March Madness

So, how is Texas doing in the brackets this year? I really haven't kept up...

While this blog may not reflect it, March has been incredibly busy for Shelly and I in New York. Following on our trip to Boston in Feb (see below), we returned to a huge number of social engagements the next weekend, all of which brought us back in touch with our good friends Alisha (an on-and-off New Yorker), Sam Chapa (now a wine specialist in DC), and Kelly (Shelley's former tour-mate). So all good things there. Within the same week, I had to make another run to the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers to track down some archival research on early Ellington recordings and visuals, then turn around and 2 days later head in the opposite reaction for a trip to Mosaic Records HQ in Stamford, CT.

All very cool, but a very busy start to March.

This was followed by a wonderful radio shift on WKCR for the Ornette Coleman Birthday Broadcast. I so rarely get to do radio shifts these days, and I do truly miss it. I'm actually heading to San Antonio this weekend for the Swing Bums 10 Year Reunion, and will get to have a quick on-air shift at my beloved KRTU, and then attend their spring concert (Dee Dee Bridgewater, should be fun).

For the 14th, Shelley and I neglected to make any good plans for "pi" day, and so after going to catch out friend Katie in an improve throw-down (she won!) we had to settle for McDonald's apply pies. The fact that they aren't circular, and thus don't involve Pi in their Pie made it a very confusing celebration. The fact that we chose the McDonalds located inside the 34th street PennStation subway stop with a 13-member cover band playing for tips outside only added to the eccentricity of the late Sunday evening.

Spring Break was spent at Columbia's Butler Library. After months of researching, and following more and more leads, it was finally time to actually WRITE my thesis. Or at least part of it. I have a peer-review panel to help me out, but they needed something to be actually written before they could read and review it. So that was a fun week. I did pop up 16 pages on one particularly verbose day, wound up with more than 50 pages, then had to chop it back. My thesis is, generally, on the development of the Petroleum industry in Baku /Russian Empire, how it differed from the early American industry, and how these differences (I'm talking hyper-technical minutae) might have contributed to the difference in labor power in the two developments. Basically, US oil used the example of US coal to identify how labor became powerful enough to strike, and then designed systems and methods to disempower it. But at Baku, this couldn't happen in the same ways, and the modifications made in the Russian case actually had the result of empowering certain types of labor organization, with the result being the 1905 Russian Revolution, with linkages to other revolutions in the Persian and Ottoman empires at the turn of the century. It was also the birth of social democratic influence, and Stalin's self-described "school" of Revolutionary action. So I wrote about that. A Lot.

Class presentation is tomorrow, and after I get through that, hopefully I'll have a better idea of exactly where (else) I'm taking this. For those desperately curious about techno-social analysis, mechanics of the oil industry, or the development of labor power, I can always use additional readers...

Spring Break ended with a bang as the Webbers (no typo) welcomed the first great-grandchild into the family. Nathan Porter Weinmeister was born to Dan & Toni (ok, Toni did most of the work) on Sunday, March 21, 2010. He was born at 6:30 pm, and weighed 7 lbs 13 oz's. How big a deal was it? Well, I just cited all that from memory, and I don't even remember what time I was born, or how much anyone else in my families weighed. We're very excited.

And it's Baby on top of Baby this spring, as Shelley's cousin Teran just had the first new young'in of Shel's generation a few weeks before. With most of the family near Houston to see the baby, Shelley is a little left out. Thank goodness for facebook.

I have no less than 2 other pregnant friends due within the next 2 months (Kate's only days away), and all this baby-action has sent rumors flying about "who's next" with certain winks in our direction. Right. If you want to hold your breath on that score, I say go ahead. The headache you will have after making yourself pass out will be well deserved.

In order to make Shelley feel a bit less left out, Pat and Kathy (in-laws) journeyed up to New York for the weekend over spring break. They just missed St. Patrick's day, and they were all-the-better for it. Shel planned out tons of activities for them, and they made a good run of the city. I was able to spare some time between thesis chapters, and thanks to their visit got to enjoy the oldest still-operating pizzeria on Manhattan, a nice walk through the village, nostalgic flipping through out wedding album (yes we have on, and yes it does feel nostalgic, even though the wedding was just 2 months ago). A real treat on Friday night was getting to go to Birdland, one of the major jazz clubs in NYC. I've been living on a grad student budget while in town, so I've yet to go to any major jazz club - No Blue Note or Village Vanguard for me. I haven't even been to Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club, Smoke, or any of the other half-dozen very good 2nd tier jazz clubs that I regularly walk past.

Anyway, that was corrected with a run to Birdland to see drummer Lewis Nash and his quintet. Shel and I actually met Mr. Nash a few times while hanging out with Phil at Lincoln Center, so that was an extra treat. The band was pretty hot too. Peter Washington on bass and a guest tenor (Bobby... something?) were solid, but the all-stars (aside from Nash) was trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and especially the pianist Rene Rosnes. I've encountered Rosnes before with the SFJazz Collective, and she impressed me at the time, but this was absolutely stellar! It was a great night, and I think Pat, Kathy and Shelley had a good time too. It certainly was fun to go out on the town with them.

With the Laabs back on a plane to Houston, and my thesis draft half-written, you would think Shelley and I could slow down just a bit. But no. We had earlier reserved tickets to MoMA for the very next (sunday) morning. We wanted to see the Tim Burton exhibit (on through April 26), and if you want to go on the weekend, you have to book several weeks ahead. The exhibit was AWESOME, by the way. I won't claim to be a life-long Tim Burton fanatic, in fact he's hit-or-miss for me (loved Beatlejuice, Batman, Nightmare, Big Fish and Charlie, hated Mars Attacks, Sleepy Hollow, Apes, can't decide about Corpse Bride and Sweeny Todd). But the exhibit, complete with lots of sketches, short animations (stain boy!), 3D extrapolations, and movie memorabilia was exceptionally well-done and interesting. I looked at MoMA's upcoming exhibits, and I've got to say, if you're looking for a time to go, that time is Before April 26. Seriously awesome. I can't say it enough.

The rest of the museum was, not surprisingly, also quite impressive. I won't make any claims to being a modern art afficianado either, in fact I might be more likely to "get" modern art if it was taken off the wall and physically battered against my face, as I'm sure someone has done. Performance art. Sure. But it was cool to see what was there, to try to expand my mind a bit, and to accept (honestly) that a giant canvas painted white - that is, painted to look as it is not painted - has redeeming creative or aesthetic value. I want to be clear about this - I think it does, but I must admit it can sometimes be a hard argument. Found the Rothkos especially cool, but then, I always do.

Most recently, on Monday (3/22), while Shelley was off attending the Opera with her boss, I took the much more high-brow road and went to watch the elephants march in from Queens for their week-long residence at Madison Square Gardens. It's an old NY tradition, born more out of necessity than publicity. With only a little fanfare, the walk the elephants, ponies, and one long-horn steer through the Queens midtown tunnel, then across the entire island to Madison Sq at 8th ave & 34th street. They do this in the middle of the night, but it is still a big public event, if an obscure one. With dropping temperatures and irregular downpours, the crowd was small. The great part isn't the waiting around in the rain to see elephants, but in the chase of the whole event. These elephants aren't here to be looked at - they're Moving! So you catch them coming out of the tunnel, snap photos, then you'd better start jogging. Stop to take a few more pics, then get running again. These pachyderms won't wait for you. Multiply this patter by a few hundred young adults (not many kids or older folks around at 1 am on a Tuesday morning) and you have a truly cool experience. I even got interviewed (and misquoted) by an NYU reporter. I actually didn't sling the "miracle on 34th" line, but I did callously suggest PETA's protest of circus treatment of elephants was unfounded. Maybe I went a bit far in the interest of being glib.

Things keep rolling in New York, and March has been especially kind regarding the weather. It is (mostly) beautiful, and no longer cold in any way. Very quick transition to spring, and we're exceedingly grateful for it. Thesis work continues, as do my part-time commitments, and the job hunt, active for almost 2 months, needs to switch into even higher gear. Like my brother's volvo 740-turbo (yes, they make Turbo-charged Volvos), I need some overdrive.

No wonderful insights or interesting theories here. I do wish I could get back to the type of writing where I muse on the ramifications of the little episodes we all encounter on a daily basis, and which seem so much more magnified here in a New York minute, but I'm just not there yet.

As a total side note, if you don't know what's going on in Kyrgyzstan right now (and seriously, who does?), do yourself the favor of looking into it. Things have changed Radically since I was there just 8 months ago, and it may be headed for big things - so big, the New York Times might even have to start reporting on them.

Two news sources are particularly good with reporters on the ground, so I advice you consult Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (http://www.rferl.org/section/Kyrgyzstan/159.html)

and Eurasianet.org

That's it for now. Check back in another month?

Weber

::(lame) Texpatriot

Boston? Boston, Texas?

With only a few months left in New York, Shelley and I have resolved to take advantage of our time and location, not just to do New York-y things, but also to get out and see the greater New England area. I must admit, from an Oklahoman/Texan perspective, I always considered "New England" to be virtually synonymous with the American "North East," that is, anything from Pennsylvania to Maine. Apparently, this is too broad, but for those who scorn such regional naievety, I challenge you to properly describe Oklahoma/TX by region. Often I have heard both lumped in as "The South," though certainly the manifold differences between a TX/OK'an, Louisiannan, Alabaman, Georgian, or Carolinian are enough to make such a corporate identity laughable. Midwestern? Great Plains? Western? They're all tough sells once you actually travel there, and it is just this awakening that I had on our recent trip to Boston.

First let me say that our trip was greatly enhanced by some insider info from our good friend Willy Razavi, who spent a few years at Brandeis and tipped us off to basically everything cool we did all weekend. And even then, we only managed to hit about 50% of his recommendations. It's good to have friends in-the-know. We planned to make the trip a relaxing one, and as such didn't put much effort into an especially long "to do" checklist. Still, by simple wandering we managed to achieve a great deal, without exhausting ourselves.

We took the BoltBus (4 hour trip, $18.50 per person) down on Friday and got into town by 2. We booked ahead and actually found a small boutique hotel (Newbury Guesthouse) in the Back Bay area right by the Copley T stop, with a super deal (apparently, no one travels to Boston in February!). After getting settled, we walked to the Boston Common, then kept walking just to look around while the sun was still up. We passed the state house, the Customs house and Faneiulle Hall, and suddenly we were at the Aquarium. Had no idea just how small downtown Boston was! Dinner was procured (with the assistance of Shelley's iPod Touch, and the free internet of nearby Cheers!) at a decent Mexican joint near Faneuille, "Zuma's Tex-Mex," and afterwards we paroused the collection at the nearby Newbury Comics.

As it got dark, it got chilly, so we walked home, and enjoyed a relaxed evening of watching the Olympics - first time we got to do that this year. Alas, after 30 minutes of Men's Super G, it was time for the Pairs Ice Dance - Compulsory, competition. If there's anything I like less than watching figure skating, it's watching figure skating without aerials, doing the same routine, to the same song, over and over and over. Seriously. Just leave the camera in one spot, and let me watch the ice melt.

Saturday we started off bright and none-too-early for Harvard on the 'ole #1 bus. Alas, no Andes Pipe Band to greet us at Harvard Square, but the atmosphere was its usual bustle, and we quickly skipped over to Harvard Yard for a walk-around. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the Harvard campus, but I must admit, it wasn't quite what I found. For one thing, I naively expected "Harvard Yard" to be a central open yard, like a parade ground, around which Harvard was clustered, a model I've become familiar with at Columbia. But no, "Yard" is apparently just a euphemism for "grassy campus." The library of course was impressive, and I found the enormous size of the Church next door logical, but provoking. At Trinity, the church is certainly large, but just as certainly not a central part of the campus - almost an after-thought in both its original construction, and the habits of current students. At Columbia, we have only a small (albeit very impressive) chapel, also situated off to the side. But the Harvard Church, being both very large and centrally located facing the library, is obviously a major part of the institution, at least by original design. Calls into light many questions about the religious origins (and/or biases) of American higher education, to what degree those are maintained (Orel Roberts) or submerged, and what the process of secularizing these institutions looked like over the 19th and 20th centuries.

Otherwise, our time in Cambridge was spent checking off Willy's list. The Cambridge Common, the Sheradon Commander, the old houses on Brattle, the Harvard Coop (when the apocalypse comes, I do believe one could survive for weeks on the Harvard-inscribed goods available at this Ivy League Wal-Mart), Black Ink, and finally the Algiers cafe, an emphatic recommendation of Mr. Razavi. Not surprisingly, he was dead-on. That was some amazing hummus. We opted for lentil soup to go along, and I had an Orange Mint Hot Chocolate. Awesome. The tower was especially cool. On the way out, I actually passed a table of two guys - one of whom had a plate full of hummus, and the other, a plate full of pancakes - Willy points out this is the only coffeehouse with both as exquisite specialties.

After our snack, we did a good bit of walking. Down to Anderson Bridge and the Harvard boat house, then back over Memorial Walking Bridge (famous to us for its appearance in the movie With Honors - Brendan Fraser's last good role). It came out that I am not accustomed to seeing frozen rivers (in fact, the Charles might be my first), and I was endlessly fascinated by it.

We next took a long walk down Cambridge street in search of the Druid, and "authentically Celtic" pub from Willy's list. Shelley only thought I got lost once, though I maintain that we were always moving the proper general direction. Once found, we enjoyed a couple of local brews while we watched italian-league football and shot the breeze with the very talkative young Irish barkeeps. For example: "Did you know that a man once drank nothing but Guinness for 30 days, like that McDonalds guy? Enough calories in it he didn't go hungry. Only effect was that he started growing chest hair. Not sure any of that's true. Except the last part."

Just for kicks, exercise, and to walk off the effect of 2 pints, we walked all the way down Cambridge to the Museum of Science. Got the impression that was not the side of Cambridge most tourists see. The Museum was packed - apparently it was almost closing time and they were hosting a Cub Scout lock-in that evening. With a Harry Potter prop exhibit. Nice.

We found dinner at a Thai place back on Newbury by the hotel, then it was time for more Olympics. Speed skating (short track), a bit of bobsled, and then on to Curling, a game we keep trying to figure out, but not with much luck. I think of it as Crickett-on-ice, not for any similarity between the two, but because neither affords itself to a casual comprehension.

For Sunday we had time enough before our afternoon bus departure, so we grab a T and headed over to Charlestown for the Bunker Hill memorial. That was a lot of stairs, but well worth it for the views. Made it to the USS Constitution, then a quick walk around the WWII destroyer USS Cassin Young before we beat feet back across the bridge to North Station, back to the hotel to grab luggage, lunch at Boloco (a local "burrito" chain), then 4 hours of sleeping on the bus back.

A good weekend, all in all, and a wonderful escape to a city with open skylines and plenty of sunshine.

And really, what more could you ask than that?

Weber

::(lame) Texpatriot

You can's spell Normalcy without N-Y-C

Though it doesn't make the most interesting blog post, the last week has been an exhilarating return to normalcy for Shelley and I now that we're back in New York. Our diet has (thankfully) stabilized around our old new York staples (pasta, quesadillas, ramen, cheap chinese), my weekly reading homework has recommenced (I'm medulla oblongata-deep in Bruno Latour), and we manage to see friends now on a NY-standard weekly (rather than non-NY daily) basis. Ups and downs, it is good to be getting back in the rhythm of our life in New York.

But lest we get too comfortable, plans are already afoot to yank us back out of these urban doldrums. We're in the midst of planning trips to Boston, DC, VT, and even TX over the course of the next few months, and are contemplating a major Honeymoon trip for early/mid-May. Shelley just started a new full-time job, and I am trying to keep 2 part-time occupations in the air as a book editor/publisher/salesman and a novice webmanager.

Further afield, though not much further, is the looming presence of my M.A. thesis, and even more looming, though unfortunately not much further, is the daunting maw of job hunting/ applications.

And so this is the background, the frame, the structure of Spring 2010 in the land of the Lame Texpatriot. It's nothing novel or revolutionary, no re-invention of any circular mobility device, but it happily confronts us with some of the same old challenges and new opportunities to overcome them in different ways.

It's cold here, but then what's new?

I have a wife now, and a Wii. Beyond that, I'm just going to keep on keepin' on until such time and incident as gives me chance to do otherwise.

And if you come across anyone looking for an aspiring NGO problem solver with a background in radio operations and an interest in Central Asian politics, by all means, get their number.

Weber

::(lame) Texpatriot

They Invented Twitter to Avoid This Post

The problem with writing a blog every 2 months is two fold: first, since no one expects you to write anything as the more common fact is the absence of writing, you simply repeat the vicious cycle of not writing, and second, since so much occurs between posts, you cannot possibly give all events their due, and this also leads to a feeling of insurmountability that most often results in more procrastination.

The solutions are also in tandem:
1) stop being such a p/wussy.
2) go Nike/ just do it.

In an effort to get past both lame excuses, I'll try in this one post to catch you up on everything that's happened since the beginning of November. What's that you say? You really aren't that interested, and would prefer to just pick things up as they are now and move forward? Well tough nuggets - you didn't think this was really for the benefit of my audience, did you?

Begin the catharmanacathon:

Shelley was on tour for November and December, and in her absence I flitted between obscene amounts of time at Columbia's Butler library, very poor regular bedtimes, and an almost singular focus on tearing through as many complete cancelled sci-fi series on Hulu during my lunch and dinner breaks as possible. M.A.N.T.I.S., SeaQuest, Total Recall 2070, and 9/10 of Stargate SG-1 (a little less proud of that last one). I also managed to do a good bit of swing dancing, started my own "practice session" for the Columbia swing club, and had occasional good fun with my NYC friends. Notably, this included a Bob Dylan concert - gratis - as part of a buddie's birthday gift.

As I got into mid-November, it became clear that things were not at all well in the kingdom of time allotments. Dancing was put on hold, my radio gigs ended, and even my casual hulu adventures were reduced. I took a temporary leave from my part-time job, and I tired - desperately- to get serious about my research projects.

Shelley returned (permanently!) at exactly the wrong time of course, but I was extremely happy to have her home after 11 months essentially living apart (tour+kyrgyzstan+tour). This might have resulted in some additional lapses in judgement regarding time allotment, but if you can't take a few hours to lavish attention on your fiance, what's the point of getting engaged? We were also extremely fortunate to have a close friend and Shelley's maid of honor visit us in New York for some weekend fun time. What research projects?

As papers were completed (a report on the Kyrgyz July 2009 Presidential election I observed, a paper on Islam as a domestic determinants of Soviet foreign policy, and an analysis of Turkmenbashi as a "sultanistic" dictator), things began to normalize, but not enough that I was able to complete my final paper before getting on the airplane for Oklahoma. So yes, I took a research paper home for the holidays.

And I don't recommend it.

From this point, this turn more and more into a blur, and if you're interested enough to be reading this extremely dry post, odds are good you were on the invite list for our wedding in January, and hopefully I have personally filled in the gaps for you already. If not, here's the super-brief version:

Shelley and I went to Oklahoma to see my friends/family for Christmas. This included not only my lovable parents, but also their new coiterie of stray/domestic cats. Don't get me started... We ate at the first RAW restaurant in the history of Oklahoma city (thanks Tevingtons). Gave Shelley the gift of her first ever Webber Family Musicale, with the benefit of some extra family drama and no aid of alcohol to lubricate the experience. I also learned that my "singing voice" is a shelley panacea. Not that she enjoys it, per se, but when I slide into a false baritone, it always cracks her up. Good to know.

After 2+ days spent almost entirely with my parents, we got hit with a blizzard on Christmas eve. This of course didn't stop my dad from starting his shopping that afternoon - by foot - nor did it overrule his desire to help the neighbors dig out their driveways. I opted to hold off on my good deeds until after the near-whiteout subsided. 2 more days spent in the exclusive company of my parents went surprisingly well, and then Shelley and I were off on a roadtrip to see her parents outside Houston.

Now it was time to get to work. Wedding preparations needed to be made, odds and ends needed to be purchased, hairs needed to be cut, etc. We were very productive, and still managed to spend a good bit of time watching football with Pat and Kathy. While the ladies did some more shopping, Pat and I checked out Avatar 3-D. Surely someone more clever than I has written a good analysis of that giant digital trope, and I don't think the world needs any more of them. On New Years Eve they threw a huge party for friends and neighbors and we had a great time, and were the lucky benificiaries of gifts (christmas ornaments and family recipes) from many of the participants.

Now it was time to get on to San Antonio and get this Hitchin' Ceremony in motion. So that's what we did. Thanks to our wedding planner Maggie, our cool new photographer West Vita, the venue liaison Crystal, and everyone else. We ate breakfast tacos. Lots of them. Margaritas, chips and salsa, and other delictables were constantly on hand.

Apparently not that many people get married in San Antonio in January. Good news for us. I mean really, who wants to get married when the Riverwalk is all beautiful and full of water? It's like that 50 weeks a year. We got to be... different. Sludge, mud buckets, and heavy machinery rather than riverboats and French tourists defined the riverwalk of Jan 2010.

The wedding weekend included a "guys night," rehearsal dinner, a pre-wedding bar night, lunch for the respective wedding parties, the ceremony, a cocktail hour, the reception, and two simultaneous post-reception social gatherings. We capped it all off with a breakfast taco brunch, of course.

Done with SA (for now), we left reluctantly. Kerrville, Austin, back to Oklahoma. More people to see, Thank Yous to write, gifts to unwrap.

In New York, Shelley has a job setup almost instantly. My classes have started, though I'm still working out exactly what my schedule will be. Trying to re-start my part-time job, this blog, my radio blog, my radio volunteering, swing dancing, social time, and just about everything else.

We've been back less than 2 weeks, and we've already eaten at our favorite restaurant, had 2 brunches, been to the Colbert Report, worked on finishing up Stargate, started on the Tudors, hit the Natural History Museum, mailed an umbrella internationally, had dinner with friends, written more thank yous, made a ton of soup - twice - and applied for a post-grad Fellowship.

What more will the future hold? Check in occasionally, and you'll find out.

Or just put it off for 2 months and then try to catch up.

See, doesn't seem like such a bad plan, right?

Weber
::(lame) Texpatriot

Fall 2009 at a (long) Glance

Some of you (at least, those of you bored enough to be checking this blog) may be wondering what the heck I've been doing this fall. It certainly hasn't been writing blog entries. While it's true that wedding planning has taken up some time, it's equally important to remember just how much of that workload Shelley is taking care of.

Something interesting happens to me when Shelley leaves me along for too long. I develop a condition that is better described as Jekyl-Hydism, than simple bi-polarism. In one state, I sequester myself in various enclosed spaces (studio apartment, library stacks) where I spend hours and hours in solitary servitude to the demigods of academia. I scribble clever little comments in red ink on the margins of xerox'd articles about the language policy of the Soviet union in the national delineation of 1924 (it's fascinating!). And I think to myself, "How could I have lived 28 years on this Earth and never thought about this before?"

Whether this state counts as Jekly or Hyde is a matter of prespective.

On the other side of the coin, I venture out into the big City with my wonderfully unorthodox buddies and stumble down the various rabbit holes they tend to encounter. It's generally a good pairing. We all tend to fall down (to carry the metaphor), but I usually keep my eyes open and land on my feet (metaphorically, and usually otherwise).

As a result, Fall 2009 has been an almost endless chain of dull stasis broken on rare occasions by flashes of hyper-dynamism. The camera tends to tag along on such occasions, but alas not always, and over the past two weeks the drudgery has become temporarily absolute as I prepare for writing term papers and prep my M.A. thesis for next spring.

But here is a very brief recap of what I have been doing, via the few photos that are on my Sony.

This is from the West Indian American Day Parade, and annual event out in Brooklyn celebrating New Yorkers "of the Islands." According to my friend Holly, who lives Directly on the parade route, the party starts about 2 am the day before, with street drumming, etc. then people sleep it off from 5-10, before coming back out for the main event. We're talking dozens of semi-trucks stripped down and packed full of sub-woofers, banners, politicians, and evangelists. Plus there's slaw, fried chicken, beans&rice, and Coconuts!

Did you know that Milwaukee Airport has modern art sculture in the shape of fishing tackle? Well, now you do. I want to tell you that the place was empty because I was passing through late on a week day evening, but I kind of got the impression it was never a very high-traffic zone.

Which is a good thing: more time to appreciate the art.



This is actually how I usually look: tired, slightly confused, and just a bit skeptical about whatever it is I'm being told at the moment. Oddly, I'm not actually tired (my college friends would be Shocked to know how much I'm sleeping these days), and the confusion comes and goes. Skepticism, I'm sorry to say, is getting thoroughly entrenched. Is that because of grad school, New York, or not being 21?

Well, whatever the cause, please know that if you ever see me make This Face (right) it probably just indicates I'm running low on caffeine. Time for a refill.


My employment with the Grand Poobah, Mr. Phil Schaap, continues to go well. We now have 2 books in print (and in need of selling... hint, hint, holiday present), with a 3rd one on the way as soon as I can finish tracking down some rare photographs. Sales have been off and on, but I'm using a lot of the skills I learned at KRTU, and we a totally redesigned website (philschaapjazz.com) coming on-line soon which should help.


Even though it's just me at home, I do end up cooking dinner just about every night, though the temptation of $5.25 cheap chinese just around the corner is a constant Jezebel to my David (but not my Davey, of course). The Buc-ee's shirt is something of a plug; but I have had several compliments from dance students. One in particular stands out, "Man, I really appreciate all the stuff you were showing us tonight, but like, I could barely even listen I kept looking at your t-shirt." "It's a Beaver" I explained.

And then sometimes I get a call to go clubbing down in the West Village at a no-cover converted parking garage with an army of suspended gord-lamps in the open space around the first floor staircase. This picture was actually taken while seated on a bench carved out of a giant gnarly tree trunk. The hot tub upstairs didn't stay empty all night. My buddy practically ripped her skirt in half on a particularly enthusiastic expression of awkward contempt for all the sexy people in the room. And that was about the half-way point of the evening. I turned in early at 3.





Not sure if this was as big a deal where you live, but apparently we just had "off year elections," including the NJ Governor and the NYC Mayor. Apparently, those are both important positions in our National Government, or at least so one would assume from the coverage they received. It doesn't help that both incumbents (Dems) are men of extreme personal wealth, and backed prominently by Obama. The fact that one (Bloomberg) also pushed through an amendment legalizing a third term added some Third World color. In the end, NJ's Corzine took a fall, and Bloomberg gets 4 more years (apparently 8 was not enough), but with a voter turnout of about 10%, is it really a victory for anyone? Oh, and NYC just elected its first Asian-American to city office. Way to go, progressives.

And sometimes I stop it all to go and get a bad haircut.

No matter how much $ I spend, there just doesn't seem to be any other kind. For those of you who just noticed, yes, my hairline is not what it used to be. I'm trying not to hyperventilate on a daily basis.

The rest of it, I hope, will grow back in time for the wedding.






Speaking of which, here's a final (silly) tally of who's "winning" the great RSVP race of 2009:
(assembled in only approximate order, but feel free to brag nonetheless)

1. Jordan Forbes
2. Pat & Kathy Laabs
3. Ken & Linda Abraham
4. Judye & Larry
5. Pete & Amy Rahn
6. Terry & Karen Smith
7. Ben Stull
8. Doyle Weber
9. Paul & Peggy Laabs
10. Craig & Anna Stalcup
11. The Moores
12. Neil & Sunita Crittenden
13. Audrey Reader
14. Dan & Kathy Schewe
15. Carl & Deborah Rubenstein
16. Richard & Judy Lambert
17. Mike & Laura
18. Jim & Carolyn Weber
19. Ray & Sheila Stevens


If this were chemistry, I would estimate there are about 2 parts per million of useful information in this post. I guess the volatility has a lot to do with what kind of parts those are.

Weber
::(lame) Texpatriot