feeesha:

my sister

my sister is actually blood related. she is my best friend. my concert buddy. my little fashion diva. the most bad ass trombone player you will ever meet. even though she is 3 years younger, she is practically my twin. even though we live an hour away from each other we seem to keep in…

I can’t believe how blessed I am to have two amazing daughters.

My daughter,Kalia Vandever, is a trombone player and attends the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). Like every school in California, LACHSA’s budget has been cut to the bone. LACHSA has absorbed more than $1 million in budget reductions in these last two years. The arts programs, which have made LACHSA one of the top public arts high schools in the nation, are in jeopardy. On October 22nd, the students and faculty will be walking 10K to raise money to close the gap in the arts department’s budget. Our family goal is to raise $1,500 in support of LACHSA’s music department and Kalia’s walk. If you are able to contribute, even a small amount, the entire LACHSA community—and the Vandever family—will be very appreciative. Here’s a link to the donation page. http://lachsa.walkforthearts.org/ If you are able to contribute, please click MUSIC as the art department and type in Kalia Vandever as the student’s name. Thank You!

Dear drunk person at the Key Club last night standing in front of me,

You are really annoying. First of all, I hate drunk people. Second, you need to learn to control your drinking habits. Why pay money to go see a band to just get wasted and forget it in the morning. Don’t you want to actually…

Today’s letters of the day are: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 

Today’s sport is: World Cup Soccer

Coincidence?

As we say in the corporate world, this is a working document. I will add to it as I, and others, come up with the rules. If it gets large enough, I’ll publish it on my big boy blog. The following is a list of guidelines that guys should follow when using twitter:

1. Guys should never use the word “totes” instead of “totally”. This is acceptable of women, but no self-respecting man should use it. I’ve seen it done and it makes me want to puke.

2 Guys should never use more than two hashtags in a tweet and NEVER use the cutsie darling hashtags such as, #puppylove, even if the dude is actually talking about a puppy and he loves that puppy. Use the phrase “puppy love” if he must tweet about it at all. I never want to see the following type of tweet, “Spent the afternoon with my children #lifeisgood #theygrowupsofast #iamblessed”. Once again, the vomit scale is high here.

3. Added from my friend, Kerri (@kerriAK). Guys should not use “Hawt” or “Rawr” when referring to women. According to Kerri, it discredits the guy. She does not find it attractive or cute when I guy refers to woman this way. So, there you have it guys! Do not use these terms to describe women. I think as we move along I’ll have to collect a list of acceptable descriptors, but this is good start as what NOT to do. 

What rules am I forgetting? Please comment to add your own and I will add them as I come up with them.

Hi Shandra, here is an extremely partial list of some of what I consider soulful jazz. I’m not even sure what I used to define soulful, but I tried to include stuff that has a soulful groove. I didn’t include, as a first priority, what I consider swingin’, although I think some of what I included does that, too. Nor did I include big band music which can be soulful and can also swing, but I decided not to go there for now. I included one slower, ballad-like album (Oscar Peterson) just in case that is what you meant by soulful. Confused? The point is, there are so many ways to go here, so if none of this works, we can try different styles because in case you haven’t noticed, I like turning folks on to the jazz music.

I’ve listed the albums, but if you’re looking for individual songs, let me know.

Cannonball Adderley - Something Else

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Hank Mobley - Soul Station

John Coltrane - Blue Train

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things

Horace Silver - Song For My Father

Lee Morgan - Sidewinder

Oscar Peterson - Plays Broadway

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus

Kenny Burrell - The Best of Kenny Burrell

John Boutte - Good Neighbor

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Mosaic