Columbus Day is a lame holiday because there’s no mail delivery on Columbus Day.  I love it when the mail comes.  I love it so much that for Christmas last year, AEJ got me a toy mail truck.

I also like it when mail is taken away. I spent most of yesterday afternoon preparing invoices and packing orders, having forgotten that today was a holiday, and the mail wouldn’t go out until Tuesday. I could have spent the afternoon doing nothing, but instead was unnecessarily productive.

I wanted to share what I think is the best marching band show I’ve ever seen. If you like video games, or marching band, you’ll love this. When I posted a link to this video on Facebook yesterday, it only had about 3000 views. Since then, it’s gone viral, as they say (that’ll happen when everybody from Wil Wheaton to Huffington Post link to it), and the views have crossed 1.2 million. In other words, if this sort of thing appeals to you, you’ve probably seen it already. It’s pretty incredible. (You won’t believe the part with the horse.)  This is the Ohio State University Marching Band, in their show from Saturday night.  Also: Go Bucks!

The Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra, under the direction of Peter Stafford Wilson, performed “Redline Tango” (the original orchestral version) yesterday afternoon. Last weekend, the Annapolis Symphony, under the direction of José-Luis Novo, performed the piece twice during their season opening weekend. (Novo also conducted the piece at the Eastern Music Festival in July.) I think the orchestra version of the piece has now received 20 performances. For a not-yet-dead composer, that seems like a huge number. (The band version: 10 times as many performances, but we’ve discussed the band-vs-orchestra differences before.) The recent string of performances — plus the amazing time I had a The Cabrillo Festival in August — does kind of make me wish I had another orchestra piece, I have to say. Anybody want to pay for that? Anyone?

Anyone?

In closing, here’s a picture of Loki, because the Internets are for cats.  (I’m peeking into the 8mm frame.)