The GGA Project -- Day #356 "Pretty Sure This Whole Project Was Leading to This..."

Stanley Turrentine came, I missed that series of shows, and then he died.


Dave Brubeck has come and gone 10 times since I moved to the Bay Area, and I missed all of those shows, too.  


In fact, most every living jazz great who still plays has been to this place I've been trying to visit since moving to the Bay Area, and I've missed them all.  So I knew there was NO WAY I was letting this project end without experiencing


Today's New Activity: Yoshi's!!!!!!


If you know me even a little, you probably know that I like jazz, and that I especially like hearing it live.  But somehow I've just never made the concerted effort to get to Yoshi's.  First of all, it's kind of pricey--for a student's budget anyway.  So there were a number of years when it just wasn't feasible.  And then it was.  But it just kind of dropped off my radar for a while, and when it would come to mind....I don't know.  The bottom line is that I just didn't get there.


A few weeks ago I even got really close.  I found myself across the street from the original, more well-known Oakland location when my friend Neal and I checked out Jack London Square.  This time around I grabbed Neal again and headed to the newer location in San Francisco, namely because the project was almost over and--of the upcoming performers--the one playing tonight in SF was the one I most wanted to see.

I really, really, really wish I had both better pictures and some accompanying audio for this post, but all I had with me was my phone camera, and audio was, of course, discouraged (in fact, we witnessed what happens when somebody breaks that rule.  A guy down below in the crowd flashes his flashlight at the perp and makes the hand-to-the-throat, slashing motion.  Ooooooooooh).

Lookit that.  A boda fide jazz club, replete with two-top bistro tables, an amazing sound system, and just enough room cleared of tables for the feelin'-it couples there tonight to dance their asses off to Eddie Palmieri's salsa orchestra.  What energy (not so much from Eddie himself, who was celebrating his 75th birthday(!)--though one thing I do love about jazz musicians is that they just keep right on grooving into old age)!

I loved the moments when the musicians just kind of worked up into a frenzy, the pure joy coming through in their smiles.  And--as always when I listen to jazz--I spent a nice moment remembering my grandfather, who introduced me to the genre in the first place.  It was also really nice to sense Neal, who's a bit new to jazz/salsa at this point, feeling the groove too.

Though there's a week and a half left of my project, I can honestly say that my mission here has been accomplished.  Not because of today's activity alone, but because I can say with confidence that the year of reaching into new, unfamiliar realms has somehow led me right back to myself...to me...the version I always liked best and knew was still in there somewhere.  It seems a bit paradoxical, but it's true.

Tonight I will sleep well, and in a new kind of peace....

The GGA Project -- Day #341 "Stalker Feed Gem, Part 2"

Well, back to the stalker feed on Facebook.  Another thing I noticed on that little ticker of an updater last week was a play-by-play of the songs my friend Neal was listening to.  "Neal listened to such-and-such by so-and-so on Slacker Radio," the updates would say.  First, I thought that was totally weird.  I mean we all have the freedom to update our status if we so choose, but when a third party steps in and tells you what somebody else is doing on a song-by-song basis, I mean I don't know, it just seemed a little too personal or real-time.  It turned out Neal didn't know that the app to which he was listening was telling all of Facebook what he was up to, which is odd too.  Facebook doesn't publish the story on your own page, so you don't necessarily know about it, just everybody who knows you does.


Well anyway, I didn't mean to go on about the stalker feed again, but those particular updates did give me an idea.  I've heard a lot about Spotify and Slacker Radio lately, and though I'm a huge fan of Pandora, I was up for trying out a new application and seeing how it compared.  Also, I was interested in the down-tempo/chill station Neal had told me about, as I liked the few songs he's shared with me after hearing them there.


Today's New Activity: Chillin' With Slacker (Radio)


I feel about electronica music the way I think a lot of people feel about wine or maybe jazz.  They know when they like the taste or the sound of it, but the idea of being knowledgable about it is pretty intimidating.  They don't know where to start.  I know I like a number of the various electronica sub-genres when I hear them, but I'd have a hard time listing even 5 artists in each.  For some (drum and bass, for example) I'd be lucky to come up with one.


But that's exactly what applications like Pandora and Slacker are FOR.  They hear you say "I like that," and they say, "cool, here's something else you may like, too!"  That these stations can be tweaked and made-to-order and personalized for free makes deciding to check them out a pretty easy decision to make.  If listening to any of these apps during all my (substantial) commute time didn't put me in danger of going over my phone's data plan every month, I might not ever listen to the radio again!


Here's the thing to know about the Chill station though (this is easy to comment on because I'm listening to it as I write): you might just fall asleep.  Or you might lose all focus and motivation and take two hours to write a blog that will look like you pounded it out in 2 1/4 minutes.  Or you might just feel really really sad!  Not that I feel really sad right now.  Not at all, but I'm saying that if I were on the edge of that feeling, the Chill station could definitely push me over it.  So yes, heed that warning and then, by all means, proceed. 


Turns out Slacker is pretty comparable to Pandora, but I discovered they also have festival stations (like Coachella and Lollapalooza) not to mention a Holiday Classics station.  Yay for commercial-free Christmas music.  Well, in a few weeks anyway.  The site does play commercials every now and then, like Pandora does, but it does have the premium option if you wanted to pay to forego all that.  I can handle a commercial every few songs if it keeps things free.


So yeah.  And though I've mentioned it before on this very blog (and mainly since I want to add SOMETHING audio/visual to this post about music), here's a video for one of my favorite chill-out songs ever:

Here's hoping this finds you in a state of the best kind of mellow...

The GGA Project -- Day #315 "Oaktown, USA"

Can it be possible that I've lived in NorCal for 12 years now and had yet to visit one of Oakland's most famous spots?  I suppose, but that meant it was time to remedy things.


Tonight I went with my friend Neal to experience


Today's New Activity: Jack London Square


What got us up that way was a vegan restaurant called Solely Vegan, which was pretty damned good!  I'm usually a little leery of vegan food, just because my experience has not been all that stellar, but this was really pretty flavorful.  We got a combo plate of everything, including bbq tofu, mac n cheese, potato salad, greens, southern fried tofu, cornbread...come to think of it there was a definite southern theme there that I somehow completely missed until just this moment, writing about it.  And it was so flavorful and the textures so NOT unpleasant that I forgot it was vegan and not just vegetarian.


After that we checked out the docks, passing by the iconic Yoshi's, which is a jazz venue I've been meaning to go to since the first year I lived here.  I felt happy just to have finally gotten THAT close to it, and it's on my list of things to do before this year, this project is over.


Verdict: will definitely be visiting both Jack London Square and Solely Vegan again...great experience in great company :)