I remember the first time...

... I heard the Jonas Brothers. It was about ten years ago, and we called them Hanson.

Three teeny-boppin' brothers singing kiddie pop. I guess it just proves once again that if you wait long enough, any gimmick in pop music can be recycled and sold to a whole new customer base.

Ways to kill free time in Sioux Falls, Vol. 1

As some of you know, I went through the interview process for new mentors with Big Brothers Big Sisters in mid-December. Today, two months later, I have my first play date with my Little. We're going bowling after school.

I met him (and his grandmother) last week for the first time. He's a nice kid and quickly got me up to speed on the simple pleasures that going along with being seven: dragons, Legos, and Pokemon. I am fluent in none of these, so at bare minimum, this will be an excellent learning opportunity for me. Perhaps he will pick up a few things along the way as well.

For the longest time, either because of my ridiculous schedule in Madison or lately, because of complete transience, it's been way easier for me to volunteer my money instead of my time. But now that I have some time, this seems like a worthwhile way to spend some of it. I'm looking forward to it.
And in other volunteering, news, I made my glorious return to pep band last night after a 13-year hiatus. My assistant in the orchestra is an assistant band director at one of the local high schools. As such, he's responsible for marching band and pep band. I've been kidding with him since the beginning of the year about dropping in and dusting off my skills with a bell-front instrument. Well, sure enough, I wake up yesterday morning to an email that says that there's a horn, a flip folder, and a t-shirt waiting for me, and that I should be there at 7. Of course, had I known that Washington High School swiped "On Wisconsin" as its school song, I would've been there a lot earlier than the playoffs. What good taste! At this point, I can say that I would prefer a mellophone to the honky tone of the Bb marching horn, but hey, I'll play what they hand me. Perhaps I will buy a mellophone and advertise my services as a pep band specialist.

Oh, and we did Mahler 4 last week at work. That was enjoyable, albeit not a volunteer effort on my part. Maybe not as much fun as Eye of the Tiger or Wooly Bully, but still fun.

Support my community. Support me. Rent some smut.

When one reads materials about the Sioux Falls-based Lodgenet Entertainment Corporation, one sees phrases like "LodgeNet Interactive Corporation is the leading provider of media and connectivity solutions designed to meet the unique needs of hospitality, healthcare and other guest-based businesses," or "LodgeNet is a leading provider of video, Internet and advertising to the hospitality industry."

While LodgeNet does provide a wide variety of services, it is perhaps best known in real life as the purveyor of movies, adult and otherwise, to that hotel you stayed at during your last audition. It also posted a Q4 loss of $19.7 million, largely related to projects undertaken to expand its empire.

So the next time you're in that hotel and can't decide what to watch, please think of my fair city. Think of the jobs that Lodgenet provides.

And think of me, as Lodgenet is one of my employer's corporate sponsors - ironically enough, one of the title sponsors of the family concert this year. No comments.

Just push the number four, hit enter, and think of the jobs you're helping to sustain for the low, low price of $12.99 plus tax.

Boom-chicka-wah-wah.

Vacation, had to get away...

Now that I am back in balmy Sioux Falls (10 degrees at 10:56 a.m.), I can reflect on the things I remembered and rediscovered about my former home during my four-day vacation:

• When you get off the plane, Miami feels like you've been enveloped in someone's sweaty armpit.

• If you see three hot Latina women walking down the street, the one dressed the sluttiest is usually the mother of the other two.

• The allure of hot, European women going topless on the beach is often dampened by European men walking around in Speedos.

• If you walk Lincoln Road from end to end anytime between 10 a.m. and midnight, you will probably be solicited to eat dinner a dozen times by women whose only job appears to be soliciting people to eat dinner.

• If you can deal with possible safety issues, the best time to go for a walk is still between midnight and two in the morning. There's usually a nice breeze and you won't get home looking like you ran through a lawn sprinkler.
  

• In Miami Beach, $65 a night on Priceline in February gets you a great location, a 42" plasma with HD channels, a rain shower, and contemporary decor. $65 anywhere else gets you the Hampton Inn. But hey, who doesn't like their blueberry muffins in shrink-wrap?

• NWS never changes, but for the faces that play the parts.

• Cheeseburger Baby still makes the best burgers ever. It makes up for their terrible website.

• There are dozens of places you can get food at three in the morning. You don't appreciate that until you don't have it anymore.

• Gelato is not custard but it is still pretty damn good.
  

The low temperature here tonight is supposed to be -10. In Miami? 68. Pardon me while I get back to weeping quietly to myself.

Vacation, all I ever wanted...

Through a bit of happenstance, a large block of free time materialized this week in my schedule. With another member of the quintet asking to reschedule Monday and Tuesday's rehearsals, I suddenly had nothing in my calendar until Thursday morning.

Now, some of you may remember my three-day effort to get out of Calgary last August, and how it resulted in a cornucopia of free travel goodness courtesy of Northwest. Of course, free flights aren't always the easiest things to use, and the vouchers expire a year from issue. So lately, I've been contemplating selling them on eBay.

On a total lark, I sat down on Saturday night and took a gander to see what I could find on the Northwest website. I had no expectations. What I found was this:



At $10, it was a much better deal than the listed fare for that flight:


With a few clicks of a button and a hotel reservation on Priceline ($65 a night for South Beach is not so bad), I'm off to my former home for a few days of sunshine, good food, and time with old friends.

So much has happened in the recent past that my year at NWS almost seems like twenty years ago. Nope. Just two, at least according to my calendar.

The horn is staying at home. I'll bring a mouthpiece. This is vacation, after all. I'm not going down there to spend two days sitting in a practice room on the second floor at the hall. I'm going down there to do the one thing I never did enough of in the nine months I lived there: I'm renting a beach chair and an umbrella and I'm catching up on my reading, with the sand between the toes and the sound of the ocean in the distance.

I return on Thursday for weekend performances of a "Winter in Vienna" program that is every bit as a bad as a horn player could imagine it to be. Thankfully, it will be my assistant spending most of his time in Vienna, while I emerge only to rattle off the dreaded Blue Danube Waltz and a handful of other non-waltzing Strauss tunes.

You may hear from me before my return, but don't hold your breath. After all, it's only vacation if you put your life on hold.