Tap... tap... is this thing on?

A challenge to my fellow patriots

2008-11-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

There's no question that this election has been intense. It's probably been the most emotionally-charged (if you don't count the vote-counting disasters) in my lifetime. So I have a challenge for every American who, like I, considers themselves a patriot.

On November 5th, go find someone--preferably a stranger, and in your neighborhood--who voted opposite you. Buy that person a drink. And find something to agree on.

I don't know what will ultimately solve our problems as a nation. But if each one of us can buy a drink for someone who disagrees with us, we'll be a part of that solution.

Buy that drink, toast our democracy, and work WITH your neighbors. And please let me know how it went.

Words fail me

2008-10-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

This was the scene at the musicians' union (Local 47) in Hollywood at about 6:45 tonight. Of course when I went in to the rehearsal room and told my bandmates about it, I got a chorus of blank stares. Bastards. ;-)

Gotcha!

2008-10-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

An unusual noise got me to look up toward my next-door neighbor's tree, and fortunately I was able to grab a camera and my long lens quickly enough to get *ONE* shot off before this guy split. No time to adjust exposure, unfortunately, so I did some rough editing using the curves tool in Photoshop to bring him out of the shadows. A more careful pass is probably warranted.

Jet-lagged in Amsterdam

2008-09-26T21:37:00.000-07:00

So the blog has fallen nearly into disuse. I get it.

But hey, better late than never, right?

So it's a few minutes after 6am and I've been up for two hours because I'm an idiot and I never follow my plan to NOT crash immediately after stepping off my flight in some European city. Slept from about 12:30-6:30pm, then showered, went out for dinner, walked around, and crashed again at 11pm. And now I'm awake, hungry again, and wishing I could not hate myself for paying €3.75 for a small tube of Pringles from the minibar. Normally I keep a granola bar or two stashed in my computer bag for between-classes emergencies, but I've gone through all the pockets to no avail. Damn me for being stupid.

But at 7:00, SOMETHING should be open, so I just have to hold out a little longer. Meanwhile, I should catch up on life since my last blog post was months ago. Hmm. Classes start this week, and I'm teaching Strategic Management again, using an updated version of our strategy game that I haven't actually tried yet. Should be chock-full of frustration, given the bugs they found in beta. What else? Oh yeah... been subbing on a few pro bands, which is fun, but nerve-wracking as hell when I'm the new kid in the room, playing with a bunch of folks I go to clubs to see. Got my butt kicked this past week subbing on Roger Neumann's band in rehearsal, but it was after nearly three solid days of oh-my-god-don't-f***-up-the-part sightreading on similar bands, and I guess I just got too mentally exhausted. I'm not sure whether being on this trip for four or so days without horns will be good or bad for my chops, but I suppose I'll find out.

Not much else happening and I'm tired of listening to my stomach growl, so it's off to find a shop--or at least a vending machine--somewhere. More later...

A study in contrasts

2008-06-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

Just.... wow.

Need recycling help?

2008-04-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

Was wondering whether I could recycle old CDs tonight, and stumbled on the Internet Consumer Recycling Guide, maintained by the folks over at obviously.com. Especially helpful is their page, The World's Shortest Comprehensive Recycling Guide. Good for posting on the back door (or wherever stuff gets sorted in your house).

I can haz microcar?

2008-04-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

Been lusting after these cars since I first saw one in London in 2003, and when I learned early last year that Daimler was *finally* going to make them available in the U.S., I signed up and anxiously awaited the car's launch.

So... about a year later, I finally get to drive my own smart fortwo. And boy, is it cool.

A few specs: This car has a 1-liter gasoline-powered engine. It's a two-seater that weighs in at about 1800 pounds, and is just under 9' long by 5' wide. The EPA mileage rating on it is about 42/highway, which is better than every gas-powered car sold in the U.S. except for two: The Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic hybrid. However, *this* car doesn't come with the $23,000+ pricetag those do, and... well... let's just say it's WAY more fun to drive.

Oh yeah... you can just about park it on a postage stamp. :-)

Pic of the week: Spring comes to Cal Poly

2008-03-13T12:06:00.001-07:00

Gotta love California. 'Nuff said.

Pic of the day: Lunch with a view

2008-03-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

My Pic of the Day project will probably be more of an occasional series now, but I'm going to try to keep them frequent. Today's is a no-brainer; I'm having lunch at the In-n-Out on Sepulveda right by LAX. It's right under the 24L approach (maybe 1/4 mile from the piano keys), so the view is awesome, especially in the afternoon when the heavies begin to arrive from Europe. :)

Got assholism?

2008-02-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading Meg Fowler's excellent blog post, "how not to be an asshole or encourage assholism on the internet: a handy guide" and I was compelled to link to it here.

Yes, I'm known to be sort of an offender in this area; I visit a number of web forums, and sometimes when I'm confronted with an obvious troll it's all too tempting to take the bait. I'm working on that--mostly by asking myself, "Do I *really* want to spend my time responding to this, or could I be practicing my horn, instead?" This is tending to curtail my participation on a couple of these forums, but it sure is a better way to re-direct my energy, and my chops improve as a result... ;-)

EDIT/SEGUE: Of course now I'm about to sort-of violate this whole philosophy, but... it's becoming rapidly apparent that the OWNER of one of the forums I post on is actually taking the cake on internet assholism. The parent company,an outfit mostly known for a form of cyber-squatting known as "domaining," Demand Media, purchased the site Airliners.net, and instead of nurturing the already-existing sense of "community" there as they claim, they're developing a rather antagonistic attitude toward users who are unhappy with things such as system outages, the dismissing of respected volunteer community leaders (also paying customers) who give unwelcome feedback, and shoddy communication with the rest of their customer base. It's astonishing that a company in the business of social networking and user-generated sites would seem to exhibit such a loathing for the members who make those communities possible, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by ANYTHING anymore when it comes to the internet.

More on this in a future post...

Pic of the day: Evil lurks in the back row

2008-02-26T22:54:00.000-08:00

Trumpet players. You gotta love 'em... especially since it's illegal to kill them.

Pictured here are a couple of the rare, tolerable ones. Taken tonight at rehearsal; that's Ron Sewer on the left, and Kendall Wallace on the right.

And yes, I know I missed a couple days' pictures. I'm make 'em up, I guess. Sorry mom.

Pic of the day: My axes

2008-02-24T23:19:00.000-08:00

Two of them, anyway--these are the alto and the tenor. I was kinda hunting around for something to shoot, and since these are usually close by and since I really like the way saxophones look, here they are. The shot is underexposed, but my strobe aren't working and I haven't had time to get them fixed, dangit.

If you're a sax geek, here's what you're looking at: The one on the right is my Yamaha Custom 875 tenor, which I'm just back to playing more of lately. The horn on the left is my Yamaha 82 Custom "Z" alto, and yes, it's in silver plate. I use a copper Phil Barone neck on that horn, which makes it look a little odd but boy--it sure does play.

And just in case you hate baby animals...

2008-02-23T16:06:00.001-08:00

Clicking here will help you get over all that saccharine cuteness I posted on Thursday. And yes, I know I have a twisted sense of humor. My mother just told me.

More toys at www.netdisaster.com.

Pic of the day: Arts in schools

2008-02-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

One of the cooler things I get to do as a musician involves playing in elementary schools with the Burbank Community Band. This photo was from this morning's concert (I'm in the back row of the flute section) at a nearby magnet school. The band is an all-volunteer group, and we do this about once every month or two on Friday mornings. It's fun to see how the kids get totally into the music and the instruments--especially the big ones, like the tubas.

With the current budget crisis, the teachers and administrators are especially glad to have us out on campus, as funding for performing arts has all but dried up. Remember to support the arts in YOUR community!

Pics of the Day: Campus residents

2008-02-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

What do you do for your loyal blog readers when you're posting two days' worth of pictures late? Give them baby animals. Can't miss.

So Thursday after class, I took a stroll down to "Ag Valley" and said hello to some of our newest residents. This little guy was absolutely charming.

Anyone who knows goats knows they like to climb stuff. This tyke was getting his practice by climbing... his mom. He was pretty good at balancing there, too.

The other thing goats like to do is play. These youngsters were jousting at the back of the pen.

It was close to dinnertime when I was out there, and although the goats were curious and friendly, it wasn't surprising that the guy with the chow wagon was WAY more popular with them than I was.

Finally, here's a species I didn't know we had on campus. This pair of llamas had a baby in the stall, and boy... they look just like teddy bears with long necks. Funny and irresistible.

Pic of the day: Eclipse

2008-02-20T23:00:00.000-08:00

For those who didn't get to see the lunar eclipse, now you can... sort of. I think what was really eclipsed was my ability to take a decent shot of this, at least with no advance preparation. With a an SLR, a tripod and a long lens, it might have worked. With the PowerShot, you get... um... the general idea, anyway.

And yes, I'm posting this late. One of several...

Pic of the Day: Splash

2008-02-19T23:59:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late posting this, but what the heck. The engineering student clubs were having a noon fair yesterday, and I snapped this picture of the "Dunk Your Professor" booth on my way to my office. It's probably a good thing the business students haven't caught on to this yet, because it was NOT a warm day and I'm not sure I could be as good a sport as this professor obviously was.

Pic of the day: Data

2008-02-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

So it looks like I'm switching over the the "to Hell with lame notions of artistic purity--I'll use whatever camera I want" mode on my Pics of the Day. That doesn't keep me from wondering what the heck I'm going to shoot come 11pm, but it does give me the option of trying something weird, hence the attached photo. I often catch myself staring into the prisms on CDs, and when I saw an old one in the trash can (can't we recycle these things yet?) I wondered what the camera would do with that kind of surface. Well, it won't take a super-sharp pic, but it did strike me as moderately interesting, so here it is. EXIF data, for those who care about such things, are 1/8 sec @ f/4.5, ISO 200, no flash.

Pic of the day: Frustration

2008-02-17T23:49:00.000-08:00

Well, my little project (or resolution, or whatever it is) has turned out to be at least a little frustrating. To recap, my original intention was to take and post a photo each day from my cell phone. The idea was to make this sort of a photo-autobiography in the sense that these would be images from my environment. The problem, unfortunately, has been that my cellphone camera seems to be very limited in what sort of conditions it can get a decent (by my standards) photo.

Take, for example, yesterday's F-104 photo. I've discovered that the cellphone handles photos best when there's plenty of light. But it seems like too much of it (in this case, the highlight off the plane's canopy) tends to blow out the white point and lead to the really weird color balance you can see in the photo. For purposes of comparison, here's a unedited shot I took at the same time using a Canon Powershot SD750 (click the photo for a larger version):

While this photo isn't perfect, it does reveal the limitations in my original cellphone photo. The hues are more accurate, and whites appear to be rendered a little more nicely. I get the opposite problem with low-light photos: I don't know if any cellphones include a flash, since (I would think, anyway) that would be a HUGE drain on the battery, so the camera's software has to compensate by increasing the exposure time (leading to blurs), or the ISO (which gives you graininess). Argh.

So... I suppose I have to decide whether to continue doing this according to my original plan regardless of the usually crappy photo quality, or to free myself to use whatever camera I happen to feel like using. Time will tell, I guess, but I'm going to violate my own rules today for this image, which I simply could not have gotten with the phone:

Eeek! Bones! A little backyard paleontology here... we've been taking out a deck that's falling apart in places and needs to be replaced with a small garage-type building. While pulling up some supports, I spotted these bones and thought I'd share them. My guess is they're rat bones (and yes, mom... I washed my hands afterwards), but I'm surprised I found them before the dogs did. This image was also useful, since it helped me discover that you can actually take something approaching a macro photo using a little point-and-shoot. Just zoom way out, back up a foot or two (like you would if you're doing this with an SLR and a long lens), and take several shots so that you've got a decent chance of getting the focus right. Cool.

Pic of the day: Rotate!

2008-02-16T13:52:00.001-08:00

The weather was pretty nice today, so I took the scooter down the Olive Recreation Center to get this pic. Burbank was home to Lockheed for many years, and the community still exhibits strong emotional ties to that part of its history. This F-104 Starfighter is one of the many artifacts of this relationship, and makes a terrific sentinel at the building entrance.

Fun on eBay: That's a WHAT?!?!

2008-02-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

A forum friend posted a link tonight to a current eBay auction for an "Excellent Baritone Saxophone." I was by now familiar with this particular breed of auctioneer, but morbid curiosity drove me to have a look. I wasn't disappointed.
(Note: font size and color edited in the interest of good taste.)

Hello! Welcome to my shop.
I am a musical instrument dealer, the management GuZhen, Saxophone, violin, ErHu, the bottle gourd silk, guitar, lute, Mandolin, flute, tuba, about several 100 species can provide you choice! Please first look the photos, Its texture is very well. Look at the pictures you can see the shape is very well . So wonderful item . please don't miss it ! It is most valued. It will bring good luck for you, I believe you are a very standout buyer. If you know the value of my item. Please bid my item. I have many other wonderful collect item on me store. Please view my other items . If you need please send E-mail to me.If you be music fancier, the chance to of the so better of the not miss of the please do get it. Enjoying your bidding!!!

The photo, of course, is the kicker. It's the tiniest baritone saxophone I've ever seen. In fact, I'd bet it's pitched in Bb looks/sounds every bit like a soprano, but you just never know about these eBay guys... perhaps this is the pocket bari we've all secretly been hoping for.

Not sure how (or if) one of these horns would play, but in the interest of fairness, I'll post a link to the seller's current auctions, just in case anyone wants to give one a try. Even if you don't want to shop, I'm sure they'll make for amusing reading.

Pic of the day: Zzzzzzz....

2008-02-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

For those who haven't met her, this is Punky, my evil little Monsterdog. Punky has no eyes, so it's sometimes difficult to tell if she's sleeping. In general, though, I know that if she's standing, she's probably awake. If she's snoring, she's either asleep or ignoring me.

Pic of the day: Bzzzzzz!

2008-02-14T22:50:00.000-08:00

I haz beez!

Growing up, we always had a hive on the yard, since my dad was a beekeeper as sort of a hobby/obsession. He'd harvest the honey and put it in jars, and we'd sell it in a little stand at the curb after school. Decades later, I ended up with a bunch of bees living under a deck in the backyard, but there was no way to save the colony at the time. But dad had an old box around, so after I'd bugged him enough, he brought over this colony and they've been living here ever since. The plants LOVE these guys, and they've been busy, so I'm gonna have to get in there soon to add another level to the hive.

Their front door, by the way, is the slot you see toward the bottom. There's a Morning Glory behind them that's gone absolutely nuts since they arrived--to the point where we have to be careful about trimming it or it tries to attack the house...

Pic of the day: Love for sale

2008-02-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

It's the day before V-Day, which means that a few women and most men are at the mall right this minute, procuring an expression of their love... or whatever. This particular shop was packed.

Me? Just getting some Mongolian food... I'd rather be nice ALL year than just on one day. :-)

Pic of the day: Radiation

2008-02-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

Dungeon? Haunted house? Nope, this is just the hallway in the auditorium building of our local community college. I don't know why this grizzled old radiator remains, or why it was located inches from an exterior door in the first place, but I do like the creepiness of the scene. Boo!