pianogonzology: January 2023

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Innovators . . .

https://www.inc.com/magazine/202009/jessica-nordlander

/innovation-leader-ideas-team-talent-resources.html

[Note to my 'note' yesterday- To be clear, the 'break' that I am taking is from daily blog postings. I will, in all likelihood, continue posting things as the spirit moves. Here's hoping you'll stay with me and as always, please let me know what's on YOUR mind. Please don't stop listening to the music! Ciao.]

. . . There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.
- Brene Brown

(from Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx)

". . . Being at liberty again, I gave this serious consideration. I asked Chico what he could do to break me into his field. I couldn't have asked him at a better time. He was then working at a beer garden in Yorkville but he had just been asked to play in a nickelodeon across that street, where the piano player, a kid named George Gershwin, had been fired because customers complained his music hurt their ears. . . "

One of a Kind Love Affair
- The Spinners

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Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Cláirseach . . .

. . . and such

https://www.salviharps.com/

[Note: this will be my penultimate blog, for now. After 12 years of daily consecutive blogging, I intend to take a break, take stock, catch up on other things, and then who knows what?}

(from Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx)
". . . It was all part of the endless fight for recognition of foreigners in the process of becoming Americans. Every Irish kid who made a Jewish kid knock under was made to say "Uncle" by an Italian, who got his lumps from a German kid, who got his insides kicked out by his old man for street fighting and then went out and beat up an Irish kid to heal his wounds. "I'll teach you!" was the threat they passed along, Irish to Jew to Italian to German. Everybody was trying to teach everybody else, all down the line. This is still what I think of when I hear the term "progressive education." . . . "

Harpo Marx Plays Serious[sic]

- Harpo Marx

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2014

Monday, January 16, 2023

With Mirrors . . .

https://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/smoke-and-mirrors

Can you hear all that I say

Beneath all clever wordplay?

Don’t think that I’m insulting you

That I don’t want your point of view

Working from limited base

So easily losing your place

Why feign a blatant expertise

With no obvious philosophies?

Do you know

What you want

To accomplish here?

Will you go

To the length you say you will

Or is this just all

Smoke and mirrors?

You may just set precedent

with every signal you’ve sent

Why don’t you learn the protocol

To no longer suffer this at all

Say what you mean if you mean it

Do what you feel in your heart

Make it real when you’re speaking your mind

Impressions churning and spray

Like repairs flowing away

Pushing downstream ferociously

Uprooting each obstacle you see

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Put A Finger On It

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Consciousness . . .

. . . of stream

Phttps://dnr.maryland.gov/streams/Pages/OurMDStreams.aspx

Positivity to temper, accompany, and inundate the empty hours; facilitating a transcendence from this mere mortal coil with all its toil, trouble and injustice.

Or, in other words, here's some more music.

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Ambience & Wine

Saturday, January 14, 2023

WTF . . .

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/surprised-shocked-toddler-child-with-

her-hands-on-cheeks-and-blue-eyes-wide-open-gm1178722221-329555803

A "WTF" moment - was how Baltimore Magazine music critic John Lewis described the track (below) Joyride II from my album For the Ride back in 2008.

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Another Shot by Ray Jozwiak

Another Shot

Friday, January 13, 2023

Doesn't . . .

https://positivepsychology.com/positive-mindset/

. . . get much MORE positive that this!

Ring in the Rightness, from OHO's 2018 release 'Gazebo'

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For The Ride

Thursday, January 12, 2023

OHO . . .

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Black & White Then Back

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

It Won't Be Easy . . .

. . . to just let it go

https://www.gograph.com/vector-clip-art/ego.html

Sometimes I can get my point across,

And I do it rather well.

You can see

What I think

About me.

It's just my ego.

It gets the best of me.

It's just my ego

It just won't let me be,

It just won't let me be alone.

It's not one of my most redeeming qualities.

Still though it serves me rather well sometimes.

It won't be easy to just let it go,

It's just my ego.

I take such great pride in what I do.

Everyone should take some too.

Don't you think;

Pride in me,

Not in you?

There's a fine distinction between confidence and pride.

There's a fine distinction that I'll never know.

Cloaked with some discretion you emerge from the inside.

I emerge in all my glory.

What is there to hide?

Mother said that I would never make

Any friends if I don't see

What I'm like,

If I don't lose some pride.

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Critic’s Choice

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Care . . .

https://stocksnap.io/search/guard%20rail

". . . All successful democracies rely on informal rules that, though not found in the constitution or any laws, are widely known and respected. In the case of American democracy, this has been vital. . . the unwritten rules of a half-court game of pickup basketball are familiar to anyone who has played it. . . Democracy, of course, is not street basketball. Democracies do have written rules (constitutions) and referees (the courts). But these work best, and survive longest, in countries where written constitutions are reinforced by their own unwritten rules of the game. These rules or norms serve as the soft guardrails of democracy, preventing day-to-day political competition from devolving into a no-holds-barred conflict. . . "

Take Good Care of My Baby
- Bobby Vee

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Chromatose

Monday, January 9, 2023

More . . .

. . . Star

Changing, modifying, tweaking. . . the usual stuff.

This version of the song is played on a physical, Kawai, baby grand piano, my favorite instrument, although editing is more complex, so it is limited here. I prefer the organic experience of the real instrument which provides the ability to be more expressive.

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Grains

Sunday, January 8, 2023

From Afar . . .

https://unsplash.com/s/photos/telescope

. . . you appear not too different from me.

But the scars

You've acquired

Did not come free.

(Stars ©2020 Raymond M. Jozwiak)

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No Frills by Ray Jozwiak

No Frills

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Shining . . .

https://www.pinterest.de/pin/488640628291985408/

(from https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/28ofkq/when_did_the_word_star_begin_to_refer_to_a_famous/)

". . . In 1779 in England David Garrick was the first actor to be labeled a "star" by J. Warner, saying, "The little stars, who hid their diminished rays in his presence begin to abuse him. . . The term was in common use in the Music Hall Era. This is reflected in the slightly passe phrase "movie star" or "Hollywood star" to refer to the type of celebrity who is famous from cinema, not stage. . . The earliest uses all speak to brightness of the star. Thus "star" likely meant "stand-out performer." By the 1907 Music Hall War it was widely understood to mean "well-known performer.". . ."

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Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

Friday, January 6, 2023

Celestial Bodies . . .

https://www.facebook.com/starsandconstellations/

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star)

". . . A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated 1022 to 1024 stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye, all within the Milky Way galaxy. . ."

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2014

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Speaking of . . .

. . . human

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/human-body-of-a-

man-highlighting-your-muscles-gm174907035-2280820

Thinking about songs that I've loved and admired over the years, this one always comes to mind. The lyrics present a very human reflection on one aspect of life in a very innocent, but still unapologetic way. This combined with sophisticated, jazz-inflected chord changes and a sparse instrumentation always drive the point straight home for me.

Whatshername
- Peter, Paul & Mary

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Black & White Then Back

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Human . . .

https://theconversation.com/us/topics/human-rights-1314

(from Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann)

". . . Let us call them the sinister possibilities of human nature in general that here come to light. German human beings, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of them it is, who have perpetrated what humanity shudders at; and all that is German now stands forth as an abomination and a warning . . . We are present at the last gasp of a blood state which, as Luther put it, "took on its shoulders" immeasurable crimes; which roared and bellowed to the ravished and reeling masses proclamations cancelling all human rights . . . "

More Human Than Human
- White Zombie

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Ambience & Wine

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Block . . .

https://thefuturemuse.com/overcome-writers-block/

(from Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann)
". . . The stagnation of his impulse to create was accompanied though not caused by a new low-water man in his physical state: severe attacks of migraine confined him to darkness; catarrh of the stomach, bronchial tubes, and throat attacked him by turns, particularly during the winter of 1926, and would of itself have been enough to prevent the trip to Frankfurt. It did in fact prevent another journey which humanly speaking was still more immediate and urgent, but categorically forbidden by his doctor. . . "