I am sitting here on a Sunday morning looking out the window by the computer desk and watching the rain drip off the trees. It has been dark and gray the past couple of days here which is a drastic change from the 70 degree weather we had on Friday. The thing that most impresses me is that spring is truly on the way. This is one of my happy thoughts since the winter was so brutal this year. I have a couple other happy thouhgts. My wife is the most amazing person I have ever met. she gets me through the day. Some days when things are really brutal in the courtroom, I will flip open my phone and look at the picture of her which pops up. It makes any situation easier to handle.





lately I have been obessessing over three things: Thelonius Monk, Lil Wayne, and learning how to make a good gumbo.



Thelonius Monk was one of the great jazz pianists of all time. Sure, he was a little unstable, like so many great artists, but I just really connect with his sound. I have recently begun to really explore jazz which is a art form I have never really taken time to try and understand. I played in some jazz bands in high school but I never really listened to it outside of rehearsal time. I was too obsessed with death metal and the like to give it a chance.

I think my current interest started when I picked up a John Coltrane cd, "A Love Supreme", on a whim at the public library. I loved it and decided to check out some other stuff. The interesting thing is that I have yet to look into any jazz guitarists which for anyone who knows me is surprising given the fact that guitar was my life for many years.

Perhaps it is the "different-ness" of it that intrigues me... which is also probably why I obsess over Lil Wayne. I have only listened to a couple of his songs, usually edited versions since he is particularly fond of several euphemisms which I have been stubbornly trying to eradicate from my vocabulary. He is just fascinating to me. I will watch some of his videos at the gym when I am on the treadmill and I think that he is more of a rockstar than most working in that genre today.... and Lil wayne is from New Orleans and I have for some reason been missing New Orleans alot lately.....*sigh* New orleans is one of the few remaining places in America which is truly unique. It has a culture and atmosphere all of its own. I encourage anyone reading this to go and visit it once in their lifetime. It is not all Mardi Gras and drunken coeds lifting their tops. There is an amazing art scene and the food is awesome and you can avoid the seedier elements if you want. Check out a little place called the Gumbo Shop, 630 St. Peter Street, just a block away from the cathedral. When I lived there I took everyone who came to visit me there. I just found out seconds ago while I was researching the address that the place has a new owner who plans to turn it into a franchise which is a terrible terrible idea but desperate times call for desperate measures, i suppose.