John Murphy's faculty site at the University of North Texas College of Music

Whenever alternatives to the traditional academic conference are discussed, people rightly point out that you can read the papers and watch recordings of discussions and concerts, but there's no substitute for the informal interaction that happens at conferences.

That's true if you require the substitute activity to provide 100% of the original activity. But we can also use tools that get us part of the way there.

In addition to email and phone, I'm available via IM and Skype audio/video at jpm21228 for any colleagues who want to catch up that way.

I also wrote a conference-hallway-schmooze script that I'm still tweaking. It tries to capture that subtle blend of self-promotion, asking-about-the-other-person and let's-see-how-old-we-look-now. It might appear here.

This year I can't attend the SEM meeting because I'm planning an event in November that involves hundreds of jazz studies alumni, two honored retirees, six bands, and several thousand audience members, and I'm playing with Eddie Gomez and Duduka da Fonseca while they are here to do a residency with my colleague Stefan Karlsson during the time of the SEM meeting.

Printing a Book, Old School from Armin Vit on Vimeo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_jazz

i heart nu-jazz

Week 2 of the semester just passed and already it was a busy musical week. Tuesday night, heard Sebastian Whittaker, Bruce Saunders, Shelly Carrol, Stefan Karlsson, and Lynn Seaton at the Syndicate. Wednesday, played with Mike Drake, Bruce Saunders, Stefan Karlsson, and John Adams at the Sammons Center for the Arts in Dallas and heard another set by Sebastian, Shelly, Stefan, and Lynn;

then went to the Syndicate to hear the One O'Clock Lab Band. Friday night, played with Ed Soph and Fred Hamilton at the benefit for Bach Norwood's medical expenses at Dan's in Denton (a smoke-free night there). Saturday, played a club date with Vicho Vicencio at the Tower Club in Dallas (48th floor of 1601 Elm Street). This was an enjoyable club date. Good musicians: besides Vicho, Justin Stanton, Nancy Fisher, Kent Ellingson, Ricardo Bozas, Roland Muzquiz, and Cedric Israel. It was a wedding reception that brought a U.S. family together with a Chilean family (Vicho, who is Chilean also, knows them). We played 8 kinds of Latin music and swing-rock-country-etc. The gringo request was for "the Chicken Dance." It's very fun to play dance music with good musicians and a lot of people dancing. It beats playing jazz standards and being ignored. Plus "La Vida es un Carnaval" is so dang catchy. Plus some money.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-08-19/music/mining-african-blog-riches/

I'm going to seek out more blogs like the ones mentioned in this article.

Lately I'd rather read a short blog post and be able to hear the music than read a long journal article without being able to hear the music being discussed.

http://www.recumbentblog.com/2006/09/25/million-mile-man/

Follow the link to read how many miles Freddie has ridden a bike, and with which disabilities, and how much he has raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. His 100-pound bike makes the 47-pound (unloaded) Azor I ride to work each day seem light.

I'll bet more student jazz musicians have played "Scrapple from the Apple" than have eaten scrapple. So in the interest of your cultural literacy, here's a photo of scrapple in the package:

and scapple in the pan:

My theory about the name is that they sweep up the scraps that fall on the butcher shop floor, grind it up, add spices and filler, and form it in blocks. I have tried it in the past, but now pork livers, hearts, and snouts are not part of my diet (in George Carlin voice: SNOUTS are OUT!). These pictures were taken while visiting family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in July 2008. They're so far out in the country they can't get cable.
Bonus photo: in this photo we're about to pass the green beans.

I've been riding to work on my new (used) dutch bike all summer (4.3 mi each way). When it's not graduation day I omit the academic regalia and wear a helmet and reflective orange vest instead. If you're preparing to move to Denton and are wondering what it's like to bike here, it's not too bad. You can avoid heavy traffic by using side streets and sidewalks, which are more like bike lanes since they are so rarely (except on campus) used by pedestrians (be careful at driveways and intersections). Biking seems to be increasing here as it is in other places and motorists are generally considerate of bikes (except for drivers of black or red large pickups, who seem to like to see how close they can get--don't graze me, bro!). It helps when bicyclists make themselves visible and follow traffic laws. Denton has three bike shops.

A few days ago I turned on the feature that allows readers to request an account.

I'm starting to get requests from Russian spammers, so I turned that off.

If you'd like to make a comment, I'll be glad to receive it by email.