Category: This ‘n’ That

miscellanea

The Morning Before Christmas

It’s the morning before christmas with so much to do,
I can’t find my head, and can’t find my shoe.
I’m drowning in papers, my clothes in a heap,
away in the manger my husband still sleeps.

The sun has arisen, the air has a chill,
the streets are still quiet, there’s dew on the hill.
And then I remember, clear out of the blue,
I have to go shopping, oh where is that shoe?

Under and over, all through the house,
I look high and low, quiet as a mouse.
I find it in the kitchen, why I’ll never know;
doesn’t matter now, it time for me to go.

Oh wait, I can’t go, I must cease and desist,
I can’t leave the house before I make a list.
My friend is roasting lamb, and baking with her daughter,
her husband will tend bar…perhaps for me, just water.
Another friend brings corn pudding, all ready in a pot,
I get off too easy, hor’s d’oeuvres and veggies are my lot.

Crackers, cheese and olives, to snack on before,
tomatoes, and breadcrumbs, and more are in store.
The clock is a-ticking, I really must go;
thank heavens it’s California with nary a snow.
But first I must post this poem to my blog,
I almost forgot with my head in a fog.

On Slicer and Dicer, on Daughter, on Friend,
may such days be a-plenty, and never to end.
On Blogger, on Shopper, on Cooker, on Wife,
I won’t complain now, it’s the time of my life.

So picture me now in my Volkswagon sleigh,
saying “Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good day.”

Gifts That Keep On Giving

I was happy to learn that ArtistShare has a method that allows one to purchase a participation offer as a gift for someone else. This applies not just to my own project offers at SnapSizzleBop, but to any ArtistShare-powered project. My favorite “artists” include, in alphabetical order, Bob Brookmeyer, Billy Childs, Scott Colley, Jim Hall, Ingrid Jensen, Donny McCaslin, and Maria Schneider.

The ArtistShare site has pages with featured artists and featured projects. So check them all out, and be sure to visit SnapSizzleBop too.

Here are the instructions for giving the gift of participation:

The person giving the gift should purchase the Participant Offer as normal. After the purchase is complete, the purchaser should send an email addressed to programming at artistshare.com to let them know that they giving the Participant Offer as a gift and would like to transfer the account to the appropriate person. The gift-giver will need to provide the recipient’s name and email address. ArtistShare will transfer the account to the individual and let the purchaser know that the change is complete. They will also send an email to the person receiving the gift to let them know that an account/participant offer has been set up for them.

Site-Reading

“…many, perhaps most of the great things that get done in this world, especially in the realm of art, are done by people with no common sense whatsoever.”

so writes Terry Teachout in the mailbox section of today’s blog post. He was responding to an email he received wherein the correspondent mentioned some young dancers “who had so little common sense and so much passion for dance….”

Family and friends may wonder why we toil at projects that hold so little hope of substantial financial gain, and I guess passion is as good an answer as any. The image of a starving-artist-in-the garret loses its allure with age and the fires of idealism may be reduced to smoldering embers, but creative passions never die.

***

Rifftides offers a short list of recommended holiday music so I thought I’d tell you what’s coming through the speakers at our house during the holidays:

  • Leon Redbone – Christmas Island
  • The Three Tenors Christmas (Carreras, Domingo and Pavorotti)
  • A Jazz Piano Christmas (Benny Green, Junior Mance, John Lewis, Tommy Flanagan…)
  • A Nancy Wilson Christmas
  • Christmas with Etta Jones
  • Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song
  • Jimmy Smith – Christmas Cookin’ (smokin’ big band arrangements by Billy Byers)
  • Stevan Pasero – Christmas Classics for Guitar (tracks range from Pachelbel’s “Canon in D Major” to “Deck the Halls”
  • Guitars for Christmas — Joe Negri (MCG Jazz)

If rock music is your thing, best check in with Carl over at Cahl’s Juke Joint

***

Meanwhile Anne, over at Just Muttering, has discovered Classical Trumpet?! I was glad to see a comment mentioning The Canadian Brass. I love that group. Luther Henderson wrote some really wonderful arrangements for the quintet (2 trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba). I’m posting here the first two-and-a-half minutes or so of their rendition of Brass Toccata as performed at a memorial celebration for Luther. (Sorry, the recording quality is not great.) They’ve done lots and lots of recordings — from Pachelbel and Vivaldi to Fats Waller and Gershwin — so I’d be surprised if you don’t find one that includes some of your favorite selections.

Dad Gets Another Award

On Monday, November 27th, at the New Morning jazz club in Paris, Jim Hall was was named a “Choc Jazzman de l’année 2006.” According to Editor Alex Dutilh:

Jazzman is the best seller of French (and European, actually) jazz magazines. Every month we give quotations (like Down Beat stars) in our CD and DVD reviews. The higher one (equivalent of 5 stars) is called “Choc Jazzman”. At the end of the year, the editorial staff look at all the “Chocs” given between January and December and decides which will be “Chocs de l’année” (best of the year). They are 15 : 1 is elected by the readers sending post cards (Patricia Barber’s “Mythology” is their choice for 2006), 1 DVD, 1 reissue or never released historic session… and 12 “new recordings”.

Dad was not able to attend the Parisian ceremony, but he sent this message:

Un Petit Discours de Remerciement

Mes chers amis qui aiment le jazz:

J’ai été très content l’annee passe quand j’ai gagné un Choc Jazzman 2005 — l’idée que j’ai gagné une autre cette annee me comble.

C’est un privilège de jouer la musique et quand l’audience dit “bravo” – dans les clubs ou sur les pages des publications périodiques – c’est une gratification extraordinaire.

Jouer du jazz, c’est une exploration, et quand je reçois un honneur comme un Choc Jazzman ca me dit que vous etes avec moi dans le voyage — alors je vous remercie beaucoup!

J’écrivais ces mots avec l’assistance de ma fille qui parle français une peu mieux que moi; nous esperons que vous comprenez bien la gratitude énorme que je me sentais.

Je suis désolé que je ne peux pas etre la, en personne, pour accepter ce prix.

Encore une fois, je vous remercie beaucoup.

Jim Hall

Alex will be in New York for IAJE in January and plans to attend the January 11th ceremony at the French Embassy when Dad will receive his Chevalier medal. I’m betting he’ll bring with him the Choc Jazzman trophy.

Party Excuses and Sleep Deprivation

I don’t have time to spend trolling the Internet for sillies like this one, but my daily dose of news story ideas and resources (Al’s Morning Meeting: Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise) sometimes includes an amusement such as this online Holiday Party Excuse Generator created by a company called Enlighten.

Answer a few simple questions and in the time it takes to warble “fa la la la la”, you’ll have an excuse that will either endear or enrage a prospective host….

Al said: Always trying to be helpful, I want to get you out of attending the crummy parties that you want to avoid. Thanks, Al.

Of course, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to go to a party. Maybe you don’t like the host, or maybe you’re a Scrooge, or maybe, just maybe, you have so much work to do that you can’t take time out to play. It seems that time is the issue for lots of folks who want, or need, to pack more into a day, and they are using drugs to keep them going and to help them sleep. This is nothing new, but the drug choices are new…some still in the research phase. My friend, Phil, who remembers “the programmers anti-sleep potion of choice, Mountain Dew,” pointed me to “Get ready for 24-hour living,” an article at NewScientist.com.

Mind you, I am a self-confessed workaholic, and as it is my natural sleep cycle these days averages 6 hours a night. Would I be interested in a pill that would let me get 4 hours of good, refreshing sleep, and do me no bodily harm? Let’s forget for a moment that bodily harm part, because there are always three-dozen side effects, the worst of which won’t be discovered for 10-20 years. I might be tempted. But at this stage in my life I am pondering how I should be spending my time and questioning the endless hours spent at the computer. Having more time in the day is useless if it is not time well spent. And therein, as they say, lies the rub — how to define well spent. What’s your definition?

Son of Jazz Man To Be Governor

Laurie Goldstein writes in with this tidbit that is making the rounds of jazz afficiandos; she cites the original source of the info as coming from Ira Gitler via a mutual friend.

Laurdine “Pat” Patrick (1929 – 1991) was a baritone saxophone player best-known for his over forty years’ association with Sun Ra. As well as his long-term membership of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Patrick also played with John Coltrane (appearing on Africa/Brass in 1961), Mongo Santamaría (appearing on the hits Watermelon Man and Yeh Yeh), and in Thelonious Monk’s quartet in the early 1970s. His son is Massachusetts governor-elect Deval Patrick.

Laurie is a music publishing administrator handling the catalogs of Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Wes Montgomery, Gerry Mulligan, Letta Mbulu & Caiphus Semenya, Freddie Hubbard, Turbintons, Buddy Williams, Joe Williams, Joe Zawinul, Carl Allen, Skip Anderson, Donald Brown, Adela Dalto, Vincent Herring, Javon Jackson, and others. Her company, L’oro Music, is devoted to protecting musical copyrights while encouraging the licensing of its music in film, tv, recordings, print, commercials and other uses, and the website includes a very informative guide to obtaining licenses for mechanical, synchronization, print, performing rights, grand rights, samples and permissions, plus a FAQ with brief outlines of copyright, licenses, permissions and music publishing terms, and links to additional sources for more detailed information.

Uniquely Yours

It amazes me how much time people spend creating neat stuff to see and do on the World Wide Web. And my mind boggles at the amount of time very busy people spend surfing and discovering these things. Bloggers do it a lot, and they may be the chief disseminator of such – myself among them. How Many Of Me is a goody I picked up from Terry Teachout, who got it from Tinkerty Tonk, who got it from Charles, who got it from Swirlspice, who got it from Lauren. Seems like I’m in good company.

HowManyOfMe.com
Logo There are:
0
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Based on data from the US Census Bureau, no one on their list has my first name, but then they say that “around 1 out of every 10 people will have a first name not on the list” and over the years I have met a few others with the name Devra. Their list includes 599,937 people in the U.S. with the last name Hall and by their calculations it is “statistically the 26th most popular last name.” But the kicker is they list 12 famous people with the last name Hall, and notonly was Jim Hall not among them, but I had never heard of any of them! So, of course, I googled them all:

1. Alexander Hall: Director/film editor/actor born in 1894. (Ancient as I might feel, he was a little before my time.)

2. Anthony Michael Hall: Star of The Dead Zone. (Not my speed.)

3. Dante Hall: (courtesy of Wikipedia) an NFL kick/punt returner, and wide receiver, known as the “Human Joystick” in the NFL for his moves during kick returns. (I don’t watch much football; lost interest after Joe Namath started hawking panty hose.)

4. Jerry Hall: the supermodel/actress a/k/a Mick Jagger’s long-time companion/wife. (I should have known this one, but I was thinking “Jerry” was a guy’s name.)

5. Jon Hall: Beefcake co-star of Maria Montez in the most popular movies in Technicolor which were made between 1942 and 1945. (Again, this predates me.)

6. Kevin Peter Hall: Actor who was frequently cast in monster roles due to his extremely tall stature—he stood 7′ 2½” – at age 36 he died of AIDS contracted from a blood transfusion. (Monster flicks are not a part of my limited movie experience.)

7. Michael C. Hall: Young tv actor on Six Feet Under and Dexter. (I’ve heard about Six Feet Under, but never seen it. I don’t like having to pay for tv reception and refuse to pay for “premium” channels.)

8. Patrick Hall: Could they mean the kid in his mid twenties who was on American Idol?! (Fame ain’t what it used to be.)

9. Philip Baker Hall: Character actor. (Didn’t recognize the name, but the face is familiar. I probably saw him in recent years on TV — Without A Trace, Boston Legal, and/or West Wing. Now you know what I watch.)

10. Regina Hall: Actress (She’s in a bunch of movies I’m not likely to ever see.)

11. Toby Hall: baseball catcher for the Dodgers. (I still think of them as the Brooklyn Dodgers, so you know that I’m not a good source for the current roster.)

12. Robert David Hall: Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Al Robbins from the original CSI. (Finally, one I knew – not by name, but unlike Philip Baker Hall who merely looked familiar, I could positively ID this body.)

Having nothing better to do – and desiring to perfect my skills in the craft of procrastination – I then tried my married name. They note 41,996 people in the U.S. with the last name Levy (tied with 57 other last names for 831st most popular last name) and cite three who are famous. Again, my cultural IQ seems lacking as I never heard of Canadian actor Eugene Levy; football coach Marv Levy, now general manager for the Buffalo Bills; or Shawn Levy, another actor/director with a list of credits for things I’ve never seen.

And now folks, I really do need to get back to work. With any luck, I’ll catch up with myself and get back to a more regular/consistent blogging schedule. Until then…

Rules of Engagement

“The divide is not between the servants and the served, between the leisured and the workers, but between those who are interested in the world and its multiplicity of forms and forces, and those who merely subsist, worrying, or yawning… The world is full of light and life, and the true crime is not to be interested in it.”

–from Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice, by A.S. Byatt

Movie vs YouTube

While the world wrestles with YouTube — good for us, not good for us; fair or unfair, fun or futile — some people are still going to movie theaters. My friend Valerie is tauting “an incredible film” in a real movie theater…if but only for a moment — she writes:

I’m giving a “heads-up” to as many folks as I think might be interested and in close enough proximity to see this incredible film. It’s playing at the Music Hall on Wilshire & Doheny in Beverly Hills only until this Thursday. It is about five Black dancers who were the divas of Harlem in the ’30s at places like the Apollo Theatre and the Cotton Club. They were also strong activist-types who rose to the occasion when needed and protested at the Apollo from which resulted the AGVA union. After the big band era came to a halt, they got jobs as bartenders, etc. You’ll just have to take it from me that their lives are fascinating. They are now in their 80s and 90s and reunited about 18 years ago and are dancing once again!! I am seeing this film for the second time tonight! If you want to check out the website, it’s: www.tootscrackin.com/braml.htm

It’s not scheduled to play in this area again until next April when it will be in San Diego for one night. It’s already played New York and Boston.

Note: Her reference to “in this area” means Southern California. Looks like the film is making selected rounds, so keep your eyes open. I’m not going to have the chance to see it just yet so I’m hoping maybe it will appear on DVD.

As for the YouTube reference, I’m sure you’ve read by now Terry Teachout’s piece in The Wall Street Journal. If not, go here. I’m not sure that I’m in complete agreement, and I expect that I’ll have more to say on this subject down the road.

In Context

“Such things…as the grasp of a child’s hand in your own, the flavor of an apple, the embrace of a friend or a lover, the silk of a girl’s thigh, the sunlight on rock and leaves, the feel of music, the bark of a tree, the abrasion of granite and sand, the plunge of clear water into a pool, the face of the wind — what else is there? What else do we need?”
–Edward Abbey

I saw this quotation in a magazine. Curious about the source, I turned to Google and found it. It’s from Desert Solitaire (1968). What I also found is the preceeding sentence.

“For my own part, I am pleased enough with surfaces — in fact, they seem to me to be of much importance. Such things, for example, as the grasp of a child’s hand …”

When I read the lines in the magazine, surfaces were the farthest thing from my mind. My brain connected the word surface to superficial and unimportant, completely contradictory to the thoughts evoked by images of sunlight and music and the grasp of a child’s hand. Now, even more context was required for proper understanding. Desert Solitaire is a narrative nonfiction book about Abbey’s experiences as a park ranger in Utah, and in nature, as in all art, surfaces are indeed beautiful. How pleasant to have my synapses redirected on a more positive pathway.