James’ Daily Emails

Sana and I are coming up on one full year living together in the United States, specifically in the People’s Republic of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Now living in Virginia Beach naturally means you’re always fairly close to the beach, and for the last 9 months, Sana and I have lived literally on the beach. A small apartment…

I realize there are a few people reading this who don’t follow sports, so I’ll give the rundown on the major headline from the last 24 hours. Aaron Rodgers, longtime quarterback for the Green Bay Packers left Green Bay for New York, who committed to paying him over $100 million over the next 3 years.…

I suppose 9/11 is one of those events where everyone remembers where they were when they heard what had happened. I lived in Graham, WA at the time, and had just finished my studies at a tiny Bible college. I had a job working at a drywall company at the time, and just as I…

It’s no secret that our bodies, our minds, our perspectives in life change as we age. Yet we often believe that what we learned about playing trumpet while we were in our teens and early twenties will continue to work as we get older. Maybe it’s because we heard something in a masterclass and decided…

The US Open is upon us, perhaps the most commercialized and ego-driven event of perhaps the most commercialized and ego-driven sport, which is individual tennis. Why doubles teams don’t get anywhere near the attention of the individuals, I have no idea. If you think about it, an overt showing of individual effort is a welcome…

In the year 1972, on or about, in the tiny town of Brookings, South Dakota, a simple kiss on the hand of a high school girl led indirectly to the birth of a quite prolific musical family.  The great Rafael Mendez, one of the most accomplished and stunningly virtuosic trumpeters of the 20th century was…

The summer of 1994 will go down as one of the highlights of my entire life. That was the year I graduated high school, after which I toured the United States with the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps. For those who don’t know the first thing about drum corps, imagine the marching band at…

In September 2015, I had an idea for a podcast focused exclusively on my longtime friend and nemesis, the trumpet. I had no idea what was going to come of it. I just knew that 1) I was a diehard fan of trumpet and 2) podcasting was something I wanted to do for the long…

As a trumpet player for going on 40 years, I can attest to the fact that there are times when playing trumpet just ain’t no fun. During the days I played more or less as my means of sustenance, it was almost a daily occurrence; sometimes I would go a solid 2-3 weeks of playing…

I’ve been a coffee drinker my entire adult life – basically since I was 9 years old. In fact, along with buying one’s own toilet paper, I believe drinking coffee is the single metric by which to determine one’s departure from childhood into the realm of “adulting”. Okay, I guess I’m in a playful mood…