I’ve just posted a piece over at the brand-new Jazz Journalists Association website, JJA News–check it out at this link. In it I discuss the promise and pitfalls of jazz discourse across the new technological platforms that have emerged recently online. I respond to a couple of different unhelpful trends that are emerging and try to find some middle ground. The fancy pull-quote, which sums it up pretty well, reads:
It is always a challenge to avoid the extremes of naive youthful exuberance and hardened cultural elitism.
That gets to the heart of what I’m trying to do in my studies, here at the blog, and even in my trombone playing. It’s a tough row to hoe, and I haven’t quite figured out how to pull it off yet, but here I am, stumbling through it for the world to see, hear and read. Leave a comment here or there — as always, I welcome feedback and look forward to continuing the conversation.
Again, the link: How We Talk About Jazz in 2010
Alex W. Rodríguez 
Keep going, keep enjoying it, and the energy, beauty, vitality and limitless variety in the music being made by your generation – and by the older generations still playing – will carry you forward unstoppably, like a tidal wave.
Or as we say, quaintly, in England:
“Don’t let the b*ggers let you down!”