pianogonzology

Friday, December 26, 2014

One Last . . .

. . . Christmas thought . . .

(from http://www.allthingschristmas.com/traditions/merry-christmas.html)

The term Merry Christmas doesn’t have any religious bias and is often used by people of all races and religious backgrounds, during Christmas time. It reflects that messages of love, joy and well wishes can be communicated irrespective of belief systems. It’s a greeting that makes total strangers make instant connection. It’s a message that dissolves anger. It’s a message that evaporates misunderstanding between loved ones and creates a bridge to the beginning of a new relationship. It’s amazing that these two simple words “Merry Christmas” can have this profound effect. In some places, people use a slight variation of the term “Merry Christmas.” In Ireland and Great Britain, some people prefer using “Happy Christmas” instead. However, the power and significance of the phrase is not diminished at all because of a difference in phraseology, because the intent of love and well being remains the same, no matter which phrase is used.

The phrase “Happy Christmas” was used by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and proceeded to gain popularity in that part of the world. In fact, in the concluding lines of his now famous “A visit from St. Nicholas”, Clement Moore actually used “Happy Christmas.” But “Merry Christmas” remains a very popular term in countries with large Christian population, like the United States, Great Britain, Canada and Australia. Other terms that are used around the same time of the year as a means of greeting are “Happy holidays”, “Seasons Greetings” and, of course, “Happy Christmas.”

There are groups of people who are opposed to the use of “Merry Christmas” and would prefer something more general term like the “Happy Christmas.” However, it’s interesting to note that in 2005 a survey discovered that more consumers used “Merry Christmas” than “Happy Christmas”, primarily in the message of greeting cards.

The fact remains that no matter what term you use, it’s the intent that matters. Use of words is merely an audible method of sending a message. Words have no meaning in themselves, other than the one perceived by the person who hears it. And when we are using something like “Merry Christmas”, is there any doubt about our intentions?

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 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

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Too Big To Fail . . .

. . . Too dangerous to exist

(from Senator Elizabeth Warren's comments to Citigroup)

A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt was America's trustbuster. He went after the giant trusts and monopolies in this country, and a lot of people talk about how those trusts deserved to be broken up because they had too much economic power. But Teddy Roosevelt said we should break them up because they had too much political power. Teddy Roosevelt said break them up because all that concentrated power threatened the very foundations of our democratic system. And now we're watching as Congress passes yet another provision that was written by lobbyists for the biggest recipient of bailout money in the history of the country. And it's attached to a bill that needs to pass or else the entire federal government will grind to a halt.

Think about this kind of power. A financial institution has become so big and so powerful that it can hold the entire country hostage. That alone is a reason enough for us to break them up. Enough is enough.

(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

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Casualness and Formality . . .

(from Joseph and his Brothers by Thomas Mann)
". . . They approached the matter about which they had come together, however, only reluctantly and with shrugs, skirting and backing off the issue several times, as if each side wished to suggest to the other that it would be better not to speak of it-precisely because the topic to be addressed, the matter at hand, was a subject about which it was necessary to maintain the appearance of disdain for the sake of a higher humanity. For, ultimately, it is the luxury of exaggerated objectivity, a pretense of priorities honoring refined formality, including a generous casualness about wasting time for formality's sake, that defines what is worthy of humankind: those things that are more than merely natural and therefore civilized. . . "

(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

Monday, December 22, 2014

Hypnotic . . .

(thanks to http://io9.com/5891504/what-hypnosis-really-does-to-your-brain)
Nearly every culture in the world has a history of hypnotic trances considered either spiritual or eerie. India and China used hypnosis to relieve pain during surgery. The practice soon migrated to Europe. Ether and anesthesia pushed hypnosis out of medicine, for the most part. Eventually, Hollywood embraced it as a plot device, adding on fantastic properties that made it seem still more outlandish to the public. It finally settled in the entertainment industry, where it does have the power to make people do extremely silly things, with extreme sincerity.

Compared to a resting brain, many areas are activated when a person is put into a hypnotic trance. All the areas that flare to life during hypnosis are also engaged when a person is concentrating on mental imagery — except one. Like many areas of the brain, the precuneus lights up during many different tasks, all of them having to do with a consciousness of self. It also deals with visuospatial aspects of the brain, letting us know where we are in space.

Under hypnosis, people are able to concentrate intensely on self-created imagery (or imagery that suggested to them) but do not place their selves as part of that imagery. They've lost the reminder of what they personally do and what normal judgments they make, while increasing their ability to think about a whole range of imaginary situations.

Baltimore Improvisation
OHO's Jay Groboski, hypnotic guitar musings to the changes of Randy Newman's Baltimore, Ray Jozwiak, keyboard accompanist (recorded at the Compound, December 2014 sans percussion)

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 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

WTF? . . .

. . . is figgy pudding anyway? . .

. . . and why did this man demand it so forcefully in song every year?

(thanks to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17356371)
Figgy pudding — aka plum pudding, plum porridge, Christmas pudding and steamed pudding — is a quintessentially British sweet with a history that might go back to Shakespeare's time. We know it was around in the mid-1600s, because that's when the English Puritans banned it — and Christmas, too. There probably aren't too many sweets that have been banned, but then there aren't too many sweets that are as alcoholic as this one.

The pudding, a steamed cakelike treat that's chockablock with dried fruits — such as (but not limited to) figs, raisins, cherries and cranberries — is a sturdy sweet that gets its good keeping qualities (you can make it now and stow it away until Christmas), its lovely moistness and its bona fides for being banned from alcohol: brandy or cognac and rum in the mix, and the same over it, if you want to present it aflame.

(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

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Solstice . . .

(from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/winter-solstice-2014-what-is-it--and-why-will-mornings-still-get-darker-9938160.html)
The Winter Solstice occurs in December in the Northern Hemisphere, and in June in the Southern Hemisphere. The date itself is not fixed: the phenomenon doesn't always occur on 21 December in the Northern Hemisphere. Sometimes it arrives in the early hours of 22 December, which will happen next year. The hour also fluctuates: last year's Solstice arrived at 17:11, whereas next year's is predicted to be at 04:38.

A solar day is rarely 24 hours exactly. The sun therefore lags behind the clock for part of the year, and speeds ahead of it for another. The length of a solar day varies because the axis of the Earth's rotation is tilted - 23.5 degrees from vertical - and because its speed fluctuates as it orbits the sun, accelerating when it is closer to the star's gravitational pull and decelerating when further away.
It takes a while for the clock and the solar days to align: evenings draw in towards their earliest sunset a couple of weeks before the shortest day, and mornings continue to get darker until a couple of weeks after.

(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

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Thin . . .

. . . man

(from http://www.filmsite.org/thin.html)
The Thin Man (1934) is the first installment of a popular series of films casting a sophisticated, glamorous, pleasure-seeking, and urbane husband-wife detective team (William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles). Director W.S. Van Dyke had previously directed Manhattan Melodrama (1934), in which stars Powell and Loy had displayed their unique and charming chemistry in their first of 14 film pairings. The film's mystery story takes a back seat to the romantic screwball comedy, featuring the splendid, snappy and flirty banter between the rich, carefree married couple. They are known for sleuthing, solving murders, wisecracking one-liners, affectionate witticisms, delightful teasing and one-upmanship, alcoholic fun with plenty of martinis, a wire-haired terrier named Asta (actually named Skippy), and a loving relationship - often punctuated with quick kisses and slight hiccups. The story is taken from Dashiell Hammett's 1934 detective novel of the same name, with a married couple that was supposedly modeled on the author's relationship with longtime love and playwright Lillian Hellman. [This was Hammett's fifth and final novel, written following The Maltese Falcon and The Glass Key.] The 'thin man' is actually the murder victim in the novel and film, and only appeared in the initial film. This low-budget MGM film, that was shot in less than three weeks (14 days) and earned over $2 million, is the best of the bunch. It launched a series of five more lucrative Thin Man movies (from 1936 to 1947), some of which had their screenplays also written by Dashiell Hammett. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich were responsible for co-writing the screenplays for the first three Thin Man films.

(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