In my son's own words:

On Tuesday evening, the 25^th of March, Wendy and I received a call from our adoption agency, stating that they had a mother who was carrying a little boy who was due the previous Sunday but had not been born yet. We were asked if we would be willing to travel to Mississippi and brave two weeks’ worth of paperwork and waiting to adopt the baby. Now, this was two whole months earlier than we originally planned to adopt and never expected to leave the state at all but we analyzed the situation and finally said, "yes!”

Come Thursday, and to our amazement and pleasure, the mother decided to travel here to Utah to have the baby, saving us tons of hassle and wait time in Mississippi so on Saturday, March 29th 2008 at 3:33am the child was born, and it was not a boy. Addelynn Marie Glass was born, 7 lbs and 13 oz; she was 20.5 inches and wide eyed with a full head of hair. After a first few hours on oxygen, Addie was brought to our private waiting room and spent the better part of the rest of the day with us.

On Sunday, the 30th (the required 24 hour waiting period) the birth mother will sign the baby over to us and we should be all same at home by 2:00 PM.

Addie is a beautiful child who enjoys sleeping, swaddling and the occasional drooling. Fortunately we had our baby room prepared a few months earlier than we originally felt necessary. Wendy will finish off the remainder of the school year with a substitute in her classroom, aided by the not so recent addition of a student teacher who has worked with Wendy over the past month and with whom the Kindergartners are already familiar and comfortable with. Meanwhile I will continue work and college and spent my time wishing I was home with my two girls. Wendy and I are so very grateful with the recent chain of events and thank our Father in Heaven daily for such a wonderful blessing to fall upon our doorstep.

With love,

Aaron, Wendy & Addie

Dizzy Gillespie ; with Pepper Adams, Candido, George Davis, George Duvivier, Jon Faddis, Frank Foster, Curtis Fuller, Roland Hanna, Jimmy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Melba Liston, Victor Paz, Benny Powell, Paquito D'Rivera, Janice Robinson,Marvin Stamm, Grady Tate, Frank Wess, Paul West, Joe Wilder ; with special guests, Gerry Mulligan and Max Roach. Need I say more?  :o)

I have always embraced the KISS methodology of accomplishing things--when possible. KISS, for the uninitiated, stands for a ruder version of Keep It Sweet and Simple. Many times the simplest way to do something is the right way. And many of us seem to go out of our way to make things unnecessarily complex. The result of this is that stuff that needs to be done may not get done or you may pay exorbitant costs to have someone else do what you could have done for yourself.

My daughter can not afford to pay for music lessons for my grandson. Easy solution? Have grandpa, that would be me, provide the lessons. My son can't afford an instrument he needs for a band he's starting up. So he repurposes an instrument that I'm not using to accomplish that. A good family situation can keep things simple and provide other benefits too.

So another thing I was thinking about yesterday as I filled my tank with gas. I glanced at the dials and it said something like 3.something gallons for $12. I did a double take because I still remember when it was 12 gallons for $3. Oh my gawd, I've become an old fogey like my grandparents and parents who used to muse about the price of things.

So using the KISS principle, I have moved closer to work (seven plus years ago), travel on a moped and bicycle during the better weather seasons, and try to combine many trips into one trip if possible. I call first more, make sure that the music store has the reeds, or order online for a saving after shipping costs of about 20%. And sometimes I walk to the nearby park to people watch rather than jumping in my car and going somewhere.

Have a great weekend. I know we are planning to.  :o)

Except I'd be holding a sax.  :o)

Um, not me. But after seeing a news story about a new campaign to stop complaining I got to thinking about my friends. I don't have many friends who complain. And truth be known, and this is brutal, if a co-worker or acquaintance complains a lot, I just won't spend time with them. Shocked? You shouldn't be. Our bodies and minds are probably affected by negativity more than we'll ever know in our lifetime. Life is too short to spend time with people who bring you down.

This MSNBC article sez, "Experts disagree about whether suppressing complaints is good for one’s mental health. “If people don’t need to complain, don’t want to, then great,” said Barbara Held, a psychologist and author of the book, “Stop Smiling, Start Kvetching.” “But if they do, there are ways to do it more productively and more beneficially and what’s wrong with that?”

I do most of my kvetching  while in the car. But I have taken steps to reduce my time on the road by moving within a mile of my work, moving my parents close to me, helping my daughter find a house close to us, and so on. The rest is about me being cognizant that I am complaining. Maybe I need one of these purple bands? 

However, I have been told by some co-works through the years such things as, "How come you're always smiling." or "Why are you always so happy." Hmm... don't know and don't care. It's probably genetic, but I'm gonna ride this happy train as long as I can.

I've taken a liking to metal clarinets. Since I only buy the silver ones, I call them silver. Silver clarinets were very much in vogue in the early twentieth century. More durable than wood, you would see them in military bands and such. There are a few out there that are the standard bearers that I'd like to mention. The penultimate sliver clarinet site is here: http://www.silver-clarinet.com/. 

I want to to talk about a few instruments that I have found on eBay. The Selmer Paris, is in my opinion the gold standard for this category. It has a built-in tuner in the barrel, sounds as good as any instrument I've played and is a looker too. You can see more here. They go on eBay for around a $1000 - 1500 if you need to repair them and higher in good condition.

Then there is the almost mythical SilvaBet, short for the old Bettoney SilvaBet Boston clarinet. It is known for it's fine sound and esquisite engraving. The last one I saw on eBay went for around $1000 as these babies have gotten rather popular.

Finally there is the King Silver Sonic. The bell is marked Sterling and engraved as the King Super 20 Silver Sonic made by H.N.White Ohio. the inside of the bell is a gold wash and this high-end instrument is a looker as well as player. This instrument recently went for over a $1000 on eBay.

You can read more and talk with owners of instruments like these on the Woodwind forum. It should be noted that most metal clarinets are crud, only good to hand on the wall to remind us of days gone by. But the nicer, high-quality silver clarinets well... I luv to pull out my Selmer Paris silver clarinet just to wow people and get them to ask me dumb questions like, is that a soprano sax?  ;o)

I was watching CBS Sunday Morning and sipping on my coffee, surrounded by cats, and watched by my dog--an idealic, quiet morning. When what should I see but a piece about Peeps. So I went to the PeepsShow.com site (don't spell that with only one 'S') to see the fine Peeps art created by Zade Ramsey.

Unfortunately, he doesn't allow any of his art to be used anywhere, even as part of a teaser blog to get more people to his site. As an artist, I can understand that. But looking for a piece of art to accompany this blog was more difficult than I had thought it would be. So I hit the Wikipedia site for Peeps and was not disappointed.

To read more about peeps there is the http://www.geekbabe.com/peeps/ site that hasn't been updated since 2004, but there was a lot to explore there. There you have it more about the Easter Icon Peeps than you probably wanted to know. What did Suzy and I have for Easter? Well I had part of a Godiva Easter bunny and some coffee. But I let Suzy bite the ears off my chocolate bunny first.

Oh, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Lord of the Peeps for the fantasy-minded folks out there. Enjoy.

Nicky, check out these series of quick sax lessons by a phenomenal player sponsored by Rico Reeds. He covers articulations, vibrato, and the joy of playing the sax.

• Jerry Bergonzi on Posture
• Jerry Bergonzi on Reed Adjustment
• Jerry Bergonzi on Reeds and Embouchure
• Jerry Bergonzi on Reed Storage
• Jerry Bergonzi on Relaxed Throat
• Jerry Bergonzi on Sound Concept

There's a lot more to explore on this site. Enjoy.

Some Friday funnies for you that gives you some insight into the thoughts and recommendations from the 1950's.

Is there anyone out there in the free world who doesn't know about the free web radio service called Pandora.com?

One of my favorite jazz combo's Fourplay is now playing as a radio station. The way it works is you pick an artist, group, or song and you get music like your favorite including some hits from your favorite. I had forgotten about Pandora.com for a while so you can see some of choices are from the holiday season when I was listening all the time. Enjoy.

I'm really enjoying the mellow sax rides of my main man Boney James and gospel-drenched singer Dave Hollister. I tip-toe around the fact that I like many of the jazz lite, aka mellow jazz, aka smooth jazz saxophonists, but there it is in black and white.

Don't get me wrong, I don't limit myself to smooth jazz, often listening to diverse saxophone greats like Charlie Parker, recently deceased Boots Randolph, or Joshua Redmond. In fact, I probably own CD's for over a 100 name-brand saxophonists. And the most controversial stack of sax CDs I own would most likely have to be those by Kenny G.

But, I luv stickin' a Kenny G CD on and trying to figure out the form and tune without music. Some of his stuff is pretty easy, pop music with an AABA form and in an easy key like G. Contrast that with rock stuff that is usually in a key suitable for the human voice but a killer for a sax like C#...minor...augmented.  ;o)

You can check out Boney's CD titled Ride at Amazon.com, with musical excerpt to whet your taste.

A friend of mine at work pointed me to this very interesting book that I wanted to reserve at the King County Library. I went to the library site on the Internet, pulled out my wallet, and discovered my library card was missing! Did that happen last month when I cleaned my wallet as part of my annual New Year's resolution process? So I asked dad to get it for me and went about the process of ordering a new card, again on line. I got to choose from five or so colors and pick my favorite branch. I picked the larger one rather than the small library that is closer to my house.

Well less than a week later I had my card--way cool! Heck the book dad reserved for me hadn't even arrived yet! I'll have to strive to keep tracks of this one as the last one only lasted me 15 years. And I learned some interesting factoids included in the pamphlet that came with with new card.

Did you know...

• KCLS is second-busiest library in the US (behind Queens, NY)
• From January through November 2007, library users check out close to 18 million items
• Each year, close to 10 million people visit KCLS libraries
• 90% of eligible residents have and use a KCLS library card
• Patrons visit www.kcls.org close to 24 million times per year

I knew and was very proud of the literacy numbers for the northwest US, but I still am very impressed with the stats when I hear them. Sometimes I wonder if we read so much because of the cool, cloudy, and often rainy weather. But unbeknownst to most of the US, the northwest summers are a best-kept secret with very little rain which creates a Mediterranean climate with lots of great weather for outdoor hobbies. And when it rains, Suzy and I usually think, if we were back in Minnesota, it'd be snowing. :o)

Oh, about the book? I'll be referencing parts of this excellent study in future blogs. I know my blog posse will stay tuned to this bat station each bat day. 

I was grabbing a map for a new drummer so that he could attend our practice tomorrow and I chose Windows Live Map this time. Wow, has it improved; faster, slicker, and more intuitive to use, it will become my fav mapping web site for the time being. There's my house:

Also new, this is the first of three mapping services (Google, MapQuest, and LiveMaps) to actually point to my house correctly. The other two services have been off by as much as a whole city block. Maybe it was a security thang?  ;o)

Uncrate.com introduces us to the vacuum tube car stereo. "The Panasonic CQ-TX5500D ($950) is the only car stereo that we know of that features a built-in vacuum tube amplifier for all the retro-sounding overtones you so desperately desire. It plays CD, CD-R, CD-RW and MP3 discs, and emits an orange glow that you can see through the middle window when you're rocking out. The double-din stereo, which will fit in many import cars (and get rid of that stupid empty pocket thing in your dash at the same time), also sports old school meters that have needles instead of LEDs."

Looks very cool, yes it does but how much fidelity do you need in a car with it's inherent road and wind noises. But for almost a thousand dollars, you too can sport this technological wonder. Somehow I can't imagine using those tiny buttons to do anything when I'm flying down the road at high way speeds. Still, it does look very cool. Form over function?  :o)

I found this interesting site, the Sax Station, that re-purposes YouTubage for practice purposes. The menu of things to do unfortunately is below the fold (two screens down) and site doesn't have a professional appearance. But what a great way to practice.

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art." - Charlie Parker

Maybe we can get the owner to fix the site so that it doesn't take a mondo monitor for everything to line up. The frames are so wide that I have to stretch the picture beyond the borders of my 19" monitor to my second (twin) 19" monitor to get it to display right. Neal, are you reading?  :o)

Follow-up: After leaving some feedback, Neal has tweaked his site for the IE and other browsers. Now that's service. I can't wait to show my students the site.

From Greg; it's all about the jazz hands thang.  :o)

Wired Magazine presents this article written by Chris Anderson. A fascinating read, this article is pretty provocative on the benefits and economics of giving away things to customers. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, also wrote The Long Tail, and this article will similarly become a book in 2009.

"At the age of 40, King Gillette was a frustrated inventor, a bitter anticapitalist, and a salesman of cork-lined bottle caps. It was 1895, and despite ideas, energy, and wealthy parents, he had little to show for his work. He blamed the evils of market competition. Indeed, the previous year he had published a book, The Human Drift, which argued that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation owned by the public and that millions of Americans should live in a giant city called Metropolis powered by Niagara Falls. His boss at the bottle cap company, meanwhile, had just one piece of advice: Invent something people use and throw away."

Read more...

A music conductor comes in with a score crumpled up under one arm.

Says: "Folks, get out your pencils, we have a few changes to make."

Proceeds for 20 minutes changing the music significantly, wiping out entire sections, adding beats, creating giant holds, ties, new passages, and cues to "watch him" for the cut-offs, etc., etc.

Just then, the lead singer enters saying, "Any changes for me?"

Conductor says, "No, just make sure you sing it exactly like you did yesterday in rehearsal."

:)

Picture from the anime artist HOON who's work can be seen at http://www.messs.cc/gallery/slideshow.php?set_albumName=HOON. Not all images are safe for work.

My sister points me to this YouTube clip with a simple, "Wow."

Stephen Wiltshire from London is a star among savants. Stephen is autistic. He did not speak his first words "pencil" and "paper" until he was 5. Yet, when he was 11 he drew a perfect aerial view of London after only one helicopter ride. For this film we're testing the "Living camera" in Rome. (ColourField production)

Wow indeed.