Maybe if I'd praticed more as a kid...

I'm a decent piano player, but more for function than actual performance. I blame it on my lack of drive to practice, especially when I was eight and supposed to be taking such things seriously. (Back then, I performed in a recital here, but other people in my studio were performing across the street.)

Anyway, here is a guy who arranged a bunch of 80s hits to be played in ragtime piano style. I can find no definitive evidence that the tape was sped up.



Maybe I could be like these two ladies instead and arrange the works of Bach for the giant piano at FAO Schwartz.



Nah...I'm way too much of a klutz to do that. Oh well.

FSA Fail

What's the FSA, you ask? Family and School Association. It's a fancy modern term for the PTA.

In April, my school's FSA decided to hire photographers and take pictures of the kids, a la class picture day. Why class picture day in September wasn't enough, I don't know.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, the photos were delivered and I was instructed to give the photos out to my homeroom. I couldn't remember collecting payment for these photos, so I remarked to another teacher that it was nice of the FSA to provide free portrait photos.

"Oh, they have to pay for them," the other teacher replied, "If they want to keep them. If they don't want to pay for them, they have to give them back."

Let's figure out what's wrong with this scenario.

These kids are 10-14 years old. Some will be reliable. Others will not. Some will turn in money for the photos and return the ones they haven't paid for. Others will throw the packet of photos to the bottom of their locker and forget about them.

The principal has been announcing every day for the last week for a return of the unpaid photos. Because "if you don't return them, the FSA will have to pay for them."

Notice how the principal is not teaching any sense of responsibility to these kids. He's basically telling them, "It doesn't matter if you are unreliable, someone else is going to cover your ass." (By the way, about 20% of the school didn't return anything. That's hundreds of dollars the FSA has to pay. Not the kids.)

Sorry Mr. Principal. Sorry parents. Sometimes, the teachers know the kids a lot better than you do.

Beatles Rock band Setlist Leaked?

According to a website, this is the track list for Beatles Rock Band. (Love the cartoon at the top, by the way.)

Up against my list, I'm 32 for 45, not too bad considering I didn't know about the three microphone thing. There are some things that I'm glad the ones who chose the set list agree with me on ("Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and my Monkey!" That's going to be so much fun to play!) And then some where I'm looking at it and wondering how I could have thought they wouldn't be on there (I left off "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand?!")

But some neat points:

• I was perfect on only one album; Revolver, three for three.
• I was right about there being a lot of songs from Let It Be due to the simple instrumentation of the songs; however, I picked six and they picked four (and matched three).
• I picked the same four songs from Abbey Road, but thought they would also include "The End" because of that bitchin' guitar solo. But I heard the whole album will be available for download.
• Only one song there that made my shortlist that got cut: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Of course, this might not be the correct list, as the game's rated T for tobacco references. Two Beatles songs refer to cigarettes or smoking, neither of which are on this list. So we'll see.

More Info about Beatles Rock Band

The world premiere of the Beatles Rock Band game is today, even though it's not being released for another three months. I am so excited over what I'm seeing here.

This website includes a partial track list: ten out of the forty-five songs they said there will be in the game, not counting the songs available for download. There might be some differences from the list I came up with, since I didn't know that there will be three microphones for singing harmony (eeee!), but so far, I'm eight for ten.