It's Hot in Here!

Water Bottle Found

Breaking story from Poulsbo. I found my water bottle. Now I can go home and maybe I'll find my mug.

Hot Jazz - Baby!

More and more of what I'm listening to lately seems to be what is called "Hot Club" jazz. "Founded" by legendary gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, violinist, the genre usually included 3 guitars, a violinist and a stand-up bass player. Of course over the years there have been many variations. There actually was a "Hot Club" where they played in Paris in the 30's plus there was a French music society called the Hot Club de France. Mark O'Connor has a couple of albums out in this style. If you like really hot guitar and violin with a stand-up bass holding down the beat, you would really enjoy "Hot Swing!" The guitarist on this album is Frank Vignola who is incredible!

Thoughts for the day:

1. I am thankful for my typing teacher in Junior High. Who would have thought we'd all be spending so much time typing (I think it might be called keyboarding now though). I know I missed quite a bit of the class and that's why I have problems with the punctuation keys and the numbers.
2. I am thankful that I have many interests. I like rounded things. It may not make ME well-rounded, but I realized lately that so many things that I like are kind of rounded. Examples you ask? Airstream trailers. MacBooks. DC-3 airplanes. 1952 Chevy pick ups. iphones. Certain girl parts. And the list goes on...
3. Has anybody seen my SIGG mug that I just got? And now the SIGG water bottle is missing too. I only had them for a couple of weeks!

Al Gore for President in 2008

After reading Al Gore's recent book "Assault on Reason" and seeing "An Inconvenient Truth" I realized that this may just be the guy that is most qualified to lead our nation at this time. Smart, articulate, caring, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mr. Gore needs to be convinced to run in 2008. The Al Gore 2008 Draft Campaign web site has a petition you can sign "asking Al Gore to run in 2008". Several polls show that if he were to run, he would be the leading Democratic candidate at this time.
ACTION: read the book, see the movie, sign the petition and pass it on!

Dawg Music at Jazz Alley

Sunday night’s secret location was Jazz Alley in Seattle where we saw the incredible mandolinist David Grisman. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The inventor of the all-acoustic instrumental “dawg music” has been well-known in music circles since the 70’s when he came out with the first David Grisman Quintet album. This genre of music that combines jazz, swing and newgrass music is very much inspired by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, members of the Quintette of the Hot Club of France, as well as bluegrass music. The latest addition to the David Grisman Quintet is Frank Vignola one of the highest rated guitar players at this time. This band blew us away!
You can sample and purchase Grisman’s music at the Acoustic Disc web site. And... there is a free daily download available there, just to get you in the swingin’ mood...

Happy Birthday Shorty!

Having just returned from a 2-week road trip through the SW, what could possibly top that? Shorty's birthday of course! Happy Birthday Shorty, my traveling companion through the NW, the SW, and life. I love you, Boo.
P.S. - Guess where we're going tomorrow night?
Shorty doesn't know, can you guess?