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Wes F in Hapeville
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"'Is it always like this?' the staffer sitting at my table inquires.
'Nope. Sometimes it's really weird.'"
This is why my wife and I made sure to get your autograph at Dragon*Con. Even if you're not thrilled with how you wrote back then (I'm a composer, and when I hear the music I wrote at 29 versus what I'm writing now at just-shy-of-39), there are those flashes of what will be your fully-developed writing style. Don't stop writing. Ever.
WF
From the Vault: "...because Next Generation FUCKING RULES!"
I'm digging into The Vault for stories to tell next week when I perform on JoCoCruiseCrazy 2: The Encrazening, and I caught myself reading this story, which I wrote and published in Dancing Barefoot, when I was a baby writer almost ten years ago. This is from The Saga of SpongeBob Vega$ Pants (...
Wil:
Glad to have met you on Friday. Thanks for signing Just a Geek for me and the missus, and for the "SOLID" salute. If you end up in a bar while here at some point, we'll buy you a beverage.
Looking forward to tomorrow morning's panel as well.
WF
My Dragon*Con Schedule
Here's my schedule for this weekend's Dragon*Con. Friday 1pm -2pm - The Guild Panel with Robin and Amy in the Sheraton Grand Ballroom 2:30-5:30pm - Autographs in the Walk of Fame 6:00-6:30pm - The Guild Photos in International Hall North at the Marriott. 6:30-7:00pm - Star Trek Photos in Interna...
Happiest of birthdays, Wil! The missus and I are hoping to see you at Dragon*Con!
WF
Spock is not impressed that it's my birthday
During w00tstock last week, I mentioned that I was turning 38 this week. After the show, Anne told me that I was, in fact, turning 39. In the few seconds that it took me to do some math, I lost a year of my life. Apparently, this is the sort of thing that happens when you get to be my age, which...
Wil: Listen to the Allegretto movement of Beethoven's 7th. It's haunting.
Also, if you really wanna get in Beethoven, lose yourself in one of the later quartets.
WF
collecting random thoughts
My brain has a lot of random thoughts it wants to spit out before it'll give me access to the creative areas. I keep trying to tell it that I'm the cat, but it insists on occupying my mind with further duties to control my SPACE MADNESS!!! Prepare to surge to sublight speed: I've been keeping a ...
The author may give them birth, but it's the readers who keep them alive.
I like that. And if you really think like that (a good way to think), you'd enjoy the Thursday Next series of books by Jasper Fforde. Trust me on this one.
WF
Quote of the day
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes." -Tycho, at Penny Arcade Yeah, let that roll around in your head for a little bit. It's really as simple and beautiful as that, isn't it? I see a bookshelf, filled with different books from different authors, all acting ...
The author may give them birth, but it's the readers who keep them alive.
I like that. And if you really think like that (a good way to think), you'd enjoy the Thursday Next series of books by Jasper Fforde. Trust me on this one.
WF
Quote of the day
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes." -Tycho, at Penny Arcade Yeah, let that roll around in your head for a little bit. It's really as simple and beautiful as that, isn't it? I see a bookshelf, filled with different books from different authors, all acting ...
I have not yet been to Vega$, but a former colleague once referred to it as "LA without the spiritual depth."
Another former colleague headed up a college department at UNLV. When a position in my field came open, he strongly DISCOURAGED me from applying (even though at the time I needed a more secure job) because of the complete wasteland-esque nature of culture there.
I still want to see for myself, though.
WF
ghosts
Last night, I went out to Greg Raymer's house for a barbecue with a bunch of my friends from PokerStars. It was a little surreal -- Greg is playing in the $50,000 HORSE event today, where the buy-in is more than two years of mortgage payments for me, and he invited all of us out to his place for...
I have not yet been to Vega$, but a former colleague once referred to it as "LA without the spiritual depth."
Another former colleague headed up a college department at UNLV. When a position in my field came open, he strongly DISCOURAGED me from applying (even though at the time I needed a more secure job) because of the complete wasteland-esque nature of culture there.
I still want to see for myself, though.
WF
ghosts
Last night, I went out to Greg Raymer's house for a barbecue with a bunch of my friends from PokerStars. It was a little surreal -- Greg is playing in the $50,000 HORSE event today, where the buy-in is more than two years of mortgage payments for me, and he invited all of us out to his place for...
Ah, something about which I feel comfortable commenting, as a composer/arranger/music teacher/really mediocre jazz trombonist.
For big band jazz that allows great improvisers to stretch out (and some of the most interesting and exciting arrangements ever), I like Stan Kenton. Count Basie works for simplicity (Basie could make a convincing piano solo out of three notes, repeated once, over 12 bars).
In the bebop and beyond field, Kind of Blue is atop my list, but I do give a second to Stan Getz - particularly Live at the Opera House with J. J. Johnson. If you're feeling adventurous but not quite Coltranian, check out Thelonius Monk. For pure bop, Diz.
For more fusion stuff, Joe Zawinul's work with Weather Report isn't to be missed, and you'd probably enjoy The Crusaders as well.
Jazz Lit - Part Three, Chapter 10 of On The Road. It's a description of one mad jazz night in Chicago, as only Kerouac could give it. A taste:
"The third sax was an alto, eighteen-year-old cool, contemplative young Charlie-Parker-type Negro from high school, with a broadgash mouth, taller than the rest, grave. He raised his horn and blew into it quietly and thoughtfully and elicited birdlike phrases and architectural Miles Davis logics. These were the children of the great bop innovators."
Every time I read it, I hear it. It's as much jazz as Lester Young or Coleman Hawkins.
WF
all that jazz
I was in my late teens when my friend Dave gave me a copy of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and changed my life. No jazz album before or since has spoken to me as much as it did, and it was the record that made me want to learn everything I could about jazz, and understand exactly why it makes such a...
Ah, something about which I feel comfortable commenting, as a composer/arranger/music teacher/really mediocre jazz trombonist.
For big band jazz that allows great improvisers to stretch out (and some of the most interesting and exciting arrangements ever), I like Stan Kenton. Count Basie works for simplicity (Basie could make a convincing piano solo out of three notes, repeated once, over 12 bars).
In the bebop and beyond field, Kind of Blue is atop my list, but I do give a second to Stan Getz - particularly Live at the Opera House with J. J. Johnson. If you're feeling adventurous but not quite Coltranian, check out Thelonius Monk. For pure bop, Diz.
For more fusion stuff, Joe Zawinul's work with Weather Report isn't to be missed, and you'd probably enjoy The Crusaders as well.
Jazz Lit - Part Three, Chapter 10 of On The Road. It's a description of one mad jazz night in Chicago, as only Kerouac could give it. A taste:
"The third sax was an alto, eighteen-year-old cool, contemplative young Charlie-Parker-type Negro from high school, with a broadgash mouth, taller than the rest, grave. He raised his horn and blew into it quietly and thoughtfully and elicited birdlike phrases and architectural Miles Davis logics. These were the children of the great bop innovators."
Every time I read it, I hear it. It's as much jazz as Lester Young or Coleman Hawkins.
WF
all that jazz
I was in my late teens when my friend Dave gave me a copy of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and changed my life. No jazz album before or since has spoken to me as much as it did, and it was the record that made me want to learn everything I could about jazz, and understand exactly why it makes such a...
My 8th grade English teacher introduced me to Holy Grail.
Later, I found out my aunt and uncle had it too.
I can't thank any of them enough. Good on ya, Wil.
"Go away or I will taunt you a second time!"
WF
a moose bit my sister once
"We are no longer the knights who say 'Ni!' We are now the knights who say 'Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky-pikang-zoop-boing-goodem-zoo-owli-zhiv'!' We must give you a test." "What is this test, oh Knights of . . . Knights who until recently said 'Ni!'" -Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Night before last,...
My 8th grade English teacher introduced me to Holy Grail.
Later, I found out my aunt and uncle had it too.
I can't thank any of them enough. Good on ya, Wil.
"Go away or I will taunt you a second time!"
WF
a moose bit my sister once
"We are no longer the knights who say 'Ni!' We are now the knights who say 'Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky-pikang-zoop-boing-goodem-zoo-owli-zhiv'!' We must give you a test." "What is this test, oh Knights of . . . Knights who until recently said 'Ni!'" -Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Night before last,...
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