so, the day after I write a post about how computers make everything easier my computer decides to develop some weird hardware problem and I’ve just now gotten it (kind of) fixed. I’m between jobs this week so doing a bunch of fun nyc stuff I usually don’t get the chance to do, like going swimming on the floating pool docked off the brooklyn heights promenade and having breakfast at clinton st baking company (high recommended btw).

anyways, we’re playing again tonight at room 18, 18 spring street. it’s a trio and we play from 9-12.

well, kind of easier than ever. I mean I am after all writing this because I am putting off writing the second half of a tune because there is a Db that can’t find its way back to a Bb, despite having definitely done it before.

I started writing songs down in standard notation (dots, lines, sharps and flats, that kind of thing) when I was a freshman in college. I was in a jazz band with some friends and wrote some tunes for everyone to play. coming up with the music was easy, getting it down on paper and in a format that other people could parse was another bag entirely. it doesn’t really help that trumpet and clarinet read things in a different key than us guitarists, pianists and bassists, so you have to write out two copies of every tune and keep them in different folders, as well as have extra copies for people who lost their copy and so on. instead of composing for a band being the collective realization of a well written melody, writing music conjured thoughts of driving to kinko’s and tracing over pencil with pen (no 2 pencils, which suck for writing music btw, don’t copy well).

forunately for us, all that has changed in the past 15 years due to notation software and usable playback. instead of writing some music down, copying it at kinkos and bringing it to rehearsal hoping it sounds good, I can sit in front of a computer and write for a symphony and hear it played back instantly. 20 years ago I would never have been able to hear music written for a large ensemble without considerable cost, today I can buy an orchestral sample library for 250 bucks and hear it all. correct any mistakes, try a section a different way, whatever, it’s all right there.

notation programs (basically word processors for music) are extremely powerful and can generate parts from a score automatically, transpose everything that needs transposing and apparently also generate figured bass. they can playback your score with rubato, pay attention to dynamic markings and generally turn in a credible, perfectly in tune performance. the new sibelius even comes with post it notes for ideas!

with multitrack recording software you can basically cut an album in your basement, with programs like ableton live you can take your laptop to a gig and play it. hell, half the gigs on jim black’s gig page feature him on drums/laptop.

the best thing about all this is it’s all available to anyone. you don’t have to go to school or work in a studio or repurpose your basement, anyone can spend a couple hundred bucks on some software and start cranking out the jams.

playing a trio gig tonight at room 18 from 8-11 (maybe later). it’ll be me on guitar, wataru uchida on tenor sax and scott schaffer on upright bass. I haven’t played with these guys in a while so it should be really fun.

hopefully this will turn into an every tuesday thing, it’s a nice place with good spanish/asian/fusion food and a good atmosphere.

I read a lot, but usually only a few books at a time. unfortunately the books I put on reserve at the library came in today, and I am already in the middle of several books, and there’s that whole library thing where you have to give them their books back in 3 weeks, so I am currently reading or about to read quite a few books. in order:

1) jonathan strange and mr. norrell – first fiction book in a while, it’s set in olde england and is about magicians. so far it’s kind of slow going. then again, some of my favorite books were slow starters so hope springs eternal. damn it is raining hard here.

2) the intelligent investor by benjamin graham, notes by jason zweig. my friend ken lent me this, it’s obviously a great book although it definitely takes a while to absorb. it doesn’t really help that I don’t know a lot of the terms he uses and have to look them up on wikipedia as I go. I feel like I am getting to the meat of it though, he’s currently discussing ways securities can be undervalued.

3) how equal temperament ruined harmony (and why you should care). about a subject near and dear to my heart, equal temperament vs just intonation. I am super excited to read this, but then again I sing in just intonation almost every day so my opinion on topics like this should be taken with a healthy shot of skepticism.

4) rat race blues: the musical life of gigi gryce. I used to read jazz biographies voraciously in college, haven’t read one in a long time. gigi gryce was a great alto player who wrote some cool tunes, played on some great sesssions and then left music entirely to be a teacher. I am fascinated by great musicians who leave music, I just don’t really understand it but I guess life can throw you some weird curves.

as a sidenote, my favorite jazz autobiographies are miles davis’ “miles” (written with quincy troupe) and art pepper’s “straight life”. pepper’s book is soul crushingly sad but a great read.

I’ve had an iphone for several weeks now, there are a lot of really great things, some less than stellar things and a few totally inane things. I always like to hear the bad stuff first, so here are my complaints:
1) the headphones suck, and having a nonstandard headphone jack is ridiculous. I had to cut my e3cs with an exacto knife to get them to work with the iphone, and the headphones that ship in the box sound terrible and fit even worse.

2) the battery randomly drains sometimes. I am convinced this is a result of wifi network activity, as the battery life in general is very good. once every few days, I will wake up to a drained battery when it was fully charged the night before.

3) notes. I use the notes feature all the time and think it’s great, but I can’t move notes to and from my mac. this sucks, especially if you want to copy and paste directions or other chunks of text.

as far as complaints, that’s pretty much it from me. the ipod UI, which I use more than anything else, is much improved. I love the way they incorporate album art. videos are amazing and fun to watch, email is super easy, stocks and weather are great, texting is crazy easy and visually appealing, and the web browser is fine (for me at least). worth 600 bucks? I go back and forth on this, for just a phone it’s definitely overkill.

if you are like me and you are a complete ipod junkie and carry your phone and ipod with you everywhere in your pockets and live in a city where you walk everywhere, then I’d say it’s probably worth it, but just barely .

we had a pretty damn sunny and beautiful weekend here in brooklyn, ny. on saturday sarah and I went to the greenmarket and picked up a bunch of summer squash, some starter potted herbs, and a lemon cucumber. the basil and cilantro got put in planters and sent out to the fire escape, the squash got sauteed with onions and eaten with a peanut sauce, and the lemon cucumber got talked about, examined, and eventually eaten. it looks cool but pretty much tasted like a regular cucumber.

after all this food insanity I went on a long run up to fort greene only to see elizabeth playing in a horn section on stilts in the fort greene park (!), and then over to prospect park and back home via carroll gardens. it got pretty hot late in the day and I really ran out of gas at the end, at 7 miles it was the longest run I’ve done in a while.

last night we went to the beer garden in astoria to hang out with friends, huge line as I guess it is pretty trendy now. today I banged out another 4 miles, played some music and took a nap. pretty awesome and perfect weekend.

wow, my very own blog that I might actually write in.