Pictured here is the Chateau just above the famous Promenade Des Anglais in Nice......the only complaint from most people about the beach in Nice is the lack of sand!....it's actually large round stones....not the most comfortable on your back! :(
Pictured below, one of my favorite hang-outs in the old part of Nice, Vieux Nice....called Bar De La Degustation....a great people-watching spot to sit and drink coffees and aperitifs!!!

Just returned from the south of France.......hard to believe a few days ago I was lying on the beach in Nice!....back to reality in Vancouver----clouds, cool temperatures, and of course----RAIN RAIN RAIN!! :(

I saw the new Dark Knight Batman movie the other night....all I can say is, it lives up to the hype!....great movie with lots of action...I love the fact that everything I have read about the director says he can't stand using computer generated effects in movies...I take my hat off to him for that....I'm so sick of George Lucas ruining movies by going overboard with that stuff....if you have a chance, go and see the Dark Knight!...You won't be disappointed! Heath Ledger is outstanding in this film!

gonna go and catch jazz pianist Monty Alexander tonight....he's on a double-bill tonight at the Vancouver Jazz Festival with vocalist Andy Bey....should be interesting...I remember hearing Monty being mentioned as "the next Oscar Peterson" or something link that but I find his playing very different from Oscar's.....of course, one of his best trios was with drummer Jeff Hamilton and bassist John Clayton...they've recorded several trio records together, so make sure you check out one of those..."Reunion in Europe", or "Montreux Alexander"...here's a video of them playing in Montreux...I believe the audio from this video is what was used for the Montreux Alexander album.

Well, yet another web 2.0 flavored music site has appeared...Grooveshark!! ....now, this one is nice and clean...it looks a little pseudo-google....you can enter the title of any song or artist..see what you get...then can create playlists...i'm still exploring the possibilities myself...listening to some Mulgrew Miller jazz piano right now!..you might even find some Tony Foster stuff on there soon too! :)...CHECK IT OUT!

George Carlin was a comedian that told it like it is...a lot of people may have been offended at some time or another by what he had to say, but at least he caused a reaction from people....personally, I found some of those clips of him floating around Youtube to be hilarious!..here's one about "airline announcements"!...He'll be missed!

As somebody who just created their own website, I'm starting to learn the importance of some of the web tools out there to get your site moving up in search results....one of them is the Alexa toolbar which can be installed as an extension into Firefox...based on what I have read, when you visit your new website while this tool is installed, Alexa.com will automatically start indexing your site..so let's see if this works!

Cedar Walton is smokin' in this video..the song is Thelonius Monk's Blue Monk....I had a lesson with Cedar at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London England about 5 years ago....he's one of the nicest guys you'll meet....I went and heard him playing with a quartet there at Ronnie's and sat 2 feet from him....awesome!...I learned some interesting stuff at the lesson...Cedar actually has a really light touch on the piano..I always thought he'd have a heavier touch but he said it's a lot easier to get around if you lighten up--hmmm--MAKES SENSE SOMEHOW! :)
....you can see him gettin' around pretty well in this video!

Hi everyone, just letting you know I'll be joining vocalist Melody Diachun down at the foot of Granville Street overlooking False Creek this coming Sunday, June 22nd. It's a restaurant called Nu and is a great place to have brunch with a view! Come on down!

You may have noticed on the right-hand middle part of this blog I've added an internet radio widget...the widget is made by a company in Israel called LabPixies..it's loaded up with 5 different stations...KPLU Seattle, KJAZZ San Francisco, CNN Business, CNN News, and CBC Radio 1 Vancouver...just switch channels by clicking on the dials!...I particularly like KJAZZ because they play one of my favorite jazz radio DJ's Bob Parlocha...he ALWAYS plays great stuff, and makes a point of mentioning exactly who was playing on a particular song and which recording it comes from!

Gonna carry on the web 2.0 theme..here's a site that lists a directory of all the web 2.0 sites out there that you could ever think of....http://www.go2web20.net/