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One of my commanders in the Army band once told a story about a fellow he was serving with playing a solo in a concert. I guess this person had been around the block a few times, judging by how he described this scene. Apparently this guy played the solo well enough, but made a…

**This email was originally written and sent in the summer of 2021, while I was residing in Vietnam with my wife Sana. I liked it so much I wanted to share it again. One of the unforeseen benefits of living in Vietnam is the TV coverage of the major tennis events. Tennis is one of…

Things don’t happen when we want them to, do they? We’re often told by the Universe, by way of our circumstances in life, to “get in line”. Wait your turn. The results that are meant to happen will happen. But we need to worry about our mind, body, spirit; as well as our connection with…

A couple of years ago, I heard about the plight of Daniel Elder, a composer of sacred music who was blacklisted by his peers, not to mention the entire music publishing industry for one single Instagram post. The setting was the summer of 2020, which if you recall was a quite dark place generally speaking…

Back when I edited Ben Greenfield’s podcast, I would occasionally get approached by people who want themselves or someone they know to be on Ben’s podcast. If you’re not familiar with the name, Ben Greenfield is a legit guru in the world of health and fitness, and his show is listened to by tens of…

These emails can be pretty difficult to write. Not necessarily the actual action of writing. I mean, we’re talking 300 words max. That’s how long my discussion board posts were in college, and I could pound them out like it was no one’s business. But sharing things on your mind, personal things, with the intent…

A common objection to getting into podcasting is “there’s just so many of them, so why bother getting into it myself?” I’ve heard that before I got involved with the craft in 2015, and many times since and it has always struck me as a bit of a cop out for not putting in the…

Good morning. I just released a new episode of the Trumpet Dynamics podcast yesterday. Actually, it’s a very old interview that was repurposed into a brand new episode. It featured Denver Dill, who is a very fine trumpeter with the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point. In addition to playing, he also teaches a…

A post from June 2016 showed up on my Facebook account today when I did a search for something seemingly unrelated. But it struck me as something worth resharing all these years later, and just as relevant IMO. What follows is what I posted in June 2016: “In the event you’re inclined to think the TSA…