mikey's got a brand new blog

[I ought to be slapped for that post title.]

Mike Zens, my comrade-in-brass-quintet-arms from UW and one of my favorite people on the planet, used to call this his home on the internet, but now it is here: I'm Not Creative...

Is the title of your blog referring to your uncreativity regarding blog titles? Or are you so convinced that as a whole you are not an inspired individual? I would beg to differ on the latter, and I would even go so far as to say that "Yo", the word at the top of your previous blog, is some kind of genius. :)

At any rate, he's only got two posts up at this juncture, and one of them poses the following:

Clark County, NV, home to the breeding ground for vice known as Las Vegas, is expaning at the rate of 5,000 new residents per month. That is astounding. Thus, the Clark County School District is in dire need of teachers. For the 2004-2005 school year, the district hired 1,300 new teachers and opened 10 new schools. For the 2005-2006 school year, they are projecting to hire upwards of 2,000 new teachers and open 13 new schools. This district already has 31 high schools. Their salaries are very attractive, especially considering Nevada residents pay no income tax. The government receives so much revenue from gambling and touism that they don't need to tax income. If you move from outside of Nevada, they even give you a $2,000 "signing bonus."

You don't even need a teaching degree to teach there, just some kind of bachelor's degree.
...
Here's my idea. Chris, Lorn and I should move to Clark County, get jobs at the same brand new high school, and start a program from scratch. What do you think?

Do you think you get Chris to stay long enough to establish a program?

(I kid...I think. :p)

Ok, I'm not a fan of Las Vegas, although I do have some fond memories of running amok there on Pep Band trips (you never know how much havoc you can wreak in Excalibur until you actually try...), but this is something to consider. Now, Mikey's got most of the actual education/program running experience, whereas Chris and I are performers who teach. Actually, that designation bugs me a little, since I think everyone has to be a teacher in some aspect of their musicianship to really learn what it is to be...well, a musician. I think running a real program could be some hardcore biz experience, almost to the point where it scares me a little. Still...I'm going to sound a little dorky here, but...the process of building and organizing and setting up something that's going to last, and have a legacy, excites me. It is right up my proverbial alley.

As I told Mike already, should I repeat the fabulous "failing to get into grad school" debacle of last year, for which the odds are in my favor (or against my favor? the odds are in favor of my repeating the debacle, in other words), this could use some serious thought. How long do we have to decide? What kinds of musical experience should I start boning up on? Shouldn't we bring a woodwind player with us? Can we have a brass quintet again? Promise we won't kill each other?