In other news...

And now for something slightly more substantial. I've been tinkering on the blog with a degree of selective honesty, as the barista thing became less compelling to me, more of an embarrassment, professionally speaking. Actually I've found myself at parties fibbing about how I earn my paycheck. As enriching as my Smithsonian time is, it has netted me a total of 25 cents and assorted abandoned swag, minus travel costs (very litlle).

Soon I will start a job which in someways might become something of a career. How apt indeed being around print media pros, and living with one as well (Hola poo!) that I should end up "doing it on the paper" as well.

I still don't want to divulge too much but I will declare that my coffeeshop job is kaput after Mondays lunch rush. Assuming I survive it I will start my new job on Tuesday.

So here I am on the cusp, armed with a new wardrobe and humble hopes on the soles of my Sketchers. Eager to earn and learn!

And the irony is, I was about to leave this coffeshop job and take another coffeeshop job. I'd had it with the overall stress and mismanagement and was not fullfilling my creativity with the coffee drinks. I mean, look at this capuccino in particular. It's kind of erotic, don't you think? How rarely did I get to serve a coffee in a mug with a copious, marbelized, lovely and fresh layer of foam on top. Hot stuff, I know. But I look forward to having a bit of time to relax in a hip place where I can admire and digitally photograph a sweet cup of joe of my own!

Now that's a circle!

Now I understand why the empahasis on starting/finishing early in Dupont Circle matters. Y'see, Dupont's a small place, kinda self conscious, pretty folk, can't really let it all hang out, and a good reason not to have too much volume.
Beginning at 4 pm is a drum circle jam at Meriden aka Malcom X Park up 16th street. I was warned it was gonna be big and loud and it certainly was that. In this midst of this, I will bring up comparisons and pros/cons.

Dupont being small and our group just 3-4 drummers enables a degree of musicality and a enabling of other elements of music is possible. Drums and percussion are great, but why not have a little melody if it's amenable to all and not an ego trip for the melodicist? It also does not dominate the park and give anyone a migrane, I don't think...

Meriden's jam was pretty wild, but organized and concise, and given that DC is a predominantly Afro-American City, you can see a fine example of this here. It was as close to the real deal as you can get. In NYC, the drum circles I think about are conducted in hippie-ish circle jerks in Sheeps Meadow. This was neighborhood folk, weekend warriors and office workers.
For the 5 hour jam, there were at least 30 drummers, 15 dancers and assorted break dancers. Some drummers had congas, djembes or trap drums. There were wood blocks and copious shakers. Various tranced-out conductors danced within the dirt lane between the 2 rows of drums. To the side, gay boys, black girls, pasty white girls and some in between lined up in 2 rows for some fairly traditional dance moves. Although I employed my electric flute and mandolin early and got some photo attention, eventually I was subdued by the wall of sound. At first it was one or two djembes cracking and popping high against the beat that got me beaten down, but eventually I had to completely give it up, having played myself out already.
Perhaps a change of tact next time. Although I can play myself out rather quickly on bass clarinet it's worth a shot. Maybe I can stroll a bit and work within the ritual for a little longer. My stamina was pretty good, but after a while I got to wondering why I was sticking around,

Now if only I can get an earlier start in the quiet confines of Dupont, that would necessitate getting a job change, long time coming!

Tweaked Elvis

Man, this is kind of sad. I've been viewing the Graceland full color program next to my toilet ever since my girlfriend visited there with the president. If Koizumi could see this! He's probably got it on DVD. Hey I'd work a nice trade if I could get this whole show. But this is probably the best part. Love the Aztec Sun jumpsuit!

How much for a pound of flesh, sliced?

I'm not sure what I can add to the millions of disappointed minons who craved justice against this fellow. I'm being generous here, he's another friend of the Bush family, NSA might be reading here.

I suppose many had some jailhouse justice in mind, and I'm a big Oz fan, so I sure wouldn't mind watching some of that. Perhaps we would start with a bit of sodomy at the hands of a white supremacist, then a swastika burned into his butt. Then we have his kids kidnapped and parts mailed to prison to increase his mental duress. Then perhaps a few agonizing weeks we feed him ground glass in his food, but only enough to give him gastroeneteritis. Maybe slice his hamstrings, an occasional "human cocktail" thrown in his face for fun. Then some forced sexual assault by a dykey CO, then finally give him two months on Death Row to contemplate his existence before the lethal injection.

But alas, there will be no real life retribution a la my favorite premium cable show. Rarely in real life do we have the same justice we see on TV, but don't give up yet, people. We still have Skilling to deal with. Let's hope they move up his sentencing date so we can get this ball rolling and get Skillings' balls in a nice little vice and we can do the deed upon him.
Allahu Akbar!

Independence Jam '06

This was a fun year, different, and heavily involved. In years past I would do the typical musician activity for the 4th of July, which is hang out at home and practice, or record a self indulgent demo jam.
I did my first tour of the reopened Smithsonia American Art museum, squeezed in about 1/4th of it. So much knowledge to take in, all the portrait of our forefathers, early senators and civil war players, mingling with the modern artists. Just endless information. A couple more runs and I'll be up to speed.
I got back home in time to help Julie finish the laundry and dodge the ubiquitous summer downpour (I'm presently enjoying another one) Fortunately the weather cleared up and cooled down so we had a nice rooftop BBQ at Stacy and Peters (he just moved in-down the block). Beers, burgers, sausage salad. Then we pranced down to the White House South lawn to take in the fireworks, symphonic music, Dove Bars, All our pictured buds from the press corps (more photos pending approval).