They've Got Rhythm

Photo by Evan Brandt

Pottstown High School Jazz Band's rhythm section with their award, from left, are Jake Fetterman, Connor Christman, Maxine Bacon, Eddie Butler, Cole Sellers and Jake Wunderlich.

For its third consecutive jazz competition, the Pottstown High School Jazz Band's rhythm section was

named the best Friday night.

The award was given at the conclusion of the 15th Annual Valley Jazz fest, held at Perkiomen Valley Middle School West.

Pottstown was rated as "Outstanding," along with five other bands, and two of its soloists, trombonist Sherif Mohamed, and saxophonist Marley Bryan, were singled out, each earning an honorable mention award.

I have featured videos of Pottstown's performances at other jazz fests here many times. I will upload all three performances onto my YouTube channel and you can watch them there.

(They are worth watching. The kids played very well.)

But they also changed out one of their numbers and substituted "Buy It and Fry It" in its place, so I've embedded that video here:



The only other local band to participate in the judged portion of the program was Phoenixville High School's jazz band, which also earned an "Outstanding" rating.

The entrance to Perkiomen Valley Middle School West.

(They were on first and I arrived too late to get any video of their performance.)

Phoenixville trumpet player Donnie Jackson was also one of the three to earn a soloist award.

The second soloist award went to trumpet player Josh Weckerly from the North Penn High School Navy Band.

The third soloist award went to Logan Mohr, tenor saxophonist, from the New Hope-Solebury Jazz Ensemble.

Alto saxophonist Natalie Parker from the Quakertown Community High School Jazz Ensemble also earned an honorable mention as a soloist.

Photo by Evan Brandt

The judges at Friday night's Jazz Fest in Perkomen Valley.

Chief Judge for the night was Dick Scott, a retired music educator and the former Jazz Band Administrator for the Cavalcade of Bands, which sponsored the evening.

Glen Brumbach, director of bands at Boyertown Area Senior High School, was the second judge and the third judge was Marc Jacoby, an associate professor of music at West Chester University.

The following bands also participated and received a rating of "Outstanding:"

• Central Bucks South
• Methacton
• Pennridge
• New Hope-Solebury

North Penn Navy and Quakertown High School's jazz band earned the only two "Superior" ratings of the night and Pennridge Lab Band earned a rating of "Excellent."

Photo by Evan Brandt
The Perkiomen Valley High School and Middle School West
Jazz bands performing "Forget You" together on stage.

Because they were the hosts, Perkiomen Valley High School's Jazz Band performed but was not rated as part of the competition.

Also performing in the pit during stage changes, was the jazz band from Perkiomen Valley Middle School West, directed by Dawn Krown.

In a nice gesture, the two bands played their final number, "Forget You" together on stage as a single band.

Here is that video:

The second piece by the Perk Valley band was "If I Could" by one of my personal favorites, Pat Metheny. The soloist, on alto saxophone, was Sarah Fonda.

Here is the video:

They began their performance with "The Chicken," an odd enough-sounding title.

Soloists in this piece were Will Turner on guitar and Brian Christman on tenor saxophone.



I did shoot video of all three performances by the Perkiomen Middle School West Jazz Band as well, but I am not going to embed them here, mostly because its nearly 1 a.m.

They can be found on my YouTube channel at some point in the next 24 hours.

Stadium Lights, $6.7 Million School Bond Discussed

School board meetings take place in the cafeteria at Pottstown Senior High School

Music and a Meal for $8? What Magic is This?

Photo by Evan Brandt

The sign...

Imagine this: It's a lovely spring evening and you want to take your significant other (or better yet, your whole family) out for a tasty dinner and perhaps some music.

Problem is, you've only got a few bucks in your pocket.

Maybe most of your entertainment budget went into your home's often-empty oil tank this year, or a malevolent pothole threw your alignment from here to the moon -- and back.

Quite the dilemma you face oh-seeker-of-mealtime-entertainment.

If only there was some place you could go, a place of "Good Will," where wholesome and delicately boiled carbohydrates, hand-rolled meatballs and the best jarred red sauce could be had for a song ... and with a song even....

Photo by Evan Brandt

The food...

Heed our words, oh seeker of music, mirth and meatballs, for your answer lies within reach.

It is none other than the return of that most marvelous and most melodious of meals; that mellifluous melange of melody and meal time, that provision of pasta perfection; that juggernaut of justifiably jammin' Jazz; that ....

... too much?

OK, sorry.

Ahem, let's start again.

The Pottstown Schools Music Association will present the second annual night of Jazz and Spaghetti on Saturday, March 29, at the Goodwill Fire Company, 714 East High St. in Pottstown.

Photo by Evan Brandt

The musicians....

Pottstown's high school, middle school and elementary school jazz bands will provide the music entertainment while the parents of the Pottstown Schools Music Association provide the pasta.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for children younger than 10 and children under 5 eat for free.

It starts at 4 p.m. and lasts through 7 p.m.

It will be three solid hours of auditory and culinary enjoyment; an one-a-year experience made possible by a small band of fearless volunteers and the equally fearless children of this community; children who have stepped forward, students who will to rise up, instruments in hand, straining mightily against the bonds of beat and baton which bind them to this earth; students who will issue musical notes which soar to the ceiling notes which.....

Photo by Evan Brandt

The well-fed audience....

...what's that? Too much again?

Right.

So advanced tickets can be purchased.

You can get them by calling Debi Schiery at 610-505-3077. Or, you can buy them at the door.

So there is your choice, leave your loved ones at home, wallowing in spaghetti-less, Jazz-less misery, wondering if its even worth breathing in another day's air...

....OR.....

Photo by Evan Brandt

The chefs....

You can fire up the family wagon (or the family bicycle as the case may be), heck, call up grandma and grandpa and crazy Uncle Fester, gather them all together and toddle on down to the Goodwill Fire Company, open up your wallet, enjoy some good food and some good music with your neighbors and help music education in Pottstown.

Just think what a big spender everyone will think you are.

Don't worry, we won't tell them what a bargain it really is....

And, if you still haven't figured out how much fun this is, below is a video I made of last year's event.

If this doesn't convince you to come, perhaps you should consider seeking professional help....

With Some Authority

Photo by Evan Brandt

The five members of the Pottstown Borough Authority Board, from left, Jeff Chomnuk, Aram Ecker, Tom Carroll, David Renn and H. Michael Benner, listen to a briefing from Solicitor Vince Pompo during Tuesday night's meeting.

Of Dog Laws and Bond Savings

Open House at MC3

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Montgomery County Community College

Montgomery County Community College will hold three open houses this spring to provide prospective students and the community with information about the College’s credit and non-credit programs and activities.

The open houses are free of charge and are open to the public. For more information and to pre-register, visit mc3.edu/openhouse or call 215-641-6551.

The College’s Central Campus, located at 340 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell, will host an open house on Saturday, March 22 in conjunction with the Montgomery County Wellness Expo. 

The open house runs from 10 a.m.-noon in Parkhouse Hall, with check-in/registration beginning at 9:30 a.m. The Wellness Expo runs from 9 a.m.-noon in the Physical Education Center. 

Presented by Einstein Healthcare Network, the Blue Bell Rotary and Montgomery County Community College, the annual Wellness Expo offers more than 20 free screenings, reduced-cost blood tests, educational information and giveaways throughout the day. In addition,

VNA-Community Services’ Personal Navigator Program will offer free Affordable Care Act information sessions. For more information about the Wellness Expo or to pre-register for the reduced-cost blood tests, visit advance.einstein.edu or call 484-622-0200.

South Hall of MC3's West Campus in Pottstown

The College’s West Campus, located at 101 College Drive in Pottstown, will host an open house on Thursday, April 3, from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. in South Hall. Check-in/registration begins at 5:30 p.m.

Both open houses will provide prospective students and their families with information about MCCC’s credit and non-credit programs. 

Admissions representatives will be on hand to answer questions about the admissions process, transfer opportunities, e-learning and financial aid, among other topics. In addition, Faculty representatives will be available to discuss the 100+ associate degree and certificate programs that are part of the College’s comprehensive curriculum.

MCCC will also host an open house at its new Culinary Arts Institute, located at
1400 Forty Foot Road in Lansdale, on Saturday, April 26 from 10 a.m.-noon, with check in/registration starting at 9:30 a.m. 

Attendees will have the opportunity to tour the new facility while learning about the College’s Culinary Arts and Pastry and Baking Arts associate degree programs, as well as its Culinary Enthusiast classes. Student Success Center advisors will be on hand to answer questions about the admissions process and financial aid, among other topics.

To learn more about all the Montgomery County Community College has to offer, visit mc3.edu online.

Experiments in Journalism

Joe Zlomek

Yesterday, a source of local news closed its doors after a six-year experiment.

Joe Zlomek, a former publisher of The Mercury and an on-line innovator, published his first story in the on-line-only Sanatoga Post in September of 2008.

He announced its closure four days ago.

It was not the failure of his business model that forced the closure so much as the draw of his "other job" as an educational courseware -- work I suspect was more profitable than his oversight of the Post and its related publications -- that brought him to his decision, he wrote.

As I said when he made the announcement, I will miss him, as much for his introspection and thoughtfulness about the calling we share as for his companionship at municipal meetings whose length and monotony could test the tenacity of a 100-year-old Galapagos tortoise.

I am also a fan of his writing style, which has a very light and conversational tone to it, just right, I thought, for the kind of hyper-local neighbor-telling-you-the-news-over-the-fence product he was offering.

Further, he was very generous about his attribution, always making sure to link to a Mercury story when he was citing it and, I hope, we returned the compliment in kind.

I considered The Sanatoga Post to be a better version of the national experiment known as PATCH, which enjoyed a relatively brief tenure here in the Pottstown area and has since been gutted of local editorial staff by the corporate interests which now control it.

(Even the casual observer will notice its headlines these days are chiefly regional weather stories.)

I was always puzzled by the idea that a national chain thought it could be both national and "hyper-local" at the same time; an oxymoron on a level with "jumbo shrimp."

It always seemed more of a fervent wish than a likelihood, but who am I to say? I am not a corporate giant wielding millions of investor dollars.

Although the well-intentioned people who worked at PATCH tried hard to focus on local events, the national boilerplate format within which they were required to work left little room to try to meet the different needs of different communities in anything but the same way as everywhere else.

The Sanatoga Post was different in that it was run by a local professional who already knew the community he was covering inside and out.

But the idea of being hyper-local, of just covering one town and its school district, was had certain similarities to PATCH's model and I was curious to see if it could work.

It certainly seemed to.

Joe was steadfast in his coverage and rarely missed a municipal meeting which, despite their often boring character, nevertheless continue to represent the heart and soul of American journalism, in my humble opinion.

As I have said in this space before, I do not believe the founders preserved the rights of a free press so we could cover car wrecks, as evidently fascinating as they are to readers, but to keep an eye on government -- at all levels.

Of course covering those car wrecks and other crimes and spectacular happenings drives readership -- as much as some might be loathe to admit about themselves -- and readership drives the one thing which makes American journalism the creature it is today -- money.

In a capitalist economy, money is the single best way to be independent.

In other words, it pays the bills so we can also afford the cost of the much-less-sexy job of keeping an eye on our governments.

Obviously, a government watchdog cannot be paid by the government. And a newspaper (or news source) which runs on the goodwill and occasional donations of its readers is soon a former newspaper.

(I continue to believe there is a non-profit model out there somewhere which can work, and which is finding some success with sites such as ProPublica, but the world doesn't seem quite ready for that yet.)

In the meantime, newspapers continue to need money to do their job and they are increasingly struggling to make it.

No longer the "go-to" place for information, they are losing advertising dollars at an alarming rate.

(Those of you who read our two-day "Changing Times" series in The Mercury have heard all of this before.)

Paradoxically, it's the once mighty leviathans of journalism, the larger city metros, with more overhead and more areas and niches to cover, that are suffering the most, although we local dailies are not far behind in the suffering department. (Don't ask me the last time I got a raise.)

Still, we do have one advantage at local papers. Local is our niche and we still do it better than any big city metro.

And fortunately, The Mercury is owned by a company that believes it has to innovate to survive and is aggressively pursuing any strategy that shows promise of being economically sustainable.

So far, not too many of them do but we haven't given up yet.

All of which brings us back to Joe and The Sanatoga Post.

I was deeply interested in whether his experiment could survive and bridge the gap between traditional newspaper readers, who still want to read their news on a piece of paper they hold in their hand but whose numbers dwindle with every passing day, and the next generation of readers who seek out information about everything in their world on an electronic device.

I have been crass enough in the past to hint around to Joe that I would love to know if he was making profit, or, more important, could make a living, doing what he did on his site, but he played his cards close to the vest and I could hardly blame him for that.

Nevertheless, I think he showed it can be done if you do it right.

So I thank him for taking on such a formidable undertaking.

But I will miss him here in the Southeast Pennsylvania media laboratory, we need all the qualified researchers we can get.

And I will miss him at those meetings.

(Have I mentioned that they can be kind of long?)

* * *

P.S. So yesterday I discovered that Joe and I define "discontinue" differently. In point of fact what he is discontinuing is "daily" publication and coverage of government.

In this post, he reported that instead he is going to transform the site.

The site will now offer and expanded calendar, which he said is the site's most popular feature, as well as more people-oriented features.

I welcome this news as anything which keeps people engaged with their community has to be a good thing.

However, he is sticking with his guns about not attending night meetings.

So no reprieve for yours truly.

Really, those meetings can get truly epic....