Flute Player

Last night I went to see a very fine Latin jazz group but, they didn't have drums. Much as I try to like the idea of hearing Latin music without drums and percussion the truth is, it just doesn't work for me. Latin music without drums just isn't Latin music. Most probably the reason the group I heard last night didn't have a drummer was an economic one, cheaper to pay three people than four. Too bad it was the drums that got the axe. Drums should be the last thing cut in a Latin band, not the first. You just can't take a music based on drumming for hundreds of years and then take that element out, sorry. It's those layers of rhythms from the drums and percussion in Latin and African music that make it the vital force that is. Please, don't be a Latin band without drums. Thank you.

I got a chance to see the Novato Theater Company's production of On the Twentieth Century last night. Wow! Though the first half was just a tad long for me, overall I really enjoyed the play. In particular, Daniela Innocenti Beem was fantastic! She's the real deal, folks. Actors like her belong on the big screen and the big stage. Amazing.

Went to the Raiders game yesterday. Had a horrible time connecting to AT&T on my iPhone, no doubt too many people in one place all trying to do the same thing! Here's some screen shots of my iPhone (notice the five bars of connectivity and time lapse between shots).

So I had to amuse myself between downs and penalties with something else besides going online. For starters, I noticed the rallying chants "Let's go Rai ders Let's go (clap clap)" and "De fense (clap clap) De fense (clap clap)" are 4/4 constructs.

When the iPad first came out, I remember reading a number of comments that said it was a poor name for one reason or another. Why not iTablet instead?

Considering the long development cycle of the iPad, surely the name was something Apple took very seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if they had focus groups (or even a whole department!) devoted to just that. One thing was clear – from a hardware perspective, this was a tablet. Perhaps "iTablet" sounded too long when compared to iPhone or iPod? (one too many syllables and all). However, to my ears, iPad is similar enough sounding to iTablet — just toggle back and forth "pad" and "tab" a few times and judge for yourself. Maybe that's all there was to it, something that sounded like tablet but shorter. iPad.

http://www.shermusic.com/new/0961470143-cd.shtml

I upgraded to OS5 last night and have noticed that when I select an image to view, it's being stretched. This does not happen when looking at a page with the image as part of the HTML, only when isolating the image for viewing. Why does it do this? Is there a fix?

Went to the Apple Store in Santa Rosa last night to see if anybody there knew who to talk to about what happened to my flute recital album. The guy who waited on me had no idea either but was kind enough to look into it. He went into the back room to talk to someone he thought might know more and came back a few minutes later with some interesting news.

Whomever he talked with also hosts his music with CD Baby and told him that iTunes doesn't actually host the CD Baby files, but connects to their servers. So *maybe* this could simply be a communication issue between servers that is causing the problem (and not an editorial one as I've been assuming). Unfortunately, CD Baby is closed on the weekends so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if that is indeed the case.