My lesson with Ellerby went really well this morning. He said I had a natural fluency, and that my next step should be the art of structure, balance, and placement -- things that aren't necessarily taught as much as they're discovered. We went through Badinage, and he made some very on-target comments about how to improve the piece's cohesiveness.

There's not enough good pieces of chicken in fried chicken boxes these days. There should be a white-meat trade-in program so I don't have to bother with so much dry stringiness -- Dark meat is definitely key.

Monday's Boston Public episode was definitely a good start to the season, if a little over the top. I'm glad they started a little ways into the year, so they didn't have to waste time directly introducing the new students and teachers. A "first day" episode would have been such an easy throwaway.