Beauty . . .

(from Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann;  translation by John E. Woods)
". . . "Beauty . . . is related to wisdom, through the medium of light.  For light is the medium and the midpoint, from which the relationship radiates in three directions: to beauty, to love, and to the knowledge of truth.  They are one in it, and light is a triune unity. Strangers brought me the doctrine of an initial god, born of flames, of a beautiful god of light and of love, and his name was Firstborn Radiance. That is a glorious, useful contribution, for it is a verification of the unity of love and light. Light, however, is beauty just as it is truth and knowledge, and if you would know the medium of truth, learn then that it is love. It is said o you that when you hear a dream you know to interpret it, is that so?" he asked Joseph, blushing, for he felt embarrassed and confused by his own words of visionary enthusiasm. . . "

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Tell me at
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http://www.ohomusic.com 


OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak.  Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com 


My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
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Passing the Bar . . .

 . . . or stopping in . . .

Tips for the bartender (from http://www.shakestir.com/features/id/571/10-tips-for-the-beginner-cocktail-bartender)

1) Focus on service, not just drinks.
You are a bartender, not an artist - you provide service above all else. If customers have a good experience from a very engaging, attentive, and accommodating service staff but the drinks aren't amazing, they are still likely to come back.

2) Taste everything.
A great chef would never serve anything without knowing that it tastes good, and neither should you.

3) Be knowledgeable.
Know everything you serve, not just the items that interest you. If you are all about cocktails, good for you, but you are still a bartender and will be called upon to serve beer, wine, and of course food.

4) Don't be pretentious.
Customers do not want to feel judged, but welcome and appreciated (because they are!). Remind yourself that you are here because of them.

5) Don't be lazy.
This covers a wide range of issues behind the bar (and every job there is). Old or store-bought juice will make a noticeable negative impact on your drinks, as will using stale vermouth.

6) Control your dilution.
Mixing too long can make your drink flabby, and it's very hard to get the balance back from over-dilution.

7) Don't adjust too much.
Once your palate develops you'll start second guessing your drinks a little bit while you look for the perfect flavour balance. Adding a dash of an ingredient for balance is fine, but making too many adjustments can lead to over-dilution and long drink times.

8) Don't shake everything.
Presentation is very important for both food and drink, and any discerning customer will not appreciate a cloudy Manhattan.

9) Measure your ingredients.
While many an experienced bartender can probably free-pour any volume very accurately, this style belongs in nightclubs and not in cocktail bars and restaurants.

10) Communicate!
Good service and good working relationships start and end with good communication. Keep everyone in the loop with what you are doing and make sure you know what is happening outside your station. Do not be afraid to ask for help, and offer to help others if you have the time. It is also important to call back orders, as restaurants and bars can get loud and miscommunication can cost time and money. If you are not talking to your co-workers behind the bar, you are not doing your job properly.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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On and On . . .

. . . flow the hours
Like rolling waves upon the sea
And like so many and so varied flowers
Each one some nectar for the bee

We're keeping tabs and writing numbers
Logging each minute in the book
We have a choice to
Either dread the counting
Or see the bricks if we just look

Store the knowledge
Hoard the wisdom
Take the years
And just run like crazy


Hours
©2014 Raymond M. Jozwiak




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html 

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Our own. . .

. . . creations. . .

(from The Fourth Gospel:  Tales of a Jewish Mystic by John Shelby Spong)
". . . How difficult it is for religious people to embrace an unbounded God.  We have through our history sought to define God as a particular being, albeit one possessing supernatural power.  With God defined as a being, we then had to locate God in a place.  Ultimately that place was thought to be somewhere above the sky in a three-tiered universe.  Then we had to build for this God earthly dwelling places that we called "houses of worship."

Next, we began to assert that God's very words were captured in the words of our sacred scriptures.  Then we convinced ourselves that God's very nature could be defined in our creeds, doctrines and dogmas.  We then built mythologies around each of these human creations, assuring ourselves that God was content to live within our developed theological and liturgical limits. 

When these "sacred idols" began to be destroyed by the expansion of human knowledge, we acted as if God had died.  The God who lived above the sky was rendered homeless when we began to embrace the infinity of space; yet we continued to address God as "our Father who art in heaven."  Next, the scriptures, which we once thought of as God's literal words, began to be understood as tribal tales and as human interpretations; but when we read then in public worship, we still asserted that "this is the word of the Lord."  Then the creeds, the doctrines and the dogmas-which, we asserted, had captured God's revelation-began to be understood as political and cultural compromises; but we, in our fear, had in the past invested these human forms with such authority that those who questioned them were burned at the stake as heretics, and we claimed the word "orthodox" for our own human formulations. . ."

What do you think?
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My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
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Friendship. . .

I have never 'unfriended' a person in my life.  Well, never intentionally anyway. . . until now.  And I've got to say it has been an emotional experience.  Why did I do it?  Quite simply the 'friend' in question was totally unwilling to be reasonable. More specifically, the 'friend' chose to continuously post personal testimonials for Rush Limbaugh, gushing about the vast amounts of knowledge that were imparted through his radio broadcasts.

Now we certainly all possess our own personal quirks, preferences, tastes, likes and dislikes, and that I can accept and live with.  Certainly my friends should be entitled to all these things and my perception (or acceptance of them) is most certainly totally irrelevant.

But no matter how much I agree or disagree with a friend on ANY matter, one  factor that determines just how good or desirable a friendship really is, is how one chooses to address (or not address) these matters.

Furthermore, in this digital day and age, it is quite inconceivable that anyone would accept, let alone forcefully evangelize armed with items which are at the very least shall we say, "suspect"? 

Maybe it's simply a matter of discretion.  Anyway, in the future, one quality for which I will heretofore assess any potential new friends, will most certainly be discretion.

What do you think?
Tell me at  
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Oddly. . .

. . .  Christopher means "bearer of Christ. . .

(from God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens)
". . .Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance, and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion. . ."

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AMBIENCE & WINE

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Let's all get 'raptured up'. . .

. . . paraphrasing a hitherto, unnamed blogger, but real nonetheless. (Is this like being 'ratcheted up'?)

"I can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for this world and my church. I love my church. It's something I can always look forward to. I can't wait to go to heaven. I wish there was some way to get everybody saved and then just go. I'm tired of this world. . . [Same guy. Apparently not well-adjusted.]

“I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate, she told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter.” [Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann exhibiting a bit of gullibility.)

"Like so many of life’s varieties of experience, the novelty of a diagnosis of malignant cancer has a tendency to wear off. The thing begins to pall, even to become banal. One can become quite used to the specter of the eternal Footman, like some lethal old bore lurking in the hallway at the end of the evening, hoping for the chance to have a word. And I don’t so much object to his holding my coat in that marked manner, as if mutely reminding me that it’s time to be on my way. No, it’s the snickering that gets me down. . . What do I hope for? If not a cure, then a remission. And what do I want back? In the most beautiful apposition of two of the simplest words in our language: the freedom of speech." (Christopher Hitchens, journalist, author, philosopher, recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer.)

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail… There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark” (Stephen Hawking, educator, scientist, author)

"The best way to lose all is to cling with desperation to that which cannot possibly be sustained literally. Literalistic Christians will learn that a God or a faith system that has to be defended daily is finally no God or faith system at all. They will learn that any god who can be killed ought to be killed. Ultimately they will discover that all their claims to represent the historical, traditional, or biblical truth of Christianity cannot stop the advance of knowledge that will render every historic claim for a literal religious system questionable at best, null and void at worst." [Bishop John Shelby Spong, Episcopal (Anglican) Bishop of Newark, NY, in Resurrection: Myth or Reality?)




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“Where there is much desire to learn. . .

. . . there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.”
-John Milton

The president urged a "balanced approach" in his Monday night speech. He pushed for the two parties to work out an acceptable deal, and called for Americans to demand that their congressional representatives put aside short-term politics to reach a compromise. He also said, ". . . We can't allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington's political warfare. . . "; '. . .stop-gap deal would only mean the Republicans returning again next year to use the same tactics to seek more cutbacks. . . '; "The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government"; "History is scattered with the stories of those who held fast to rigid ideologies and refused to listen to those who disagreed. But those are not the Americans we remember. We remember the Americans who put country above self, and set personal grievances aside for the greater good."

Milton didn't highlight it, but one word should out in the quote: “Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in GOOD men is but knowledge in the making.

Mr. Boehner said that he, "made a sincere effort"; "I gave it my all,"; "I didn't want 'mano-a-mano' with Obama" (he was overheard to say on his way out of the building); "Obama created the "crisis" atmosphere". Of Mr. Obama's call for a "balanced" approach in the debt limit deal - one that includes both spending cuts and revenue increases - Boehner said it amounts to Washington-speak for "we spend more, you pay more." The Sacramento Bee said, "In his response to Obama's televised address to the nation, Boehner gave no indication of compromise."

Have YOU decided where YOU stand?



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Whenever. . .

. . . I get to feeling discouraged, or sorry for myself, I like to read things like. . .

Every part of the scheme shows that this man [George Stephenson] has applied himself to a subject of which he has no knowledge, and to which he has no science to apply. (Parliamentary Committee 1825)

Far too noisy, my dear Mozart. Far too many notes. (Emperor Ferdinand after the first performance of The Marriage of Figaro)

I liked your opera. I think I will put it to music. (Beethoven to a fellow composer)

If Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is not by some means abridged, it will soon fall into disuse. (Philip Hale, Boston music critic, 1837)

I played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard! (Tchaikovsky's diary. 9th October 1886)

We don't like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out. (Decca Recording Company about the Beatles.1962)

These boys won't make it. Four-groups are out. Go back to Liverpool, Mr. Epstein, you have a good business there. (Recording Company)

I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper. (Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind")

They may be world famous, but four shrieking monkeys are not going to use a privileged family name without permission. (Frau Eva von Zeppelin)

He bores me. He ought to have stuck to his flying machines. (Auguste Renoir, on Leonardo da Vinci

This fellow Charles Lindbergh will never make it. He's doomed. (Harry Guggenheim, millionaire aviation enthusiast)

Very interesting, Whittle, my boy, but it will never work! ( Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at Cambridge University)

You will never amount to very much. (Munich Schoolmaster to Albert Einstein, aged 10)

Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools. (New York Times about Goddard's revolutionary rocket work, 1921)

Stanley Matthews lacks the big match temperament. He will never hold down a regular first-team place in top class soccer. ( Unsigned football writer when Matthews made his debut at the age of 17)

Why do you necessarily have to be wrong just because a few million people think you are? (Frank Zappa)

Failed in Business, 1831. Defeated for Legislature, 1832. Sweetheart/Fiancee Died, 1835. Nervous Breakdown, 1836. Defeated in Election, 1836. Defeated for U.S. Congress, 1843. Defeated again for U.S. Congress, 1846. Defeated once again for U.S. Congress, 1848. Defeated for U.S. Senate, 1855. Defeated for U.S. Vice Presidency, 1856. Defeated again for U.S. Senate, 1858. (Abraham Lincoln, Elected President of the U.S.A., 1860)


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So management. . .

. . . says I should keep this blog focused on music and music-related things. . . and since I'M management, I know that they know what they're talking about!

So that's what I'm gonna do. At least I hope I am. (I can't promise that I won't stray occasionally just because. . . JUST BECAUSE.
That's what life's about.)

Springtime can be downright inspirational. Of course it would be much more inspirational if the rain would stop. A little warm spring air might be nice too. Hey, it could be much worse. We've been known to have snow in these parts as late as May, although rarely. So suffice to say that I shall take inspiration from the fact that spring (and subsequently summer) are within view and inevitable. I take my inspiration from wherever I can get it and am in the process of composing new things while editing and reworking some older things. Meantime, I can hear the birds singing outside.

Like Frank Zappa said, "Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is the best..."


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