A Semi-Seasonal Blog…What’s Wrong with That?
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Music, Updates on November 28th, 2009
Okay, okay, so for the two or three of you watching this blog, it has been FOREVER since I’ve posted. Sorry. I am on Twitter, though, so little updates are available there. Perhaps I’ll add a link…!
But for those of you who want something to sink their teeth into, I’m afraid I’ve let you down. So, I’ll try to make a little more out of this in order to provide more complete ideas when the ideas come.
PERSONAL UPDATE: I will soon be a father. And Jenn and I now own a house. I am very excited about both of these developments in our lives. I am 99% sure I’m ready to be a dad, leaving the other 1% for being scared crapless. I’m sure being a dad is wonderful, but it frightens me that I have a chance to significantly shape a living being’s life, possibly more than any other person or thing in this little human’s life. Is anyone with me on this? I hope so…
LESS PERSONAL INFO: I recently had a discussion with my friend David about genre history, definitions, qualities, and a few hundred other issues concerning the development of the music we know today. I’m thinking about diving into some of these issues and seeing what comes up. If anyone has any suggestions as to the direction of this particular discussion, please let me know. I’m really hoping to crank up this particular area in order to give this blog a little more purpose and direction. What good is a blog if it has no content?
Well, I thank the people that read this, even if it is only occasional. I’m sure that’s almost all my fault. I apologize for that. I hope I can give you a little more in the future.
IN THE WORKS: I’m putting together a list of my most influential albums in my musical experience, breaking it into three distinct periods: middle school and earlier, high school, and college and beyond. I’m hoping to have the first section done soon. Maybe. It’s been sitting a while, but I’m going to try to bring it up to date. I’m also probably going to do a basic analysis of Christian versus secular music (watch the sparks fly on that one…). Thanks, David, for giving me some inspiration!
Till we meet again!
What the heck happened to Summer?
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Reflections: Self on August 13th, 2009
Wow. Fast. That pretty much sums up this summer.
One minute we’re opening up the lake, the next minute I’m back in my classroom trying to clean up. Lots of goings-on. Between a band trip, a wedding, a couple parties and now a new kid on the way (yay Kevin and Marisa!), we’ve been very busy. We still got time to run around and enjoy life, but man, it just didn’t seem to slow down!
One of our other time-consuming (and worry inducing) pursuits this summer was looking for a home of our own. We like where we rent right now, but extenuating circumstances have put us in a place where we want to move on. However, not all is smooth in this quest. For those of you thinking about househunting, here’s some helpful hints:
- Don’t expect it to happen overnight
- If you can’t find what you want, consider building (not worth spending money on a junker)
- If you decide to build, ALWAYS get a pre-appraisal. Totally worth every penny.
- If your pre-appraisal doesn’t work out, look again–the market changes.
- Be willing to sacrifice a few of your wishlist items.
- Don’t be willing to sacrifice the really important ones.
- If you still have trouble finding what you want, wait.
At least, that’s how I feel about it. Seriously, I look forward to having our own place that is ACTUALLY OUR OWN, but I don’t think the market is in good enough condition to justify purchasing something that doesn’t fit our needs or needs a complete overhaul. Am I wrong to think this? Should I settle? I really don’t know.
On a positive front, though, I feel like this school year is going to go really well. I’m pretty prepared for it, getting into the swing of things, and looking forward to the possibilities of having a strong band and choir program for another year. Numbers are down a little, but that doesn’t mean less quality. I’ve got some really skilled kids, and some true go-getters. I know there’s lots to do before the year begins, but I’m eager for the new drum equipment and new horns we got–it should be a blast to get the kids going! You know you’re in the right career and location when you’re excited about starting to work again. (smiles)
Check out the Updates!
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Updates on August 10th, 2009
If you haven’t noticed (and there’s no guarantee anyone reads this), I’ve added a few new pages, including pages for my senior recital from college. You can even download the recordings! Check them out, keep them for yourself, enjoy!
John 1:1-18
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Uncategorized on July 24th, 2009
One of the links recently sent to me by my school’s principle/superintendent was for a website called Wordle. This site is a Java applet that designs, formats and reshapes text based on either entered text, a web URL or a link to a del.icio.us page. It then uses the frequency of the various words to determine the size of the word when it makes the image. it’s a really nifty tool for making points about important words and concepts in various texts, so there’s going to be some great application of this concept when it comes to education. In the meantime, it’s just plain fun to enter in your own text and other stuff!
Here’s my latest experiment:
I also posted one on Whitcombs.info that uses my blog URL for its basis (kind of neat to see).
Review: mewithoutYou “Brother, Sister”
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in God, Music on March 22nd, 2009
mewithoutYou: Brother, Sister
It’s no surprise that mewithoutYou’s most recent album, “Brother, Sister,” offers a heady dose of unusual and unsettling music, but this album is still beyond this band’s typical realm of shouted poetry and spoken-word intensity. The first two albums, “[A-->B] Life” and “Catch for Us the Foxes,” both possess a capturing sense of closeness, with detailed, poetic lyrics and a clear struggle to gain control over life’s many situations. However, “Brother, Sister” seems to take that emotion a step further.
In this album, singer Aaron Weiss seems to unlock a slightly darker side to his already mystifying observations on both the simple and complex things that put life into perspective. With thick metaphors and even thicker analysis, Weiss weaves the stories of lost sailors, curious children and confused adults into an almost seamless quilt of human existence. The opening phrase, “I do not exist,” is uttered at the very end of the record as well, but the mood changes dramatically in the two identical statements. From “Messes of Men,” the listener gets the impression of man’s hubris while also discovering how clouded our view of this world actually is. It’s a song about the sea, but it is quickly seen as a metaphor more than anything else. From there, the listener goes through a kaleidoscope ride of images, including God’s fury, His love, and the blessing that this life can bring.
It’s hard to describe the purpose of this record as a whole, but the interlude-like songs that join together the different major sections of this album tend to put out a very apparent picture of our curiosity, the contrasting view of our right to this world’s treasures, and the final picture of our dying days. In between, we see our struggle with the concept of freedom (the metaphor of the peacock in the zoo in “A Glass Can Only Spill What it Contains” is especially poignant), our hope to coax others into our control (“C-Minor”), our fear of damnation, and our consequent realization of God’s ultimate power over us. It’s about faith, it’s about acceptance, it’s about objecting to the wrongs of the world, and it’s about finding love in all things.
But that’s just the lyrics. The music itself is exploratory and introspective at the same time, reaching to new realms with its instrumentation, but without leaving the comfort of the band’s typical formula of build-and-release. However, the shout-out-loud feeling that the past albums held has been hushed slightly, leaving only a couple truly high points in the music that go beyond a completely chilled volume, including the ending of “C-Minor” and the close of “O, Porcupine.” This may disappoint some listeners, but the album shows so much growth and development as a whole that no one can fault mewithoutYou for trying something unique. Still, fans of the old albums should feel comfortable with this one for its use of melodic layering, intimate arrangements and focused lyrics. It’s almost trance-like at times, leaving the listener drained by the time the final track fades out with a softly plucked harp.
But the message is clear: find hope and love in the world, knowing that God is the ultimate being, leading our lives into the right places through His love and passion for us. And this is what comes of the last few lines:
“I do not exist,
Only You exist,
I do not exist.”
Quick Update and Trying Something New…
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Music, Reflections: Self, Updates on March 17th, 2009
So, as you may see by the past dates on this blog, I’ve been rather inactive. Of course, it’s not for lack of desire. I’ve been wanting to write, but I just haven’t been taking the time to write. So, today, I’m trying something new. Windows Live has just started offering this “Writer” application (available through downloading the newest version of Live Messenger) that allows you to write blogs on your desktop environment. I’m not sure if it’s really worth the while, but hey, it gives me an excuse to try this out.
Maybe having this added application will keep me mindful of the possibility of blogging more often. Maybe not…but we’ll have to see!
Maybe there’s some good way to get on track…like a theme or something. Should I be writing about something specific, or should I just be writing the most random thoughts possible? I don’t know. Perhaps someone has some insight or even a suggestion for me. I like music, but I just don’t spend much time analyzing and writing about it anymore. That may be a good thing to focus on, especially since the Internet is full of fascinating music. Well, if you have any good suggestions, just pass them along. Become a member of my blog, write a post, whatever you feel necessary. I need some reason to update this sucker!
A Year’s Worth of Advice (Gleaned from a Desk Calendar)
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Reflections: Self, Social Issues on January 2nd, 2008
Happy New Year, everyone! Of course, I’m about a day late, but I needed the relaxing time yesterday. I figured that with the new year should come some advice learned from the last year. I had a “Teachers” daily calendar on my desk full of interesting teaching facts and inspirational quotes. Of course, most of those quotes and tidbits went into the trash as soon as the day was over, but there were a few that made an impression on me when I read them. I figured I’d share with you what I felt were the most important statements over the last year.
“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” (Dorothy Parker)
“Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.” (Shirley MacLaine)
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” (G.K. Chesterton)
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
“The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.” (Mohammed)
While not all the most inspirational to everyone, more than one of these quick pieces of wisdom crept into my head while battling what I considered one of the most testing events in my life–the first year of teaching. And, as anyone reading this blog may know, I had some very low spirits after less than a semester in front of my very own class. From that experience I learned about perseverance and tolerance, as well as patience and hope. This year, though, has provided a completely opposite insight into the world of education (a good thing since I was on the brink on the last experience!). It’s difficult to know exactly what your place in life should be, and often it takes a period of trial-and-error to arrive to a place that feels comfortable. Some are fortunate to quickly find their niche while others may wait years upon years to feel “right” with their lives. 2007 was the opposing poles of life: complete insecurity and the beginning of feeling good about life. Insecurity creates some good, such as a better understanding of yourself and a clearer image of the world’s philosophy towards you as an individual, but in general you find yourself so lost in emotion and desperation that you simply wish to find a piece of security–no matter how negative that security could be. But eventually light is found and you make it out with even better knowledge of who you are and what the world might expect of you.
And then something magical happens: you find true passion in the world. Passion for you, passion for your life, passion for knowledge, and passion for community. It isn’t always a place in a physical sense, but it can be. Sometimes those places are only the loose association you make with the emotional state. Nevertheless, it feels like moving on with your life needs to be a complete process. And whether or not that played into how I’m feeling about life today, it seems that a different place for work and home has made a difference in how my wife and I see each other and everything around us. 2008, I couldn’t be more pleased to see you. I look forward to all you may bring me and my loved ones, knowing that even the most testing moments in life can bring about beauty.
A Shout-out to my Choir peeps
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Music, Reflections: Others, Reflections: Self on October 28th, 2007
A little too gangster for this white boy, I know, but I do want to give props to my four All-State Chorus students for their accomplishment this weekend. We went to Rapid City to sing with 928 other choir students and almost 200 orchestra students–the best in the state–and my kids were absolutely excellent. All four of them behaved, obeyed and even volunteered to help with everything. It’s amazing how great your job can be.
The flipside, of course, is that I have not seen my wife in almost four days. I miss her dearly and can’t wait to get back home. I’m also looking forward to our own comfy bed. Nothing like a good night’s sleep. Then, back to reality.
But it won’t be so bad. I’m looking forward to digging away over the next week at our Veteran’s Day pieces, getting everything put together in the few rehearsals we have left before the big performance. And after that, it’s Christmas time. Boy, the year zips by quickly. And in less than a month, I’ll be a quarter-century old! Yikes! Well, at least my insurance will go down. That’s always a nice thought.
I’m hoping to write a little more of just about anything. That’s kind of my goal–music, stories, love letters, whatever. Just something. I need some creativity. My wife and I have been doing some paintings together for wall art, and I want to do more of that as well. But it’s all a game of time, so I’ll have to budget some extra relaxation into my schedule in order to do some of that fun stuff.
Thanks for stopping by. Good night all.
Supplemental Reading
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in Literature on October 8th, 2007
Don’t you love it when you discover something you hated for the longest time is actually incredibly enjoyable? Maybe it’s that first time you eat broccoli and say, “Hey, that’s good.” Or maybe it’s the first time you look at Argyle socks and think, “that may just be more stylish than I once believed.” No matter what that epiphany is, it’s this great feeling to know that you’ve rediscovered something. For me, it was reading.
In college, I really did not like reading. I read Chuck Palahniuk novels, and that was about it. That and schoolwork, which was rarely as interesting as one would hope. But after college, I started buzzing through classic novels. The first one I really read seriously was Things Fall Apart (Achebe), a novel about a small African village and its run-in with tradition and colonists. After that, I just kept spreading my wings.
So here’s an abbreviated list of what I’ve gone through since Fall 2005:
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
1984 (George Orwell)
Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)
Slaughterhouse Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
Hairstyles of the Damned (Joe Meno)
Stranger than Fiction (Chuck Palahniuk)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)
Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)
The Boy Detective Fails (Joe Meno)
Fugitives and Refugees (Chuck Palahniuk)
Haunted (Chuck Palahniuk)
The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis)
Farenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S. Thompson)
I think I’ve covered them all, but if not, I’ll add to the list in a later post. The thing is, none of these novels would have appealed to me in past years (with the exception of Joe Meno and Chuck Palahniuk), so I am absolutely shocked that I just started loving them now. I am also shocked that I wasted so much time before, but perhaps I would not have understood them until now. At this moment, out of the list above, my favorite novel is probably Catch 22. If you have an urge to read a good book and don’t know where to start, that’s the one. Brilliant and funny and sad. But really, read any of those books and you’ll enjoy yourself.
Currently, I’m reading Joe Meno’s Tender as Hellfire, and I’m going through it like lightning. Tell me what you’ve been reading, if you’re reading this post. I’d love to hear from some other literary gluttons.
Maybe I’ll even get a comment on this post…
An Update on Professional Expectations
Posted by Justin Whitcomb in God, Reflections: Others, Reflections: Self, Social Issues, Updates on October 8th, 2007
So, long ago, I made a post about how disappointed I was when I entered the teaching profession–how cynical, sarcastic and downright apathetic students are. I talked about my disappointment with their attitudes and their efforts. And I mentioned how the whole world was essentially going down the drain. But I need to revise these statements.
Needless to say, I was not in the right place all last year. I found out in about March that God had better things for me to do. That’s when I learned why I was struggling so much to get my students to do anything. At that point, I began looking elsewhere, and Wham! I found a job. So here is my revised reflection on the state of the youth in this nation.
While still naive and somewhat selfish, I have discovered that students who really wish to accomplish something simply do so. Teenagers (and younger) are not little monsters with nothing better to do than play video games. I was wrong about that assumption. They are intelligent and willing to try just about anything with the proper coaxing. I now know that if you are seen in the right light, you can help students achieve amazing goals. And you can do it quickly. It doesn’t take centuries for it to happen–not even decades, years or months. A matter of weeks is all you really need.
Essentially, my conclusion is this: the youth of America are not truly dying. They are living the same lives that I lived when I was in high school (except with cell phones and iPods). They are exploring and discovering, they are wisely choosing to do more than just get by. And even the ones who seem reluctant really do want to make themselves better–they just want to look cool when doing it. All you have to do is disarm them enough and then give them confidence to make up for the possible embarrassment. Give them something to really indulge in. And now I know how that works, and I know what can come of it. Future teachers, don’t give up. Don’t be disheartened when you find yourself deep in fear. That first year is hell, and the sooner it’s over, the better every other year will be.
And if everyone hates you, just remember: it’s not always going to be your town.