Grand View Park
There are many neighborhoods in San Francisco that seem to have a paucity of parks. Parts of the Sunset. The Excelsior. Endless square blocks of houses, squeezed together like sardines. There may be huge beautiful parks like Golden Gate Park and McClaren Park, but there are not many little ones where you can just get out and escape the confines of your house to walk the dog our throw a ball around. People in each neighborhood really know about these little parks, but outsiders often require time to even find and explore them. One such park in the Sunset District is Grand View Park.
Grand View Park is simply a good-sized hill off of 19th Ave. It is surely used by the local dog walkers and morning exercisers. An interesting way to get there is to go east from 19th avenue on Moraga. When Moraga ends park. There is a most amazing stairway that leads up the hill. This stairway, a product of the Golden Gate Heights Neighborhood Association, has a beautiful mosaic running up its steps.
After climbing these steps, one winds ones way up more steps to the top. The views at the top are stupendous. One can see downtown, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin Headlands and of course the immense Pacific Ocean. Below are some photos of Grand View Park where tourist buses rarely venture.
Thinking has its own laws… a Kitaro Nishida quote
Thinking has its own laws. It functions of its own accord and does not follow our will. To merge with the object of thought – that is, to direct one’s attention to it is voluntary, but I think perception is the same in this respect: we are able to see what we want to see by freely turning our attention to it.
Kitaro Nishida
From a stone on the Philosophers Walk in McLaren Park in San Francisco
The Birthday Song – The Year Now Cometh – Free Download
For people who are tired of that old drab happy birthday song, here is sheet music for a birthday song that has to be sung like a drinking song. It has been known to mend a relationship on the rocks. It can also brush over the fact that you forgot a present…
The Year Now Cometh – Public – Download
Yes the photo is of the author.
Live Bluegrass in SF as the Beauty Operators play all Weekend
Beauty Operators in the house this weekend. Great song writing. Amazing harp player. A mix of old tunes, originals and interesting adaptions of standards from the 70s and 80s.
What is pretty interesting about these venues, is that I doubt any doctors show up at the Doctor’s Lounge
and I never saw anyone drink milk at the Milk Bar.
THURSDAY 8pm Doctor’s Lounge
https://www.facebook.com/events/781986835153741/?context=create
The Beauty Operators play at the Doctor’s Lounge the 3rd Thursday of every month. The club has a great pool room in back. Bar food available.
SATURDAY 8pm Modern Times
https://www.facebook.com/events/305765432910139/
SUNDAY 5pm Bluegrass & Beyond- Sundays at Milk Bar.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1532011310358491/
San Francisco bluegrass.
Butterfly Jazz Trio – First Time Around CD
There are still a few copies of this limited release CD. Listen to examples and get the CD at Add to Cart at CD Baby!
Album Notes
Kai Lyons – Guitar
Erik Von Buchau – Drums
Dillan Riter – Bass
Recorded at Granada Studios in Half Moon Bay on August, 29, 2013, FIRST TIME AROUND by the Butterfly Jazz Trio is a spontaneous romp through some funky grooves, subtle ballads and straight ahead explorations. The session was inspired by gigs the Butterfly Jazz Trio played in downtown San Francisco in various bars and hotels during the summer of 2013.
All tunes were chosen like they had been on the gigs – spur of the moment, like many of the great sessions of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Two takes were done of most tracks but invariably the first was the one chosen. Freshness and immediacy was the agenda. There are no click tracks, prefabrications or overdubs of any kind. Just real instruments, listening, talented players and a splendid warm-sounding tube amp built by Rico Macalma, the engineer on the session.
At around 5pm, the crew packed up realizing that we all needed a break. We headed up to the Mission District in San Francisco for dinner. Time to chill before another gig at a hotel off of Union Square.
If you are a fan of the jazz guitar trio, music that swings hard and melodies that stay with you long after you finish that last track, check out the CD. Makes a great gift too. You may just want to listen to it again and again.
A FEW SAMPLES
There are still a few copies of this limited release CD. Listen to examples and get the CD at Add to Cart at CD Baby!
Engineer & Mix by Rico Macalma, Mastering by Rainer Gembalczyk
Executive Producer & CD Design – Paul Lyons
Unauthorized copying and reproduction prohibited.
Copyright 2013 – Butterfly Jazz Trio – All Rights Reserved – kailyons.com
Adventures in YouTube. The Salsa Arrangements that Changed the World
Every now and then you have to pay attention. It seems the older you get the faster time goes by. The other day I searched on YouTube for some of the songs that I composed and arranged back in the late 1990s with various groups in San Francisco. Some of these tunes have 100,000 plays which is sort of cool but I am sure that at this point no one in this group is making money off those plays. We did it for love anyway. And the dancers.
Arrangements by Paul Lyons
Orq. Azabache – This Moment
Hi. This is Paul Lyons the arranger of this song and many tunes on this album – Azabache from 2000. Thanks for posting this video.
What makes this song so cool is that it is a salsa song about breaking up. There are very few of those. Usually salsa songs in English are love songs and are quite corny. Not with this one.
These charts where written originally for trumpet, trombone and baritone sax. Notice that on this recording the band played the song with trombones. What is so strange about this recording is that the second mambo I wrote originally as an afterthought to the song. I always imagined a solo on top of the trombone line. But I love this tune and knew it would touch people.
Julio Bravo, Sin Rencor
Arranged by Paul Lyons from San Francisco. Another tune I actually do not remember arranging. 2000 was such a crazy time. People thought the world was going to end. I just had had my second kid, a daughter Lucia. At the time I was writing about one arrangement a week and every now and then complete originals would be commissioned. The phrasing of the horns is stellar. Bill Thuerer, Derek James, Stephen Khuen. The orchestration is how it was written.
Simplemente Complicada – Orquesta Azabache.wmv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z7Cr-zIX2Q
Composed and Arranged by Paul Lyons. Lyrics by Ray Martinez. This is a tune/melody that I wrote that Ray wrote lyrics to. It was about a relationship he was having at the time. So Ray put words to the song and then brought it back to my place with a scratch recording. We probably hung out for a while and brainstormed some ideas. I then wrote the arrangement that afternoon. All of the songs on this album came together in one six month period and I am certain this project (Azabache 2000) was self produced. It is not in print anymore. Someone call Ray and tell him to press a few thousand more.
Azabache – Cinco a Diez
Arrangement by Paul Lyons (Azabache 2000). About 100,000 views makes me scratch my head at how crazy the music industry is. This is a very cool tune about a very difficult situation – 5 to 10 years in jail.
Learn How to Write Salsa Charts. Certified by the Club Owners Association of Northern California.
If you are interested in purchasing the sheet music – arrangements for any of the songs above, email contact me
A Week in the Western Highlands, Xela and Antigua Guatemala
After eight years living a life of opulence in San Francisco, we made a return trip to Guatemala the first week in April 2014. Traveling was Andy, my wife, Lucia my 14-year-old daughter, Lisa our friend who is traveling for research work and myself. From San Francisco there are no direct flights, so we were routed through Dallas. A five-hour layover that turned into six, we ate a very poor meal at TGIF Fridays. Over-processed stuff. Chicken that tasted like rubber. Grilled vegetables that were cold and tasteless. You would think in the United States we could do better than this, but apparently not. In most airports food is either fast food or restaurants that are really sports bars, which serve over salted food, and who’s main objective is to tempt you with overpriced mass-produced cocktails.
In Guatemala City, at the airport in the dark we caught a taxi to our Bed and Breakfast, a place we had stayed before. While it was close to the airport the taxi driver ended up roaming around a bit aimlessly. We entered gated neighborhoods with armed guards eventually exiting in confusion. After about 15 minutes, we got our bearings and found the place. It is not easy finding an urban dwelling surrounded by walls. The addresses are often cryptic and the order of streets is frequently unruly and illogical.
The next morning, at the bed and breakfast, after a homemade breakfast of papaya, eggs, beans and coffee, we rode to Xela in a private van with many empty seats. It is important to appreciate ample personal space when traveling in Guatemala, as often you can be crammed into the public chicken buses with three to a seat. Soon on the highway the experience begins to all fall into place. Lots of people walking on the side of the road – Mayan woman in their colorful garb carrying bundles on their heads, men in cowboy hats, kids on bikes patrolling the hood. Volcanoes soaring into the sky off in the distance. The brightly painted walls and signs for everything from hardware stores, to dentists, to political parties to the ubiquitous Tigo – the phone company. I vaguely remember each of the towns on this journey though the road seems a lot better now then it did in 2006. It is two lanes in both directions, which is new. Along the way we ate a roadside restaurant called Kape Paulinos where the food was excellent. The chicken was delicious and the freshly squeezed juices and handmade tortillas were superb.
We arrived in Xela around 3pm, found our hotel, got money from the ATM and chilled out for the rest of the day. After dark fell, we did go to a café that doubles as a museum. On one of the walls was a painting named Muerte de General Rufino Barrios. The date on the work was 1944 and I do not know if it was based on another painting, but I really became enthralled by the tragic scene. Rufino Barrios looms large in the history of Guatemala. In fact, the little town where I am writing this, San Lorenzo is the birthplace of Rufino. He was an enlightened fellow who became president of Guatemala and fought for the empowerment of the poor Mayans and Guatemala in general. He attempted to institute land reform, always a precarious topic for politicians, especially in Latin America. There is something about the painting of Rufino Barrios, dead on the battlefield that metaphorically tells a story that remains tragically the same today. Unlike, Peru or especially Bolivia, in Guatemala the indigenous peoples are pretty marginalized politically.
The next day at 6am we were picked up from our hotel by Eduardo, one of the longtime workers of health studies that have gone on in San Lorenzo for the past two decades and was the reason for our family’s yearlong stay in 2006. Up an insanely steep cobblestone road to 7000 feet and the Altiplano and San Lorenzo.
In the afternoon, Lucia and I got on the bus and made our way down to San Marcos, where we lived for a year. A lot has changed. The new bus station on the north side of town has changed the traffic flow and has surely been a boon for stores in that area. The earthquake last year destroyed many of the old buildings. The building where my kids went to school, San Carlos, was destroyed. I remember that school as being very quaint, with its lathe and plaster walls, little balconies and rickety stairs. Fortunately, when the earthquake hit, there were not many people in the school. Many of the buildings more than eighty years old seemed to have crumbled. Unfortunately, they are all being replaced with the modern cinder-block construction that you see all throughout Mexico and Latin America. Unimaginative and cold. With the loss of these old buildings, the city has lost part of its charm.
We went by the house were we lived for a year in 2006 and ran into the son of our landlord. We met up with Mario and Chaito, some old friends as school was letting out. They then drove us down to Agua Tibia, the spring fed swimming pool at the edge of town. People in San Marcos always complain about Agua Tibia as being too cold but to me the pool is quite pleasant. We swam and dove off the three and five meter platforms. After buying some bread and hanging out in the main plaza, we walked the five or so blocks to the bus station and headed back up to San Lorenzo. It always amazes me how efficient the bus system is in Guatemala. You never have to wait more than 15 minutes and a bus, going exactly where you need to go is available. How these bus drivers make money does not seem logical. Our fare for the 45-minute ride up 2000 vertical feet was only one dollar each. The bus holds about 20 people.
The weather this whole trip has been splendid. It has been warmer than normal and even during the nights it has been pleasant. In times past, staying up here in the Altiplano was a bit grueling as there often is a chill that gets inside your bones. Running water and hot showers are intermittent at best. Heat is often a brick wood stove. But the people persevere. It is an odd paradox that sometimes people with so little enjoy the day more and generally seem happier than those with vast material possessions. For sure, there is a lot of pain and suffering here, mostly caused by the dire poverty, but yesterday, while walking, we ran into an elderly woman, in traditional Mayan garb, about 4 feet tall, with a long grey ponytail and brilliant grey eyes, tending to her sheep. She was sitting by the side of the road, simply enjoying the day. We could have stayed and conversed for a long while and she seemed at peace with the world. The sun was shining. Little kids as they walked by would greet her with respect. Every now and then she would take her 20 foot long whip out and with great control violently smack it on the ground next to one of her sheep who seemed to be wondering too close to the road. It seemed a bit like a scene from the Hobbit Shire in Lord of the Rings. At any moment Gandalf was going to appear on a horse.
The following day, Andy and I headed back down to San Marcos. We met up for lunch with our good friends, Checha, Paoula and their three beautiful kids. Perhaps the best English speakers in town, they cobble together various jobs as English teachers to make ends meet. On the weekends, Checha sings in various rock and cumbia bands. Earlier, on the street, we ran into one of the shopkeepers who sold school uniforms we had met years back. Unlike my old buddies at the hardware store and pool, he actually recognized me. His shop next to San Carlos school had crumbled in the earthquake. We exchanged pleasant greetings but he did not seem the confidant entrepreneur I remember but a man trying to gather his bearings. We made a trip over to San Pedro via taxi and experienced the market that had not changed a bit. A taxi to San Marcos then a chicken bus back up to San Lorenzo. You have not experienced Guatemala, if you have not been on a chicken bus. They are brightly painted old Blue Bird school buses from the United States. They are often packed with riders. On this particular trip back to San Lorenzo, I spent most of the time standing up crammed in with all the campesinos. The driver seemed to be around 18 years old and had mastered driving the bus like a formula one racer. Hairpin turns at top speed, double shifting, avoiding potholes, passing trucks with skill. I noticed a few bicyclists run off the side of the road as well. Meanwhile his assistant did everything from collecting fares, to climbing up to the roof to store rider’s packages, to assisting the driver negotiate tight intersections or an oncoming vehicle. Bus driver assistants never get on the bus when it is still. The bus must be going at least 10 miles an hour. While shouting out the bus’s destination, they will run parallel to the bus and at the last minute grab on to the railing and board. Often they will disappear and ride on the back ladder and make their way in through the back emergency exit. It takes a remarkable athleticism to be a bus driver assistant.
The last few days we spent in Antigua. A bit touristy for sure, but beautiful and full of fond memories. Hot showers, amazing meals, very cool old ruins. One night we walked by THE BLACK CAT Antigua, once a very happening hostel, restaurant, bar establishment. It had changed ownership and right a way I could tell it was not the same place. They did a remodel job that was a bad idea. While I tried to figure out the situation they tried to coerce us in, but we knew better and continued on our way. The place was pretty empty. Word of mouth still travels very fast. It looks like the real BLACK CAT is now in XELA.
Twenty Fourteen WordPress Theme – Very Cool
For anyone who has made a WordPress theme, the default themes have always been lacking something. After this site got hacked, I came around to it and updated the theme of the Pelican Cafe with the new Twenty Fourteen for the WordPress theme. I would give it 5 stars. For future projects in WordPress I will be using this as the base theme. Nice work WordPress!
Thoughts on a Music Called Jazz
There is really no such thing as a music called jazz, or a music called bluegrass or a music called blues, music called black music or music called white music. It is all music from America. A vibrant living music. In the end, the names do nothing but to segregate music at different drinking fountains. The best of American bands can play any of these strands well. I was blown away when the Lyle Lovett large band opened their show with Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee. A band from the heart of “country” music, playing another music from the opposite hue of the musical spectrum. The tempo was blazing. The solos were fresh. But bands with great players from Nashville can do that kind of thing and make it feel natural. The concept that jazz is America’s “classical” music I find disturbing as it means that it has died and run its course. When Bach and Mozart were writing and playing, it was not classical anything. It was just music.
Photo is of Kai Lyons and Paul Lyons.
I feel better now
I don’t know anything and have no perspective, but here is my comment…. I feel better now.
From Barnswarm, commenting on the website Stoke Report and the “Rant – Laird speaks,” bringing up the concept that on the new Internet, everyone has the ability to post, and that the behavior is really about personal therapy.
The Art of Cuing a Salsa Band – The Spontaneous Arranger
From Arranging for Salsa Bands – The Doctor Big Ears Essays
by Paul Lyons (Available as an eBook)
In most every Latin band that I have worked with, I am called upon to call the musical shots – cue the band. Why this is, I don’t know. Sometimes I write a lot of the material, but other times I have not. During the course of my travels and freelance experiences, I have picked up a few tips as well as preferences.
Emblematic Symbols
1. Standard Four Bar Cue: I use a four bar cue starting with my index finger. The second cue is the most important second bar cue – three bars before the entrance. I give this with the index and pinkie finger of my right hand. If I sense uncertainty among players far away from me, this usually clears up the intent. I use the pinkie finger, as this is the most emphatic way to make two fingers visible. One could use the peace symbol for two, but then everyone would mellow out too much. This music is about drive and hitting things! Geeze! These guys walk around with sticks in their pockets!
2. Mambo Cue: When cuing mambos (a section of the song), I give the standard four bar cue. It is important to cue the instruments who start the mambo. Visual contact can be a great benefit here. If the piano and bass start the mambo with a unison line, they need to get the cue. The horns will figure it out. If the horns start the mambo – cue them. Often a singer cuing a mambo looks at the horns with his cue for the mambo when the mambo starts with the piano and bass. The horn players then sort of shrug shoulders and look at the piano player who is often lost staring at the floor or trying to play a one handed montuno so that he can get a sip of his beer. This is incorrect procedure. One always cues by looking at whoever is about to play.
In essence, cues must be forward looking and have a basic understanding of the arrangement and what is coming next.
3. Moña Cue: For moñas, often an ad lib second mambo, one cues it with the fingers to the forehead. Someone, recently gave me their linguistic via cultural take on the reason for this gesture, but I forgot what it was, perhaps due to the late hour or maybe the slurred and mumbled delivery of this theorist. I always interpreted the fingers to the forehead as “think – come up with a line you idiot!” Good bands make up there moñas. Dull ones play the one on the record and never take chances creating their own.
4. Piano Solo Cue: When cuing a piano solo, I wiggle my fingers like a pianist playing the keys. I continue with the standard four bar cue. The most often used break leading into the piano solo is two eighth notes (beats four and four and) on the last bar of the cue.
Marcos Diaz ready to begin his solo after a fantastic “piano solo cue.”
This is often the one chord but depends on the chord changes and musical context. This is a standard musical gesture in Latin music.
5. Percussion Solo Cue: When cuing a percussion solo, I usually just point to the person taking the solo. The standard percussion break is the “five to one” break. This commences on the fourth bar of the cue.
Carl Perazzo and Edgardo Cambon waiting for a “percussion solo” cue at “El Rio” in San Francisco.
This is a standard musical gesture in this music
6. Ending Cue: The universal ending to a song is the closed fist held in plain view. One should hold this cue for only this purpose. The closed fist should never make it into the repertoire of other cues. There are few thing as disconcerting and dangerous as ending a song prematurely.
Here rests Dr. Big Ears’ 1964 bug. He used it as a getaway car after throwing a premature “ending cue” on a gig in Phoenix. Big Ears ended up hiding out for four months in Baja, Mexico .
These are the emblematic cues reviewed.
1. Standard Four Bar Cue
2. Mambo Cue
3. Moña Cue
4. Piano Solo Cue
5. Percussion Solo Cue
6. Ending Cue
Other Thoughts on “Cuology”
One has to have an artistic conception of the music and musical phrase in the first place in order to cue well. In essence, one only needs to listen, know who the players are and use common sense.
Many players see the clave in terms of longer units. A good percussionist will “sing” on the instrument to the point where his musical phrase will dictate the cue. It has been my experience that this sense of phasing is often in eight bar phrases. Having said this, it is important to respect this phasing during a solo and cue accordingly so as to not cut off the musical thought. Listening is the key here.
One can also tailor the music to the mood in the room – the size of the crowd. Piano solos tend to be mellower than trombone solos. (This however is not the case if you had Eddie Palmieri and Urbie Green in the same band.) One must keep in mind players strengths and weaknesses and bring out the strengths. This may sound stupid, but unlistening musicians can be oblivious to a player who isn’t in the mood to stretch out or is exhausted.
In rooms where visibility is bad, the standard four bar cue can be replaced with a loud whistle. I have used this often. It is important to practice this shrieking whistle beforehand far from persons of the opposite sex. One is never certain what loud sounds have on people’s nervous systems. However around retired percussionists you will probably have no problems.
Tom Bertetta, and his patented listening method for the “shrieking whistle cue” in clubs with bad visibility.
Finally, it is important to watch great musicians who cue and see them at this craft. It is good to pick up little tricks, especially ones that pertain to your instrument. Cuing from the piano has always seemed problematic to me – bass even more so. Chucho Valdez and Tito Puente come to mind first off as great leaders and great musicians at cuing. There are many more out there for sure.
Good cuing allows for flexibility beyond rehearsing. It enables a band to stay fresh with material indefinitely. It allows anyone to solo on any song and a group to never play the song the same way twice. In its purest form, it is spontaneous arranging.
patching up some holes in ocean floor notice
also: they are doing routine maintenance on the ocean floor tomorrow… patching up some holes where it has been leaking. the sea will be drained between 8am – 8pm. open again on sat.
hasbro
Comment from the Stoke Report 10/31/2013
2013 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Official Pelican Café Awards
As is the case with years past, The Pelican Café gives out awards for the Best of Hardly Strictly. It is a great honor to have been chosen for this task.
BEST 87 YEAR OLD GUY SINGING A SONG
Ralph Stanley
Ralph can still belt it out and if you have not heard him sing, it is a truly American experience. Part Appalachia, part blues, part native Indian chants, it is a one of a kind thing. The Clinch Mountain Boys always deliver some solid traditional bluegrass.
BEST USE OF A SUS 4 CHORD FOR A REAL LONG DURATION
Alison Brown
Alison sounded great and as the sun came out full-blast and I applied my second batch of sunscreen, the sus 4 chords just keep coming. Everyone knows that hanging out on sus 4 chords in Bluegrass is just strange. It is like mixing your sour mash whiskey with Dr. Pepper. Better just to drink it straight.
COOLEST ROCK AND ROLL OLD FART
Richard Thompson
This guy played some heavy songs, with profound lyrics and delivered some totally out there guitar solos. I caught him later at the Rooster Stage playing a solo ballad. When the sound went out on his acoustic guitar, he did not skip a bit and borrowed yet another guitar and finished the last two verses.
BRAVEST ARTIST, GOING OUT ON A LIMB SINGING A STRANGE BALLAD, SINGING WITHOUT HIS GUITAR
Steve Earl
Speaking of singing ballads, Steve Earl at the Kate McGarrigle Tribute, sang one of Kate’s ballads, and pulled it off admirably. You could tell he was in unfamiliar waters, but rose to the occasion.
MOST SOULFUL SINGER WITH A GROOVIN’ BAND
Nicki Bluhm
Just a breath of fresh air, great voice and a solid band.
BEST HARMONICA PLAYING WHILE PLAYING STAND UP BASS
Chris Wood of the Wood Brothers
Not too many harp players in bluegrass. It is a strange misunderstanding. Anyway the Wood brothers are a very interesting band. Maybe next time Chris should put down the bass and grab the harp with two hands. This year, I started to get into this band and strange combinations. It is easy to forget that all this music is just three people. Excellent vocals.
BEST COOL BAND FROM EUROPE THAT I MISSED
First Aid Kit
Can’t be everywhere…
Prelude
The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival always takes place the first weekend of October in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Because of the season, you either experience a weekend of warm temperatures and offshore winds, in other words “Indian Summer,” or the end of summer, and the usual foggy cold. This year it was warm. The surf lined up to be shoulder high glassy things, and the sky was so clear, on Saturday morning from the dunes of Ocean Beach you could see far off to the distance along the coast to the north, the bluffs of Point Reyes.
Some people say I like this festival because I am cheap. Sure, one look at my car and you get the idea that this is a person who probably rinses out the end of the ketchup bottle in the spaghetti sauce. It is true, I tend to gravitate towards the simple pleasures, being a free festival, things become simple when it comes to money. But to take on a festival with over 100 bands, you got to have a strategy even if your strategy is to have no strategy. This year, after much searching for comrades, it turned out I was flying solo. Strange, I was unable to drag anyone from my family, anyone from my extended family, and not even a single soul from my rock and roll jam band world. Plans. Travel. Prior engagements. Camping-surf trips. No problem. How can you possibly miss this thing!
The strategy was to be simple. Surf in the morning. Hit the festival all day. See as many bands as possible. Pack supplies. Water, refreshments and binoculars.
So, Saturday, I awake to a sort of paradise, and proceed with my HSB schedule all marked up, West, to the ocean and the Golden Gate Park. The following day, after jamming in some undisclosed location in the Mission with the Beauty Operators, I simply repeated the formula. By the time my honey showed up for the final show on Sunday, I had seen over 13 bands, many for the first time. The only problem was that there were at least 25 more that I missed. Next year, weather permitting, all Friday afternoon at the Porch Stage hearing some folksy stuff. All Saturday and Sunday checking out acts I know nothing about. The weirder the names, the better.
Tom Hanks and How the Hero Pie Gets Divided
Some people are cowards. … I think by and large a third of people are villains, a third are cowards, and a third are heroes. Now a villain and a coward can choose to be a hero, but they have got to make that choice.
Tom Hanks – Parade Magazine
September 22, 2013
UPDATE: November 18, 2023
You have to love the simplicity of this quote – villains, cowards and heroes. If only the world was really that simple. But then again, Mr. Hanks may be on to something. Just about every event or situation has these three characters. The person who steals the candy bar. The person who sees it all happen and refuses to say anything. The clerk who confronts the thief. Granted this is a shallow and silly example and it is obvious to make an example of our current political world where cowards abound. The Republican party has its share of villains and the cowards are everywhere afraid for their own skin. The problem is that the few heroes that exist are leaving the room but state their case in clear language. The Liz Cheney’s and Adam Kinzinger’s of the world may be heroic in their own way but unfortunately they are no longer in the room. No one is holding their breaths waiting for all the cowards to suddenly choose to be heroes and state the obvious. Now wouldn’t it be interesting if Tom Hanks ran for president. That would be a heroic choice!
San Francisco Never Takes a Break at the Meters
People often think of San Francisco as a “Godless” town. This is entirely untrue. Even though people here is San Francisco live in a very free-wheeling manner, laying out in parks with little clothing on, smoking strange herbs at all times of the day, marrying people of the same sex, there is one thing for certain. During all holidays and even on Sunday’s you can hear people calling out the name “Jesus” and “Dear God” often. It usually happens when they are returning to their car and notice a familiar piece of paper in under their windshield wipers. When they read the contents of this paper, that is when religion overtakes them. Some times they call Jesus by just his first name. Often they include his surname. Sometimes they make reference to a little known figure in the bible, Asoles. At that point, San Franciscan’s will get in their cars with very pious looks on their faces and drive off as though there is work to be done.
Recently, on Labor Day no less, I was pulled into this religious fervor when I found a bill under my wiper. $85 for simply parking my car. Labor Day. A day when people are not suppose to work. Someone please tell those people in those funny little cars to go home and take a bath. In San Francisco, unless you want to run into this “problem,” if you drive a car and have to park it somewhere from time to time, stock up on rolls of quarters. It keeps the mojo intact.
For more information on how the San Francisco parking regulations never take a break, see https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/parking/holiday-enforcement
Letter from Brother Ted
Recently, I volunteered to play an hour set at Fairmount Elementary. I pulled together some friends, came up with a band name, “Gus and Mission Creek Ramblers,” wrote down some songs and thought… no problem. But as all band leaders know, refined artists live complicated lives. Ted, the lead banjo player was in a tight spot. The day of the gig, I found this letter in my mail box.
Thursday, 3am May 9th,
I know this is hard to believe but rules are rules. It was a dark and stormy night and we were making good time. We had made it over the mountain pass and were almost to the state line. We crossed the state line into Nevada on our way to Reno with no problems but it wasn’t till about 10 miles down the road when I saw the flashing red lights in my rear view mirror. I wasn’t going that fast but I pulled over. The first thing the officer asked me was if I had any illegal unregistered musical instruments in my possession. I said that I was unaware of any laws about registering instruments with authorities. He said “open the trunk sir” and at that moment I knew I was busted.
He saw my banjo case and asked for my banjo license. I told him I had none. So right away he handcuffed us, and booked us on transferring unregistered banjos across state lines. My trial is next week and bail is set for $10,000.
Laura the Mandolin player is with me too. She did not have a license as well. Things are not so bad though. They have us in a cell with this guy named Bernie Madoff and asked us to play as much as possible. The police said he liked the banjo music but Bernie seems like he is pretty irritated and I think he starting to go mad.
Anyway, don’t worry about us. We are getting 3 square meals a day. Wish us luck. Send bail if you can but I am going to fight this thing.
Truly,
Ted and Laura
Well we ended up doing the gig with just two people. Guitar and harmonica and a bunch of old tunes. Turned out fine. Ted and Laura did make it out of jail eventually.
Jerzy Grotowski Quote
There’s no such thing as talent, only lack of talent. The rest is work.
Jerzy Grotowsky
Quoted in The New Yorker, April 8, 2013
Kitaro Nishida Quote from McLaren Park
Thinking has its own laws. It functions of its own accord and does not follow our will. To merge with the act of thought – that is, to direct one’s attention to it – is voluntary, but I think perception is the same in this respect: we are able to see what we want to see by freely turning our attention towards it.
Kitaro Nishida
The Semantics of HTML and Web Sites – Why Markup Matters
Creating websites for 13 years now, I have seen the evolution of websites from clunky table based layouts that were semantically just a bunch of noise to the current HTML5, semantically charged creations. Of course the leaders in Web Standards and semantic HTML have been people like Jeffery Zeldman and his disciples, great CSS exercise sites like Zen Garden and also the blog sites and open source world, probably most importantly WordPress. If you want to make a web site theme that then someone else can take and run with, the semantics of the markup have to be solid.
I am amazed at how understanding semantics in both web design and programming gets overlooked. I still know many web designers who do not understand what a heading tag is. They are often so lost in the fonts and backgrounds and images that they forget what is going on in the hierarchy of information. I have witnessed decent designers never realize that <h1>What a Killer Page</h1> is what is essential. This is not only for SEO but also for making the web site accessible on a variety of platforms. I still know amazing developers who can talk your ear off about Object Oriented Design Patterns who when they get to the HTML will code a heading tag as <div class=”main-header”> What a Killer Page</div>. I am not sure if this is because they just read stuff too quickly and never really read chapter one and think they know everything, or maybe they just don’t get it. Struggling with the margins of a <p> tag does not mean you should then use a few <br /> tags. Strange.
In HTML, if you take away things like the required html, body and title tags, the important semantic markup is pretty simple.
- Headers h1,h2,h3,h4,h5
- Paragraphs <p></p>
- Lists <ul><li></li></ul>
- Tables <table><tr><th></th></tr><tr><td></td></tr></table> (for tabular data)
That is really it! Markup such as divs and spans are not semantic. They are presentational! Putting things like navigational lists into divs is just wrong. The sooner one learns this basic distinction, the faster you will write cleaner, easier to maintain code.
In HTML5 the list of semantic markup grows longer. I will not enumerate them here but to me one of the main objectives of HTML5 is this semantic markup. <section></section>, <article><article>, <video></video>.
So there you have it. Just think. If you are just starting to write HTML, you got to avoid the 7 year era of table based layouts and nested tables seven layers deep just to keep you debugging for and hour all for the crappy browsers of the day.
How to Create Your Own File-Based Image Galleries with php, ftp, Shadowbox and a Groovy File Structure
or perhaps titled:
I don’t trust anyone with my photos, not Flickr, not Google and especially not Mark Zuckerberg!
Requirements
- Linux Hosting Account (php enabled)
- ftp program for uploading files
Implementation
- Clone the GitHub repository at https://github.com/pelicanpaul/groovy-php-gallery/
- ftp up to your web host. Probably a good idea to create a directory such as “MyPhotos” or “MrPrivatePics” or “DoNotLookAtThesePhotos”
- Add galleries to the Assets folders (see file naming convention below)
- See working example.
History
Many years ago, in the dark ages of web development, when I had a Windows hosting account, you know one of those $4.95 a month deals, and I wanted to post lovely photos of my kids and vacations, I would do it a state of the art way. I’d open Photoshop 7 and chose “Create Web Gallery.” I would then wrestle the various dialogue boxes into submission and create a Web Gallery. It worked. It looked cool. It used tables for layouts. I was a genius.
Last year I closed my Windows hosting account. Never use webhost4life. It is a terrible hosting company. As I was doing a lot of Word Press, I chose BlueHost. So far so good.
Now I could have just uploaded all my old Photoshop galleries to my new hosting account but this seemed lame. I did not want to use any Web 2.0 stuff, in other words startup companies just waiting to be bought out and make your life really complicated, but I did want to use ftp to upload files. So with a little php, notably scandir
, I created a way to display all the photos in lovely paging galleries. The first time a particular gallery is accessed, it creates a folder of thumbnails in that directory named ‘thumbs.’ This makes the pages load faster. Larger versions of the images utilize Michael Jackson shadowbox, still one of my favorite lightboxes There is no indexing for searching, or meta tags, but to be honest, I would never get around to entering this sort of data. Maybe in the next version, I will add this feature.
A few key elements (let us say features and recommendations) of “Paul’s Amazing php Photo Gallery” are
- Name your folders like this 2012-08-New York. The folders will display by replacing the dashes with spaces and are ordered in descending order.
- Process your images to 1200px wide. This way they will look great when large, but not so big it takes forever to see a gallery.
- All gallery images have a lightbox large image version. Go shadowbox!
that’s it…
Enjoy!
2012 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Highlights
Last year I was in Tennessee at a wedding. This year I was able to check two days of the 2012 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco. Unlike past years, I did not have any known friends who were doing early morning squatting, marking out terrain, so I would be flying solo, moving between stages and looking for good listening and viewing spots. I caught Saturday and Sunday afternoon shows. Overall, it seemed like the festival was extremely well attended and each day I ran into people who traveled to San Francisco specifically for the festival. Met some nice people from San Diego, LA and Denver.
For me the best show was DOUG SAHM’S PHANTOM PLAYBOYS featuring: dave ALVIN, steve EARLE, delbert McCLINTON, boz SCAGGS, jimmie VAUGHAN… and whoever the cat drags in.… The rhythm section was right in the pocket and the band played a lot of different grooves. It all seemed effortless. The horn section was outstanding. The guitar solos outstanding pieces of R&B soul. For this show, I listened by a tree, stage right and it turned out to be a great spot. You could see the band the acoustics were good. This show had great sound.
A few interesting acts I caught were “The Cowboy Junkies” who I had never heard of feature a decent harp player. I enjoyed the brooding lead female singer who was very different from some of the earlier acts I heard. I also caught Patti Smith whose music I did not know, but whose name is well known. She brought a decent young rock and roll band and her music has this powerful, self-empowering message. Very nice.
So much music. So little time. Another fine year at the 2012 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Next year, I really got to make it for Friday night too.
Bootstrap Carousel – Two on the Same Page – A Clean Example
[do_widget id=woocommerce_products-3]
NOTE: It is so funny really, that this post is viewed more than any other on this site. If you are trying to put two carousels on a page it is simply a problem that you need to understand selectors.
If you need web development or are interested in my web development posts, it has moved to
http://www.paullyons.info/blog.
Paul Lyons
11/1/2014
There is really two ways you can find great new platforms and technologies when building websites. You can tirelessly scrape the web, subscribe to podcasts go to blogs, subscribe to twitter feeds. All of this is but one route. Another is just to get a job in the industry and have to deal with some out-sourced vendor’s code. I tend to be someone who does the later.
And so I found myself dealing with the Twitter Bootstrap world – http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ defined as
“Sleek, intuitive, and powerful front-end framework for faster and easier web development.”
At a tidy 25k minified it definitely raised my eyebrows. So I dove in and took a look around.
I was having a hard time with the project I was working on having two Bootstrap Carousels on the same page. In the past I had always used a jQuery plugin called BxSlider. So I tried to isolate the problem and still I was stumped. The code was very modular with good name-spacing but the js file just rambled on. So I looked at how it was instantiated.
What I discovered with bootstrap is that it is best, dare I say “best practice’ to call your jQuery plugin with a selector not used in the plugin. For example, the Carousel plug-in uses .carousel as a class in the code. So doing a
$(document).ready(function(){
$('.carousel').carousel();
});
will just create issues if you put two bootstrap carousels on the same page. The class ‘.carousel’ is used in the bootstrap plugin. Instead do
$(document).ready(function(){
$(‘#carouselName’).carousel();
});
Where #carouselName’ is of course the id of the carousel. So I had two of these lovely carousels and could then instantiate them with
$(document).ready(function(){
$('#oceanCarousel, #musiciansCarousel').carousel({
interval: false
});
});
Another issue that I had to deal with is the concept of having more than one img showing at a time. This can be accomplished with simply putting more than one image in the active div
<div class="active item">
<a href="#"><img src="../images/small/ocean01.jpg"></a>
<a href="#"><img src="../images/small/ocean02.jpg"></a>
<a href="#"><img src="../images/small/ocean03.jpg"></a>
</div>
You will not be able to have the carousel move just one image at a time as you can with BxSlider but so be it. A few important notes. It is best to use the entire bootstrap.js even though they have individual versions for each plugin. I think the pure CSS previous and next buttons/arrows that come courtesy of the base bootstrap css are the bomb but of course IE makes them square but then who cares about the people who see the web with IE anyway.
- See a Complete Example.
- Download Source Files (minus the images)
Hope this post makes your day easier.
First Glance – Surfing Ocean Beach in San Francisco
I remember a day in about 1989 before I surfed. I had moved to San Francisco from some landlocked state without an ocean. I lived in the Mission on Valencia when you could find phone booths every four blocks or so and traffic was two lanes deep in both directions. Valencia was sort of a wasteland of old hardware and appliance stores, corner stores, a few Mexican restaurants but not much else. It is hard to imagine but true. If you rode a bike, you took your life in your own hands and probably were honked to the sidewalk. There was only one café that I can remember. Things have sure changed.
Anyway, I still remember that day. It was December and we took a drive out to Ocean Beach, the usual route, out San Jose to Brotherhood Way around the lake to hang out at the ocean. Maybe play a little Frisbee. When we came over the knoll by the wastewater treatment plant and looked towards the ocean we where greeted by quite a sight. It was a crystal clear winter day and the swell was huge, probably breaking on the outer bars. I had never seen waves this big and it made no sense at the time because there was no wind. I had always associated larger waves with thunderstorms and windy weather. We pulled into the parking lot and were simply amazed. It was like we were visiting another planet. The waves were these massive towering things that broke way out to sea.
It took about four years until I started surfing, courtesy of a Brit with a few garage sale wetsuits and equally lousy boards but a hefty amount of adventure and craziness. Due to proximity I definitely call OB my home break.
So last Friday I drove out to take a look. I doubted I would surf as I knew the waves were crappy. I just really wanted to hear the waves and smell the brine. When I got to the parking lot the wind was blowing hard from the Northwest but I realized my timing was perfect. I could take a photo of a dump truck dumping a bunch of sand and a guy driving a bobcat pushing it around. I knew this Ocean Beach Sand Management Project was going on and probably in the back of my mind I was curious how far they were along. You can read about the project here http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectId=42876.
I know they are spending a month moving sand from north to south and dumping it at my spot but in the end it is just an experiment. They are simply going to see where the hell it ends up. It probably will change the sandbars down there and it will be interesting to see what happens from a surfing perspective. Maybe they are setting stuff up for us for the fall surf season – like baseball umpires dusting off home plate. But I hate to tell them this. Anyone who has surfed that place in the winter knows that the ocean always wins in the end. If the ocean wants to eat a parking lot for breakfast, there is nothing you can do about it. A big December swell and a 6.2-foot high tide and half that sand will end up back were it came from. Anyone who surfs OB has a story about how far they drifted knows that stuff moves around down there, especially in the winter and a few dump trucks of sand is really just a small inconvenience to the big mama.
Which brings me back to the first time I saw a big swell at OB. To this day, when I go surfing and I make that same drive, when I drive over that knoll by the wastewater treatment plant, I turn off the radio and sort of hold my breath in expectation. Right away when you go over and get that first glimpse you can tell if it is going to be good or bad. Nasty or lame. Marginal or sublime.
NOTE: This essay first appeared on The Stoke Report as a Rant.
http://stokereport.com/rant/first-glance
Our Local Lawn Mowers
Driving on Saturday along Felton by the water reservoir I took in a curious sight. Fifty or so goats on the other side of the fence grazing away. They caused a bit a scene as cars stopped and locals had to check it out.
Monday Nights at The Union Room at Biscuits and Blues – Mike Olmos and Jeff Mars
It is Monday night. You are looking for some great music in San Francisco. Somewhere were you can hear some of the local best tear it up.. Look no further. Mike Olmos and Jeff Mars hold down the Monday night jazz gig at The Union Room at Biscuits and Blues. Starts at 7:30pm. Ends around 11:30pm. Cover from $5-10 depending on your participation energy. A lot of music for your money as the band is never playing it safe and over all the playing is about the best in town. Creative, inventive and virtuosic. To round out his glowing review I must say that the room has excellent sound, the piano is in tune and the vibe is a friendly.
I hear the food is pretty good too.
Mondays – Mike Olmos Jazz
The Union Room at Biscuits and Blues
401 Mason Street San Francisco CA
415-931-6012
By Union Square
General admission: $10 ($5 for Musicians)
Door 6pm;
Show 7:30pm – 11:30pm
Guatemala 12,000 feet… Looking Down
To Be Ready
All things are ready, if our minds be so.
Shakespeare
Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3
The Vapid State of Affairs – Facebook and the New Narcissism
With the Facebook IPO we again have a few billionaires and a few hundred new millionaires who the media will now follow like moths to an outdoor floodlight. I am trying to figure out why Facebook would be worth 100 billion dollars in stock. Of what real economic value is a website that consists of lots of people showing pictures of their dogs, complaining about their weight and showing photos of their gardens and kids be? It is strange that the platform that is most used for our gossip is valued so highly. It is sad in a way. As an economic catalyst it seems vapid and surely ends up wasting a lot of peoples time. Facebook will never need to hire vast numbers of people, however companies now have to pay attention and hire people to manage their Facebook fan pages and control the spin.
Fifty years ago, a newspaper company would be worth something. Perhaps substantial journalism was created beyond the 255-character limit of Facebook. Full-page ads would be purchased for good money and the classifieds kept the whole ship afloat. In the end, you could make archives of the work and have nice anthologies with quality articles. Imagine this happening with content on Facebook. When it does happen it will be short blurbs that will be perhaps called “Viral Facebook Hits” and will be of the quality of Esquire magazine.
In order for Facebook to actually be worth $100 billion dollars it will have to go beyond gossip. I will have to be a place people go to buy something like Amazon or Ebay. It will perhaps be better about promoting regional events and maybe get into other areas of commerce. Mark my words. If they get into any aggressive advertising it will be its downfall. There are innocent people who think that Facebook is theirs. It may be their content in small, bite-sized morsels, but they are giving way both their hours and privacy. In the end, the content on Facebook is of value only to people who write it and two other groups – the CIA and the FBI. Why go through the trouble of tapping phone lines and waiting outside in dark cars. The evidence will be online.
Piers Lewis… please pick up your surf board
Hi Piers,
It has been a long time. Actually a really long time. I hope you are doing well. Where you are, I have no idea. We knew each other back in “the day.” You took up surfing as you thought the paddling would help out the carpel-tunnel in the arms. Exercise. The remedy of last resort for the inflicted. Not sure if it worked but in the end you left town and your surf board ended up in my basement. It is an 8 foot Nev, well-built with very few miles. I have used it perhaps 3 or 4 times. Actually it was my friends who rode it when we were short a board on surf ventures.
The issue is this. I cannot find you anywhere. Not on Google. Not on Facebook. Not on LinkedIn. You have done it! You have maintained your sanity and privacy. In the future, when someone needs a privacy policy, I will just send them to you as you got it down. The only problem is, I will have no way to get a hold of you. Anyway, I really want to get rid of the Nev surf board. The surf season is upon us and I have eyes on a more high performance model. Maybe a 7 foot pin tail. Something that really carves. Let me tell you. That Nev is not made for carving.
So just email me before say Thanksgiving. Lets work out a deal.
Your friend,
Paul
Best Programming Jokes
Who says that programmers do not have a sense of humor? Some of the best programming books are actually concise exercises in humor. I have always advocated that good code is short. Refactoring code is always about getting rid of stuff. In the process, you have to just laugh at it all. Some of these are not even jokes, but insights into good programming really.
Here is my list of best programming jokes…
When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code. ~Richard Pattis
Controlling complexity is the essence of computer programming. ~Brian Kernighan
Reusing pieces of code is like picking off sentences from other people’s stories and trying to make a magazine article. ~Bob Frankston
What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your own mind. And the more slow and dim-witted your pupil, the more you have to break things down into more and more simple ideas. And that’s really the essence of programming. By the time you’ve sorted out a complicated idea into little steps that even a stupid machine can deal with, you’ve certainly learned something about it yourself. ~Douglas Adams
Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you are as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it? ~Brian Kernighan
Programming is like sex. One mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life. ~Michael Sinz
A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. ~Doug Linder
Beta. Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it’s released. Beta is Latin for “still doesn’t work.” ~Author Unknown
Good code is its own best documentation. As you’re about to add a comment, ask yourself, “How can I improve the code so that this comment isn’t needed?” ~Steve McConnell
One man’s crappy software is another man’s full time job. ~Jessica Gaston
19 Tips for Helping Your Performing Arts Kid Apply to College
I sit here on a Delta flight from New York to San Francisco returning from school tours and auditions and reflecting back on the last five months. My son is a senior in high school and is hopefully off to college somewhere out of town but not too far away. He plays jazz guitar and applied to nine schools all together. It is a long and arduous process that started during the previous summer.
The work starts with a lot of thinking then a lot of website searching and then a lot of talking and thinking and calling old associates that may still live in such and such a town or teach at such and such school. The whole family did a tour of a few schools in Southern California during the summer that coincided with a conference in San Diego. One last car trip with the family. A good experience for the younger sibling to see a few universities and perhaps get exposed to the concept of higher education.
I would not consider my wife and I helicopter parents. Very involved when our kids were younger but as they grew older we have stepped back a bit. No more PTA. Bake sales are often forgotten. Kids soccer is fun but the comradely and party verve of the parents seems to also keep the team playing every year. But when the college application process came around we got back involved. The school had resources but overall it seemed that the responsibility was on a 17 year old’s shoulders. We stepped in. I quit my job and took on freelance work to get my head around the whole thing. Drastic measures perhaps but I have done such things before. In the end I am glad I did.
Our son has been a really good student. He has taken AP classes and been involved with a lot of clubs. He has a part-time job, which he had to really work to get. In the last year he has had a nasty case of senioritis. He become a lot more social and has often stretched the limits of both parents – staying out pretty late (I will not divulge until what hour) and being a kid getting to know the world. So along with the uncertainty of college a lot of growing up has been going on. This is good.
It was recommended that he apply to nine schools. Why nine schools? I have no idea. We took the advice and made the list.
19 Tips for Helping Your Kid Apply to College
1. Open a communal gmail account that is his name at gmail.com and use this for all application correspondence. Make sure everyone in the family knows the password.
2. Have him create separate google documents for all the essays he is going to have to write. He should copy and paste the questions into each of these documents just to get the cogs turning. What a bummer to write essays on lots of different computers and ones that may not be backed up. Having things centralized helps versioning.
3. Use google calendar and put in all the dates (e.g when applications are due. When the school visit is. Auditions. Possible interviews)
4. Get really anal and get a three ring binder and print out the relevant info for each school in separated tabs. Copy and paste key info about the school into documents and print the suckers out.
5. Memorize your kid’s social security number.
6. Print out SAT scores and put them in the binder
7. Create a document with all the possible people who will write letters of recommendations. Make sure you have their current email address. Have your kid email them asking if it is cool if they can write letters on his behalf. Most applications have you submit these people’s names and emails as part of the application so it is good to be ready.
8. Make a spreadsheet of all the schools and key stuff. Print it out and stare at it with a large coffee until you can recite the dates like the star spangled banner. Have columns for website urls, website applications and application name and any other stuff that seems useful.
9. Calm your significant other down when they ask a nerve-racking question at 11 pm about some minute detail. Let them know that in the morning they can go to the google docs and look up the detail on their own.
10. If your kid is in the performing arts, get all the audition clothes way ahead of time.
11. Most applications have the ability to start them and complete them gradually. Start them early. If you cannot find the application on the website and you created an account and you just still see the usual ethnically diverse set of attractive college kids when you log in, call the place. The link may be plain text that is not underlined and in light grey. No kidding!
12. Get ready for the FAFSA in December. You have to do your taxes anyway and unless you have some magic bank account to pay for everything, financial aid will be in the picture.
13. If your kid has the capacity to write essays about how they want to find a cure for cancer, build biodegradable, solar housing in Somalia that is also edible or cure political corruption get them writing scholarship essays early. Most 17 year olds just want to be 17 year olds, do their thing and maybe have fun and play on facebook but yours may be different. Milk it for all it is worth.
14. When you fly for auditions or interviews book with Virgin America. The seats are bigger and the cool purple lights trick you into thinking you are on vacation.
15. When you’re visiting schools, get to know the other parents. Even though my son was competing for the same spot as some of the other kids, all the parents I ran into were people I would invite to my house for dinner. The sense of openness, good intentions and well wishing was extraordinary.
16. Try not to scream at your computer at how lousy the online application websites are. Stuff like this gets old very quickly and the oversight committee from three years ago thought that having every form submission create a new popup window with useless information was so cool.
17. When the form you just submitted seems like it is stuck. Walk away. Make a cup of tea and forget about it. In ten minutes, when you come back to your computer, you might get a really cool server error message with some useless information about timeouts and database offline jargon.
18. If your kid is in the performing arts, apply to five schools at most not nine. Trust me.
19. Hang in there. In six months you may be able to turn their bedroom into a really cool spare office.
From a Wall at the SFUSD
Great minds discuss ideas;
Average minds discuss events;
Small minds discuss people.
The Quartet Sings Guastavino
Cuarteto Alegre
San Francisco’s Premier Vocal Quartet
Spanish and Latin American songs of love, life and childhood.
Songs of Guastavino