things i did in 16.
a moustache-twisting journal of the few things in my life worth mentioning

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got a new formal dress shirt
My beautiful old one had just gotten too old. It was fraying. So I gulped and bought a new one: a classic Brooks Brothers with a marcella front — U-shaped, no less. Ah. I love it.


welcomed tooth fairy season
A season we'll be in constantly till about 2022. Holding firm at $2 per tooth. From the looks of it, Greta's going to inherit my tooth array rather than Catherine's. (Sorry, Greta.)


took a girl to 1st grade
Well it's all part of the deal, right? That time of life. Greta's doing predictably well and having a predictably hard time. Well in that she's supersmart and catches on easily; hard in that she's just not built to fit in, especially at this rather strictured school. But that builds character too. Class of 2028! (With a sister not far behind.) This also means we


started piano lessons
I searched and searched for the right teacher. The ones I'd seen in action weren't impressing me: they didn't really teach the kids rhythm (which, with harmony and melody, ya know, helps make up Music). Most of them didn't really teach theory. But we finally found a music school for them: Jensen's, which will teach them in a class for the first few years, then graduate to private lessons when the time comes. I've been impressed so far.


did those weird morning gigs
The life of a musician! I got a call from superjazzer Kyle Keener about doing a gig that began at 8am. In the morning. Usually went till about 11 or 12, but sometimes went to 2. It was in the lovely Majestic Building, on the floor that was the former Majestic Club. We were the classy background music for those things where you get a free trip if you come in and listen their hour-long real-estate spiel. That's us: the band for that. Odd hours, odd breaktimes (timed to when they got out of the presentation and started the one-on-ones). Decent money. Great players; tons of — yawwwwn — fun.


professed
an introductory Jazz course at Baptist University of the Americas. 14 students, from at least 5 countries: all upper-level music majors, so they knew their music and could be articulate about what they're hearing. And I didn't have to explain what a ii-V-I progression was. But, being classical people from all up and down the continents, they knew hardly nuthin about jazz. So it was really fun helping them discover it. On the first test, I saw a guy get his phone out and consult it again and again. He was so up-front about it I had to think he wasn't just cheating.... Right? Well when I got his test, lots of words (buzz, smear, ebullient) had Chinese characters next to them. I'd remembered to speak slowly and plainly in class, but on tests I'd completely forgotten that English was a second language for most of them. Sheeh! I'm sure my first semester was full of rookie errors. Maybe I'll get another chance soon.


welcomed the cousins back
Catherine's sister and her family lived in Germany for three years. Fantastic experience, and one that echoed their generation's own experience in the 80s in Germany, but man we missed them. They came back three years older, and slightly more Germanic.


got all my pants tailored
We're living in narrower times. Those full-figured pants legs of yesteryear weren't cutting it. Some things you just can't fix, cuz the tailoring is just wrong no matter what. But some things you can, and so I took roughly ten pairs of pants and a load of suit pants over to Helen, who did 'em all just right. Now I have more modern legs. Still not too tight though. I've always thought those guys on The Bachelor and -ette looked a bit like munchkins. The pants leg should obey the guy's leg, not smother it. Anyway, an inexpensive way to stay up-to-date.


organized my charts
I've written something like 75 songs, and done lead sheets on something like 75 more. That's a lot of stuff to carry around and pass out to bassists and guitarists and horn players, who need the Bb charts, but sometimes the Eb, and sometimes they'd rather read the C. After years of it, I finally sat down and put it all in order and got it all nice and neat. Then filled in new copies of ones that had been given away or gotten lost. So nice to have it all ready at the fingertips again without shuffling through.


read 1493
The sequel to 1491. Charles Mann did it again, this time telling us what happened in the wake of Columbus's arrival. He's such a wonderful storyteller, and does his research too. Again, a marvel on every page. If you haven't caught yourself up on what we know now about the early global era, you owe it to yourself to sit down with this.


tributed patsy cline and pearl harbor
The always-amazing Maggie Worsdale commissions me to do new background recordings for her just about every year. This time it was a showful of Patsy Cline and a big Pearl Harbor Day event. Only a few for that one, but for the Cline we got to dig in. All the back numbers that you'd've only heard once or twice we did in classic Cline style, so I got to use two bassists and a hovering Wurlitzer organ and echoey bendy dreamy guitars. Then all the big hits ("Walkin' After Midnight," "You Belong to Me," "I'll Sail My Ship") we took out of their usual zone (a blammy roadhouse blues, a lush understated bossa, a Big-80s pop) to give you something always familiar but always new. I've told you this before, but I feel so free to just throw anything at Maggie because I know she'll be able to handle it with flags flying.


lost my first best friend
Chris lived two doors down when I was a kid. We spent hours every day together starting from when I was about 3 or 4. Moving to a different neighborhood, only 3 miles away, at age 8, was easily the most traumatic experience of my first decade. I wept for months, largely because of Chris. What an odd feeling, to be at his funeral today. I mostly didn't know the people there &8212; a sign that he and I, though we kept up on and off throughout the years, never really were part of each other's lives after we moved. Why? Obviously, good intentions give way to schedules and school and new friends and all that. ... But after college we came back to San Antonio and both pursued music careers. Why on earth didn't I spend more time with this wonderful person? I knew him from his earliest days. Even then, and from then to the end, he got the answers right about how to treat people, how to enjoy life, what a person's values should be. I went to hear his gigs sometimes; he came out to my gigs sometimes; we exchanged friendly emails. But it will be an abiding regret that I didn't continue my first deep and real friendship. He was a consummate musician, a dedicated craftsman, a loyal friend, and a delightful companion with an odd sense of humor that was both devastatingly sarcastic and ultimately sweet-spirited. Farewell, Chris. Till we meet again.


got cold blood
Actually, got In Cold Blood, and not just that but a first edition, in incredible shape. Capote's masterpiece set the stage for a new kind of writing: it's no exaggeration to say it. What's often overlooked is the kind and generous heart that shows in his writing, insisting on giving every human being full due.

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What a year. Dedicated to the glory of God.

so, what did you do?

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