Kind of symetrical. Something to build on. Realized this during The New Jazz Thing Live tonight, writing down the dates of when tonight's tunes were played. A solemn ritual. The record. Often neglected but when needed and desired for refeshment of the mind or remembrance of things longed for again. The record. Should be first priority. Often not. On to other (grey) matters.

Aaron Parks should have a weblog. His sister Anja (scroll) should too. The family that blogs together, plays together. Aaron is interested in writing lyrically at some point. Maybe Anja is too. That's pretty heavy, her playing with Roy Hargrove (his ol' happy looking self in those pictures). And with Faddis...heavy...hip lookin' too. Mama Judi has done well.

He was a Computer major at some point. Music creator at this point. What does he think about things? He should share his creative experience with others. And can via a weblog.

What kind of computer does he have? Is he mobile? Does he have a digital camera?Almost none of these is necessary to have a weblog. You just have to search out a web browser anywhere you are and add to your Web-based Log of your life. All of your interests. How they influence you daily. Who do you read? What do they think of your ideas? A weblog. Ah.

I've got to get home...after one more killer night at the Jazz source, Jazz 88. Pictures to follow.
10:26:31 PM    comment []  Google It!  

Aaron Parks, young whipper-snapper pianist is in town for the Piano Summit at Dizzys tonight (umpteen pianists, two solo pieces each, keyboarders delight), will be stopping by for a quickly arranged chat in studio around 6:20 pm (I love email and cell phones). A nice piece on Aaron by Andrew Gilbert in today's UT Night & Day, titled 'New Talent, Emphasis on Talent', has this to say,

"Actually, he pretty much skipped junior high and most of high school, matriculating to the University of Washington at the age of 14. By 16, he had transferred to the Manhattan School of Music to study with piano great Kenny Barron, who, in the liner notes to Parks' fourth release, "Shadows" (Keynote Records), described being "knocked out by Mr. Parks' command of the piano" the first time he heard the teen-ager play."

Should be fun to talk to him about life...well, OK, he hasn't seen that much of it yet, but we'll see what he thinks about things so far. [Later...] Further research has uncovered this NPR Weekend Edition Saturday interview with Aaron from 9/16/2000 (RealAudio required). Paul de Barros wrote a 1999 article about Aaron, written when he was 16 . He must be pushing a whole 19 or 20 years now...hehe.

And on the subject of that Andrew Gilbert article, there's a totally out of place paragraph that threw me when I read it this morning, but now makes a little more sense (in a totally non-sensical way),

"The Parks, Brewer and Calvaire gig in August was in a less-than-ideal situation. In the midst of a four-night run at an East Bay nightclub, the trio followed a bevy of lackluster comedians who left the audience more jaded than jovial. Before long, though, Parks had the room's full attention."

Here's what I think. Andrew is a San Francisco Bay area writer who edits his previously written pieces (or maybe others do) to fit for the San Diego gig of an artist coming to town. I don't think he really meant to have that 'East Bay' paragraph in there because it really doesn't fit.

And maybe this means there is a market for a local writer to do some of these kinds of pieces for artists coming into town. Someone focused on the San Diego reader. Maybe someone who interviews these artists live on the radio the week before the show, writes up the interview as a story, and publishes the story in the paper and the live interview for listening over the web. Ah ha...convergence. That's a whole other story.

Got something to say about the show? Use the Comment[] link below and let me know what's happenin'!
3:17:49 PM    comment []  Google It!  

What more needs to be said!
2:55:18 PM    comment []  Google It!  

The four of us arrived early, right around the starting time of 6:00 pm, and snatched street parking just two blocks from Sea Port Village and the First Night home at Embarcadero Marina Park. It was pretty uncrowded at the gate and we instantly got a couple of balloons (that caused us much stroller pushing obstruction the rest of the night). In hindsight, we should have gotten our Rad Hatter decorate-your-own hat right at the start because later it was a zoo around the decoration tables...the hats were all over the place. Our next hunt was for some food and while an International Food Court was advertised, there was only standard Mexican (not bad), some New York Super Dogs, and La Bonne Crepes (yum) available...I know it ain't THAT small of a world. There could have been a much better job with food done at this event.

We strolled through the grounds, checking out some of the early band entertainment, and headed for the kid play area. There were some small carnival rides, various jumpy-slidy-air-filled thingys, and llamas to ride. At our early time, the lines weren't too long and everyone had a great time.

After the kids departed, I had the honor of hanging out with Lucinda at the Jazz 88 stage for the remainder of the evening, including an introduction of Agent 22 when they came on stage around 11:00 pm. As I told the very attentive crowd, I had seen Agent 22 open for Jazz Mandolin Project earlier in the year and it rocked then...and it rocked First Night. The response from folks coming up to the booth was phenominal, but I guess nothing new for Agent 22...there's a lot of 'wow' factor with Tom Griesgraber playing his Chapman Stick.

After a bit of tear down, tracking down some equipment transportation, and loading up the Jazz 88 paraphenalia, I stopped at Jazz 88 studios to unload. I was lucky enough to catch the 2:00 am changing of the guard with J. Otis Williams (with side-kick Jennifer) leaving his newly-opened new year to my fellow Thursday host (he of 3 to 6 pm shiftage), Ron Dhanifu.

What a great way to start the new year!!
2:37:52 PM    comment []  Google It!  

"There will be a significant (software/feature) release probably in the February time frame ... which will fundamentally alter the way people currently interact in threaded discussions."

It will be interesting to me to see how they are going to alter it. Blogs, in my opinion, have been great at allowing personal publishing. The thing that for me has been frustrating is the fact that you really have to look hard and often at your referrer logs (example mine), to see who is posting a link to an item you've written. To see who's interested in a subject you're obviously interested in too (that's why you posted it in the first place). It's not like in a discussion group where you can see all of the action about someone's posting right there. Technorati, trackback, blog comments all are helping this, but it's still a lonely thing to be a blogger, in my opinion, unless you have lots of other blogger friends that think you are link worthy.

Having said that, thanks to Jeff F., Miff, Jeff H. for reading and supporting with material. And to others who read the blog, please send me an email at outlawv@aol.com and let me know so I can send out shouts to you too!
12:11:58 PM    comment []  Google It!  

"For most adults, learning to play the piano is the musical equivalent of watching grass grow. Frustration over one's own lack of coordination and the struggle to play what an 8-year-old with a year's experience can knock off with ease makes piano study a wide-open market for electronic learning aids."

Too funny that this article should come out as I've just started thinking of re-starting piano lessons after a 30-year hiatus. Mom strapped us all to the piano at a early age, for which we were not happy then and should be totally indebted to her now. There looks to be some hope for integrating technology into the learning process.

I've had various thoughts about this in the past year. My main goal would be to set a good exampel for the kids by having live music played in the house on the piano. One way to set that example might be to take lessons myself, combined with some beginning instruction (done in a fun way) for the kids. Another thought that I had this year at some point (must have been blogged somewhere) was to bring in some high-school or college students to play on the piano for 1/2 to 1 hour weekly. Essentially it would be their practice time, but they'd do it in my house, on my piano, in front of my guests...which would probably be friends of the kids from pre-school or elementary school. Hopefully when we get the reconstruction all done, we'll be able to see where this leads.
11:02:24 AM    comment []  Google It!