Sunday November 13 (8:50 AM) Family reunion was successful. Yay. Also, found an FTP program while in New Derry. Thanks for the use of the computer, Debbie. Headed back to Atlanta tomorrow. This is the final entry of this bLog but I might start a "pen & paper" private journal. Best wishes to everybody out there in the world and please try to be nice to each other. And be nice to rocks and trees 'n' things too. We're all in this together. For proof that we are all in this together, click on the word "world" above.
Monday September 26 (first light) Gently rain falling. Taking apart the computer for transport soon. Many boxes ready. The Flat Rock Music Festival was cool. My chops felt good that night. Going up a hill on I-26, the rear U-joint of the van disintegrated and the driveshaft hit the pavement. Greg said he saw some sparks. Very glad it wasn't the front U-joint. We rode into the gig in the van high atop the back of a flatbed tow truck. Low clearance and high center of gravity. People said it was quite an entrance.
After the show, a tall bearded man smiled and said how much he enjoyed the band. Then, just before he walked off, he added that I should forget about myself which sounded like a pretty spiritual thing to do. Tried to find him on the way to the port-a-johns to ask for more details but he had disappeared. Later on that night, I met an angry Waffle House cook but maybe he just had a lot on his mind. Alright, I'm going to start taking apart this computer. Everybody have a good day and wish me luck on the move. :)
Saturday September 24 (morning) Moving on Monday so I won't have Internet access for a while as far as FTP for the King Johnson website and for making entries into this journal. Just now the movers called and asked if they could come between noon and 2 instead of the agreed upon time of 8:00 AM. I said okay.
And then the words "money makes the world go round" and also the words "love makes the world go round" both creep into my consciousness at about the same time. Seems like I am always saying "okay" to people. Also, on a happier note, possibly a mid-range D flat? :) That eighth inning last night was inpiring, full of skill and with so much enthusiasm.
Friday September 23 (night)
This is an " o f f i c i a l " Snack Master Alert...
[ beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep ]
Apparently Sonic has a new steak egg & cheese burrito. Looks like it comes with green peppers, onions and tater tots on top. Saw an ad for it on TV.
Thursday September 22 (afternoon) I'm off to Macon. I'll give the pretty green wallet I bought from the pretty Korean girl at the laundry mat to the Hendersons. Then MJ and I will go make music in a recording studio with Skeebo. But first I will apply Rain-X to the windshield and listen to this French soprano on the boombox. And then one more song where a man sings: "When life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door."
Thursday September 22 (9 AM) Good morning. Wow. Jalapeņo peppers are the spicy gifts that sometimes keep on giving. :)
Wednesday September 21 (late night) Might be that between Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan and C-SPAN that we can pretty much know what's going on. Wow... "Old men with broken teeth stranded without love."
Poignant.
Okay, time for some sleep.
Wednesday September 21 (night) Hello poor kids and hello rich kids. If a UFO came to study us, it would think we were all about the same. In the words of my father: "Some people dig ditch and some people play the violin." ( Hey Dad... I'm right in the middle between the ditch and the fiddle. [ smile ] )
Secret: The ditch and the fiddle are both the same.
And in the words of Carl Sagan: "Our cousins, the trees." ( R.I.P. Sagan ) Okay, check out the view of the Earth from Apollo 8. Also, come hear our band this Friday at 5:45 PM at Turner Field. Yay.
Wednesday September 21 (evening) Switched from NPR to MTV. Nice beats. ( They are on number 8 in a countdown of popular songs. Probably saving the horn features for the top 3. LOL. ) In other news... Fourth grade today. Really good class. In math we worked on estimating subtraction answers. As we rounded up and rounded down, I would say "below 5, we round down" and my voice would get really low pitched on the word "down" and on "round up" my voice would get really high. It was entertaining to them and I suspect they will retain this information.
Tuesday September 20 (afternoon) Yay. Bills are paid, laundry is done and the movers are booked. On the way to the laundry mat I got stuck behind a woman driver in the right lane of N. Druid Hills Rd. and could not pass due to traffic in the left lane. She was going 2 miles per hour and the reason was because she was driving a Kroger shopping cart with her son in the kid seat. Not certain. It might have been a Publix cart.
Turns out this woman was also going to the laundry mat. During the spin cycle I traded a wave and a smile with her little boy, maybe three years old? 40 minutes later, after I finished drying and folding and sorting socks, the woman asked another lady if she knew a number for a cab. Then she disappeared for a while and then came back. I said "Did you get your cab?" and she said "no" and I gave them a lift. Figured it was a hot day for that little boy to do even more commuting in a shopping cart.
Sunday September 18 (afternoon) Hello TV show regarding Albert Cullum. Inspiring.
Saturday September 17 (6:50 PM) Seventeen minutes into track #5 of ECM 1578 78118-21575-2. CD 4. Yay. Also (note to self) on Monday or Tuesday: check on E with Ms P, pay bills and do some laundry.
Friday September 16 (morning) Good morning. It's still dark outside. Very peaceful. Hmm.. Yesterday's afternoon bLog entry about practicality doesn't seem to make much sense. Oh well. :) [ then later ] Congratulazioni in questa occasione fantastica delle nozze. Potete prosperare e sviluppate questo amore nella vostra unione. Come un fiore.
Thursday September 15 (afternoon) Practicality is a good idea for survival but sometimes you have to enjoy a bigger picture or a different picture. Well, you don't "have to" but doing this sort of thing helps us get through the day sometimes. :) Got my clothes picked out for second grade tomorrow. Basic white shirt, tie and gray slacks.
Thursday September 15 (midnight) From the littlest things to the biggest things, life is good. Let's not forget this y'all. Then, a little later... Hello Conan O'Brien Show and thank you for a wonderful television broadcast. Okay, take care. ~Adam
Wednesday September 14 (4:30 PM) Trombone players: Here's a little trick that helped me a minute ago. Actually, it's not a trick but rather, a way to have some time on the horn when you don't really feel like practicing and if you don't have a gig. I think it might be as good as the "play your horn during TV commercials" idea that John Shaw, wonderful trumpeter from Pittsburgh PA told me a number of years ago. Anyway, find a CD of a trombone player whose notes you have memorized and play along with it on your mouthpiece. But cover up the small end of the mouthpiece slightly to simulate some air-flow resistance.
Okay, I was excited about this but it might not be a great idea from a pedagogical (that is, "of, relating to, or befitting a teacher or education") standpoint. These days, it's not a horn player's world, is it, although last night on a broadcast TV talk show, the trumpet player got to sing for a while and then move into the audience via the railing. Caused a smile here. Still, I think this mouthpiece idea will help me keep my chops together so it's possible it might help you too.
Wednesday September 14 (morning) Watched the movie Contact. Other recently viewed DVDs include 'Guess Who' and 'Instinct' and 'Blast from the Past' and 'Cold Mountain'. Yay ! A call to teach second grade on Friday !
Tuesday September 13 (5:15 PM) And what "were" some of the previously "immediately released" audio tapes of the high court proceedings that were "of interest to you" and also which ones were not of particular interest and why? (That would have been a good question to ask). Also, have you seen the movie "A Man for All Seasons" and, if so, what is your opinion of this film from 1966? Wow... I apologize for all of the quotation marks. But it was "nice" to get caught up in the workings of government for a few hours.
Tuesday September 13 (noon) Thanks for the call this morning, SubFinder. Worked late last night ( Thanks Rupert's ) so I could not accept a position this morning but please call again. I know I can continue to help these kids by using effective management, instruction and especially compassion. Now I'm watching C-SPAN and enjoying hearing the dialect of a midwesterner speaking. (Something 'down to earth' to my ears about a midwestern accent). Strangely, I understand what these people are talking about even though their sentences are often quite long, most of them even longer than the length of my sentences in several of these bLog entries.
 Also, congratulations Oliver on the new record ! Looking forward to hearing it. Finally, and this is meant to be entertaining, sometimes I'm so lonesome, I enjoy taking phone calls from telemarketers. :) But it's cool in a way because these days I think in more essential terms and I'm nicer to people. Now the news mentions Louis Armstrong Airport. You know, my friend Paige once painted a large painting of him for me and frequently, I say hello to this painting of him when I get home. It's located in the living room along the same wall as the rooster painting by CL.
Monday September 12 (early morning) Off to bed soon. CD of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette playing How Deep is the Ocean. The lyrics of this tune are also quite nice. Also, gifts for everyone for the November 12 family reunion dinner. Must take my time and choose the gifts thoughtfully. Thinking I will rent a big Lincoln and drive up there to New Derry. Okay, here comes Imagination. 'Night everybody.
Sunday September 11 (evening) Nice article on Lt. Gen. Russel Honore written by Larry Neumeister. "I'd rather be in the middle of the game, playing hard with little hope of winning than to be an observer" he says.
Sunday September 11 (morning, about 10 AM) By the way... Ladies, just because I added a random link generator back in Chapter 3, it doesn't mean I'm not also romantically passionate. :) [ then later ] Listening to a Junior Parker CD ( bio ) that Uhler gave me. Thanks Uhler.
Friday September 9 (11 PM) "Better Days" Dianne Reeves [ Blue Note CDP 7 46906 2 ]. It's about grandmothers. This song (track #3) tore me up in the 80s and still does here in the 00s. "...slightly, remarkably different somehow." [ then later ] Okay, here's a silly story. So this spider is just minding his own business but he's minding it right over the padded porch chair, rappelling down, right where I want to sit. So I take a broom handle and scoop him away by the web and off into the yard. For a while I wonder if he is okay and then he reappears. Then he disappears again. I'm moving my feet around just in case there is some payback. This creature has a white spot on his back that looks menacing but you know, the menacing part is just my guess.
Anyway, then he reappears "again" and is headed straight back for the same place he started out at and is crawling along the railing. I felt relieved that he was still active (but at the same time, I'm not going to give up my chair for an arachnid). Headed back outside now to see if he is in the same spot on the gutter. I don't know whether to squish him or to move the padded chair over to the other side given the respect I now have for his level of determination. [okay, I'm back] He is in the same spot again. Right over my chair. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to capture him (hmm.. you know, it might be a "her" where the white spot is actually an egg sack of babies?) with a cup and a thick piece of paper and take the thing out front, next to the mailbox.
Friday September 9 (evening) You know, sometimes when a CD skips (from being dirty or from being scratched) I don't catch it right away and think "Wow, what an incredible rhythm." :) Also, if I re-format this current file as a straight txt file, it will be far less than 60K in size. But then I will lose the highlighted links but I could put http links under the day's events. Fun to play with HTML. Just mulling over the possibilities.
Friday September 9 (5:45 AM) Early wake-up today. Also, remember the possum from December 18 and Jaunary 10 ? He's back. I tossed a Milano (French Vanilla) cookie in his direction in case he wants a snack.
Thursday September 8 (evening) For 30 to 45 minutes, I tuned into a cable-access channel of local government proceedings. They took care of business. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these officials also injected some humor and respect and heartfelt comments into their discussions. Then I got the mail and visited with a neighbor and her dog and also with the dog she was "babysitting." She asked if I had ever heard a dog bark with two tones at once and simultaneously the little Jack Russell terrier demonstrated this ability. I responded by saying that I had not heard this before but added that I know a bass player who is able to produce two tones at once (maybe three) with his voicebox. Now it's lasagna time. Another nice night.
Thursday September 8 (morning) Substitute teaching in a high school today. [later] To J: As I said to you when you came back, it's part of my job to know where you are located. Please let me know if you need to go somewhere instead of just walking out the door. You're a teenager and that is a tough age to be. So is 40. :) By the way, you have a great sense of humor and I hope you always keep it. I'll bring my trombone tomorrow and maybe we can play a duet.
Wednesday September 7 (night) Bottom of the 10th. Bases loaded. Let's see what happens.
Wednesday September 7 (7:15 PM) Hello Rene. It is an honor for me to have a more experienced musician ask my opinion about music. When I heard the first track, "Dream" I expected to hear that old standard tune but when I heard that little girl's voice speaking, it brought a tear and then I shut my eyes and dreamed for a bit. Then I listened to the second track, the bossa nova. My honest opinion of this singer is that she is wonderful and also wise in ways we men can not always understand. My next journal entry in a few minutes will read "Poetry from the Netherlands" with a link to the Dream MP3 and a link to the Andrea Van Otterloo website. The title "No Egos Allowed" reminds me of a Colonel Bruce Hampton song "Ain't No Egos Under Water." And now I wonder if my own ego is too big. Best wishes for you my friend and thanks for sharing this music with me. ~Adam PS: Maybe I will just put this whole reply to you in my bLog.
Wednesday September 7 (afternoon) Thank you Michael and crew and city of Atlanta for removing that giant fallen tree from the nature preserve bordering this backyard.
Wednesday September 7 (morning) Hi there Lindor truffles. Never knew what a truffle was before. It's nice to meet you (you have a pleasant sounding name) and to eat you as well. :) I must say that even your container bag smells good. Sort of an aluminum foil with paper on the inside bouquet. Hello Ellen DeGeneres show. Nice work. Thanks for causing me to smile.
Tuesday September 6 (6:57 PM) Don't be careful what you wish for. Just be careful. And be nice too.
Tuesday September 6 (evening) A friend of mine is going back to England soon. And when I say "friend" I don't mean it was romantic or anything like that but last year she did inspire me to write "The cicadas in the woods down in Georgia in July are a symphony like Beethoven or Elvin Jones" so I'm going to go over to Java Monkey tonight and say adios.
Tuesday September 6 (afternoon) Nice visit with the landlord. He suggests I color my hair. Can't help but notice that the neighbors' trash got picked up but mine did not. Moved the still-full garbage can back to next to the garage. I'll not think this was a message from someone regarding my last listserv message or prior journal entries. We'll stay positive. [ editor's note: Later on, another neighbor put some trash on the street so please forget about my little paranoid entry (above). I put my trash can back out there too. Hmm... Ready? Sonny Rollins "East Broadway Run Down." ]
Monday September 5 (a little after 3 PM) WCLK 91.9 FM is broadcasting a recording of the 27th annual Playboy Jazz Festival at this time.
Monday September 5 (afternoon) Happy Labor Day. As I understand it, this holiday is so that working people may have a day off. So I hope everyone has a good day. Also, regarding yesterday, I was told that the Dillard House grows much of their own produce. Also, to Bill, it was so nice speaking with you about the Adderly brothers in the V.I.P. Lounge. (Don't worry dear reader, I behaved myself). I wasn't a V.I.P. but Bill told me that maybe I was borderline genius. Bill is very nurturing.
Amidst the figs and blocks of cheese, he told me he grew up in Philly and that both of his sons are doing quite well. The eldest son just passed the bar in NYC and wants to practice in DC. Hi Stephanie -- Nice sitting by you at the concert -- I will check out your website. Mmmh... Thanks for helping us park, to the APD captain who later told me he had been playing the banjo for 25 years! And Christopher, thanks for remembering my name.
And now I see an email that tells me there is some corruption in politics. Okay, hello leaders. Do your best and I will too. Shake hands? I know it's hard to know how to do our best sometimes but I'm sure we can both do better. Let's aim for "better" first. And finally, to Skeebo, I'm sorry I cancelled out on the session. Last Thursday I worried there might not be any more gasoline for a while and I thought it would be a good idea to conserve for a while just in case. May we reschedule ?
Sunday September 4 (11:30 PM) So many rich things today worth remembering... a morning visit with Oliver, the Dillard House lunch with my bandmates, a successful drive from Maggie Valley to the Woodruff Arts Center, a great afternoon gig (even though we didn't get to play Wil-E ... waaa), a dance with Kela, saying hello to strangers and them saying hello to me, a call from Gavin, seeing old friends like Omar and Wes and Gordon and Frank and Triple-X Rex, hearing Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, a soulful ride on the MARTA train and then a ride to my car thanks to Greg. Thoughts of the tender ownee kangaroo. Cicadas still hanging in there in September. Okay, I'm off to check email. 'Night.
Saturday September 3 (11:12 AM) Okay, happier subjects. Pretty blue sky out there. Got my hair cut short at 10:30 AM. It looks alright. KJ in North Carolina later on. My father turns 66 years old today! Now it's time for a sandwich.
Saturday September 3 (morning) Yesterday was an emotional day. So is today. Get those people out of there.
Friday September 2 (night) "You'd better tell your story fast." Hmm.. for years I thought the word at the end was "well" instead of "fast" but then I read the liner notes. Anyway, dear reader, I'll tell you one thing about this King Johnson Band. Actually, I will tell you several things. Both Chris' are in managerial positions now. Marcus is a good dad. You can see his son's picture on the last day of swimming lessons "under water" on the KJ entry page. Greg is still the artist and Oliver is still so spiritual. We're not playing as much now but there will be brighter days. Apparently I am a good elementary (okay, here comes "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing") school teacher. So the Braves are winning so far and the President is helping out New Orleans. It's a nice night.
Friday September 2 (4:21 PM) Months ago, before he left town, my old neighbor and friend Bob gave me a hummingbird feeder and reminded me to change the sugar water every four days or else, he said, it might distill and turn into alcohol. Well, it's been seven days since their food was last replenished and I have been keeping my eyes on the birds' flight after they leave the feeder. I will change the mixture tomorrow just in case. [ editor's note: someone just emailed me and said to change the sugar water now so that the hummingbirds don't get poisoned, so I will. ]
Friday September 2 (afternoon) Looks like the family reunion is really going to happen in November. Yay ! There might be many other relatives involved too. I don't know yet. But at the very least, I'm fairly certain I will get to see Leroy, Debbie, Leanne, Alan and Sharon and their families.
Friday September 2 (morning) Please help the poor. I was playing cocktail piano in a hotel one time when your dad walked into the lobby. Thought about switching to Hail to the Chief but instead decided it would be best to stop playing and to simply stand at attention. So you see the respect I have for your office. New Orleans is flooded and New Orleans is burning. Once again, please help the poor. Water first and then food and then many buses. Not school buses. Big buses with well-trained armed overseers (and EMTs with medicine for buses carrying the sick and dying) as well as professional drivers. If people in town are firing weapons then return fire. Everyone gets food and water as soon as possible. A week from now things will be a lot better. Hello news media, forget your damn ratings and show more positive coverage to lessen the panic and fear. Speak more slowly.
PS: Please forgive the casual tone of these words. I know you all already have a lot on your plate.
Thursday September 1 (afternoon) The grass is cut, id est, the lawn is mowed. I'm thinking most of the neighbors will appreciate this fact. :) Then a solo french horn player on the radio plays an F# over the orchestra's A7 chord which brings a smile.
Thursday September 1 (10:37 AM) Squirrel visits back porch and comes to within 3 feet of my chair. He does not seem concerned about my eye movement. Finding nothing to eat, he scampers off.
Thursday September 1 (morning) Hello September. Watching a scary movie on TBS. Gave money to the American Red Cross. Gasoline thoughts today. Braves game tonight.
Wednesday August 31 (morning) Two more dreams last night... In the first, I attended some sort of union meeting and it was held at a picnic pavilion in a park. I remember it was raining hard and afterwards I had trouble locating my car. In the next scenario, the band was riding in the van somewhere and I happened to turn my head and there in the rear bench seat sat Oteil Burbridge. ( It's probably a good sign to be remembering more of my dreams. ) Okay, I'm off to school. PS: Sometime in the middle of the night I turned the alarm clock off in my sleep but fortunately the back-up cellphone alarm still sounded and woke me up.
Tuesday August 30 (afternoon) First grade tomorrow. Yay ! ( Hmm.. I'd better get plenty of rest tonight. )
Monday August 29 (morning) Thoughts and prayers for New Orleans this morning as the giant storm roars through.
Sunday August 28 (afternoon) Dear Mark Watts, The new MP3s of your dad that I purchased arrived in fine shape and I am enjoying them and learning from them as well. ~Adam [later on] Wow, I have gone "public" with this bLog by placing a link to it on the main King Johnson web page.
Sunday August 28 (morning) Two dreams last night, one quite horrible and the other full of wonder. Wow, talk about being a Gemini. :) In the first dream, aliens came from somewhere in Space and annihilated humans like an 8 year-old boy might playfully burn ants to death with a magnifying glass in the summer Sun. The dream woke me up and I felt afraid. Upon returning to sleep, I was transported to substitute teach in a sixth grade class of gifted students but I had no lesson plan. There were only five or six of us and we found a grand piano and discussed how it worked and opened the giant wooden cover exploring the long strings and many hammers and felts. I played for a while and then each of the children played.
Friday August 26 (morning) Five hummingbirds at the feeder together. Quite a show.
Wednesday August 24 (noon) There's a salamander on the porch ! Most of it is striped gray but its tail is a brilliant blue. Here's something else... Feels good to play with King Johnson on Friday, have dinner with a friend on Saturday, attend a social gathering on Sunday and to teach in a third grade classroom on Monday and the fourth grade on Tuesday !
Wednesday August 24 (morning) Hello Beatles Abbey Road CD.
Tuesday August 23 (afternoon) I enjoyed driving in the roundabout again on the way home from the grocery store. Thought it was called a "traffic circle" but apparently the two are different. [Later] Wow, someone just called here from Woodstock, Ontario but when I said "hello" they hung up. I must work on my telephone answering skills. :) And now I hear a CD by Frank Morgan playing which makes things even better.
Sunday August 21 (afternoon) Watching TV after a visit to the QT station for an individually wrapped slice of carrot cake. Yay! A call for a Top 40 gig tomorrow night. (That'll help pay for some new tires). Also, I hope you like this bLog. Some of it is sweet and some of it is sour. You know, there is a part of me that didn't grow up. But my knowing this fact is valuable. Finally, here's a fun thing... Sometimes when we look up at the clouds, we see all sorts of things in the cloud formations. For instance, yesterday I saw clouds that closely resembled the shape of Central America. Nice !
Thursday August 18 (afternoon) Time for a nap... With the sounds of Jack Teagarden ( interview ) played low in the background.
Thursday August 18 (morning) The new potential Live KJ CD artwork is amazing. I like the simplicity of the changed cover (and then once they open it up they can see our faces). Thank you Richard. One typo... cornet instead of coronet. It took a while to download these images on this slow dial-up connection but it was worth the wait !
Wednesday August 17 (night) Hmm... How much is more than all of the stars in the sky?
Wednesday August 17 (evening) Hey thunderstorm, where you been? You're 23 hours late. But thanks for coming just the same. Much cooler now thanks to you. Maybe you were just waiting for me to get the grass cut? Very thoughtful. Well, before you go, let me ask you a question. (Adam and the thunderstorm have a discussion and come to a mutual understanding). Adam asks, "What should I do?" and the thunderstorm replies, "Well, just don't leave them hanging. If nothing else, try to be fun which will counterbalance my effect. But know you can be more than just fun or meticulous."
Wednesday August 17 (noon) "Must do laundry, must do laundry." :) [Later] Feels good to have clean clothes and to have visited again with the old gentle man who works at the laundry mat. I suspect this guy had been there the entire day yet the heat of August and the heat of the dryers didn't seem to bother him in the least.
Wednesday August 17 (morning) Listening to Paul Simon's Graceland [warner bros. 25447-2]. Good way to start the morning.
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