Merry Cow-mass!

My only Christmas decoration this year--I like to keep it surreal.

Have a great holiday, everyone!

I've died and gone to heaven

There is now a BevMo store in my neighborhood. $.25 wine tastings rock.

Superjumbo!

Turned on the computer this morning, and learned that the Airbus A380 would be arriving at LAX at 11:45am. Wow. A couple of phone calls later, my mom and dad were on their way and we watched the plane come in from the Proud Bird parking lot. Unfortunately, my camera was acting up seconds before I started shooting and I wasn't able to get decent settings to deal with the haze, but at least this will document what we saw. It's HUGE! :-)

Aww... sweepy widdle possums!

My dad snapped these photos in his backyard. Turns out that there's not one, but TWO possums snoozing away in this flowerpot. They're cute, in sort of a weird way.

(Clicking on an image opens a larger version.)

Computers: Tools, or tyrants?

Hmm. This post by my twitter friend Maria Langer has got me thinking about the lure of the computer, the internet, and their ability to infiltrate every waking moment in a geek's life--not always for the better.

I don't watch TV, to speak of. Yes, I'll turn it on once or twice a week during football season, partially because I'm a rabid UCLA fan, but also because I just like watching the game. Occasionally, I'll watch a movie, but this is on the order of about once a month or two. But mostly, the TV stays off, and I'm glad my life isn't ruled by what's on during primetime. Unfortunately--and I'm being completely honest here--I don't have the same self-control when it comes to my computer, smartphone, and iPod. I'm a gadget geek to logarithmic proportions, and I know full well that those can have the same frustrating effects on life and productivity.

For those of us who fight ADD and its related impulses, the computer is both friend and foe. It's obviously a useful tool, and since I'm big on integrating technology into my classes, I am forced to spend a lot of time in front of the keyboard. The geek in me doesn't begrudge that one bit, since I enjoy tinkering, learning, and keeping up on networking trends (lately, the uses and misuses of social media) is informative and fun. The problem, I think, is that in my business, the lines between work and the kind of play that intrigues me are so blurry as to be indistinguishable. When I surf around to people's blogs on barcamp and Startup Weekend, am I working or goofing off? Both, it seems, and because of that, it's damned difficult to set limits on either one. What do I miss as a result? Well, time to exercise, housework, practice, walk with the dogs, etc. I do all those things (well, most of them... housework has a tendency to drop off the priority list a lot), but I'm sure I don't get to them as soon as I should.

What's the solution? Well, I don't know... I think Maria's computer-less days might be one way to de-tox. Putting myself on a strict schedule is probably going to be a must, since one reality of my work is that I have to be reachable for at least a while each day. Since I tend to abhor structure (but secretly need it), scheduling is likely to be an interesting exercise. Anyone have suggestions for making it work?

Meanwhile, I'll try shutting the computer down when I leave my office in the next hour and leaving it in my bag until, say, 10pm. After that I make no promises, but I'll see what I can do. Wish me luck!

Food!

So much is happening that I don't really know where to begin a blog post, so I'll throw up a recipe.

First, some background: Everyone should have an Aunt Lynda. Mine lives a couple of states away, and she and my uncle have this incredible home that calls out to visitors, "come hang out with us for a while... it's therapeutic!" Weekends with them are generally spent watching for bunnies in the garden, hiking, staring out at the prairie, staying up late, playing cards... stuff like that. Things I never get around to at home, but ones that, in the right company, seem to drain the accumulated angst of life away. Yeah, there was that time my cousin and I got completely smashed on gin cosmopolitans while we were there, but that's a rare (though probably necessary at the time) occurrence.

Anyhow... on my last visit, we were playing pitch in the middle of the afternoon, and for some reason everyone was hungry. Dinner wasn't planned for some time, so my aunt threw together a great salsa that staved off starvation, and it (or a variation thereof) has since become a football-season staple here at home. I call it, simply,

Aunt Lynda's Black Bean Salsa

(All measurements here are approximate; use as much as you like)
1 15-oz can black beans, drained
1/4 cup cut yellow corn
About 1/2 tomato, chopped fine
About 1 tbsp diced jalapeno pepper, seeds removed (optional)
1-2 cloves garlic, pressed
About 3-4 chopped green onions, or a couple tbsp red or brown onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp bell pepper, finely chopped
olive oil
salt to taste

Throw everything together in a bowl with enough olive oil to mix well and refrigerate until someone attacks it (this stuff doesn't last long at my house, but it's actually better after it's been around a day or so).

Serve as a dip with chips or veggies, or fill a pita with the dip and a slice of cheese, and toss it in the toaster oven for about 5-10 minutes. This recipe also scales easily; simply add more of everything and adjust as necessary until it looks right.

Oliver, Oliver....

... *$&%@!

Been playing that show for two weekends now, and the main theme is driving me to distraction. It's worse, probably, because I'm covering the bassoon book (on bass clarinet--more on that in a moment), and the bassoon is the first to play that theme. Solo. Unaccompanied. And it's one of those tunes that glues itself into your aural memory for several days after hearing it, so you get to enjoy it well into the next week. Argh.

So exactly how does one cover a bassoon part on bass clarinet? Originally, my plan was to transpose the book from the bassoon key (bass clef and in C) to the bass clarinet's key (treble clef, Bb), but that was before a) I ended up having to re-work two of my classes for fall, and b) I actually got a look at the book. It's the small orchestra book--about 70 pages of stuff that includes bassoon rather prominently, and there isn't enough time in my universe to transcribe the whole thing. I was actually starting to panic when a random perusal of Craigslist enabled plan B, which was to play the show on my newly-acquired contra-alto clarinet. I bought the horn from a local composer, and it's a beast! The range of the instrument goes down to low Eb (the lowest Gb on a piano), and since it's keyed in Eb, playing a bass clef part in the key of C is possible by reading it as though it were in treble clef and adding three sharps to the key signature (as well as reversing a lot of accidentals). It's not difficult, exactly, but it does take some getting used to, especially when lines of sixteenth notes are flying by, and some are also in tenor clef, which shifts everything down one note or one space. Finally, throw in the stuff I have to take down an octave because it's out of the contra-alto's practical range (pretty much anything above high C), and you end up with music that keeps me on my toes. I know every serious woodwind doubler deals with this, but it does make reading big band charts seem like a welcome relief. The only other little snag I deal with is the odd part that ends up being impossible to play once it's transposed... and unfortunately, that solo section on the main theme falls in that category. I dealt with this by putting the first two numbers into the key of Bb instead and playing them on bass clarinet, which makes them tricky but still playable. It means lugging two instruments out instead of one, but there was no way I was going to make that section work otherwise. Ho-hum.

Of course, situations like these always have an upside, and in this case it's that I'm having to get the bass clarinet out and work on my chops a bit, which reminds me of how much I like playing that instrument. It's sort of like the regular clarinet, but with a prettier low register and some extra notes. Mine goes down to low C (low Bb on the piano), though, so there's quite a bit of extra keywork on the bottom that I don't have to cope with on any other instrument, and it's taking up some practice time reminding my pinkies of what all those keys DO. Still, it's fun, and the more doubling I do, it seems, the more I'm called upon to do. Cool.

On other musical fronts, I've taken a hiatus from the Tuesday evening band over at GCC because I got the opportunity (courtesy of a friend) to play bari sax in a really good big band that rehearses at the musicians' union on Tuesday nights. The bandleader has worked as a copyist for decades, and because of that he's got access to one of the the most incredible jazz libraries ever assembled. The guys in the band are also really good players--most are either working pros or have been at some time in their lives--so it's kicking my butt from a playing perspective, but they seem to be okay with what I bring to the section so far. I kinda spend weeks looking forward to Tuesdays rolling around now, but it definitely makes all the practicing worthwhile.
I've also been getting calls to play/sub on the lead alto chair in a couple of bands, which also forces me to develop my reading/phrasing chops to a higher level. It's a little nerve-wracking, but I'm getting more and more confident as I do it. I'm also starting to enjoy playing alto again. Go figure.

With all this music happening it's kind of a drag to have real life intrude, but the fall quarter managed to sneak up on me again and I'm prepping like mad. This term I'm teaching two sections of Strategic Maangement (one in each department, so each has to be prepped separately), and one of Principles of Management. The survey class meets three days a week from 8am-9am, which is going to make things interesting, me being even less of a morning person than most of my students. I may have to open those sessions with a round of jumping jacks or something... we'll see.

More later though--this week is fall conference, which means endless college/department meetings. Argh again.