935-2009

O - fficially....!

...because I eat up four-syllable words like Andy Reid eats up a bag of Twinkies. Enjoy...



phe-nomenal! But seriously, folks. It's "officially" official. As of 1:53PM this afternoon, I have completed all the steps and am now indeed gainfully employed in my first full-time academic appointment at the university level. Of course, my university email address is still pending and my courses haven't quite been changed over to my name yet in the registrar's office, but hey - Rome wasn't built in a day, right? Thank you, University of West Georgia! And thank you, Doug Overmier, for a phone call in late July that literally changed my life. Gracias, amigo.....

on another, utterly and completely unrelated note, I walked four times today past a student-made anti-abortion display which featured 90 small crosses and two signs that read, "every day 90 babies are aborted in the state of Georgia." One of said signs boasted a hastily-written, black-marker addition that angrily read, "stay out of my uterus!" I laughed out loud, because I couldn't help but think: maybe if that was more of a proactive policy concerning the usage of your facilities, maybe you wouldn't be scribbling it on a protest sign....." That's not too wrong, is it....?*

*please, please, please.....do not turn this into your own personal forum concerning abortion, no matter which way you feel about it.....thanks in advance,

the management

it's been such a long tiiiiime.....

cue Tom Scholz and the boys from Boston, 'cause it's been almost a month-and-a-half since I dropped any info, scuttlebutt, or general news and notes off here at the ole b-log. So hold on tight - here's a whirlwind wrap-up of the last 45 days -it might be a little bit dangerous.....

• come Wednesday, I'll have officially finished one month as the Director of Athletic Bands & Associate Professor of Low Brass at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. The best part? Doing what I've always wanted to do, great colleagues, fantastic students, and fun rehearsals. The worst part? I'm not officially getting paid by the university until the end of September. The funniest part? I'm still not officially hired yet. If this drags past this week, I'll have put a show on the field and performed it at a football game without actually being employed by the university.....
• my favorite childhood sports franchise is officially in the hunt for the playoffs with only 34 games to go in the season. The Texas Rangers haven't sniffed the playoffs since George Jr. was sitting in the owner's box, yet they find themselves 4 games out of the division and only 2.5 games out of the wildcard race with September looming. And all this with the worst team batting average in a decade. Holy schnikes, you mean pitching really does make a difference? Who would've thunk it....?
• while I'm on the topic of diamond-shaped sports, I really believe that the basepaths in little league baseball and softball should be lengthened by about 10 feet. After watching the Georgia women go to the college world series in June and the LLWS currently wrapping up, I have rarely seen the kind of infield play that makes baseball what it is. Double-plays are all but an extreme rarity. And I'm incredibly sick of seeing softball scores that look like playoff hockey stats.....
• last weekend I had the extreme pleasure to sit in with the Georgia Tuba Quartet and play through Josh Cutchin's unparalleled polka book for the grand opening of Achim Reus' new Keba Spitfire Grill over here on the east side of the ATH. They say you don't really appreciate something until it's gone. This is true. I truly miss rehearsals with that group of incredible musicians. Plus, how often do you get to make chamber music every week with the substitute tubist of the Philadelphia Orchestra....?
• enough about the scoreboard in the new Cowboys Stadium already! It was built with an extra 5 feet of clearance BEYOND what the NFL required, but now it's a greek tragedy every time some backup punter hits it in warm-up. ESPN themselves ran an article yesterday that said nothing more than that the 49ers' punter hit the gigantic HD videoboard one time out of twenty in pre-game warm-ups. In WARM-UPS??? Come on, world-wide leader, pull your collective heads out.....
• speaking of the 'Boys (the unequivocal greatest American sporting franchise), I will go ahead right here and now and predict a blowout win in week one for the wearers of the star in Tampa against the Bucs. Byron Leftwich as the starter? Barely beat out Luke McCown? Yeah, Dallas by three touchdowns.....
• I'll go ahead and say this in my outside voice: I'm actually kinda rooting for Michael Vick to succeed (except when he play the Cowboys, of course). This guy spent almost two years in the pokey for animal cruelty and has endured WAY more than he should have had to. Did he deserve it? Absolutely. That's not my point. My point is, there's guys like Brandon Marshall out there who've been reported multiple (FIVE) times for domestic battery and abuse who have never spent a day in jail. Don't we have our priorities mixed up here folks? Where's the protestors lining up for him? I guess if he'd hit a dog instead of his girlfriend, maybe a few peeps would show up. Yes, I know that's an awful statement. But it kinda puts the whole thing in better perspective, don't you think....?
• don't look now, but football is officially underway. Some really great week one action this week, headlined by the Dawgs' trip to the ugliest campus in America in Stillwater, OK. For the longest time, I've been completely baffled by this contest. No feeling whatsoever for how we're going to look against the ninth-best team in the country who's only the third-best team in their division. I'm confident in the defense - it's the offense I've been so ambivalent about. However, as kickoff looms closer (and is now less than a week away), I'm feeling better and better about it. Veteran offensive line and signal-caller with young and immensely-talented skill players. Oh, and don't be surprised if #7 is the game-changer once again. OSU's back seven is weak in the passing game and I really think this kid is going to step in and make big plays for us when he draws linebackers in coverage.....

Go Rangers, Go Dawgs, Go Cowboys, and Go Wolves!!!!!