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:
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Quotes . . .

 . . . on notes . . .

(from http://musicmagic.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/quotes-about-music/)   
A painter paints pictures on canvas.  But musicians paint their pictures on silence. – Leopold Stokowski

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. – Berthold Auerbach

All deep things are song.  It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! – Thomas Carlyle

If the King loves music, it is well with the land. – Mencius

Without music life would be a mistake. – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
   
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons.  You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. – Gustav Mahler
   
Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them! – Oliver Wendell Holmes
   
Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom.  If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. – Charlie Parker

He who sings scares away his woes. – Cervantes
   
Music was my refuge.  I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. – Maya Angelou

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

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Refining . . .

is a process . . .


Having agonized over producing a worthy piano track for Mr. Graboski's 'Slough of Despond' I actually had an acceptable alternate version included in the mix below for you to hear.  My having to choose between the two reminded me the Hebrew bible story in 1 Kings 3:16-28. Two young women who lived in the same house and who both had an infant son came to Solomon for a judgment. One of the women claimed that the other, after accidentally smothering her own son while sleeping, had exchanged the two children to make it appear that the living child was hers. The other woman denied this and so both women claimed to be the mother of the living son and said that the dead boy belonged to the other. After some deliberation, King Solomon called for a sword to be brought before him. He declared that there was only one fair solution: the live son must be split in two, each woman receiving half of the child. Upon hearing this terrible verdict, the boy's true mother cried out, "Oh Lord, give the baby to her, just don't kill him!" The liar, in her bitter jealousy, exclaimed, "It shall be neither mine nor yours—divide it!" The king declared the first mother as the true mother and gave her the baby. King Solomon's judgment became known throughout all of Israel and was considered an example of profound wisdom.

I'm not quite sure how this wisdom can be applied to the piano track.  My dilemma is more akin to one mother having to choose one of her two twins over the other to be award a great prize or accolade.  Based solely upon the twins as individual human beings, a mother would simply be unable to made such a choice.

Nor can I.  (What a mother!)


Slough of Despond
(with alternate piano track)
by OHO [Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak]
(original tracks recorded at Blueball Studio, Stewartstown, PA)




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

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Little Men. . .

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Innocence and wisdom coexist inside their minds
Together with appreciation for the things we miss
In our haste and our big business
Always in awe of the wheels spinning round
And a laugh for the foolish things big men do

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Everybody thinks about the world and what the future brings
Who really knows the plan and all its subtleties
We're really smart at least that's what we think
Going our own way in blissful retreat
From the prospect of seeing things too clearly.

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Little Men
©1993 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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:
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Same Old. . .

. . . song?

(from Dylan Ratigan
Host, MSNBC's 'The Dylan Ratigan Show'; Author, 'Greedy Bastards'; Founder, Get Money Out Foundation
Auction 2012: Greedy Bastards and Student Debt)

". . . In President Obama's first speech to a joint session of Congress, he said "education in no longer a pathway to opportunity, it is a prerequisite."  It's no wonder - conventional wisdom says that those with college degrees earn roughly a million more dollars over their lives than those without them.  And there is a vast apparatus of lending institutions and Federal guarantees set up to help put people into college.  They do this not by keeping tuition free or low, as we did as a country after World War II, but by helping people get access to student loans.

This is the essence of what I've been calling The Very Bad Deal, where costs are deferred while benefits accrue upfront.  If you get a student loan, you get to attend college, and college is apparently the key to earning more over your lifetime, to "opportunity".  But student debt has some very nasty tricks and traps that most 18 year olds aren't aware of when they sign on the dotted line, and college may not be the opportunity gateway we've been assured it is.

The scale of the deal is vast and getting bigger - two thirds of those who attend college do so with borrowed money.  In August of 2010, the Wall Street reported that student loan debt surpassed credit card debt for the first time in history.  This amount is now sitting at roughly a trillion dollars.  Higher education inflation is the higher than health care inflation, and two and a half times the rate of normal inflation.  Are students really learning two and a half times as much?

Of course not.  What is happening is that universities have pricing power, and the Greedy Bastard behavior encourages them to compete on facilities and brand-name faculties rather than price and quality.  The Chronicle of Higher Education has described "an arms race of expenditures triggered by the pursuit of prestige."  Student debt also distorts pricing.  If students had to pay the full freight in college, they might be more price-sensitive consumers.  But since the costs of the education they are receiving are hidden, they don't pressure universities to reign in costs.  Lavish living environments, pointlessly luxurious sports facilities, and high salaries for administrators are just symptoms of a system where costs have become irrelevant. . ."

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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You've always been . . .

. . . ahead of me . . .

One fact that I
In my infinite wisdom
Could not always see
But in the end you always convinced me
Things aren't always
What they appear
The things I've always looked for

Once long ago before we met
I thought I could
Single-handedly make the
Spinning world go away
Just like some king
from back in those bygone days
But I was wrong
I don't belong
Inside this category

Seemed to be
At the time to me
To my advantage
Missing why
Not knowing
When to try
To start believing
In my
Very own
Self
Determination

Sometimes at night
When I'm alone
The solitude
And the quiet can bring out
All the worst in my head
But now it seems that isn't to big or bad
I've learned a thing
Or maybe two
And just ahead
There's
Always
You

ALWAYS YOU
(instrumental version from PUT A FINGER ON IT & WINE)
©2006 Raymond M. Jozwiak



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AMBIENCE & WINE
by Ray Jozwiak

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Sixth, sIck or non-. . .

. . . sense. . .

Call it a 'sixth sense', some kind of other-worldly wisdom, or just plain spooky, I have, numerous times in my life, had an ability to recognize exactly what I wanted.  And the only reason I think this is worth mentioning, is that every time I identified such a thing, pursued it and eventually obtained it, I was always content with my decision.  I don't mean chocolate candies, expensive toys, expansive mansions or excessive riches. In fact, the 'normal' material things that many of us so often crave, while some select things do appeal to me and certainly on multiple occasions I fleetingly or superficially did (and do) take a fancy to some unobtainable things, do not as a rule, consume or drive me to any great length.

This pragmatism may have been instilled in me during my formative years, being one of three children of minimally educated, blue-collar, progeny of Polish-Catholic immigrants who practiced frugality without depriving their family of necessities and not infrequently providing a number of reasonable luxuries whenever possible.  It almost seems to be a combination of the all-too-common rationalization of successive generations to 'satisfice', accepting that their lot in life will be more of the same of that pursued and experienced by their parents and a drive to become upwardly mobile.  I wanted to make what I perceived to be an enjoyable life for myself yet I wanted more than a high-school diploma and a labor or retail-centric job for the rest of my life.  I did not envision wealth, power, large material objects, boardrooms, fancy cars and world travel for myself.  I was a happy kid.  I only wanted to become a happy adult and I didn't think a protraction or a continuation of life as I knew it would provide that for me.

And I have not regretted any of the major decisions I have make in my life in matters such as education, marriage, residence and piano.  Yes, I said piano.



NO REGRETS © 2007 Raymond M. Jozwiak
From PUT A FINGER ON IT




What do YOU think?
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ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

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The poet said . . .

. . . trailing clouds of glory we come and go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly betraying the years
They have still to try
Those little men
with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men
With that glory
In their eyes

Innocence and wisdom coexist inside their minds
Together with appreciation for the the things we miss
In our haste and our big business
Always in awe of the wheels spinning round
With a laugh for the foolish things big men do

The poet said trailing clouds of glory we come and go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly betraying the years
They have still to try
Those little men
with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men
With that glory
In their eyes

Everybody thinks about the world and what the future brings
Who really knows the plan and all its subtleties
We're really smart at least that's what we think
Going our own way in blissful retreat
From the prospect of seeing things too clearly

The poet said trailing clouds of glory we come and go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly betraying the years
They have still to try
Those little men
with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men
With that glory
In their eyes

LITTLE MEN
©1992 Raymond M. Jozwiak


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


Download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

Please Visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com


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