American League still better

As I was watching the All-Star game, I was struck once again by the difference in quality. For once, it wasn't the position players; the NL put a really good set of hitters on the field, and the defense was great (one error notwithstanding). No, it was the pitching, and in particular, the real relievers the AL had. Pabelbon-Nathan-Rivera is just not fair. Oh, and King Felix was the guy before them. Wow. Very impressive.

The National League is starting to catch up, but there are still way too many franchises clinging to slim mediocre wild card dreams. With the Dodgers coming into their own, maybe the rest of the league will be forced to grow up and build real teams with real farm systems, like the front-runners in the AL.

Proposition 13 caused the global economic crisis

OK, so before you dismiss this out of hand, hear me out.

Proposition 13 did a few things:

1. Immediately lowered property tax revenue by forcing valuations of property to 1% of cash value in 1978.
2. Establish that valuations of property could on increase by 2% per year unless there is an ownership change.
3. Any statewide or local tax measures have to have a 2/3 majority (since amended by another prop; education funds only require a 55% majority now).

I am not going to talk about the horrible consequences to education and local services due to this law. That is for another day. I am going to talk to the implications to the California housing market.

After 1978, there were strong incentives not to sell houses, as the property taxes were fairly frozen while the land values were shooting up. Local governments used eminent domain to shut down poor neighborhoods and turn them into big box retailers, or shopping malls, or whatever, which they could use to boost their tax revenue.

What this meant is that there was scarcity created in the housing inventory, which meant that prices went up. In addition, sprawl hit the urban areas, and the population spread out. At the same time, California had several rounds of economic boomtimes, with a huge influx of new population.

This population could not afford the houses. So, they started using creative loans to get into the housing market, or to upgrade their existing houses as they had families. This was actually a cycle, as the economy kept booming, and the real estate prices kept going up and up, traditional loans were impossible, and creative loans were the rule of the day.

These mortgages were precisely the ones that are the heart of the financial crisis.

I don't have exact stats, but I seem to remember a quote that 60-75% of the toxic mortgages were in California. And the environment that these mortgages were allowed to be created in was directly created by Proposition 13.

I am so glad to be in Texas now.

Giving up on iPod FM transmitters

I have a 2005 Corvette with the DVD Nav system. It has a CD player, and an AM/FM/XM Radio. I have been trying for years to use my iPod with it.

I am giving up. The FM antenna in the car is pretty bad anyway; I get static on very good stations that our other cars pick up fine. In both the Bay Area, and the Austin area, I can't find a station that sounds like anything at all.

Since there are no jacks or docking cables, I am out of luck. I could have used the cassette player if I had bought a 2004! That's what I do with one of our other cars, and my parents' cars as well.

I am not going to go pay somebody hundreds of dollars to install a jack, although I have seen instructions how to on the net.

So I give up. I did something else.

I took a bunch of CDs out to the car. Boy, they sound great! And I forgot how much fun listening to complete albums can be. Changing them is a bit of a pain, though. I can also burn them, and supposedly this unit can read mp3 CDs. So this is good enough, especially supplemented with radio and satellite.

Next car, though, I want real iPod integration.

More info from flyclear.com

Received this today in email:

Clear Member Update


Dear Sydney Polk,

In response to questions raised by our members, Clear would like to offer the following information:

Clear Lanes Are No Longer Available.

At 11:00 p.m. PST on June 22, 2009, Clear ceased operations. Clear's parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc., was unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations. Verified Identity Pass regrets that Clear will not be able to continue operations.

How is Clear securing personal information?

Clear stands by our commitment to protect our customer's personally identifiable information - including fingerprints, iris images, photos, names, addresses, credit card numbers and other personal information provided to us - and to keep the privacy promises that we have made. Information is secured in accordance with the Transportation Security Administration's Security, Privacy and Compliance Standards.

How is Clear securing any information at the airports?

Each hard disk at the airport, including the enrollment and verification kiosks, has now been wiped clean of all data and software. The triple wipe process we used automatically and completely overwrites the contents of the entire disk, including the operating system, the data and the file structure. This process also prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis.

How is Clear securing any information in central databases and corporate systems?

Lockheed Martin is the lead systems integrator for Clear, and is currently working with Verified Identity Pass, Inc. to ensure an orderly shutdown as the program closes. As Verified Identity Pass, Inc. and the Transportation Security Administration work through this process, Lockheed Martin remains committed to protecting the privacy of individuals' personal information provided for the Clear Registered Traveler program. Lockheed's work will also remain consistent with the Transportation Security Administration's federal requirements and the enhanced security and privacy requirements of Verified Identity Pass, Inc.

The computers that Verified Identity Pass, Inc. assigned to its former corporate employees are being wiped using the same process described for computers at the airports.

Will personally identifiable information be sold?

The personally identifiable information that customers provided to Clear may not be used for any purpose other than a Registered Traveler program operated by a Transportation Security Administration authorized service provider. Any new service provider would need to maintain personally identifiable information in accordance with the Transportation Security Administration's privacy and security requirements for Registered Traveler programs. If the information is not used for a Registered Traveler program, it will be deleted.

How will members be notified when information is deleted?

Clear intends to notify members in a final email message when the information is deleted.

Who is monitoring this process?

Clear is communicating with TSA, airport and airline sponsors, and subcontractors, to ensure that the security of the information and systems is maintained throughout the closure process. Clear thanks these partners for their continuing cooperation and diligence.

How can I contact Clear?

Please visit our website, www.flyclear.com, for the latest updates. Clear's call center and customer support email service are no longer available.

Will I receive a refund for membership in Clear?

At the present time, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. cannot issue refunds due to the company's financial condition.

Has Verified Identity Pass, Inc. filed for bankruptcy?

At the present time, Verified Identity Pass has not commenced any proceedings under the United States Bankruptcy Code.


Clear Customer Service

Clear, 600 Third Avenue 10th Floor, New York, NY 10016
www.flyclear.com


<**40101A46868734**>

A couple of thoughts.

First of all, I do trust Lockheed-Martin and the TSA to do a decent job shutting down servers, securing data and wiping hard drives. Bruce Schneier in his blog (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/06/clear_shuts_dow.html) talks about this and legal precedent about companies promising not to sell data and then selling it anyway when bankrupt. However, with the TSA involved, perhaps the parent company will uphold their word on this.

I would still like congressional or some sort of federal action to make sure, but I don't think it is likely to happen. What a mess.

I guess I just need to get to SFO earlier, particularly when flying United.

flyclear.com and privacy

I sent out various forms of this letter to various elected officials today.


Dear ,

I am writing because I am worried about an issue which just unfolded in the last 24 hours. I have a membership with flyclear.com. They are a business which was based on collecting a lot of private data, prescreening it with the TSA, and then offering the customer the ability to bypass most of the security lines at airports.

Last night, they ceased operations.

I am gravely concerned about my personal data that they have, which includes my social security number, fingerprints, and images of my eyes. I think that it is highly appropriate for the Department of Homeland Security or some other government entity to seize that data until a satisfactory resolution as to what to do with it is reached. There is grave danger of this data being sold commercially, or being stolen and sold to other governments or to terrorists.

This business already had one security breach in August of 2008; I am not convinced that in their efforts to appease their creditors that they won't do something stupid.

Thank you for your attention,



Sydney Polk

Watching from afar

I am in Kentucky visiting my wife's mother and working at home here. Watching Ike from afar is kind of surreal. It is just amazing the kind of information that is online now, but often, you want just a little more.

Evacuation is a hard thing to stomach, I guess. When everybody evacuated for Rita, people were stranded for dozens of hours on freeways in the heat with no food or gas, and nobody wanted to go through that again. The officials this time tried to keep people out of life-threatening danger off the road, but it looks like a lot of other people stayed. I can understand why, but I would have gone. You just can't take the chance.

It's a melancholy night watching this unfold. I think that this is going to turn out very badly for Galveston and the communities surround Galveston Bay.

Been a while...

...and I still don't have too much time.

In April, I was laid off from Lombardi in Austin. Went through a little bit of soul searching, but I think I recovered pretty well.

I set about to be professional about my job search. First of all, I had some friends help me with my resume, and they were vicious, er, very helpful. Actually, they were. Thanks very much to Jade, Andy, Richard and Danil.

I work now for a company in San Francisco doing QA on developer tools. One of my dearest friends works there now, and got me the interview. Thanks, Brian!

Working out of the house is cool, but it is not exactly what we had pictured. Since I am time shifted, all of my meeting happen in the afternoon, so Jade's plan of going swimming after putting the kids down for naps tends not to work very well, as I am usually tied to the phone.

Other than that it is great. Other than being distracted by being in front of my home computer all of time, with the temptations to putter rather than work...

Top 10 Michael Brecker Solos

This is just my opinion, of course, but of all the cuts I have that Michael Brecker laid down a solo, these are my favorites, offered without commentary:

Delta City Blues, Brecker, Michael, Two Blocks from the Edge
Some Skunk Funk, Brecker Brothers Band, The, Heavy Metal Bebop
El Niño, Brecker, Michael, Two Blocks from the Edge
My One and Only Love, Brecker, Michael, Michael Brecker
Renaissance Man, Brecker, Michael, Time Is of the Essence
Sponge, Brecker Brothers Band, The, Heavy Metal Bepop
African Skies, Brecker, Michael, Tales from the Hudson
The Impaler, Brecker, Michael, Two Blocks from the Edge
How Long Till the Sun, Brecker, Michael, Two Blocks from the Edge
Soul Intro - The Chicken, Pastorius, Jaco, The Birthday Concert
Timeline, Brecker, Michael, Time Is of the Essence
Not Ethiopia, Steps, Smokin' in the Pit
Impressions, Tyner, McCoy Trio, Infinity
Every Day I Thank You, Metheney, Pat, 80/81
Pools, Steps Ahead, Steps Ahead
Quartet #2, Corea, Chick, Three Quartets


Honorable Mention for non-jazz appearances:

Your Latest Trick, Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms
Pick Up the Pieces, Average White Band, Average White Band

Back from Kyiv

My trip to Kyiv was quite fun, although getting out was harrowing.

We (my boss and I) flew Austin-DFW-Frankfurt-Kyiv, which worked out well. I upgraded to business class, and it was great. I arrived in Europe able to function the rest of the day. This was my 6th trip to Europe, and the first time I was able to stay up past 5:30 local time when I got there. Being able to catch four hours of sleep was key here. American Airlines also provided Bose noise-canceling headphones, which work really well on airplanes.

We arrived, and our partners in Kyiv had contracted a driver to take us to our apartments. The car was about 10 years old and had been through a lot. The seats had been recovered with red tiger striped covers. Going through town to the apartments was fun; we drove by all of the new apartments in the suburbs, over a nice bridge, and then through downtown.

We had heard from multiple sources that hotels were overpriced and not very nice in Kyiv, and had apartments recommended to us. However, we were not encouraged when we got to the front door. The building was Soviet era, and there was a gray stone wall with a shabby wooden door that we were supposed to go through. We went in, and found out that only one apartment had been rented to us. We called the admin at the office, and were told that we could pick up the other key at 7.

The entry hall was concrete and smelled bad, and the elevator was downright frightening. It was about two by three feet, and the doors did not actually close all of the way. Scary. However, the apartment was very nice.

Went to the office and was shown around. Had dinner at Club Miami. Not the first restaurant that had an American theme; the food was pretty good.

Got back, and retrieved the key to the second apartment from the gostinitza. However, we did not know what floor the apartment was on, and there was no mapping from number to floor. With my fledgling Russian, I asked her "four? five? six?" while moving my hand up and down. She responded "Six", and we went to the sixth floor. When the elevator opened, it was pitch black. Only after I stepped forward did the motion-triggered light come on. Once again, however, the apartment itself was very nice. This was to be mine. No high speed Internet, but what can you do?

Slept well. Our hosts, Oleksey and Anton, would not let us navigate the city by ourselves, so Anton met us the next morning, and we all took the taxi to the office. Taxis are unregulated, so you have to negotiate with the driver, and they fleece foreigners regularly. However, the office negotiated our taxis, so we did not have this problem. That morning, we had introductions and meetings, and then went out to an American-themed steakhouse. However, on the way, we saw some kind of police action. It looked like a bunch of people were protesting a construction site with all kinds of sit-ins. The police were picking them up one at a time, and packing them into paddy wagons. Ukraine is sometimes disconcerting that way.

Worked in the afternoon. That evening, we walked with Oleksey down to yet another American themed restaurant near our apartment. Got to see some of the architecture at that point; it was a good night. The live band at the joint was doing a lot of eighties covers of Sting, Police, Gabriel, etc.

Saturday, we had the Java Users' Group meeting where my boss was giving his two talks (goodwill/recruiting gestures). The projector was dead, and the organization was hopeless, but they served beer while everybody waited. The talks started an hour late, but they were very well received.

That night, I had to do a server migration, and I needed high-speed Internet, so Matt and I swapped apartments.

Sunday, we got a city tour. At some point, I will post pictures to my website at www.baritoneconsulting.com. There are a lot of interesting landmarks in Kyiv. The coolest thing for me is tying Pictures at an Exhibition with Shevchenko, the national poet/artist of the Ukraine. The pictures that Mussoursky were writing about were by Shevchenko, and going by the Great Gate of Kyiv connected the dots for me. Wonderful sightseeing in this city.

That night, we actually had dinner at a modern Ukrainian restaurant. I found out, much to my surprise, that borshch is really really good.

Monday was a work day, but mid-afternoon, we took a tour of the Monastery of the Caves. It's a big place, and took most of the afternoon. Along the way, we saw the outdoor military museum, stuffed with Soviet arms. Cool in a creepy kind of way. That night, Matt and I were on our own for dinner. I went up to the apartment and found three people in it, a woman talking on her phone, and two men tearing up the bathroom.

The men did not speak to me. The woman knew about as much English as I knew Russian. Through pantomime and some fast lookups in my Russian dictionary, I managed to ask her to write down her cell phone number, and I texted it to Anton, who called her. Turns out, she was the apartment owner, and the two men were plumbers, and they were fixing a leak. They would be about another twenty minutes; I went out and shopped and found food.

The plan was supposed to leave Tuesday morning about 6:10. We had been told to get to the airport two hours early, so our driver picked us up about 3:30. Oy. Got to the airport, and the fun started.

There was no Kyiv-Frankfurt flight listed at all. It's as if it did not exist. The Lufthansa counter was closed. We were told we would have to talk to the people at the counter past the entry point, but we could not go to it because it was more than two hours ahead of the only outgoing Lufthansa flight, to Munich. Matt and I got on our Blackberries, and managed to get our flights rerouted to Kyiv-Munich-Frankfurt-Chicago-Austin.

However, it was electronic. We were the first in the boarding pass line, past the entry point, but they told us, "Could you place wait over here for a few minutes?" That few minutes turned into about 90, and during that time, we were aghast at just how bad this particular ticket line was. They only had two agents working, and with no electronic, curbside, advanced, or any previous checkins, every single person had to get a boarding pass from these devotchkas, and it was taking about five minutes per person. We were getting worried; our flight time was approaching, and the only other Lufthansa flight was 2:30 that afternoon.

Finally, a supervisor came along, and we flagged him down. He managed to get our tickets straightened out, and put us back in line. The person in front of me had luggage that was too heavy, and was getting ready to repack in front of us, when said supervisor overrode his devotchka and let the guy board. We basically got to the boarding area about five minutes before the doors opened.

Got to Munich and Frankfurt fine, and noticed that our original Frankfurt-DFW leg was still on the ground. We decided to hook back up with it, as we might get home earlier than the Chicago flight.

Bad miscalculation. The DFW plane had a part failure, and was stuck waiting for the part to come in from Heathrow. They put us on the plane, and we were there for about three hours. Oy. One cool thing, however, is that we got to see the Airbus A380, which had made its first flight to New York and back the previous day, and was parked at the gate in Frankfurt.

We finally got off of the ground, but were informed that we were going to have to stop at JFK to get another crew, since the delays were going to cause them to go over their legally-alloted time.

At least it went smoothly from there. We landed in NY, got another crew and went on to Dallas. The flight attendant we had had then sat with us and joked and gabbed the entire way to Dallas. She was a hoot; part society-woman, ditzball, insightful, outgoing, kind of crazy.

Caught the last connection to Austin, and made it home. What a trip.

Я еду в Киеве!

So, later today, I am flying to Kyiv, Ukraine for work. It will be the first time visiting an Eastern European city, and I am looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I will not have much time to be a tourist; I have too much work to do.

Packing involves getting my laptop ready to work on its own. But, I can't carry my big-honking-hard-drive of tunes because I don't have the right power cord. Lovely. I think my adapters will work for the MacBook Pro and iPod, though. I hope so. Anyway, I am also packing my old Russian textbook, a phrasebook, a small dictionary, and the Baseball Prospectus, as I have to prepare my fantasy baseball draft. I am also packing the airplane power cord, an Airport Express, an Ethernet cable, and a USB cable (to recharge the Blackberry). Oh, and of course, the iPod and the Blackberry. I guess I need to take clothes, toiletries, and medicine. And I need my wallet, passport and itinerary. I am not taking any keys, however. My wife is picking me up at the airport on the other side, so that should be safe.

I hope that this turns out to be lots of fun; looking forward to it!

RIP Michael Brecker

I have not had access to good current events news, particularly of jazz, since we moved and had our second child. I just found on by reading the International Musicians union "Taps" section that Michael Brecker passed away. I immediately went to his website, http://www.michaelbrecker.com, and found out that the bone cancer that was diagnosed two years ago finally took him from us.

I fully believe that Brecker was as important and influential as Coltrane, and most of my peers in the jazz community who are my age would have trouble denying it. However, most of the pundits/critics older than me just hate his playing, and don't consider it much more than some misplaced talent.

You see, Brecker had some things going against him when it came to acceptance in the jazz community. His drug habit was a problem, but others have had drug habits. No, the two things that made some critics discount him was that he experimented with electronics and jazz rock in the 70s, and that he would appear as a sideman with just about anybody who would pay him.

For some reason, jazz snobs (I am thinking of a certain New Orleans trumpet player who also made a living as a classical trumpeter) seem to think that the only music you can play and stay pure is either "real" jazz (Louis Armstrong, swing, bepop, post-bop, West Coast Jazz) or classical. Playing avant-garde, electronic music, pop music, rap, hip-hop, reggae, or "smooth" jazz automatically invalidates the musician as a serious musician, as they could not imagine playing that music under any circumstances, and they think the musician is just out for a buck.

Bull pucky.

I personally love "real" jazz, but I also love a lot of other music. My favorites include Peter Gabriel, Celia Cruz, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Suzanne Vega, Bill Bruford, Magenta, Sabine Meyer, Asleep at the Wheel, The Beatles, Blood Sweat and Tears, Fairport Convention, Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Police, Santana, and Yes, among others. None of these are classical or "real" jazz musicians. I think that a well-rounded musician tries to listen to everything in music with an open mind. There are genres that I still don't like after years of trying (hip-hop, Indian classical, belly dance, as examples), but I will still try every once in a while.

I approach playing the same way. One of my biggest regrets is not playing guitar or piano, so that I could play in a rock and roll band. The guys on the streets working with their horns or violins or voices or whatever should not restrict what they play to stay "pure"; they play stuff that they like, and they play stuff to put food on the table.

The Brecker Brothers exploded on the scene in 1975 with their first album, The Brecker Brothers. This album went through my high school like wildfire. The live version, Heavy Metal Bebop, is simply amazing (aside from one stupid top 40ish cut). The solos are dazzling, the electronics are effective, and the rythm section just flat out rocks. I bought this album new on LP from the cutout bin at Cactus Records in 1980, and was completely and totally floored. This album, and a recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, were constantly playing at my house, much to my parents' chagrin!

When I was at Universiy of Miami the one year I was a music major, every sax player was listening to Brecker. I was no exception. Transcriptions were flying, but at that time, I had no hope of playing most of them (I could probably work them up now if I had time, but it would be tough). Brecker was simply the most technical saxophone player that ever lived, and I would be hard-pressed to find any other woodwind player who could compete with him. Maybe James Galway. Anyway, the head grad student sax player at UM, Ed Calle, broke it down for us poor underclassmen, and presented an analysis of Brecker's solos, firmly rooted in the playing of the 1960s John Coltrane solos. Brecker always played in three keys at once, the I, IV and V of whatever chord was going on. He also had complete mastery of the highest notes that a sax can play, the altisimmo register.

Early in his career, Brecker seemsed to lack a certain confidence in his composing and leading ability, and hid behind many musicians as the consumate side man. There is an apocryphal story that as Brecker was in rehab for his drug habit, he took a side date with jazz legend, McCoy Tyner. On this date, Tyner had Brecker play one of Coltrane's standards, Impressions, as well as some other tracks. (The album is called Infinity) Anyway, the story goes that Tyner told Brecker that he should get his act together and make albums as a leader, as he was ready to assume his place with the great ones in jazz. Soon after, Brecker's first album (Michael Brecker) came out. While it did not win the Critics' Poll in DownBeat, it certainly won the Readers' Poll.

I personally saw him play the following times: 1987 at Fitzgerald's in Houston, 1992 at the old Yoshi's in Oakland, 1995 at Kimball's East in Emeryville and at the old Yoshi's in Oakland, 2002 at Yoshi's in Jack London Square, and 2004 and 2005 at Cal Performances in Berkeley. All but the last were amazing concerts. The last, a thing called Directions in Music, I reviewed in this blog, and it was terrible.

Not knowing the man at all, I am not really broken up about his passing on an emotional level, but I am very sad that we are not ever going to hear anything new by him ever again.

If you have favorite musicians, and have a chance to see them live, GO DO IT! You never know when a car accident (Clifford Brown, Scott Lafaro), murder (Lee Morgan), cancer (Brecker), heart attack, suicide, drug overdose (Janice Joplin, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday) will take them from us.

Support live music. It is essential.

I'm back, finally

Well, after a very long (nearly two year) hibernation, I am back. A lot has happened since June of 2005. My wife got pregnant again, and we decided to bag Silicon Valley and the nice job at Apple for Austin, TX (close to home!) and a kick-ass startup company.

My impressions of Austin are still not well-formed after nine months here. Our house in Steiner Ranch is pretty awesome. I have not been able to enjoy much in the way of Austin culture because we are just too darned busy with two children under the age of 2 and with the process of finishing moving into our house.

We did have a hell of a time getting into the house; one of my next blogs will be about that. I would have trouble recommending Taylor Woodrow in our neighborhood, River Heights Overlook, because of all of the issues.

Aside from that, the weather has been fantastic (except for the 3-day shutdown of the town from an ice storm in January. The snow was cool, and all...). The drive home is pretty. I like being this close to Lake Travis. Everything in Austin is much closer to everything else that I am used to; that is really cool.

I do, however, miss good Szechuan, Hunan, Dim-Sum, and Thai food. Of course, San Fransisco is the Asian food capital of America, so I am out of luck there.

I did appear with a community orchestra, the Balcones Community Orchestra. It's a local chamber orchestra, a training grounds for local string players. The winds are a necessary evil, I guess. Anyway, I played 3 nerve-wracking pieces on principal flute, including a big solo. It went well, I thought. The group is not great, which means my flute playing is not terribly out of place.

My wife is going nuts being at home all day, and not having the house "finished". Will be glad when that happens.

We will miss our Oakland A's season tickets, and it sucks having to drive 3 hours to get to major league baseball. However, I am close to my childhood team, the Astros. Too bad they aren't going to be very good this year.

More later as I have time.

Life has changed!

On May 17, 2005, Elizabeth Cherokee was born. Our lives certainly have changed. She is beautiful. 8 lbs., 10 oz., with a full head of hair that is dark at the roots and light at the tips. She is a joy, and no, we aren't getting a lot of sleep.

There are pictures of her at my home page, which I will update from time-to-time.

I hope to get back to baseball game accounts, concert reviews, car reviews, and observations on life (including Elizabeth) soon, but for now, this is what I can do.

It's been a while - Concerts

It's been a while since I posted; we have been really busy trying to cram a bunch of life in before the baby arrives!

We have been to several concerts the past couple of months. First of all, we went to see the Christian McBride Band on March 25, as part of the Cal Performances. All I can say is, "That's better!" after the horrible Hancock/Brecker concert. McBride is wonderful, energetic, and very talented. He makes playing upright bass as physically challenging as playing a much smaller instrument. I really like the fact that he embraces all kinds of music and incorporates it into his jazz. As an example, they played a cover of Steely Dan's Aja.

I had seen his piano player, Geoffrey Keezer, play with the late Ray Brown, a few years back, and at that time, he was young, full of flashy technique, and raw around the edges. This time, he was mature, very, very musical, and quite a lot of fun, still with that dazzling technique.

The drummer, Terreon Gully, was very good, although his drumming a this particular event did not stand out to me. Certainly, he is a better drummer than anybody I play with; however, I have seen others I like better (such as Billy Killson or Jeff "Tain" Watts).

The saxophonist, Ron Blake, was a very pleasant surprise. He had a wonderful sound, based largely on the Stan Getz-Joe Lavano mold, but slightly more forceful. He had wonderful technique, but did not put it in your face. The last number they performed, he composed (I wished I remembered the name), and his Caribbean influence was abundant. It was funky, with a Calypso influence. Truly wonderful. I hope to get more of his music as time goes on.

Certainly a wonderful concert to go to.

The very next night, we went back to Zellerbach, and saw Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman play piano duos.

Wow. This concert should blow the myth away that classical music and/or musicians are stuffy. They opened with Schumann's Six Etudes in the Form of a Canon, op. 56. This piece evidentally was written for custom instrument, kind of a piano with organ pedals, or some such, and later rearranged by Debussy for two pianos. This was masterfully done, and quite pretty, but was my least favorite piece of the concert.

They followed with Claude Debussy's En Blanc et Noir. This piece was also masterfully done, and quite dazzling. It did not quite capture my imagination, however. I guess I found it a little rambling and dark.

The last two pieces made up for it. Ravel's La Valse, was out of this world. I am somewhat familiar with the orcehstral version; it's kind of a Sorcerer's Aprrentice does Viennese Waltz. The piece is quite macabre, and the imagined scene of this waltz spinning out of control is just stunning. I think the program notes put it the best: "One imagines the Viennese Society waltzing away while the world around them is falling apart due to the Great War". The artists were panting and grunting and animated; it was a joy to watch as well as to listen to.

They closed with Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Those of you who know me know that I have analyzed, memorized and been mesmerized by this work since I was a sophomore in high school. I was really looking forward to hearing the two-piano arrangement, as I had known it existed for a long time. With both the Ravel and this piece, it was almost distracting knowing the orchestral versions, as I kept hearing those in my mind while listening to the piano versions. However, this too was dazzling. Simply dazzling. And at the end, Bronfman, slammed his entire forearm down on the piano for the last "chord" as he stood up.

Was simply great. Simply great. And they did an encore of a Brahms work which I was not familiar. The electricity of their performance was simply breathtaking.

After this concert, I went to the restroom, and as I was standing there, doing my business, I realized that I was standing to the aforementioned Geoffrey Keezer. Cool! I finished up, and then stood outside with Jade, waited for him to come out, and then introduced myself and Jade. He was really nice; being a piano player and musician, he was definitely interested in Ax/Bronfman. A nice cap to a good night.

More as I have time. I have a lot to catch up on!

I like large, enthusiastic audiences

Last Friday, I played a concert with the Chabot College Night Jazz Band in Hayward. The concert featured the Chabot College Day Band, the Chabot College Night Band, and Eddie Palmieri's Latin Jazz Band.

The Day Band played three numbers, we played four, and then Palmieri played the rest. For the Chabot bands, the stage was in its normal configuration; they lowered the pit and let people dance when Palmieiri played.

The crowd was electric, and huge. I know that as of the Wednesday before, there were 900 seats sold (out of 1400 available). By Friday, most of the rest had been sold; there were very few empty seats.

The Day Band played very well for their level; they have come a long way since the last time I heard them. The drummer, in particular, did a great job.

We played four numbers, all written by our director, Jon Palacio, Jr. He is a gifted big band composer, particularly Latin big band, and his charts almost play themselves. The crowd was very enthusiastic. I have not played for a crowd like that since my high school days (the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston has very good crowds for their jazz band performances). It was great! The only slight downer is that I did not get a solo this time around. It's first concert I have not had a solo in many, many years, probably since 10th grade. Well, that's the breaks when you play bari and the concert is only half an hour. The fun sax soli where the bari does a walking bass line mostly made up for it, though.

And then came Palmeiri's band. I must be getting old. I did not enjoy it all that much. He had Donald Harrison, who is one of the Marsalis-generation New Orleans guys who made several albums in the Eighties with trumpeter Terrence Blanchard. He had Harrisson's nephew, Christian Scott, who could not have been older than 25 on trumpet. And he had some New York guys on bass and percussion that I did not know.

The music was long and rambling. Most of the charts would start out promising, with a salsa or cha-cha mantuno in the piano, and everybody joining in. However, the charts had a very loose form, some with no discernable "tune" or "head". The soloists were allowed to noodle around until past the time when they ran out of ideas. The harmonic structure was brain-dead simple; most charts started with C minor, and then went to Eb minor, back and forth and back and forth. Harrison sounded like a bebop player not used to playing with Latin bands. Scott was fun, but he liked to scream on that trumpet, and by the end, his chops were shreded. The one chart they played which actually had notes and chords, Harrisson and Scott both were scuffling to play.

Frankly, it got boring. And loud and boring is tiring. It was also not really danceable, and there were enough idiots in the dance pit that Jade and I decided to give it a pass.

Jade says that the Night Band stole the show. She is biased, but I tend to agree this time. We had fun, and the crowd loved us. Palmieiri was not nearly as much fun.

I must be getting old.

Our last WAC tournament

My wife and I went to Rice University in Houston, Texas. We are both sports nuts. Rice has not been that good historically, but we still root for them when we can.

Since Rice has been in the Western Athletic Conference, we have tried to make it to the events on the West Coast involving Rice football or basketball, and sometimes baseball. Last weekend was the WAC Conference Tournament for basketball. Rice is moving to the Conference USA next year, so this is the last chance we will get to see them play on the West Coast.

Jade has to travel all over the West Coast for her job, and she usually tries to make her trips match up with Rice's football or basketball schedule, and last week, she had work in Reno, so she went to the games. The plan was if either the women or men made the finals, I would drive up to see them; otherwise, she would just fly home as originally scheduled.

The women made the finals; the men fell short in the semis to UTEP. I drove up Friday night. We stayed at John Ascuaga's Nugget. This place is not pretentious at all; but it is reasonably clean and new, and reasonably priced. The Cafe was too smoky, even in the non-smoking section. California can spoil you.

Jade got to see Asleep at the Wheel before I got there, and had a great time.

That morning, we ate at the Black Bear Diner, because Jade had eaten at the one in Las Vegas and liked it. The service was poor, and the food was only OK. Much prefer Cracker Barrel or Black-Eyed Pea (when we are east of California) for this kind of food.

The women played a dominating game, beating Louisiana Tech by 20 points. Rice's center, Lauren Neaves, was the tournament MVP. They were a blast to watch. Of course, I was watching while playing with the band, the MOB. The band is a lot smaller than when I was there, but it is still great to blow a bari sax as loud as I can, without worrying about pesky things like tone or dynamics. Jade also played in the MOB when we were in college; that's where we met. However, she doesn't play anymore, and did not feel like trying to deal with a tenor sax while seven months pregnant.

The drive back was wonderful; spring time temperatures with snow on the Sierras. Too bad I don't ski!

Fun at the car dealership

So, the tire for my car came in last week. Of course, the dealership did not call to tell me so; I had to call them to find out.

Anyway, I drove the car slowly to the dealership (the run-flat tire had been sitting for a couple of weeks, but they said that for 2 miles, it should be safe.

When I got to the establishment, there were police everywhere, and the showroom and car lot were cordoned off. The service bay was open, and I set up to get my tire installed. I asked what had been happening, and they told about this:

Arrest Made In Oakland Triple Homicide

Yikes! Exciting times indeed.

I did get my car back, and it's great. Although, the first rattle has appeared. I know what is rattling; I will try to get it fixed since it is under warrantly. I'm pretty sure I could fix it myself with some glue, but I would rather not...

Spring Training!

I met my father in Phoenix for the weekend last week. We had fun!

Dad was worried because the weather reports said "Showers with possible thunderstorms". I have live in the West long enough to know that this means that there might be some rain, and even a thunderstorm, but even then, they would be short-lived. I told him to come on.

We went to the Royals-Rangers game in Surprise first. I saw one of my fantasy baseball players live when I had no idea what he looked like before. Calvin Pickering is a huge, African-American man. I had no idea. He hit the ball real hard, but he was called out for passing a base runner on a would-be grand slam. When you are on the bubble like Pickering is (KC seems to think that hitting is not important), you can't afford those kind of mistakes! Rangers won, largely because of this play.

Surprise complex seems really new and clean. The Royals and Rangers share it; there were a lot of fans for both teams. I think that Dad and I annoyed the people around us, though; I gabbed the entire game.

This was also the first opportunity that I could use the Canon 20D camera my wife gave me for my birthday. However, I got no pictures, because I took in the cheap, 3rd party long lens my friend Paul gave me a while back. That lens evidently doesn't talk to the camera right; the camera would display "Err 99" whenever I pressed the shutter.

After the game, we decided to go into Scottsdale to find dinner. After wondering around, we finally settled on a place that smelled pretty good, call the Salty Señorita. We almost regretted this. It was tacky, and a college meat market. The first person who greeted us made us wait for a real hostess. We were seated immediately, but they did not have my dad's first choice, nor my first two choices. We resigned ourselves to mediocre food, especially when the chips came out. They were dripping in grease.

When our entrees arrived, however, we were blown away! They were great!

Presentation: 1 Food: 8

We went back to our hotel, and watched TV. We watched The PeaceMakers, an action film starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Dad's comment was "this movie was well done, technically". My comment was "Kidman looks better as a brunette." We both thought the plot was silly; I had seen this in the theater, and was not impressed either.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites near the Airport. The suite was really nicely laid out and appointed, but the building is starting to get tired. There are rust stains on the drains, etc. The free breakfast was good, though, and the short order cook was fun.

On Sunday, we went to the Angels-A's game at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. First, however, we stopped by the A's training complex. It was deserted. I guess the minor leaguers have not started yet.

The A's game was awful. Outfield error by Swisher, infield error by Ginter, a mediocre start by Etherton, and horrid relief pitching. The final painful total was Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 17, Oakland 4. We got two safeties; I guess we had that going for us. (For those of you who are Baseball Prospectus premium subscribers, Johan Keri has a good writeup here.)

It's spring, however, and hanging outside, in a relaxed small ballpark watching baseball with my Dad was pure joy.

We once again struggled to find a place for dinner. We ended up at this Italian place (Lorenzo's? Pizza) in Tempe. Once again, we were not impressed by the facilities; it was a converted Dairy Queen. But the food was really good.

What a nice way to spend a weekend.

Awesome car; first snag

In December of 2004, I bought a 2005 Corvette Coupe. I had ordered it in June, but it took a while to be ready, since I ordered the DVD navigation system.

This car ROCKS! It is fast, nimble, sexy, comfortable and has enough cargo space for all of my instruments. I have never been so pleased with a car.

However, last week, I found the first thing to complain about. It's hard to complain about this, actually... I was driving home after working really late one night, and I came up over a little rise on the freeway, and there was a tailpipe sitting there that I could not avoid. After running it over, the car rightly detected that I had a flat right front tire. The cool thing is that this car has run-flat tires. The console on the car informed me that there was a flat, and that I should drive 55 MPH, and the handling was "reduced".

Since they run for 50 more miles, and I was 32 miles from home, that was cool. I did not have to sit on the side of the freeway, either changing a tire or waiting for a tow truck or anything. I am very happy with that aspect of the car.

However, when I called the dealer the next morning, I found out that the tire is severely back-ordered. I have to wait two weeks for a replacement. I'm glad we still have the other car, because I still have something to drive in.

However, this car ROCKS!

Nice concert

I saw the Jubilee Trio in Palo Alto last night. My friend Tom is in this group. The piano and violin player have been in the trio for years; Tom is the newest member, taking over for the cello player.

They opened with a Beethoven theme and variations piece, which was ok, but I found it kind of dull and repetitive. However, it was masterfully played.

Their second number was a set of two tangoes by Astor Piazzolla, set to piano trio. I wished my wife had been there, and they could have let us dance! Alas, she was flying home from her mother's in Kentucky, so she could not make the concert.

The music was beautiful; my only quibble was that the downbeats were not over-top-accented, like authentic tango music. They didn't ask me for coaching, however!

The last number was a Dvorak trio, op. 90. At six movements, it was a little long, but what a beautiful piece of music.

Overall, the group was excellent. As with any setting where you have individual string players, there were about a dozen notes that were not quite in tune; this is always true, and is not a real indictment of the excellent playing.

The piano was a little loud, and drowned out the cello here and there.

I really enjoyed this group; I do not go to many chamber music concerts, but this one exceeded my expectations. Bravo, Tom!