Tall Tales of a Shorter Nature
I recently framed a photo and placed it where I can fondly glance at it between bouts of internet time wastage. It shows the 1973 Cloverdale Stage Band, seventeen young musicians posed on gym bleachers to be immortalized for the school yearbook. This was about the time teenage hormones commenced steering us onto the …
April 23, 2021
Part the First The codpiece has held a certain fascination, as well as other important items, for those of us involved with historical reenactment of the Renaissance. It has been regarded with fear and ignorance by many and a certain reverence by others. This discourse aims to dispel the fear and ignorance, and if you …
March 12, 2021
Generally overlooked by modern music historians, the Air Lute has faded from view since its heyday as the preeminent intangible instrument of the Renaissance. It is unfortunate that the instrument and its repertoire remain largely unnoticed today. The Beginnings Air Lute performance arose in Europe after the introductions from the East of the Ud, a …
March 1, 2021
Monday, January 2, 1978. The Arkansas Marching Razorback Band was in Miami, Florida. The occasion was the Balaba Bowl, a charming sobriquet euphemistically named for women’s breasts. We eschewed the customary “Orange Bowl” in favor of “Balaba Bowl,” which had a cultured insouciance and a delicate piquancy, and fell trippingly off the tongue in a …
February 20, 2021
It was Saturday night after the band’s holiday concert. Since I was a groovy band kid, I was invited to a post-concert party at the home of band sisters Carol and Cheryl Mathis. Carol played baritone sax, and I played tenor sax, so we often sat together in band. Carol could chew gum and play …
February 1, 2021
It was a warm Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock in late Summer, 1974. The McClellan High School Marching Lion band was lined up side-by-side just a few steps off the sideline of the AstroTurf field awaiting an afternoon performance. We were bedecked in our hot, black woolen uniforms in the blazing …
February 1, 2021
During the resurgence of classic horror movies in the seventies, I discovered the Universal horror monsters. Frankenstein and his Bride, the Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man, the Mummy, the Phantom of the Opera. Resplendent in black and white, I loved them all. But my favorite was Dracula, the …
February 1, 2021
Ninety-nine McClellan band kids had been dropped off that August afternoon with their instruments at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. About equally divided between sophomores, juniors and seniors (McClellan was a three year high school), we were there to learn our new halftime show for the fall. As it turned out, I was …
February 1, 2021
In February, 1972, Mom and Dad brought home a little fuzzball to join our family. She was off-white (a color the AKC called “champagne”), a little bigger than a softball, with bright, intelligent eyes. She was a poodle, half miniature and half toy, and she was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Rather than …
February 1, 2021
In August, 1968, after a year of apartment dwelling, our family moved to a newly built home in the growing suburb known as Southwest Little Rock. There were no parks near us and relatively few kids in the neighborhood. There was never even enough breeze to fly kites. I sometimes tried tying a kite to …
February 1, 2021