maren

I just saw Bob Stewart's quartet “Swing Shift” last night at Tonic in New York, and raved about his young drummer, Luciana Padmore, on an ARTISTS thread (group also includes Amina Claudine Myers and Jerome Harris). I thought possibly couw, deus62, king ubu, mikeweil might be interested. I don't know all the dates, but here are a few:

Just heard this amazing drummer last night, playing in Bob Stewart's "Swing Shift" (along with Amina Claudine Myers and Jerome Harris). She is completely stunning: skilled, subtle, swinging and -- well, a force making the music cohere. And only around 20 years old!!!

Guess it's a little downhill from Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK, but "Happy 72nd birthday, Mr. President" with love from couw, maren, Jimmy & Rosalyn...

Haven't read much Benchley. Thurber a lot when I was young, and loved it -- Walter Mitty explained me to myself! But I voted for Perelman, because of New Yorker stories in the 70s -- always a delight.

This may be one for the books: bandleader who wanted everyone to take long solos!!! Guy really needed to feel he was running the show, mostly had to play his tunes, which were rather underdeveloped. Relied on (other people's) solos to provide more content -- would always insist on being the one to bring the bridge or head back -- would invariably not bring it back until the soloist was SICK OF SOLOING, had been trying to cue the bandleader, had begun quoting/restating the head ad nauseam, etc...

Sounds like me. Very bad type of procrastination -- do a lot of work and then can't get the final part together. Finished 3 of them (my Federal, son's Fed & state)in the first week of February, but just mailed them last week. Copier at work made bad copies. So in March paid to make copies at a stationery store. Then couldn't find stapler. Then couldn't find stamps. Finally got everything done last Tuesday. One benefit to procrastination -- state helpline finally was answered by humans who explained I could take an EXTRA credit not fully explained in their pamphlet (hadn't wanted to pay a tax guy just to answer this one question).

I said Carmelo, but my son (DivIII power forward, junior, 20yo) says LeBron because the rest of the Cavs are weaker than the rest of the Nuggets: i.e., LeBron couldn't singlehandedly get the Cavs into the playoffs, and Carmelo DIDN'T singlehandedly get the Nuggets into the playoffs...

Jumping the gun slightly, but I might not be back till Monday, so... all weekend long!

Don't know about the musicians, but according to a friend of mine, his parents were among circle of FANS in NYC in the 50s-early 60s who took speed together when they would go out to hear Charlie Parker, Mingus, Monk... Guess after working their day jobs, feeding their kids and instructing the babysitters, they needed a little pick-me-up to make it through a set or two at the Five Spot...

Open wide -- for more cake! with love from couw & maren:

Reminds me of one of my ex-husband's cab-driving stories (NYC, 1970s, lots of celebs): he picked up Bob Dylan and a companion or two -- -- the party was unsure about where they were headed -- "downtown" -- but a few blocks later a woman in the cab said, "Oh, Bob -- here's that strip club I was telling you about" -- and Dylan said, "Driver, we'll get out here."

Wow!!! great work, Jim and crew! I'm impressed. Did someone build you that cradle in the last pic? It looks a lot like a plan my father used, when he made three (one for each of first 3 grandkids -- after that, we handed down -- or maybe "around"). He shipped one from Wisconsin to New York 20 years ago, just before my son was born. It was so impeccably packed (by Dad) that it took me HOURS (and lots of tools) to open the shipping crate he built!

63 down, 36 to go!!! With love from couw & maren:

I knew someday you would come around to my way of thinking. This is why I KNOW I shouldn't be allowed to own a gun!!!! (When my son was about 14, he would entertain me in these moments by describing all the weapons the car should be equipped with -- bazookas, battering ram, etc.)

Is Deus62 REALLY 62??? with love from couw & maren:

All the low-class things like lying, cheating, being two-faced, insulting your spouse in public -- I agree. But what gets under my skin THE MOST (probably bringing out a holier-than-thou rage quality in MYSELF that I can't stand, thus I find it especially hard to forgive the instigating behavior) is this: You're on a busy highway. Coming to a bottleneck. Either there's a sign that says "left lane closed 500 feet" or "merge ahead" or there are only two lanes on a crowded exit ramp -- but SOMEBODY zooms up ahead in the empty soon-to-vanish lane -- or on the shoulder! -- and expects to cut in ahead of everyone else dutifully waiting in line. (And it's really aggressive high-speed stuff, not an improvisation to deal safely with something sudden, like avoiding adding to a crash that just happened in front of you, or avoiding being rear-ended when you have to stop suddenly). HATE that.

Happy birthday! And many more! And congratulations on being "finally perfected"!!!

as promised, more cake!

Cake and more cake, with love from couw & maren!

Oh, you might be surprised.... The "hover" method usually works pretty well, but sometimes our aim isn't always, shall we say, controllable. "Hover method" keeps the performer cleaner, but gets the seat dirtier, endlessly necessitating use of "hover method."

Did you catch the part about the OSU mascot named Aric Effron???? Or maybe that's Eric Ephron...

Babies ARE more portable before they start walking!

Up -- has anyone been to Iridium yet? Tonight and tomorrow left.

Well, being over 50 and slightly arthritic has somewhat reduced my finger strength and smoothness -- among the reasons I'm not a working electric bassist anymore. Nonetheless, I think making the EFFORT to play in time, and focusing on it, besides being artistically important, is actually physically therapeutic as well. Mentally too. Maybe you could devise some rhythm-focused lessons for this student that aren't quite as demanding as the metronome boot camp Uncle Skid survived! I had two piano teachers before I was 18, and between them they whipped me into shape, time-wise. An element of humor was an important part of inspiring/motivating/ challenging me (opposite of "sucking all the fun out"). I still have the page from 3rd grade where my teacher, without saying a word, wrote COUNT! in 8-inch letters across the whole piece -- giving me one of those stern but wryly amused looks as she did it. When I was 16, I was taking piano lessons from another teacher who also directed me as a singer (musicals, chorus) -- he had a way of pointing out the good with the bad that made me eager to conquer the bad: "Your voice is so gorgeous, you're just wallowing in the tone -- and GETTING SLOWER AND SLOWER!" "You have a great feel for bringing out the lowest notes of the left hand line when you're sightreading -- almost makes it hard to notice YOU'RE NOT PLAYING HALF OF WHAT'S WRITTEN!" I think a student of any age can feel the love behind constructive criticism, when the love is there on the teacher's part. Maybe you can find (write?) a piece that's technically readily within this guy's grasp where the whole challenge is to focus on the time -- phrases that vary rhythmically most of all? That might be a way to address the time issue. So that it's very focused -- "here's what I'm teaching you with THIS assignment" -- rather than bringing it up as a global deficit in his playing.

This reminds me of some IQ-type test question I encountered in about 5th grade -- it had four pictures of musicians in a marching band and you were supposed to check the one that was "working the hardest" -- I got a "wrong" answer because I checked the flute player -- I was supposed to know the beefy guy with the tuba was the right one. But because I played the flute (assigned to it, denied the brasses because I was a girl!) and HATED it, hated the sound, hyperventilated with having to keep a constant stream of exhalation going, holding my right arm out and up at an exhausting 90-degree angle -- I thought I'd find it easier just to sling the f---ing tuba over my shoulder and puff out a "pah" once every bar.