wedding bells!

My brother-in-law has announced his engagement to a wonderful woman. We had a monsterous fondue blow out to celebrate our anniverary, his birthday, and his engagement announcement. Life is GOOD.

have you listened to Jimmy Smith today?

well, have you? Although I've had Jimmy Smith CD's in my collection for quite some time, I only recently heard about his very first album, entitled "A New Sound, A New Star." (see Amazon). Many will tell you that jazz B3 Hammond organ is an acquired taste, and perhaps they are right. For some, this music will at first evoke calliopes or soap operas or melodramatic silent movie soundtracks. But listen again and you'll discover that Mr. Smith is swinging just about as hard as any keyboard player you can think of, and putting out a sound that's much more like a big band than like a trio.

another of my blog heroes is Rich

I forgot to mention that another of my blogging heroes is the very articulate Rich Berlin, a former housemate and gifted musician.

serious anniversary loot

I would like to state for the record that I am a very lucky fellow. My wife treated me to a serious pile of photography gear yesterday for our anniversary, including my dream tripod setup (Gitzo 1227 and Acratech Ultimate Ballhead), new Canon EF 70-200mm f4/L zoom lens, and a new Canon 1.4X tele-converter. The carbon fiber tripod legs are a total revelation, especially compared to the hefty Manfrotto tripod we've been carrying in the field all these years for birding. I forsee a new birding tripod in the not-too-distant future.

hi!

Hi there. I started this blog mostly because I want to be as cool as my friend Grant and my wife Mary, the wonderful woman with whom I today celebrate my twelfth anniversary.