The title for my blog, “The Abstract Truth,” comes from the Oliver Nelson album The Blues and the Abstract Truth.

For me, TBATAT is one of those perfect albums, like Sgt Pepper’s, The Glenn Gould recording of the Goldberg Variations, and The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett.

A perfect album is an indivisible singularity in the space-time continuum. The mind doesn’t separate one track from the other, and each phrase is a synecdoche not for the track, but for the entire album. As each song fades, the emotional response to the next song begins, even before the first note is heard. You cannot listen to a prefect album on shuffle play. Even Chuck Norris cannot separate Stolen Moments from Hoe-Down

Tonite, Freddy Hubbard, the trumpet player on TBATAT, plays at Yoshi’s new San Francisco venue. Over the last 19 years, have been to all of the jazz venues in SF, including such institutions as Jazz at Pearl’s (which seems to be closing as of April 2008), Biscuit and Blues, and Rassela’s, but these clubs never really drew international talent.

And for some unfathomable reason, the San Francisco Jazz Festival held most of its headline shows at the Masonic Hall, which has the absolutely worst acoustics in all of San Francisco. The last year I went to the Jazz Fest, I walked out of an Abbie Lincoln concert because the acoustics made it impossible to enjoy.

To hear the best Jazz in the San Francisco, one had to go to Yoshi’s in Oakland. I’ve been there at least 10 times. But having to travel to Oakland, in my mind, meant that San Francisco had ceded to Oakland not just its waterfront, but its jazz scene as well. So much for San Francisco as a world-class city.

My hope tonite is that Yoshi’s will live up to my expectations! The intimate Oakland venue has headline artists, great acoustics, no columns to block the view of the stage, comfortable seats, and reasonable food in the attached Japanese restaurant. If the SF venue even comes close to matching Oakland, you’ll find me there catching the best of the best.

Now excuse me while I put on TBATAT. You can get your own copy here.

Yesterday, I was wondering what was happening in this lot next to my building building, so I sent Curbed this picture. They wrote back and said they would write a story. Here it is!

Its no art piece, but hey, it’s someplace on the internet besides my Flickr page 🙂

The Renwick Fully Revealed: Hot Chicks in the Sticks

See the “Update” section below the article.

Curbed finally printed my letter. Its the middle article.

HUDSON SQUARE—While our neighborhood name poll rages a wee bit south, a Hudson Squarite wants to reclaim the retired LWS tag: “We live near Greenwich and Spring Streets, in the area west of Soho, south of the West Village, and north of TriBeCa, which you guys are calling ‘Hudson Square.’ The problem with that name is that it seems totally artificial. Nobody knows where it is, and why name an entire neighborhood after a tiny little park that no one visits? Other suggestions have been: West Soho and West of Varick (WeVar). My suggestion — which, because it seems obvious in hindsight, has to stick — is “Lower West Side.” isn’t the symmetry with UWS, UES, and LES beautiful? And geographically and descriptively, it fits perfectly.” We’re church-going boys, so if Trinity tell us it’s Hudson Square, it’s Hudson Square. [CurbedWire Inbox]

Some of the responses on the Curbed blog are delish! Nobody seems to like Hudson Square.

Question is, who the hell is this Trinity person?

Curbed: CurbedWire: Blaichman Targets West Village, Lower West Side Plea, I Hate Glass

Iraq and other foreign military adventures often seem so far removed, so when I got this most recent email from my friend and colleague Quan about what he has been doing for the past 6 years, it brought things home for me. I may not agree with the policies of the administration, but I thank Quan and his buddies that there are men and women of courage who are manning the battlestations. Here is his letter in its entirety.

After 9/11 I volunteered myself back on active duty with the Marine Corps. As some of you may have heard, I was part of the invasion force in Iraq March 2003. I was eventually released from active duty and returned back to the U.S.

At the beginning of 2004, I was recruited by the State Department to go back into the the Middle East. I worked for the office of DSS (Diplomatic Security Service)/HTOP (High Threat Operations); I guess the HTOP says it all.

Prior to 9/11, I was enjoying life & running my own boutique headhunting business. During the past several years, I always knew that I would return to that business. Even though the 007 lifestyle fulfilled the machismo aspect of my life, I missed the business competitiveness that exists in the headhunting.

Turning the page…

For the past six months I have been helping my friend run his headhunting business in South America. We have offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. If anyone is going to be in the area please look me up. Managing 120+ people is interesting; very much like babysitting.

Wish me luck!

I leave you with these final thought.

Regardless of your politics, please remember that there are still many of our fellow Americans in harm’s way. A lot of people say that they “support the troops.” I hope that it isn’t just election time rhetoric.

The next time you’re at the airport and see an 18 year old service member in uniform, approach him/her and say the following words that will change his/her life… “Thanks.”
For us, who have worn the uniform, those words are better than any medal/awards that politicians could ever come up with… especially coming from our fellow Americans.

BTW, you don’t have to thank me… I have volunteered for everything that I’ve been part of.

Quan M. Nguyen

“For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill is a luxury like Mah-Jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary period, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which is likely to be the more ominous for the Axis — an American decision that this is sport, or that it is business.”
-D. W. Brogan, The American Character

Elizabeth’s sister Laura Crosta is a professional photographer (and director, and graphic artist, and photojournalist).

Her edgy, hyperrealistic images have appeared in Rolling Stone, on album covers, and in major advertising campaigns.

But she also does many personal projects, including the one she describes below. You can see this masterpiece about my underwear by visiting her site, and navigating to “Projects” > “Bob’s Underwear”.

While reading a computer manual today, I came across the following:

When comparing objects, six different predicates can be useful: smaller, smaller or equal, equal, not equal, greater or equal, and greater. However, defining all of them is fastidious, especially since four out of these six can be expressed using the remaining two.

I have never seen fastidious used in the way, and I don’t think it’s right.

Answers.com defines fastidious as:

fas·tid·i·ous (fă-stĭd’ē-əs, fə-) adj.
1. Possessing or displaying careful, meticulous attention to detail.
2. Difficult to please; exacting.
3. Excessively scrupulous or sensitive, especially in matters of taste or propriety. See synonyms at meticulous.

A person can be fastidious, but I don’t think it can be used as an adjective for defining.