October 2008 will go down in my memory as one of the worst months of personal loss I can remember. (The only one that compares is when I lost my Dad in September 1984.) I had hardly begun to process the loss of my beloved trombone teacher, colleague, and friend, Rex Peer, when I found that my dear friend and ex-father-in-law, Danny Dill, was near death. Several days ago, in the Biography sub-section of Histories & Mysteries, I compiled obituaries and other material celebrating both of them. I have now moved that material to separate files which are linked from the Biography page.

On the positive side: two weeks ago, I had a very successful and enjoyable time in Sun Valley, Idaho, where I played with the Side Street Strutters Jazz Band and sang with the All-Star Big Band for the radio broadcast. More recently, I finished the second review draft of a long essay on the mind-body problem, which is tentatively slated for publication in the Fall 2008 issue of Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.

Also, just this past Tuesday, I composed a tune to go with the poem written in 1998 by Danny Dill, and I will be recording it in two weeks in my son Andrew's recording studio at his home in Nashville. If time remains between now and when I leave for the Southeast on November 4 (yes, I voted absentee!), I will also finish my orchestration of Rex Peer's "Blue Trombone," a solo for trombone and piano which he wrote back in 1966, and I will enlist Andrew's aid in getting it recorded, too. During that trip, I will also be playing with the Strutters in a pops concert with the Charlotteville, North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. I'll report on all this in a month or so.