Young cats

Oh, "cats" in the sense of jazz musicians.

The other night my son handed me the phone and said that his friend David wanted to talk to me. David told me that he and some other musicians that he knows from Stanford Jazz Camp were playing at a coffee shop Saturday morning. I showed up, had some breakfast, and enjoyed some darn good music.

David is on drums in the center of the picture above. Last year he put together a band that I hired for my birthday party. Everyone was amused to see high school kids in baggy shorts playing the old jazz standards.

They "keep jazz alive", like they say on KCSM, the local jazz radio station.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I read this book in one sitting on a cross country flight. Mark Hadden has written this funny but heart tugging novel from the point of view of Christopher, a 15-year-old autistic boy. Brilliantly written and a real page turner. Highly recommended!

Return through North Carolina

After the week in Massachusetts, I flew down to Charlotte, NC. My childhood friend Linda lives there with her wonderful husband, Bill. Another Pennsylvania friend, Rose was stopping for the weekend with her (also wonderful) husband Dick. So the five of us ate, talked, laughed, and had a great time. My theory is that once we lose our parents, longtime friends gain in importance since they are a link to our childhood.

Left to right: Rose, Mary, Linda:



Second grade picture -- can you find us? Linda is 4 from the left in the front row, Rose is 4 from the left in the middle row, I am 6 from the left in the middle row.



Click here to see photos from the whole trip.

A Trip to the Home Office

Last week I went to Bedford, Massachusetts to attend a new hire orientation class. I took advantage of the trip to meet and talk to colleagues who work there. I still cannot believe my good luck in landing this job.


There was a nice rainstorm the night before I took this picture.

Tokyo Story

Yasujiro Ozu made comtemporary films about Japanese families. He is famous for a low-angle camera "tatami-eye view", evident in the photo above.

Tokyo Story (1953) is about adult children and aging parents, so I can certainly identify with the situation. The aftermath of the war and everyday life in Japan at that time is interesting as well. The DVD has a good commentary on the craft of the film.

Click here for more about this movie.

Click here for Roger Ebert's tribute to Tokyo Story which is on his top 100 great movies list.

iPod

In our continuing project to give all of our money to Apple Computers, we got an iPod this week. Of course, the capacity is huge, but I'm working on filling it up. It sounds good.

More about the iPod.

Jimmy Cobb at Stanford Jazz Festival

We went to see this concert on Tuesday. Cobb is now 75 years old and is still laying down a great beat. One of his claims to fame is that he played drum on the best selling jazz album of all time, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. We saw him a couple of years ago and he knocked my socks off. This time he was merely great.

For more on this concert, click here.