Thelonious Monk’s two words

Thelonious Monk, from Library and Archives Canada via Wikimedia Commons Seen today on Wikipedia: Bassist Al McKibbon, who had known Monk for over twenty years and played on his final tour in 1971, later said: “On that tour Monk said … [read more]

Chick and Hiromi Duet

Listening to: Chick Corea & Hiromi Uehara, Duet

Cascading, effervescent, energetic, virtuoso, surprising, accomplished. You’d need a stream of adjectives to describe how these two play together. An easier way to say it might be to think of four hands attached, somehow, to the same brain. An orchestra … [read more]

Winter Tires

Combatting winter neglect

When it’s winter, I find I let things slide. Or maybe they slide all by themselves, and I just don’t do anything about them. That’s often because I find I’m quite unaware that something needs doing. Take, for instance, some … [read more]

UB40 Twenty Four Seven

Listening to: UB40, Twentyfourseven

A review of UB40’s Twentyfourseven (2008) An elegant, slightly dark and dubby swansong, Twentyfourseven affirms for the last time what a strong and intelligent reggae band UB40 was. Forging its own path on the periphery of reggae, and – at … [read more]

handwriting font

A font in your own handwriting

YourFonts offers a free online utility to create a TrueType font based on your handwriting. Basically, you download a 2-page PDF form that you print out and fill in, in your handwriting. Then you scan the two pages and upload … [read more]

Pasta bake

Recipe: Delicious Pasta Bake

When you don’t feel like assembling a whole lasagna, or change your mind at the last minute – this is a very tasty and healthy vegetarian pasta bake. For us, it feels a bit ‘festive’ each time we make it; … [read more]

Articulating business value

One of the hardest things in selling professional services is to properly articulate the business value of your solution in your proposal, especially during an economic downturn. We in the “Microsoft partner camp” are often not very good at establishing … [read more]

Susheela Raman 33 1/3

Listening to: Susheela Raman, 33 1/3

A review of Susheela Raman’s 33 1/3 There’s nothing Susheela Raman can’t sing. I remember thinking this the first time I heard her first record, Salt Rain, in 2001. Raman is a British singer of Indian origin (who grew up … [read more]