Happy New Year

Chris Botti

I started 2005 in Boston, seeing Chris Botti at Scullers Jazz Club. Today, he has ended my year, as I finished up my coffee watching the Saturday Early Show on CBS:

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Second Cup Cafe: Chris Botti

NEW YORK, Dec. 31, 2005

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(CBS) Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti and his band return to The Saturday Early Show's "Second Cup Cafe" to perform selections from his latest album, "To Love Again."

This year, Botti toured with Josh Groban. Botti is up for two Grammys in the categories of Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for "In Our Time," with Burt Bacharach) and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) (for "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?" with Sting). The awards ceremony will be broadcast Feb. 8 on CBS.

Of his musical style, Botti has said, "It's about the sound of my trumpet and the melody I play."

Botti started playing the trumpet early on, but is very outspoken against marching bands. "I graduated school a year early so I could get out of marching band," he says. "The marching band is there to support sporting events; it's rarely about the music."

But being part of the band paid off. The band director turned him on to Miles Davis when Botti was 12, and Botti has idolized Davis ever since.

Still, the thrill of his lifetime came when he played for Frank Sinatra during the 1985 tour. "It was his big comeback tour and he was singing beautifully at that time," recalls Botti, who was then 21.

In May 2004, Botti was named one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People" and for that, the artist says, he gets teased relentlessly.

"It's so difficult in this day and age for instrumental artists to punch through into the mainstream," he says, turning serious, "so anything that helps is a good thing."

I love coffee but,.........

Palm Civet

I adore coffee. However, I don't believe I'll be buying these beans:

Pricey coffee good to the last dropping

Fri Dec 30, 9:09 AM ET Yahoo News

Would you pay $175 for a pound of coffee beans which had passed through the backside of a furry mammal in Indonesia?

Apparently, some coffee lovers wanting to treat themselves to something special are lapping it up.

Kopi Luwak beans from Indonesia are rare and expensive, thanks to a unique taste and aroma enhanced by the digestive system of palm civets, nocturnal tree-climbing creatures about the size of a large house cat.

"People like coffee. And when they want to treat themselves, they order the Kopi Luwak," said Isaac Jones, director of sales for Tastes of The World, an online supplier of gourmet coffee, tea and cocoa.

Despite being carnivorous, civets eat ripe coffee cherries for treats. The coffee beans, which are found inside of the cherries, remain intact after passing through the animal.

Civet droppings are found on the forest floor near coffee plantations. Once carefully cleaned and roasted, the beans are sold to specialty buyers.

Jones said sales for Kopi Luwak rose three-fold just before the Christmas holiday compared with the first half of the year. The company started selling the rare coffee in February 2005.

He expects to sell around 200 pounds of the coffee this year, with orders coming from North America and Europe. So far, most of the orders have been from California.

Indonesia produces only about 500 kilograms, or roughly 1,100 pounds, of the coffee each year, making it extremely expensive and difficult to find.

"It's the most expensive coffee that we know about in the world," said Jones.

By comparison Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee, considered to be an expensive type, sells for $35 to $40 per pound, while a pound of Colombia's Supremo arabicas can be bought for about $14.

Flickr

I’m posting pictures on Flickr. I like the ability to categorize, sort, label, and make my work available in a “gallery” style format. Some sets will have a decidedly erotic edge like “Bodyscapes” and other sets will be more G-rated. With the laptop, a camera, and some photo software, life has become much more creative.

The Importance of Vitamin D

This news on the importance of Vitamin D:


By Randy Dotinga


HealthDay Reporter Wed Dec 28,11:47 PM ET


WEDNESDAY, Dec. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Forget the fiber. You may be able to fend off colon, breast or ovarian cancer by simply getting enough vitamin D, a new analysis of previous research suggests.


But if you're overweight, black, older or live in the Northeast, there's a good chance you're not getting enough vitamin D in your diet, said study co-author Cedric F. Garland, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego.


The study authors found that several groups of people had low levels of vitamin D. Residents of the Northeast made up one group, perhaps because they miss out on vitamin D that's absorbed during exposure to the sun, Garland said. The obese had low levels, too, perhaps because they have trouble metabolizing vitamin D through their fatty tissues.


Other groups with low vitamin D levels include blacks -- they're five times more likely to be deficient than whites -- and the elderly, the researchers found.


"As we age, we lose the ability to convert vitamin D into its usable form, so elderly people are at greater risk," Sandon said.


And the increased skin pigmentation of blacks reduces their ability to synthesize vitamin D, the researchers said.


So what to do? The experts are divided on that answer.


Garland urges everyone to consume 1,000 International Units (IUs) a day of the active form of Vitamin D -- also known by its human form, Vitamin D3 -- which comes in yogurt, cheese, orange juice, fatty fish and milk.


By contrast, Sandon said adults aged 19 to 50 should get 200 IUs a day, equivalent to two glasses of fortified milk. People aged 50 to 70 should get 400 IUs, she said, while those 71 and older should get 700. But she acknowledged that "it is difficult to get this much vitamin D from food alone.


More information on Vitamin D:


Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in food and can also be made in your body after exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. Sunshine is a significant source of vitamin D because UV rays from sunlight trigger vitamin D synthesis in the skin.


So, a little tan is good for you!

Warm Shells

Winter Tulips