Transitions

I finished what I considered my final music show for Serious Jazz today -- that's something like 130 hours of music programming in close to a year's worth of time on the air. At about nine songs an hour (yes, I keep track of these details), I've played almost 1200 songs over the air. And, of course, the deal is, I couldn't really keep playing the same songs or artists or even styles over and over again, so I had to dig deep into the library and really do my homework to find new music to play. Even old new music -- but new to me and hopefully to the listeners.

I discovered Joanne Brackeen, Cindy Blackman, Lynn Arriale, Ruby Braff, Andrew Hill, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Richard Muhal Abrahms, Winard Harper, Theo Croker, Eric Bibb, JB Lenoir, the Reverend Gary Davis, Freddy Cole, Nnenna Frelon, Ben Allison, Stanton Moore, and too many other musicians to mention. More importantly, I filled in so many of the gaps in my own musical knowledge just to keep from being embarassed or harassed by the station's listeners -- so many of whom knew so much more than I did about the music. I hope that by now I can start to hold my own with the true jazz afficionados.

And as far as Passing Notes is concerned, the 121 peices I wrote and recorded provided me with the regular discipline of having to write all the time, about all kinds of subjects. Again, the detail tracker in me totaled up the words at around 80,000 over the past two and a half years -- a total of about eight hours of me just talking talking talking about books, music, theatre, movies and television, life in Miami and elsewhere, and the world in general. Eight hours? I'm inclined to be on the quiet side; that I would ever have eight hours to say about anything is a fact I can't get my head around. I think it's time for me to shut up for a bit.

But to return to the point of discipline. What Joe Cassara -- the Operations Manager at WDNA -- did for me is to make me much more of a writer than I ever was -- that is, his simply providing me time and space, enabled me to move myself to the point were inclination became habit, and a serious hobby became a vocation -- a calling. In 2004, I hadn't written seriously for a long time for one reason or another, but two years of regular work will surely cure one of "writer's block" -- whatever that phrase might mean. It doesn't mean much to me any more, I can tell you that.

For now, I'll be posting reviews of books and music here on an irregular basis, as well as links to whatever freelance materials I might be coming out with in the weeks and months to come. As I said, when and if PN returns, it will be in the fall as a podcast and blog feed -- onward to the 21st Century.

Right now, I'm working on an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac for my friends at The Promethean Theatre. We've updated it and set it in Miami, but that's all I can say for now, because the producers (wisely) don't want anyone to appropriate the idea. The prospect of working in the collaborative medium of live theatre is exciting, and I trust the folks at TPT to prevent me from making any grave mistakes. Cyrano opens in July of 2007.

I'm also preparing an academic paper for the first major Harry Potter conference (ever?) this coming May in New Orleans. My presentation, "Hagrid, Naturally," will examine the role of the giant Hogwart's groundskeeper as a figure who embodies many different notions of what can be meant by the idea of nature. The full slate of programming for the conference, called Phoenix Rising, can be found here. This work is also related to the course on science fiction, fantasy, and magic realism that I teach.

Over the summer my wife and I are moving up the coast here in South Florida and settling in to decorate a nursery. We've got a baby boy on the way. I anticipate, once the baby comes, a summer of resting and not-at-alll resting, if you follow me. But, mostly, family time. Books and music will fill the house along with diapers and bottles. I'll be sure to share what I can of the entire mix.