While browsing Facebook the other day I stumbled across an old friend’s profile.  Bryan Poole and I met during high school and we hit it off right away.  Among other things, we started, what we called, a band together named Stumble. 

Bryan and I lost contact with each other about 10 years ago.  Last we saw each other, I visited him with my wife, then girlfriend, in Athens.  He had been playing bass for a band called Elfpower.  He was also delivering pizza as his day job.

Now I find Bryan has been making a living playing in a band.  He currently plays with Of Montreal, but between Elfpower and Of Montreal, he released a solo album:

Amok by The Late BP Helium

So I ordered the CD from Amazon and it arrived today.  While it was ripping, I thumbed through the inserts.  What did I find, but a thank you section that thanks me…

“joe decarlo(stumble)”

I was totally floored as I didn’t have any idea it was in there.

Thanks Bryan.

And there you have it.

I finally upgraded my WordPress today. This allowed me to be able easily blog from my iPhone (which is what I am doing right now). So many times I have wanted to blog something and wished I had something like this to do it.

Well…no more excuses.

And there you have it.

Joe.

If you don’t know what those two things stand for, you may be bored by this, but Kirk Evans, an Architect Evangelist from Microsoft, and friend, cornered me at the recent Microsoft Launch event in Atlanta for a quick interview.  It is available on Microsoft’s Channel 9 site.  Click here to view it.

And there you have it.

Joe.

I discovered a type of music that I have heard many times, but was not able to assign a genre.  Gypsy Jazz, a French born style of music, typically features acoustic string instruments such as guitar, upright bass, and violin.  One telling aspect of the style of music is the rhythm guitar which is played as close to a percussive instrument as you can get with out actually hitting the guitar with your hand like a drum.  For a look at the styles of guitars that Gypsy Jazz musicians typically play look here.

Django Reinhardt is credited with creating the music style France in the 1930′s and it is now popular world wide.  Unlike other genres, Gypsy Jazz musicians typically do not read or write music.  Songs are passed down orally or by recordings.  This makes learning to play Gypsy Jazz very challenging.

I was fortunate enough to catch an Orlando based Gypsy Jazz group, The Cook Trio, last night while staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando on business.  The three musician’s (Brothers Jason and Ian Cook, and friend Kyle Jones) have over sixty years of combined musical background despite being in their early thirties.  I fell in love with the bright, yet elegant style and inquired about it.  I got a brief history lesson on Gypsy Jazz and was practically forced by Ian to look up Moreno, a French raised Roma, who further popularized Reinhardt’s music.  He said I would be so impressed that I would either be majestically inspired or quit playing guitar all together.  I have to go with the former.

I can’t wait to start learning to play this unique, rare form of music.

And there you have it.

Joe.

since I learned I have arthritis in my knees and would, therefore, be unable to run to keep in shape, I took up swimming.  Every weekday morning, before working out I swim laps in the gym’s pool.  It is great exercise and I enjoy it thoroughly.  One of the things I miss about running, however, is the ability to listen to audiobooks while I run. 

A coworker, David, and I were having a conversation about this when I suggested that someone should make an underwater case for iPods.  Weeks later, David came across an advertisement for that very thing and forwarded it on to me.

I jumped on the chance to purchase this product from H20 Audio.  I purchased the case and headset to fit the Generation 3 iPod Nano.

  The case fits very well and is the best part of this two piece configuration.  It is easy operate.  The controls fit directly over the Nano’s and work flawlessly.  It water tight seal does not make opening and closing the case overly difficult.

The headset, which is a separate purchase for, I suspect, several reasons.  One is that they have several different cases, but only one model of headset.  The other, and I think the actual reason, is that the though the case needs little improvement, the headset could stand a few.  One the headset isn’t comfortable.  The plastic that holds the ear buds presses too much on the side of the head.  It isn’t so uncomfortable as to deter usage, but could be improved.  That is the easy improvement.  The difficult improvement is the design.  I thought the most challenging aspect of the product is to get the sound to your ear when submerged, until I used it.  That’s when I realized the biggest obstacle the designers face is not submerged audio, but the frequent shifting between submerged and non-submerged audio.  Water tends to fill your ears when underwater (go figure).  The audio quality of these ear buds is great underwater and satisfactory when out, but they do not deal with the transition well.  Maybe they could figure out a way to keep the water from getting in the ear.  Or better yet, since they sound better when submerged, maybe they could figure out how to hold the water in your ear.  Either way would be an improvement.

All in all, I really like the product an don’t regret the purchase, though it is very pricey.  It is completely suitable to listen to music while swimming laps, though the constant shifting in audio quality (under vs. out of water) makes listening to an audiobook too challenging.  With that said, if you are just hanging out in the pool and not trying to swim laps with this thing, run out and get one right now… don’t even finish this blog post!

And there you have it.

Joe.