Play Ball!

Baseball season is upon us again. This year, the Rangers started on the road, in Seatlle, but it was a mid-afternoon game out there, so it came on at the perfectly normal time of 5 p.m. out here. I wasn't able to catch the first pitch (since, literally, that would be Kenji Johjima's job today), but I did listen to quite a bit of the game on the radio coming home from the college and again when headed out to dinner.

Some of my friends find it boring, but I'm a huge fan of baseball. As I've said before, it reflects some of the great qualities of this nation, and it's even a little bit like jazz. And Opening Day is always full of promise; every team (with the exception of the two that played overseas last week) starts out the day undefeated, and the ghosts of the past can sometimes stay there.

Granted, it was not a great opening for the Rangers, who lost to Seattle, 5-2, but tomorrow's another day, and there are 160 more tomorrows after that (unless there's a doubleheader in there somewhere). How do you think the Rangers will do this year?

Weather or not: A lot of people in the Metroplex tend to beat up on the local news stations for oversensationalizing the weather reports. This morning, the forecast called for a chance of rain, but most of the bad stuff was supposed to be to our north and east. But right before I got to the college, there was a big bulletin on the radio: We were under a tornado watch till 9 p.m., with the possibility of large hail and damaging winds. The worst stuff was supposed to happen around 4 or 5. But, although I heard a bit of thunder (or was someone just practicing the bass drum in the hallway?), it was sunny by 5:00, and the rain never materialized here at all. So the morning forecast was right after all. Was the second forecast a case of overkill, or was it a "better safe than sorry" situation?

Home Again

The busy-ness isn't over yet, but at least I'll be operating out of my home base for a while. After having spent four of the past ten nights in hotels (and four different hotels at that), this will be a welcome change. (Not to say that the things that put me in hotels weren't great--they were--but living out of a suitcase always makes things a bit more complicated.

I may not be able to finish the Chicago posts tonight, but it's my goal to get them up by tomorrow at the latest.

Travel Advisory

The busy-ness continues: I'm off to Austin for the weekend for a fraternity conference. Back Sunday night, when I'll hopefully finish the four incomplete Chicago posts from this week. Thanks for your patience; time's been at a premium since I got back.

I'm Dreaming of I Was Given a White Easter

I'm back from Chicago, but it's late and I'm tired. I'll hit the highlights of the trip tomorrow, but one quick observation: I'm pretty sure this was my first white Easter ever (there's a pretty good chance that I'm right, seeing as how I've been in Texas since third grade). Needless to say, it wasn't a good day for a swim...



My next two posts will be a chronicle of the trip and a review of Saturday night's amazing Chris Potter concert.

Travel Advisory

Even though it's supposed to be "spring" break, I'm going against type and heading north for the weekend. I'll be in Chicago tonight, hearing the Chicago Symphony (yes, Kev at a classical concert!) and probably checking out the Art Institute while we're there. Then tomorrow, it's up to Milwaukee for a Chris Potter Underground concert. I'll be back late Sunday night and resume posting on Monday.

Did You Wear Your Sweater Today?

I forgot until about 11 p.m. tonight, when it was much too late (and it was a bit warm today to boot). But once I realized that it the celebration was today, I sat back and gave proper homage to the man being honored.

So what the heck am I talking about? This:


If the video won't load--or you're short on time--here's a summary:

In honor of what would have been Mister Rogers' 80th birthday on March 20, Mr. McFeely -- aka David Newell, the public relations director for Family Communications, Inc. (the nonprofit company founded in 1971 by Fred Rogers) -- has a special request.


"We're asking everyone (including members of the media) everywhere (from Pittsburgh to Paris) to wear their favorite sweater on that day," he asks. "It doesn't have to have a zipper down the front like the one Mister Rogers wore on the program, it just has to be special to you."

Sweater Day is part of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary celebration and the first-ever "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Days March 15 - 20.

"We wanted to recognize Fred in a way that would reflect his deep appreciation of what it means to be a caring neighbor," explains FCI's Margy Whitmer.

As a result, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Days was born as a means of promoting neighborliness throughout Fred Rogers' own backyard -- Southwestern Pennsylvania region.

Not only did I--like millions of kids across America--grow up watching Mister Rogers, but later in life I joined the same fraternity of which he also was a member. When we did the free-form radio show in college, we had a Mister Rogers album; it was meant to fall under the "novelty" category, but underneath the child-friendly lyrics was a crackerjack jazz band led by the amazing pianist Johnny Costa. The station also had a Costa-led instrumental album called "Neighborhood" or something like that; I think it had a picture of Trolley on the front. (Yes, I was correct, though it was a retitled remaster of a 1955 date; he also recorded a full album of music from Rogers' program.)

Some people bashed Rogers for overdoing the gooey self-esteem angle, but for his intended demographic, it worked like a charm (and there's nothing wrong with people of any age being more neighborly to each other). Even if he weren't my fraternity brother, the man deserves a moment of our thoughts today.

A Midweek Smorgasbord

Once again, a smattering of blogworthy stuff, none of which quite rated a post on its own but still needed to be discussed:

• Headline of the week so far: Bad monk steals sex films.


• A Colorado salon owner has been cited for dyeing her poodle pink as a symbol of the fight against breast cancer. (The law under which she was cited was originally intended to keep people from dyeing chicks and bunnies for Easter.)


• This makes sense, in a way: The winner of the Odor Eaters corporation's annual Rotten Sneaker Contest is a kid from Alaska (and yes, I know that it doesn't snow there all the time, but they might have to keep their shoes on longer than they do, say, here in Texas).


• Stupid criminal of the week: A teenager in Michigan was busted for trying to steal gas from a police cruiser. The cruiser in question had officers, who were on a stakeout at the time, inside of it.


• A Taiwanese man hired a stripper to perform at his father's funeral. The father, who was 103, was "known for his interest in strip clubs."


• And finally, an Ethiopian farmer--distrustful of banks--hid his entire life's savings in a haystack, only to find that nearly a third of it had been gnawed away by rats.

I'll have one more big post tomorrow before my weekend trip.

But Wait...I Thought It Was All About Safety?

If you're here in the DFW area, you may have heard by now that the city of Dallas has shut off nearly a fourth of its red-light cameras. Why? Because they weren't making enough money to pay for their operation:

Initial gross revenue estimates for the red light camera system during Dallas' 2007-08 fiscal year were $14.8 million, according to city records. The latest estimate? About $6.2 million. City Manager Mary Suhm on Friday estimated net revenue will fall $4.1 million under initial estimates.

That leaves Dallas government with a conundrum. Its red light camera system has been an effective deterrent to motorists running red lights – some monitored intersections have experienced a more than 50 percent reduction. But decreased revenue from red light-running violations means significantly less revenue to maintain the camera program and otherwise fuel the city's general fund.

Sure, part of the problem comes from a new state law that requires cities to send a portion of camera revenue to Austin. But still...everyone kept saying this was all about safety. Were they trying to pull something over on us all along?

At least one Dallas City Council member agrees with my sentiments:

Council member Angela Hunt, long skeptical of the reasoning behind such camera systems, says she's not surprised Dallas is faced with altering its efforts to reduce red light running.

"The idea of the red light cameras is that they'll be used as a revenue generator instead of being implemented for public safety purposes. It's imperative that the council review this program, especially when the results don't align with the initial performance projections," Ms. Hunt said.

She cited national statistics suggesting that the cameras increase rear-end collisions.

And as anyone who's been reading this blog for a while probably knows, that's the origin of my only real dog in this fight. Four years ago last week, I was rear-ended at a signalized intersection (by an uninsured soccer mom, from whom neither I nor my insurance company ever got a single dime), and, even though she hit me when I'd been stopped for quite some time, I would have actually gone through the yellow light on that day had I not known that my town had recently installed some of the cameras (not realizing at the time that such intersections were precded by warning signs).

Well, once you've been rear-ended (especially myself, since I keep the tools of the trade--my horns--in the trunk), you try to avoid that if at all possible. On my main teaching route, there's a segment where three out of four signals have the cameras, and I can't tell you how much I've done to try to avoid having anyone too close in front of me or behind me in those areas, just in case the light turns yellow. Sure, if I were the first in line, I might well run it if someone was too close behind me, but what if someone in front of me panicked and hit the brakes? Granted, in the first scenario, I'd be risking a citation, but it's always seemed wrong to me to have to choose between what is safe and what is legal.

At any rate, as someone pointed out on the radio yesterday, if it were really all about safety, the city would spend the necessary money to keep the cameras up. The fact that they bailed so quickly seems to support the idea that they really were all about revenue in the first place.

(I do like the idea expressed in the DMN article that they should just leave the cameras up even if they're turned off, as it's likely to serve as a deterrent to the ignorant, or those who just plain forgot.)


Instapundit takes notice as well, and he also points out that they're not doing so well, money-wise (if for a completely different reason) in his hometown of Knoxville either.

They'd need more than cameras to help this guy: A California man crashed two cars on the same highway within a span of about three hours for the same reason: He fell asleep while driving.

I'm glad the cameras weren't running for this guy: A man in suburban New York is charged with going through a Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru with no pants on .

Do as I say, not as I (hic) do: Meanwhile, a Massachusetts driving-school instructor has pleaded guilty to being drunk while teaching a driving lesson.

Did Today Really Get Your Irish Up?

Today was a most unusual St. Patrick's Day, because it didn't actually coincide with the religious holiday of the same name. That portion was moved to last week so that it wouldn't fall during Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter. (If you thought that Easter comes really early this year, you're quite right; it's the earliest possible day that it can be. And the St. Patrick's Day/Holy Week convergence--the first since 1940--won't happen again until 2160.)

I wasn't out and about all that much today, but I didn't see all that many people wearing green; not having to go to school this week evidently lessens the chances of being pinched or whatever. The most green-clad people I saw were at an Irish-named restaurant (no, not the one you're probably thinking) to have a tasty Reuben, thus fulfilling the corned beef-and-cabbage requirement of the day. And of course I wore the green (it's easy when your alma mater has the Mean Green as a mascot), even if I was rarely in a position to be pinched. I may be only a quarter Irish, but I've got the name to show for it, and, while I'm not a fan of group identity politics or anything, I definitely show pride in my heritage.

Read the whole linked article above; one of the most interesting things is how the overcommercialization and secularization of what was originally a sacred holiday is lamented by some; it sounds a lot like what people say about Christmas every year. (But, as the article points out, people usually don't have a wet T-shirt contest or a pub crawl on Christmas!)

So what did you do to celebrate today, if anything? Wear something green? Eat or drink something green? (Hopefully not because it's been in your fridge for six months or anything...) As I said in an earlier post, I welcome people of all backgrounds who get to join me in being Irish today.

Another "Shrek" Sequel

Baseball season is almost upon us, and I'll have my annual tribute on Opening Day in a few weeks. But in the meantime, during spring training, the DMN has been running profiles of various Rangers players every day. But it was surprising to me, while reading Saturday's paper yesterday (yes, I was behind), to see a profile on...Kevin Mench? The one they called "Shrek" (see this picture and maybe you'll catch the resemblance), back in Texas? I thought they traded him a few years ago...

Well, my memory wasn't wrong, but, sure enough, he's back, having signed a minor-league deal last month. Here's hoping he makes the team, as he was always one of my favorites when he was here.

Take a Look Into My Mind...

...or at least of others like me. A team of scientists has scanned the brains of jazz musicians:

According to new research, jazz musicians unconsciously switch off regions of the brain involved in self-censorship and firing up the area linked to self-expression. The scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders used fMRI to scan the brains of jazz musicians as they played a specially-designed piano keyboard.

Sounds cool. Here's a little from the scientists' press release:

The scientists found that a region of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a broad portion of the front of the brain that extends to the sides, showed a slowdown in activity during improvisation. This area has been linked to planned actions and self-censoring, such as carefully deciding what words you might say at a job interview. Shutting down this area could lead to lowered inhibitions, (professor Charles) Limb suggests.

The researchers also saw increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the center of the brain’s frontal lobe. This area has been linked with self-expression and activities that convey individuality, such as telling a story about yourself.

“Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form. You can figure out which jazz musician is playing because one person’s improvisation sounds only like him or her,” says Limb. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”

Limb notes that this type of brain activity may also be present during other types of improvisational behavior that are integral parts of life for artists and non-artists alike. For example, he notes, people are continually improvising words in conversations and improvising solutions to problems on the spot. “Without this type of creativity, humans wouldn’t have advanced as a species. It’s an integral part of who we are,” Limb says.

Read the whole thing. (It's interesting to note that Dr. Limb is himself a trained jazz saxophonist.)

What's in a name? It's been an interesting few weeks for unusual names out here in Kev-land. In that time, I've been waited on by a server named "Mermaid," bought gas from a convenience store with a manager named "Babyline," and read something on one of my listservs posted by a "Coravious Cowart" (which just has "Harry Potter character" written all over it, doesn't it?).

Spring Has Sprung...

...and Break has broken. I have something very cool coming up at the end of the break, but until then, it's pretty much chillin'. I'll use this as the opportunity to get caught up on a lot of "adult homework"--taxes, arranging, reports and the like--as well as getting to play my horn just for the fun of it again (imagine that!). One of the really cool things about working in academia is that you still get the school holidays, no matter how many years it's been since graduation.

UPDATE: And now I'm finding out that a lot of my friends will actually be out of town while I'm in town, and vice versa. It's entirely possible that I could even be bored at times over this break. But, considering the über-busy schedule I'm under right now, I'm sure I'll find a way to attain the proper mix of accomplishment and relaxation.

A Midweek Smorgasbord

It's been a while since I posted any odd news stories, so here goes:

• Actress Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island, was busted for having marijuana in her car. And I always thought Ginger was the wild one... (One of my MySpace friends titled a bulletin about this story, "Now we know who sunk the S.S. Minnow." Heh.)
  
• Maxim magazine apologized for a review of a Black Crowes CD penned by a writer who hadn't listened to the entire CD when the review was written.


• A man in Washington state who didn't want to go to work one morning picked a strange way to get out of it: He had a friend shoot him in the shoulder.


• A Minnesota man hit a woman while waiting at a bus stop; even worse was the fact that, at the time, he was on his way to an anger management class.


• A nine-year-old boy's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's was interrupted when the boy's mother got into a fight with another mom.


• An Arkansas family's cat survived a February tornado, hiding in the woods at first. But his next place of refuge was in a pile of debris that the family set on fire after the storm. They found him afterwards, singed but alive, and he's likely to be OK now.


• A cable sports network has apologized to a Massachusetts town for making fun of its name in a print ad, for which the town council Athol is undoubtedly appreciative.


• A Chinese woman, irate that her husband walked out on their marriage, set 400 cell phones on fire in protest. (The phones belonged to a business they had run together.)


• And finally, the cool gadget of the week: The Etch-a-Sketch Clock.

I'll have a more substantial post tomorrow, if I don't hit too many snooze alarms (Thursday is a 14-hour teaching day, after all).

R.I.P. Dennis Irwin

I had read recently that the amazing bassist Dennis Irwin was sick with cancer, and I knew that the jazz community had been rallying around him of late. But now comes word that he passed away yesterday, on the same day that a benefit concert was held in his honor at Jazz at Lincoln Center by his longtime friends and cohorts, Joe Lovano and John Scofield. (Upon news of his passing, the concert became a tribute instead, and plenty of jazz giants--including Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette--joined with Lovano and Scofield.)

I became aware of Irwin through his involvement with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (which he joined when it was under Mel Lewis' leadership), and he always struck me as a solid accompanist and fine soloist. I didn't learn until recently that he also attended school at UNT for a while (and majoring in clarinet at that!); two of his fellow students who turned him onto jazz were bassist Marc Johnson and drummer John Riley.

From everything that I've read tonight, Irwin was not only a fine musician, but a really good guy. The jazz world will truly miss him.

Be sure and check out a recent YouTube video tribute here.

There's No Place Like Home(school), at Least In California

(Completion delayed by a Blogger outage Monday night.)

I'm not sure if I've ever really covered the subject on this blog, but I've never been a staunch defender of homeschooling (I'll explain why in a moment). But still, this L.A. Timesstory was a bit troubling to me:

Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California's home schooling families.

Advocates for the families vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Enforcement until then appears unlikely, but if the ruling stands, home-schooling supporters say California will have the most regressive law in the nation.

"This decision is a direct hit against every home schooler in California," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which represents the Sunland Christian School, which specializes in religious home schooling. "If the state Supreme Court does not reverse this . . . there will be nothing to prevent home-school witch hunts from being implemented in every corner of the state of California."

[...]The California Department of Education currently allows home schooling as long as parents file paperwork with the state establishing themselves as small private schools, hire credentialed tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs run by charter or private schools or public school districts while still teaching at home.

California does little to enforce those provisions and insists it is the local school districts' responsibility. In addition, state education officials say some parents home school their children without the knowledge of any entity.

Home schoolers and government officials have largely accepted this murky arrangement.

"This works so well, I don't see any reason to change it," said J. Michael Smith, president of the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Assn.

The suit came out of other legal actions against a set of parents who were accused of abusing their eight children. Here's the key quote:

"Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey in a Feb. 28 opinion signed by the two other members of the district court. "Parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program."

Read the whole thing.

Now, as for the reason I'm not a huge homeschooling fan: It's always seemed a bit arrogant to me on the part of the parents if they really think that they have the specialized knowledge to sufficiently replace five or six teachers all by themselves. I just can't get past the "jack of all trades, master of none" idea, and it seems as though some area of the kids' education would suffer in this manner. (And if someone really is that good at teaching multiple subjects like that, why didn't they become teachers in the first place? Share the wealth!) It also strikes me that the parents who often decide to homeschool are the conscientious, driven, involved types--exactly the ones that the public schools need to have around (as classroom volunteers, trip chaperones, arts and athletic boosters, and PTA officers) in order to improve.

Also, having taught, worked with, and even dated former homeschooled kids, one thing stands out: Many of these people have both an extremely narrow and sheltered worldview, and they're also highly opinionated about same. And how do they expect to work with all kinds of people in the so-called real world if they've only experienced a small snippet of it?

But all this being said, I think the California judge is overreacting a bit. If homeschooled kids are spending an appropriate amount of time learning, if they're scoring highly enough on the SAT to get into college, and if they're allowed ample time for social interaction with other kids, the government has no reason to make a blanket ruling like this. Judge each case on its own merits (especially if abuse is suspected), but let's not be in a hurry to paint everyone with the same broad brush.

What is your take on homeschooling? Do you know any homeschooled kids? Were you one yourself? And do you think the California judge went way too far in this case?

A Phat Time Was Again Had By All

For the second time in slightly less than a year, I had the privilege of hearing Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band last night. Last time, I had to fly to St. Louis for the opportunity, but this time, they were just a few hours away in Stephenville.

Before writing this review, I decided to peruse last year's entry, so that I wouldn't duplicate my efforts too much. I then realized, upon searching the archives, that I had managed to write about three-fourths of that one without ever completing it or hitting the "Post" button. (D'oh.) So first, let me point you to that review (so that all my previous work wasn't for naught), and then I'll compare and contrast the two shows. Go ahead; I'll wait.

(pause)

Are you back? OK, here goes:

Once again, the concert opened with "High Maintenance" from XXL. But it was a different night from the start, because the two celebrated lead players who weren't in St. Louis a year ago--altoist Eric Marienthal and trumpet titan Wayne Bergeron--were back in the fold tonight. Marienthal brought high energy and squealy, Sanbornish altissimo to his solos (one of my friends in attendance said that he out-Sanborned Sanborn on "Play That Funky Music"), while Bergeron, as always, nailed everything in an almost unhumanly clean manner (he was also spelled very nicely by second trumpeter Dan Fornero, a One O'Clock alumnus). The presence of these two guys alone added greatly to the thrill factor, and the audience of high-schoolers (most of whom had performed at the Tarleton Jazz Festival earlier in the day) ate it up.

The band played a lot of its best-known charts ("Count Bubba's Revenge," "Samba del Gringo," "Swingin' for the Fences"), but it was never formulaic; indeed, a lot of the tunes sported new intros, so we were never sure if what we were hearing was a classic or something brand-new. A special treat was a new number, "Back Row Politics," that featured the trumpet section dueling it out front-and-center. Once again, every member got a chance to shine on at least one tune, and everyone concerned is a master of his instrument (and Goodwin, who gave himself a fine tenor solo in addition to his piano and bandleader duties, ia a master of two).

I suppose it could be said that this band isn't for everyone; there's still a lot of shtick involved (including the trivia contest; I won't reveal any of the answers, but some of them were really humorous), and the band is polished to a high West Coast sheen, but the level of musicianship in this ensemble rises above everything else, and that alone makes this band worth hearing (even traveling several states away, like I did last time). The fact that Goodwin is also engaging and funny as a leader is, to me, a feature and not a bug. I've seen way too many concerts where the musicians didn't talk to the audience at all, and, while such high-mindedness might in a way be admirable, there's something to be said for connecting with people on a personal level and a musical level.

This was the Big Phat Band's first visit to Texas; I hope they come again very soon.

And now for a bit of arts advocacy: One thing that really stood out tonight was the rabid enthusiasm of the crowd. Sure, I've seen that same energy level at Maynard concerts before, but these guys were treated like rock stars. And to me, that's a good thing; can this be replicated on a larger scale?

Some of the friends I was with pointed out that it was possible that this was the best jazz these kids had ever heard, and indeed, they may not have ever heard a big band that was better than their own before. It's also possible that a lot of their enthusiasm was brought about by someone who plays their instrument taking a solo (I remember those moments in my own youth). But still, it's great to see this many people getting this excited about a jazz concert; we need to grow this idea.

Goodwin mentioned that pretty much everyone in the band had once sat where these kids were tonight--in the audience of a jazz festival, listening to a smokin' band, and maybe realizing that this was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives (his own such moment came in seventh grade!). He noted that, as they all got older, they realized that not too many people would pay money for people to play jazz, so lots of them had to take soul-sucking day jobs like playing for things like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, but the handsome paychecks from such things allowed the band to be able to do things like come to Texas and play at last night's concert.

While I realize that jazz will probably never again have the wide appeal of pop music, perhaps the jazz audience can still be grown by making sure that jazz programs are available in as many schools as possible--yes, even the middle schools (this is commonplace in New England, so I hear). It's crucial that music educators take at least one jazz course (hopefully more!) during their college studies, and it's really important for them to make the time to have this great American art form as part of the curriculum. The reward should be obvious: People who are really excited about music and practicing, even larger audiences like the one last night, and kids who grow up to be patrons of the music and who encourage their own kids to participate.

To my fellow music educators: If you're doing this already, keep up the good work. If you're not, it's time to jump in with both feet; it's well worth the effort.

They've Still Got It Down Pat, In Smaller Form

When Pat Metheny plays his hollow-body guitar, it's as if all is right with the world. His sound is immediately recognizable, and it projects a warmth and optimism like no other (as I've said before, it's reflective of his Midwest upbringing--like a drive through the country on a perfect Sunday afternoon). I've tried to see Pat in concert whenever possible, so even yesterday's snowy weather (which, thankfully, abated in time to make the trip to downtown Ft. Worth) couldn't prevent me from seeing him for the first time in trio form at Bass Hall.

I realized while watching the concert that this particular trio (Pat on a variety of guitars, Christian McBride on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums) was the first that I'd seen where I also had recordings of each member as a leader (having recently acquired Sanchez's freshman effort in that area, 2007's Migration). And indeed, the group managed to keep a cohesive whole even as every man played like the leader that he is. The result was nothing short of masterful.

Though we arrived about ten minutes late due to the weather, we still caught every tune, as the evening opened with a solo recital from Pat, playing both the baritone guitar (featured on the 2003 effort One Quiet Night) and the unusual 42-stringed, three-necked Pikasso guitar, which was also used to segue into the trio's opener, "The Sound of Water," first recorded on Metheny's second collaboration with pianist Brad Mehldau. (Indeed, one very enjoyable aspect of the concert was the use of music that had not originally been done by the trio; in addition to the aforementioned Metheny/Mehldau tune, they also drew from Metheny's Ornette Coleman collaboration and an early Metheny Group number. While some of the larger-form Group compositions like "The First Circle" might not have translated to the trio setting, it was nice to see how much of the Metheny back-catalogue fit quite well into the smaller group.)

Metheny noted that this group had done things backwards--they toured for several years and then recorded an album. That recording, the recently-released Day Trip, was the source for quite a bit of the evening's material, including the album-opener "Son of Thirteen," the bluesy "Calvin's Keys" and the hyper-energetic "Let's Move." Even though it's a great record, it still pales in comparison to what these guys did with it live.

Throughout the evening, each man's contribution fully supported the trio-of-leaders idea mentioned earlier: Metheny's energetic and thoughtful lines, McBride's jaw-dropping technique (not to mention one of the finest sounds I've ever heard on the upright bass; he joins the late Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen as one of my two favorites in that area), and Sanchez holding it all together with taste, tight grooves and a fine mixture of chops and sensitivity. The main portion of the show concluded with another Day Trip number, "When We Were Free," which was spun out to epic proportions even before being taken to another universe by the addition of Metheny's trademark synthesizer guitar (I used to refer to the hollow-body sound as "Good Pat" and the synth guitar as "Evil Pat," but, as I noted in my review of The Way Up tour in '05, evil is still good in this case.) By the time the tune was over, the entire stage was bathed in a metallic green light that reinforced the otherworldly journey, as if the trio had been taken over by really cool aliens.

After a short break, the trio turned thoughtful for the first tune of the encore, "Is This America?" (an ode to Hurricane Katrina written while on tour in Fall '05), before closing out the evening in fine form with "Lone Jack" from the first PMG album.

As I discovered on my last visit to Bass Hall (in Spring '05 for Directions in Music), the sound of the hall lent itself well to a jazz concert, even with amplification. Parking was easy, and the Bass personnel were friendly and helpful to a fault. There were a lot of empty seats for a performance of this caliber--I'm sure the inclement weather of earlier in the day caused more than a few no-shows--but those of us who braved the elements were given a performance that was more than worth the trip. Having seen Pat seven times now, I can't wait until the next opportunity, no matter what configuration of musicians is in tow.

Reviewing the reviews: I was somewhat disappointed with the review in the Dallas Morning News' GuideLive section this morning, if only for referring to the concert as "an evening of good smooth jazz." Never mind the possibly oxymoronic nature of that phrase; what went on last night was far too adventurous for the average Koz or G-weasel fan. One of my friends said that Pat would have slapped the reviewer upon reading that, but I've met Pat before, and he's way too nice a guy; he'd probably just laugh. (The reviewer also suggested that "t would have been a little jazzier if there had been an occasional vocal performance." Umm--without current or former PMG members like Cuong Vu or Pedro Aznar on board, exactly who was he suggesting should sing? Pat may be many things, but I'm not sure that a vocalist is one of them.)

For a much better review, try this one, from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram; he's got the idea of this group much more "down pat" than the Dallas guy.

In Case You Missed It

Apologies for the spotty posting lately. I have a system designed to fix this (blog in the morning when I'm not talking with anyone online), but I just need to implement it (stop hitting so many snooze alarms). Here are a couple of things I completed last night that might be of interest:

• As I've gotten older, my musical tastes have gotten more adventurous. (Sunday)


• Are school administrators acting properly when they call out teachers by name over the PA system for not returning some form or the other on time? (Monday)?

Happy reading and wish me luck with the weather for tonight's Metheny concert.

Could Winter Weather Mess Up My Plans Tomorrow? Snow Way!

First of all--has the weather in DFW this week just been nuts, or what? Let's chronicle the past few days:

• SUNDAY--Beautiful mild morning, cold rainy afternoon


• MONDAY--Spotty rain in the daytime, sleet and snow at night


• TUESDAY--Snow on the ground and icy bridges in the morning, clear and 50's in the afternoon


• TODAY--Clear and beautiful, near 70

And now it's supposed to get cold again, as soon as tonight, and start raining again tomorrow. Then that rain will turn to sleet and snow by afternoon. And for me, the timing of that couldn't possibly be worse.

Here's the thing: Like many local jazz fans, I have tickets to the Pat Metheny Trio concert tomorrow night at Bass Hall in downtown Ft. Worth. And yes, it doesn't take a meteorologist to figure out that "sleet and snow" and "driving from Plano to Ft. Worth" don't really fit together all that well.

I realize that weather forecasting is often an imprecise science, but here's hoping that the bad stuff either completely misses us, waits until after midnight to come in, or messes things up well before we attempt the trip. Getting caught in the middle of it would not be a happy thing. And if it does come early, I hope the concert gets rescheduled somehow.

UPDATE: The weather cooperated enough for us to make it to and from the concert without incident. I'll post a review on Friday night.

What's the biggest event you've ever missed because of weather?

A Teacher By Any Other Name (Would Be Less Embarrassed)

As someone who works in the schools, but not for the schools, I often have a unique perspective of things. But part of me sometimes wishes I did work for them, just so I could be a rabble-rouser and call people out (in a bigger forum than this blog) when i see things that just shouldn't be happening. (It goes without saying that, if this were the case, I'd have to have some sort of trust fund or lottery jackpot backing me up, to cover the inevitable job loss that would probably come from speaking up.)

Some of my schools started a new trimester this morning, and I was at one of those schools. Evidently, they had some sort of procedure where they had to make sure that every teacher had returned all the unclaimed schedules from his/her classroom and possibly sent down some sort of acknowledgment that the rest of the schedules were handed out. So far, this is all well and good.

But what raised my hackles on this day was the process of calling out teachers by name if the office hadn't received these confirmations by a certain time. This just struck me as wrong.

Why? Well, first of all, changes to society have pretty much stripped away most of the authority that teachers used to have. Once upon a time, if a kid got in trouble at school, he or she would get in even more trouble at home because of it. Now, more often than not, the parents will be running down to the school and challenging the teacher, claiming that their little darling couldn't possibly have done wrong. And many times, the administration will back down and give in to the parents' demand, throwing the teacher under the bus in the process. Treating teachers as if they were students themselves by calling them out by name in this manner leads to further erosion of that authority.

But besides that, it just seems unprofessional. Virtually every teacher has a computer at his or her desk these days; just send out an urgent bulk email to those who are lagging behind at whatever task the principal is demanding at the moment. There's no reason to broadcast their names to the entire school, and besides, it interrupts the people who might be, oh, trying to teach something. And why would dedicated educators like to work under conditions like that?

(I'll be the bigger man here and not call out this principal by name...which of course means that the aforementioned lottery jackpot hasn't come yet, either.)

As always, there's an answer to this: The teachers need to regain control of the schools again. I can't say this enough...

Book 'em, Dano--on your own time, please: Here's another apparently common occurrence in schools these days that also blows me away: The students actually have to turn their textbooks in before semester or trimester exams! This makes no sense at all; wouldn't the days leading up to exams be when students need their books the most? Are they leaving everyone at the mercy of their own Mad Note-taking Skillz now?

The simple way to do things would be the way I thought it was always done--turn in the book at the end of the exam. (Thinking back, I can always remember the giant pile of books at the front of the room during exam week.) So why did it change?

The answer I've been given--at least what the students are told by the teachers--is that if they waited until the end of the term, the person in charge of the bookroom would have too much work to do at one time. Seriously.

I bet my jaw hit the floor when someone told me that. Umm, isn't the bookroom guy's job to handle the books? Wouldn't it be expected that he or she might have a little overtime at the "crunch" times of year? It's not like CPA's expect to knock off work in the middle week of April or something.

Again, what seems to have been forgotten is this: these people are here to serve the students. If certain times of year call for extra work from non-teachers, so be it. I shouldn't have to explain this to anyone.

Is it me, or has education really lost its way lately? Your comments would be appreciated.

The Older I Get, The "Outer" I Like

The subject first came up in a conversation over lunch in Denton (where I had accompanied a student to auditions for my beloved alma mater). I can't remember what brought it on, but I remarked that, as I have gotten older, my musical tastes have changed quite a bit, so that things I would think were rather "out" (avant-garde, outside the mainstream, whatever you want to call it) in the past are now things that I enjoy quite a bit. It's not that I don't like plenty of basic, straight-ahead jazz, but certain other things that never would have made it onto my college radio show are now a prominent part of my collection. (I should mention that the three rules I had for my radio show, which took place in the morning drive slot, were: Nothing too slow, nothing too long, nothing too out. Part of this was my concerted effort to create a certain mood that I figured most people would appreciate at six in the morning, but some of it was a reflection of my own personal tastes as well.)

The point was driven home later in the evening when I got the chance to hear a big band playing some rather "out" charts, especially for the setting (a college-sponsored jazz festival for high school and middle school bands). I was really digging what I heard, but it seemed like they may have lost the majority of the parents with the first tune; the response was not the usual unbridled enthusiasm that is found at most such festivals. Yes, I know the composer; yes, I have several friends among the bandmembers. But I really liked the music on its own merits, and I'm not sure I would have felt the same way about that music as an undergrad.

Granted, what's "out" is (to quote Dewey Redman) in the ear of the behearer. While I'm still not a big fan of what I once described as the "five people dropping acid and all improvising at the same time without paying attention to each other" type of avant-garde jazz, I've managed to develop an appreciation for the likes of such artists as Eric Dolphy, Kenny Wheeler, Bill Frisell, Tomasz Stanko, and even the "high priest of out" himself, Ornette Coleman. I still like my outness to have a sense of humor rather than wallowing in angst all the time (emo jazz?), and I'm sure that some of the appreciation for odd humor has come from working a camp with the guys in THRASCHER for the past nine years. Where I used to recoil from the squawk in favor of another interesting bop line, I've come to realize that the two can coexist nicely on the same plate.

But some would say that this is odd; don't most people's musical tastes get more conservative as they get older? Or does "most people" only refer to non-musicians in this case? It certainly makes sense that the more one knows about music, the more one can appreciate something that's more complex and off the beaten path.

So I'd like to hear from you, whether working musician or avid fan: Have your musical tastes gotten more, or less, adventurous as you've gotten older? And how out is "too out" for you?

Leap Day

Since February 29 only happens once every four years, I feel an obligation to post even during a fairly busy week.

The last time this day occurred, I was a fairly new blogger, so I got into the act as well. One of the biggest parts of the post was a tribute to the old family dog, Sassy, who was born on a Leap Day. (A day later, I would have a little fun running the Sassy story back and forth through the Babelfish translation engine a few times.)

But as entertaining as it was to have a Leap Dog (a status to which she would occasionally live up by jumping back and forth between the sectional couches), I always wondered what it would be like to be a person whose birthday only technically occurred every four years. The 2004 post told of a guy born in 1908 who was celebrating his "24th" birthday (I wonder if he made it to both the quarter-century and century mark simultaneously yesterday), and this afternoon, a friend told me about his English teacher in middle school who celebrated her "16th" birthday while he was in her class; we figured out that she still wouldn't be "old enough to drink" yet. Heh.

Have you ever known a Leap Day person? Do they handle their odd birthday with humor, or is it a source of annoyance to them? And has their often-nonexistent birthday ever fouled up a computer database or anything?

Here's hoping that the extra day is going well for you.

A 21-Candle Salute

One of my really good friends is turning 21 today; it's too bad that he has a major exam in an early class tomorrow morning and will likely be Cooped up studying instead of being able to celebrate quite yet.

Happy Birthday, Coop!

Quite a Site (Not) to Behold

My website is inaccessible from its usual URL at the moment; it's a long story as to why, an odd amalgam of old emails expiring, appropriate entities not contacting me in advance of said expiration, and so on. For the moment, if you want to visit that site, go here, and I hope to have the hosting problems solved shortly.

Retiring? What's That?

An article in today's DMN notes that many more people are forgoing retirement these days:

Cecil Lawrence's friends tease him that he's crazy to work at his age. The 90-year-old glass salesman just laughs and suggests that they're even crazier to sit at home and watch soap operas.

"I guess they're content to be old folks," he said.

Like Mr. Lawrence, about 2.7 million Americans are skipping retirement and working into their 70s, 80s and even 90s. Most remain on the job, retirement experts say, not for the money but for the personal satisfaction.

The lifelong workers still account for only 10 percent of their generation, but the proportion of over-70 Americans who have "retired retirement" has edged up since the 1990s as people live longer, enjoy better health and hold less physically demanding jobs.

And the number will only increase with the baby boomers. Seventeen percent say they expect to work indefinitely, though financial necessity will be a bigger reason for their passing up Golden Pond, according to the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

(I like the name of that institute. Thanks to their TV commercials over the years, I'm picturing an elderly Snoopy getting a lift to the top of his doghouse or something.)

And speaking of finance, a widespread adoption of this practice would seem to be good for the economy:

Postponing retirement by just five years would boost the average worker's annual retirement income by 56 percent and add $1 trillion a year to tax coffers by 2045, enough to erase Social Security's deficit, says the Urban Institute's Retirement Policy Center.

That works for me. Anybody else willing to step up to the plate?

Of course, there are a few obstacles:

Older workers bear the burden of convincing businesses that they can remain productive, said William Zinke, a human resources executive who's created a nonprofit group, the Center for Productive Longevity, to change employer attitudes.

"Although age discrimination is illegal, it exists far more than we'd like to think," he said.

Many employers view older workers as particularly expensive, either because they demand higher salaries or incur more health care costs than younger workers, said Gordon Mermin, a policy analyst with the Urban Institute.

But by the time workers reach their 70s, many aren't looking for traditional health benefits, because they're covered by Medicare.

I would hope that our society would someday return to the mindset of older people being a valuable resource and not just a group of people to be ignored or virtually thrown away. Grandpa still has something to offer, and it's not necessarily as a Wal-Mart greeter.

Read the whole thing, as well as some profiles of people who never stopped working.

I think I've said this before, but, as a musician, I have no intention of ever fully retiring. I have older friends in their 70's (and beyond) who still gig regularly, and I've been blessed with the chance to perform with some amazing musicians (Clark Terry and Jimmy Heath) who were nearing 80 at the time. I've often joked that every musician's secret fantasy is to die on the bandstand, at a ripe old age and after a really good solo, and that's not too far from what I'd actually like to happen a long time from now. But in the meantime, this creative person sees no reason to stop creating just because the clock seems to tell other people to stop working.

So when do you plan to retire? Or do you?

This pit stop was the pits: A man in Appleton, Wisconsin was arrested for relieving himself in front of the police station. (One of my good friends goes to school up there, but he hadn't heard this story until I told him just now. He also noted that it was probably around 10 degrees out there at the time; what was that guy at the police station thinking?)

Reeboks for Rover, Fila's for Fido: Police dogs in Dusseldorf, Germany will soon required to wear shoes while on duty--not for cosmetic reasons, but due to the high rate of paw injuries.

Another Sunday Smorgasbord

It's been a busy week, so there's no telling if the unfinished posts from the past few days will get done tonight, but I will dish up a generous helping of the odd stories I've noticed throughout the week:

• A man in Boston received a postcard that was intended for a previous owner of his house. That in itself is not unusual, but what is odd is that the postcard was sent in 1929.


• A bus driver took the end of her shift a bit too seriously in nearby Corsicana, abandoning her bus and its load of passengers at a rest stop when her time was up. Her passengers? Recently-paroled former prisoners. (Surprisingly, nobody left the area.)


• An Israeli woman recently applied for a new government-issued ID card. When asked her age, she said she's 120; if that's true, she would become the new "world's oldest person" in the Guinness Book of Records. (The current holder of that record, an Indiana woman, is a mere pup at 114.)


• A school in Sweden has banned students from wearing striped or spotted clothing because it supposedly gives one of the teachers headaches.


• Parking: Leave it to the professionals.


• It's not your grandmother's public library anymore: Branches in southeastern Michigan are hosting video game tournaments (including the noisy Guitar Hero), in an effort to attract new teenage patrons.


• How much are 301 pennies worth? A lot more than three bucks, if they're rare enough.


• In an effort to combat high divorce rates, the pastor of a Florida church has issued a challenge to his (married) parishioners: Have as much sex as possible for the next thirty days.


• A California man, bicycling home from a visit to a taco stand, was robbed of his tacos by a gun-wielding assailant.


• Students doing a biology project for a University of Michigan class were supposed to grow "herbs, vegetables, annuals and perennials" in the campus greenhouse. But one, umm, enterprising student managed to mix in some pot plants as well.


• And finally, a South Carolina man went to the police station to try to get back some money that was seized from him during a recent drug bust. But he probably shouldn't have driven there in a stolen car.

I'll post an update when the rest of last week's posts are done.

Project Completed

This morning, right before playing racquetball, I finally completed the iTunes Listening Project that I blogged about a while back. It took me about a week shy of five months to listen to all 1800 songs (some of which were added to the process). Save for a few Aebersolds and other listening tracks, everything in my iTunes now has an entry in the "Last Played" column, and I've had a good time listening to whatever I wanted to today. Perhaps another Shuffle post is in order before long.

I should catch up on this week's unfinished entries tomorrow, and I'll have a gigantic Sunday Smorgasbord of all the short news stories I've found this week but haven't had time to blog yet.

The Union of Me and Them is This

As you know, I'm not a big fan of unions, but I totally agree with the Texas teachers' union on this point:

Texas teacher groups Monday urged a special state committee to ease up on high-stakes testing that they said has forced schools to focus more on test preparation and school ratings than on learning.

All four of the state's teacher organizations asked the panel – made up of legislators and residents – to consider major changes in Texas' school accountability system.

The system annually rates campus and district performance based on test scores and graduation rates.

"We have a system that has gone astray," said Eric Hartman of the Texas Federation of Teachers.

"A system that was originally created to identify problems has turned into something where the measurement tool is an end in itself.

"The time devoted to testing and test preparation is swallowing the time teachers spend dealing with students directly."

These folks have it exactly right. The only people who really benefit from the current obsession with standardized testing are the test-making companies themselves. As i've said before, we need to remember what the "A" in Texas' TAKS test stands for: Assessment. Give the test at the beginning of the school year and use its results to determine what areas need to be emphasized. It should not be used as a comprehensive exam, and it should not be tied to graduation.

I'm still getting caught up from TMEA, but I had to chime in and point out that, if people whose ideas are often at the polar opposite of mine also think the overreliance on standardized testing is bad, there's probably a pretty broad consensus here.

Too Pooped to Post

On this Monday-est of Mondays after TMEA (it would have been nice if our schools had taken Presidents Day as a holiday this year), I'm going to attempt to get seven full hours of sleep for once. I tried to post something first, but I'm nearly falling asleep at the keyboard here, so I'll finish yesterday's TMEA summary tomorrow, along with some new stuff. Good night until then.

San Antonio Rose-Colored Sky

Anatomy of a sunset, as taken from the top of the Rivercenter garage:




I thought the third one, with the building's spire lit up, was especially cool; it was taken about half an hour after the first two. (A full report on TMEA after I get back tomorrow.)

Funny Defaced Sign of the Day

I got a kick out of the plaque that's next to the elevator in my hotel:

It obviously used to say that you should use the stairs unless you are told otherwise, but the way it reads now offers a little gallows humor--it implies that, if you're too old to use the stairs, you might be in quite a fix. (I'm surprised that nobody attempted to finish the now-altered sentence with "YOU'RE SCREWED" or something like that in the bottom space.)

Question of the Day

SAN ANTONIO--Still a busier TMEA than usual. But I've noticed something in my stay at the hotel that has prompted me to pose a question:

In a hotel that has both an elevator and stairs, is it lazy (and maybe even discourteous) for (at least apparently able-bodied) people to get on at the second floor just to go down to the first floor? (I guess that really would apply to any trip of a single floor, but I've seen the 2-to-1 thing more than anything else.) If you don't have a luggage cart or something, why stop the elevator one floor shy of the bottom for those who may have been riding down from the very top. And couldn't most people use the exercise?

Responses are welcome in the comments.

Quote of the Day

SAN ANTONIO--It's been a busier-than-usual TMEA so far, but I had to pass along a funny quote from this morning.

As I've mentioned in previous years, our hotel is pretty much out in the boonies in terms of where the convention activities are located, but there's a reasonably reliable streetcar system that goes around town for a buck a pop (with a free return trip if you come back within two hours). It only takes dollar bills, so it seems like many people here are forever asking the front desk for change.

When i was doing that this morning, one of the college students who's here with me made a crack that went something like, "Now if you hadn't gone to that strip club, you wouldn't need more dollars." (Needless to say, such things are not amongst my forms of entertainment down here.) The desk clerk laughed, and as he counted out the dollars to me, he came up with a good crack of his own: "Don't spend it all on one girl." Heh.

More tomorrow.

We're Here

SAN ANTONIO--We arrived here with no problems today; the slow people and the big trucks seemed to be out en masse on I-35 on the way down, but it's all good. There were a lot of things to do once we got here, but at least there was time to have dinner on the Riverwalk on a gorgeous evening. The convention starts in earnest tomorrow, and I look forward to seeing so many of my old friends and wandering the mammoth exhibit halls once again. A longer report tomorrow, no doubt.

Travel Advisory

I'm off to TMEA in the morning. I should have daily posts from San Antonio, and maybe I can even use that time to catch up on things that I've wanted to talk about but haven't had the time. As always, this mini-vacation is coming along at just the right time, and I'm looking forward to a week of fun, food and friends. To my fellow Texas music educators, I'll see you down there.

It's Upsetting That They're Calling This an "Upset"

First things first: My hat is off to jazz legend Herbie Hancock, who evidently surprised a lot of people last night by taking home the Album of the Year Grammy for River: The Joni Letters, his tribute to the music of Joni Mitchell. In doing so, he beat such favorites as Kanye West, Amy Winehouse and Foo Fighters. He had already taken home similar honors in the contemporary jazz category, but no jazz instrumentalist had won the top album honor since Stan Getz did so in 1965. Hancock noted as much in his acceptance speech:

"It's been 43 years … I want to thank the academy for courageously breaking the mold this time."

I agree, and it's really a shame that it's seen as "breaking the mold" for what could be considered the truest American music to come home with such a victory.

As Hancock noted a few days before the ceremony in another article,

"It's pretty strange on one hand," Mr. Hancock, 67, says by phone from his LA home. "Here is this music that is constantly evolving and growing, that's improvised, that's an American creation. That bridge is the virtuosity of classical music and the soul and heart and feeling of the blues ... and only [nominated for Best Album] twice in 50 years. I'm glad I was one of them."

As I've said before, I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the Grammys in quite a while, ever since I found out in college that all the voters don't necessarily even get to hear everything they're voting on unless the record label sends it to them (though I suppose that issue has been rendered mostly moot with the advent of mass email and the mp3). Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press calls Hancock's win a victory for the whole world of jazz:

I stopped watching the Grammy Awards a long time ago when it became clear that the music I care the most about — jazz and classical — were treated with about as much respect as a fire hydrant at a dog show. The jazz and classical awards aren’t given out on the broadcast anymore, and whenever artists from these genres sneak into one of the feature performance spots, the results are almost always a kitsch fest.

So I was stunned when I woke up Monday to headlines that pianist Herbie Hancock beat out such pop music juggernauts as Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Vince Gill and the Foo Fighters on Sunday to win album of the year at the 50th Grammy Awards. Hancock’s sublime tribute to Joni Mitchell, “River: The Joni Letters” became the first jazz album to win best album since Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto won for “Getz/Gilberto” in 1965.

In the pop music world, Hancock’s win was a bigger upset than the Giants beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. For jazz fans, it’s more like the American hockey team beating the Russians at the 1980 Olympics. Do you believe in miracles? Yes!

Read the whole thing. But I'll add one more quote that shines some light on why Stryker thinks this victory is good for jazz as a whole:

Only blind optimists or naïve fools would interpret Hancock’s victory Sunday as a harbinger of a resurgence of jazz. But, as my financial adviser likes to say when I complain about single-digit returns on an investment, it’s better than a poke in the eye. Hancock, one of the most influential pianists in modern jazz, is on the mind of millions of people today. A lot of them might be moved to buy the album, and some might even be inspired to dig into Hancock’s history, where they will discover his landmark albums from the ’60s like “Maiden Voyage” and his pitch perfect contributions to the Miles Davis Quintet. Amazon.com reported Monday afternoon that "River" had shot up its Exclusive sales chart from No. 50 to No. 1.

How Hancock managed to win Sunday is an intriguing question. It’s possible that the overwhelming favorites West and Winehouse split the vote among the academy’s trendy hip-hop and alternative factions, allowing a dark horse like Hancock to amass a coalition large enough to win.

Hey--however it happened, there'll be no complaints from me. And I'll let Hancock himself have the last word on the overall state of jazz in the States vs. abroad:

"America today is very much in the short-term focus. Whatever is the now and whatever makes the most noise at the moment is what everybody pays attention to. The rest of the world is not like that. They still embrace what they feel is quality, no matter when it first reached their shores."

Those who are immersed in American pop music culture have no idea what they're missing. Hopefully, Hancock's win will help change that for some people.

They like Mike: Speaking of the Grammys, Michael Brecker was a multiple winner, garnering Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Individual or Group, for his posthumous masterpiece, Pilgrimage, as well as Best Jazz Instrumental Solo for "Anagram" off that recording. It's a shame that people aren't always so honored while they're still with us, but at least his name is still getting out there.

Other locals didn't make a Denton this ceremony: I was sorry to see that musicians from my former home of Denton didn't fare too well last night; my old schoolmate Steve Wiest lost out to Vince Mendoza in the instrumental arranging category, and both Brave Combo (a Denton fixture) and Bubba Hernandez (a former fellow KNTU DJ and a former member of Brave Combo) lost out in the polka category. And the third release from former UNTer Norah Jones didn't even get nominated this time...

Do Clothes Make the Professor?

Instapundit links to an article at Inside Higher Ed where the writer, Erik Jensen, calls for a uniform dress code for professors:

Faculty members shall, when on college grounds or on college business, dress in a way that would not embarrass their mothers, unless their mothers are under age 50 and are therefore likely to be immune to embarrassment from scruffy dressing, in which case faculty members shall dress in a way that would not embarrass my mother.

That’s it. Brevity works. Unlike good clothing, a statute can’t cover everything.

Anyway, this is just a draft: Maybe your mother is better than mine for this purpose; the phrase “my mother” probably doesn’t work for a statute of general application; perhaps the key age for mothers should be 70 (80?). Whatever figure is used, it will have to be adjusted periodically to capture changes (downward) in mothers’ (other than my mother’s) standards.

So change what you wish, and then interpret the UUC reasonably. When in doubt about appropriate dress, check what people used to wear: it’s usually safe, as Arthur Benson noted, to dress in the “style-before-last.” For men, Fussell’s default rule works: “You can’t go wrong with the classic navy blue blazer and khakis.”

Sanctions for violators? I guess not. I’d like to take ‘em to the cleaners, but you’d wind up with idiots charging breaches of academic freedom. At a minimum, however, violators ought to be dressed down in public for dressing down in public.

He also devotes an entire section to ties, which he thinks are important (for men, at least).

After reading the whole thing, I (along with more than a few of the commenters to the post) am having trouble deciding whether the guy is serious or not. But either way, some of the comments are enlightening, and many are amusing. Here's a sample:

• "I am OK with a law professor dressing in a suit. After all, they make the $100,000k+ that enable them to afford dry cleaning. If we are such a middle class profession, then maybe we should make middle class wages."--rml


• "I think requiring a tie is a bit much. Before working in academia I had to wear a white shirt and tie every single day. Guess what I do not ever wear now?
  
  I think it also depends on the discipline someone teaches. I don’t thi8nk I could take a business prof seriously wearing jeans nor an art prof in a suit."--Jeff


• "I sincerely hope that this treatise was written tongue planted firmly in cheek. We in the Art Department believe in substance over style. I can visualize the pottery instructor being found dead because his tie got caught in the potter’s wheel, or my constant replacement of ties because the tie dips into the fixer in the darkroom thus ruining the developer when it dips into that chemical. The painter could, I guess, use the tie to apply paint in a creative new way or after several semesters the professor could just frame the ties and call them Expressions on the Milieu of Fashion. Not every professor teaches in a lecture hall. We teach in studios where it gets a little messy from time to time. Please do not paint me with your ideas of style over substance. "--Don Bevirt


• "I never understood why tying a rag around your neck is considered good looking. It baffles me. I care more about a person’s productivity and attention to detail then if they are wearing a tie or not. I hope that I am judged and evaluated not by my appearance, but the work I do. This whole dress code thing is SO superficial and outdated."--Jim


• "If indeed 50% of college courses are taught by adjuncts making 50% per course of the income of a tenured professor, how exactly are those underpaid teacher-slaves supposed to pay for the same attire that well-paid businessmen and businesswomen can afford?"--get a grip

You get the idea. (And certainly there were plenty of commenters who seemed to agree with the author--assuming he was serious--that professors should always look like this, but I posted a good sampling of the ones with which I agreed.)

As a music professor, I'm not usually expected to dress like, say, a law professor; indeed, if I showed up to rehearsal in a coat and tie, the students would probably either laugh or be concerned about who died. (They probably wouldn't think I had a gig, since the attire for that tends to be all-black these days.) I tend to fall squarely in the "substance over style" camp, and I'd hate to be judged on attire alone (click the "Dress Codes" link at the bottom of this post for my previous thoughts on this subject). But I usually take a middle ground anyway, clad in khaki pants (OK, usually with cargo pockets--sorry, Mom!) and a button-down shirt or at least a polo. And while you might catch me in Birkenstocks or the like on a really warm day, I'm usually in those half-dressy, sneaker-soled things that look like bowling shoes. (As I've said before, I'm very thankful that someone came up with shoes that look nice on top without destroying one's feet in the process.) I'm probably not the best-dressed male prof in my department, but I'm by no means the most dressed-down one either.

So I'd venture a guess that most everyone who reads this blog has at least attended college. Did what the professor was wearing ever enhance or detract from what he/she was trying to teach? If so did it make a difference in what department he/she was teaching? Would an overdressed professor in the arts arouse suspicion, or should everyone go back to the "tweed jacket with elbow patches" look? Fire away in the comment section.

Blowing out the candles: Happy 7th birthday to my oldest nephew, Noah. An account of the morning of his birth can be found here.

Another Saturday Smorgasbord

Another helping of news that I haven't had time to post yet this week:

• A Michigan man was charged with drunk driving after he rode a lawn mower to the liquor store. In a snowstorm. Barefoot. Uphill both ways. (I made up the last two, but it really was in a snowstorm.) His excuse? His wife took the car.


• The mayor of Charleston, W. Virginia ran into a problem when he forgot his ID at the airport. He made it through security by showing them a copy of a local magazine with his picture in it.


• An Oregon teenager made the mistake of parking his bike inside a local Goodwill store, and they accidentally sold it to someone. (He got it back after the buyer read a story about the mix-up in the paper.)


• A collection agency tried to collect a $16.96 debt from a former record club member by addressing the recipient with the four-letter word for excrement (and no, we're not talking about "crap" here).


• A less-than-bright would-be entrepreneur found out that it's not a good idea to sell your pot on Craigslist, since the "buyer" ended up being an undercover cop.


• A 4-year-old Ohio boy got stuck in his family's front-loading washer, and rescuers had to use the "jaws of life" to get him out.


• A Kentucky state legislator is leading the effort to make KFC the state's official picnic food. But--surprise, surprise--PETA is upset. (Somehow, I don't think that "Kentucky Fried Tofu" would go over quite so well, guys.)

Tomorrow: The latest in a series of dress-code posts, but this one hits me right where I live work.

Tuesday Was Not Super for Texas

I pretty much have a self-imposed rule to never discuss politics per se on this blog (although it's probably fairly easy to tell where I lean on certain things just from the nature of things that I post about here), but I do feel the need to chime in about the political process itself: Since Texas didn't take part in the "Super Duper Tuesday" set of primary elections (even though some people thought it was, both parties are quickly running out of candidates who will still be in the race by the time we hit the polls on March 4, and to me, there's something wrong with that.

The primary system has become way too spread-out, and something ought to be done. I like the idea expressed by some that the nation ought to be divided up into four regions that would hold their primaries in consecutive weeks. Some have suggested that the regions be divided up as northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, and that's fine by me; others have suggested that the quarters be done by population, so that the small states would keep their early influence and build to a big finish in the fourth week of primaries. It wouldn't bother me at all if the whole thing didn't start until around March (under this plan, they would be done by April). It just seems ridiculous that some of the races are all but over by the time that people in a huge state such as Texas get to vote.

And I heard something on the radio yesterday (to which I can't find a link anywhere) that really bugged me: Longtime Dallas County elections administrator Bruce Sherbet was pointing out the fact that the ballots for March 5 were printed some time ago, so they contained the names of several people who have since left the race: Fred Thompson, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and so on. Sherbet also hoped that nobody would vote for these non-candidates.

But I strongly disagree. In a situation where certain races are practically locked up by the time they get to a certain state, there's nothing wrong (IMHO) with the voters in that state using the primaries to send a message to the national party by casting a ballot for someone who's no longer a candidate. And in a truly just system, anyone who was receiving federal campaign funds shouldn't be allowed to drop out of a race until all the primaries are done.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me on this, but as long as we're going to allow the two "major" parties to control as much of the process as they do, there should be a few ground rules to guarantee that as many people as possible have their say in who the nominee gets to be.

Back to regular stuff tomorrow.

One Last Chance To Do Fry Street Properly

Here's the latest news from the Save Fry Street MySpace:

THIS THURSDAY, February 7th @ 7pm
@ The Village Church, 1106 W. Oak

After a month or so of silent defeat, the United Equities crew has reorganized themselves in an attempt to salvage favor in the eyes of the city they divided and demolished. They have organized this meeting because, as they insist, they "are interested in your input regarding our project and would like to give you an opportunity to ask questions that you may have with regard to the development of this property."

It's interesting to note that a couple of council members denied the request from United Equities for the drive thru because the developers did not call a neighborhood meeting of affected residents.

They can check that one off their to-do list, once they meet at The Village (ironic) Church this Thursday. A film crew will be there, so feel free to bring costumes, signs, paper airplanes, etc. Anything positive and creative. Show the top dogs at United Equities what Fry Street is really about - liberty, diversity, culture and community.

For background on the drive-thru story, go here, and you can click the "Fry Street" tag at the bottom of this post for everything else that I've written on the subject.

I can't attend the meeting due to teaching commitments, but this was my reply to the Save Fry Street MySpace bulletin--what I'd say if I were there:

The biggest problem with this development (besides taking this long to consult with the neighbors in the first place) is that a generic chain drugstore is not an appropriate "gateway" to the university. If you had any sense of history, you would realize that the large vacant building at the southwest corner of Oak and Welch (most recently a FEMA call center, I think), used to be the home of an Eckerd Drugs...which has since been taken over by CVS in this area. That is where the CVS belongs; refurbish that building to your heart's content, and I bet nobody would object too loudly to a drive-thru on that corner, much farther away from campus foot traffic.

At the Hickory/Fry intersection, if you truly want to integrate this development into the community, your first "1920's-style building" would be a virtual replica of the buildings you demolished, and some of the restaurants would be there--including The Tomato. Places to meet and eat would serve as the proper entry point, not a drugstore. You can't undo the past year, but I would bet that this would be what most of the community would want you to do to start getting back in our good graces. If you still want your gateway to campus to be something that serves only your needs and not ours, I would ask that you please sell this property to someone who cares more about the community. Thank you.

I invited the Save Fry Street folks to pass that on if there's an opportunity to do so.

Texans, Step Up to the (License) Plate

It's Super Tuesday, and Texans still have a chance to vote on something, even if our own primary is still a month away--we can vote on a new license plate design that would come out next year (we could also decide to keep the current design):

All of the plates feature the state name on the top and “The Lone Star State” on the bottom. They are divided into four categories, a representation of how Texans see the state:

Traditional Texas. The plate features blue highlights with a gold Lone Star, and bold, red “TEXAS.”

Lone Star Texas. A white Lone Star stands out in the top, left-hand corner of the plate. Wide brushes of red and blue punctuate the Texas sky on the top half of the plate along with a low-lying mountain range on the bottom.

Natural Texas. The entire plate is covered with wildflowers.

New Texas. This red, white and blue plate features a composite of modern landmark buildings from several Texas cities.

My Texas. This is the current general-issue license plate that was introduced in 2000. It features icons of the state, including a horse, space shuttle, and oil derrick.

All of the plate designs were created by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

To see the designs and vote on them, go to www.txdot.gov. (Even if the current design wins, the new plates will go to seven characters; evidently, we've run out of combinations of six letters and numbers like we have now, which is probably why I was instructed to keep my old plates and use them on my new car, as I mentioned a few days ago.)

Which one of the new designs, if any, do you like?

Help Out Some Brothers In Need

My fraternity doesn't have an awful lot of on-campus houses, but the one at illinois Wesleyan has been there for decades. So I was quite dismayed to read over the weekend that their house fell victim to a fire last week:

A fire early Sunday morning at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity heavily damaged the rear section of the three-story building, but all 15 residents escaped unharmed.

The university has been able to find alternative housing for all the students, said Darcy Greder, assistant dean of student affairs, who met with the students.

“I started the meeting by saying ‘I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is the fire, but the good news is we’re all here to talk about it,” Greder said.

The students awoke to the sound of smoke alarms about 2:30 a.m. Sunday and were able to evacuate the building at 303 E. Chestnut St.

Capt. Gary Shuska of the Bloomington Fire Department said firefighters arriving on the scene went through all three floors to make sure all the students had escaped.

“The fire apparently started somewhere in the rear basement, but it spread through the walls into the third floor,” Shushka said, “Smoke got up into the third, but the fire was mostly contained to the basement and first floor,” he said.

More information here (and do your best to ignore about half the commenters on both posts, who try to lump our organization in with other stereotypcial Greek organizations--"those rich frat boys got what they deserved," etc.).

And if you'd like to help them:

Illinois Wesleyan University has established an aid fund for the Alpha Lambda Chapter's recovery. Donations are accepted as follows:

Make check payable to "Illinois Wesleyan University" and write "Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Aid Fund" on the memo line.

Mail the check to:
Illinois Wesleyan University
1312 Park Street
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900

I wish you all the best, my brothers; a lot of us across the country are with you in spirit.

Rating the Ads

Since the Super Bowl game itself wasn't all that interesting until the last quarter, it makes even more sense to talk about the commercials, like we did last year. I'd say that my favorites would be:

• The Budweiser ad with the Dalmatian training the Clydesdale, a la Rocky


• The Bridgestone ad with the computer-animated squirrel (actually, their other commercial was pretty funny too, even if it would be scary to run into the likes of Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons on a darkened road)


• The ad with Shaq playing a jockey (as often happens in the Super Bowl, the ads have little to do with the products, so I had to think for a moment to recall that it was for Vitamin Water)


• The Coke ad with the Stewie and Underdog parade balloons fighting over a Coke bottle balloon


• And of course, I liked the NFL promo about the football player who started out playing the oboe.

And which ones didn't do anything for me? The ones with people dancing--the guy trying to start the car, the dancing iguanas, and the Pepsi one where everyone ended up doing the head-jerk like in A Night at the Roxbury. I also was puzzled by the Salesgenie.com commercials; I'm pretty much the polar opposite of a fan of political correctness, but I was surprised that a company that I'm guessing few people had ever heard of before tonight made its national debut with some cartoons that exaggerated ethnic stereotypes like that. But if you could get past the "can they really do that on TV anymore?" mode of thinking, they were kind of funny, and the animation on the one with the pandas reminded me of John Kricfalusi of Ren & Stimpy fame, and that would explain the "edginess," I suppose.)

And I missed the silent commercial; I was reading a magazine during the less-interesting parts of the game, and I guess it just slipped by me unnoticed.

If you missed one or all of them, or just want to see one again, MySpace has them all in one place. Which ones did you like best?

Having No Tag Was Taking Its Toll On Me

As of this moment, it feels like Kevmobile 2.0 is truly accessorized. My registration sticker came in the mail today, so I was able to affix it to my windshield and attach the license plates, and, with those two things in place, finally start using my TollTag again. I gave a mini-rantlet about that a few weeks ago, but let me say it again: There should be a way for existing customers to use their tags right away when they get a new car (and oddly enough, when I changed my information on the NTTA's website, there was a checkbox for a temporary tag, with an expiration date listed...but if they've changed that policy, they haven't done too good of a job in getting that information out to the customers).

I hadn't been aware of it until this weekend, but evidently, there's a new state law here in Texas that requires people buying new cars to use their old plates as long as they are under a certain number of years old. This makes sense to me, especially considering the possible alternative--having your plates stay with the car, the new owner of that car committing some sort of infraction, and, thanks to a non-updated database somewhere, having that trouble incorrectly being attributed to you. At least that's one less set of numbers and letters to remember. And with that, it feels like the car is truly mine now.

I'd been avoiding the tollways as much as I could for the past three weeks (which is hard to do when you live near one), so now, I feel like I can really enjoy my new car to the fullest. The mini-roadtrip to Denton was enjoyable, and I look forward to taking it on even longer excursions in the near future.

We haven't had our Phil of winter yet: In case you haven't heard, the famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, which means that we're supposed to have six more weeks of winter. Anyone want to predict whether or not we'll have a snow day this year?

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my friend and fraternity brother Kevin in Houston.

Five Years Later...

...we still remember the Columbia Seven. Post your reminiscences in the comments if you'd like--especially if you were here in Texas and saw it go past.

Travel advisory: Off to Denton to run a fraternity workshop that lasts till mid-afternoon, then back home for a gig (private function) tomorrow evening. Tomorrow night's sleep will feel great...

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my friend and fraternity brother James.