Month: August 2013

In Lieu…

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… of an actual blog post, the last recorded musical homework of my Introduction to Jazz Improvisation course that I’ve been taking over at Coursera. Two tunes this week, because we have no analysis/written homework this time. The first was a blues in concert F: Yes, the horn section sucks. But I wanted the tune to have a little more oomph. I actually made the foolish assumption that the track was going at a steady tempo, but it wasn’t, so I couldn’t cut and paste the horn section stuff to another chorus as I’d intended. Ah well… (EDIT: I redid …

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The Other City of Angels by S.P. Somtow

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Well, I haven’t posted about any of the books I’ve read lately, so I may as well start again, and I figure this is as good a place as any to begin. Somtow Sucharitkul (who goes by S.P. Somtow in his fiction writing career) has always struck me as someone who might be a kindred spirit, someone I’d like to sit down with for a beer or coffee or something. He’s a classical musician (conductor and composer), an SF author, and has spent significant chunks of his life living abroad. His blog amuses me, and he has done amazing things …

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Yes, Except…

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Note: This post was pre-written for posting long ago. I set it to autopublish later on, as I won’t be having much internet access for the next few days. I do have it, off and on, but not enough to be logging in and writing posts for the moment. I’m working on a somewhat complex series of posts that in a sense distill and clarify things I’ve been thinking about (and writing about here) lately for a while, tied to writing, writing theory and writing books, Hollywood, and modern culture in general. But that “somewhat complex” means it takes time. …

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WWSRD? (What Would Sonny Rollins Do?)

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The title of this post is a question every tenor saxophonist asks himself or herself at some point, and I think it belongs on a T-shirt. I’d buy a few of them for myself, to be sure! Anyway, what led me to come up with this expression is that my homework this week in my Jazz Improvisation course at Coursera involved recording the head (the pre-existing melody) and one chorus of (imporvised) solo on Keith Jarrett’s tune, “Memories of Tomorrow.” I actually have a relationship with this tune going back to high school: my saxophone teacher at the time, Mike …

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Back to Our Regularly Scheduled…. Er? Happy Birthday and Anniversary, Mrs. Jiwaku!

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There’s been a lull around here. That’s been for a combination of reasons, some of which are personal and which I won’t go into, but also because Mrs. Jiwaku and I have been rather busy lately. This week, we: found the apartment we’ll be living in for the next six months,  celebrated our anniversary, and celebrated Mrs. Jiwaku’s birthday For her birthday, I got her a portable black metal easel for painting, because she’s really gotten into that hobby. I figured a metal easel would be easier to move around than a wooden one–to stick into a trunk and bring …

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