| October, 2009 - Every month we have the First Tuesday Celebration at a local spot known as BANTER. It begins with an hour of music that I produce (either vintage jazz or original songs). It concludes with the Le Not So Hot Klub du Denton that is led by my friend Andy Cooper. This month the first Tuesday fell on October 6 - my birthday. It seemed like a good excuse for a party. We began an hour early with a set by Strictly Dixie, a senior band that tolerates my trombone playing. About 75 folks came out to hear the music and eat birthday cake. Birthdays and parties are not terribly important to me. Willie Nelson said: I take it not only a day at a time, but a moment at a time, and keep it at that pace. If you can be happy right now, then you’ll always be happy, because it’s always in the now. If you stay alert and active, the years bring great satisfaction in the areas of understanding and contentment. I am quite sure that I have learned more about the piano and about music theory in the last ten years than I had learned during the many preceding years. Am I learning faster? Probably not, but Mr. Knowledge usually arrives wearing a nice suit and a cloak of understanding. He is ready to get down to work and help me find solutions. I don't have to show him where to sleep, how to take a shower, or how to find this website. Like many others who arrive at various times of the day or night, he quickly becomes a learning partner. Can ten people learn something ten times as fast as one person? Only if they are joined at the hip and working on the same page most of the time. There is a fascinating talk about this subject at: CREATIVITY What I find most difficult about the creative process is planning and scheduling to get things done in an orderly fashion. What I know from experience is that one must consistently sit down at a project - or even at a blank screen or piece of paper - and do SOMETHING, ANYTHING. The organization and the form are sometimes a by-product of just "jamming". Dave Brubeck once said: There's a way of playing safe, there's a way of using tricks and there's the way I like to play which is dangerously where you're going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven't created before. October, 1979 - One of the most advertised candy breath mints promises to help you "keep your mind off your mouth" for at least an hour. A sampling of conversation in most public places would seem to indicate that a lot of folks keep their minds off their mouths quite effectively without any help from the mint merchants. Graffiti (at the Denton Public Library) "Alex Haley was adopted". That's not very kind, and although there has been some question about the author's credibility, I think he has done a great thing to raise awareness about genealogy. The folks who favor abortion upon demand claim that if they don't get their way the federal government will be responsible for millions of unwanted babies. I've heard Uncle Sam accused of a lot of weird things, but responsibility in personal matters is going a bit too far. It's like saying that if the Feds don't bail us out every time we make a bad business decision, they are somehow responsible for our misfortune. MOOSEWHISKERS !! RHYME FOR OUR TIME: If you need to borrow money, the time's exactly right. The Federal Reserve has gone bananas; the prime rate's out of sight. The bankers are up against the wall; they're really not trying to rob. But nowadays it's less expensive to borrow from the Mob. The loans the Cosa Nostra makes are straightforward and discrete. You won't find them in the yellow pages - no office down the street. You don't need a lot of collateral - like businesses or farms. Just be darn sure you pay them back, if you value your legs and arms. If you plan to apply to the Family for whatever you need to buy, insiders say you'd better hurry before the source runs dry. The excess cash of organized crime used to do really well on the street; but now they're investing in Treasury Bonds, where the interest can't be beat. |