Today was another meeting of the beer & sausage crew in the lower Haight. It usually happens on Thursday or Friday when the mysterious Secretary of Sausages sends out an email. Who shows up? Artistic types. Today we had two novelists, one composer, four conductors(!), a writer of instructional manuals, and a brief appearance by a translator of Persian Poetry. What do we do? Hang out all afternoon, drink beer, and eat sausages. There’s also some artistic chat. Back and forth about music, movies, books, etc. It’s fun to learn from the authors how novels are written, edited, published.

After that — some of us head over to Amoeba Music (one of the last great record stores), and pick up some music. It’s there that my ears get opened to some new stuff. Here’s what I picked up today.

Stuff I’ve been meaning to get …
Bjork - Vespertine (never actually heard it!)
David Bowie - “Heroes” (I love the Bowie/Eno Berlin Trilogy)
Prince - Dirty Mind (Prince is a genius)
HIF Biber - Batallia and Requiem w/Jordi Savall (Biber is a mad 17th Century composer)

And stuff my friends suggested …
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
Matmos - The Civil War
John Zorn - Masada Live in Sevilla 2000

Back in San Francisco, on one of those crisp, clear, California winter days. Headed down the coast in a few days to celebrate the Holidays with my family in Santa Monica. I always look forward to the drive. I’ll take the longer, but more scenic, route 101 through Monterey and San Luis Obispo (maybe Gilles Apap will be home), stop for coffee with some friends in Santa Barbara (after a stop in the Santa Ynez wine country), cut through the strawberry fields in Oxnard, and drive down the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu to Santa Monica. Yes, the drive is as nice as it sounds, it’s a part of me and always fuels my dreams and my music making. I wonder what will be on the car radio? Two new composers I’m getting to know, perhaps: Avner Dorman and Nico Muhly. And some very sharp high school students in Kitchener Waterloo recently reminded me how much I like Sigur Ros (and if you like them, have you checked out Mum?). Also, an incredible mix CD from Clovis Lark, the plugged-in librarian of the Utah Symphony, featuring Kraftwerk’s “TransEurope Express” (thanks Clovis). And somewhere around Rincon or County Line the obligatory (and much anticipated ) Beach Boys Moment. Have you ever noticed that if you take the “e” out of “beach” you get Bach?