bill berry

We interrupt this DryJanuary to have a glass of champagne! MaybeTwo? BackAtItTomorrow!

Gotta love Workboard’s Velocity Guru! Based on experience, there will be suffering. You just have to get over it by facing the challenge. Or you can give in to the suffering.

“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”

Photo from 8/19/2017.

Here’s a six-years-ago-today post I shared on Facebook.

I’m a Niner fan living in Seahawks country. And actually, I started out as a Jet fan. I root for the Seahawks to beat everyone except those two teams. And for the last few years, I’ve been rooting for the Hawks to play (and lose to) the Niners in the NFC championship game. Well, not this year, to be sure.

I’ve been thinking of the NFC Championship as the real Superbowl and saw a sign to that effect in Century Link today.

This is the first place I’ve lived where there’s only one NFL team, and it’s really cool to see how everyone, well, almost EVERYONE here, is behind this one team. The 12th Man is no joke!!

Today’s game was simply amazing. With the Niners, I’m already in wait til next year territory. And it was looking like my Seahawk-loving friends might join me. But what an unfrakkinbelievable ending to that game. I can’t think of a game that comes close, not even Superbowl III!

One reason I like this team so much is Pete Carroll’s leadership. His use of team psychology to get the players playing not for themselves but the team. I think those ideas have great relevance at work, but most of the time, they’re just ideas. So it’s really cool to see true team success, in NFL football. Seahawks football!

So that’s it. GoHawks!

Notes: I love the insight about teams, both on the field and at work. Of course, the Seahawks went on to lose the Super Bowl to the dreaded New England Patriots. Moral of the story? Build a great team and run the damn ball! (aka, “execute like crazy”)!

Good Morning!

Republicans overwhelmingly believe the election was stolen.

We had a couple of visitors yesterday. I was returning from getting the mail, headphones on, listening to music, and shocked when I noticed them. They stayed put while I took this photo and watched me all the way into the garage. They acted like I was the interloper!

Update: As it turns out, I was/am the interloper!!!

#jazzchurch 38 – Sunday, January 17, 2021 – featured music by Kenny Garrett, Kenny Kirkland, Living Colour, Elvin Jones, Black/Note, Meklit Hadero, and Madeleine Peyroux, among others shown below:

1. Syzygy (Michael Brecker)
2. Pushing the World Away (Kenny Garrett)
3. Nubian Breakdown (Bobby Watson)
4. Necessary Evil (Elvin Jones)
5. Homegrown (Rymden – Wesseltoft, Berglund, and Öström)
6. Beatrice (Elvin Jones Jazz Machine)
7. Haynes Here (Kenny Garrett)
8. You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To (Lee Konitz & Red Mitchell)
9. Spleen (Richard Galliano)
10. Look to the Sky (Take 1) (John McNeil & Tom Harrell)
11. El Rey (Kenny Kirkland)
12. Steepian Faith (Kenny Kirkland)
13. Mixolydia (Hugh Masekela)
14. Think Twice (Donald Byrd)
15. Wade: Hurricane Suite: Storm Warning (Dr. John)
16. Be.YOU.tiful (John Beasley MONK’estra Plays John Beasley)
17. Walk Up (Meklit Hadero)
18. Dance Me To the End of Love (Madeleine Peyroux)
19. What’s Your Favorite Color? (Living Colour)
20. No Introduction (Black/Note)
21. Doc Tone’s Short Speech (Kenny Garrett)
22. Cult of Personality (Living Colour)
23. Waynes’s Thang (Kenny Garrett)

Livestream Replay

Give us some feedback on #jazzchurch.

Next week’s #jazzchurch livestream can be found at postbop.com/jazzchurch Streaming live from 1-3ish PM PDT. All past episodes are available here as well.

Where else can I find #JazzChurch?

• Postbop.com: Livestream plus audio archives and information for all past shows
• Twitch Livestream: 1-3pm-ish PST on Sundays plus audio/video of recent shows
• Soundcloud: Listen to past shows and subscribe to receive notifications and listen to future shows

It’s 2:30 AM on May 26, 2020. I can’t sleep. Despite having been in bed for less than four hours, I’m wide awake—mind racing. I get up and grab my journal. Maybe capturing my thoughts will help me get back to sleep. Ten pages later I’m worried about Marshall Law and Civil War…

So now I’m afraid and see it so clearly
Donald creates distraction
The governors keep things shut down
so DJT foments the crowds
Demonstrations
Break all the f-ing rules
& now governors have no choice
more chaos

So, where does it end?
With DJT, it doesn’t end.

I see threats and intimidation coming from his base as we move forward

The masked vs. the unmasked
Worse inequality as essential workers stay black, brown, and poor
Anti-democratic (small “d”)
Roving bands discourage “voter fraud “to help DJT win
Insurrection/chaos so DJT can impose martial law

The courts can’t save us
The Republican judges won’t save us
The Repubs stay silently complicit

It’ll be more chaos, a lot more.

Donald wins reelection, and it continues
Donald loses reelection, challenges it
He’s out and he challenges

His base, his movement continues to support him, making him the biggest celebrity apprentice of all time

To what end?

Destroy his “enemies“ Make it impossible for Biden to govern

Civil War
Military coup
Race riots

My God, where does it end?

It ends when the 65 percent say no to the 35 percent, i.e.
Trump base
Birthers
White supremacists
Anti-vaxers (I didn’t know anything about QAnon at that point)

Plus, COVID-19 ain’t going away - Science is overwhelmed - The rich get richer - Middle-class shrinks

Unemployment stays staggeringly high - Economy in deep recession (42% of lost jobs not coming back)

So DJ T needs all the distraction he can get _ AND that’s his modus operandi anyway!

DJT needs enemies

Black people
Obama
Hillary
James
Byron
Media
Evil people
Liberals
Governors
There’s always a new one

Paranoid? –> Maybe!
Flights of fancy? Not implausible

This threat is existential! - To COVID-19 victims - Medical profession (we get DJ T doctors versus deep state doctors) - Yamiche and the tribe of reporters - Twitter enemies - Brown people at the border

Totalitarianism – not just run amok!
*Run over our f-ing heads!

And I was just gonna play my bass!

Think of birtherism as a form of cursing
“I don’t have to really believe Obama was born in Kenya”

Just saying it is incendiary, bomb-throwing
shouting “fire” in a crowded theater

• And it distracts –> us
• and gathers allies
• “dog-whistle” out loud for all to hear

Meanwhile, Chuck Todd and the media stay safely in the middle

If it’s war
Just Voting (& counting on institutions we don’t trust)
is unilateral dis/un/armament

Q. How will the Civil War happen?
I’m not the first person to think like this!

RevisitingLostRoadsigns…

I hadn’t heard of QAnon at the time. I also didn’t know about the murder of George Floyd the previous night.

I’ve got nothing…

One year ago today (1/16/2020), my first mask photo ever! It was a harbinger that 2020 would be the worst from a health perspective! A cold that wouldn’t go away, then shingles, then avoiding novel coronavirus all. year. long. And I clearly didn’t have the worst of it. Mostly needed, and continue to need #patience.

WearAMask
GetYourShinglesShots
IdeasFor2021

The “What is Jazz” debate is over, peoples. Jazz ain’t nothing but soul! It’s also the music of my people. And, the music we listen to at #JazzChurch!

Jazz is whatever you need it to be.

A year ago, at the beginning of 2020, this would-be musician finally started playing music with other people for the first time since moving to Tacoma eight years earlier. It felt joyous!

Then along came COVID-19! Work migrated home for many of us, restaurants and clubs shut down, and musicians’ venues disappeared for understandable reasons. We had to stop playing together before we could do our live performances.

In September, an email arrived from the inventive folks at Jazz Night School asking if we’d like to try remote rehearsing and recording via Jamulus. Lot’s of questions! “What the heck is Jamulus? What equipment would I need? What will it sound like?”

We arranged a quick test of the software and my setup. Erik could hear my bass over Jamulus. He played piano, and I could hear him just fine. I started playing along, and we could hear each other. The moment I started playing together with Erik, live, over the internet while merely testing equipment was emotional. There was a spark of hope!

Jared Hall’s combo started meeting, working on tunes, learning more (about music and technology). Here’s some documentary evidence of how we progressed! Not perfect, but it’s something precisely because we’re still working on it!!!

Here are three songs our combo recorded, featuring Kevin Doren (p), Geoff Fitch (g), Matt Shevrin (french horn), Paul Blaney (d), and yours truly, Bill Berry (b).

Jackie in the Rain

Very Early

49th Parallel

I consider myself fortunate to have made music with these gents, remotely, during the pandemic! The experience was better than I had imagined, and the sound quality’s not bad. And we’ve just started working on some new tunes!

I just celebrated my 9th anniversary of joining TPU as Tacoma Power’s Rates, Planning, and Analysis Manager. The truth is, I didn’t respond when first contacted by the recruiter because the job didn’t seem all that interesting. Boring even. Fortunately, they called me back two weeks later and told me, “there’s more to this job than what’s on the paper.”

When I returned home from my day of interviews, I thought my answers to a few questions meant I wouldn’t get the job. When I hadn’t heard anything for almost three weeks, I was sure of it! Then the phone rang, things worked out, and I found myself scrambling to move from the Bay Area to Tacoma.

The recruiter’s statement turned out to be true. There has been way more to the role than the job description. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here. The ups have been amazing, of course. They always are. The downs, however, especially overcoming them, have taught me so many lessons.

What about the stuff that wasn’t on the paper? As it turns out, I’ve been fortunate to define this role and add a lot that I couldn’t have even imagined at the time.

All of this means I’m incredibly happy, fortunate to work with great people, and have had the opportunity, to learn, grow, and even thrive.

Still #workingonit!!!

Almost a Full Lid…

#jazzchurch 37 – Sunday, January 10, 2021 – featured music by Jaco Pastorius, Sam Cooke, The Impressions, Harrell, A Taste of Honey, Donald Harrison, and Johnny Cash, among others shown below:

1. Invitation (Jaco Pastorius)
2. Escondido (The Bennie Maupin Quartet)
3. Infinity (Wayne Wallace)
4. Rashied (Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane & Matt Garrison)
5. Hurt (Johnny Cash)
6. Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (Sam Cooke)
7. A Change Is Gonna Come (Elvin Jones)
8. It’s All Right (The Impressions)
9. Forever on My Mind (Rufus Reid Quintet)
10. Waltz for Monk (Mulgrew Miller)
11. Mojo Highway (Aske Jacoby)
12. Chasin’ The Bird (Tom Harrell)
13. paradise found (Donald Harrison)
14. Black Villain Music (Ben Williams)
15. Simone (Richard Davis)
16. Design (Tom Harrell)
17. Crazy She Calls Me (Gary Bartz)
18. Funkination (Duende Libre)
19. Boogie Oogie Oogie (A Taste of Honey)
20. Little Wing (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
21. Tryin’ Times (Roberta Flack)

Livestream Replay

Give us some feedback on #jazzchurch.

Next week’s #jazzchurch livestream can be found at postbop.com/jazzchurch Streaming live from 1-3ish PM PDT. All past episodes are available here as well.

Where else can I find #JazzChurch?

• Postbop.com: Livestream plus audio archives and information for all past shows
• Twitch Livestream: 1-3pm-ish PST on Sundays plus audio/video of recent shows
• Soundcloud: Listen to past shows and subscribe to receive notifications and listen to future shows

This morning I told my team that I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night. It turns out that I wasn’t nearly alone. We all suffered some trauma yesterday.

So I canceled our three-hour quarterly OKR planning session this morning. We’ll meet briefly to check-in with each other and will do OKRs next week. If I hadn’t shared my thoughts, they might never have said anything, but that’s what our team needed.

Here’s my advice to you: check-in with your team, share your feelings, find out how they’re doing, and then adjust your plans accordingly. Please do it now!

1/4/2012: On our first exploration of the Greater Tacoma housing market, we encountered this apparently-haunted house, still under construction. Well, you gotta start somewhere, right?

Moral of the story: ThingsWorkedOut!

#jazzchurch 36 – Sunday, January 3, 2021 – featured music by Bokani Dyer, Frank Kimbrough, Dave Holland, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Danilo Perez, John Coltrane, and Sunna Gunnlaugs, among others shown below:

1. Fanfare (Bokani Dyer)
2. Tones for Elvin Jones (ELEW with Jeff “Tain” Watts & Reginald Veal)
3. Triple Dance (Dave Holland Big Band)
4. Lost (Wayne Shorter)
5. Oblique (Bobby Hutcherson)
6. You Only Live Twice (Frank Kimbrough)
7. Elvin People (The Sheryl Bailey 3)
8. Don’t Even Ask (Vanguard Jazz Orchestra)
9. Panamá Libre (Danilo Perez)
10. Eighty-One (Jerry Gonzalez)
11. Anthropology (Pierre de Bethmann Trio)
12. Tales (Bokani Dyer)
13. Northern Brewer (Eyolf Dale)
14. Body and Soul (John Coltrane)
15. Unflurgenized Colorations (Robert Hurst)
16. La Comparsa (Ignacio Berroa)
17. Things You Should Know (Sunna Gunnlaugs)
18. Jazz Ain’t Nothing But Soul (Caroline Henderson)
19. Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ but Soul (Travelogue)
20. Stomp! (Cast of Stomp & Various Artists)
21. Short Story (Joe Henderson)
22. Soul Makossa (Manu Dibango)

Livestream Replay

Give us some feedback on #jazzchurch.

Next week’s #jazzchurch livestream can be found at postbop.com/jazzchurch Streaming live from 1-3ish PM PDT. All past episodes are available here as well.

Where else can I find #JazzChurch?

• Postbop.com: Livestream plus audio archives and information for all past shows
• Twitch Livestream: 1-3pm-ish PST on Sundays plus audio/video of recent shows
• Soundcloud: Listen to past shows and subscribe to receive notifications and listen to future shows

I just keep the TV turned off!

Mount Rainier Sunrise Before the Shadow Appeared