Last Friday night, Frank Ticheli organized a dinner for a bunch of composers who were at the TMEA convention.  We went to Mi Tierra.  It was a zoo, but it was popular for a reason: it’s a fun place to eat.   Oh, and they put a mustachioed President Obama on the cover of their menu. “Yes We Can — Serve you a tasty enchilada combo.”

Here, Michael Markowski (left) and Joel Puckett show their respective “Hello, ladies,” greetings.

Hooray! The mariachi guys are here! Puckett requests his favorite song, “Ramblin’ Man.”  Guitar dude is stumped.

Puckett later asked why the bass player always has the highest voice. We thought about it, and it’s true. The Police? Highest voice: Sting. The Beatles? Highest voice: Paul. Go ahead. Prove us wrong.

Finally, the drinks arrived. Steve Bryant was thrilled.

When the food arrived, we were all pretty psyched, but no one as much as Frank Ticheli.

Frank told us that he’s going to buy a new car this spring. I suggested that he should be driving a BMW 7-series. Sure, this is a $100K car, but you are Frank Ticheli, I insisted. Frank said he couldn’t afford it, but I insisted that he couldn’t afford not to get it. I told him that he should be living according to this credo: “You can always make more money, Frank. You can’t always make more memories.” I am, I’d like to think, the best shopping enabler alive today. You’re welcome, Economy.