You Have Arrived at Your Destination

Becky and I made it to sunny California. If paradise is full of traffic, this is paradise. Right now, we are staying with a couple that works at USC until we get to know the area and move into our own place. I already found two record stores that beat anything I found in NYC: Amoeba Music in Hollywood and Rockaway Records in Silverlake. Nothing makes me smile like a rack of quality $2 CDs. For the next month, I'll be studying for my entrance exams while Becky steadfastly looks for work. Los Angeles is surprisingly beautiful and inviting. So far, so good.

That's all for now. Pictures from our travels are forthcoming. Could hard times be over? I'll keep you posted.

Quite Possibly the Most Beautiful Thing Ever Said

After coining the hilarious phrase, "you cannot out-engineer crazy" in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine (Nov. 15, 2007, p. 124), Jon Stewart says quite possibly the most beautiful thing ever. When asked if he's still an optimist after coining the above phrase, Stewart responds:

"The reason I don't worry about society is, nineteen people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands. Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them. I'll take those odds every fucking day."

The Future of Jazz Scholarship

God help us all.



This is from Lewis's end-of-semester birthday party, starring Lucas, Luis, yours truly, Joe, Lewis, Darren, Lou, Tim, Lyn and Andrew. We played ping-pong and frisbee, and ate cake—it was the shiznit.



I did my best to keep a beat in a trio with Darren and Lewis, but I was in way over my head. But did I have fun, you ask? Yes. Yes I did.

Life With My Wife

Check out her blog Nickles. It rhymes with pickles.

Where I'm At

I have two small projects left to finish for my first year in the Jazz History and Research program at Rutgers-Newark, and one big exciting project left in my College Teaching class with Lion Gardiner. I'm expected to map out my first undergradute course and develop an entire unit from start to finish, using the research-based techniques that I learned in class. My first course is Rock Music & Culture, which begins in July, and the unit is Hip Hop. I can't wait! I also need to catch up on my internship with Jazz at Lincoln Center; this weekend, I plan to finish my Thelonious Monk timeline.

With all of this writing in my life, I decided to start a new blog. I want to publish my notes for the two Hip Hop classes I taught for my classmate Andrew's Intro to Music course, and of course, I want to share the exciting experience of my first teaching gig as a guest lecturer. I had revelations, difficulties, challenges, and one of the greatest moments of my life. I'll be sure to post them all if you're interested.

I also have an unusual new insight into the music of Rush (what?!), I want to publish a new list of my favorite records, and I'm assembling a Google Map for my project for the Billie Holiday and Lester Young course with Lewis Porter. In the next month, I should be able to post about each of these.

I hope you find all of this interesting to read. I want to keep up with everyone, so please post comments and email me. For those who don't know, Brian just got his first (of many!) dream jobs as an editor at a magazine. Mike and Stacey had their first child, Michael Prescott, last month. Steven and Kiersten had their third child, Kaylee Ann, in January. Sean should be finishing his first year of graduate school any day now, and Wes just opened a new art studio space in Minneapolis. I'm also emailing this to some of my classmates to add new spice for us old fogeys.

If anyone would rather I didn't post information about them on this blog, let me know privately, and I'll take it down, though note that I don't use last names. Thank you for reading and I'll catch up with you soon.