EppsNet Archive: Music

Teaching Computer Science: When You Need Help, Ask For Help

by  on The Programmer
 

I’m volunteering a couple mornings a week at a local high school, helping out with computer science classes. It’s a mixed class . . . most of the students are taking AP Computer Science Principles, and about 10 kids just recently started a second-semester Visual Basic class. The VB kids were pretty inquisitive at first but started to get discouraged . . . in my opinion because of the way the material is presented to them via an online curriculum. The current approach to teaching computer science in American schools, because of the shortage of (I almost said “lack of”) qualified teachers is to use packaged courses delivered to students online. My observation is students assume that because they’ve been put in front of a computer full of lessons, they’re expected to be able to read and understand the material and complete the assignments on their own with no help.… Read more →

Fernando and Barbara Ann

by  on 
 

I got an email today from a guy named Fernando and I can’t get the song out of my mind . . . Can you hear the drums, Fernando? There was something in the air that night The stars were bright, Fernando. I would not want to have a name that reminds people of a song that they immediately start singing to me my whole life. Like Jude. Or Barbara Ann. Barbara Ann would be a bad name to have . . . Read more →

The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. — Nietzsche

People I Thought Were Dead

by  on 
 

Herb Alpert – trumpeter Max Baer Jr. – actor, “The Beverly Hillbillies” Barbara Bain – actress, “Mission: Impossible” Brigitte Bardot – actress Rona Barrett – gossip columnist Frank Borman – astronaut Roy Clark – musician Roger Corman – film producer Robert Crumb – cartoonist Bill Daily – actor Vic Damone – singer Angie Dickinson – actress Annette and Cecile Dionne – quintuplets Sam Donaldson – TV newscaster Hugh Downs – TV announcer Daniel Ellsberg – released the Pentagon Papers Barbara Feldon – actress Fannie Flagg – actress and game show panelist Larry Flynt – publisher of Hustler Whitey Ford – baseball pitcher A.J. Foyt – auto racer Ron Gallela – celebrity photographer, aka “paparazzo” Whitey Herzog – baseball manager Ernest Hollings – U.S. senator Cloris Leachman – actress Tom Lehrer – musical satirist Jerry Lee Lewis – singer and pianist G. Gordon Liddy – Watergate mastermind Rich Little – impressionist Peter Max… Read more →

Wild Wild Life

by  on 
 

Sleeping on the interstate oh oh oh Getting wild, wild life Checkin’ in, checkin’ out! Uh, huh! I got a wild, wild life Spending all of my money and time oh oh oh Done too much wild, wild We want to go, where we go, where we go oh oh oh I doing wild, wild life Read more →

Wandering Boy

by  on 
 

I hope he’s warm and I hope he’s dry And that a strangers eye is a friendly eye And I hope he has someone close by his side And I hope that he’ll come home Where is my wandering boy tonight? Where is my wandering boy? If you see him, tell him everything is alright Push him towards the light Where is my wandering boy? — Randy Newman, “Wandering Boy” Read more →

Our Town

by  on 
 

And I can see the sun settin’ fast And just like they say nothing good ever lasts Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye but hold on to your lover ‘Cause your heart’s bound to die Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town Can’t you see the sun’s settin’ down on our town, on our town Goodnight Read more →

Aside

I just don’t understand it . . . I just don’t understand it . . . I just don’t understand it . . . I must have got lost . . .

The Myth of Fingerprints

by  on 
 

Over the mountain Down in the valley Lives a former talk-show host Everybody knows his name He says, “There’s no doubt about it It was the myth of fingerprints I’ve seen them all and, man, They’re all the same” — Paul Simon, “All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints” Read more →

Brahms Shooting Cats

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Allegedly, Brahms would sit by a window with a bow-and-arrow-type weapon that Dvorák gave him, and shoot arrows at the cats in the street. — Schmopera Lullaby, and good night, in the skies stars are briiight . . . GODDAMN CATS!!! Read more →

What Might We Be Missing?

by  on 
 

Joshua Bell is a violinist, one of the world’s greatest classical musicians. The Washington Post a few years ago did an experiment where they put him in a DC metro station wearing a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. Like a street musician. He’s got an open violin case in front of him so people can put money in. It’s about 8 a.m. on a Friday, morning rush hour. He plays for 45 minutes, and 1,097 people pass through the area where he’s playing. Before watching the video, you may want to consider out of that many people — more than 1,000 — how many will recognize the quality for what it is? How many will stop and listen? How much money will he make? Before you answer, keep in mind that he’s not going to play popular tunes that a lot of people… Read more →

This Year’s Recital

by  on 
 

I’ve been doing these student recitals once a year for three years, since I started taking piano lessons. This year. I didn’t nail it but I didn’t botch it either. It was somewhere in-between. At the refreshment table after the recital, one of the piano teachers in attendance said to me with some surprise, “Your teacher is younger than you?” “Every person here is younger than me,” I pointed out. Read more →

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