Couleur Jazz is - not surprisingly - touting the upcoming Jazz Fest here in Montreal.

Due to my trip I'll miss the first few days... but it's a given that I'll try to see some of it after!

I'm trying to get my local jazz radio station on my morning alarm again. Radio McGill is driving me up a wall right now anyway: one of their radio hosts has a very annoying voice, and they insist on having her on often.

We'll see how long it lasts this time.

One of my friends is guest-hosting a jazz radio show on CKUT McGill radio this week. If you aren't in Montreal (I know many of you aren't) you can hear it streamed from the ckut.com Website.

David is a Toronto transplantee, studying jazz music at that University. He also hosts a jazz show on the station. Now, he's a guest host on this one.

I thought I'd missed it today, but it's actually on Sunday. I may still miss it though, as I'll be at a local mall at the time.

If I bring a portable FM radio with me though, I might hear it.

If you're interested, the show is called Dobbin's Den, playing from 11 AM - 1 PM EST.

I have to relay a funny Father's Day anecdote. I'll explain why it's funny afterward:

When my family got together yesterday, my 9-year old nephew wished me a happy Father's Day. He said he knew I didn't have children, but I am a man.

I told it to my sister (his mom). She quipped that I do have cats, so it counted.

Why this is funny: on a friend's blog, she wished a happy F-D to all dads, even if we are "just cat fathers".

I love funny bits of synchronicity like that.

I hope those of you who are dads had a happy Father's Day!

I had a brunch with my folks, with all 3 of us kids, and my nephew and nieces. Afterwards we brought back all the goodies my folks got me for my birthday and my upcoming vacation.

(It still blows my mind that I'm only 8 days away!)

I'm trying to get the Atom/RSS feed for this blog started.

Granted I don't feel I update often enough - but if a feed could bring me more readers, I might be encouraged to post more often again.

Rain finally came to Montreal today, after more than 2 weeks of sweltering humidity.

This has been the sort of weather where I can't even concentrate on listening to my Jazz CDs.

I'm finally starting to get my collections of DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes and books catalogued thanks to a great freeware program called MediaMan.

All I have to do is enter a title into the wizard. It will search for it on Amazon, providing the cover art, information on track names for songs, cast info for films, etc. If the materials are too old to find them specifically on Amazon, I can scan the barcode in from a webcam, and it'll search by that instead.

It's too damn warm

Even though the weather is only 16 degrees, my apartment is always warmer; being on the 7^th floor means warm air from below always rises.

I have an air conditioner; I need to coordinate with a neighbor to have it installed. So I'm a puddle of jelly until I do.

iTunes Music Store here in Canada offers a free song download every week. This week is a song from Theresa Sokyrka, the runner-up on last year's Canadian Idol. It's from her new album.

The song is good. Not surprising, since she was the more talented between her and winner Kaylan Porter.

She'll also be the one whose album I'll buy.

I can't really afford it... but I treated myself to a classic album from the Verve vault on iTunes: Count Bassie with the Mills Brothers.

These classics should never be lost, in my view.

blogcurry

Mike Zellers also likes Jazz, and he's funny to boot.

Farewell to a good friend

I've been quiet on this blog for some time... unfortunately I'm not returning with a heavily positive post:

My good friend Doctor John F. Davis died this past Sunday at the age of 87.

John wasn't the kind of person who would want weeping and moaning about him. I'm trying not to. Mostly, I've been trying to remember how fortunate I was to have known such an incredible man:

Before WW II, John was a PhD in Engineering. He had a great interest in medical technology, so he returned to McGill after the war to get his MD, and a BA in English Literature as well.

McGill awards a scholarship in his name every 2 years.

He was a Nobel laureate, as part of a group of scientists who protested nuclear proliferation. He didn't get the monetary award, but had the award certificate proudly in his office.

He was the spokesman for several medical research companies.

Even up to the end, he was a practicing psychiatrist.

He was also the person who got me into PC computing a decade ago, as a reward for helping him to create his personal Website.

Despite all these credits, he was a humble man. In fact, he willed his body to science, and there will only be a memorial service later this summer.

I'm very sad he's gone... but I thank fate for giving me a chance to know him.

Back from the Luddite Abbys!

My PC needed a corrupted HD replaced. After nearly 3 weeks without a system at home, I'm back again and reinstalling what software I can!

In the interim, I finally gave up on getting Couleur Jazz on my alarm clock radio. After months of barely getting static, I changed to University of McGill's CKUT. They play other genres daily, but they do have Jazz programming as well.

From this week's Friday Fiver:

1. Do you tend to exaggerate or underestimate?
With the way my words are often misinterpreted to their most negative, I'd say that I underestimate people too much.

2. What is the last "white" lie that you told?
I can't think what it was. It's been a long time.

3. Can you forgive a liar?
Eventually. The sole exception has been someone who acted so attrociously to me, to the point of libel; I haven't spoken to them in over a decade.

4. Do you hold a grudge?
This also answers the last question more fully: I've been known to be upset with people for a long time, but I eventually get to talking with them again. Often I make that first step.

5. What's the biggest lie you've ever told?
Like the white lie question I can't answer right now.

So Jamie Foxx won the Best Actor Oscar for Ray... not that it wasn't expected. Still: it was great to have a biography of a jazz legend honored this way.

From the Note of the Day:

Name three (or more!) people and the custom ringtones you’ve either set for them on your phone, or would if you could.

With me it's definitely the latter... here are my choices:

• Queen, Show must go on


• Sonny Rollins, Island Lady


• Herbie Hancock, Rock it

(He has far better jazz, but this is the most memorable tune from him).

• The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Zoot Suit Riot


• U2, Sunday, Bloody Sunday

In a bittersweet moment, the late Ray Charles won two Grammys for his last album yesterday.

It's a great tribute. Too bad he couldn't be here to get the awards.

Lately I've been finding how small the transmitter for Couleur Jazz really is: my clock radio often loses the signal, and when I try to refine it again, it takes a few days to find the signal again!

I hope Couleur Jazz proves popular enough to warrant a stronger transmitter... I'm losing the signal on it too easily on far too regular a basis.