Caverns, Charlap and Scala

Lots of catching up to do.

Last week, we were in Arizona for a few days, to celebrate Mom’s birthday. It was nice to spend some time with my own family, with my sisters and with their families. And we all enjoyed being in the warm weather for a few days. The day trip to Kartchner Caverns was fascinating, although the time in the bus was a little challenging with the kids. (I liked driving past the aircraft graveyards near Tucson.) The worst part of the weekend was when Mom had to check in to the hospital for some IV antibiotics—it was the right thing to do, of course, but the timing was unfortunate for everyone, especially for her. The best part of the weekend for me was to be with Martin in the swimming pool, and to watch this two-year-old’s transformation over two short days from cautiously clinging to the wall to leaping fearlessly into the pool.

Friday night, Maria and I saw the Blue Note Seven at Symphony Center. We’re fans of Bill Charlap, and I love Nicholas Payton, but it was Lewis Nash on the drums that stole the show. Nash has a very conventional kit, over which he is supreme commander. He exuded a cool confidence that reminded me very much of DeJohnette. It was clear that every contact of matter against matter within Nash’s domain was exactly as he intended. As much as I enjoyed the other players, it was hard for me to take my eyes off of Nash. The other player that really intrigued me was Payton. In a Monk-ish way, it seemed that Payton was trying to expand the music in several ways as he played—stretching the time out to find new ways to interact with the other players, and stretching the audio spectrum to find new notes in between the ones we know. It may have put some people off, but Maria and I both enjoyed it. Charlap had a couple intriguing solos, but spent most of the concert as an ensemble player, as did the others as well. Maria and I are really looking forward to Charlap’s visit to the Jazz Showcase in May (according to this site)! It will be the first time we have seen Charlap lead his own group.

Work is busy again, just like this time last year. The difference is that this year my boss has some clue about what I do, and is in a much better position to help me prioritize and manage my workload than any boss I’ve had in years.

Since the beginning of the year, I’m making time when I can to learn a new programming language called Scala. It’s a functional programming language, which is a concept that is clearly making a transition now from academia to the real world. Scala appeals to me because it runs on the Java Virtual Machine and is very interoperable with Java (unlike other popular FP languages like Erlang or Haskell). There is a new group called the Chicago Area Scala Enthusiasts. The first two meetings have been interesting and well attended.

The No Fluff Just Stuff conference is coming to Chicago in a couple weeks. I went for the first time last year, and it was a badly needed shot in the arm. Looking forward to going again.

DST

Not a fan of daylight savings. You want to get up earlier? Stay up later? Fine! Change your own watch if it helps! But don't foist it on me.

And I don't know why, but I find it remarkably confusing to change the time. We're moving the clocks up, so what we used to call 6 PM we will now call 7 PM, so it seems like it should be darker earlier at night, but it isn't, it gets dark later. It shouldn't be so confusing but apparently my brain just can't handle it.