This was just so beautifully presented.
This was produced by Class Act Stationery and purchased from Walmart a few years ago.
The company may be out of business and I hope not because this is one of my favorites in recent memory.
Journal writers, what is your favorite?
Photos: MsThorns
Will start with this:
Spend some time with this:
And end where the spirit leads me.
94 today.
The first story I ever wrote was with a pen, one that had been laying around the house. I wrote that story at age seven or so and have been fascinated by, hoarded and yes used pens for writing ever since.
The technological age may have changed some of our writing behavior. This post was drafted and posted fully online. However those initial ideas, scribbles, doodles and journal writings are all handwritten. Because I love them so much, I figured why not use the digital form to write about the analog form.
This will be a series, or not. I’m not sure as yet but I have so many I figured I’d share with my fellow pen lovers, see what you’re writing with and hopefully have you comment as well. The first pen up is the Uniball Signo 207, .07 mm medium point gel pen.
I’ve written many a note, journal entry and various scribbles with Uniball Signos for a decade or more and the purple was blessed and highly favored in my stockpile. This year I actually purchased a multi-colored pack for writing in my journal and I love the line it makes and the colors but the build for me just doesn’t doesn’t work.
This pen has a long nose cone/tip which places the rubber grip a little to high up the barrel for my liking. The grip is a nice rubber with the little bumps on it that makes it even nicer to grip. The other rub for me is that the pen is a little narrow for my taste. I like something a tad wider for my long fingers to hold on to.
All in all, the pen writes beautifully, no skips and no blobs but the grip makes it a grab and go, quick note pen not one to write a bazillion words. Tell me what you think?
My anger at the death of Google Reader that is…
I joined Twitter during the fall of 2008 to stay on top of the elections. The political folks that I followed were sharing links to articles relevant to the election. Following those links to the designated blogs, I found that many of those blogs were ones that I’d like to read on an ongoing basis. The difficulty was keeping up with all of them. Bookmarking at the time was all I knew and doing that for every blog, then clicking through these everyday would preclude me from doing my job, the one I got paid for. The election and my involvement in it was as a volunteer but I still need to stay on top of news and polls and things. Somebody on Twitter, I’m not sure, who pointed me to RSS. I could subscribe via this RSS thing and get everything in a snippet. I could get snippets from all over the web and look at them in one place (an aggregator) that aggregator was Google Reader.
Now the web is blowing up with the news that Google Reader will be shut down on July 1st.
What the f#-%/+%+#;;&(;-1($/&(&*+$++%! I’m not happy about this news at all. For the following reasons:
All of that comes crashing to halt, momentarily anyway for me. I guess I’ll check out Lifehacker and see what they have to say about alternatives. I’d like to know what you have to say about the end of Google Reader. Let me know in the comments. As for Google, shame on you!
I know a good ticket when I see one and this ticket was a deal. For $40 + all those ridiculous surcharges, on Friday night October 19, the old broad headed to Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center for the Ladies of Jazz show featuring Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding.
The Scene
Last time I went to the Center was four years ago. Having been open only a few months at the time, it was a sparkling facility and it’s just as sparkling now as it was then. The ushers were very friendly and helpful, the bathrooms and common areas were spotless. Upon being seated in the auditorium the crowd seemed to be fairly light. Which was unusual because for a Friday evening, there were no traffic snarls on the way to the venue. Little did I know that there would indeed be a full house. People were just late and not even fashionably late but rudely late. Many arriving halfway through the first artist’s set. Atlanta music patrons, please get it together. The artists deserve better than that.
The Artists
Terri Lyne Carrington
Drummer, Terri Lyne Carrington and her band opened the show. Her set was short, too short for me which amount to about seven songs some of which were from her most recent release Mosaic. I’d only recently discovered her music after watching a YouTube video with footage from some of the Mosaic recording sessions and finally purchased Mosaic a few weeks ago. Carrington opened her set with “Triad” (from Mosaic) which is a burner. Her band consisted of guitar, acoustic bass, trumpet and saxophone. Moving quickly through her set, other standouts tunes included the third cut “Hopscotch” followed by a cut entitled “Sweden” which she said was inspired buy a recent tour date there. The finale which I cannot name opened with an outstanding drum solo, which from what I hard and saw, makes me really dig her playing, which is her efficiency. There’s no wasted energy, no theatrics, flying drumsticks, sweaty brow and such. Carrington takes command of her kit like a bawse! I’ve heard many a drum solo in my day and have watched drummers play as if they’re trying to kill their kit no such thing with Carrington. She commands while being understated and it works.
Impressions
The saxophonist, who also played in Spalding’s band is special. Her name is Tia Fuller. She’s released a few albums as a leader and can flat-out blow. I also would have like to hear more from the bassist. The guitarist was efficient and the trumpeter seemed to be having some wardrobe malfunction with her shirt sleeves. I don’t know how she played as I was distracted by her shirt sleeve fidgeting 
Upon hearing Carrington live and reading up on her I regret being late to the party. From this show, I’d say she’s a musician first and a performer second. There’s no doubt that more of Terri Lynne Carrington’s music will be added to my library and hopefully additional opportunities to hear her live.
Esperanza Spalding
Turns out that the auditorium was full for the second set when bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding hit the stage. I first heard Spalding via @Fave and his former podcast show Friday Favecast. She was all the hype at the time and won a best new artist Grammy in 2011. Though I’m not a music journalist, I am a bit of a music snob and when I hear hype or what I perceive as hype I steer clear. Fast forward to 2012 and he release of Spalding’s Radio Music Society. I “caved” copped it and loved it. She has a sweet vocal and in my ear I hear shades of two important vocalists, Michael Franks and Minnie Ripperton. Divergent, a bit, but to me she references them both in delivery and tone but let’s be clear it’s not just Spalding’s vocals that garner attention, she gets down on the bass, acoustic and electric.
The Set
This is my recollection of Spalding’s set (with comments), all from Radio Music Society:
Impressions
I can honestly say that I’m now a believer. For me the true test is always how a musician comes across live and quite frankly she nailed it. She has the musical and performance chops and is really engaging. Her band was excellent and didn’t miss a beat. Spalding definitely has the chops and will hopefully be around a long time to bless us with her talent. I’d certainly see her again.
If you caught the Atlanta Ladies of Jazz show or have heard these artists live in your town. I’d love to hear your thoughts, please feel free to do so in the comments.
About the G+ 365 project
I wrote a post in February about my camera woes. My Canon SX130is (point and shoot) suffered an injury and requires special care when in use, it is thank goodness, not completely broken. During the camera’s downtime, the backup camera a smaller less powerful was put in use for my daily photo-taking needs. On a Saturday night whim I went into Target and rolled up on this:
What I didn’t care for
Not An Expert 