pianogonzology

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Man . . .

Courtesy of http://www.skicenkovice.info/skisnew-stick-man.adp

. . . must be careful. . . (and honest). . .

(from James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham)
". . . Madison first considered some questions of agrarian philosophy: what caused men to change from hunters to farmers? what instincts, if any, inclined men to become civilized? what ratio of plants to animals best suited human progress? and finally, what balances of nature must man be careful not to upset, lest he make the world unfit for human habitation? Especially important was plenty of pure air. "in all confined situations, from the dungeon to the crowded work-house, and from these to the compact population of overgrown cities," Madison declared, "the atmosphere becomes, in corresponding degrees, unfitted by reiterated use, for sustaining human life and health.". . ."

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Saturday, May 6, 2017

Caught (Again) . . .

Caught in the crosshairs
of my poison-dart marauding rifle
Of course what can a body do
You’re not the man you used to be
You say with certain relish
But still you’re here with me today

And though you surely cannot hide
You’ll try to run for cover
And I will follow where you go
As we perpetuate the dance
We’ve done through all the ages
Ours is much more than just a show

Bought my ticket
Took time off for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Front row orchestra
Tails, tux just for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life

Some choose their circumstances
With a dearth of careful thinking
Some can’t make any choice at all
But all the options must be weighed
Outcomes evaluated
And for the joy you must add salt

Bought my ticket
Took time off for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Front row orchestra
Tails, tux just for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life

Take an intermission
Look at what you’re missing

It’s not a natural
Or a simple kind of understanding
Half-heartedness won’t make it so
To rise above self-serving
Vanities makes all the difference
Sometimes that’s all you need to know

Bought my ticket
Took time off for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Front row orchestra
Tails, tux just for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life

Caught
©2017 Raymond M. Jozwiak

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Friday, May 5, 2017

More Education. . .

(from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/18/jared-kushner-harvard-donald-trump-son-in-law by Daniel Golden)
". . . New Jersey real estate developer Charles Kushner had pledged $2.5m to Harvard University not long before his son Jared was admitted to the prestigious Ivy League school, which at the time accepted about one of every nine applicants. (Nowadays, it only takes one out of 20.) . . . I also quoted administrators at Jared’s high school, who described him as a less-than-stellar student and expressed dismay at Harvard’s decision. . . “There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,’’ a former official at the Frisch school in Paramus, New Jersey, told me. “His GPA [grade point average] did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought, for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.’’. . ."

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Thursday, May 4, 2017

Music . . .

. . . hath charms . . .

(from William Congreve's The Mourning Bride, 1697)
". . . Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound. . ."

Brewer’s Alley Songwriters' Showcase (now in twelfth year!) is held on the second Monday evening (mostly!) in each month upstairs at Brewer's Alley, 124 N. Market St., in beautiful downtown Frederick, MD, except during December. The program starts at 7:30 pm with a piano prelude, followed by two songwriters doing three songs each. The featured songwriter for the evening goes on around 8:30 pm for 45 minutes or so, sometimes followed by two or three more three-song performers. Somewhere in the mix we throw in some poetry from John Holly and Rod Deacey. Our MCs are Ron Goad, Rod Deacey, Tomy Wright, and Todd C Walker, who runs the show. I am still booking the features and sharing the three-song spots with Todd Walker. Ron Goad books the pianists for piano preludes… which on May 8 will be . . .

. . . ME. . .

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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Plans . . .

. . . tax or otherwise? . . .

. . . Paul Krugman makes a plea after 'analyzing' Trump's tax "Plan" . . .

(https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/opinion/living-in-the-trump-zone.html?_r=0)
". . . In any case, I’d like to make a plea to my colleagues in the news media: Don’t pretend that this is normal. Let’s not act as if that thing released on Wednesday, whatever it was, was something like, say, the 2001 Bush tax cut; I strongly disapproved of that cut, but at least it was comprehensible. Let’s not pretend that we’re having a real discussion of, say, the growth effects of changes in business tax rates. . ."

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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Unite? . . .

. . . behind your elected illiterate-in-chief ?. . .

(from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/trump-magna-cum-laude-from-the-dunning-school/524892/)

". . . “I said, ‘When was Andrew Jackson?’ It was 1828, that’s a long time ago, that was Andrew Jackson,” Trump said, a sign that the history to follow would be somewhat shaky. Reminiscing about a visit to Tennessee in March, Trump continued: I mean had Andrew Jackson been a little later you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said, “There’s no reason for this.” People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why? People don’t ask that question, but why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out? . . . As with so many things Trump says, the quotation is simultaneously deeply confusing, and yet also deeply revealing. . . Marking Black History Month, Trump delivered a perplexing paean to a great abolitionist that suggested he believed the man was still alive: “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.” . . . In March, speaking about the most famous Republican president in history, Trump said, “Most people don’t even know he was a Republican.” . . . "

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Monday, May 1, 2017

A Peek . . .

. . . at those "accomplishments" . . .

(from http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/29/donald-trump-first-100-days-by-the-numbers-237701?lo=ap_e1)

". . . At his last publicly announced meeting with CEOs on April 11, Trump overstated the number of jobs his administration had created by hundreds of thousands. “We’ve created over 600,000 jobs already in a very short period of time,” he boasted, despite Labor Department data that indicated the figure is closer to 317,000 jobs. . . 1Of the 10 legislative promises Trump made on his 100-day contract, only one -- the failed measure to repeal and replace Obamacare -- has been introduced on Capitol Hill. Some general principles of tax reform were rolled out Wednesday, while aspects of some other campaign promises have been addressed in executive orders. . . Republican leaders pulled a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare from the floor last month, saving members from a difficult vote on legislation that wouldn’t have passed. The conservative House Freedom Caucus, however, endorsed the latest version on Wednesday. . . White House aides told The Associated Press that Trump will have signed 32 executive orders by Friday, the most of any president’s first 100 days since World War II. . . 5 Anti-Trump marches in Washington . . . Likely the biggest was the Women’s March on Washington, with crowds that dwarfed those who came to see Trump’s inauguration a day earlier. Since then, rallies have been organized around Tax Day, in defense of science, and against Trump’s travel ban. Future marches are planned around climate change and immigration. . ."

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