ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter


  • “One thing I like about jazz, kid, is that I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” — Bix Beiderbecke Read more

  • Midsummer

    Midsummer has arrived, and I have written little about baseball yet this season. But even more, I have written little of anything at all, period. This writing dry spell is the longest of my adult life. For those counting, that is 45 years of “adulthood.” But I am beginning to see a light at the… Read more

  • “You can never say you don’t like a kind of music. Best you can say is that you don’t like it yet.”  – John Mayer Read more

  • “A chord is not a chord until the bass player decides which note to play.”  ~Bill Evans Read more

  • Already mid-June and I find that I have only managed to get to one baseball game in person so far this year. That was this past Sunday at Target Field when the Twins beat the Cardinals 5-4. Normally by this time of year, I would already have been to a number of games—Major League, Minor… Read more

  • “Don’t play what’s there; play what’s not there.” – Miles Davis Read more

  • Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on October 26, 2013. … there is no more consistently perfect body of recorded work in jazz than that produced by Lester Young between 1936 and 1941 – with Count Basie’s orchestra, with Billie Holiday and with… Read more

  • “I would like to be a scholar in whatever I do, a scholar is never finished, he is always seeking and I am always seeking.” ~ Ahmad Jamal Read more

  • Rhythm & Time

    Last week I wrote about how three of my favorite things (Baseball, Fly Fishing, and Jazz) are Arts of Failure. This week now I have been thinking about other ways they are connected. The most obvious connection is that all three have a peculiar relationship with Rhythm and Time. Baseball Ultimately, baseball has no time… Read more

  • “When you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that makes it good or bad..” ~ Miles Davis Read more