So many disparate things swirling around my head. All-State cutoff scores once again mystify me. In the southern and northern ends of the state judges seem to give out perfect scores like halloween candy and once again the cutoffs were low. Twenty-seven of my students made it, but some very worthy efforts did not qualify, sadly.

My daughter has gotten what appears to be a job that is commensurate with her education and abilities, that also has a good salary and nice benefits. We have felt that it was only a matter of time until something broke strongly in her direction and I know she must feel proud of herself. This may be the beginning of many new good things for her.

I have students in a weekend workshop at Spivey Hall on Clayton State College Campus, a terrific hall and tradition for high school students. Dr. R is leading them and has given them a bit too much to do, but this is always a brilliant workshop group and we'll see later today just how much they can pull off. As you might expect, the big Brahms number is the challenge.

On the political front, the Bush administration, which was touted to restore honesty and character to government, is struggling and under indictment at the highest levels. Can anyone doubt that the corruption and ineptitude begins at the top? Well yes is the answer to that. 30 percent of Americans think things are peachy. Some, like Harriet Meirs, think the preznit is the most brilliantest man they has ever met.

2000 Americans and perhaps 200,000 Iraqis are dead in Iraq. The suffering caused by this needless war is incomprehensible. When I ask "Why?" I hear the smart reply "Do you want to fight them over there or over here?" Has there been some Iraqi terrorism in the United States and I missed it? And does anyone know where Ossama is? Hiding with the weapons of mass destruction I suppose. Meanwhile we are torturing prisoners of war, floundering in our efforts to help with natural disasters stateside, spending money on pork projects at a record level. And how can we pay for all the spending? The congress proposes more tax CUTS for the wealthy and massive cuts in medicare, home heating subsidies for the poor, and perscription benefits for the elderly. Oil companies have doubled their record profits from last year, hmmm. It looks like if we were struggling that they should struggle too. Drug companies have record profits too. Delta retirees are facing a 75 per cent reduction in their pension as the airline waves off responsibility to their former employees and turns it over to the government to pay them out of tax money. Is the congress tightening regulations to cause corporations to honor their pledges to pensions. No. Rather, I hear that pensions are simply on the way out. Retired pilots' homes will be for sale next spring. We'll have older pilots living in trailers and bungelows. Not what they were expecting at this time in their lives.

They told me on the news last night that I would need $160,000 to pay the premiums and co-pays for my medical needs as a retired person. I'm six years away from retirement and I'm afraid. My stocks haven't made a single dollar since the Repulicans seized power in a fraudelent election. It seems the Uber rich are doing better. I think many people my age will simply work until we drop in harness.

Beauty is indescribable, of course. We all have an eye for it. We are looking for it. We eye it at unlikely places like garage sales, estate auctions, attics, basements, etc., and we see it in obvious places, galleries, stores, and such.

Beauty is not one of the first things we need. We have to have shelter, nurishment, clothing, and some caring relationships, but shortly after those things we go looking for beauty. [Cue image of a pioneer woman sweeping her dirt front yard with a straw broom]. Symmetry is a form of beauty. I've had nice places to live throughout my life. They were all warm enough, dry enough. We hung things on the painted walls to make them pretty. When I was young it was a painting of birds that my mother and father painted. It was paint by numbers, but you know what? I didn't know that until they told me as an adult. I just thought it was a painting they bought somewhere. I remember little ceramic things sitting around, and special dishes that were used about three times in the 20 years that I lived at home. I have accumulated beautiful things during my married life (32 years). We have paid extra to have beauty. We have done without to have beauty. The oriental carpet in the foyer--we bought it when we had nothing. The painted ceramic tiles, we bought two weeks ago. There is still room in the new house to add beautiful things, but there are so many beautiful things in it already that you must agree that we have beauty to look at in every direction. As I type this blog I look out my sunroom windows. One is 10 feet by 8 feet, the others are 10 by 6 and 8 by 6, all looking out into my backyard garden. The birds are there, and the wind blowing the leaves on the trees and myrtles and pomegranite. Everyday the picture changes. This is the first house that I have lived in that is just beautiful. Everyday.

Beauty changes you. It is calming and uplifting.

It seems clear to me that when one reporter who has revealed the name of a CIA secret operative names the Preznit's chief of staff as his source and a second journalist names the Vice Preznit's chief of staff as her source for the same information, that a conspiracy has taken place between the Vice Preznit and the Preznit. It also seems clear that the purpose of the conspiracy was to threaten the life of an agent, with the motive of getting back at the agent's husband, a public official that dared to disagree with the Preznit and Vice Preznit's public statements. Those statements, as you know, have now been shown to be lies (or mistaken, if you are being overly generous).

Shouldn't the Preznit and the Vice Preznit be immediately charged with Treason and face the death penalty?

All-State Chorus. Certainly an honor. Only the elite will make it. Usually about 1 in 5 of those who try out, and the auditionees are only a small percentage of the choral students in the state as well. Students who make all-state are about 1 of 50 over all I'd say. Lots of hard work in preparation for those that make it. And more hard work when they go to Savannah in March for the three day event. It changes them to participate in a good massed choir event though. They meet the best students from around the state and compare themselves. They experience the dynamics of what is possible in choral music. Amazingly about 60 of the 800 or so high schoolers who make it will come from the two high schools in our little city. About the same number will come from Pebblebrook Performing Arts School in Cobb county. There are little pockets of excellence and vast areas of pitiful instruction. It must be that way in every subject area.

If I knew what dynamics created a good teacher, if I could write that down, if I could teach it, I could change the world. Unfortunately when I read books on teaching, they only have gimmicks and platitudes. Good teachers add the gimmicks to their bag of tricks and groan at the platitudes, and bad teachers try to add the gimmicks but their teaching doesn't improve, even with the new rubrics.

I talked with a psychologist years ago (at a football game. We weren't that interested in the game I'm afraid), and he put his finger on the pulse of the problem immediately. He said that leadership is made by two soft skills that basically impossible to teach: judgement and prioritization. These are flying by the seat of the pants skills. Can you feel the wind current and know which way to go? What are the problems? How do you break them down in a logical teachable pattern? What are fun ways to learn problem solving? What should be done next? What should be left for later? I'm starting to get a steady stream of people coming to visit, other conductors, wanting to see what we are doing, but does watching a sailor sail in a certain sea and weather condition teach you to sail back in your own bay? Only a little bit. Knowing what I do is not the thing. Knowing what I'm listening to, and why I do what I'm doing, 1000 decisions an hour, and under what situations I do something, that's the key. Not so much what, as when and why. I don't know how to organize the information to teach it. Yesterday someone asked "What do you do to have 300 students in your choral program." I couldn't answer the question. I don't know.

The difficulty of Fall Concerts in the school system, at any level, is that the conductor's expectations for music in a work can't be abridged to fit the understanding of a fledgling group. Musical aesthetic is an absolute thing too. We don't leave ourselves much room for flaws in a work of art. If it's not quite right, we move on to something else.

My students did many many wonderful things in their Fall Concert tonight. The Glee Club was powerful and sang convincingly. Their final piece was a class A piece. A class A piece for men. That just doesn't happen often. And, they are going to get much better as the year goes on.

Chamber Choir was powerful and had great moments, though I'll have to listen to the recording to decide if anything actually came together. Portions of works were marvelous, one little gem after another in Come Away to the Skies My Beloved, Arise. The Brahms was also very nice. The sopranos decided to sing it in tune.

The volume of work by McIntosh Singers was ridiculous. About four of their eight pieces were top flight, the madrigals, ubi caritas, Psalm 100, and Ah si mon moine voulait danser were all right on. We had an error or two, a couple of quick tempos, but things held together. Soloists on Duerme negrito were stunning. I have some great little singers. Ellen has really stepped up to the big time. It will be difficult for anyone to take a solo from her in the future and she has 7 more concerts. I know her parents must have been amazed, and she is so poised.

I must tell about Caroline as well. When she was a freshman, she heard singers perform the piece that she soloed on tonight. Hearing one of our Shaw award winners do that solo, she made up her mind that she wanted to sing like that herself and she began to work that direction. Then as a senior, she won the same solo for herself. That which we emulate, we become. What must the parents feel when their daughter is the soloist with this choir. They know they it is a nationally recognized choir, and their daughter is the best. It has to be a great moment for them.

They say "The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree."

Sometimes, this is very evident. I think this saying has a negative connotation. In other words, "You think the kid is nuts? You should meet his parents!" When you teach public school, you are allowed to view your community candidly. When children are awake, they spend more time at school than anywhere else. You see them for who they are and can only wonder what is going on in their head. We certainly see the negative, out of control, lazy, uncaring, mean, promiscuous, cheating, disrespectful children. But there is another side.

I want to tell you about two of my students, one a senior, one a sophomore. By themselves they delightful. These two both happen to be girls and there is a common element that ties them together with the first sentence in the blog that causes me to write about them and not others. The first one is brilliant. She has hardly made a grade of less than 100 on any work that she has ever done. Remarkably, she is only second in her class out of almost 500 students. What else does she do? She plays a few instruments: guitar (she has two Martin guitars), violin (she has and acoustic and an electric violin), autoharp, piano, and mandolin. She is singing well enough to get a full scholarship to college in vocal performance next year at a major university, IF she decides to be a music major. She is a song writer. She has put out a CD of her performing and on the CD she sings, plays violin and piano and one of the songs is her own creation. She has garnered all manner of awards and been to numerous leadership conferences, HOBY, girls state, governor's honors, etc. What "no athletics?" you say. She runs cross country and is on the schools competition cheerleading squad. She tutors little kids every morning before school. She says "I'm smart. It's my responsibility to tutor little kids." She visits the local nursing homes to cheer up and help out. She sings in the adult choir at her little church and is a soloist with the group. She isn't perfect on her instruments but she is promising on them. Now the connections. Her CD is not some slapped together childish thing. Her studio was one that turns out CD's for country music superstars. They made her CD for no cost. And her back up band? They are the back up players for country music superstars. Her uncle called them up and said "Guess who's recording in the studio? Why don't you come over and back her up? They came. When I commented on the phenomenal guitar playing I heard on the recording she said in her little girl matter of fact way, "Yeah, he's the best guitar player in the world. He was Johnny Cash's guitar player. My uncle made that guitar he's playing. He said it was worth about ten thousand dollars." These things just fall out of her mouth. She has been excited when she has performed live on the radio with other country stars, or performed with greats at the Carter Fold in Virginia, or sung the national anthem for the Atlanta Braves. "Isn't this fun, Dr. G. ?" She doesn't understand that this is not normally how a kid's life goes. In all this, she is thoroughly delightful, happy, smiling, questioning, and ready for whatever is next. The kid is driven beyond belief. She's hard to calm down. She's always surging forward to do something. I mostly see her in her music, but she is also a promising writer and has won numerous awards in math and of course she is in 4th year French. She has won state and national awards in French. What is the connection to the apple tree in the first sentence of this essay? I'll tell you this. Neither of her parents are musicians.

Did you see the recent documentary special on Public Television on the orgins of country music? It's the story of A.P. Carter, a more or less unsuccessful businessman in many ways until he began to promote country music. The Carter family, the first fruit of country music in the United States, beginning in the 20's. "Little Anne" as they call her, is the great grand daughter of A.P. Carter. What will she become? She loves me for being her teacher and that admiration is my great reward.

Well the blog is long already but I must at least mention my sophomore. Fair haired and wide eyed--an open scandanavian face with strawberry blonde hair. She came to me at the end of last year as a 9th grader wanting to audition for chorus. She introduced herself but I already knew who she was. I had seen her sawing away on her violin in middle school and we lost her out of chorus and into orchestra. She plays the violin really well, technically better than Anne and has made it into an elite group in the southeastern united states, the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. They are phenomenal and play like pros. She is a terrific music reader. Her voice was untrained but sound and accurate. She had no sight singing method but could find notes and missed no rhythms. She was agressive, trying what I asked her to try. She was not afraid. I placed her in a middle group of girls for this year where she is leading the pack both with her singing and her sight singing. She is delightful to be around. Amusing and interesting. I don't teach her class but get to interact with her at extra practices that we have in the mornings. It is obvious that she is brilliant. She rarely misses and is one of the best readers in those reading rehearsals. I have an opening in my top choir next semester and I'm going to move her up into it, though she doesn't know it yet. Apple from the tree? Her ancestor? You have to go back several generations. I just asked about her name one day and said you aren't perchance related to . . . She looked up and said "Well yes, she was my great great great grandmother or something, but we don't know much about her or make a big deal out of it. I came home and scrambled through the boxes of books that I own, looking for that small volume that I had purchased at a little store in Wisconsin. I found the paper back book bearing the image of her ancestor and to my surprise in this 19th century photo of the writer there was the face of my student Hannah, seemingly no more distant in looks than a mother and daughter who looked very much alike.

The town was the closest one to the replica house, built on the original foundation, where that her ancestor grew up. You know the stories. The family trying to eek out a living. Charles Ingalls dragging his family across the northern plains, enduring blizzards, droughts, disease and misfortune, all chronicled by his daughter, the ancestor of my student. Laura Ingalls Wilder. The apple . . .

There are great privileges in teaching. When someone asks why you teach instead of having a real job, I have an answer. Look who I get to influence. I'm changing the world one student at a time.

We had an inaugural concert in the new auditorium tonight. We scheduled it back in the Spring, but it just so happened that the hall, which was supposed to be finished in August, but the certificate of occupancy was only granted at 3:30 in the afternoon on the day before. Lights weren't focused on the stage, sound system was not available, but we had hastily put risers and a piano on the stage last night and students were able to sing on the stage during class today. The room is dry as the desert, but the students handled it well. The room is visually very attractive. Plush green seats, red brick facing on the walls, hardwood floor on the stage. Five hundred eighty seats. We must have had about 300 to 350 for this beginning concert tonight. The audience was delighted with the place. Next week we really test fly the place when the Varsity Glee Club, Chorale, Chamber and Singers take the stage and try to push the place around. The top groups are ready.

It is a sad week when there is no fantasy baseball to play. I picked a weak team this year but played hard to the end and had some influence on the outcome by picking off a few points from people. It was fun. Baseball is such a great game.

The amazing news items are coming fast and furiously.

Only a small portion of the scarey New Orleans "NEWS" turns out to be true. There were six bodies at the Superdome. Only one appears to have died from foul play. That person died of a bullet wound. Why did such things get reported and believed? Because the people were poor and black?

Tom Delay uses his power to subvert Texas law. His defense is "The D.A. is a Democrat." and his second defense is "You can't prove it with only a paper trail." And my favorite third defense "Everybody is doing it." Well Tom, then everybody should go to jail.

William Bennett states that genocide (via abortion no less) would help clear up our crime problem. And Republicans get furious when you mention any similarity between them and the Nazi party. Republicans will have to distance themselves from these remarks. But Bennett will remain one of their poster boys, a prominent speaker and crusader for the cause. He will not be held to account.

GWB has now made seven trips to the disaster zone. Okay George, we get it. You are finally tuned in.

Cheny's chief of staff, Scooter Libby is identified as the leak that identified the covert CIA agent. The president and vice president have said they would go after the leak. Libby has denied involvement. Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller have both identified him as their source. He should now be arrested for treason right? Cheny's chief of staff arrested for treason. Well maybe we'll just slip that under the rug. If this guy is chief advisor, isn't that a colossal misjudgement by Cheny?

Libby also gave Colin Powell 48 pages of false information as he was trying to help him prepare for his UN speech to justify the war. Hmmm.

Have I failed to mention the SEC investigation of Senate Majority leader Bill Frist? Martha Stewart times 100. Just a coincidence says Frist. Blind trust you know. Oh wait, turns out the trust has eyes.

It's time for the people to vomit this corrupt administration into the toilet and pull the handle. There hasn't been this corrupt of an administration since, well since . . . I guess it only makes it back to Reagan, who has the record for the number of indicted members of his administration during a presidency. And I was thinking about Nixon, but he was a smaller player.