Downpour

The view from my front porch during a "gully-washer," about 6:00 PM.

Klee Train

Another train picture, kind of. Freight trains are often parked on a siding near my house. The colors of the rectangular freight containers often remind me of the blocks of color in a Klee painting. I haven't quite been able to capture that in a picture, but here's an attempt.

Art Car

More on the car theme, by chance. This one was parked in Woodstock, Georgia.

Cool Cars

Mell Avenue, Atlanta.

Pipe Orchard

Just before the housing market went bust several years ago, a developer cleared this tract of land near Alpharetta, Georgia, laid out streets, and put in the drainpipes for what were to be the upstairs bathrooms. Then the economy tanked, and this lot has looked like this ever since.

Spring?

As far-fetched as it might sound to those in other parts of the country, Spring is beginning to make its presence felt in our yard in Atlanta.

Better Dead Than Mellow

Okay, for the first time since starting this blog, I didn't take any pictures on Tuesday, February 22. I decided to take a picture the next day to represent the 22nd. Since I rehearsed with Darryl Rhoades on Tuesday, I did something my wife had suggested - snapped a picture of an LP I recorded with Darryl back in 1986. My friends can play the game of "Which youthful Man From Glad is Jeff?"

Unsettled Sky

LaFrance Street, Atlanta.

Trumpet 78

Another 78 picture - a few days ago I found a box of 78's at an antique store. I reached in, and the first record I pulled out was this very nice blues release on the legendary Trumpet label out of Jackson, Mississippi. In the late 1990's, I attended a talk by Lillian McMurry, the feisty owner of Trumpet. 45 years after the label was active, she could still rattle off the catalog numbers of her releases.

Four Horns

It's been a while since I've played a four-horn gig.

L5P

Little Five Points, Atlanta, on a nice spring-ish day.

Don't the Moon Look Lonesome...

...shining through the trees?

- Old blues lyric

Locomotive

I know that I've posted several train pictures here, and I'll probably post more. I've loved trains since I was a kid, and I live near some tracks. I was in the right place at the right time to catch this locomotive near Decatur, Georgia today.

Old Friend

I haven't played tenor saxophone with any regularity for almost 20 years. I know that I haven't even gotten my old Buffet tenor out of the closet since about five years ago, when I used it on a recording session for Atlanta rocker/comic Darryl Rhoades. Well, I'm rehearsing with Darryl again, and so I've been practicing tenor. I'm surprised about the things that are coming out - I play tenor very differently than my other horns. In any case, I'm having fun.

Domestic Tranquility

Valentine's Day, 2011.

Saks

A painting by Black Joe Jackson. This was one of Karen's earliest gifts to me.

Cat and 78s

Sorry - another cat picture.

Sidewalk Love

This sidewalk expression of love caught my eye today; appropriate, since Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Clifton Road, Atlanta.

Atlanta at Night

Taken at 55 miles per hour from the Downtown Connector - the junction of Interstates 75 and 85 that runs through Atlanta. The "V" to the left is The Varsity, the famous drive-in restaurant.

Trolley Barn

The Inman Park Trolley Barn, built in 1889 as a maintenance facility for the Atlanta streetcar system. Edgewood Avenue, Atlanta.

Power Plant

Scherer Power Plant, near Forsyth, Georgia. I took this picture while hiking, geocaching, and eating barbecue in middle Georgia today. I was struck by the contrast between the beauty of Lake Juliette and sight of the power plant; beyond that, I won't editorialize.

Later: In my original post, I called the Scherer plant a nuclear power plant, which I thought it was. I have since learned that it's a coal-fired power plant, despite the smokestacks' resemblance to nuclear cooling towers.

More Wall Art

Inman Park neighborhood, Atlanta.

Record Sleeve

When I was twelve and had just taken up the saxophone, my mom brought home a jazz record for me - Budd Johnson's Ya! Ya! on the Argo label - because it had a picture of Johnson and his saxophone on the cover. I was disappointed; I would have rather had a rock record at the time. But I listened to the album and enjoyed it, and pored over the inner sleeve, which was covered with pictures of other Argo albums. These fascinated me. I didn't know many of the names, but they seemed "important," and it turns out that many them were important in the jazz world. In any case, I knew that I wanted to hear as much of this music as possible. I now have (on LP or CD) over a fourth of the albums pictured here, plus many from the other side of the sleeve.

Jazz lovers should click to enlarge the picture - see how many of these you have.

Back in the Saddle...

...for a couple of days. I spent eight hours today and yesterday working with three saxophone sections from Northview H. S. in Alpharetta, Georgia. They were all nice kids, and I enjoyed myself.

Flowerdot

A wall quilt made by my very talented wife, 2007.

Clarinet Practice

Expensive Cookies

A couple of weeks ago, we had a major, nasty plumbing emergency. It took all day to repair, and was, of course, very expensive. Today the plumbing company send us a dozen cookies. I decline to tell you how much each cookie cost us.

How I Spent My Day

Ten bags of weeds, vines, sticks, and leaves from the backyard of a relative's house. He's overseas, and I'm only two hours away. So....