pianogonzology

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Attitude . . .

. . . adjustment

. . . required

Mohammad Rasheed Ahmad, a student at the Ghousia Madrassa, or Islamic religious school, said he was disappointed so few came out to honor hérif and Saïd Kouachi, the Islamist terrorist brothers behind the Charlie Hebdo magazine massacre at funeral in absentia in the city of Peshawar recently.

"We saw tens of thousands of people gathered in France to show solidarity with their slain men, but Muslims didn't come to take part in the funeral of the two heroes who did this great job," he said.

Do you think maybe there's a REASON for that?!

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 offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music will be released April 7, 2014 Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Monday, January 12, 2015

Perfection . . .

Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.
Kim Collins

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
Salvador Dali

Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.
William Ellery Channing

Perfect is what's natural or real; that is beauty.
Marc Jacobs

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.
George Orwell

Redemption is not perfection. The redeemed must realize their imperfections.
John Piper

Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

To strive for perfection is noble. To expect to attain it is irrational.
Ray Jozwiak-Gonzo Piano

(thanks to http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/perfection.html#dMujzkJ2JrDpETmV.99)

Blue . . .

. . . Ball Road Studio . . . yes, it's real. . .

(from Jay's post on OHO's Facebook page, Sunday, January 11, 2015)
Today Ray & I meet David at his Blue Ball Road Studio to sort through a number of saxophone tracks recorded some time ago at Bill Pratt's Bratt Studio in Woodlawn by Gene Meros. The aim is to comb through them, locate the best phrases and link them with integrity. The process is the elimination of those phrases that definitely will not be used, then by a further elimination, then by an even further elimination; then by placing this phrase in front of THAT one; and that one behind THIS one: viola! Another "hit."

And we did indeed spend a joyous three hours on that cool and beautiful sunny Sunday to accomplish what you can hear below. One or two more tweaks back at Bratt Studios and we put this baby to bed.

Slough of Despond
(by OHO, Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak and recording Technicians extraordinaire Bill Pratt and David Reeve)

Sunday, January 11, 2015

But Boss . . .

(from http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/man-fired-after-skipping-work-24-years-n282931)
A.K. Verma, an executive engineer at the Central Public Works Department in India, was fired after last appearing for work in December 1990. "He went on seeking extension of leave, which was not sanctioned, and defied directions to report to work," the government said in a statement Thursday. Even after an inquiry found him guilty of "willful absence from duty" in 1992, it took another 22 years and the intervention of a cabinet minister to remove him, the government said. India's labor laws, which the World Bank says are the most restrictive anywhere, make it hard to sack staff for any reason other than criminal misconduct.

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Friday, January 9, 2015

Freedom and the Press . . .

(from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris-magazine-attack/charlie-hebdo-shooting-12-killed-muhammad-cartoons-magazine-paris-n281266)
". . . Twelve people were killed Wednesday when masked gunmen armed with AK-47s attacked the offices of a French satirical news magazine which has published cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. . . One of the magazine's editors, Gerard Biard, told France Inter radio: "I don't understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war." Hollande added that several other attacks had been thwarted in France "in recent weeks." "No barbaric act will ever extinguish the freedom of the press," Hollande said in a tweet. "We are a united country." . . ."

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . .
-John Adams

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. . . The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
-Thomas Jefferson

Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.
-Benjamin Franklin

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Consummate . . .

. . . politician . . .

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, and Senate majority leader ACTUALLY said:
“After so many years of sluggish growth, we’re finally starting to see some economic data that can provide a glimmer of hope; the uptick appears to coincide with the biggest political change of the Obama Administration’s long tenure in Washington: the expectation of a new Republican Congress. So this is precisely the right time to advance a positive, pro-growth agenda.”

During the election cycle, McConnell constantly accused the President of destroying the economy. As McConnell whined, economic conditions just kept getting better and U.S. job growth reached a 15-year high last year.

Never mind all those bothersome facts, now McConnell wants credit for the recovery’s unexpected strength. McConnell took his time to come up with this rhetorical trick. Two days before Christmas, when Americans learned that GDP growth in the third quarter of 2014 reached an 11-year high, McConnell said . . . nothing.
(thanks to http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-wants-credit-economic-turnaround)

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Some Things. . .

. . . don't change . . .

An excellent politician and good president, in all his humanity, captured the spirit of much that is true even today . . .

(from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson)
"I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

Said in 1960 in response to racist signs held by Johnson's motorcade in Tennessee. Recounted by Bill Moyers, then a member of Johnson's staff, in Bill Moyers: "What a Real President Was Like; To Lyndon Johnson, the Great Society Meant Hope and Dignity," The Washington Post, Nov. 13, 1988.