Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang...

I saw Max Roach play a set, solo, in 1994 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I'd wanted to see him, as the man was a musical legend, but I was kinda doubtful that a guy, no matter how talented, playing a drum set would be entertaining for more than a few minutes. This would be fine, because Jazzfest had at least four other acts going simultaneously, and the only lousy act I've heard there was Aretha Franklin, whose sound guy spend the bulk of her set time doing a sound check and getting it wrong. Anyway, I figured I could say I'd seen Max Roach, and it he was a bit dull sitting up there by himself, I could move on to something more interesting.

Suffice it to say that I was mistaken. Roach played the drums as if they were a stringed instrument, pulling melodies and dynamics out of the set that I'd not witnessed before, or since.

From the crayons of babes--

The drama teacher at the school where we're rehearsing The Taming of The Shrew is also playing the hostess and the pedant, and her husband is playing Lucentio, so one of them is pretty much there for every rehearsal, and of course they bring their daughter (age 7 or 8) in tow. She normally sits in her mom's office playing on the computer or doing homework, but occasionally she'll do more children's activity-style things.

The teacher related to us that her daughter had wanted to draw a picture of horses, and to that end she'd gone onto Google and looked up pictures of horses to copy, which got her lots of pictures of horses running across the great plains, free as the wind, sunlight on their palomino coats, etc.

She took those images, and using her best artistic ability, ( came up with this: )