...nwood...

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About a month ago my co-worker Brett Larsen dropped a CD of his original tunes on my desk and told me I should come by his apartment and lay down some saxophone parts. Initially I was intimidated. I'd never done any real recording. But having twisted Brett's arm to do a couple of gigs with my soul jazz project a while back I decided it was my turn to leave my comfort zone.

Last Thursday I presented at the Berkeley Drupal Users Group (BDUG). I talked about strategies for upgrading modules on multisite installations. I also demonstrated deploying sites using Aegir.

My slides are attached.

Cross-posted on TelemarkTips

The first hints of trouble came with a call from Mom:

"Oh Brian, are you sure you should be going to the mountains? Weren't you just sick??? How high is it? How far to the hut? Do you know how much more treacherous 80 is these days???"

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How to claim your delicious frosty prize:

1. You have to come to my gig! (The hardest part!)
2. Tell me the name of this tune recorded at our rehearsal this past weekend.

I realize that I made this needlessly difficult. If you want a hint the two bars of melody at the very end of the track could be matched to one of the first tunes here.

Brian Wood and Friends
When: Tuesday March 3, 2009 7-9pm
Where: Cafe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo, Berkeley, CA
Map: http://tinyurl.com/29c47b

Eileen Spillane and Ajahn Amaro Photo by Ed Ritger

DharmaWheels.org sums up the Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage in this way: "2 Days...137 miles of cycling...60,000 breaths." This is much more appropriate, and poetic than the tag line that occurred to me during the ride, which had something to do with mindfulness of one of the more southern extremes of the body.

Last night I finally got around to ripping, editing and transcoding video of a performance a few weeks ago at Jazz Camp West. Jazz Camp West is "band camp" for adults. It's a gas.

This video is available in a slightly bigger window on blip.tv.

This was my third visit in four years (I went to Stanford Jazz Residency last year). Each day before dinner people have the opportunity to perform. If your name gets drawn for an Open Mic performance

8:15 p.m. on a Thursday evening at the height of a May heatwave. Despite its heavy load Esther's Mini Cooper cuts and jukes through downtown San Francisco traffic like Baron Davis driving to the hoop. I fish out a crusty camelback hose from the mountain of gear occupying the rear 3/4ths of the vehicle - musty sleeping bags, stained parkas, world weary T2 telemark boots, an ample cooler of beer and a smelly bear can. Peering through the sun roof I verify the security of Esther's brand new Voile Mojo splitboard and my battle-scarred K2 World Pistes. Despite the advanced hour of our departure and the miles of mountainous road unfolding before us we gaze out into the east-bound 580 dusk and entertain carefree dreams of perfect turns carved on the spring flanks of Mount Dana, False White and other Eastern Sierra gems.

(Originally posted on TelemarkTips.com)

This past weekend sure was a sleeper. As the Thursday weather reports predicted rain up to 8,000' followed by wet snow, my inbox started filling up with messages titled "Bail!" and "Have you seen the weather???" from my Bradley Hut companions to be. I alt+tabbed back to MS Query Analyzer and wondered if I should just come into work instead of taking my planned Friday off. It looked like it would be that, or another solitary day in the apartment mining belly button lint.

(Originally posted on TelemarkTips.com)

Caption: First flight leaves Kaslo for Carlyle Lodge

Longish introduction which may seem to have little to do with subject at hand:

I've realized that there are a number of obstacles hindering my fledgling
movement to introduce Backcountry Touring as an Olympic event. For
starters, many Olympic host cities will not be able to provide the

Only you can't really tell it's me and my friends. To help you I've edited in the names:

Backcountry Magazine February/March 2008 Issue page 41
(Enlarge this)