What Hath . . .

. . . we wrought? . . .

(from http://fox2now.com/2014/08/27/4-year-old-expelled-from-pre-school-for-moms-facebook-post/)
A Florida mom says her four-year-old was expelled from his preschool over a message she posted on her personal Facebook page. Ashley Habat says she and her son will were running late for school. It was picture day at Sonshine Christian Academy. “The administrator of the preschool checking him in she’s like “Well it’s picture day Will are you excited?” and you know he of course just went on to class but I had mentioned that they didn’t give enough notice. And she’s like, “Well we put it in his folder last week.” said Ashley Habat. So Habat says she took to Facebook, saying she just wanted to vent her frustrations. She also never thought the school would ever see her post. “They couldn’t see it, it was private to my friends only.” said Ashley Habat. The post read, “Why is it that every single day there is something new I dislike about Will’s school? Are my standards really too high or are people working in the education field really just that ignorant.” She tagged the school in the post. The next morning she received a call asking her to stop by when she drops off her son. “They just felt like we weren’t the right fit of parent relationship with the school and that they didn’t want him as a student anymore. He had done nothing wrong.” said Ashley Habat. According to the letter of dismissal, “Your relationship with Sonshine did not get off to a very good start the first day of school. You utilized social media to call into question not only the integrity but the intelligence of our staff. These actions are also consistent with sowing discord which is spoken of in the handbook you signed. “I was in shock. Why would you expel a 4-year-old over something his mom posts on her private Facebook page only people on her friends list can see.” said Ashley Habat. . .

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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) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

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

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Bad . . .

. . . Choice(s) . . .

(http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/arizona-shooting-range-instructor-killed-girl-uzi-n189611)
A shooting range instructor in Arizona was accidentally shot and killed by a 9-year-old girl who was learning how to shoot an Uzi, authorities said on Tuesday. Charles Vacca, 39, was teaching the girl how to use the automatic weapon on Monday morning at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, when she pulled the trigger and the kickback caused the gun to lurch over her head, investigators said. Vacca was hit by a stray bullet and airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he was pronounced dead late Monday. The girl was at the range with her parents at the time, but their names were not released.  Sam Scarmardo, the manager for the Last Stop's shooting range, told NBC News that "the established practice at most shooting ranges is 8 years old and up with parental supervision." He said Vacca was a "great guy, with a great sense of humor" and called him "very conscientious and very professional." Scarmardo said that the range has never had a similar incident in over a decade of being open — "not even a scratch." "I just ask everybody to pray for Charlie, and pray for the client, she’s going to have a hard time," said Scarmardo. The Arizona Department of Public Safety referred inquiries to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, which didn't return calls for comment.
Ronald Scott, a Phoenix-based firearms safety expert, said most instructors usually have their hands on guns when children are firing high-powered weapons. "You can't give a 9-year-old an Uzi and expect her to control it," Scott told the Associated Press.

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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) 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
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Old . . .

. . . story. . .

. . . but amusing . . . (maybe Warren should help someone who actually NEEDS it)


(from http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/warren-buffett-admires-lebron-james-business-sense-172013145--nba.html)
". . . Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and money makes for even stranger ones. Witness: the budding lovefest between LeBron James, 27-year-old multimillionaire and best player in the NBA, and Warren Buffett, 82-year-old multibillionaire and second-richest man in the country.

James is coming off a year in which he achieved every possible height in his chosen profession: MVP, championship, Olympic gold medal. But he's always had his eye on larger prizes. He's long wanted to join Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher as billion-dollar athletes, and he's in the process of collecting a team that might just make that happen.

And Warren Buffett is a solid first-round draft pick for that team. Buffett recently told the Miami Herald that he believes LeBron has what it takes to succeed in the boardroom.

"You have to get to know him," Buffett said. "LeBron's not initially really talkative. He's savvy. He's smart about financial matters. It's amazing to me the maturity he exhibits. I know that if I had been famous at that age, I would have had trouble keeping my feet on the ground." (What kind of a vertical leap do you figure Buffett has?) . . .  ground." (What kind of a vertical leap do you figure Buffett has?) . . .But his bank account is doing just fine. He earned $53 million in 2011, according to Forbes, $40 million of which came from endorsements. That puts him behind only Woods and boxers Floyd Maywether and Manny Pacquiao. But it's still a long way from there to a billion, and that's where Buffett and others come in. James will be looking to maximize sponsor opportunities, and at the moment he's got his choice of high-profile companies, such as Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Samsung. . ."

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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) 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
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A Different Perspective . . .

. . . than when I was eighteen. . .

After lunch downtown, I noticed a relatively crisp five-dollar bill on the ground, gently rocking in the wind just outside the door of the food court.  Surprising myself, I quickly stooped down and scooped it up.  I then, correcting myself for being so selfishly hasty, glanced left, right and behind me to ensure someone wasn’t searching for the note they just dropped or at least upon the verge of realizing that they just dropped it.  But alas, the few people within range were going about their business and none appeared to have dropped or missed anything. 

So I thought to myself, should I really have picked it up in the first place?  If I leave this bill on the ground in hopes that its owner returns to claim it, surely someone not far behind and in no greater need of it will pick it up instead.  And does someone else truly deserve such good fortune any more than I do?  Certainly not! 

Then I thought to myself, it’s only five dollars surely someone will chance upon who needs it more than I do, or let’s say needs it more than I WANT it.  But then I neatly dispensed with that notion for much the same reasons used to rationalize the previous dilemma.

Finally, I thought, what I’ll do is give it to the next homeless or otherwise unfortunate person, or possibly street entertainer or musician that I encounter en route to my destination.  But my walk was probably no more than 500 feet or so and, although I have from time to time encountered a needy person on the very same short route before, there was not a soul in my path that was loitering, begging or otherwise in apparent need of my new found currency.  So I placed it in my pocket and entered the building.

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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) 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
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Hunters . . .

. . . and Gatherers . . .

All of us are born into a "tribal mentality" of various forms. These include our family unit, religious background, country of origin, ethnicity, etc. The tribal mentality effectively indoctrinates an individual into the tribe's beliefs, ensuring that all believe the same. The structure of reality – what is and is not possible for the members of the group – is thus agreed upon and maintained by the tribe.
While the tribal mentality has definite benefits in terms of establishing common ground and ensuring group survival, it is not a conscious agreement. We are born into it. Yet at a certain stage, both personally and collectively, the tribal mentality must be challenged. People can then begin to recognize the need for a personal honor code independent of the tribe. If humanity is to progress, we need to learn how to treat everyone – regardless of tribal affiliation – with honor and respect.
Every one of us is plugged into the tribal mind. We support tribal belief patterns by directing a percentage of our life force into maintaining our affiliation with the tribe. This involves an implicit agreement to think like the tribe thinks, to evaluate situations and people the way the tribe does, and to believe in right and wrong according to tribal values and ambitions. As long as the tribal mentality within us remains unexamined, we unwittingly subject others to our tribal laws.


Hunters & Gatherers
(newly recorded music for a proposed 2016 solo release)




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) 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
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Sincere . . .

 . . . genuine, talent. . .


(from http://www.irasullivanjazz.com/#!bio)
Hyperbole surrounds Ira Sullivan. It is evident in both his music and his life. His talent has been called "Pure lyric," "Fire," "Formidable," "Complex," "Ornate," "Unparalleled," "Haunting," or, more simply, "Legend." Some reviewers say he is a musical genius; others say this is an understatement. They cite his ability to pick up a strange instrument and, within a few days, to be as conversant with it as if he had been playing it for years. World class multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan plays trumpet, flugelhorn, peckhorn, tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, flute, and an occasional round of drums, all of them impeccably and not as a gimmick. A master of almost the entire range of brass and reed instruments, he is known for his ability to come in cold and turn in a stellar performance. Ira is widely recorded and tours on the national and international jazz circuits. A five-time Grammy nominee, he serves as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. As a clinician, lecturer, and adjudicator in jazz workshops at universities and schools across the country and abroad, he finds that the History of Jazz programs that he initiated while attending high school in Chicago are now being replicated in many of these institutions. One if his current projects is an ensemble he calls the INTER/OUTER CONTINENTAL JAZZ QUINTET. Together, this unique and multi-ethnic group expresses a wide spectrum of the jazz milieu, dipping freely into both traditional and uncommon territory. Ira Sullivan feels that music is one of the finest gifts God has bestowed upon mankind. One of his greatest joys is leading Jazz Vespers at the many churches he plays, where the congregations share his belief that there is a dynamic spiritual connotation to this most American of musical styles. It is this spiritual impulse that most clearly defines Ira Sullivan's music. For forty years, he has ended his performances all over the world with the venerable hymn "Amazing Grace," a soulful salute to the Spirit within.

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) 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:
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Good & Bad. . .

. . . things in Chicago 

(http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/about/history.html)
Throughout their city’s history, Chicagoans have demonstrated their ingenuity in matters large and small:
    •    The nation’s first skyscraper, the 10-story, steel-framed Home Insurance Building, was built in 1884 at LaSalle and Adams streets and demolished in 1931.
    •    When residents were threatened by waterborne illnesses from sewage flowing into Lake Michigan, they reversed the Chicago River in 1900 to make it flow toward the Mississippi.
    •    Start of the "Historic Route 66" which begins at Grant Park on Adams Street in the front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
    •    Chicago was the birthplace of:
    ◦    the refrigerated rail car (Swift)
    ◦    mail-order retailing (Sears and Montgomery Ward)
    ◦    the car radio (Motorola)
    ◦    the TV remote control (Zenith)
    •    The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, ushering in the Atomic Age, took place at the University of Chicago in 1942. The spot is marked by a Henry Moore sculpture on Ellis Avenue between 56th and 57th streets.
    •    The 1,450-foot Sears Tower, completed in 1974, is the tallest building in North America and the third tallest in the world.

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) 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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