Bill: Would you unlock this for our class?
Me: of course.
Bill: You are an excellent teacher and an invaluable asset to the school.

I persuaded Chris to go and hear music with me, and she, in turn, persuaded me to ride our bikes down to the club, which is not too far from Zuni Cafe. She rides fast, and we whizzed through the darkened park. The streetlights were shrouded in clouds of fog and the city was quiet ( Read more... )

Yesterday evening, my sinuses were unclogged and I didn't have even a hint of a headache. I had said earlier that day that I had forgotten what it was like to feel healthy. It jogged my memory. It also jogged my memory of what it's like to play with a drummer whose principal concern is not keeping a steady beat. Ah, anamnesis ( Read more... )

You have a chance to throw your two cents into my classroom. Should I have my kids learn "Lady Be Good" or "Pennies From Heaven? I feel like they both cross the bridge from early jazz to swing. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Would you believe that my teacher didn't show up again? He called me at 11:25, twenty-five minutes after he was supposed to be here, to tell me he just woke up and that he thought that times before noon were not going to work unless I went to HIS house, premably to wake him up. Phooey. And I have Bartok's microcosmos just about where I want it. ( Read more... )

Almost since I cleaned up the mess, I have been looking for an idea with which to follow my phenomenally successful Mideaeiauval Symposium. I think I may have struck gold. March 15, it's ( Read more... )

Last night I dreamed that I went to Tibet with an eighth-grade class. While there, a Mongol warlord called Ghengiz Khan invaded Tibet, and I joined his troops and saved the life of one of his wives. Soon, I found that the United States was going to war against Mongolia, and the dream ended with me at a dinner party asking an American Major why, ( Read more... )

I have a five-pound bag of corn chips.

Those of you who have been reading this journal for the last year will know that, if I have a nemesis, it is Golden Gate park, and if there’s one thing I don’t understand the appeal of, it is dog ownership. But miracles happen every day, and I am learning to appreciate both ( Read more... )

My humble jazz and poetry gig was written up in the chronicle:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/22/DDGVAK2TLD1.DTL