The Setlist is RMC Studio's weekly newsletter! It's jam packed with awesome pictures, videos, and news that you won't want to miss. So make sure you always keep your eye on the setlist, you're gonna want to know what's coming up next!
This Week's Set List:
- Garwood Rocks Highlights
- ACES HIGH
- Little Secret
- EJ's Candy Stash
Studio News and Events
Garwood Rocks Garwood Rocked!
RMC brought the PARTY to Garwood Rocks this past Sunday! The main stage was packed with our talented RMC students. We had solo performers, a demonstration by the RMC Drumline, The RMC Jazz Ensemble, and a performance by the band, Various Artists.
Our RMC side stage was buzzing all day! We had on-stage lessons, student performances, and an open mic featuring lots of new musical Garwood friends who visited and performed on our stage! Check out the slideshow below to see some of the highlights of the day!
Student / Teacher Juke Box
Every week we ask a student and their teacher to each name a song that they've been jamming on! This week we feature Matthew Hunsinger and his teacher George Maher!
Matthew:
"Aces High" - Iron Maiden
"I like this song because it's shreddy and fast."
George:
"Limelight" - Rush
"I like Limelight because it's super fun to play and I like Rush."
Video Of The Week
Check out some more of our highlights from Garwood Rocks!
Little Secret
Our friends in Little Secret are playing LIVE at the Sweet Sounds Downtown Music Festival in Westfield on Tuesday, July 23rd! Their guitarist is none other than Justin Schack, rad dad of drum student and RMC Drumline member, Zoe Schack! You can find Zoe in the pictures and video of RMC at Garwood Rocks above and you can catch Justin with Little Secret on July 23rd! Be sure to check out Little Secret's Facebook page by clicking on the flyer below!
EJ's Deep Thoughts
Thucydides, Aristotle, Plato, John Locke... EJ. These people all have one thing in common. They think. They think DEEP. Take this journey with us to the deepest depths of pontification itself. Take this journey through... EJ's Deep Thoughts
Hi Everyone!
It's starting to feel like summer, and with that comes a whole wave of childhood nostalgia for me. In honor of that, for the time being I have decided to switch a few things up!
1.) Quote I am Pondering:
"By any means necessary."
- Malcolm X
This quote can be applied to a whole host of topics and used to justify a variety of methods in regards to reaching a desired outcome. For me, I am choosing to focus on the word "necessary" rather than "means." Which was my initial instinct the first few times I came across this quote. What is necessary? Is a certain brand of clothes necessary? Or particular income, job title, type of car, public perception and so on necessary?
I try to ask myself if it is necessary that everyone like the same things I do in order for me to be happy, or to look like me, act like me, believe in the same things I do, etc, etc... Once I remind myself that none of that stuff is "necessary" for me to be happy, most of it just falls away and I am left with goals, and passions that feel almost natural to pursue with everything I have. I feel it contextualizes the "means" I choose to use to obtain or not obtain things that I do not consider of high necessity.
2.) Kids today are soft...
oh yeah, and track I am listening to:
I obviously say this tongue and cheek as a father of two, but man are a times a changing. When the first real warm wave of summer air hits you, and off in the distance you hear the Good Humor truck's megaphone playing the sweet sounds of the "The Entertainer"... it always makes me think of simpler times. I was talking with my daughters, which in and of itself is shocking they were off their phones long enough to engage me, and the summer vibes brought me to the topic of snacking. I am a huge snacker!
I was telling them how as a kid in the late 80's a group of us neighbor kids would gather on the earlier side of a typical summer day and play all sorts of games, and also try to hustle up some money to go to the local convenience store and get some supplies for a nice mid day snack fest (one time we picked all the roses from our neighbors bush and went door to door selling them... I do not recommend that method of fundraising).
During the course of that day we would randomly stop into each others homes and grab some ICED TEA. It felt like every home had that customary Tupperware style pitcher of ice tea in the fridge. The fancy homes had the solid color ones with the plunger type thing on the top, while the rest of us had the clear ones with the spinning lid with two pouring settings. Why did we need two settings to pour? There was the open hole one and then the one that looked like bicycle spokes... when was that option required for an iced tea pour? Or any pour for that matter? Anyway, we would all judge each houses Iced Tea game... which was too sweet, too bland, and god forbid they tried to drop some sun tea or unsweetened iced tea.
Revolutions started for lesser reasons.
I told my daughters I was gonna take them to the convenience store to hit the aisles we used to hit and give them an "old school" dad style snack fest. Followed by a diabetes test. Shockingly, they seemed on board. We pulled into the parking lot, entered the establishment, and just like riding a bike, I went right to the candy aisle without missing a beat. But lo and behold... I saw boxes of trail mix, a bin of bananas, yogurt, real fruit vitamin chews, cliff bars, rice cakes and a whole host of healthy stuff. Sure they had the snickers, and Reeses and stuff, but come on man! Back when we were kids we rarely had the money to spend on that stuff. We lived off the nickel candies. THE GOOD STUFF.
Let me refresh your memory!
1. Candy Buttons: Remember these?
Literally pure sugar glued to paper! Genius! You could get them in one foot and two foot strips. The paper would peel off with the dots... so I am sure I ingested about 100 yards of paper eating those! I am not positive if it was edible paper.
2. Candy Necklace and Bracelet: Classy!!!
Whoever thought of combining jewelry with snacking is one of my heroes. Who wouldn't want their child wearing a sugar string, tightly fitting, around their sweaty neck all day as they climbed trees, wrestled with friends, had bugs land on them, and had other little grubby hands pawing on them? Totally healthy! Totally hygienic! I mean it was not a party unless you came home at night with a rainbow candy stain around your neck and wrist. Throw in a ring pop and you were the Elton John of candy land!
3. Fun Dip: Who says you can have too much sugar?
You know you are out of ideas, or just cutting to the chase, when you are selling a bag of pure flavored sugar. That was all fun dip was! But you also got the LIk-A-STIX, which were your utensil for eating your fun dip. You would suck on your LIK-A-STIX and then dip them into your fun dip and lick all the sugar off. Once you were done injecting a pouch of pure sugar, you then ate the stick... which was also pure sugar. And who said we were not environmentally friendly in the 80's!?
4. Candy Cigarette, Bubble Gum Cigars, Big League Chew:
I really don't know what to say with this one.
How proud our parents must have been and what a sight to have seen. A bunch of 10 year olds walking up and down the street puffing on their candy smokes trying to look tough. The cigar wasn't really my thing. The candy cigarettes became a tough habit to break, I must admit. Too bad they didn't have a candy patch. I did love big league chew. That was a staple in the back pocket of any serious wiffleball player growing up in North Plainfield. Wiffleball was the official summer pastime for us. That and running from my angry grandmother.
5. Wax Bottles: Awesome Stuff!
You could wash down the aftertaste of your fake cigarette, or celebrate a hard fought wiffleball victory by chewing though a wax bottle to suck down fruit flavored syrup. One thing about the 80's is that they really made you work hard for your heart disease.
AND LAST!
THE MOST EPIC...
6. JOLT COLA:
I'm pretty sure I had a few friends not survive their jolt cola experiences...
The bottle says it all. We were all full blown addicts. I woke up each morning itching and twitching until I could get down to the 7-11 or Nancy's Convenience store to buy a can. This was sold OPENLY to any child with 50 cents. I had a hard time understanding why upon drinking one I could run around my block 15 straight times at full speed. There was a kid named Eric in my elementary school whos' mother used to pack him a Jolt cola in his He-Man Lunchbox each day. That dude has got to be in prison today... I should find out.
Todays Track:
"THE ENTERTAINER"
Composed in 1902 by Scott Joplin
The first recording of it was by a group called the Blue Boys in 1928 and it was on mandolin and guitar. The piece is in the key of C but modulates to F before working back to C.