The hippest beer ever

At the jazz institute I work for, we got a call in early 2005 from the North Coast Brewing Company in California. They explained that they wanted to create a new Belgian style ale. In discussing what to call it, the conversation at the brewing company apparently went in the direction of Belgian monks. Their Vice President is a huge jazz fan and soon made the connection between Belgium's monks and jazz's Monk - Thelonious Monk. So they called our institute, wanting to team up. The result is Brother Thelonious, a new beer that will be launched this coming Thursday! For every case of Brother Thelonious sold, North Coast Brewing Company will make a donation to our institute. How hip is that?!

So I'm flying out to Los Angeles later this week to help with the launch event. There will be celebrities, VIPs, and great jazz. I'm very excited - can't wait to taste what a Brother Thelonious ale tastes like! You can see the beautiful label and read more about the beer by visiting http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/brother.htm.

In other news, I judged Solo & Ensemble festival this past Saturday. I listened to middle and high school students play the flute from 8:30am to 5:30pm. Whew! As I mentioned to some family members, the bell curve is very apparent in these types of situations: the majority are average players, a few are completely unprepared, and a few are absolutely exceptional. You live for those 3 or 4 (out of, what, 50?) that walk in completely prepared, rehearsed, and ready to knock your socks off. Every player receives written comments from the judge on a variety of areas, and then an overall rating. The difficulty for me is that the festival organizers encourage the judges to use only a portion of the ratings available. In theory, you are to use ratings of I through V, with I the highest and V the lowest. In reality, however, you're really only supposed to use a I or a II. You can use a III for those that are completely unprepared, but then you have to prepare yourself for insane parents that will publicly confront you (I've seen this on two occasions!) and question your education, background, and authority. Ugh. So a little more than half get I's while the rest get II's. This means that those that knock your socks off get a I alongside those that tried hard but didn't quite succeed. Is this the music education equivalent of inflated grades?

Joel and I enjoyed a beautiful day yesterday in Greenbrier State Park in Maryland, north of Frederick. He spent 3 1/2 hours mountain biking while I ran errands. It was an absolutely perfect day: sunny, in the 70s, light breeze, striking blue sky. I tried to appreciate each minute of it!

Last Thursday I went to French Wine Thursday with friends. This is a fun series put on by a division of the French Embassy. They have weekly events at different restaurants around DC, where the host restaurant's chef prepares 5 or 6 different hors d'oeurves to pair with 5 or 6 different French wines. They also give you a brief lecture about the region from which the wine developed and why each wine goes well with each sample. The first event I went to featured champagne at a sushi restaurant in Adams Morgan. Then we did a red wine (I forget which one) at an American bistro near 14th and U Streets. This time it was at Butterfield 9, a very expensive "modern American" restaurant downtown. I tried several things for the first time: quail eggs, fried goat cheese, and ostrich meat. The quail egg gave me the willies, but everything else was excellent. The pairing of wines with the appropriate food is so creative and such a distinct talent! Can't wait for the next one.

CHEERS!