Video . . .

. . . killed. . .

 

On your mark get set
Disconnect that Internet
Every girl and boy
Breathing in the joy
Not a care at last
Sit outside and bask
In rays of summer's bliss 

Crabs and fish and shells
Feel your tension spell
Fries and pizza pie
Smiles won't be denied
Everything is cool
in 2 1 8 4 2
Feel the sparkle in your eyes

Catch a wave and ride
Cars and motorbikes
Bikini babes in the sand
Vibin' to rockin' bands
Ocean City

From Memorial to Labor Day
We beckon you to play
To a boardwalk beat
Miles and miles of beach
Your memories to take
Currents dance and sway
leave your footprints in the sand

Fireworks at night
Give your love a kiss
Sail and fish the sea
Here life is a beach
in Ocean City

Now is the time that's right
For you only live once
Time does drag when it's all work and no fun
The ocean gateway calls you
Sport your shorts and shades
It's so divine to dine at life's buffet
It's almost heaven and
There's so much more we can say

Catch a wave and ride
Cool cars and motorbikes
Bikinis on the sand
Dance to rockin' bands
Ocean City

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', 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

Tweet

More . . .

(from The Hidden History of 9-11, Edited by Paul Zarembka)
". . . On of the gravest omissions from the Commission Report concerns the sworn testimony of Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on May 23, 2003.  Mineta's testimony throws crucial elements of the Commission's narrative into doubt. 

Here are the key passages from Mineta's testimony regarding his memories of the actions of Vice President Dick Cheney in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) bunker on the morning of September 11, 2001:

Mineta: during the time that the airplane coming into the Pentagon.  There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 10 mils out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?"  And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the order still stand.  Have you heard anything to the contrary?"

. . . Though Mineta makes clear that he did not hear a shoot-down order given that morning, and therefore could not confirm that the conversation between Cheney and the young aide regarded such an order, Commissioner Hamilton nevertheless assumes that the "order" discussed by Cheney and the young aide was in fact shoot-down order. . .

. . . Further evidence of an orchestrated cover-up of this information comes from the fact that videotape of Mineta's testimony has been excised from the Commission's video archive. . . "

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

Tweet

Booking. . .

Dear Mr. Booking Agent,

I just stumbled upon a video of your band on YouTube.  I heard you guys at the beach last year.  Very nice.  Jay and David (founding members of OHO) know your keyboardist very well and actually played in a band with him years ago.

Anyway, still hoping OHO can get a date(s) from you at the Downtown Club.  Fall or winter would be fine if your schedule is full.
Best,
Ray Jozwiak
Oho


Dear Ray,

I've had time to listen to some of your stuff and I don't think it's going to fly at The Downtown. We mainly book high energy pop/rock cover bands. Our demographic Thursday through Saturday nights is more of the young university crowd. We don't really do original bands & the covers you guys do are pretty obscure.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A?

Mr. Booking Agent,

Thank you for taking the time to listen to Oho and for your kind response.

I presume you mean by 'high energy pop/rock cover bands' that each of them play virtually identical repertoire of predictable selections.  Also, do I read into your comment 'high-energy' that for some reason (longevity?) you presume a lack of or a 'low' energy quotient in us?

It seems odd to me that you give the university crowd, a population who is dedicating or will dedicate 4 to 6 years of their lives to LEARNING NEW THINGS, no credit for artistic open-mindedness.  Possibly you should reconsider ORIGINAL bands for the venue.

We seem to think that Beatles/McCartney/Lennon material as well as Leonard Cohen, the Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel and the like are ANYTHING BUT obscure.  But hey, that's just US!  What the hell do WE know????

Best,
Ray Jozwiak
Oho


or B?

Dear Mr. Booking Agent,

Thank you for taking the time to listen to Oho and for your kind response.  Should you and The Downtown decide on a change in format, we hope you will keep Oho in mind.

Best,
Ray Jozwiak
Oho

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Methinks B.

 



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

Tweet

I Am A Historian. . .

. . . says Dr. Reza Aslam during a recent torture session to which he was subject.


Have you seen the interview of Reza Aslam by Fox News that's sweeping the internet? (http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/is-this-the-most-embarrassing-interview-fox-news-has-ever-do) It's been called 'excruciating', 'embarrassing' and 'painful' to watch.

The Fox reporter (I believe her name is Lauren Green) persistently interjects "My question is . . . " most times producing no real question at all or simply positing accusatory statements related to Dr. Aslam's professed faith.

The video is generally labeled a 'debate' while, in fact, there is no debate at all.  It is an embarrassing (to Ms. Green and Fox only) attempt to discredit a scholar which Fox and Ms. Green presume disagrees with their point of view without so much as reading the book produced by the scholar.

Excruciating?  Embarrassing?  Painful?   Maybe!

I call it enlightening.  Enlightening only in the fact that it provides further evidence of the worthlessness of the entire enterprise called Fox News.

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

Tweet

Lesson. . .

. . . learned.

The kid who was incarcerated over an alleged threat on Facebook is now free thanks to an anonymous donor who posted his $500,000 bail.  The threat came during an argument about a video game when he claims to have 'sarcastically' said he was going to "shoot up a kindergarten."  He was jailed in February.

School violence and free speech came head to head as a result of the incident. In response to reporters, the young man said,   "I certainly would have thought a lot more about what I said and how permanent my writing -- and everyone's writing -- is (on the Internet).  People should be very, very careful of what they say. It's being recorded all the time, if you say it on any website, anywhere. And you can get in trouble for something that's not something you should get in trouble for. I just want people to be warned."


Lesson learned.

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

Tweet

Memories. . .

. . . music. . . etc. . .

Pondering two aspects of music swirling around in my mind when I switched rails to the other and discovered a substantial distance between the two extremities.

The video "Thou Shalt Always Kill" by Scroobius Pip (see Pianogonzology, March 19, 2013) continues to fascinate, as does the artistry and person of the performer, David Peter Meads.  Hip-hop music done with an English accent (the hiphop-pronunciations in this dialect are another topic altogether), the Hasidim-style beard, baseball cap, thrift shop suit and twinkling eyes - not to mention truly clever lyrics - make the entire prospect unusual to me, although maybe not to young, British, hip-hop fans.  The result is a very enjoyable entertainment.

The other end of the spectrum that I was pondering? . . .

What do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

You can NOW download your
very own copy of Ray Jozwiak's
newest release:
AMBIENCE & WINE

Please visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

It's Not Easy. . .

. . . being a creative artist on a budget.

Like this weekend, I have discovered that my Canon ELPH can be easily used to take videos (I knew it could but never thought it through for music promotion).  But the problem herewith is the audio.  You know how the old recordings on 78rpm records always sounded like they were recorded in a rainshower?  Well that's what the audio sounds like on my Canon videos.  So I got the brilliant (my word) idea that I could record the audio portion in glorious, high-quality digital format with my Zoom H2 portable digital recorder, then sync everything together in Garageband for a fine video.  Well, necessity is the mother of invention you know.  What I didn't take into account was the file trail (and file naming etc.) task that would be required to keep it all straight.  For example, if I flubbed a take and chose to plow forward without stopping either machine, I had to remember how many false starts were on each take.  Attempting to record more that one song only complicated matters.  Then I also learned that since Garageband is specifically designed for audio, I could not edit the beginning of a video the way I could stop it at the end anywhere I wanted.  At least I haven't figured out how to do it.  So I re-recorded several pieces and edited the beginning on the Canon before uploading it to my laptop.

It's a lot of boring information granted.  But it's how I spent most of my weekend.  I did learn a lot about the process and now know how to avoid some of the earlier pitfalls.  I'm not too ashamed of the outcome though. . .

What do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

You can NOW download your
very own copy of Ray Jozwiak's
newest release:
AMBIENCE & WINE

Please visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Hypocritical?. . .

. . . do you think?. . .

(from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/15/16524425-nra-releases-practice-range-shooting-app-after-blaming-video-games-for-violence?lite)
". . .Just weeks after the National Rifle Association forcefully blamed violent video games for gun violence, a new shooter game is out that appears to be from the NRA. "NRA: Practice Range" was released Sunday in iTunes, the Apple-run site. It features a 3D-shooting range and offers users simulated target practice. It isn’t clear what connection the NRA has to the app, which is described as an "Official NRA Licensed Product" on iTunes. NBC News has reached out to the organization for comment but has yet to receive a response. The game's launch comes one month after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which touched off a national debate over how to limit gun violence. “Guns don’t kill people. Video games, the media and Obama’s budget kill people,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at a Dec. 21 press conference where he addressed the tragedy at Sandy Hook. "There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people, through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’” The free app was initially recommended for ages 4 and up, according to the iTunes rating system, but later Monday was recommended for 12 and up. . .  "

What do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

You can NOW download your
very own copy of Ray Jozwiak's
newest release:
AMBIENCE & WINE

Please visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet