I have just completed organizing my flickr set of my favorites from my own photos of 2008. Below is a random assortment; click on the link to see them all, or check out my photostream.

I decided to take the flickr plunge because I realize that I’d much rather just post a bunch of photos to show what’s going on than to try to write about it all. You may have noticed that this blog has been woefully underloved recently.

www.flickr.com scottbale’s My Favorites 2008 photoset

I want to put a quick plug in for the Banana Bows Hair Accessories online store which my friends Micah and Elizabeth created. Elizabeth, who is a nanny, makes all of the bows by hand. She has made many bows for Corinne, including the one in the pictures here:

Whew! I’ve been pouring through old photos, and I barely got this post in before midnight.

Today is the 17th anniversary of my buddy Nick’s 18th birthday. In honor of this momentous occasion, Nick, I have scanned in some of my favorite pictures of you from over the years, including one from your 18th birthday party in Bill’s parents’ basement, and a couple pix that I bet you have never seen before:

Kinda amazing…it must’ve been just prior to your 17th birthday that we became friends, over half your life ago now!

Happy birthday, Mixmaster!

I want to put a plug in for my friend’s jazz big band The Tommy Money Orche$tra. They are a 17 piece jazz big band in the 1940’s style. Check their website out for pix, audio and video.

The next show is on Saturday night, March 10 at Cookies Jazz & More in Webster Groves, from 8:30 until midnight.

I saw their first ever show, their holiday show, in December. They really swung! I’m very excited to see them again and hopefully begin to see them gain some local traction. And those of you who are aware of my waning interest in live music know I don’t say that lightly.

Tom Money (yes that’s his real name) is a trumpet player and founder of this big band. He is currently a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Scott Air Force base, where he is a member of the USAF Band of Mid America. A lot of the other members of the TMO are also in this Air Force band – if you follow the above link you can read some information about each of them.

One particularly exciting thing for me personally about this big band is that my former drum teacher Kevin Gianino is the drummer. I’m sure I don’t have to remind my regular readers (both of you) what high regards I hold Kevin in, but I will mention that Tom is equally blown away by Kevin both musically and as a person.

Tom and I know each other from church. We are friends and so are our wives and kids (he has three young boys, the oldest is in kindergarten). Tom and I have had some long talks over the years about jazz and about being a musician. As I’ve explained to him, I am always impressed by anyone who makes their living as a musician, and Tom is no exception. Over the years I’ve dabbled in music enough to know that there’s a world of difference between such dabbling and making the commitment to be a pro. In fact, taking drum lessons from Kevin in ‘01 and ‘02 is what finally drove that home for me – I realized I could only take the craft of playing an instrument so far in my spare time, and after awhile realized it was not nearly far enough to satisfy even my own minimal standards. I am now happily resigned to being a fan of music, not a musician.

If any of you guys, my friends and regular readers, are interested in seeing the show let me know and we can arrange a group outing. Live jazz on a Saturday night in March, shouldn’t be disappointing. Think of it as a way to whet your appetite for SxSW.

…is the best word I can think of to describe Mike Grasso’s long hair in college, as seen in this picture he recently scanned and sent me.

Mike is getting married in only nine short days! On Sunday May 28th, in Portland, OR. His fiancee’s name is Anna, they have a website for their wedding here. Go vandalize the guestbook.

This was taken on Sunday, April 30th 2006 at the Cards/Nationals game, which Chris got us all tickets to. Alex was supposed to be there but part of a tree fell on his house. A kind frat boy took this picture.

St. Louis won 9-2, Suppan got the win, future Hall-of-Famer Encarnacion homered, Edmunds drove in three, Pujols was walked four times, and Bill ate nachos.

Before the game we all (including Alex) had lunch at Blueberry Hill, which has highly good burgers.