Jay Rakes Band @ Patty O’Brien’s in Portsmouth, VA with Hypercane opening.
Monthly Archive for October, 2005
I just found a really awesome ‘online document’ by a guy named Marc Sabatella called A Jazz Improvisation Primer. This is an online version to a text that he sells privately, providing some broad insights to the ins and outs of Jazz improv without really zeroing in on one of the many methods on the market. Good. Methods stink. I also think he’s pretty cool for having an online version for all to see. Jazz, in it’s way, is the original expression of the American open source ideaology. It’s no surprise that Mr. Sabatella used to be a software engineer.
There is a new track on the ‘Listen’ page. It unintentionally sounds like a half-assed Squarepusher rip-off. My apologies, Mr. Jenkinson.
I haven’t been posting much in awhile, mostly because I can’t decide what to write about, lately. My decision making faculties have been dull to say the least. I can’t seem to tie my shoes without asking someone which shoe I should tie first. I’ve never been particularly good at making quick, on the spot decisions, and now it seems as though any decision at all is a problem for me.
I guess you could say that things aren’t going as grandly as they could be, financially speaking. But lest we forget that my motto in the face of crisis is “Deny, deny, deny!!!” Actually, my motto in the face of crisis has historically been: “Go to sleep! It will be better when you wake up!” and that hasn’t ever worked for me. So I’m dropping “withdrawal” and trying out “denial.” So I have decided to deny that I am in any sort of financial peril, and so far, so good. Hey I made a decision!! Maybe things are getting better, after all!
Yesterday as Kim and I were going to Warrior’s Grill for dinner there was a scraggily homeless man begging for change at the signal before Great Neck (which is the homeless modus operandi in Hampton Roads, no one stands in front of convenient stores anymore). As the cars slowed to a stop he struck a military salute. For a moment, I felt kind of guilty for worrying about my own personal disorder and I decided to do the right thing: I asked Kim for some change because I didn’t have any to give him!! By the time she handed me a dollar he had walked down the curb and the light changed so I had to go.
There is that first step towards optimism that goes “Well, at least I’m not on fire!” and in Hampton Roads it could just as well be “at least I’m not in The Navy!!”
