Brought to you through the good offices of Rae Ann Berry, another brief trip to San Diego (November 27, 2009) to visit with the Yerba Buena Stompers. Make yourself to home.��� Coffee?��� Campari?��� Seltzer?��� A great deal of music strikes me as���pleasant and competent, but I need to hear it only...

This week we’ve got no time for snappy intros, no time to come up with any witty banter or half-serious boasts. There’s really not a moment to spare, such is our determination to get the piping hot jams right into your grubby little mitts. So we won’t talk about girl group-jacking weirdos we found...

DECEMBER 4 — HERBERT READ Distinguished British anarchist art critic. DECEMBER 4, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS Nuremberg, Germany: KRIS KRINGLES’ FAIR. ALSO ON DECEMBER 4 IN HISTORY… 1122 — Poet of wine, women and song Omar Khayyam dies. 1866 — Painter Wassily Kandinsky born, Moscow, Russia. 1875 —...

The history of jazz is full of musicians, both reliable and inventive, who don’t become stars.��� Drummer George Wettling is one of the most neglected, although he had a recording career that lasted more than thirty years, finding him alongside Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Eddie Condon, Bud...

The much-loved jazzman Jim Goodwin died this year just shy of his sixty-fifth birthday.������I’ve written elsewhere on this blog about his talents, but what struck me when I first heard him on record was his surpassing���heat, a pushing intensity that drove the musicians around him.��� Red Allen had it, as did Roy Eldridge.��� Think of [...]

We covered 2007 in a similar way before -- way back in 2007 -- but not to this extent. Some of these lists from our editorial staff go up to 20 rather than 10, so there is more Radiohead, Panda Bear, White Stripes, UGK, and probably M.I.A. (There is the exact same amount of Amerie, Frank Zappa, and...

tis the time for a new lunar calendar*** www.rendijlunarcalendar.com

The 2009 Grammy Awards nominations were announced last night during a live broadcast on CBS from L.A.’s Club Nokia. Beyonce leads the pack with 10 nominations, including Album of the Year. Also receiving nominations were Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon, Dave Matthews and the Black Eyed Peas. [Variety.com]...

I started with FEMA maps. “This is how they cost out earthquake damage.” I laid one on the drafting table so Jules could see. “Sometimes people call them Ground Failure Maps or Hazard Maps. They show you where the land is unstable and prone to liquefaction.” He leaned over. I traced a river gorge...