Mumuki

I was fortunate tonight to see the Butler Jazz Ensembles perform at Clowes Hall, under the direction of Matt Pivec, with Fred Sturm guest conducting.

Overall, the performance was quite good, with one notable exception: Mumuki, by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla.

It was marvelous.

Brian Grimm on cello and Nana Omori on piano put on a wonderful performance. I definitely want to hear more of Piazzolla's works (apparently he created around 3000 songs, so that shouldn't be difficult) and I hope Brian and Nana aren't graduating this year; with luck, I'll get to see them again next season.

Trip photos

Speaking of decent photographs, I've placed some of my favorites from my trip down South (and a variety of parade photos, whose quality doesn't thrill me, but I wanted to capture a bit of the feel of a Lundi Gras parade) in my gallery.

Josef Sudek

Thanks to The Online Photographer for bringing this Czech master to my attention. If I could generate just a few photographs of that quality in my lifetime, I'd feel pretty good.

I know what I want for Christmas

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/seitz-d3.shtml

$38k? Not sure who in my family loves me that much, but I'll ask around.