Drawing by Milo Manara.

Happy Monday.

[Photo Credit: deviantart]

“I Forgot To Be Your Lover” William Bell

[Photo Credit: Garden of Weeds]

David Kamp on The Birth of Bond.

Photograph by Bama Wester.

Put the needle to the groove.

[Photo Credit: 1950s Unlimited]

Happiness is…this.

[Photo Via: Nothing Less]

Swell oral history on “Cheers” by Brian Raftery over at GQ. Anyone who ever loved that show, well, you’re in for a treat.

Them again. Thank you, Jerry Seinfeld.

Photograph by Todd Klassy.

House to haus does fennel.

[Photo Credit: Sandy Spring CSA]

The title of this piece, is by Bronx based baseball and human interest writer Todd Drew and was the name a column he wrote. Todd was a gem of a person and was taken from us far too early. This is my tribute to him and it begins with a big hands/feet fill I call “The Stampede”, to show my anger for his life being way too short. Todd appreciated “heady” music and loved jazz, latin & funk. I did my best to combine a lot of this in his honor.

The A section is an advanced linear version of the “Purdie Shuffle” and each phrase ends in a drum fill. The first half of the melody reminds me of Eric Dolphy (another one taken too early), while the second half strangely reminds me of Fleetwood Mac. Todd would love the dichotomy!
The B section is a latin-jazz groove in the Elvin Jones vein, circa his 1960’s work with the brilliant Wayne Shorter. This leads into a straight latin section, based around an Afro-Cuban 6/8.

I’m proud of the big solo section, which begins with a Tony Williams (who also died too soon…) influenced swing and leads into a long marimba solo, enhanced by vibraphone and supported wholly by the drums.

Dig it:

Shadow Games

Baby, I’m so glad you’re here…

[Photo Credit: 26.media]

Or mostly dead. Last week I had lunch with a guy who is from New York but now lives in L.A. He wanted to pick up a paper one morning and had to walk three blocks to find one. I thought of him when I was on Lexington Avenue last weekend and saw this–a rare site, for sure.

Over at Time, Cormac McCarthy talks movies with the Coens.

Head on over to Flavorwire for these pearls of wisdom from William Faulkner…

“Read, read, read. Read everything —trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.” – Statement at the University of Mississippi, 1947

“All of us failed to match our dream of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible. In my opinion, if I could write all my work again, I am convinced that I would do it better, which is the healthiest condition for an artist. That’s why he keeps on working, trying again; he believes each time that this time he will do it, bring it off. Of course he won’t, which is why this condition is healthy.” – Interview with The Paris Review, 1956

[Image Via: The Economist]

I had ravioli last weekend. Man, it’s an indulgence but they’s just so damn good. And this picture by Bags reminded me of how much I enjoy peas.

Photograph by Alex Hutchinson.

Baaaaah.

Somewhere there’s heaven.

[Photo Via: Zeroing]