Wow, Xanga just let me know that as of today, the fourteenth of August 2005, I've carried a blog for a thousand days. Remarkable thinking that I started this before I even made the decision to teach. Here's a link to the first four posts I ever wrote; you'll be happy to know it all started with... music.

And if you took a look at that link, then it's just fitting that the pictures I'm posting of this past weekend were of the annual Jazz Festival in San Jose, the biggest free jazz festival in the States :-) Great music, great food!


Jambalaya!


Adjacent to this.... Crest fest was free Haagen Dazs samplers... Take a trip there, then take a trip in the Crest tour bus where you get to.... Brush your teeth! And try out new Scope mouthwash. Why at the jazz festival, I don't know.


That's me staring at the armless superhero in the business district next to the festival.


Ok I have the oddest musical suggestion, more odd if you follow the type of music that I'll typically write about. The band name? M.I.A. Short for Maya Arulpragasam, a Sri Lankan refugee who studied art in London. Her bio is remarkable and should be considered when listening to her politically charged album. How to explain her music... Again, it's so hard, but I've been mentioning that she has a small taint of Gwen Stefani's album in her, but of course much more substance. It's hip hop, it's electronic, taints of world music, multilanguage, and best of all, full of attitude and spunk/energy. Definitely music that will throw you out of left field upon first listen, I was almost offended when I first heard her single, Galang, upon reading Sarah Lane's blog. But.... Keep on listening and it'll be the guilty pleasure you can't put off. Here's track 2 from the album to get a taste, it's called "Pull up the People".