(CNN) — Randy Pausch, the professor whose “last lecture” became a runaway phenomenon on the Internet and was turned into a best-selling book, died Friday of pancreatic cancer, Carnegie Mellon University announced on its Web site.

Of course, everyone will have a different interpretation and reaction to him, his now famous lecture, and his book. For me, the book was inspirational without trying to be, instructive without being arrogant, and a touching account of how one man found at least a small measure of peace as he came to grips with his own mortality.

The details of the story can be found over at CNN and the Last Lecture on You Tube.

Last Friday Wes over at Walk in Brain made a post with a video of the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain.

I enjoyed that performance so much that I went on a bit of a binge and watched a bunch of their stuff on YouTube. Besides their version of “Shaft”, this is among my favorites:

It reminds me of the “Pachelbel Rant” that gives my theory students a good laugh each and every spring. In fact, I might start my theory class this fall with this, just to introduce my long running teaching point about the need to understand what is similar about different pieces of music so that we can really get to the essence of what makes each of them unique.

In this video, courtesy of the Washington Post “Former FBI agent Joe Navarro describes how our torsos, hands, feet and legs frequently communicate emotions that are not put into words.”

Not as interesting as Schulhoff, but I like stuff like this.

While Joe Queenan rants about the uselessness of modern classical music (read about it on Felsenmusik), I quietly enjoyed a terrific chamber concert last night that featured (along with Hugo Wolf and some guy named Brahms) Schulhoff’s Concertina for flute, viola, and double bass.

The EMF musicians gave their usual terrific performances of all of the pieces, but for me it’s always and forever about the music. The Wolf Italian Serenade was a charming piece and the Brahms trio is an exquisite work, but for me, the Schulhoff simply stole the show. Yes, his life was tragically cut short by the the Holocaust, but how he remains in relative obscurity is beyond my comprehension.

Okay, so much for political correctness and sensitivity and all of that nonsense. This just pisses me off:

St. Louis County • Two people were killed and 13 injured — one critically — Tuesday in a catastrophic crash that closed eastbound Highway 40 just west of Interstate 270 as the evening rush hour was beginning, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. Sgt. Al Nothum of the Highway Patrol said 11 vehicles, including a tractor-trailer, were involved in the double-fatality crash at about 3:45 p.m.

The accident started when a tractor trailer apparently plowed into a line of stopped cars waiting to get onto I-270.

“The driver of a large tractor-and-trailer unit was traveling eastbound on (Highway) 40 in the far right lane and basically ran over several vehicles,” Nothum said at a news conference.

I know the rhetoric about how the trucking industry keeps America’s economy moving and that this is an isolated incident and that most truckers are just trying to make end’s meet, but I can’t help be angry at this, especially since this is on my commute during the school year and a spot where I wait in traffic just a little bit earlier than the time frame for this accident.

Nothing against truckers since I know almost every single one of them drives more safely than most of the rest of us, but this is a great moment to mention how strongly I feel about this nation needing to rebuild its railway system, for a variety of reasons.

An article from today’s edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch describing the town next to the town in which I live:

COLLINSVILLE — Few American cities can claim a condiment-centric festival. Collinsville can claim two.

A mere five weeks after wrapping up its International Horseradish Festival, the city kicked off its “World’s Largest Catsup Bottle Festival” Saturday, celebrating the 59th birthday of the giant red receptacle that towers south of downtown.

“It’s just a good reason to have a birthday party,” said Judy Demoisy, the festival’s organizer. “Any deep meaning? No. Just that any community should celebrate its assets. It’s an awareness thing.”

You have to see it to believe it…

… and you can, on this website dedicated to the Official World’s Largest Catsup Bottle!!

Americana at it’s finest along Route 66.

Lovely video on YouTube of a 61 year old librarian being given a ticket for trespassing at a McCain Town Hall meeting in Denver?

Her infraction? Carrying a sign that says “McCain = Bush”

I love her question at the end: “Why would Republicans who voted for bush find it offensive that a sign says Bush = McCain or McCain = Bush?”

Exactly.

I mentioned in my last post that I had accepted a second part-time position to teach theory and aural skills. With the need to re-invest in my commitment to aural skills and the feeling that I have lost my edge, I have decided to take the plunge away from the traditional materials that I have used for years and select Gary Karpinski’s Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing as the textbook for my courses. I have long admired Professor Karpinski and think that enhancing my teaching with his approach to aural skills a refreshing challenge at this stage of my career. I’m curious to hear from anyone who has used his texts in their classes.

To help with my transition, I am currently in the process of spending my EMF days in the local university’s well equipped music library poring over journal articles and re-acquainting myself with his influential pedagogical text. In the process I am also reading some of the articles about music therapy curricula with the vague notion that I might be able to provide something more to the therapy students at Marvyille and perhaps to the theory/therapy communities as a whole. (Besides, given the fact that theory jobs outnumber composition jobs somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 to 1 or more, it certainly can’t hurt to work up the chops and pedagogy is my only research passion.)

At some point, I might also try to write some music, though I think it will be more natural to return to this once the rhythm of the school year returns in just about 7 weeks. I do tend to write more and better music when I’m the most busy anyway!

As the title suggests, my interest in the idea of sharing what I think about the world isn’t of particular interest to me right now. I have had a bit of an eventful couple of months, beginning with an interview for a reasonably good tenure track position in a geographical area close to my roots (and family) that seemed to go very well. It went so well in fact that after talking with the head of the search committee, several of my references called me to tell me that I had done very well during the interview.

Five weeks after the interview and with no official news I found out that the gig went to a graduate school colleague (it would be another three weeks before I got the form letter), which leaves me happy for him, but with many, many unresolved questions about the nature of academic job searches. It is the residual bitterness over this search that has kept me from blogging in recent months.

Apparently, from what I can divine from the comments of those with whom I spoke and my own post-mortem reflection, I think I gave an unfavorable opinion about a textbook or said something that created a moment of hesitation for the committee. Though I’m not really that inflexible, I think I tend to give the impression that my opinions are etched in stone. I believe this because I received a follow up phone call a week after my interview that left me with a very bad vibe.

(I later learned that a few days after this follow-up call, a fresh round of telephone interviews began. Ugh.)

On the bright side, I did receive a substantial part-time gig from McKendree University to supplement my teaching over at Maryville University of St. Louis. The salary reflects the part-time nature of the gig but fortunately I am responsible for the curriculum at both schools and will be able to teach from the same materials. This removes the largest single impediment from teaching in two programs and should prevent me from losing my mind teaching 21 credits of coursework a semester. Together, the renumeration from the two schools is approaching a credible full time salary and I have my wife’s outstanding Illinois benefits to cover that part of the equation. All is not bad because at the end of the day our financial situation will be greatly improved.

(It does mean that my thoughts about community service might be on the back burner for a while though. I need to get that sorted…)