A neat commercial, but as a musician, I must rant.

Watch this commercial for Loewe sound.

The piece they're performing is "Va pensiero" from Verdi's Nabucco. It's a choral work I've not only performed, but taught, so I know it fairly well. Well enough to say this, anyway.

1) Upping the bass on your tv will not make the basses sing an octave lower.

2) Upping the volume on your tv will not make the tenors sing an octave highter.

3) Upping the treble on your tv will not make the sopranos sing a new harmony. (Although they'll probably sing that dotted rhythm too early anyway, just like in the video. Heh)

That is all.

The New Hailing of the Chiefs

C-SPAN recently came out with a ranking of all the US presidents, which is an updated version of the one the Wall Street Journal did in 2000. Presidential history is one of my minor hobbies, so I was very interested in the results. There are also separate rankings on various qualities.

Here is a link to the lists.

Voici...my commentary. Remember, there are only 42 men ranked as Grover Cleveland is counted twice in presidential order and Barack Obama's only been president a month.

The overall list: Not surprisingly, it's changed very little. Most of the presidents barely moved on the list. Only a few moved more than two spots, and only two would I consider big leaps. Those are:

Bill Clinton - Up six spots to #15. That makes sense I guess, since he's the most recent president to appear on the list twice.
Ulysses S. Grant - Up ten spots to #23. Can't really explain this, but he's still in the bottom half of the list, so it's still okay.

And where's George W. Bush? Coming in at #36. Beating out Fillmore, Harding, W.H.Harrison, Pierce, A. Johnson, and Buchanan. We're talking a low position here. Will he rank higher over time? I doubt it, based on his ranks on the other specific qualities.

• Public persuasion - 36
• Crisis leadership - 25 (A 9/11 bump, but it couldn't stand up to Katrina and a tanking economy)
• Economic management - 40 (Just over Hoover and Buchanan. Clinton is #3 on this one.)
• Moral authority - 35 (Clinton's 37. Heh.)
• International relations - 41 (Only beating out William Henry Harrison, who spent the entirety of his month-long administration in bed dying of pneumonia)
• Administrative skills - 37
• Relations with congress - 36 (Dead last here is Andrew Johnson, who took his vice presidential oath drunk and basically told off all of congress afterward.)
• Vision/Setting an agenda - 25 (It's one thing to have a vision and agenda, another to accomplish it. Remember a year ago when W pledged to have peace in the middle east by the time he left office?)
• Pursuing justice for all - 24 (Why is Clinton, Mr. Don't Ask Don't Tell, at #4?)
• Performance within context of the time - 36

There you go. Some of these still need more time to fully settle in history, but I don't think there's any way that the recently departed for Dallas can bubble up into the top half of anything.

Much lulz on this one.

Come on, Jersey peeps. We know these people all too well.

69 Ways to Know You're A Douchebag

You were young and stupid, A-Rod? Well, I can believe the stupid part.

I have the day off from school today, which means I can watch the A-Rod press conference live. it hasn't even ended yet, actually.

The main excuse for his actions seem to be that he was young and under pressure to perform, and therefore didn't know any better. He keeps saying that he was around 24, 25 years old. Apparently A-Rod can't do math: He admitted that he took steroids from 2001-2003, meaning he was 26 to 28 years old. Also, 2001 was his sixth full season in the majors. He just suddenly decided to start steroids after six years? Of course, during the press conference he also admitted to using stuff in Seattle that's currently a banned substance and taken off the shelves at GNC. Who knows what else he'll "remember" after the press conference is over?

All I can say for now is that he has no positive tests after 2003. The year that the MLB started punishing for positive tests was 2004. The US prohibits ex post facto laws, so until a positive test from 2004 on shows up, I don't think they can do anything. However, A-Rod is the only name that has popped up on something like 103 or 104 tests from 2003. Tests that were supposed to be anonymous. Release the other names, don't let A-Rod take all the blame for this.

I haven't really formed my own opinion on the whole legacy thing, the asterisks and whatnot on his career. But I think that having several of his teammates present at the press conference to support him means something.

My students do not belong to NARAS.

Last Friday, I had my students, grades 5-8, vote for the big four awards in this year's Grammy awards: Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, and Album of the Year. Most of what they picked didn't win, mainly because they hadn't heard the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss album. Also, middle school kids have different tastes than the majority of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Here were those nominees, along with who the students voted for, and the real winners.

Best New Artist

Adele
Duffy
The Jonas Brothers
Lady Antebellum
Jazmine Sullivan

5th Grade: The Jonas Brothers
6th, 7th, and 8th Grade: Duffy
Real Winner: Adele


Song of the Year

American Boy (Estelle featuring Kanye West)
Chasing Pavements (Adele)
I'm Yours (Jason Mraz)
Love Song (Sara Bareilles)
Viva La Vida (Coldplay)

5th Grade: Tie, American Boy and I'm Yours
6th and 7th Grade: American Boy
8th Grade: Viva La Vida
Real Winner: Viva La Vida


Record of the Year

Chasing Pavements (Adele)
Viva La Vida (Coldplay)
Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis)
Paper Planes (M.I.A)
Please Read the Letter (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss)

5th Grade: Tie, Viva La Lida and Paper Planes
6th: Viva La Vida
7th, and 8th Grade: Paper Planes
Real Winner: Please Read the Letter


Album of the Year

Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (Coldplay)
Tha Carter III (Lil Wayne)
Year of the Gentleman (Ne-Yo)
Raising Sand (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss)
In Rainbows (Radiohead)

5th and 8th Grade: Tha Carter III
6th and 7th Grade: Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Real Winner: Raising Sand