rehearsals! FIVE DAYS IN A ROW of BBWP rehearsals, and a fremont phil rehearsal last night to top it off…

as much as i’m really excited about this whole san francisco thing, i’ll be REALLY glad when it’s over… which, of course, may not be for several more months, as we might pass this round of auditions, and go to new york for the final round…

they still haven’t completed my shoes. the cobbler says that the straps are on the footbed, but they still haven’t put on the buckles, which is the same thing they told me last week. i said that i would be out of town on friday, and probably wouldn’t be back until sunday, and the guy said that if i called next monday that would give him time to put on the buckles… there are 8 buckles (four per foot) and they are “stapled” in place. the place where i bought the leather said that they also had everything else to make a birkenstock sandal (including, presumably, the tool that is used to make the “staples” on the buckle look exactly right), however they wouldn’t sell any of the necessary equipment or materials (other than leather) directly to me, because i didn’t have my resale permit with me, so it is my guess that he has to buy the tool, but only needs it for one job (i.e. mine), and just hasn’t gone out to buy it yet.

i’m still plugging away at the stack of vinyl, but my impression is that it may take me a while, because i only finished transferring four albums yesterday, which doesn’t make that sizable a dent in the stack.

Depressed Army reservist attacked by police force after calling for help and NYPD monitored Muslim students all over Northeast and Here’s Why Drivers Get Away With Murder In NYC and Police Officer Caught On Tape Saying He Can "Make Up" Evidence and Some Who Decline an Optional Iris Photo Are Kept Longer in Jail and Fart joke leads to bomb scare as 11 agencies swoop down on Mississippi school – who needs real terrorists? the cops clowns seem to be more interested in making sure everybody stays in line than they are about fighting real terrorism…

Cop or Soldier? – because you really need to be able to tell the difference…

What If Someone Could See Everything You’ve Ever Googled? – too late, it already exists, and it’s probably not what you think.

Study says insecticide used with GM corn highly toxic to bees – yet another reason to be extremely skeptical of this genetically-modified “food” thing…

Oklahoma Democrats want to ban Onanism – much as i would like to say this is a joke… it’s only sort of a joke.

i have been rather busy over the past week, with rehearsals and preparations for my trip to san francisco. they said not to mention it on social networks or tell anyone why, so it’s still somewhat of a secret (although if you know me personally, you’ll probably have heard me mention it in passing).

the rest of the past week has been filled with transferring vinyl to digital. since i damaged your ears with some early “music” in which i performed earlier in the week, i figured it would be only just to undo the damage with some real, quality music, performed by REAL musicians…

Porgy And Bess: A Symphonic Portrait, by George Gershwin, arranged by Robert Russell Bennett
performed by the 1975 – 1976 Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra

photo by Magick’s Mom

i’m not sure whether i should do this or not… not because i don’t want anyone to know about this, but because of what my friends, particularly, will think…

i dug out (literally) a recording of the first time i ever “improvised” a solo with a jazz band. this is from 1973, and it’s pretty obviously a middle-school band (junior-high, for people who live on the west coast), featuring me playing trombone.

Watermelon Man

now this was before i knew what it was to “swing” (and, apparently, the drummer and a few other players were similarly clueless), and i had help writing out an “improvised” solo, because i didn’t know how to improvise, but even taking those things into account, i think i did a pretty acceptible job…

… but that will not stop me from saying stuff about it anyway!

CCTV police officer ‘chased himself’ after being mistaken for burglar and Muslim sales manager arrested as terrorist for call to ‘blow away’ the competition and Video shows officers beating motorist in diabetic shock – who needs terrorists?

According To The FBI, Internet Privacy Is Now Considered To Be Suspicious Activity and FBI: Paying Cash For a Cup of Coffee a ‘Potential Indicator of Terrorist Activity’ – ???

Rounding Up U.S. Citizens – ???

TSA agents denied female passenger boarding access because of her gender – and this is on a domestic flight… what happens when a woman wants to fly overseas?

25 Reports That Can Put You on the Terror Watch List – ???

Congress Approves 30,000 Spy Drones Over America As US Police State Tightens – ???

Elections Are For Suckers – !!!

FDA’s New Claim: “Your Body Is a Drug — and We Have the Authority to Regulate It!” – ???

and while we’re at it, The Disaster at “Christ is Love” – which is what they would like to do with drug users in this country, if we’d let ‘em…

Yeah, Ron Paul Is Racist After All, Sorry – ???

12 current Latin American leaders call for exploration of legal drug regulation – but because they’re brown people from another country, nobody’s going to pay any attention to them and things are going to continue being screwed up as usual.

Google paying users to track 100% of their Web usage via little black box – translation for suckers: “Google is paying ignorant suckers to install and maintain a “rootkit” that does exactly the same thing as the viruses and trojans that they spend so much money trying to avoid”… once again, i feel it is necessary to point out that there are only two industries that refer to their customers as “users”: one of them is the computer software industry, and the other one is DRUG DEALERS…

i’m “not allowed” to tell you why, yet, though, so if you don’t already know, yer probably outta luck.

today, for the first time since december of 2003 (which was when i tried juggling for the first time since my injury) i actually juggled until i was tired, and not because i was frustrated. it was still A LOT of work, but i stopped juggling because i was tired, and not because i was no longer inspired to try…

it won’t be long until i can juggle more than just a straight cascade, at this rate…