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Monterey Bay Aquarium

On the 18th my mom and I took the bean to his first visit of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  “John John,” we told him, “we are going to go to a place where we will see lots of different kinds of FISH!”

“Viff!” he exclaimed (That means fish, for those of you who didn’t already know).

“Yes!  And maybe we’ll see jellyfish and sharks and crabs and penguins!”

“Octopus!” he added on his own.

“Yes, and maybe even an octopus!” I said, amazed.

He was excited.  My favorite thing about watching him be engaged is that ‘quiet attention’ face of pure engrossment and concentration.  You’ll recognize it on the second image down.  He is a little sponge.

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image^^^Quiet attention forever!^^^image

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Now, he can pronounce ‘fish’ correctly (though I must concede, I’m a little sad…’viff’ was so cute, though he does still say ‘Sea Animo.’  I’m sure that, too, will be short lived.  He’s growing up!) and can properly identify those ‘animos’ on his ocean-themed pajamas: Sea Turtle, Hammerhead Shark, Mako Shark, Whale.

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Good times!  Nice memories!

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Guadalupe Park Playground

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We used the Guadalupe Park playground across from the Shark Tank.  It was a Saturday morning. John John had fun on the slide.

There were a lot of homeless people around, sleeping on the grass, or messing around in the bathrooms.  I knew there would be homeless folks there because I went to the discovery park drum circle near there back in the nineties, and there were many then.

There were two other families.  It’s too bad it is underutilized because it is a nice playground with plenty of shade.  The playground for toddlers was almost totally unused for play, with many people set up there, sleeping or sitting on benches. Because no one uses it for the intended purpose, it isn’t a great place to play.

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Stone Cold Lampin’ #8

Stone Cold Lampin’ #8
7/21/15

I chose all jazz this week. I played something from every jazz record in the currents and also some from the jazz library. It was inspired by my friend Weasel Walter’s FB status: “do musicians who play like their asses are on fire a service and don’t wait until they die to ‘like’ them. they walk among us.”

Hour 1: Starts at 1:53 so you get a few minutes of Mouthbreather. Funny enough, he played the same song that Muad’dib played for his final number, the same lead-in as my last show. It’s a really annoying song.  What are they trying to tell me?  It’s all jazz, most of it was far out but I played some straighter stuff too.

Hour 2: Ellery Eskelin, Entourage Music Ensemble, Don Cherry, Kamasi Washington.

Hour 3: Alice Coltrane, Jacques Coursil Unit, William Hooker begins.

Hour 4: William Hooker ends, Phil Yost, Han-Earl Park.

Streams via kfjc.org
Streams will be available until August 4.

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Stone Cold Lampin’ #7

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Stone Cold Lampin’ #6

Stone Cold Lampin’ #6
7/4/15

This was my first four hour show. Happy 4th of July. It was hot in the studio. We opened up the station to let the outside air come in. Sat Iva was in the booth for the show and we played a lot of different music. It flowed on by and the vibe was great.

Hour 1: Starts at 1:53 so you get a few minutes of Goodwrench.

Hour 2:

Hour 3:

Hour 4:

Streams via kfjc.org

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Celestial Awakening

We packed the car after John John went to sleep.  The thinking was that we’d wake him up and load him in the car and he would sleep on the two hour drive.  Of course he stayed up the entire drive.  But he was quiet the entire time and when we arrived I took him out of his car seat. The moon was three-quarters and bright up in Santa Rosa at 11pm. I pointed to the moon and asked John John what it was.  He knows the moon: he says the word when you point to a picture, whether in full or crescent or with a funny face.  But being a child that goes to bed when the sun is still out, those depictions are the only moons he knows. So I pointed and asked him, “John John, do you know what that is?”

“Egg!” he said.

“No, it’s the moon!” I said, “The real moon!”

He looked intently.  “Moo(n),” he said.

“And those little white dots,” I said, pointing to the stars littering the night sky. “Those are real stars!”

“Stah,” he repeated.

We looked at the moon and stars for a few more moments, naming them .  In the morning it was the first thing he did to point to the window in the direction we’d seen the moon, and sleepily said, “moonh.”   Love this little guy.