I’ve yet to post a photo entry about my trip to Florida — and it’s because I forgot the cable to transfer the photos from my camera to the Mac! Fortunately, my partner in crime at University High School on Monday, Michael Markowski, has it all covered in his own great entry on his blog. Lots of great pics (even of some food!), and a fun read. I look like I’m balding in one of the photos, and I’m pretty sure I’m not, so we might need to do some Photoshopping on one of those shots…

As Mike describes, the day at University High School in Orlando was AWESOME. Now I’m at the University of Florida in Gainesville. I had a great dinner with Dave Waybright last night (he’s the Director of Bands here), and in about an hour, I’m heading to lunch with one of the conducting students. After that, I finally get to hear the band here rehearse “Turbine.” I’m excited. They did a great job last year with “Redline Tango,” so it’ll be fun to see what they do with the new tune.

More later!

P.S. I only saw the last three singers, but last night’s American Idol was horrifying and offensive. Yes, Queen is probably my favorite band (since I was 4 years old!), and just about any non-Freddy Mercury-led performance would bother me, but good lord, what were they thinking?! And I like Taylor, but his “dancing” felt false and forced, and made it seem that he has become far too self-aware, turning into a self-caricature. Fortunately, I didn’t actually hear Kellie Pickler — perhaps the dumbest human being ever to be caught on film — perform Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s waiting on the TiVo back at home, but according to AEJ, I’m not going to want to hear that without the benefit of much Xanax and Vicodin. I hope I still have an email in by in box with a good offer for those particular drugs…