Word: clarinets
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Martin's Greenspan is a better read. A former FORTUNE writer, Martin gives us a real biography, one that winds through Greenspan's geeky youth (band, glee club, math nerd) to his stint as a professional clarinet player and time spent in the inner circle of author Ayn Rand, and then to his advisory role with Presidents Nixon and Ford. Along the way we learn that Greenspan is yet another powerful political figure who was in the room but didn't inhale, and that as a child he was terrified of the movie Frankenstein. We also get plenty of quotable...
...life away from drugs and pregnancy and into higher grades. At Mother Hale Academy, a public school in the Bronx that sits amid empty lots and broken glass, a fifth-grade class is playing La Bamba from photocopied sheet music with drums that are too loud and a clarinet that is too squeaky. To the audience, it's better than the Met. Last week VH1 Save the Music got recognition high and low. It won the Peabody Award for public service and received $32,000 when the returning champion on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire earmarked half his winnings...
...senior year in high school. In the world of college admissions, good news comes in fat envelopes. Skinny envelopes contain the applicant's version of a "Dear John" letter: heartbreak in three paragraphs. What can parents, who spend two decades nudging their kids forward, applauding every soccer goal and clarinet solo, do for them on the day the skinny envelopes land in the mailbox...
...lessons--again from my mother--for about eight years, and four years of drums. Since guitar wasn't offered, percussion--meaning drums!--was by far the coolest instrument choice a guy could have in grade school. Tuba ran a distant second. Why anyone would pick some instrument like the clarinet was beyond me. The chance to get a grade for beating things with sticks was irresistable...
...parents like to believe that our sons really do enjoy getting sweaters for Christmas and that they'll floss every day at summer camp. Our boys will choose nutritious foods, and their friends will be polite, clarinet-tooting, soccer-playing A students. But parents who share this last belief, especially, had better take themselves to a wholesome double feature, because in the real world, kids, like adults, are impressed by power. And power doesn't always come in savory packages...