Well, we've had a fun time with Mom here over the past week but unfortunately my time with the family is being cut short. In a few hours I leave for tour again with Tyrell; Houston, the Hamptons, and Nantucket. I'll be back on Sunday but this is the longest tour I've been on since May. The tour schedule is pretty easy, we only have three shows and an actual day off with no travel.

There are pics up on the baby blog if you haven't seen them.

Surprisingly my last political post didn't spurn as much outrage and dissent as my previous posts had. That's probably because the position of the hospital I mentioned is flat-out indefensible even to the staunchest politically self-centered.

So you have to read an excellent post by my sister-in-law a her blog about hopelessly out-of-touch Indiana Representative Mike Pence who recently compared Iraq to an outdoor marketplace in Indiana. She links to a hilarious clip from the Daily Show where Hoosier soldiers in Iraq are interviewed and indeed they think Iraq is nothing like Indiana. Way to go Pence! Please vote this guy's ass out of office when his term is up!

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Mom's visit is really going well. We're not doing much besides spending a lot of time with Milo (which is the way grandma wants it).

Hopefully we'll have pics on the baby blog soon.

Last night I went to the L.A. Angels game against the New York Yankess. If you didn't know the Angels actually play in Annaheim (which is in Orange County) but they adopted the name L.A. a couple of years ago for business reasons. I live in L.A. and it took me two hours to get there so I refuse to call them the L.A. Angels. But they are still a great ball club and they are having a great season.

And everyone's heard of the Yankess, "America's Team." I once heard there are two types of baseball fan; those who love and respect the game and Yankess fans. HA! I'm amongst those who consider them the "Evil Empire" and I was looking forward to seeing them for the first time.

The highest paid player in sports, A-Rod, steps up to bat.


"Mr. Yankee" Derek Jeter.


Angels stud Vlad Guerrero.


When the Angels are behind late in a game the Rally Monkey appears to rally the crowd. If you look closely you can seem him on the screen in the corner.


The Angels won in the tenth inning off of a hit from a rookie who had only 11 major-league at-bats. It was definitely the biggest hit of his life so far and the team rushed out to celebrate with him.

Its been a busy week for me. On Tuesday and Thursday I taught Theory, Harmony, and Ear Training to some unenthusiastic students at Musician's Institute, drove an hour to a gig in Claremont on Thursday and drove two hours to gigs in Orange County on both Friday and Saturday. Throw in my Fantasy Football drafts this weekend and it really has been a busy few days.

My gigs the past couple of nights have been duets; Fri. with a singer and Sat. with a piano player. I love playing duet gigs for a couple of reasons, first off it means a lot of playing and a lot of bass solos, and secondly it really challenges me as a player. There is a lot more harmonic and rhythmic responsibility particularly in duet with a vocalist where I'm playing all of my solos unaccompanied. That really exposes you and puts a lot of melodic constraints on what you're doing. But that sort of challenge is a lot of fun.

In other news legendary drummer Max Roach has passed. His death is a bit more meaningful as he was our last living bebop pioneer. He recorded extensively with Charlie Parker and lead groups with Clifford Brown. His solo piece "The Drum Also Waltzes" remains a standard in jazz repertoire. He will be missed.

I've had a really nasty wart on the bottom of my foot for a few years now (did you know one of the technical names for this kind of wart is a Verruca?). My doctor tried liquid nitrogen, it didn't work. In fact it's gotten worse over the past year, so the last time I visited my doctor she put in for a referral for me to see a podiatrist.

I finally had the podiatry appointment today. As I'm sitting in the exam room I notice a signed poster of the 2006 World Cup on the wall. On the other wall I notice a framed jersey from the US National Team also signed and at the bottom is a little plaque saying 'Dr. L (I forget how to spell his name) US Nat'l Team Podiatrist.' Cool! If this guy is working on the feet of the US's best soccer players, he must be alright. He comes in and starts working on my verruca and I tell him my story about my experience in Italy during the World Cup finals last year. He tells me he's also been the podiatrist for Los Angeles's Major League Soccer teams the Galaxy and Chivas USA for years.

Now, maybe you haven't heard but soccer superstar David Beckham was signed to the LA Galaxy earlier this year for millions upon millions of dollars. He arrived to the team this summer but hasn't been able to play more than a couple of minutes per game because of an injured ankle. Needless to say fans are pretty disappointed that Beckham with his international celebrity, pop star wife, and enormous paycheck has yet to make a contribution to the team.

So I ask him "have you met Beckham yet?"
He says "I'm working on his ankle."
"Is he going to able to play soon?"
"He'll play 20 or 30 minutes tonight."

I felt like calling a sports talk radio program and letting them in on the breaking news I'd just heard. Then I remembered we were talking about soccer and they probably wouldn't care too much.

So he sent me away with a couple of ointments and told me to come back in a few weeks for more treatment. I left comfortable in the knowledge that if this man has helped bring David Beckham back from injury then there is a good chance that he will get rid of my nasty Verruca.

UPDATE!
Beckham started for the Galaxy and scored his first goal for the team last night.

Carrie and I were watching the Today Show this morning and were shocked to hear a preview of an upcoming story where an employer will start penalizing their employees for leading what the deemed to be "an unhealthy lifestyle."

Imagine our shock when we heard this company was in Indiana.

Imagine our outright disbelief when we found out that this is the same company that my mother works for.

Clarian Health is going to start docking their workers up to $30 every two weeks for 'failing to meet health standards set by the company'. Things like high cholesterol, high body mass index, smoking, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar will result in fines for employees that can total close to $800 a year. My jaw was on the floor when I heard this. My disbelief turned to anger when smug CEO Daniel Evans tried to defend his position. The thinking is the age-old 'why should I have to pay for someone else's care.' We've heard that one before, for sure.

So let me get this straight; my mother who has survived cancer, has a history of high blood pressure and cholesterol in her family and who most importantly has put in over 25 years of good service to Clarian (heck, she was there before it was even Clarian) is going to be penalized for the way she lives her life? I talked to mom this morning and she said they are still working out the details concerning how employees will be penalized if they are seeking treatment for said health problems or have a family history of them. But doing that reeks of discrimination.

I can hear the opposition now "it's Carian's right to run their business however they want to." Bullshit. Are corporate rights more important than your right to privacy? Where does it stop? Does Clarian have the right to penalize employees for speeding? attending loud rock concerts? flying? having unprotected sex?

A solution offered by some might be for my mom to just get another job. If she's unhappy she can do something about it, right? Suggesting so is compassionless. Like I said she's been at her job for a long, long time and has been a good employee for them. Asking her to get another job having no college degree and getting along in years (sorry Mom! hehe) is out of the question.

All this boils down to is a corporation looking to make some money off of their employees because they hate having to pay for health care. And the biggest irony of all is I see their point, they shouldn't have to pay for their employee's health care and with a public health care system intact we wouldn't have to worry about numbers-crunchers whose job it is to save money making decisions about our health.

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In a somewhat related story, because of my recent car troubles I've been researching purchasing a new vehicle lately and in doing so came across a very interesting article. It seems that GM has to add $1,500 to the price of every car to cover health costs of employees. Again, public health care could do nothing but help this problem and perhaps strengthen our American car companies.

Kind of.

Last night I was awaken from a deep sleep by my wife shaking me and telling me there was an earthquake. She'd bolted out of bed and grabbed her shoes. I hadn't felt the earthquake at all and thought she was being melodramatic. You have to understand she is prone to babbling in her sleep and waking me up in the middle of the night mistaking the dog for the baby and telling me it was suffocating. So of course I thought she had dreamt the "earthquake". She assured me she heard the headboard and pictures rattle and that it was indeed for real. I was skeptical and went back to bed.

Sure enough a 4.5 magnitude earthquake hit near our home last night. 4.5 isn't very bad and in the media's ever-passionate attempt to keep everyone fearful channel 4 news sought out the worst damage it could find this morning. All they found was a few fallen ceiling panels at a 99 Cent Store.

So stay tuned loyal viewers, the big one has yet to hit!

While I was in Hawaii I noticed the callouses on my right-hand index finger falling off in the salt water of the ocean. I didn't play my bass for over a week while we were gone (I can't remember the last time I didn't play for so long, last time we were in Hawaii?), this softened up my fingers as well. As I said in the previous post I've been knee-deep in work since we landed and my fingers are aching. Luckily I haven't rubbed any big blisters, it just feels like my fingers are bruised and after playing for a while they start to hurt.

Bass players pay close attention to their fingers. When I was starting to play in college I'd get blisters on my finger every couple of months. Let me tell you, they can really impede your playing. It's like a basketball player with an injured knee, you simply can't perform to the best of your ability.

So here's my blisterly advice to all you of aspiring jazz bassists out there: when you rub a blister the best thing to do is to pop it, remove all of the dead skin and play you ax as much as possible (which won't be much) to develop a callous. Now, if you have a blister but have some important gigs coming up my advice is to find a small sewing needle, sterilize the tip with fire of some kind and poke the tiniest hole possible in the blister to drain all of the fluid. Leave the dead skin on and make sure the hole you punctured is as small as possible. The dead skin makes the best bandage and the smaller the whole the smaller the chance of ripping the dead skin off.

After a while you'll get some good callouses and it won't be a problem unless of course you take a beach vacation and don't play for a week.

I know its all very gross, but this is important stuff to think about when you're a bass player.

That had to be one of the fastest weeks of my life. Our time in Kona was much too short and we are both eagerly waiting the next time we visit Dad and family. From the amazing house with an incredible view of the ocean, to eating amazing food, to the beautiful beaches, to showing off Milo to his family it was the vacation of a lifetime. Next time we stay longer brah!

On Monday we headed to Hilo (my first home) to visit grandma and Tuesday we spent on the beach. Plenty of pictures on the baby blog and there will be more soon.

No rest for the wicked! I'm teaching at Musician's Institute again tomorrow, reherasal Friday, Tyrell gig Saturday, and another gig with a great LA drummer on Sunday. And the car situation is still a big-ass mess!