This Country Life

This week I encountered not one but two 3 foot + poisonous reptiles while working at my father-
in-law's farm. The first was a Copperhead that I involuntarily manslaughtered with a weed eater. I didn't see him for the tall grass and, for some unknown reason, he chose not to move out of the way of an incredibly loud piece of machinery buzzing in his direction. It's been a long time since I watched anything die. It was creepy as shit and I can't stop thinking about it. Heeeby heeeby heeeby jeeeby.

The second was a four foot rattlesnake that was stretched across a gravel road. (Not the specimen pictured above, his cousin. I am not nearly cool enough to pull out a camera when encountering a rattlesnake.) Thankfully, I was on a tractor this time and neither one of us got within ten feet of each other before going our separate ways.

Still. He or she was a beautiful specimen. So pretty. So deadly. What does it all mean? Most likely nothing, but creative minds will wander.

Anyway. Last night I witnessed a fantastic performance by a jazz group called the Double A Octet at The Basement. One original tune and ten original arrangements of standards. So good. Nashville has been getting a lot of hype for various hype-y reasons lately. This is all well and good but, for my money, a city has truly arrived when you can pay five bucks to hear music of this caliber on a Thursday night.

Roy Agee, AA's main arranger and composer, told a story about his moment of musical clarity in the middle of an Ellington piece that the band had just performed, then had the horns replay the four measures to which he was referring just to make sure we got the point. Which made me think of my last moment like that, one that occurred a year or so back during a NSO performance of Ligeti's "Atmospheres." Hearing that piece was like hearing U2 for the first time when I was 12. So I decided to begin dabbling with some orchestral stuff. I don't expect to get very good at it for the next 15-20 years but you have to start somewhere. Here is one of my first attempts, "Through Alleys Of Havana."

Have a great weekend.

THROUGH ALLEYS OF HAVANA


PS- Thank you for all the well-wishes and nice comments. I apologize for not having them up sooner but I have to moderate them as I seem to get a lot of spammy comments from China whenever I post something. Go figure.