Space . . .

You were always a crackshot. You were always the ace.
Someone called you a crackpot. Said it right to your face.
It was not the effrontery that made you react;
The assault and the violation of rights.

In this wonderful country you and I live today.
Where we value the freedom which allows us to say,
Though the founders had principles, this can’t be denied.
Nothing’s frozen in time but history.
Who can really see that which the future brings?
Take that next shuttle. Go off to your condo on Mars.

Don’t take your guns to space.
They’ve done sufficient damage to this place.
Don’t take your guns to space.

It’s a volatile topic I’m addressing today.
But I fear to ignore it leaves for us hell to pay.
All the hunters and gatherers kick up such a stink.
Where this path’s gonna lead they dare not think.

We continue to venture into places unknown.
All this knowledge and progress takes us so far from home.
Many say that you must accept the good with the bad.
Seems to me that experience would show
Some things from the past don’t deserve to last.
Take that next step and leave all useless baggage behind.

Our sophistication in the arts and  the sciences can’t be denied.
Still we choose our tribal ways when there’s fear and uncertainty
That we must face. They’re true and tried.

But you still fail to grasp it like some new cosmic star.
Using force  laced with habit, you’re resisting so hard.
You say you got the word from some king high on a throne.
But mysteriously each word he speaks in that kingly tone,
Mighty but all alone, uncannily somehow sounds just like all of your  own.


Space
©2015 Raymond M. Jozwiak
from Just More Music



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Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings
 For all things "Gonzo Piano" please visit:
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Smoke . . .

https://sciencemadefun.net/blog/smoke-mirrors-day/

. . . 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

Smoke & Mirrors
©2019 Raymond M. Jozwiak
(demo in progress)

What do you think? Tell me at
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Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings
 For all things "Gonzo Piano" please visit:
Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano on CD Baby.com
The Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano Website
The Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano You Tube Channel

For all things "OHO" please visit:
The OHO CD Baby.com Website
OHO Music Website
The 'More OHO Music' You Tube Website
The 'Original' OHO Music You Tube Website

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Slough . . .

(from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan)
. . . Now I saw in my dream that, just as they had ended this talk, they drew near to a very miry slough that was in the midst of the plain; and they being heedless, did both fall suddenly into the bog. The name of the slough was "Despond." Here, therefore, they wallowed for a time, being grievously bedaubed with the dirt; and CHRISTIAN, because of the burden that was on his back, began to sink in the mire. . . "



Slough Of Despond
by OHO (Duo-Jay Graboski and Ray Jozwiak) live at 99 Sea Level, Bethany Beach, DE June 2019

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Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings


(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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For all things "Gonzo Piano" please visit:
Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano on CD Baby.com
The Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano Website
The Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano You Tube Channel

For all things "OHO" please visit:
The OHO CD Baby.com Website
OHO Music Website
The 'More OHO Music' You Tube Website
The 'Original' OHO Music You Tube Website

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Works . . .

We are all works in progress
You see
Only some of us think we're complete

What do you think?
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Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
Watch The Ocean City Ditty Video on YouTube
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We . . .

I would like think that human beings, as a species, are continuously evolving.  By evolution, I mean progressing in our thought processes to attain a higher level of understanding of who (and what) we really are and of our relationship with each other and the world in which we live. I am now realizing, in my later years, that while this is not untrue, this process does and will not affect all, nor even the majority, of the populace. Truth is, a very small number of us appear to grasp the subtleties, as well of the value, of this progress. . . a very disappointing fact.

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Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Progress? . . .

(From http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/human-rights-activist-esra-al-ghamgam-executed-by-saudi-arabia.540060/)
". . . Saudi sources as well as human rights sources of various stripes have confirmed the reporting that the Saudi human rights activist, Esra al-Ghamgam, was executed on the KSA’s prosecutor’s orders on Sunday. . .As Saudi women are given the freedom to drive and play an active role in society, Shia women are not only arrested for seeking freedom of religion but now punished with unheard of sentences for women in this Kingdom.”. . . "\

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(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Progress. . .

. . . and the Constitution . . .



(from http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/02/the-second-amendment-is-no-barrier-to-stricter-gun-laws.html)

". . . (to the) millions across America desiring stricter gun laws . . . the Constitution is no impediment to reform. . . all-out bans on assault-style weapons — the kind accused gunman Nikolas Cruz used in his rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida — are perfectly in harmony with the law as it exists today. No need to wait for a broken Congress or an apathetic president to do something. States and localities can lead the way today. And they have. . . (Antonin) Scalia’s own opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller — his greatest originalist achievement, in the view of many — left ample room for the regulation of firearms. In a passage that has become a thorn in the side of gun-rights enthusiasts, Scalia warned that people shouldn’t read too much into the fundamental right that he had just helped announce. Among other caveats and restrictions, Scalia wrote, “long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” were still fair game. . . Connecticut, legislators there and in New York sprang to action and passed stringent bans on assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines — The statutory schemes were broad, defining “assault weapons” as any semiautomatic rifle with at least one “military-style feature” — a definition that rendered the arsenal of prohibited weapons decidedly large. In Connecticut, the ban singled out 183 specific firearms by make and model. Court challenges were of no use. Both laws survived judicial scrutiny, and the Supreme Court didn’t bother reviewing the statutes’ constitutionality. In a one-line order, the court refused to add the case to its docket. . . Maryland enacted its own sweeping set of gun-control measures in response to Sandy Hook and other tragedies, declaring that the right to bear arms doesn’t extend to firearms that otherwise belong in the battlefield. “Put simply, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protection to the weapons of war that the Heller decision explicitly excluded from such coverage,” . . . the Supreme Court again didn’t bother with the Maryland ban and left the ruling in place. And so it has been for the past decade or so. Over the supplications of the National Rifle Association and others who have implored the court to revisit Heller, the court has refused, time and again, to clarify its contours. Could it be that there’s nothing to clarify? Just last week, the Supreme Court declined an invitation to review a California law that imposes a ten-day waiting period before an individual may purchase a firearm. The justices didn’t explain why the case didn’t interest them — maybe the Parkland school shooting in Florida was on their minds — and so it fell to Justice Clarence Thomas to be the lonesome voice crying out in the wilderness. “The right to keep and bear arms is apparently this Court’s constitutional orphan,” Thomas lamented in a 14-page dissent that not even Justice Neil Gorsuch dared join. “And the lower courts seem to have gotten the message.”. . ."

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Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings


(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Little . . .

. . . did they know that humankind possessed such tremendous potential to resist progress . . .


(inspired by https://www.righteousbabe.com/pages/we-gotta-stop-this)
[Excerpt from Federalist Paper 1]
"It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force."

[Excerpt from Federalist Paper 68]
"The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States."

What do you think?
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My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Progress . . .

. . . on a new work for piano (or something else) . . .



(from https://www.google.com/#q=progress)
prog·ress
noun
ˈpräɡres/
1. forward or onward movement toward a destination.
"the darkness did not stop my progress"
synonyms: forward movement, advance, going, progression, headway, passage
"boulders made progress difficult"
verb
prəˈɡres/
1. move forward or onward in space or time.
"as the century progressed, the quality of telescopes improved"
synonyms: go, make one's way, move, move forward, go forward, proceed, advance, go on, continue, make headway, work one's way
"they progressed slowly down the road"

Once You've Been There
©2016 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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

My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills

(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)

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!
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More Progress. . .

. . . on Plunge . . . (sing it with us now)


At heaven's door we pick the lock
When all we had to do was knock
Though Alice she rattles her train of chains
The fetters are inward all the same

Take a look as you fall
Passing through another wall
Here is where the corn is cut
The wind comes down
Get off the pot
Get off the pot
Get off the pot

It's your world the way that you live
Eats the smile right off your face          
You're not in Kansas anymore
I am the sheath I cry for more

Biding trends and waves of shock
The turbulence it turns me on
Nonetheless we're born and rocked
By divas, drunks and Barbie dolls

I signed up for high-wired acts
If I lose my balance just cut me some slack
I'm holding out for what can be
Emc squared possibility

Experience to be alive
The abstract now is literalized
You have dreams and nightmares to explore
Get the goods
Get off the floor
Get off the floor
Get off the floor



Plunge
latest mix from Blue Ball Studio courtesy of David M. Reeve




What do you think?
Tell me at
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http://www.ohomusic.com 

Get your copy of OHO's  Where Words Do Not Reach now!

The Ocean City Ditty Video is now on YouTube

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
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It's Not . . .

. . . really all about me . . .

On occasion when I'm alone, driving, waiting or otherwise alone with my thoughts, I find myself thinking about when my children were young and those memories conjure up a multitude of feelings and emotions.  All of the sentimental (some more melodramatic than others) graduation ceremonies marking their progress through various stages of their young education, the birthday celebrations and the special occasions like the Sesame Street stage presentation or the circus.  Some are thoroughly joyous - like those little faces on a Christmas morning when that day held such faithful anticipation. Some are just satisfyingly pleasant - like the daily drive to the daycare center when one rapscallion in the back seat munched his dry Cheerios from a plastic sandwich bag bathing the entire interior of the car in an oaty, fresh-baked goods aroma.  Or even a helplessly alarming panic I experienced when all three of them (and one buddy) were in an automobile accident and called me at the office to inform me of the event. (No serious injuries fortunately.)

I remember equally well, when each of them reached the age of 'non-childhood' and no longer needed to relate the gory details of their schoolday, homework assignment or friend's attitude on a particular day and, although still willing to offer a hug, no longer required one from me on such a regular basis. 

In fact, their rapidly maturing bodies no longer desired the intimate hug/cuddle/squeeze or whatever that was so meaningful (mutually) in the past. I missed that.  But I understood and I got over it.

But that's okay.  I loved every minute of it.  Sometimes there were no other deep thoughts or enlightening perspectives but I was so totally absorbed in the moment that nothing else mattered. And you know, nothing else really did.  But that, like all other things, passed and these fine young individuals matured and became wonderful young men.  

And though I no longer need to drive anyone to daycare in a Cheerios-saturated automobile, I am still as committed as ever to the well-being of these guys, although my involvement now takes very different forms, because I truly and honestly believe that my job, my goal, my destiny, my highest and greatest purpose (NO EXCEPTIONS) is to ensure that these guys are happy, contented adult individuals. Any and everything else beyond that is just . . . gravy!

What do you think?

Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html  or at
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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More House . . .

. . . party restoration . . . (with added gonzo piano and synth) . . .


". . . Somewhat dated but full of JOY, it's interesting that it sounds nothing like Aubrey Circle (more like Aubrey Circle meets Archie Bell & The Drells). So "following the trail of crumbs" (trusting in the process) brought this project to its partial fruition from that band's nugget of inspiration, implanted 30+ years ago. Special thanks to Vince Tuminello who guests on tambourine and especially to Bill Pratt who made manifest all the ideas we had for the tune and SOOOOOO much more. Tangentially related to this is having recently viewed a DVD about Joe Meek ("Telstar"); current musical endeavors (that stretch the imagination to match the long reach of time) are apparently being aerated in the effluvium of his influence. . . "

". . . impregnating the muse so she lights up like a small sun in the solar system of our souls. . ."

(from Jay Graboski, OHO)

House Party At Aubrey Circle
(remix, work-in-progress by OHO)

What do you think?
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 will be released April 7, 2014  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)

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The Last . . .

. . . person to give credit to the current U.S. Senate, would be ME . . .

. . . but . . .

Signs of progress began to emerge in U.S. budget talks on last Tuesday, as top Senate Democratic negotiator Patty Murray said that she sees a path toward an agreement to ease automatic "sequester" spending cuts.

Murray, asked if there was now a path forward in her talks with her counterpart, Republican Representative Paul Ryan, said: "I believe there is."

The lawmakers are racing against a December 13 deadline for a deal, as Republican resistance to including new tax revenues continued to be a sticking point, according to a Democrat on the negotiating committee headed by Murray and Ryan.

House and Senate negotiators were putting the finishing touches Sunday on what would be the first successful budget accord since 2011, when the battle over a soaring national debt first paralyzed Washington.

The deal expected to be sealed this week on Capitol Hill would not significantly reduce the debt, now $17.3 trillion and rising. It would not close corporate tax loopholes or reform expensive health-care and retirement programs. It would not even fully replace sharp spending cuts known as the sequester, the negotiators’ primary target.
(thanks to Reuters and the Washington Post)

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

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