This first picture is of Theo looking thoughtful. Turns out he had an abscess over his right eye and I caught it before Suzy did. That is a rarity as she is so observant and I, not so much. I noticed it immediately through the lense of the camera and not when I was playing with him. Off we were to the vet for another round of antibiotics. We suspect his sister Macy caught his eye with her claws. These fellows play tough.

He's on Suzy's desk and she is working with some arrangements for one of our bands. She is so good about that. I have yet to do an arrangement of a full score. I usually only try to capture my solos if I have a good line I don't want to forget. And then I do it with pencil and paper and not on the the various computer notepads and editors that we have.

I was reading about a 50 year old who just started up on sax again. As all the folks on the forum were talking about welcome back and giving advice, I thought I take some pictures of what can happen if you give in full-heartedly to your music passion.

Yes, there are eight instruments in that picture and no two are same. (Click on the image to see full sized picture.) Actually you can hardly see the sopranino sax on the left because I cropped the picture. And there are two metronomes shown; I really need to improve my sense of internal pulse.

Now that I have published this photo on my blog, I can point to it from the forum as a warning or cautionary tale for like-minded, would be instrument collectors.  :o)

I'm so ready for the weekend, except Suzy works! Ah well, it's chores and some quality sax practice time for me. Here is a little gem that made me laugh--hey, I'm easy that way.   :o)

Our quartet practice this Sunday will include these new charts:

• Stella By Starlight
• Don't Get Around Much Anymore
• Nice Work if You can Get It

All favs of mine. I hope the arrangement is copasetic.

I'm making my way through the Gerry Mulligan DVD, The Age of Steam. I've always appreciated Gerry's sense of rhythm and song phrasing. Right now he's playing clarinet on his 'One Note Samba'. The DVD has him playing piano, sax, and clarinet. His music is haunting and delicious. I have a friend, JB, who's bari stylings are very similar to Mulligan's.

Made me pull out the clarinet and start honking on the instrument. Did I ever mention how much I love playing clarinet. I started three years ago. Although I haven't taken lessons, I have played bass clarinet in the concert band for half a year (then two more showed up) and in the pit orchestra.

Playing bari sax is a really a labor of luv for me. Although it takes more air, the sweet dulcid and low tones make it one of my favorite instruments to play. I've always played Yanagisawa baritones which have superb intonation and keyworks. It is effortless to run the scale and there is very little lip work necessary to fix the common sax intonation problems.

As side one of the DVD runs to an end, it is obvious that Gerry had a love for life that pursued with gusto and sated with his love for music. An arranger, performer, and educator, Gerry Mulligan epitomizes all that is good about music. 'O Great Spirit' by Gerry Mulligan indeed.

Here are some more bari soloists to consider:

• Moanin (Mingus version)
• Yakety Sax
• My Foolish Heart
• The Way You Look Tonight
• Love Me or Leave Me
• Satin Doll
• Filthy McNasty
• A Child is Born

Enjoy!

Friends,

Happy Earth Day!

This day always reminds me that our state’s environment is the envy of the nation.

We hike in majestic mountain ranges, swim and fish in crystal clear lakes and streams, and gaze across endless grasslands and shrub steppes. Sometimes we do all three in the same day!

I am also reminded that we have a duty to protect and preserve our environment against challenges like global climate change and pollution in our lakes, rivers and Puget Sound.

With your support, we can continue to get results for a cleaner, greener Washington.

We’re well on our way in leading the nation on these issues, not waiting for the federal government, blowing past the critics and naysayers, and making our state an example of how we can cooperate to get results for the environment.
Today, Washington is leading the nation’s fight against global climate change.

In 2007, we joined the Western Initiative on Climate Change. It has now grown to eight states – all committed to working regionally toward addressing the issues. But, we haven’t stopped there.

In 2008, I called for and signed legislation that will cut Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions. I also signed the Local Solutions to Global Warming bill to provide grants to cities and counties for local projects that reduce emissions.
If you want to continue getting results to fight global warming, please make a donation to my re-election campaign.
And, we’re taking on local environmental challenges.

I formed the Puget Sound Partnership to unite leaders from environmental groups, businesses and tribes to clean up the Sound. We are taking action now to ensure that Puget Sound remains a treasure for future generations.

I want to spend four more years taking on challenges and getting results to protect our environment.

But I’ll need your support today and on Election Day.

Thank you,

Governor Christine Gregoire

Around the campus where I work I've seen these signs touting the release of my team's newest product. I know where the marketer who came up with the slogan is coming from but it got me thinking about life in general. We make choices everyday. And these choices lead us along the path of life in a life affirming or character hammering trajectory.

For example, the great debate amongst young people entering college is does one pursue what they love (music, art, philosophy) or go for a degree that will practically guarantee them employment when they graduate (business, law, medicine)? This decision is so hard to make that over 70% (last time I checked) of students end up changing their degree azimuth at least once during their paper chase.

Then there are the day-to-day choices like; do I wear Levi's or Target jeans; drink American coffee or a Starbuck's latte,  drive a Chevy or a Lexus? Sears used to preach to it's staff that if they could get a customer in the front door, they could usually sell them something. So people can have money problems based on their ability (or lack thereof) to make good sound purchasing decisions. I feel that you can drive that Lexus, if you have the car gene and really desire that, by purchasing used or buying new and then driving the car for ten or more years.  :o)

How do you spend your time? Does it help you become more educated, smarter, and interesting to be around. If you are playing computer games, watching TV, and leading the sedentary life, I would ask you if you are really happy with that choice. Can you add a book a year, visit a zoo or go to a concert to your TODO list and maybe have more to talk about around the water cooler?

I would have my family and friends who have consistently made bad choices know that they are not stuck. They have the choice to go back to school, change from stressful jobs to better ones, and start eating and exercising properly. It you feel like you're in a rut, you can make the choice to figure your way out or at least to a better station in life. Almost nothing is final, except maybe death and taxes.

"In what is being described as a "perfect storm" of bad luck, unchecked growth, fundraising and management failures, the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) — an important link to Seattle's successful school jazz-band scene — has collapsed." This from an article entitled, American jazz gathering, planned for Seattle, is canceled, the Seattle Times yesterday.

The IAJE Web site sez:

Dear IAJE Family, it is with a great sense of loss that I inform you that despite drastic efforts to cut expenses and raise emergency funds, the IAJE Board has voted to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Federal Bankruptcy Law. I want to thank profusely those who responded with their generous donations and offers of assistance following my last communication. While over 250 individuals contributed just over $12,000, this, along with the many other efforts and contributions of IAJE staff, Board members, and association partners, was simply not enough to address the accumulated debt of the organization or its urgent need for cash relief.

Read more...

It takes a combination of skill, passion, and drive to get an educational organization like this survive. This is a sad day for most jazzers.

The Microsoft MVP Global Summit is this week so I've been very busy setting things up, reacting to fire drills, and spending quality time with my peeps, the CRM MVP team. (What do you mean there's only food for 12 of the 14 attendees?) These guys are a hoot to be around too, traveling from all over the world including Spain, Germany, and India amongst other countries. The group is more than just savvy, they are fun to be around with a great sense of humor.

So Tuesday night we had a special dinner for them, plenty o' booze, and my band the Dissonance played for them. We got one of the MVPs to sit in with us for 'Killer Joe'. And, Jeff Miller, the photographer did some tenor sax solos for two other charts.

I live for nights like that. Hey, and we got paid too!  :o)

The New York Times article, So You Want to Be a Blogging Star, caught my eye a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. Most of it seems intuitive to me, but might be news for those considering starting a blog. And there are couple of my fav blogs that I would make some of these recommendations to, given a chance.

“Don’t go into blogging to make a living,” Mr. Cuban warned in an e-mail message. Still, he and other top bloggers with day jobs agree most people could attract a following on the Web. And whether a person blogs to make a little money, to influence opinion or just for sheer ego gratification, amassing a large audience is the goal.

Here’s what a number of successful bloggers with successful nonblogging careers say are the ways to think about getting into the business of blogging."

The most commonly violated recommendation is to keep a regular rhythm. I recommend posting a minimum of 3 times a week. If you hope to develop a blog posse, you have to keep feeding the beastie.

And my blog is as much for me as it is for my readers. I keep notes, archive interesting things, and track activities that I might want to remember years from now. That gives me extra incentive to blog regularly. And I've found that there are times when I was able to go back in time to use information that I had misplaced. Now that's made it all worthwhile to me.

I'm listening to Manha de Carnaval by Dexter Gordon on his Gettin' Around CD.

Until I heard this presentation, I'd almost given up on the Tarogato (aka Tárogató). I'd secured this beauty from my friend Matt and although it spoken nicely through the registers, I wasn't happy with the sound. Now I have a goal to shoot for based on this video. Take a listen.

The artist playing is Nicolas Simion and you can read and hear more at his official Web site. Enjoy.

Many of my blog posse know I use this blog to keep notes of things I've done and want to do. So this is fair warning, this will probably be more interesting to me than to my readers unless you are seriously into performance and educational music.

If you are working away from your computer (like at your sisters or Dad's house) you can get music by listening to Pandora.com where you define your stations for free. But additionally you can go to MySpace and listen to hours of music in almost any genre. People see my now over 1600 friends on Gandalfe at MySpace and probably think, what the heck? All I can say in my defense is that most of these folks are musicians and I often end up listening to them in the background while I surf the Web. A couple of examples:

• John Coltrane (easily a half hour of arguably some of his best stuff)
• Caroline Glass (low reed instrument esoterica)
• Nicole Barnes (classical sax phenom)
• Sara Gazarek (sweet soulful singer)

I challenge you to visit these and other sites on MySpace and not be mesmerized.

The Bellevue Jazz Festival is going on right now. Nuff said.

There's so much jazz going on in Seattle that I just point out one session that I just became aware of. Gordon blogs about Inexpensive Free Jazz (luv the title) at the ever popular Egan's Jam House in Ballard (in Seattle's extended village). A lot of my friends play here regularly but I just don't get there enough. Luv the big sax sign too.  ;o)

Okay one last note. Many of you know I moved from the chief admin at the world-famous Sax on the Web forum to a new science project called the Woodwind Forum. Smaller than SOTW, the Woodwind Forum is a more intimate gathering of musicians, repair techs, and late bloomers such as myself. In the short three months that WF has been going full bore, we've over 100 readers and contributors.

So my friends, I'd luv to see you sign up for that forum and join in some of the music discussions and community interactions. I'm just sayin... 

I ran across this new comic series the other day. I wasn't too impressed with a comic as a marketing vehicle, but there are some nice things happening here and the artwork is first class. Hey, you might remember I didn't predict success for the TV show Survivors and I'm hooked now.

This is a couple of panels from the Heroes Happen Here comic series. It reminds me firstly how much Suzy and I loved Europe. I really was very interesting to live in Germany for a total of five years. We luved the food in Germany, Austria, France, and Italy. And we took full advantage of our time to visit as many places as we could.

But I don't know how big their target demographic market (aka readers) really is. "Follow the circuit board nodes..."? Now that a stretch. I could see my son doing this as a full-time profession. (Aaron, if you're reading, after you've built up a following doing it as a hobby. ;o) He has some serious art skills.

Hey, when's Friday gonna get here? 

One of the key aspects to consider when purchasing a laptop is customer satisfaction. Consumer Reports is a great place to gather that information. Fortunately I can get these reports from the library, but more often I just get the recommendations from my friend Peter at work. Having just purchased a laptop last week (my selection and considerations blogged here), I was bragging at work and discovered I'd made a critical mistake in my selection.

I had accepted the default hard drive which has a spin time of 5400 RPMs! This is slow and cheap. But for $31 more I could have had a bigger drive with a spin time of 7200 RPMs. This would make all the difference in the world and for so little is a steal. So I grudgingly called Lenovo back and changed my order which means I've pushed the delivery time back another week. But I still should have the box before I go visit my new granddaughter Addie.

As explained to me by my dad, a retired test geek from Microsoft, the hard drive speed is the most commonly overlooked aspect by consumers purchasing new computers. And it make a big difference in performance.

Most of these are intuitive, but with so many uptight types in the US I thought I'd post what most doctors will tell you about the subject:

"When you're in the mood, it's a sure bet that the last thing on your mind is boosting your immune system or maintaining a healthy weight. Yet good sex offers those health benefits and more.

That's a surprise to many people, says Joy Davidson, PhD, a New York psychologist and sex therapist. "Of course, sex is everywhere in the media," she says. "But the idea that we are vital, sexual creatures is still looked at in some cases with disgust or in other cases a bit of embarrassment. So to really take a look at how our sexuality adds to our life and enhances our life and our health, both physical and psychological, is eye-opening for many people."

Sex does a body good in a number of ways, according to Davidson and other experts. The benefits aren't just anecdotal or hearsay -- each of these 10 health benefits of sex is backed by scientific scrutiny." Read more...

I just sayin'...  :o)

How sexy is this laptop computer? As a dyed-in-the-wool PC man, I still find myself very impressed with the form factor. Sometimes it really could be form over function for me. The price was a bit high compared to comparable thin-line computers. Still, it is very cool. :o)

So what does the kid get. Ever heard of Lenovo?

Saved about a grand, and that ain't chump change. As I use this as a portal to the Internet and movie watching platform on airplanes, this does the job for me. Since I have a network at home, I didn't buy the DVD burner and got the extra long-life battery pushing the battery life to something over nine hours. Sweet. Oh, and did I mention Lenovo has the highest customer sat rating for laptops? Double sweet. Sorry Elaine, I didn't find out about this until after you asked me.

I was just thinking the other day about things that I love to do that most people would consider a waste of time. And it hit me that I have accumulated a lot of extra stuff to do that doesn't put food on the table or make me a better person. So I thought I'd list some of them here. Then maybe in five or ten years I'd come back and see what had changed.

1. Survivor, the TV reality show.

2. MySpace, the place I connect with musicians.

3. The Dissonance, my jazz xTet. (Plus four other bands!)

4. Facebook, connection central.

5. Starbucks coffee, 3 - 4 times a week.

6. The Woodwind Forum, just 'cuz it's fun to talk music.

7. Classmates, still looking for friends I've lost track of.

8. Linked In, trying to catch up with all my work-based friends and acquaintances.

I try not to think how much time I spend on these sites. I didn't even list Windows.Live.Spaces as we all know that isn't a waste of time. ;o)  Maybe tomorrow I'll blog about all the helpful places on the Internet that I frequent.

For those of you who didn't know, the U.S. is enjoying another recession. This was both funny and sobering. Enjoy.

"But you must speak Java." tickled me. And I noticed he didn't ask for a writer!

Sigh, it's just after 7 AM and I run into this:

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

I luv the testimonials, but the "convincing" equation is fun too:

How come I only get ten?

Our researchers have concluded that allowing each person more than ten pre-dated emails per year would cause people to lose faith in the accuracy of time, thus rendering the feature useless.

Their findings:

N = Total emails sent
P = Probability that user believes the time stamp
φ = The Golden Ratio
L = Average life expectancy