Articles written by Joe DeShon - Page 3

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About me - Joe DeShon

I'm a former music teacher who discovered that music is best as my avocation, not my vocation. So now I work in the marketing department for a very large telecommunications company. The only thing keeping me from writing all the time is finding enough people

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Entertainment > Music Education Tips for titling instrumental music: 1 of 2
In the old days, it was good enough to name instrumental music by the type, key signature, and serial number. Is it the fifth symphony in C-minor? Then I guess the name would be "Symphony #5 in C-minor". Gee, that was easy. Somewhere along the line, opus numbers came into being. But they were often added posthumously. Compos... More..
Sciences > Earth Science (Other) A tribute to Vanguard 1: 1 of 1
It's fifty years old and it's a piece of junk. In another couple hundred years, it's destined to be destroyed in a violent and fiery blaze of glory. But it's a lovable piece of junk. And maybe - just maybe - it deserves to be on some nation registry of history things. It's Vanguard 1, currently the old piece of space junk or... More..
Entertainment > Celebrity Commentary Tribute to Scott Adams: 1 of 1
Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert franchise, and I have a lot in common. We're both about the same age. He used to work at a large telecommunications company in the West. I work for a large telecommunications company in the Midwest. We both share a healthy cynicism of large corporations, although his is directed at the... More..
Business > General Management Muzak losing battle with iPods in the office: 1 of 1
Several years ago, Muzak (the corporation, not the irritating genre) had a saying something to the effect of "People are more productive when listening to boring music". And with that, they sold hundreds of thousands of installations of Muzak (the irritating genre). Through the 1980s and early 1990s, I worked in several offi... More..
Entertainment > Movie Genres The worst movies ever: 31 of 58
"Plan 9 from Outer Space" is one of the positively delicious films that falls into the so-bad-it's-good category. Who cares what plans One through Eight were when this one is so entertaining? Paper plate flying saucers get shot down from the sky. Cardboard graves tip over when then are brushed. The airplane's cockpit is made... More..
Politics, News & Issues > Political Issues Assessing the limits of democracy: 13 of 24
The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once mused "Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve." He was right. The irony of democracy is that we don't always elect the best person for the job. But we'll usually elect the most appropriate. One reason is because the best person for... More..
Personal Finance > Spending & Saving (Other) Critique of tipping system: 9 of 15
The most insane of all Western customs that exists today is that stupid little practice known as "tipping". Whoever first came up with this asinine idea should be paid minimum wage and then should be tied up and have unimaginable things happen to him as everybody passes by, bribing him for better service by waving dollar bil... More..
Entertainment > TV Genres & Trends Best sitcoms of all time: 32 of 52
The sitcom was invented for television. It has a dilemma, a development, and a resolution all neatly wrapped into a 30 minutes package with some laughs thrown in for good measure. Here's my list of the best of the best. I Love Lucy The granddaddy of all sitcoms. The one that established the rules by which we all live today. ... More..
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips Advice for new writers: 58 of 88
I saw an interview of some of the head writers for the old "I Love Lucy" show. They talked about how they often wrote the show "backwards". They would begin with a situation and then figure out how to get Lucy and Ethel there. For example, they figured it would be funny to have the girls tromping barefoot through a vat of gr... More..
Entertainment > Music Education The nonmusical benefits of a good music education: 4 of 6
Music education isn't just about learning quarter notes and half notes. A well-rounded music education teaches life skills and values far beyond the scope of the music itself. In the same way that sports education develops the student as a whole, learning music helps students in several areas of life. Let's examine the non-m... More..