James’ Daily Emails

Last Thursday, I had a marathon series of interviews for the Trumpet Dynamics podcast. Full day of work producing clients podcasts, then 3 consecutive interviews between the hours of 8-11 pm. Then back to work Friday. Let it not be said I’m lazy. One thing that stuck out to me from all those conversations in…

I recently watched on old interview with Andre Agassi, the great tennis champion, who was on the interview circuit promoting a book he had just written. The tail end of the interview, the interviewer asked Andre about his courtship of his wife, another great tennis player, Steffi Graf. Apparently, he had tried to woo Steffi…

A couple weeks ago, I heard about an act that was featured on America’s Got Talent. Something having to do with “flying trumpets”. So being a trumpeter, I wanted to check it out. This guy was on a segway, moving around like a wizard, playing trumpet very poorly as backup to a pop song. And…

In November of last year (2020), I attempted to make sushi for my 7-year old son, Gabriel. For some weird reason, sushi is one of his favorite foods, so I wanted to do something special for him. I bought some salmon, seaweed, soy sauce, that green stuff that’s super bitter, even a bamboo mat to…

Sana and I were recently invited to our Vietnamese friend’s home for lunch. She’s a sweet gal, always a smile on her face, we love her to death. Well, we arrived to her apartment, and realized they don’t have a dining table. They sit cross-legged on a bamboo mat when they eat, and then fold…

What’s that you say? An “icky guy”? I’m not sure what you mean… you may be saying to yourself. No, I’m actually referring to the Japanese word ikigai, which literally means a life worth living. You may ask someone: “What is your purpose in life?” “Why were you put on this earth?” “What is the overarching…

Whenever someone books an interview for my show, I have a question in the scheduler that asks a rather simple question: What do you want to talk about? I don’t have a list of 10 questions I’m going to ask, nor do I have an agenda on how I think the interview should go. In…

Years and years ago, circa 2009, I had the chance to attend a clinic given by the Canadian Brass – one of my favorite all-time groups for many reasons – at Indiana University. I was stationed at Ft. Knox, KY at the time, so it was just a few hours drive to see them play,…

Or so I thought when I walked into the first rehearsal of the Minnesota All-State band in the summer of 1993. We had placement auditions earlier in the day – that being the first day of the camp. And it turns out I did better than expected, as my name was placed squarely on the…

One of the unforeseen benefits of living in Vietnam is the TV coverage of the major tennis events. Tennis is one of my favorite sports to watch, as it’s essentially a gladiator arena. You can feel for the players as they’re going through the physical and emotional ups and downs throughout the course of a…