Mike O'Connell

Much is made of the Star Wars-inspired date of May the Fourth. As in, May the Fourth be with you.

But March Fourth is a much better mantra, no?

March forth?

Or rather…

March forth!

It’s the shortest month, but also somehow the longest month.

And as of midnight tonight it’s also over.

Thank God.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing pianist Bill Charlap and his trio at Keystone Korner in Baltimore.

I’ve sung the praises of Keystone Korner before, no question the only legit old-school jazz club within a hundred miles of my house. It out-Blues Alleys Blues Alley, bringing in a venerable who’s who of jazz on a nightly basis.

Case in point: Bill Charlap, the man who has accompanied Gerry Mulligan, Phil Woods, and Tony Bennett (to name a few), actually needs only one thing to accompany him on a great set.

A piano.

Though he looks a little like your dentist, or maybe the owner of a Jewish deli, don’t let the doughy face and George Burns glasses fool you. He out-Brubecks Dave Brubeck (to use that analogy again), bringing a cerebral approach to the piano that lacks nothing in creativity. He can literally pianoforte, touching the keys with a surgeon’s sensitivity one moment, then pounding the board with his elbows the next. (That’s actually not an exaggeration.)

Joining Bill in his trio are two of the biggest names in rhythm. Well, just one name, actually: Washington. Worthy of Founding Father status, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington are the guys you’d want to play with if you were literally the best and could afford to hire literally the best sidemen on the planet. This was the Brubeck model in his later years, and the Tony Bennett model as well.

And whom did Tony Bennett have playing piano for him?

Yup.

This was one to blog about.

I heard about the potential for this change a few months ago, but my local Dollar Tree (henceforth known as “Dollar” Tree) has now raised its prices from a dollar to a dollar-twenty-five per item.

Twenty-five percent is a big increase, but hey… it’s a dollar.

The thing I’ve loved about dollar stores in general the past few decades goes beyond cheap prices. I like that everything is the same price. It would be true if everything in the store were five dollars or 10 dollars or a million dollars. If everything is the same price, all you have to do is look at the quality of the merch.

Ever find something great in a store, then look at the price tag and realize it’s not so great anymore?

That never happens when you automatically know the price of everything in the store.

The beauty of Dollar Tree is thus: consider this shelf full of goods. Everything is the same price, so just pick the best thing.

Awesome.

Still awesome at a buck-twenty-five.

Prior to Sunday night the last time the Cincinnati Bengals were in the Super Bowl was January of 1989. Coincidentally this was the last one I didn’t see; my decades-long sports obsession began later that spring.

Most of the players in last night’s game hadn’t been born when the 49ers beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII. I was six, and as I’ve been fond of telling my students the past two weeks, the Bengals haven’t been good since Ronald Reagan was in office.

Yeah, blank stares. I might as well have said Abe Lincoln.

I wish they’d done it last night, but at least the victors this year had their admirable qualities as well. I’ve got nothing against the Rams, whether housed in LA or St. Louis, or led by Matt Stafford, Kurt Warner, or Warren Beatty.

A great game from a great host city and I’ll admit a great halftime show too. The commercials were mostly silly, but hey, life’s too short to complain about bad commercials.

I might put that one on a bumper sticker.