The Lab . . .

". . . Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,
Pound at thy powder, -- I am not in haste!
Better sit thus, and observe thy strange things,
Than go where men wait me and dance at the King's.

That in the mortar -- you call it a gum?
Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come!
And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue,
Sure to taste sweetly, -- is that poison too?

Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures,
What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!
To carry pure death in an earring,at a ball a casket,
A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree-basket! . . ."
(from The Laboratory by Robert Browning)


Out Of Thin Air
(from the laboratory at Graboski West)



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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
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My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:

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Ho . . .

. . . bo?. . .

.

(from wikipedia.com)
". . . The origin of the term is unknown. According to etymologist Anatoly Liberman, the only certain detail about its origin is the word was first noticed in American English circa 1890. Liberman points out that many folk etymologies fail to answer the question: "Why did the word become widely known in California (just there) by the early Nineties (just then)?"Author Todd DePastino has suggested it may derive from the term hoe-boy meaning "farmhand", or a greeting such as Ho, boy!Bill Bryson suggests in Made in America (1998) that it could either come from the railroad greeting, "Ho, beau!" or a syllabic abbreviation of "homeward bound".[4] It could also come from the words "homeless boy". H. L. Mencken, in his The American Language (4th ed., 1937), wrote:

    Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but see themselves as sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but sooner or later he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Apart from either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when propelled to motion by the police. . ."







. . . or "Homeless Brother"?

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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:

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Spooks. . .

. . . come in all shapes, sizes and degrees of 'scariness'.  But this Monday
at the Brewer’s Alley Songwriters’, one Spook is appearing that you'll be glad you came to hear:   SPOOK HANDY

Show opens 7:15 with
Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano opening the January 13th show @ 7:30PM

Also on the bill, 3 songs each from Patrick Post, Tim Kirkner and Mary Shapiro w/Jeff Wolf with poetry by  Rod Deacey

Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery
124 North Market Street Frederick, MD 21701
Telephone: 301-631-0089 Fax: 301-631-1874
  http://www.brewers-alley.com/

What do you think?
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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)

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Honestly . . .

. . . can you always remember stuff like this? . . .

. . . I can't . . .


(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice)
The summer solstice occurs when the tilt of a planet's semi-axis, in either the northern or the southern hemisphere, is most inclined toward the star (sun) that it orbits. Earth's maximum axial tilt toward the sun is 23° 26'. This happens twice each year, at which times the sun reaches its highest position in the sky as seen from the north or the south pole.

The summer solstice occurs during a hemisphere's summer. This is northern solstice in the northern hemisphere and the southern solstice in the southern hemisphere. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the summer solstice occurs some time between December 20 and December 23 each year in the southern hemisphere and between June 20 and June 22 in the northern hemisphere.

When on a geographic pole, the sun reaches its greatest height, the moment of solstice, it can be noon only along that longitude which at that moment lies in the direction of the sun from the pole. For other longitudes, it is not noon. Noon has either passed or has yet to come. Hence the notion of a solstice day is useful. The term is colloquially used like midsummer to refer to the day on which solstice occurs. The summer solstice day has the longest period of daylight – except in the polar regions, where daylight is continuous, from a few days to six months around the summer solstice.

Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied among cultures, but most recognize the event in some way with holidays, festivals, and rituals around that time with themes of religion or fertility.

Solstice is derived from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).

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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:

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Feeling . . .

. . . a little shitty. . .

. . . exclusively with myself.  No reflection on ANYONE in my life at present. . . had a very good OHO rehearsal for the Band Bash coming up May 24th presented through the kindness, generosity and genuine love for music possessed by fellow Towson resident Paul Rieger. . . but for some reason, since my own personal practice session at the Kawai here at home where I played (again) pretty shitty (or would the adverb be 'shiftily'?). . . and tonight at OHO rehearsal I just thought after all my practice at home that I could perform a little more consistently accurate and . . . I don't know. . . just a little shitty. . .

. . . Ever felt this way???. . .



Just look at the morning paper

And tell me what you see

Is something very wrong

Or maybe my eyes deceive me

Somewhere in the local section

A buried paragraph

Someone who had the time to care

And the character to act



The higher the highs

The lower the lows

The older I get

That's the way that it goes

The more that I think that I want

The less that I need

Because I realize how precious

And how short

This time with you may be



When you're young and your biggest worry's

What game you want to play

Such innocence is just surpassed

By the naivete

Take good with the worst

And better

You know they're not the same

Youth somehow brings them all together

Different they are

But subtle the shades



The higher the highs

The lower the lows

The older I get

That's the way that it goes

The more that I think that I want

The less that I need

Because I realize how precious

And how short

This time with you may be



Youth really

Is only wasted


If never

You've tasted

All the bitter

As well as sweet



I hope you don't misunderstand me

Or what I want to say

It's nothing revolutionary

Ignorance won't make this go away

Nobody likes a busybody

Nobody knows it all

There's one thing I can tell you certain

Take none for granted

Short or the tall



The higher the highs

The lower the lows

The older I get

That's the way that it goes

The more that I think that I want

The less that I need

Because I realize how precious

And how short

This time with you may be


Highs & Lows
©2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak





What do you think?
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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:

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American. . .

 

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_McLean)
(Don) McLean's other well-known songs include: "And I Love You So" was covered by Elvis Presley, Helen Reddy, Shirley Bassey, Glen Campbell, Engelbert Humperdinck, Howard Keel and a 1973 hit for Perry Como.   "Vincent", a tribute to the 19th-century Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh. Although it only reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, it proved to be a huge hit worldwide.[citation needed] It was a No. 1 hit single in the UK Singles Chart. This song was covered by NOFX on their album titled 45 or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough to Go on Our Other Records, and also appears on the Fat Wreck Chords compilation Survival of the Fattest. "Vincent" was also covered by Josh Groban on his 2001 debut album. "Castles in the Air", which McLean recorded twice. His 1981 re-recording was a top-40 hit, reaching #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1981. Wonderful Baby", a tribute to Fred Astaire that Astaire himself recorded. Primarily rejected by pop stations, it reached #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening survey. "Superman's Ghost", a tribute to George Reeves, who portrayed Superman on television in the 1950.  "The Grave", a song that McLean had written about the Vietnam War, was covered by George Michael in 2003 in protest against the Iraq War.

The American Pie album features a version of Psalm 137, entitled "Babylon". The song is based on a canon by Philip Hayes and was arranged by McLean and Lee Hays (of The Weavers). "Babylon" was performed in the Mad Men episode of the same name despite the fact that the song would not be released until 10 years after the time in which the episode is set.

What do you think?
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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:

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your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

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A Very Good Year . . .

 . . . and also . . .

(A digital-download-only solo, instrumental piano music
release by me [Ray Jozwiak])

 The track list is:
 1.  My Mystery
  2.  Compound Fracture
  3.  Harbor Noon
  4.  Highs & Lows
  5.  Not Like Me
  6.  Ognat
  7.  Stick To Your Guns
  8.  Integrity
  9.  Exactly
10.  Your Voice
11.  Baggage

© 2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak
All compositions written and performed by me [Ray Jozwiak]

and it's Available at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak

     
Ognat
(instrumental) ©2013 Raymond M. Jozwiak
from '2014'




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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