This is how I get Max to practice:

Get my bass and his violin out. Ask Max to help me learn his pieces on the bass (i.e. Suzuki book 1, ABCs of Violin, Fiddle Magic, etc…) Play the piece he’s working on and ask him to point out any mistakes. Intentionally make many mistakes. He points ‘em out, with much giggling. Ask him to play it for me so I can hear it. And voilà – he’s playing it just fine. Repeat, simply making mistakes where he needs to work on it.

Bonus points: I get to work on my thumb position technique and treble clef reading at the same time.

Via Jase:

88% Geek

77%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

In Basses, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Part 2 – Trains, Jason writes:

People think that they are very funny — One of the most annoying things about carrying a bass around town is having grown people gape at you, slack-jawed like drugged cattle, as you struggle to get from point A to point B. You know how cattle all slowly turn their heads and stare at you as you walk past them on a country road? That’s just what your fellow commuters do.

After staring for a while, a light bulb goes off in the back of their commuter minds.

“Hey,” they think. ” should make a humorous remark directed toward that person carrying that strange thing! What a great idea!”

They close their gaping mouths, wet their lips, and blurt,

“Did’ja ever think of playing the piccolo? Haw haw haw haw haw haw haw haw!”

this so reminds me of riding the T to gigs back in Boston. My favorite moment was when a fellow bassist and I were riding back on the Green Line from a rehearsal with our basses on one of those tiny little cars, and we received this exact same comment about how we should have picked the flute. Because the face on my friend after that one was priceless – looked like he just took a sip of 2 day old Pabst Blue Ribbon where someone dropped their coals in. I laughed out loud and our stand-up comic erroneously thought she was hilarious.

Some others I’ve heard whilst dragging my bass through the snow:

• Is that a body in there?
• Is that your canoe?
• That’s a big cello/guitar/whatever!
• How do you get that in your car/a taxi/on the train?

Every single time. Like clockwork. Try it. Walk down a busy street with a double bass in a case and see what you get. You will be running home frantically searching for the Absolut in no-time.

I get the same sorts of inane chatter from having a homophonically similar famous boxing legend.

My son Max was watching the The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy on TV just a moment ago when I heard Mandy state the opening line: This statement is false.

What a beautiful phrase. This statement is known as a Liar’s Paradox. Is this statement true, or is it false? You decide…

When I heard that statement coming out of a cartoon, my jaw dropped to the floor. I wonder if any of the kiddies are pouring over that thing at this very moment…

I think if we all band together, we can realize our dream of world peace through beer:

Beer: the energy drink for bacteria – Los Angeles Times

Scientists and an Australian beer maker are teaming up to generate energy from brewery wastewater and bacteria.

The University of Queensland was given a $115,000 grant to install the experimental microbial fuel cell at a Foster’s Group brewery near Brisbane.

The fuel cell is a battery in which bacteria consume water-soluble brewing waste such as sugar, starch and alcohol. The battery produces electricity and clean water, said Jurg Keller, the university’s wastewater expert.

Happy April Fool’s Day everyone!

Many have suggested over the years that WebKit should be abandoned in favor of Gecko, the browser engine with second-place market share according to studies like the Net Applications Survey. But why go with number two when you can go straight to the top? That���s why I am pleased to announce that WebKit will be discontinued in favor of Trident, the engine inside Windows Internet Explorer. Like OpenDarwin before us, we will be shutting down.

OK if you’re not a Mac web geek, you probably are saying WTF right about now. Apologies…

It’s five for five – true clarivoyance. First watch this:

onegoodmove: The Da Colbert Code Redux

Then this:

onegoodmove: I Called It

Max hadn’t learned the word “crystal” yet, so “rainbow dreamer” is the term that he used to describe this object:

I thought that was pretty creative naming for a five year old.