pianogonzology

Monday, August 17, 2015

Thomas Mann . . .

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mann)
". . .Thomas Mann's works were first translated into English by H. T. Lowe-Porter beginning in 1924. Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929, principally in recognition of his popular achievement with the epic Buddenbrooks (1901), The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924) and his numerous short stories. (Due to the personal taste of an influential committee member, only Buddenbrooks was cited at any great length.) Based on Mann's own family, Buddenbrooks relates the decline of a merchant family in Lübeck over the course of three generations. The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924) follows an engineering student who, planning to visit his tubercular cousin at a Swiss sanatorium for only three weeks, finds his departure from the sanatorium delayed. During that time, he confronts medicine and the way it looks at the body and encounters a variety of characters, who play out ideological conflicts and discontents of contemporary European civilization. The tetralogy Joseph and His Brothers is an epic novel written over a period of sixteen years, which is one of the largest and most significant works in Mann's oeuvre. Later, other novels included Lotte in Weimar (1939), in which Mann returned to the world of Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774); Doktor Faustus (1947), the story of composer Adrian Leverkühn and the corruption of German culture in the years before and during World War II and Confessions of Felix Krull (Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull, 1954), which was unfinished at Mann's death. . . In 1930, Mann gave a public address in Berlin titled "An Appeal to Reason", in which he strongly denounced National Socialism and encouraged resistance by the working class. This was followed by numerous essays and lectures in which he attacked the Nazis. At the same time, he expressed increasing sympathy for socialist ideas. In 1933 when the Nazis came to power, Mann and his wife were on holiday in Switzerland. Due to his strident denunciations of Nazi policies, his son Klaus advised him not to return. But Thomas Mann's books, in contrast to those of his brother Heinrich and his son Klaus, were not among those burnt publicly by Hitler's regime in May 1933, possibly since he had been the Nobel laureate in literature for 1929. Finally in 1936 the Nazi government officially revoked his German citizenship. . ."

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Tell me at
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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. 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
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Sunday, August 16, 2015

The Resilience . . .

. . . of the human spirit is amazing.

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
-Japanese Proverb

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
-Confucius

It is said an eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him with the words, 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!
-Abraham Lincoln

Engrave this Quote Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.
-Bernard Williams

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Bobble . . .

-head history . . .

(from http://www.bobbleheads.com/history-of-bobbleheads.html)
Bobblehead dolls ". . . are thought to date back at least 150 years. The earliest known reference to similar toys is from the 1842 short story The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, which described a character as having a neck which was "like the neck of plaster cats which wag their heads". . . Player-specific dolls for (professional baseball players) Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Roger Maris, and Roberto Clemente, were produced for the first time and sold during the 1960 World Series. Although the uniforms were different, each of them shared the same face. Unfortunately, because of their papier-mache construction, very few of these early bobble head dolls have survived without damage - usually chipping or cracking. In the 1970s, construction methods improved, and new bobbles were made of ceramic materials. They became popular for other sports, as well as for cartoon characters of the day. The bobblehead set for the Beatles became one of the most famous and rare of all time, and it is still a valuable collectible today. However, by the mid-1970s, bobbleheads had again fallen out of favor, and very few new bobbleheads were produced. It would take nearly two decades for them to return to prominence. . . After 2000, new variations of the dolls were also produced - including the mini-bobblehead, bobble computer sitters, bobblehead banks, and even bobblehead air fresheners. Customized bobbleheads also became possible and several companies began to offer this service. Many current bobblehead dolls closely resemble their real-life counterparts, including matching tattoos, hair styles, headbands, and even scars. . ."

Friday, August 14, 2015

In a Cavern . . .

(from http://sportsandentertainmentnashville.com/underground-roots-bringing-nashvilles-musical-roots-above-and-below-ground/)
" . . . Todd Mayo . . . created . . . (an) . . . innovative live-performance program Bluegrass Underground. About to begin its third season on PBS, the diverse, acoustic-music-based show has been running in radio form on WSM-AM since August of 2008, only a few months after Mayo first saw the “Volcano Room” during a tour of McMinnville’s Cumberland Caverns. Marveling at the naturally formed area 333 feet below ground, Mayo recognized its potential as a unique concert venue. . . “The cave was just waiting for me,” says Mayo. “The bathrooms were there, the [electrical] power was in there, the concessions [areas] were there.” Best of all, it was also equipped with stunning natural acoustics, with none of the erratic echo one might expect. The space’s unique features made it a fairly easy sell—first to WSM, then to top-shelf performers, and now to the American public. Season two of Bluegrass Underground has already reached 80 percent or more of PBS stations nationwide. “Our real hope was that the show, you know, literally shined a light in the darkness on quality music,” quips Mayo. . . "

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Mortality . . .

Watching movies about old people gets one to thinking . . .

(from http://flavorwire.com/324742/20-famous-writers-on-death-and-mortality)
“Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.” – Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist

“People living deeply have no fear of death.” – Anaïs Nin, The Diary Of Anaïs Nin, Volume Two

“Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain; a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats, humiliations, and despairs — the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man’s best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free.” – Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth

“I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind — and that of the minds who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or a town.” – William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

“Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.” – Helen Keller

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

At The Risk . . .

. . . of being trite . . .

Sometimes those things we take for granted must be mentioned and therefore their benefits extolled, no matter how hackneyed the words may sound. The one that crossed my mind recently, though in all honesty it crosses my mind frequently, was friendship.

I recently saw an amusing flick entitled 'Last Vegas', starring four, mature, male cinema icons, focus of which was friendship. Ageing was also an important element of the plot, but friendship (in my view) was the primary topic.

I am fortunate enough to have some friends whom I consider the very best. I do not boast an inordinately large number, but I'll match quality against quantity any day. They range from recently found to almost forty years. In fact, some of those older relationships had a lull between their inception and the present, but that many even account for the strength and richness they possess at the present time.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Heard Somebody . . .

. . . say, "Play Third-Hand Intelligence". . .

Heard somebody say
They overheard you
Just the other day
A simple word
About the way we get along
If only I were sure
Of the semantics
Having doubts 'cause I'm
One hopeless romantic
Could it be
You're slipping away from me
What will I do
If what I'm thinking is true
And you want to be
Really free of me
I won't last very long
Very far from your heart

And this third-hand intelligence
Might be the way that it starts.

Heard somebody say
They thought they saw you
Walking in their way
You were not alone
They said he didn't look like
Thinking to myself
Must be mistaken
Try not to believe
but still badly shaken
Why would you
Deceive me in things you do
So many years
Sharing our laughter and tears
Lasted very long
Maybe I was wrong
Not to ask you
Why you feel
We've drifted apart

And this third-hand intelligence
Might be the way that it starts

Are my sources reliable
Wait and see
Wait and see
Is my psyche too pliable
It could be
It could be

If somebody said
The sky was falling
Would you believe it's true
And change your direction
From spinning round
When it hits the ground
That's just not true
Any believers are few
When you've seen it all
It could never fall
Any more than
I think you could
Tear us apart

And this third-hand intelligence
Might be the way that it starts

Third-Hand Intelligence
OHO rehearsal recording, August 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