Weekend Update

It's weird to be home at this time on a Monday. I'm really happy about it, though, because this weekend was so busy that I quite possibly would have passed out if I'd had to get up and teach today. Thankfully, today is Fair Day for my district (and I notice from the storms that woke me up this morning that it's just a lovely day for that), and tomorrow's an in-service for the classroom teachers, so I get a day off then as well. Granted, I'll have two full hours of teaching at the store today *shudder*, and combo and big band tomorrow, but I caught up on a lot of sleep last night and will get quite a few things done in the next two days.

The weekend started way too early on Saturday morning, as once again, one of my middle schools scheduled a master class at 10 a.m. (they did this on Labor Day weekend too). That went fine, and there was air conditioning in the building, unlike last time. The rest of the early afternoon was devoted to getting things ready for the province big band the next day, and then Angie came over to ride up to the UNT football game with me. We met up with Halfling and his family at the tailgating area (it was Family Weekend, so they had been there since the night before).

At the last game we had attended, it was almost unbearably hot; this time was quite pleasant. There had been a cold front of sorts the night before, though I think the radio/TV guys overestimated its power; the hoodie I brought remained unused the whole time I was there. The best thing was that UNT won! After an 0-4 start through a set of challenging non-conference games (Texas, Colorado, etc.), the Mean Green continued their dominance of the Sun Belt, extending their conference win streak to 19 games. We went up to the Administration Building to watch the clock tower get lit up in green (this has always happened after a victory, but now they make a big deal out of it. It's still just throwing a switch--no flaming-arrow-fired-into-a-bowl like at the Olympics or anything--but it was nice to see at least a small crowd in attendance. The obligatory trip to the Tomato would end the evening.

The first part of yesterday was devoted to the Sinfonia Founders Day concert. Though the event is run by the DFW Area Alumni Association (DFWAAA), we decided to expand our definition of the Metroplex this year and take the show to Stephenville, home of Tarleton State University. Tarleton got its start as an agricultural college (and I understand that 60% of the student body majors in agriculture now), but it's also part of the Texas A&M system, so they have lots of financial support and the nice facilities that go with said support. It's pretty isolated but a nice place to visit.

I'll chronicle the roadtrip in a separate post; there are always little funny-named places and what-not that come with a trip like that. When I got there, my first stop was pre-ordained: a little gas station on the edge of town that sells Dublin Dr Pepper. If you've never heard of this stuff, there's a bottling company in Dublin, Texas (not too far from Stephenville) that still makes Dr Pepper with Imperial Sugar, rather than that "high fructose corn syrup" stuff that's in use now. (Imperial, of course, is the company which used to be headquartered in the place my parents live, as I noted at Christmas.) It's really good stuff, even better than regular DP. I snagged a few cases and went on about my business. (UPDATE: I realized from linking to the Dublin site that I just missed 10-2-4 by one day; "10, 2 and 4" were the times you were supposed to drink DP during the day in a classic ad campaign from back in the day.)

One of the highlights of the Founders Day Concert is the province big band, which I've had the privilege of directing the past few times. It's a band that plays only one day a year, and this was that day. We basically have an hour to put together three tunes with players from however many chapters show up, plus the DFWAAA. I think this year was the best one so far; it helped that 3/4 of the rhythm section was local (meaning that they'd played together already and there were no equipment panics like we'd had in previous years) and the other 1/4 plays professionally. When no bari player showed up, the faculty advisor from Tarleton (an old schoolmate of mine and an alumnus of the One O'Clock) stepped in, so we had a really cool Duel of the Pros on our opener, Big Dipper. We also did Li'l Darlin' and Kris's tune Matt's Mexican Special, and I was really happy with what we got done in an hour's rehearsal.

After the concert (which also included a brass quartet, province chorus and a jazz quartet featuring the two aforementioned pros), we went to this barbecue place on the edge of town called the Hard Eight. I'd highly recommend it if you ever end up in Stephenville. The pit is right there on the side of the building under a metal roof; you order and pick up your meat from there before you even go inside. I had an insanely huge pork chop and some corn-on-the-cob; the beans and bread were free, and Dublin DP flowed from the soda fountain. Great stuff.

By the time this ended, it was 5:30, but my day was nowhere near done. As I'd said previously, there was a benefit concert for my old schoolmate Jonathan Beckett at Hailey's in Denton, so I took the Fort Worth leg of I-35 to head up there and snag Halfling. The concert had been going on since 3:30 in the afternoon, so we missed the One O'Clock, Jim Riggs' big band and Wayne Delano's group, but got there in time for Shelley Carrol (his set started late, so we got to catch the end of Buddy Mohmed and American Bedouin, a Middle-Eastern flavored trio of guitar, violin and tabla). We stuck around for the other two acts, the Nawlins Gumbo Kings (part dixieland, part comedy) and the "nuclear polka" band Brave Combo, who got their start right there in Denton. It was a great night of music, and all the proceeds went to Jonathan's medical fund (he's battling lymphoma). Good stuff for a good cause.

And now I'm gonna enjoy these next two days to the hilt, catching up on sleep, practicing, arranging...and all those TV shows I've taped for the past month or so. It may not be a full week like Plano gets, but it'll hit the spot for me.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Will that be all for you?"--Cashier at the Chevron station, as I plopped my two cases of Dublins on the counter. I said that it must have been obvious that I was from out of town and this place was my Dublin hookup, but she said that one lady bought over $100 worth every time she came in!

A Fall Cornucopia

A totally random collection of this 'n' that:

--Here we are, just one day into October, and it's supposed to get cold here overnight. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet, especially with a UNT football game tomorrow evening. (Granted, "cold" is a relative statement in Texas; in this case, it means it'll only reach the 70's tomorrow afternoon. Still, I'll miss wearing shorts this weekend, but we should have a few more warm ones left.)

--There will be a benefit concert on Sunday for Jonathan Beckett, a former classmate of mine and recent member of the UNT One O'Clock Lab Band who's battling lymphoma. The concert is from 3:30 p.m. till midnight at Hailey's in Denton, and a $10 donation, all of which goes to Jonathan's medical fund, gets you in the door. Featured artists include the Jim Riggs Big Band, the One O'Clock Lab Band, Shelley Carrol, Wayne Delano and Brave Combo.

--The fall concert guest artist and Gomez International Guest Artist have been announced on the UNT Jazz Studies website. I'm more than a little happy to see that they're both saxophonists. *grin*

--Didja catch that weird baseball story from yesterday? A Cleveland Indians pitcher was hit in the right calf by a shot that came through the team bus...but he was spared serious injury due to the fact that he was wearing go-go boots--part of the cheerleader outfit he was wearing during a rookie hazing ritual. I guess they couldn't have picked a better time for that...

--I don't get political on this site, but Lileks has some interesting things to say about last night's debate.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday Dingus! I recounted the story of how he got the nickname on his birthday a year ago, so I won't repeat myself now.

UPDATE: More baseball--I just watched on TV as Ichiro broke the all-time hits-in-a-season record while I was doing this post. It was against my beloved Rangers, but still, it was cool to watch history being made like that.

Lucifer Adjusts His Parka

I was going randomly through the list of my friends' blogs tonight when I discovered something truly odd: Woody posted! It was July the last time she did that. Then I found something even stranger: Coop posted last week for the first time since late March. *falls over in shock* That means that the new "king of the blog slackers" (or would that be "slackbloggers?" Hmm..) is Zack, who hasn't chimed in since June 8.

Other than that...tired. The weird part of the week is over, and I have a "short" Friday tomorrow that goes only until 4:45. A nap (and not the $75 variety, either) will ensue. More later.

Blow out the candles: Happy Birthday to Cassi! (yes, a day before Dingus)

Avoiding the $75 Nap

I have a rant in me--have had since Sunday--but there hasn't been time to post it yet..and I'm trying to decide if I really want to "go there" or not. We'll see...

The middle of this week has wreaked havoc on my teaching schedule, as the middle schools are doing something called the "Iowa Test of Basic Skills." It makes me wonder what skills Iowans consider basic, and how they relate to the rest of the country. Sure, I shouldn't lay too hard on Iowa, because a couple of my old college roommates were from there and had to endure some really idiotic queries down here whenever they mentioned their state of origin; the most aggravating one had to be "Iowa? Isn't that where they grow potatoes?"

But I can't help myself. Every time I hear the Iowa test mentioned, it reminds me of that old Crispix commercial...

FARM KID: So why is the corn side crispier, daddy?
FARM DAD: Because, son, we live in Iowa, and here in Iowa, we grow corn.

(Hmm, I'm wondering if I've been reading too much Lileks lately; this post is starting to read like a Bleat. The only difference is that his post would contain a great vintage picture of a Crispix box and a link to a video of the commercial. Ahh, to have office time during the day...)

Anyway, I've totally turned my teaching schedule inside out to avoid missing anyone during this testing. If there weren't a holiday next week (our fake "fall break," which consists of Fair Day on Monday, followed by an in-service on Tuesday), I might just have taken the morning off and taken a nap. But I don't want to miss these people for two weeks in a row, and... *does the math* let's see, five lessons at $15 each--yeah, that would have turned into a $75 nap. I don't need the sleep that much...

So in order to pull this off, I had/have to do the following:

TUESDAY: Teach one Tuesday person, two Wednesday people, a Thursday person and four regular Thursday people.

WEDNESDAY: Teach two Wednesday people, then five Tuesday people, two Thursday people and the rest of the day is regular Wednesday (that's eight people if you're keeping score; yes, I work a bit too much).

THURSDAY: Teach one Thursday person, four Wednesday people and back to two Thursday people.

Anyone dizzy from reading that? I know that I was, from figuring it out. And yes, lots of driving around too; I think I passed one school at least seven times and only actually went in there once.

....All to prove that the corn side is crispier. Our tax dollars at work.

The Subway lady needs listening lessons: Last year, I made fun of a local restaurant which always had misspellings or weird grammar on its marquee sign. The past few weeks, I've run into something on a different level: a Subway lady who is either profoundly deaf or just plain doesn't listen to people. Here was last week's exchange:

Subway lady: What vegetables would you like?
Kev: I'd like lettuce, green peppers and black olives.
SL: (after putting on the lettuce) Would you like the works?
K: No, just green peppers and black olives.
SL: Pickles?
K: (firmly) No. Just...green...peppers...and...black...olives.

And then again today:
K: Hi, I'd like a number two combo on honey oat.
SL: And what bread?
K: (looking bemused, since I'd just said this) Honey oat.
SL: And that was tuna?
K: No, not tuna, a number two.

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't mumble, so it can't be that. I'm glad it's just food that I'm ordering and not, say, a car. Who knows what I'd end up getting by mistake...

Like Spider-Man, This Sequel Was Better

Tonight was the second TD/D gig at Ke Davi, and we all agreed that it went better than last time. I've posted my thoughts on the subject on the group blog, so I won't duplicate my efforts here. Suffice it to say that it was superior to last time, both individually and collectively. The best news is that we're playing again in two weeks (October 9).

One thing I didn't mention on the other site is that I was quite happy with the success of the mass emails I've been sending out. No, I'm not a spammer, but teaching 70-something students as I do, I make sure that they and their parents know about my gigs, and sure enough, three who had never been to one before (including a sixth-grader!) showed up tonight. The only downside of the students-and-parents crowd is that they'll never hear the last set due to how late it goes, but I'm totally psyched to see them there. I'm hoping to see a few more fraternity brothers next time as well (plus, they can stay up later).

And now it's time to hit the proverbial hay; I've got a small group going to the Rangers game just after lunchtime, so I'd better rest up. More later.

Rerun Night

This week has really taken it out of me, so instead of posting anything really new, I just decided to clean up some old stuff and alert everyone to that fact:

--I got the pictures from Mooney today, so you can now see a picture of me and Halfling with the Yellowjackets in last Saturday's post.

--I also finished recounting the story of how I first encountered J-Guar in the post from his birthday last week.

As always, it was Marathon Wednesday that wiped me out this week, but I was revived by the Hang™, even though it kept me out late (but again, thankfully, I don't start teaching until 10 on Thursday mornings during the first trimester). Tomorrow will be a "short" day (done at 5:15), and Saturday is the big band "retreat" followed a few hours later by the TD/D gig, so I'm pacing myself between now and then.

Anyway, I always try to post at least every two days, so there ya go. If the TV networks can do "reruns" on occasion, so can I.

Technology update: Here's a new cell phone that examines the air around the user to detect bad breath and other unpleasant odors. I guess that would be ok as long as it didn't tell you this out loud, right in the middle of your date...
(via Dave Barry's Blog)

The BPT Degree?

At an abbreviated burrito night tonight, Dingus, G and I were talking about the fact that DIngus would be pursuing the Music Ed degree at UNT even though he has no desire to become a band director (you should have seen the look I got from him just for asking that question). Though the MUED degree obviously has more inherent value than a performance degree (except for the fact that the latter, coming from UNT, would mean that one survived a fiercely competitive environment), it also means Dingus will have to take a lot of stuff he'll never use, such as the methods classes (where you learn to play [sort of] and hopefully teach all the different instruments; imagine Dingus playing, say, the cello) and three years of marching band (G and I laughed and pointed when he brought this up). I ended up with the same situation--taking a lot of classes full of "unused" knowledge or skills--even though I at least thought I was going to be a band director back in my young, misguided years.

The solution, it would seem, would be to have a MUED degree aimed specifically at future private instructors--a Bachelor of Private Teaching (BPT) degree, if you will. Some research would have to be done as to what would be required to attain this degree, but I'm soliciting suggestions from the readers of this blog (yes, all four of you) as to what the ideal BPT degree would definitely have or not have, while still fulfilling the requirements of the degree-granting institution. (C'mon, lurkers, this means you too. I've enabled anonymous comments on this blog, but please identify yourself at the end of your posting.)

Kev and Halfling's Excellent Concert Adventure

The scenario: Two cool shows happening on the same night last night: The Yellowjackets, featuring tenor titan Bob Mintzer, at a free festival in Ft. Worth, and the Earl Harvin Trio's once-a-year-at-best performance at the Gypsy Tea Room in Deep Ellum.

The goal: Halfling and I decided to try and see 'em both. After all, both places are right off I-30, albeit about 25 miles apart. Since Earl usually plays deep into the night, it was actually possible to pull this off.

The evening: We left for Ft. Worth right after the TD/D horn rehearsal. Despite pulling up to the Will Rogers complex at 9:45 for a 9:30 concert, we were banking on the conventional wisdom that jazz concerts never start on time, and sure enough, they were doing final mic checks when we got there.

Even though the Yellowjackets fall under the "fusion' category, they play what I would call "fusion with integrity." Quite a bit of their newer stuff sounded like an updated version of late-80's Miles. Despite the jazz/rock amalgam and the shorter, tightly-structured tunes (which are more melody-driven rather than being extended blowing vehicles), there was an amazing level of musicianship on that stage. Mintzer, of course, is one of our finest living tenor players (his ability on the horn may sometimes get overshadowed by the prominence of his writing and big-band leadership), and Jimmy Haslip plays the bass in a guitaristic style a la Jaco. Keyboardist Russ Ferrante played mostly acoustic piano, adding synth touches when needed, and new (to me) drummer Marcus Baylor laid down solid grooves and exhibited tremendous chops on a back-and-forth with Haslip. Mintzer also made good use of the EWI, which I hadn't heard played live since I saw Michael Brecker at Caravan of Dreams during college. It provided a cool array of unconventional timbres and sounded great in the hands of a master.

It was already a cool night, since it was Halfling's first time to see Mintzer live, but our ears really perked up when they announced that the band would be signing CD's after the show. We made our way up to the table quickly at the end of the last tune. We checked out our wallets and found out that we had at least $15 apiece, which would cover most CD's we'd seen being sold at concerts. As we got closer to the table, we found out that, oops...one of the CD's was a double and went for $25, and the other one was priced at $20. D'oh! We hurried over to the little "midway" in search of an ATM, and, while we found two, one of them was already being opened up for service and the other one was just plain out of order. What were we to do?

Well, we did the obvious thing: pool our resources, since we had enough for one CD between us (we opted for the live Mint Jam, since it's self-produced and harder to find). We got to tell Mintzer that we were fellow saxophonists, and that I had seen him at UNT back in the day and that Halfling went there now. As we finished getting autographs from the rest of the group, a disembodied, familiar voice told us to look up and smile--it was Mooney, who was there taking pictures during the festival. As we were walking out, we got this crazy idea: suppose Mooney took our picture with the whole band? He was down with it, as was the band, so it happened...


Part of Team Demon/Dingus meets all of the Yellowjackets: Seated (L to R): Russell Ferrante, Marcus Baylor. Standing (L to R): Me, Halfling, Bob Mintzer, Jimmy Haslip. (photo by Donald Mooney)

The night could have been called a success at that point on its own. But Earl beckoned (ok, not him personally, heh). It took us a bit to find one of our banks so we could replace the cash spent on the CD, and then we realized on the way over, "oh no, we have to park in Deep Ellum on a Saturday night!" *shudder* Sure enough, that took a while, as we circled the block while I attempted (in vain) to call the Tea Room to see how much longer Earl would be playing, as it was approaching 1:00 by this point. "Circling the block" then took on new meaning as we meandered through downtown streets (at one point going the wrong way on a one-way...thankfully, there was no oncoming traffic), going over the road we needed to be on and ending up in a nice little enclave of new houses that was nowhere near where we needed to be. Eventually, we got back and decided to bite the bullet and pay the six bucks for close-in parking. We got there for about the last fifteen minutes of the show (ten of which consisted of the trio vamping on a single eerie chord), but we did run into my old buddy C-Rod while we were there, and Halfling got a little taste of the group, who hopefully won't wait another year before playing there again.

We capped off a great evening with a trip to Cafe Brazil (the one in Richardson, which is thankfully open 24 hours on weekends now). Even if we didn't make it to equal amounts of both concerts, getting to see Mintzer made up for the imbalance in a big way. Next Saturday, we'll be the ones on stage (OK, in the corner of a coffeehouse, if you want to get technical), hoping to provide even a fraction of the enjoyment that was provided to us last night. But hey, ya gotta start somewhere...

Avast there, ye scurvy dog: Today was the annual Talk Like a Pirate Day, but being a Sunday, there wasn't much of a chance to do that. However, perhaps to make up for my slacker-osity, G did an entire post in pirate today. I suppose I could have tried talking in pirately fashion with the cashiers at Super Tarrrget or Starrrbucks, though...

Remembering the Original MacGyver

I found out in an email that Frank Bonner, the retired longtime chief engineer of KNTU, passed away yesterday. Besides being a really good guy, he was the master of holding things together on the fly...there were times we swore he kept that place running with chewing gum, baling wire and paper clips. Being a university-owned station, our annual budget was less than most midday air personalities get paid at commercial stations, but we made the most of what we had, and Frank was, on the technical side, the glue that kept everything together.

As I recalled at his retirement party a few years ago, I had the misfortune of having to wake that poor man up on way too many occasions. The transmitter would often simply not respond when the remote equipment was turned on from the studio, and sometimes, despite knowing all the little "tricks," I would have to wake Frank up at around 5:50 a.m. if we simply couldn't get signed on. He sometimes had a sigh in his voice, but like the trouper he was, he would head out to the former missile base north of Denton and get it going again, even if he had to climb the tower to do so (a job that should have been left to a man half his age, perhaps). No matter the problem, we were rarely off for more than an hour.

I won't be able to attend the services in the morning, as I'm judging region jazz auditions, but I join the chorus of those who pay tribute to a really good guy who was really good at what he did. He'll be missed.

Oh, and I also remember how odd it was that Frank shared a name with an actor who played a character that was pretty much the polar opposite of "our" Frank, on the series WKRP in Cincinnati, which, of course, was about a radio station.

Question of the Week

Last week, there was quite a lively discussion on the comments to Halfling's blog, regarding the use of solfege vs. numbers in aural skills classes. I thought it would be a good idea to have some sort of discussion question every week, so here goes one:

Does any musician who reads this blog prefer the Eastman counting system (one-te, two-te) over traditional counting (one-and, two-and)? If so, why? If you prefer traditional (as I do), please tell me why as well. Ready, set, go...

Toasting a Twin Cities Trumpeter Turning Twenty

Happy Birthday to J-Guar, who's No Longer a Teenager today. I've definitely had a great time hanging and jamming with him, and the whole thing is a bit of living proof that 1) the music world really is small, and 2) you can in fact meet people on the Internet who are very cool and quite normal when you get together in person.

The story goes like this: Sometime last October, I was reading through the comments on stereoboy.org (which is no longer in existence, but its author now posts here) when I noticed one that mentioned Denton, Texas. Since that's the home of my alma mater, I of course clicked the link, and was fascinated to find out that the site was written by a jazz studies major who lived in my old dorm. Of course it became a site that I visited frequently.

Here's one thing about the music world: It's really,.really small. Forget the "six degrees of separation" thing; in the music world, you probably only need two or three. (Incidentally, the original "Six Degrees of Separation" was written by someone whose name differs from J-Guar's by only one letter...weird.) So when J-Guar posted a story and picture about his old trumpet teacher from Minnesota coming to visit--and when said teacher turned out to be a fraternity brother and former combo-mate of mine--I felt compelled to post a comment. He would eventually post comments on here too, and the inevitable IM's followed.

Time went by, and we eventually got to meet up, and it's always been really cool. We've gotten together several times at Lab Band Night, and he even "escaped" Denton for a weekend for bowling/burritos/bebop with my group of friends last semester. Now that Halfling's at UNT, our paths have crossed even more. Considering some of the bad luck that other friends of mine have had about how people they've met on the Net don't turn out to be so great in real life, I feel really lucky, because the "de-fictionalization" (J-Guar's and my term for meeting people you've only heretofore read about on blogs) has turned out great in this case.

Oh, and even if J-Guar and I had never met in person, his place in the hall of fame would have been assured just for turning me onto this cool band via a posting on his old site last year. Check them out if you haven't yet...

Blowing Out the Candle (Yes, Just One)

Caleb, my youngest nephew (for now, at least) turned one year old today. I announced his birth on this site a year ago and have also featured him in a few other posts. He hasn't had the opportunity to fully develop the personality that will come with being able to talk and all that (like his older brother Noah, who will talk your ear off), but he's always very smiley and quite sweet.

I didn't get to go down to Austin for the celebration, since it was this afternoon/evening and that's a long trip for a school night, but I sent a card and my best wishes and hope to be down there again soon.

Comic relief: In yesterday's edition of the comic strip Fox Trot, sister Paige called younger brother Jason a "dingus." It's spreading...

Three Years Ago

Where were you when you found out about the 9/11 attacks? (I realize that, for many readers of this site, the answer will be "school," but please elaborate on how you found out, your reactions, etc.)

My own entry will be in the comments too, to keep the main post brief and accessible.

Copycatted

I'm sure this happens in most groups of close friends: One person does something, the others follow shortly thereafter. It's not really a copycat thing; it's more like one person does something new and encourages the others to join him, or maybe the others say, "Hey, that's cool...I wanna be involved." Bowling, blogging, burritos...it's happened a lot in the past several years.

But nothing could prepare me for the news that Dingus has now had my exact same wreck. That's right, he got rear-ended by a soccer mom at a stoplight, just like I did before spring break. As was the case with me, he wasn't hurt. I just hope his soccer mom has paid-up insurance...

(UPDATE: Something occurred to me after rereading DIngus's post: He was on Jupiter when he had his wreck, while I was at an intersection with Mars. Weird...)

Fall ball: Went to the Rangers game with Miles tonight. It was a beautiful fall evening, and our team won 10-3 and looked good doing so. There may yet be hope...We also reaped the benefits of it being a Friday night, as a lot of the potential crowd was off watching high school football. *laughs and points at those who are still involved with marching band* We got to sit right behind the plate (OK, on the third level, but still) and take it all in.

This has been a tiring week. It's not quite midnight but I'm on my way to bed soon, as I need at least one quality night of sleep this weekend. The first UNT home football game is tomorrow, so I want to have some energy back by then.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "A Mini Cooper was rear-ended by a pickup truck, which was rear-ended by an old Ford Bronco...so now the Mini Cooper is a Mini Mini Cooper."--Max Miller, KRLD traffic reporter, describing a wreck that, fortunately, wasn't anywhere near my route to the Rangers game.

Burritos and Bebop, Vol. 257

I discovered over the summer that there actually is such a thing as a free lunch. Apparently, there's such a thing as a free dinner also.

Last night, The Hang™ took me to Denton for the semester's inaugural Lab Band Night, featuring the world-renowned One O'Clock. This of course meant that the cast expanded way beyond just Halfling and myself. Dingus rode with me to meet up with Halfling, and we picked up Cassi after that; G was to meet us at the Tomato once we decided to eat there.

But we had no sooner set foot in the Tomato when Cassi offhandedly remarked, "It's too bad you guys didn't to Chipotle today; they're giving free burritos to anyone with a UNT ID." We asked her if that had been a lunch-only proposition, and she said no, it was going on right now. I believe the general consensus after that was, "Well, what are we waiting for??"

As we approached Loop 288, G called Dingus and warned us of a, well, Dingus-sized line (not unexpected, of course). We decided that we were gonna go anyway and met her out there. The line was, in fact, much longer than the time when Halfling and I got the SPCA/celebration burrito back in March, but it took about the same amount of time since it was an established location and crew and not the opening-night group of the other store.

Granted, it's been a few years since I've had a valid UNT ID, and I was more than willing to pay if I had to--having had a freebie last week--but I would of course accept any alumni discounts they threw my way. As it turned out, they were pretty much just doing headcounts (though the guy outside said I'd probably catch a break as an alum), so when Halfling showed his ID, that was good enough for the both of us...no argument from here.

We did manage to make the second and third sets of the One O'Clock. As always, they sounded great, especially considering they've only had six days of rehearsal (yes, they "labored" on Monday). Over half the tunes were things that I've played, like "Out of the Night" and "Little Pixie II" and "Got a Match?" along with cult favorites such as "Hey...That's My Bike!" It always inspires me to hear this band, even as I'm slightly frustrated by the lack of individual practice time that my schedule allows during the year. If nothing else, I really hope that they create a doctorate in jazz studies so I can go back and play in that band someday. This time, I'll be ready ...

So all in all, a good night. We ran into J-Guar while we were there, and I got to talk with Bryan from 15th Street for the first time since he got off the boat. The fun will continue for weeks to come, as they're now going somewhat numerically with this thing; next week is the Two and Three.

A Sonny Day

I read in the paper at lunchtime that Sonny Rollins turns 74 today. As one of the few surviving jazz giants of his generation, he's not only still kickin' but still jammin'. I've been lucky enough to see him three times: at Caravan of Dreams when I was in college, then again at the New Orleans House of Blues in '99 and two years ago at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival in Vermont. The most recent one was perhaps the most amazing performance, as the nearly-72-year-old busted out a magnum opus blues solo of fifteen minutes in length...and it never got old. His touring schedule doesn't look as busy this year, but it's great to see him still around and playing on a regular basis. I hope he'll swing through somewhere nearby before long, so I can see him one more time and bring Halfling too.

Sonny put out a CD not too long ago called "Here's to the People." Today I say here's to the person who's meant so much to jazz and who continues to keep the fire burning.

Not too laborious: It was a quiet Labor Day around here--no picnics or cookouts or what-not. I taught a few people at the store (the ones who remembered, at any rate) and then Halfling and Dingus came over for a TD/D horn rehearsal. Today felt like an "Honorary Monday" while teaching (and a few students thought it was, forgetting their money or almost forgetting to come in for the lesson), but no matter what you call it, Friday is still only three days away now.

Chi-What-Le?

I was having lunch at Subway today when the guy behind me ordered a Chipotle Cheesesteak sandwich, only he pronounced it "Chuh-PUTT-lee." It reminded me of two things: the Jack in the Box commercial from a year or two ago where Jack couldn't pronounce it either (my favorite of his mis-speakings was "Chip-uh-TOP-uh-lay") and his mouth got all oddly contorted at the end, and the first several times my dad saw a sign for the home of the giant burrito.

Dad has always been one of those who, upon seeing an unusual word or combination of words on a sign, will attempt to sound it out. The 15th St. Chipotle is near the hotel where he and Mom stay whenever they visit, so when we passed by the sign on the freeway, the following exchange took place:

DAD: Chuh-POTTLE.
ME: Not quite.

They came back a few months later and passed the sign again.

DAD: Chuh-POATLE.
ME: You're getting closer...

Eventually, of course, he figured out how to say it, and they even ate there one time in the spring and in fact just missed crashing our Thursday burrito night with the gang by a few hours.

UPDATE: While researching the Jack in the Box links, I found out that they now own Qdoba. That means that, with the exception of Freebirds, all the "Fresh-Mex" chains have fast-food burger parents (McDonald's/Chipotle, Wendy's/Baja Fresh, and Jack/Qdoba). I still haven't tried Qdoba, which Zack recommended, but I've also avoided the other two, also on the same recommendation.

Not so mean yet, but just wait: Last night, Halfling and I sought out, and found, a place in Denton that was showing the UNT-UT game (it was only on pay-per-view). UT came into the game ranked seventh in the nation, so our hopes weren't high; we were just thinking that maybe it could stay within the twenty-something points listed in the spread.

But nope, it was not a good night for the Mean Green, as UT romped, 65-0. It might have been at least a little closer if UNT hadn't had trouble holding onto the ball at crucial times. After a while, it just wasn't pretty...and they didn't even show the halftime (boo), the one part of the game that UNT could have "won."

At least this coming Saturday will be a home game, against a school that nobody's heard of, at least in this part of the country. We should be able to tell what this team can do after next week. I'm personally hoping for a return trip to the New Orleans Bowl, since I had such a great time last year. At any rate, it'll be fun to go to the games again.

My New Toy

I got a new cell phone this week, and I've finally had time to do some stuff with it this weekend. It's a Nokia 6800, nicknamed the "ultimate texting machine" because of the full keyboard that flips out for fast, easy text messaging (something at which I was notoriously slow on a regular keypad).

Once I finally got all the numbers programmed in yesterday afternoon, it was ready to go. So far, it seems like it's got a much better signal than the old one; it was even fairly clear in Halfling's basement-level dorm room. It also lights up in cool colors and has a bunch of interesting ring tones that I'll probably never use (the whole teaching/rehearsing/performing thing pretty much limits me to the vibrate function most of the time). I'm glad the two years were up on my contract, because I was really ready for this.

UPDATE: After a few more days, I'm even happier with the phone; it actually gets a signal--and '"four bars" to boot--inside the music store (my old phone tended to say "no service" anywhere in that building), and the battery is still over halfway charged despite the phone being on constantly since Friday afternoon. I think the screensaver function (which defaults to a rotating time display after two minutes of unuse) must be helping a lot.

Joke of the week: This is an old one, but it was told a lot this week and seems to fit the theme of this time of year just perfectly:

Q: How many kids with ADD does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Let's ride bikes!

(And nobody with ADD get offended, OK? I have it too, they just didn't know nearly so much about it when I was little, so I was able to escape childhood without being all hopped up on happy pills. This may be a good thing, because I always hear about musicians' creativity being stifled by such medications. The best parody of that came in a Pearls Before Swine comic from last fall. It seems to not be archived on the Web anymore, but it's still hanging on my refrigerator door.)

Mini-Office Party and the Next Gig

This is just a quick update, as I'm finally getting caught up on everything. First up: today was the day I redeemed my "free dinner for 4" at Chipotle; as always, the best burrito is a free burrito. Ben played the role of the "n00b," and Houston (new tenor guy) subbed for G, who had a gig playing at a reception for Carly Patterson tonight (that also took Miles out of the club for this). The table seemed so empty with only four people there...

Combo PM started tonight; it was really bizarre to only have two horns, after the juggernaut that was last semester's Supersax Jr. The vocalist will add a cool new dimension, though (in fact, Combo Too got a female vocalist today also; it's the first time ever that all four instrumental jazz groups have vocalists in the same semester).

And it's now confirmed, on the sidebar and the group blog: TD/D will play Ke Davi again on the 25th of this month. We're hoping for several new tunes (maybe even a whole set's worth) to be added by then, and the publicity machine will be in full force.

The Hang™

For the second straight night, I went to Denton. Why? Because it was Wednesday night and time for The Hang™, that's why.

So here's the thing: I teach myself silly on Wednesdays. 7:30 to 7:30 with almost no break. Lunch at 10:30 in the morning. When high school lets out, I still have three hours left to go. And I'm not done after that, either; there's still one, maybe two more lessons at the house. My summertime Marathon Wednesdays had nothing on today.

Why this madness? Well, one of my schools decided to cram all of their saxophones into a single class during marching season. Normally, I'd teach all three periods in a row there, but I can't do that until mid-November when their second trimester begins. I want to reserve those in-class times for them so I can do that, so the end result is that the first two periods lie fallow for the first two six-weeks of school. Dang it all, if I'm gonna have such a punishing schedule on Wednesday nights, then I might as well get to sleep in on Thursday mornings.

And it's no accident that the off-time is on Thursdays. After all, Wednesday is Lab Band Night at UNT. I had a great time going to that on several different occasions last semester. But even though the concerts didn't start tonight (and indeed may not start for several more weeks), we decided to start the proceedings this week anyway, and since we can't call it Lab Band Night yet, we gave it the simple but sensible moniker of The Hang™.

Tonight was pretty simple; we Whataburgered for a while and listened to music back at Halfling's room. As you can see from the time stamp of this post, I got in pretty late (early), but it was well worth it. What could be better at the end of a brutal day than chillin' with your best friend? Before I went up there, not only was my body tired, but my mind was tired too. Now my mind is totally refreshed...and I'm going to sleep soon. More later.

Day 1.2

My TD/D counterparts Halfling and Dingus have been blogging a lot about their first few days of school, and now it's my turn, somewhat. Even though I've been teaching public school for a few weeks, this was my first day of college teaching, and it was the usual zoo (you can tell things are busy when Halfling is out-blogging me so far this week *grin*), but the semester's off to a good start. I didn't have the parking problems that Dingus had up at school, and I actually got to a copy machine in time to run off my syllabi before class (sometimes, this can be a worse logjam than the parking).

Combo Too will be pretty decent this semester; I'm happy so far. We have a new bass player who's really pretty amazing (would have been in Jaztet but for a schedule conflict), and nobody was afraid to solo the first day. The presence of more serious musicians in there seems to be keeping the nonsense of some previous semesters to a minimum, which is always a good thing. There were times last semester when that group really taxed my patience, but today I left rehearsal with a smile on my face.

After "Tator Tot Time," it was on to big band, which is definitely playing some cool tunes this semester. I'm really looking forward to that, though I already miss having Halfling in the section. It was a little scary at first when we didn't have any trumpets to start off rehearsal, but most of them trickled in eventually.

After band, I took a pass on burrito night (yeah, you read that here) to go to Denton and see Halfling. Today was lab band results day, and while he got in a reading band instead of a lab band, I reminded him that an audition like that is not a defining moment--it's only a snapshot of where you are at a certain point in time. Fortunately, he took this advice to heart and was feeling reasonably ok about things by the time I got there (I'd promised him months ago that I'd be there tonight, whether for celebration or consolation). We ate at the great little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place known as Mazatlan, which I hadn't been to since my first meet-up with J-Guar (who made the 6:00, by the way--very cool) and just hung out on campus for a bit. I'll be sleepy tomorrow, but it's all for a great cause.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Oh no, I left my ligament at home."--A sixth-grade student of mine, who actually meant that he left his ligature at home (which is much less painful). Being the creative sort, I made him a duct-tape version of one so he could get through the class.

There's No Place Like Home

I almost overlooked this in the busy-ness of this week, but today is my third anniversary as a homeowner. After years of renting, it has been really cool to have a place to truly call my own.



Casa de Kev (photo by Mom)

It hasn't been without its problems, of course, but I have to say that, all in all, homeownership is really cool. Mom and Dad come up every few months and do more stuff to spruce the place up, and even when I'm stuck mowing the lawn, it's not all that bad because I realize that it's my own place that I'm making look nice instead of somebody else's (I don't miss the rental house at all in that respect, not one bit).

And now that I've been there a while, it's gotten an identity of its own as a place full of music and friends. The hangs, the jams...I've never felt more at home in any other place I lived since the house I grew up in (the one which, ironically, looks a lot like the one Halfling grew up in).

Here's to many more years of great times in this place...

The Gig in Review

Just got back from the gig a little bit ago; I've posted my thoughts about it on the TD/D site. I was really happy with how many people showed up too: students/parents, fraternity brothers, people from the college. Mass emailing evidently can be effective if it's used tastefully and with restraint (and doesn't contain the word "Viagra" anywhere).

Normally I'm so hyped up after a gig that I really, really want to go out somewhere, but this time I was tired enough when I got home that I didn't actually mind. I hope we can all go somewhere next time...and seeing as how this one turned out so well, I'm certain that "next time" will be soon.

UPDATE: Dingus weighs in on the night as well.

We Live in Trying (-Out) Times

A few telling quotes from this time of year:

"I play better in front of 500 people than I do in front of five judges."--Dingus, on multiple occasions.

"I feel more comfortable performing in front of hundreds than in front of twos"--J-Guar, this morning before his lab band audition.

I think I'm seeing a pattern here...

Auditions are in the air. I've already posted about the 5+ hours of them that I listened to on Tuesday, and most of the Kev World has been on the other end of that process this week. Halfling tried out for lab band yesterday; he didn't think it went too great, but the first one is always the hardest one, and now he knows the process firsthand. J-Guar went this morning, and was quite pleased with how he did. My buddy Bryan from 15th Street Jazz is done with his cruise ship gig and auditions Sunday (the same day that Halfling does his legit audition; that would have been all kinds of wrong if they'd made him do it back-to-back with his lab tryout like they'd originally suggested). All that's left after that is to wait till Tuesday when the results are posted.

I went up to Denton yesterday to hang with Halfling after his audition; I didn't quite get there in time to actually hear it, but caught the unwinding part. He and G and I watched about five Family Guy episodes, and it was probably the best decompression we could have done. It was so great to just do absolutely nothing for a bit.

Afterwards, I was supposed to meet up with my sister and her family, but they were late driving in from Austin and didn't arrive till near Caleb's (my younger nephew) bedtime. I'm gonna meet up with them for lunch in a bit.

So I'm just happy that Zoo Week is practically over and things can settle in. I'll be a bit busier than this week, at least during the day, but things won't be so up in the air as they were this week.

Yay, I win again: I opened my email this morning to find that I'd won another fishbowl drawing from Chipotle. Of all the winnings over the years, I'd never actually won from 15th Street before, which is weird since it's the one I visit most often. It's free dinner for four, but the fourth person has to be a newbie (this could have been a severe challenge, but Ben has never set foot inside a Chipotle before). Now I just have to figure out when we can go. It's really funny that my business cards have probably gotten me more free food than either students or gigs, but hey....whatever works.

The gig at Ke Davi is tonight....I'll report back on it on here and/or on the TD/D site.

Zoo Week

Four days between posts...no, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. Instead, it must be the week before college classes start, a.k.a. Zoo Week--the week where everything happens at once, and every ounce of spare time is taken up with something; even if it's cool stuff, the days end up being even longer than they normally would. It's always struck me as odd how the week before college ends up being busier than college itself.

So, let me catch up: Monday was...Monday, start at 7:30 a.m., end up at the store at 8 p.m. (with a dinner break that may or may not get filled with students; the 20 bucks a lesson is really tempting, but so is the chance to eat at a normal hour).

Tuesday was a "short" (5 hours) teaching day, followed by five hours (!) of listening to auditions at the college. The hallway was never empty of people waiting to go next, so we just kept running 'em in. We did burrito night after that, and I worked with Halfling on the stuff for his two auditions later in the week (he's trying out for "regular" band as well as lab band).

Last night was leisure time, as I went to the Rangers game with Halfling and J-Guar, who's back from Minnesota and thus was cheering for the "wrong" team (his hometown Twins). The Twins won the game, though the last fly ball hit by a Ranger would have been a game-winning grand slam if it had gone just a bit higher and a few feet farther. At least it was interesting for most of the game.

Today was another short day, the last Thursday before combos resume next week. I'll still have a combo rehearsal tonight, but it's for Saturday's Ke Davi gig, so it'll be great fun.

There we go; I'm all caught up now. Perhaps by the weekend I'll be interesting and topical again, but I wanted to at least chime in today while I had the time.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to C-Rod, my former protege and now an avid practitioner of "acid jazz." Can he really be 26? Man, I've known him since he was 11...

Day One Revisited

I went up to Denton today to help Halfling get settled in his dorm room after he got back from Eagle Camp. Angie rode with me so she wouldn't have to make the trip herself, and ultimately we would meet up with Dingus and Cassi and G at the Tomato (it was the second time there today for me and Halfling and Angie, as that was also our lunch choice soon after his return). It ended up being a lot like our normal gatherings at home, just transplanted a bit north.

At one point, Halfling asked me if today was anything like my first-year move-in day had been. I thought about it for a second and said, "well, it's the same building...and I was also a music major on the saxophone, but otherwise, not at all." Here's just some of the stuff that was different:

--Bruce Hall wasn't air-conditioned when I lived there (*shudder*). El Cuarto de Halfling stayed at a constant 71 degrees.

--When I got there, I had probably less than an hour to dump my stuff off before I had to go to a marching band rehearsal, for a show we would perform at a game four days later. The closest Halfling will come to marching is when TD/D plays " The Blues March."

--My dad dropped me off and pretty much left me on my own there (mostly because of the quick rehearsal and so he would only have to miss one day of work). I didn't have the luxury of a girlfriend or best friend to help me out like Halfling does.

--I sure didn't practice anything on my own the first day. Halfling and I read through stuff (mostly this really fun book called "Bop Duets") today for an hour and a half.

And I bet he doesn't get sick on anything the first week either. Advantage, Halfling (not that I'd have it any other way).

It's really cool that my best friend is attending my alma mater and living in my old dorm. We've known for quite some time that this day would come, but now that it has, it finally feels real. If we can get him in a lab band the first semester, that'll be all kinds of sweet, but there's TD/D in any case, and he'll learn a lot up there no matter what.

And speaking of TD/D...check out the group blog (or the "Upcoming GIgs" portion of my sidebar, for that matter) for a big announcement.

Chalk One Up for the Good Guys

It's been a busy week, but I can't neglect to mention that there was a major event this week concerning one of my pet issues. The Electronic Freedom Foundation reports on a landmark legal victory for peer-to-peer file sharing, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that distributors of the peer-to-peer software Grokster and Morpheus cannot be held liable for the infringing activities of their users. The decision is based in part on the fact that P2P networks have significant non-infringing uses, and that they can help artists earn money.

Read the full opinion here. UCLA law prof (and noted blogger) Eugene Volokh weighs in on the subject, generally supporting the Court's ruling while allowing that P2P technology can be used for good and for ill. And I found a great article from a few years back by writer Ken Layne, who rants against the Machine much more thoroughly than I did. (via Instapundit, who also points out some political implications of this.)

QUOTE OF THE DAY (1): "What happens when an industry mistreats its customers and its suppliers? When 8,999 of 9,000 audits show shoddy accounting practices? When a core business is bungled and the marketplace shrugs and moves on? When scandals and greed lead to massive layoffs and massive disgust?  I'm not talking about Enron. I'm talking about the record industry."--from the Ken Layne article.

QUOTE OF THE DAY (2):"This is a victory for innovators of all stripes. The court's ruling makes it clear that innovators need not beg permission from record labels and Hollywood before they deploy exciting new technologies."--Fred von Lohmann, Senior Intellectual Property Attorney of the EFF.

Thud

I've posted before about how there's usually a day at beginning of the school semester that just hits me like a ton o' bricks. For this new semester, today was that day.

WIth the on-again, off-again periods of teaching busy-ness colliding headlong with the summerlike evenings I mentioned yesterday, having the first full teaching day (7:30-5:30) fall on a Friday just really messed with my equilibrium. Thankfully, most of the students were just as out of it as I was.

But at least today felt like a real day of work, for better or worse. Next week, when everyone pays me, it's gonna be really cool.

Whoa, it happened again: You may recall that, back in June, I had a weird-but-cool incident where I drove past Halfling's neighborhood, thought about how funny it would be if I saw him at the intersection, and there he was, first car at the stoplight. Today, it happened again, but this time, it was really a surprise, because I thought he'd left for UNT about an hour earlier. Just like last time, I called his cell and then slowed down enough to where he could catch up to me, and we had an amusing little cell-phone-with-live-video conversation at the next stoplight. He's all moved in now and off to an introductory camp for the weekend, but Sunday's another hang-and-jam for us.

Not exactly the Olympics: A pair of teenagers in Michigan claim they have set a new world record for uninterrupted TV watching. Oh, and Dingus would love this: they did so at an IHOP.

(via Dave Barry's Blog)

Hangin' On to Summer

This first week of school has still been pretty...summery.

Even though yesterday was a much fuller teaching day than Tuesday, last night went back to bigtime summer mode, jamming till all hours since I didn't have to wake up until 8 this morning (I'll explain later why I have two off periods on Thursday mornings). About the time I get used to waking up at 6 a.m. again, it'll be the weekend. Everything will settle in eventually, but for now, I like easing my way back--entering the pool through the steps of the shallow end, rather than chucking myself off the high dive.

Tuesday, as predicted, I spent a half-day with Halfling on his birthday, doing lunch, listening to tunes and then going to the Rangers game with him, his family and Angie. The Rangers won big, 16-4, and we got to see Mark Teixeira hit for the cycle that night, the first time someone had done so in a Ranger uniform since Oddibe McDowell in '85 in the old stadium. A great time was had by all.

Yesterday, I taught until 5:30 and then we had a belated burrito night (where we got to see Gold Dingus for the first time since May) and another TD/D horn rehearsal. I can't wait to add a rhythm section to the mix really soon. (Dingus has posted a list of tunes we're currently rehearsing on the TD/D site.)

Tonight is a short gig in the "intimate apparel" department "showroom" of a ritzy major department store, and then I'm off to Halfling's for a little friends-and-family gathering on the eve of his departure for UNT. Thankfully, next week is a bit summery too, as college classes don't start until the 30th.

The ecstasy of de feet: As you probably know, from either reading Fun Facts or actually visiting Casa de Kev, I basically never wear shoes in the house, and that means there's always a big adjustment for me when school starts (my feet were sore by my third lesson yesterday). Now there's an article out which validates my pseudo-Asian habit, saying that, according to many podiatrists, we do in fact spend too much time in shoes, and it weakens many of our foot and leg structures. So the barefoot-ness is not just a comfort thing...it's good for you.

Playing this week in the Kevmobile: Bob Mintzer Big Band: Live at MCG with special guest Kurt Elling. It's the first-ever live recording of Mintzer's New York studio band, and the pairing of him with Elling delivers on the promise. The magnum-opus rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Eye of the Hurricane" is worth the price of the disc all by itself; Elling takes things to a new level and then comes back for an amazing chorus-trading session with the leader. Go. Buy it. Now.

http://www.mcgjazz.org
(...but I found it locally at Borders)

A Half-Day for the Halfling

Happy Birthday to Matt, a.k.a. Halfling...my best friend in the world, my "brother from a different mother." What great times we've had this past year (too many to name, but our mondo hang on Friday night/Saturday was an awesome way to cap off the summer), and what great times we can look forward to in the future.

I could say a lot more, but we've said it ourselves a hundred times (and I don't want this blog to redline on the Sap-O-Meter). So I'll just say this: Thank you, Bro, for being you; it means more than you'll ever know, and the world is a better place because you're in it. I look forward to celebrating this day with you when my half-day of teaching is done (yes, it's only a half-day so I can hang with Halfling).

(And yes, I did stay up till just past midnight to do the birthday wishes and type this post. Just because.)

Rants and Raves from the First Day of School

Two rants:

This getting up early thing is gonna hit me like a ton of bricks again. I barely dragged my carcass out of bed at 7 8:00 this morning, so 6:00 will be a mess tomorrow.

The security at middle schools is getting ridiculous; I was admonished for not "flashing my badge" in an obvious enough manner at a school where previously, even though you have to get buzzed into the front door, I was able to walk by looking like I knew what I was doing and not get questioned. They need to install those things where you swipe your ID badge (it has a barcode for such a purpose) and walk in...sooner rather than later.

Two raves:

I was able to "traverse the district" and post schedules at six different schools in a little over two hours. I was thus free of the shackles of professional attire before noon, and got to hang with Halfling for part of the day before I went to teach at the store.

Despite the fact that I've said I wasn't quite ready for the semester to start, once I actually got in the schools it felt OK. I'm prepped now. I'm ready to go in the morning, and I'm looking forward to the semester. It was great to be able to have another little half-day of summer, though...

No cape, glasses on: I was doing some shopping today during a break from teaching. Super Target didn't have what I wanted, so I went by a Regular Target, which hasn't happened all that often recently. The one at 75 and Parker had just been remodeled, though, so I was interested in seeing the difference.

And the verdict is? It's not all that different, really. It's pretty close to a Super Target, actually, just a tad smaller. They still just have the one entrance at the front, but they added a little grocery department (about 1/3 of the size of the one at ST) and a Starbucks up front. I had to really hunt for the CD/DVD department (it's cleverly hidden in the back), but otherwise...I'd still rather visit a Regular Target than the Evil Empire any day of the week.

Ode to a Summer, Vol. 2

Another summer is just about in the books for me. (If you're new to the site and wondering why I'm doing a summer wrapup so soon...well, I work in academia and thus operate on an academic calendar, so with public schools starting tomorrow, my summer ends tonight, no matter what the calendar on the wall says.) Last year at this time, I noted that the summer of '03 was the best one on record. I'm happy to report that this summer totally blew last summer out of the water.

How so, you ask? It would take a while to count the ways, but it was better in nearly every category. For one thing, I have a best friend again, and that's made all the difference in the world. The rest of my friends are a top-notch group too; there was almost never a lack of stuff to do. I taught more students this year than in any other summer, so money was much less tight than it's been in previous years. I wasn't rolling in it by any means (though the situation improves drastically this week), but I didn't have the cloud of stress hanging over me all the time like before.

I didn't get to take any really exotic trips like Vermont or anything, but the Schlitterbahn weekend was near-perfect and came at just the right time. (Besides, there'll be a few weekend roadtrips to out-of-town concerts during the year.) I got to see pretty much every cool new movie that came out, usually within a week of opening night, and go to Six Flags again for the first time in several years. I've made it to several Rangers games, with more to come. The weather was generally great (only one 100-degree day so far, and it was the day I was in Indiana). I got to recharge my batteries quite a bit for the long school year ahead, and there were a few times when I was just plain lazy. I also rarely wore shoes (yay), and when I did, it was usually just my trusty leather flip-flops. In other words, all the good stuff of summer pretty much happened in droves this year.

It's also been a great summer for music. Besides recommitting myself to daily practice, I also had some cool gigs, enjoyed the smoothest-running Jazz Camp ever and have a new jazz combo in the works. My challenge--and I know I'm up to it--is to keep my personal playing from seeming like work even when things get mondo-busy (my "musical workout buddy" Halfling will find this same challenge as he hits UNT at the end of the week). But I've seen the results of hard work in my faculty colleagues at camp, and I know I can get to where they are if I keep my nose to the proverbial grindstone.

So my favorite time of year comes to a close in mere minutes now. Thanks to all those who helped make it great, and to the One in whom all things are possible. This one will be burned in my memory forever. Here's to a new set of challenges that start in the morning...

Bebop for Bovines

I played a most unusual gig yesterday with Kris and Miles and Adam. It was a chamber-of-commerce affair at the headquarters of a local symphony orchestra; the building itself is actually a converted farmhouse that is now surrounded by houses, apartments, a business park, and, well, a farm. Even before the people arrived, we had an attentive audience of...cows. (The view off the back porch--cows in the foreground and the monolithic EDS headquarters in the background--was a really weird juxtaposition; I wish I'd had a camera so I could add the picture to this post.)

I have to say that cows are fascinating animals. They make funny noises, it's amusing to watch them walk around, and they sometimes interact with each other in bizarre ways. When we got there, they were watching us intently as we were setting up our equipment. As weird as this sounds, I felt like they were staring into my soul. (For a second, I almost felt guilty about the last steak I ate, but...nahh.)

We were playing off the moment during our setup time, Miles busting out all kinds of country songs while I offered a chorus of "I'm an Old Cowhand." When the people arrived, the cows tended to still hang out by the fence for a bit, especially when food was offered. As we played, it almost seemed as if the cows were a more attentive audience than the people (who of course were there to schmooze--that's right, schmooze--and tour the house and have peanuts and punch). When we stopped playing for a second so the organizers could talk and give out door prizes, the herd moved elsewhere.

The gig did start of in an unusual way, as Kris suddenly became flush and nauseous right before downbeat time and had to go inside and cool off for a bit. Fortunately, we had the best possible setup for that situation--a guitarist who also played bass--and were able to start on time without him. The lack of a chordal background meant a slight lack of depth, and it meant that I took really long solos, but everything turned out fine and the people (and cows) loved it. The symphony's conductor used to be the music minster at my church a few years back, so we got to say hi for a second.

Oh, and there was a Weird Cow Moment during the last tune, as one of them tried to wriggle under the barbed-wire fence to get at some food and managed to get stuck there for a second. All the people nearby (even the well-dressed ones) sprung into action, helping scoot the not-too-cooperative cow get back on the right side of things.

We were trying to think of possible bovine-themed jazz tunes (besides the obvious ones like "Cow Cow Boogie"). If we weren't in wallpaper mode, we might have played "Bessie's Blues," but we did play "Blue Moo Bossa" as our second tune. If you can think of any other tunes whose titles could easily be converted into bovinality, leave them in the comments.

The team is practicing: Last night was the first official horn rehearsal for the Team Demon/Dingus combo. I posted about it on the group site, so I won't duplicate my efforts here, but I will say that we're looking forward to a preliminary gig really soon.

Blowing out how many candles?? I read it on the "people" page of yesterday's paper and couldn't believe it: Pat Metheny turned 50! He's been recording for nearly thirty years, so I guess that adds up, but he just looks so young and his music definitely has this eternally-youthful quality about it. Pat hails from the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, Missouri, and a lot of his tunes reflect that typical Midwestern sensibility. If I had to describe it, it would be something like "driving through the cornfield on a beautiful Sunday afternoon with the windows down, when all is right with the world." I love the sound he gets on his guitar, and my spirit is buoyed by the sense of optimism reflected in so much of his music. So happy (belated) birthday, Pat; may you continue to provide musical joy for years to come.

Summer's Cool

For the second time this summer, we actually got a cold front in Texas. It felt great, even though I didn't get to go outside much today. You can say all you want about global warming, but this summer has been really cool (meaning the weather and not just all the fun stuff that I've been able to do). The single hundred-degree day happened when I was in Indiana the whole day, so I've missed the dreaded century mark altogether thus far. It dropped to the 80's by mid-afternoon today, and it looks to be nice for the outdoor gig I have tomorrow afternoon. (I've noticed by reading Lileks' site and talking to J-Guar that it's dang near autumn-like in Minnesota, going down to 55 last night. Brrr.)

The new bed arrived this morning, nearly an hour ahead of schedule. It's really, really tall, but I guess that's how they're making most of them these days. I took it for a test-nap a little bit ago, since Marathon Wednesday ended three hours early due to people having marching band (as I said on my AIM away message for a while, I knew that marching band would be good for something someday).

Other than that, not much going on. I've been trying to schedule a "Kev and Friends" gig for this weekend, but no luck so far. Before long, the TD/D combo will be up and running, and of course I'll shamelessly plug it on the sidebar of this site as well as the gig page of my regular site. I do have a gig with some folks from the college tomorrow afternoon, but that's only for an hour and a half. I successfully put off any substantive progress on the Dread Sked today, but I'll probably do more of that tomorrow.

Wow, looking back, I see that this was a really fluffy post. I'm glad I don't pressure myself to post every day, or the Tripe-O-Meter would be redlining sometimes. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something more to say, and the only fluff here will be on the new mattress. Wow, I should sleep great tonight...

This is too funny: OK, something of substance, albeit a really small substance: the PC EZ-Bake Oven. If one of my nephews goes through a junior-chef phase, that could be the coolest birthday present...

(via The Daily Prawn)

The Dread Sked

Yesterday was a ridiculously productive day. Between the time that I got out of church at 12:30 and went to Starbucks at 10:45, I: *draws deep breath* got my oil changed, mailed off my paperwork to the school district, did two loads of laundry, finished the revisions to a Sinfonia document I've been working on, got today's teaching at the store settled for everyone who's in school already, did some work on my financial summaries and started the dreaded schedule for the fall. *exhales*

Ahh yes, the dreaded schedule, or Dread Sked for short. It's like putting together this huge and complex jigsaw puzzle where sometimes the pieces don't fit quite right. I told some people last week that doing this is my second-most loathsome activity of the year--second only to preparing my income tax (and Dad does some of that for me anyway). The players: ten schools, approximately 75 students, way too many band directors to count. The ground rules: People who took lessons over the summer get first dibs, then people who took last year but not over the summer, then newbies get whatever's left. The problems: Schools change their schedules from last year, or even their bell schedules by ten minutes or so (I schedule myself pretty tightly, and even five minutes can make a difference on whether I can make a certain school on time); the school that insists on grouping all the woodwinds, brass, etc. together by classes regardless or band...but for marching season only, and then it changes after two six-weeks; the fact that the number of people who took over the summer may not coincide with my actual planned availability at their particular schools; band directors who can't understand why I don't have room for every saxophone on their roster, yet make no effort to bolster my ranks in the thin summer months. Oh yeah, and the severe lack of hours in the day, or at least the portion where it's practical to teach.

So I've started this thing, but it's too early to tell if it will be good or bad yet. I have one more middle school that still needs to give me its schedule, but I can already tell there will be some places where student demand exceeds supply of available slots. I'm at least hoping to have a respectable amount of time for lunch every day; that got downright unhealthy for me at times last year. It's ironic that I love my job but sometimes hate my schedule, but it would all be different if there weren't so many things out of my control.

Normally, I'd warn everyone that I might be cranky this week, but the whole side-project of helping Halfling with lab band audition stuff has proven to be a wonderful distraction. I have to get the Dread Sked completed before next week, but it's not in the forefront of my mind 24/7. I have a few more days to toy with it, but I'm pretty happy with how much I've already done.

What's wrong with this picture? Last night at Starbucks, I took a peek through the window into Barnes and Noble, where I noticed an interesting display on the endcap of the magazine section. Right next to the magazine Bible Review was one called B**ch, of all things. I wonder if someone was trying to make a twisted statement or if they were just using alphabetical order...

Catchin' Up

Had a nice visit with the parents this weekend (and yes, I know it's still the weekend, but their visits run from Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning, the better to beat the traffic of non-retired folks who have to do traditional weekends). What follows is a collection of random thoughts and events from the visit:

Mom and Dad brought me an article about how my old high school will be closed for a year because it was discovered that the brick facade was pulling away from the inner walls. They'll end up re-bricking the entire building, among other things. The students will have to attend classes at the site of their former rival high school (the two schools having been consolidated while my sister was there), which has been used recently as a charter school.

The birthday present mystery has been solved; I'll be getting a new bed (or at least the mattress and box spring portions) on Monday. After trying out quite a few, I managed to snag about a two-minute power nap on the demo model of the one I ended up choosing. It may not be the most exciting present, but Mom and Dad said that they replaced theirs a few months ago and have never slept better. Since I sometimes don't get enough sleep during the school year, it would certainly be good for what I do get to be quality sleep. I'm hoping that the next big present is the massive entertainment center that will replace all the various cabinets in my living room (and, as stated earlier, provide a good excuse to get a new--i.e. bigger--TV. That'll sure be at the top of my Christmas list...

One of the highlights of the visit was yesterday when Mom and Dad got to meet Halfling. One of our regularly-scheduled sightreading/jam sessions took place while they were there, which gave me something to do while they had a handyman over to do some fixing and installing. Halfling and I got to make the lunch run for everyone while Mom and Dad were with the handyman (nobody had to twist our arms very hard for that one). I think they really enjoyed meeting each other, and it was cool for me to have some of the most important people in my life finally cross paths (I'm not even sure my parents ever met my previous best friend). I think Halfling also got a kick out of watching me be "parented" (i.e. getting little lectures on the messy office), which he'd obviously never gotten to see before.

I cleaned up in the food department, as I now have five meals' worth of leftovers in my fridge: Mom's and mine from both nights, and Dad's from Thursday as well. That night, we went to Maggiano's Little Italy, which is known for its huge portions, and sure enough, we all left with substantially full to-go boxes. Last night at Cheddar's yielded a bit more. Oh, and we listened to the entire Jazz Camp faculty CD during all our dinner/shopping sojourns; they'll get their own copy before long.

At any rate, it was a good visit. I may get to see them again next month for my nephew Caleb's first birthday if I can get away to Austin that weekend. If not, there may be a roadtrip to a Kurt Elling concert in Houston in late October.

Oh, and I went to Bowl-a-Rama last night for the first time since June, I think, with an old friend who's headed back to Aggieland in a few days. I didn't do too badly, rolling a respectable 144 and 136.

A blunder from down under? As you may know, one of the sites I read regularly is the Daily Prawn from Australia; I've posted comments there on occasion, and James has returned the favor here. It's always fascinating to compare our two cultures. But now comes news of a proposed new law in New South Wales that would prohibit anyone under 21 from operating a motor vehicle between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. (No, that's not a typo...under 21.) And we thought the curfew in Texas (the same restrictions from midnight to 6 for anyone under 17) was hardcore. (In case you're curious, the age of adulthood for everything--drinking, smoking, voting--is 18 over there.) I just don't see how you can take rights like that away from legal adults; government-as-parent is almost never a good idea.

Cookie Monster

The other night, Halfling took a break from our AIM conversation for a bit so that he could run a spyware-sweeping program on his PC. I checked out the site myself and decided to use the program as well. While it didn't run on mine for nearly as long as it did on his, I decided to do an experiment and have it get rid of all the cookies I had in my browser. I had previously had it set to accept all cookies without asking, but as I went about my business yesterday, I changed the setting to where it asks me before accepting them from any site. Even though it took quite a while to get all the passwords reset for the different sites I visit regularly (and took forever to get Hotmail working correctly again), I think I have only the cookies I want on there now.

I had no idea before I switched to "ask before accepting" mode that there were as many potential cookies out there as there are. I wasn't surprised that the sites I visit would have their own cookies, but I was quite shocked to find out that banner ads on those sites--most of which I would never, ever click--wanted to leave their own cookies as well. (Those, of course, were summarily refused this time.)

So hopefully my computer will run even faster now; it does seem to be a bit peppier at this point. And now there won't be sites I don't even do business with tracking my every online move. It's not that I do anything embarrassing online, it's just that these sites weren't invited to the party to begin with, and now I have the means to close the proverbial door in their faces.

Mom and Dad get here for their visit in a few hours; blogging may be sparse until Saturday.

Kev's Midweek Smorgasbord

All the news you can read, for the low, low price of free...

Almost exactly a year ago, I posted about the Elephant Orchestra from Thailand. Word comes now that they've cut a second CD, which is more jazz-oriented (including bass and drums!) but also contains part of a Beethoven symphony.

I also reported last year that a student of mine had accidentally grown a maggot colony in his saxophone mouthpiece. Lately, maggots have been showing up in the noses of nursing home patients (eww). Now comes a report that they actually have medicinal uses.

And in another example of animal savagery, a teen in Hong Kong was bitten by a piranha in a fountain.

(all the above via Dave Barry's Blog)

In the director's chair: I got to conduct the college big band again last night, the one week every summer where Kris slips away for a quick mini-vacation. I took "requests" for which charts we would play, with Halfling and G heavily involved in that, and it was a great time, even if Dingus griped a bit about having to play Machito. I tried to up the level of the tunes a bit from the usual laid-back summer fare, and I got some positive feedback afterwards; I hope nobody's chops got blown in the process.

Today is the penultimate Marathon Wednesday of the summer, and then Mom and Dad visit tomorrow, which means...pre-visit housecleaning. *shudder* It'll be nice, though, because I'll get yet one more birthday dinner and will also find out what they got me (I have no clue). Halfling thinks they broke off a chunk of the Great Wall for me while they were in China, but I'm thinking they would've had trouble declaring that at Customs. I'm hoping for the big entertainment-center cabinet (a convenient excuse to buy a bigger TV, unless said cabinet comes with one *crosses fingers*), but we'll see.

UPDATE: My folks did in fact bring me stuff from China, including a cool black T-shirt with something written on it in Chinese (they swear hope it's not obscene; maybe I'll get Zack to try and translate it before I wear it in the Asian part of town). They also got me what turned out to be a rubber stamp with my name on it in both English and Chinese, with the top of it being this marble-y double dragon that looks somewhat like a decorative chesspiece. The package was really pretty heavy for something that small, so when I opened it, the whole time I was wondering...surely it's not part of the Wall? But nope, my Customs instinct is evidently on-target, and the Wall remains intact.

The Ball Is In the Launcher, But I'm Not Quite Ready to Play

It really hit me today that, as we start August, there are only two full weeks left of my summer. *shudder*

I guess it could be worse; if I taught in Plano, I'd only have two days left, so I suppose I should count my blessings. But still, I'm just not ready for school to start, even as I see the proverbial ball about to start rolling again. Here are the things I'm not ready for yet:

Waking up at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday.
Going to ten different schools a week, instead of having everyone come to me.
Having less than a full hour for lunch (sometimes as little as fifteen minutes).
Wearing long pants in 90-degree weather.
Wearing shoes indoors, period.
Teaching twelve-hour days four times a week instead of just twice.
Teaching people who are only taking lessons because their parents make them (these people almost never do summer).
Dealing with crowded parking lots, school security issues, and the occasional (and I stress occasional here) band director's ego.
Being wiped out at the end of every day.

Now, in all fairness, here are the things I am ready for:

Teaching everyone in my studio every week, and getting paid for same.
The pre-Region Jazz jam sessions at Casa de Kev.
Watching my top students compete and succeed, developing a deep love for music in the process.

Hmm...the lists seem a bit unbalanced, with the biggest "plus" being financial. That makes sense, I guess. I really need the summers to "recharge" a bit, and it's worth the lower pay to not beat my brains into the ground for a few months.

Still, I'm really not ready for this summer to be over. It's been a summer like no other, but it's just flown by (I think the month of June lasted all of about 20 seconds). At any rate, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this summer like no other, hanging with my friends every day if I can and just wringing every moment out of these next few weeks. Thankfully, there are two more weeks after that before college starts, and while a lot of those afternoons off will be devoted to helping Halfling get ready for lab band auditions at UNT, I couldn't think of a better way to spend my time.

So even though I'll eventually "make my peace" with my fall schedule, I really hope I get to be a full-time college professor in the next few years. I get spoiled every summer at Jazz Camp when I get to stay in one place all day for a week; I could definitely get used to that on a long-term basis. Perhaps the new practice routine will pay off in that respect before too long; if an audition comes up anytime soon, I'm already more prepared than I would have been in any recent year.

I think I'll get more sleep than usual tonight. Today was a long teaching day, but fun commences again tomorrow.

Venus vs. Mars, the sequel: The other day, I posted an amusing item that I got from James's site that featured "the rules" from a guy's standpoint. Today, James has another one in a similar vein. It's not as laugh-out-loud funny as the original one, but it should still elicit a smile.

Playing This Weekend in the Kevmobile...

I finally made up my mind a few weeks ago about what to get with my Amazon gift certificate that I got from my sister for my birthday. The day before I gave her the same thing for her own birthday, my package arrived, and I've been rocking jazzing out to them in the car all weekend. This is what I got:

John Coltrane-Crescent. One of the Thrascher guys produced this voluminous Trane discography in master class at camp, and I realized that, while almost nobody will ever own his entire output, my collection was still sorely lacking. This one got high marks from the guys, so I decided I needed to own it. As I told Halfling on Friday night when we were listening to it in the car, it sure has a lot of notes for an allegedly ballad-laden album. The coolest thing about Trane, though, is his sound, and this is a great example thereof. The presence of McCoy and Elvin doesn't hurt things, either.

Dizzy Gillespie-Sonny Side Up. Named after the two Sonnys on the session (Rollins and Stitt), this is a classic that I should have owned years ago. We analyzed the tenor duel on "The Eternal Triangle" in Riggs' jazz style class in grad school, and now I can enjoy the entire tune. There's also one of many versions of "On the Sunny Side of the Street" which features vocals, this time by Diz; Halfling and I joked that if TD/D does this tune (which we plan to do), any vocalization would have to go to Dingus (i.e. Dingus Singus...though he seemed to veto that idea).

Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt-Boss Tenors. More Stitt in different but still-esteemed company. It's ironic that the opening track of an album with this title features Stitt on alto, but whatever, it's great stuff and just goes to shore up the Stitt/Bird comparison. He's one of those players whose overall concept doesn't change much no matter which horn he's on. Most of the tunes are blues, and great examples thereof. As an educator, I tend to shy away from the blues scale because of its overuse by high-schoolers, but this recording is a great example of the tasteful use of bluesy figures. (UPDATE: I just read the liner notes and was amused to find out that they released the album "backwards" on the CD; in other words, the "Side 2" tunes come before the "Side 1" ones for no apparent reason...so the tune with alto was not in fact the original opening track.)

Charles Mingus-Mingus Ah Um. I got to hear the Mingus Big Band live a few years ago at SMU (for free, too, which inspired jealousy among many friends), but, embarrassingly, I hadn't really listened to too much of the original stuff. Dingus has been a champion of this music for a long time (yes, Dingus loves Mingus; there's a CD title in there, I think), and now I see why--this is amazing stuff. Some of it is quirky, some of it is pretty loose, but it still sounds fresh some 45 years after it was recorded. Halfling and Dingus and I are all trying to formulate the concept for TD/D, and this sound will certainly be an influence.

Oh, and when those CD's ran out this afternoon, I popped in my favorite Kenny Garrett CD, Songbook. In my opinion, it's the best recording of "the only Kenny with the last initial of G who should be allowed to play saxophone;" someday I'm gonna transcribe the whole thing.

Weird fashion fad of the week: Hats of Meat. Notice the "pork pie" offering; it goes nicely with the Mingus CD mentioned above, which includes the original recording of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat."

(via Dave Barry's Blog; as Dave himself might point out, "Hats of Meat" would also be an excellent name for a rock band)