pianogonzology

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Power . . .

It seems that every human being harbors to some extent, though not without exception and not all act on it, a desire to control, or shall we say hold power over others. This holds true whether in the confines of a professional office setting or in groups such as clubs and organized religious sects. My first eye-opening experience with this came with my first, full-time job. Some people there eventually were eventually promoted to supervisory positions. Upon attaining that lofty (in their eyes) status, they became just like some others higher in the authority chain who did not necessarily practice ideal organizational management skills. Some even adopted behaviors towards subordinates about which they formerly and vociferously complained. "How can this be?" I thought. . . and still do.

"Those who have been intoxicated with power... Can never willingly abandon it."
– Edmund Burke

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
-Abraham Lincoln

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
-Paulo Freire

"The measure of a man is what he does with power."
-Plato

"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power."
-David Brin

"Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself."
-Elie Weisel

"For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit."
-Noam Chomsky

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 is now available at - 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

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Wild . . .

. . . Woman

Traveling down to the Congo
Flying 'round Amazon way
Natives are playing the bongos
Listen to what they have to say
You know I'm ready for love
And I thank my lucky stars above

She's all dressed up and there's not place to go
But she's a Wild Woman
She's got a secret so nobody knows
That she's a Wild Woman
She won't pretend to be something she's not
And I don't have to need her 'cause she's something I've got

Swinging from cocoanut branches
Swim with the crocodiles too
But late at night she romances
What is a helpless boy to do
I've seen it a thousand times before
You get hit in the back with the slamming door

She's all dressed up and there's not place to go
But she's a Wild Woman
She's got a secret so nobody knows
That she's a Wild Woman
She won't pretend to be something she's not
And I don't have to need her 'cause she's something I've got

She's just a lady
And you can count on that
A little shady
But she'll get up to bat
You think she's crazy
But she can smell a rat

I've seen it before let me tell you
Maybe I'll see it again
Maybe I'll learn something from this
About how to lose and how to win
It's not a good thing to lose your cool
And be forced to say something out of school

Wild Woman
©1998 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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 is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Always . . .

Everything really is negotiable
Though your initial look may betray
So big and frightening they may appear
Your dedication and intellect take the day

There's one thing you have to remember
You mean so much to me
That's one certainty
When concerns become burdens
Please know I'm the one you need to see
I will always be available
No matter how far life removes you from me

There's no necessity for extreme bravery
All your good qualities I admire
There's no embarrassment and there's no shame
If you accept someone's helping hand when you're tired

There's one thing you have to remember
You mean so much to me
That's one certainty
When concerns become burdens
Please know I'm the one you need to see
I will always be available
No matter how far life removes you from me

Any other time
Any other place
Nothing between us will be any different
You don't have to hide
Feelings deep inside
I'm here to help you so please let me try

You may not understand
You may not care
I know you'll realize what's to bear
I always felt that my responsibility
Is to make sure you find happiness everywhere

There's one thing you have to remember
You mean so much to me
That's one certainty
When concerns become burdens
Please know I'm the one you need to see
I will always be available
No matter how far life removes you from me

Available
from Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
©2007 & 2014 Raymond M. Jozwiak
Available April 7, 2015

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 is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

Monday, July 6, 2015

Superstition . . .

(from http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/mencken.htm— H L Mencken, “Aftermath” [coverage of the Scopes Trial] The Baltimore Evening Sun, September 14, 1925)
". . . The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame. . .True enough, even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights. He has a right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities as long as he pleases, provided only he does not try to inflict them upon other men by force. He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can, in season and out of season. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them. He has no right to demand that they be treated as sacred. He has no right to preach them without challenge. Did Darrow, in the course of his dreadful bombardment of Bryan, drop a few shells, incidentally, into measurably cleaner camps? Then let the garrisons of those camps look to their defenses. They are free to shoot back. But they can’t disarm their enemy. . ."

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Higher . . .

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
©2000 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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 is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Texting . . .

Him: There

Her: Now what’ll we do?

Him: Let’s dahnce!

Her: Oh, letsL!l

Him: Shall I lead?

Her: Why not?!

Him: A one and a two . . .

Her: Now you sound like Lawrence Welk! Haha

Him: It’s the accordion player in me.

Her: Must be. SO let’s sit this one out. We can dahnce again later.

Him: Oh alright . . .

Friday, July 3, 2015

Celebration . . .

(from Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann, translation by John E. Woods)
". . . the official swelling of the Nile was celebrated in all the land of Egypt, and most especially in Nowet-Amun, Wase of the Hundred Gates, with a gala solemnity that one can imagine only if one keeps in mind our own greatest and most tumultuous national, popular, and patriotic holidays. The entire city was out and about from earliest morning on, and the huge population - far exceeding a hundred thousand, as we know - was vastly increased by swarms of country folk from both upriver and down, who streamed in through the gates to join in the celebration of Amun's great day in the city where the imperial god resided, and who now mixed with the city people to hop on one leg and gaze with mouths agape at glorious and majestic spectacles presented by the state to an overtaxed and overworked peasantry in compensation for a whole year's gray penury and as a means of strengthening them in their patriotism for the drudgery of the year now dawning. As part of a great sweating crowd, their noses filled with the aroma of burning fat and mountains of flowers, they thronged temples provisioned for the holiday with immense quantities of food and drink and filled those radiantly colorful forecourts plastered with alabaster, covered by awnings and tents, an echoing with pious hymns, where they could stuff their bellies for once at the expense of the god - or actually, of those higher powers who oppressed and swindled them all the rest of the year, but today smiled upon with prodigal beneficence - and thus, against their better judgment, be lulled in the belief that it would always be so, that with this turning point of celebration and delight, the golden age of free beer and roasted goose had dawned the they would never again be visited by scribes demanding payment and accompanied by Nubians armed with bundled rods of palm . . . "