The Machine Never Learns...

I've certainly ranted against the Machine in these pages quite a bit already (for those not in the know, the Machine is my name for the big recording companies), but it seems like there's always something else to talk about; they bring it on themselves, they really do.

Here's the latest: Evidently, some of the record companies are trying to pressure Apple CEO Steve Jobs to raise prices on some songs at the wildly popular iTunes Music Store (at the moment, everything costs 99 cents in the U.S.). Jobs, however, accuses the labels of being greedy, noting that they already make more profit by selling a song through iTunes than they do on a CD. Also, The Joy of Tech has a great send-up of the whole situation; the guy being portrayed in the cartoon is the CEO of a huge music conglomerate which is owned by a distillery--the kind of person we really want making artistic choices for you and me. (Hat tip: Jeremiah Cohick.)

This appeals to our bass-er instincts: Imagine if you worked in an office where everyone had a really nasty, distracting habit, and eventually you got them to move it outside or in special rooms in the building. Sounds like the nasty habit would be smoking, right? Except...suppose it wasn't smoking, but playing the tuba, in a hilarious short film from Canada.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to fellow jazzblogger Shawn, who shares his special day with the interesting triumvirate of Mahatma Gandhi, Groucho Marx and Sting.

Catchin' Up

OK, four days' worth of posts are finally done now; Blogger's been down for maintenance a few times, and it seems like it's always happened when I was home and ready to blog. Since I've spent so much time on catching up, today will simply be a clearinghouse of some unusual stuff that I've run across during the past few days:

• A plane getting ready to take off from the Philippines was grounded for 13 hours after someone saw a mouse on board.


• A woman in Manhattan was ticketed for sitting on a park bench without any children. Even with the explanation for the rule stated in the article, it's still ridiculous.


• This may be one of the worst songs I've ever heard, and the dancing on the video is even more horrendous. See if you can make it through the whole thing.


• Headline of the week that only a stockbroker on Mars would understand: Gazprom buys Sibneft for $13.1 bln.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday Dingus! I was able to get him the traditional birthday burrito last night before the ballgame, since all my fraternity brothers were arriving late. Too bad he has marching band for most of the day (d'oh).

The Boys of Summer

The schedule says there are two days left in the regular season, but it really ended for me tonight with what will be my last trip to a Rangers game of the year. I had a bunch of ticket vouchers left over this year, so I invited all the big and little brothers in my home fraternity chapter for a night out, and a good time was had by all. It was a mixture of fans and novices; some among us were diehards, while others were attending their very first baseball game ever. Those who were visiting Ameriquest Field for the first time were impressed by the architecture of the place, and everyone loved the weather.

I hadn't been to a game in a little over a month, when J-Guar and I went on a 100-degree afternoon (as the thermometer below the Frappuccino sign in center field reminded us regularly). Tonight was a beautiful night, even if the baseball wasn't; the Rangers were shut out by the Angels until the final inning and ended up falling, 7-1. Two more games remain in the season, but my tickets are used up, so my next trip here will be in April.

The season started out with lots of promise, but things seemed to fall apart after the Kenny Rogers incident and the release of starter Ryan Drese; a club that's notorious for being thin on pitching can't usually afford to take a hit like that, and the '05 Rangers were no exception. But there were some high spots, like the team's flirting with the all-time home run record for a season, and Michael Young's likely batting title. I hope that the off-season doesn't mess with the primo infield of Young, Teixeira and Blalock, but if the oft-maligned general manager doesn't come back, it won't break my Hart (heh). Let's just hope that the couple of fine young pitching prospects in the minor league system pan out when they reach the "bigs," because we sure need 'em.

I've always loved baseball; I've done previous posts about how baseball reflects the best qualities of America and how baseball is like jazz. Sure, there's always the playoffs and the World Series (maybe the Astros, the team of my boyhood, will come through in the wild-card), but the real season ended for me tonight; that, along with the cool weather, heralds the true arrival of autumn.

Countdown to Firewheel: One week! And one of the final preparatory events will effect nearly everyone out here this weekend, as the eastbound George Bush is sent on a several-mile detour so that the pavement can shift to the new service roads before the grand opening of the town center. Eric should have fun talking about that one on the radio all weekend...

Breaking Barriers

I got the newest Wayne Shorter Quartet CD, Beyond the Sound Barrier, in the mail yesterday. After seeing that great concert a few weeks ago, I ordered it almost immediately upon my return. I'll review it in this space once I get to give it a good listen or two.

If You Can't Stand the Heat...

...just wait a few more hours. Relief is on the way.

More later.

LATER (the next day): Today was beautiful. The drives in the morning (which included a trip to Arlington to snag some Rangers tickets for tomorrow night) and evening didn't even require air conditioning. I think it topped out at maybe 78 degrees, which was much better than yesterday's high of 104. Marching band members across the Metroplex are breathing a sigh of relief (though, at my first school, where they had a fire drill about 2.5 seconds after I arrived, some kids were griping about having to be out in the "cold"--there's just no pleasing some people, I guess). I know that it's not going down to the forties anytime soon (which is good by me), but it's nice to think that the most brutal part of a long summer is finally over.

More Proof That We Live in a Bizarro World

Japanese automakers have discovered that new-car smell might be toxic, and they're working to tone it down in future models.

OK, it's time to take the keys away from the baby: An 18-month-old in Warsaw, Poland started the car and accidentally ran over most of his entire family.

What Is This Thing Called...Sleep?

I'm about to find out for the next couple of days. You see, this semester has already been pretty much kicking my butt. But finally, there's a light at the end of the tunnel (and I'm pretty sure it's not attached to an oncoming train). Two late-starting mornings for the next couple of days and a four-day weekend from school at the end of this week should get me appropriately recharged. This should also mean that the big opinion posts I've had in my head for a few weeks (on the Wright Amendment and big bureaucracy in education, among others) should finally come out, so hang in there through one more day of fluff (today) and I'll start getting caught up.

We'll miss him by that much...and more: Actor Don Adams, who played Agent Maxwell Smart in the hilarious series Get Smart, passed away over the weekend.

Motivated by demotivation: The first four designs of the Demotivators 2006 Collection have just been announced. (Full disclosure: yeah, my brother-in-law runs the company...but man, this is some funny stuff. And if it happens to help put food on the table of my sweet sister and two darling nephews, all the better.)

I Have a Vision...

...problem. That's how the sentence should go--I have a vision problem. That's nothing new; it's been that way since third grade. Nearsightedness, astigmatism, yada yada. But it's been quite a few years since my last visit to the eye doctor, and I can tell that my prescription needs a slight change (the most recent time I got new glasses, it was pretty much a spur-of-the-moment thing, because the old ones simply fell apart and I couldn't actually afford both the appointment and the glasses at the same time).

I've had it in my head for quite some time that I'd look way better without glasses (if you see me in person, I'll happily doff them for you on request if you'd like to form your own opinion). Tonight, after seeing one more friend who'd gotten rid of his glasses, I decided that it's time for me to do something about it. (I can't explain it, but there's something exuded by the average formerly-bespectacled person that's rather striking--a new air of confidence, somehow. I want that air.)

So my straw-poll question of the day is: By which method do I ditch the glasses--contacts or Lasik? I just keep thinking that messing with contacts would be a big pain...but I can't afford Lasik right away, and you always hear of the times when it doesn't work (WHEN LASIK GOES BAD!, tonight on Fox). So I want to hear from contact-wearers (is it as bad as I'm imagining?) and Lasik-recipients (any problems?) and friends/relatives thereof. I don't know exactly when this will go down, but I really think it's time.

A happy hurricane horn story: From the Houston Chronicle comes the tale of a New Orleans musician and Katrina evacuee who, after having his brother's van--full of his equipment--stolen in Houston, was reunited with his antique sousaphone earlier this week.

Unburritably Good News for the Locals

We'd been hoping for this for a long time, but today, the good news was confirmed: Chipotle is coming to Firewheel! The location where I ate tonight had a sign soliciting applications for employment there, so burrito bliss will soon be located almost within walking distance of my house (and yes, considering the size and caloric content of said burritos, walking would not be such a bad idea). One of my friends called me a "retard" tonight for being so excited about the whole Firewheel thing, but mark my words, it's going to transform Garland (both literally and, hopefully, image-wise). The next edition of "Dallas-opoly" won't dare put us in the Baltic or Mediterranean spot like they did last time.

It's always One O'Clock somewhere: I saw the One O'Clock Lab Band tonight at UTD. I missed them in the Syndicate a few weeks ago, but it looks like this will be a good edition of the band. There are eight new members of the band ("we fired the other eight," joked director Neil Slater during the gig), although the trumpets and saxes have only one newcomer apiece. Among the outstanding newcomers were trombonist Sara Jacovino and pianist Josh Hanlon, both of whom moved up from the Two O'Clock (full disclosure: Josh is married to a friend of mine...but all bias aside, he was all over it tonight); new drummer Shawn Pickler (who hails from Pat Metheny's hometown) and lead trumpeter Jason Levi (who was second last year) were also most impressive. The band performed a generous mix of old UNT standards, some gems from the Kenton library, and probably around half of the upcoming "Lab 2005" CD, which should be really enjoyable.

Quite a few of my combo players from the college made it to the concert tonight, but I wish that all of them, as well as all of my high-school jazzers, could have shown up, because the One rarely makes it to this side of Lake Lewisville. (Note to self: Find out the date for this even sooner, and hawk it more.)

Not too much wasting away in Ritaville: Hurricane Rita has come and gone, and, while my heart is out to those who lost homes and businesses on the coast, I bet a lot of people were relieved that it had weakened considerably by the time it made landfall early this morning. The eastern path that generally spared Houston and Galveston also kept even a drop of rain from the Metroplex, so our drought continues.

Quite a Milestone

I've mentioned before how I took my previous car, the Kevmobile, all the way up to 338,000 miles before it was unceremoniously taken off the road almost three years ago when it failed a state inspection rather badly (the full story and pictures are here). I also mentioned at the time that my friend and colleague, Kris, had taken his '89 4Runner even farther than that. Well, today I got word that, at 398,000 miles, the 4Runner passed inspection once again, so it's obviously gone past that mythical, mystical 400,000 mile barrier to which I aspired. Way to go, Kris!

(In case you're wondering, Kevmobile 1.2, which I bought "pre-owned," stands at nearly 146,000 miles--a mere pittance.)

Countdown to Firewheel: The town center that will instantly turn my neighborhood into a retail hot-spot opens exactly two weeks from today. In preparation for that event, I noticed that the city renamed the street that approaches--and soon will circumnavigate--the center in its honor. So if you're out in this area and wondering what happened to Northeast Parkway...well, it's Firewheel Parkway now, pod'nuh.

He keeps very gouda time: Jazz drummer Han Bennink was photographed playing a drum set made of cheese. (Hat tip: Dave Barry's Blog)

QUOTE OF THE DAY: The kid who's been funny in lessons over the years was funny again today. He was wearing a Bob the Builder sticker on his shirt, which amused me; that's the kind of thing my four-year-old nephew reads and watches, so you don't expect to see an eighth-grader sporting Bob-wear...

ME: So, you're a fan of Bob the Builder, huh?
KID: Yes! He gives me inspiration and strength.

Like some of the previous funny kid moments, maybe you had to be there, but I laughed very hard.

It's Starting Already

I couldn't believe what I saw on my way home: gas lines. At every station I passed. The radio was airing a Rangers game, so I hadn't heard any news for a few hours, but I was doubting that they had some big news item about knowing exactly where the hurricane would make landfall 24 hours from now or anything. So why were people all buying gas tonight? Hadn't they heard that the best way to create a gas shortage was for everyone to top off their tanks like this?

Obviously not. But I didn't succumb, not yet. I have a little over half a tank. Yeah, I've heard the stories that gas deliveries might be messed up for a few weeks, we might see $3 a gallon again, and so on. And I definitely need gas for my work. Still, I don't see the need to top off tonight, though I may venture out right before bed, just out of curiosity, because I haven't seen lines like this since 9/11. I would feel like a dork if prices shot up 50 cents by morning or something. But I can't imagine using real gas to sit in a line to get more gas.

So...quick straw poll: Did you succumb to temptation tonight, or drive confidently on? Or was this even an issue in your neck of the woods?

UPDATE: I did in fact do my little "curiosity drive" a little after 11:30 p.m., just to see if the lines were gone. They were, but two stations I checked had also run out of regular gas. Gah.

Operating on the theory that the prices might rise sharply, I went ahead and filled up, thus assuring that I won't have to pay an inflated price for at least the next four days. I bet this won't be as bad as people are thinking, at least in terms of gas, but I guess one can never be too careful. I just hope tonight's little frenzy didn't add to the problem too much.

Catch of the day: There have been reports of all kinds of unusual things caught by fishing boats near the area where Katrina went ashore, but the best one I heard about today was the boat that caught an ATM in its net. I'm looking for the link to that story now...

Oh, This Is Great...

Hurricane Rita is now being described as having the potential to be the worst storm to ever hit Texas. And even though I'm concerned about my folks' house and all that (since their suburb of Sugar Land has already begun voluntary evacuations, my biggest hope that Rita stays as far away from New Orleans as humanly possible.

This actually is great: Almost a year ago at this time, I posted about one of my old schoolmates, Jonny Beckett, who was battling lymphoma and had a benefit concert thrown in his honor, which I attended. Tonight, I saw him direct the Four O'Clock Lab Band. He's back in school and hopes to finish his master's degree in the spring. What a difference this year has made!

Quote(s) of the Day(s)

This is that day during the school year where I just never stopped being tired all day, so I'm hitting the proverbial hay early. But I did have a couple of quoteworthy things from this week. First, yesterday:

(An exchange between me and a student during a lesson)
STUDENT (hearing squawks from the room next door): Man, I'm glad I don't play clarinet.
ME: Well, remember, the saxophone was invented to be an improvement upon the clarinet...but still, it has its good moments.
CLARINETIST IN THE NEXT ROOM: SkrOOOOOOONK!
ME: ...and that just doesn't happen to be one of them.

The QOTD for today comes from my mom, in an email sent on the eve of her and my dad's trip to Spain and Portugal that starts tomorrow. They live near Houston, which might be under the gun from Hurricane Rita in a few days, but they won't be there to react to it:

"Don't know if we will have a house standing when we get back or not. Can't do anything about it at this point in time.
Dad says we will win the prize for evacuating the longest distance."

Heh, that's a good one...but seriously, I hope their house makes it through their trip unscathed.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of....OK, It Was Water

A Pirate Story by Kev:

I didn't get to do much to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day today, since it was such a long day of teaching. I did, however, hear the morning news team discussing it on the radio (I was listening to Brad BARRton on K-ARR-LD). It was a pretty miserable morning in the beginning, as I couldn't find the box fan that makes the un-airconditioned practice rooms at my first school bearable (I tried to buy one myself yesterday, but Super TARRget didn't have what I was looking for). Eventually, I found where it was hidden, so the rest of the morning wasn't nearly so hARRd.

Mondays are long teaching days, but none of the schools are too many miles apARRt from each other, so I didn't have to spend too much time in the cARR between my various locations. I did get a quick break at StARRbucks before teaching at the store, which was nice (I had a tall cARRamel Frappuccino, in case you were wondering). From there, it was a pretty chill evening, as I watched the Cowboys look great for most of their game tonight, only to blow it in the fourth quarter and lose by the thinnest of mARRgins. (I bet Coach PARRcells isn't too happy right now.) And now I sit here and type, but bedtime isn't fARR off at all.

Facing off: The weirdest headline I've read in a while: Doctors at a Cleveland clinic are preparing for the world's first face transplant.

Well Worth the Trip

Some would say that my three friends and I were crazy for driving to San Antonio and back in the same day just to see a 90-minute jazz concert. But when the concert in question was the Wayne Shorter Quartet, and this was their closest gig to Dallas for the foreseeable future, I say it was totally worth it.

The Quartet (consisting of Shorter on tenor and soprano saxes, Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums) has been around since the summer of 2001, when the sessions that became the Footprints Live CD were recorded. I was fortunate enough to catch them in the summer of '02 at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, and the group, which was amazing then, has become even more solid in the intervening time. Each member is a master of his instrument, but they combine to form something truly special.

If this were a traditional concert review, I'd recount the list of tunes the group played, but this was no traditional concert. In fact, I can't even tell you with any great certainty how many tunes they played, though the correct answer would probably be "three or four." The Quartet doesn't stick to the traditional head-solos-head format; even their re-creations of recognizable tunes (usually ones penned by Shorter, but sometimes adapted from classical themes) sometimes required a bit of searching to discern where the head was. We estimated the first tune to be about 45 minutes long, using the time between appearances of a head-like motif as a measurement. Unusual? Sure. But it didn't matter one iota.

What was truly amazing about this group was their ability to change styles and feels on a dime. There were plenty of things that seemed completely improvised, along with many other elements that were obivously planned, and everything was woven together in seamless fashion. Besides Shorter himself, the bulk of the solo space went to Perez, though everyone got a chance to provide little interludes between the leader's excursions. Perez often provided more of the rhythmic accompainment than Blade did, drawing from a wide variety of influences. Patitucci was rock-solid, going back and forth in between matching up with Perez's left hand and punctuating Blade's rhythmic accents. Blade himself provided everything from solid rhythmic underpinnings to jaw-dropping technical flourishes. The leader was a master of saying a lot with a little (a technique gleaned, no doubt, from his onetime mentor Miles Davis, along with letting the music do the talking, as not a word was spoken onstage all night), though he also had plenty of extended technical runs. He alternated between tenor and soprano with a very individual sound (in certain registers, it might have been difficult to discern which horn he was playing if one's eyes were closed). Shorter looks rather serious onstage more often than not, but he exhibited some playful moments as well--giving a bemused look to his soprano when the tuning was a bit off on the first tune, leaning into the microphone and whistling some background lines during a Perez solo, and even emitting a slight chuckle when the pianist launched into a brief quote of "I'll Remember April."

In the three years since I'd last seen them, the Quartet has really grown, and the experience was all the more engaging since we were extremely close to the stage. They've recently put out a new recording, Beyond the Sound Barrier, that is now at the top of my must-buy list. If you're in Texas and missed this one, try to catch them in Houston on October 14 at the Wortham Center, because this show was worth every minute and every mile of the trip.

On the road: The trip itself went off without a hitch; we got to borrow a larger vehicle from one of the guys' parents, so four of us weren't crammed into Kevmobile 1.2 for five hours each way. Save for a wreck on 35E in Red Oak on the way down, traffic wasn't an issue, so there was plenty of time for dinner on the way. We got into San Antonio with over an hour to spare before Shorter's downbeat, there were parking places in the first nearby garage we entered, and we snagged the last front-row space in the non-VIP section when we arrived. Sure, we had to endure the last thirty minutes of the generic fusion band that served as the opening act (I suppose they were trying to offer a little something for everyone), but our location was superb. The weather was great--perhaps a little warm at first, but it cooled down nicely by the end, with cool breezes blowing through from time to time. Because we got such good seats, we missed out on a walk through Travis Park and a chance to sample the food (the theme of which was Cajun/Creole, which I'm sure was enhanced by the arrival of Hurricane Katrina evacuees), but maybe there'll be a return trip to the Jazz'SAlive festival in our future.

Fueled by coffee, conversation and tunes, I ended up being energetic enough to do all the driving on the way back, and I don't think I've laughed so hard on a roadtrip in recent memory. Some may have thought we were crazy to do this when we had to come back the same night, but I think it turned out perfectly.

Get ready for tomARRRow: Don't forget that tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day; this year, they even have some special events that are raising money for hurricane relief.

UPDATE: J-Guar gets Quote of the Day honors tonight; I told him on AIM (using the typical all-lower-case-letters format) that "the shorter concert was most excellent" and his reply was "even better than the longer one?"

IN THE COMMENTS: Regular contributor Gary P. recounts his first brush with the G-weasel's mangling of a Louis Armstrong classic. I've still managed to avoid more than a snippet of it this whole time myself.

One of My Shorter Posts

This semester's edition of the Cool Concert Tour kicks off tomorrow, when, after a morning of judging Region Jazz, I'll hop in the car with some friends and drive to San Antonio to catch Wayne Shorter at a free outdoor festival just a few blocks from the Alamo. It should be a great time.

The only trick to all this is that one of said friends has to be back for something at 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, so we'll pretty much be going down there, seeing the concert and heading straight back. It's not the most insane roadtrip I've ever taken (that honor would go to the weekend in college when four of us went to Evansville, Indiana and drove right back after stopping only a few hours), but it's definitely up there, seeing as how we'll roll in around 4:00 or so on Sunday morning.

In the meantime, this is an early night for me, because I'm about nine levels of tired right now and in need of resting up for the trip. No post tomorrow, but I'll have a review on Sunday once I wake up.

Time for a cool change: I'm glad that we haven't had that first September cold front yet--it's a little too early for jacket weather in my book--but wow, this morning and evening in North Texas were really, really nice. Even though gas is coming down (I paid $2.72 in Denton on Wednesday night), it was great to drive around with the A/C off for the first time in a while.

Bigger Is Not Always Better

Last night, I heard a radio program on which host Charley Jones was posing the question, "What have you learned from Katrina?" I don't know that I've learned anything new, but it definitely reinforced something I already believed in most cases: Bureaucracy bad. Individuals good.

I've noted my disdain for bureaucracy in a previous post, and little that's happened with regard to Katrina has modified my position one iota. Some of the more ridiculous things were outlined this week in a column by Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post:

But while it is true that the government's relief effort looks set to dwarf anything it has tried before, consider what the actual experience of the disaster has already been -- not theoretically, not on paper, but in practice. Listen, for example, to volunteers who prepared 92 boats to help evacuate people from the rooftops of New Orleans. They were ultimately kept out by Federal Emergency Management Agency bureaucrats because, among other things, they didn't have life preservers. Or listen to the volunteers who organized 100 doctors to treat 400 sick people at a converted Baton Rouge warehouse -- until they, too, were told by the government to shut down, reopen and then shut down again. Or to the hundreds of firefighters who, according to the New York Times, responded to a nationwide call for help and were then "held by the federal agency in Atlanta for days of training on community relations and sexual harassment," while women were raped and lives were lost in New Orleans. Compare their frustration to the joy experienced by 8-year-olds across the country, washing cars for the Red Cross.

You see, it's things like this that show the pointlessness of a big, bloated bureaucratic agency like the ones so often found in government. When "the rules" become the be-all and end-all and actually get in the way of people trying to help other people, then something needs to change. Now.

Applebaum may not share my urgency, but she hopes the right lessons are learned from all this:

I'm not saying anything radical here: I'm not calling for the abolition of FEMA, and I certainly think there's a role for government in disaster and evacuation planning. But it is true that the worst failures of the past two weeks have been big government failures. The biggest successes, by contrast, have come out of this country's incredibly vibrant, amazingly diverse and fantastically generous civil society. Sooner or later, it will be impossible not to draw political lessons from that paradox.

I'm in complete agreement with those who are avoiding the whole "blame game" thing at this point in time, because the priority right now is still rescuing people and rebuilding cities. But if the lumbering elephant of government bureaucracy is going to respond in a, well, elephantine manner, it's great to know that there are lots of "little folks" here in America who are ready, willing and able to pitch in and take up the slack.

Joke of the Day, from the Birthday Boy

Happy birthday to my good buddy J-Guar, who's legal today.

He also provided me with the joke of the day in a conversation last night:

Q: What's the difference between Kenny G and a machine gun?
A: A machine gun only repeats itself 75 times.
--posted on a door in one of the UNT music buildings

Funny stuff. I don't have time to dig it up now, but I'll also link again to the hilarious Barnes & Noble interview with the G-weasel; it's worth posting one more time.

Anyway, I'll get to see the birthday boy tonight at Lab Band Night, where I'm scheduled to buy him his first legal libation. I wonder what he'll choose...

This will be a long day, just like the past two. So will tomorrow. I think I'm scheduled for a nap on...Friday? Sunday? I'll be lovin' it, that's for sure.

Progress, in Baby Steps

I was haunted a few weeks ago by a photo of flooded downtown New Orleans in the Dallas Morning News. In this morning's edition, that picture ran side-by-side with one from Sunday. It's looking a lot better, though there's much work to be done. (I'm hoping to get a link to the photos, because they're amazing.) UPDATE: I can't find a direct link, but go here and click on link #4 for the 9/11/05 photo set; the one I mentioned is the first one in the series on that page.

Speaking of pictures, a lot of space has been given to New Orleans, but we can't forget that quite a bit of coastal Mississippi took a direct hit. Here is a link to some pictures from the Gulfport and Biloxi areas; note some of the before-and-after comparisons.

Also, on a highly encouraging note, Glenn Reynolds links to some additional relief efforts for New Orleans musicians; not only are they getting things like food, water and shelter, but they're also getting replacement instruments and, perhaps most importantly, gigs.

Blowing out more candles: Happy birthday to my buddy Steve H. Gotta meet up soon...

A Super Connection

A really cool thing for Metroplex-area transit occurred this weekend with the opening of the "Super Connector" phase of the President George Bush Turnpike on Friday. Even though the no-longer-missing link between the two previously exisiting segments is only about five miles long, its opening means that commuters can now take a single highway from about half a mile from my house all the way to the south entrance of DFW Airport. I used it to come home from my alumni meeting yesterday afternoon, and it's quite nice. It's probably about 75% bridges, going over wetlands, narrowly avoiding several landfills (not to mention the Sandy Lake amusement park), and swerving out of the way of the habitat of a rare nesting bird of some sort.

It's not the most picturesque segment of the George Bush, but that's counterbalanced by the ability to laugh and point at the cars that are stuck on 35E or LBJ. My trips to places like Arlington will be much easier now, and, unlike some people around here, I don't mind the tolls, because I know full well that without them, not a single mile of this turnpike would be done yet. When the extension from my neighborhood down to I-30 in south Garland is done in about four years, the loop around Dallas County will be halfway done. Let's hear it for increased mobility!

Blowing out the candles (both of them): Happy birthday to my nephew Caleb in Austin, who turns two today. I wasn't able to make the party on Saturday, but I hope to get down there and see my sister and her family very soon.

The pot calling the belly full: I meant to rave about a new eating place that I bet a lot of people haven't heard of yet: Potbelly Sandwich Works. The sandwiches themselves are delicious (I've had the roast beef twice and the turkey once, and I'm very tempted to try the PB&J, just because), and it's a funky atmosphere inside: fancy wooden booths with lofts (for decoration only; you can't sit up there) and bookshelves and so on, and, yes, an old pot-bellied stove up front, just for show. They also have shakes and ice cream, as well as soups and chili, but I'll have to partake of those at another visit. A sandwich, chips and drink totals just a shade over six bucks with tax. They're building one of these in the Firewheel Market development next to the new town center (which opens on October 7), and I'll be happy to welcome them to the neighborhood. Oh, and here's a news flash: A little bird told me (in the form of a kid I teach, whose dad is involved with the construction of Firewheel Market), that he's pretty sure they're putting a Chipotle in there. Sweeeeet...

We Pause to Remember

I have a lot of things to talk about (having gotten somewhat backed up during the recent downtime), but I'm putting them on hold for one more day in honor of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, four years ago today. Last year on this day, I asked readers to tell me their stories of where they were and/or what they were doing when they found out about the attacks. If you're new to the Musings since then, feel free to add your own response either in today's comments or the ones from last year.

Oh, and on the subject...did anyone catch the documentary on Flight 93 that the Discovery Channel showed tonight? I was quite disappointed to realize I'd missed it; for one thing, Flight 93 is a compelling story of ordinary people turned into heroes by extraordinary circumstances, and besides that, one of the passengers on that flight was the sister of a high-school classmate of mine (and it was rather haunting to watch the 9:00 news tonight and hear her name alone be called out in footage of a ceremony at the site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania). Anyway, I was wondering if anyone got to see it and if there were plans to air it again.

May we never forget...and may nothing of this nature or scope ever happen on American soil again.

LIke a Kid on Christ-Mac Morning

I spent way too much time on the computer last night, especially considering how tired as I was. But I couldn't help it; I started to catch up on one of my favorite sites, and the rest just sucked me in. Lileks led me to Dave Barry's Blog, which proceeded smoothly to Althouse and InstaPundit, the last three of which I hadn't read since Monday. The school year gets busy enough that I really need to regulate the time I spend on blog-reading (which definitely includes only the sparest helping of comment threads, since those can kill an hour in what seems like mere minutes). So while discipline is the order of the day for a while, last night was a frenzy, akin to a roomful of kids attacking a pile of presents underneath a Christmas tree, reducing it to a pile of paper and boxes in record time.

My four nights with no computer (save for the checking of essential emails while at the college) were definitely different. but, unlike in the Arby's commercial, different wasn't necessarily good. With TV and reading as my only diversions once I got home each night, I felt almost Amish in a way. It definitely showed me how the Internet takes the sting out of being single, because I hadn't been this bored at home since my roommate moved out a few years ago. (In this case, it could be said that the Internet serves multiple good purposes, since it lets me do work efficiently, research things quickly, lets me communicate with friends in true multitasker fashion, and it keeps the inherent boredom of singlehood at bay enough to keep me from doing something impulsiv--like, say, rushing into a bad marriage--that I might have regretted later.)

As for the computer itself, almost everything is built back up to previous levels; it took a few downloads to get my preferred version of Mozilla and return to the latest version of OS 9, since my system disk boots up the barest-bones edition of that system. I have at least rudimentary versions of most of my Word documents, but it'll take a bit of editing to get them updated. There are a few things I don't have that will be difficult to get back, like all the songs I had on iTunes (and no, I didn't buy anything from their music store yet; everything I had was either sent by friends or loaded from my own CD collection). I also will have trouble using Finale NotePad for a while, since the newest version only works on OS X (that being said, if anyone reading this has NotePad '04, please feel free to share the love). The biggest thing to rebuild will be my email address book, which contained around 300 names (not that I'm Mr. Popularity or anything, but when you add up friends, family, fraternity brothers, professional contacts, students and parents, it does get to be a pretty big number).

I haven't decided if I'll ask for a new computer for Christmas or just continue driving the Ancient and Venerable iMac into the ground for a while longer, but I hope this is the last time I experience a total loss of the hard drive. The two times it's happened are two too many for me.

Not exactly Southern hospitality: Several residents of a neighborhood in Ocala, Florida wanted to welcome some hurricane evacuees into their homes, but their efforts were quashed by their subdivision's deed restrictions. I'm certainly glad I don't live in a place with a homeowners' association, since they tend to range from heartless (like these folks) to totally Nazi-oid (like the one a few years ago who seized an elderly woman's house when she got behind in her association dues). This might be a blog topic for later, but feel free to comment now if you wish.

...And We're Back

OK, I'm back up online again, and it's great to be here. The only frustrating thing was that I found out I really didn't need to wait for the disks from my ISP at all. It wasn't necessarily that I was given bad answers the other day, but rather that I didn't exactly ask the right questions. Since my cable modem was intact, it would have sent the right information back to my reconfigured computer, and I ended up just having to tweak the browser a bit.

At any rate, I'll try to resume regular posting as soon as possible, though it will take me some time to re-download and install a bunch of programs I lost, rebuild my address book, tweak some things, etc.(for example, even though you can't see them, I can't stand the fonts that my browser is using at the moment). Nonetheless, I've seen and heard some blogworthy things over the past several days, so I'll muse away as time allows.

Please Pardon This Interruption...

Blogging will be light-to-nonexistent for the next several days as my computer recovers from a massive hard drive crash that happened around lunchtime yesterday. Ugh.

It was really weird how it happened: I was reading a really good essay and wanted to bookmark it, but when I went to the top menu to do so, everything just started freaking out--programs closing, things flashing off and on, etc. I turned the computer off, but it wouldn't reboot; I just kept getting the little folder icon with the Mac OS logo alternating back and forth with a question mark. I tried rebooting from the original system disk, but it wiped out everything else in the process.

So I've managed to reinstall the system and most of my programs, but the Internet will have to wait; the install disk I have is from AT&T, which has since been taken over by Comcast. This means the old one doesn't work, so I'm having to wait for a new one to arrive by snail mail; with any luck, I'll be up by late Thursday.

In the meantime, it was a rather boring holiday, not being able to talk to my friends online and all that (sitting around AIM-lessly, you could say). I spent way too much time scouring the house for all the necessary backup disks, and it was really weird to sit around with reading and watching TV as my only diversions; it was just so...1996.

At any rate, I'm at school now (it figured that this had to happen on one of the few days the college was closed) and just wanted to do this quick update so that people didn't think I'd been abducted by aliens or anything. More later, when I'm up and running again.

A New Place to Play

I played a gig with Gordon's band WhoNew last night at a very cool place, the Broadway Bistro in historic downtown Carrollton. Like many other suburbs, Carrollton has rediscovered its downtown roots recently, bringing new life into its original town square.

The Bistro is located inside the recently renovated Oldfield Building, which features an ornate central staircase and houses offices as well as the restaurant. There's a lot of brick and stone inside that serves as a natural amplifier for a musical group (a good thing for me last night, since I was playing un-mic'ed and nursing two cold sores inside my mouth). There are plenty of tables for customers, and if the delicious club sandwich that I enjoyed between sets was any indication, the food was great.

The gig went well, and, as I'd hoped in an earlier post, all the band's tips were donated to hurricane relief; they had an extra jar for that right next to ours, so we just emptied the contents of ours into theirs. Evidently the Metrocrest area is about to welcome some refugees as well, so they were taking up a special collection for that effort.

Evidently, things are getting ready to really grow in this area, with condos, a luxury hotel and a DART rail station all scheduled to be built in the near future. I'm glad I got to be introduced to this place, and I'm really glad that they're receptive to having TD/D play there. We'll keep our collective fingers crossed, and I'll post the date once everything is set.

Comment-ary

There are a couple of small but notable changes that I wanted to bring to everyone's attention: First of all, because I've started to get a lot of comment spam recently (you guys don't usually see it because I tend to catch it pretty quickly), I've enabled the new "word verfication" feature offered by Blogger. All it means is that you have to type in a word (usually a chain of random letters, to be precise) that's shown in a box at the bottom of the add-a-comment page; this word verifies that it's a real humanoid typing the comment and not some sort of spambot. It requires one more small step to post a comment, but I hope nobody thinks it's a royal pain or anything. (Feel free to try it out!)

Also, I've enabled Atom site-feed syndication, which will either be really cool to those of you with blog-aggregator programs or fly right over the head of those who don't. At any rate, it's there.

Gig tonight; I'll report back on the new venue and whether or not it'd be a good place for TD/D to play.

A Call for Involvement

Blogging is relatively light right now, because most of my online time has been spent reading about the status of everything along the Gulf. As I said back on Sunday, when the hurricane was still out over water, I've had a soft spot in my heart for New Orleans for a long time, and it's always been one of my favorite vacation places. While it doesn't appear that anyone will be vacationing there anytime soon, I have no doubt that, over time, the Big Easy will rise again. To do this, they'll need lots of help, and that's where we come in.

I'm still very much encouraged at how many people have gotten involved in the relief effort, even in the smallest of ways. My church announced a donation drive for this weekend; my fraternity is encouraging every collegiate chapter and alumni association to hold a fundraiser for hurricane relief (and, being a music fraternity, I bet that more than a few of these efforts will be concerts of some sort). If you're in the Metroplex, radio station KRLD is hosting a donation drive from 10-2 tomorrow in downtown Dallas, downtown Ft. Worth and Frisco.

So I challenge all Musings readers to do something toward this effort; I know that several of you have already done so. Visit the relief listings at InstaPundit and make a donation. Donate blood if you can. Help out a local school district that's absorbing refugee kids. If you're able, offer employment to someone who's had to relocate. The list goes on...

If you're wondering, I've given to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the Preservation Hall Hurricane Relief Fund. I'm also going to do one more thing: Tomorrow night, I'm subbing in my friend Gordon's band WhoNew at a place in downtown Carrollton. It's not a big-money gig, but I'm going to donate whatever I make to the relief effort and push for any "tip jar" that might be set out for us to go to this effort as well. It's not as close to home as some of the places I've played, but come on out anyway, just to hear a different sound.

Regular blogging will resume soon enough; during this week, it's just seemed like everyone has better things to read than my random thoughts.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "311 is a rock band, not a gas price!"--Me, to Dingus, as we drove through Arlington tonight and saw an especially steep price for regular unleaded. I got to visit Dingus for the first time in his new digs, and we pondered (over burritos, of course) where to find a place for TD/D to play that wouldn't close down in a few months.

The Crescent City's Native Sons Give Back

A couple of prominent musicians with New Orleans ties have signed on to perform on a telethon tomorrow to help the victims of Katrina. Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. will join country star Tim McGraw on the "Concert for Hurricane Relief" at 7 p.m. central time tomorrow on NBC. Marsalis and Connick are two of the Big Easy's best-known living jazz musicians, and McGraw is a native of another part of Louisiana. Matt Lauer of the Today show will host, and donations will be taken for the American Red Cross hurricane relief effort (of course, you could always donate now online).

The re-birthplace of jazz? New Orleans has always been known as a great city for music, and it holds an important place in the history of jazz. In the wake of Katrina, one Dallas critic speculates that it may take a while for the scene to recover.

Oh, and if anyone has heard anything about the status of Preservation Hall, please report back in the comments. I've read that Pat O'Brien's next door sustained only slight damage, but Preservation Hall is a much smaller place that might have been more vulnerable.

UPDATE: I should have gone to Preservation Hall's site before posting this, but I'd had trouble reaching many New Orleans-based sites lately. Anyway, I have my answer: evidently they're OK; the site just says that they're (obviously) closed due to the hurricane. They've also set up a special relief fund for New Orleans musicians. I'm going to contribue to that and ask InstaPundit to add it to his list.

Lone Star hospitality: I'm very proud of the response of Texas and Texans during this crisis; the state has agreed to take in around 75,000 refugees from the stricken areas, including 25,000 right here in Dallas, as well as the former Superdome refugees who were taken to the Astrodome in Houston starting yesterday. SMU is hosting the Tulane football team for the foreseeable future, and many Texas colleges are accepting transfer students for the fall (one of whom has ended up in a couple of my classes, as a matter of fact).

The word Texas comes from the Native American word "Tejas," which means friends, and it's great to see these folks get a Texas-sized friendly welcome in their hour of need.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "They could tear the whole place to the ground and within a couple of weeks, you'd hear somebody walking around playing a trumpet. Thank God we have music. It's the one thing a hurricane can't blow away."--Jon Cleary, prominent New Orleans keyboardist, expressing some optimism that the music scene will rise again.

Bloggers Unite for a Good Cause

Over at InstaPundit, Glenn Reynolds has posted a list of relief links for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. He's also called for a "blogburst" to take place today, wherein every blogger who wishes to do so will post a set of links to his/her favorite charities that are assisiting in the relief effort. There are plenty of them out there, but here's my short list

• The American Red Cross is obviously going to be on the front lines of this effort, providing food, water and shelter to those in need. You may donate using the link here and also through Amazon.


• The Salvation Army will also be a major participant in the area. A $100 donation will feed a family of four for two days, provide two cases of drinking water and one household clean-up kit, containing brooms, mops, buckets, and cleaning supplies.


• On a more local level, Carter Blood Care will be teaming up with blood banks in the affected areas to provide relief, and they will be hosting several blood drives in the Metroplex this weekend to bolster their supply.


• And don't forget about the animals! The SPCA of Texas is sending a team to the area to assist in the rescue of pets left homeless by the disaster.


• UPDATE: I have come across another charity which is of obvious interest to me as a jazz musician: the Preservation Hall Hurricane Relief Fund. One hundred percent of your donation goes to New Orleans musicians.

There are lots of other charities linked on the InstaPundit post above; another large list of bloggers and their favorite charities may be found over at The Truth Laid Bear.

Justifiable Larceny?

Today was a typical Marathon Wednesday, and on top of that, most of my time at the computer has been spent reading more about the aftermath of the hurricane. I think the soft spot I have for New Orleans as a fun vacation spot has kept me glued to the radio, TV and web browser in what little spare time I've had. I just hope the news starts getting better soon.

There have been a lot of reports and pictures lately of widespread looting by those who stayed behind (or were stuck, in some cases) in New Orleans (some good discussions are over at Metafilter and Althouse, both of which also focus on the racial undertones of some of the coverage). The big question seems to be this: is the widespread looting indicative of a society gone lawless, or are people in desperate times just trying to do whatever they can to survive?

I'll admit to being a fence-sitter here: If we're talking about necessities, like food or water, I'd be inclined to give people a pass in this particular instance. But flat-screen TV's? A basketball goal? That's just stealing for stealing's sake, and it shouldn't be tolerated.

(I'll admit that I also didn't feel as bad when I heard about the looting of a Wal-Mart [save for the fact that all their guns were taken] as I did about small Mom-and-Pop stores that will probably need all the help they can get to reopen. But, as many have pointed out, the food would have spoiled anyway. It's tough to make a general judgement on this one.)

Agree? Disagree? Comments are welcome, of course. And be sure and read Gary's comment on Sunday's post, as well as Eric's essay on growing up in New Orleans.

UPDATE: Evidently, the looting is getting a lot worse, as law enforcement authorities are concentrating more efforts on stopping it than on search and rescue operations. How unfortunate...

The First Day (College Edition)

Today was the first day for jazz ensembles at the college, so it was my de facto first day of the fall semester out there as well. There's something about the first day of a college semester that's really energizing, despite the fact that I had already taught for six hours in the public schools by the time I got there. Sure, it's a frantic energy--the lack of empty parking places and the throngs of people in the late-registration lines guarantee that fact--but there's something about the newness of it all that really unleashes some badly-needed optimism in me, and it can't be replicated in the public schools. I think it's because there's so much "new" in the air--new students, new classes, a chance to start fresh (even for those who may not have done well last semester). Nobody's burned out; nobody's disillusioned. And everybody has a sense of purpose today, even if they don't know where to find everything yet.

My afternoon combo has 100% turnover from the spring, which will be a challenge, but an exciting one nontheless. (My quote at the end of the rehearsal was "this is the acorn from whence a mighty oak might grow.") There were several new faces in the big band as well, so there'll be some learning time ahead....but hey, that's why we're there, to help them learn. And by teaching, we ourselves learn as well.
(UPDATE: J-Guar tried calling me on the use of "from whence," saying in effect that it was a redundancy, but I found a few places like this that back me up. I'm keeping it for now, because to edit it would mean I was misquoting myself...)

There will be times later on in the semester when "the grind" is wearing on me a bit (the public school schedule itself is still taxing at times, and my college work follows that a few days a week), but I hope I can bottle some of the optimism of today for those times. In the meantime, there are always certain places where I can slip away for maybe half an hour, just to wash the pungent aroma of work off my psyche. Tonight, after coming home from a twelve-hour teaching day and then having to edit my syllabi ("adult homework," I called it), that was exactly what I did afterwards. In the words of Yoda, hit the spot it did.

Now to work on the sleep thing...

It ain't over yet: Despite yesterday's optimism, the hard times are far from over in New Orleans. Reading the Times-Picayune's newslog is pretty depressing, as a matter of fact. Our prayers are with them.

Oh, and the UNT-LSU game this weekend has been postponed for now.

Home sweet home: With the hurricane dominating most of yesterday's news, I completely forgot what day it was, so I totally neglected to celebrate my fourth anniversary as the owner of Casa de Kev (photo here). Seeing what happened to so many other people's houses in this disaster makes me appreciate mine all the more.

*A* Big One, But Not *The* Big One?

Miraculously, New Orleans didn't take the direct hit that we feared it would, and the French Quarter fared better than most areas. Not to take lightly what did happen, of course; there was plenty of flooding and wind damage and even some loss of life, but the worst-case scenario known as "filling the bowl" didn't take place. The two things that had to happen to keep this from being The Big One did in fact happen: the storm changed direction ever-so-slightly before it came ashore (putting New Orleans proper on the "good" [west] side of the storm), and it also weakened slightly.

(UPDATE: This, of course, was written before the levees broke and much of the bowl did in fact fill. *sigh*)

During the day, I got a lot of good coverage from local radio (it helps when the news station I listen to has a full-time meteorologist as its morning news co-anchor), but I also got an amazing amount of information from bloggers. This new media form is coming through with flying colors in a situation like this; even a loss of power didn't stop some people from getting through, MacGyver-ing a computer connection with a pre-charged laptop and one of those free AOL trial disks (hey, we knew they had to be good for something). If you're interested in some hurricane-blogging, here are some good sites:

• Continuous coverage from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, as well as their in-house blog.


• Lots of New Orleans pictures over at Brendan Loy's blog


• An LSU professor has liveblogged the hurricane from Baton Rouge. (I wonder if the UNT/LSU football game, scheduled for this Saturday, will be affected.)


• Terry Teachout has a clearinghouse of hurricane-bloggers.


• Want to help? Contribute to the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army.

As soon as I find out the status of some of my favorite haunts, I'll update. In the meantime, we can all be thankful that it wasn't any worse that it was.

Not again: Another place where I've recently played has gone out of business; read more on the TD/D blog.

Dear Katrina: Please Go Easy on the Big Easy.Thanks, Kev

One of the biggest news stories of the moment is that Hurricane Katrina seems to be headed straight for New Orleans. Since much of the city is below sea level, it's long been known that a direct hit from a really strong hurricane could leave a good portion of the area underwater. A mandatory evacuation has been ordered, but plenty of stranded tourists (the victims of cancelled flights and empty car-rental lots) will have to wait it out in places like the Superdome, which has been designated as an emergency shelter.

Hurricanes are unpredictable, so there's always the chance it could veer off in another direction or even lose steam before making landfall (which is scheduled for sometime tomorrow morning). Still, it's chilling to imagine that, in the city that's one of my top vacation destinations, some of my favorite places--Preservation Hall, the Cafe du Monde, Cafe Maspero, the Hotel Monteleone, Copeland's--might sustain severe damage. Much worse, of course, would be the potential loss of life.

So if you're the praying type, remember the Big Easy tonight; I know I will. It may have a (not entirely undeserved) reputation as a den of iniquity, but it's also possible to completely bypass said iniquity and still have a great time; the music and the food guarantee that by themselves. Sure, it's a funky, gritty place, but that funkiness and grittiness are what make it so special. It's one of the spiciest places in our American casserole, and I for one hope to wake up in the morning and find out that Katrina has landed elsewhere or at least muted her bluster a bit.

IRONIC QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans."--from the Cafe's website.

Sportin' Life

It's the week before college football starts in most places around the country, but this was a Saturday filled with sports:

• My alma mater, UNT, has been talking about building a new football stadium for a long time (its current one, Fouts Field, dates back to 1952). Now comes word that it's likely to happen, and sooner, rather than later.


• Congratulations to my old college radio buddy, Mark Followill, whose play-by-play gig with the Mavericks just moved from radio to TV.


• At high noon today, it was sunny, there was no trace of a breeze, and the thermometer read 100 degrees. A perfect day for baseball, right? Umm...not really, but that didn't stop me and J-Guar from continuing the tradtion of seeing a Rangers-Twins game. Decked out in the garb of our respective teams, we cancelled each other out, cheering-wise, but had a great time doing so. The game itself was also good until the Rangers fell apart in the top of the eleventh, surrendering five runs to lose 7-2. J-Guar now leads the annual series 2-0.


• Oh, and evidently, there's a Cowboys game going on right now, but I don't tend to pay attention to preseason games, so I probably won't know what the score is until tomorrow morning. UPDATE: That's how it worked, but I was glad to see that they beat the Texans.

That's all for the sports; now it's time for the outdoor report...

Fun Fact #52? If I ever do a second edition of Fun Facts, this could definitely be in there:

52. Despite the fact that I'm allergic to grass, I currently own four lawnmowers.

And the really strange thing is that only one of them works right now. The two gas-powered ones are out of both gas and oil (though, as of this weekend, I finally know where everything goes in the newest one), and the electric one just totally blew out last weekend. That left me with the old-school, Leave it to Beaver-style push mower that an old roommate left behind years ago. It's reasonably good exercise, but it's definitely inefficient. Some people have started using them again to be "green" in a trendy way, but I need something that cuts more consistently, given my limited window of daylight in which yardwork may occur.

Blowing Blogging out the candles: Happy birthday to Professor Glenn Reynolds, who publishes as InstaPundit (and is also sometimes referred to as the "Blogfather"). Also a happy birthday to my old buddy Matt R.

Not a Total Skeptic Yet

I really want to believe Raffy, though that attitude has taken a hit in recent weeks.

But I still believe Lance, and will do so until an entity far more authoritative than a French newspaper reports that he was dirty.

Purr-fect timing: For the past several weeks, my cat Tasha has rushed up to the kitchen sink whenever it's in use, drinking the water in there despite her own water dish being perfectly full. Evidently, I'm not alone; Dave Barry's Blog links to a really unusual website today: Cats in Sinks. I'm gonna definitely try to send a picture in to them.

A Short-Answer Problem

It hit 102 degrees here in Dallas today, and I was glad I was indoors for most of it. But I was really amused by a post over at Althouse, where the good professor was railing against men in shorts. Granted, she's from Madison, Wisconsin, which might as well be half a world away from here in terms of climate. Still, it was an amusing read for someone here in Texas:

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's the short answer about shorts. Men in shorts? No such thing. If you are in shorts, you are not a man. I'll make a small exception for certain sports, or if you are staying at home or in your own yard. But if you're going out in public in a non-sports capacity, put on some pants! This includes the postman!

Needless to say, many of her readers, especially those of us from the South, didn't agree (I'm comment #63, incidentally). I certainly don't begrudge the UPS driver or letter carrier the comfort of wearing shorts to work, even if I can't do so myself (though they'd be quite comfortable in some of my schools with poorly-ventilated practice rooms). And I think they're perfectly acceptable as casual wear when it's as hot as it is now.

Anybody disagree with me on this? I know that most Musings readers (or at least the ones who comment) are from here in Texas too, so I bet we're mostly of one mind on this.

A Napster of sorts: Seeing as how today was my last free Thursday afternoon/evening until Thanksgiving, I did an unusual thing: I took a nap. My parents were visiting today, but I was toast when I came home from teaching, so I snoozed while they cleaned. (Some may thing of that as wrong, but hey, they chose to come here during one of my busiest weeks of the year, and they seem to enjoy that domestic stuff that I don't always have time to do.)

I woke up feeling quite refreshed. It's scary to think that I may not get another nap until Labor Day *shudder*, and it's scarier to think that naps have to be scheduled like that. Anyone think I work too much?

A common-sense approach to kids' treats: I'm a big Lileks fan, and in today's Bleat, he has a lot of great things to say about parenting, but one statement, regarding a trip with his daughter to Krispy Kreme, is about the most sensible parenting advice I've heard in a long time:

She was very impressed by the donut. “It was awesome,” she said.

And yes, I am trying to raise a fat kid. Of course! Goes without saying! McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme – that's all she eats. Look: we do McDonald’s once a fortnight, at the most, and she has a cheeseburger. No soda, no juice, no fries; she gets the apples. Occasionally I buy a small fries, and we split that. We never get donuts. But that’s not POLICY, it’s just the way we live. If it’s POLICY then you make the forbidden things alluring and attractive; if you stigmatize them you undercut your own authority because they see no reason why the items are taboo, and if you make all sorts of heavy food rules whose moral weight exceeds that of the Ten Commandments then the kid's going to have food isssues. Make the fun stuff part of a rotating sequence of balanced indulgences that roll around with predictable regularity,, and you raise a sane kid. Says me. Get back to me in a decade.

Sure makes sense to me.

Mrs. Crabtree, in the Flesh?

No, wait, I take that back. Even Mrs. Crabtree (the perpetually-cranky bus driver on South Park) probably wouldn't skip a kid's bus stop and drop him off at another school over a mile away, like a driver in Little Elm did this week:

Tyler Synatschk's parents have drilled their 6-year-old on safety basics: Don't cross busy streets alone and don't accept rides from strangers.

When Tyler did both after his first day of school Monday, Gary and Denise Synatschk had to assure the Little Elm first-grader he did nothing wrong. He did good.

It's the bus driver who forced Tyler off the bus at the wrong stop they're upset with.

A rookie driver, who has since been suspended, drove past Tyler's stop and continued more than a mile before instructing him to get out, Mrs. Synatschk said.

Thankfully, Little Elm has done more than suspend the driver (who works for a larger company that services several districts); they've banned her from ever driving again in their district.

This story blows my mind; how could anyone do that to a little kid? (And to touch on another point made in the story, it sure seems like the drivers should be required to answer calls on their radios.) It was indeed by the grace of God that little Tyler ended up being found by a good Samaritan and not someone with bad intentions.

Setback for the P.C. police: A while back, I railed on here about the NCAA's decision to ban schools with Native American mascot names form postseason tournaments. Now, they've backpedaled on the issue with regard to Florida State, whose Seminole mascot has the blessing of the local tribe of the same name. Other schools with similar arrangements may be next.

Salute to school: There was a nice article about my college in the paper yesterday.

Got suspension? I posted quite some time ago about the Gallon Challenge, the object of which is to finish a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up (this makes our 2BC look tame by comparison). Now comes word that a Florida Marlins batboy, given the challenge by an opposing pitcher, not only failed to complete the challenge, but was suspended for trying. Key quote from the pitcher who dared him: "It's kind of ridiculous that you get a 10-game suspension for steroids and a six-game suspension for milk." (Hat tip: J-Guar)

Name the Mystery Tune?

Over dinner tonight, I heard a most unusual tune; it was sort of a techno-ish thing that featured vocals reminiscent of the "soft side" of Trent Reznor or maybe the guy from Filter (which was pretty much a Nine Inch Nails offshoot anyway). But the most unusual thing about the song was that it contained a fairly substantial sample of Gerry Mulligan's "Song for an Unfinished Woman" (most likely the version recorded by Mulligan/Baker at the Carnegie Hall Concert). Anybody have any idea what this tune is or who does it? (If you're not familiar with "Unfinished Woman," click on the sample on the Amazon link and maybe that'll help.)

We live in trying (-out) times: The stats of my day were as follows--five hours of teaching, five and a half hours of listening to auditions at the college, then another hour and a half of deliberating over said auditions (albeit at a very good place to eat). I'm spent. I'm toast. I also have a nearly twelve-hour teaching day tomorrow, and my parents are visiting on Thursday. Therefore, in the immortal words of Yoda, a short post this will be.

Some Good Local Baseball News...

The Rangers didn't lose tonight!

(Oh yeah, that's because they didn't play.)

This season is pretty much in the tank (losing 12 of 13 on the recent roadtrip guaranteed that, I'm afraid), but those of us who are die-hard supporters will slog on (I have lots and lots of ticket vouchers left, so I'll be at plenty of games in September) and hope for a better year next year. Hey, it worked for the Red Sox last year, so miracles can happen.

But it begs the question: What's the best thing that can be done to "fix" the Rangers? I heard a talk-show host on TV last night say that the only solution was to get rid of Buck Showalter and GM John Hart, and bring back Doug Melvin (the GM during the playoff years of the mid-late '90s).

I'm skeptical of the fire-Buck idea; he seems to do the best with what he's been given. Hart? I've never warmed to him; maybe that's where the change needs to take place. Fellow Rangers fans--chime in with your thoughts. Everyone else--well, there'll be a fresh post tomorrow.

He pioneered the electronic keyboard, and music hasn't been the same ever synth: R.I.P. Robert Moog. He developed the first commercial modular synthesizer, and can thus be credited/blamed (depending on your personal taste , of course) for everything from electronica to Switched-On Bach. I also thought it was fascinating that he put himself through college by building and selling theremins (c'mon, everybody say wooo-OOOO-oooo). But no matter your opinion of electronic music, Moog definitely broke new ground.

Playing This Weekend in the Kevmobile

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts, but my adventures yesterday took me to that wonderful and dangerous (to the wallet) place called CD Source...so of course, I had to go in, and of course, I found some cool stuff. That means I can once again talk about the interesting new stuff I've been listening to all weekend:

• Kenny Garrett: African Exchange Student (Atlantic 7-82156-2). Though Garrett is a bigtime personal favorite of mine, my collection has been sorely lacking in anything before his (IMHO) definitive album, Songbook. This 1990 release features Ron Carter and Elvin Jones on several tracks, which is worth the purchase price alone. Garrett hadn't become the prolific writer he is today, but the covers (including Trane's "Straight Street," Herbie's "One Finger Snap" and even "Mack the Knife") all bear his distinctive stamp. A great addition to the library.


• Bobby Watson and Horizon: Horizon Reassembled (Palmetto Records). I've been a big fan of Watson (both as an alto player and a composer) since my college radio days. He's been keeping a somewhat lower profile lately, but he's recently taken a teaching gig in Missouri and put his band Horizon back together (thus the title of this CD). On first listening, none of the tunes scream "instant classic" a la "In Case You Missed It" or "Dreams So Real" (from the group's Blue Note days), but the cool interplay between Watson and trumpeter Terell Stafford is featured extensively just like before, and Edward Simon's piano playing and the drumming of Victor Lewis never fail to please. I've almost worn out their old recordings, so it's cool to have this new offering. Watson's teaching gig will obviously limit their touring, but this is one group I'd really like to see in concert.


• Bob Mintzer Big Band: Departure (DMP CD-493). (This is not from the CD Source "haul," but it was a late birthday present from Matt this weekend, so I'll review it here too.) As longtime readers know, I'm a huge Mintzer fan, but I haven't gotten around to collecting the entire output of his great New York-based big band. This 1993 release is a good mixture of originals and covers. My personal favorites are the opening "Dialogue," a friendly battle between Mintzer's tenor and the rest of the band minus piano and bass; "Freedomland," the Yellowjackets tune that one of my college combos played last fall; Victor Feldman's "Joshua" (made famous by Miles); and "Horns Alone," a rhythm section-less sequel of sorts to the earlier "Beyond the Limit." Sure, Mintzer has a formula to his writing, but it's a great formula, and I love to hear him play--'nuff said.


• Kenny Garrett: Triology (Atlantic 45731). I haven't gotten to listen to this yet, but it has Charnett Moffett and Brian Blade, so I'm expecting greatness. I'll update later.

Multi-purpose and then some: I had a gig last night for a corporate function at one of those big multi-purpose convention/banquet facilities. I had no idea exactly what it was that I was playing for, knowing only the names of the banquet hall and the contact person. When I got there, I encountered two extremely diverse events going on simultaneously: a wedding and one of those "ultimate fighting" competitions. I was pretty sure that I wasn't playing for either of those, and I was correct, eventually finding the right room. Still, that was quite a cross-section of clientele for one location at the same time.

Bizarro world: My friend who got married last week has returned from his honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, and reports an odd thing: in that portion of Mexico, at least, the housekeeping employees speak English!

Jumpin' jack flash is a gas, gas, gas: I can't believe I'm celebrating this, but I found regular unleaded for $2.54 a gallon today. (It's at the Chevron at Belt Line and N. Garland Ave. if you're in the area, and I hope it doesn't go up before morning. Needless to say, they were quite crowded.)

How to Win Friends and Influence People, Union-Style

I've mentioned before that I'm no huge fans of unions, mostly because the things that union members "demand" seem to get in the way of their helping people, which is supposed to be a primary reason why people are in business in the first place (yeah yeah, making money, etc., but let me at least view the world through one rose-colored lens every once in a while). The last time we discussed this, it was the striking hockey players' union; this time, it's the striking mechanics at Northwest Airlines. My only personal dog in this hunt is that a good friend is booked on Northwest in a few days, but his flight looks to be less in jeopardy now that the airline has brought in replacement workers.

Anyway, it was a sentence in the article about the replacements that really jumped out at me:

After months of talks broke off in Washington just before midnight Friday, union spokesman Jim Young said the mechanics would rather see the airline go into bankruptcy than agree to Northwest's terms. The Airline Mechanics Fraternal Association represents about 11 percent of Northwest's 40,000 workers.

Wow. Can you say "selfish," boys and girls? These guys would prefer to see as many as forty thousand people lose their jobs rather than take a pay cut that might help the company stay afloat?

Incidentally, the mechanics are flying solo on this one, as it were:

The mechanics are striking alone. Pilots, flight attendants and other ground workers all said they would keep working, and a federal judge barred mechanics at Northwest regional carrier Mesaba Airlines from conducting a sympathy strike.

In all seriousness, I hope the replacement mechanics do a much better job than, say, the replacement NFL players of days gone by, since much more than a team's won-loss record is at stake. Yes, the airline industry is doing badly (save for a local carrier that's still legislatively hamstrung in its hometown...but that's a subject for later), and it will take some shared sacrifice to keep some of these companies in the air. It's too bad these union members can't see beyond their own bottom line, because they're cutting off their own nose to spite their face. I am still so glad that I live in a right-to-work state.

Would "Pleistocene Park" be a bad idea? You ain't lion! One of the big topics in the blogosphere this week has been the proposal to transplant African wildlife, such as lions, elephants and cheetahs (oh my!), to the Great Plains area of the American southwest. We were talking about this at dinner last night, and several of us figured out that, if this were to happen, a new rural teenage fad would emerge: Lion-tipping!
(I also posted this thought in the comments at Althouse, where other interesting theories abound.)

Power Trio

Tonight was a rare treat, musically speaking. If the Earl Harvin Trio is performing in the area, I'm going to move heaven and earth to try and get out and see them. Thankfully, all it took today was a quick trip downtown.

The trio features Harvin, a UNT alumnus and former member of the One O'Clock Lab Band drummer (Lab '88) who's also toured extensively with Seal and The The; Dave Palmer, another NT alum, on keyboard (usually a Rhodes, but tonight he was playing a white Yamaha upright); and Fred Hamilton, the UNT jazz guitar professor who's also an outstanding bass player (he plays both in the trio). Once Palmer integrated the Rhodes into their live performances, the group moved beyond the simple profile of a jazz trio and into the "beyond category" description...unless the category is "great music," and then you're right on the money. Sure, they play plenty of straight-ahead sounding tunes, but they're also into extended jams (the "final chord" of their closing tune last September lasted a good ten minutes) and otherworldly sounds.

In a recent profile in the UNT alumni magazine, The North Texan, Harvin noted that the only reason the trio bears his name is because he was "the only consistent member" of a pool of around ten people, but his drumming is a huge part of the group's unique sound. While his playing could be described as "busy," that statement is meant in the best possible way; perhaps "intricate" is a better description, and "extremely tasty" needs to go in there as well. He's been known to double the melody on a tune, and he uses every part of the kit at some time or another, coming up with some very distinctive sounds in the process.

Tonight's gig was at the Dallas Museum of Art as part of a "Late Night Friday" series that happens monthly (sponsored by Starbucks, as the emcee reminded us about 47 times). The fact that Palmer was on acoustic piano added a new twist to the group's sound all by itself. He also had what appeared to be a very small computer of sorts atop the piano, which generated some interesting sequences on a totally-improvised number halfway through the show. Only afterwards did we find out what the device was: a Game Boy! There's a company in Germany that makes a little cartridge that goes into the Game Boy and produces sequences using the unit's own sounds, and Dave decided that would be a perfect accompaniment to the modern art hanging in the atrium.

The only downside of the show was that it was so short. I'm used to the trio's gigs at the Gypsy Tea Room, where the sets last for hours on end. Tonight was a tight, hourlong show that only whetted our appetites...but it'll do for now. In the meantime, there's a live DVD that's on the way, the release of which I'll be sure and make note on here.

We didn't venture into any of the side corridors, but I was quite impressed with the DMA itself. I'd been to plenty of the summer outdoor concerts before (including the Branford show last summer), but this was my first time inside the building, and I had no idea how deep and wide the whole complex really was. It definitely merits revisiting when there's more time.

We're Not Speaking the Same Language Here

OK, back to real content after a few days of cheap levity...

A while back, a Dallas school board trustee named Joe May came up with the questionable idea of forcing all the district's principals to learn Spanish, so that they would ostensibly be able to communicate better with the parents of Hispanic students, which make up 43 percent of the district. As you can imagine, many people were outraged, saying that it would be far more productive for the parents in question to learn English.

The proposal, which will be voted on later this month, was addressed again in an editorial column in yesterday's paper. The author was Edward Rincón, president of a research firm that specializes in measuring multicultural markets. According to the article,

[N]umerous studies of Latino adults show that more than 80 percent of those not born in the U.S. prefer to communicate in Spanish when given the choice. Why should this matter? When communicating in their dominant or preferred language, Latinos are more likely to comprehend and act on important information. The advertising industry has recognized this concept for many years and uses it to shape the buying behavior of Latinos.

OK, so education should look to the advertising industry as a role model? Shouldn't the students be treated as more than just "clients" (or, even worse, as "product")?

So maybe these parents prefer to communicate in Spanish; does that mean we need to indulge that preference? I'll bet I could go to school tomorrow and take a poll that would show that 80 percent of students would prefer to play video games instead of studying Shakespeare, but don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

But here was the statement that really got me:

Dallas school trustees have an opportunity to reverse this trend by supporting Mr. May's proposal and sending a message to the broader Dallas community that speaking the language of your customer is an important priority.

Maybe so, Mr. Rincón...but isn't speaking the language of your nation an even more important priority?

I was thinking about sending that question in as a letter-to-the-editor. Good idea? Bad idea? I don't totally shy away from controversy on this blog, but a lot more people read the paper than read The Musings.

A new definition for the word "milkweed": A herd of cows in Russia will be grazing this winter on confiscated marijuana obtained in drug busts.

Visiting the safari park in a mini-car? Not a very Smart idea: When I was in Switzerland a fw years ago, I got a kick out of the boxy little Smart cars that were often seen around town. Now comes word that, at a safari park north of London, lions are stalked by lions as prey.
(Hat tip for both the above: Dave Barry's Blog)

Thank You, I'm Here All Week. Try the Veal.

I've really been wanting to do a post of substance; there are quite a few things in the news that I'm wanting to comment about this week, but, as you know, I'm back to full days of teaching now, and the evenings online have just been...busy. I'll get to these pressing issues in the next day or two (trust me, they'll still be "pressing" by then), but in the meantime, well, musician jokes are still running rampant on that listserv, so here's the latest batch (hopefully, they'll make up for that pseudo-lame one from last night):

• Two musicians are walking down the street, and one says to the other,
  "Who was that piccolo I saw you with last night?"
  The other replies, "That was no piccolo, that was my fife."


• How do you improve the aerodynamics of a trombonist's car?
  Take the Domino's Pizza sign off the roof.


• How do you fix a broken tuba?
  With a tuba glue.


• What's the difference between a soprano and a terrorist?
  You can negotiate with a terrorist.


• One the other hand, what to a soprano and a terrorist have in common?
  Each can destroy a bridge in a matter of seconds


• What's the difference between a soprano and a Porsche?
  Most musicians have never been in a Porsche.


• What's the least-used sentence in the English language?
  "Isn't that the banjo player's Porsche?"


• What's the difference between an opera conductor and a baby?
  A baby sucks its fingers.


• Ralph loves to drink coffee. Each week, he drinks three more cups of coffee than Harold, who drinks exactly one-third the amount that the entire brass section consumes in beer. How much longer is Ralph going to live?


• Maestro (to Horns): "Give us the F in tune!"
  Violist (to Maestro): "Please can we have the F-in' tune too?"


• Why did the Philharmonic disband?
  Excessive sax and violins.

I'll have real content on here tomorrow, I promise. In the meantime, I once again invite you to add your own in the comments.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to Matt, my cohort in TD/D and The Artist Formerly Known as Halfling.