Flan-blog

With Spring just around the corner I wanted to mention some of the goings on in the HCMS Music Department.

I grew up in a place without seasons. Well, that’s not exactly true but I’ll explain. I grew up in Anaheim, California, where the average high temperature for January was 68 degrees and the average high for August was 84 degrees. If you’re living near where I live now, which is Lexington, Kentucky, where the average high for January is 41 degrees, you’re thinking that 68 would be the perfect Winter weather and you would wear shorts all the time and be truly happy.

When I was a child and then a young man I enjoyed around 300 perfect days of weather a year, now I enjoy about 180. But they are rarer and infinitely more diverse, and as I mature I understand that quality greatly outweighs quantity.

Happy New Year!  2012 is going to be a great one!

I love my 8th grade General Music class.  They are amazing kids that are intelligent and are so well behaved in class that it's a real pleasure to teach them each day.  Today however, something happened that will change the focus of how I approach my daily lessons.  

Today I was talking about the Protestant Reformation and setting the historical landscape to introduce J. S. Bach, when it became apparent that none of the 13 students had ever heard of the Lutheran Church.  Then I asked some questions to find out how "global" they thought.  I came to learn that none of them reads a newspaper, watches the news, follows a sports team, follows a favorite band/musician, or has an interest in visiting anywhere.  They are totally "localized".  This needs to change.  I am going to be seriously thinking of how to temper my lessons with globalizing ideals and concepts.

To be continued.

Nine weeks into my 19th year of teaching and I'm still learning and growing.  I'm impressed with all of my students and how intelligent they are!  My two choirs, Singers (8th) and Troubadours (7th) are beginning to really listen to what I'm asking them to do and are starting to make some beautiful sounds.  We will be joining Ms. Hassell and the High School choirs for a Winter Concert that will probably be in the first full week of December, stay posted for that exact date.

My General Music classes are wrapping up their nine week sessions and I'll have entirely new classes when we return from Fall Break.  I'll be adjusting my curriculum as I learn how to teach Music Theory and 1200 years of Music History in 45 days.  This weekend I realized that I have 100 years of history to teach in 4 days.  I remarked to my wife that I'll be driving 25 YPH (years per hour) at school.

I find teaching Middle School is harder on my voice than High School as the students have a quite bit more to say and seem to be saying it all at the same time.  But life is about making adjustments.  I plan to not say a word over Fall Break!

You have a great Fall Break too and stay safe!

Flan 

At 5:05 am this morning the Autumnal Equinox occurred.  A moment in time that separates Summer from Fall.  The word "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length. An equinox happens each year at two specific moments in time (rather than two whole days), when there is a location on the Earth's equator where the center of the Sun can be observed to be vertically overhead, occurring around March 20/21and September 22/23 each year.

When Julius Caesar established his calendar in 45 BC, he fixed the Spring equinox on March 25. The reasons of the actual shift to March 21 are linked to the goal followed by Pope Gregory to create his modern Gregorian Calendar. In fact, the Pope was not moved by the desire to honor the Roman Dictator, but to restore the edicts about the date of Easter of the Council of Nicaea of AD 325. Incidentally, the date of Easter itself is fixed by an approximation of lunar cycles used in the Hebraic calendar, but according to the historian Bede the name comes from a pagan celebration by the Germanic tribes of the vernal (spring) equinox.

My advice is to enjoy the beauty of Fall.  Go on a walk, listen to music, dig your sweaters out of storage, and get ready for the Major League Baseball Playoffs.  I think this will be a beautiful Fall!

It's official!  You are now looking at the current homepage for the Tom Flannery Podcast!

Click on the links below to listen.  Also feel free to download any or all of my podcasts to burn them to cd's or load them on your iPod, mp3 player, or smartphone.  And of course, feel free to share them with anyone.

• Flandog's take on Hand Washing
• What would you do if you had Superpowers?
• What if you never ate?
• Did you make history today?
• Clarifying the misunderstandings surrounding "SUSHI"
• Listen to this before you get a Tattoo!

(All recordings copywritten @tomflannery1, 2011)

When I was a little kid there was a poem on my refrigerator.  The same poem was framed on the wall in two different bathrooms and my big brother had a hand-written copy in the sun visor of his Volkswagen Bug.  I had the poem memorized by the time I was twelve and still repeat it to myself all the time.  It has been attributed to several different authors and coaches but who wrote it isn't important.  What's important is the truth in these words.  A truth that, the older I get, appears so self evident that I am dumbfounded as to why Americans don't repeat this poem every morning with their hands over their hearts.  I challenge you to learn it, meditate on it, and try to adopt this attitude.  This makes great self-talk on mornings when it's hard to get out of bed!

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't,
It's almost certain you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost.
For out of the world we find
Success begins with a person's will.
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are.
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later the person who wins
Is the one who thinks they can.

Flan

I made a decision.  I am going to cook a goose.

As is my standard procedure I read five different recipes to compare and contrast them and find what is true.  And here is that truth: A goose is very fat.  Really, really fat.  So fat that I will have to make small cuts in the skin for the fat to melt and escape as I roast the bird.  Then, with a bulb baster, I will remove the liquid fat from the pan several times throughout the cooking process.  But here is yet another truth:  That fat can be used to cook with for weeks.  I heard of a woman that won a cooking contest because her Potato Latkes were cooked in goose fat.  So not only am I going to have a terrific, all dark meat, delicious goose to eat, but many more meals cooked in delectable goose fat.

Yessssssss!

Last night the Cincinnati Reds clinched the National League, Central Division title.  This got me thinking about the greatest game in the world, Baseball.  There are so many things about baseball that seperate it from all other sports.  It's the only sport where the defense has possession of the ball to begin each play.  It's a game of failure, where if you fail at the plate seven times out of ten you're considered a solid hitter.  If you do that for 20 years, you'll make the Hall of Fame.  Talk about classy, the game is played on a diamond.  And you don't have to be an amazing physical specimen, you can be 5' 11", 175 lbs,  not particularly fast, and have a major league career.  It's the only sport where the man scores rather than the ball.

I've been fortunate enough to come from a baseball family.  My Mom's big brother, my Uncle Hal Smith, played 10 years of major league ball.

He came into the league with the Baltimore Orioles in 1954 and ended his career in 1964 with the Cincinnati Reds.  The highlight of his career is Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, where as a catcher he hit a dramatic 3-run home run in the eighth inning to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a short lived 9-7 lead. 

Closer to home is my big brother Tim.

Tim came into the league in 1979 with the San Diego Padres and played 11 years with the team.  The highlight of his career was a leadoff base hit in the 5th inning against the Chicago Cubs in game 5 of the National League Championship Series that started a game-winning rally and sent the Padres to the 1984 World Series.

People sometimes think this is amazing but I don't.  To me it's perfectly normal.  I sat on the bench and was even bat-boy for his Little League team, Babe Ruth league team, Anaheim High School team, Chapman College team, even a Boulder, Colorado semi-pro team.  It was obvious to me that Tim wanted to win more than anyone else.  He sprinted to first base after getting walked, he leaned into pitches and let the ball hit him to get to first base.  He gave 100% all of the time.  Even in games that he didn't start, he wore a helmet and batting gloves on the bench gripping a bat and watching every pitch.  When he finally got into the game, there was no adjustment period, he was already mentally in the game!

To me, baseball and life are the same.  You don't have to be talented, you just have to want it more than everyone else.  You're allowed to fail a lot.  You just never give up. 

Congratulations to the Cincinnati Reds on a fine season and good luck in the post season until you come up against the San Francisco Giants.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention.  My brother Tim's birthday is today, September 29.  He turns 53 and now he's a Giant and he wants it more than anyone else!