courtesy Wikipedia

This past summer I made the very wonderful acquaintance of Ken’s Artisan Pizza on SE 28th St. It’s a great place to have wonderful salads, artisan pizzas and appetizers of all kinds. I thought that the building in which it was housed was familiar to me, and now, looking through my archives, I realize that I’d photographed the building about two years earlier. It used to be a paint store, and the neon sign must have caught my eye on my way to some now long-forgotten destination. I should make my way over there soon to do a “after” shot to go with the “before” you see below.

Only from the mind of a bass trombonist…

http://www.thepetersonproject.com/Viola.htm

I’m just waiting for this one to hit YouTube… Enjoy!

You might not know that I’m a pretty avid amateur photographer in what spare time I do have. What I most enjoy is doing portraits of local musicians. Here are some examples of my recent work:

Tessa Brinckman, Cary Lewis and Dorothy Lewis - November 2006

Linda Campos - September 2006

Shin-young Kwon - April 2006

Paloma Griffin - April 2006

Una O’Riordan - November 2005

Heather Blackburn - April 2005

Here are some thoughts that have passed through my head during the last couple of days of rehearsals:

• Mozart really is a great composer (Norman Lebrecht notwithstanding)
• Composer John Adams just might have the best copyist in the business
• Choruses will, without fail, laugh at all the conductor’s jokes
• Playing softly is much more difficult than playing loudly
• The Robert Levin completion of the Mozart Requiem is way cool
• The Lacrimosa movement from the Mozart Requiem is the most beautiful piece of music ever written
• I wish I could play the Ravel Violin Sonata
• Cellist Stephen Kates and violinist Berl Senofsky may be two of the most underrated great musicians of all time