I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: EDDIE PALMIERI-Tiny Desk Concert #559 (August 19, 2016).

Eddie Palmieri is a jazz legend although I’m not exactly sure if I’ve heard of him or not (his name sounds familiar, but..).

But the blurb fills me in:

Eddie Palmieri is that once-in-a-lifetime musician, bandleader, composer and arranger. An icon for both modern and Latin jazz, he continues to break tradition and innovate within many musical styles, including salsa, fusion, Latin funk and more.

He is, indeed, a magnificent player.  A few minutes into “Iraida” you can hear him start to growl (I actually thought it was a buzzing on the piano at first).  I love watching him slide his fingers slow up the keys at the end of he song and then play a deep low note to end it.

He has an amusing introduction to “The Persian Scale.”  This next composition is called The Persian Scale and it’s quite an interesting composition….  It has a cool, interesting riff with staccato and counterpoint.  And he lays fast and loud (with grunts), although it does slow down.  Eventually, for such a wild opening. the song mellows out by the end with some very pretty, delicate trills.

“La Libertad” is uptempo and he says “if you want to dance, do it.”  He plays a brief intro and then when the melody kicks in on the low notes, it’s pretty great.  In the middle, he starts playing a very typical Latin American melody on the bass notes (is that a mambo?) and when an audience member starts clapping along (a rather complex pattern), he smiles and say very good.

This is a fun piano concert with lots of variety and different styles and he handles them all with much skill.

[READ: June 11, 2016] Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute

I learned about Lunch Lady from the Comics Squad books which Krosoczka and the Holms’ edited.

Since I enjoyed the Lunch Lady mini comic, I decided it was time to read the real thing–Tabby also loved them (she’s a big fan of Babymouse as well).

Despite the fact that the title of the book kind of gives away the plot of the story, I suspect that the plot wasn’t really the main point. Rather, it was all meant to be good fun that Lunch Lady turns out to be a crime fighter complete with her own assistant who comes up with awesome gadgets.

As the book opens, with see Lunch Lady chasing down bad guys on her scooter and pressing the Sloppy Joe button which sends out a brown goop on which they slide all over the place.  But that’s just a precursor to the real story.

The Breakfast Bunch are at school eating breakfast, they are Hector Dee and Terrence and Lunch Lady greets them warmly when she comes in.  But bully Milmoe comes and harasses Hector for his lunch money.  Dee jumps in ready to fight for Hector but they are interrupted by a teacher–a substitute teacher who no one has seen before.

His name is Pasteur and he is substituting for Mr O’Connell the math teacher.

Lunch Lady is suspicious, because in 20 years of teaching, Mr O’Connell has never missed a day.  So Lunch Lady and her assistant, Betty head to the boiler room to check up on the teachers.  I love that they have monitors in all the classrooms and can watch what everyone is doing (there’s some very funny jokes in there, too).

Back in the classroom, Mr Pasteur is giving the kids a lot of homework which he say Mr O’Connell left them. The kids are grumbling… O’Connell has always been the kids’ favorite teacher–he has won teacher of the year every year.  But now he seems like kind of a jerk for leaving all that work.

Lunch Lady and Betty can tell something is wrong. But at the same time The Breakfast Bunch start to wonder what Lunch Lady does during her off hours.  They must know!  So when Lunch Lady is following Mr Pasteur after work, they decide to follow Lunch Lady.

And what surprises are in store for all of them!  I did rather enjoy the impetus for the trouble–who knew teachers took such things so seriously.

There are ten books in this series and it is fairly important to read them in order because each story builds off the previous one.  They’re not complex enough that you won’t figure out what’s happening, but for continuity sake, start with this one.