I found out about a month ago that I need to get my cholesterol down. I exercise a lot, and I weigh very little, but it seems that even though I’m not visibly fat at all, my arteries are “chubby.” It’s a bummer of genetics.

I’ve changed my diet somewhat, adding more fish and reducing the amount of red meat and fried stuff that I eat. It’s been a minor challenge — but not in all areas. Fortunately, one thing I’m supposed to eat more of is fish. Unfortunately, my favorite way to eat fish is as sushi — and it’s expensive. But oh, so yummy.

This morning, I had some follow-up blood work to make sure all is improving, so last night, to “prepare,” AEJ and I went once again to our favorite sushi place, Jinpachi, over in West Hollywood. Last time, I took the beast of a camera, and spent more time trying to get into a good position for a good shot than I did enjoying the sushi. This time, I brought the old PowerShot SD800IS. (One funny thing — because we brought the Canon XTi with the huge 24-105mm F4 L on our first visit, the sushi chef and the waiter remember us. Now we feel like regulars. Granted, three visits there in a month will do that… It’ll also make you broke. Anybody wanna buy a marching license?)

Usually we start with the edamame, but this time we mixed it up with some assorted vegetable tempura.

Here is some blue fin tuna and some melt-in-your-mouth yellowtail. (I’m pretty sure “melt-in-your-mouth” is the scientific name for it.)

AEJ and I had two different takes on spicy tuna. AEJ had Spicy Tuna Tartar — hand mixed spicy tuna with radish sprouts and wasabi ponzu sauce.

I went with the traditional spicy tuna roll. We sat at the sushi bar this time, and it was fun to watch the chef hand-mix the spicy tuna. Best spicy tuna roll I’ve ever had.

I’m also a big fan of the eel and avocado roll. Again, this iteration was the best I’ve tasted. The eel was hot and lightly crispy, the avocado was cold, and the sweet sauce was tasty tasty. What’s in that eel barbecue sauce? How can it be so good? I thought I tasted a hint of meth, but maybe I imagined it.

Whereas some places have funky takes on sushi like a deep fried salmon and cream cheese roll (which, I’ll admit, I like), Jinpachi keeps it clean. Here’s one of our favorites that we order every time — Japanese red snapper with garlic chips, yuzu, Hawaiian sea salt, and chili sauce. The flavor and texture of the tiny garlic chip totally makes it.

And here’s the other special sushi dish that we get every time — yellowtail with jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, yuzu, and soy sauce. Spicy and bright. Lordy, it’s good.

Usually after we have dinner at Jinpachi, we go across the street to Pinkberry for dessert. (Our favorite: regular flavored Pinkberry with Coco Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles.) The owner/chef of Jinpachi is married to the restaurant’s dessert chef, Tomoko Obake, who used to work at Spago, and since we were sitting at the sushi bar last night, we felt a little more guilt about having our dessert elsewhere. So, we ordered a chocolate souffle with a molten center, fresh whipped cream, homemade green tea ice cream, and fresh strawberries.. It was mad delicious. The presentation was also beautiful. I’ve never had dessert like this at a Japanese restaurant. Incredible stuff.

Jinpachi is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. Why does it have to cost $100 for dinner? (I’m not suggesting that it’s overpriced for what it is; it’s just overpriced for what I can afford to eat as often as I’d like.) I’m trying to decide if I can write a piece about sushi, and use my meals at Jinpachi as tax-deductible “research.” The IRS would totally go for that, right?

I finished a movement of the Soprano Sax concerto today. This movement, which I think will be the second movement, is called “Felt.” Here’s my plan for the concerto, as it stands now…

Each movement takes its title from a primary material of the saxophone — metal, wood (the reed), and felt. The scoring for each movement reflects that material. “Metal,” for example, is scored for brass, metal percussion, flutes, piano, harp, the sax section, and the soloist. “Wood” is scored for wood percussion (or percussion that can be struck with wooden mallets), woodwinds (except flutes), piano, harp, the sax section, and the soloist. “Felt” is scored for percussion that can be played with felt mallets (especially timpani and marimba), winds (flutes, clarinets, oboe, bassoon, contrabassoon), piano, the sax section, and the soloist. The final movement will use every instrument. All four movements feature the sax section, which will allow the soloist — presumably the sax teacher at the school — to play with his or her studio.

“Felt” is all about the keys of the saxophone — the things you can do without changing keys (pitch bending), as well as the different fingerings you can use to play the same pitch (alternate fingerings). The movement starts with low-register repeated pitches with alternate fingerings, works its way to flashy virtuosic runs, and ends with the flutes, clarinets, and the sax section playing rhythmic key clicks. There’s also a bunch of “slap tone” thrown in for good, freaky measure. It’s even more random than I’m describing.

“Wood,” which is also nearly done but not fully orchestrated, is simply a song. (AEJ’s idea with these movements was that “Felt” could be about “here’s what a sax can do when it comes to weird sounds,” and “Wood” could be about “here’s what a sax can do that’s nice and melodic.”)

I’m pretty excited about these two movements. Not quite sure what to do with “Metal” yet. I’d written about two minutes of it, but have decided to throw it away. It was one of those cases where I had an idea that was sort of okay, and it was going to happen 3/4 of the way through the movement. The problem was that the idea wasn’t all that great to begin with, and I couldn’t think of anything for the first 3/4 of the movement that wasn’t completely awful cheese. So, it’s back to square one on that movement, and I think that’s best.

If you’re curious to see a few pages of the short score, here’s a link to the PDF. The tempo is quarter=168. It’s speedy. And Finale tells me there are 11,464 notes — in the span of 5-and-a-half minutes. I think it’s time to write something slow.

When AEJ and I were in Florida last week, I found boxes of old photographs, ranging from pictures my grandfather took when he was in the army, to pictures of my mom and her siblings growing up, to pictures of me as a baby, all the way through to my high school senior pictures. I’ll share more as I scan them, but here are a few to get us started.

This is the only sincerely great picture in the bunch. These are my parents, probably in 1968 or so. Where are they? Why, they’re at band rehearsal! That’s right, they’re at their community concert band rehearsal. See – I try to hide it, but band is in my blood.

Then, a few years later, I came along. At first, I was cute enough. And happy. I’d get over that happy part real fast.

What’s happening in this class picture? AEJ says I look like I’m on The Shmaily Shmow. I think it looks like a promo still for an imagined and insufferable film, “The Lil’ Senator.”

Things got much more awkward from there, but I’m going to save the worst for last. Let’s jump ahead to my senior pictures. Look how earnest I can be! Don’t my eyes just cry, “it’s okay. I’m listening.” Good lord, I can’t believe the photographer actually put me in the most cliched pose ever used on film — and he even used it with soft focus. And why does it look like I’m wearing lip gloss? (That’s not a trick question. I’m not wearing lip gloss.)

The backgrounds in the next two pictures totally crack AEJ up. She pointed out that I graduated from high school in 1991, but these backdrops seem to be left over from the 80s.

This background — and sweater — is probably the best. Yes, I’m sitting in an aluminum foil box. Oh, and my sweater has tiny shiny green threads in it. And again with the shiny lips!

Okay, one more with that sweater. This background is edgy. I look a little like I have yellow antennae, which is pretty awesome.

I leave you today with this picture, which I think is from middle school — so I would have been, like, 13. I don’t know what’s best about this picture — my smirk, my pseudo mullet, my bad complexion, my fake velvet shirt, or my gold chain. I can’t figure out why I didn’t get more dates then.