Noteworthy News Nod

A nice little piece in the Deseret News, published yesterday, about the group I helped found back in 2004:

"Tight harmonies and a preponderance of vocal percussion mark the performances of Noteworthy, a nine-member a cappella group of coeds from Brigham Young University.

"Performing in the group is considered an outside activity and not a part of BYU, although 'everyone knows' they represent the school and its owner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, co-founder Esther Yoder said.

"Yoder recruited Dave Brown and Dan Dunn of the male vocal group Vocal Point to help her launch the all-female group in 2004.

"It wasn't long before Noteworthy picked its first..." [continue reading]

Craig Jessop Resigns!

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Director Craig Jessop suddenly resigned last night. I am totally and utterly shocked. He just took over in 1999! The Deseret News has a good report:

"Mormon Tabernacle Choir music director Craig Jessop resigned Tuesday night during a meeting with members of the choir, leaving the group stunned and emotional, according to one source.

"He made the announcement to choir members following a regular rehearsal. Associate music director Mack Wilberg will serve as interim choir director.

"Jessop apparently read a letter to choir members..."

Continue reading the Deseret News article here.

Torture in Provo

A supervisor at a local Provo, UT business is accused of using waterboarding as a demonstrational technique. What kind of business do they do? Motivational coaching! Check out the Salt Lake Tribune story here.

NOT guilty!

Not a bad start for my legal career!

This semester I'm participating in a criminal defense clinic at the law school, which means I take on real clients with real criminal charges. The public defender's office refers a few cases over to the clinic, and we do all the work on the cases (with supervisors looking over our shoulders). Because I have my third-year practice certificate, I can advise clients on my own, and I can appear in court with my supervisor.

So today my first case had a court date. After lots of investigation and preparation, I appeared this morning with my client in the Charlottesville city General District Court. Since we weren't making a simple appearance or making a plea bargain, but instead we were having a trial, we had to wait until the end of the docket. The long wait made me pretty nervous -- I think the prosecutor was just trying to ice the kicker.

The last case of the morning was mine. It was thrilling to stand right in front of the judge, shoulder to shoulder with the prosecutor, and stay on my toes throughout his questioning of the arresting police officer. It was a DUI case. The officer explained about the accident, the field sobriety tests, and arresting my client. He was very honest about how well my client had done on the field sobriety tests, and didn't try to spin anything to make my client look worse. I was really impressed by the officer's integrity.

Fast forward, there was no record of when the accident actually took place. No evidence whatsoever. So they couldn't establish that the breath test taken after the arrest was done within the necessary 2 hours required by law. Because they lacked this key piece of evidence, they couldn't get the blood alcohol content certificate admitted. When the prosecutor said, "No further questions," the judge replied, "aren't you going to move the certificate into evidence?" We all looked at each other with smiles, realizing he couldn't get it in. The judge jumped in and said, "As far as DUI cases go, this isn't the strongest case ever." The prosecutor added, "Plus, there's so much reasonable doubt since he did so well on his field sobriety tests." Essentially, the case was over right there. The prosecutor just made my closing argument in one sentence.

But the prosecutor added, "I don't think it's fair for this clinic student to win his first case without having to ask a single question." I quickly pointed out that I had made an objection during the questioning of the officer. "That's true," he said. "Okay, then." My supervisor defended me, saying, "He was very prepared with everything anyway." The judge agreed: "I could see he was ready to go with all his questions and everything, just chomping at the bit."

The judge looked at my client and said, "You're free to go." So exciting! My client had the biggest smile ever on his face. He shook my hand and gave me a hug, then gave my supervisor a big hug. As soon as we got outside the courthouse, he and his girlfriend were just jumping for joy. After he was arrested for DUI, he got fired from his pizza delivery job, and now he can probably get his job back. So thrilling.

And for anyone concerned reading this, we did take the opportunity to remind him he might not get so lucky in the future. The case might be a little stronger next time. So don't drink and drive.

It was exciting to win, though I can't credit myself for having done much. I felt very prepared, and I knew when to object, and I knew why the prosecution didn't have enough evidence. So I guess I did something. And I held this poor man's hand through the process, which I hope was a help to him. All in all, it was a great start for me. I'm 1-0. We'll see how the next one goes...

Mahoney

UVA has chosen a new dean. I've never had a class from Professor Paul Mahoney, but he served as advisor for my journal and the symposium we produced last year. He was always very nice.

I did have a class from his wife, Professor Julia Mahoney. She was eccentric to say the least, but the perfect person to teach property. You'll never find anyone so excited about remainder interests, public easements, and adverse possession.

Although John Jeffries' wingtips will be hard to fill, I believe Mahoney will be a good man for the job.

And the answer is...

CRAFT.

Seriously, think about it. Craft.

Congratulations to my mother-in-law for coming up with the answer in about three seconds. But boo for not writing it in the comments! (just kidding)

This weekend was a blast, but my body took a little toll. I ended up pretty sick the last couple of days. I'm only now just beginning to move around again...

Hint

I'm off on a crazy driving tour of the southern United States this weekend, as I produce ICCA shows in two different states. Friday I have a show in central Georgia and then by Saturday afternoon I'm supposed to be in southern Virginia. I'll be a busy bee this weekend. Home on Sunday.

Before I head out, I wanted to leave a clue about the riddle in my last post. The answer is a single 5-letter word that starts with C. Keep guessing!

A little riddle for you...

I'll leave this riddle up for the next few days. Post your guesses in the comments section.

Sometimes I am very sly;
Other times a trade I ply;
Through the air swift I fly;
Now, pray tell me, what am I?

True Story

In honor of Papa Parma's new joke blog and Rosa's real life news reporting, I thought I'd post a true story I recently heard about. This comes from a little email newsletter I subscribe to called This is True.

ALL ABOARD: A conductor on a commuter train from Grand Central in New York, N.Y., and Stamford, Conn., stopped the train and went up top with a fire extinguisher after he noticed a power glitch when the train switched from track power to overhead power lines. It was handy that he took the extinguisher: a man riding on top of the car had burst into flames from the 11,000-14,000 volts that surged through his body after the switch-over. It was unclear why he was on top of the train. Thanks to the conductor's quick reaction, Ricardo Chavez, 36, was hospitalized in fair condition. (White Plains Journal News) ...Clearly, Chavez was an excellent conductor too.

Oh zing! I know the Parmas will appreciate the punchline.

CASA President

Most of you know I've spent the past couple of years participating on the board of directors for a non-profit music organization. Last month, I was elected president! The editor of our website did a quick interview of me recently, and it's now been posted. You can check it out here if you're interested.

Giants Win!

What a game!

Rosa and I were invited over to the Olsons' house to watch the big game on their new flat screen. The food was fatty and delicious, and the game was just awesome. Since Rosa and I are planning a move to New York this coming fall, we've been trying to follow all the local teams there (especially since Virginia isn't much of a capitol for professional sports). So we were rooting for the Giants, and boy did it pay off!

I think we have a new "Big Catch!"

Gordon B. Hinckley

Today the LDS community gathered throughout the world to remember the life of President Gordon B. Hinckley, who passed away this week. His funeral services were broadcast across the globe. Never forgotten, he will always be the prophet of my youth.

I recommend reading the positive and largely accurate New York Times article about President Hinckley, as well as some highlights from his memorial services.

Meet the Mormons

This week Charlottesville's local newsweekly published a huge piece on the local growth of the LDS Church. It's actually the cover story! The article features photos of my bishop, some of our friends, and the new stake center.

Check out the article here.

Christmas in Cleveland

Although it's been over a month since la Navidad, I hope you'll still enjoy these fine iPhone photos of our trip to Cleveland.

Darn it

The battery just died on my bathroom scale. I know that's not the same as breaking, but it sure doesn't make you feel good when the scale won't even respond to you when you step on it.

Maybe it's for the best that I don't know the number. Is it fair to keep blaming holiday meals?

I think I'm going to wait a while before putting a new battery in...

Warning: reading this blog may be hazardous to your intelligence

It seems the best way to amass a series of comments on your blog is to wait several weeks between posts. But I promise not to do that any more. The past several weeks have been very busy and quite eventful in the Brown household. Frankly, the main thing that's been keeping me from posting is the difficulty of uploading photos to Blogger. But alas, I should do it.

In the meantime, I thought this was a great way to return:

It takes more than SIX weeks to get grades back from Fall semester, but it takes less than six seconds to get a horrible grade on my blog. If it's any consolation, Rosa's blog is elementary too.

To close this post, I'd like to make a feeble attempt at raising my grade level by inserting some of the words I've actually heard in the last hour during my corporations class:
proprietary
confidentiality agreement
contract drafting
rationality
monitoring
residual loss
property rights
opportunism
discretionary authority
recurring disputes
ownership of information between corporation and partnership and participants

Class is over. I'm going home to read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Celebration!

Finals are over!!!!!!!

How did I feel about them? I have no idea. I've decided by this point that I am incapable of judging my own performance. Virtually every exam I've felt good about has landed me a below-average grade. And conversely, almost every exam that dragged me through the mud ended up being at least an A-. So where does this leave me? I can't tell. I won't find out my grades until February 1, and ultimately my grade will depend more than anything on the performance of my peers. Thank you very much, Mr. Curve.

But seriously, I felt fine. And I know I at least passed, so last-semester-of-law-school, here I come!

Also, Cleveland here I come. For Christmas. And then Salt Lake here I come. But after all that, Spring 2008 semester... here I finally come!

Some overdue photos

From Thanksgiving.


It was nice to spend some quality time with family.

We also followed the Parma family holiday tradition of making chocolates for friends and family. First you have to assemble all your supplies, and melt all the chocolates in crockpots and double boilers.




Then you just start sculpting and dipping.

When you're finished with a set of chocolates, you put 'em in the freezer. Or even in the ice maker if you're running out of space.

Then when they've hardened, you drop 'em on wax paper until the end of the day when you wrap them up in baggies for friends. The shape choices are endless.

And sometimes, when your friends aren't looking, you maybe sneak a bite.

It was a fun trip! Thanks to my brother's family and Rosa's brother's family for all your wonderful generosity.

Sigh

I hate finals. I hate 'em I hate 'em I hate 'em. They completely ruin the holiday season. I should be having visions of sugar plum fairies right now, but instead jack frost is just chomping away at my spirit. It's not so much the studying, but the ominous 3- or 4-hour exam period where you walk in the door and realize there's nothing you can do but type, and there's no way out of it.

Oh well! Soon it will all be over. And at least I have an excuse not to clean my house or shave. And people are more understanding when I don't return their calls or emails for days at a time.

And occasionally, exams can even produce some really interesting stories.

I'm back

Okay, a little while no bloggy blog. I've returned.

Rosa and I went to Dallas for Thanksgiving -- sooo faaahn! We stayed with her brother and his cute family. Lots of good game playing, baby adoring, and chocolate making. Yum. And we spent lots of quality time with my brother and his family. It was so nice to see them! It had been too long. They're such great examples to me; I love being with them. And of course it was great to see my folks as well. Lots of hugs. Lots of mom staring at us.

Now we're back to C-ville and trying to make it through each day. Rosa's working by day and performing by night. Everyone should go see her show! I'm trying to do finals.... blekch. Wish me luck.