Flagstaff Friday

Today in history:

In 1977, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics.

(Jeez...you'd never know it.)






Happy birthday! Singer Jay Osmond is 52

(I admit...I tried to use Jay as a substitute crush for Donny Osmond when Donny got married. Sadly, it didn't work. I had to switch to Andy Gibb and Shaun Cassidy to fill the void.)







First of all...for you performers out there, sometimes there's just NOTHING as satisfying as a good rehearsal. You know the kind I mean...where everyone is on the same wavelength, stupidity is at a minimum, etc.

Last night was such a rehearsal for the big band.

The vocal tunes went off without any major hitches to speak of. One of the guys in the band (bari player, retired urologist from Bethesda) has taken it upon himself to buy new charts (meaning parts for everyone) of new tunes. He's purchased some really good vocal arrangements for me too, so I'm most grateful.

In addition to my new tunes, he bought a few tunes for the band that are trumpet features from the "Maynard Ferguson" library. For those who aren't acquainted with Maynard, his trademark is very powerful playing with ultra-dramatic high notes at the end. Not for the faint-of-heart. Maynard is known in the jazz world for his recordings of the theme from "Star Trek" and also the theme from "Rocky", as well as many other tunes.

But last night, the remainder of rehearsal was spent on the Benny Goodman version of "Sing Sing Sing".

The drummer was spot-on (as usual), and so was the rest of the band - nobody argued about entrances/exits, everyone gave it their all...and it totally kicked a$$ and took names.

I chose the "synergy" picture because I really feel we were experiencing that last night. It's a good thing after the last few days, you know? Sigh...

OK - enough of my feel good hokiness. Let's get to some shoutouts, first of all.

I'm not the only one that writes about my dad...check out Brian and his moment of Dad.


I'm going to attempt to do this...I'm diggin' the concept - go to What the Blog?! to read about the idea.


Working Girl explores the wonderful world of academic guessing - or else the alternate title is "How to pull an answer out of YOUR a$$"

Stupidtom waxes nostalgic about the eve of his wedding.

Phil takes a trip to Virginia!

Phlegm Fatale talks about smells - good ones, bad ones, weird ones...

Super Des is lonesome...and I've contributed to that sad state of affairs. Also, if you go to her site, check out her participation in the AIDSWalk as well as her stunning jewelry. You'll enjoy them!

Life In The Sticks wants to know everything about someone...and really, is that a bad idea? No.

I think for now, that should do it. I'll probably write more over the weekend about weirdness in my life. For now, go read these guys and tell them Sudiegirl sent you.

Smooches!