So, last week I participated in a school reunion of sorts. Various members of the Arts alumni of my high school—particularly students who went to school in the 80s—have, for the past almost 25 years, have held special reunions to honor our arts teachers. We had one honoring our former orchestra teacher (The first one, in 2001), two times with our former choir director, our former theater director, and last weekend we honored our former jazz band (and concert band, and orchestra, and any number of hats he wore) director. And this time, the organizers were able to award our first “OPUS” scholarship to a senior.
Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
So, Ron “Doc” Holleman was a teacher from 197-something until 1999. We most know him for his concert band directing and his jazz band directing. He was always programming new jazz in his concerts, and one of his favorites was Sun-Ra. One concert he and the band actually dressed up like Sun-Ra’s Arkestra and did one half of the concert playing Sun-Ra’s music as well as other Space Music.
Anyway, this past Saturday the alumni flew him in and performed a tribute concert with him directing as well as playing. At 80, he still plays in a local club in Colorado where he’s retired to.
I volunteered to be a part of the band, playing alto sax. I figured there would be enough alumni of the jazz band for me to be one of the second altos and kind of hide. Me being a bassoonist and all. To my surprise, despite all the names I saw on the mailing list, I got put on lead alto. Front and center, where Doc could hear every fnortn I made. No pressure. In this picture from right to left you see the second alto with his soprano sax double, then my alto with my clarinet double.
The music wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I acquitted myself pretty well. Here’s a picture of Doc playing a solo during rehearsal. I’m right behind him.
I also volunteered to direct a piece and sing a song. Yup, that’s me. The Volunteer. It was a wonderful evening playing before a packed house, and we raised over a thousand dollars for the scholarships. As I mentioned, we awarded our first scholarship this year. This senior is a jazz vocalist who has been singing everywhere. This kid is going to make it big. He sang “You Make Me Feel So Young” as a bunch of old farts played his accompaniment.
Finally, here is a picture of me and Doc.
As I bask in the wonderful memories, let’s go on to Tops!
TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From inkstainedwrench:
JackStraw777 comments on Mark Sumner's diary
https://www.dailykos.com/...
REAL patriotism, not cosplay crooks, creeps, and coup-crazy Confederates.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday (Sunday), [insert the date here], first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for yesterday (Sunday), [insert the date here]. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you to the wonderful dKos staff who made it possible to continue this feature in memory of jotter!
The Picture Quilt is still Borked.