Willie Nelson's public statement regarding being caught with a bag of Marijuana last week:

"It's a good thing I had a bag of Marijuana instead of a bag of spinach. I'd be dead by now."

I will admit, they played miserably in this series against Detroit. Doesn't matter how much they get paid. The value is on the field. Congratulations to Detroit and their fans. But just wait until Oakland gets ahold of them. Go A's! At least now I won't have to agonize over a game between our Oakland A's and my traditional Yankees. But the Bronx is still in my blood. The mighty Yankees have struck out (again). sigh

This weekend was absolutely beautiful in San Francisco.

Saturday I ventured over to the Audio Engineering Society Exhibition in Moscone Center... the annual gathering of audio and recording engineers and the various equipment and software companies. This is one way to find out what's happening in the industry.

Everything from microphones, speakers, cables, and books, to computer systems, state-of-the-art studio mixing panels, and portable equipment.

Always a bit overwhelming. Rows of stuff. One more glitzy than the next. My first AES show was in New York City, at some midtown hotel (The New Yorker?) in the late 1950's. I was still in high school. Compared to today, the equipment was quite primitive. But that's where I heard Edgard Varese's Ioniziation (the original Columbia vinyl record) for the first time. It was used to demonstrate speakers and amps. And that was the time when "High Fidelity" was the rage.

I like looking at equipment. Trying to figure out what it's used for. And I love recording studios. When I got out of college what I really wanted to be was a recording engineer. But to stay out of the draft, I became a computer programmer instead.

Back then, everything was with tape. And tubes. Editing was done with a razor blade. First thing you notice at these shows today is that everything is digital. Hard drives and flash memory replace tape reels. And editing is done with software, a mouse, and a graphical display.

The studio mixing panels are all digital. Every knob turn and slider movement is recorded as data, and playing back the data moves the knobs the same way you turned them. You can display and edit everything on the computer screens. The possibilities seem endless.

I even met some old geezer friends, electronic music composers Alden Jenks and Tony Gnazzo, checking out the gear. We agreed we were all overwhelmed. If only we had this kind of equipment 20 years ago. Digital has made just about everything you can think of in the audio domain possible. Creativity is being cleverer than the next guy. Some of the equipment and software demos were pretty slick. Certainly this seems to be an exciting time to be in the business. Not being in the business, I eventually tired of the whole affair and left for lunch at the Museum Cafe around the corner. You hear very little classical or avant garde music at these shows. Clearly the focus is on pop music and film sound production. The avant garde has always gotten along fine with duct tape and beeswax. All this new equipment strives to make it all sound perfect. There's software to even remove the pops, scratches, and hum from old recordings. Saw a lot of new stuff. Didn't hear anything new, however.

12th Other Minds Music Festival

Annual new music festival includes two world premieres and U.S. premiere

Friday, Dec. 8, 2006, 8 pm • Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006, 8 pm • Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006, 2 pm

Kanbar Hall, Jewish Community Center of San Francisco

San Francisco, CA (October 25, 2006) — The 12th Other Minds Music Festival, presented by Other Minds in association with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Eugene and Elinor Friend Center For the Arts of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, features some of the most creative voices and exciting performers in contemporary music. Known for presenting unconventional programs of the most inventive voices in new music, the annual festival begins with three days of private retreat for guest composers, and continues with concerts and panel discussions at the Jewish Community Center, San Francisco, December 8-9-10, 2006.

The 12th Other Minds Music Festival offers a rare opportunity to hear important works by eight of today’s most innovative composers, invited by Other Minds Executive Director and Festival Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian. The festival includes American premieres from two of the world's greatest living composers, Per Nørgård of Denmark and Peter Sculthorpe of Australia, as well as guest composers Maja Ratkje (Norway), Joëlle Léandre (France), Ronald Bruce Smith (Canada), Daniel David Feinsmith (U.S.), Markus Stockhausen (Germany), and Tara Bouman (Netherlands).

Festival concerts are Friday, Dec. 8 (8pm); Saturday, Dec. 9 (8pm); and Sunday, Dec. 10 (2pm), 2006, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco’s Kanbar Hall, 3200 California St. at Presidio Ave. Panel discussions with composers and performers, hosted by Charles Amirkhanian, begin one hour prior to each concert.

Single-concert tickets are $20–$30 ($20 student/senior; $26 JCC members; $30 general). Ticket packages for all three festival concerts are $50-$75 ($50 student/senior; $65 JCC members; $75 general–not available on web sales).. Tickets may be purchased in person or by mail from the JCCSF Box Office, 3200 California St., San Francisco, CA 94118. For advance sales, call the JCCSF Box Office at (415) 292-1233 or purchase online at www.jccsf.org/arts or www.otherminds.org.

The 12th Other Minds Music Festival gives special focus to the intimate ensemble. The Feinsmith Quartet (Christopher Taylor, piano; Jennifer Culp, cello; Michael Manring, bass; and Gyan Riley, guitar) performs an Opening Night world premiere of Daniel David Feinsmith’s Elohim, dedicated to the memory of A. Jess Shenson, commissioned for the festival by Other Minds with funding from The Shenson Fund, SF Arts Commission, The Argosy Fund for Contemporary Music, and other sources. Del Sol String Quartet (Kate Stenberg, Rick Shinozaki, Charlton Lee, and Hannah Addario-Berry), winners of the 2006 Chamber Music America/ASCAP first prize for adventurous programming, perform works by Per Nørgård, Peter Sculthorpe, Maja Ratkje, and Ronald Bruce Smith.

A number of groups at this year’s festival bridge the gap between composition and improvisation. POING, a Norwegian saxophone-accordion-double bass trio featuring ECM recording artist Frode Haltli, performs with composer/performer Maja Ratkje; the Joëlle Léandre Trio, including bass virtuoso Léandre and German artists Gunda Gottschalk (violin) and Xu Fengxia (guzheng) presents a rare combination of modern and traditional instruments and influences; Markus Stockhausen and Tara Bouman, two accomplished instrumentalists, conclude the festival with their unique blend of compositions, improvisations, and intuitive music.