A couple of videos of my trio from Sunday night's got--Blue Monk and I'll Take Les. The sound is a little low, so you might have to turn it up a tad. The cameraman was the bassist's girlfriend...enough said. ;) There is some chatter close to the mic here and there but it goes away. Good drummer, goo...

Chaz--Season 6 of Mad Men is uneven, but I have to say that now that I got through it I feel like they went some interesting places and finished the season well. Worth it, if you're a fan.

Self-published, of course and Kindle users only. It's a very cool feeling regardless. It's called A Thousand Words, and it deals with a creative new form of artistic expression...or art fraud...or both. 18,000 words--too long for a short story, too short to be a novel. Print length is 64 pages. And ...

I'm with Rita about 60%. The other 40% trusts that the guy is a genius and will figure out a way to pull it off.

Time and Again, by Jack Finney. Supposedly a time travel classic, but I'm getting a little restless and I'm only halfway through.

Thumbs up, jwaggs.

Yeah, Ron--I'm really digging Snarky Puppy. I'm only just now discovering them--I think the name made me think of them as some kind of alt/punk band, so they stayed off my radar till now.

I think the problem is that it is directed by John Wells, possibly the same guy who did ER and lots of other tv shows. Just feels a little slick and glib in spots. Excellent performance by Ms. Streep. Julia Roberts is good but her enormous lips are distracting. Chris Cooper turns in another superb p...

20 feet from stardom. A fantastic documentary about background singers. A little too long, but good to the last drop.

August: Osage County. A decent drama, with a few too many "made-for-TV" touches.

I certainly feel like it is something that he would have delegated. But I got over that.

"When you have to rely on shock value like the train station scene, you're already telling me you're short on ideas, and big on cheap ploys. "


usually yes. In this case, you'd be wrong. It was just a misstep. The show is quite brilliant, I think.

I love House of Cards, personally. Just finished season 2 and am jonesing already. Yes there are bits that don't work--the train station scene, the high tech subplot--but overall, I'm into it.

in know, right? The guy obviously listened very closely. What a relief that he liked it! Great to receive that the day before a gig, too. Last night I felt like a rock star. ;) New trio, two younger Mexican guys for whom jazz was a second language but they were eager to jump in and now it's really h...

Thanks, Rita! My brother--whose music also received an excellent review--suspects that the main readership for the paper are musicians searching to see if their latest CD has been reviewed. :) But their calendar section does highlight unusual acts in the San Diego area and I dig some of their articl...

Lots of great stuff on this thread. Congratulations to everybody. Steve, I look forward to hearing your music. And I just got the best review of my life! From the small acoustic music paper called the San Diego troubadour, their review of my solo CD, solo/piano. " As I heard the first strains o...

Walked out of the 300 sequel/prequel or whatever it was. Ridiculously repetitive.

Watched Into the Night, the '80s flick with Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer. Holds up ok.

I bailed on Blue.

My first gig with my brand new group: Iguanas Ranas (Mexican slang for "Igualmente" or "Likewise!"). Sadly, the guitarist was out of the frame but still a tad too hot in the mix, which creates a slightly odd sensation. But the performances are good and I'm proud of us all. And fo...

Thanks, stone. How could I have forgotten to mention the music in "a late quartet"? Loved it.

I'm reading a sample of 'tune in' by Mark Lewisohn, trying to figure out if I feel like going deep into the Beatles at this moment.

I saw two excellent films and Robocop. Robocop could have been worse. Interesting to cast the strange looking partner from The Killing in the lead. Parts were very '60s sci-fi. A Late Quartet is a fascinating and beautiful film about a string quartet that has been together for 25 years when one of t...

I finally saw Wolf of Wall Street and I have to admit that I really liked it. My expectations had been lowered by the negative comments about the length and the profanity--I don't mind language at all, but it sounded like it was going to be tedious. While I do think it could have been 20 minutes sho...

Very nice, thanks Rita! My first ever tango composition.

It and The Stand