RainyDay

The small town of Jacksonville near Medford is host to the Britt Festival. Oh look, Kenny G. is coming soon! It's a wonderful outdoor venue and they do a pretty good job of booking talent. It probably helps as it's a day away for a tour from the Bay Area. That pocket of Southern Oregon has a surprising amount of culture as nearby Ashland hosts a Shakespeare Festival. Shorter was in Portland in February, Eugene in May, & now the Britt in June. I hope he doesn't get sick of us, cause he's nice to have around. I'm from Portland and I know that there is a lot of jazz up there but I didn't know about southern Oregon. That's good news.

Seeing this thread posted 3 times reminds me of that line about New York being so nice, they had to name it twice.

I have this Woody Allen-like fear of death. I don't want to discuss what I would want to be listening to for fear of conjuring up the Grim Reaper. Or fear of being held to whatever I choose today. What if I say "Flamenco Sketches" today and then at the actual time decide I want to hear "Cisco Kid, Was a Friend of Mine"? You see the dilemma. Please note that someone else has hijacked my handle and is posting badly misspelled words in my name.

I'll say. Imagine what they are getting away with while dad is spending all that time on organissimo. Here, here!

Happy Belated Father's Day to you all! I must say, the kids whose dads post here are pretty lucky. Hope all you dads were spoiled rotten yesterday.

Well, I saw these guys on Saturday night and they were the stuff. Anyone know why they kicked this off in Medford Oregon? The SF show was not part of the original SF Jazz lineup, which might explain why it was not sold out. It was a very good crowd, but there were vacant seats in the last rows of orchestra. When they came out, the audience gave them a long, standing ovation. I don't know what they played for the first two numbers. After the second song, Herbie got up and rambled around in the weeds for a bit. He sounded as inarticulate as I've ever heard him. Perhaps explained by one comment where he said "It may not sound like it but we're doing a lot up here." An odd comment that drew laughter from the crowd, and from him. He introduced the third song that had gone through a metamorphis of song titles, from Cut and Paste to Going Nowhere to Going Somewhere. The tone of the set was restrained. I don't mean that necessarily in a bad way but, except for Brian Blade, and once or twice with Herbie, it was a pensive, reflective, set. Everyone seemed to be at ease, but the set did not have many scorching moments except a couple of short solos by Herbie and one particularly hot solo by Blade that drew shouts and yells from the audience. Shorter wasn't fumbling with his horns that night, although I've seen him do that on other occasions. For me, the real treat was Brian Blade, who for some bloody reason was literally kept in the dark for most of the set. He was so poorly lit you could hardly see what he was doing. But Blade is a wonder on drums, just incredible. They played a lovely deconstructed version of Footprints and when they came out for a brief encore, they played Cantaloupe Island. The whole set lasted for about two hours with no intermission. I enjoyed it immensely. It didn't set the world on fire but it was a very fine opportunity to see these masters together. They played very well. Calling it a work in progress is probably accurate but if you are fans of these guys, you definitely should check this out. I'm very glad I did.

Wow. I wasn't expecting that! Thanks. My birthday was on June 15 and I must say it has been one long celebration for the past few days. The lay off notice I received two weeks ago was rescinded on Friday. Whew! Very stressed out for a couple of weeks. And I saw Sonny Rollins on Friday night, and the Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, and Brian Blade quartet on Saturday night. Taking today off to recuperate. Thank you for the birthday greetings. What a nice surprise!

Scott: Zone to zone coverage--that's cute! You have beautiful girls. b3-er: Zora is a little doll. Happy Father's Day (belated) to all the dads.

I couldn't get in last night and gave up. Glad it's back.

Oh, no. I don't even need to know this.

Try this: In the microwave, zap some Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips in peanut butter. Swoosh it together after it all melts (only takes a few secs, the chips don't lose their shape), and spread on graham crackers. I made up this concoction one winter after holiday baking left me with extra chocolate chips and grahams. Yummmmmmy.

Incredibly lovely in San Francisco today. Just went out for a soda and didn't want to come back. Not a hint of fog, warm, but not hot. Last night I left the office and it was so nice, mild. Arrived in downtown Oakland where it was very warm and humid. Very weird how the weather can be so dramatically different over just a couple of miles.

Isn't b3-er in the process of upgrading the board? I believe the subject of donations has come up before. I would donate. I give to jazz radio. Same thing.

I'm on T1 at work and I get pop ups even though I'm not signed onto the internet. I get the spyware ones a lot. IT came and cleaned up a lot of the mess but I'm still getting them. Sometimes I get surf control windows instead of our homepage when I sign onto the internet. It all started when I was taking some spelling test or some darn thing while playing here at O and jumping on some link or other. I think I was being punished for goofing off. B)

Without the word jazz, people don't know what it is. Adding "jazz" may prompt someone to check it out without having to have a conversation about it first. I wouldn't ask someone about a website on a t-shirt but I might check out the site if I knew it was about a subject of interest to me.

Out of the first examples, I like the first one best. Good job. I want a XXL for hanging out in a to wear as a sleepshirt.

It was smug, wasn't it? Last time O went down, I was beside myself. I'm happy to report that my life is more balanced and fulfilled now. Oww, owww, owww, owww, owwwie!

CBS Sunday Morning did an excellent tribute to Charles yesterday. The focus was how Charles had affected other musical genres. Also, a local comedian, Brian Copeland, has a Sunday talk show and he shared his experiences meeting Charles and opening for him on numerous occasions. Copeland said there were three people in entertainment he'd had the chance to work with who were nothing but gracious and he named Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, and of course I forgot the third one. While it's true Charles will never really die since his music will live on, it's still a hard loss to take.

This is the first time I've signed on since Friday. So I guess I didn't miss anything? Glad everything is back to normal.

Onf of my co-workers is going to check Healdsburg.

I may catch Stefon Harris on Tuesday at Yoshi's. What I've read about his band sounds interesting. I saw him with Kenny Barron, I think it was, a couple years ago, for Yoshi's 20th anniversary celebration.

Oh, how awful. RIP.

I don't blame the jury. The defense team, with able assistance by a star struck prosecution team, was able to create a reasonable doubt. That dumb detective walked around with blood samples in his pocket effectively calling into the question the whole chain of custody issue. And the expert witnesses about DNA were good at what they did. Why didn't they get attacked by the public? Johnny Cochran is not a sleazbag. He's a damn fine attorney you would be lucky to have defend you in a criminal trial. I believe OJ did it and got away with it. There are plenty of black folks who agree with that. The trial was a farce. I don't blame the jury. If you want to blame somebody, blame Gil Garcetti's failed record as the LA DA.

Rachel: Jennifer is a doll. They do grow up fast. I remember my godson's first bath like yesterday and he's 15 now. His dad used to be a television cameraman and he took the camera equipment home to be on call. They have video of everything my godson (and his little sister) ever did until he was about eight or so.

By the way, this is my sorry attempt at humor. Actually, it's my cousin's sorry attempt at humor. It seems like it may have lost something in the translation.