Personal
Busy Start to Summer
06/14/07 05:43 PM
Although
it's summer, there's still a lot going on.
Early in May, right after classes ended, the Indianapolis Symphony asked me to play Assistant Principal for their Mahler 5 concert. It was a very enjoyable week. Marvin Perry, the principal trumpet in the ISO, known as "Chappy", made the week a pleasure. When I arrived at the first rehearsal Tuesday morning, Chappy had the parts he wanted me to play marked. By the end of the week, there were a few more things, but it was nice to know what was expected of me from the start.
The concerts went very well, with the ISO sounding very good.
The next weekend I was back out in Washington DC, with one of the strangest gigs I've done in a while. The Kennedy Center sponsored a performance of Duke Ellington's "Such Sweet Thunder" Suite. Each movement of the suite is Duke's take on a particular Shakespeare work.
With Avery Brooks as narrator, 3 other actors, 2 vocalists, and a dance troupe; each movement had either acting, singing, or dancing added to the music. In the movement "Madness in Great Ones", I played the Cat Anderson solo. During the rehearsal, the director of the actors walked on stage and said, "Wait. Right here I want you to come down front and interact with the actor playing Hamlet." Hamlet is walking towards me shouting quotations from Shakespeare. My job was to play back to him what he was saying to me. Very strange. You can see a review here: DCist review.
Early in May, right after classes ended, the Indianapolis Symphony asked me to play Assistant Principal for their Mahler 5 concert. It was a very enjoyable week. Marvin Perry, the principal trumpet in the ISO, known as "Chappy", made the week a pleasure. When I arrived at the first rehearsal Tuesday morning, Chappy had the parts he wanted me to play marked. By the end of the week, there were a few more things, but it was nice to know what was expected of me from the start.
The concerts went very well, with the ISO sounding very good.
The next weekend I was back out in Washington DC, with one of the strangest gigs I've done in a while. The Kennedy Center sponsored a performance of Duke Ellington's "Such Sweet Thunder" Suite. Each movement of the suite is Duke's take on a particular Shakespeare work.
With Avery Brooks as narrator, 3 other actors, 2 vocalists, and a dance troupe; each movement had either acting, singing, or dancing added to the music. In the movement "Madness in Great Ones", I played the Cat Anderson solo. During the rehearsal, the director of the actors walked on stage and said, "Wait. Right here I want you to come down front and interact with the actor playing Hamlet." Hamlet is walking towards me shouting quotations from Shakespeare. My job was to play back to him what he was saying to me. Very strange. You can see a review here: DCist review.
A week
after returning from DC, I was back with the ISO, but
this time for a Pops concert. The show was "Pops Goes
to Vegas". It was an extremely fun show to play, with
one exceptional highlight. In the rehearsals, we had
several charts marked "Mr. Showmanship". Little did
we know that Mr. Showmanship is a...wait for it....
All I can
say is...wow.
The next week, we had a 'Family Hang' in Port
Aransas. My mother and step-father rented a big house
(sleeps 18!) on the beach. We had a great time.
Here's a shot of a lot of us out and about in town,
complete with parrots:
Leave me
some comments.
On Saturday, I'm off to teach at Shell Lake.
There will be an update when I get back.
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BCS
11/29/06 08:10 AM
Summary only available
when permalinks are enabled.
The BCS doesn't work. Well, that's not quite right.
It works in creating a lot of money for the power
conferences in Division I football. It also works in
creating discussion on who should get to play in the
Championship game.
Let's get this out right now. Division I college football is in desperate need of a playoff. The BCS has only worked three times. In these cases, the regular season ended with two undefeated teams. Certainly an overly complicated system isn't necessary to figure out that if there are only two undefeated teams left at the end of the season, they should play each other. Let's take a look at the history of the BCS.
98-Tennessee 12-0 beat Florida St. (11-1)
leaving out:
Big 10 champ Wisconsin 10-1
Pac 10 champ UCLA 10-1
99-Florida St. 11-0 beat Va. Tech 11-0
no other undefeated teams
2000-Oklahoma 12-0 beat Florida St. 11-1
leaving out:
Big East champ Miami 10-1, who beat Florida St.
Pac 10 champ Washington 10-1, who beat Miami
2001-Miami 11-0 beat Nebraska 11-1(Nebraska did not play in Big 12 title game)
leaving out:
ACC champ Maryland 10-1
Big 10 champ Illinois 10-1
Pac 10 champ Oregon 10-1
2002-OSU 13-0 beat Miami 12-0
no other undefeated teams
2003-LSU 12-1 beat Oklahoma 12-1 (OU lost the Big 12 title game)
leaving out:
Pac 10 champ USC 11-1
2004-USC 12-0 beat Oklahoma 12-0
leaving out:
SEC champ Auburn 12-0
2005-Texas 12-0 beat USC 12-0
no other undefeated teams
This year, the argument seems to be whether or not a rematch between Ohio St. and Michigan should happen for the BCS title. Let me explain why this is such a bad idea.
In the absence of a playoff, there need to be some meaningful designations. And a conference championship has to be one of them. In 2001, Nebraska played in the BCS championship game without even playing in the Big 12 title game. In 2003, Oklahoma played for the title right after losing the Big 12 title game.
So here's the rule:
In the absence of a playoff, a team must win its conference to play for the national championship. An independent must have a truly exceptional year against quality opponents.
If a team isn't its conference champ, it can't be national champ.
The real reason this happens is pre-season polls. Take a look at the 2004 regular season. If Auburn had started the year at #1 or #2, they would have played for the title. No one expected Auburn to be good that year. So they go undefeated, win the SEC, and can't break into the big game.
Let's take this one step further. Just imagine that Boise St. started this year ranked #5. By going undefeated, they'd be in position to play Ohio St.
For those of you laughing, take a look at last season. Everyone 'knew' the Big East was no longer any good, with Miami, Va. Tech and BC going to the ACC. So West Virginia goes 10-1, working their way up to #11, wins the Big East, gaining the automatic BCS bid and plays SEC champ and 7th ranked Georgia. Final score: West Virginia 38, Georgia 35.
It's a broken system. No matter who plays Ohio St. in January, a worthy team will not get the chance.
Let's get this out right now. Division I college football is in desperate need of a playoff. The BCS has only worked three times. In these cases, the regular season ended with two undefeated teams. Certainly an overly complicated system isn't necessary to figure out that if there are only two undefeated teams left at the end of the season, they should play each other. Let's take a look at the history of the BCS.
98-Tennessee 12-0 beat Florida St. (11-1)
leaving out:
Big 10 champ Wisconsin 10-1
Pac 10 champ UCLA 10-1
99-Florida St. 11-0 beat Va. Tech 11-0
no other undefeated teams
2000-Oklahoma 12-0 beat Florida St. 11-1
leaving out:
Big East champ Miami 10-1, who beat Florida St.
Pac 10 champ Washington 10-1, who beat Miami
2001-Miami 11-0 beat Nebraska 11-1(Nebraska did not play in Big 12 title game)
leaving out:
ACC champ Maryland 10-1
Big 10 champ Illinois 10-1
Pac 10 champ Oregon 10-1
2002-OSU 13-0 beat Miami 12-0
no other undefeated teams
2003-LSU 12-1 beat Oklahoma 12-1 (OU lost the Big 12 title game)
leaving out:
Pac 10 champ USC 11-1
2004-USC 12-0 beat Oklahoma 12-0
leaving out:
SEC champ Auburn 12-0
2005-Texas 12-0 beat USC 12-0
no other undefeated teams
This year, the argument seems to be whether or not a rematch between Ohio St. and Michigan should happen for the BCS title. Let me explain why this is such a bad idea.
In the absence of a playoff, there need to be some meaningful designations. And a conference championship has to be one of them. In 2001, Nebraska played in the BCS championship game without even playing in the Big 12 title game. In 2003, Oklahoma played for the title right after losing the Big 12 title game.
So here's the rule:
In the absence of a playoff, a team must win its conference to play for the national championship. An independent must have a truly exceptional year against quality opponents.
If a team isn't its conference champ, it can't be national champ.
The real reason this happens is pre-season polls. Take a look at the 2004 regular season. If Auburn had started the year at #1 or #2, they would have played for the title. No one expected Auburn to be good that year. So they go undefeated, win the SEC, and can't break into the big game.
Let's take this one step further. Just imagine that Boise St. started this year ranked #5. By going undefeated, they'd be in position to play Ohio St.
For those of you laughing, take a look at last season. Everyone 'knew' the Big East was no longer any good, with Miami, Va. Tech and BC going to the ACC. So West Virginia goes 10-1, working their way up to #11, wins the Big East, gaining the automatic BCS bid and plays SEC champ and 7th ranked Georgia. Final score: West Virginia 38, Georgia 35.
It's a broken system. No matter who plays Ohio St. in January, a worthy team will not get the chance.