Tra la, it's May!

It's 2020.05.01 on the lunar calendar today.

Hello, is it true that another month has passed? I had planned on getting groceries every two weeks but realized it had been six when my freezer began emptying out. I'm in the habit of going if I'm on my way home from elsewhere, a situation I rarely find myself in anymore. Meanwhile, my attention span is getting even shorter—I was scrolling through my phone when I noticed there were fresh tears on my face but I couldn't remember from what.

The past weeks have been full of difficult conversations on anti-racism with colleagues. I'm glad that we can speak about it honestly but it doesn't seem like it's leading to meaningful, actionable understanding. Anti-blackness being prevalent everywhere, including in immigrant communities, I appreciate 

Letters for Black Lives

, a multilingual resource for dialogue on racial justice. I seem to always return to the words of Archbishop Tutu:

 “If you are neutral in situations of injustice,

you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

—Desmond Tutu

I'm opening a jazz club!

In this economy ... during the pandemic ... and a jazz club at that?

Yes, I plan to open the Animal Crossing Jazz Club at Eudaimonia in the coming months. I've been working (playing?) hard to find furniture and earn Bells—Animal Crossing currency—so that I might add a basement to my house for the AC Jazz Club. For kicks, view my

inventory here

.

The life simulation game allows for guests so I plan to open up my island to a handful of visitors for short sets where I'll sing standards a cappella over Nintendo's voice chat feature or perhaps Zoom—I have yet to figure out the ideal audio rig for this (suggestions welcome).

I think I need to talk about my AC life less because it antagonizes my mom (she responded with a sigh, saying her friend's daughter just birthed her third child, while I'm telling her about my video animal friends) but let me say one more thing about it in this newsletter after I show you a re-creation of my headshot.

Bossa

A bossa album (pictured on brick wall) from a friend in my archipelago inspired the return of my bossa nova bangs. The AC avatars swing their arms back and forth at around quarter note = 56 so I decided to sing Tom Jobim's "Meditation." Watch a clip of the performance.

Music Academy

I'm thrilled to be one of the Innovation Artists & Speakers for Music Academy of the West this month, presenting on artist-driven video production, working one on one with talented classical musicians, and sharing panels with my former boss/old friend Casey and a violinist/composer/improviser I admire. Based in Santa Barbara but all 100+ of us are convening online!

Currently listening to Sung Keum-Yun's masterpiece "If Tears Are Pearls" 🎧She was my late teacher's teacher and an intangible asset of the gayageum in Korea. I'm glad it's on YouTube for anyone on the world wide web to hear.